Dogpatch Press

“Our world is one rich with diversity and culture, but how would civilized animals change that?”

That is the question Ocean Tigrox asks for you to write about in the upcoming anthology, Tales From the Guild 2: World Tour. Building from Tales From the Guild: Music to the Ears, the purpose of Tales is not just to have another outlet for Furry stories.

…we want to showcase great furry stories and show what we as a guild support. In addition to that, we want to help fund the guild while paying authors for their hard work. Thirdly, we’re using the anthology to help teach others about what goes into working a slush pile and editing an anthology.

This is what the Furry Writers Guild uses to help support themselves and showcase what they are all about.

In the words of the Guild itself, “The purpose of the Furry Writers’ Guild is to promote quality writing in anthropomorphic fiction and to inform, elevate, and support its creators.” The guild is there for others to come together to learn and support each other in our craft as well help promote our work and what we love about furry literature.

But how did the theme World Tour come about as the next entry for the book?

Because it was the guild anthology, we let the guild help out in choosing what theme to use. We had members of the guild suggest themes and voted on it. It was a very close vote with the runner up being “The Beast Within – Species issues within a modern world” which could be used for the next Guild Anthology theme.

So what kind of stories are they looking for that fit the theme of World Tour?

We’re looking for stories containing strong themes of location and species involving our world. There’s a preference to more modern stories, but the time period isn’t as important as its ties to the location. There is some leniency in real world locations as we’d look at a story about Atlantis or maybe even the moon for example, but they should all tie into the Earth we know and love today.

Ocean himself has been a prominent member in the Furry writing community.

I’ve been involved with the furry community for a little over ten years. I had always been interested in anthropomorphic creatures and stories so when someone asked me if I was a furry, I just realized I was and said yes. When I moved to Calgary about five years ago, closer to the other members of of the now Fangs and Fonts crew, they were the ones that got me back into writing and what started me working with the furry writing community.

That work has gotten him not only writing stories, but editing them too.

I’ve always helped others with editing and have been an assistant editor on other projects, but it wasn’t until I put out the call for Inhuman Acts that I took my first foremost role as an editor. So officially, a little over two years.

The requirements for the book are as so.

We are looking for short stories between 2000-10,000 words. They should be in standard manuscript format. We’ll be accepting submissions up until the last day of 2016 (December 31st). If people need more time, they can request an extension, but do it sooner than later. All these details and more can be found on the forum post in the guild: http://www.anthroaquatic.com/forum/index.php?topic=1102.0

If accepted the writer will be given a twenty dollar flat rate and a contributor copy with the proceeds going to help support the FWG. Both members and those interested in the Guild are free to submit. The book is expected to be publish around mid to late 2017. So if your not too busy driving yourself crazy with holiday shopping give yourself the time to write up what our world would be like if it was filled with walking, talking animals.

-Pup Matthias

• Buy Tales From the Guild: Music to the Ears on Rabbit Valley

Help here: Relief Fund for Victims of Ghostship Oakland Fire

“Ghost Ship” was the name of the warehouse in the inner city of Oakland, California.  I’ve often visited the neighborhood under the booming overhead trestle of the BART train.  The warehouse was zoned for business, but harbored a live/work space that was built under the radar of building inspectors.  It was funded by parties and rent from people living in RV’s parked there.  It was home for a collective of artists and musicians from the cultural underground of the San Francisco Bay area.  Many were pushed out of previous homes by pressure of rising rents. These most expensive costs in the country are making a crisis for culture.

Friday, December 2, was the date for an electronic music show.  Golden Donna was headlining with the L.A. label 100% Silk.  It wasn’t a rave just for dancing and fun, but a deeper connection of creativity.  Many watchers were themselves into producing music, or making big-scale art for festivals like Burning Man.

See more at Oaklandghostship.com

At around 11:30 PM, at the height of party time, a crowd of around 100 people were in the warehouse.  The inside was a wooden “labyrinth” built like a tree fort or a set from a pirate movie.  3D art pieces, pianos, tapestries and rugs, colored lights and eclectic furniture filled every corner like a flea market.  A second level they called “The Rave Cave” was accessed by a single staircase built from wooden pallets. Things were eccentrically built so you might need a map.

Minutes later, thick smoke overcame the building. With panic and darkness, dozens were trapped in the upper level. One eyewitness tells of escaping, and others were led out by shouts of bystanders unable to go in.  The fire ripped through 9,000 feet of space not built to code, with only 2 exits and no sprinkler system.  72 firefighters were unable to control the flames until the ceiling collapsed.  It left a heartbreakingly destroyed shell holding 36 victims, and the ashes of many dreams.

They say it could have been worse. I’m told that some partygoers went to the wrong address because they were told a Street instead of an Ave. Fire inspectors think the cause was electrical, although they haven’t cleared enough rubble to know. It’s said that the guy who ran the space laughed at codes, did shady wiring, or was a tweaker. That’s gossip, but I had a friend who reconsidered moving in there several years ago. At the time, he told me how the manager seemed sketchy.

• Update: Photo and comment about poor wiring. And the manager speaks.

Mainstream news is reporting a story of possible criminal irresponsibility by management.  But many of those directly affected aren’t hearing them tell another part of the story.  It’s about creative people priced out of their own communities, forced to flee a rent crisis, and finding refuge in underground places where they can afford the freedom they need. They often don’t follow building codes or get show permits, because they can’t afford those.

People lost their lives in being unable to flee a fire, but also in supporting what they loved.  And many like them fear more bad things to follow the tragedy – like a crackdown against artist spaces and shows in places they can afford.  The entire culture may suffer.

• Artists at Oakland Warehouse Fire Discuss The Tragedy, Those Missing, Need for Safe Underground Spaces
• Housing Crisis, Not Ravers, Is Responsible For the Oakland Fire
• KQED: It Could Have Been Any One of Us

We gravitate to the spaces that say: Welcome. Be yourself. For the tormented queer, the bullied punk, the beaten trans, the spat-upon white trash, the disenfranchised immigrants and young people of color, these spaces are a haven of understanding in a world that doesn’t understand — or can’t, or doesn’t seem to want to try.

The news made sadness on the same day as the happy revival of Frolic, the furry dance party.  I covered the story of their venue, historic gay bar The Stud, facing death by the rent crisis of the SF Bay.  Party founder Neonbunny posted to the Save Our Stud group:

“Furries have always been the outcasts among outcasts. There’s not alot of venues that accept different cultures, new traditions, and just general going against the norms to express yourself in new ways.

Neonbunny knows many people, but he told me he luckily didn’t know anyone in the fire.

Hearts out to everyone involved at the Golden Donna rave last night in Oakland. Dancing should be joyous, not tragic. May you all be safe!

— FrolicParty (@FrolicParty) December 3, 2016

So many people are affected.  This belongs on a furry news site out of shared spirit.  Furries make their own D.I.Y. creative community, so here’s love to everyone else who builds their own.

Cory, a friend of mine, posted on social media:

Feeling horrified, sick and powerlessness…waking up to CNN seeing a massive fire in Oakland then going online and realizing it was at a big Oakland dark synth/art/industrial show and several people I know are missing including someone I consider a close mentor. The Oakland ‘weird underground’ in the last 4 years has meant a lot to me and been a huge source of inspiration; by far my favorite shows ive performed at and some of the coolest people ive met. And always the most trippy of shows, a hot bed of unusual creativity. Refreshing missing list checkins, meditative prayers and good thoughts.

At least four victims were friends of my friends.  Someone close to me teaches a brother and sister who lost their parents.  I’m acquainted with a DJ who got to the party just in time to see the fire start from outside.  Both members of the band Introflirt died – I was a fan and went to their shows, and could have been there. (There are many tributes coming out for other lost music scene friends.)

Bohemian culture thrives in the SF Bay Area. It’s “furry mecca”, home to some of the roots and luminaries of this subculture.  Other scenes here appreciate furries more than elsewhere.  They come to our shows to invite us to theirs, including burlesque, variety and comedy shows, street fairs, dance events and music videos. You can see it in Neonbunny’s history of organizing Burning Man events.

People at Ghost Ship worked with electro swing band Beats Antique, who play Burning Man.  Below, see them hanging out with Furries and inviting fursuiters on stage. One is DJ Tekfox of Denver’s Foxtrot, yet another party connection.

Our hearts go out to our friends and the family members of those who lost a loved one in last nights fire in Oakland. ❤️

— Beats Antique (@BeatsAntique) December 3, 2016

Beats Antique and Furries by ShadowCheetah

Tragedy like this feels like smoke before a bigger fire. More darkness is coming.  I can sense more people falling into precarious living and fear, with insecurity stealing their creativity and spirit.  Marginalized people, creative expression and freedom have a lot to fear from the powers of Trump’s America.  Don’t forget that his power was built on property discrimination and splitting desirables and undesirables apart. Watch out for danger and stick together.

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer

Wishing Season: Holiday Tales of Whimsy and Wonder, by Renee Carter Hall
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, December 2015, trade paperback $7.99 (125 pages), Kindle, December 2014, $2.99.

This little collection presents seven gentle short fantasies “for all ages” about the Christmas spirit. The title implies that these may cover the different holidays of the year, but they are all about either a snowy Christmas, a snowy winter, or Santa Claus – in any case, stories to read while relaxing in a warm home during a snowy December. If you want to read them aloud to small children; why, some of these were originally heard as broadcasts of the Anthro Dreams Podcast. Two tales, “The First Winter” and “Santa’s Summer Vacation”, are written especially for this booklet. Wishing Season itself was published as an e-book for the Christmas 2014 season, and as a trade paperback for Christmas 2015.

Hall’s tales are imbued with a modern Christmas mythology – that of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the Grinch, It’s a Wonderful Life, and all those animated movies and TV specials showing Santa’s elves as having automated the North Pole.

In “The Gingerbread Reindeer”, Santa’s eight reindeer are having trouble pulling the sled of presents on Christmas eve because Rudolph has broken a bone and can’t lead the others. Boreas, the spirit of winter, enchants a little girl’s reindeer gingerbread cookie into Cinnamon, a gingerbread real flying deer to replace Rudolph. When the Unmaker, the anti-Christmas, attacks, it’s Cinnamon who saves them all.

“The visitor bore the form of a frost-elf, slender and sharp, with knowing eyes, but his body faded like silver fog at the edges. Boreas was winter given shape, the power by which the run was made each year, by which time was frozen for a single night while magic was worked for the young. It was not often that he appeared.” (p. 11)

Hall’s evocative writing makes you wish that her original characters like Boreas and Cinnamon were permanent parts of the Christmas spirit – though we could do without the Unmaker.

The main character in “Special Delivery” is Philip Cottington, the Easter Bunny. (Think of movies with the Easter Bunny like Hop and Rise of the Guardians.) When a child’s letter to Santa Claus is misdelivered to him in December while he’s preparing for the next Easter, he decides to deliver it to Santa personally. He is unfamiliar with the North Pole in December. (Or at any other time of year.)

“Then the snow stopped stopping. It came down steady, a haze of white flakes, and the wind grew colder and sharper. Soon Philip was not so much running as swimming through drifts of snow, and it was still piling up. His robin’s-egg blue vest was soaked through, and he thought bitterly that winter was a ridiculous time for a holiday. Still, he struggled forward, stopping only to catch his breath and make sure that the letter was still safe in the basket. It was a little wet from all the snow, but it was all right.” (p. 26)

Conditions get worse. Philip is rescued from disaster by Snowskimmer, a snowshoe hare. The freezing brown bunny and the warm white hare complete the journey to Santa together just in time.

Holly in “Holly’s Jolly Christmas” is a young reindeer who works in the mail room in Santa’s workshop, making sure that the children’s letters from all over the world are properly received. It’s an important job, but what she really wants is to become one of the eight flying reindeer who pull Santa’s sled on Christmas eve.

“‘It isn’t fair.’ Holly knew she’d said it a hundred times every year, but she also knew that Garland didn’t mind. ‘They should at least have team-choosing, like they did in the old days.’

‘Yeah, but they’d still win. No offense.’

Holly sighed again. ‘None taken.’ She knew it was true. Sure, she could fly as well as anyone, but the team was in better shape than any of the other reindeer. They had to be. A short flight here or there was one thing, but Santa’s team rode the Eve Stream, the magic current that allowed them to travel the world in one night. And that took more skill than any untrained reindeer could hope to have.” (p. 38)

Santa is too busy to listen to her, but with the encouragement of Garland, her reindeer boyfriend; Pyx, her elf friend at Sugarplum’s sweets shop; Frostbite, a motherly polar bear; and Caitlin, a little human girl who wants to play baseball, she gets her wish.

“An Older World” is the bittersweet tale of Jakob, a toymaker whose own young daughter has died and who imagines her in every little girl who comes into his shop at Christmastime. The unfinished lifesized wooden horse that he had been carving for her brings him to the world’s beginning.

“The First Winter” tells of the fight between First Bear and Death, and why ever since all bears have hibernated every winter.

“Nativity” is another bittersweet tale, only two pages, about a lonely orphan girl who finds better release in becoming a real unthinking sheep for the Christmas pageant.

“Santa’s Summer Vacation” is a comedy. Mrs. Claus insists that Santa take a summer vacation to the tropical isle of Serendipity to relax for next Christmas. He does, but he takes Fussbudget, his gloomy head elf, with him.

“Fussbudget sat on the edge of his chair, trying to decide whether the shell he was holding was more of a pinkish peach or more of a peachish pink. Between shell sortings, he glanced up nervously, watching Santa water-ski behind one of the reindeer as it skimmed across the calm sea. It looked incredibly dangerous.” (p. 97)

As it happens, things go wrong both at the North Pole and on Serendipity, leaving Santa needing to take a vacation from his vacation.

Here are seven new tales to go with your Christmas favorites of yuletide magic. Read them one at a time during Christmas week.

–Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• Check out more of Renee’s work here

Thanks to Pup Nacho for his news tip below.  First, let me ask: Are knots funny? 

The Top 10 Knots You Saw In Boy Scouts

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) September 4, 2015

Sea Captain Unsure Why Furries Keep Giggling While They Ask How Fast The Ship Goes

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) November 5, 2015

If you’re giggling like I did when I posted those, you might be Furry Trash.  And you might appreciate how they only make sense for those in the know.

Having unique language is a mark of a fully-fledged subculture.  They call it slang, vernacular, cant, or cryptolect. Fans of fantasy fiction and role-playing might know about Thieves’ Cant (for criminals, beggars and hustlers, traveling performers, and carnival workers); those who study Queer theory may know Polari. (See Atlas Obscura: The Forgotten Secret Language of Gay Men.)  

Cant is for people who have some reason to exclude or mislead others outside of their group.  You need it if you’re a hustler from the carnival talking to a planted helper, or a queer man in Victorian England wondering if it’s safe to buy a shandy-gaff for a cute guy in the saloon.  These can have deep etymology, but people are constantly inventing new codes to hide meanings.  You don’t want to be called a “peach” at certain hotels today.

Furries have such words. Usually they’re just for fun. They can come from customs that happen with each other, or sometimes it has to do with being “appropriate” for outsiders. People scoff at the idea of furries “coming out”, but it’s not the best idea to invite questions about murrsuits, real or not.

5 Words That Mean Dirty Things To Furries But You Can Put Them On A License Plate

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 30, 2015

This brings up the news tip from Pup Nacho (@pupnachosf or his Facebook.)

(Pup Nacho:) “Here’s the letter I got, showing the state of California rejecting my vanity plate with the license plate “Furries” due to ‘sexual connotation, term of lust or depravity.’  This is super frustrating to me, and I’m kind of baffled that furries would be categorized as a sexual connotation or act of depravity. I really don’t like our state defining the fandom in that way. – Licks and Wags, Nacho!”

For all the jokes, it’s true, furries doesn’t mean much by itself.  I’ll leave it up to readers to wonder how many others have had a similar experience.  But I have to call it silly, and say they might as well try to stop us from laughing. Will they ever catch on to these?

WHO THE FUCK IS THIS?!?! pic.twitter.com/5Adifu6PRa

— Kyashsicle @MFF (@KyashKT) September 7, 2016 Got any to share? Drop a comment!

 

Edit: Reposted by the SFist blog! By coincidence, their header photo shows the owner of another fabulous license that says Yiff. (The green fluffy guy).

To clarify, “Furries” isn’t a sexual term any more than “trekkies” or some other group of creative interest. SOME go farther for fantasy and theme purposes (so do Playboy Bunnies). The default meaning doesn’t have to do with sex any more than fans of Disney’s Zootopia do.

Good comments at Twitter:

@SFist @DogpatchPress That's like rejecting "Anime" because there's anime porn... come on.

— Midwest Dingo Fest! (@DojoTheDingo) December 2, 2016

@DogpatchPress And people try to use slang, other languages, etc. To loophole the process.

— XmasThrown@Dragoness (@KaRehdTheDragon) December 1, 2016

 

(Patch O’Furr:) Furries love plush like a fat kid loves cake. My friends do, anyways. That’s how I met Amy Brown, a non-furry crafter who specializes in plush objects on Etsy. I heard that she enjoyed commissions for fursuit props.  It makes me happy when furries make friends like that!  Amy mentioned weirder commissions, and that made me invite her to tell some juicy stories.  (Mmm… carrot juice for everybunny).

Christmas is coming. Need gifts for furry friends who already have every Zootopia tie-in on earth? Commission Amy for props!

(Amy:) “I’ve been making plush fruits and veggies under the brand Jumbo Jibbles for over 5 years now. I’m self-taught and welcome custom projects as a way to expand my design brain. I’ll usually say yes to anything that is interesting, but I shy away from recreating other people’s designs. A few years ago, I got a request through Quora.com to make a Chibi version of a DragonballZ character. I had to do a little research on chibi and DBZ, but it seemed like an existing character in a fan-inspired form sounded like a fun challenge. I made a chibi Piccolo for a man in Czechoslovakia.”

Then there were the hipster urban farmers from Brooklyn, who needed French breakfast radish and zebra tomato hand puppets to use as ring-pillows at their wedding. That one boggled my mind– it’s like I invented those customers in my head! It was a really fun project. I’d never heard of a zebra tomato before.

People ask me what the weirdest thing I’ve made was. Nothing is really weird– most things already exist. What’s the funniest part is the sheepishness from the askee, how they apologize for asking, and how relieved they sound once I say, “Why, that isn’t crazy at all!”

In 2014, I made a giant plush replica of a client’s penis. No, he did not send me photos. That would have been an instant NO. He’d already bought a large veggie pillow from me and liked it so much he wanted to commission something.  He asked very politely, recognizing his request might seem offensive. I respond well to civility, even when it includes asking personal questions about someone’s genitals. How often, at work, can you ask about girth, testicle color or circumcision? This might be the only time. Anyhow, after asking what were typically very inappropriate questions, I made up some sketches and then a gigantic plush peen.

You want a picture? A lady doesn’t share such things. But here’s the carrying case:

It was 4 feet long with detachable buckwheat-filled testicles. My name is Amy Brown, and I make dreams come true!!

(Patch:) Honestly that is so innocent compared to some things we may have seen around the web, but let the charming picture above get rid of anything your imagination might run away with.  Thanks Amy! Follow her here: @jumbojibbles

Hey there! Arrkay here from Culturally F’d with a special guest post. I want to open right away with a new T-Shirt design poll, closing on Sunday Nov. 29:

Culturally F’d giving some Sh**ts away

SHIRTS that is! Sign up to our newsletter to enter into a draw for the winning design. Here’s what Rusty has to say about it:

Vote here: https://goo.gl/forms/9NJxjVg11GUq7lqy2

Subscribe to Culturally F’ds newsletter at www.culturallyfd.com to enter the draw to win. If the shirts end up in a tie, then both will end up going to print.

Previously on Culturally F’d

Over on my channel, we discuss how we define our community and how a fur might describe it themselves in: Hobby, Lifestyle, Fandom: Defining Furry.

Bandit from The Raccoon’s Den came onto F’d to discuss how he got started, what it takes to become a YouTuber and conquering social anxiety.

Still bummed out about the US Election? Maybe these 19 unlikely cartoon candidates will cheer you up:

A regular YouTube feature – call for submissions

Do you have a YouTube channel?  Right here on Dogpatch Press, we’re looking to fill in a new monthly guest post.  It will feature all the current and best YouTube videos that furries are producing. The primary goal is to expose more YouTube creators from our fandom to more furries. The secondary goal is to create a video creator network to encourage more collaboration between Furries on the video platform. Please message me (Arrkay at [email protected]) if you have a channel you want us to include or at least investigate. We are looking for YouTube channels that are up to date and posting new content regularly.

Here are some fine channels that you should subscribe to in the mean time:

Betsy Lee – An animator with an ongoing fantasy series “No Evil”. A very impressive production for a small crew, the story reminds me very much of a dungeons and dragons role-play campaign. You may need to watch the back-log of episodes to figure out what’s going on with the cast of characters right now.

Blü – Blu The Dragon is an australian dancer/performer/choreographer, and does profanity infused vlogs about life and furries.

Culturally F’d – Hey that’s my channel! Every other week we discuss anthro animals in culture and mass media. Everything from cave paintings to what the furry fandom might look like tomorrow. The F’d stands for Furry. We also have regular “F’d Up Dates” with Rusty Shacklefur, a rabbit from the moon. I should also mention we have a Patreon and as of Dec 1 2016, a merch store!

EZ Wolf – Professional quality photography and videography. They are responsible for many music videos, dance videos and dramas starring fursuiters that have gone viral.

Furries in the Media – Aberguine carefully dissects instances where furries are represented in news reports or fiction, and grades them on Accuracy and Spirit.

Majira Strawberry – This fursuited vlogger is probably the most popular furry YouTuber with over 44,000 subscribers. Majira specializes in comedy skits, Q&A’s, and collaborating with other fursuiters in his area and at cons.

The Raccoon’s Den – The Docu-Dramadey of the fandom, Bandit and friends explore furry parties of California and dramatizes furry-life outside of the parties. They also have vlog style “Drakes Corner” videos and they produce a podcast “Pawesome”. Check out Patch’s article on them!

Furry.Today – Not a YouTuber, but a great resource for finding new fluffy videos from all sources.

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer

The Right to Arm Bears, by Gordon R. Dickson
Riverdale, NY, Baen Books, November 2016, trade paperback $16.00 (384 pages).

Several years ago I had a review published on Flayrah of The Right to Arm Bears, by Gordon R. Dickson. It wasn’t a new book then, being published by Baen Books in December 2000. It’s gone through several printings so it’s remained available (with a slightly modified cover), but I don’t know how many furry fans have sought it out.

Guess what! Baen Books has reprinted it again this November, as a large trade paperback with a new cover by Kurt Miller. My old review will become pertinent again. Here it is.

The Right to Arm Bears, by Gordon R. Dickson
Riverdale, NY, Baen Books, December 2000, paperback $6.99 (431 pages).

This “novel” collects Dickson’s three light space-opera adventures about humans, the bearlike Dilbians, and the jovial-but-sinister Hemnoids: Spatial Delivery, first published as a novel by Ace Books, November 1961, 123 pages; Spacepaw, first published as a novel by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, February 1969, 222 pages; and “The Law-Twister Shorty”, a novelette in The Many Worlds of Science Fiction, edited by Ben Bova (E. P. Dutton, November 1971, pages 51-105).

Back-cover blurb: “Planet Dilbia is in a crucial location for both humans and their adversaries, the Hemnoids. Therefore making friends with the Dilbians and establishing a human presence there is of the utmost importance, which may be a problem, since the bearlike Dilbians stand some nine feet tall, and have a high regard for physical prowess. They’re not impressed by human technology, either. A real man, er, bear doesn’t need machines to do his work for him. But Dilbians are impressed by sharp thinking, and some have expressed a grudging admiration for the logical (and usually sneaky) mental maneuvers that the human “shorties” have used to get themselves out of desperate jams. Just maybe that old human craftiness will win over the Dilbians to the human side. If not, we lose a nexus, and the Dilbians will learn just how unbearable Hemnoids can be….”

These three adventures betray their Cold War time-period. The Humans (Americans) and the totalitarian Hemnoids (Soviets) are both expanding through the galaxy, trying to win over the unaligned planets like Dilbia to their spheres of influence. “‘We must influence Dilbians like that chap or the Hemnoids are going to get the inside track on this planet. And the Dilbian system, as I’m sure your hypno training didn’t omit to inform you, is absolutely necessary as a supply and reequipment stage for further expansion on any large scale beyond the Belt Stars. If the Hemnoids beat us out here, they’ve got the thin end of a wedge started that could eventually chop our heads off.’” (pgs. 6-7) The problem is that the Dilbians resemble nine-foot-tall lanky Kodiak bears, and while they prefer to stay neutral in the rivalry between those whom they call the Shorties and the Fatties, they naturally feel more akin to the eight-foot-tall Hemnoids:

“… John saw, a sort of enormous robed, Buddha-like parody of a human being. The Hemnoid was a good eight feet in height, enormously boned, and while not as tall as the Dilbians themselves, fantastically padded with heavy-gravity muscles.” (p. 5) Compared to the Dilbians and the Hemnoids, the humans look like puny weaklings. Also, humans smell bad to Dilbians. The Dilbians’ attitude to the humans is one of friendly but condescending superiority.

The Dilbians also have a fondness for mildly insulting humorous names for themselves and for anyone else who comes to Dilbia, such as Daddy Shaking Knees, Two Answers, and Split Nose. The Hemnoid ambassador is dubbed the Beer-Guts Bouncer, a name of approval to the beer-loving Dilbians. Humans on Dilbia usually don’t like the names they are given.

In Spatial Delivery (expanded from “The Man in the Mailbag”, Galaxy, April 1959), young John Tardy, who expects to become an interstellar expert in biochemistry, is diverted to Dilbia instead. A human woman, Greasy Face (she wears a lot of makeup) has been kidnapped as a pawn in an affair of honor by the Streamside Terror, the leading brawler of the Dilbian hillbilly community of Clan Hollows. “‘You knows why they call him the Streamside Terror, don’t you, Half Pint? It’s because he likes to do his fighting alongside a stream, and pull the other man in the water and get him drowned.’” (p. 24) Tardy was an Olympic decathlon champion while he was in college, and Earth’s Alien Relations Office figures that he has the best chance of rescuing Greasy Face (Miss Ty Lamorc, a sociologist studying the Dilbians) if it comes down to a physical fight with the nine-foot bear.

To get Tardy to the remote community where she is held, the Human Embassy decides to mail him: to have the local Dilbian postman carry him in his mailsack. “‘Hill Bluffer, that’s my name and trade! Anything on two feet walk away from me? Not over solid ground or living rock! When I look at a hill, it knows it’s beat; and it lays out flat for my trampling feet!’” (p. 13) A special saddle-like harness is rigged for Tardy to ride on Hill Bluffer’s back, which neither of them like but is better than riding in a mailbag.

During their trek across the countryside through one small Dilbian hamlet after another, Tardy (dubbed the Half-Pint Posted) and Hill Bluffer become Odd-Fellow friends. Tardy, assigned to win the Dilbians’ support for the Humans, comes to respect their independence, their stiff sense of honor, and their casual contempt for formality and bureaucracy. He also gradually learns that there is more to the Streamside Terror’s kidnapping of Greasy Face than the official story. He has near-fatal accidents; he discovers that the Streamside Terror’s girl friend, Boy Is She Built, is following and trying to sabotage them to protect her lover; that a Hemnoid agent, Tark-ay, is helping her for his own reasons; and more. By the time he and Hill Bluffer catch up to the Streamside Terror, Tardy has iron-clad reasons both to fight and to avoid fighting, as well as the seemingly impossible dilemma of how a six-foot human can defeat a nine-foot clawed Dilbian experienced battler. Tardy takes advantage of the fact that Dilbians respect intelligence and cunning even over physical strength, and the Hemnoids are thwarted.

Bill Waltham, the protagonist of Spacepaw, is introduced similarly to John Tardy. He has studied to become a terraforming engineer – “He thought again of the great symphony of engineering and development that was a terraforming project – changing the surface and weather of a whole world to make it humanly habitable” (p. 142) – and he is disappointed to be drafted instead into the Agricultural Assistance Program’s Project Spacepaw as a sort of interstellar Peace Corps instructor to Dilbian farmers. “This is a spade. You hold it by this end. You stick the other end in the earth. Yes, deep in the earth. Then you tilt it, like this.” Etc. Waltham can imagine himself wasting the next two years among the giant bearlike peasants of the village of Muddy Nose.

But his life on Dilbia turns out to be much more of a whirlwind than that. He arrives in Muddy Nose to find it full of wild-whooping outlaws who plan to hold him for ransom. He is saved by the Hill Bluffer, who names him Pick-and-Shovel and expects him to duplicate the Half-Pint Posted’s feat by rescuing another Human female captive, Dirty Teeth (Anita Lyme, the Humans’ Agricultural Resident’s trainee assistant), from Outlaw Valley. Hill Bluffer is not alone. Dirty Teeth has been kidnapped by the outlaws because she is a rabble-rousing Women’s Libber who has been stirring up the women-folk of the Dilbians’ patriarchical society, and those women, led by the militant Sweet Thing, expect Pick-and-Shovel to liberate her from outlaw chief Bone Breaker immediately. “‘And none of that sissy lowland stuff with swords and shields,’ put in the Hill Bluffer. ‘Just honest, man to man, teeth, claws, and muscle.” (p. 398) Bone Breaker’s outlaws are being secretly manipulated by a Hemnoid agent, Mula-ay (Barrel Belly) …

Spacepaw is basically Spatial Delivery all over again and longer. But the details are considerably different (plus the added exasperation of Pick-and-Shovel’s having to live up to the exaggerated reputation of the Half-Pint Posted), and they are colorfully humorous enough that you will not mind reading the story twice.

“The Law-Twister Shorty” is Malcolm O’Keefe, a bewildered high-school student inexplicably drafted to quietly “rescue” three human tourists that an imperious young Dilbian, Gentle Maiden, has decided to “adopt” and, essentially, keep as pets in her community of Clan Water Gap. Both the Humans and Hemnoids have a strict noninterference treaty with the Dilbians at this time, except for rigidly-supervised exceptions such as this tourist party; and if the Hemnoids can prove the presence of humans in Water Gap after the tourist group has left, even as unwilling prisoners, they can gleefully accuse the Humans galactically as treaty-breakers. O’Keefe’s (or Law-Twister’s; he’s a school debating champion) assignment is complicated by the fact that Gentle Maiden’s boyfriend and protector is Iron Bender, Water Gap’s strongest young male, who is honor-bound to defend her actions. Neither Law-Twister nor Iron Bender are keen to be forced into a “let’s you and him fight” situation, so with the canny suggestions of Hill Bluffer and Water Gap’s elders who want to avoid a public incident, they find a way to defuse the crisis.

The book’s jokey title and Richard Martin’s cover are very amusing, but they totally misrepresent the Dilbians as to the amount of clothes they wear, and to their preference for “verbal fencing” which favors outwitting an adversary rather than fighting. See the “imitation Ed Emshwiller” (not by Emsh?) anonymous cover of Ace Books’ Spatial Delivery for a more accurate depiction. In fact, while I usually show only the first-edition covers in my reviews, here is a gallery of the previous editions of Spatial Delivery and Spacepaw. Note how the artist of the “imitation Ed Emshwiller” cover, Stephen Hickman, and Tom Kidd have tried to illustrate the Dilbians accurately (although usually still depicting them as giant bears rather than “bearlike”); while Leon Gregori and Paul Lehr have not bothered — Lehr(?) even depicting the Dilbians as gorillas! Wayne Barlowe, in his 1979 Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials, has done the best job of drawing them as they are supposed to look.

–Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• Buy the old edition on Amazon

Want a change from intense American news?  German furry fan Stefan sends a tip (thanks!)  This is very nice to get, since otherwise it would be completely missed by American furs.  It’s from comic site “Erzaehlmirnix”.  It has 80,000 followers on Facebook and over 13,000 on Twitter – but likely no English-only followers for images that won’t translate easily. (Patch)

(Stefan:) A quite popular german comic site just made two furry-related comics in quick order.

First comic:

Text:

“I just don’t know why this is, but I hate it: People all the time tell me lots of very personal things I really don’t want to know about.”

“Yeah I know this. Maybe it’s because I am working in the service sector…”

“… or it is because of my vibes of being sexually very open minded, and because on weekends I like to dress as a zebra and get fisted in front of the camera in extreme furry gangbang parties.”

Well… boring. Standard cliches. Heard them all.

But then… immediately after that… that’s followed by this comic:

Text:

“Hey, you are one those “furries” and you like animal costumes and such stuff, right? Did you see? The last Erzaehlmirnix comic is about furries and gangbangfisting. Hehe.”

“Yeah… not funny at all. It’s just that boring “People having sex in animal costumes” stuff the media always show.”

“It is just a totally dumb cliche. Usually this all has nothing to do with sex but more with being a hobby in which you put a lot of love, time and money. But media alway shows some people in cheap costumes having sex, just to make fun of them and make some very bad puns.”

“Oh, that sound like a lot of prejudice” (Pun on “Vorurteil” [prejudice] … “Furrr-Urteil”)

“Yes, that…”

“I guess one needs to be thick-skinned.” (lit: be thick-furred; pun on german “dickes Fell haben.”)

So… this standard normal German comic site just made two furry comics. The first using well known bad cliches, and the second making fun of just this comic.

Brilliant

– Stefan 

 

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer

War of the Third Demon, Part 1: Parents of a Savior, by Casey Thomas Lehman.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, July 2016, trade paperback $7.99 (288 pages), Kindle $2.99.

I’m not sure quite what to say about this book. The cover, which appears to be by crayon, gives an idea of its quality. The title is taken from the cover; the title page says Part 1 is Raising a Savior. The Copyright Notice, usually on the back of the title page in small type, is two pages in boldface leading with “1. Monetary gain directly from fanfiction or fanart is STRICTLY PROHIBITED unless you have received permission and verification from the authors!!!” There are five such rules. The Dedication is three pages ranging from to Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the creators of Dungeons and Dragons®, down through Hayao Miyazaki and James Cameron to his mother. There are 11 pages of Glossaries at the end explaining the Japanese, draconic, and science-fictional terminology used in this book.

The principal characters are dragons. Here is the main villain:

“A monstrous dragon had just awoken, opening his four sunken eyes, allowing their red glow to illuminate a small area front of him and his six-goat like horns respectively. His jagged, sword-like black scales made a scraping sound as his legs dragged against the purple-tiled floor. He rose to his six legs, letting his rapier-like claws click against his gray, embroiled, rune-encrusted bed. He stretched, letting his saggy, dark-red underbelly stretch like an aged balloon as his six thin, bonelike, pale, sickly green wings spread menacingly. He finished by letting his pitchfork-like tail-blade slam against the colossal ruby roman-style pillars of his chambers – the demon dragon, also known as Rayburn.” (p. 11)

But don’t think that all dragons look like him. There are copper-, red-, sapphire-, silver-, and white-scaled dragons. There are onyx, ruby, and topaz dragons. There are mountain dragons. Yorek, the main protagonist, is a grayish-blue adolescent feathered and furry wind dragon. Here is a marsh dragon:

“The specie known as the marsh dragon could be seen as unusual to say the least. Their bodies’ coating was that of a rubbery skin reminiscent of a dolphin in place of scales. This was something that was present in a few species, yet Marsh dragons bore elaborate markings like that of a leopard, zebra, cheetah, tiger, or such animals. However, there were multiple varieties carrying markings reminiscent of Poison Tree Frogs, snakes, anoles, and other creatures. Their paws were shaped like a Leopard Gecko, including four digits. However, this was coupled with thick webbing and long-cat-like retractable claws carrying more length and sharpness than your average dragon breed. They also sported whiskers like that of an Axolotl, which functioned as a balancing tool. The oddest attributes, however, was their elf-like ears and barbed tail, along with their size being half of an average gemstone dragon’s. In this instance, said dragoness had blue and red zebra-stripes, black claws with purple webbing, pink whiskers and a deep orange barb and light blue eyes. She also sported multiple small and large scars on the lower underside areas of her front legs.” (p. 73)

She also talks with a high-pitched Swedish accent.

Other characters are furry kobolds, and – well, here is the city of Sekai Tachiiri:

“The barrier dissipated, revealing the marble housing, sandstone-covered streets and golden-covered archways of Sekai Tachiiri. It was a flourishing metropolis of dragons, kobolds, wyverns, elementals, centaurs, satyrs, kappa, trolls, nekomata, and every other creature under the world’s sun.” (p. 33)

One other important creature is Vinusto, a Tikbalang. For readers unfamiliar with Tikbalangs, Lehman’s description is “a handsome, male Filipino-accented voice spoke in an impressed tone from what seemed to resemble the head of a horse upon the body of a powerful man as two equine hooves tapped the ground.” (p. 25) Lehman seems fascinated by accents. The dragons are specified as speaking with American, British, Australian (“Welp, the little bloke sure the dinky-di when it comes to protectin’ his cook! Whaddya’ think, sheila?” –p. 233), and Irish accents; the kobolds have German accents; and the Tikbalang, as we have seen, has a Filipino accent. (More on the Filipino mythological tikbalang can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikbalang.) Guess what accent the nine-tailed kyuubi and the tengu have.

Well, I’ve gotten carried away describing some of Lehman’s characters. Suffice it to say that you never know what exotic dragon or other creature you will encounter next. And colorful wordplay like, “Yorek leaped into the air, turning a full 980 degrees in a wind-assisted spin-jump […]”, and “The golem gnashed at him at mach 4 […]”

The plot! Mustn’t forget the plot. Yorek, an insecure 12-year-old wind dragon, falls in love with and weds the older white-scaled (British-accented) Radiata, Sekai Tachiiri’s Temperance Councilor. Together they become the caregivers of the copper-scaled dragoness Aria’s white-&-black egg that is determined in the shell to be:

“Radiata gave a kind smile and spoke in a saddened tone, ‘I’m here to tell you something about your egg, Aria…,’ Her face turned to depression as the next words escaped her muzzle in dismay, ‘It’s a… balance dragon. This means a demon dragon is on its way in fifteen years.’

This information shocked the entirety of the domicile. The world would be forced into genocide. It would have another decade and a half of preparation, and after that another war – The War of the Third Demon.” (p. 26)

Yorek and Radiata become the caregivers (foster parents) of Electus, the balance dragonling, for the first three years of his life, under the guidance of Hope Councilor Leon. (What is Leon? Read the book and see.) This book ends with Electus leaving his family to choose one of the other dragon Councilors as his mentor, and continue his training to confront Nocturnal, Rayburn’s leader of the demon dragon troops, in twelve more years.

War of the Third Demon, Part 1: Parents of a Savior is full of dragon love, lust, loss, redemption, raw sex, and all that stuff. Also lots of italics and boldface text. The trade paperback and Kindle editions have slightly different versions of Maura Pompili’s cover, which shows Yorek and Radiata gazing fondly at the infant Electus. Buy if you like dragons.

–Fred Patten

• Buy Paperback on Amazon
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Here at Dogpatch Press, we get an awful lot of confused outsiders asking, “what’s this all about?”  Here’s some definitions to help. If you have family or friends who want to know more about your hobby, share this to help them understand.

Anthropomorphic: Mixing animals with human characteristics. Think of cartoons, Aesop’s Fables, werewolves, and much more. 

Furry: Anthropomorphic media and its fans. They often (but not always) role-play an animal character. A reptile one is a Scaly.

The fandom: Furry subculture. It’s different from others because it doesn’t follow specific media like Star Trek. Furry is it’s own thing.

Fursona: The character representing a furry’s self.

Fursuit: The costume that brings a fursona to life, and can fulfill a wish to transform.

fursuiting.com

Furmeets and Cons (Conventions): Organized gatherings that include fursuiting, art, creative writing, parties and more. Cons are usually held at hotels once a year. Meets can be casual and regular and held at houses, public social places, or special ones in the woods.

Weres, Otherkin, Bronies, and Planties: These fandoms are sometimes lumped in with furries, but they aren’t the same. Weres (AKA Therians) take a fursona literally. Otherkin feel like a different species or entity in their body. Bronies are adults who love My Little Pony. Planties are the anthro-botanical fandom.

Fleshies / Smoothies:  Outsiders to the fandom.  Furries often make fun of them as “Steve” or “Steves”.

Steve, founder of the first Smoothie bar.

PCD (Post-Con Depression): Grief about having to return to life among Steves.

Con Crud: A rare itchy fungus harbored in fursuits. Cons bring vets to help everyone get vaccinated.

Hugs, Huggles and Cuddles: Also called “the furry handshake”, a hug is the typical greeting among every furry. Huggles are so enthusiastic that you fall over. Cuddles continue for a while. 

Breaking the Magic: A taboo act with a fursona. It can happen by talking out of character at the wrong time, or if a costume comes off among fleshies, or if you ignore their furry name and call them by their Steve name. (It used to mean when a cat and a dog do things together against their species, but the fandom has evolved and looks down on racism now.)

Scritching: Grooming and massaging for affection, or to make sure there’s no Con Crud.

Yiff/yiffing: “Yiff” is a sound of excitement made by foxes. If cuddles and scritching get sexual, that’s yiffing.

Marf: To proposition a furry, say “Yiff?” If they answer “Marf,” they probably aren’t in the mood. A neutral expression that can also work like “smurf” in the Smurfs cartoon: “Can you marf me the salt?

Murr / Murrsuit: “Murr” is a sexy murmur. A Murrsuit is a fursuit equipped for yiffing with SPH’s (Strategically Placed Holes.)

Fursuit Crush: A fursuiter who gives you butterflies.

Furpile: Group cuddles, not necessarily for yiffing. 

Fursecution: Prejudice against furries by Steves.

Furfag: An outspokenly flamboyant furry who delights in ogling tails and fursuit crushes, and will marf and scritch without shame or breaking the magic.

FurFu: Martial art developed for fursuiters and for combating fursecution. You can find online music videos of synchronized dancing by skilled FurFu artists. There have been controversial incidents of fursecution at cons that led to Steves getting swarmed, taken down and furpiled. However no furry has been arrested, due to the targets reporting a pleasant experience and refusing to press charges.

Popufur: A popular furry, or a bad word for ones who appear arrogant and only loved for their suits. Like “hipster”, nobody self-identifies as one without irony, so it’s a meaningless word that can be thrown at anyone.

Suit Envy / Suiter Gap: Some furries can’t afford fursuits or feel underappreciated, so they give sour grapes about popufurs. The suiter gap is the portion who want suits and don’t have them. Many cons have panels about how to end these problems. 

Confuzzled: Furries speak of a well known tendency for new, curious members to enter the fandom with very conservative sexuality, then over time shift from straight to very open and bisexual or gay for furries. That’s “Confuzzled”. They joke that “the fandom turned me gay!” It’s not the same as “jailhouse gay” in regular society; it’s same-sex attraction specifically for furries, but not Steves, and it’s permanent.

Squizzled: Squeakers are popular fursona enhancements. They should be used carefully. Overuse is incredibly annoying. Inexperienced users tend to wander around cons sounding like field mice on crack, leaving a trail of snarls and tinnitus. Being sick to death of squeakers is “squizzled.”

Toony and feral:  Animal features can be realistic, but the more caricatured they are, the more toony. Most furries have two legs, but ferals have four.

Musclefurs vs. Fluffers: Some fursonas show highly exaggerated muscle tone.  “Furry abs” are especially distasteful to fluffers who prefer soft, sweet and cuddly characters. A classic fluffer icon is Rabbit from Winnie The Pooh. (He/she turns the wedge shape of a musclefur upside down). Around the year 2000, there was major fandom drama with both sides fighting over the definition of “real” furries.

Some preferences. Fox art by Demi-Beast

Plushie / Plushophile:  A plushie is a stuffed toy.  Plushophiles collect them, and get huge respect from ebay sellers for doing astonishing bidding wars.

(Art: Bencoon)

Scat: A style of jazz singing, used by furries to talk among Steves without giving away secrets or breaking the magic. 

Macrophile: Wants to be stepped on by Godzilla.

Vore and Rooting: Vore is an interest in being consumed or inserted in orifices of a macro character.  Rooting is mainly seen in art where a character (like a snake) goes in one hole and out another, often at the same time.

Weaseling, Double Weaseling and Cuckoo Play: When one furry puts on another’s suit for yiffing with a partner who doesn’t know. A typical reaction when they find out is delight or humor (rather than shock or outrage.) A less typical but even funnier situation is when one fur catches on to another’s plan, and flips it back by having the target secretly switch places with someone else. That’s Double Weaseling. Cuckoo Play is another word for this interest. A Cuckoo Play party is when a whole group of furries switch suits at the same time. And sometimes weaseling can mean posting from someone elses account or just telling ridiculous stories.

@DogpatchPress yeah, I try to keep it to facts. Like our Otter Satan testicle clamp initiations. Just keep it to the regular stuff.

— Alecta Andromeda (@alectayiff) November 2, 2016

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer

The Art of Trolls, by Jerry Schmitz. Foreword by Anna Kendrick.
Petaluma, CA, Cameron + Company, October 2016, hardcover $45.00 (160 pages).

Trolls is a 92-minute 3D computer-animated musical comedy fantasy feature film from DreamWorks Animation, released on November 4th, 2016. The Art of Trolls is a coffee-table, full-color art book describing that film, and its making, in detail. Jerry Schmitz, the book’s author, is a Hollywood PR, marketing, brand management, and awards consultant veteran who has written several other The Art of animation books before. The foreword is by Anna Kendrick, the voice actress of Princess Poppy, one of the film’s two stars.

From a furry viewpoint, Trolls and this book are dubious subjects. No anthropomorphic animals appear in either. Yet the trolls aren’t human, either. If you consider humans to be a species of animals, then trolls qualify as anthros. Anyway, here it is. You decide if it is of interest to you.

The Art of Trolls is a de luxe art book about the film and its making, with detailed visual samples and background information. For those interested in the film, this book is worth getting for the names of all the characters alone. The rejected preliminary designs of the main characters will be fascinating, also.

The popular troll dolls as a merchandising phenomenon were created by Danish woodcutter and fisherman Thomas Dam in 1959, when he could not afford to buy a Christmas gift for his young daughter Lila. She showed the wooden dolls to her friends in Gjøl, Denmark; they all wanted troll dolls; Dam realized their potential; and he and his family created the Dam Things company to mass-produce them in plastic. Troll dolls became one of the biggest toy fads in the U.S. from 1963 to 1965, and have never stopped selling well. DreamWorks Animation licensed the rights to feature them in a movie in 2013. Here it is.

From DreamWorks’ standpoint, the lack of a Trolls backstory allowed its creative team free rein to create their own story. Trolls co-director Mike Mitchell, who had previously worked on DreamWorks’ Shrek Forever After, was already familiar with the Scandinavian legends of trolls, including how they had become gentled over the centuries from fearsome monsters to children’s friendly sprites. He built the film around the latter.

Trolls features two main characters; Poppy of Troll Village, and Branch, the village’s pessimist. The trolls have escaped from Bergentown, where they were a culinary delight, twenty years ago, and have lived happily in their own hidden village ever since under popular King Peppy. His hyperenthusiastic teen daughter, Princess Poppy, does all that she can to keep all the trolls constantly joyous. Only Branch, the village’s pessimist, worries about the giant Bergens finding them. When Chef, the Bergentown king’s cook, does and captures Poppy’s friends, she and Branch are thrown together into an odd-couple rescue mission. What they find in Bergentown, described in this book, leads to the expected happy ending but not the one that the audience was anticipating.

The Art of Trolls is full of the detailed profiles of both the trolls and the Bergens. Poppy. Branch. Biggie and Mr. Dinkles. DJ Suki. Satin and Chenille who are joined by their hair. Guy Diamond, who is nude but it’s okay because he’s flocked. And others. The Bergens (who hark back to the legends of trolls as flesh-eating monsters) include Chef, King Gristle, Jr., the scullerymaid Bridget, and others – all with snaggly fangs.

Production Designer Kendal Cronkhite-Shaindlin made the trolls and their village all bright and multicolored, with lots of primary colors. The Bergens and Bergentown featured a dark palette. The Bergens were a visual challenge. The trolls were based upon the toyline, so their models were clear. The Bergens were all original. They had to look completely different, but not too different. They had to look ugly, but sort-of cute at the same time. The Art of Trolls shows how Cronkhite-Shaindlin and her design team, led by Art Director/Character Designer Timothy Lamb, achieved this.

Most of the DreamWorks’ design team grew up in the 1970s. While the trolls had a fairytale village, the designers had fun packing Bergentown with ‘70s imagery. The architecture and interior design of King Gristle Jr.’s castle was based on overlush Hollywood kitsch, while the Bergens wear ‘70s-style bell-bottom trousers.

As usual with these coffee-table animation art books, all of the artwork is identified: Philippe Brochu, Avner Geller, Tim Heitz, Sayuki Sasaki Hemann, Kirsten Hensen Kawamura, Craig Kellman, Timothy Lamb, Carlos Felipe León, Mike Mitchell, Sebastien Piquet, Simon Rodgers, Ritchie Saciliac, Philip Vose, Priscilla Wong, and others.

In addition to the design sketches and finished character art, there are storyboards, lighting studies, modeling, rigging, and more. The Art of Trolls is a visual companion to the movie that may not show any anthro animals, but will reward any furry fan.

Based on the popular Trolls dolls created by Thomas Dam, Trolls is a 3D computer-animated musical comedy from DreamWorks Animation directed by Mike Mitchell (Shrek Forever After)

Princess Poppy (Anna Kendrick) is a relentlessly upbeat, if slightly naïve, Troll who inherits her crown on the very day her people face the first challenge that can’t be solved with a song or a hug. Accompanied by Branch (Justin Timberlake), she ventures “far beyond the only world they have ever known” in a quest that tests their strength and reveals their true colors.

Full of playful designs created in the optimistic and fun-loving spirit of the Trolls, The Art of Trolls showcases hundreds of pieces of concept and production art to illustrate how DreamWorks’s team of talented artists created an enchanting reinterpretation of the Trolls phenomenon that has gripped collectors and popular culture for decades.

–Fred Patten

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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer

Conventional Wisdom, by Arthur Drooker. Foreword by James Wollcott.
NYC, Glitterati Inc., August 2016, hardcover $50.00 (191 [+ 1] pages).

This is a de luxe coffee-table art book of photographs by Arthur Drooker, an award-winning documentary and fine-art photographer/author whose work has been exhibited since 1980, and whose studies have been called “visual poetry”. For ConventionalWisdom, Drooker spent three years up to 2015 visiting “quirky” conventions throughout the U.S. “held by some unusual interest groups”. Each convention has about twenty pages devoted to it.

Drooker claims in his Introduction that a Convention Industry Council study shows that there are 1.8 million conventions, conferences, meetings, and trade shows in the U.S. every year. This book presents some of the most photographically exotic of these. As you have doubtlessly guessed, furry fandom is one of these unusual interest groups. So are the Bronies. Each is covered by Drooker; Anthrocon at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, and Bronycon at the Baltimore Convention Center. Each convention has an introduction of about four pages by Drooker.

His description of Anthrocon and of furry fandom is sympathetic and accurate. He calls Anthrocon possibly the highlight of his year for its exuberance and “international spirit of being friends, like a big family.” (p. 152) He also calls his posed two-page spread photograph of Thumpie Bunny Eve lounging atop a grand piano (pgs. 162-163) “one of the best in Conventional Wisdom.”

From Conventional Wisdom by Arthur Drooker copyright © 2016, published by Glitterati Incorporated www.GlitteratiIncorporated.com”.

The book’s cover shows the Association of Lincoln Presenters, which meets at the Airport Ramada Inn in Columbus, Ohio. Other special-interest conventions are Vent Haven, for ventriloquists with large dummies (like Edgar Bergen’s Charlie McCarthy), Santa Celebration for Santa Claus suit wearers, Fetishcon for people who cater to weird tastes (one model who specializes in bringing clients’ fetishes to life “has covered her head in cake frosting, sloshed around in a kiddy pool filled with oatmeal, and maybe strangest of all, stomped on a village made of Play-Doh á la Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.” (p. 83), Military History Fest for warfare re-enactors, World Clown Association, World Taxidermy Championships, and Merfest, for swimmers in mermaid and mermen fishtails.

At least some of these conventions seem semi-professional. Others like Anthrocon and Bronycon are entirely for the fans of their interest group. Anthrocon may be the largest, as is shown in a double-page photo of over a thousand fursuiters with Drooker’s text claiming over 6,000 attendees. These are not professional mascots whose suit expenses may have been paid by an organization. These are individual fursuits that may have cost their furry fans over a thousand dollars each.

From Conventional Wisdom by Arthur Drooker copyright © 2016, published by Glitterati Incorporated www.GlitteratiIncorporated.com”.

In any case, these are all gorgeous fine-art photographs. Come for the furries and the Bronies, and maybe the merfolk, and stay to enjoy the rest.

–Fred Patten

• Buy on Glitterati Incorporated

The most original creations of furry fandom.

Here’s a fun feature about the future.  But first, let me make a bold claim about fursuiting.

Mascots and costuming have been around forever. But furries are doing something new. They don’t just play with generic icons from myths and media. They add original fursonas and custom craft for everyone. It makes a subculture with personal expression beyond anything else.

Of course, many furs don’t have (or want) fursuits.  But the ones who do make a photogenic face of fandom. Other groups do art and writing like this one, but I don’t think anyone else does costuming in such a specialized and devoted way.  So there’s nothing wrong with the way the fursuiters stand out.  Everything else is imagination – they bring it to life and help to define the tactile name of “furry”.  And the quality is developing beyond anything you can buy commercially.  Some dedicated makers now have careers by fans, for fans, leading a Furry Economy with an exciting future.  Look forward to amazing things.

Pic: CanineHybrid

Looking back at the roots: the first iconic fursuits.

Further Confusion 2015 had a panel about “25 years of furry con history”. The hosts were Furry Founding Fathers, Mark Merlino and Rod O’Riley. They co-directed the first con (ConFurence 0 in 1989.)  It had two fursuiters – an unnamed bobcat, and Hilda the Bambioid (Robert Hill).  The “first iconic furry costumes” are mentioned at 47:00 in the video.

The oldest fursuit still active could be Walden, by Yippee, who says: “Walden was built before the term “fursuit” even existed!”

@DogpatchPress Walden made a surprise cameo at 25 yrs of furry cons. He's like 23 himself. http://t.co/oVKSQiZK12 pic.twitter.com/95y9IFpGWL

— ☾ Yippee Coyote ☽ (@YipCoyote) February 5, 2015

The most expensive fursuits.

$2,000 is a general going price for a full suit. Special features like electronics can raise costs to five figures. Then there’s hard-to-define personal value, like with any professional art. A patron might want to pay a lot to support the artist. High prices can show positive development of a specialized craft. Here’s a report about a $17,500 suit (keep in mind that Hollywood FX suits can add another zero.) It’s an investment not everyone can make – but we can all appreciate the results, and the door is open for anyone to build their own.

$17,500 Primal Visions Cheetah owned by Spottacus.

The furry dance movement and street fursuiting.

With growing demand and developing craft, live performance is where the rubber meets the road.  I like to call fursuiting “the theatrical soul of furry,” so I’m into new movements for it.  They could be the bleeding edges for experimental projects.

With the explosion of interest in cons, there comes subcultural mutations like independent dance parties.  It crosses with other scenes like dance crews.  And my favorite thing is street fursuiting.  It kicks down the doors to bring trippy, spontaneous fun to public places like street fairs. Think of their show value – how often do you see that much spectacle just walking around?

Look at this fabulous fever dream:

I’ve heard complaining that fursuit hobbies overshadow others and make art and writing just a sub-section of cosplay, or even fears of queer roots being erased through mainstreaming.  I can’t listen to that. Go to a con and look around at how socially-gluing, self-defining, and fabulously expressive the suiting is.  I think there’s never been so much furry creativity blasting off to its own space, with more artists and writers than ever along for the ride.

World’s biggest furry joke at Sydney’s LGBT Mardi Gras. Anthrocon is taking it to the streets, but their parade has no floats. Upstaged by the Ozfurs, no fucks given!

Tech features and Smart Suiting.

There’s a science fiction future for wearable tech.  If you like reading or writing about it, here it is in the fur. Think of tiny wearable computers and novel fabric embedded with electronics.  Imagine it programmed to interact with users, respond on the fly or adjust to the environment.  Furries can be a branch for this (or even a root.)  They’re super “suited” for immersive full-body tactile role-play, sci-fi/fantasy based design, and original/custom characters that are fully inhuman.

You won’t go some place to see them… they’ll be among us.  An anthro dog’s hackles rise when a cat comes near.  A sound enhanced cat purrs when you scritch her belly. A chameleon’s skin blends into the background. Everyone has animated eyes and expressions. Could real hybrids sneak in undercover?

It’s becoming possible with servo motors used in animatronics, and tiny sound and light devices. There’s 3D printing, programmable controllers like Arduino and Rasberry Pi, and developments for mobile applications and the “internet of things”. There’s biofeedback sensors beyond anything you’ve seen yet, envisioned by the Biohacking and Neurohacking movements.

Arduino kit

What could you do with this? “OpenBCI is an open source brain-computer interface platform… OpenBCI boards can be used to measure and record electrical activity produced by the brain (EEG), muscles (EMG), and heart (EKG)”…

Read more about the Ultracortex (“an adjustable, 3D-printable EEG wearable frame” headset for boards that give users access to brainwave data.) A furry pictured on this page has started many companies for biofeedback devices, and puts them to use for experimental fursuits.

Custom-fit #EEG headset design!
Introducing @Ultracortex #X1 (by @ThreeForm & @OpenBCI)
w/ @3dsystemscorp scans pic.twitter.com/JRDhDiyRBE

— ultracortex (@ultracortex) October 22, 2015

Anthropomorphic Prosthetics.

Necomimi robotic ears and tails are well known for fun. Then there’s more exotic experiments like alternative limbs (covered here in 2013, and a 2016 update.) Traditionally, losing a limb has meant losing a part of your identity, covering up and blending in. But what if you can be more than before?

Light and sound effects.

See the amazing LED-enabled suit at 1:00 in the below video from Burning Man.

Sounds were previously covered here: Enough squeaker abuse- let’s upgrade fursuit sound effects!

Scale enhancement by immersive illusion.

A blinking, sound-enhanced, life-sized dinosaur invades a mall. Think of adding more loud stomping effects… and even programming them to scale up in pitch and volume as he approaches a target!

Animatronic body parts and expressions.

Blue Mountainfox Joe has made a lot of suits with animated expressions.

See some amazing high-end TV animatronic acting from one hot fox (and here’s a little bit of behind-the-scenes detail.)

Electronic animated eyes.

From a german maker, this fursuit head has animated eyes.  (It’s a fixed loop not controlled by the user). It uses small OLED screens and a microcontroller from Adafruit, which CAN be programmed for manual control.

Adafruit visits Further Confusion in San Jose, CA.

Phil B writes about speaking to furries on the company blog (PDF’s of his panel notes are included:)

“I had the outstanding opportunity to talk about electronics in costuming… I gave two 90-minute talks, one on introductory first-time electronics for costume-makers, and a second focusing specifically on lighting effects.

What really sets this group apart is the emphasis on world-building and personal characters. Also, there’s more costume electronics…and more Adafruit electronics especially…at this one convention than I’ve seen in an entire year’s worth of anime, comics and steampunk events. From custom fursuit-sized jumbo NeoPixel goggles to dragons with animated OLED eyes, these are power-users of cosplay technology!”

Personal climate control – Cooling system solutions.

Wristify is a prototype thermoelectric bracelet to control body temperature.  It was developed by four MIT students at EMBR labs.

EZwolf (builder of animatronic wolf head above) is a major fandom entrepeneur. Aside from his well-known videography, he’s creator of EZ Cooldown vests, which sell to the general public for many practical uses besides costumes.

Is your dog as cool as this dog? Have a look at our Dry Cooling Vest for Dogs and beat the heat! #dogsoftwitter https://t.co/KK39ktaAFi pic.twitter.com/is4D6wsiT1

— EZcooldown (@EZcooldown) September 22, 2016

Now build electronics into these dog vests so you can remote-control call them.  Combine the cooling vest with the LED-animated “Disco Dog” vest. (There’s LED collars like this too.)  Then make them fursuit-sized!

Big spectacle with theatrical tech experiments.

These aren’t suits, but there are rideable robotic animals that can take over the street. Here’s a robotic giraffe built by a furry who was invited to the White House Maker Faire and met President Obama (previously covered here.)

Check out this gigantic dragon by theatrical artists La Machine, who comes to life on an epic scale while spitting steam at watchers.

These are a sample of tech that could make great fursuits of the future. (Sorry to skunks for leaving out scent innovations.) What else do you know?

Howl of Thurston Howl Publications sends this guest review.  Thanks Howl!

REVIEW OF THE GOAT: BUILDING A PERFECT VICTIM BY BILL KIEFFER

Shock. From beginning to end. If you ever want a book to slap you in the face as hard as possible, this…this is for you.

Frank is a car worker. He is not gay. To verify this, he would not hesitate to glare you down. He would not hesitate to hit you. He would not hesitate to force you into his car. He would not hesitate to force your head on his cock and eventually force you to swallow. This is how he started to develop a relationship with Glenn.

Glenn is a cybermancer, strong with technological pseudomagic but not so great at wards like Frank. Loving the utter dominance Frank forces onto him, Glenn enters into an S&M relationship with the mechanic. However, the main story arc occurs when Glenn reveals that he is species-dysmorphic: despite being born in a human body, his natural identity is that of a goat. Unable to pass the necessary ani-mage tests, he can only dream about becoming a goat. However, Frank is a little better with magic…

This book is by NO MEANS a kinky romance. This is, as the author claims, horror erotica. Even as a Stephen King and Clive Barker fan, I was cringing so hard from the beginning and ending of the book, and I’m not sure I will fully recover in the next week. I might have to read My Little Pony fanfiction to survive in fact.

As far as constructive criticism goes, the book excels with its ability to horrify and disturb readers. As any horror aficionado will claim, the best horror is the kind that dwells under the surface of normal, everyday life and then bubbles up with an exploding pop at points. This novel thrives on that. You will fall in love with these characters, and, then, you will witness the new master of furry horror as he proceeds to not only rip your heart out, but also your intestines, your spleen, and whatever else he can find. While this book is by no means gory as my metaphor would make it seem, it is horrifying in levels that portray crueler fates than disembowelment.

My main critiques are with the magic system erected in the novel. It is introduced so suddenly and never really explained, although it is expanded gradually. Narratologically, the magic exists solely as a means of giving Frank the ability to control Glenn’s transformations. While the author does implement small uses of magic here and there—wards and a magical advisory board—it seems consistently too disconnected from the story Kieffer is trying to tell.

However, if you can suspend your disbelief in this system of magic, the novel will grip you—and drag you through the hell that is Frank’s twisted mind, or to put it more closely to the author’s words, Frank’s “fucked up” mind.

– Howl

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

The Familiar: A Paranormal Romance, by Jill Nojack
Kent, OH, IndieHeart Press, September 2015, trade paperback $9.99 (277 [+ 1] pages), Kindle $2.99.

Witch Risen: A Paranormal Adventure, by Jill Nojack
Kent, OH IndieHeart Press, September 2016, trade paperback $9.99 (285 pages), Kindle December 2015 $3.99.

Nine Lives: A Paranormal Adventure, by Jill Nojack
Kent, OH, IndieHeart Press, September 2016, trade paperback $9.99 (291 pages), Kindle April 2016 $3.99.

These three books constitute Nojack’s The Bad Tom series. They are meant to be read together, in that order. Amazon has a three-book Kindle package for $10.97.

Up to now, I’ve avoided reviewing the paranormal romance genre. There are dozens if not hundreds of books (probably 95+% e-books only) about handsome, hunky werewolves or werelions or werestallions or werebears who need a human woman to tame them. They’re mostly written from the woman’s point of view – wish-fulfillment fodder.

However, The Bad Tom trilogy features a man spelled into an ordinary housecat, and it’s more about him trying to avoid a jealous witch so he can get together with his true love – and worse. There’s enough non-romantic story here for a furry fan that isn’t interested in romance to enjoy. There are enough clever twists & turns in the trilogy that I have to reveal a major spoiler to cover all three novels.

“Back when her skin was smooth and her lips were juicy as ripe berries, Eunice did the nasty with the devil. And she loved it. If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t be lurking in the dark, twitching the tip of my tail, trying to keep an eye on what the old witch is up to. Everyone knows spells cast during the Black Moon aren’t illuminated by the Goddess’s light.” (The Familiar, p. 1)

The trilogy is set in the small town of Giles, Massachusetts, on the route from Boston to Salem. The town specializes in the colorful “witch” motif associated with the notorious Salem witch trials of 1692. Several elderly women dress up as witches, and a leading spell shop is Cat’s Magical Shoppe, run by seventyish Eunice. “Of course” the spells are all fake; just harmless herbal medicine charms – but the witches are real. Most of Giles’ costumed witches are organized in a “choir” (coven) of white witches, or at worst gray, led by Eunice. They don’t know that Eunice is secretly a black witch, the leader of a small black coven within the white coven, subtly practicing forbidden magic to make sure that she remains Giles’ social leader. The #2 witch in the white coven is Gillian Winterforth; another important witch is Natalie Taylor.

There are also two warlocks; sixtyish Robert Andrews, the high priest of the white coven for twenty years and the mayor of Giles, and his late-30s son Kevin. Robert is content to politically run the town. Kevin has become a black warlock. He is conspiring with Eunice to, if not replace Robert immediately, help Robert to buy up the town while making sure that he remains Robert’s heir.

Eunice has a granddaughter, Cassie. She is innocent of what’s going on. Cassie visits from Boston often, and has been helping out/learning in the shoppe how to make the “herbal charms”. Eunice is slowly teaching her to become a witch without revealing that witchcraft is real.

Cat’s Magical Shoppe has a real black cat as a mascot. Nobody knows that the cat is also Tom Sanders, who had been Gillian’s young husband in 1967 when they were all in their sexy 20s. He tried to have an affair with Eunice, and she bound him into her shop’s cat. She turns him human again when nobody else is around by saying, “Good cat,” and back into a cat by saying, “Bad cat”. He’s her boy-toy, eternally a hunky 25-year-old while Eunice and the other witches grow old.

As a cat, Tom is trapped inside a feline body. When the cat dies, he’s reincarnated into a black kitten’s body. He can try to influence the cat, which he can do to a limited extent, but more often he is overpowered by the cat’s instincts and can only ride along while the cat is in charge.

“The next day, it’s business as usual. I’d like to take a nap, but Cat is distracted by everything: a passing shoelace, the shop broom moving across the floor, the sound of paper bags crinkling.

Crinkling. First my ears and then my eyes are drawn to the source of the sound. Eunice’s granddaughter, Cassie, plops a brown paper bag onto the counter, and it rustles again as she rests a dainty hand onto it.” (p. 7)

All of this is background. The story starts when Eunice unexpectedly dies (not of natural causes) in her sleep. Cassie comes from Boston to decide whether to sell the shoppe or to take it over and keep it running. Tom, currently a tiny kitten, is frantic to get her to say “Good Tom” and turn him human again – though how she’ll react to having a little black kitten become a handsome, naked man in front of her, he doesn’t know.

Any more detailed synopsis would give away too many spoilers. The first 100 pages of The Familiar are narrated by Tom, who is desperate to communicate with Cassie; then the narration switches back and forth between them. Conflict is provided by Kevin Andrews, who assumes that Cassie is too naïve to oppose him as he tries to take over the shoppe and Eunice’s coven. Cassie eventually learns how to turn Tom human again, but it only works within the shoppe. The two need to find how to release Tom from the spell entirely, which they do with the help of the now-grandmotherly Gillian and her white coven.

The Familiar seems to come to a happy ending, but there’s a shocking cliffhanger in the final paragraph. This is no real surprise since there are two more books in the trilogy. In Witch Risen, Eunice’s spirit comes back from the dead and possesses Cassie’s body. Tom is frantic to free Cassie’s spirit. The white witches in Giles (plus Robert) don’t want Eunice back, so they join Tom in trying to outwit Eunice and banish her spirit to release Cassie’s.

What nobody realizes at first (and I’m sorry to reveal a major spoiler, but it’s necessary to continue this review) is that it never was Eunice. “Eunice” is really Anat, a thousands’-year-old witch’s (she claims she’s a Goddess) spirit who has been body-hopping for hundreds of generations, and had possessed the real Eunice’s body decades earlier. To her, Cassie is just the latest body in a long string of beautiful young women. What’s worse, she has been looking for the perfect young male body for millennia for her husband/master, the demon Ba’al, to possess. She’s finally found it in Tom. Witch Risen becomes a race between the two sides to succeed. Tom and the white witches have the greater organization, but they are hampered by unknowingly underestimating at first how much evil “Eunice” can command, and then how much magic it will really take to exorcise her.

“When I get my lover’s heart beating again during the quickening, I’ll help him move to his new home in Tom’s handsome shell soon after. Will he find me too tame now? I’m in bed by ten after taking my nightly bath in lavender-scented bubbles instead of the blood of my victims. But oh, when we were young! There wasn’t a god or a demon who could challenge us.” (Witch Risen, p. 122)

Witch Risen is narrated by Tom and “Eunice”. It again seems to come to a happy ending, but there’s still a final novel in the trilogy. Nine Lives shows a demon-dog on the cover, so that’s no secret; so I’ll just say that there’s more than one demon-dog in Giles, determined to make their victims more than just Tom and Cassie. Nine Lives completes The Bad Tom trilogy neatly.

Nojack labels The Familiar “a paranormal romantic comedy”, but the other two as “a paranormal adventure”, which is more accurate. Tom certainly has romance towards Cassie in mind, but the books are more about his fighting the age-old Anat (even if he doesn’t know she’s Anat until Witch Risen) than about his getting together with Cassie. The trilogy is not anthropomorphic in the usual sense, but even when Tom is freed from the original spell that allows “Eunice” to control his human/cat transformations, he remains having to share his human body with Cat. Tom finds that he has to transform into Cat a couple of hours each day to remain healthy, usually to let Cat go hunting in the nearby wood. He often uses the Cat body in his magical combats, despite having to influence Cat’s cooperation.

“I squat down to make myself less visible as Gillian explores. That may be a mistake. Cat’s got my nose tilted up in the air, sniffing at the tantalizing fragrance of wilderness that blows my way on the breeze. That’s definitely a mouse. A tiny, furry, juicy, tasty mouse. My haunches tense, I gear up for the chase. And then I grab my body back from Cat’s influence and stand up. ‘Gillian.’ I whisper. ‘Have you got enough yet?’” (Nine Lives, p. 155)

The three books, covers designed by IndieHeart Press, are definitely something that furry fans should check out.

–Fred Patten

• Buy The Familiar (Book 1) on Amazon
• Buy Witch Risen (Book 2) on Amazon
• Buy Nine Lives (Book 3) on Amazon
• Buy all Three Books on Amazon

By Patch O’Furr and Fred Patten, furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Remember the amazing story about Syrian refugee kids at VancouFur?  They were freshly arrived in Canada from a conservative arabic country, and housed in the same hotel with the furries. At first there were warnings and high caution about the situation.  Then the kids went wild about how cool it was. Remember that happened when you read the culture clash topic below!

Fred Patten wanted to learn about furry writing in Southeast Asia. (It’s a natural interest – he isn’t just a “founder” of furry fandom, he also helped bring anime to North America in the 1970’s).  So Fred spoke with an academic in Malaysia who said this about furry novels:

“In Malaysia, portraying animal being human-like and intelligent is something rare and was not encouraged. This is because it contradicts with the Islamic teaching (Islam being the national religion of Malaysia).  So, I am sorry to say I could not recommend any titles for you. Would be similar case for Indonesia too.  But currently, there is a rise of independent novel publishers that doesn’t confine to the typical novel styles in Malaysia. They are labeled as rebels and those who tend to ‘speak their mind’ without any censorship.”

The discussion is related to Fred’s 2012 article – Survey: Foreign Furry novels.  It adds relevant thoughts from a poster to the AnthroAsia forum:

Anthropomorphism is very much a Western concept passed on to this part of the world. When I was growing up, the only exposure to anthropomorphic characters was through children’s storybooks or through cartoons on the television. Even the first few books that I did get (Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern) was at a local Borders store or through Amazon. Here, in Singapore, where English is the language of instruction, most of our material originates from the West.

New furry conventions are sprouting up in Southeast Asia.  This includes south China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand:

• The Philippine Anthro Festival in Manila, first held in May 2014.
• The China National Furry Party in Guangzhou (Canton) (July 2015).
• Infurnity in Taipei (October 2015).
• FurryLah in Singapore (November 2015).
• Furs Upon Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur (December 2015).
• The Thai Tails Convention in Bangkok (January 2016).
• Shanghai Furry Summer Festival in Shanghai, China (July 23, 2016).

One Southeast Asian country is conspicuously missing:  Burma/Myanmar. Of course, there have been furry conventions in Japan for the last decade.

The Southeast Asian furry community has been growing since AnthroAsia went online in 2004. There have been higher-profile furmeets in Bangkok since 2012, and these conventions have had no trouble getting meeting space. At least one furry author, MikasiWolf (Pang Hee Juon) in Singapore, has risen since 2013, although his short stories have all been published in English outside Southeast Asia so far.

Disney’s Zootopia has been distributed throughout Southeast Asia including in Cambodia and Vietnam, although this may have been only in the largest and most cosmopolitan cities. In general, things are looking encouraging for the furry community there, and furry fandom has been accepted without notice.

Could such Western influences bring backlash? Things haven’t always been positive. Some terrorism in Southeast Asia has been blamed on reactionary Islamic groups, such as the bombing of Western tourists in Bali in 2002.

Disney’s Zootopia was released in Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. Does this mean that attitudes have changed in some Islamic countries? Or that it is an example of the power of Disney? Or has distribution there been only in the most cosmopolitan cities?

Things taken for granted elsewhere in the West aren’t free to see everywhere; consider how ubiquitous Santa Claus is.  But the government of Uzbekistan ordered Santa Claus and Russia’s similar Grandfather Frost taken off TV because they’re non-Uzbeki… but it’s more probably because they’re non-Islamic.

Russia’s “Zabivaka” mascot for FIFA unveiled this week… guess who loves him.

Remember when the Iron Curtain dominated half the world up to the 1980’s?  It was a huge deal when rock and roll, jeans and McDonald’s came to Russia.  Such things can be unexpectedly subversive.

It’s universal to love anthro animals. Art and cartoons speak in ways that words can’t. Maybe kids will have that as part of loosening domination in their countries. There already are pockets of furs in places like Iran.

Furry is an international conspiracy built from grassroots.  It could take a little part in a bigger clash.  So far, all I have are questions and curiosity.  Especially if this ever starts to involve “the topic we love to hate” – the duality of Disney vs. Dirty in the fandom.  As much as it causes concern, it’s also a source of independence and liberation.  Something that many parts of the world could use in whatever form it takes.

Related: Questions for Russian furry fans about anti-gay oppression.

See the movie Argo for a fantastic liberation story set in Iran. It’s about a spy operation to free hostages under cover of making a sci-fi B movie.

The world’s only government-run furry convention (as far as I can tell) is The China National Furry Party.

China National Furry Party poster

 

Badges from Mary Mouse

Missing, flaky commissions suck. it’s a chronic problem that’s only modestly addressed by small watchdogs like the Artist Beware community.

Things should be smoother.  But there’s a reason why commissioning is unpredictable. Things are dragged down by underbidding among artists. Nobody becomes an artist to get rich, and many don’t charge enough for the service they’re doing.

Why ask a customer to fix problems of a business?  I get it… if someone promises something, they should deliver without expecting more than they earn.  But give me a minute… if this is a passion-driven fandom and not a cut-throat market, maybe there’s a little room for common problem-solving and partnership.

Assume good faith.  Give credit to artists for being full of love for what they do.  But it’s awfully hard to get good and be competitive.  That’s how so many of them plan to get things done on a thin margin and tight schedules.  It’s easy for plans to go off the rails, people get sick, there’s unexpected mistakes or accidents, and burnout is common. Then commissioners are left waiting for extra weeks, months… or nearly forever.

Blondefoxy on Twitter

It has to do with art being treated as a hobby.  It is a hobby for many, and that’s one of the most loveable things about fandom.  But getting good and doing good work means that’s just a start. It helps to understand where they’re coming from. Look at this level of fandom as just the beginning of a development process.

As artists develop, difficulty can grow if the seriousness with which fans take fandom isn’t matched with how much they care for artists while they work.  Are artists fans too, or professionals? Maybe both?

Skilled fandom art is already a massive bargain. You couldn’t hire other pros to do things as good as many furry artists do. And nobody NEEDS an Angel Dragon suit, or cute-ass badge or a drawing of their fursona playing videogames in underpants. There’s no reason for entitlement about cheap art. Think of it as more like luxury, leisure, entertainment and expression, than crucial food and shelter for yourself.

Caring for artists can help your own interest. If loose deadlines are common enough to be taken for granted, it can make a gap where scammers run rampant.  Having low expectations can let them be taken advantage of, and everyone gets hurt. Having high expectations and paying to support artists can help a fandom define itself apart from outside influence.  Paying more can give power to commissioners.

Adding incentive can raise the bar.  Tell an artist that after the commission is delivered, you’ll pay more if it’s on time.  And you’ll pay even more if it’s done perfectly.

Now you’re an active part of the art process.  Imagine that being a regular thing. Every time an artist sits down to make a schedule and estimate delivery times, you’re boosting their commitment to everyone.

Compare restaurant tipping.  20% on top is common for that.  But I suspect indie artists put in far more time than other employment that would pay the same paycheck.  Think of paying a few hundred extra for a fursuit that costs a few grand. (Deduct it from what you earn while waiting for a year, if you’re a working professional with disposable income for a suit.)  That’s a great amount of support to help an artist continue working.  And since it isn’t inside employer-set hours, they might have to rush 20% less to cram other jobs in the schedule.

Tipping is optional.  Whether you agree with the idea or not, there’s little way to force you to pay extra for informal person-to-person business.  It’s not likely to become an expectation or something you can’t skip.  It’s just nice.

So I hope not to hear complaints about not being able to afford paying more.  You don’t have to do this.  I’m just suggesting it’s a good thing to WANT to do.

This is a separate topic from bidding-wars.  If you don’t like seeing popular artists get paid a lot for lazy YCH commissions, seek out the countless ones who are underrated for exceptional skill.

It pays goodwill forward.  Tipping is an expectation for things like going to a sit-down restaurant in North America, but not for art.  Artists would be surprised if you throw more on top instead of expecting cheapest labor.  If you don’t even offer, but send a gift, that would be even more surprising.  And then even if you don’t do it, you can benefit if the person before you does it. You’re much more likely to get their heart in the work and their very best creativity.  I’d love to see this kind of goodwill increase in this already-awesome fandom.

Furries are already known for being fiercely devoted patrons. It’s true!  See: The Secret Furry Patrons Keeping Indie Artists Afloat.  Unfortunately, it’s still tough to make a living from art. So consider tipping your creators.  They will love it.  That’s the long and short of it.  And it can feed a subculture with even more power to rule itself in times of ever-worsening struggles for creative people – but that’s another topic.

#TipYourMakers.  This is a PSA in the spirit of others for common good, like The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored.”

Ratgirl at Cogscon from jackieloart.com

Through out the month of October you may have been seeing a special hashtag around twitter of people talking about Furry books more then usual. That is because we are in our first official Furry Book Month. A way to both celebrate the Furry writer community as well as promote just how diverse the community has gotten. You would be amazed how some people still only view the fandom with only three publishers: Sofawolf, Furplanet, and Rabbit Valley. But we have expanded to around eight with newcomers like Thurston Howl Publications, Goal Publications, and Weasel Press; bringing with them new voices and new stories with the same fluffiness or scales or feathers we love.

The Furry we have to thank for getting this event off the ground is Husykteer, a well-known and active member in the writer community since 2010. She began by posting stories on SoFurry, but by 2012 got published in both Roar 4 and Heat 9. Since then she has continued to put out quality work.

So far, I’ve had short stories and poems published in a number of anthologies; most recently Gods with Fur, Claw the Way to Victory and Inhuman Acts. My short story ‘The Analogue Cat’, which appeared in The Furry Future, won the 2015 Ursa Major and Cóyotl awards for short fiction.

I’d love to get some books out there with my name, and mine alone, on the cover! A novella, Peace & Love, should be coming out from FurPlanet soon.

But how did the idea of Furry Book Month come about? Anyone who has been around the FWG forums knows that the writer community, while growing, is still under appreciated in many aspects. So there has been a growing want to promote the community more to get people to check out their work.

In 2015, Furry Writers’ Guild member Rechan challenged the FWG forum to read a furry book, or several, during October. This grew into the idea of promoting books in the wider furry community during October 2016.

The Furry Writers Guild for those not in the know is dedicated ‘to promote quality writing in anthropomorphic fiction and to inform, elevate, and support its creators.’ It’s the go to place for Furry writers.

A lot of authors and publishers check in on the Furry Writers’ Guild forum, which is a great way to find out what’s going on, meet people and get help with your writing. It’s free to join and you don’t need to be a Furry Writers’ Guild member: http://www.anthroaquatic.com/forum/index.php

Huskyteer got in contact with a lot of author and publishers to see if they can help out with the mouth by offering special discounts. Which if one of the biggest reasons you haven’t read a Furry book is because of the price then this mouth is made for you with books selling at discounted prices to discounts ranging from 20% to 50%.

Several publishers and authors were generous enough to get on board with special offers, which you can find here: https://furrywritersguild.com/furry-book-month/

Those are some of the benefits that come with Furry Book Month, but that still may make you wonder why should we care about Furry Books?

Furry is a very broad term in literature. The only rule is that all or some of the characters are anthropomorphic animals. There’s furry romance, furry science fiction, furry mystery, comedy – whatever genre you’re into, there’ll be something to your taste.

Anthropomorphic animals are universally accessible (that’s why they’re in so many children’s books). A lot of readers find they can relate to a furry character more than to a human.

In fact, Huskyteer got motivated to write from discovering the Furry Fandom.

When I found the fandom, I had no idea there was such a thing as furry fiction. When I found out, I knew this was something I definitely wanted to be a part of. I’d dreamed of being a writer all my life, but I never expected to get into it through something I did for fun.

Writing often feels like a poor relation to art within the fandom, because it’s less immediately accessible. You know at a glance whether you like a piece of art. A book takes more effort, but finding a book you love, that speaks to you about yourself and your life, is so rewarding. I want more furries to have that experience.

I can relate to that since when I discovered Kyell Gold’s Waterways stories online it helped me not only come to terms with my own sexuality, which I talked about in detail here, but has inspired me to get into writing again. Huskyteer wants you to have that same experience of finding the joy of Furry writing and how there are some many options to choose from.

I’m a relative newcomer to the writing community, but in the five years or so I’ve been involved, I’ve seen it really take off. There are a lot of new names writing to get published, several new furry publishers, like Weasel Press, Jaffa Books and Goal Publications, and many more anthologies of short stories are published every year, giving more writers a chance to get published and offering readers a wider choice.

The month itself has already had some success for its first year.

I’ve seen a lot of people talking about furry books on Twitter and on Goodreads, writing reviews, sharing recommendations, and posting photos of their purchases. It’s been great to see readers, writers and publishers discussing books together, and the #FurryBookMonth hashtag spreading! Let’s hope we can make Furry Book Month an annual event.

I believe it will. So go on and check out the discount page to see what publishers are offering, check out the hashtag to see which books spikes your interest, write a review, tweet about it, share it, discuss it, join FWG. The only way people know something exists is through people talking about why they love this so much. Thank you Huskyteer for providing us with a chance to so people why we love Furry books so much. Till next time. Be awesome. Be amazing. Be you.

-Matthias

You might see less posting here for a week – I’m busy writing for a book. That’s Furries Among Us (part 2) from Thurston Howl Publishing. (The Ursa Major Award went to Howl’s first book of essays about the fandom, so they made a new “nonfiction” award.)

My chapter is “The Furclub movement – independent furry night life is thriving!” Furry dance parties happen around the world, so if you see new dances start anywhere, please send info for the list.  (To San Francisco furs, I can’t say anything now, but expect some good news soon.)

It’s Furry Book Month, so check out some more of the fandom’s awesome creativity. Flayrah finally started approving new posts about that. Their slowness might have to do with a big rise in great reader comments here.  And so does this…

High activity with furries in the news. Rolling Stone linked here last week when covering the triple homicide in Southern California that took furry victims.  Then George Takei reposted it to his massive readership.

I have mostly tried to avoid resharing other news about the sad story (although I definitely believe it’s a “furry” story, within limits).  I did have a little personal chatting with a reporter and on other shares. Surprise… with both the media and the public, there’s a lot of sensitivity. Even if furries are silly, people know a tragedy is a time to step back and be nice.

I made an exception to discussing when it made a side topic I thought was good and relevant about the power of cartoons and OC Weekly’s editorial cartoon.  It got a re-edit sent in by Shining River (shown here.)

Even more high traffic and comments came for A Brief History of Who Ruined Furry.  Thankfully the vast majority got the satirical humor and only a few thought it was mocking for real.

The comments brought an unexpected gift, a historic piece of freakotronic video of the first fursuiter at the first furry convention in 1989. It’s a sexy gender-bending deer creature in dom gear, Hilda the Bambioid:

That’s groundbreaking.  Who else had the guts then? Hilda was so far ahead of her time. It made one of the Greymuzzles community comment on the “Who Ruined Furry” post: “Just take advice from the Dadaists: “The aim of Furry is the destruction of Furry!”  This is why Furry is outsider art.

The video was uploaded to the net thanks to Changa Lion, who lives at the Prancing Skiltaire and posts daily furry videos at Furry.today.  It’s a whole film festival on the net!

Daily Dot then shared it: “Here’s some amazing raw footage from the world’s first furry convention“.  I’m told they found it on the “obscure media” subreddit.

Changa helped me find Otaku Trucker: Furry Road. Kinda like Furry Force, it’s a “fursploitation” cartoon, which I really hope becomes a mini-genre. Have a laugh with each other if you’re a Steve too (watch all the way to the end to meet Steve).

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Dawn, by Marcus J. LaGrone. Illustrated by Minna Sundberg.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, December 2011, trade paperback $14.95 ([1 +] 192 pages), Kindle $3.95.

Edward, by Marcus LaGrone.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, January 2013, trade paperback $9.95 (314 pages), Kindle $2.99.

The Highlands of Afon series must be science-fiction since the novels are set on the planets Afon and Ramidar in the far future, when humans have spread throughout the galaxy. But they read more like adolescent funny-animal dramatic fantasies featuring Afon’s dominant felinoid “race”, the Taik. (They aren’t just on Afon; they too have spread through the galaxy. See the complex “Introduction to the races and cultures”.) There are also the Shukurae, oversimplified as huge (9’ tall) muscular warthogs, intimidating but loyal to Taik leadership, and the Gelkin, short, squat, bearlike, and militaristic; both also spacefaring peoples.

Dawn is the story, in flashback, of Dawn Winteroak. She’s the Taik teenage schoolgirl in the middle on Minna Sundberg’s cover. Besides other adolescent problems, she’s embarrassed because her fur is “boring. Black and plain, not a spot or stripe to be seen. All her sisters had wonderful coats with spots and rosettes, a fact they used to take some pride in pointing out to her.” (blurb)

Dawn has worse problems. Her story begins: “As Dawn cracked open her eyes, she realized one thing immediately: she hurt. From the tip of her pointy ears to the end of her fuzzy tail she hurt. Even her fur hurt. How does fur hurt? she wondered. Well she wasn’t sure, but it certainly did. She sat up only to find that it was possible to hurt even more! Her ears rang and her head throbbed as she straightened up her spine. Looking down she noticed her jet black fur was horribly tousled and her dress, a gift for her fourteenth birthday all of a week ago, was now in tatters. Shredded and charred, it still stank of smoke.” (p. 3)

Dawn has been caught in the assassination of most of her family including her First Mother, the Highland Taik Ambassador at Large on the Taik-settled planet Ramidar. Worse, she has been taken hostage by the villains. She is rescued by her uncle Llewellyn Silverglade (“A man stood there, dressed like a Highland Taik. His fur was a gorgeous silver and white with black rosettes and a long, long tail. He stood there, looking very much like a snow leopard walking erect and just as graceful in his movements.” — p. 6), leading a group of five Shukurae warriors.

But all that is in the first ten pages. Dawn, now orphaned, is adopted by her Uncle Llewellyn and taken to his very large estate on Afon to live. Much of Dawn could almost be called a felinoid comedy of manners, taking into account differences like the Highland Taik social custom of having families like lion prides:

“Having four mothers seemed to cause no end of confusion and curiosity [in human space]. That and the fact that it was her First Mother rather than her father who was ambassador. Of course it was her First Mother! First Mothers were the heads of the family; why in the world would someone expect her father to be the ambassador? Males didn’t get involved in politics and things like that; that didn’t even make sense.” (p. 10) Males get involved in military affairs. Dawn, and Llewellyn, also have Second and Third Mothers, and large families of half-siblings. The Lowland Taiks, with a lower male-to-female ratio, have different customs.

And technological differences like the gates, or dimensional portals:

“‘Aurora [a Taik with pure white fur] was able to open one of the portals, gates as it were. These gates connect the other regions together and permit people and goods to cover long distances just by walking through their thresholds.

‘The humans described them as a stable wormhole or something. I know they were all very curious about them for a whole lot of technical reasons,’ Dawn rolled her eyes, ‘that I never really paid attention to even though I probably should have.’” (p. 27)

Dawn also has a Personal Secret:

“She all but purred as she flexed and then relaxed her wings, the stretch was doing them quite a bit of good. Wings? Oh yes indeed! Her stately wings filled almost two-thirds of the room they were so large, well more than eighteen feet across. It had been a long time since she had stretched them, much less tried to use them. Jet black feathers perfectly matching her fur coat fluttered in the breeze.

She didn’t understand them, but she’d had them for as long as she could remember. They would wink in and out of existence just as easily as she might stick out her tongue. Sticking out her tongue … She could almost hear her older sisters and their heckling. ‘Freak!’ That was the word du jour. She sighed to herself as her mind raced. Her new family seemed nice enough, but a black coat was one thing, wings were another thing entirely. Well, they hadn’t batted an eye at her appearance yet, and she was loathe to do anything to change that!” (p. 18)

… but it doesn’t stay a secret for long, and when Dawn is caught practicing flying early one morning, she’s told briskly, “‘while that was a marvelous flight, breakfast is the next order of business.’” (p. 44) So: for all its strangeness with an anthro feline cast, large families like lion prides, convenient wormholes, wings and other personal talents like invisibility, Dawn is very much a comedy of manners about socially meeting the Right Boy, adjusting to the Silverglade family of relatives including matchmakers, being menaced by highwaymen with swords, various dances, and making an enemy of the haughty daughter of the local Lady Mayor.

Dawn learns to grow out of being a shy 14-year-old into a popular teenager; by taking advantage of her abilities, not being embarrassed by them. There is some menace – one of the villains who killed her real parents strikes again – but it’s so downplayed that it’s barely an afterthought. The feline traits of the characters are used casually: “As Dawn stepped inside, her claws clicked on the hardwood floors and she had to consciously retract them. No sense messing up a nice floor!” (p. 15) There are a half-dozen line-drawing portraits of Dawn and her family & friends.

Edward is about Dawn’s young uncle; an eighteen-year-old bobcat-looking Taik. Edward Silverglade is the youngest of seven children, all of whom have succeeded brilliantly at their professions. Determined to prove himself their equal, Edward chooses a military career in the space force’s 517th Assault Group, a volunteer unit of Taiks, Shukurae, and humans serving together. They are involved in the rescue of Dawn from terrorists against the Taik governor of the planet Ramidar, where Dawn’s First Mother and family had been killed.

That mission is quickly concluded, but the terrorists are still at large, causing destruction and death. The 517th Assault Group is asked to remain on that planet as a bodyguard detail for the governor’s daughter, Tatiana, a megapopular pop star. The 517th’s job is not only to protect Tatiana but to serve as counterinsurgency experts to help the planetary police catch whoever is behind the terrorism.

Edward finds that Tatiana is no diva. She is an intelligent 18-year-old Taik resembling an anthro jaguar, who works with her bodyguards to catch the terrorists. Edward becomes the 517th’s personal bodyguard of Tatiana, while the rest of its team – 25 of them; 15 Shukurae, 5 Taik (both Highlanders and Lowlanders), and 5 humans; explosive experts, snipers, martial-arts warriors, police liaison – works together smoothly to protect not only Tatiana but the rest of her musical group and her crowds of fans. Edward’s individual talent of changing his fur’s color makes him an excellent furry chameleon:

“Edward slipped into the shadows of a corner of the room and let his fur shift in hue to match the walls.” (p. 27)

It also makes blushing a real problem:

“Edward’s fur stood straight up on end and he fought to keep his color from cycling. ‘Um.’” (p. 107)

The reader becomes familiar with not only Edward but others of the 517th – Kadu, Edward’s Shukurae partner; Jake, a human sniper; Gigirena, a Lowland Taik hand-to-hand combat expert; Meeka and Patuk, more Shukurae; Trevor, their Lowlander police liaison. At the same time, Edward becomes familiar with Tatiana and those closely involved with her, especially Gillian Rose, her motherly agent. When Tatiana forms a girl-to-girl friendship with one of her group’s musicians, Zoë Sylva, a Taik who looks like a clouded leopard with black hair, she is drawn into their orbit. Edward becomes so closely involved with them (that’s Zoë, Edward, and Tatiana on Minna Sundberg’s cover) that at one point he asks to be relieved due to becoming too emotionally involved with the two. Gillian becomes “Mom”, and the Shukurae Kadu is a big sister.

Despite the romantic entanglements, there is plenty of action as the terrorists strike on the streets, in theaters and concert halls, and in hotels:

“Things felt wrong as soon as Edward stepped off the elevator. It was going to be a long night. Like the morning, there was a mob of fans waiting outside. Instead of the protestors of the morning, there was a plethora of of media hacks with cameras in hand. Tabloid vultures, ready to document exactly what Tatiana was or wasn’t wearing as she headed out for the night. They were a hazard of the course, unfortunately. It wasn’t up to Edward to judge people, he was there for one thing: protect the client, protect Tatiana.” (p. 44)

“‘You think they’d bomb the elevator?’ asked Alex.

‘No, but I didn’t think they’d bomb the car either. They have escalated their game, just as Kestrel feared. Our job has just begun.’” (p. 46)

It seems like Edward can’t turn around without the terrorists striking again. So: one romantic comedy for women, and one adventurous military drama/police procedural, both feline-furry.

There are two more books in LaGrone’s The Highlands of Afon series, but they are in Kindle editions only: Chloë (397 pages) and Theodore (288 pages), also with covers by Minna Sundberg. If you like these first two, you may enjoy the last two.

–Fred Patten

• Buy Dawn on Lulu
• Buy Dawn on Amazon
• Buy Edward on Amazon
• Buy Chloe on Amazon
• Buy Theodore on Amazon