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Trade Paperback

Just What Every 4th Grader Needs

Comic strip creator Dana Simpson (best known for the Ursa Major Award-winning Ozy & Millie) has a new on-line black & white comic, Heavenly Nostrils. (It’s up and running on Go Comics.) One day a little girl named Phoebe is out skipping stones on a pond — and she accidentally bonks a unicorn on the nose. By freeing that unicorn, Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, from her reflection-induced staring spell Phoebe is granted one wish… and she wishes for herself and Marigold to be best friends. From there, things get complicated. Well now Andrews McMeel Publishing have released the first paperback collection of Heavenly Nostrils strips, appropriately enough entitled Phoebe and Her Unicorn. Check it out at Barnes & Noble.

image c. 2014 Andrews McMeel Publishing

image c. 2014 Andrews McMeel

Far Less Serious Bunnies

Itty Bitty Bunnies in Rainbow Pixie Candy Land. Somehow you just know what something with a title like that is going  to be like, yes? Well you’re right. “Take some time for an adventure to a magical world with two cute bunnies… two foul mouthed, drug using, butt-naked bunnies that go on adorably offensive, insultingly hilarious adventures! Your journey into off-color fun begins here, with this mix of Adventure Time and underground comix!” It’s written and illustrated in full color by Australian underground cartoonist Dean Rankine, and brought to us thanks to Action Lab’s Danger Zone imprint. Check out their Facebook page. Oh, and speaking of Danger Zone, they’ve also released the first four issues of Bo, Plushy Gangsta (by Pavel Balabanov) in a trade paperback, Kingdom of Bo.

image c. 2014 Danger Zone

image c. 2014 Danger Zone

30 Years of Bunny and Blade

You might have heard that Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai is turning 30, yes? The word is getting around. Well in celebration of this milestone Dark Horse Press will release The Usagi Yojimbo Saga, a collection of more than 600 pages coming this October. It brings together Usagi Yojimbo Volume 2 issues 1 thru 16 and Volume 3 issues 1 thru 6, as well as a full-color cover gallery. Check out the Dark Horse web page to find out more. Saga will be available as a (very thick!) trade paperback, and also in a limited-edition hardcover version (only 900 will be made!) signed by Stan Sakai himself.

image c. 2014 Dark Horse Press

image c. 2014 Dark Horse Press

A Science Fiction Classic, Illustrated

If you’re not familiar with Larry Niven, you should be. For one thing he was Guest of Honor at Further Confusion once — largely for his creation of the brutal tiger-like aliens known as the Kzin. In 1970 his novel Ringworld received both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel. Now, many years later, Tor Books is creating a series of black & white manga-style graphic novel adaptations of the book. “Two-hundred-year-old human Louis Wu is recruited by a two-headed alien named Nessus to join him, a felinoid warrior alien named Speaker-to-Animals, and the infinitely lucky human Teela Brown to explore an alien artifact. They find a Ringworld, a ribbon millions of miles long built around a distant sun. The civilization has fallen into savagery, though, and after crashing into the Ringworld, Louis must come up with a clever plan to get back to known space, hundreds of light years away.” Adapted by Robert Mandell (script) and Sean Lam (illustration), Part 1 is available now in paperback at Amazon.

[And with that, we’ll see you after Comic Con!]

image c. 2014 by Rory McLeish

image c. 2014 by Rory McLeish

Beasts Invade the Rain Forest

It might seem like an age ago, but earlier this year the animated sensation of the moment was Rio 2. Now that we’ve moved on to the summer, Paperkutz have announced a new tie-in graphic novel, carrying on after the events of that film. “While recording bird calls, Linda loses her new digital recorder, but when Blu finds it, it’s full of strange and horrifying growls! Is some sort of new predator on the loose in the sanctuary? Before the gang can solve the mystery themselves, monster-hunters and reality shows invade, turning their quiet jungle home into pandemonium. ” Rio 2: The Creature from Blu’s Lagoon is written by Arie Kaplan and illustrated by James Silvani. The full-color trade paperback is available for pre-ordering; otherwise look for it in stores this fall.

image c. 2014 Paperkutz

image c. 2014 Paperkutz

One Bad Werewolf

This month, Image Comics brings us the first trade paperback collection of Bad Dog, titled Volume 1: In the Land of Milk and Money. “Two bounty hunters, an angst-ridden werewolf and his deviant partner, stumble through the southwest in search of cash, booze, and the meaning of life. Mostly, they find booze.” Bringing together issues #1 through #6 of this full-color series by writer Joe Kelly and artist Diego Greco, Milk and Money is available now at Comic Book Round Up.

image c. 2014 Image Comics

image c. 2014 Image Comics

Power Bunny

More 80’s furry comic nostalgia! Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew was, of course, DC Comics jumping head-first into the growing funny animal scene with a Warner Brothers meets Superheroes pastiche created by Scott Shaw! and Roy Thomas. Now DC have brought together the original full-color issue #1 through #20 of CC in a new trade paperback, Showcase Presents: Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew. The collection also features a team-up with the original Teen Titans, as well as the special and little-seen 3-issue Oz/Wonderland War mini-series (which the Super Rabbit and his cohorts had a large part in). It’s available for order now, and hits the shelves this August.

image c. 2014 DC Comics

image c. 2014 DC Comics

The Lion Blocks

Perhaps it was inevitable that someone would turn Lego toys’ popular anthropomorphic fantasy series Legends of Chima into a comic book — and Papercutz were the ones to do it. No less than three volumes of Lego: Legends of Chima have hit the stands now, in both hardcover and trade paperback editions. They’re written by Yannick Grotholt with full-color art by Comicon (yes, that’s the name). “Chima— a world reigned by animal tribes, divided by the battle of the noble lions against the evil crocodiles. In High Risk [Volume 1] Laval, prince of the Lions and his friend Eris, a warrior of the Eagle Tribe, engage in a training race on their Speedorz. As the two speed through the jungle, they stumble upon a Gorilla convoy transporting CHI that is being attacked by the Crocodiles. Will Laval and Eris save their Gorilla friends? Or will they become Crocodile Meat?” Papercutz has a web site dedicated to the series.

image c. 2014 Papercutz

image c. 2014 Papercutz

Dragons Call Her Mom

Andrews McMeel publishing presents Dragon Girl: The Secret Valley, a new trade paperback graphic novel written and illustrated by Jeff Weigel. “Eleven-year-old Alanna and her older brother Hamel are orphans and doing their best to take care of each other until one day Alanna stumbles upon a cave full of dragon eggs. When the eggs hatch with no mother dragon in sight, Alanna decides to take care of the babies herself, even creating a clever costume so that the babies think she, too, is a dragon. With their large appetites and accidental fire burps, Alanna learns that dragon babies are hard work! And when a mama dragon finally comes to claim the babies, Alanna’s costume is so convincing that she is swept along for the ride as they journey to Dragon Rock, a mysterious magnetic force that draws dragons of all shapes and sizes to a magical, untouched valley.” It’s available now, and over at Comic Book Resources they have more of the story.

image c. 2014 Andrews McMeel

image c. 2014 Andrews McMeel