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Hardcover Books

… What A Girl’s Gotta Do

Mickey Mouse’s lifetime companion (literally!) gets her artistic due in The Art of Minnie Mouse, new from Disney Book Group. “Minnie Mouse embodies a constant reminder to girls of all ages-including grown-ups!-to live confidently and express themselves. In The Art of Minnie Mouse, Disney artists, designers, illustrators, and animators from around the world re-imagine their favorite Minnie styles and portray them in a variety of mediums. Minnie’s earliest incarnation, her classic red polka-dot look, and trendy modern styles are all newly incarnated in water color, pastel, oil paint, colored pencil, mixed media, and computer graphics pieces that range from the traditional to the unconventional. The book also features a never-before-published comprehensive filmography of Minnie’s animated appearances as well as a visual timeline of her career milestones.” And it’s also available now in hardcover from Barnes & Noble.

image c. 2016 Disney Book Group

image c. 2016 Disney Book Group

Helping Children Cope

More from Toon Books, this time on a much more serious subject. It’s a full-color comic-style book called Benny and Penny in How to Say Goodbye. “Why won’t Benny care? Penny finds a dead salamander, but her brother Benny doesn’t want anything to do with it. Is it silly to have a ceremony for Little Red, or could the loss of this tiny animal mean much more to the lovable siblings? With his unique knack for portraying children’s emotional turmoil, Geisel Award-winner Geoffrey Hayes shares this gentle tale of an early encounter with death.” The latest Benny and Penny book is available now in hardcover.

image c. 2016 Toon Books

image c. 2016 Toon Books

The Mice Have Competition…!

Ape and Armadillo Take Over the World is a new hardcover Toon Book for young readers, written and illustrated (in full color) by James Sturm. “How much fun would it be to take over the world? Armadillo is trying to come up with a plan for global domination…but with every new idea, being a bad guy seems a little less fun. Young readers will delight in star cartoonist James Sturm ‘s tender depiction of how far a true friendship can take you.” Order it over at the Toon Books site.

image c. 2016 Toon Books

image c. 2016 Toon Books

Dog and Squirrel Are Friends

We’ve mentioned Magnetic Press before: The international distributors of the Love series of wordless wildlife graphic novels scripted by Frederic Brremaud and illustrated by Federico Bertolucci. Well now the same creative team have a new series of full-color hardcover graphic novels for young readers called Little Tails, and once again Magnetic Press has brought them to us here in North America. Here’s what the publisher says: “Chipper and Squizzo are a precocious puppy and squirrel who love to explore new and exciting environments, flying their cardboard box airplane to wondrous worlds full of fascinating animals and creatures.  In each volume of this fun, educational series, they tour a different location, encountering the real-world animals found there in beautiful illustration and fun cartoon strip antics! In each volume of Little Tails Chipper & Squizzo set out on a journey to explore new and interesting environments full of fascinating animals and curious creatures.  The first volume in the series is Little Tails In The Forest, which finds Chipper & Squizzo venturing into a lush forest to visit Squizzo’s family. On their journey, the two animal pals discover and discuss a fantastic variety of bugs, birds, bears, & more!  The second volume, Little Tails In The Jungle, takes them around the world to the jungles of South America, Africa, and Asia, where they encounter tigers, elephants, snakes, and sloths!”

image c. 2016 Magnetic Press

image c. 2016 Magnetic Press

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Somebody Hug This Cat

From the Koyama Press web site we learn that “Steve Wolfhard… draws comics like Cat Rackham and Turtie Needs Work and works as a storyboard artist on the Emmy Award-winning animated television series Adventure Time.” Turns out that Cat Rackham has quite a following of its own. Not bad for “a deeply depressed cat”. Now Koyama brings us the new Cat Rackham full-color graphic novel. “The existential dread associated with getting out of bed terrifies Cat Rackham to his cat core. However, despite his efforts, he seems to consistently find himself dewclaw deep in trouble, often deeply strange trouble.” It’s available now in hardcover — featuring a poem by Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward.

image c. 2016 Koyama Press

image c. 2016 Koyama Press

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Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night…

In Fox’s Forest is a new hardcover graphic novel published by Fantagraphics. According to them, here’s how it goes: “After a successful hunt with his mate, a male fox is captured by the ‘two leggers’ and thrust into captivity. There, he faces dangers more insidious than the simple eat-or-be-eaten laws of the forest: Complacency, fear of the unknown, pack mentality, and loss of identity. Fox’s struggle to remain unbroken and return to his home and his love makes this standalone graphic novel an all-ages fable in the tradition of Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Gorgeously rendered in a classic pen and ink style, the drawing is reminiscent of the Golden Age of children’s book illustration, and its delicacy is in contrast to the characters’ (a friendly blue jay, a philosophical chimp, and a gas-lighting dog) streetwise patter. Created by underground cartoonist and fine artist Guy Colwell (Inner City Romance), this instant classic is a metaphor for incarceration, and a meditation on masculinity.” And it’s on the shelves now.

image c. 2016 Fantagraphics

image c. 2016 Fantagraphics

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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