Happy Furry Book Month!

It's October again, and that means:

Happy Furry Book Month, everybody :)

Once again, we're taking the month of October to celebrate and enjoy anthropomorphic literature, both new and old, and there are a number of sales going on with various publishers to do just that.

I won't be taking up too much of your time here, as October can be a pretty busy month, but I did want to recommend a book for your enjoyment on this specific month - Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard by Lawrence Schoen

We'll do a proper look at this book sometime in the future but, for now, I'll just say that Barsk is one of the best modern anthropomorphic books that I've read while also being a fantastic science fiction book that raises good philosophical questions while also just immersing you in another world. The main characters will stick with you long after you've put the book down, which I think is a mark of strong, effective story-telling. If you love sci-fi, literature, or even just really love elephants, then you should totally give this one a read!

You can learn more about Furry Book Month and the available publisher deals here: https://furrywritersguild.com/furry-book-month/

Until next time, happy reading!
-Chammy

BOOK TALK - MouseHeart

Mouseheart by Lisa Fiedler

From the summary on Amazon:

Hopper is just an ordinary pet shop mouse before he escapes. Soon he finds himself below the bustling streets of Brooklyn, deep within the untamed tangles of transit tunnels, and in Atlantia, a glorious utopian rat civilization.

But all is not what it seems. Though Hopper is treated as a royal guest, he misses his siblings that he lost in the escape attempt. That, and Atlantia is constantly threatened by the rebels who wish to bring the city to its knees. And there are cats everywhere in Atlantia, cats that leave the citizens unharmed… and no one can seem to answer why.

Soon, Hopper is caught in the crosshairs of a colossal battle, one that crosses generations and species. As the clashes rage, Hopper learns terrible, extraordinary secrets: Deadly secrets about Atlantia. Painful secrets about his friends.

And one powerful secret about his destiny…

Some days, you just want to read something that really scratches a familiar literary itch and calls back to nostalgic days. As I started reading Mouseheart by Lisa Fiedler, this was distinctly how I felt. This is a newer book, the first in a series, published in 2014, and yet it harkens back to the kinds of books about animals that I read growing up. Redwall, The Wind in the Willows, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and many more were sprinkled throughout my childhood and teenage years, and Mouseheart hits on so many notes while still being original that it’s astonishing.

Most of the classic anthropomorphic children’s fiction themes are here. You have a society of talking animals that live just out of sight of modern day human beings, living beneath the subways of Brooklyn. The animals also have to interact with and form their own understanding of various human devices like subway trains, abandoned subway stations, and litter. There’s actually a really fun scene that almost seems to call out to the cliché, where a rat is selling discarded human memorabilia and coming up with obviously outlandish or incorrect stories about their origins. Also, like many classic talking-animal novels, there is a healthy amount of interaction between predators (cats) and their natural prey (rats and mice), with moments that prove some stereotypes false and others true.

Rounding out these classic anthropomorphic animal story traits, we also have many marks of classic adventure and fantasy stories. There are kings, princes, and hidden away kingdoms along with rebel armies and prophecies and good old-fashioned swordplay.

So, after hearing about all of this, I suspect many might be already thinking, “I’ve read this story before” and might throw Mouseheart aside as a novel that’s one of many in an abundant fantasy genre.

If you did that, however, then I would have to say that you’re doing yourself a gross disservice and would be missing out on a fantastic and enjoyable story! Mouseheart is an extremely well-written story that knows the genre well and gives its audience exactly what they’ve come for while also offering new ideas and bringing about a feeling of timeless wonder which I feel has been strangely lacking in most modern day anthropomorphic animal fiction.

Exploring Atlantia was probably one of my favorite parts of the book.
The wonderful art throughout also made for a very enjoyable journey!

This is not to say that the book has no problems or negative aspects to it, of course. In fact, one of its most notable factors contributes to one of its biggest problems. Mouseheart, as I’ve said, has the hallmarks of many great anthropomorphic animal stories and fantasy adventure stories… and that unfortunately means that the book’s plot is also extremely predictable. I don’t mean to spoil the entire story, so I won’t list all of the predictable story moments, but I think it’s safe to say that most readers that are at all familiar with young adult fantasy can guess them off of the tops of their heads and be correct.


Main character is a central figure in some ancient prophecy? Check.

Budding love interest that blossoms by the story’s conclusion? Check.

Parents are dead or at least assumed dead at the start of the story? Check.

Misunderstandings are the central reason for many of the main points of conflict between characters? Check.

All you've gotta do is put some mouse ears and a tail on Taran...

It’s hard to read through Mouseheart and not be constantly cognizant of the tropes and trappings of its genre and not comparing it to other works. Yet, as I said above, I believe that Mouseheart overcomes the problems this could be by embracing its nature fully and still telling a tale that’s all its own.

Hopper, the main character, is not the strongest or the smartest, and, unlike many mouse heroes before him, he’s most certainly not the bravest or most selfless either. Hopper is a character with many flaws. He lacks understanding of the world around him, and he can truly be very childish and selfish with the choices that he initially makes and continues to make as the story goes on. By the story’s end, Hopper does grow as a character, but he still has many of his flaws and has grown in spite of them rather than completely overcoming and replacing them. It’s the personal lessons that he learns, especially the aspects of what bravery and heroism truly mean, that make Hopper a more complete character and eventually a hero. What’s more, Hopper is clearly not done maturing yet by the end of the story, giving him greater room to grow in future installments.

Outside of the characters, the setting itself most certainly takes center stage. Although it starts humbly in a pet shop in Brooklyn, the story quickly expands into the tunnels beneath and to the fantastical kingdom of Atlantia. The way that forgotten parts of a city are reimagined as mysterious and awe-inspiring locales is one of the major ways that Mouseheart and creates the wonder that I’ve mentioned.


All in all, Mouseheart feels like a story from a classic era of anthropomorphic children’s literature, but written with modern audiences in mind. It tells its tale well and creates a story that feels timeless, which is something that I haven’t been able to say about much modern literature that I’ve read. I would highly recommend it to fans of the genre and anybody who’s looking for an enjoyable read in children’s literature or fun fantasy in general!

Until next time, happy reading all!


-Chammy


Currently reading:


The Echoes of Those Before by James Daniel Ross

Vicki Fox Has Returned!

Do the happy dance!

The last time that we looked at The World of Vicki Fox, I expressed my adoration for the characters and the stories over the years, but lamented over its seemingly indefinite hiatus since 2013. Well, the lamentations are over! I was holding off on saying anything about this until I was sure it would stick, but I’m now very happy to say that Vicki Fox is back for our reading pleasure!

One of the biggest problems that I feel Vicki Fox had over the years was getting a consistent artist to help bring the stories to life. That problem now seems to be solved with a new artist on the team that goes by the name of Jan.

Who is Jan, you may ask? Well, he just so happens to be the artist and author of several other anthropomorphic comic strips of his own creation! I had only barely learned of him before I saw the announcement of him drawing Vicki and her friends so, in the interests of curiosity, I thought that I might investigate this artist and see where they’re coming from and share my findings with you all.

Jan’s primary comic hosting website is www.tigerknight.com and, from there, we have three different comics to choose from. Only one of the strips has had a full run, so I thought it best to look at that one to get a general idea of Jan’s talents. The webcomic in question is titled College Catastrophe, and it’s actually a pretty good fit for those who are fans of the style of comics presented in The World of Vicki Fox.

This is clearly a realistic reenactment of the creative team hard at work!

College Catastrophe is a ‘slice of life’ comic that primarily follows the misadventures of a lion named Jan, his roommate Wolf (a wolf), and the various friends they have and make while living on their college campus. The comic is heavily focused on humor and slapstick silliness, with characters routinely blowing things up, getting beaten up through various school hazards, and getting themselves into some truly ridiculous situations (Wolf is frequently the cause of these with his various hare-brained schemes and skill with turning whatever he touches into some kind of explosive).

Although the drama of the comic is relatively low, it does have moments of romance and loving friendship, especially between Jan and his girlfriend, Amber. The comic is also openly a parallel to the author’s own college experiences and observations, and a fun time capsule of technology and American society around the early 2000’s, so there are a lot of jokes that are clearly centered on the reader having knowledge of college dorms, as well as computer and tech jokes that may go over the heads of younger readers. This unfortunately dates the comic a little, but the comic never gets so deep into cultural references or jokes that it can’t get its point across.

I think what I like best about this is that the mummy isn't just dead, but his eyes are also covered...
and he's still flying the plane.

As for the art of the comic, that is another relatively high point. Although the character designs are pretty simple, they’re appealing and expressive. Jan and Wolf especially get some great expressions going and you can always tell when Wolf is up to no good from his smile. The strip is only in black and white, however, and it rarely deviates from the daily newspaper comic design. There also is not much visual spectacle, as few of the panels, if any, focus on scenery or anything beyond character art. It’s clear that the focus with these comics is on the dialogue and writing.

All in all, College Catastrophe is an appealing and enjoyable webcomic that harkens back to the daily pages of newspaper comics in the 90’s, and I’m very happy to have read it!

With that in mind, after reading the comic from start to finish, I think I can safely say that Jan’s style will probably be an excellent fit for The World of Vicki Fox. It can really hit all of those light-hearted notes and fun characterizations. Plus, Jan himself has grown as an artist since College Catastrophe and it can be seen in his full color work now that does not shy away from background details.

There's clearly a style difference compared to previous Vicki Fox artists,
but the essence of the characters still comes through loud and clear!

I will say, however, that some of the characters don’t quite look like themselves in Jan’s style. Craig Wolf, for example, doesn’t look quite as lanky or charmingly awkward as Laura Howell or Shelley Pleger drew him, and there’s a bit of the ‘Looney Tunes’ edge that seems to be missing from the cast that we’ve grown so familiar with. However, the writing is still familiar, and Jan has only been working on the comic for a couple of months now, so there are going to be growing pains as the cast grows into his style and vice versa. If reading comics lately has taught me anything, it’s that new artists take time to get used to and there will always be an adjustment period!

With all of that being said, I’m happy to see The World of Vicki Fox back and running again and I wish Jan and Michael Russell the best of luck with the comic! I hope that you all check it out too! The comic updates on the first and third Sunday of every month, so keep an eye on your calendars to catch the new pages right here.

What can I say? I always enjoy seeing a good artist at work!

To see more of Jan’s work and read his own entertaining comics like College Catastrophe, head on over to his website! (Some comics are intended for mature audiences, and are clearly marked) https://www.tigerknight.com/

Until next time, happy reading, all!

-Chammy

Currently Reading:

Mouseheart by Lisa Fiedler

Save Me, Sweet Nostalgia!

Ironically, I haven't drawn Sonic the Hedgehog in probably several years.

So, I’ve been doing a lot of studying lately while on the path toward making myself a fully certified librarian. A lot of studying does not entirely mean a lack of time to read, however! Recently, I’ve been going back through a wonderful digital collection of one of my favorite comic books back from what I was a kid: Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog.

Goodness this brings back so many memories...

Now, you should probably understand: I am a ridiculously huge Sonic fan. Comics, games, toys, shirts… if it had Sonic’s face on it in the 90’s, I probably owned it or was at least begging my parents to LET me own it. Heck, I’ve even got this really weird fist-sized ball that’s shaped like Sonic in the middle of his signature spin move. The spines are like fingergrips, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world to throw around one of my childhood icons like a  football.

Sonic’s comic series was no exception when it came to my fandom as a child. Sonic comics were the first comics that I ever owned or seriously read. I’d glanced at Spider-Man or X-Men stuff, but they just always had these big beefy guys on the covers with arms as thick as my thighs, and it never really grabbed me. When this one kid brought forth a Sonic the Hedgehog comic to me, it was like my brain exploded. I asked to borrow issue #03 to take home, and it was a no small feat to get me to return that issue to its owner. In no time at all, I had a subscription to the comic that ended up lasting for years and years to come. As my subscription started with #14, I even ordered the back issues to make sure I was completely caught up, including the pilot three-issue miniseries. When it came to comic books, for about four or five years, Sonic was it for me.

I kept a solid subscription until about issue #63 or so and stayed subscribed to the Knuckles comic for a little bit beyond that, but not much. The comic now is at or past #290 as of this writing (Actually, there is currently some concern about the comic being cancelled soon), and is noted as being one of the longest running Western comics in existence.

Clearly, I had good taste as a kid… Or so I thought.

You see, as I was reading through these old comics, working my way up to the point where I stopped as a teen to see what lays beyond, I was struck by a terrible realization:

These were not very good comics. In fact, some of them were, frankly… kinda bad.

I mean, yes, they were kids comics and many of the plots weren’t terribly deep because people in the media had this strange idea that children weren’t interested in dramatic story-telling or didn’t have the attention span to keep stories straight for more than thirty minutes, give or take commercial breaks. Even so, as I look back now, there were some serious problems with how the comic was presented, both in story and in art. In the art department, the comic switched artists at an insane rate. At the time, I didn’t know better, but it’s apparently not common to have the art style of your comic radically shift from issue to issue, or even from story to story within the SAME issue. Yes, style shifts are a thing and many artists come together to create any comic, but when your reader sees the characters looking like a Saturday morning cartoon in one issue:

And then looking like an attempt to draw Japanese anime in the next:

Oh Sonic... Why does your head look like a pine tree?

Then you’re going to have some reader confusion. Even for the artists, I can’t imagine this was terribly easy. Archie would bring on so many different artists that I think the art genuinely suffered due to the artists not having enough time to get familiar with the characters or setting.

There's so much wrong with the proportions in this panel,
and yet it's still endearing to me!

However, I can generally forgive goofy art. The artist above, Sam Maxwell, is one of my favorites and did really fun and expressive work in other issues, even if his art was often very silly and strange with proportions. What is much harder to get through is bad writing, and it was going through the later earlier issues where I remember why I stopped reading the Sonic comics.

I want you to look at this series of panels below:

 

Don't worry. You haven't missed anything.

So, if you haven’t read the comics, you probably have NO idea what’s going on here. Of course, you haven’t read the comics, so that’s fair. Let me explain to make it a bit more clear: A mammoth from ancient times came across a mystical Chaos Emerald and had it somehow implanted in his chest, giving him immortality. Now, thousands of years later, he decides to put on a cape and take over the world. He blasts our local heroes with Chaos Emerald energy to kill them, but they’re okay because they happen to be holding on to 50 magic rings that they somehow found in a portal on their way to fight him. They beat him down pretty badly but Mammoth escapes to the Chaos Emerald chamber in the floating island (you knew we were here already, didn’t you?) and tries to take the Emerald to increase his power (I think?) and then some techno-babble mystical goobledy-gook happens and… he’s an emerald now. Rather, he’s *inside* the Chaos Emerald and powering it even further, and the heroes really don’t know how this happens, but they’re okay with it.

Got all of that? No? Yeah, that’s the problem.

They built up to this story here and there through several issues, but even when this issue came as the ‘payoff’ for all of the build up, I had NO idea what was going on when I first read it as a child. After reading through it again with a much more advanced and literary-focused mind as an adult, I can safely say that I *still* have no idea what is all going on here. The story feels like a mess and the art doesn’t really convey what’s going on terribly well and, worst of all, it just doesn’t feel like ‘Sonic’. Of course, don’t get me wrong, I will be the first to say that I loved the characters in the comic and loved seeing stories that were outside of Sonic himself, but this came so far out of left field that I felt like I was reading a different comic.

Nowadays, the comic is much improved. Writing and art is much more consistent and the characters, though changed and having lost some of my favorites (*shakes fist at 'The Writer Who Shall Not Be Named'*), are still fun and excellent designs. I’m only starting to just scratch the surface of the more solid writing in the series now, as I’m at issue #71, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the rest.

So what’s the point of this write-up? Well, first, I wanted to share with you one of the most influential media experiences of my youth that helped to form me as an artist and lover of anthropomorphic media. It’s thanks to this comic series that I sought out other stories with all animal casts and tried my hand at making my own, and I am eternally thankful to it. Second, I wanted to also share the experience of looking back and taking off the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia and realize that, even if something positively influenced us and left an incredible and lasting impression on our literary conscious, it’s certainly not without flaws. We can become stronger and more mature readers and writers when we can start to realize the differences between good and bad storytelling, even in the things that we love.

So what about you readers? Do you have any nostalgic cartoons or books that just haven't stood the test of time? Or do you have any favorite/least favorite memories from the Sonic comics yourself? Feel free to share!

Until next time, happy reading all!

-Chammy

Currently reading:

The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich (A Fox and Hare novel – and yes, that IS what drew me to check it out. I freely admit this)