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Graphic Novel

A 10-Year Old Classic Returns

Here’s one we definitely missed the first time around, but now it’s back thanks to the folks at IDW: “Finally, Spiral-Bound is coming back in print! With an ensemble cast straight from a box of Animal Crackers, this delightful tale of ambition, morality, and self-discovery is an all-ages classic. Drawn in a decidedly beautiful fashion, reminiscent of Richard Scary and Lewis Trondheim, Aaron Renier gives us a fully-realized and compellingly adventurous narrative, at once both achingly naive and profoundly worldly. This tightly crafted graphic novel is the real deal, and will charm your socks off.” Here’s a little bit more about the plot, courtesy of Booklist: “In this [black & white] graphic novel about the young animal characters who live in the Town, Turnip the elephant is using the summer to find his artistic voice through sculpture, his friend Stucky the dog is building a submarine, and Ana the rabbit is working on the town’s underground newspaper. Their stories all wind around the town’s deep, dark secret about the monster that lives in the pond.” Got all that?

image c. 2016 IDW Publishing

image c. 2016 IDW Publishing

The Frog Always Rings Twice

More new stuff from Dark Horse Press: “Dark Horse Comics announces Tree Mail, a forthcoming all-ages graphic novel from the New York Times best-selling The Stuff of Legend creators Mike Raicht and Brian Smith. Rudy—a determined, optimistic frog—hopes to overcome the odds and land his dream job delivering mail to the other animals on Popomoko Island!” This full-color trade paperback hits the shelves in early November. Dark Horse also has an interview with the creators on their main web site.

image c. 2016 Dark Horse Comics

image c. 2016 Dark Horse Press

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Little Birdie, Big Bear

Put this in the “offered again” category (since we apparently missed it the first time!). Renaud Dillies, creator of Bubbles & Gondola and Betty Blues (both of which we’ve reviewed before) returns with a new full-color graphic novel in hardcover. This time, his subject is a young bird named Abelard. “To lure pretty Emily, Abelard sees only one solution: to catch the moon for her! So off he goes to America, the country which invented flying machines. Armed with his banjo and his proverb-sharing hat, he launches out on the country roads, meets Gypsies, then Gaston, a grumpy bear with whom he will share a good bit of his way! With this funny animal road-movie where the absurd becomes poetry, Regis Hautiere and Renaud Dillies offer us another small jewel.” Once again, brought to us by the folks at NBM. Find out more over at Blog Critics.

image c. 2016 Abelard

image c. 2016 NBM

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Part Boy, Part Dragon, Part Chuck Jones, Part Pixar

Humanoids is a well-known publisher of hardcover graphic novels in Europe. Now they have brought Brussli: Way of the Dragon Boy to North America. “Beak-faced Brussli is bullied by the village children. Curious about his true origins, the dauntless ‘Dragon Boy’ sets off on a quest of adventure and discovery. What he finds, however, turns his world upside down and puts him face-to-face with a unique cast of fantastical fairies, talking rabbits, wily wolves, battle-hardened nuns, demonic beings, and much much more, in this hysterical and heartwarming comedy adventure. ” It’s written by Jean-Louis Fonteneau and illustrated in full color by J. Etienne. Over at Doom Rocket they have a much more detailed preview to look at.

image c. 2016 Humanoids

image c. 2016 Humanoids

Take A REAL Bite Outta Crime!

From Graphix comes Dog Man, a new full-color graphic novel for kids by Dav Pilkey. Once again, the publishers describe it best: “New from the creator of Captain Underpants, it’s Dog Man, the #1 New York Times bestselling, crime-biting canine who is part dog, part man, and ALL HERO! George and Harold have created a new hero who digs into deception, claws after crooks, and rolls over robbers. When Greg the police dog and his cop companion are injured on the job, a life-saving surgery changes the course of history, and Dog Man is born. With the head of a dog and the body of a human, this heroic hound has a real nose for justice. But can he resist the call of the wild to answer the call of duty?” Find out more at Mr. Pilkey’s web site. Volume 2 is already on its way!

image c. 2016 Graphix

image c. 2016 Graphix

Creatures of Many Worlds — Through One Girl’s Eyes

According to Bleeding Cool, Image Comics have a new full-color graphic novel for young adults on the shelves called Afar. Here’s what Image says: “Critically-acclaimed, Russ Manning nominated Shutter artist Leila Del Duca teams up as co-creator and writer alongside artist, colorist, and letterer Kit Seaton (The Black Bull of Norroway, Eve of All Saints) for an original graphic novel, Afar. In Afar, Boetema suddenly develops the ability to astrally project to other worlds, unintentionally possessing the bodies of people light years away. Inotu, her inquisitive brother with a pension for trouble, finds himself on the run after he’s caught eavesdropping on an illegal business deal between small town business tycoons and their cyborg bodyguard. When Boetema accidentally gets someone hurt while in another girl’s body, the siblings are forced to work together to solve the problems they’ve created on their planet and others.” As you can see from the sample images, many of the worlds our young heroes “visit” are quite interesting for furry fans. Check out the Bleeding Cool article to learn more.

image c. 2016 Image Comics

image c. 2016 Image Comics

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Living in the Fridge?

And once again, a young lady who finds herself in over her head — in the kitchen! This time it’s Malice in Ovenland, published by Rosarium, written and illustrated in full color by Micheline Hess. “Lily Brown is a bright, curious, energetic young girl from Queens, New York. When her mom forces her to stay home for the summer and do chores, Lily fumes. Little did she know that the greasy oven in the kitchen was going to give her more excitement and adventure than she could possibly handle.”  Apparently that involves a visit to a land of giant lizards and other fantastic creatures. Now Rosarium have released the Malice in Overland graphic novel, collecting the first four issues of the comic in hardcover. Check out the new trailer on YouTube.

image c. 2016 Rosarium Publishing

image c. 2016 Rosarium Publishing

Modern Art Mouse

Uncivilized Books have a new imprint for younger readers called Odod Books. Their first release is a hardcover graphic novel by Kickly called Musnet: The Mouse of Monet. Here’s what they say about it: “A young boy mouse travels the country side looking for work and happens upon the Monet’s garden. He takes on a job and becomes inspired to learn to paint. Will he paint in the classical ways, or in the new style of the impressionist? Which way will his brush sway? Musnet is drawn and painted in a beautiful, lush and inky style popularized by Paul Pope and French comics masters such Blutch and Christophe Blain.” Really. A review in The Guardian goes further into the plot: “This new series revolves around a painting mouse found in Monet’s famous gardens in Giverny: The nameless, orphan mouse is befriended by Mya and her mouse family, who live inside the artist’s house. Introduced to painting after he begins working for Remy, an old squirrel painter, he is enchanted by Monet’s work.” It’s available now at Amazon.

image c. 2016 Odod Books

image c. 2016 Odod Books

Spooky Little Boy Hangs With Monsters

“Well before he becomes the famed horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, young Howard Lovecraft is a curious and imaginative boy living with his mother while his father is locked away in Arkham Sanitarium. But after his mother unwittingly gives Howard the legendary Necronomicon, he is transported to a dangerous and frozen world populated by horrifying creatures. After saving and befriending one such creature – Spot – Howard and his new friend set off on a perilous quest to save the kingdom and get Howard home. But Howard soon finds out that not everything is as it seems and not everyone is to be trusted.” That’s the idea behind Howard Lovecraft and the Three Kingdoms, a series of graphic novels written by Bruce Brown — based on the actual life of Lovecraft himself — and illustrated by Renzo Podesta. Now the first of the three stores, Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom, has been adapted into a CGI animated film (directed by Sean O’Reilly and featuring the voices of Ron Perlman, Christopher Plummer, and Jane Curtin, among others) which is coming this September on DVD from Shout Factory. You can find the graphic novels at Amazon, and learn more about the movie at the official site.

image c. 2016 Shout Factory

image c. 2016 Shout Factory

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