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

2018 has been rough on many of us, so from everyone here at Flayrah, we wish you the best of the holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Here are some cute videos from previous years:

A 2017 ad from Very.co.uk, an online retailer.

A series of TV spots featuring squirrels, made for Russia's Channel One in 2017.

And from 2013, "The Bear and The Hare", an ad from the John Lewis department store.

…and India's Animation Xpress is celebrating it in an especially animation-furry way.

Confused? The United Nations declared July 30 to be International Day of Friendship; as with May Day, some areas have their own traditions.

This is Rabbit Valley’s Halloween 2013 theme anthology, “something for the adults to enjoy”. It presents eleven new stories; five scary horror “tricks” and six “delectable romantic and erotic” “treats”. The book’s fine wraparound cover is by Stephanie "Ifus" Johnson.

Ianus J. Wolf says in his introduction that this is the first of Rabbit Valley’s planned annual Halloween anthologies, to mix furry horror and adult erotica, so there will be more to come for those who like it.

Halloween just isn’t Halloween without both the scary and the sweet.

The two sections are each introduced by the two EC Comics-style ‘horror hosts’ shown on the cover, Trick the wolf and Treat the cat. The “tricks” all come first, to leave you with a pleasant taste. They are “Hellhound” by Renee Carter Hall, “Son of the Blood Moon” by Bill “Hafoc” Rogers, “Slough” by Ray “Stormcatcher” Curtone, “Unrealty” by Rechan, and “Wild Night” by Tarl “Voice” Hoch.

Las Vegas, NV, Rabbit Valley, September 2013, trade paperback $20.00 (313 pages).

Josh Armstrong, on the Animation Scoop website, has advance news and an image of the Pixar TV Hallowe’en special, “Toy Story of Terror”. While the Toy Story crowd is technically anthropomorphic anyway, “Toy Story of Terror” includes an especially Furry plush hedgehog, Mr. Pricklepants.

“Toy Story of Terror” was broadcast on ABC-TV on October 16 at 8/7 (Central) p.m. Here are two favorable reviews of it. The first, by Shaun Thompson & Craig Williams on the DIS Blog, is especially informative, and includes scheduled showings on Disney's channels. It looks worth watching on the inevitable reruns and DVD release, if you missed it the first time around.

The Cartoon Brew has photos of the first advertising for Reel FX studio’s first CGI feature, Free Birds, due November 1. The advertising, at CinemaCon at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas on April 15-18, included this 3D printed display.

Free Birds, previously announced under the working title of Turkeys, is about Reggie (voice of Owen Wilson) and Jake (Woody Harrelson), two odd-buddy turkeys who time-travel back to Pilgrim days to eliminate the present-day turkey-eating Thanksgiving feast.

The Day of the Race Horse is coming!

In Turkmenistan. It’s the last Sunday in April, April 28 this year. It’s a national holiday there.

Turkmenistan is widely regarded as one of the more corrupt and repressive nations of Central Asia; called by the New York Times “the North Korea of the former Soviet Union”. But not for oppression of its horses. In Turkmenistan, the odds are almost 100% that they are Akhal-Teke horses, the national breed that goes back to prehistoric times.

The Akhal-Teke is claimed to be the earliest domesticated breed of horse. Alexander the Great’s favorite battle charger Bucephalus (honored on a gold coin), which Alexander named a city after, was an Akhal-Teke. Alexander praised the Akhal-Teke for its hardiness, speed and stamina. See the Embassy of Turkmenistan’s website for an official description of the horse’s status.

Following in the footsteps of Rise of the Guardians (sorry, we’re just sayin’…) comes Holiday Wars, a new full-color graphic novel coming this April from Th3rd World Studios. Based on the on-line continuing graphic story (written by Scott King and illustrated by Michael Odom), once again we have story where holidays are represented as living, breathing beings. “Holidays reflect the current culture of a society and like a shifting tide they change. Realizing this, The Easter Bunny declared war on the other Holidays in the hopes of gaining the one thing that can guarantee his immortality: The Holiday Spirit. Foreseeing The Bunny’s betrayal, Santa hid The Holiday Spirit and marked Tegan Cassidy, a human infant, granting her the ability to find it. After sixteen years of war, nearly all the Holidays have been killed or have joined The Bunny. Led by Earth Day, the rag tag group of observances still fighting, turn to a now teenage Tegan in the hopes that she can lead them to The Holiday Spirit.” Pre-order information for the trade paperback is up on Amazon.

One of the most beloved Christmas animated TV half-hour specials, Britain’s Channel 4’s famous adaptation of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman, directed by Jimmy Murakami and Dianne Jackson and animated by TVC London, with a live intro featuring David Bowie and the haunting song “Walking in the Air” (video) composed by Howard Blake, has been an annual fixture on British TV since 1982. The Cartoon Brew reports that, for its thirtieth anniversary, it is getting a Christmas Eve sequel, The Snowman and the Snowdog.

The CB announcement includes the trailer for The Snowman and the Snowdog (The Guardian has more), a 8’35” The Making of The Snowman and the Snowdog, and a link to the entire 26’09” The Snowman. Anthropomorphic snowmen at Christmastime are nothing new, but if you have never seen The Snowman, you have missed what is arguably the greatest of all.

The Holidays are special, but everyone celebrates them differently. People bake cakes, sing songs, and others make love. They celebrate with the ones they have, the ones they lost, and find new love to share.??

Some days are meant for miracles.?
Some days are meant for family.??

And some days you have to find your own reasons to celebrate, but any day can be a special day, even just for a moment.??

Join Whyte Yoté, Rechan, Jeeves the Roo, Andres Cyanni Halden, Pyrostinger, Sanada Mutt, Fraust Dogger, Vendetta Leopard, Brathor, and Ajax B. Coriander as they tell stories alongside ten illustrations by Aggro Badger of the High Holy Days, both old and new, filled with hope, family, loneliness, and love.

Aw, that’s pretty! The book also is rated “adult readers only” for “graphic sexual situations”.

The eleven holidays featured are el Día de los Muertos, Easter, Midsummer, Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween, Hannukah, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. Guess which does not have its own illustration.

Dallas, TX, FurPlanet Productions, November 2011, trade paperback $19.95 (238 pages). Illustrated by Aggro Badger.