DC Super Heroes and Pets Papercraft

DC Super Heroes and Pets Papercraft drawn by Art Baltazar, coming in November, oh yeah!

DC Super-Pets Character Encyclopedia

If you love the DC Super-Pets, you will *love* the DC Super Pets Character Encyclopedia!

The DCSPCE is a huge (11x9") Who's Who-style album cataloging all the various Super-Pets that have been appearing in Capstone's superb line of kids books. Featuring art by the incomparable Art Baltazar, the book features the canine, feline, equine, and marine sidekicks of our favorite heroes, which of course includes Aquaman:

 

But that's not all--the book also features a brief history of DC's animal heroes, a concept that stretches back almost as far as the company itself:

 

The Super Villain pets are also covered, and there's also a handy-dandy size chart so you budding artists know how each of them all relate to one another:

As you all know, the Aquaman Shrine is a huge fan of all these Capstone/DC books. We think they're completely adorable, visually stunning, and they give the Aquaman Family an equal chance to shine (even Aqualad got his own book!). This newest effort is probably the best yet; combining all the fun elements from the other books but adding a healthy dose of nerdy obsession with DC Universe minutiae. I can totally see a young kid being as obsessed with this book, pouring over it page by page, as I was (was?) with Who's Who.

With the holiday season not all that far away (gulp!), the DC Super-Pets Character Encyclopedia would make an exceptional gift for the young superhero fan in your life. And if you use this Amazon link, you can throw the Shrine a couple of gold pieces in the process:

A sincere thanks to the fine folks at Capstone who were kind enough to send a copy of this book to Shrine Central!

"Get To Know Your Super-Pets!"

The fine folks at Capstone Books--who have been enormously kind and generous to the Shrine--sent us this *awesome* poster of all the DC Super-Pets characters, both human and animal, drawn by Art Baltazar. (Aww yeah, click to embiggen!)

Here are some close-ups of the Aqua-Family and their pets:

For whatever reason, I think George the Evil Pufferfish is my favorite.

On a separate note, can someone tell me why DC Super-Pets isn't an animated series yet?!?

Be sure to check out the Capstone/Stone Arch books blog for more stuff on the DC Super-Pets line, and all their other books!

DC Super Pets "My Pet Is Super!" Contest

From the people who brought you DC Super Pets: Heroes of the High Seas comes the "My Pet is Super!" Contest!

Here are the rules and how to enter (click the graphic to see a readable version):

The contest kicks off today, so head on over to Capstonekids.com to enter and submit your entries, I hope many members of F.O.A.M.: The Next Generation participate!


At some point down the line, the Shrine will be doing its own Super Pets-centric contest, as well, so keep an eye out of that. In the meantime, special thanks to the fine folks at Capstone Books who provided the Shrine a complete set of DC Super Pets books, they're awesome!

DC Super Pets: Heroes of the High Seas

An awwwwesome package arrived @ Shrine Central last week--a set of the new DC Super Pets books! Aw, yeah!

There are six books in all, but of course the one we're the most excited about is Heroes of the High Seas, starring Aquaman!

Written by J.E. Bright and drawn by Art Baltazar, Heroes of the High Seas stars off with a little primer explaining who all the characters are:

Following this is an entry from the Atlantis High Command Sea Computer, giving us some details on Storm the Sea Horse--his skills, his relationship to Aquaman, and more.

Chapter 1, "Wild Whirlpool", opens with a full-page illustration that makes me nearly giddy in its Aqua-rifficness:

...you've got Aquaman, Mera, Aqualad, Tula, Arthur Jr., Topo the Octopus, and more, all exquisitely rendered in day-glo colors by Art Baltazar. I want this on a t-shirt, greeting cards...everything.

Anyway, the concert is interrupted by Aquaman's seal friend Ark (who first appeared waaaay back in More Fun Comics #89!) who says there's a giant whirlpool just outside the city, and its growing!

Aquaman jumps aboard his loyal steed Storm and investigates. They see a mother whale getting caught in the vortex trying to save its calf. Aquaman goes to rescue the whales, while ordering Storm, Topo, and Ark to see what's causing the whirlpool.

In Chapter 2, "Into the Deep", Aquaman's three pals get too close to the vortex:

Finding themselves with a thud on the ocean floor, our three heroes spy another denizen of the deep called a Diggler, as its tunneling directly into a mountain. They also spy to manta rays, Misty and Sneezer, who are the pets of...Black Manta!

Misty and Sneezer are in charge of digging tubes through the mountain rock, causing water to rush in, feeding the vortex above. The plan is to create such a huge whirlpool that its eats Atlantis whole! "That's not going to happen", Topo replies.

In Chapter 3, "Sounds of Victory", Storm tries to occupy Misty and Sneezer and get them away from the diggler. Meanwhike, Topo plays his violin, in an attempt to soothe the diggler, calming him down long enough to stop the burrowing.

Misty and Sneezer attempt to escape, disappearing behind a rock--but Topo sees that's not a rock, its the ship of Black Manta!:

Arriving just in time, along with the blue whale, is Aquaman!

The blue whale scares Manta so badly he jumps back into ship and takes off, with the mama blue whale giving chase. With her calf now safe thanks to Aquaman, Topo, Storm, and Ark explained what happened.

Topo begins to play again, this time in celebration:

...the end!


Do I even need to bother to mention how delightfully awesome this book is? The story is cute, fast-moving and light as air. And with Art Baltazar doing the illustrations, its a pure pleasure to look at. If I had had this book when I was five or six, I would have worn it to pieces due to constant reading and re-reading.

The book also comes with some bonus pages, like a "Know Your Super-Pets" checklist, a joke page, creator bios, and a helpful glossary of terms:

As I mentioned, there are five other books in this series:

I haven't had a chance to read them all yet, but they all look as utterly charming as Heroes on the High Seas.

I cannot imagine a more fun way to teach young comics fans to read than these DC Super Pets books, and of course its fantastic that Aquaman got his own book in this series, a fairly rare thing when it comes to the Sea King and mass market projects like this. With his unique setting and cast of colorful side characters, Aquaman more than hold his own. I was thrilled to hear that some of the people at Capstone putting these books together are Aqua-Fans, and there are plans for more Aqua-centric DC Super Pets books.

If you have a little Aqua-Fan in this house, run, do not walk, over to Amazon (or your local bookstore) and get yourself a copy:

One last thing: those of you with aforementioned young Aqua-Fans in the house, be sure to check back with the Shrine this Saturday, January 15, where you'll learn details about a contest Capstone is kicking off that day. Aw yeah, prizes!

DC Super Pets!

Bleeding Cool has some great new preview art from the upcoming line of DC Super Pets books by Art Baltazar. I really cannot wait to get my hands on these...


(h/t: F.O.A.M.er Mark Belkin)