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Graphic Novel

Werewolves of the Heartland

Furry fans can usually expect some interesting — sometimes silly, sometimes scarey, sometimes gross — anthropomorphic animal stuff to turn up in the pages of Fables, the award-winning comic book series created by Jim Willingham. The latest full-color opus from the DC Comics Vertigo imprint is Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland, illustrated by Jim Fern, Craig Hamilton, Ray Snyder, and Mark Farmer (whew!).  Here’s the publisher’s description from Amazon: “Bigby Wolf takes center stage in the most brutal, action-packed FABLES story to date. Sent out into modern day America at large, Bigby’s on a quest for possible locations for a new Fabletown. In his wanderings, Bigby stumbles across a small town named Luperville, somewhere in American’s vast heartland, that, amazingly enough, seems to be populated by werewolves. These werewolves are descendants of a World War II German project to create an army of werewolf super soldiers, some of whom who were infected with Bigby’s tainted blood. And even more unfortunate the fact that they’ve captured, caged and tortured the most popular and important canine in history: Bigby Wolf.” According to Amazon this 144-page hardcover graphic novel will be released in early November.

image c. 2012 DC Comics/Vertigo

The Cat is a Lizard

Jason Brubaker works by day as a visual design artist at Dreamworks Animation, and by night as a self-published comic book creator. His story reMIND… well, here, we better let him describe it: “Sonja, the lighthouse keeper at a seaside oil drilling town, loses her cat, Victuals. Everyone blames the Lizard Man, the local boogeyman, which Sonja knows is a myth created by her late father to generate interest in the town. But when Victuals unexpectedly returns and has the brain of a strange intelligent creature; it seems someone is doing experimental transplants. With the brain of a lizard and the body of a cat, Victuals must now fight to recover his original lizard body and confront what he thought was the all-powerful god.” So, you got that? Good. reMIND has been collected into one hardcover graphic novel previously, and Volume 2 has just been released. And of course, you can visit the reMIND web site to keep up with the latest adventures.

image c. 2012 by Jason Brubaker

Prydwen Premiers

Lynn Hogan is an author and artist from the Seattle, Washington area. She’s worked for Marvel Comics and Bella Sara, among others. Prydwen is a fantasy-adventure comic she has been putting up on line for some time. Now Sofawolf Press have released Prydwen: Gods and Monsters, the first graphic novel compilation of the on-line comic. This full-color work is available in softcover and hardcover editions. “Orphaned at a young age and raised in a Sui monastery, Prydwen settles into a peaceful life tending the gardens, never knowing who she is or where she came from. When disturbing dreams give way to waking up in patches of ash where flowers used to be, she flees the safety of the church grounds with her friend Auric, looking for answers. Her path takes her deep into the sacred gardens of the Wanderkind God, where she is destined to release his imprisoned Elynd and learn more about her past.” Sofawolf has a preview on their web site, and a video preview up on YouTube as well.

image c. 2012 Lynn Hogan

The Curse and The Pug

Here at In-Fur-Nation we’ve covered a lot of pirates, and a lot of werewolves, and a lot of little doggies.  Well, how about a little doggy who fights pirates who are werewolves? Welcome to the world of Mike Norton’s The Curse. In 2009 Mr. Norton, creator of Battlepug (which we’ve also covered here) took up the 24-Hour Comic Book Challenge, which yes, challenges comic book creators to bring about a 24-page comic book, from scratch, in 24 hours. The result was The Curse, in which a small but tenacious pet pug helps his master to defeat an evil band of pirates who’s bite turns you into one of their kind! The response to The Curse was so positive that Mr. Norton returned to it and created Parts 2 and 3 in 2010 and 2011 for the same challenge. Now Oni Press has collected all three sections into a single black and white trade paperback, which is available for pre-order and headed to the shelves this October.

image c. 2012 Mike Norton / Oni Press

Bird and Squirrel… and Cat!

Animator James Burks (who previously gave us Gabby & Gator from Yen Press) returns with Bird & Squirrel Volume 1: On the Run, a new full-color graphic novel from Graphix Press. “Bird and Squirrel outwit Cat and become best friends in this zany adventure. Squirrel is afraid of his own shadow. Bird doesn’t have a care in the world. And Cat wants to eat Bird and Squirrel. Of course, he’ll have to catch them first, and that’s not going to be easy. Join this trio as they head south for the winter in a hilarious road trip. But watch out! Cat is waiting around every bend, and he’s one pesky feline.” Barnes & Noble have pre-order information for the book, which is coming this August.

image c. 2012 James Burks

Pandaria: The Graphic Novel

As if there weren’t already enough anticipation for the upcoming (When? WHEN??) Mists of Pandaria expansion pack for World of Warcraft, now Blizzard Entertainment and DC Comics have joined forces to bring us the World of Warcraft: Pearl of Pandaria graphic novel in hardcover. It’s written by Micky Neilson, illustrated by Sean “Cheeks” Galloway, and set to go on sale September 5th. According to the WOW-Pedia, the graphic novel is “set before the Shattering and will give a look at Pandaria before the mists protecting the island were clear.” Check out the preview at BlizzPlanet.com too, which includes some interior pages from the book.

image c. 2012 Blizzard Entertainment

Here Come the Hero Petz

First off, Happy Mother’s Day to you and yours!

Suddenly there is much ado about Hero Petz, written by Dale Mettam and illustrated by Juan Fleites. First off, a quick recap from the original series: “Even as the evil Itachi Clan of ninja weasels tightens its grasp on Peludo City, six heroes — okay, five heroes and a crazy Monkey — stand ready to defend the innocent and fight for justice. El Conejito the Rabbit; Wonder Squirrel; Steel Shell the Turtle; Sensei Penguin-San; Kapitan Brüllaffe the Monkey; and Golden Hamster are the Hero Petz! Together, they take it upon themselves to keep watch over the city and protect the innocent!” First off, this June Stan Lee’s Kids Universe is re-releasing the original 80-page graphic novel (from 1821 Comics) in trade paperback. Also, there’s a video trailer for a new Hero Petz video game — as well as several fan reviews — up on YouTube.

image c. 2012 by Juan Fleites

The War After

There’s an interesting new hardcover graphic novel coming this June from Archaia Entertainment, written and illustrated by Shane-Michael Vidaurri, with the unusual title of Iron: Or, The War After. See what you think of this description: “It is the aftermath of a long war, in a world of constant winter. An intelligence spy from the Resistance—the rabbit, Hardin—steals secret information from a military base of the Regime. His actions set off a chain of events that reverberates through the ranks of both sides, touching everyone from Pavel the crow to Giles the goat, from the highest-ranking officials to the smallest orphaned child. When the snow finally settles, who will be the true patriot.”  Find out more (and see a multi-page teaser) at Archaia’s preview page.

image c. 2012 Archaia Entertainment

Ratha’s Creature… in Pictures?

Clare Bell is a science fiction and fantasy author best known for some very furry-themed books. What’s more, she’s actually been to several furry conventions — as a fan! She’s mostly known for a series called The Books of the Named, and the first book in the series is called Ratha’s Creature (check it out here on Amazon). In this book we meet Ratha, who is a young member of the Named: A species of prehistoric cat that are self-aware and possessing of culture, laws, and even primitive agriculture (they keep livestock). Ratha brings shock and dismay to her society when she learns to tame a strange ‘creature’ that glows, and flows, and burns…  most anything dry in fact. The rest of the series follows the adventures of Ratha, her friends, and her adversaries as events develop after Ratha’s discovery of this “creature”… and how she learns it can be useful. You can find out more about the series on the Clare Bell fan site. The reason we’re telling you all this now is that Clare Bell and Sheila Ruth (from Imaginator Press) are exploring the possibility of creating a Ratha’s Creature graphic novel — and they’d like the fans’ opinion of the idea, to see how popular it might be. Visit Clare Bell’s FurAffinity page and check out the survey in her journal. She’ll fill you in on the rest.

image c. 2012 Clare Bell