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Panda

Pandas from Can(a)da

There’s a new animation production partnership starting up in Canada between Corus Entertainment (home of Nelvana Animation) and Bento Box Entertainment (home of Bob’s Burgers and more). From the press release, thanks to Animation World Network: “Canadian-based media and entertainment company Corus Entertainment and Los Angeles animation studio Bento Box Entertainment have announced the creation of Bento Box Canada, an animation production company based in Toronto. The venture follows last year’s announcement of the multi-year, co-development deal between the two companies. As part of the agreement, Bento Box Entertainment and Corus will work side-by-side to develop and produce a slate of original, primetime animated series for Corus networks, to be distributed internationally by Bento Box Entertainment. This fall, production will begin on the first Bento Box Canada series, The Pandas.  From creators Mikael Wulff and Anders Morgenthaler, The Pandas is an irreverent, animated family comedy full of hard jokes, whimsical wonder, biting satire and just the right amount of heart.” We’ll certainly see when it premiers.

image c. 2015 Bento Box Canada

image c. 2015 Bento Box Canada

Furries Help Kids Learn

But you knew that, yes? Now the latest in a long tradition… Robert Wayne Hickey is not only a comic book writer and artist, he is also the father of two boys with “learning differences”.  So he and his wife set out of find a way to use comics to help their boys and other kids with ADHD, dyslexia, and other differences learn the best that they can. The result of that is Clay’s Way, a continuing on-line comic strip that Robert created with artist Jackie Hernandez. Clay is a young boy who, with the help of a friendly panda named Pan and a set of other interesting furry characters, has adventures and learns as he goes. The comic is regularly updated at the Clay’s Way web site. Now, Afterburn have collected the first 150 Clay’s Way comics into a trade paperback which you can check out over at Previews.

image c. 2015 Afterburn

image c. 2015 Afterburn

I’ve Seen That Shirt on TV!

Yes you have. Leonard (played by Johnny Galecki) on Big Bang Theory is known for wearing t-shirts designed and created by Nite Owl Ink. And here’s the cool part: They’re a real company and they sell to the public too. T-shirts, hoodies, and poster prints… creepy animals and creepy other things… and pandas. Lots of pandas. All brought to you by the artist known as Willie Wat. Head on over to their web page to see what we’re talking about. See you on CBS!

image c. 2015 Nite Owl Ink

image c. 2015 Nite Owl Ink

Big News from Dreamworks

Dreamworks Animation have released the first preview of their new How To Train Your Dragon tie-in TV series, Dragons: Race to the Edge. It’s coming to Netflix on June 26th. Interestingly, it’s all coming on that date: All 13 episodes will be available at once. In this latest iteration, “Hiccup and Toothless lead the Dragon Riders as they soar beyond the borders of Berk and discover the mysterious Dragon Eye — an ancient artifact filled with secrets that will lead them to new lands filled with undiscovered dragons. But the heroes find themselves pursued by marauding dragon hunters, who will stop at nothing to seize the power of the Dragon Eye.” Check it out over at Comingsoon.net. Meanwhile, just today came another Dreamworks announcement: Kung Fu Panda 3’s release date has been moved. Again. This time they’ve moved it up from March 18th to January 29th. We still gotta wait until 2016, but at least it’s coming sooner!

image c. 2015 Dreamworks Animation

image c. 2015 Dreamworks Animation

Tooting Panda Toons

The cartoonist known as Linda Panda has a thing for, yes, pandas. Pandas who… fart. Friendly farts that smile and make comments. Seriously. This is the odd world of Linda’s panda cartoons, and she’s been creating them daily and putting them up on the web for some time now. More recently, thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, she’s collected hundreds of her daily works (as well as her more “traditional” sketches, perhaps) in book form. Head over to her official web site to find out how to get your own copy — as well as buttons and prints and other such ways you can see farting pandas.

image c. 2015 by Linda Panda

image c. 2015 by Linda Panda

The Panda is a Little Farther Away

As you may have heard floating through the air in Hollywood lately, Dreamworks Animation has been worrying a lot of people lately(notably investors) with a lack of hit movies. Several of the studio’s offerings over the last two years have not performed as hoped or expected at the box office — and now, Penguins of Madagascar is not exactly on track to set any new records either. Even How to Train Your Dragon 2, which was a blockbuster earlier this year by most standards, was not as much of one as many had expected. All of this seems to have made Dreamworks rather skittish about their upcoming slate of films — especially when it comes to the competition. To that end the studio recently announced that Kung Fu Panda 3, originally slated for release in December of 2015, has been pushed back four months to March of 2016 — presumably to keep out of the way of Star Wars VII, or at least that’s the buzz around town. Interestingly, that move puts the new date for Kung Fu Panda 3 just two weeks after Disney is scheduled to release Zootopia. It seems like 2016 just got a little more interesting — and 2015, perhaps less so.

image c. 2014 Dreamworks

image c. 2014 Dreamworks Animation

Just Give Him Your Socks And Everything’s Fine

Ndbag is a boogeyman, but not the scary people-eating kind. No, he’d much rather eat one of your dirty socks — usually the left one. Ndbag the Boogeyman lives in the closet clothes hamper of a little girl named Mylene. He’s made friends with her favorite plushie: A panda named Pandaman. They get along so well that Ndbag created his very own panda costume which he calls Pandabag. The little blue boogeyman is also “frenemies” with ZK, a fluffy dryer goblin who much prefers clean socks and munching on lint. Are you getting all of this? It all comes from the mind of Austrian artist E.F. Gludovacz, and you can find out more in the first Ndbag the Boogeyman book as well as the regularly-updated web comic… all at the official web site.

image c. 2014 by E.F. Gludovacz

image c. 2014 by E.F. Gludovacz

The Panda and His Friends in Public

“In 2009, Han L. Lee released an character inspired clothing line entitled The Public Zoo. The Public Zoo is a collaboration of fashion and art. The art on the clothing is heavily inspired by Japanese and Korean character art.” There you have it, right from the artist’s web site. It’s all based around an imaginative panda name Hickup, and his friends like Hopkido the Ninja Rabbit and Miso — the hamster in a cup. All of which are available as prints, household items, and also as wearable art of course.

image c. 2014 by Han L. Lee

image c. 2014 by Han L. Lee

Of Bears and Pots and Deep Deep Thoughts

Psycologist, hypnotist, and philosopher, A.B. Curtiss is also and accomplished author with several award-winning books to her name.  And several of her fiction books just happen to be of interest to furry fans. Legend of the Giant Panda (illustrated by Mirto Golino) is exactly what it sounds like: A mythic telling of how pandas got their distinctive black and white markings.  Hallelujah, A Cat Comes Back is a “cat book of virtues”, where a young tom gives us the feline wisdom brought down to him from his wise granny-cat. Illustrated with a collection of Victorian feline prints. Dragons Guard The Zoo is a collection of poems on many subjects, including animals real and fanciful. And In the Company of Bears (illustrated by Barbara Stone) has been described as a “children’s philosophy book”, in which bears are used to illustrate soothing rhymes about accepting people for what they are. All of these and more are available on Amazon and at Ms. Curtiss’ web site.

image c. 2014 A.B. Curtiss

image c. 2014 A.B. Curtiss