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this week Woyro talks about renewing his Passport, making flight plans for a couple cons and reviews BATTLE ROYALE & BATTLE ROYALE 2. Episode 83---Passports and Battle Royale - this week Woyro talks about renewing his Passport, making flight plans for a couple cons and reviews BATTLE ROYALE & BATTLE ROYALE 2.

Woyro does a quick update and talks about some spaghetti westerns. Episode 82---Spaghetti western reviews - Woyro does a quick update and talks about some spaghetti westerns.

Pilot episode of Analogues, recorded January 7, 2009."Stick Figures" © AnimusicAll other content ©2009 Tanuke Media Analogues - 001 - Jan 07, 2009

Woyro talks about his long weekend in Orlando and upcomming conventions. Episode 81--New Year & Orlando trip - Woyro talks about his long weekend in Orlando and upcomming conventions.

Woyro catches up with his convention plans for 2009 and rants about some great HP Lovecraft movies. Episode 80--2009 Cons & Lovecraft - Woyro catches up with his convention plans for 2009 and rants about some great HP Lovecraft movies.

Woyro talks about a furry survey and plays a song by TV's Kyle. some slightly naughty words will be spoken. Episode 79---Furry Sociology - Woyro talks about a furry survey and plays a song by TV's Kyle. some slightly naughty words will be spoken.

Reposted!!! Woyro talks about what he's been doing for the past few weeks. Episode 78 Repost---Catching Up - Reposted!!! Woyro talks about what he's been doing for the past few weeks.

Woyro rambles on for a few minutes about whats been keeping him so darn busy lately! Episode 78---Quick Update! - Woyro rambles on for a few minutes about whats been keeping him so darn busy lately!

there are changes afoot for Woyro's Warren. Woyro also talks about a few people he met because of the show. Episode 77--New things at the Warren! - there are changes afoot for Woyro's Warren. Woyro also talks about a few people he met because of the show.

Woyro talks about his 11 day vacation and trip to Mephit Furmeet. Episode 76---Vacation to Mephit Furmeet - Woyro talks about his 11 day vacation and trip to Mephit Furmeet.

Woyro talks about furry news, Bigfoot and other crazy animal stories as he prepares for Mephit Furmeet. Episode 75---On Vacation - Woyro talks about furry news, Bigfoot and other crazy animal stories as he prepares for Mephit Furmeet.

Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures
By Walter Moers
Translated from the German by John Brownjohn
2006 The Overlook Press
ISBN: 1-58567-725-6

Since Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers is a fantasy epic, Rumo, our protagonist, is of course an orphan. In the first book of the novel, he is taken from his home by monsters and imprisoned in a tower, learns to be a warrior, and eventually escapes. In the second book, now grown, he sets out to rescue his love who was kidnapped by forces of evil. This is quite possibly the oldest fantasy plot there is—it certainly seems the most common, but this is not always a bad thing.

In his 1973 interview with documentarian Richard Schickel, Alfred Hitchcock argued that the plots of all his films were at their heart entirely predictable and formulaic—and that the reason the films themselves aren’t repetitive and dull is entirely due to characterization. It is the individuals in these films--their motivations, emotions, impulses and thoughts that make a work unique and indeed alive. Hitchcock so believed in this concept that he coined the term MacGuffin, an item or plot device that is the motivation for the characters in the film, but is of little or no importance to the audience when compared to the actions of the characters themselves.

Though the tools used to create rich and layered characters in film differ from the techniques used in the novel, the central importance of characterization in a work does not, for novels invariably tell the same sorts of tales time and again, and in this Rumo is no different. Fortunately, for all of us, Walter Moers populates Rumo with an endless variety of bizarre and interesting people, who though caught in webs of larger events, pursue their own agendas under the weight of their own emotions, neuroses, and histories. It is the richness of the world and the characters that Moers peoples it with that make Rumo rise above the great mass of fantasy novels.

Moers was a long time comic and graphic novel writer in and illustrator in Germany before he began writing novels set in the fictional continent of Zamonia. He is obviously enjoys a high degree of familiarity with the conventions of the fantasy genre, and he grabs the reader right from the start by turning one such fantasy convention slightly on its side. Like so many fantasy heroes in recent years, Rumo is an orphan (see Harry Potter, Sabriel, The Golden Compass, to name but a few). Authors do this of course so that their young protagonists can act like adults. They are free to make their own choices. One also gets the feeling that authors sometimes make their heroes orphans to do gain a hair more of the reader’s sympathy as well!

Rumo is different from most fantast orphans because his orphan-hood is not tragic, but rather a part of who his people are. Rumo is a Wolperting, half dog-half deer, and looks like a large dog with small horns on his head. Stories of the species are native to Moers’ Germany in the way that tales of jackalopes are told in the Southwestern United States. Wolpertings abandon all their children in forests soon after they are born, and the reason they do this is extraordinary. Some Wolpertings stay wild animals their whole lives, living as dumb beasts in the forest. Others, such as Rumo, make a conscious choice to become people. They decide to walk upright, talk, and eventually make their way to the city of Wolperting. In short sentience is not automatic, but rather a choice. Because of the recognition of this choice, because it had to be done se he could become a Wolperting, Rumo never feels tortured over his lost parents, and this is a rather refreshing change for a book in the fantasy genre. It is simply bad luck that no sooner than Rumo chooses to be a person he is kidnapped by cannibals, taken to their floating island, and the adventure begins in earnest.

It is Rumo’s journey to becoming a person that is the dominant thread of the first book of the novel. In this, he is guided by Volzotan Smyke, the shark-grub, the first of the many rather bizarre characters Rumo encounters over the course of his journeys. When introducing a new character Moers does something that could be very distracting—he pauses Rumo’s story and tells each new character’s story up to the point they meet Rumo—how they got there and perhaps where they want to go. He even sets out a note in the margins introducing the story each time one is told. These little asides could be detrimental to the overall novel, breaking the flow of the story. However, each character’s story is paid such beautiful and detailed attention that it becomes more than an aside. Even the minor characters have richly detailed and complicated lives and their tales provide essential information in many cases, as these characters will very often re-enter Rumo’s story later on, and their motivations in the present become clear in the light of their past histories. It’s a rather unconventional technique, but it works, in large part because Moers creates such a strong main plot arc that these diversions enrich rather than pull one away from the overall story.

Part of the joy of Rumo’s discovering what it means to be a person is that he becomes a Wolperting person, and not a human person. K.M. Hirosaki, among others, has pointed out that often in furry literature species is simply a “cosmetic veneer” playing little role in advancing either plot or characterization. Moers, though not a furry (as far as I know) makes no such mistake. Being a Wolperting is a unique experience, as is being a shark-grub, a clockwork warrior, or an undead ice yeti. The world of Wolpertings is one filled with marks of personhood—speech, literature, studies, warfare, love, even bureaucracy, but in ways that make each of these things distinctly Wolperting. Moers very effectively is able to convey how Wolpertings use their senses in ways that are radically different from humans or the other people of the continent of Zamonia. My favorite device is that young male Wolpertings follow a “silver thread” of scent when they close their eyes that leads them over hundreds of miles to their future mate.

Walter Moers writing also has a highly humorous style; comparable at times to Lewis Carroll—there are innumerable moments while reading where one is overcome by laughter. This is counterpointed by moments of cruelty and violence however, particularly in book two, where Rumo journeys deep into the underworld and the violence more than anything (but also the vocabulary level and length at 687 pages) make this not a book for children. However, its playfulness and grand adventure style makes it strongly reminiscent of those books we enjoyed as children. The translation of the book from its original German by John Brownjohn is also a strong point. I have not read the original, but the language of the English version is artful, idiomatic, and at no time feels like a translation.

Ultimately, Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures is a very good book. It falls short of being a ‘great’ book in that there are no profound ideas explored, apart from perhaps the already aforementioned choosing to be a person as a child, and it doesn’t make one think in ways that the truly great books do. That said it more than accomplishes what it sets out to do, providing a rollicking and diverting grand adventure. It is a joyful book, a celebration of being alive in a bizarre world. It was difficult to put down, and passes that perhaps greatest test of any book for me—when I finished it I had that feeling of “So now what do I do with my life?”

-Skip Ruddertail

Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures
By Walter Moers
Translated from the German by John Brownjohn
2006 The Overlook Press
ISBN: 1-58567-725-6

Since Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers is a fantasy epic, Rumo, our protagonist, is of course an orphan. In the first book of the novel, he is taken from his home by monsters and imprisoned in a tower, learns to be a warrior, and eventually escapes. In the second book, now grown, he sets out to rescue his love who was kidnapped by forces of evil. This is quite possibly the oldest fantasy plot there is—it certainly seems the most common, but this is not always a bad thing.

In his 1973 interview with documentarian Richard Schickel, Alfred Hitchcock argued that the plots of all his films were at their heart entirely predictable and formulaic—and that the reason the films themselves aren’t repetitive and dull is entirely due to characterization. It is the individuals in these films--their motivations, emotions, impulses and thoughts that make a work unique and indeed alive. Hitchcock so believed in this concept that he coined the term MacGuffin, an item or plot device that is the motivation for the characters in the film, but is of little or no importance to the audience when compared to the actions of the characters themselves.

Though the tools used to create rich and layered characters in film differ from the techniques used in the novel, the central importance of characterization in a work does not, for novels invariably tell the same sorts of tales time and again, and in this Rumo is no different. Fortunately, for all of us, Walter Moers populates Rumo with an endless variety of bizarre and interesting people, who though caught in webs of larger events, pursue their own agendas under the weight of their own emotions, neuroses, and histories. It is the richness of the world and the characters that Moers peoples it with that make Rumo rise above the great mass of fantasy novels.

Moers was a long time comic and graphic novel writer in and illustrator in Germany before he began writing novels set in the fictional continent of Zamonia. He is obviously enjoys a high degree of familiarity with the conventions of the fantasy genre, and he grabs the reader right from the start by turning one such fantasy convention slightly on its side. Like so many fantasy heroes in recent years, Rumo is an orphan (see Harry Potter, Sabriel, The Golden Compass, to name but a few). Authors do this of course so that their young protagonists can act like adults. They are free to make their own choices. One also gets the feeling that authors sometimes make their heroes orphans to do gain a hair more of the reader’s sympathy as well!

Rumo is different from most fantast orphans because his orphan-hood is not tragic, but rather a part of who his people are. Rumo is a Wolperting, half dog-half deer, and looks like a large dog with small horns on his head. Stories of the species are native to Moers’ Germany in the way that tales of jackalopes are told in the Southwestern United States. Wolpertings abandon all their children in forests soon after they are born, and the reason they do this is extraordinary. Some Wolpertings stay wild animals their whole lives, living as dumb beasts in the forest. Others, such as Rumo, make a conscious choice to become people. They decide to walk upright, talk, and eventually make their way to the city of Wolperting. In short sentience is not automatic, but rather a choice. Because of the recognition of this choice, because it had to be done se he could become a Wolperting, Rumo never feels tortured over his lost parents, and this is a rather refreshing change for a book in the fantasy genre. It is simply bad luck that no sooner than Rumo chooses to be a person he is kidnapped by cannibals, taken to their floating island, and the adventure begins in earnest.

It is Rumo’s journey to becoming a person that is the dominant thread of the first book of the novel. In this, he is guided by Volzotan Smyke, the shark-grub, the first of the many rather bizarre characters Rumo encounters over the course of his journeys. When introducing a new character Moers does something that could be very distracting—he pauses Rumo’s story and tells each new character’s story up to the point they meet Rumo—how they got there and perhaps where they want to go. He even sets out a note in the margins introducing the story each time one is told. These little asides could be detrimental to the overall novel, breaking the flow of the story. However, each character’s story is paid such beautiful and detailed attention that it becomes more than an aside. Even the minor characters have richly detailed and complicated lives and their tales provide essential information in many cases, as these characters will very often re-enter Rumo’s story later on, and their motivations in the present become clear in the light of their past histories. It’s a rather unconventional technique, but it works, in large part because Moers creates such a strong main plot arc that these diversions enrich rather than pull one away from the overall story.

Part of the joy of Rumo’s discovering what it means to be a person is that he becomes a Wolperting person, and not a human person. K.M. Hirosaki, among others, has pointed out that often in furry literature species is simply a “cosmetic veneer” playing little role in advancing either plot or characterization. Moers, though not a furry (as far as I know) makes no such mistake. Being a Wolperting is a unique experience, as is being a shark-grub, a clockwork warrior, or an undead ice yeti. The world of Wolpertings is one filled with marks of personhood—speech, literature, studies, warfare, love, even bureaucracy, but in ways that make each of these things distinctly Wolperting. Moers very effectively is able to convey how Wolpertings use their senses in ways that are radically different from humans or the other people of the continent of Zamonia. My favorite device is that young male Wolpertings follow a “silver thread” of scent when they close their eyes that leads them over hundreds of miles to their future mate.

Walter Moers writing also has a highly humorous style; comparable at times to Lewis Carroll—there are innumerable moments while reading where one is overcome by laughter. This is counterpointed by moments of cruelty and violence however, particularly in book two, where Rumo journeys deep into the underworld and the violence more than anything (but also the vocabulary level and length at 687 pages) make this not a book for children. However, its playfulness and grand adventure style makes it strongly reminiscent of those books we enjoyed as children. The translation of the book from its original German by John Brownjohn is also a strong point. I have not read the original, but the language of the English version is artful, idiomatic, and at no time feels like a translation.

Ultimately, Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures is a very good book. It falls short of being a ‘great’ book in that there are no profound ideas explored, apart from perhaps the already aforementioned choosing to be a person as a child, and it doesn’t make one think in ways that the truly great books do. That said it more than accomplishes what it sets out to do, providing a rollicking and diverting grand adventure. It is a joyful book, a celebration of being alive in a bizarre world. It was difficult to put down, and passes that perhaps greatest test of any book for me—when I finished it I had that feeling of “So now what do I do with my life?”

-Skip Ruddertail

Woyro does an update of the latest furry news while doing his laundry at the Whiter Wash Laundrymat in East Rochester, NY. Episode 74---Laundry Podcast - Woyro does an update of the latest furry news while doing his laundry at the Whiter Wash Laundrymat in East Rochester, NY.

Though Harcourt blurbs it as a "first novel," most of us will probably know that artist and author Ursula Vernon (ursulav) has already published several books, including multiple volumes of her comic/graphic novel Digger and Black Dogs which I take to be intended as the first volume of a series. In one sense, though, Harcourt is correct. Nurk: the Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew (Harcourt Children's, $15.00, ISBN: 978-0152063757) is written for a juvenile audience, and is Vernon's first published venture in that particular field.

Don't dismiss the book as merely kid stuff, though. The author's droll wit and ironic sense of humor is clearly evident in a manner that will tickle the fancy of the adult reader as well. Nurkus Aurelius Alonzo Electron Maximilian Shrew (no wonder everyone shortens it to just plain "Nurk") is an orphan, having lost his parents when they were eaten by owls (shades of Mervyn Peake's Lord Sepulchrave) under unclear circumstances. He continues to live alone in his family's former home at the base of a large willow tree on the river bank, loosely watched by a great aunt who "looks in" on him once or twice a week. Though he is quite self-sufficient, he yearns to follow the example of his grandmother, Surka Aurelia Maxine Shrew, whose portrait hangs in the front hall of his home. Surka was noted for her ferocious and adventurous nature, evidenced by the fact that the artist portrayed her holding a sword and a severed head in her hands. Nurk isn't quite sure he has the courage to achieve his goal, though, and certainly he has never been far from home.

When a grumpy hummingbird arrives to deliver a letter with a smeared address that appears to direct it to "...URK... UPSTREAM" Nurk assumes it is intended for himself and manages to convince the suspicious bird to hand it over. After he opens it and reads a waterstained plea for help, he realizes that it was in fact intended for none other than Surka, who has been missing for several years and presumed dead. In a quandary for what to do now that he has opened and read a letter never intended for his eyes, and that he can't deliver to the intended recipient, the young shrew seeks advice from his friend the salamander, who tells him to return the letter to the sender. This is easier said than done, since there is no return address or signature. Finally Nurk decides he has no other choice, and prepares for his journey downstream by converting an empty snail shell to a boat and provisioning it suitably, not only with food and drink, but with plenty of clean, dry socks.

Carried by the current, he soon finds himself entangled in any number of small adventures, but the real story unfolds only after he rescues a waterlogged dragonfly princess named Scatterwings. It turns out that Scatterwings herself is the letter writer, and her family needs help to rescue her brother, Prince Flicker, who is being held captive by the Grizzlemole, a blind wizard "half the size of a mountain." I'll let the prospective reader discover the outcome of the quest, the nature of the odd difficulties encountered by Nurk on his way, and the wry witticisms introduced by Vernon as she relates the tale. Naturally, the author has provided the jacket art and internal black and white drawings herself, and they complement the story very well.

I believe this book is deliberately left open for sequels in which we may get to meet Surka Aurelia Maxine Shrew as well, and I look forward to the experience. The fact that Nurk reaches the end of his adventures without using a sword or severing any heads does not reflect badly upon him, and I suspect that his grandmother Surka will eventually be convinced of that too (though perhaps not at first.) While Surka may well resemble the ferocious shrew clans of Brian Jacques' Redwall stories, Nurk has started out more in the character of Kenneth Grahame's Mole, a mild-mannered creature who follows a yearning in his heart and gets much more than he thought he was seeking. I recommend this book to any reader who appreciates small creatures who can get into terrifying situations and yet see the ironic humor of their self-induced plights.

Rating: 4 of 5 possible apples

Though Harcourt blurbs it as a "first novel," most of us will probably know that artist and author Ursula Vernon (ursulav) has already published several books, including multiple volumes of her comic/graphic novel Digger and Black Dogs which I take to be intended as the first volume of a series. In one sense, though, Harcourt is correct. Nurk: the Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew (Harcourt Children's, $15.00, ISBN: 978-0152063757) is written for a juvenile audience, and is Vernon's first published venture in that particular field.

Don't dismiss the book as merely kid stuff, though. The author's droll wit and ironic sense of humor is clearly evident in a manner that will tickle the fancy of the adult reader as well. Nurkus Aurelius Alonzo Electron Maximilian Shrew (no wonder everyone shortens it to just plain "Nurk") is an orphan, having lost his parents when they were eaten by owls (shades of Mervyn Peake's Lord Sepulchrave) under unclear circumstances. He continues to live alone in his family's former home at the base of a large willow tree on the river bank, loosely watched by a great aunt who "looks in" on him once or twice a week. Though he is quite self-sufficient, he yearns to follow the example of his grandmother, Surka Aurelia Maxine Shrew, whose portrait hangs in the front hall of his home. Surka was noted for her ferocious and adventurous nature, evidenced by the fact that the artist portrayed her holding a sword and a severed head in her hands. Nurk isn't quite sure he has the courage to achieve his goal, though, and certainly he has never been far from home.

When a grumpy hummingbird arrives to deliver a letter with a smeared address that appears to direct it to "...URK... UPSTREAM" Nurk assumes it is intended for himself and manages to convince the suspicious bird to hand it over. After he opens it and reads a waterstained plea for help, he realizes that it was in fact intended for none other than Surka, who has been missing for several years and presumed dead. In a quandary for what to do now that he has opened and read a letter never intended for his eyes, and that he can't deliver to the intended recipient, the young shrew seeks advice from his friend the salamander, who tells him to return the letter to the sender. This is easier said than done, since there is no return address or signature. Finally Nurk decides he has no other choice, and prepares for his journey downstream by converting an empty snail shell to a boat and provisioning it suitably, not only with food and drink, but with plenty of clean, dry socks.

Carried by the current, he soon finds himself entangled in any number of small adventures, but the real story unfolds only after he rescues a waterlogged dragonfly princess named Scatterwings. It turns out that Scatterwings herself is the letter writer, and her family needs help to rescue her brother, Prince Flicker, who is being held captive by the Grizzlemole, a blind wizard "half the size of a mountain." I'll let the prospective reader discover the outcome of the quest, the nature of the odd difficulties encountered by Nurk on his way, and the wry witticisms introduced by Vernon as she relates the tale. Naturally, the author has provided the jacket art and internal black and white drawings herself, and they complement the story very well.

I believe this book is deliberately left open for sequels in which we may get to meet Surka Aurelia Maxine Shrew as well, and I look forward to the experience. The fact that Nurk reaches the end of his adventures without using a sword or severing any heads does not reflect badly upon him, and I suspect that his grandmother Surka will eventually be convinced of that too (though perhaps not at first.) While Surka may well resemble the ferocious shrew clans of Brian Jacques' Redwall stories, Nurk has started out more in the character of Kenneth Grahame's Mole, a mild-mannered creature who follows a yearning in his heart and gets much more than he thought he was seeking. I recommend this book to any reader who appreciates small creatures who can get into terrifying situations and yet see the ironic humor of their self-induced plights.

Rating: 4 of 5 possible apples

Woyro runs down some furry news, cons for next month, and a review of THE DARK KNIGHT. Episode 73---Con News & Batman - Woyro runs down some furry news, cons for next month, and a review of THE DARK KNIGHT.

Woyro talks about news in the furry community, his trip to an sf con in Toronto, and plays a little interview with the guys from Umgotts. Episode 72--News Updates - Woyro talks about news in the furry community, his trip to an sf con in Toronto, and plays a little interview with the guys from Umgotts.

Bullets for breakfast. Death for dinner, and a light salad for lunch.
Heathen city seeks to raise the bar for anthropomorphic publications, but does it deliver?

 Heathen City, by Alex Vance, could be considered a dark and gritty crime story featuring anti-heroes, and a generous helping of gay sex. While the intention of  raising the narrative bar is commendable, the problem here is that someone has gotten caught up in the very trendy idea that high quality means dark, gritty, depressing and violent. It's the same symptoms that you find in most science fiction productions nowadays--  I'll be very frank: The whole dystopic angle? Only works if you've got a darned good story to tell, otherwise it's just a gimmick amateur writers pull to say "See how mature I am? I am writing unhappiness!"   It's easier to pull of an unbalanced and mildly entertaining story set in a dystopic setting because the environment already comes with package-deal obstacles common to the genre.

The plot as it stands, trying to cut out any spoilers:  Owen is a hustler who decides to hang his... nevermind, he's decided to go out of business, quit the life of prostitution and stay out of trouble. Trouble soon finds him, however, and in the blink of an eye he is dragging his new beau, Ruy, with him while escaping from people who  don't exactly want to throw a tea party.  They seek the help of Malloy (a Seminarian-turned-boxer-turned-drug dealer), with whom Owen shared a past (and probably a toothbrush), and  then they're off on the road. I've heard Shanghai is lovely this time of year, provided you watch that left turn at Albuquerque.

Knuckles for Snacks.
What we've got here, in the core, is an emulation of Quentin Tarantino, and it doesn't really work because only Tarantino is Tarantino (whom I usually find overrated anyways).   It's very easy to pull all sorts of tricks with a dystopia, But quite frankly? I'm tired of the prevalent attitude that glorifying the gutter is "masterful storytelling." We have a plot that isn't  very well integrated, rather poor characterization, and some very awkward soliloquies that feel out of place- brevity is the soul of wit (as Polonius has the affrontery to observe, after talking your ear off for ten minutes), not excessive verbosity. This creates a certain stiffness about the delivery, and it can be rather awkward . The plot in itself is diaphanous enough that it is hardly there- it is not so much of a plot as things that keep happening, so we have more of a Naturalistic* approach over a Romantic** one.

One of the title's advertised features is "morally ambiguous characters," and on that I do have an opinion:  There's quite a bit of 'moral ambiguity' in Furry as it is- it's the whole 'non-judgmental' approach (through which a great deal of people get away with all sorts of things, from pirating to swindling others, with only very few saying anything about it).  A novel approach, instead, would be writing characters who aren't  morally ambiguous- granted, it isn't cool being morally unambiguous nowadays, but writers don't write to be cool, just to be good---- right?

Concerning the overall plot and the choice of background,  the author replied to a review with the following:  "I love romance, though perhaps HC #1 might lead you to think otherwise. I just think it's... rather precious, and use it sparingly, so it can be all the more powerful for its rarity. I find it too serious a subject to treat lightly, or to visit too often. Sex and arrogance and corruption and violence, however, are such crude metals that they don't lose their shine, and make a fine, fine background for a sparkle of romance, when the time's right for it." {link}


While this was a very enlightening post, as it allowed me to understand what the author sought to do, I am not entirely sure that this works. When your starting place is the gutter and your whole focus is looking down to glorify the gutter instead of looking up... well, what you end up with is a romance of the gutter, which happens between characters that belong there- and for whom you really don't care that much anyways (unless you belong in the gutter, too). Let me put it this way (and you'll excuse me if I get a little Rabelaisian): When you coat a beautiful mink stole with excrement, you don't have a beautiful mink stole anymore. You have sh_t on a dead rodent. A trip to the gutter, if necessary at all in a storyline, should have a purpose further than to serve as a shock device.


Pain for Teatime.
Then, we have the anti-heroes.  I'm not really in for the whole anti-hero worship. The infatuation with that particular archetype tends to be very juvenile. The core of the anti hero is that he does not have any real identity and determination, and are usually shaped and forced by the events that occur to him rather than the other way around: The anti-hero doesn't do what he knows is right because of his determination, but rather because circumstances (mysteriously) conspire against him to the point where he has no apparent choice but to do the right thing. Anti heroes are malleable and amorphous, and usually have their appeal during adolescence- that strange period when you're trying to figure out who you are (if you don't know already) and generally rebel against just about everything. After that, though, clinging to admiration for anti-heroes is rather telling about a person--- after all, we admire what we value.***

There are some very good furry storytellers out there who are publishing their books and comics from whom, I think, one could learn a lesson-- Kyell Gold writes some nice stuff, both erotica and non-erotica alike (although his erotica is more of a romantic nature than your usual share, and it never feels like the book was written around the sex... it seldom, if ever, feels forced or out of place, and there's usually a reason for it), and I am quite fond of "Volle". Vince Suzukawa, the creator of The Class Menagerie, is doing quite well with his new comic, I.S.O. which, although set in territory that some might say is over-used (Coming out story set in a college environment), it isn't Associated Student Bodies: Cody's tale of coming to grips with sexuality is very well told, with good characterization, and the whole concoction is very fresh, actually: no gratuitous sex (though plenty of shirtlessness, which doesn't detracts from anything ;) ) and the comic is very well balanced... balance is what ultimately can make a story truly memorable or a forgettable, uneven venture.

Does this plot make me look fat?
Heathen City isn't that balanced, I am afraid. The art is beautiful, but plot and delivery are weak, and the focus -as I said before- is constantly downwards. As a graphical endeavor, it deserves great kudos, but as a story I am afraid the first installment doesn't impress--- So far, the series gives me the impression of being that teenager consisting of twenty pounds of makeup and one pound of leather and lace, smoking cigarettes through his multi-pierced lips and trying to shock you with the unusual shape of his haircut. It's trying to be so edgy that it cuts itself, and bleeds all over the place. Number two may be different, I'm certainly hoping so, but I am not too optimistic.  The author admitted that Heathen City was an erotic work because eroticism in furry publications tends to sell twice as much as non-erotic work. Taking that into mind, I think the story tends to suffer because of the 'quota' element that needs to be met.

If you want something lovely to look at, go ahead and buy it. But if you come for the story, you might have better look looking somewhere else, or ride it out and hope the next issues become more balanced.

But that's just my two cents, after all.







* The naturalist approach concerns itself with the individual as a victim of circumstances, shaped and inconvenienced by them, without input upon his fate. It is usually Deterministic in approach, and its characters are usually 'shades of grey' without many (or any) convictions. The basic premise is one of helplessness, and the events depicted in its plotlines tend to be more accidental narrative than purposeful argument.

** The Romanticist approach concerns itself with the individual as the master of his own destiny, able to take events as they come and react according to his desires and goals, and to confront adversity without being consumed by it. It is Non-deterministic and its plot is driven by the character's decisions, not by their helplessness.

***  A sidenote: People often confuse the term 'anti-hero' for 'non-traditional hero,' where 'hero' is defined very narrowly by convention as someone who is physically and mentally strong as well as unwavering, etcetera, basically a Superman. As an example, Frodo the Hobbit is not an anti-hero, he's quite a hero, in fact: he is given the choice, and he takes the burden of the Ring by choice during the White Council. After his journey to Lorien, it has become very clear to him what a world with Sauron triumphant would be like, and he would rather risk the journey to Moria and certain death than live in a world like that- despite the fact that he is not a great fighter, nor strong and formidable, nor has any great power that sets him apart. Nevertheless, it is his choice, and his commitment to that choice [with understandable moments of weakness under his burden] that makes him a hero.

Bullets for breakfast. Death for dinner, and a light salad for lunch.
Heathen city seeks to raise the bar for anthropomorphic publications, but does it deliver?

 Heathen City, by Alex Vance, could be considered a dark and gritty crime story featuring anti-heroes, and a generous helping of gay sex. While the intention of  raising the narrative bar is commendable, the problem here is that someone has gotten caught up in the very trendy idea that high quality means dark, gritty, depressing and violent. It's the same symptoms that you find in most science fiction productions nowadays--  I'll be very frank: The whole dystopic angle? Only works if you've got a darned good story to tell, otherwise it's just a gimmick amateur writers pull to say "See how mature I am? I am writing unhappiness!"   It's easier to pull of an unbalanced and mildly entertaining story set in a dystopic setting because the environment already comes with package-deal obstacles common to the genre.

The plot as it stands, trying to cut out any spoilers:  Owen is a hustler who decides to hang his... nevermind, he's decided to go out of business, quit the life of prostitution and stay out of trouble. Trouble soon finds him, however, and in the blink of an eye he is dragging his new beau, Ruy, with him while escaping from people who  don't exactly want to throw a tea party.  They seek the help of Malloy (a Seminarian-turned-boxer-turned-drug dealer), with whom Owen shared a past (and probably a toothbrush), and  then they're off on the road. I've heard Shanghai is lovely this time of year, provided you watch that left turn at Albuquerque.

Knuckles for Snacks.
What we've got here, in the core, is an emulation of Quentin Tarantino, and it doesn't really work because only Tarantino is Tarantino (whom I usually find overrated anyways).   It's very easy to pull all sorts of tricks with a dystopia, But quite frankly? I'm tired of the prevalent attitude that glorifying the gutter is "masterful storytelling." We have a plot that isn't  very well integrated, rather poor characterization, and some very awkward soliloquies that feel out of place- brevity is the soul of wit (as Polonius has the affrontery to observe, after talking your ear off for ten minutes), not excessive verbosity. This creates a certain stiffness about the delivery, and it can be rather awkward . The plot in itself is diaphanous enough that it is hardly there- it is not so much of a plot as things that keep happening, so we have more of a Naturalistic* approach over a Romantic** one.

One of the title's advertised features is "morally ambiguous characters," and on that I do have an opinion:  There's quite a bit of 'moral ambiguity' in Furry as it is- it's the whole 'non-judgmental' approach (through which a great deal of people get away with all sorts of things, from pirating to swindling others, with only very few saying anything about it).  A novel approach, instead, would be writing characters who aren't  morally ambiguous- granted, it isn't cool being morally unambiguous nowadays, but writers don't write to be cool, just to be good---- right?

Concerning the overall plot and the choice of background,  the author replied to a review with the following:  "I love romance, though perhaps HC #1 might lead you to think otherwise. I just think it's... rather precious, and use it sparingly, so it can be all the more powerful for its rarity. I find it too serious a subject to treat lightly, or to visit too often. Sex and arrogance and corruption and violence, however, are such crude metals that they don't lose their shine, and make a fine, fine background for a sparkle of romance, when the time's right for it." {link}


While this was a very enlightening post, as it allowed me to understand what the author sought to do, I am not entirely sure that this works. When your starting place is the gutter and your whole focus is looking down to glorify the gutter instead of looking up... well, what you end up with is a romance of the gutter, which happens between characters that belong there- and for whom you really don't care that much anyways (unless you belong in the gutter, too). Let me put it this way (and you'll excuse me if I get a little Rabelaisian): When you coat a beautiful mink stole with excrement, you don't have a beautiful mink stole anymore. You have sh_t on a dead rodent. A trip to the gutter, if necessary at all in a storyline, should have a purpose further than to serve as a shock device.


Pain for Teatime.
Then, we have the anti-heroes.  I'm not really in for the whole anti-hero worship. The infatuation with that particular archetype tends to be very juvenile. The core of the anti hero is that he does not have any real identity and determination, and are usually shaped and forced by the events that occur to him rather than the other way around: The anti-hero doesn't do what he knows is right because of his determination, but rather because circumstances (mysteriously) conspire against him to the point where he has no apparent choice but to do the right thing. Anti heroes are malleable and amorphous, and usually have their appeal during adolescence- that strange period when you're trying to figure out who you are (if you don't know already) and generally rebel against just about everything. After that, though, clinging to admiration for anti-heroes is rather telling about a person--- after all, we admire what we value.***

There are some very good furry storytellers out there who are publishing their books and comics from whom, I think, one could learn a lesson-- Kyell Gold writes some nice stuff, both erotica and non-erotica alike (although his erotica is more of a romantic nature than your usual share, and it never feels like the book was written around the sex... it seldom, if ever, feels forced or out of place, and there's usually a reason for it), and I am quite fond of "Volle". Vince Suzukawa, the creator of The Class Menagerie, is doing quite well with his new comic, I.S.O. which, although set in territory that some might say is over-used (Coming out story set in a college environment), it isn't Associated Student Bodies: Cody's tale of coming to grips with sexuality is very well told, with good characterization, and the whole concoction is very fresh, actually: no gratuitous sex (though plenty of shirtlessness, which doesn't detracts from anything ;) ) and the comic is very well balanced... balance is what ultimately can make a story truly memorable or a forgettable, uneven venture.

Does this plot make me look fat?
Heathen City isn't that balanced, I am afraid. The art is beautiful, but plot and delivery are weak, and the focus -as I said before- is constantly downwards. As a graphical endeavor, it deserves great kudos, but as a story I am afraid the first installment doesn't impress--- So far, the series gives me the impression of being that teenager consisting of twenty pounds of makeup and one pound of leather and lace, smoking cigarettes through his multi-pierced lips and trying to shock you with the unusual shape of his haircut. It's trying to be so edgy that it cuts itself, and bleeds all over the place. Number two may be different, I'm certainly hoping so, but I am not too optimistic.  The author admitted that Heathen City was an erotic work because eroticism in furry publications tends to sell twice as much as non-erotic work. Taking that into mind, I think the story tends to suffer because of the 'quota' element that needs to be met.

If you want something lovely to look at, go ahead and buy it. But if you come for the story, you might have better look looking somewhere else, or ride it out and hope the next issues become more balanced.

But that's just my two cents, after all.







* The naturalist approach concerns itself with the individual as a victim of circumstances, shaped and inconvenienced by them, without input upon his fate. It is usually Deterministic in approach, and its characters are usually 'shades of grey' without many (or any) convictions. The basic premise is one of helplessness, and the events depicted in its plotlines tend to be more accidental narrative than purposeful argument.

** The Romanticist approach concerns itself with the individual as the master of his own destiny, able to take events as they come and react according to his desires and goals, and to confront adversity without being consumed by it. It is Non-deterministic and its plot is driven by the character's decisions, not by their helplessness.

***  A sidenote: People often confuse the term 'anti-hero' for 'non-traditional hero,' where 'hero' is defined very narrowly by convention as someone who is physically and mentally strong as well as unwavering, etcetera, basically a Superman. As an example, Frodo the Hobbit is not an anti-hero, he's quite a hero, in fact: he is given the choice, and he takes the burden of the Ring by choice during the White Council. After his journey to Lorien, it has become very clear to him what a world with Sauron triumphant would be like, and he would rather risk the journey to Moria and certain death than live in a world like that- despite the fact that he is not a great fighter, nor strong and formidable, nor has any great power that sets him apart. Nevertheless, it is his choice, and his commitment to that choice [with understandable moments of weakness under his burden] that makes him a hero.