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Rabbit

Small Ears, Big Heart, Big Dreams

Here’s a new non-human fantasy novel written and illustrated by Academy Award-winning animator (Incredibles 2) and director (PiperAlan Barillaro: “When Bunns is born with small but perfectly functional rabbit ears, the warren is abuzz with auguries. Surely such short ears spell bad luck for the community. Sheltered in her family’s burrow, Bunns listens to the rhythm of her mother’s heartbeat — Thump, thump, thump — a song of home and belonging. Her father explains that unlike a rabbit’s words or thumping feet, a heartsong cannot lie. But the unknown world of the meadow, the sounds and smells above, call to Bunns. When at last she’s ready to brave the staring and whispering of neighbors who fear her because she’s different, and the disapproving elders who threaten to banish her family, she finds a world beyond the warren where myths and riddles, magic voyages, and important new friends await. Can the ‘bad omen bunny’ follow her own heartsong to a destiny — a wish — meant just for her?” Bunns Rabbit is available now from Penguin Random House.

image c. 2025 Penguin Random House

MMMMitchell…

We like how Scout Comics describes this: “It’s chunky Roger Rabbit with a bad temper meets Indiana Jones, set in a Sam Raimi’s looking cityscape.” What is it? Mitch, a new full-color series created by Maxim Simic.Mitch mixes comedy, science fiction and urban fantasy, with character Mitch as the anthropomorphic lead, juxtaposed to the seemingly realistic world of the late 90s… It’s a story about one furry guy on a quest to find his true origins, unintentionally stumbling into adventure, mystery, and a secret ongoing extraterrestrial conflict over Earth and its unsuspecting occupants.” And, it’s out there on the shelves.

image c. 2025 Scout Comics

They Are Here To Serve Us

Twenty years ago writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely knocked it outta the park (again) with a limited comic book series called WE3: “Deep inside a top-secret U.S. Air Force research facility, a revolution in cybernetics is taking shape. Using ordinary domestic animals for their test subjects, the scientists of Project AWE have created a new class of cyborgs — flesh-and-metal creatures designed to rule the battlefields of tomorrow. The project’s crowning achievement is a trio of prototypes code-named WE3 — each one custom-built and trained to work as specialists within a team. With their nervous systems enhanced and supplemented by cutting-edge military hardware, WE3 are the ultimate smart weapons — programmable yet autonomous, loyal yet utterly ruthless. But successful as they are, WE3 are still only prototypes, to be dismantled when their testing is complete. Inside their fearsome mechanical shells, however, are three lost pets whose amplified traits include the will to survive— an instinct which proves to be even stronger than their makers knew. Faced with destruction, WE3 runs —out into a frightening and confusing world, where they are now as much of a threat as those who hunt them. Relentlessly pursued, WE3 fights with the combined firepower of a battalion — and a faint, warm memory of somewhere called Home.” Now, two decades later, DC Comics brings us WE3: The 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, including the original graphic novel compilation plus some extensive behind-the-scenes material. It also features a new forward by director James Gunn — who has admitted that aspects of Batch 89 from Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 were directly inspired by this comic.

image c. 2025 DC Comics

Big Story, Little Bunnies

Looking for something else, we stumbled upon this: The Green Ember series of fantasy novels (with a light Christian theme), written by S.D. Smith. “Heather and Picket are extraordinary rabbits with ordinary lives until calamitous events overtake them, spilling them into a cauldron of misadventures. They discover that their own story is bound up in the tumult threatening to overwhelm the wider world. Kings fall and kingdoms totter. Tyrants ascend and terrors threaten. Betrayal beckons, and loyalty is a broken road with peril around every bend. Where will Heather and Picket land? How will they make their stand?” Several books have followed in the series, but here is where you get started.

image c. 2025 Story Warren Books

Call The Baker?

Here’s an origin story for a group known as The Fluffle: Three bad bunny crime lords. “This story starts, as stories often do, with a tragedy. Three bunnies are left without their mother when she goes off to Brazil to learn jiujitsu. The bunnies, Flop, Biggie, and Boingie, learn some hard truths about life pretty quick: Squirrels will take over your cozy nest as soon as you leave and refuse to give it back, dogs are to be avoided at all costs, and raccoons will believe anything you tell them. With quick thinking, ingenuity, and maybe a little bit of raccoon manipulation, these three buns will take on all comers to be the rulers of the park. Will they win? Well, this is an origin story . . .” Buns Gone Bad is the first book in the Fluffle Bunnies series of graphic novels for young readers, written by Anna Humphrey and illustrated by Irma Kniivila. Look for it in hardcover from Penguin Random House. (Oh, and the sequel is called Big City Buns.)

Image c. 2025 Penguin Random House

Heart To Spare

We met writer and illustrator Cherie Okonski at the L.A. Times Festival of Books, and she introduced us to her creation, Gumper the Rabbit. Here’s the description of her first book: “The Secret of Gumper the Rabbit is a story about a bunny who is born different from the other rabbits. Gumper’s best friend Oink, an easily frazzled guinea pig, helps him to use his differences to save the day at the pet store. Gumper learns many new lessons about being different while discovering a secret that is taught to all bunnies.” Here’s part of the secret: Proceeds from the sale of this and other Gumper the Rabbit books go to help children born with congenital heart disease. The official Gumper web site has more, including links to the YouTube channel. (There’s a fursuit!)

image c. 2024 Xulon Press

If You Build It…

Stuart Ng Books always have a fascinating booth at any number of fannish conventions. At WonderCon, they introduced us to Paisley Rabbit and the Treehouse Contest, an illustrated book for children that came out in 2018 from writer Steve Richardson and illustrator Chris Dunn. “Can a lone girl rabbit with all the odds stacked against her actually surprise boastful Jimmy Squirrel to win the big tree house construction contest? It is the end of summer and the beginning of a new school year, Jimmy Squirrel, whose dad owns the biggest construction company in the city, agrees to a tree house contest. To everyone”s surprise, Paisley Rabbit, who has never touched a hammer or a nail and has no one to help her, is a long shot to win. But the imaginative and determined Paisley, demonstrates her resourcefulness and strategic planning abilities that eventually amazes her friends and silences the smug Jimmy Squirrel.” The book is available now in hardcover. Check out the preview pictures — the artwork is gorgeous. Interesting note: Chris Dunn also illustrated an edition of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. We’ll have to look it up.

image c. 2024 Impossible Dreams

Hopper of Hops

Sometimes maybe the publisher isn’t the best at describing a work. Here’s what they have to say about the new graphic novel Spero: “Taking up a defensive home base within the city of Vurgstraad, a council of ancient sorcerers have spent the last hundred years fending themselves off from a barrage of attacks by The House of Bayek. While three generations of Bayek have tried to destroy Vurgstraad, a counter-weapon was born within the heart of the city. A weapon with the ability to recapture the hearts of those once condemned to evil. A weapon known as The Heartbreaker. Hidden deep within a mysterious crystallized universe, a secret race of caretakers have waited for this weapon to be claimed by The Chosen One. A hero said to be the sole champion capable of wielding it. The Breaker of Hearts. The Healer of Worlds.” And, by the way, a rabbit. Somehow they skipped that part. But we’ll tell you! We’ll also mention it’s written by Garrett Gunn, illustrated by Martha Webby, and available now.

image c. 2024 Source Point Press

A Heavy Load To Bear

We can’t say it better than the publishers did: “Bear, Staffan Gnosspelius’s debut book, is a gorgeous visual meditation on depression. In this deeply affecting, wordless picture book for adults, a bear is maddeningly afflicted with a cone that covers his head and that he is unable to take off. He furiously stomps and yells and tears at the cone, he implores the skies and fate for relief, he is drawn to dark and wild and scary places. The depths of his sadness feel like a defeat. It’s a battle he wages until he’s mentally and physically exhausted. Then, one day, Bear hears notes of music, the humming of a friendly hare. The hare hovers nearby, concerned, sometimes driven away by Bear’s frustration and anger, more often staying close and gently offering support.” This full-color graphic novel is available in hardcover from Seven Stories Press.

image c. 2024 Seven Stories Press