Super-heroes and kitties come together in the Marvel Meow collection from earlier this year. “The cats of the Marvel mythos will claw their way to comic shops… Marvel Meow #1 collects Nao Fuji’s hit Marvel Unlimited Infinity Comic and features brand-new covers and an exclusive new Marvel Meow story. The series spotlights adorable interactions between the cats of the Marvel Universe and your favorite heroes and villains. These delightful adventures are perfect for all ages and are sure to delight Marvel fans, cat lovers, and everyone in between! Marvel’s most fearsome – and furriest – heroes are here to save the day and beg for treats in the process! Follow Chewie, Liho, Alpine and the rest of the Avengers’ feline friends as they cause a few cat-tastrophes…and maybe vanquish some villains in the process! Whether it’s crashing Captain Marvel’s apartment or defeating Doc Ock, you can always count on these cats for some cute chaos!” And you can find them here, with a variety of covers of course.

image c. 2024 Marvel Comics

We know, we know — too early to talk about Christmas stuff. But maybe a perfect time to talk about monster comics! Especially when they’re monstrous cats. “Grumpy Cat: The Grumpus and Other Horrible Holiday Tales is a collection of stories featuring everyone’s favorite feline sourpuss that will help keep you in the grumpy spirit all throughout the most joyous season of the year!” The title story is a spoof on everyone’s favorite Christmas monster, the Krampus. Other titles in the collection include “Grumpy the Snow-Cat”, “Grumpy Cat vs. Merry Martians”, and “You’re a Mean One, Ms. Grumpy”. Created by a whole slew of writers and artists, it’s all put together by Ablaze Comics.

image c. 2024 Ablaze Comics

Talk about and-now-for-something-completely-different: “Before humanity had successfully traveled the entire globe, it was believed that monsters ruled the oceans just beyond the horizon. “Here there be dragons…” was written on maps to denote the areas people dared not go.That is, until Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the seas, visiting foreign lands and collecting treasure. That’s what history tells us, at least, but history does not have the full tale. Monsters did lurk yonder, living on an island that still doesn’t appear on any map, and among them was the king of them all…Godzilla!” See? Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons collects the 5-issue series (written by Frank Tieri and illustrated by Inaki Miranda) into a single graphic novel. Look for it now from Random House.

image c. 2024 IDW Publishing

Steve Lafler is a renowned underground cartoonist who has made appearances here before. Now thanks to Cat-Head Comics we have a chance to see where he started with Dog Boy: Choice Cuts & Happy Endings. From Previews: “The 328-page oversize volume collects the best of Lafler’s pioneering 1980’s alternative comics title Dog Boy, known for its undulating psychedelic twists, coupled with low-brow tropes that border on slapstick. The date is 1982, the early dawn in the alternative comics movement. Steve Lafler, bohemian cartoonist, taps into his unconscious mind and finds his inner Dog Boy: An unruly man-child equipped with a Golden Retriever head!” It’s available now in trade paperback.

image c. 2024 Cat-Head Comics

We missed the Hairball horror mini-series last year, but now Dark Horse have released issues #1 – #4 in a very special single-volume collection. “A young girl with a black cat begins to suspect the innocuous beast is behind all her troubles: Her parents’ fighting, family plagues, and innumerable supernatural horrors. As she tries her best to rid herself of this creature, she discovers that maybe the cat is not evil after all and a greater terror may be behind these horrific events harming her life. Collects Hairball #1-#4 in a deluxe, hardcover die-cut format featuring faux cat fur.” Seriously, they did that. It’s written by Matt Kindt, with artwork by Tyler Jenkins and Hilary Jenkins.

image c. 2024 Dark Horse Press

The celebrated and multi-award-winning creator Ursula Vernon first came to most people’s attention through her black & white web comic called Digger. Now, a decade later, Grim Oak Press gives us Digger Unearthed: The Complete Tenth Anniversary Collection. “Digger Unearthed is the story of a shrewd, sensible wombat engineer named Digger-of-unnecessarily-convoluted-tunnels, who finds herself stranded in a fantasy world that is far from logical. Thrust into the middle of a puzzling and often perilous situation involving gods, demons, destiny, and redemption, she finds her way based on a pragmatic honesty and the sincere belief in doing the right thing… To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Digger Unearthed offers the complete web comic collection in a single volume that can be fully enjoyed by young adult readers, yet also contains layers of sophistication that become deeper and more meaningful with age and experience.” Which we have. It’s available now in both paperback and hardcover.

image c. 2024 Grim Oak Press

The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper is a collection of seven short stories written by A. J. Fitzwater centred around Cinrak, a lesbian, capybara pirate. It has a couple of strong elements as well as several weak points. I struggled with my thoughts as I read it and, in the end, I would say that, overall, I found it frustrating.

I will start this review briefly talking about politics. It might seem like an unusual starting point but the introduction makes clear that the book is political and it touches on several hot button issues.

Come for handsome, huggable Cinrak in a dapper three-piece, stay for her becoming a house-ship Mother to an enormous found family, the ethical polyamory, trans boy chinchilla, genderqueer rat mentor, fairy, and whale, drag queen mer, democratic monarchy, socialist pirates, and strong unionization.

What I do like about the way politics is handled in this book, is that it is not set up as a conflict between opposing ideologies; the book presents its favoured way of seeing the world and just leaves it as that. Even the religious character (and there is a fascinating take on religion inside) is played off sympathetically. However, by taking the stances it does, the book is also going to be, though it has no regrets about it, alienating for certain readers. If you can not tolerate a heavy emphasis on, and I quote, LGBTQIA characters, then this book is definitely not for you and you may as well stop here. On the other hand, if that’s what you crave, it may be exactly what you want and you should read further.

Can I Pet Your Werewolf? is a 160-page comics anthology that came out in 2017, after a successful kickstarter by Kel McDonald. Recently there was a second kickstarter to make a new print run, so I got in on the PDF version, and my hardcopy should be shipping pretty soon.

The project is described as "A light-hearted anthology featuring tales of friendship, family, and romance shared between those who get hairy under a full moon. Just because they have sharp teeth and claws doesn't mean they have to be a monster out for blood."

There are 13 stories, black and white, from mostly women cartoonists of many backgrounds and art styles. They're short popcorn tales, ranging from 8 to 19 pages in length. Not a lot of time for deep world-building, but in each one you're seeing a personal little snippet of a larger setting.

The Autumnlands is the creative result of writer Kurt Busiek and artist Benjamin Dewey, with help from colourist Jordie Bellaire and typesetter John Roshell and published by Image. Started in 2014, it is still in continuation with a recent release of a second volume.

The story revolves around the city of Keniel, one of seventeen great floating cities above the earth, resides a relatively peaceful community of anthropomorphic people living in a world of sorcery. In the eyes of Dunstan, a young bull terrier lad, life is going fairly well as he learns from his father to take on the family trade business.

Though not all is well as it seems in the world. Magic fades at an alarming rate and the great mages seek to desperately restore it. In relative secret a group of mages seek to bring back a great hero of legend to restore the world’s magic, despite the warnings of their council superiors.

Unfortunately for them, things don't play out as planned.

It’s a phenomenal story collecting the first six issues of the action/fantasy series featuring primarily anthropomorphic animal characters. While these topics of talking animals and magic seem like the things a child would like to read about, it’s noted that this comic touches into more mature territory pretty quick.

In this series you will find nudity, racial segregation and stereotyping, violent impalement and disembowelment. And this is just within the very first chapter!

It immediately sets itself up as being a story for mature readers, and a clear reminder that some comic books aren’t written for children.

(Full Disclosure: I have a story in this book: Unbalanced Scales, the 6th story in the book. It takes place in the same universe as last year's Brooklyn Blackie and the Unappetizing Menu, just 40 years later. I will "review" that story last. I mean, I could skip it entirely, but I do so like talking about myself and my stories.)

Mary Lowd returns to the helm of ROAR for another collection of "all audience" Furry stories. This time the theme is Legends. There are all sorts of Legends and there was only one story out of the following seventeen whose legend worthiness I questioned.

FurPlanet, July 2016, trade paperback $19.95 (378 pages), ebook $7.95.

Isiah reviews The Furry Future.

See also: Review by dronon.

Furry fiction is replete with references to its characters' ears, tails, paws, and how they notice scent in the world around them. While adding to a story's atmosphere, in many cases the characters could, with minor modifications, be written as humans. In The Furry Future, editor Fred Patten wanted to depart from cursory furriness.

This is an anthology of short stories more firmly rooted in science-fiction, not fantasy, in which the existence of its furry characters tries to be relevant to its stories.

FurPlanet Productions, January 2015, trade paperback $19.95 (446 pgs.), eBook $9.95. Cover by BlackTeagan.

After what seems like a long long time, this past March Yen Press finally released Kingdom Hearts: The Novel as a single black & white collected manga. Just one that happens to be over 300 pages long! “On the Destiny Islands, three children–Sora, Riku, and Kairi–are living out their peaceful, carefree lives while yearning for whatever lies beyond the great ocean. But one night, an unexpected disaster takes place, and the three are torn from each other and their island home. Meanwhile, at Disney Castle, Donald Duck and the other castle residents are in an uproar upon discovering King Mickey has suddenly gone missing. When fate brings them together, Sora, Donald, and Goofy set out on a grand Disney adventure to find their friends!” Find it over at the Yen Press web site. It’s written by Tomoco Kanemaki and illustrated by Shiro Amano, based on the original game concept by Tetsuya Nomura.

image c. 2015 Yen Press

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

Sentai Filmworks have released Gingitsune: Messenger Fox of the God — Complete Collection, bringing together all 12 episodes of the anime TV series based on the original manga by Sayori Ochiai. Here’s part of the review by Charles Solomon over at Animation Scoop: “For 15 generations, Makoto Saeki’s family has maintained the Inari shrine to the agricultural god Ukanomitama. Makoto lives there with her widowed father, a well-meaning, slightly befuddled man. Because her bloodline makes her the heiress to the shrine, teen-age Makoto has ‘the gift': She can see and converse with Gintarou, the resident fox-spirit who is a herald of the gods. Heralds traditionally live and work in in pairs, but his partner left many years ago. Gintarou is later joined by Haru, a much younger female fox spirit brought to Inari by Makoto’s friend Satoru… Gintarou functions as a sort of substitute father/big brother to Makoto. He’s gruff, cranky and lazy, but his façade of indifference can’t disguise his affection for her.” I like Mr. Solomon’s description of the fox spirit: “Gintarou has a scarred fox’s head stuck onto a burly human body. He looks like a macho delegate to a Furries convention.” So noted! The 2-disc DVD set is for sale over at Best Buy.