FurStarter

This week’s illustration is from comic book project “AdSventures,” now on Kickstarter

Paws of Nepal

Okay, I should probably apologize for the lack of content and updates for the last month. IRL got kind of difficult for me after I received one of those unfortunate “forever” vacations, and for some reason a few hours of precious after-work free time is more valuable than days of unemployment. So for slacking on useful content and my self-appointed duty to sing the praises of four out of five furry kickstarters, my sincere apologies. On the plus side, there haven’t been many earth-shaking and on-topic projects, although I should probably give Paws of Nepal  some kind of callout, it is excessively cute.

Though there have been a lot of projects.

So right this moment I’m going to focus on one really bad one, because it’s a useful object lesson. Have a look at Fresh Furr.

Top to bottom, this page is challenged, there is nothing that is right about it. I’ll give the product itself–scented hand soap with a furry theme–some benefit of the doubt, you can slap an anthro critter on any old thing and call it branded. The biggest problems with this page are, in my opinion, about trust.

In the fandom, we usually have a thin veil of anonymity. Most of us, I think, would prefer to let people know we’re a furry on a case-by-case basis, vetting people to see if they’re friendly. Even so, most furry artists launching kickstarters tend to use their real names rather than made-up ones. It’s hard to raise money behind a mask. Inside the fandom, our altonyms can be quite real (anybody else get weirded out when someone–even your mate–calls you by your real name at a furmeet?)  But unless your goal is low or you’re very well-known in the fandom, you’re going to have an easier time raising money as Elizabeth Valdez than Spots Wigglecat.

So…how much trust is there for a fundraiser who uses neither his real name nor his furry identity? It’s like an anonymous voice asking for money on the other side of a restroom stall.

This is not a good comparison. I’ll try again later.

I can’t really criticize the business plan because there quite literally isn’t one, there’s actually an anti-plan. I can’t imagine anyone paying $50 for soap, but even if he sold every one of the 25 units in his backer reward, the creator couldn’t make goal (25x$50=$1250, campaign goal of $2500…) So the math is challenged. But far worse than that, there’s a deliberate obstacle to understanding the rewards themselves.

Pledge now for the charity soap raffle! Will you be lucky or worthy enough to win soap? Not all who pledge will receive soap. We have measured out three precious thimblefulls of soap–not enough to use, but surely enough to experience the pleasure that is soap. Tell your friends. Tell them of soap.

And then to use the words give and sample after this? Oh, seriously. This is not an act of generosity. You’re exchanging $50 for the promise of soap. Objectively, this is a high price for any personal care product, and your backers should be told exactly what they can expect. Nobody wants to guess what they’re paying for. And, technically, if I donated $50 to the cause, the creator could give samples to, say, visitors at a table at FurSquared, not to me, and still be compliant with the text of this reward.

Putting aside the criticism of the Kickstarter page, it’s not a bad product. A quick search through FA will give you a good look at the list of soaps and scents and a bit more information about the product itself–information that really should have been included on the Kickstarter page. The actual product concept is soft soap scented with essential oil blends and then decorated with your fursona, for perhaps $18.00–and you know, I’d consider having Corbeau’s snarky face on a bottle of coffee-scented soap, or possibly a personally-branded bottle of skin lotion (you cannot even imagine how high a gay hairless dog’s moisturizing budget can be, trust me.) $18 isn’t a bad price for a custom soap bottle, it’s about on par with a badge, and you can always refill it, the whole deal even comes with a refill and, I love this, seriously I do, instructions for making more custom soap. That’s a really solid and generous idea.

But unfortunately, none of this material made it to the Kickstarter page. Just vague promises, hidden identities, and overpriced soap.

So, the take-away here: remember your basic Journalism questions. Who, What, When, Where, Why, How (though not in that order.)

What: Describe your product in detail, particularly in regards to the parts that people are spending money on.
Why: Sell your product by explaining the need. (True fact: before selling mouthwash, Listerine had to sell the idea of bad breath. “Listerine did not make mouthwash as much as it made halitosis.”) (wiki)
Who: Build credibility by letting people know who you are (not in the first paragraph, though.)
How: What are you using your funding for? How will you create and deliver the product?
When: Let people know your timetable for delivery (and how you derived it.)
Where: Okay, I got nothing for Where, but it’s probably tied to “who” somehow…

Review this “week,” a look at Furries: A Documentary. 

Aaand, then new projects. Since I haven’t updated in almost a month, there’s more than a few. The complete list is up on our Projects Page!

“New” Projects Art

Brony Adventures Coloring Book (Ends: 5/13/2015)
32 pages of colorable ponies and pony monsters from Lorraine Schelter.
The nice thing about a pony coloring book is you get to use *all* the crayons.

Life is a Carousel (Ends: 5/24/2015)
Artbook of colorful centaur ladies with a merry-go-round circus aesthetic and so very many bows.

Books/Print

A Problem Solving Graphic Novel Guide for General Physics (Ends: 5/23/2015)
Wait, hear me out. Dinosaurs try to save their world by solving college-level physics problems. It’s actually cute.

The Naiad Chronicles (Ends: 5/31/2015)
Elves, dragons, cats, possibly a cat boy, Miyazakiesque dragonwolves, and some cute plushies. The novel.
I’m not perfectly sure what’s going on here, it looks a bit complex, but it’s a cute project page.

Children’s Products

Stanley Streak and Milton Mellow: Patently Opposite Fellows (Ends: 5/20/2015)
A children’s book reframing of the Tortoise and the Hare as two old friends, both with their own strengths.
Nicely illustrated, though the rhyme words are a touch esoteric and jarring in a natural-language flow.

The Heroics of a Sheep Dog (Ends: 5/22/2015)
An adventurous black sheep and a noble-ish sheepdog on a journey of identity

Square Zair Pair (Ends: 6/10/2015)
A Dr. Seussian rhyming story of diversity in couples, a little GLBT story for kids, with charming art by Kikidoodle
To answer the two tricky questions of ‘Why does Toni have two moms?’ and ‘Why can’t furries ever just be animal-colored?’ :)

Clothing/Jewelry

Eeveelution Charm Keychains (Ends: 5/28/2015)
The many faces of Eevee in a charm/keychain miniproject.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Floraverse: Seeds (Ends: 5/20/2015)
A mini-story from the The Floraverse, of a fairy bird using seeds to save a continent.
Very pretty and abstract art in this series, but not everybody’s thing.

Shivae Studios/Cyantian Chronicles Web-to-Print (Ends: 5/22/2015)
A web-to-print graphic novel version of the Cyantian Chronicles series

Torsobear II (Ends: 6/1/2015)
Dark streets, dirty cotton stuffing, and toy-on-toy noir in a city that never sleeps (with its blankie). A comic anthology with a wide range of art styles.

AdSventures: The Climb (Ends: 6/2/2015)
Children’s comic book, a bear climbs a mountain and finds something evil at the top. Clean, minimal, and abstract art.

Pissed-Off Panda (Ends: 7/7/2015)
The sullen and surley adventures of an ‘Adult Swim’ style panda and his big-eyed pig friend.
One of my friends suggested that this is trying too hard to be awesome. I’m not seeing it, like a lot of Kickstarters it’s big and loud and the lead character’s your typical abstractly-drawn ass.

Film/Animation/Theater

Furries: A Documentary (Ends: 5/17/2015)
A fur-friendly documentary exploring the creative and identity-building sides of the community
I’m on the fence about this documentary. It’ll be a great tool for kids explaining the fandom to outsiders, but maybe a little too safe for mainstream entertainment.

Beef Sumo (Ends: 5/31/2015)
One bull in a mawashi, one bat in boxers, and a series of animated misadventures. Voices by Bender, Twilight Sparkle…
While being loosely inspired by Ren and Stimpy, this lacks much of the grace and charm of Ren and Stimpy, and I say that unironically. Some good jokes though.

Big Dog (Ends: 6/5/2015)
Short film built around the premise of ‘what if the government handled lycanthropy like it handles mental illness?’

Theme Planet (Ends: 6/8/2015)
Animated 10-minute short about a planet covered with roller coasters and dumpy anthros. An expansion of the 2003 short,
The Oculus Rift version of this film could potentially be a wild ride…

Paws of Nepal (Ends: 6/11/2015)
An animated short film about street dogs in Nepal. Very cute illustrations!
Toon53 Productions has a good six-year history of animated shorts, so this is probably safe money, even with Flexible Funding

Software

Krita Upgrades (Ends: 6/3/2015)
An upgrade for Krita, the free paint program with a cute skunk mascot.

Toys

Not-A-Cat (Ends: 6/4/2015)
A strange bit of anti-marketing for ‘not-a-Cat,’ a sort of plush stuffed animaloid lumpthing with at least one ear.

Wee Beasties Plus (Ends: 7/6/2015)
Cuddly plush versions of various Dungeons and Dragons monster standards (note the gelatinous cube tee.)
I think we’ve seen ‘Wee Beasties’ on Kickstarter before, I’m a fan of the adorb D&D thing.

Video Games

Dot & Dash: Mystery of the Red Dot (Ends: 5/24/2015)
PC/Mobile game about one kitten’s quest to catch the Red Dot
A bit meme-y but with some cute concept art

…Also By Furries

The Tarot of Bones (Ends: 6/3/2015): A creepy and engaging tarot deck of found bones collages, by Lupa Greenwolf. Now with the Happy Squirrel :)

…Just for fun

The Enchanting World of Rankin-Bass (Ends: 7/8/2015): A documentary about the makers of every darn Christmas special in the world (oh, and Thundercats!)

…Meh

Fresh Furr (Ends: 6/8/2015): A minimal effort soft soap project with a loose furry theme. From the zombie mascot to the wierdly ambiguous rewards that make no promises, there is nothing good here.
Animal Tales and Bible Stories (Ends: 7/13/2015): Religious animation is always a solid 10 years behind the rest of the world. I think this is edging toward 20 though. Worst hedgehog ever. You’ve done a bad thing when you can’t get a single dollar in your cashbox.

…Coming Soon?

Cross Realms deck-building game (Prelaunch): A furry deck-building game by Sci the Cheetah and friends
Roan (Prelaunch): A sort of steampunky, pony tabletop role-play world with swords, magic, and airships exist an uneasy state of conflict. More information on the creator’s FA gallery.
Dreamkeepers (Prelaunch): The dreamland adventure fantasy comes back for another graphic novel!

A documentary about the furry fandom, in furry voices, for the rest of the world.

Furries: A Documentary

Kickstarter ending 5/17/15 (Funding successful!)

There seems to be a general trend of public perception of furries as a geek model minority, kind of like trekkers used to be when there was such a thing–a part of the greater weirdo-American world, by and large harmless, enthusiastic folks in fun costumes (1, 2). I could easily be very wrong on this, but it seems like our general acceptance in society and the greater Fendom is on the rise–haters notwithstanding. We have our thing–it’s cute fuzzy animals–but beyond that, it seems like we’re doing pretty well on the “mainstream normalcy” front. Vanity Fair? CSI’s fatal PAFCon? MTV Sex2K? Those are all solidly 10 years ago (okay, there was Dr. Phil in 2014, but it’s a show about sensationalism…) Obviously in the world of public perception nothing is black or white, and okay, I do live in Austin, which is the most liberal and wacky town south of the Mason-Dixon line, but it seems like public fox tails and kitty ears aren’t really drawing attention anymore, and fursuiters are more selfie opportunities than anything else.

So while I have only positive things to say about Furries: A Documentary, funding (and funded!) on Kickstarter, a part of me wonders whether “four years in the making” is a selling point, when the tides of perception have shifted over those four years. Hard to say.

Furries is an upcoming documentary by Ohio furry Ashaya. It’s solidly community-friendly, focusing on what looks like the best aspects of the fandom–our creativity, the resilience and strength of the community, and the interesting topic of identity-building. It’s stepped beyond just looking at fursuits to look at art and artists and the people inside the costume. It looks like the spiritual home of the documentary–the primary story thread that is the documentary’s narrative–is likely to be the furs of Ohio and Morphicon, But it’s only a four-hour drive from Morphicon to Anthrocon, and the biggest furry con on earth gets its share of screentime.

Ironically, Ashaya’s next big life change is moving to San Francisco this year. So far as this documentary goes, maybe it’s for the best that the story it tells is mostly captured a safe distance from the two beating hearts of the fandom (in the United States at least), San Francisco and Pittsburg.  It would have been a different story if the narrative lens was “Big city and bigger community,” where the fandom was more “celebrated local weird” than “fringe group looking for acceptance.” As it is, Dayton, OH is probably a great starting point, its size is very much “Midwest Anytown, USA,” only just over the national average city size.

Apology (N): A reasoned argument or writing in justification of something, typically a theory or religious doctrine (from Greek, “Speaking in defense”)

As a “by furries, for the public” production, Furries is solidly in the “apology” camp–explaining the community, building a case for greater acceptance of same. That’s a good thing, something the young pups can watch with their parents to share our story, without all the weirdness. In that sense, Furries is going to be a useful tool. As Ashaya says in his video, “I’m a member of the furry fandom, and I’ve seen what the media does when they put us in the public sphere: I see this as a way to give us a voice.”

That being said–and I’m speculating, in fairness–it looks like, as an apologetic film, it may steer far, far away from the coverage of 2000-2010, when furries were seen more as a subcategory of “sex pervert” than “fantasy fandom.” The narrative that the Secret Masters of the Furry Fandom has been pushing for, well, most of the last 10 years is “happy geeks, not so different from you really, but with better insulation.” And that’s certainly a side of the fandom, but it’s also amazingly open to gays and lesbians, and while it’s not a sexual fandom (you can argue that if you like), it’s a fandom with a strong sexual component. One thing that made CSI and MTV’s Sex2K compelling is that both told sensational, sexual stories.

True, this is not a part of the story you want to share with mom and dad, I completely understand that. And maybe “we wear fox costumes” is sensational enough on its own. But look at some of the other big dorkumentaries–say, “Dungeon Masters.” (Movie, Trailer)” This documentary followed four (?) Dungeons and Dragons game masters, from GenCon (the tabletop RPG industry’s Anthrocon) to GenCon. It focused on a girl who dressed as a dark elf in full body make-up finding her true love (a guy dressed as same), a power-gaming ogre of a GM who got his jollies by killing player characters whenever possible, and one failing marriage and career. They are stories that are larger than life–well, the “failing career and marriage” story is depressingly common. But you could argue that these “characters” were not actually telling stories about the act of playing D&D. They were reconciliations with family, extreme examples of play bordering on crazed, and finding love.

My concern is that Furries seems like a response to the negative coverage of the media dark age, and in steering a course away sensationalism, it loses what made those pieces fun. I have never, in my life, laughed as hard as when I watched MTV’s Sex2K, I thought I would die of not being able to breath. There’s a darkness at the core of the dorkumentary genre, no getting around it, but the balance of sympathy, sensationalism, and schadenfreude is what sells the genre.

And I don’t think Furries: A Documentary is a part of that genre.

This is total speculation on my part. Explaining the fandom to outsiders involves juggling facts and ideas to a degree that approaches schizophrenia. There is no one furry fandom. “We are vast, we contain multitudes.” (Whitman, “Song of Myself“) And likewise, there is no one story of the furry fandom, and there isn’t one audience for a story about the fandom. Any conversation about the fandom’s strengths should begin with the power of a community for young people who might otherwise be entirely outsiders. Like celphones, Facebook, and good fantasy on TV, this is a thing that could not exist when I was growing up in the 80s, and a phenomenal resource for this generation. And explaining that side of the fandom is definitely a great service.

Anyway! About the kickstarter itself. This is a “just needs a spit-and-polish” kickstarter, with a low starting goal to cover sound editing, color balance and visual cleanup, and DVD/Blu-ray production. Presumably a bit of this is going to buy beers and gas for soundtrack artists, The Lab Partners.

I want to call attention to the kickstarter video itself, it’s well-done! Very much a “talking heads” video, but Ashaya comes across as confident and lucid. In the video he flubs once, but it’s the introduction to the “blooper reel” bullet point, so this is obviously intentional. The perks are a bit limited–credit recognition, DVD special features, and a custom badge. I’m surprised there wasn’t an angel-level pledge level, that’s nearly standard with an indie film kickstarter, but keeping it simple and fulfillable is its own virtue–and given that Ashaya has already gotten to the “polish” phase, it’s possible he has already gotten his angels in order.

Follow @furstarter on twitter for the latest fur-friendly crowdfunding projects!

Illustration from The Evolution Card Game on Kickstarter

A bit slow in crowdfundingland, so I’m going to take a quiet moment out and look at a couple of cute tee shirt companies currently funding. But it’s worth pointing out one little, or large, achievement. If you’re a fan of the adorable steampunky webcomic “Lackadaisy,” you’re probably aware of this one already.

It’s hard to find enough words to praise this comic. The art is detailed, with the attention to detail of any of the great realistic artists of the fandom and the character and warmth of…of…well, like I said, words fail me.

So it’s newsworthy that Lackadaisy’s artist, Tracy Butler, has managed to quit her job, gather her fanbase together, and take the plunge into full-time, crowdfunded cartooning. A scary step, but it seems to have worked for her–through Patreon, she’s actually looking at a living wage, and without a lot of complicated perks. Congratulations, Tracy!

Now, on to the tees.

I seem to be a little bit late to the party for Wild @ Heart’s tee line, now on Kickstarter. I missed the original project post back in March, and now there’s only a week left on the project. Oops!

The concept, and the tees, are pretty simple, but well-executed–it’s a tail tee. The first two designs to be unfurled are the fox and husky, to be released for the next Anthrocon. Also in the line-up is a super-cute dragon with wikkle wings, a tiger, and—well, I don’t know what that is. It looks like a strawberry bunny, I’m at a loss.

If you happen to miss this cute Kickstarter, you can check out Studio Cute’s webpage, follow Ponygirl on FA, and the tees are likely to make it to her Etsy page as well (along with some cute wolf-themed jewelry…), so even if it’s too late to pony up some cash, you can still get some tail there.

Apologies for that last one. It’s really been a heck of a week.

Over on Indiegogo, you still have a month to check out Animaltshirts.eu–though there’s a lot to be said for just cruising over to their website. To save you some valuable clicking time, here’s the species page for canine designs.

Points for having a lot of obscure animals–Tasmanian devils, hyenas, bats, Sergals (!), dragons all make the cut–as well as a heaping helping of fox subspecies, some tribal style art–lots of variety in this company!

Most of the art is by RaikaDeLaNoche (or if you’re not at work, you could check her after-dark alterego, AlmaAurora), whose style runs an impressive stylistic range from pieces reminiscent of Blotch, Goldenwolf, and Michele Light. Nice stuff!

Ultimately, this is a capital campaign, intended to get a textile printer and replace some of the services their previous provider cut. The prices in the Indiegogo page are a little higher than in the shop–it’s a fundraiser more than a deal of the century. So think a bit about how you want your money to flow.

For a “complete” list of furry/fur-friendly crowdfunding projects, check out the Project Page! New Projects Art

Tea Critters 2016 Calendar (Ends: 5/2/2015)
Illustrated calendar by NightLineZ with delicately colored animals from the Chinese zodiac, in watercolor and tea.

Clothing/Jewelry

Wild @ Heart (Ends: 4/18/2015)
Animal-themed tees with little tail butt-logos, choose your species! The dragon one is particularly cute.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Batbear (Ends: 5/8/2015)
In a city ruled by darkness, one bear is brave enough to don the MASK OF JUSTICE. Batbear.
Although I did like the original title, Deadpooh.

Dream Town Amusement Park (Ends: 5/10/2015)
The happiest place on earth goes to hell and the animal mascots start attacking. Art by Defected Angel.
For a Five Nights at Freddy’s rip-off, this graphic novel has much better art than it needed to.

Lackadaisy on Patreon (Patreon ongoing funding)
A Patreon campaign for the luscious steampunk comic, Lackadaisy, by Tracy Butler.
Awesome! A wonderful artist successfully quits her dayjob to commit art!

Film/Animation/Theater

Slow and Steady (Ends: 5/6/2015)
CGI adaptation of the Tortoise and the Hare. The Uncanny Valley on this one is quite high.

Lapin, Une Etrange Historie d’Amour (Ends: 5/7/2015)
A surreal french film about a man, a rabbit-like girl, a strange world under an apartment. A bit Gaimanesque. A bit French.

Tabletop Games

Burrows and Badgers (Ends: 4/22/2015)
Animal tabletop mini figures with a Redwall aesthetic, but a little dark-and-grimmer than you might expect.

Epyllion, Dragon Epic RPG (Ends: 5/3/2015)
Tabletop RPG of noble dragon houses and their scions rebelling against tradition.
Interestingly, the team lists MLP: Friendship is Magic as an influence, huh. This is actually past goal pretty early in, which is kind of a surprise–also they may have lowballed the goal.

The Evolution Game System (Ends: 5/24/2015)
A colorful card game of evolution, predator and prey, and terrible fights around the watering hole. Also, lots of striped hyenas.
Past goal!

Toys

Embroidered Equines (Ends: 5/3/2015)
Plush ponies from SparkCostumes, and a maker looking to move to embroidery from the stitched applique model.

Video Games

Ninja Chronicle (Ends: 5/3/2015)
A collect-a-thon adventure featuring a skyship and a nimble cat and fox.
Slow start. I think this might suffer from first-project-itis and a realistic goal.

Adult

Big Book of BNG (Ends: 5/2/2015)
92 pages of muscly, glossy, color guys by BNG

…Causes

DragonHarpGaming mascot suit (Ends: 6/7/2015): I’m broadly against “fund my fursuit” pages, but this is for a cause of a sort, a charity/gaming group and it’s a cute character, a dragon with video game controller markngs, so hey.

…Just for fun

The Art of Character Design (Ends: 5/9/2015): Vol.2 of a book of game, film, and toy character design. CGI, puppets, stop-motion. Fun coffee-table tour of the subject.

This week’s illustration is from A Peacock Among Pigeons, on Kickstarter

After a week filled with some really amazing projects, this week seems a little more chill. So I’m going to take five minutes out to look at a project which isn’t remarkable–or even necessarily likely to succeed–but I do like the way they’re handling things.

The project is “Intoxicated Unicorn.” Specifically, it’s a sticker project, a pretty typical mini-project with a low goal, $500. This is textbook “itty bitty mini-project.” We don’t know a lot about it yet, only that there’s a couple of sloshed unicorns.

Art is by old-guard furry artist, Vicky Wyman. She was the Guest of Honor at Conference 2, back in 1991, before the Internet. Attendance: 200. At the time–and possibly now–her best-known work was the unicorn-intensive fantasy comic, “Xanadu,” which ran back in 1988, maybe three or four years after furries were even a thing, and a year before the first furry con. None of this is really what I want to talk about, except to say that the primary artist has a bit of star power, at least within our fandom.

No, what I want to talk about is that this silly little sticker is not, actually, the project–it’s a soft-launch of a future project, testing the waters for an upcoming game, the Intoxicated Unicorns “Undrinking Game.”

Reading up on Kickstarter best practices, this makes a lot of sense. Start small. Make stickers, make another damned “minimalist wallet.” It’s not really about the project, or the money. It’s about building 1) trust and 2) an audience. Even if this project crashes, the creative team behind the stickers will have that many supporters on tap to launch their next project. It does look like the project is going to fail, I’m guessing it’s mostly because Wyman hasn’t talked it up on her FA account or other furry social media, and the actual project coordinators may or may not have any fandom presence. So, there’s that. But it’s still a good way of building up to a more challenging project.

Reviews this week: Sci-fi tabletop roleplaying game: Vanguard, sparkly/emo unicorn children’s book The Grumpy Unicorn, and magical animal card game, Wizards of the Wild.

 

For a “complete” list of furry/fur-friendly crowdfunding projects, check out the Project Page and Patreon Page! New Projects Art

Intoxicated Unicorn Stickers (Ends: 4/16/2015)
A mini-project before launching the Intoxicated Unicorns party game, with artwork by Vicky Wyman, co-creator of 80s furry comic “Xanadu”
This is a really good idea, though not working so well–a small, easier project related to the main one to build audience and email list. +1, Intoxicated Unicorn team!

Andrew Loehr’s Cartoons (Ends: 4/19/2015)
A crowdfund/commish project ofsimple and cartoony custom anthro work.
This is one of those “use crowdfunding for commissions” projects, which I don’t normally look too much at, but solid work!

Books/Print

A Peacock Among Pigeons (Ends: 4/24/2015)
An LGBT book about celebrating differences and standing out. Mostly for kids but not quite.
It’s sort of “A Child’s First Book of FABULOUS”

Children’s Products

Animal Appetites (Ends: 4/19/2015)
Abstract and vaguely 1980s by-kids-for-kids project about hungry animals and autisim awareness

My Cat Is Weird (Ends: 4/25/2015)
Is there a little bit of “Invader Zim” in the artwork of “My Cat Is Weird,” a child’s journey into feline behavior?

Clothing/Jewelry

AnimalTShirts.EU (Ends: 5/12/2015)
Capital-raising project for AnimalTShirts.eu, making realistic and cartoony animal/furry tees.
There’s something for everyone here. Even Sergals. Artwork by RaikaDeLaNoche

Comics/Graphic Novels

Armadillo Justice (Ends: 4/20/2015)
A TMNT/Scifi-western action comic about Anthro Armadillos. The “WTF” factor is high here!

Wuffle in France (Ends: 5/21/2015)
A French translation of Wuffle the Friendly Wolf

Film/Animation/Theater

Valitsen Sinut (I Choose You!) (Ends: 4/18/2015)
A Finnish indie musical based on Pokemon to celebrate the world’s 20th anniversary

Thinking Like a Savannah (Ends: 4/27/2015)
Not furry, but a predator-focused nature documentary spotlighting the importance of cheetahs and leopards in creating an ecosystem.

Tango: The Movie (Ends: 4/28/2015)
Two mascots fight for the job of sign flipper outside a seedy used car store. Short film.
Something about this–a mascot finding the perfect niche for himself–seemed important. May be tongue-in-cheek.

A Rabbit’s Tale (Ends: 4/29/2015)
Animated short: a gay rabbit comes out to his family and finds his own way in the world.

The Pigman (Ends: 5/8/2015)
Irish indie short film about the life of a man/pig in a small village community.

The New Bremontown Musicians (Ends: 5/19/2015)
Pop music, The Brothers Grimm, and animal face paint, a stage production.
Slow start. But a niche project really.

Tabletop Games

World Gates (Ends: 4/26/2015)
Complex-looking card game based on World Gates webcomic, sci-fi fantasy, a little bit Sonic, to my eyes.
Looks like a nonstarter. Rules, and art in card-size, both kind of unapproachable.

Adult

Soft Paws AB/DL Adult Diaper (Ends: 4/26/2015)
Adult diapers with a toddler fur and pastel paw print design for the babyfur community.
High goal of $35K and a very small niche, this one’s off to a slow start.

…Just for fun

Acrobatica Infinity Circus (Ends: 4/16/2015): Part Circque de Solil, part cosplay extravaganza. America’s traveling ‘nerd circus.’
The Tea Bats Lenormand Cards (Ends: 5/19/2015): A diviniation deck of victorian clip art and weird bat imagery. I’m a sucker for clip art.

Tabletop role-playing drama and action in a galaxy poised on the brink of war…

Vanguard – Varmisk Fallen

Kickstarter ending 4/9/15

Fair warning: This product isn’t for everyone. Indie tabletop RPGs (TRPGs henceforth) are a segment of a section of a percentage of the population, and a TRPG that steps outside the mainstream is going to be, by its nature, even moreso. The hobbistry (hobby+industry) solar system can support one or two giant planets, a few smaller ones that still seem capable of generating creativity, and a lot of little things that drift silently in space, the light of popularity a cold, distant, shining point.

That being said, good storytelling is good storytelling, and the ultimate destiny of most indie TRPGs is to get piled up in the bathroom, inspirational reading where most game masters do their best plotting. The idea that any of these things get played is so 1992.

Vanguard: Varmisk Fallen is set around the plane/system of Varmisk (Get it? Varmisk? Varmints?) A colonial world governed by the Confederation. Now, in the wake of a devastating alien attack, the Confederation is in ruins, and its various planets and colonies are plagued by bureaucratic corruption, outside attack, opportunistic criminals–it’s a civilization on the eve of war (Cue the music!)

For storytelling focused on intrigue and personal conflict, this is a great setting. And reviews of some of author Tim Westhaven‘s other products, it sounds like he’s a very strong world-builder and storyteller.

I wish I had more information about Vanguard’s game system. While it’s fundamentally a dice-light or diceless game (there’s some cards for randomizing, but there’s a lot of the old “Amber Diceless Game” mechanic of “you tell me if you should succeed, I’ll tell you if you’re right”), it’s not at all simple, and there’s some strange, fluffy language with mystical overtones that make me back away slowly and put down my cards. While the kickstarter says the game plays for ages 7+ and mature players as well, some of the materials available for review look a little complex. And there’s rules for vehicles and droids, and some strong tactical game play.

None of this is saying that the rules engine behind Vangard–the “Fatestorm System”–is a bad system, I haven’t picked up the book, and all evidence suggests that Fatestorm does some innovative stuff.. But according to at least one reviewer it’s a rich system that’s going to be difficult for new players, which fits pretty well with what little I can see of the product so far.

I will ding Mr. Westhaven for gratuitous* use of the word “pawesome.”

* Any use of the word “pawesome” is gratuitous.

In describing his inspiration, Westhaven says “…think of it as Wind in the Willows meets Mass Effect.” That…that doesn’t seem right. I think it’s a lot more Redwallian–herbivores (and badgers, because they’re awesome) vs. carnivores, the inevitable trope that bunnies are good and anything that eats meat is bad (except badgers).

All in all, the artwork looks good for a TRPG, and it is important to note that art is one of the main things that’s being upgraded. According to the project page, the two rulebooks–basic and advanced play–are both written and playtested, and funding is going toward art and professional editing–both very important things!

If you’d like to learn a little more about the game, the Fatestorm Blog is primarily looking at the Vanguard universe, with some decent excerpts–like the Badgerians here. Westhaven (and most of the TRPG industry) is pretty active on Google+ too, and has a lot of notes on game development and mechanics.

Lots of fun stuff for the kickstarter backer, including the ability to pick and develop new species for PC races, and developing an alien race or NPC for the advanced rulebook. There’s some stretch goal miniatures–and good anthro miniatures are hard to find!

One stretch goal that I really love–as a game master and general crowdfunding fan–is the CIN Database. Basically, every citizen of the Confederation has a unique ID linked to their DNA–and backers of the kickstarter can add their personal “name, species, and vocation” to this database, creating a ready-made collection of DM and player inspirations for creating background characters in a hurry. Neat! It’s a legitimate game resource, and a way to recognize backers.

All in all, Vanguard is a mixed bag. It looks like a good anthro sci-fi game, and it’s been a while since we had one of those (Albedo was before my time, and I was gaming in the 80s!) I can’t tell if it’s rules-lite or just rules-different, but there’s a lot of time spent on granular stuff like ships and equipment, which is one of the telltale marks of an old-school crunchy game–though even as I write that, I don’t think it’s a fair assessment, sci-fi/military tends to be equipment-heavy. The writing on the project page and the art varies widely–both are sometimes playful, sometimes childish, sometimes sophisticated. And it’s hard to know how to dance when that tune is playing.

As always, we have to embrace the risk. The digital release is a very reasonable $20, so if you find the story appealing, it’s not going to break your wallet, and reports from the reviews of some of Westhaven’s other projects say he’s a good read with some solid campaign inspiration.

Follow @furstarter on twitter for the latest fur-friendly crowdfunding projects!

A whimsical children’s story of a unicorn trying to find its place in a mythical world…

The Grumpy Unicorn

Kickstarter ending 4/10/15

Just a short callout for an adorable project, with children’s books it’s easy to write a post that’s longer than the book itself. So keeping it brief.

The Grumpy Unicorn is a story of a young unicorn in a school for with a bunch of other mythologicals–monsters much more fearsome and cool than himself. In a world filled with fangy dragons and horrible minotaurs and a griffon with stupendously huge claws–okay, the gorgon is pretty cute and chibi, but by and large, the unicorn is a bright mote of sparkly and fluff in a terrible, gloomy place–even the art in his home is a dreary and oppressive, and magical unicorns stand out like cupcake sprinkles on a badly-cooked piece of trout.

Much of the book is the unicorn thinking about all the things that would be preferable to being a unicorn–a scary griffon, a dragon, and so on. No surprise, but at some point the unicorn realizes it’s pretty nice being a unicorn.

I don’t know that furries would come out with the same lesson–I think we’d generally say “Yes! It’d be pretty cool to be a unicorn!” Though that’s probably what most five-year-olds would think, we furries are usually on the same wavelength as preschoolers when it comes to cute things.

The art in this one is lots of fun–the unicorn is appealingly pissed, his dark and angry eyes and sour expression a great foil to his rainbows and particle effects. The rest of the world? It’s actually not quite as convincing, though there are some cute critters here and there (Cerberus tormenting a tennis ball…) We don’t have a lot to go on, just a few pages of art, but there is a sort of sameness to artist Jen Hodge’s unicorn that makes the unicorn stand out in the crowd. The rest is kind of like what would happen if Michel Gagne’s weird shadow creatures discovered color and 3D rendering.

I’d love to find out more about Hodge and her work, but my google fu is failing me!

Like I said, just a short little snapshot of a fun children’s project!

Follow @furstarter on twitter for the latest fur-friendly crowdfunding projects!

A game of enchantments and intrigues in the shadow of Stonehenge…

Wizards of the Wild

Kickstarter ending 4/9/15

Imagine if you will…

The evening of the longest night. Each star is perfectly clear in the chill air, and the moon climbs inexorably toward its zenith in the sky. As the shadows of Stonehenge’s ancient monoliths shorten, the power in the air is palpable, magic surging through the ground, along the stones.

And a fox in a top hat is about to throw a swarm of fairy mice at you. Think fast.

Wizards of the Wild is a new fist-of-dice/resource juggling game from Crosscut Games, In WOTW players take on role of one of eight wizardly beasts–a crazed raccoon shaman, vicious badger magician, suave cat, cunning fox, robed bear, each a powerful mage with a pawful of spells and strange resources at their command. Over the course of the game your tools wax and wane–this round, you’ll be rich in mana but poor in financial resources, next round you’ll have all the arcane lore but none of the power to back it up. Such is life, as a wizard.

WOTW has elements of a resource-management game, but with a lot more randomness than your typical round of Settlers. Looking at the rules–available in PDF–there’s a bunch of randomizers here, so many that I’m not sure how strong a strategy you can build. There are seven rounds in a full game, and during each round you strive to get victory points that add up to your final victory. The tone of each round is governed by an acolyte card who can be bribed for victory points and throws various penalties around, and when you’re out of acolytes, the game, as they say, is up.

Each round you get a fistful of dice (and as many rerolls, so you can pick and choose) to represent your shifting fortunes–different types of magical energy, financial clout, arcane lore. Draw new cards from the spells and challenges decks, throw spells and effects around, or put your resources into storage for a rainy day. When all the players have finished their turns, see what penalties the round’s ally dishes out, then start the next turn. The game wraps up in a flurry of spell-casting, victory points are tallied, winners are applauded.

Without having played the game, there is a lot of random to it–much of the fun seems to be seeing what crazy combinations of cards can be spun out, which is a part of that kind of game. Your resources are randomly determined each round, the cards are their own randomizer, and the acolyte, too. WOTW looks like it doesn’t have a lot of agency, more of a game of reaching into the churn and seeing what happens next, with enough round-to-round planning to make the game, well, a game.

The artwork is really charismatic, a well-realized world of anthro critters and magical happenings. Fun stuff!

I’m not madly in love with the reward levels, they tend toward multipacks and luxurious deluxe materials. You can get your pet added the game as a card for the reasonable price of $200, but you can get the full game for about $25 without spending a bank-breaking amount on the super-complete set. Which is definitely not a bad thing! A game that’s totally in the “shopping cart” price is something to applaud, but on the other hand, there’s no material that’s only available to Kickstarter backers. Again, not a bad thing, but a noteworthy thing.

The Kickstarter page could benefit from a play-through video, but if there’s a lot of resource buildup from round to round (like the deceptively complex card game, “Three Dragon Ante,” which really makes sense only across several rounds), that may not give a clear image of the game.

Take a tour through the Kickstarter page and watch the video, which is filled with sample artwork (plus, it’s short!) Imagine the game play. It is very much like a psychologist’s inkblot, if you’re looking for a game of skill, you will see a game of skill. If you’re looking for a fast-moving game of stir-fried random, you’ll see that. But if you’re looking for dapper badgers, you’ll definitely find what you’re looking for.

Follow @furstarter on twitter for the latest fur-friendly crowdfunding projects!

Illustration from “Odd Animal Alphabet,” on Kickstarter

(Unreasonably cute picture of Corbeau by Lizbeth, on FA and on Patreon!)

This week has been just crazy. Besides work being a madhouse, the last two weeks have seen a run of really superlative furry projects popping up. I’ve been able to write some incoherant notes about Tribes of Kai, the epically awesome feline-taur graphic novel (and I’m generally a canine person, but I will make an exception here.) And I’d had advanced warning on the all-Anubis erotic anthology from Dark Natasha and friends, “Dark Desire.” I was braced for that.

And then…

I stumbled across Vanguard, a furry tabletop RPG with a strong sci-fi setting and pretty solid artwork, it’s not amazing but for RPG material, it’s strong. This one’s next on my to-do list, it looks really pretty (and I pretty much write up every furry tabletop RPG, TRPGs are my other fandom.) I found that one on FurAffinity, missed it completely on kickstarter. It has Space Badgers.

Next on my to-do list, “Wizards of the Wild,” a charming–heh–card game featuring anthro wizards battling it out. And a magic badger. There are so many things I want to dump money on this week. Money would be helpful right now. Maybe the overtime fairies will sprinkle me with their horrible dust again.

three items that I really want to cover but may not get around to, just because they’re a little off topic or small focus: Goldenwolf’s werewolf romance novel, “Hunger,” and the stupidly cute children’s book, “The Grumpy Unicorn,” which has a round little unicorn who leaves a trail of dejected rainbow wherever he goes, and really wants to be a griffon. Since it’s a kid’s book he probably learns a valuable lesson, but being a griffon is kind of a noble thing, too, isn’t it? Anyway, the cute factor on this one is sky-high. And a part of me–the part that values variety more than common sense–wants to do a short and loving write up of The Party Animals, and their absurd, face-painted kiddie romp. I think my readership is a little too post-ironic to appreciate them, since their target audience is ages 2-6, but they are clearly romping in fuzzy animal tails, and that makes them cousins!

My mate came into my room, looked at “The Party Animals,” snorted, and left. I don’t care. I think they’re cute.

So…if I don’t give these wonderful projects the write-ups they’re due, I just want to say, they really were wonderful.

Thank you to my friends who donated toward’s Folf’s lung transplant surgery! I’ve got a few poems to work on too :)

Reviews this week: Anubis-themed erotica collection “Dark Desires,” barbarian fantasy ‘taur feline action comic “Tribes of Kai,” and Russian space opera manga webcomic “SpaceRamblers.”

For a “complete” list of furry/fur-friendly crowdfunding projects, check out the Project Page and Patreon Page! New Projects Adult

Dark Desire (Ends: 4/5/2015)
An expansion of the erotic Anubis-themed comic series from the early 90s, with art by Dark Natasha, Heather Bruton, Terrie Smith, and so many more.
Goal met! Page is worksafe, but the product is adult.

Art

Animal Portrait Drawings (Ends: 4/3/2015)
Weirdly realistic kicstarter-commish project: pets in formal wear portrait series.

Retro Video Game Movie Posters (Ends: 4/4/2015)
Cute and mostly furry-content movie poster versions of classic video games.
This project has amazingly little traction, considering the art quality. I thought it was a good joke, anyway. Poor joke.

A Dream of Dragons (Ends: 4/6/2015)
An illustration series of elementally themed chinese dragons
This is just a BIT “van art” to my eye, but it did make goal!

Books/Print

Hunger (Ends: 4/2/2015)
Werewolf supernatural romance novel written and illustrated by Goldenwolf

Children’s Products

Het Nieuwsgierige Vosje (Ends: 3/28/2015)
The crazy cheerful story of The Curious Fox, which I believe is primarily Swedish. But supercute.

The Party Animals (Ends: 4/4/2015)
A kid’s music series with highly excitable people in fuzzy animal facepaint and froofy ears
This has cute make-up, but I am too old for this kind of forced jollility :)

An Odd Animal Alphabet (Ends: 4/7/2015)
Sweetly detailed illustrations of corner-case animals in the alphabet.
H had better be for hyena or I’m writing my congressman.

The Grumpy Unicorn (Ends: 4/10/2015)
A completely cute and super-surly unicorn trying to make his way and find his joy in a world of scary mythologicals
I JUST WANT TO PINCH HIS CHEEKS

Clothing/Jewelry

Chairman Meow (Ends: 3/26/2015)
Tee and poster propaganda promoting our glorious kitteh leader

Comics/Graphic Novels

Cyborg Penguins (Ends: 4/8/2015)
Action comic with colorful chromed penguinbots, very flash and realistic (if that word can be applied)
Very “Image” feeling comic.

SpaceRamblers (Ends: 4/9/2015)
A sci-fi webcomic with a hefty slice of Space Opera. And pandas. Lots of pandas this week.

Tribes of Kai (Ends: 4/10/2015)
Amazing action/fantasy graphic novel with barbarian feline ‘taurs locked in battle with angry lizard people
Oh boy. Hot, hot lions. I really want to back this one. Also a sketch by Boris Vallejo!

Battle of the Blood Moon (Ends: 4/13/2015)
Werewolf apocalyptic graphic novel. Nicely drawn!

Sprocket the Comic-Cat (Ends: 4/14/2015)
Celebrating the life, adventures, and green radiation fists of the official mascot of Lilac City Comicon, Spkane, Washington

Film/Animation/Theater

Squirrel: Comedy Short (Ends: 4/3/2015)
Comedy short: After a cop pepper-sprayed a baby squirrel (true story), a local mom becomes a little bit obsessed with righting this wrong.
Be warned, there are rubber squirrel masks behind this link.

Midnight Mares (Ends: 4/5/2015)
A pony-inspired (but not explicitly MLP) story of ponies and the realms of dream and nightmare, night and day.

Tabletop Games

Kennel Combat (Ends: 4/4/2015)
Dice-and-cards game of cats vs dogs.

Squirrel Ascendancy (Ends: 4/5/2015)
A little set-building card game about squirrels going to war.
No chance of this meeting goal, but if you like squirrels the art’s fun

Vanguard: Varmisk Fallen (Ends: 4/9/2015)
Sci-fi adventure tabletop RPG with SPACE BADGERS, and other lesser anthro races.

Wizards of the Wild (Ends: 4/9/2015)
A dice-and-cards game of magical animals in wizardly combat.
Oh mi gosh, the art in this! Every wizard is a different furry character with a different visual style. Wow.

Pandante: Light and Dark (Ends: 4/11/2015)
A gambling and bluff game like Texas Hold’Em Poker, but with pandas, and snacks.

Last Kitten Standing (Ends: 4/17/2015)
Action-comedy card game with derptastic kittens and a “try not to laugh” mechanic.

…Just for fun

Rise of Vorehemoth (Ends: 5/1/2015): Fund the monster film pair of Rise of Vorehemoth and Vore King. Giant monsters eating scantily-clad human females.

 What’s Corbeau Backing This Week?
I’m still crossing my fingers that “Inkwip,” leather arm-bands for writers with pens built in, will reach goal, but maybe it’s best if it doesn’t and I get to keep my pledge. Because I just spent my rent on Anubis: Dark Desires, lured by my two great passions of naked canines and bowling shirts. I’m seriously on the edge on Tribes of Kai, which is so very pretty. Maybe I should pay my credit card bill and THEN make purchasing decisions.

A savage world of pantherine warriors and reptile foes…

Tribes of Kai

Kickstarter ending 4/10/15

A picture is worth a thousand words. Really. I’m trying to find a way to talk about this project that isn’t just pointing at the kickstarter page and shouting “LOOK! LOOK AT THE CATS!!”

It’s challenging.

In a world that was born nine months after Frank Frazetta made sweet, sweet barbarian love to Avatar, the five tribes of the Mantakai prepare for the ascension of their new lord–a champion chosen by a savage rite of passage, a test of strength and cunning. The Mantakai are a race of feline warrior “taurs”, with the grace of four legs, powerful claws, and the weapons and trappings of civilization (of a sort.)

Standing against them: the reptilian Tobognai, sleek and dangerous, challenging the dominance of the feline tribes.

The history of Tribes of Kai began back in 1998, in the short story Pridelands in Frank Frazetta’s Fantasy Illustrated magazine–a shot that introduced the Mantakai, their struggle with their lizard foes, and their lush, violent world.

Both Tribes of Kai and the original Pridelands are available with this kickstarter, for the reasonable price of $35. The pair is a rich and moody tour of the world of Kai, exploring the culture of the cat-folk and their struggles. There’s also some expanded material, lots of new art and pinups, by such fantasy luminaries as Boris Vallejo (more on that here).

In short, “Look! Look at the cats!”

I’m finding myself a bit frustrated with the Kickstarter itself. None of it’s a deal-breaker because of the huge amount of amazing art. You don’t have to look past the book cover to see exactly what you’re getting, though the gorgeous hunting tiger spread rounds out the experience nicely. I had some initial confusion as to what, exactly, I was getting–at first it looked like this was one of those awkward two-stage “at [goal] we’re remastering the original book, at [stretch goal] we’re expanding to 80 pages–no, it’s a new graphic novel and a reprint of the original Pridelands. Cool, but a little unclear if you’re just skimming…and people do skim. There’s a lot of wasted language talking about how much the two principle players–artist Daren Bader and Lance HaunRogue–are possessed of a deep and abiding respect for each other, which I think could have been cut or saved for a follow-up video–walls of text just aren’t that interesting. And the stretch goals could be a little bit more spelled out, price point wise.

Though they’re good stretch goals–primarily targeted at increasing the quality of the materials themselves. No complaints there.

So, I think I’m done trying to sell a project that so thoroughly and completely sells itself. Check it out. The price is good and the product is fucking awesome. If you’d like to dig a little deeper, there’s a bunch of concept art and illustration on the project’s facebook gallery, have fun.

Follow @furstarter on twitter for the latest fur-friendly crowdfunding projects!

 

 

A bound collection of lust in the desert and love beyond the afterlife, featuring the jackal god Anubis…

Anubis: Dark Desire Anthology

Kickstarter ending 4/5/15

[Note: I usually try to use thumbnails that represent the kickstarter project, but as the original comics were B&W and hard to find, and the Kickstarter anthology is full color, I don’t have that option!]

It was extremely generous of the ancient Egyptians to leave us so many zoomorphic deities. I know poor Hathor doesn’t get a lot of love from the furry fandom (she is the Egyptian goddess of love, but is also, sometimes, a cow). But Anubis–hands down, the sexiest undertaker of the last 4,500 years. has had the lion’s share (no, wait, that would be Sekhmet) of the furry fandom’s artistic attention, affection, and Rule 34.

From 2002-2008, one group of artists loosed their pens and brushes to get Anubis out of the crypt and between the linens: the artists of Dark Desire, an eight-issue erotic collection of tales of the Egyptian gods, souls finding their way through the afterlife, and lots and lots of love for dark-furred, well-built jackals.

Thank you, artists. You’re wonderful.

Now the ADD (heh) artists and the good people at Sofawolf Press are bringing Anubis out of the age of bronze and into the age of color in a bound, 180+ page anthology collecting and expanding the original comics, and perhaps–with the material created by kickstarter backers and stretch goals–expand to 200+ pages. Stretch goals haven’t been announced yet, but expanded page count is clearly one of them. More as we know more!  The content of Dark Desire should appeal to a broad range of furries. It is, of course, adult and erotic, so you have to go from there as a starting point. But beyond that, the writing and art covers a range–for example, one issue has a story of a young fennec archeologist tossed into Anubis’s voluptuous harem for some giggles and a chaste kiss from the god; a sensual massage with a female jackal who goes to the same make-up artist; guiding a lost female soul; a little VR gaming action. So there’s a lot of variety in terms of story. The series does in general seem to trend toward straight relationships, particularly with the more realistic work, but fans of both females and males will find a lot to love. So far as backer rewards go, there’s some fun stuff–it looks like alot of the backer rewards are intended for inclusion in the final product, since all the custom stuff is heavily themed with “Anubis on Zoomorphic Egyptian Pantheon Members only.” Although I am currently lobbying for Xolotl, because Mesoamerican dog-headed deities need love too. There’s also a fun tee design, and of all things a bowling shirt, which looks like one of those cute and rare collectibles that are so very hard to get after the kickstarter ends. And a really pretty cloisonne pin, which may be a perfect medium for an Egyptian god, they do like their bold outlines. Though of course the big offer is going to be the hardbound and paperback collections of the new, expanded, and colored comics. Unfortunately the commission pieces went the way of the early bird special, those probably won’t open up again unless the team is pushing for a stretch goal.  (as an aside, at work I wear nothing but bowling alley shirts. And pants, of course. So I’m super-excited about this one.) If you haven’t thumbed through the original run of Dark Desire, here’s the artists you’ll meet (and these bios are about as sketchy as they can be for some of the fandom’s great artists–all I can really do is say “Look! So much art and so much fandom history in one volume!” I encourage you to reserve your copy of Dark Desires through Kickstarter and wave it frantically in the air, that’s all I can really do.)  Diana Harlan Stein fills her FurAffinity stream with watercolor and pencil anthro fantasies, with an art style that varies on the realism and abstract scale, but usually hovers in a midpoint of friendly and approachable cartoon work. Her DeviantArt account as a few more elves and fantasy pieces.Diana has been in the greater fandom of fandoms for a long time, attending her first con in 1975, a good 10 years before furry was even a thing. She’s even started a cons of her own. and she’s still making beautiful art.  Heather Bruton has a long history in the tabletop gaming industry, working with several of the great games of the independent tabletop gaming boom of the 90s–to my mind, the golden age of gaming publishing. She’s been attending sci-fi cons since 1978, and sold out of her artwork at her very first con!  Much of the work in what seems to be her signature style is acrylic and ink, realistic paintings. Terrie Smith does beautiful pinups and detailed illustrations, and has done lots of work in furry comics, the humor-scifi-action title “Havoc Inc” one of her better-known ones. She also worked on fanzines like the Tai-Pan Project. Interestingly, she has some animation credits too, although I suspect no-one, even a key animator, really wants to remember the “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” animated series. I’d managed to forget about them entirely. Thanks, IMDB.  Michele Light has worked in Kickstarter before, with her “Leaf Peeping” tee project late last year. Light’s work solidly defines the cuter side of furry illustration, with adorable pinups, charming cheesecake, and cartoony cats (and a generous supply of both T and A, should you need these things in your life.) She’s been bopping around the furry fandom since 1992, drawn into the fandom by Terrie Smith–another thing you should thank her for next con! Dark Natasha is one of the great realistic furry artists out there, and I think she’s on loan to us from the were community–I could be wrong on that front, but we really shouldn’t give her back if they ask. According to Wikifur, she was ALSO introduced to furry by Terrie Smith, who must run some sort of incredibly creative furry think tank in some secret office somewhere. Her first furry con was 1999.  Sara Miles, formerly Sarah Palmer, and “Caribou” on FA, rounds out the team. Unfortunately I’m having a bit of trouble getting a mini-bio together, but you can learn a little bit more about her on the  Tigerdile art collaborative, where she co-creates a webcomic, “Halfway Hotel.” All in all, this is a strong kickstarter–Sofawolf Press does know what they’re doing, and I think they’ve had their paws on two other kickstarters at this point, with the successful Digger anthology and Blotch’s “Room Party” game. So it’s fantastic that this stellar team has an equally stellar partner managing their Kickstarter. A question I have about this one though, is the missing material from the original. The majority of the original artists are represented on the team for the anthology, but it looks like a few aren’t involved in it, I think at least eight artists were involved in the original comics. I don’t feel that it’s appropriate to dig deeply here, relationships and art partnerships change and messy stuff happens, but it is a piece in the story of the project that may need some discussion down the road. From a completion fetishist standpoint, if nothing else.  This year has been amazing from a furry crowdfunding standpoint, with the roaring success of “Horizons,” last month, and now this remastered collection from yesteryear. It’s exciting to see the artistic community taking advantage of these new fundraising tools–remember, crowdfunding is like three years old, it’s still in its infancy even if it’s boom-and-busting at the same time. Check this project out, it’s near goal as of March 8, and as new stretch goals open up and the project expands there’s a chance that more commission-type slots will open up. Tour the page–at this point it’s a reasonably simple project, but SofaWolf hasn’t announced stretch goals yet, and it has a chance to evolve in scope into something epic. Or more epic, we are talking about gods, after all. Follow @furstarter on twitter for the latest fur-friendly crowdfunding projects!

This is not one of my usual posts.

Well, it is, in that I’m going to be rambling about funding platform features, because that’s why I’m here, but this week, this is a direct ask for someone I care very much for.

But first, a dubious little landmark in my life–my 40th birthday is coming up this week, on March 6! I never thought I’d get to this point in my life, and statistically I’m twice the age of most of the Furry Fandom! Whew :) Those huge round numbers are scary, but I just got out of a furry con, so I’m still feeling young.

And I was really glad my friend, and occasional housemate, Folf (AKA Crystal Nightfolf, but weren’t we all sparkledogs in our youth?) made it to TFF. I didn’t get to see much of him, because he was reallyreally avoiding the con crud–see, Folf is going in for a double lung transplant.

Amazingly, his insurance is covering the majority of his costs, I can’t even imagine the amounts of money involved. But it stops short on covering the post-transplant medications, which total something like $100,000.

So, here’s the ask. Chip in to the save-a-folf fund.

I’m only a blogger for the shameless ego-gratification, so I, personally, would love it if with your gift you left a little note here on this post saying “Good Luck Folf and Happy Birthday Corb!” just so I’d know, maybe with “I Gave $7,500!”. If you happened to tweet a link to the campaign with #Goodluckfolf on it, that’d also be pretty cool! He’s a neat guy, big silly laugh, loves him some Legend of Zelda, put up with me for three years. I’d love to see him at next year’s Texas Furry Fiesta, maybe for more than two minutes.

If it helps, I’ll throw in a tiny special offer–if anyone donates $25 or more (and specifically says “happy birthday Corbeau” here, so that I know!) I will TOTALLY whip out my poetry degree from mothballs, just for you, and make you a poem of your own! I’ll attach it as a comment here. For $25, you get a limerick. For $50, a sonnet, 14 lines, iambs all over the place. My little ode to your generosity. Please don’t be orange, it’s a bitch to rhyme. It may take me a while to get to these (March is a really hard month for me at work), but I’ll do my best!

Oh! And while you’re at it, take a look at Indiegogo Life. It’s a new feature for Indiegogo, a low-fee/no-fee fundraising platform for important life stuff like, oh, college, or a fursuit, or a double lung transplant (some of these may not be relevant to you, but hey).. Indiegogo doesn’t charge platform fees for this service, so you’re really only paying like a 4% credit card transfer fee. Overall it’s a sleeker version of Indiegogo, with many of the social networking tools, but missing the “perks” stuff.

Unfortunately it seems to lack a “comment” field, which is why I’ve asked people to leave a note here as opposed to on Folf’s Indiegogo campaign. That seems a little short-sighted, as this is obviously part of Indiegogo’s commitment to community, and that bit of interaction is a definite +1, to my mind. We’ll see how the platform evolves.

 

 

 

Illustration from Paradoxia: Homebound on Kickstarter

Whew! Back from Texas Furry Fiesta 2015, and recovered from the creeping con crud! Met a lot of the artists on the African Sojourn trip, and learned that Dark Natasha is planning a graphic novel kickstarter of her own soon–at least I believe it’s a graphic novel, I was a little bit sleep-deprived at the time.

My own “Crowdfunding for Furries” panel fell a little flat, since I was back-to-back with a Guest of Honor who was running his own kickstarter panel, most of the audience picked up and left when he was finished speaking. Oh well, these things happen! We had a lot of the same points to cover–though he was mostly focused on production and I was mostly focused on message. Can’t blame anybody who didn’t want to sit down for three hours of crowdfunding.

One of the questions that came up was a way to monetize a subscription product through any of the existing crowdfunding platforms–that is, “what platform can I use to subscribe to my magazine?” Neither one of us had an answer, but the “good” “people” at “FAPP (NSFW!)” have an answer that is so screamingly obvious I’m kicking myself for missing it.

Patreon allows artists to fund on a “per week” or “per month” basis, which is how most people tend to use the platform. They also allow funding on a per-item basis–that is, per song, per painting…or per book.

For little stuff like a single youtube video, per-item funding makes me nervous. But if a writer plans to release a book every six months, well, if it comes out in five months or seven months, no big deal. So the next volume of the FAPP porntastic RPG, and every volume going forward, can be purchased digitally through Patreon. Brilliant solution!

Reviews this week: The patreon campaign for bright and cheerfully in-your-face comic Taco El Gato, animated adventure with Nine Lives of Claw, and not so much a review as an article covering crowdfunding for pornographic projects,

For a “complete” list of furry/fur-friendly crowdfunding projects, check out the Project Page and Patreon Page! New Projects Books/Print

RoboTales (Ends: 3/19/2015)
Children’s chapter book series. A very well-illustrated robot dog in another solar system looks for the mystery of his creation.
I wish I knew how illustration-heavy this series was going to be, that’s always a problem with YA stuff.

Clothing/Jewelry

Fat Animal Charms (Ends: 3/22/2015)
Mini-project of chubby, chibi animals, gently rolling.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Broken Birds: Hatoful Boyfriend Fan Comic (Ends: 3/13/2015)
Comic based on stylized pigeon dating sim, with varying levels of anthro pigeons. Art by Playerprophet.
There is much in this universe that I do not understand.

M.R.S. Monster Café (Ends: 3/21/2015)
Webcomic, patchwork anthro monsters find their place in society through their café. Brightly colored madness by Shazuku and Jei.
Anybody got a reference for Jei? More art on Facebook.

Help Wanted (Ends: 3/21/2015)
A crime-fighting pup and his animated bread loaf finally get their own comic book. Very “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.”

Paradoxia: Homebound (Ends: 3/25/2015)
One-shot comic about a child lost in a fantasy world of two warring anthro armies. Art by Carey Blindenhofer.

The Aggregate (Ends: 3/31/2015)
A “Choose your own adventure” graphic novel. I’m including it purely because of GIANT CAT SPIDERS.

Film/Animation/Theater

Desert Mirage (Ends: 3/16/2015)
A live-action/animation hybrid, sort of a low-budget Roger Rabbit, featuring a vengeful racoon and an out-of-work janitor.
The art on this one is a little bit ‘not ready for FurAffinity.’ Project doesn’t seem super-fundible at this point.

The Nine Lives of Claw (Ends: 3/30/2015)
A cybernetic cat, a mouse, they fight crime, usually in the form of malicious anthro dogs. Animated action.

Aggressive Lucario Mascot (Ends: 4/3/2015)
Sketch comedy: A Lucario fursuit mascot assaults the guests of an amusement part.
I’m tempted to fund this just to see what a $300 Lucario costume would look like.

Tabletop Games

Earth Dragons & Other Rare Creatures (Ends: 3/18/2015)
Earthy, swampy, leafy, fairy-y dragons, field guide and playing card deck.

Cat Quest (Ends: 3/29/2015)
Cartoony cats on a magical card game quest to destroy dragons and unicorns. Hmm.

Dragoon: Dragon Action Strategy Game (Ends: 3/31/2015)
Cute and minimal ‘be the dragon, destroy the town’ game, designed to fit in a little storage bag. Nice design, convenient minigame size.
Over goal!

Toys

Wananeko Soft Vinyl Toy (Ends: 3/18/2015)
Designer toy in the “psycho pointy cat monster” mode.

Video Games

Hera and Sooky (Ends: 3/30/2015)
A side-scrolly platformer with a lot of gear-gathering featuring two cute cartoony non-anthro dogs and their grappling, leaping, boating adventures.
Sort of like “Megaman” meets “The Incredible Journey.”

Cat-Shaped Life (Ends: 4/1/2015)
A gently cartoony cat-shaped-cat sim. Fight the washer!

…Causes

Kikongo Otter Sanctuary (Ends: 4/26/2015): Sanctuary for Mazu the Congo Clawless Otter and other African otters. Cute stuff here, you’ve been warned.

…Meh

Icicle on his Bicycle: The Misunderstood Husky (Ends: 3/16/2015): Children’s book, a little husky boy on a journey through the woods on his bicycle. Sometimes dreams exceed artistic ability, trippy colors though. Also, count the adjectives.

…Just for fun

Studio Cosplay (Ends: 3/15/2015): A makerspace specifically for costuming and cosplay, opening in the Washington DC area.

 What’s Corbeau Backing This Week?
Lordy, someone take my credit card out of my paws. My income tax refund came in, so I put it toward a really hot little item–“Inkwip,” leather arm-bands for writers, with pens built in. I couldn’t say no to the intersection of bondage and scrivening. I’m trying very hard to say no to getting all three designs, that’s perhaps a little insane.Terry Giliam is producing a surrealist film called “Hallucinaut,” a microscopic epic set in the palm of someone’s hand, it looks haunting and weird. It looks like that one might make goal! But it’ll be close. And the good folks at Red Dragon Inn are releasing a new installment of their beer-and-pretzels card game, one of my favorites and an annual Kickstarter tax.

And please don’t tell my mom this, but I signed up for FAPP’s patreon. It’s so stupid I can’t turn away.

Animated adventure with an “Awesome 90s” flair…

Nine Lives of Claw: The Animated Series

Kickstarter ending 3/20/15

This one’s a throwback to the slick-but-funny action cartoons of the 90s, made by a team built from some of the top properties of the stellar run of CGI fantasies from the last few years. You can see the aesthetic influence of SWAT Kats‘s grim but colorful felines, the themed technology from Road Rovers (maybe not to the redogulous degree of RR, but we’re just looking at pedigree, here). I think they may have borrowed Batman Beyond‘s swatchbook, but I’m not sure about that, the future was designed on an Ipad and that’s all there is to it.

Claw’s 21st century ancestry–well, it’s got some chops. The experience in this project is vast and colorful. The series director is Alessandro Ongaro, who’s done effects work on Over the Hedge, Madagascar, Flushed Away, How To Train Your Dragon, One of the Kung Fu Panda movies, and Constantine (it’s not furry, one of my favorites though…) Producer Tony Cosanella has  touched The Emperor’s New Groove, Madagascar, and a few Disney and Pixar films. The series co-creators, Gary Pilla and Greg Scheetz, may have shorter furry fandom resumes–Gary Pilla is a branding wizard and writer, which might go a ways to explaining Claw’s slick look and feel. Greg Scheetz, graphic designer and concept artist, I haven’t been able to find much on, he may have been forged by the gods as a co-creator.

Bad dogs. Very, VERY bad dogs.

Babble, babble. The series itself looks like a lot of fun! The dark-future city of Anonymous is infested by the kind of crazy villains you can only get in supers cartoons that don’t take themselves too seriously. It’s a bleak future to begin with–water and other resources are scarce, and into that mix the all-canine crime syndicate, the Malicious Urban Thugs and Thieves, makes their flea-ridden appearance. It will take a hero to break MUTT’s hold on the city of Anonymous–and reluctantly, streetwise, cynical Claw and his gadget-happy mouse sidekick, Edison will be that hero. Those heroes. Grammar!

With him on the journey are some strong allies–privatized power advocate Purrfessor  Purrnelope (oh, the puns), and the man with the name so awesome it should probably be reconsidered, Trash Manhole, sanitation expert, and his truck of action, the TNT (Trash Negation Transport). Lots of gadgets–some of which you can get as Kickstarter backers–and an interestingly edgy theme song by Positive Chaos. If you’ve got a theme, you’re halfway to funded.

So, looking at the Kickstarter itself. It’s a great survey of the product, showing off the technology–stylish and retro, crazy and future, gritty and apocalypse-noire–lots of characters, lots of toys! It’s actually kind of visually overwhelming, even cluttered, which given that Gary Pilla helped brand Apple.Com, seems a little strange. The general feeling I get looking at “Nine Lives of Claw” is that it’s a secondary funding source for a product that’s got at least some Hollywood backing. From other Kickstarters, it seems like $20K is about the place where “my series pilot” starts, and this is “my series.” But it’s hard to reliably fund a project through Kickstarter when your goal is by necessity in the $100,000+ territory, so using Kickstarter as a part  of a strategy for a large Hollywood project makes sense.

The rewards cover a huge range of levels, with some of the standard “hug” levels, the baseball card and tee levels, soaring up to some lofty animation cels, limited edition schematics, your voice in the series, and some unique pieces like the prop models for some of Claw’s toys, and the $10K corporate angel with product placement in the show. This, I think, covers all eventualities.

I do like the $8,000 piece, which actually seems like it might actually be a legitimate asset if you have some very specific life path in mind–being folded into the project team as an a sort of observer/intern role. Doesn’t look like a working position, mostly just a chance to be on calls and meetings and see the studio. Still, it’s an interesting investment in series production.

So, where we’re at: if you don’t donate, bad dogs are going to take the water and power away from the poor Anonymous townsfolk. Personally, I can’t live with that. Check out Claw and see if you want to get involved!

Follow @furstarter on twitter for the latest fur-friendly crowdfunding projects!

 

 

Occult investigation and silly supers in a webcomic world gone weird…

Taco El Gato

Currently funding on Patreon

Before I begin this little review, I need to establish “Kricfalusian” as an adjective, because John Kricfalusi and his weird little monkeys, Ren and Stimpy, have left their greasy thumbprints over so much of modern cartooning, it’s hard to tell what’s his influence and what’s just particles in the 21st century atmosphere. It’s like asking a fish, “Hey, fish, what’s it like being in a constant state 2.3 ATM?” They just look at you and do that fish mouth thing.

Anyway, the ever-so-slightly eyeball-searing world of Taco El Gato.

Meet Taco. In at least one of his lifetimes–he has two, going on three, right now, so your Taco experience may vary. And like all webcomics the style evolves over time, one of those big inevitables of the genre. So, like I said, Meet Taco.  He’s your basic gangling, awkward slacker of a cat, content to hide in a room full of black light posters and lava lamps and avoid the hell out of the real world.

This is definitely science

At least, in at least one of his lives. Sometimes he’s a part-cat, part-taco crime-fighting machine, with “amazing” powers of tacogenesis at his disposal and a righteous thirst for both justice and Taco Bell’s “medium” sauce. Despite his best efforts, he does occasionally manage to save the day, though his biggest mutant power is “ability to overcome himself…barely.”

Either Taco is a reluctant hero–the first, a slacker whose passion for trying to find Sasquatch and chupacabra gets him dragged into a very weird world, the second, a slacker with really dubious powers who doesn’t want much more than to spontaneously manifest a good meal for a hungry passerby. His home life? Not so hot. In a world where cats and dogs barely get along, he’s a cat adopted and raised by dogs, not really at home on either side of the fence.

Like the classic Tex Avery cartoons (and their Krikfalusian grandchildren), Taco El Gato is a happy mix of quirky (or lovingly dumb) humor, hopeless characters, and the occasional T&A joke. They’re pretty cute, and the slacker jerk who just might make it in the world has a lot of appeal as a character.

Taco El Gato, and its creator, Candy Briones, are both funding over on Patreon, and it sounds like Taco is going to make a season three journey back to his non-hero self  to get a little deeper into both cryptozoology and catnip (with a few “Cheech and Chong” jokes in there, for good measure.)

For the most part, the rewards for Candilicous’s Patreon are what you’d expect–early access to the comic and sketchs, and some fun “behind the scenes” videos at the premium level. There’s an odd $100/month level–v-e-r-y rich, more appropriate to Kickstarter than Patreon, with a lot of fun stuff, but that feels a little like it should be rewards for a one-time gift, not a pledge of, say, $1000 a year or so. This may not be intentional.

One problem I’ve had wrapping my head around is the weirdly spread-out nature of Taco’s various projects and side projects. Since it’s a single ongoing series–I think–it’d be reasonably well-served by a single website, but the Taco Empire is vast, with content on Facebook, the original comic on SmackJeeves, the “Supers” comic on its own site, and the low-content splash page with different versions of the same comic with the comic buried several clicks deep (or just unavailable on that site)–the intellectual property’s spread pretty wide, and may need to be brought under one roof. Neither here nor there, just a thought.

Anyway! Taco El Gato’s a fun webcomic in the Harold and Kumar/Dude, Where’s My Car mold, with a bright, 90s-retro art style. It’s a fun universe(s) to poke around in, check it out and consider chipping into Candy’s art fund (maybe not at the $100 level, though :) )

Images used with permission of the artist for promotion only, please do not reuse. Follow @furstarter on twitter for the latest fur-friendly crowdfunding projects!

 

 

Crowdfunding dollars for adult content and pornographic projects: Indiegogo, Kickstarter, Offbeatr, Patreon

(So, none of these links are worksafe. Just saying. I’m including a LOT of links here for projects I don’t necessarily endorse, to show the range of what has been acceptable in the past. Primarily this article is addressed to the furry fandom, but the attitudes Kickstarter and Indiegogo have toward pornography, nudity, and sexual content are universally relevant.)

Based on its reputation, It’s easy to see Offbeatr as the 900-pound gorilla in the room when it comes to gathering funds for a furry adult project. Furries have a strong relationship with Offbeatr, almost half their successful projects have been at least fur-friendly, and a high number–well over 20% or so–have been entirely furry.

But percentages do not a success story make: Offbeatr rarely has more than three or four projects funding at any point in time,Their voting system obscures this, but the number of projects funding on Offbeatr at any given time is pretty low. Right now, 2/17/15, it’s zero.) In terms of actual numbers, furries have seen more success on indiegogo and kickstarter, but you can’t fund adult stuff on those websites, right? If it wasn’t the only solution, why would Offbeatr, with 30% transaction fee, confusing prevote period, and creator cost even on a failed project, continue to exist?

Is Offbeatr even viable as a funding source? I’m coming to see it as more the 98-pound gorilla.

Let’s take a look at what I consider the Big Three options for crowdfunding general furry projects, and focus on how they handle adult materials. There are choices. I’m going to make a more in-depth study of Offbeatr, focusing on its strengths, because my argument here is that it’s the weaker option in a level playing field, but it’s important to know what keeps it in the game at all.

Offbeatr

With all the porn around here, I’m not comfortable with the way Offbeatr is staring at me…

For those that haven’t been there, Offbeatr (OB) is the crowdfunding hub for adult and kinky projects. Its structure is a little different from Indiegogo (IGG) and Kickstarter (KS): projects are put to a vote and peer review to see if they are marketable, and maybe they get a critique from potential backers. When the project receives its votes (it needs about $XX/10 votes, there’s actual rules but that’s a ballpark) the project can launch, but OB charges a deposit (about 5% of goal), so if an artist is launching an expensive project and it took a while to get those votes, hey might still back out. Assuming the campaign is successful, OB takes a hefty 30% fee, the artist pockets the remainder, and the project proceeds merrily forward.

One place where OB is strong for visual art forms, and unique to this platform: OB has an online store for digital materials, and the artist can continue to sell their porns art indefinitely through the site. It’s more expensive than going through Paypal, but a nice feature for someone looking for some hands-off, trickle revenue. You might be able to do better on, say, FurPlanet‘s digital storefront, but there’s always the question of whether they’d take your project on.

Is Offbeatr intrinsically furry-friendly? Yes…kind of. A digital product from the world of Furoticon was OB’s first and most successful project, and OB actually approached the Furoticon team to help create that joint opportunity. They have a “furry” category in their digital store–it’s thin, but it’s there. And in my experience, furry projects on OB tend to succeed. But the reality may be that furry is a really well organized (and net-savvy) kink. The amount of energy our web-based resources and con circuit let us throw at a project–and our porn-purchasing power–is totally out of proportion to our actual numbers. Since very few projects actually launch on OB, a successful furry artist’s ability to mobilize warm bodies may skew the results a bit.

A store on Offbeatr, catering to fans of big gay lizards. Tojo seems to be the only furry using the long-term features on Offbeatr.

For reference, here’s my numbers: scanning over the successfully funded projects–from 2012- 2014, there have been about 70 successfully funded projects on Offbeatr. Of those, 17 have been solidly furry/pony projects. Another 14 have been fur-friendly–fantasy/manga with nonhuman characters, pet-play, or fantasy with an anthro option. I haven’t looked at the unsuccessful projects.

What Offbeatr is, is sex-positive, reasonably anything-goes (barring some hardcore stuff–snuff, scat, non-consensual, zoo), and it’s a site that doesn’t mind a character showing some pink. Or neon green. Or watermelon-sized jubblies.

What it’s NOT is a place to fund physical goods. The cost of PP&B (Print, Publishing & Binding) for a book, or…uh…however you go about producing a silicon dragon dong–I’m sure I don’t know and haven’t spent time thinking about it–plus 30% transaction fees, plus shipping. All that adds up to a very low profit margin.

So there are work-arounds. The big obvious is to just go digital. Hard to do with a butt plug, easier with an art portfolio. Another workaround is to use Offbeatr for Stage 1 funding and building an audience (donors get their name the book or their character in a crowd scene, but don’t receive the product until Stage 2–maybe they get a discount coupon in the amount of their donation, or just swag and perks and producer’s credit, leading up to a later project lauch.) But any fundraising professional would tell you: the more complex it is to take your customer’s money, the less money you’ll take. Several projects on Offbeatr have artificially lowered their goal to get around the minimum deposit fee and reduce the voting requirements, but that seems like a disaster in process if you needed that $10K. Since most of the furry projects on Offbeatr are digital art portfolios, goals are more wishes than solid needs. “Deposit Scaling with Goal” is still a deep flaw in Offbeatr’s model.

Representative projects: all projects on OB are adult, but here are some that are particularly fur-relevant: Any of the “Hardblush” projects by Onta, anthro manga-esque bois; “Ex Gender,” a gender-bending wolf with hyper elements; “Go Kemono,” furry/cosplay video projects; “52 Pick Up,” a gay card deck themed portfolio; the whimsical FAPP hyperporn tabletop RPG; and, of course, Furotica Online. Also may be worth seeing Tojo’s Offbeatr shop, but I’m not sure this really counts as “crowdfunded.”

Indiegogo

The concept for the Trivibe bluetooth-enabled vibrator was given to us by a benevolent glowing figure from space…

IGG has always had an “anything goes” ethos, but there are rules. In general, IGG welcomes all kinds of projects–art, technology, nonprofits, begging for handouts, small business startups. And they are okay with adult projects. Their Terms of Service don’t actually address adult content, so the apparent rule would be “as long as you don’t scare the horses.” But there’s evidence that IGG does have rules. This recent article on Crowdfunding from Sydney has a quote from IGG’s Australian representative: ““We have some restrictions – we don’t allow fund-raising for pornography or violence – but otherwise you can raise funds for whatever matters to you.”

Since IGG crowdfunds horror movies–I’m in one–and Dr Dubz has had a lot of success with his rockem-sockem fighting manga “FERAL“–it’s clear this policy is one that they don’t enforce, except as required by negative member feedback.

I have been totally unable to find any official reference to IGG’s adult materials policy. However, when I contacted IGG’s customer service to ask for clarification, I received this response:

Request: #343837, 12/17/13.
Thanks for reaching out. People all over the world use Indiegogo to raise money for all types of campaigns. Indiegogo was founded in 2008 as a global funding platform to help anybody, anywhere, raise money for anything. We provide a technology based platform that enables anybody with an idea (creative, cause related, or entrepreneurial) to create a funding campaign, offer perks to their contributors, and ultimately get their idea funded.

We are not completely opposed to adult content, but as our site is visible to minors, we require that all adult-themed campaigns be discrete. We do not allow nudity or other explicit or graphic content.

Indiegogo and Puppy Pride would like you to know that this is not, technically, pornographic.

While customer service support is rarely official policy, I think this gives a pretty firm guideline for IGG’s approach to adult materials: yes, we allow them. Please be sensible with the amount of nudity in your IGG  project page, kthx. Weirdly, Kickstarter actually does allow nudity, at least artistic nudity, but prohibits pornography. More on that later, but it’s an interesting point of contrast. It seems like IGG would have no problem with a pornographic project, as long as it is appropriately black-barred or the images used were selective.

One place that IGG tops Offbeatr–sex toys. This is likely because of the fees OB charges that makes funding physical items less appealing. Most of them aren’t terribly successful, but in fairness, there aren’t any successful adult toys on Offbeatr, period.

And I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: IGG takes Paypal, and that’s important. In a security-conscious world and with a young and twitchy demographic, non-credit card options are a compelling feature. And the furry demographic is pretty young. So it’s worth noting that Paypal is a definite plus, one of IGG’s advantages over Kickstarter.

In short: IGG is not specifically sex-positive, but it’s sex-permissive. Their “anything goes” policy allows for adult content, as long as an amount of intelligent discretion is used. As per always, your mileage may vary, depending on who finds (and reports) your project, but IGG buries projects pretty deeply. With a little judicious photo-pruning, IGG’s a perfectly serviceable funding platform for most non-hardcore projects.

Also, please see “Paypal” in the discussion of Patreon, below.

Indiegogo: What Other People Have Gotten Away With:

• Joyboxx: a very successful campaign for an adult toy storage device. Some delightful, brightly-colored strap-ons.
• Porn Star Motel Nude Photo Project: Ladies in a motel, not wearing much. Lots of careful black bars in this one.
• Puppy Pride: A puppy-play project, with lots of tails that do not attach via belt loop, and a close-up of someone wearing said tail.
• The Asian Male: Putting the “no nudes” idea to the test, this B&W photo project has plenty of torsos and backsides. So clearly we are selectively defining “nude.”
• The Glov: Next Generation Sex Toy: You know, that’s pretty clearly a penis, although they’re not usually purple and glossy. Also, stick figure sex, which is just strange.
• TriVibe: Big Things come in Small Packages: A toy that syncs up with your smartphone, for extra fun at airport security.
• Porntopia 2014: An indie erotic film festival, and conclusive proof that porn can be carefully crowdfunded.
• Transfinite Productions: A tastefully done project page for a transsexual erotica and possibly advocacy production house.
• Autoblow 2: The animated GIFs for this male masturbation device are hypnotic. Also, a very successful campaign.
• Playbow: This is not the only project I’ve seen on Indiegogo featuring scary animal dongs in loving detail.

Kickstarter

Really, what set me off on this entire article was Kickstarter deregulating its content. Previously, every project on KS was reviewed for business viability and appropriateness of content. Now, it’s a big soup of “what the hell.” However, members can report projects they find offensive, and KS still has stricter policies than IGG, with more prohibited content. And high on that list is “offensive material.”

I have no idea what Offensive Material is. It’s not a meaningful descriptor, it’s a catch-all for anything that might squick grandma. Like all policies, this is not a useful guideline or even one that’s necessarily going to be enforced, but it gives KS’s execs something to point to in the event of a Situation.

They have a rule against offering a genetically modified organism as a reward, but I’m not sure that specifically applies to anthropomorphic foxes.

They also prohibit pornography–and unlike IGG’s “just keep it off the page” attitude, this rule applies to Kickstarter rewards, too. So that’s a pretty stern limitation. However, artistic nude? That’s totally okay. Probably. Maybe.

Once again, I contacted customer service for clarification. The conversation wasn’t very authoritative, primarily because the line between “artistic nudity” and “porn” is in the heart, not on paper.  But perhaps this will be helpful.

Request #371073, 8/5/14. (summarizing a bit for brevity, I was chatty in this email string.)

CORBEAU: “I have a question about how KS’s new policies would apply to adult projects…is it safe to assume that, like IGG, a project is acceptable as long as the image is broadly worksafe?”

KICKSTARTER REP: “In terms of adult content…it would likely need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Generally, as long as a project’s content is not too extreme or offensive in nature, it can be acceptable…I would suggest that your readers reach out to us directly! We’re always happy to discuss potential projects and whether or not they would be a good fit for the site. [Note: “request a staff review” is a function within the Kickstarter project launch process. You can always ask for a review.]

CORBEAU: “Thank you! So there’s no specific rule against adult content but ‘use your common sense.'”

KICKSTARTER REP: “I would agree with that statement! While adult content can be looked at on a case by case basis, our rules do specifically prohibit pornographic content. Although, as I’m sure you know, everyone’s definition on this can differ. For this reason, I encourage people to reach out directly so that we can discuss each individual project.”

From “Bella Nuda” art photography book

So Kickstarter leaves us with the classic, and unanswerable, question of “what is porn/what is art?” But they do have some good staff resources for review and feedback. And to the best of my knowledge, KS has no rule specifically prohibiting nudity, on its pages or otherwise.

I haven’t been able to find quite as many adult projects as I have on IGG. There’s a dearth of adult toys on KS. For a long time their rules specifically blocked medical/health stuff (including eye glasses!) so broadly that may have excluded that sort of thing.  But here’s a modest selection of projects from Kickstarter’s red light district.

I really wanted to include The Naked Truth in this this article, because it depicted full frontal male nudity (not erotic at all, but it was the only page I’d seen that went there.) But it doesn’t go there anymore. At some point the artist edited away the image in question, which was AFAIK a selfie of the photographer reclining on his bed, possibly having a happy thought. The Naked Truth was in part a protest project–the artist contended that it was hypocritical of Kickstarter to allow female nudes, but no male nudes, on their project page. Is that true? I don’t know. But the project was cancelled after only a few days and the page edited to redact the offending member. So…there’s that. It was about as sexual as a medical textbook.

Kickstarter: What Other People Have Gotten Away With:

• Snowflake: The World’s First Customizeable Adult Toy: This one was cancelled after almost a month of funding time, so I suspect the low returns ($350 of $85K) were the cause, rather than KS’s administration. Very abstract toys, not explicit.
• The Naked Hustle: Documentary of the world of exotic dancing. Not actually explicit, but worth noting because of the sexual subject matter.
• Oh Joy Sex Toy!: A whimsical webcomic about sex toys, and sex. Really more educational with a side of risque humor, but it is, again, highly sexual in content. Plus, I really like this webcomic, and they worked with Kyell Gold and Keovi on a furry episode. So this may just be a callout for callout’s sake. “Amanda Lafrenais’s Erotic Comics” is more sex-focused, and still awful cute.
• Bare Strength: Muscular male nudes, the coffee table book. The original video had several strategically placed rocket ships and starbursts, but was (sadly) taken down by the creator, Michael Stokes, for marketing reasons. In a brief email exchange Mr. Stokes confirmed that he had consulted with Kickstarter about the project, and beyond a request not to post graphic material, were supportive.
• Bela Nuda Art Nude Photography: Like the title says, a collection of art nudes. The page is heavily illustrated with, well, female art nudes. It’s classy, but the models aren’t hiding anything here.
• Pornzine: Queer Feminist Erotic Comics. This B&W artporn comic magazine, “a feminist response to pornography,” may be the only product that states that it’s pornographic on Kickstarter. I can’t say for certain.
• Women Draw Penises: Well, I think the title summarizes it. A celebration of cartoon penises as gender commentary.
• The PNS Book: A young man’s guide to his junk, illustrated with so many happy penises.
• Gay Men Draw Vaginas: If this is a joke, it’s a $60,000 one…

Aand, one thing that someone didn’t get away with:

• Soft Paws AB/DL: An adult diaper for diaper play and babyfurs. I’m unsure of exactly why this was cancelled and have contacted the project creator for more information. It seems like the sort of project that would play better on Indiegogo.

Patreon and Paypal?

I’m not clear on Patreon’s policy toward adult projects. According to their TOS, Patreon allows nudity and suggestive imagery, but not pornography. In March, 2014 there was a big uproar when Paypal threatened to pull support for Patreon if they funded pornography. At this point, Patreon asks members who produce adult content to mark their page as “patron only” and use the “private” settings so that the Patreon page doesn’t turn up on search engines. Adult content creators are either unable to or should avoid–I don’t know which–using Paypal as a payment method through Patreon.

Again, the classic question of “what is art/what is pornography.” According to Patreon porn is “material designed with the sole intention of eliciting sexual arousal,” but we here in the Great State of Texas reclassified sex toys as “educational devices” to get around our state’s sex laws (and some people needed a lot of education.) So that’s a pretty much meaningless identification tool. It’s clear that their policies are designed to respond to member complaints rather than any actual pornometric analysis.

Paypal’s actual policies are seriously up in the air. According to Paypal’s terms of service, they reserve the right to pull funding for “certain types of sexually oriented materials or services.” One online article suggests that they might only be policing the Big Illegals like rape, incest, bestiality, and child pornography, and that only if it’s a major theme in a work. An article on Reuters confirms this, but both articles leave some awkward questions.

As far as I know, Paypal has no specific tools to determine the amount of pink showing in a transaction, and that this rule is pretty much unenforceable without the active participation of customers. There’s some brisk discussion of that over on the FurAffinity forums. It’s important for Patreon to say things like “NSFW content cannot be funded through Paypal,” but I can’t see how they’d police it.

So Patreon is in a bit of a gray area. Broadly speaking, creative expression through graphic art and writing seems to be okay if it’s hidden behind curtains, and Paypal’s definition of pornography leaves a lot of safe harbors. Check out the fun fun categories on “Ebay Adult” for some of those safe harbors, I believe Paypal and Ebay are still the same company,.

I personally feel that as long as you’re keeping your extreme materials off Patreon’s servers–either by providing freely available content outside of a Patreon pay-wall, or by providing links to restricted portfolios and using Patreon to provide indirect access to backers–you’re probably okay, Paypal isn’t directly trafficking in pornography, all’s right with the world. But the threat of a Paypal lockdown is a terrible weapon on its own.

Conclusion

There’s no reason to view Offbeatr as the only resource for pornfunding. A lot of web commentary has described Offbeatr as “The Kickstarter for Porn,” but that’s inaccurate–Kickstarter had 19,911 successful projects in 2013 alone, Offbeatr had 70, total, in its 2.5 years. I’m not being flippant: so far as traffic goes, Offbeatr can’t compete. Kickstarter is a quantum shift in terms of scale, and Indiegogo’s right up there with it. But Offbeatr is sex-positive and actively encourages porn, nudity, kink, and furries.

No crowdfunding site will advertise for you. Most of the traffic any project receives is going to be from the sweat equity of its artists, and their extended network. Sure, Offbeatr funds pornographic projects, but is that meaningful? Their most successful project, Furoticon Online, took in $40,000 (subtract Offbeatr’s hefty 30% fee, $29,000). Bare Strength broke $70,000 and the creator’s going to take 90% home with him. Granted, they’re not the same product, or the same market, it’s not a fair comparison (well, it is, because Bare Strength is doing better than any Offbeatr project, ever.) But it does show that an adult product can get some serious traction on Kickstarter.

If you have a project that can sell without relying on explicit nudity to draw eyes, the 20% difference in fees alone makes Indiegogo and Kickstarter a compelling option, and in their own ways both platforms are friendly to adult content. Offbeatr gives the creator a chance to be open and honest about sex, even weird sex involving dog-people. But that openness comes at a high cost.

With thanks to KT Kat for the illustration!

Furstarter is an occasional blog focused on anthropomorphic and furry-friendly crowdfunding through Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Offbeatr, and more. Follow us at @furstarter on twitter for more updates!

From The Faun of Healwood on Indiegogo

This seems to be the Week of the Sidescroller. For those brave and no doubt amazing sidescrolling games I didn’t include, I apologize, but there were so very many of you.

Furry Fiesta! Since TFF is in Dallas, the iconic home of Texas Big Business and two furry publishers, I’d always hoped that Texas Furry Fiesta would open up a “Biz” track–so much of the art of self-publishing, self-promoting, valuation of time and resources, and of course funding is applicable to any artist or creator. It hasn’t happened yet, but there is an impressive block of “the business of furry” on the schedule for Sunday, running from 1:00 (self-publishing panel with Rafferty, the director of Ironclaw‘s Sanguine Games, a short mini-panel that we’ll be sharing, my own hour-long intro to crowdfunding, and a 3:30 “Making a Living as an Artist” with Matthew Ebel. It should be either exciting or a crashing bore, depending on your personal obsessions. I’m looking forward to it, though, and hope to see you there!

This week I’ve been prepping for dressing up and faking expertise by revamping my blog’s themes, updating my Resources page a bit, and working on a four-page handout that’s, well, as much as I can shove into four pages without creating a Wall of Text. It’s everything I wish every artist I was astonished by knew about crowdfunding and market copy. I’m pretty pleased with the final product, looking forward to sharing it at the con. Will post here too!

Reviews this week:the beautiful but doomed Flurry the Bear: Tempest Wind, and the really, really neat African all-furry buddy trip, blog, artbook and nature study, Expanded Horizons–which I believe is at twice its goal now!

.

For a “complete” list of furry/fur-friendly crowdfunding projects, check out the Project Page and Patreon Page! New Projects Art

Blind Bag Stickers (North America) (Ends: 3/8/2015)
The latest sticker collection by Skulldog, one a collection of North American animals–cougars, possums, wolves, with a “create a sticker” tier.
Skulldog now has two successful campaigns on her belt. Oh, three, this one made goal. Always a treat to see her again!

Negg’s Digital Art (Patreon ongoing funding)
Negger and his sometimes cute, sometimes obscene lions come to Patreon. He’s a little bit Osamu Tezuka. I’m torn between putting this under ‘art’ or ‘adult,’ he runs the extremes between innocence and NC17.

Books/Print

Expanding Horizons: Artist’s Journey to Africa (Ends: 3/7/2015)
Eleven creative individuals (including several well-known artists on a journaly, photo-y, sketchy, arty voyage across the Kalahari desert in Botswana.
This is really an amazing opportunity for some artists that I personally feel are seated near the core of the furry fandom.

Children’s Products

Little Monkey, Be You (Ends: 2/28/2015)
A children’s book about unconditional love, monkeys, and life ‘on the spectrum.’
Artwork varies a lot on this one. It’s all good, but sometimes it’s charming and sometimes it’s deep in the Uncanny Valley.

Clothing/Costumes

Kitsune Hoodie (Ends: 2/27/2015)
Swirling fiery red fox spirit wraps over, around, and through this hoodie and its wearer.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Flurry the Bear: The Tempest Wind (Ends: 3/1/2015)
Spinoff comic of the Flurry the Bear children’s series, two red panda brothers on a quest for knowledge. Awesome artwork by Luis Figueiredo.
I love the art, but this project was hamstrung by an awkward campaign model of ‘graphic novel but only at a stretch goal that we haven’t mentioned.’ Phenomenal art, really.

Inner Space (Ends: 3/2/2015)
A graphic novel adventure of a young griffin lost in her own mind, artwork by Maggock

Film/Animation/Theater

The Faun of Healwood (Ends: 3/31/2015)
To rescue her beloved, a young bride has to find a mythical creature. There’s more than a little bit of Pan’s Labyrinth in this one.
This is a beautiful-looking movie, and a tragic victim of poorly used Flexible Funding.

Tabletop Games

Going Native: New World Monsters (Ends: 3/8/2015)
Native American myth monster minis, and a very impressive werewolf. Kind of a nice companion to Skulldog’s North American stickers.

Packs! (Ends: 3/11/2015)
A pocket tabletop RPG about “rodent adventure, horror, and obscurity.” Secret of NIHM without any of the romance….
Somehow making the very ugly world of non-anthro rats 20% cuter.

Video Games

WarRab: Veteran (Ends: 3/10/2015)
A steampunk sidescroller with an armed rabbit.
Very much one person’s dream, but with a low goal just to cover Steam fees

Dropcat (Ends: 3/12/2015)
A cute side-scrolling kitten with a bit of “Bubble Bobble,” a bit of Kirby, and a lot of Hello Kitty. Fun and colorful candy-coated cute.

Wild Howlz (Ends: 4/8/2015)
A gently fantasy wolf pet browser game with art by Animirus
This feels a bit like a newbie campaign, with a low goal and long, two-month pledge period. Nice artwork though.

…Just for fun

Meow Wolf Art Complex (Ends: 3/2/2015): Huge team of artists and George RR Martin team up to make an art installation and interactive story in Santa Fe.
Ungrounded (Ends: 3/11/2015): Superheroes with rocket backpacks, penguins, arctic adventure, and a FLYING POLAR BEAR. In one convenient graphic novel.
Space Cat Café: Catmosphere Sydney (Ends: 4/4/2015): If you happen to be in Sydney–and who isn’t–stop by the Catmosphere and have some coffee with the…uh…catstronauts.

 What’s Corbeau Backing This Week?
Aww…I was backing a snooty version of Cards Against Humanity where players matched word prefixes and suffixes, “Halfwords,” but it collapsed :(

Half the artists go on a creative quest to Botswana…a multimedia journey and collaborative story

Expanding Horizons

Kickstarter ending 3/7/15

Before I get much further, I’m going to say what we must all be thinking: I would love to be on that boat.

Eleven talented artists, storytellers, researchers, travelling to Africa, to a place that in many ways symbolizes the wildness that is (or we wish was) the animal part of our hearts.

Okay, a case could also be made for Yellowstone’s wolf park, but they have lions. And hyenas, meerkats, zebra, African wild dogs…it may not be The Lion King, but it is both Animals are Beautiful People and The Gods Must Be Crazy. And I do love both of those films, but they’re another place, and really, another time, inaccessible, except through stories, film, and art. About that last word…art.  If there’s one thing that binds the fandom together–besides a pathological love of foxes and the way every furry I know has that one doormat–it’s art. We’re a community that builds conversations through art. It’s the world our animal sides live in between conventions. And artists–illustrators, reporters, cartoonists, journalists, and bloggers (represent, yo)–bring that world to life, and in the right circumstances, can bring that world to us.  “Expanding Horizons” began with one artist’s love of Africa. You may know her work–there’s a non-zero chance you’re wearing a piece right now. Foxfeather Zenkova believes passionately that travel and experience feeds art. Not a new idea, but a very true one. And over years, she has gone on ever more complicated trips with larger groups of companions, steering away from fancy hotels and more toward local food and day-to-day life.  “Travel is so important to an artist or writer…what we share is bred from our imagination, fed from our experiences.” In proud defiance of an artist’s lack of vacation time or living wages, Foxfeather and a collection of several other people who live somewhere near the heart of our fandom brought together the money, time, and inspiration to pursue the slightly crazy dream of a backroad trip through Botswana, a land that’s almost half wildlife reserve, a trip five years in the making.  All of that is pretty neat, but the part where they share the journey with the fandom, as it happens–is where it turns from “pretty neat” to “this might be magic.” Enough furry and fur-friendly artists and creatives to fill a very small but exciting convention will set out this April across Botswana, sharing their stories, observations, illustrations, side quests, and the sort of lifetime stories and misadventures you get by throwing a bunch of very different people into an unfamiliar, challenging environment. Lensed through the sidewise words of Ursula Vernon, the luminous art of Balaa, the passion of Utunu and Kikivuli. Lensed through our friends. Part old-school, turn-of-the-last-century travelogue, part blog, part nature journalism, and perhaps just a bit of buddy-flick, “Expanding Horizons” is a journey into the natural world, and, hopefully, a return (although this is the first Kickstarter I’ve seen with “may be eaten by lions” in the “Risks and Challenges” section, so…who knows…)  “Travel power-levels us. It fills us to the brim with exciting new things and we rocket back to our studios TO MAKE THINGS with flames bursting from our hands.” I’m going to close this with a look at the people and/or creatures who are taking this mad visionquest, but first a brief look at the Kickstarter itself. The core product here is the book, “A Creative Sojourn”, loaded with sketches, ramblings, stories…Jackal hair? That’s probably a misprint…and the joy of the journey. Each person making a gift of any real size, $5, gets access to the group’s travel blog on Tumblr. After that, there’s a number of customized rewards–art by Foxfeather, Laura Garabedian, Vantid, given the crew a number of personalized touches would almost have to be on the itinerary. All solid offerings and at pretty reasonable prices, considering the context. Everything here is solid–while this is at heart a “fund the dream” sort of project, the goal is actually quite reasonable for a book of this scope, and the price points are about what you’d expect from talented artists.  The goal of the kickstarter is modest, only $3,500–the single biggest expense of all this–the travel–is already bought and paid for. For the most part, the funds of the kickstarter are dedicated to the production cost of the book, with any overage going to reduce the burden of cost on the artists. Now, who’s on that boat…I do know how to count to 11, but Foxfeather is keeping a few guests as surprises. Foxfeather R. Zenkova lives, graphically speaking, at Foxloft Studios, with more art on FA, and her tagua pendants are pretty much a required part of the furry uniform (I keep coming back to those, but I really like them!). Her travel agenda: surviving scuba diving with sharks, and looking for EVERY BIRD. Laura Garabedian, of FairyTaleswithTails (or on FA), is a watercolor artist out of Colorado. She’ll be livening the book up with sketches and paintings and more than a little storytelling. Roman Zenka posts an ongoing series of comical whimsy as “Mbala” on FA. According to Foxfeather, he has a bit of a zebra obsession, so is clearly going to the right place. He will be contributing comics, photographs, and Czech. Ursula Vernon is a talented fantasist and writer, cartoonist and illustrator. You can have much of the Ursula experience at Red Wombat Studio, although you may enjoy being weirded out by her quirky bite-sized podcast, “The Hidden Almanac,” or the epic webcomic, Digger. The “Expanding Horizons” project will keep her mostly journaling and keyboarding, but…we’ll see. Balaa’s glowing art is just impossible to describe–rich, luminous fantasies. And so many cats.Check her gallery, I can’t do her justice here. You can get a teaser for her long-term graphic novel here, and the “Horizons” trip should be powerful inspiration for her art. Vantid, check her art on FA or AmberHillArt, is a specialist in amazingly realistic wildlife fantasy illustration, with a strong grounding in animal painting and anatomy. Expect to see her filling the role of naturalist, with anatomical studies, movement, bird sketches–and lots and lots of notes on the local food.

 It is distinctly possible that Edwin and Jenine Herrell, alias Utunu and Kikivuli, are the most +favorited couple in the fandom. Both are talented writers, and will be sharing their words, photography, and passion for African wildlife–including their own personal quest to photograph the elusive African wild dog–the four-legged kind, though we may see the couple in their natural habitat. Utunu has also promised to bring me back a hyena, if he can fit one in his luggage, and I’m holding him to this one.

Action-packed family-friendly comic from the universe(s) of the Flurry the Bear novels…

Flurry the Bear

Kickstarter ending 3/1/15

This is, honestly, the best action-anthro artwork I’ve seen in a Kickstarter in the two years I’ve been writing this blog. The artwork is by the stellar Luís Figueiredo, who as you can see from a brief tour of his DA gallery, drank deeply from Eastman and Laird’s Kool-Aid, with a gritty, black and white, high-contrast style that just cries out for a beretta and maybe a soundtrack by Tomoyasu Hotei.

The title character, Flurry, is kind of a marshmallow. Embrace the mystery.

Flurry at left, from “The Throne of Frost”

Backing up to look at Flurry the Bear’s world and the source material created by J.S. Skye. Flurry is, to be a bit reductionist, a stuffed animal brought to life by the magic of Christmas, and still touched by that lingering magic. He’s a cute little booger, appropriate to a tweenies illustrated series. Later he visits tropical jungles, faces an endless winter, gets whisked away to the past and intercedes in a war. Overall, the tone of the series seems to ride the line between kid’s-novel innocence and the kind of darkness you occasionally drop into in, say, Harry Potter (although the series has a “character’s moral development” element that Mr. Potter conspicuously lacked.)

There is a serious tonal shift between Figueiredo’s dark and evocative cover work and the lighthearted images of the earlier covers on Amazon by Alvin Hew.  And somewhere on the path between those two signposts we will find Flurry the Bear and the Tempest Wind, now on Kickstarter.

It looks like the story of Tempest Wind, itself a side-plot leading to Flurry’s upcoming swashbuckling Rising Tide, follows two red pandas from The Book of Snow as they search for a missing friend and uncover a rising evil.

All in all, pretty solid fare for a comic, or a tweenies novel.

While the product looks like it has the potential to be pretty cool, the Kickstarter project has had a rough beginning, and I think I can see why. It’s unclear what the grand vision is for Tempest Wind itself.

Now, time and again, I’ll say “Kickstarter isn’t a shopping cart, but…” and Tempest Wind is caught in that pregnant pause. It’s a comic. It’s an awesome comic, but…but it’s $10 for a digital copy, and $50 for the print version (signed, sure, but that’s a bit steep for 32 pages!) There’s some talk of making the comic a graphic novel if the artists exceed their goal, but at $20K, that looks like a hard road uphill. And thusfar Tempest Wind hasn’t had the burst of first-day funding that we’d want to see in a successful launch.

Flurry 4, The Book of Snow

There’s an element of unclear story here. $20K is a good price point for a graphic novel–a high goal, yes, but achievable (for comparison, here’s a search of Kickstarter’s successful graphic novels–most are way under $20K for their cost.) If they were fundraising for that–and deep down, I think they are fundraising for a graphic novel–$20K would be a good target number for a first-time graphic novel. And the price point of the rewards ($10 digital, $50 signed bound edition) are generally within the scope of a graphic novel project–possibly a little high, but that’s a matter of opinion and personal budget.

When I launched my first Kickstarter project, I was collaborating with a talented artist on relaunching her vision after 10 years of her intellectual property sitting on a shelf, and we went round and round on pricing and goal. The story we ended up telling was “we’re creating an audiovisual story with full color artwork, but our goal is going to be to produce an MP3, and we’ll hopefully raise the money for the full, glorious project down the road.” And that’s a very hard story to tell, because you’re describing the moon, pointing at the horizon, and walking to the corner store at the end of the block. And the same road will take you to the corner store as the moon or the distant hills, but…which story is going to get the entire internet on board for the journey?

It seems like that’s where we are now with Tempest Wind, somewhere between the Emerald City and the fields outside Munchkinland. Add to that the ambiguous target audience of the story, which falls somewhere between The Velveteen Rabbit and the original Ninja Turtles, and you have a very difficult pitch to make to your investors.

I feel that if this was retooled as “Awesome Stand-Alone Graphic Novel (PS, it’s a Flurry Story)” instead of “Maybe it’s a comic, and Flurry’s all over it but probably not appearing in it,” Tempest Wind would be a cleaner sales message. As it is, it’s a project with some challenges. A remarkable project, but one with a rocky road ahead.

 

 

Transitioning to a new blog theme, which is a pretty slick theme but like three pay grades higher than my current level of technical and wordpress knowledge. Please stand by as I try and fix my progress. Thanks!

Because sometimes we fail to keep it classy.

 From “Cats Are Bad At…” on Kickstarter

I’m back and forth on this because I try my darndest to stay positive in this blog, so I’ll just say that there are a few projects out there that show that raw enthusiasm isn’t always going to make goal. I share them with you now. Personally, I think these are all fun projects. There’s a lot of stuff that I’d never even mention because it’s, well, boring.

These are not boring.

Dragons of Avery Isle (Kickstarter ending 2/14/15)
It’s good to have a goal. I’m not sure that $18K for a leatherette release of your first novel is the best one, but hey, dragons.

The art on this one draws me in. It’s very much in the old-school, huge eyes style, popularized by 1970s artist Margaret Keane. The dragons are much in the school of AD&D 2nd Edition’s Monster Manual (Do gold dragons smell of saffron, or does saffron smell of gold dragons? Where do we get saffron, anyway? Are gold dragons involved? What other spices can be derived from dragons? With enough exposition, will I be able to make curry?)

Strictly from a crowdfunding perspective, this one’s special. Three lines of marketing copy, an update that makes my tweets look wordy, and four screens of sample text cut and pasted from the prologue (“There are two Brass dragons, a male that they named Rolin and a female Treawin, which had dull, mottled brown scales at birth.  As time went by, the scales became brassier until they achieved a warm, burnished luster. They had supple, expressive lips.   These were very useful, talkative, fire breathing dragons.  They made their lair in the high rocky caves of the Island.”) 

I like throwing Google the occasional curve ball, so I did a search for “Brass Dragon Lips” (like you do.) Here’s a useful entry from the Drakonika dragon index, itself mostly cribbed from old Dungeons and Dragons sourcebooks.

These are the most gregarious of all dragons, and are famous for their love of conversation. They crave sunlight and dry heat, so they frequent hot, arid regions, particularly sandy deserts. They like to make their lairs in high, rocky caves.

Brass dragons have dull, mottled brown scales at birth. As time goes on, the scales become more brassy until they reach a warm, burnished appearance. Brass dragons have supple, expressive lips. These are very useful, as they like to do lots of talking. They can breathe fire.

This may be the first self-published fantasy novel with an extensive bibliography to avoid copyright infringement. I am curious about what one might use brass dragons, or their lips, for, they are useful after all. I wonder if FurAffinity has any ideas.

Drakdrek (Kickstarter ending 3/7/15)
Basic strategic marketing tip, don’t use “drek” in your project title. There are better syllables. Also, don’t do a Google image search for “drakdrek” at work, because the nearest match is “draadtrek,” which is apparently Afrikaans slang for certain special private-time games. But I digress.

There’s parts of the Drakdrek story that I can get behind, an artist/writer following her dream, a person who’s been writing since she was a teenager. That’s all cool, and we’re part of a maker fandom. Sharing your work is how you develop. That said, not everybody’s teen novel is the next “Eragon,” and not even Eragon was Eragon before three years of editing (time which Drakdrek’s creator has spent working on another six graphic novels.)

The Drakdrek kickstarter project page is very short on details, but you can learn a bit more about the universe on the author’s “about” page. I suspect there’s a little “lost in translation” here, I think the author is Hungarian. Drakdrek is a dimension higher than the there we live in, which is ruled by cosmic peacekeepers who recruit teenagers into a fighting academy as peaceful warriors preventing interdimensional war. At least that’s what I’ve gathered. At the end of the day, I’m only really sure of swordfighting warrior wolf women on demon-horses.

I don’t know…I feel bad about speaking negatively about someone’s art, because art is personal and v-e-r-y few people are born artists (my own writing at age 15? Pretty bad…). Beer is a lot more palatable after a month of brewing than it is when it goes into the keg. But when you turn your art into a financial ask, it feels a little different. I always found Furbid Horrors than Furaffinity Horrors. “Pay me for this” is a much higher standard than “I’m learning, here is where I am in the process.”

Wisdom of the Dragons: The Beginning (Kickstarter ending 2/4/15)
Actually, this one’s doing okay on Kickstarter, with 30 backers and $1000 in the bank. It’s a far cry from goal, but not a bad first time out. And the page is reasonably well-organized and presented.

WOTD:TB is a medieval fantasy, chock full of dragons. Well, dragon hybrids. There’s lion-dragons, wolf-dragons, zebra-dragons, owl-dragons (?) which just goes to show what the furry fandom has long known, dragons will hump anything that moves. Though this is a young adult novel, I don’t think it’s going to go there.

The content here is kind of disjointed, and I haven’t quite got a sense for the why of it. The writing samples are just kind of off. When I think “writing sample” I imagine a  a few solid pages of text, maybe an illustration or two–possibly even the first chapter. Enough to get a sense for the what-it-isness of the thing. I don’t recall ever seeing one-sentence writing samples, such as:

“The dragons had hoped to introduce themselves decades into the future to give this new civilization time to mature and develop their own balance and peace.” 

and

“Men in armor had begun filling the square, their swords begun beating on their shields in fear and anger.”

Out of context, these don’t really tell a story, or give me a sense of the author’s flow of language. The others are chopped up with parentheticals to try to put them back into context that they don’t stand as writing samples anymore. Every time I see something made into verbal confetti like this I have more questions about what was left out than what’s been given to me.  The overall feeling I get is a disconnection from the great conversation that is young adult fantasy literature and it’s amazing, Potter-driven renaissance. Little things like these funny fragmentary writing samples. Big things like the project creator pointing to his LinkedIn account instead of a loving page of world-building and character bios (his background as an app developer just isn’t as relevant to the story that is his Kickstarter page as, say, the history of the wolf-dragon clan might be.)

I’m not being funny here, and I wanted to be, but this is an important note for all would-be kickstarters. Who you are as a creator is as important as the project is. Authors should show that they are madly, passionately in love with writing and their world, and that they’re a long way down the trail of madness that is writing and publishing. An author who can’t fall back on their craft to show who they are may not be ready for the circus stage that is fundraising and self-publishing.

Good job on that whole light-hearted post, Corbeau. Want to try again next week? Okay. Maybe we will.

Reviews this week: First-Person Shooter fun with “RetroBlazer,” wordless feline slice-of-life with “Tabby,” and a NSFW post about adult toy startups

.

For a “complete” list of furry/fur-friendly crowdfunding projects, check out the Project Page and Patreon Page! New Projects Art

Forest and Star Dragons (Ends: 2/9/2015)
Art featuring two powerful elemental dragons, nearly photo-realistic.
If you like these dragons, you might want to check out the artist’s card game and DA

Books/Print

The Lycanthrope Club II (Ends: 2/10/2015)
Illustrated novella of the adventures of a group of teenage werewolf girls. See Volume 1 at DaemonEye Publishing

Cats Are Bad At… (Ends: 2/25/2015)
A cute little cartoon book about the many, many skills that cats lack.

Children’s Products

Work for Biscuits (Ends: 2/26/2015)
Cute book series about service dogs for kids, by Laura Numeroff, author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Clothing/Jewelry

Cheshire Cat Tees (Ends: 2/8/2015)
Tee featuring the trippy blue/purple fading feline and the “Jabberwocky” poem.
I’m kind of a sucker for the Cheshire Cat.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Globcow (Ends: 1/30/2015)
(Relaunch) An American manga comic about a little demon who escapes the underworld to earn his angel wings.

Film/Animation/Theater

The Tailless Fox (Ends: 3/14/2015)
Stop-motion plasticine animation of Hovhannes Tumanyan‘s foxy fairy tale.

I Am The One ()
Stop-motion paper animation music video from New Zealand. Very compelling! There’s a cute anthro fox trumpet-player in there somewhere.

Tabletop Games

The Kingswood (Ends: 2/18/2015)
Family-friendly tabletop game about building roads and tricking your opponent (Kind of Carcassonne, but with anthro sloths and llamas)

Exploding Kittens (Ends: 2/19/2015)
A silly “Russian Roulette with Kittens” game with art by TheOatmeal
Wow. At $3 million after four days, this silly card game is the 10th most funded project on Kickstarter ever, with almost a month left on the clock.

Schrödinger’s Cats (Ends: 2/19/2015)
The OTHER silly card game about kittens and death. Or not death. I don’t know, it’s hazy.
Poor guys. I’m sure they didn’t mean to go against exploding kittens, it’s not their fault.

MajiMonsters (Ends: 2/23/2015)
A tabletop game based on the monster-trainer anime concept. Fun artwork, if a little rough. More on the MajiMonsters website.
Although nothing will beat “Cute & Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters” for best title…

Ultimum (Ends: 3/21/2015)
A distant-future tabletop RPG of a far-evolved earth, with anthro races and lots of web-based tools and options.
This is a bit of a stretch, but the creator has been agressively reaching out toward furries, so that’s a thing. Unfortunately the Kickstarter focuses more on tech than story.

Toys

Four Horsies of the ‘Pocalypse (Ends: 2/18/2015)
Designer toys featuring the four ponies of the Apocalypse. Fun/scary project by Big Shot Toyworks.

Video Games

RetroBlazer (Ends: 2/22/2015)
A fast-paced sci-fi/Egypt themed FPS with a great visual scheme and lots of anthros.

Adult

Playbow Toys (Ends: 2/25/2015)
PlayBow Toys (NSFW) makes detailed and realistic 3D-printed adult toys, but first, they need a 3D printer.

Alder’s Toy Chest (Ends: 3/18/2015)
Custom toy maker Aldereen gently inserts himself into the adult toy market.

…Causes

Brony-based fundraising for Wildlife Learning Center (Ends: 2/21/2015): The Wildlife Learning Center launched an Indiegogo nonprofit project for their wildlife rescue center, looking to the Brony community for support. Halfway to a $30K goal! That “meetup with Lauren Faust” probably helps…

…Meh

Dragons of Avery Isle (Ends: 2/14/2015): It’s rare to find a person who is a talented author and artist, both. I don’t think we’re there yet. But the huge-eyed dragons are amusingly 70s. Kind of the Margaret Keane of dragons.
Drakdrek (Ends: 3/7/2015): The artwork is astonishingly, delightfully bad in this 6-volume fantasy series. ProTip for success: don’t use the word “drek” in your book title.

…Coming Soon?

Lunakia’s Card Deck (Not yet launched): Artist Lunakia working on a new anthro card set, with a potential launch on Kickstarter down the road…

…Just for fun

Love Me Nice (Ends: 2/18/2015): A comic about the lives of cartoon actors and the lives characters lead off-screen. Cute monkey!
L33tStr33t Boys (Ends: 2/26/2015): The 4th album for otoku boy band L33tStr33t Boys. They have a song about pocky :)

 What’s Corbeau Backing This Week?
I love love LOVE the Electro-Swing music genre, it’s sort of what happens when Betty Boop goes techno. So I jumped on this fun-looking kickstarter for Vorteque’s upcoming ES album. Heck, I’d buy it anyway…