FurStarter

Lobodestroyo

Take the mix-and-match collecting madness of Metroid: Samus Aran, the boss-battle structure of pretty much any MegaMan title, the graceful and elegant moves of Banjo-Kazooie, a dash of Earthworm Jim’s humor, and just a pinch of Mexican “Luchador” wrestling. Roll generously in wolf fur and serve half-baked. Hello,  Lobodestroyo. 

Lobo is a platformer/collectathon game straight out of the Nintendo 64 period. The legendary “El Lobodestroyo” is the guardian of Costa Lucha, an island prison for mad villains–a hero and a champion of JUSTICE. You, unfortunately, are not him, nor any of his more talented brothers or pack members. You’re Mutt, the somewhat dim runt of the litter. But when the villains break free, the pack vanishes, the awe-inspiring trophy belt is scattered to who knows where, and the island is infested by angry, evil chihuahuas (who actually are more pathetic than you), Mutt is there to bounce, tumble, and blunder his way to something resembling a triumphant rescue.

What’s to like–well, for all his retro-rendered clunk, the main character has a lot of amiable charm. He’s appealingly goofy, and would have fit the aching, wolf-shaped void between Starfox and Sonic. It’s loaded with anthropomorphic villainy, and I’d love to see what some of the Big Bads look like fully realized. The developers seem to have a strong sense of humor (will it translate into the game? That’s one of those unknowables…) And the soundtrack from Gooseworx sounds like it’ll be a very good thing, from the artist’s clips (campy retro title sequence here).

Concerns–can a game be too retro? I was a fan of the source material back in the early 90′s, and I’m totally in favor of beating up bosses and stealing their costumes for special powers (in fact, it cost me my last job.) But looking at the screenshots and such, there’s a cynical part of me that wonders if putting the word “Retro!” in big letters is a smokescreen in front of an underfunded graphic department. Hard to say–only game play and a look at the final product would answer that one.

Visit the page on Kickstarter, though, and take a look at the trailer video. Good sense of humor, comic timing, and a nice look at the game in progress. Worth the time even if you’re not able to chip in.

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

Cute cartoon cats are awkward, sad, joyful, real people too…

Bittersweet Candy Bowl

Welcome back to high school. Crushes, math finals, personality contests, it’s all here. Like the author says, her webcomic, Bittersweet Candy Bowl, is “a funny, sweet, and sad story about friendship, history essays, and unrequited love.” The strip’s a journey through adolescence with a charming herd of cats–at this point, the cast of characters (like the cast themselves) is somewhere in the high teens.

Why isn’t he wearing pants? Am I the only one who notices?

It’s a rich universe–the art is often reminiscent of the moment in a serious anime when a character reveals his foolish side (and maybe in high school, you’re always  showing your foolish side), but the story’s deep, with real struggle, pain, and loss mixed in with awkward crushes. It’s almost as if the charm of the characters serves as a constant foil to their lives. 

Or maybe fuzzy animals are just cute. Hard to say.

Anyway! Author/artist Veronica Vera’s kickstarter serves a couple of different functions. Firstly, it’s a pre-order and print capital campaign for volume 3 of the Bittersweet Candy Bowl series, a book that extends the webseries with a nice recap, extra illustrations, touchups to art and dialogue, and a bonus chapter. Secondly, it offers new readers a nice place to jump in, with a discounted price on Volume II, a solid intro for newbies (though the kind people of the candy bowl have provided a convenient introduction, but in a series that’s been running continuously since 2009, it probably leaves a bit out.)

Also, for fans and followers of the series, it’s also a chance to help upgrade the web hosting of the site itself–a portion of your gift goes to the purchase a new mini-server for faster, stronger, and cheaper hosting. Pledges at the “Server Patron” level get to be a part of BCB history, with their own special touch etched into the server. You may not be ablet o take that one home with you, but it’s an interesting bragging point.

Somehow, I think this one’s going to be successful. Vera’s other two kickstarters (including “Not Enough Rings,” one of the first projects I covered here) have all been wildly successful. But with the need to upgrade BCBs internets backbone, every bit over goal helps.

On a personal note, my home town has no shortage of fine comic books, but except for established titles, mostly action titles like TMNT or big-breasted cheesecake from Radio Comics, indy furry material’s actually been scarce for the last few years. So it was a special pleasure seeing a sweet, warm slice of life title like Bittersweet Candy Bowl on the shelves. Real-life comic titles are making a lot of inroads in the indy comic world, but not so much in the furry space. Thanks, Vera, and good luck!

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

Trying out some new ideas with a new format this week, so bear with me if there’s a few changes!

New Reviews

Some halloween fun with Call of Catthulu, small furry animals against the forces of madness; bovine uberviolence in Killgore; and on a lighter note, crime-fighting canines with A Piggy’s Tale.

New Projects

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

Naomi Bolger’s Art Collection (Art. Ends: 11/12/2013)
Art portfolio by furry artist SkyeStockings

Skullgarden Linocut Print Project (Art. )
Woodcut-style prints of animal skulls in natural or fantastic settings

Kara Kangaroo’s Candy (Children’s Products. Ends: 12/17/2013)
“Coping with Divorce” book-to-animation where kangaroo parents help their child navigate this difficult situation. (Kangaroo daddies have dark, slightly villainous moustaches. #themoreyouknow)

Between the Pages (Comics/Graphic Novels. Ends: 12/13/2013)
A retelling of the Christian YA Fantasy “Genesis” into a universe of colorful anthro characters

Let The Fur Fly (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 11/10/2013)
A fandom-friendly Rom-Com feature film, an outsider finds friendship and love in a community of outsiders.

The Blanche Cart Comic Project (Print. Ends: 12/13/2013)
Interestingly abstract comic book/portfolio of artist Julian Bynoe, creator of the Hounds of Love Webcomic. (Actually, Julian has several furry webcomics. Interesting!)

Daring Do Books (Print. Ends: 12/28/2013)
AlmanacPony‘s adaptation of MLP’s “Daring Do” stories into young-reader friendly novels.

Call of Catthulu Delux (Tabletop Games. Ends: 12/2/2013)
A roleplaying game about simple cats (and, at $10,000, even simpler dogs) fighting against cosmic horrors (Already funded!)

Save the Tapir Preservation Fund (…Causes. Ends: 12/28/2013)
Because long noses are really, really cute, and you can join the “Friends of Odd-Toed Ungulates.”

Weapon Brown (…Just For Fun. Ends: 11/30/2013)
In the dark future of the newspaper funnies there is only WAR. Funny pages characters reenvisioned as mutants fighting for survival. With battle-action Marmaduke.

Explodimals (…Just For Fun. Ends: 12/2/2013)
A platformer/puzzler where the animal head YOU designed bounces through a world of obstreperous animal heads. Just watch the video. It’ll make either more or less sense. We at Furstarter may just like the name “Explodimals.”

The Metagame. Discuss. (…Just For Fun. Ends: 12/4/2013)
Mullets will save the world. An Apples-to-Apples/Cards Against Humanity style card game about culture and peculiar questions. This style of game always seems to dominate local furry gatherings…

Ryuutama: Natural Fantasy RPG (…Just For Fun. Ends: 12/15/2013)
A gentle Tabletop RPG in the style of Miyazaki’s fantasy films, where the background NPCs finally get their time in the spotlight. With feline Neko-Goblins!

 

Noble superdog and ignoble supercat save lives through the power of empathy and possibly a hairball gun

A Piggy’s Tale

V-e-r-y loosely based on real life events, A Piggy’s Tail, now on Kickstarter, is the action-packed graphic novel story of a good-hearted canine working to rescue and heal animals–and people–in need.

In real life (generally not as fun as the comic version), Piggy was a collie mix that was rescued by the good people of Darwin Animal Doctors, the first animal hospital in the Galapagos Islands (and for a “Where’s Waldo” moment, you can look for the comic version of founders, Tod and Andrea, in the elevator speech video). After being hit by a car, he was rescued by Tod and Andrea, and one of his legs was amputated–after he was shaved he looked like a pink piglet. Thus, “Piggy.”

I’m not sure if there’s more to Piggy’s origin story, but his comic book adventures have been filtered through the Ethan Young, artist for the vegan superhero indie comic “Tails” and not too bad at drawing anthros. After a little creative reworking, Piggy gets a few powers–most important to the story (and I suspect, inspired by the real life pup), his empathy lets him feel other creature’s physical and emotional distress, a sort of fuzzy spider sense. (I know, some spiders are fuzzy, but let me have this one.)

He can also fly, which isn’t generally part of a dog’s power set. That’s okay.

Piggy seems like he falls into the doggy mode of “noble, good-hearted, and trusting,” but his malevolent sidekick Simon, a cat with what I hope is a hairball cannon (otherwise it’s launching lumps of green soggy splatty stuff and I do not want to know what that is…) picks up the slack in terms of street smarts and, I’m guessing, one-liners. Together, they’ve got a great team, ready to clean up animal cruelty and undistress distressed children.

So far as the Kickstarter goes, it’s a nice little package, with some unusual pledge points–there’s the usual swag, tees and stickers and print/PDF, original sketches, walk-on roles in the comic, all those perks that tend to come with a graphically-intense project. But Kickstarters might also get the Piggy theme song by singer/songwriter Rose Lovell, and the Piggy video game. With the Piggy tee, totebag, and theme song, you can totally live the Piggy lifestyle.

All in all, Piggy’s a cute story for young comic readers, and a charming little book for canine fans, well worth a look.

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

 

Animated action gorefest with 1,800 pounds of psycho beefcake…

Somewhere in Texas, a bull with nothing to lose takes on the forces of Big Beef, armed with nothing but horns and bad attitude. And a machine gun. Bullets blast through the cheap corrugated steel of the slaughterhouse door…a dark figure strides in, the floor shaking under his hooves…and the workers know that, somehow, it’s going to get a lot bloodier.

Killgore’s creator, Joseph King, launched the Killgore Kickstarter to fund a series around his bovine action hero. Maybe you saw the original Killgore pilot? This isn’t Ferdinand.

I probably needed those…

Once upon a time there was a field of bulls, cared for and loved by the benevolent overlords of Happy Cow Inc. Meat Processing Plant. They were, in all probability, content, because that kind of defines cowness. And it was all totally peachy until slaughtering time. FYI. slaughtering time is a rough point in any cow’s life. Killgore woke in an empty field in a pool of his own blood, left for dead AND castrated, so there’s worse things than being left for dead. His herd, his entire family, slaughtered. Now he’s got a thirst for vengeance and a machine gun, and castration does NOTHING to curb aggression. And that’s just the pilot episode.

Killgore: The Series has some challenges. First, it’s expensive–while King has the price broken out pretty cleanly, (great infographic, Mr King). and assures us that it’s actually on the low end for professional animation, $40K is a hard target to hit, and that’s just the one episode.

On the subject of high pricetags, one of the Killgore pledge points may actually be the single best “gimme” ever. You know how the action lead drops really terrible one-liners in every scene? Like “I’m taking you to the bank…the blood bank!” (thanks, Steven Seagall). Did you ever want to write one? For the low, low, scandalously low cost of $5000 (gulp!) you can have YOUR bad cow pun dropped like a precious pearl from the lips of a Killgore character. Now, that may not be worth $5000, but it IS pretty damned awesome.

Killgore: Because a bull’s gotta do what a bull’s gotta do.

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator. 

A tabletop roleplaying game of cats and madness…

“In its flawless grace and superior self-sufficiency I have seen a symbol of the perfect beauty and bland impersonality of the universe itself, objectively considered, and in its air of silent mystery there resides for me all the wonder and fascination of the unknown. The dog appeals to cheap and facile emotions; the cat to the deepest founts of imagination and cosmic perception in the human mind.”  – “Cats and Dogs,” Howard Phillip Lovecraft

It’s not exactly a secret that H.P. Lovecraft really liked cats. In his strange story-poem, “Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath,” cats save the protagonist, Randolph Carter, from the servants of chaos and evil. We have to assume Randolph had a can opener or something.

Now, a group of 3-5 players and a Cat Herder can continue the good fight in Call of Catthulu, and take on the furry minions of dark powers like Mutt’thra, Hastpurr, and even Great Catthulu, protecting the frankly somewhat stupid two-legged food providers from their dark influences. Of course, you can get the original rules now (and they’re on special!) but if you want the DELUXE version, you’ll have to wait a few months, since it’s on Kickstarter now.

COC is a rules-light tabletop RPG, good for newcomers to the hobby–unlike, say, D&D or furry favorite Ironclaw, there’s less than 2,000 pages of book to slog through, and characters are really a few short descriptive sentences. And, amazingly, they’re just cats. There’s the echo of the RPG “character class” tradition–catcrobats and scrappers, prophetic tiger dreamers, human-studying and remote-control-pressing twofootologists, charming pussyfoots. But they don’t throw fireballs or wield swords. As with its antecedent Bunnies and Burrows, these are simple animals against a harsh world.

It’s a little silly. Any game with the god “Snarlathotep” isn’t going to be entirely serious, but it shouldn’t be dismissed as a total ha-ha. The comic series Beasts of Burden shows how effective and frightening the “pets against darkness” trope can be (and it’s better for dog lovers).

The game really captured players’ imaginations at the big RPG Con Gencon. Part of this might be the game’s strengths of simple rules and easy-to-grasp concept, and may not play well long-term. But it’s bound to be a charming read, and the Kickstarter’s already past goal with a month to go.

One pledge level that’s TOTALLY worth a callout: the $50 “Pimp My Pet” level. This one gets you a cthulhu-compliant version of your dog or cat, tentacle-enabled. Who doesn’t need that in their lives?

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

Night In The Woods

A black cat with a baseball bat explores a strange world that just might be about to end…

Three friends have told me about the awesomeness of this particular project, and as I’m writing this it’s doubled its goal of $50,000 in just three days. So, clearly, Night in The Woods is the fur-friendly kickstarter of the week.

NITW is a 2D, sandboxy exploration-adventure game centered on Mae, a cat who’s returned home to a life of amiable, aimless anger in the dying mining town of Possum Springs, the town she grew up in. Things have changed. Things have remained the same. People have moved on, and just maybe Mae hasn’t. It’s a game about the end of the world, but if that’s the sleepy world of Possum Springs, Mae’s slacker existence, or the literal world, it’s anybody’s guess.

The animation style is simplistic, cutouts on a 2D background, but the world is complex, with a town to explore, a full cast of characters, a world that’s creepy and rich, itself just a bit strange around the edges (I’m reminded of the bizaare “anytown but thank god not MY town” of Welcome to Night Vale–in fact, the animator for the game designed Night Vale’s logo) with stranger things in the woods, and a dreamlike astral plane that Mae finds herself opening up to as the story develops.

This looks like animator Scott Benson‘s first video game, and it’s off to a tremendous start. You can see some of his animation on his website. Producer/developer Alec Holowka has a somewhat larger VG portfolio, including another dreamlike 2D game, Paper Moon. Tim Burton, we’re waiting for you to produce the movie. Get on it.

A dark graphic novel project for sci-fi/horror fans and Lovecraft buffs…

The Shuttered City

In a distant, dystopian future now on Kickstarter, mankind has come full circle, where technological wonder has created the same dark shadows we sheltered from in our cro-magnon days. The human race has splintered into races, sub-races, slave-races. Most–certainly all that that can–live in the Empire of Man. The rest fall between the cracks, to backwaters like the dark and brooding city of Sylvanshire. This is the beginning of the dark world of Justin Sadur’s Shuttered City.

Our story revolves around Leland, a low-chimera, a rabbit-like member of a caste created as slaves or pets. In what of his story has been revealed (a large part of book 1 is on DeviantArt, and the older Shuttered City webcomic carries some of the same ideas, but seems to have evolved over the years–still, clues to the mystery), his life as a chimera puts him at the whim of the higher casts, a life easily discarded, a toy or even a lab animal–and there’s something deeply wrong with the inhabitants (people?) of Sylvanshire.

The influence of classic horror writer H.P. Lovecraft is unmistakable on the pages of Shuttered City–the gloomy outline of the port city of Sylvanshire and its warped inhabitants echo the city of Innsmouth in Lovecraft’s Massachusetts. But Lovecraft is nearly a school of literature on his own, with material to inform any number of dark fantasies. It’d be hard not to invoke old HPL in a story where the main characters feel hopeless in a vast, nearly infinite, world with secrets buried in every alley, grave, and probably flower pot.

Shuttered City is not without its flaws. The artist seems to be at his most natural and comfortable with the two main characters, and like many anthro artists comes across as uncomfortable with humans. At least in the earlier pages of the comic, anyway, Sadur’s art evolves over time. In a way, this works to the comic’s advantage, since it gives his humans an off-putting alien vibe. On the other hand, the book might have a hard time surviving outside the fandom. But when he works with the main characters, their expressions are vibrant, haunted, and alive.

(I’m not complaining, I like eye candy as much as the next dog, but does it seem like Leland spends half his time wearing just shorts or skivvies?)

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

It’s important to give kids the vital foxes they need for a strong, healthy future. Pediatricians–at least the reputable ones–recommend 3-6 foxes every day for children between the ages of 4 and 6. Give them a head start on life with these projects.

Foxy For(): The Very Young Programmer (VYP) Book

Once upon a time, there was a happy couple, a magazine editor and a computer programmer,  who had a child. And they cared for that child very much, and like every parent, wanted their child to have a firm grasp of the fundamentals of object-oriented programming.

You know.

So the VYP Project was born. This is a hands-on book that, through repetition and problem-solving, communicates some basic programming ideas to children (target audience, ages 4-6). The story is simple: The title character, Foxy for, has a job  to do: he needs to go to the store to get a stack of boxes–four of them, no more, no less. But he can only carry one at a time, so he loops back to the store until he’s completed his epic quest.

Along the way, he presumably counts up to four, but the book describes his quest first with narration, then the coding that his trip represents, with values set to variables, loops, if statements, greater thans, and all the important things in life. There’s also manipulative pieces, blocks and things to move around, an interactive element that helps kids get deeper into the process.

The text has a sing-song, rhyming quality that emphasizes the repetition of the process (I’m a sucker for internal rhymes, so, yay.) The art’s cute, though it looks like they only have a single fox graphic at present. Maybe that’s not super-important, but we could wish for more than. Unfortunately, I think the goal is a little high for a book project–$50,000 seems somewhat unreachable. Educational projects can be expensive, what with the small print runs and fiddly little attached bits, but the Kickstarter economy may not bless a new project with that kind of funding.  Anyway, visit the project, I don’t want to spoil the if(trip<=4){end.

Foxotic

“Foxotic? There’s no such place.  Mr. Wonka, I am a teacher of geography.”

“Oh, well, you’d know all about it. What a place it is. Nothing but foxes.”

Victim of a drive-by waterballooning

Foxotic is very much in the children’s puzzler-exploration-decoration genre, a MMORPG with a huge range of stores to visit and things to buy, puzzles to do and an unreasonably bright color scheme. However, and here’s the big however, it’s entirely populated by foxes. There is no reason for this, except that foxes are pretty damned cute. As I understand things, a meteor struck the earth in the middle of the Pacific ocean. After many thousands of years, a fox-filled tropical island–probably slightly whiffy–was the result.

So, for the record, foxes come from space.

Early sabre-tooth fox inhabitants of the island

The game, which is currently in beta, isn’t for everyone. But it is fun to glance over, maybe watch the trailer for, and it’s got some good stuff going for it. The characters are cartoony and goofy, but occasionally rise up from the depths of flash animation to be warm and appealing. It’s got some educational aspects–some of the games and missions have learning elements and cooperative aspects, though from the look and the trailer, it averages out to be a fun, kid-friendly hangout, with silly little games and things to purchase with the gold you win (I suspect King Lucky of Foxotic Land has opted out of pure capitalism for a government-subsidized sidequest-based economy.) Not that there’s anything wrong with “cute child-friendly hangout” as a goal. So rating: three stars, but something over a thousand foxes.

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

New Projects

Click for a complete list of current projects!

Adventures in Shapeshifting (Audio. Ends: 10/25/2013)
A folk music project featuring positive songs about animals (in most animal folk songs, the animal meets a messy end).

A Breed Apart Clothing Co. (Clothing/Costumes. Ends: 11/15/2013)
Obnoxious “breed pride” shirts for the dog-lover or possibly dog in your life.

Old Man and Talking Dog (Comics/Graphic Novels. Ends: 10/25/2013)
“Six weeks left to retirement” cop and his talking K-9 unit fight evil brain mutants in this sci-fi police partner comic (Kind of art-meh, but too fun not to visit)

Radio Brony Minicon (Events. Ends: 11/13/2013)
Bronycon launching in Paris, with a “theatrical release” of MLP4e1 and Fighting is Magic tourney. (It’s good to know there are silly people in Paris, too.)

Bee & Puppycat: The Series (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 11/14/2013)
Webseries for the popular “Bee and Puppycat” intergalactic babysitting, magical-girl-transforming, animated short. (Amazingly halfway to a $600,000 goal!)

Dead Meat (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 11/16/2013)
Post-apocalypse “R-rated” live action puppet series with gore, comedy, romance, and exploding puppets. (By Maxwell Atoms, creator of Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Good video BTW!)

March of the Art Dolls (Toys. Ends: 11/7/2013)
Wolly and unique velociraptor art dolls (Kickstarter relaunch of a previous project. Isn’t it usually the other way around?))

Churbles: 3D RPG (Video Games. Ends: 11/17/2013)
Fantasy turn-based RPG with fighting hamsters and cute antagonists. Only hamsters can be this cute.

MarlyGecko (Video Games. Ends: 12/10/2013)
Platformer in the original “Sonic” style with lots of cute critters originally launched as a web game

Protect Siberian Tigers (…Causes. Ends: 11/16/2013)
Campaign to protect, house, and feed a sanctuary of Fussian Siberian Tigers, and establish a breeding program. Good photos! Pledge points are kind of lackluster, but it’s for the tigers.

Dragon Dolls (…Coming Soon?. Not yet launched)
Tiny dragon ball joint dolls from Bladespark (as seen on the 9/8/13 post)

Play AR (…Just For Fun. Ends: 12/14/2013)
Augmented reality video gaming, with easily-programmed games for the global community. The “play as your avatar” feature needs some work, but might be the beginning of a good thing.

 

Gritty action and cheerfully smutty comedy: Feral vs. Peter Is the Wolf. Fight!!

Rising FERAL star Hayley Rosa declined my interview request for this week’s column…

Two fun manga projects this week, on opposite ends of the comic spectrum. Feral is a fast-moving, action-packed story set against an underground fighting ring, a story of competition, skill, honor, and more than a little bloodshed. Peter Is the Wolf is a humorous, sexy, occasionally sticky romp, with lecherous monster hunters, awkward love triangles, and a remarkable ability to walk the line between “cute” and “NSFW.”

And then a bunch of other stuff.

FERAL

On the border of legality, somewhere between the dark streets of Alta and the city propped up by the its blood-stained cash flow, the FERAL fighting circuit–decades old, “underground” in that special, completely public, sense of the word–thrives. An industry unto itself, it brings in fighters and fans from across the world. Its champions are, above all, skilled, brutal, tough, but still honorable–the strong and quick survive, but only those who play by the circuit’s code thrive.

Enter Hayley Rosa–proud, competitive, and until Alta City, undefeated.  Her record was unbroken until she took on Dr. Brandt, current champion of the FERAL circuit. After her humiliating defeat she signed onto the underground fight circuit’s lists, a journey to beat Brandt at his own game–physically, she’s tough enough to take on FERAL, with a hard punch (believe me, I know), the pain tolerance of a monk, and enough grim determination to fuel a trilogy of Bruce Willis films, but FERAL isn’t just about fists and reflexes, and Hayley’s rage, her need to win at any cost, and her poisonous past may defeat her when the fight ring can’t.

Artist Dr. Dubz’s IGG campaign, Feral: The Next Fight is his second journey into Alta City. The first indie comic came out early this year, featuring Hayley’s entrance and crushing defeat. Dubz is polishing and expanding issue one, and getting ready to launch issue two, both through the indie manga publisher, Gashu Group. There are some good pledge points–a walk-on part at the $70 level, FERAL style commissions (“Be aware that FERAL law requires horns and claws to be blunted, and wings bound…”), and the unfortunately sold-out multi-page fight sequence. Pity about that one going!

I’m a little conflicted about one of the stretch goals, full color work by the artist Neko-Maya, who’s done some of the cover work for the series. She is, in fairness, the sort of awesome the series would do well to have, but Dubz’s B&W work is both ferocious and easy on the eyes–would coloring change that? Hard to say.

Peter Is the Wolf: Living In the Doghouse

On the other end of the spectrum, a story of love, laughs, and big, big breasts, Peter is The Wolf. PITW is the webcomic brainchild of writer/editor Kris Overstreet and artist Ben Rodriguez/Bar-1. It’s solidly in the American Manga tradition, reminiscent of Ninja High School and some of Phil Foglio‘s work. The art style is playful, well-developed after over six years (!) of comics.

So far as “plot” goes–and there is a plot, PITW isn’t just a cheesecake delivery platform–titular character Peter Stubbe isn’t anything special, though he is a werewolf, he’s a pretty middle-of-the-road model. This is par for the course in a comic with one toe in the “harem” anime genre, where the protagonist tends to be a little on the plain side. His  girlfriend Sarah is human–well, was human. Now she’s a newly transformed werewolf, barely under her own control (apparently lycanthropy is a sexually transmitted disease, who knew?)

After that, Peter’s world becomes a snarl of aggressive love interests, paranormal hunters, local supernaturals, and other craziness. You can read all about it on the new reader’s guide. There’s a few years of reading to catch up on!

Oh…the sex. Yes, there’s a fair amount of sex, and it’s sticky and over the top, and, surprise surprise, sells pretty well! Peter Is The Wolf is publisher White Lightning Productions‘ strongest webcomic, a combination of things that everyone knows–cute girls+cute guys=viable product–and what we already knew, werewolves are pretty hot.

Which, oddly, is a part of the problem, and the reason for the Peter Is The Wolf IGG campaign. PITW is unusual for adult webcomics in that it’s got options–there’s a Rated R version too. It’s not hard to guess which one is the better seller at conventions, and this IGG is for the more worksafe edition–still a cool product, but with the smaller print runs, harder for the company to produce. There’s also been a rash of funding problems for similar publishers like Radio Comics and Antarctic Press, and White Lightning caught that flu, too–hard times for indie comic  producers.

The campaign’s got a great start, about 1/3 to goal. And there’s still a few of the higher level pledge points–walk-on roles, sketches, and just at this moment, one chance to be a manga werewolf in a comic scene. Of course, you could just buy the artist’s services for an entire weekend. Strictly your call.

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

New Projects

This week’s complete project list here!

Necronasses’s Piglet Necronomicon (Books/Print. Ends: 12/9/2013)
(Swedish) Winnie the Pooh’s “Piglet” and Abdul Alhazred, the Mad Arab and writer of the Necronomicon, combine with off-color internet humor in this weird, dread tome. (Yes, it’s in Swedish…but the art is perverse and cute, and piglets + mad cultists = awesome.)

VYP (Very Young Programmer) (Children’s Products. Ends: 11/10/2013)
A guide to programming and object-oriented code for the very young, featuring Foxy the Fox. (An open letter to the world: Please don’t name fox characters “Foxy,” Southpark ruined it.)

Wee-Glow Collars (Clothing/Costumes. Ends: 11/15/2013)
Glow-in-the-dark collars for pets, raves (These use the standard green glow-plastic technology, I think the KS is seriously overstating its claims, but they’re nice-looking, and black goes with everything.)

Not A Villain: Book 2 (Comics/Graphic Novels. Ends: 11/9/2013)
Web-to-Print of a “reformed” hacker in a virtual world, sort of a post-apocalypse “Summer Wars.”

Canterlot: Ontario’s MLP Con (Events. Ends: 11/9/2013)
Support, Swag for Canterlot, Ontario’s MLP con. “Because shipping through portals from Equestria to Tornto is expensive.”

Foxotic (Video Games. Ends: 11/24/2013)
Free-to-play, for-kids MMO journey through Foxotic Land, where anthro foxes frolic and teach basic math and literacy. And shop. Lots of shopping. (Trailer video shows cave-foxes. This is important somehow. Also, foxes dig pizza and new clothing.)

Got Scat? (…Causes. Ends: 11/22/2013)
Poop-based studies of large, threatened carnivores for goverments and land owners. Plus, you can get a “Got Scat?” tote bag. Great for jazz fans.

Air Dash Online (…Just For Fun. Ends: 11/10/2013)
Smash Bros-inspired game in a dystopian future. For me, this is mostly about Togun the Tiger Warrior.

Crazy Kana and Zoomeral’s Japanese Flashcard Magnets (…Just For Fun. Ends: 11/11/2013)
Learn Japanese characters with refrigerator magnets and cute cat boys.

 

A boy’s journey through the landscape of World War II France and his own mind…

Imagination is the Only Escape

Fair warning, I know next to nothing about video games! So any fact errors on my part here are purely a result of lack of knowledge on my end. So on to an ignorant review of a thoughtful and controversial video game, Luc Bernard’s Imagination Is The Only Escape.

Indie game Braid, and its for-an-Indie crazy commercial success, opened a door for thoughtful, contemplative games. That there was a door there at all is a recent phenomenon, any sort of wide-scale distribution for non-corporate games stems from the XBox Live Marketplace, 2008. Imagination Is The Only Escape (IOE) has been quietly controversial and, sadly, a nonstarter just as long, waiting for years until there was a marketplace ready to tackle its subject matter: foxes. Wait, I meant a child’s look at the Holocaust.

IOE follows Samuel, a young Jewish child in France, during the occupation of that country by Nazi Germany. Samuel’s mother helps him escape from Paris, giving him the address of a priest who can help him, but she is killed as she helps him escape.

At some point, Samuel’s experience of the world deviates from a grim reality, as he retreats into his imagination to escape from the horror around him, so without the game in front of me, it’s hard to guess what’s real reality and what’s Samuel’s reality. The talking fox character, Renard, is probably in Samuel’s head, and where allegory and France meet and separate is anybody’s guess. Renard’s promise to Samuel is that if the boy can restore peace to the forest, the fox will bring his mother back to life. The game wanders between reality and fantasy, using the immersive nature of video games to give players the feeling of being in this real life horror story, of the experience of being a child (or any ordinary person) in World War II. Previous entries into this time period only gave the experience of shooting Nazis, so this “personal level” story is new.

Playwise, the designer suggests it’s something like The Walking Dead, experiential rather than any sort of traditional shooter. The very few images of the game suggest a side-to-side interactive puzzle, where Samuel and Renard work together to navigate the surreal world of Sam’s imagination. The art is cartoony, with the vibe of an independent comic. Samuel is wide-eyed, awkward, and messy. Renard is a believable little guy, very serious–”he looked vaguely pissed off. But then, foxes generally do.” (The Men Who Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing).

Designer Bernard carefully tries to keep IOE out of the “educational” gamespace, because educational games have a well-earned reputation for being dull and unplayably bad. It’s more about awareness and opening a conversation. Almost as important for Bernard is the idea of video games as a legitimate form of media, able to take on challenging topics and periods in a serious, thoughtful way. He’s a long way from his financial goal on Indiegogo, but maybe the time is right for this more long-term goal.

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

New Projects

Complete list of projects for 10/7/13 here.

Over the Rainbow: A Sketchbook (Art. Ends: 10/23/2013)
A corgie-tastic sketchbook by Karen Krajenbrink.

Zoo Animal Art Project (Art. Ends: 12/1/2013)
Building a portfolio of detailed and warm animals, one illo and one zoo trip at a time. (So I’m normally against “fund my travel!” IGGs, but if Loryska is this talented at age 16, we owe it to the future of the fandom to give her all our money. Besides, it’s on Kickstarter.)

The Warden and the Wolf King (Books/Print. Ends: 10/30/2013)
Slightly “Jim Henson’s ‘Labyrinth’” YA fantasy novel, with toothy wolf people and anthro lizards. (Well into stretch goals at day 5. Apparently The Wingfeather Saga has quite a fan base!)

Rosie the Reindeer (Children’s Products. Ends: 11/3/2013)
Cute Christmas story, a girl-power version of “Rudolph” with some awful cute reindeer!

PokePinups (Clothing/Costumes. Ends: 10/20/2013)
PokeMon meets fandom pin-up girls in this tee line by Barefists. More on Tumblr. Or just go to his shop. (Storm and Pikachu’s cute, but I’m not sure my life’s complete without Poison Ivy on a Venusaur.)

Panda Coat (Clothing/Costumes. Ends: 10/23/2013)
Way past goal! An absurd panda coat from the Griz Coat Company. (Yes, they have a wolf coat.)

Henna Wolf Shirt (Clothing/Costumes. Ends: 11/29/2013)
Single-product, low-goal IGG for a stylized red-and-white Indian wolf design tee.

Last Unicorn (Comics/Graphic Novels. Ends: 10/31/2013)
The sad, sad, ever-so-sad story of a depressed unicorn.

Feral: The Next Fight (Comics/Graphic Novels. Ends: 11/29/2013)
Second graphic novel of “Feral,” stories from the furry underground fighting circuit. (Great action manga style. And strong perks in this camapign! I’m tempted by the walk-on role.)

End of the Road (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 11/9/2013)
A desperate bid to make a decent werewolf movie. Can such a thing be done?

EGOIST: Bright Clothes for Bright People (…Just For Fun. Ends: 11/1/2013)
Brilliant and luminous art tees with a Japanese vibe (nice tiger in there, if you can spot him, but it’s like finding Waldo with sharp claws.)

Enter the Moon (…Meh. Ends: 11/18/2013)
Another “oversharing instead of elevator pitch” werewolf novel. Why with the fluff intros? Nice cover though…

Beast’s Fury (…Coming Soon?. Not yet launched)
A second wave of crowdfunding for the Beast’s Fury fighting game?

A fox (and probably a child’s) view of the Holocaust: Imagination Is The Only Escape

Fair warning, I know next to nothing about video games! So any fact errors on my part here are purely a result of lack of knowledge on my end. So on to an ignorant review of a thoughtful and controversial video game, Luc Bernard’s Imagination Is The Only Escape.

And then a bunch of other stuff.

First a bit of housekeeping: In order to make this blog a little more useful for the furry news aggregators that use it–currently Flayrah, The Furry News Network, and Jade’s Den–I’m going to split up the “reviews and new projects” from the huge list of ALL projects, and toss each kind of post into its own category. This shouldn’t affect most readers, but if anyone uses RSS to get updates, this change may cause problems. This will be the last post in the “all-in-one” format, and I’ll repost it again in the broken-up format under the new categories. Thanks, all!

Imagination Is The Only Escape

Indie game Braid, and its for-an-Indie crazy commercial success, opened a door for thoughtful, contemplative games. That there was a door there at all is a recent phenomenon, any sort of wide-scale distribution for non-corporate games stems from the XBox Live Marketplace, 2008. Imagination Is The Only Escape (IOE) has been quietly controversial and, sadly, a nonstarter just as long, waiting for years until there was a marketplace ready to tackle its subject matter: foxes. Wait, I meant a child’s look at the Holocaust.

IOE follows Samuel, a young Jewish child in France, during the occupation of that country by Nazi Germany. Samuel’s mother helps him escape from Paris, giving him the address of a priest who can help him, but she is killed as she helps him escape.

At some point, Samuel’s experience of the world deviates from a grim reality, as he retreats into his imagination to escape from the horror around him, so without the game in front of me, it’s hard to guess what’s real reality and what’s Samuel’s reality. The talking fox character, Renard, is probably in Samuel’s head, and where allegory and France meet and separate is anybody’s guess. Renard’s promise to Samuel is that if the boy can restore peace to the forest, the fox will bring his mother back to life. The game wanders between reality and fantasy, using the immersive nature of video games to give players the feeling of being in this real life horror story, of the experience of being a child (or any ordinary person) in World War II. Previous entries into this time period only gave the experience of shooting Nazis, so this “personal level” story is new.

Playwise, the designer suggests it’s something like The Walking Dead, experiential rather than any sort of traditional shooter. The very few images of the game suggest a side-to-side interactive puzzle, where Samuel and Renard work together to navigate the surreal world of Sam’s imagination. The art is cartoony, with the vibe of an independent comic. Samuel is wide-eyed, awkward, and messy. Renard is a believable little guy, very serious–”he looked vaguely pissed off. But then, foxes generally do.” (The Men Who Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing).

Designer Bernard carefully tries to keep IOE out of the “educational” gamespace, because educational games have a well-earned reputation for being dull and unplayably bad. It’s more about awareness and opening a conversation. Almost as important for Bernard is the idea of video games as a legitimate form of media, able to take on challenging topics and periods in a serious, thoughtful way.  He’s a long way from his financial goal on Indiegogo, but maybe the time is right for this more long-term goal.

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

New Projects

Over the Rainbow: A Sketchbook (Art. Ends: 10/23/2013)
A corgie-tastic sketchbook by Karen Krajenbrink.

Zoo Animal Art Project (Art. Ends: 12/1/2013)
Building a portfolio of detailed and warm animals, one illo and one zoo trip at a time. (So I’m normally against “fund my travel!” IGGs, but if Loryska is this talented at age 16, we owe it to the future of the fandom to give her all our money. Besides, it’s on Kickstarter.)

The Warden and the Wolf King (Books/Print. Ends: 10/30/2013)
Slightly “Jim Henson’s ‘Labyrinth’” YA fantasy novel, with toothy wolf people and anthro lizards. (Well into stretch goals at day 5. Apparently The Wingfeather Saga has quite a fan base!)

Rosie the Reindeer (Children’s Products. Ends: 11/3/2013)
Cute Christmas story, a girl-power version of “Rudolph” with some awful cute reindeer!

PokePinups (Clothing/Costumes. Ends: 10/20/2013)
PokeMon meets fandom pin-up girls in this tee line by Barefists. More on Tumblr. Or just go to his shop. (Storm and Pikachu’s cute, but I’m not sure my life’s complete without Poison Ivy on a Venusaur.)

Panda Coat (Clothing/Costumes. Ends: 10/23/2013)
Way past goal! An absurd panda coat from the Griz Coat Company. (Yes, they have a wolf coat.)

Henna Wolf Shirt (Clothing/Costumes. Ends: 11/29/2013)
Single-product, low-goal IGG for a stylized red-and-white Indian wolf design tee.

Last Unicorn (Comics/Graphic Novels. Ends: 10/31/2013)
The sad, sad, ever-so-sad story of a depressed unicorn.

Feral: The Next Fight (Comics/Graphic Novels. Ends: 11/29/2013)
Second graphic novel of “Feral,” stories from the furry underground fighting circuit. (Great action manga style. And strong perks in this camapign! I’m tempted by the walk-on role.)

End of the Road (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 11/9/2013)
A desperate bid to make a decent werewolf movie. Can such a thing be done?

EGOIST: Bright Clothes for Bright People (…Just For Fun. Ends: 11/1/2013)
Brilliant and luminous art tees with a Japanese vibe (nice tiger in there, if you can spot him, but it’s like finding Waldo with sharp claws.)

Enter the Moon (…Meh. Ends: 11/18/2013)
Another “oversharing instead of elevator pitch” werewolf novel. Why with the fluff intros? Nice cover though…

Beast’s Fury (…Coming Soon?. Not yet launched)
A second wave of crowdfunding for the Beast’s Fury fighting game?

 

Art

Savage Divination: A Bestial Tarot (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Ambitious full tarot deck loaded with animal imagery by Leptailurus

Audio

Wingboner’s Debut Album (Ends: 10/28/2013)
Crowdfunding for professional studio release of MLP metal band Wingboner’s debut album

Come Find Me: The Journey to Abbey Road (Ends: 11/7/2013)
Foxamoore‘s new album, now well past its goal to record at the Beatle’s “Abbey Road” studio!
Additional stretch goals to get art by Alectorfencer, professional production, more studio time, and a full orchestra!

Children’s Products

Rabbit Ninja (Ends: 10/19/2013)
A children’s book about great things: rabbits and ninjas. Oh, and life as a 3rd grader.

The Dragon and the Princess (Ends: 10/26/2013)
A children’s book combining basic numeric literacy with elegant and graceful line-art dragons
More on The Brothers Uber‘s website

Jack and the Cornstalk (Ends: 10/26/2013)
Children’s book with Claymation-esque chickens spoofing “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
Why is Yoda in the publicity shots? Mysterious he is.

Billy Brown’s Audio Adventures (Ends: 10/27/2013)
Children’s audio dramas featuring an amiable and pretty darn cute anthro bear
Seriously, the bear is pretty cute.

The Anteater That Didn’t (Ends: 11/3/2013)
In the spirit of “The Little Prince” and “The Giving Tree,” a delicately French story of anteaters and tea.

Clothing/Costumes

Hats and Hoodies by Mermade (Ends: 10/16/2013)
Hats, hoodies, and accessories by Mermade. Check out Her gallery on FA for custom and recent work!

Comics/Graphic Novels

The Swashbuckling Adventures of Captain Kitty (Ends: 10/19/2013)
Mostly anthro, mostly pirates, and mostly rhyming comic weirdness on the high seas
More on CaptainKittyWorld. Arrr!

Peter Is the Wolf: Living in the Doghouse (Ends: 11/24/2013)
Web-to-Print of the Peter Is the Wolf webcomic series, manga-style, sometimes NSFW, cute and sexy werewolves.

Events

F3 Con Remixed (Ends: 11/10/2013)
Fundraising for Missouri’s F3 furry con, with an 80s theme this year.

Film/Animation/Theater

Dogg Park: It’s a Ruff life (Ends: 10/9/2013)
A “scripted reality show” about talking dogs at the dog park.
This may be intentionally bad? If you like pain and humiliation, watch the video. Just watch the video anyway. The jokes just write themselves, and clearly did.

Bronies: The Movie (Ends: 10/10/2013)
A short comedy film (and possibly a webseries) about a young man “coming out” to his co-workers and girlfriend as a brony.
The video’s not bad, this may be funnier than it initially sounds!

Long-Term Parking (Ends: 10/20/2013)
A bounty hunter who dies and gets mixed up with a dog on his way to heaven. Heavenly comedy ensues.
Read the opening vignet, it’s cute!

Dawgtown (Ends: 10/20/2013)
Animated film, a pit bull’s journey in the underground dog fighting world
The stills and clips are pretty high quality, I’m reminded of “Felidae.” No way to get a DVD though (sad face).

Tabletop Games

Attack to the Pantry (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Old School Warner Bros cartoon style card game: Scoundrel animals raiding Grandma’s pantry for whatever they can carry away!
Page is mostly in, or originally in, Italian, but the sketchy concept art is fun and universal!

Pewter Ponies: Miniature Ponies for Tabletop Gaming (Ends: 10/17/2013)
At goal! At least 30 pony-style minatures for all your tabletop pony gaming needs!
Note: Tabletop pony miniatures is not “pony play.” Glad I corrected that.

Hockey Doggies (Ends: 10/17/2013)
A semi-educational board game putting huskies on the ice.
Sadly, from what our friends at the International Anthropomorphic Research Project tell us, anything at the intersection of “furries” and “sports” is doomed to failure…

Toys

March of the Art Dolls (Ends: 10/8/2013)
Ochoan‘s line of art dolls, a variety of expressive and wooly beasts

Dicke Katze and Friends Plush Cats (Ends: 10/9/2013)
Plush cats, very round and very startled.

Mini Plushie Ornaments (Ends: 10/18/2013)
Miniature plush versions of your variously anthro selves

Vicious Plush (Ends: 11/4/2013)
Angry plush monkeys, serrated stuffed kitties, and a blood-stained teddy bear. Good night, sleep tight!

Video Games

Imagination is the Only Escape (Ends: 10/17/2013)
A child creates an imaginary otherworld to escape the horrors of World War II, accompanied by a fox named Renard. An educational game for children.
Scary and beautiful Alice-in-Wonderlandy graphics and a dark story.

Unwritten: Echoes of Twilight (Ends: 10/28/2013)
Single-player, open world fantasy RPG with some nicely-done werewolves and bear-folk.
Now, I’m not sure the video gaming world is ready for werewolves AND bear-folk in the same game…

Web

PairofMares Productions (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Small fundraiser for materials for My Little Pony reviews podcast
This may be an “imagine the final product” project, since they’re hoping to get new artwork…still, it’s a cute little dream.

World of Pokemon (Ends: 10/28/2013)
Indiegogo relaunch of the rich and detailed “World of Pokemon” website project

Adult

Go Kemono (Ends: 10/19/2013)
Highly-produced real life fursuit/Kemono erotica in DVD and portfolio.
Apparently “straight” is an underrepresented kink : )

…Causes

The Last Pack (Ends: 10/15/2013): Awareness documentary about the 75 remaining “Lobo” Mexican wolves

…Meh

Wolf: A Book, a Dream, a Legacy! (Ends: 11/1/2013): *Sigh* The author overshares a story that LOTS of us dorks can relate to, but passion is not a business plan is not a product… But hey, werewolf novel.

…Coming Soon?

Terrene Odyssey (Not yet launched): The next evolution of the Terreria Tactics card game, coming soon to a Kickstarter near you!

…Just For Fun

God-Lights – Personal Interactive Lighting System (Ends: 10/16/2013): Hand-worn multicolored ravey blinky color-changing lights with customization apps. Let the oontz-oontz begin.

A few for the kids cubs–a week in the children’s department

Another slow week in fox-based crowdfunding, only one solidly furry project! I’ll cover Peter Is The Wolf next week. This week, briefly touching on a few visually interesting kid’s projects. Something for dragon lovers, rabbit fans, and bear buffs (the buff bear project wasn’t kid-friendly.) Remember, they have to have a childhood first if the fandom is going to ruin it later.

And then a bunch of other stuff.

Rabbit Ninja

Children’s book. There’s a type of story in kid lit, a “grass is always greener” narrative, a literary style which hit its peak in Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. The theme: Life is suffering, but someone else’s life, obviously wouldn’t be. Now in Alexander… the protagonist is pretty sure that life would be SO much better if he lived in Australia. But we cynics all know that there are problems in Australia. Drop bears, for instance.
But the main character of Jared Taylor Williams’ Rabbit Ninja is pretty sure that life would be a whole lot more awesome if he was a ninja instead of a third-grader. I don’t know how Williams is going to write himself out of that corner, because ninjas pretty much define awesome.

The author/artist has a background pretty firmly grounded in animal nonfiction, with artist credits in a double handful of books, most often about the inner lives of housepets. Rabbit Ninja seems to be his first solo project, but the art style is a confident watercolor, which balances the action of the ninjaverse with the warm, somewhat sock-scented world of a third grade boy. Take a look!

Billy Brown’s Audio Adventures

Radio Dramas. Oh, for the simple life of a Saturday Morning cartoon character, like old-school My Little Pony or Disney’s Wuzzles (anybody else remember “wuzzles?”) when the biggest crisis one faced on any given day was breaking a plate or not knowing whether you were, or weren’t, invited to Daisy’s picnic. Life is clearly more complex for Billy Brown, who has to dig frogs out of rain gutters, rescue flood victims, and take over the local mail route. (Personally, my mail service would be MUCH improved by having a bear take over.) This Kickstarter is for a new set of Billy Brown adventures, a string of 30-45 minute audio dramas played out by professional Broadway actors, lightly educational, silly without being condescending, with a strong focus on problem-solving, imagination, and above all, bears.

Hearing a bear speaking in “Froggish” is going to be the highlight of my week, I can tell already.

According to one reviewer, children’s audio dramas are a “thing” in Germany, where they’re called Hoerspiele (“hear plays”)–not just an actor reading a book, but fully produced audio plays with music, sound effects and a cast. I *do* remember that sort of story from my childhood, but it never really caught on. Apparently, kickstarter Jens Hewerer brought that tradition back from Germany to share with us benighted Statesians.

The Dragon and the Princess

Children’s book. It’s hard to say much about this, the world is not rich with hot tips about The Dragon and the Princess. I do know that TDATP‘s unreasonably-named original poster (and possibly supervillian), Logan Otto Uber, has been involved in webcomics and one swinging alphabet book, both with a cartoony and very “guy” art feel. On the one hand, he’s a kickstarter veteran with two successful projects under his belt. On the other hand, what’s he doing fronting this graceful book about sweet, delicate dragons and a perky princess? Clearly, he woke up on the pink side of the bed one morning.

Artist Mina Sanwald is clearly up to the princess challenge. She probably owns a set of color-coded hennin. And when I made the pink joke, I had no idea how pink Sanwald’s website would turn out to be. Her DeviantArt account is considerably less pink, which is a good thing, I’ve had enough fuschia for one day.

Babble, babble, get to the point. Dragons! TDATP is a charmer, a one-to-ten, ten-to-one story about a happy dragon family, which begins “One dragon egg, about to hatch…(spoiler, there’s 10 of something.) The dragon illustrations are absolutely charming, with graceful curving bodies and winning expressions, and the princess–well, we don’t get a look at her, but she looks dangerously sassy. And my thumbnails don’t do them justice. Even if you don’t have a kid, if you’re a dragon or a dragon lover, this project might be a great Christmas present for someone who does have a hatchling.

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

New Projects

The Dragon and the Princess (Children’s Products. Ends: 10/26/2013)
A children’s book combining basic numeric literacy with elegant and graceful line-art dragons (More on The Brothers Uber‘s website)

Billy Brown’s Audio Adventures (Children’s Products. Ends: 10/27/2013)
Children’s audio dramas featuring an amiable and pretty darn cute anthro bear (Seriously, the bear is pretty cute. )

Peter Is the Wolf: Living in the Doghouse (Comics/Graphic Novels. Ends: 11/24/2013)
Web-to-Print of the Peter Is the Wolf webcomic series, manga-style, sometimes NSFW, cute and sexy werewolves.

Long-Term Parking (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 10/20/2013)
A bounty hunter who dies and gets mixed up with a dog on his way to heaven. Heavenly comedy ensues. (Read the opening vignet, it’s cute! )

Vicious Plush (Toys. Ends: 11/4/2013)
Angry plush monkeys, serrated stuffed kitties, and a blood-stained teddy bear. Good night, sleep tight!

Unwritten: Echoes of Twilight (Video Games. Ends: 10/28/2013)
Single-player, open world fantasy RPG with some nicely-done werewolves and bear-folk. (Now, I’m not sure the video gaming world is ready for werewolves AND bear-folk in the same game…)

Wolf: A Book, a Dream, a Legacy! (…Meh. Ends: 11/1/2013)
*Sigh* The author overshares a story that LOTS of us dorks can relate to, but passion is not a business plan is not a product… But hey, werewolf novel.

 

Art

Savage Divination: A Bestial Tarot (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Ambitious full tarot deck loaded with animal imagery by Leptailurus

Audio

Sonic and Halo Orchestral Medley (Ends: 10/6/2013)
A modest campaign for orchestral production of a Sonic: The Hedgehog “best of” medley and Halo. Most of goal covers the cost of hiring an orchestra for $2500/hour…
More of Mr Trent’s arrangements on YouTube

Wingboner’s Debut Album (Ends: 10/28/2013)
Crowdfunding for professional studio release of MLP metal band Wingboner’s debut album

Come Find Me: The Journey to Abbey Road (Ends: 11/7/2013)
Foxamoore‘s new album, now well past its goal to record at the Beatle’s “Abbey Road” studio!
Additional stretch goals to get art by Alectorfencer, professional production, more studio time, and a full orchestra!

Children’s Products

Rabbit Ninja (Ends: 10/19/2013)
A children’s book about great things: rabbits and ninjas. Oh, and life as a 3rd grader.

Jack and the Cornstalk (Ends: 10/26/2013)
Children’s book with Claymation-esque chickens spoofing “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
Why is Yoda in the publicity shots? Mysterious he is.

The Anteater That Didn’t (Ends: 11/3/2013)
In the spirit of “The Little Prince” and “The Giving Tree,” a delicately French story of anteaters and tea.

Clothing/Costumes

Hats and Hoodies by Mermade (Ends: 10/16/2013)
Hats, hoodies, and accessories by Mermade. Check out Her gallery on FA for custom and recent work!

Comics/Graphic Novels

The Complete Adventures of Carl Vol 1 (Ends: 10/5/2013)
The comic misadventures of Carl the Rabbit, brightly colored, heavily referential, and now, in one place.

Last Resort: Bound Edition and Reprint (Ends: 10/6/2013)
Volume 2 of the reality show travails of the world’s fluffiest vampire.
From an anthro-loaded webcomic, worth a tour on its own. Click around, the art style varies a lot.

The Swashbuckling Adventures of Captain Kitty (Ends: 10/19/2013)
Mostly anthro, mostly pirates, and mostly rhyming comic weirdness on the high seas
More on CaptainKittyWorld. Arrr!

Events

The Aviary: When Bird Became Woman (Ends: 10/5/2013)
a 12-gown haut couture collection of dresses inspired by birds, coming this October to San Diego.
The bluejay is pretty amazing.

F3 Con Remixed (Ends: 11/10/2013)
Fundraising for Missouri’s F3 furry con, with an 80s theme this year.

Film/Animation/Theater

Dogg Park: It’s a Ruff life (Ends: 10/9/2013)
A “scripted reality show” about talking dogs at the dog park.
This may be intentionally bad? If you like pain and humiliation, watch the video. Just watch the video anyway. The jokes just write themselves, and clearly did.

Bronies: The Movie (Ends: 10/10/2013)
A short comedy film (and possibly a webseries) about a young man “coming out” to his co-workers and girlfriend as a brony.
The video’s not bad, this may be funnier than it initially sounds!

Dawgtown (Ends: 10/20/2013)
Animated film, a pit bull’s journey in the underground dog fighting world
The stills and clips are pretty high quality, I’m reminded of “Felidae.” No way to get a DVD though (sad face).

Tabletop Games

Attack to the Pantry (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Old School Warner Bros cartoon style card game: Scoundrel animals raiding Grandma’s pantry for whatever they can carry away!
Page is mostly in, or originally in, Italian, but the sketchy concept art is fun and universal!

Pewter Ponies: Miniature Ponies for Tabletop Gaming (Ends: 10/17/2013)
On track to unlock at least 30 pony-style minatures for all your tabletop pony gaming needs!
Note: Tabletop pony miniatures is not “pony play.” Glad I corrected that.

Hockey Doggies (Ends: 10/17/2013)
A semi-educational board game putting huskies on the ice.
Sadly, from what our friends at the International Anthropomorphic Research Project tell us, anything at the intersection of “furries” and “sports” is doomed to failure…

Toys

March of the Art Dolls (Ends: 10/8/2013)
Ochoan‘s line of art dolls, a variety of expressive and wooly beasts

Dicke Katze and Friends Plush Cats (Ends: 10/9/2013)
Plush cats, very round and very startled.

Mini Plushie Ornaments (Ends: 10/18/2013)
Miniature plush versions of your variously anthro selves

Video Games

Imagination is the Only Escape (Ends: 10/17/2013)
A child creates an imaginary otherworld to escape the horrors of World War II, accompanied by a fox named Renard. An educational game for children.
Scary and beautiful Alice-in-Wonderlandy graphics and a dark story.

Web

PairofMares Productions (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Small fundraiser for materials for My Little Pony reviews podcast
This may be an “imagine the final product” project, since they’re hoping to get new artwork…still, it’s a cute little dream.

World of Pokemon (Ends: 10/28/2013)
Indiegogo relaunch of the rich and detailed “World of Pokemon” website project

Adult

Go Kemono (Ends: 10/19/2013)
Highly-produced real life fursuit/Kemono erotica in DVD and portfolio.
Apparently “straight” is an underrepresented kink : )

…Causes

The Hyena Sanctuary of North America (Ends: 10/10/2013): Help build a Texas home for the hyenas of the Berkeley hyena program!
The Last Pack (Ends: 10/15/2013): Awareness documentary about the 75 remaining “Lobo” Mexican wolves

…Coming Soon?

Feral (Coming October 1?): Graphic novel, or webcomic (unsure which) about an anthro underground fighting circuit. Strong, expressive artwork!
Terrene Odyssey (Not yet launched): The next evolution of the Terreria Tactics card game, coming soon to a Kickstarter near you!

…Just For Fun

God-Lights – Personal Interactive Lighting System (Ends: 10/16/2013): Hand-worn multicolored ravey blinky color-changing lights with customization apps. Let the oontz-oontz begin.
Game Cave V1: Fighting Junkies (Ends: 10/17/2013): Prints and comics blending classic video games and unique manga characters in a colorful and flashy parody pack.

To be free they must meet goal: the “Dawgtown” Animated Feature

It seems like every piece of indie animation on Kickstarter–really, every piece of animation, period–has the taint of cheap CGI on it. The shelves are filled with the stuff. “Dawgtown” is a hand-drawn, dark, and serious piece of animation, right out of the late “Bluth” period. It’s about time for an old-school project like this.

And then a bunch of other stuff.

Dawgtown

For once, the internet is not out to ruin my childhood memories. Instead, it’s bringing me a flashback to when animation was an agonizing ordeal that created living, breathing, messy, warm characters. Dawgtown is a traditionally-animated throwback to Bluth’s “Felidae,” maybe even “Watership Down“–a dark, edgy animated feature that will give my generation something to talk about, and the next generation, nightmares. Yes.

Dawgtown is a just barely feature length (70 minute), traditionally animated–I know, I keep saying it, but it’s just that cool–film in progress by Justin Murphy, multi-talented artist, cartoonist, and two-time musical theater composer.  The plot: in a city where dog fighting is big business, a pitbull, Max, is forced into the world of pit fighting, and must lead his friends in a fight for freedom. “It’s ‘Gladiator‘ meets ‘Animal Farm.’”

The mantra of Dawgtown, its “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” line, is ”To Be Free They Must Fight.” Not, presumably, against each other, but against the greater power of Dawgtown itself. This seems to be a personal motto for Murphy, rebellion and freedom are recurring themes in his work–not only has he written a musical and graphic novel about the Confederates in the Civil War, but his second musical was a rock opera about Lucifer and the fall from Heaven. Really, Lucifer is rebellion’s poster boy.

From what we can see in the development blog, the animation in Dawgtown is strong–refreshingly so, a lot of Kickstarter animation is unfortunately amateurish. And I keep saying it, but the traditional animation is refreshing–it’s jarring when a CGI vehicle rolls past in one scene of Murphy’s promotional video. Oh well, into every cartoon a little CGI must fall, these days. All that being said, his backgrounds are superlative–up there the dark streets Ralph Bakshi’s “Cool World.”

One thing I need to point a finger at, though, is those pledge points. Sure, Kickstarter is in part about supporting the artists, but it’s where a lot of us do our shopping, and it is nice to see a DVD on the “what I’m supporting” list. The pledge rewards for Dawgtown read like Murphy is cleaning out his closet, dumping stock of his (admittedly impressive) previous projects.  And one reviewer on Amazon saying “the best musical since Les Mis!!!” is not a useful referent, did you see what they said about Three Wolves Howling? Condense, cross-reference, clean out, purge please, and add a blu-ray, the “too long didn’t read” factor is high here. However, the Dawgtown logo is so darn cool that you can have my $30 anyway, give me my tee shirt.

Fact: Justin Murphy is the first artist I’ve covered here that has actually played Jesus in “Jesus Christ Superstar.” At least he probably is. We need more messiahs on this blog.

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

New Projects

Jack and the Cornstalk (Children’s Products. Ends: 10/26/2013)
Children’s book with Claymation-esque chickens spoofing “Jack and the Beanstalk.” (Why is Yoda in the publicity shots? Mysterious he is.)

The Anteater That Didn’t (Children’s Products. Ends: 11/3/2013)
In the spirit of “The Little Prince” and “The Giving Tree,” a delicately French story of anteaters and tea.

Hats and Hoodies by Mermade (Clothing/Costumes. Ends: 10/16/2013)
Hats, hoodies, and accessories by Mermade. Check out Her gallery on FA for custom and recent work!

The Swashbuckling Adventures of Captain Kitty (Comics/Graphic Novels. Ends: 10/19/2013)
Mostly anthro, mostly pirates, and mostly rhyming comic weirdness on the high seas (More on CaptainKittyWorld. Arrr!)

Dawgtown (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 10/20/2013)
Animated film, a pit bull’s journey in the underground dog fighting world (The stills and clips are pretty high quality, I’m reminded of “Felidae.”)

Pewter Ponies: Miniature Ponies for Tabletop Gaming (Tabletop Games. Ends: 10/17/2013)
On track to unlock at least 30 pony-style minatures for all your tabletop pony gaming needs! (Note: Tabletop pony miniatures is not “pony play.” Glad I corrected that.)

Mini Plushie Ornaments (Toys. Ends: 10/18/2013)
Miniature plush versions of your variously anthro selves

The Last Pack (…Causes. Ends: 10/15/2013)
Awareness documentary about the 75 remaining “Lobo” Mexican wolves

Feral (…Coming Soon?. Coming October 1?)
Graphic novel, or webcomic (unsure which) about an anthro underground fighting circuit. Strong, expressive artwork!

Terrene Odyssey (…Coming Soon?. Not yet launched)
The next evolution of the Terreria Tactics card game, coming soon to a Kickstarter near you!

God-Lights – Personal Interactive Lighting System (…Just For Fun. Ends: 10/16/2013)
Hand-worn multicolored ravey blinky color-changing lights with customization apps. Let the oontz-oontz begin.

Game Cave V1: Fighting Junkies (…Just For Fun. Ends: 10/17/2013)
Prints and comics blending classic video games and unique manga characters in a colorful and flashy parody pack.

 

Art

A Year of Dorky Dogs (Ends: 10/1/2013)
12-month calendar of, well, the Dogs of Fandom, whimsical illos from comic, video game, and film. A benefit project for a Portland animal rescue.
So apparently Portland has some real talent! Professional artists working with major comic labels on this project…

Savage Divination: A Bestial Tarot (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Ambitious full tarot deck loaded with animal imagery by Leptailurus

Audio

Sonic and Halo Orchestral Medley (Ends: 10/6/2013)
A modest campaign for orchestral production of a Sonic: The Hedgehog “best of” medley and Halo. Most of goal covers the cost of hiring an orchestra for $2500/hour…
More of Mr Trent’s arrangements on YouTube

Wingboner’s Debut Album (Ends: 10/28/2013)
Crowdfunding for professional studio release of MLP metal band Wingboner’s debut album

Come Find Me: The Journey to Abbey Road (Ends: 11/7/2013)
Foxamoore‘s new album, now well past its goal to record at the Beatle’s “Abbey Road” studio!
Additional stretch goals to get art by Alectorfencer, professional production, more studio time, and a full orchestra!

Children’s Products

Rabbit Ninja (Ends: 10/19/2013)
A children’s book about great things: rabbits and ninjas. Oh, and life as a 3rd grader.

Clothing/Costumes

Pony Scarves (Ends: 9/30/2013)
Pinkie Pie and Rarity cutie mark scarves.
What, no “Big Mac”? Other designs at Ponyscarves…guys, get a website!

Comics/Graphic Novels

The Complete Adventures of Carl Vol 1 (Ends: 10/5/2013)
The comic misadventures of Carl the Rabbit, brightly colored, heavily referential, and now, in one place.

Last Resort: Bound Edition and Reprint (Ends: 10/6/2013)
Volume 2 of the reality show travails of the world’s fluffiest vampire.
From an anthro-loaded webcomic, worth a tour on its own. Click around, the art style varies a lot.

Events

The Aviary: When Bird Became Woman (Ends: 10/5/2013)
a 12-gown haut couture collection of dresses inspired by birds, coming this October to San Diego.
The bluejay is pretty amazing.

F3 Con Remixed (Ends: 11/10/2013)
Fundraising for Missouri’s F3 furry con, with an 80s theme this year.

Film/Animation/Theater

Wolf Girl: The Princess Mononoke Fan Film (Ends: 9/29/2013)
600 years after the events of “Mononoke,” the forest needs a princess again. Live action, puppetry, CGI, and a lot of love.
More info here, but this is one of the best-illustrated kickstarters I’ve seen.

Reynard City Cartoon Project (Ends: 9/29/2013)
Animated version of Renard City, a Saturday morning action, furry superhero web/pdf comic

Dogg Park: It’s a Ruff life (Ends: 10/9/2013)
A “scripted reality show” about talking dogs at the dog park.
This may be intentionally bad? If you like pain and humiliation, watch the video. Just watch the video anyway. The jokes just write themselves, and clearly did.

Bronies: The Movie (Ends: 10/10/2013)
A short comedy film (and possibly a webseries) about a young man “coming out” to his co-workers and girlfriend as a brony.
The video’s not bad, this may be funnier than it initially sounds!

Tabletop Games

Havok & Hijinks (Ends: 9/24/2013)
A disturbingly cute card game: you play a dragon hatchling that got kicked out of the parent’s den, and now it’s time to find your OWN hoard!

Attack to the Pantry (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Old School Warner Bros cartoon style card game: Scoundrel animals raiding Grandma’s pantry for whatever they can carry away!
Page is mostly in, or originally in, Italian, but the sketchy concept art is fun and universal!

Hockey Doggies (Ends: 10/17/2013)
A semi-educational board game putting huskies on the ice.
Sadly, from what our friends at the International Anthropomorphic Research Project tell us, anything at the intersection of “furries” and “sports” is doomed to failure…

Toys

March of the Art Dolls (Ends: 10/8/2013)
Ochoan‘s line of art dolls, a variety of expressive and wooly beasts

Dicke Katze and Friends Plush Cats (Ends: 10/9/2013)
Plush cats, very round and very startled.

Video Games

Imagination is the Only Escape (Ends: 10/17/2013)
A child creates an imaginary otherworld to escape the horrors of World War II, accompanied by a fox named Renard. An educational game for children.
Scary and beautiful Alice-in-Wonderlandy graphics and a dark story.

Web

PairofMares Productions (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Small fundraiser for materials for My Little Pony reviews podcast
This may be an “imagine the final product” project, since they’re hoping to get new artwork…still, it’s a cute little dream.

World of Pokemon (Ends: 10/28/2013)
Indiegogo relaunch of the rich and detailed “World of Pokemon” website project

Adult

Go Kemono (Offbeatr voting period)
Highly-produced real life fursuit/Kemono erotica in DVD and portfolio.
Apparently “straight” is an underrepresented kink : )

…Causes

The Hyena Sanctuary of North America (Ends: 10/10/2013): Help build a Texas home for the hyenas of the Berkeley hyena program!
Help create the Coywolf Association (Ends: 10/25/2013): A national association to protect coywolves, yotes, wolves, and crows and ravens. Why crows? Maybe they’re trying to get Blotch to do their banner art.

…Coming Soon?

Anatilia MMORPG (Not yet launched): A Furry-focused fantasy MMORPG in progress.

…Just For Fun

Cut Paper Art Calendar (Ends: 10/7/2013): 12 months of graceful cut-paper images with a strong Asian feel. Not really furry, but attractive and LOTS of animal and dragon imagery.
Half-Cat: A Partial History (Ends: 10/11/2013): From the “fun with photoshop” file, a historical spoof about strange, mutant half-cats…

This week: Divination by cat with Leptailurus’s “Savage Divination” tarot

Through the long, dark teatime of the soul that is FurAffinity haitus, there’s been a couple of bright points, two beautiful kickstarters opening up. One of which is exceptionally pretty but not actually furry, so just a few words on it. Then a tarot deck that I’ve been looking forward to for months, and may need to keep looking forward to for years.

And then a bunch of other stuff.

Cut Paper Art Calendar

I feel a little like second-one-come-first, and I’m reconciled to this, because today’s really about Leptailurus. But cut-paper artist Patrick Gannon‘s calendar project, in all probability the third of a series of cut-paper calendar kickstarters by Mr. Gannon, seems a graceful accompaniment to Leptailurus’s curves and cats, well worth a callout even though they aren’t that furry. Besides, I can use them to count the days until I get my tarot deck. I hope he crowdfunds a 2015 model!

Gannon’s Cut Paper Art Calendar is a 13-image beast, thick with beasties from the Chinese Zodiac and strange creatures that seem to have escaped from one of Miyazaki’s lesser-known fantasies. His lines are graceful curves, jagged predatory barbs, conveying danger, speed, solidity, mystery–even in the shapes of the paper cuts themselves. Elegant, intricate, amazing. You can check out Gannon’s paper-cut blog, “Papercuts,” for more of his work, some of it is simply indescribable. But for now, glance over the calendar and be a part of that project.

Savage Divination: A Bestial Tarot

Full disclosure: This tarot deck kickstarter has to succeed so that I get my backer reward. I really love Tarot decks. So many fantasy-inspired artists get the tarot deck bug. For a certain type of artist, the tarot deck is like performing Hamlet, it’s a bucket-list item. 78 images, with history haunting the occult circles of the Victorian age, rife with alchemical imagery, teasing hints of Egypt, of moral plays, religious doctrine…and hey, it’s got wolves, lions, and horses. So high furry interest right there.

Ace of Wands

Playing with a rich symbol set–heavy with expectations from the Rider-Waite tarot deck seen in dozens of horror movies, and on the flip side, interpreted by literally thousands of artists, you could go any direction. And 78 cards isn’t just a lot of individual pieces of art, it’s metaphorically a journey, from bumbling newbie to sage, with every stage of life between.

10 of Coins

A great many art tarot decks stop with the major arcana, picking up “Death” and “The Magician” but skipping the “Four of Wands.” That does cut down on the number, but leaves out some compelling images–so it’s exciting that Leptailurus is courting the entire deck, major arcana, “pip” cards, and all. Animal symbolism trumps standard Tarot imagery–the typical urban imagery of the Ten of Pentacles is transformed into a radiant peacock, but there’s still echoes (the peacock is sitting under an arched window, a nod to its architectural heritage.

The Empress

Leptailurus’s work is luminous, rich colors glowing under the majestic lion Empress, fire flickering in the torch held by the coyote Ace of Wands, but she can capture the austere loneliness of the Hermit, too, an old soul at the end of the journey. Tanuki fans will get a kick out of the king of cups, a raccoon dog tippling with bottles and bottles of sake!

The Hermit

Granted, 78 images is a big pile of paintings, and backers are going to have to settle in for a long wait (not an unreasonable wait, just a long one!). But backers will get access to the Savage Divinations art blog, and it’s very hard not to steal images from it, because the semi-completed “hermit” is adorable, somber and delicate and still, somehow, hinting at a smile.

(I frequently try to commission artists launching Kickstarting artists, assuming they’re open to commissions–my secret hope was to get my coffee-swilling fursona as the lost, self-absorbed soul in the four of cups–but I think Leptailurus probably has enough on her plate…)

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

New Projects

Savage Divination: A Bestial Tarot (Art. Ends: 10/13/2013)
Ambitious full tarot deck loaded with animal imagery by Leptailurus

Rabbit Ninja (Children’s Products. Ends: 10/19/2013)
A children’s book about great things: rabbits and ninjas. Oh, and life as a 3rd grader.

F3 Con Remixed (Events. Ends: 11/10/2013)
Fundraising for Missouri’s F3 furry con, with an 80s theme this year.

Hockey Doggies (Tabletop Games. Ends: 10/17/2013)
A semi-educational board game putting huskies on the ice. (Sadly, from what our friends at the International Anthropomorphic Research Project tell us, anything at the intersection of “furries” and “sports” is doomed to failure…)

Dicke Katze and Friends Plush Cats (Toys. Ends: 10/9/2013)
Plush cats, very round and very startled.

Anatilia MMORPG (…Coming Soon?. Not yet launched)
A Furry-focused fantasy MMORPG in progress.

Cut Paper Art Calendar (…Just For Fun. Ends: 10/7/2013)
12 months of graceful cut-paper images with a strong Asian feel. Not really furry, but attractive and LOTS of animal and dragon imagery.

Half-Cat: A Partial History (…Just For Fun. Ends: 10/11/2013)
From the “fun with photoshop” file, a historical spoof about strange, mutant half-cats…

 

Art

A Year of Dorky Dogs (Ends: 10/1/2013)
12-month calendar of, well, the Dogs of Fandom, whimsical illos from comic, video game, and film. A benefit project for a Portland animal rescue.
So apparently Portland has some real talent! Professional artists working with major comic labels on this project…

Audio

Sonic and Halo Orchestral Medley (Ends: 10/6/2013)
A modest campaign for orchestral production of a Sonic: The Hedgehog “best of” medley and Halo. Most of goal covers the cost of hiring an orchestra for $2500/hour…
More of Mr Trent’s arrangements on YouTube

Wingboner’s Debut Album (Ends: 10/28/2013)
Crowdfunding for professional studio release of MLP metal band Wingboner’s debut album

Come Find Me: The Journey to Abbey Road (Ends: 11/7/2013)
Foxamoore‘s new album, now well past its goal to record at the Beatle’s “Abbey Road” studio!
Additional stretch goals to get art by Alectorfencer, professional production, more studio time, and a full orchestra!

Books/Print

Fetch: An Illustrated Book (Ends: 9/21/2013)
Whimsical illustrated adventure book with a “special effects” feel about were dogs come from, and their carefree homeland.

Clothing/Costumes

Piki Charms (Ends: 9/21/2013)
Tiny charms for phones, etc, with an amazing range of designs, by DrawWithLaura
The goal is a little high for the nature of this product, but it’s to fund some business capital equipment. But it’s fixed-funding, so no accidental scams.

Dog Breed T-shirts (Ends: 9/23/2013)
Huskies: represent. A series of miminalist silkscreened dog breed loyalty tees.
I’m not chipping in for this until they post a Mexican hairless design.

Pony Scarves (Ends: 9/30/2013)
Pinkie Pie and Rarity cutie mark scarves.
What, no “Big Mac”? Other designs at Ponyscarves…guys, get a website!

Comics/Graphic Novels

The Complete Adventures of Carl Vol 1 (Ends: 10/5/2013)
The comic misadventures of Carl the Rabbit, brightly colored, heavily referential, and now, in one place.

Last Resort: Bound Edition and Reprint (Ends: 10/6/2013)
Volume 2 of the reality show travails of the world’s fluffiest vampire.
From an anthro-loaded webcomic, worth a tour on its own. Click around, the art style varies a lot.

Events

The Aviary: When Bird Became Woman (Ends: 10/5/2013)
a 12-gown haut couture collection of dresses inspired by birds, coming this October to San Diego.
The bluejay is pretty amazing.

Film/Animation/Theater

Forbidden and Unbreakable (Ends: 9/23/2013)
Live-action feature film, a romance between a young woman and a science experiment (Science: creating a better anthro border collie for the future!) and the secrets that keep them apart.
The IGG page is a bit light on plot details, more information on Junto Box.

Wolf Girl: The Princess Mononoke Fan Film (Ends: 9/29/2013)
600 years after the events of “Mononoke,” the forest needs a princess again. Live action, puppetry, CGI, and a lot of love.
More info here, but this is one of the best-illustrated kickstarters I’ve seen.

Reynard City Cartoon Project (Ends: 9/29/2013)
Animated version of Renard City, a Saturday morning action, furry superhero web/pdf comic

Dogg Park: It’s a Ruff life (Ends: 10/9/2013)
A “scripted reality show” about talking dogs at the dog park.
This may be intentionally bad? If you like pain and humiliation, watch the video. Just watch the video anyway. The jokes just write themselves, and clearly did.

Bronies: The Movie (Ends: 10/10/2013)
A short comedy film (and possibly a webseries) about a young man “coming out” to his co-workers and girlfriend as a brony.
The video’s not bad, this may be funnier than it initially sounds!

Tabletop Games

Awakened Villagers of Cairn (Ends: 9/19/2013)
“Bicycle” cards featuring the quirky, detailed furry art of the “Cairn” RPG–rodent fans and Redwall enthusiasts, this is for you.
The Cairn RPG has its own tragedy/success story, SoulJar Games has picked up where the original KS project left off.

Havok & Hijinks (Ends: 9/24/2013)
A disturbingly cute card game: you play a dragon hatchling that got kicked out of the parent’s den, and now it’s time to find your OWN hoard!

Attack to the Pantry (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Old School Warner Bros cartoon style card game: Scoundrel animals raiding Grandma’s pantry for whatever they can carry away!
Page is mostly in, or originally in, Italian, but the sketchy concept art is fun and universal!

Toys

Resin-cast unicorn pets (Ends: 9/17/2013)
Cute little round resin unicorns by Bladespark, maker of the world’s first spherical fennec.

March of the Art Dolls (Ends: 10/8/2013)
Ochoan‘s line of art dolls, a variety of expressive and wooly beasts

Video Games

Save Mr Egg (Ends: 9/18/2013)
Fox chases egg in this odd little video game.
The visuals on the fox are interesting. I’m not sure who I’m supposed to be cheering for.

Imagination is the Only Escape (Ends: 10/17/2013)
A child creates an imaginary otherworld to escape the horrors of World War II, accompanied by a fox named Renard. An educational game for children.
Scary and beautiful Alice-in-Wonderlandy graphics and a dark story.

Web

PairofMares Productions (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Small fundraiser for materials for My Little Pony reviews podcast
This may be an “imagine the final product” project, since they’re hoping to get new artwork…still, it’s a cute little dream.

World of Pokemon (Ends: 10/28/2013)
Indiegogo relaunch of the rich and detailed “World of Pokemon” website project

Adult

Go Kemono (Offbeatr voting period)
Highly-produced real life fursuit/Kemono erotica in DVD and portfolio.
Apparently “straight” is an underrepresented kink : )

…Causes

The Hyena Sanctuary of North America (Ends: 10/10/2013): Help build a Texas home for the hyenas of the Berkeley hyena program!
Help create the Coywolf Association (Ends: 10/25/2013): A national association to protect coywolves, yotes, wolves, and crows and ravens. Why crows? Maybe they’re trying to get Blotch to do their banner art.

…Meh

Furrycn (Ends: 10/19/2013): A new furry networking site with chat, forum features. This one first started out on Offbeatr, but couldn’t get any traction.

…Coming Soon?

The Furry Truth (Not yet launched): A fandom-created documentary aiming to be unbiased and open-minded. IGG launching in 2014.

…Just For Fun

Ad-Man! A Game of Advertising Mascots (Ends: 10/1/2013): Collect cheesy commercial mascots and battle over big accounts in this quirky card game.

This week: Fun-sized and crafty with tiny unicorns and Ochoa’s art dolls

Wow! The furry crowdfunding world totally LIT UP with Mighty No. 9 fanart and tweets about FoxAmoore’s new album, “Come Find Me.” So I’ll totally ignore both of them in favor of some much sillier stuff. BladeSpark just launched her second successful Kickstarter and has a few choice words to say about the experience. The only logical followup would be Ochoan’s quirky art dolls. Yes, this week, tiny fussy crafty things.

And then a bunch of other stuff.

Bladespark’s Ball-Jointed Doll Unicorns (and Fennecs)

It is just possible that there are people that aren’t totally up to speed on ball-jointed dolls. Honestly, what are they teaching in schools these days, they’re leaving all the important stuff out. Ball-Jointed dolls (BJD’s) are articulated dolls with ball-and-socket joints, frequently Asian, often anime-inspired and generally customized–oh, to heck with it, let’s have an expert take over: Thank you, BladeSpark, who just launched her second BJD micro-campaign, this one’s already successful with a week left on the clock!

…I HAVE RECENTLY gotten into sculpting, and since I love Asian ball joint dolls I wanted to make something similar. So I went for the simplest possible doll, a ball-shaped creature with a single jointed tail. My first attempt, a fennec fox, came out adorable, but when I went to cast it in resin to finish it I discovered that casting is harder than I thought. After several failed attempts I turned to kickstarter to raise the money I’d need to have it professionally cast. That first campaign was a success, it raised well over the original goal.

Meanwhile I’d been working on a few more sculpted critters, so when the last of the rewards for the previous kickstarter were finally done, I decided it was time to have a friend cast for him, and started the current campaign. This second ball-shaped pet doll is a unicorn, the same size and general design as the fennec. So far it’s been a really terrific experience. Although I did have one backer decrease his pledged amount, which I hadn’t realized one could do. But I’ve also had several people pledge a little more than they needed to in order to get their rewards, which is very generous of them, and have seen a fair number of people share the link around, which is always a really wonderful thing. I work very hard to promote my kickstarters, just launching the campaign won’t make it succeed, but the people who reblog and otherwise share the link reach an audience that I can’t, so I appreciate everyone who does.

Right now the unicorn has just barely reached its funding goal. I’ll admit there was a little gleeful squeeing when I got the most recent backer and realized that the project would fund. There’s still a week left to go, so I hope to pick up a few more backers along the way. And when that’s done and I’ve gotten the rewards for this campaign all finished, I’m currently sculpting a dragon, a little larger than the other two, that will probably go the same route. After the dragon is done I have some other ideas as well. I hope to have many more successful kickstarters down the road! –BladeSpark

Personally, I really admire tight campaigns with focused goals, the “installments” method of fundraising seems to be a stronger approach for new posters than the full-on campaign…since crowdfunding is largely trading your reputation for dollars, small and incremental campaigns look like a strong model for artists with modest followings. Good luck, BladeSpark!

Ochoan’s “March of the Art Dolls”

Designer toys aren’t exactly new, they’ve been around since the 90′s or so, but they’re quirky and kind of niche, maybe under the radar as a “thing”–small batches of toys, produced in batches as high as 2000 or so or as low as 10 or 20, maybe with unique or small-run paint jobs. The early history of “Uglydolls” is that kind of story, you know, before they made it “big.” And that’s the sort of story Ochoan is working on with her cuddly (?) baby velociraptors, the little doll with the big, sharp, teeth.

Her model is the “adoptable,” using her campaign funds to produce runs of the cast parts to produce her soft, fuzzy carnivorous dinosaurs, with a variety of paint jobs and coat colors. These aren’t toys for tots, and the images here don’t really do the fine detail work of her poppets justice–look at some of the prehistoric monsters she’s stitched and painted, the detail work is impressive, up there with any high-realism furry artist, with little nods toward “unique and collectible” like bone-and-bead necklaces on her Alaskan kodiak.

There’s still 30 days left on her Indiegogo campaign, which has thusfar had some trouble finding traction. However, you may still be able to see the first of her mighty race of velociraptor hatchlings on the fantasy con circuit. Just don’t pet it, clearly you could lose a finger.

 

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator. 

New Projects

Go Kemono (Adult. Offbeatr voting period)
Highly-produced real life fursuit/Kemono erotica in DVD and portfolio. (Apparently “straight” is an underrepresented kink : ) )

A Year of Dorky Dogs (Art. Ends: 10/1/2013)
12-month calendar of, well, the Dogs of Fandom, whimsical illos from comic, video game, and film. A benefit project for a Portland animal rescue. (So apparently Portland has some real talent! Professional artists working with major comic labels on this project…)

Come Find Me: The Journey to Abbey Road (Audio. Ends: 11/7/2013)
Foxamoore‘s new album, now well past its goal to record at the Beatle’s “Abbey Road” studio! (Additional stretch goals to get art by Alectorfencer, professional production, more studio time, and a full orchestra!)

The Complete Adventures of Carl Vol 1 (Comics/Graphic Novels. Ends: 10/5/2013)
The comic misadventures of Carl the Rabbit, brightly colored, heavily referential, and now, in one place.

The Aviary: When Bird Became Woman (Events. Ends: 10/5/2013)
a 12-gown haut couture collection of dresses inspired by birds, coming this October to San Diego. (The bluejay is pretty amazing.)

Wolf Girl: The Princess Mononoke Fan Film (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 9/29/2013)
600 years after the events of “Mononoke,” the forest needs a princess again. Live action, puppetry, CGI, and a lot of love. (More info here, but this is one of the best-illustrated kickstarters I’ve seen.)

Resin-cast unicorn pets (Toys. Ends: 9/17/2013)
Cute little round resin unicorns by Bladespark, maker of the world’s first spherical fennec.

Imagination is the Only Escape (Video Games. Ends: 10/17/2013)
A child creates an imaginary otherworld to escape the horrors of World War II, accompanied by a fox named Renard. An educational game for children. (Scary and beautiful Alice-in-Wonderlandy graphics and a dark story.)

Run4Run4Lions: Protecting Lions Through Running (…Causes. Ends: 10/1/2013)
A race to raise money for lions and defuse human/wildlife conflicts. Some GREAT artwork in the race’s promotional materials!

The Furry Truth (…Coming Soon?. Not yet launched)
A fandom-created documentary aiming to be unbiased and open-minded. IGG launching in 2014.

Ad-Man! A Game of Advertising Mascots (…Just For Fun. Ends: 10/1/2013)
Collect cheesy commercial mascots and battle over big accounts in this quirky card game. (Presumably, it’s grrrrrreat.)

Roaches: The Role-Playing Game (…Just For Fun. Ends: 10/23/2013)
A tabletop RPG aimed at younger players, or presumably players interested in playing roaches?

Furrycn (…Meh. Ends: 10/19/2013)
A new furry networking site with chat, forum features. This one first started out on Offbeatr, but couldn’t get any traction.

 

Audio

Sonic and Halo Orchestral Medley (Ends: 10/6/2013)
A modest campaign for orchestral production of a Sonic: The Hedgehog “best of” medley and Halo. Most of goal covers the cost of hiring an orchestra for $2500/hour…
More of Mr Trent’s arrangements on YouTube

Wingboner’s Debut Album (Ends: 10/28/2013)
Crowdfunding for professional studio release of MLP metal band Wingboner’s debut album

Books/Print

Flynn: A Frog’s Journey (Ends: 9/13/2013)
Children’s/YA book, featuring a very stylish tree frog’s quest to restore his wife to health.
Don’t bother watching the “stock footage marathon” video…cover illustration is really strong and vivid!

Fetch: An Illustrated Book (Ends: 9/21/2013)
Whimsical illustrated adventure book with a “special effects” feel about were dogs come from, and their carefree homeland.

Children’s Products

Jason and the Monster King (Ends: 9/13/2013)
Children’s graphic novel/ebook in the “kid hero visits dangerous magical otherworld” genre. Cute costumes and main character design!

Clothing/Costumes

Grow Your Own Tail (Ends: 9/12/2013)
DIY and completed animatronic tails with hand controls and a “wag to the beat” mode

Piki Charms (Ends: 9/21/2013)
Tiny charms for phones, etc, with an amazing range of designs, by DrawWithLaura
The goal is a little high for the nature of this product, but it’s to fund some business capital equipment. But it’s fixed-funding, so no accidental scams.

Dog Breed T-shirts (Ends: 9/23/2013)
Huskies: represent. A series of miminalist silkscreened dog breed loyalty tees.
I’m not chipping in for this until they post a Mexican hairless design.

Pony Scarves (Ends: 9/30/2013)
Pinkie Pie and Rarity cutie mark scarves.
What, no “Big Mac”? Other designs at Ponyscarves…guys, get a website!

Comics/Graphic Novels

Woof Yorkers (Ends: 9/12/2013)
Cartoons from the dog park, a “keep the site alive” campaign from Woofyorkers.com
I’m on the fence on this one. Occasionally clever, occasionally cute, but it’s no “Housepets.”

Last Resort: Bound Edition and Reprint (Ends: 10/6/2013)
Volume 2 of the reality show travails of the world’s fluffiest vampire.
From an anthro-loaded webcomic, worth a tour on its own. Click around, the art style varies a lot.

Film/Animation/Theater

Samurai Chinchilla: The Animated Short (Ends: 9/12/2013)
Relaunch of the project, now with more stills, concept art, and of course an origami kitsune.

The Labyrinth (Ends: 9/12/2013)
Short film: a sympathetic and stop-motion look at the birth and life of Asterius, the Greek minotaur

Forbidden and Unbreakable (Ends: 9/23/2013)
Live-action feature film, a romance between a young woman and a science experiment (Science: creating a better anthro border collie for the future!) and the secrets that keep them apart.
The IGG page is a bit light on plot details, more information on Junto Box.

Reynard City Cartoon Project (Ends: 9/29/2013)
Animated version of Renard City, a Saturday morning action, furry superhero web/pdf comic

Dogg Park: It’s a Ruff life (Ends: 10/9/2013)
A “scripted reality show” about talking dogs at the dog park.
This may be intentionally bad? If you like pain and humiliation, watch the video. Just watch the video anyway. The jokes just write themselves, and clearly did.

Bronies: The Movie (Ends: 10/10/2013)
A short comedy film (and possibly a webseries) about a young man “coming out” to his co-workers and girlfriend as a brony.
The video’s not bad, this may be funnier than it initially sounds!

Tabletop Games

Monster Derby (Ends: 9/11/2013)
A quick and silly board game of racing monsters.
The first 20 seconds of the KS video is particularly worth watching. Maybe not so furry but cute werewolf and minotaur.

Kitsune: Of Foxes and Fools (Ends: 9/11/2013)
A card game of tricky kitsune plotting against foolish mortals, and possibly a tanuki.
Wait for the line in the video, “These are the foxes we’re not using.” Kickstarter proceeds are going toward improving the artwork, so hard to get an idea of the final product.

Awakened Villagers of Cairn (Ends: 9/19/2013)
“Bicycle” cards featuring the quirky, detailed furry art of the “Cairn” RPG–rodent fans and Redwall enthusiasts, this is for you.
The Cairn RPG has its own tragedy/success story, SoulJar Games has picked up where the original KS project left off.

Havok & Hijinks (Ends: 9/24/2013)
A disturbingly cute card game: you play a dragon hatchling that got kicked out of the parent’s den, and now it’s time to find your OWN hoard!

Attack to the Pantry (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Old School Warner Bros cartoon style card game: Scoundrel animals raiding Grandma’s pantry for whatever they can carry away!
Page is mostly in, or originally in, Italian, but the sketchy concept art is fun and universal!

Toys

March of the Art Dolls (Ends: 10/8/2013)
Ochoan‘s line of art dolls, a variety of expressive and wooly beasts

Video Games

Save Mr Egg (Ends: 9/18/2013)
Fox chases egg in this odd little video game.
The visuals on the fox are interesting. I’m not sure who I’m supposed to be cheering for.

Web

PairofMares Productions (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Small fundraiser for materials for My Little Pony reviews podcast
This may be an “imagine the final product” project, since they’re hoping to get new artwork…still, it’s a cute little dream.

World of Pokemon (Ends: 10/28/2013)
Indiegogo relaunch of the rich and detailed “World of Pokemon” website project

Adult

Roundscape: Adorevia (Ends: 9/10/2013)
An ambitious and smutty narrative-driven free-to-play 2D sprite game, looking for some floating decimal point between the hentai fandom and “Lord of the Rings.”
I don’t think Lord of the Rings had quite as many money shots. Is this a furry project? Not really, but poster Kaliyo tells me that we can expect furry companions and transformations. We’ll see.

No Good Deed: A Macrophilic Choose-Your-Own-Adventure (Ends: 9/13/2013)
A multi-ending illustrated book-on-CD, with transformations, macro growth, and the occasional demigod. And lots of naked giant dragon critters.
Look for DNA‘s work on FA.

…Causes

The Hyena Sanctuary of North America (Ends: 10/10/2013): Help build a Texas home for the hyenas of the Berkeley hyena program!
Help create the Coywolf Association (Ends: 10/25/2013): A national association to protect coywolves, yotes, wolves, and crows and ravens. Why crows? Maybe they’re trying to get Blotch to do their banner art.

…Just For Fun

Fairy Light Performance (Ends: 9/15/2013): Support your local fairy. If you’re in Ottowa. Cute, kind of arbitrary, completely twee. Embrace the preciousness.
Fire Breathing Dragon at Artprize (Ends: 9/15/2013): Yeah, it’s in Michigan, but how often can you help crowdfund a giant, color-changing, fire-breathing dragon?

Animatronic tails with Greyworld’s “Grow Your Own Tail” campaign

It’s exciting when a team of nationally-recognized professionals with good technical know-how get playful, but I suppose Greyworld started out playful. They’ve turned their artistic brains to the important task of “how to make a tail that ACTUALLY knocks glasses off the table.” I totally missed this campaign’s launch, but there’s still time for their 10-day countdown.

And then a bunch of other stuff.

Greyworld: “Grow Your Own Tail”

First a few words about Greyworld. This is likely to be the only fur-friendly kickstarter in which the poster has probably gotten a +1 from the queen of England, so it’s worth looking at the “who” as much as the “what.”

Greyworld is an art collective operating out of Britain, emphasizing interactive public space art. Their most visible and public piece is almost certainly The Source, a massive sculpture at the British Stock Exchange that represents stock trade as organic, drifting glowing orbs, almost 1500 of them. They’ve created flowers that show the changes in an office complex, interactive digital art for Nokia, clockwork trees, and a glowing sun in Trafalgar Square.

So really, it was a foregone conclusion that Greyworld would make something that furries can strap to their butts.

The technology is fascinating to look at–Greyworld has machined many of their own parts, so there’s a feeling that, on every level, their product was meant to be a tail. There’s an assortment of furs and shapes–skunk and husky, fox, leopard–their Tumblr has a better range of visuals than Kickstarter–they’re even looking into customized motion programs, down the road. The KS video isn’t bad, but Greyworld says their tail has much smoother motion–the video is of an early model, and for some reason, the video’s glitchy.

All of which is neat, but the furry community has had motion tails for a while now (the quality of these is high, but it’s not a new idea, not really). Personally, what I find exciting is the story behind it–a major art group is producing these tails, and their focus is on art in public, playful and interactive art. Their video jokes about tails showing people’s “naughty sides,” expressing emotions that the human side might not be able to show. But core to their mission as an artistic engine is playful, creative expression in public, urban spaces, and Greyworld has chosen to use these twitchy tails as a way to do that on an individual level. Personally, I’m glad they agree with us furries on this issue.

[I'm imagining the Monty Python sketch where the Queen of England comes to get her custom tail for her £500 pledge. "We would like a corgi tail." "You Majesty, they don't have tails, they're stubby things." "Nevertheless!"]

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

New Projects

Sonic and Halo Orchestral Medley (Audio. Ends: 10/6/2013)
A modest campaign for orchestral production of a Sonic: The Hedgehog “best of” medley and Halo. Most of goal covers the cost of hiring an orchestra for $2500/hour… (More of Mr Trent’s arrangements on YouTube)

Wingboner’s Debut Album (Audio. Ends: 10/28/2013)
Crowdfunding for professional studio release of MLP metal band “Wingboner’s debut album

Grow Your Own Tail (Clothing/Costumes. Ends: 9/12/2013)
DIY and completed animatronic tails with hand controls and a “wag to the beat” mode

Pony Scarves (Clothing/Costumes. Ends: 9/30/2013)
Pinkie Pie and Rarity cutie mark scarves. (What, no “Big Mac”? Other designs at Ponyscarves…guys, get a website!)

Reynard City Cartoon Project (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 9/29/2013)
Animated version of Renard City, a Saturday morning action, furry superhero web/pdf comic

PairofMares Productions (Web. Ends: 10/13/2013)
Small fundraiser for materials for My Little Pony reviews podcast (This may be an “imagine the final product” project, since they’re hoping to get new artwork…still, it’s a cute little dream.)

World of Pokemon (Web. Ends: 10/28/2013)
Indiegogo relaunch of the rich and detailed “World of Pokemon” website project

Help create the Coywolf Association (…Causes. Ends: 10/25/2013)
A national association to protect coywolves, yotes, wolves, and crows and ravens. Why crows? Maybe they’re trying to get Blotch to do their banner art.

Fairy Light Performance (…Just For Fun. Ends: 9/15/2013)
Support your local fairy. If you’re in Ottowa. Cute, kind of arbitrary, completely twee. Embrace the preciousness. Not furry at all, but..so very twee.

Fire Breathing Dragon at Artprize (…Just For Fun. Ends: 9/15/2013)
Yeah, it’s in Michigan, but how often can you help crowdfund a giant, color-changing, fire-breathing dragon?

 

Books/Print

Flynn: A Frog’s Journey (Ends: 9/13/2013)
Children’s/YA book, featuring a very stylish tree frog’s quest to restore his wife to health.
Don’t bother watching the “stock footage marathon” video…cover illustration is really strong and vivid!

Fetch: An Illustrated Book (Ends: 9/21/2013)
Whimsical illustrated adventure book with a “special effects” feel about were dogs come from, and their carefree homeland.

Children’s Products

Jason and the Monster King (Ends: 9/13/2013)
Children’s graphic novel/ebook in the “kid hero visits dangerous magical otherworld” genre. Cute costumes and main character design!

Clothing/Costumes

Piki Charms (Ends: 9/21/2013)
Tiny charms for phones, etc, with an amazing range of designs, by DrawWithLaura
The goal is a little high for the nature of this product, but it’s to fund some business capital equipment. But it’s fixed-funding, so no accidental scams.

Dog Breed T-shirts (Ends: 9/23/2013)
Huskies: represent. A series of miminalist silkscreened dog breed loyalty tees.
I’m not chipping in for this until they post a Mexican hairless design.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Flashy the Overlord (Ends: 9/4/2013)
A graphic novel with simple watercolor illustrations about, possibly, coming of age and taking the throne in a fantasy kingdom.
There’s a strong interactive element in this project, community-building and writing yourself into the plot.

Danger Squad (Ends: 9/9/2013)
Sci-Fi Comedy featuring a crazy captain and maladjusted crew, and a nice range of anthro characters and villains.

Woof Yorkers (Ends: 9/12/2013)
Cartoons from the dog park, a “keep the site alive” campaign from Woofyorkers.com
I’m on the fence on this one. Occasionally clever, occasionally cute, but it’s no “Housepets.”

Last Resort: Bound Edition and Reprint (Ends: 10/6/2013)
Volume 2 of the reality show travails of the world’s fluffiest vampire.
From an anthro-loaded webcomic, worth a tour on its own. Click around, the art style varies a lot.

Film/Animation/Theater

The Ballad of Thundercluck, Chicken of Thor (Ends: 9/4/2013)
“Half mortal. Half god. All natural chicken.” Short animated film with a Celtic style, like a silly Secret of Kells. Ride with Thundercluck into glory!

Sanpomichi, A Little Oze (Ends: 9/9/2013)
Stop-motion film of a mouse’s daily life, her habits, her family challenges. Graceful slice-of-life.
I’d love to watch this back-to-back with Blood Tea and Red String. For contrast.

Samurai Chinchilla: The Animated Short (Ends: 9/12/2013)
Relaunch of the project, now with more stills, concept art, and of course an origami kitsune.

The Labyrinth (Ends: 9/12/2013)
Short film: a sympathetic and stop-motion look at the birth and life of Asterius, the Greek minotaur

Forbidden and Unbreakable (Ends: 9/23/2013)
Live-action feature film, a romance between a young woman and a science experiment (Science: creating a better anthro border collie for the future!) and the secrets that keep them apart.
The IGG page is a bit light on plot details, more information on Junto Box.

Dogg Park: It’s a Ruff life (Ends: 10/9/2013)
A “scripted reality show” about talking dogs at the dog park.
This may be intentionally bad? If you like pain and humiliation, watch the video. Just watch the video anyway. The jokes just write themselves, and clearly did.

Bronies: The Movie (Ends: 10/10/2013)
A short comedy film (and possibly a webseries) about a young man “coming out” to his co-workers and girlfriend as a brony.
The video’s not bad, this may be funnier than it initially sounds!

Tabletop Games

Monster Derby (Ends: 9/11/2013)
A quick and silly board game of racing monsters.
The first 20 seconds of the KS video is particularly worth watching. Maybe not so furry but cute werewolf and minotaur.

Kitsune: Of Foxes and Fools (Ends: 9/11/2013)
A card game of tricky kitsune plotting against foolish mortals, and possibly a tanuki.
Wait for the line in the video, “These are the foxes we’re not using.” Kickstarter proceeds are going toward improving the artwork, so hard to get an idea of the final product.

Awakened Villagers of Cairn (Ends: 9/19/2013)
“Bicycle” cards featuring the quirky, detailed furry art of the “Cairn” RPG–rodent fans and Redwall enthusiasts, this is for you.
The Cairn RPG has its own tragedy/success story, SoulJar Games has picked up where the original KS project left off.

Havok & Hijinks (Ends: 9/24/2013)
A disturbingly cute card game: you play a dragon hatchling that got kicked out of the parent’s den, and now it’s time to find your OWN hoard!

Attack to the Pantry (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Old School Warner Bros cartoon style card game: Scoundrel animals raiding Grandma’s pantry for whatever they can carry away!
Page is mostly in, or originally in, Italian, but the sketchy concept art is fun and universal!

Toys

March of the Art Dolls (Ends: 10/8/2013)
Ochoa‘s line of art dolls, a variety of expressive and wooly beasts

Video Games

Edo Superstar (Ends: 9/5/2013)
Monkey-on-monkey fighting game with an ancient Japanese flavor from the maker of Yukiyoe Heroes (favorite video game characters as ancient Japanese block woodcuts.)
Honestly, I really don’t care about the game. I want the SWAG.

Save Mr Egg (Ends: 9/18/2013)
Fox chases egg in this odd little video game.
The visuals on the fox are interesting. I’m not sure who I’m supposed to be cheering for.

Adult

Roundscape: Adorevia (Ends: 9/10/2013)
An ambitious and smutty narrative-driven free-to-play 2D sprite game, looking for some floating decimal point between the hentai fandom and “Lord of the Rings.”
I don’t think Lord of the Rings had quite as many money shots. Is this a furry project? Not really, but poster Kaliyo tells me that we can expect furry companions and transformations. We’ll see.

No Good Deed: A Macrophilic Choose-Your-Own-Adventure (Ends: 9/13/2013)
A multi-ending illustrated book-on-CD, with transformations, macro growth, and the occasional demigod. And lots of naked giant dragon critters.
Look for DNA‘s work on FA.

…Meh

Furrycc (Offbeatr prelaunch voting): Pitch, vague and unformed, for a new furry chat website. May be adult. Pledge $25 and you can be a mod!

…Causes

Save Virachey Park (Ends: 9/10/2013): Campaign to install motion-trigger cameras in Virachey park, Cambodia, to show it’s a worthwhile preserve of endangered species. Do it for the dholes!
The Hyena Sanctuary of North America (Ends: 10/10/2013): Help build a Texas home for the hyenas of the Berkeley hyena program!

…Just For Fun

La Divina Caricatura (Ends: 10/1/2013): An American Bunraku-style (Japanese puppet theater) production, a pop opera with a few beautifully done anthro puppets, worth a visit to the IGG for the characters.

 

Tricksy Bastard, The Card Game: Kitsune, Of Foxes & Fools; Havok & Hijinks (and a nod to “Cairn”)

It’s required that all fantasy games alliterate and have an ampersand in their title. Blame E. Gary Gygax. A few card games around the general theme of ne’er-do-wells, con artists, and tricksters this week, all with big, inviting, and possibly insincere smiles and strong artwork.

And then a bunch of other stuff.

Kitsune: Of Foxes & Fools

The trick, with many kickstarters, is imagining what the final product will be. Kitsune: Of Foxes & Fools, is that sort of project: A card game which is distinguished by its art, but puts polishing up the art as one of its first stretch goals. It’s an awkward line, the black and white foxes in F&F are elegant, distinctive–but at the same time give the project a first-timer quality. There’s a few apples you can only grab with a Kickstarter pledge, and this indie card game might fall into that basket. 

Kitsune is a game of tactics and luck, players pick one of a set of kitsune to be their avatar in the game world, each with their own characteristics and favorite targets. The foxes gain notoriety, power, and tails, by pulling tricks on foolish mortals, taking advantage of their sins of lust, gluttony, and so on to teach the humans a few lessons.

Overall play looks like a game of growing your resources, countering your opponent, and picking your battles, competitive more than interactive. Which is a pity, the characters are appealing and a little interactive play might be fun! But there’s plenty of color and humor in the card set, enough to infuse the game with the right level of impish fun. Plus, big stacks of kitsune art, which is appealing on its own.

Havok & Hijinks

The project’s full title (“Don’t slay a dragon…BE one!“) seems to imply majestic beasts soaring overhead, probably voiced by Sean Connery. These…these aren’t that sort of dragon. The fire-blasting majestic beast is mommy, and you tried to touch her hoard. So you’re out in the harsh world, trying to build your own nest of gold, preferably with as little effort as possible. And you are dangerously cute.

Game play is quick and easy, a 15-30 minute game. The developer claims to have invented the game standing in line at DragonCon to play while standing in line at DragonCon. It’s for 2-4 players, and family friendly, if a little too tricky for pre-teens (but geeks, as we all know, have super-intelligent mutant offspring, so your mileage may vary.) Game play involves turning over “havok” cards (treasures and events), stealing from and pranking the other hatchlings with tricks like “incinerate trousers”, and generally trying to grab coins, treasure, and easily-ransomable nobles before your “friendS” do.

It doesn’t look like there’s anything really new in the game play, but “well-made, streamlined, and insanely cute” counts for a lot. Events turn up, players respond and counter or steal from each other, with an assortment of fantasy trope cards to help round out the universe. One interesting wrinkle is that certain cards play better for certain dragons–fire-based tricks really work well for the Ruby hatching, for instance. The game does allow for a variety of play styles–wheeling and dealing, scorched earth, trickery. And it includes at least one cat girl.

The game is set in author “Ferrel” Trzonkowski’s D&D/Pathfinder world of Vallhyn, and since Havok & Hijinks is  made by a small-press RPG publisher, there’s a good chance we’ll see more from Vallhyn in the future. The Kickstarter’s already chewing through its stretch goals with another month on the clock, so check it out!

Awakened Villagers of Cairn Bicycle Playing Cards

And one quick call-out for a beautiful product. Last year a game launched on Kickstarter called “Cairn.” It was an attractive tabletop RPG with some of the cutest anthro artwork I’d seen, mice and bunnies with lots of personality. A bit “Redwall,” but impish and appealing. Unfortunately the project crashed, partially as a victim of its own success with too many “Backers at the $100 level can add their own X, Y or Z” goals, partly a victim of the author, who has had a few other misfires. Caveat emptor and all that. Jeff Laubenstein’s furry art lives again in Villagers of Cairn, a product by SoulJar Games (which, I am assured, is a totally different company.) Personally I’m thrilled to see the world of Cairn open up again. Take a look at the project and embrace the cuteness.
Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

New Projects

Fetch: An Illustrated Book (Books/Print. Ends: 9/21/2013)
Whimsical illustrated adventure book with a “special effects” feel about were dogs come from, and their carefree homeland.

Dog Breed T-shirts (Clothing/Costumes. Ends: 9/23/2013)
Huskies: represent. A series of miminalist silkscreened dog breed loyalty tees. (I’m not chipping in for this until they post a Mexican hairless design.)

Last Resort: Bound Edition and Reprint (Comics/Graphic Novels. Ends: 10/6/2013)
Volume 2 of the reality show travails of the world’s fluffiest vampire. (From an anthro-loaded webcomic, worth a tour on its own. Click around, the art style varies a lot.)

Forbidden and Unbreakable (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 9/23/2013)
Live-action feature film, a romance between a young woman and a science experiment (Science: creating a better anthro border collie for the future!) and the secrets that keep them apart. (The IGG page is a bit light on plot details, more information on Junto Box.)

Dogg Park: It’s a Ruff life (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 10/9/2013)
A “scripted reality show” about talking dogs at the dog park. (This may be intentionally bad? If you like pain and humiliation, watch the video. Just watch the video anyway. The jokes just write themselves, and clearly did.)

Bronies: The Movie (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 10/10/2013)
A short comedy film (and possibly a webseries) about a young man “coming out” to his co-workers and girlfriend as a brony. (The video’s not bad, this may be funnier than it initially sounds!)

Buck: Legacy game expansion (Tabletop Games. Ends: 9/5/2013)
An expansion for the Buck: Legacy pony fantasy dungeon crawl card game. (“Visit them on Facebuck.”)

Awakened Villagers of Cairn (Tabletop Games. Ends: 9/19/2013)
“Bicycle” cards featuring the quirky, detailed furry art of the “Cairn” RPG–rodent fans and Redwall enthusiasts, this is for you. (The Cairn RPG has its own tragedy/success story, SoulJar Games has picked up where the original KS project left off. )

Save Mr Egg (Video Games. Ends: 9/18/2013)
Fox chases egg in this odd little video game. (The visuals on the fox are interesting. I’m not sure who I’m supposed to be cheering for.)

The Hyena Sanctuary of North America (…Causes. Ends: 10/10/2013)
Help build a Texas home for the hyenas of the Berkeley hyena program!

Furrycc (…Meh. Offbeatr prelaunch voting)
Pitch, vague and unformed, for a new furry chat website. May be adult. Pledge $25 and you can be a mod!

 

Art

Animal Parade (Ends: 9/1/2013)
A faintly creepy interactive art exhibit and collection of colorful, marching animals with huge, staring, dead eyes
All my life I have wanted to be a double-pig early bird. Share this opportunity with me now.

Hunter Clark’s Sublime Creatures (Ends: 9/1/2013)
(NSFW) An artsy collection of animal-headed women, artistic nudes of mothers, mothers-to-be, and madonnas.
More about the beauty of the pregnant female body combined with animal symbolism than hybrids and anthros, but an interesting take on hybrids and lots of African carnivores.

Books/Print

Flynn: A Frog’s Journey (Ends: 9/13/2013)
Children’s/YA book, featuring a very stylish tree frog’s quest to restore his wife to health.
Don’t bother watching the “stock footage marathon” video…cover illustration is really strong and vivid!

Children’s Products

Jason and the Monster King (Ends: 9/13/2013)
Children’s graphic novel/ebook in the “kid hero visits dangerous magical otherworld” genre. Cute costumes and main character design!

Clothing/Costumes

HouseBROKEN Clothing’s New Designs (Ends: 9/2/2013)
New additions to Housebroken‘s tee line–almost exclusively, sharp-dressed animal designs.
I’m wearing Pussy Enforcer on casual day this week.

Piki Charms (Ends: 9/21/2013)
Tiny charms for phones, etc, with an amazing range of designs, by DrawWithLaura
The goal is a little high for the nature of this product, but it’s to fund some business capital equipment. But it’s fixed-funding, so no accidental scams.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Owlgirls (Ends: 9/1/2013)
A “paranormal detective” genre comic, three shadowy sisters touched by the goddess of Death. Oh, they have owl heads.

Caribbean Blue: Volume 2 (Ends: 9/2/2013)
Cat-girls and girl-cats on a tropical island in this colorful manga-style webcomic-turned-print.

Flashy the Overlord (Ends: 9/4/2013)
A graphic novel with simple watercolor illustrations about, possibly, coming of age and taking the throne in a fantasy kingdom.
There’s a strong interactive element in this project, community-building and writing yourself into the plot.

Danger Squad (Ends: 9/9/2013)
Sci-Fi Comedy featuring a crazy captain and maladjusted crew, and a nice range of anthro characters and villains.

Woof Yorkers (Ends: 9/12/2013)
Cartoons from the dog park, a “keep the site alive” campaign from Woofyorkers.com
I’m on the fence on this one. Occasionally clever, occasionally cute, but it’s no “Housepets.”

Film/Animation/Theater

Anthro: Animating the Soul (Ends: 8/27/2013)
A documentary look at beloved anthro characters and their creators.
Stitchfan has broken this project up into a series of small-goal IGGs, interesting model and I hope to see it succeed!

Werewolves of Predatory Moon (Ends: 9/1/2013)
Indie low-budget “creature feature” with a pack of werewolves and a commitment to costumes rather than CGI.
I can’t imagine what their faux hair budget is. Check the Predatory Moon website for more images.

BiPolar Bears (Ends: 9/1/2013)
Animated series about manic and depressive polar bear twins Manny and Preston (orderlies in a psych institute), the Post-Traumatic Puffins, Randolf the Alcoholic Reindeer, and other friends.
Bleah. The promo vid is “join me in my philosophy” rather than “here’s this cool product idea.” That plus very high goal/60-day campaign is a bad sign.

The Ballad of Thundercluck, Chicken of Thor (Ends: 9/4/2013)
“Half mortal. Half god. All natural chicken.” Short animated film with a Celtic style, like a silly Secret of Kells. Ride with Thundercluck into glory!

Sanpomichi, A Little Oze (Ends: 9/9/2013)
Stop-motion film of a mouse’s daily life, her habits, her family challenges. Graceful slice-of-life.
I’d love to watch this back-to-back with Blood Tea and Red String. For contrast.

Samurai Chinchilla: The Animated Short (Ends: 9/12/2013)
Relaunch of the project, now with more stills, concept art, and of course an origami kitsune.

The Labyrinth (Ends: 9/12/2013)
Short film: a sympathetic and stop-motion look at the birth and life of Asterius, the Greek minotaur

Tabletop Games

Monster Derby (Ends: 9/11/2013)
A quick and silly board game of racing monsters.
The first 20 seconds of the KS video is particularly worth watching. Maybe not so furry but cute werewolf and minotaur.

Kitsune: Of Foxes and Fools (Ends: 9/11/2013)
A card game of tricky kitsune plotting against foolish mortals, and possibly a tanuki.
Wait for the line in the video, “These are the foxes we’re not using.” Kickstarter proceeds are going toward improving the artwork, so hard to get an idea of the final product.

Havok & Hijinks (Ends: 9/24/2013)
A disturbingly cute card game: you play a dragon hatchling that got kicked out of the parent’s den, and now it’s time to find your OWN hoard!

Attack to the Pantry (Ends: 10/13/2013)
Old School Warner Bros cartoon style card game: Scoundrel animals raiding Grandma’s pantry for whatever they can carry away!
Page is mostly in, or originally in, Italian, but the sketchy concept art is fun and universal!

Toys

The Kingdom (Ends: 9/4/2013)
Epic adventure with anthro monkey warriors–first graphic novel series, now a line of action figures.

March of the Art Dolls (Ends: 10/8/2013)
Ochoa‘s line of art dolls, a variety of expressive and wooly beasts

Video Games

Fable Kart (Ends: 9/1/2013)
Multiplayer kart game in which the hare, turtle, and lots of animal friends crash and zoom around as they try to rescue the pages from Aesop’s storybook.

Edo Superstar (Ends: 9/5/2013)
Monkey-on-monkey fighting game with an ancient Japanese flavor from the maker of Yukiyoe Heroes (favorite video game characters as ancient Japanese block woodcuts.)
Honestly, I really don’t care about the game. I want the SWAG.

Adult

Chimera Labs (Ends: 8/27/2013)
Lovingly–that’s the word–detailed adult toys by Kharnak
I would like to meet the fennec fox that had one of those. They don’t usually grow that big…

Roundscape: Adorevia (Ends: 9/10/2013)
An ambitious and smutty narrative-driven free-to-play 2D sprite game, looking for some floating decimal point between the hentai fandom and “Lord of the Rings.”
I don’t think Lord of the Rings had quite as many money shots. Is this a furry project? Not really, but poster Kaliyo tells me that we can expect furry companions and transformations. We’ll see.

No Good Deed: A Macrophilic Choose-Your-Own-Adventure (Ends: 9/13/2013)
A multi-ending illustrated book-on-CD, with transformations, macro growth, and the occasional demigod. And lots of naked giant dragon critters.
Look for DNA‘s work on FA.

…Meh

Dark Stalkers: The Movie (Ends: 9/12/2013): Talbain and Felicia are so cute, I want to love the KS of “Darkstalkers,” but…there is NOTHING in this page worth looking at…
Discord in Equestria (Offbeatr prelaunch voting): …Huh? I’m pretty sure there’s an adult novel/game concept. It involves ponies, and discord. But the concept is more cryptic and garbled than a collection of “Myst” outtakes. Remember: You have only yourself to blame if you let this slip by.

…Causes

Save Virachey Park (Ends: 9/10/2013): Campaign to install motion-trigger cameras in Virachey park, Cambodia, to show it’s a worthwhile preserve of endangered species. Do it for the dholes!

…Just For Fun

La Divina Caricatura (Ends: 10/1/2013): An American Bunraku-style (Japanese puppet theater) production, a pop opera with a few beautifully done anthro puppets, worth a visit to the IGG for the characters.

Stop-motion anthro art with Sanpomichi and The Labyrinth

This week a couple of gentle, warm stop-motion animations. Now, it may be odd, possibly insane, to talk about the warm, sentimental story of the Minotaur of the Greek labyrinth, so we’ll start with a sweet slice of life from Japan, and then move on to the love between a mother and her son.

And then a bunch of other stuff.

Sanpomichi, A Little Oze

It’s hard to find words to describe the delicate, gentle beauty of this film project. I’d begin with “Kind of like the new Miyazaki film, elegant, a little pointless, but the pointlessness is a part of the beauty.” Then I’d try to compare it to “Blood Tea and Red String.” I’d say, “but it’s nothing like ‘Blood Tea and Red String.’ That’s a totally different sort of beautiful pointlessness.” Ultimately I went to Wikipedia, which gave me “Wabi-Sabi,” the delicate beauty given by time, imperfection, repetition, and the basic temporary nature of life.

Protip: you can ALWAYS find the words on Wikipedia.

Sanpomichi is a slice-of-life film project, the story of a mouse who lives with her mother in a small apartment, the first a little worn from caring for mom, the second a bit stubborn, set in her ways, and the two have been in this pattern for some time. The title translates, roughly, as “a path, regularly and thoughtfully walked,” and that sums up the film project–finding beauty in the everyday. It’s a little bit “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” mostly in its artistic style and soundtrack, and a lot quirky, gentle, indie film. Take a look, this kind of storytelling isn’t for everyone, it’s a distinctly Japanese tale, at the same time ordinary and approachable. Cute mice, too.

The Labyrinth

Fair warning, mature subject matter and some NSFW images in KS page.

There’ve been a few movies made of the story of the Minotaur and Theseus. Usually they’re action/horror and don’t end well for the Minotaur, who, fair enough, has the weight of mythology against him. The Labyrinth isn’t guaranteed a happy ending (for the Minotaur, at least) but it’s a sympathetic story, focusing on love and pain in a family torn by epic stress.

Much of the narrative weight of Labyrinth is carried by mother and child, Queen Pasiphae and Asterion. From Pasiphae’s point of view, the story of the minotaur is that of her deformed and savage son, thrown into a labyrinth prison, and then used to terrorize the Greek people as the beast their sons and daughters are sacrificed to. Pasiphae must rescue her son before the darkness, isolation and madness (and Theseus) take him.

Long story short. Literally, since poster Tom Brierton originally created a feature-length film, but cut it to a more realistic 18-minute short–animating a stop-motion feature length film without Hollywood-style backing just wasn’t realistic. Brierton’s models are detailed, sympathetic, frightening. How can you not make a comparison to the mythological monsters of Harryhausen?  Brierton has been limited to cold CGI animation, so–and this is a problem with all Kickstarter animation projects–it’s hard to say what the final vision will look like, but all the elements of the project are laid out on his KS page, and it’s a strong preview of what might be to come.
Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

New Projects

Flynn: A Frog’s Journey (Books/Print. Ends: 9/13/2013)
Children’s/YA book, featuring a very stylish tree frog’s quest to restore his wife to health. (Don’t bother watching the “stock footage marathon” video…cover illustration is really strong and vivid!)

Samurai Chinchilla: The Animated Short (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 9/12/2013)
Relaunch of the project, now with more stills, concept art, and of course an origami kitsune.

The Labyrinth (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 9/12/2013)
Short film: a sympathetic and stop-motion look at the birth and life of Asterius, the Greek minotaur

Monster Derby (Tabletop Games. Ends: 9/11/2013)
A quick and silly board game of racing monsters. (The first 20 seconds of the KS video is particularly worth watching. Maybe not so furry but cute werewolf and minotaur.)

Kitsune: Of Foxes and Fools (Tabletop Games. Ends: 9/11/2013)
A card game of tricky kitsune plotting against foolish mortals, and possibly a tanuki. (Wait for the line in the video, “These are the foxes we’re not using.” Kickstarter proceeds are going toward improving the artwork, so hard to get an idea of the final product.)

Attack to the Pantry (Tabletop Games. Ends: 10/13/2013)
Old School Warner Bros cartoon style card game: Scoundrel animals animals raiding Grandma’s pantry for whatever they can carry away! (Page is mostly in, or originally in, Italian, but the sketchy concept art is fun and universal!)

March of the Art Dolls (Toys. Ends: 10/8/2013)
Ochoa‘s line of art dolls, a variety of expressive and wooly beasts

Dark Stalkers: The Movie (…Meh. Ends: 9/12/2013)
Talbain and Felicia are so cute, I want to love the KS of “Darkstalkers,” but…there is NOTHING in this page worth looking at…

Planet Earth Superheroes (…Meh. Ends: 9/13/2013)
Some cute illustrations in this “Kid Heroes Transform to Super Animals to Save the World” movie pitch, but the long, dull video’s a bit of a killer…

Discord in Equestria (…Meh. Offbeatr prelaunch voting)
…Huh? I’m pretty sure there’s an adult novel/game concept. It involves ponies, and discord. But the concept is more cryptic and garbled than a collection of “Myst” outtakes. Remember: You have only yourself to blame if you let this slip by.

 

Art

Animal Parade (Ends: 9/1/2013)
A faintly creepy interactive art exhibit and collection of colorful, marching animals with huge, staring, dead eyes
All my life I have wanted to be a double-pig early bird. Share this opportunity with me now.

Hunter Clark’s Sublime Creatures (Ends: 9/1/2013)
(NSFW) An artsy collection of animal-headed women, artistic nudes of mothers, mothers-to-be, and madonnas.
More about the beauty of the pregnant female body combined with animal symbolism than hybrids and anthros, but an interesting take on hybrids and lots of African carnivores.

Children’s Products

Rocko, The Christmas Bat (Ends: 8/21/2013)
Soft and friendly story of a forgotten halloween decoration that wants to be a Christmas decoration.

Jason and the Monster King (Ends: 9/13/2013)
Children’s graphic novel/ebook in the “kid hero visits dangerous magical otherworld” genre. Cute costumes and main character design!

Clothing/Costumes

Woof — Dog Themed Pinback Buttons (Ends: 8/25/2013)
Cute, quirky, 1.25-inch buttons for your jacket or whichever. Cute little guys! Cats too.
Scroll down a little, the “extra dog” pins are adorable :) Watch the artist on DeviantArt or FA

HouseBROKEN Clothing’s New Designs (Ends: 9/2/2013)
New additions to Housebroken‘s tee line–amost exclusively, sharp-dressed animal designs.
I’m wearing Pussy Enforcer on casual day this week.

Piki Charms (Ends: 9/21/2013)
Tiny charms for phones, etc, with an amazing range of designs, by DrawWithLaura
The goal is a little high for the nature of this product, but it’s to fund some business capital equipment. But it’s fixed-funding, so no accidental scams.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Birdland (Ends: 8/22/2013)
A comic set in New York City, thick with jazz, noir, murder, and anthropomorphic birds

Déjà Vu (Ends: 8/25/2013)
A sci-fi/fantasy anthro adventure featuring the art of Fox Holliday and lots of canines.
A tight, 20-day Kickstarter campaign, very cool.

Owlgirls (Ends: 9/1/2013)
A “paranormal detective” genre comic, three shadowy sisters touched by the goddess of Death. Oh, they have owl heads.

Caribbean Blue: Volume 2 (Ends: 9/2/2013)
Cat-girls and girl-cats on a tropical island in this colorful manga-style webcomic-turned-print.

Flashy the Overlord (Ends: 9/4/2013)
A graphic novel with simple watercolor illustrations about, possibly, coming of age and taking the throne in a fantasy kingdom.
There’s a strong interactive element in this project, community-building and writing yourself into the plot.

Danger Squad (Ends: 9/9/2013)
Sci-Fi Comedy featuring a crazy captain and malajusted crew, and a nice range of anthro characters and villians.

Woof Yorkers (Ends: 9/12/2013)
Cartoons from the dog park, a “keep the site alive” campaign from Woofyorkers.com
I’m on the fence on this one. Occasionally clever, occasionally cute, but it’s no “Housepets.”

Film/Animation/Theater

Cat’s View Feature Film (Ends: 8/21/2013)
A crime thriller filmed from a cat witness’s point of view, along with information about the life of a feral cat, trap/neuter/return projects, etc.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Blood Brothers (Ends: 8/23/2013)
A short, live-action TMNT film with some amazing props already in the works.
From the people who brought you Marvel Zombies: The Movie: The Trailer…. Disorienting KS video, total lack of business plan, but nice mock-ups.

Anthro: Animating the Soul (Ends: 8/27/2013)
A documentary look at beloved anthro characters and their creators.
Stitchfan has broken this project up into a series of small-goal IGGs, interesting model and I hope to see it succeed!

Werewolves of Predatory Moon (Ends: 9/1/2013)
Indie low-budget “creature feature” with a pack of werewolves and a commitment to costumes rather than CGI.
I can’t imagine what their faux hair budget is. Check the Predatory Moon website for more images.

BiPolar Bears (Ends: 9/1/2013)
Animated series about manic and depressive polar bear twins Manny and Preston (orderilies in a psych institute), the Post-Traumatic Puffins, Randolf the Alcoholic Reindeer, and other friends.
Bleah. The promo vid is “join me in my philosophy” rather than “here’s this cool product idea.” That plus very high goal/60-day campaign is a bad sign.

The Ballad of Thundercluck, Chicken of Thor (Ends: 9/4/2013)
“Half mortal. Half god. All natural chicken.” Short animated film with a celtic style, like a silly Secret of Kells. Ride with Thundercluck into glory!

Sanpomichi, A Little Oze (Ends: 9/9/2013)
Stop-motion film of a mouse’s daily life, her habits, her family challenges. Graceful slice-of-life.
I’d love to watch this back-to-back with Blood Tea and Red String. For contrast.

Tabletop Games

Ponies for Pathfinder Setting Handbook (Ends: 8/24/2013)
A MLP-inspired tabletop RPG setting handbook–inspired by, but not derivitive of.
You may want to look at the Ponies for Pathfinder Racebook first. The writer seems to have tried to create a legitimate stand-alone product, not a MLP mashup or comedy piece. So, points for a clear goal.

Havok & Hijinks (Ends: 9/24/2013)
A disturbingly cute card game: you play a dragon hatchling that got kicked out of the parent’s den, and now it’s time to find your OWN hoard!

Toys

The Kingdom (Ends: 9/4/2013)
Epic adventure with anthro monkey warriors–first graphic novel series, now a line of action figures.

Video Games

Fable Kart (Ends: 9/1/2013)
Multiplayer kart game in which the hare, turtle, and lots of animal friends crash and zoom around as they try to rescue the pages from Aesop’s storybook.

Edo Superstar (Ends: 9/5/2013)
Monkey-on-monkey fighting game with an ancient Japanese flavor from the maker of Yukiyoe Heroes (favorite video game characters as ancient Japanese block woodcuts.)
Honestly, I really don’t care about the game. I want the SWAG.

Adult

Chimera Labs (Ends: 8/27/2013)
Lovingly–that’s the word–detailed adult toys by Kharnak
I would like to meet the fennec fox that had one of those. They don’t usually grow that big…

Roundscape: Adorevia (Ends: 9/10/2013)
An ambitious and smutty narrative-driven free-to-play 2D sprite game, looking for some floating decimal point between the hentai fandom and “Lord of the Rings.”
I don’t think Lord of the Rings had quite as many money shots. Is this a furry project? Not really, but poster Kaliyo tells me that we can expect furry companions and transformations. We’ll see.

No Good Deed: A Macrophilic Choose-Your-Own-Adventure (Ends: 9/13/2013)
A multi-ending illustrated book-on-CD, with transformations, macro growth, and the occasional demigod. And lots of naked giant dragon critters.
Look for DNA‘s work on FA.

…Meh

Jax the Cat (Ends: 9/1/2013): A children’s comic series of talking cats, and a few talking mice. Very Don Bluth, and like Bluth’s work a mixture of charm and pain.
Out-Rigged Project (Ends: 9/12/2013): I wholeheartedly believe there’s an anthro video game concept in this wacky mish-mash of vague ideas, furry denial, wiki references, and typos…

…Causes

Dog houses for rescued wolf-dogs (Ends: 8/24/2013): Project Pawsitive’s campaign to raise money to upgrade wolfdog repair and shelters at the Loki Clan Wolf Refuge.
Save Virachey Park (Ends: 9/10/2013): Campaign to install motion-trigger cameras in Virachey park, Cambodia, to show it’s a worthwhile preserve of endangerd species. Do it for the dholes!

…Just For Fun

La Divina Caricatura (Ends: 10/1/2013): An American Bunraku-style (Japanese puppet theater) production, a pop opera with a few beautifully done anthro puppets, worth a visit to the IGG for the characters.

The foxes of speculative fiction: Déjà Vu and Flashy the Overlord

Apparently the summer slump is over! Lots of new projects–films, comics, video games, and a surprisingly furry project on Offbeatr…no illustrations from that one, though. This week, two anthro graphic novels, one from an artist on FA, one from a furry outsider.

And then a bunch of other stuff.

Déjà Vu

Déjà Vu is a sci-fi/fantasy, the story of Cal and Saku, a mismatched pair of girls trying to return a corrupt society to its peaceful roots. The overall project–12 comics, each about 32 pages long–promises a complex story, the idea of reforming a world is a lot trickier than saving it…

I’d like to ramble at length about this project, but there’s not a lot of material on it. The artist, Fox Holliday, is unfortunately stingy with the details. She’s sharing pages on FA and through backer updates, and what we can see right now is still in a rough state, but her concept art is clean and approachable, obviously influenced by a manga style but hasn’t sacrificed its soul to it. I’m looking forward to more updates.

Holliday’s Kickstarter campaign is unusual in a few ways. It’s a really tight campaign, with a 20-day countdown to completion, and a fairly high goal for a graphic novel-type KS. Secondly, it’s a PDF form graphic novel with print as its stretch goal. That’s a rare approach, and may cause some friction with the people that shop at the Mall of Kickstarter, though it may be a more realistic approach to a project of this size. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a relaunch of this campaign to fund volume one, or maybe a version backed by one of the big furry publishers–regardless, it’s worth a look for strong artwork and a plot that feels much more human, perhaps ironically for a furry title, than most overly-epic adventure titles.

Flashy the Overlord

I think we’re a little spoiled in the fandom by the interactivity of our little shared world–our imaginary selves can get picked up by an artist, spun into someone else’s shared world, be incorporated into a “your name here” project…besides showing up at conventions and posting to twitter, furries inhabit a shared fictional world. It’s an interesting bit of parallel evolution when someone outside the fandom creates an anthro title and then opens it up to incorporating the plot twists and character concepts of a community of readers. I wonder if the author, Eric Bernadin, knows what kind of door he’s throwing open!

Flashy is the story of the boy who would be king, Flashy, son of the recently deceased lord Gebo, and his path to the throne. Flashy’s world is touched with fantasy–diverse races, strange and dangerous creatures. And it’s a beautiful world–the art may not be to everybody’s tastes, but the delicate splashes and hues of watercolor are unusual in a graphic novel, and the look and feel is of some of my favorite children’s books, minimalist, abstract, but expressive. More pics, please, Mr. Bernadin, we see them scattered around your table. Quit holding out!

Besides the challenges associated with producing a comic, “Flashy” has an agenda of openness, community, and shared world-building. Is this achievable in a print product, limited by one artist’s time and skill? Even Blotch’s “Dog Days of Summer” project had a heck of a time getting to a conclusion, and it was little more than a sexy summer fling “Choose your (or Diego’s) Own Adventure” story. Audience-driven creativity works well when it’s a shared world, but may bog down a solo effort. Still, community-driven world-building in a graphic novel is so rare that it may be unique, and Bernadin is passionate about the challenge.

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

New Projects

Animal Parade (Art. Ends: 9/1/2013)
A faintly creepy interactive art exhibit and collection of colorful, marching animals with huge, staring, dead eyes (All my life I have wanted to be a double-pig early bird. Share this opportunity with me now.)

Rocko, The Christmas Bat (Children’s Products. Ends: 8/21/2013)
Soft and friendly story of a forgotten halloween decoration that wants to be a Christmas decoration.

Jason and the Monster King (Children’s Products. Ends: 9/13/2013)
Children’s graphic novel/ebook in the “kid hero visits dangerous magical otherworld” genre. Cute costumes and main character design!

Déjà Vu (Comics/Graphic Novels. Ends: 8/25/2013)
A sci-fi/fantasy anthro adventure featuring the art of Fox Holliday and lots of canines. (A tight, 20-day Kickstarter campaign, very cool.)

Flashy the Overlord (Comics/Graphic Novels. Ends: 9/4/2013)
A graphic novel with simple watercolor illustrations about, possibly, coming of age and taking the throne in a fantasy kingdom. (There’s a strong interactive element in this project, community-building and writing yourself into the plot. )

The Ballad of Thundercluck, Chicken of Thor (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 9/4/2013)
“Half mortal. Half god. All natural chicken.” Short animated film with a celtic style. Ride with Thundercluck into glory!

Sanpomichi, A Little Oze (Film/Animation/Theater. Ends: 9/9/2013)
Stop-motion film of a mouse’s daily life, her habits, her family challenges. Graceful slice-of-life. (I’d love to watch this back-to-back with Blood Tea and Red String. For contrast.)

Havok & Hijinks (Tabletop Games. Ends: 9/24/2013)
A disturbingly cute card game: you play a dragon hatchling that got kicked out of the parent’s den, and now it’s time to find your OWN hoard!

The Kingdom (Toys. Ends: 9/4/2013)
Epic adventure with anthro monkey warriors–first graphic novel series, now a line of action figures.

Edo Superstar (Video Games. Ends: 9/5/2013)
Monkey-on-monkey fighting game with an ancient Japanese flavor from the maker of Yukiyoe Heroes (favorite video game characters as ancient Japanese block woodcuts.) (Honestly, I really don’t care about the game. I want the SWAG.)

No Good Deed: A Macrophilic Choose-Your-Own-Adventure (Adult. Offbeatr voting period)
A multi-ending illustrated book-on-CD, with transformations, macro growth, and the occasional demigod. And lots of naked giant dragon critters. (Look for DNA‘s work on FA.)

Out-Rigged Project (…Meh. Ends: 9/12/2013)
I wholeheartedly believe there’s an anthro video game concept in this wacky mish-mash of vague ideas, furry denial, wiki references, and typos…

Dog houses for rescued wolf-dogs (…Causes. Ends: 8/24/2013)
Project Pawsitive’s campaign to raise money to upgrade wolfdog repair and shelters at the Loki Clan Wolf Refuge.

Deck of Legends (…Just For Fun. Ends: 9/6/2013)
A tarot-sized deck of “standard” playing cards with fantasy artwork, for play and props in RPG tabletop games. More of the artist’s work on DA.

Metroid: Enemies Within (…Just For Fun. Ends: 9/8/2013)
Metroid fans give the Nintendo franchise short film treatment. Impressive work so far!

La Divina Caricatura (…Just For Fun. Ends: 10/1/2013)
An American Bunraku-style (Japanese puppet theater) production, a pop opera with a few beautifully done anthro puppets, worth a visit to the IGG for the characters.

the ultimate guide to life (…Just For Fun. Ends: 10/10/2013)
A strangely compelling film journey into a land of cynical, satan-led anthro pigs, vaguely season 2 Southpark, snarky and low-budget. (Well, not just pigs, this is an anthology film, but the two clips thusfar are both pretty fun. Others may vary in quality.)

Art

Hunter Clark’s Sublime Creatures (Ends: 9/1/2013)
(NSFW) An artsy collection of animal-headed women, artistic nudes of mothers, mothers-to-be, and madonnas.
More about the beauty of the pregnant female body combined with animal symbolism than hybrids and anthros, but an interesting take on hybrids and lots of African carnivores.

Clothing/Costumes

Woof — Dog Themed Pinback Buttons (Ends: 8/25/2013)
Cute, quirky, 1.25-inch buttons for your jacket or whichever. Cute little guys! Cats too.
Scroll down a little, the “extra dog” pins are adorable :) Watch the artist on DeviantArt or FA

HouseBROKEN Clothing’s New Designs (Ends: 9/2/2013)
New additions to Housebroken‘s tee line–amost exclusively, sharp-dessed animal designs.
I’m wearing Pussy Enforcer on casual day this week.

Piki Charms (Ends: 9/21/2013)
Tiny charms for phones, etc, with an amazing range of designs, by DrawWithLaura
The goal is a little high for the nature of this product, but it’s to fund some business capital equipment. But it’s fixed-funding, so no accidental scams.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Of Mice and Madness: Tails from Out There! (Ends: 8/15/2013)
The adventures of the mouse bounty hunter Othello and his trusted if dim cat steed as they travel the galaxy in search of riches.
More galleries and info at ofmiceandmadness.com.

Birdland (Ends: 8/22/2013)
A comic set in New York City, thick with jazz, noir, murder, and anthropomorphic birds

Owlgirls (Ends: 9/1/2013)
A “paranormal detective” genre comic, three shadowy sisters touched by the goddess of Death. Oh, they have owl heads.

Caribbean Blue: Volume 2 (Ends: 9/2/2013)
Cat-girls and girl-cats on a tropical island in this colorful manga-style webcomic-turned-print.

Danger Squad (Ends: 9/9/2013)
Sci-Fi Comedy featuring a crazy captain and malajusted crew, and a nice range of anthro characters and villians.

Woof Yorkers (Ends: 9/12/2013)
Cartoons from the dog park, a “keep the site alive” campaign from Woofyorkers.com
I’m on the fence on this one. Occasionally clever, occasionally cute, but it’s no “Housepets.”

Events

DerpyCon South (Ends: 8/14/2013)
Fundraising for Year 1 of DerpyCon South: the New Orleans Brony convention!

Film/Animation/Theater

Cat’s View Feature Film (Ends: 8/21/2013)
A crime thriller filmed from a cat witness’s point of view, along with information about the life of a feral cat, trap/neuter/return projects, etc.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Blood Brothers (Ends: 8/23/2013)
A short, live-action TMNT film with some amazing props already in the works.
From the people who brought you Marvel Zombies: The Movie: The Trailer…. Disorienting KS video, total lack of business plan, but nice mock-ups.

Anthro: Animating the Soul (Ends: 8/27/2013)
A documentary look at beloved anthro characters and their creators.
Stitchfan has broken this project up into a series of small-goal IGGs, interesting model and I hope to see it succeed!

Werewolves of Predatory Moon (Ends: 9/1/2013)
Indie low-budget “creature feature” with a pack of werewolves and a commitment to costumes rather than CGI.
I can’t imagine what their faux hair budget is. Check the Predatory Moon website for more images.

BiPolar Bears (Ends: 9/1/2013)
Animated series about manic and depressive polar bear twins Manny and Preston (orderilies in a psych institute), the Post-Traumatic Puffins, Randolf the Alcoholic Reindeer, and other friends.
Bleah. The promo vid is “join me in my philosophy” rather than “here’s this cool product idea.” That plus very high goal/60-day campaign is a bad sign.

Tabletop Games

Room Party: The Game (Ends: 8/15/2013)
A card game about building the MOST AWESOME room party at the con. Concept by the artists of BLOTCH (and stretch goal Furry Con expansion to be drawn by Blotch.)
Reminds me a bit of “Chez Geek,” silly people, silly situations, accumulating cool points.

Zoo Fu: Path of the Samurai Zookeeper (Ends: 8/17/2013)
A silly card game of fighting zoo animals, martial arts, and shouting.
I really want to play a game where you get points by shouting “Crouching Gecko Kick of DOOOOOOM!”

Ponies for Pathfinder Setting Handbook (Ends: 8/24/2013)
A MLP-inspired tabletop RPG setting handbook–inspired by, but not derivitive of.
You may want to look at the Ponies for Pathfinder Racebook first. The writer seems to have tried to create a legitimate stand-alone product, not a MLP mashup or comedy piece. So, points for a clear goal.

Toys

Gothitropolis Raven Action Figure (Ends: 8/12/2013)
Six action figures of 6-inch anthro birds in gothic fantasy inspired armor, with stretch goals for several more within reach.

Video Games

Questria: Princess Destiny (Ends: 8/18/2013)
A life simulation game with very familiar characters, human versions of the “mane six” from My Little Pony.

Fable Kart (Ends: 9/1/2013)
Multiplayer kart game in which the hare, turtle, and lots of animal friends crash and zoom around as they try to rescue the pages from Aesop’s storybook.

No Signal (Ends: 9/12/2013)
Open-world story-driven RPG: Somewhere there is a universe in peril, a universe of plumbers with hammers, ninja tortoises, and dark urban knights. And you must save this universe. Except that your brain has been yanked out and put into a stuffed bear.
$100,000 goal? Really?

Adult

Chimera Labs (Ends: 8/27/2013)
Lovingly–that’s the word–detailed adult toys by Kharnak
I would like to meet the fennec fox that had one of those. They don’t usually grow that big…

Roundscape: Adorevia (Ends: 9/10/2013)
An ambitious and smutty narrative-driven free-to-play 2D sprite game, looking for some floating decimal point between the hentai fandom and “Lord of the Rings.”
I don’t think Lord of the Rings had quite as many money shots. Is this a furry project? Not really, but poster Kaliyo tells me that we can expect furry companions and transformations. We’ll see.

…Meh

Jax the Cat (Ends: 9/1/2013): A children’s comic series of talking cats, and a few talking mice. Very Don Bluth, and like Bluth’s work a mixture of charm and pain.

…Causes

Wildcats of the World (Ends: 8/25/2013): A web-based interactive resource to spread awareness of the remaining sildcat species.
Save Virachey Park (Ends: 9/10/2013): Campaign to install motion-trigger cameras in Virachey park, Cambodia, to show it’s a worthwhile preserve of endangerd species. Do it for the dholes!