Category: Sponsors

S.L. Mewse has long been a friend of Werewolf News. She’s an artist, she’s got a long-running interview series featuring people from the werewolf community (including yours truly), and she’s a prolific author whose work focusses predominantly on werewolf horror. I’m so delighted to thank her for sponsoring the site for the month of May with her Primal Progeny series of books.

Hunter Dalton had a harder start to life than most. At less than five years old a terrible creature stalked into his home and took the lives of his parents, departing only once it had eaten its fill; leaving him for dead. Miraculously he survived, and for decades lived a peaceful life troubled only by carefully managed monthly transformations… But it was not to last.

The return of the beast threw his life into turmoil, opening up a world he never knew existed. Suddenly he was no longer a lone werewolf adrift in the stormy sea of humanity. Werewolves and other shapeshifters were everywhere, and he was plunged headfirst into their society with the kidnapping of the only true friend he had ever had. With time running out he was forced to make a choice, go it alone or step in with the pack. He had no choice, and so his world was changed forever.

Appropriately savage cover art and samples of the three books are available in Mewse’s bookstore, as are links to purchase each from Amazon or Smashwords. The series (and her other books) have stellar ratings on Goodreads, so if you’re looking for some new werewolf horror to sink your fangs into, here’s your next couple of weeks covered.

Thanks again to S.L. Mewse for sponsoring Werewolf News!

I only read a handful of comics anymore, and Pure of Heart is at the top of that list.

Human-werewolf relationships are always tricky, especially when the werewolf is heir to the throne. After years married to the prince, Penelope falls for another human – shame he’s a bit of a loser. Things get messy when they find themselves embroiled in the midst of royal intrigue, and dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. Can they overcome danger and their own issues to give the baby a chance? Pure of Heart is a comic about aristocratic werewolves, human weakness and scheming siblings.

Pure of Heart is free to read, but $1+ Patrons get the full experience; with color pages several weeks before everyone else, high-res PDFs, plus a shedload of other perks, there’s no better way to support the comic. I’m halfway to my first goal, at which point Pure of Heart will become twice weekly, so every dollar helps!

The comic’s creator, HamsterToybox, has been drawing great werewolves (and other things) for years. Just look at this big jerk! It’s wonderful to see her idiosyncratic lycanthropes coupled with captivating serialized storytelling.

She’s not kidding about the shedload of Patreon perks, either. I jumped in at the “get a cameo in the strip” level and was very pleased with the result (here I am getting my coffee knocked out of my hands) and the behind-the-scenes art and coloured pages are such a pleasure to see. Patreon support, though recommended, is not a requirement to enjoy Pure of Heart – just visit pureofheartcomic.com.

My thanks to Pure of Heart for sponsoring Werewolf News for the month of March!

It’s always a pleasure to write about a Werewolf News sponsor, and never more than when the sponsorship concerns a new publication by someone whose work I already enjoy. In this case, I’d like to thank Fox Spirit Books for sponsoring Werewolf News with Joyce Chng‘s marvellous sci-fi werewolf space opera novel Starfang: Rise of the Clan.

Is a clan captain going to sacrifice everything for her clan? Tasked to kill Yeung Leung by her parents, powerful rival clan leader of the Amber Eyes, Captain Francesca Min Yue sets out across the galaxy to hunt her prey, only to be thrown into a web of political intrigue spreading across the stars. Is Yeung Leung collaborating with the reptilian shishini and playing a bigger game with the galaxy as a price? Is Francesca’s clan at stake? Welcome to Starfang: Rise of the Clan, where merchants and starship captains are also wolves.

“Wolves should not be in space, but here we were, a clan of wolves and merchants. Instead of the preserved forests of New Earth and Noah’s Ark, we were in ships of steel and armor, reading data scans and commanding officers on the bridge. Wolves within the uniform of merchants and mercenaries, human seeming, claws and teeth sheathed.”

– Captain Francesca Ming Yue, of the warship Starfang.

Starfang: Rise of the Clan is available for purchase in a variety of formats through the following channels:

• Amazon UK
• Amazon.com
• Kindle UK
• Kindle US

Once you’ve read Rise of the Clan, I recommend you check out Homecoming, an excerpt from the second book in the Starfang series (so yes, it contains spoilers for Rise of the Clan). You can read it on her web site or as a stand-alone story in the “space” issue of zine I edit, WEREWOLVES VERSUS. It was my introduction to Joyce’s wonderful prose and the elegant, sombre world of the Starfang series.

I’d like to thank Todd McCullough for sponsoring Werewolf News for the entire month of October with his incredible book Who Needs The Moon?, a devastating horror graphic novel about werewolves and vampires, obsession and revenge, and what it takes to really be a monster.

I’ve been raving about WNTM since I read the first two issues back in 2013.

The atmosphere in this book is dense and cold, but it’s alive. The main character, Ethan, is endearing, haunted and terrifying all at the same time. He’s likeable, but it’s also clear that he’s capable of monstrous things. Kingford, the small town setting, feels like a brooding Everytown, and also like a half-dead incarnation of places I have called home. This mournful malevolence is achieved through a combination of effective writing and phenomenal colours on the page.

By the third issue I was calling it the best werewolf comic I’d ever read.

[WNTM] is the work of a truly gifted storyteller and artist, made even more singular by the fact that it’s self-produced and self-published. Honestly, I don’t know what else I can say right now, except please go buy it for whatever price you deem fair, and read it.

Through the ensuing tragedy, carnage and betrayals, Who Needs The Moon? remains the best werewolf graphic novel I’ve come across. The artwork is both painterly and animated, its themes are uncomfortable and sometimes terrifying but never without human connection, and the storytelling is clever enough to warm your heart on one page before tearing it out on the next. If Kingford really existed, it’d be a town known internationally (as readers will come to understand), and it’d be a place I would avoid as adamantly as Silent Hill.

Who Needs The Moon? is available as a name-your-price download on Gumroad. If you’re over 17 and you want to start the scariest month of the year with a truly excellent horror comic experience, I suggest you download it immediately. I’d like to thank Todd again for sponsoring Werewolf News for the month of October!