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Children of Steel and Interregnum, by John Van Stry – Book Reviews by Fred Patten

Tue 3 May 2016 - 10:14

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

Children of Steel, by John Van Stry.
North Charleston, SC, CreateSpace, February 2012, trade paperback $12.99 (350 pages), Kindle $3.99.

Interregnum, by John Van Stry.
North Charleston, SC, CreateSpace, May 2015, trade paperback $9.99 (198 pages), Kindle $2.99.

John Van Stry first came to the notice of furry fandom with the story “Changes” in Yarf! #51, December 1997. But he began writing before that under the pen name of Banner Von Trippen, with “Waiting for Shadamehr (or Someone Like Him)” in Yarf! #49, July 1997. His serialized Dialene, beginning in Yarf! #64, April 2002, under the Von Trippen name, featured a foxmorph living in his Children of Steel universe. Since then he has been publishing through CreateSpace under his real name. Most of his stories have been published as science fiction, not furry fiction, even when they feature anthropomorphic animals.

Children of Steel is set in a familiar-to-furries future. To quote its rear cover, “Raj is just your average everyday genetically modeled and artificially created anthropomorphic worker for one of the many corporations of the future. Extensively trained and conditioned from birth he’s now indentured for the next fifty years of his life; assuming he doesn’t die first, or somehow manage to pay off his creation and training debts. Created by the corporations to deal with the harsh labor shortages of the twenty second century when humans will no longer take on the dangerous jobs Raj finds himself now in the harsh world of space exploration, trading, corporate maneuverings, and sometimes the even more dangerous fanatics that hate Raj and his fellows.”

Raj Rakir is “‘a sentient leopard-man of .7 human norm on the Rourstat scale,’” created by the Tri-Star Mining and Manufacturing corporation. He is presented “‘with your bill for creation and training by the corporation. As covered in the created species act of 2069 you must now work for above said corporation until you have either paid this bill, or completed a term of 50 years indentured servitude.’” (p. 4) The bill comes to three-plus million new dollars. Even with an expected lifespan of a hundred years – assuming he isn’t killed in one of those dangerous space jobs first – Raj can expect to spend most of his life working for Tri-Star. But he’s not worried about it.

“Simply put, the bottom line was that if it wasn’t for Tri-Star I wouldn’t exist. I did owe them that much.

I flexed a bicep and grinned toothily at my reflection in the mirror, and they did design well. I was the biggest leopard in my class, and the strongest. I’d graduated at the head of my advanced combat classes for a reason: I enjoyed kicking ass. Whatever was coming, I’d find my way through it one way or the other.” (p. 5)

Raj’s first assignment is as the junior shuttle pilot on the Tri-Star space freighter Astra, a transport and cargo ship. Even though the Astra is a commercial ship in peacetime, Raj can see how it can be quickly converted into a troop transport if necessary. He meets other “animen” such as a tiger, a fox, an opossum, and a raccoon. There are frequent mentions of twitching tails. The difference between free born animen versus the crèche-born, raised, and trained animen who are indentured servants to their companies, is shown. Raj is talking with Gabriel, the other junior pilot and a more experienced foxmorph.

“‘How’s it going, Raj?’ He asked setting down some paperwork and pulling up a chair.

‘Not too bad, Gabe, just looking over the new changes. What’s with you?’

‘Same shit, different day. I hear we’re supposed to make Hobson’s Choice in twelve weeks. Any info on that?’

‘About what I’ve heard.’

‘Great, I’ve been there before; you’ve got to check it out. It’s really something.’

‘Well, I’ve never been on another planet, so that in itself sounds pretty thrilling to me.’

‘It’s not just that, Hobson’s is thirty percent animan.’

‘So?’

‘Man you really are fresh from the crèche, aren’t you?’

I glared at him a little, my ears going back a bit. ‘I never claimed otherwise.’

‘Hey, don’t get your fur in a ruff! If you had got out more you would have noticed that on Earth, we’re not well liked. Heck in a lot of places we’re not even allowed.’

‘Well, I will admit that I did lead a pretty sheltered life in that aspect. Maybe the company does look out for us?’

‘Oh, there’s no doubt about that. Tri-Star actually treats us like we rate. But on Hobson’s the vast majority feel that way. They still got some Auntie-anns, but you won’t dance with the hangman for defending yourself in a fair fight.’

Auntie-ann was slang for the anti-animen people. On Earth they made up a pretty sizeable chunk of the population and we’d been warned continually to avoid them. It was nice to know that my instructors had been honest about their being less of them on the other planets.

‘And you think you would on Earth?’

‘Damn right, Judge Lynch is out there and waiting!’” (p. 15)

There have been brief mentions throughout this that Raj had a sister and best friend among his siblings from the crèche, Cassandra, another leopardmorph or Lepman; but she has already graduated and gone out into space. Raj hopes that he’ll run into her. In addition to getting to know the rest of the crew, Raj is expected to join “his clan” – the other leopards in the Astra’s crew. There are ten of them – Balizar, Herza, Mist, Katrina, and others — and they become Raj’s new close-knit family and important secondary characters in Children of Steel. He misses Cassandra, though.

That’s the setup. Children of Steel is good interstellar military space opera with a furry cast, mostly anthro leopards, told in a pleasantly chatty style. Raj’s experiences begin mildly – a couple of interesting but non-exciting shipboard incidents – and work up over 200+ pages. After carrying cargo, the Astra switches to carrying troops.

“After telling him [a tiger commando] about the makeup of the hundred or so troops we had on board, he told me about his group. They turned out to be tough sounding group all right. About two hundred big cats, almost a hundred Rhino’s, about another hundred wolves, and the remaining hundred made up of specialists; Eagles, Weasels, Badgers, and Beavers mostly. The last two groups being sappers.” (p. 93)

(The above paragraph is a good example of the poor proofreading in Children of Steel. Other examples are “What not in two months?”, “So tell us about yourself Raj”, and “I found my quarter’s pretty quickly, I was sharing a room with three other’s.”; but it’s not too bad.)

From being a pilot on a ship carrying troops, Raj becomes a soldier himself; then the Astra goes to one of the human-supremacy planets. Much more happens, including exploring new planets and a lot of bloody military action. Tri-Star gets involved in a full-scale war. There are surprises for the reader.

Raj is constantly getting into trouble because of his leopard’s nature. Children of Steel is more than a funny-animal novel, and leopards like Raj have a reputation as hot-headed and troublemakers.

“‘I’ve seen your records, Raj, you’ve got a real classic leopard’s temper. If you don’t control it, you’re going to end up in real bad trouble and I’d hate to see that happen to someone as talented as you.’” (p. 157)

Leopards also have less inhibitions about incest, and it soon becomes clear that Cassandra and Raj are more than brother-and-sister crèche-mates.

That’s Children of Steel (cover uncredited). Interregnum (cover by Amanda Rozga) is more of the same. The war is over, but as the winners, losers, and survivors of World War II could have told you, the transition to peacetime isn’t immediate and isn’t all smooth. Tri-Star is a winner and has inherited several new worlds from the losers and defunct neutrals. The Astra is assigned to investigate them. There are enemy holdouts. There are survivors to be rescued. Raj is kept busy. Readers who enjoy Children of Steel (which will include most fans of military s-f, and s-f about uplifted animals) will enjoy the sequel.

– Fred Patten

Categories: News

Learning to Go, by Friday Donnelly – Book Review by Fred Patten

Thu 28 Apr 2016 - 10:14

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

Learning to Go, by Friday Donnelly.
Capalaba, Queensland, Australia, Jaffa Books, May 2015, trade paperback $15.00 ([2] + 191 pages), Kindle $5.00.

Learning to Go was published by Jaffa Books in Australia for FurDU 2015 in Gold Coast, Queensland on May 1-3. It is also sold by AnthroAquatic in the U.S; hence the price in U.S. dollars and the Amazon Kindle edition.

Readers had better consider Learning to Go to be R- or NC-17-rated. It is about two homosexual men and a male prostitute who are only thinly-disguised as anthropomorphic animals. There is considerable explicit sex description and talk.
Rufus Timberly is a young man (tiger) as the submissive in a dominator/submissive relationship with his boyfriend, Victor (lion). He is unhappy that Victor is turning out to be the dom in more than their bedroom trysts.

“Rufus wished now that he hadn’t switched jobs. He had been offered the position by his boyfriend, who claimed the office could use some competent people. That should have been a warning sign. In a remarkably short time, Victor stopped seeing him as competent and started seeing him as just as bad as everyone else.” (p. 5)

After a dinner date during which Vincent publicly berates him and walks out, leaving Rufus stuck with the cheque, Rufus turns to a commercial online gay prostitute for sexual release.

“He decided to bite the bullet and search the internet for, ‘Dom in Holton.” Searching for one didn’t commit him to hiring them, he figured. After such an exhausting day, his better judgment was too tired to convince him he shouldn’t.

The results surprised him. Hundreds of relevant hits appeared. Some were craigslist ads, others professional websites. The websites confused him at first; all billed themselves as ‘non-sexual.’ Rufus couldn’t understand why a non-sexual dom existed, and why anyone hired them. Then he realized through a bit more searching that it was a lie, so that the sites appeared strictly legal.” (p. 8)

Rufus picks the website of Bennett Augustine, a German shepherd dom. Bennett is businesslike and very satisfactory. Afterwards, Rufus pays him extra while the two just relax and talk.

“The dom gave him a cocky grin. ‘Lots of guys fall for escorts, prostitutes, doms, etc. Girls too, though that’s not a problem for me. Some people think sex equals love, or something. Or maybe they just want to get stuff for free rather than paying. Or most frequently, I think, they don’t know how to start a real relationship and try to pay for one. You’d think it would be good for business, but it’s not. It usually ends up with bad publicity, or worse, an arrest. I have to be careful about that kind of stuff, in this business.” (p. 14)

Not surprisingly, Victor blows up when Rufus tells him of the affair, pointing out that it was after Victor walked out on him. Victor accuses Rufus of consorting with a street whore. Both are casual players of the Japanese game of go, and Rufus considers their relationship in those terms.

“They sat staring at each other for a great length of time. Rufus analyzed the situation. He needed to always stay one step ahead of Victor, figuring out his next attack, and readying a defense or counterattack, and then be ready for Victor’s response to that. It was like a game of go, only with the board and territories indistinct. Rufus played go well. But the problem lay in the fact that this wasn’t actually go, only something vaguely like it. And Victor was better at this other, indistinct game – and much smarter. Rufus believed that was the main reason Victor liked him so much; he was one of the few people who offered him a challenge in it. That, and Rufus never went for the throat. He always played defensively, and that meant every time he bested Victor, the lion could get up and try a different tactic. Rufus didn’t have that luxury. One misstep, and everything between them could be gone. While dangerous and exciting for Rufus, he got tired of it before Victor did. Rufus lost the game sometimes, but Victor always came back a day or two later.” (p. 27)

Victor eventually returns but their relationship continues to be considered in go terms by Rufus. Victor promises to see a therapist for his anger issues, but Rufus doubts that he really has.

“Rufus decided to launch right into things. ‘You didn’t go to your appointment.’

‘You were spying on me?’ Distraction, Rufus thought; ignore it. ‘You have a lot of nerve to not trust me after what you did.’ Attack. Victor was attacking another side of the board, trying to draw attention away from the important area Rufus was trying to contest and to a past failing. But it was back to a position they’d been in before, and Rufus couldn’t allow that.” (p. 46)

After several weeks, Bennett reenters the scene and immediately begins giving him conflicting advice. Rufus eventually realizes that Victor and Bennett are both doms and he is a sub. He needs to stop being influenced by whoever is the most recent to talk to him, and learn to stand up on his own.

In a major subplot, Rufus decides to become a more serious go player. He joins a club of expert go players, and eventually enters a go tournament with the advice of his player friend Mark (fox). Rufus considers that, metaphorically, he is the prize in a go game that Bennett and Victor are playing (cover by Peta Fenton).

Learning to Go is a funny-animal novel with no fantasy except the anthropomorphic-animal nature of the characters. It is a well-written story of an abusive m/m relationship, and of what the sub member in a dom/sub partnership decides to do about it. This is more of a true-life self-discovery novel than an anthropomorphic-animal fantasy. Read accordingly.

– Fred Patten

Buy on Amazon

Categories: News

The Forges of Dawn, by E. M. Kinsey – Book Review by Fred Patten.

Wed 27 Apr 2016 - 14:54

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

The Forges of Dawn, by E. M. Kinsey
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, September 2014, trade paperback $18.50 ([3] + 480 [+ 1] pages), Kindle $9.99.

“In a world where lions evolved and man did not… An epic adventure begins” (blurb)

“The stories are focused around the felines of our world, but mostly around Lyons of Afriik. It takes place on an alternate world where humans have been hunted to extinction, allowing other animals to thrive and grow after they learn how to master and create fire.” (The Iron Lyons Wiki)

The Forges of Dawn, Book 1 of the “Iron Lyons” series, is the first novel in this series. But E. M. Kinsey has been developing the world of Afriik and its Lyons for a long time. Her Wiki cites both this novel and several other short stories and comic stories such as “Escape”, “Unbroken”, “The Lady of Snow”, “Vicious Circle”, and others. Some are published on DeviantArt, some on Patreon, and some are still unpublished. Her Patreon page describes the forthcoming The Road to Ruin: An Iron Lyons Novella Collection; three novellas still to be written.

Briefly, there are many tribes of Lyons in Afriik, but two main groupings; the Refugees including the deep red Barbari Lyons, spread across what would be North Africa in our world, and the Pale Ones, ruling most of the rest of the continent. (The southern tip of Afriik is the Hynar or hyena Territories.)

The Forges of Dawn begins with a Glossary and a six-page prologue in almost religious prose of the background of this novel. It’s important, but if you’re really interested, you can get that in greater depth on The Iron Lyons Wiki, described above. The protagonist is Uhuru (later Uru), the Red Queen of the deep red Barbari Lyons. The antagonists are the Pale Ones, white Lyons led by cruel Lord Vireka.

Chapter One wallows in bleakness and despair. The cruel Pale Ones are closing in on the last Lyon leaders, or rather the matriarchal Lyonesses. Their pregnant Red Queen, Mjane, sees her mate Sahibu sacrifice himself to temporarily draw their pursuers away. Realizing that the Pale Ones will never stop searching until they have her corpse, she gives birth to a son and then has her followers take the cub to safely while she remains behind to be slaughtered – or worse.

A century passes …

“A reddish blur moved across the grasses of the open plains, its shape gradually resolving into the form of a young Lyonesse coming into her full adulthood, her pelt done all over in a shade very much like that of blood. Her legs churned, pumping swiftly as she wove amongst the long golden blades around her, her breath coming in swift pants. She didn’t even slow for a partially rotted tree trunk that had fallen across the path she was taking; she simply leapt over it with a bunching of her powerful muscles and continued her run on the other side.” (p. 17)

“She was overgrown – too big for a Lyonesse, really – more like a male than a female in size, with large paws and more muscle than most of the boys she knew. She dwarfed most of them, now that she was settling into her full adult size, […]” (p. 18)

The Lyons and Lyonesses are four-legged, but not entirely unadorned:

“Her large paws ran over the gourds hanging around her throat, the water in one sloshing gently as it was jostled, and when she lifted it to sniff, she could tell the other still contained the couple strips of dried antelope she had stashed there. Check. Her right ear still had its bone piercing, and the bright blue feathers hadn’t come loose from their weavings in her thick neck fur. Check. Her light bark armor still held fast to the fronts of her legs, the plates still along her back. Check. And last, but not least, her grandfather’s loop of shiny swirled blue and white stones still clung to her left foreleg’s wrist. Check!” (p. 20)

I could spend pages quoting EMK’s detailed descriptions of each Lyon and Pale One. The Forges of Dawn is a rich and colorful novel.

The Lyonesse described above is Uhuru, the oldest child of their pride leader, Hotio. She is considered large and clumsy for a girl. Since she is only a girl, her father intends to marry her off and forget about her. The story is a little too obviously an adventure about a strong female refusing to conform to her pride’s male-centric traditions, overcoming all obstacles, and rising to leadership. But EMK never lets the message get in the way of a rousing story!

Those obstacles are often violent and bloody. These are Lyons:

“The great Pale One screeched as she sank teeth into the side of his head, sharp molars grinding into his ear while she reached around to his face with her frontal claws, and although they slid along the metal of his mask, one did manage to slip into the slits for his eyes. Uhuru took great satisfaction in the feeling of a single claw piercing that condescending and smug orb.” (pgs. 106-107)

And this hasn’t even reached the part in The Forges of Dawn (cover by Sophie “Wilhuna” Danko) where Uhuru becomes Uru. You won’t believe what happens! There are sentient raptors, evil magic that makes the user invisible (but not undetectable for a Lyonesse with a strong sense of scent), metal armor for the Pale Ones’ guards, silverback gorilla (Gora) forgemasters, and above all the seemingly all-powerful, all-evil Lord Vireka, who considers himself to be the ultimate god of all Lyons – all before the Tigrisians and the pirates enter the saga. As the blurb says:

“From the shores of the only land she has ever known to the steps of faraway empires and back again, Uhuru will face pirates, monsters, and heart-breaking loss to finally learn the greatest lesson of all: heroes are never really born. Like any weapon…HEROES MUST BE FORGED”

Be aware that “‘… the story is far from over yet.’” (p. 478) Wilhuna’s covers for the unfinished (but which are being written Even As We Speak) The Thousand Winters, Book 2 of the Iron Lyons saga, and The Road to Ruin, are already painted.

– Fred Patten

Categories: News

Anubis: Dark Desire – Book Review by Fred Patten

Tue 26 Apr 2016 - 10:14

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

Anubis: Dark Desire
St. Paul, MN, Sofawolf Press, September 2015, hardcover $59.95, softcover $39.95 (189 pages).

Anubis: Dark Desire is intended for an adult audience only and contains explicit sexual material. It will not be for sale to persons under the age of 18. (publisher’s advisory)

Anubis: Dark Desire began as an adults-only comic book published by Radio Comix under its Sin Factory label in June 2002. It contained stories and stand-alone pages featuring the anthropomorphic animals and gods of Egyptian mythology, mainly Anubis, the black-furred, jackal-headed god of the dead, having erotic encounters. The short comic-book stories were by many of the most prominent artists in furry fandom: Dark Natasha, Heather Bruton, Sara “Caribou” Palmer, Terrie Smith, Diana Harlan Stein, and Michele Light. The black-&-white comic book was extremely popular, running for four biannual issues to June 2008.

There was an immediate demand from the furry fandom for somebody, anybody, to publish a collection of the four issues. Sofawolf Press announced that it would, but not in a black-&-white comic-book format. Sofawolf would contact the artists to get their permissions, and their collaborations to produce a full-color, high-quality volume. It took over six years. On March 6, 2015 Sofawolf announced a Kickstarter campaign to raise $18,000 to produce such a book. It reached its goal by March 15. By the time the one-month Kickstarter ended on April 5, Sofawolf Press had $32,413 from 413 backers. The additional money was used to commission 17 new pages by Dark Natasha and Heather Bruton (plus appropriate bonuses that only the backers got such as stickers, lapel pins, shot glasses, and T- and bowling shirts).

Production of the book (cover by Dark Natasha and Blotch) was unexpectedly delayed when Sofawolf Press couldn’t find any North American offset printer that would accept such explicit material, even if it was fantasy art with consenting adult anthropomorphic animals. Sofawolf finally had it produced by a Chinese printer, leading to further shipping delays. Despite the announced September 2015 publication date, it wasn’t until November that the first copies went out.

But it’s here at last! “A Scroll in the Hay” by Sara Palmer. (She’s married and is Sara Miles now.) “God, What a Night!” by Diana Harlan Stein. “The Great Treasure of Anubis” by Dark Natasha. “Offerings” by Heather Bruton. And seventeen others, plus standalone pages and the four original comic-book covers.

The stories are about ten to a dozen pages each. There’s not a lot to say about them other than they are about anthropomorphic animal adults having explicit erotic fun. Some are set entirely in Egypt’s past. Some feature a modern animal drawn by Anubis into the past. The lovers are usually North African and African animals such as jackals, cheetahs, lionesses, jaguars, servals, wild dogs, hyenas, fennecs, gazelles, rabbits, elands – one story features Sobek the crocodile, and another shows Anubis with an Egyptian human woman – but “Virtual Reality – Here I Come” by Diana Harlan Stein, and “No Photography” by Heather Bruton introduce Anubis to a North American red fox and to a Dalmatian dog. (The latter is male; it’s one of only two homosexual trysts in the book.) Four stories by Sara “Caribou” Miles feature the jackal lovers Duamutef (a son of Horus in Egyptian mythology) and Khaybat.

It’s well-drawn anthropomorphic animals, many with ancient Egyptian face-painting, having sex, with lots of both male and female full-frontal nudity. But always in good taste. Remember, furry fandom is primarily composed of adults. If you like the fine art of Dark Natasha, Heather Bruton, et al., showing adult anthropomorphic erotic action, you can’t do better than this.

– Fred Patten

Categories: News

Krazy Kat: A Novel in Five Panels, by Jay Cantor – Book Review by Fred Patten

Mon 25 Apr 2016 - 10:53

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

Krazy Kat: A Novel in Five Panels, by Jay Cantor. Illustrated by George Herriman.
NYC, A. A. Knopf, January 1988, hardcover $16.95 ([x] + 245 + [viii] pages).

The reviews for this unauthorized (since it was written long after Herriman’s death) sequel to George Herriman’s classic Krazy Kat comic strip, all praise how imaginative it is. But they use terminology like “an elaborate intellectual game”, “post-narrative techniques”, “Psychoanalysis, Hollywood, radical politics, television, popular and high art are all grist for Cantor’s satirical mill”, “an X-rated sort-of-sequel to the comic strip”, and “simultaneously maddening, shocking, funny and quite disturbing.” It is, in short, an absurdist, post-modernist novel that carries the cast of the gentle (despite Ignatz’s constant bopping of Krazy’s bean with a brick), isolated Kokonino Kounty into the full complexity of modern civilization.

Cartoonist George Herriman died on April 25, 1944. The Alamogordo test explosion of the atomic bomb was on July 16, 1945. Despite the bomb blast being in the wrong state and over a year later, it is Cantor’s postulate that it was Krazy Kat’s traumatization by the atomic bomb that was responsible for the comic strip’s disappearance.

“Krazy’s unexpected retirement has put the entire cast out of work: KWAKK WAKK, the gossipy duck who sang out Coconino’s dirty linen, has no one to tattle on. JOE STORK, a lean decent creature who brought the babies and the mail from Outside, is a nearly dead letter man, for fickle fans no longer want to get in touch. DON KIYOTI, native-born long-eared snob, lacks an audience to lord it over. BEAU KOO JACK, the black rabbit of thumping paws, finds fancy trade falling off at his grocery store. KOLIN KELLEY, who fired the bricks that Ignatz threw, cleans and recleans his cold kiln, knowing that if Krazy never works again he is cursed king of useless rocks. And MRS. MICE, Ignatz’s big-footed spouse, with MILTON, MARSHALL and IRVING, her Joe-delivered progeny, bicker pointlessly, Dad out of work and time on their hands.

Why did Krazy, they wonder, suddenly shy from the spotlight? And if only she would work again …” (p. x)

The Five Panels into which the novel is divided are described succinctly:

“THE GADGET: In which Krazy and Ignatz watch the first atomic test, and Krazy becomes very depressed.

THE TALKING CURE: Ignatz’s attempt to cure – and transform – the Kat is revealed in his letters to his new ‘colleague,’ the Pup.

THE TALKING PICTURES: In which our cast, its leading lady ready to work once more, goes to Hollywood.

THE POSSESSED: We will get the rights to ourselves – by any means necessary!

VENUS IN FURS: In which, as always, fantasy makes reality.” (p. vii)

The novel is written in unnatural styles. THE GADGET is in long, page-filling paragraphs of meandering prose with little dialogue. THE TALKING CURE is in the form of long letters from Ignatz to Offisa Pup, recounting at exhaustive length the Kat’s and the Mouse’s conversations, with Ignatz’s shallow psychoanalytic analyses of them. THE TALKING PICTURES is more blocky paragraphs. Krazy has been cured of her depression, and Ignatz brings to Coconino County a Hollywood Producer and his Assistant, who bedazzle them with Hollywoodese-speak. THE POSSESSED is the depressing revelation of Krazy’s slavery at the paws of her brainwashed friends:

“Careless hands had broken her Zuni cups – all but the one that Ignatz swilled his endless plum wine from. And his wine spills stained her Hopi rug, which Ignatz used as a blanket, lying rigidly awake all night beneath it, drinking, his beady eyes glowing. Kiyoti and the others – under their leader’s direction – had daubed slogans on her once spotless white walls: Death to the Fascist Copyright Holders Who Suck the Brains of Avant–Garde Artists! And: All Power to the Audiences of the Future! The slogans were crudely lettered – the ComiSalads had worked at making the graffiti badly formed, ‘the way poor folks write’ – in blue and gold fingerpaint.” (p. 129)

In VENUS IN FURS, the final panel, the thoroughly brainwashed Kat becomes Kate, the human starlet, beating them all at their own game. Triumph is Failure is Success is Total Surrender is With It, Baby! is …

Here is the back-cover blurb: “The action begins in 1945, when Ignatz and Krazy witness an awesome explosion engineered by ‘New Clear fizzyits’ near Alamogordo, changing Krazy’s world – and ours – forever. In his attempt to get his top tomato out of her mega-brick depression, Ignatz invents psychoanalysis to therapize her, flies in a Hollywood producer to lure her with stardom, recruits the whole cast to kidnap and terrorize her. And through Ignatz’s machinations, highbrow stuff like sex and death enters their flat cartoon world, until Krazy, Offisa Pup and Ignatz can actually imagine themselves as human beings.”

What do I think of Krazy Kat: A Novel in Five Panels (cover by Steven Guarnaccia)? Too self-consciously Modern Fiction. Artificial in the worst meanings of that word. Cynical. But it is clever. Fans of avant-garde writing are praising it. You may like it.

Note that Jay Cantor refers to Krazy as “she”. The Kat’s gender has long been argued over. This is Cantor’s and many experts’ opinion.

There is a $9.99 Kindle edition of the out-of-print February 2004 Vintage Books trade paperback edition.

– Fred Patten

Buy on Amazon

Categories: News

Positive news for furries but they can’t be tamed – NEWSDUMP (4-21-16)

Thu 21 Apr 2016 - 10:41

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Tips: [email protected].

Boston Globe: Furries are finally having their moment.

It was originally titled “Revenge of the furries.” The revenge is on haters who should accept Furry as something that’s always been around, and not exotic weirdness. “Finally” is a good word to see about one of the most genuinely loveable subcultures of the internet age.

At FWA- photo by Maura Friedman.

Furry Weekend Atlanta: Journalist gets it.

“I was fascinated to meet people who are so invested in a niche, often ostracized interest. It’s hard, emotional labor to love anything society labels uncool – teens everywhere can attest. But thousands of those people – fursuit fans – were coming together, and I got to be a respectful witness to their community.”

That’s beautiful. Thanks, Maura Friedman. And there’s also this: Furry Weekend Atlanta takes over Downtown.

Escapist Magazine: COSPLAY DOSSIER – Why I Love Furries. A wonderfully positive piece – there’s a lot of those lately, and who’s complaining?

“Fan studies scholars” go to furry con. Audio report here. Tip came thru Prof. Ann Jamison who taught furry fanfic at Princeton.

FM radio listeners pranked by pirate broadcast of yiff talk from Furcast.

A rasberry among all the praise! It may be “The Year of Furry” – and we may be “mainstream”(ish)… but nobody is being tamed.

Flayrah has all the details. Furcast had no idea that their NSFW podcast was being shared on the radio without anyone’s permission. The radio equipment probably wasn’t really “hacked” though… Devices that connect to the internet (printers, etc) are “the internet of things”, often with shoddy or no security. Who to blame? Look at 4Chan.

“Country music station broadcasts 90 minutes of full-on ‘furry’ sex after hackers strike.” It’s a tease of a story – I want to know how the country music station listeners felt. I’m imagining them taking off cowboy hats, scratching their heads and asking “what’s yiffing?” I asked Furcast to comment, but they didn’t reply.

VICE: Furries Love Zootopia.

Positive article (I missed it last month.) Fred Patten talked to the author, and he says:

“Josephs gets a couple of details wrong. Rowrbrazzle and Albedo: Anthropomorphics both started in 1984, not 1983. Schirmeister, Cawley, Sanders, and Keller were all established professionals in the animation industry (animators, storyboard artists, character designers, writers) who dabbled in Rowrbrazzle when it came along. Josephs implies that they learned to become amateur artists and animators in Rowrbrazzle before going on to work at Disney. But on the whole it’s good.”

Culturally F’d Live!

The focus us on 2016: the year of furry. And I really liked what Arrkay had to say at 8:20 about treating it like a business. Fan stuff can be just a hobby, but more rewarding than a job. If you can treat it like one, do it and get love back.

Nice idea: NIIC the Singing Dog offers furry song commissions.

This is a fabulous idea, and so reasonable! $199 for an original song? That would be a wonderful treat for the work it takes. Kudos to NIIC for bringing genuine passion to what he does and offers. I haven’t seen song commissions before. Find out more at his website. Love that furry creativity.

Stolen fursuit. Very sad.

STOLEN FURSUIT! Taken from my car in Irvine, CA along with my box. Any CL checking, RT's, or help very appreciated!! pic.twitter.com/8j1U6zTZvC

— Chance (@Thatfuckinotter) April 17, 2016

Categories: News

Furry appreciation from film festivals to art galleries, guided by Warhol – NEWSDUMP (4-20-16)

Wed 20 Apr 2016 - 10:33

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Tips: [email protected].

Fursonas Documentary gets great press.

“Fursonas Takes On the Secretive World of Furries—and the Movement’s Furrious Fuhrer”. It’s sensational sounding, but some of the best furry news I’ve read! The article’s thoroughly on point and the movie is the best kind of documentary. Don’t miss it on Video On Demand this summer.

Dandy Warhols and a bunch of furries featured in film noir music video, with a counterculture icon.

The Dandy Warhols and Joe Dallesandro – “You Are Killing Me” Video. Joe Dallesandro is “Little Joe” named in Lou Reed’s song “Walk on the Wild Side,” about Andy Warhol’s Factory of the 1960’s. He’s been in tons of movies. His crotch is featured on the cover of the Rolling Stones album “Sticky Fingers”.

Now he’s made a video with the Dandy Warhols. If you watch to the halfway point, you’ll see furries from the SF Bay Area. This seems to be the work of Zantal, who was previously featured inside their album. He’s a huge fan and got attention of the band by going to their shows in suit.

That’s a natural meeting. I love that he got to be friends with the band by being so enthusiastic… and they’re putting some spirit of Warhol into their approach to celebrating furries in kind. (Tip: Spottacus.)

Retrospective news cameo with Spottacus, “Furry performance artist”.

5 Common Misconceptions People Have About Furries. You probably saw this if people share furry articles any place you read. Enough with studiously defending about “it’s not a fetish” with good intentions to the point of stifling. I’d rather see people speak for themselves.

Award winning documentary “Dolphin Lover” now free to see, NSFW.

Here’s a 180-degree swerve. Yikes… I might be asking for drama by linking a documentary about interspecies romance. My hobbyist “journalism” typically leaves that completely separate from furries. (Except one investigation of a rumor.) I hesitated about putting it here, but did because it’s something that Furries can be unfairly mocked about and occasionally linked with in sensational media attacks.

Speaking of attacks, here’s this week’s nasty furry crime story that associates one guy’s failures with a whole community. (OMG he broke laws and he’s FAT and has a HOBBY too!)

“Dolphin Lover” provokes thoughts about relativity of viewpoint. In contrast to attacking, the makers just let the subject speak with complete honesty for you to judge. That honesty is worth seeing in the making of any documentary.

Tom Broadbent’s “At Home With The Furries” documentary photo project gets official gallery representation.

A guy with talent takes a step up. “Laura Noble, the photography gallery owner and curator has taken me on as one of her represented photographers at L A Noble Gallery. This is wonderful news for the furry project. “

From the series" At Home With The Furries" Throughout the year furries dress up in costume or fur-suit inspired by anthropomorphic characters from cartoons, comic strips, myths and videogames. The people inside the suits are by day computer programmers, engineers, mortgage brokers, lecturers even fursuit makers. Most furries have an affinity with animals but some also like to role-play or fursuit for fun. Over the course of a few years, I gained the trust of the furries in the UK and some of their members allowed me to visit them at home, these photographs were taken all over the country. Contact tom@tombroadbent.com for licensing rights

From the series” At Home With The Furries”. [email protected] for licensing rights.

Huffington Post: Step Into This Feminist Artist’s X-Rated Zootopia.

Opinion: this article is pandering hype about a gallery exhibit that has little to do with its clickbaity title. The amateurishly rendered art seems to expect it’s own hype to carry the weight. The rest is just flimsy “critique” as cliched as the stuff it’s about:

“Subverting the visual trope of portraying females as eroticized subjects for the male spectator’s gaze her cat women are instead active participants.”

“Subverting”, like any artist-made porn that shows what artists want? Real Furry porn (and furries in general) at least use talents honestly, without pretension. From this gallery show, I’d much rather see more of the sculptural/found object art from the other non-headlined artist. I see substance in the arrangement of it’s textures. The people-with-cat-heads just look like decorative noodling that took “40 hours per drawing”. If it’s fit for a gallery, why not draw a dick well?

Khloé Kardashian has bad opinion about furries. Last and least Newsdump item. Here’s a link, but you have better stuff to read, right?

Categories: News

Take The Bunny And Run – “Furry heist” is a movie idea waiting to happen.

Tue 19 Apr 2016 - 10:42

Beware of costumed bandits.

I’d like to see a lurid midnight movie that crosses a criminal heist plot with a furry convention. The bandits use fursuits to go under cover. But their plans get messed up when they become accidental popufurs.

There would be unexpected coming-outs, geek tests and rave drugs, awkward costume switches, and a gauntlet of hugs and dance comps.

Is that an SPH, or is that how you keep a gun in a fursuit? Who switched the bulletproof vest with the EZ-cooldown? Is that an undercover cop, or just an extremely amorous admirer? What happened to the gold and why is the briefcase full of Bad Dragon toys? There might be reluctant yiffing to avoid blowing their cover.

What would you put in the movie?

It would be key to have good research and references. The lives of the criminal protagonists (who stand in for the normal viewer) should be more unhinged than their absurd surroundings. It should laugh with us, not at us, and ask “what is normal?” That could avoid the heap of cheap parody attempts that aren’t funny, because they just look down on people.

Not that there’s anything wrong with good trash.

Good trash often has artfully twisted titles. One awesome no-budget moviemaker I know is calling his movie “Death Hearse on Satan’s Titty Highway”. That’s a string of magical power words. It’s been in the works for years, but I already think the world is a better place because that title exists.

I’ll toss out “Take The Bunny and Run”. What would you call it? What else would you put in the story?

artist

All of these make inspiration…

Furry Force, my pick for good “fursploitation”.
The “Furry Film Festival” idea.
The chlorine attack at Midwest Furfest and national news stories about furries that followed.
FBI investigation of threats to furry cons.
A rumor I heard about a federal building beefing up security because there was a furry con across the street.
This bear suit bank robbery.
This Santa Claus bank robbery and the movie Bad Santa.
The Teddy Bear bandit and “Bad Furries: FBI Seeks Help Locating the ‘Teddy Bear Bandit'”.
This clever bank robber. He used a job ad for construction workers to put decoys on the scene, and escaped down a river in a getaway inner tube. (A furry heist could use a decoy ad on Pounced.)
Saints Row 3 Furry mayhem.
Woody Allen’s Small Time Crooks. They plan a robbery and open a bakery to cover it, but their cookies get unexpectedly popular.

Furry secret identities.

A “furry gang” is a silly idea. But it’s already a subculture, and there are secret ways for insiders. When Furry friends talk in code among regular people, I call it “Furry fight club” (except it’s for hugs not fights.)

The difference is, anyone can be an insider if they want. It’s a famously warm and welcoming group. It has small dramas and scandals like communities everywhere, but it’s hard to send someone to the doghouse for being bad. They’re already in it.

Being close knit helps to keep people getting along. Even when they have unresolvable differences (like yes or no to yiff?) people don’t bring their claws out until outsiders get nosy. That’s when furries become protective.

Outsiders don’t know it, but everyone keeps secret identities. That’s what makes the idea fun.

Categories: News

Furry symbolism – money, flags and coats of arms.

Mon 18 Apr 2016 - 10:35

Anthropomorphism is loaded with symbolism. Foxes and lions from Aesop’s fables, and fauns and centaurs from old myths represent personalities, emotions and urges. This influenced modern concepts of the subconscious by Freud and Jung. In dream symbols, animals are very prevalent, appearing in as much as 50% of dreams of children. It relates to the way animal symbols spread throughout prehistoric cave art, until today when media is full of animal cartoons. Anthropomorphism has deep roots in the way people think.

You can read a lot more about this in Wikipedia’s page for Symbolic Culture and the study of symbolic language (semiotics.) This broad background makes it interesting to look at symbols with very long traditions, perhaps as old as language. Many furry articles could be written about different categories.

Fred Patten sent comments that lead to furry thoughts about Heraldry (royal coats of arms), Vexillology (flags) and Numismatics (money) – all closely related symbols of nations.

– Patch

Heraldry and Vexillology – thoughts from Fred Patten.

In a sense, all animals in heraldry are mythical since real animals would never pose as they are shown on coats of arms. Example: the two oryx supporters of the arms of the Republic of Namibia, in southern Africa.

The left-hand supporter on the royal arms of Cambodia is a lion with an elephant’s trunk. This wasn’t created just for those royal arms. The figure is a gajasimha or gajasingha; a lion with either an elephant’s trunk or a whole elephant’s head. Wikipedia has pictures of statues of gajashingas hundreds of years old.

Singapore is noted for its Merlion, combining a lion’s upper body with a fish’s lower body. This isn’t ancient. Singapore became independent in 1965, and the Merlion was specifically designed by Alec Fraser-Brunner for the logo of the Singapore Tourism Board. It quickly became so popular that the Merlion has come to be recognized for Singapore the same way that the bald eagle stands for the U.S. or the brown bear stands for Russia. There is an older, more generic sea-lion.

There are many fantasy or hybrid animals in civic heraldry. The coat of arms of the city of Inari, northern Finland, shows a fish with a reindeer’s antlers. Medway, Sweden’s arms’ supporters are a pair of seahorses. Basel, Switzerland’s arms include a basilisk. (Now you know where the city gets its name from. Ha-ha; no, it’s from “basileus”, the ancient Greek for king or emperor. Many heraldic coats of arms incorporate puns.)

Flags: Laos used to have a three-headed elephant on its flag. Wikipedia says, “From 1952 until the fall of the royal government in 1975 the country had a red flag, with a white three-headed elephant (the god Erawan) in the middle. On top of the elephant is a nine-folded umbrella, while the elephant itself stands on a five-level pedestal. The white elephant is a common royal symbol in Southeast Asia, the three heads referred to the three former kingdoms Vientiane, Luangprabang, and Champasak which made up the country.” Erawan or Airavata is a god in the Hindu religion, supposed to have either three or thirty-three heads. There are statues of him in Thailand as a three-headed elephant. (Apparently no artist was brave enough to draw or carve a thirty-three-headed elephant.)

The flag of Vnukovo, an administrative district of Moscow, Russia (site of Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport), shows a rampant Pegasus above a key to the country.

Money: Symbolism of American money – not furry (unless you count eagles) but a useful introduction.

Many banknotes of nations that had ancient pasts have shown the mythological creatures of their pre-modern religions. The former Iraq 10-dinar bill featured a statue of an Assyrian “flying man-bull”, more properly a lamassu, on the back. According to Wikipedia, “The lamassu is a celestial being from ancient Mesopotamian religion bearing a human head, bull’s body, sometimes with the horns and the ears of a bull, and wings. It appears frequently in Mesopotamian art. The lamassu and shedu were household protective spirits of the common Babylonian people, becoming associated later as royal protectors, were placed as sentinels at the entrances.”

Most people today don’t know (this is one of those little facts of American history that they don’t teach in school today) that in the U.S. until 1866, individual states and banks as well as the federal government could print their own banknotes. Technically, only coins were “money”, and the federal government kept a monopoly on that. The paper currency were promissory notes redeemable in silver or gold. In 1866 Congress, which had started issuing its own paper currency in 1862 as legal tender, passed a law that only it could issue any money, coin or paper.

Here, from a rare paper money website, are a Michigan $3 bill and a New Jersey $10 bill. Each were legal tender only in their own state. The reason that this may be pertinent is that it creates a fantasy of furry fandom printing its own paper money. It wouldn’t be legal tender, but can you imagine paper money with a furry motif? Bills designed by Roz Gibson, Kenket, Dark Natasha, Rukis, ShinigamiGirl, RedCoatCat, and the other top artists of furry fandom?

Maybe each artist could print their own, officially worthless but something to sell at their artists’ tables. Fans could buy and collect sets of furry money from the artists drawing & printing them. If they matched current real paper money, there are bills for $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100. Seven denominations, and there used to be $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 bills. And there’s nothing to keep a furry artist from making up a $3 bill, a $7 bill, a $25 bill, or a $1,000,000 bill.

There have been s-f conventions that had their own currency, redeemable in their dealers’ rooms and for convention merchandise. There are already furry “cryptocurrencies”.

– Fred Patten

Dogecoin and Yiffcoin: reinventing yesterday’s currency (but it’s only worth as much as people use it.)

YIFFCOIN JOINED INTERNET CRYPTOCURRENCIES in 2014 – Announced at Furcast subreddit by Techwolf (maybe it’s a non-“fixed” version of Dogecoin, “most-traded crypto-currency in the world”.) More discussion: “Furry fandom can benefit from adopting Bitcoin more than any other community!”

Are there any furry examples of flags, heraldry or money personally interesting to you?

– Patch

Categories: News

Forest Gods, by Ryan Campbell – book review by Fred Patten.

Thu 14 Apr 2016 - 13:47

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

Forest Gods, by Ryan Campbell. Illustrated by Zhivago.
St. Paul, MN, Sofawolf Press, September 2015, trade paperback $19.95 (343 [+ 2] pages), Kindle $7.99.

This is the direct sequel to Campbell’s September 2013 God of Clay, and the middle novel in his The Fire Bearers trilogy. As with all too many trilogies of this sort, The Fire Bearers is a single novel in three volumes more than a series of three novels. If you have not started it yet, get and read God of Clay first, then immediately read Forest Gods. Be aware that it ends with a cliffhanger, and that it may be another two years until Book Three is published.

In a fantasy prehistoric Africa, the great Saharan savanna is drying up. Animals and human tribes migrate south and further south again to the forest-jungle as the new desert inexorably spreads after them. But the forest itself will not let them enter. The trees and vines come alive and kill any humans who venture among them. This is apparently because the forest gods – Kwaee, king of the gods who looks like an anthropomorphized leopard; Asubonten, the giant crocodile goddess of the rivers; Atetea, the little ant god; and many others – have turned against them. Most of the forest gods blame the humans for turning to Ogya, the powerful god of fire and destruction, and becoming his worshippers. But Kwaee, sulking on his forest throne, isn’t doing anything about it. Kwaee doesn’t even believe in the Fire Bringers (humans).

Doto, Kwaee’s son who also looks like an anthro leopard, worries that his father is abdicating his responsibility by ignoring the desert’s spread. When Doto begs Kwaee to Do Something, Kwaee angrily orders Doto to capture a Fire Bringer if they’re real.

The forest gods’ story is intermixed with that of two young human brothers whose tribe has slowly been pushed from the shrinking savanna to the edges of Africa’s forest-jungle. Clay and Laughing Dog, the second and third sons of their tribal ruler, hold different beliefs: Clay worships the tribe’s traditional animal gods, while Laughing Dog is an atheist. Clay is captured by Doto and dragged into the forest-jungle to be presented to Kwaee, who will almost certainly kill him.

Over the course of God of Clay, Clay convinces Doto that the humans still worship the animal gods; they have never heard of Ogya or the Fire Bearers. Doto, feeling responsible for having kidnapped Clay, worries about protecting him from Kwaee. The two youths gradually become homosexual lovers. Meanwhile, Laughing Dog is exiled from his tribe for his iconoclasm; and alone, he is easy prey for Ogya.

God of Clay was the winner of the Furry Writers’ Guild’s first Cóyotl Award, for the Best Anthropomorphic Novel of 2013.

Forest Gods begins several weeks or months later, in the tribal village. Clay is assumed by all to be dead. Laughing Dog, now secretly possessed by Ogya, has returned to renounce his disbelief in the gods, and been readmitted to the tribe. But Ogya engineers the elderly tribal king’s death. His successor, Clay’s and Laughing Dog’s older brother Great Ram, becomes the new king. He swiftly falls under Laughing Dog’s (Ogya’s) influence, to the unease of old Cloud, the tribal healer and one of the old king’s advisors.

Meanwhile, Clay and Doto have left the forest-jungle and ventured into the now-thin savanna, in search of Lord Sarmu, the god of the savanna. This puts off their confrontation with Kwaee, but Doto is dismayed to discover that, without the spirit of the forest to draw upon, he has become even weaker than Clay.

Forest Gods is told in alternating chapters. One is centered upon Cloud as she watches, dismayed, as Laughing Dog destroys her former influence in the village and urges the tribe to burn the forest back.

[Cloud goes to the King’s tent to tend his pregnant wife.]

“‘Good morning, Grenadier, Broken Stump,’ she [Cloud] said, doing her best to sound pleasant and unworried. ‘Do you know if the King is about?’

‘He’s not here right now,’ Broken Stump said, holding up a hand. He was a short man, though still taller than her, his frame thin and angular. Though he had not yet seen thirty rains, his hair was already greying, but he was renowned for his wiry strength. He could throw a spear so fast and so far that it might have been an arrow and his body the bow.

“Doto, Clay, and Adanko, god of hares”. Art by Zhivago.

‘Only Hibiscus,’ Grenadier added.

‘That’s fine. It’s her that I want to see.’ Cloud made to enter the tent, but the two men stepped together, blocking her way. They stood stiff-backed, gripping their spears more tightly. What did they expect, that she would lunge at them like a lion?

Grenadier cleared his throat. ‘Sorry, Cloud, but you’re not to enter the King’s tent. And you’re not to see Hibiscus.’

She stared up at him. He stood head and shoulders above Broken Stump, but unlike the other man, was thick-fleshed and rounded in a way that befit his typically soft, gentle demeanor. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked, puzzled. ‘I’m an elder of the people. I’m an advisor to the King, and the healer besides. You boys have no place to stop me.’

He rubbed at the back of his neck with a mitt that was more paw than hand. ‘Sorry, Cloud. Prince Laughing Dog says to stand guard and not let anyone in.’

So. It was Prince Laughing Dog now. She pressed her lips together.” (p. 85)

The other is centered upon Clay and Doto as they encounter unexpected dangers that take them far from their goal.

“‘Frogs!’ he [Doto] called. Clay could understand him, but the words were not the language of his people. If he considered any of them, they turned strange and meaningless in his mind. ‘I am Doto the mighty, god of the forest, god of Clay. I visit the land of Sarmu on urgent matters. Tell me, frogs, where is your savannah god? Where might I find Brother Sarmu?’

He waited. There was silence from the stream; the frogs had ceased their croaking with the sunrise. After a time with no reply, he called again. ‘Do you hear and understand me, frogs? Where is Sarmu? It is a god who addresses you. You must answer!’

Again, silence. The wind rustled in the rushes. Clay sat up in the grass, about to suggest that perhaps the frogs had all left, or were sleeping deep in the mud during the day. But then a low, mournful answer creaked from the stream. ‘Looooooost.’

It was joined by another voice, croaking in agreement. ‘Looooost.’” (p. 39)

The two stories are separate until about page 200, when Clay comes home to his village to urge his tribe to continue worshipping the forest gods; and Doto reenters the forest to urge Kwaee to stop the forest from attacking the humans. But Forest Gods still has 150 pages to go. What Clay and Doto do – and become – sets up the final volume to come.

Forest Gods – well, both Books of The Fire Bearers – are tremendously imaginative, with intelligent characters in a constantly suspenseful plot. And wait until you find out what Ogya, unmasked, materializes as! This is excellent fantasy. Both books have covers by Zhivago, who has ten interior illustrations here.

– Fred Patten

Art by Zhivago

Categories: News

Over Time, by Kyell Gold – book review by Fred Patten.

Wed 13 Apr 2016 - 10:28

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

Over Time, by Kyell Gold. Illustrated by Rukis and Kenket.
St. Paul, MN, Sofawolf Press, January 2016, hardcover $39.95 (432 pages), trade paperback $19.95 ([5] + 376 [+ 2] pages), Kindle $9.99.

Over Time is a romance novel intended for an adult audience only and contains some explicit sexual scenes of a primarily Male/Male nature. It is not for sale to persons under the age of 18. (publisher’s advisory)

Over Time is the final volume in this series; Out of Position Book 5. It’s hard to write a meaningful review of this Book 5 alone without covering all the background. If you’re familiar with the first four novels – Out of Position (January 2009), Isolation Play (January 2011), Divisions (January 2013), and Uncovered (July 2014) – you’ve probably already gotten this Book 5. If you’re not, you’ll do better to read all five in the proper order. They’re all five worth it.

They’re also all very homoerotic, with explicit gay m/m sex scenes. They are about two young men (who happen to be a tiger and a red fox) falling in love and going through considerable lovemaking with all the erect penises and the sticky bodily fluids, as they go through life. Kyell Gold is a prize-winning, top-quality author, and these five novels are so well-written that you will be caught up in the lives of Devlin Miski (the tiger) and Wiley “Lee” Farrel (the fox), even if you don’t care for the gay sex scenes. Or even if you don’t care for football – there are also many scenes of explicit extended football action.

The five novels are narrated in the first person by Dev and Lee, in mostly alternating chapters. In the first book, Out of Position, Dev and Lee are adolescent seniors at Forester University. Dev is a cornerback on the university’s football team, and Lee is a gay activist. Dev has a one-night stand with what seems to be a sexy vixen who turns out to be Lee in drag. Dev realizes that his sexual orientation is gay and that he is in love with the male Lee, while Lee realizes that his practical joke on a football jock has led him to a real romance. After carrying on their romance in secrecy, the novel ends with Dev publicly “coming out of the closet”; the first football player to do so. (Out of Position was published several years before the first admittedly gay football player in real life.)

In the sequels, Dev and Lee deal with the results of their openly gay relationship on their families and Dev’s football teammates, and on their graduation and life after college. Dev wants to become a football pro and is picked by the Chevali Firebirds. Lee tries to become a football talent scout to stay with him, but the best team that will hire him is the Yerba Whalers, several hundred miles from Dev’s new team. Lee’s father accepts that he is gay, but his mother is violently opposed to his open homosexuality and joins Families United, a religious hate group, leading to Lee’s parents getting divorced. Lee learns that his mother’s hate group has just driven another gay adolescent to suicide, and he is torn between resuming his gay activism and continuing to support Dev and Dev’s new team. The parents of the boy who committed suicide sue Families United, and Lee and Dev learn that Dev’s brother Greg is on the FU legal team.

Sofawolf Press’ blurb for Over Time starts:

“Football season is over, and in the wake of a tumultuous year, Lee and Dev decide to take this quiet time to think about their relationship. But as their friends and family draw the couple into their own issues, the offseason becomes anything but quiet.”

One of Dev’s and Lee’s friends among Dev’s teammates, Fisher Kingston (another tiger), begins acting strangely after a football injury.

“We do call Fisher that afternoon, but Gena [his wife] answers and says he’s asleep. ‘At three in the afternoon?’ I hear Dev say into the phone, and then, ‘Uh-huh,’ and then he hands me the phone.

‘Gena. She wants to talk to you.’ He scratches his ear when I take the phone, looking puzzled, and then gets up from the couch. He hovers a little ways away while I lean against the couch arm.

‘Lee?’

The strain in Gena’s voice comes through loud and clear, and my ears go down over the phone, which has the unintentional consequence of making it harder for Dev to overhear. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘He hit Bradley [their teenage son],’ she says. ‘Not hard, and they’ve roughhoused before, but … it was different.’

‘Oh, boy.’

‘He said that he had a headache when he got home, […]” (p. 29)

Dev and Lee must deal with Fisher’s deteriorating mental condition. At the same time, Dev’s relationship with his brother becomes openly hostile after Greg publicly endorses Families United’s anti-gay position. Running through this is Dev’s and Lee’s relationship with each other. The m/m sex is fantastic, but how long-term is it? Is it just a casual romance – after three years – or can they count on it to continue lasting? Specifically, should they buy a house together?

To repeat what I said about the other books, “there is almost no fantasy, save for the characters being anthropomorphized animals. This is a realistic novel about two young homosexual lovers beginning life after college.” The wraparound cover is by Rukis & Kenket. Readers of the previous four novels will not be disappointed in this finale.

The difference in pagination is due to the hardcover containing a bonus short story, “Rest Stop”, that is not in the trade paperback or Kindle editions.

– Fred Patten

wraparound cover by Kenket.

Categories: News

Fred Patten Presents: What the Well-Read Furry Should Read – early 2016 Update

Mon 11 Apr 2016 - 10:56

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

Back in September 2015, Fred Patten gave us his list of anthropomorphic books Furries should read, all of which he has reviewed. But even that list only scratches the surface. So after many months, Fred gives us an update featuring over 100 new entries, listed by author and title, plus over 20 special articles he has written during that time. Enjoy sinking your teeth and claws into some new reading obsessions. For those who missed out, here’s the original including Fred’s Top Ten.

BY AUTHOR

Akins, Gary Who Killed Kathleen Gingers?
http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/11/who-killed-kathleen-gingers
Alvarez, Jennifer Lynn The Guardian Herd: Stormbound
http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/25/guardian-herd-stormbound
Anglin, M. R. Into Expermia http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/02/into-expermia
Arenas, Reinaldo The Doorman http://dogpatch.press/2015/12/09/the-doorman-reinaldo-arenas
Ayroles, Alain & Masbou, Jean-Luc De Cape et De Crocs, t. 11 http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/13/de-cape-et-de-crocs-2

Campbell, Ryan Koa of the Drowned Kingdom
http://dogpatch.press/2015/12/14/koa-of-the-drowned-kingdom
Chenoweth, Russ Shadow Walkers http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/20/shadow-walkers
Chesterfield, Sadie Minions: The Deluxe Junior Novel
http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/07/five-juvenile-novelizations
Clement, Hal Needle http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/14/needle-hal-clement
Clement, Hal Through the Eye of a Needle
http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/14/needle-hal-clement
Crowder, Austen The Painted Cat http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/22/the-painted-cat-by-austen-crowder-book-review-by-fred-patten

Davis, Nancy C. Cats on the Prowl, Book One http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/26/cats-on-the-prowl/
Davis, Nancy C. Cats on the Prowl, Book Two http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/26/cats-on-the-prowl/
Davis, Nancy C. Cats on the Prowl, Book Three http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/26/cats-on-the-prowl/
Dickson, H. Leighton Swallowtail and Sword; The Scholar’s Book of Story and Song
http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/14/swallowtail-and-sword
Douglas, Carole Nelson The “Midnight Louie” series http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/30/cat-crimebusters

Elkin, Chris & Elkin, Cooper Trap Me!: Finally, a Happy Gay Furry Adventure http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/16/trap-me-happy-gay-furry
Epstein, Adam Jay & Jacobson, Andrew Circle of Heroes http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/19/the-familiars
Epstein, Adam Jay & Jacobson, Andrew The Familiars http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/19/the-familiars
Epstein, Adam Jay & Jacobson, Andrew Palace of Dreams http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/19/the-familiars
Epstein, Adam Jay & Jacobson, Andrew Secrets of the Crown http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/19/the-familiars

Farmer, Philip Jose The Stone God Awakens http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/08/the-stone-god-awakens
[Fawcett, Bill, ed.] By Tooth and Claw: Clan of the Claw, Book 2
http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/21/by-tooth-and-claw
Fouquart, Agnès see Morvan, Jean David et al.
Francis, Suzanne Planes: Fire & Rescue: The Junior Novelization
http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/07/five-juvenile-novelizations
Fred The Suspended Castle http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/06/suspended-castle
Fred The Wild Piano http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/27/wild-piano

Iserles, Inbali Foxcraft: The Taken http://dogpatch.press/2016/01/22/foxcraft-book-one-the-taken

Jackson, Hugo Legacy http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/17/legacy-hugo-jackson
Jacobson, Andrew see Epstein, Adam Jay
Jan College Catastrophe http://dogpatch.press/2015/12/10/college-catastrophe
Jan Swords and Sausages http://dogpatch.press/2016/01/28/swords-and-sausages
Jenner Doc Rat, vols. 13 and 14 http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/06/doc-rat-vol-13-and-14
Julius, Jessica The Art of Zootopia http://dogpatch.press/2016/03/05/the-art-of-zootopia/

Kidd, Paul GeneStorm: City in the Sky http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/09/genestorm-city-in-the-sky/
Kidd, Paul GeneStorm, Book 2: Fort Dandelion http://dogpatch.press/2015/12/23/fort-dandelion-paul-kidd
Kidd, Paul A Whisper of Wings (Kitsune Press ed.) http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/30/a-whisper-of-wings
Krambo, Ramah Guardian Cats and the Lost Books of Alexandria http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/11/guardian-cats

LaCroix, Rose Escape From St. Arned http://dogpatch.press/2015/05/23/escape-st-arned
LaCroix, Rose The Vimana Incident http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/10/vimana-incident
Laurel Cerise t. 1-3 http://dogpatch.press/2015/09/09/cerise-by-laurel
Leek, Miranda Twisted http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/15/twisted-by-miranda-leek
Lowd, Mary E. In a Dog’s World http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/27/in-a-dogs-world
Lowd, Mary E. The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats http://dogpatch.press/2015/12/17/the-necromouser
Lowd, Mary E., ed. ROAR volume 6 http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/23/roar-vol-6

Nagle, Pati Pet Noir http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/31/pet-noir

O’Kun, Tempe Windfall http://dogpatch.press/2016/03/10/windfall
O’Leary, Shannon The Art of Regular Show http://dogpatch.press/2015/09/11/the-art-of-regular-show

Patten, Fred, ed. Already Among Us https://www.flayrah.com/4357/review-already-among-us-edited-fred-patten-watts-martin
Patten, Fred, ed. Anthropomorphic Aliens
https://sophssnufimicalalreliple.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/anthropomorphic-aliens/
Patten, Fred, ed. Five Fortunes http://clawandquill.net/2015/01/five-fortunes/
Patten, Fred, ed. The Ursa Major Awards Anthology https://www.flayrah.com/4242/review-ursa-major-awards-anthology-edited-fred-patten-watts-martin
Patten, Fred, ed. What Happens Next https://www.flayrah.com/5398/review-what-happens-next-edited-fred-patten
Potter, Daniel Off Leash http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/01/off-leash
Pryce, Trevor Amphibians’ End: A Kulipari Novel http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/04/amphibians-end-a-kulipari-novel
Pryce, Trevor The Rainbow Serpent: A Kulipari Novel http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/10/the-rainbow-serpent/

Repino, Robert Mort(e) http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/09/morte-by-robert-repino
Ritner, Amelia Fuzzy Business 3: End Game http://dogpatch.press/2016/01/21/fuz zy-business-3-end-game
Roberts, Christa Rio 2: The Junior Novel http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/07/five-juvenile-novelizations
Rocha, K. E. Secrets of Bearhaven, Book One http://dogpatch.press/2016/03/04/secrets-of-bearhaven-book-one
Ross, James Daniel The Echoes of Those Before http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/03/the-echoes-of-those-before
Rukis The Long Road Home http://dogpatch.press/2016/01/19/the-long-road-home

Tamm, Henrik Ninja Timmy http://dogpatch.press/2016/01/04/ninja-timmy
Tigrox, Ocean, ed. Inhuman Acts: A Collection of Noir http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/11/inhuman-acts/
Tréfouël, Séverine see Morvan, Jean David et al.
Truss, Lynne Cat Out of Hell http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/04/cat-out-of-hell

Vincent, Cindy The Case of the Cat Show Princess http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/12/buckley-and-bogey-cat-detective-capers
Vincent, Cindy The Case of the Clever Secret Code http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/12/buckley-and-bogey-cat-detective-capers
Vincent, Cindy The Case of the Crafty Christmas Crooks http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/12/buckley-and-bogey-cat-detective-capers
Vincent, Cindy The Case of the Jewel Covered Cat Statues http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/12/buckley-and-bogey-cat-detective-capers
Vlach, Heidi C. Tinder Stricken http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/20/tinder-stricken

Zidrou see also Godi & Zidrou

BY TITLE

Already Among Us https://www.flayrah.com/4357/review-already-among-us-edited-fred-patten-watts-martin
Amphibians’ End: A Kulipari Novel http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/04/amphibians-end-a-kulipari-novel
Anthropomorphic Aliens https://sophssnufimicalalreliple.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/anthropomorphic-aliens/
The Art of Regular Show http://dogpatch.press/2015/09/11/the-art-of-regular-show/#more-18099
The Art of The Good Dinosaur http://dogpatch.press/2016/03/03/the-art-of-the-good-dinosaur
The Art of Zootopia http://dogpatch.press/2016/03/05/the-art-of-zootopia/
Atta; A Novel of a Most Extraordinary Adventure http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/25/atta-bellamy
Une aventure de Chlorophylle. T. 1 http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/01/chlorophylle

Barsk; The Elephants’ Graveyard http://dogpatch.press/2016/03/11/barsk-the-elephants-graveyard
The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/19/bears-famous-invasion-of-sicily
Birdsong: A Story in Pictures http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/29/birdsong-a-story-in-pictures
Blue Horizon: Book 2 http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/05/blue-horizon-book-2
Bones of the Empire http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/28/bones-of-the-empire/
The Book of Lapism http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/19/the-book-of-lapism
By Tooth and Claw: Clan of the Claw, Book 2 http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/21/by-tooth-and-claw

De Cape et De Crocs, t. 11 http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/13/de-cape-et-de-crocs-2
Doc Rat, vols. 13 and 14 http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/06/doc-rat-vol-13-and-14
The Doorman http://dogpatch.press/2015/12/09/the-doorman-reinaldo-arenas
Dude, Where’s My Fox? http://dogpatch.press/2015/05/15/dude-wheres-my-fox

The Echoes of Those Before http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/03/the-echoes-of-those-before
Eludoran: The Legend of Lorelei in a Geste of Grave Misperceptions http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/03/eludoran-the-legend-of-lorelei
L’Épee d’Ardenois, t. 4/4 http://dogpatch.press/2015/09/15/lepee-dardenois-t-4/
Escape From St. Arned http://dogpatch.press/2015/05/23/escape-st-arned

GeneStorm: City in the Sky http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/09/genestorm-city-in-the-sky/
GeneStorm, Book 2: Fort Dandelion http://dogpatch.press/2015/12/23/fort-dandelion-paul-kidd
Guardian Cats and the Lost Books of Alexandria http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/11/guardian-cats
The Guardian Herd: Stormbound http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/25/guardian-herd-stormbound

Hero’s Best Friend: An Anthology of Animal Companions http://dogpatch.press/2015/05/27/heros-best-friend
Housepets! Will Do It For Free (Book 6) http://dogpatch.press/2016/01/05/housepets-will-do-it-for-free
Huntress http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/09/huntress

In a Dog’s World http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/27/in-a-dogs-world
Inhuman Acts: A Collection of Noir http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/11/inhuman-acts/
Intégrale Chlorophylle 1-3 http://dogpatch.press/2015/09/17/integrale-chlorophylle
Into Expermia http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/02/into-expermia
The Island of Dr. Moreau: A Possibility http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/28/the-island-of-dr-moreau

James, Fabulous Feline: Further Adventures of a Connoisseur Cat http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/20/james-connoisseur-cat
James, the Connoisseur Cat http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/20/james-connoisseur-cat

Kairos, t. 3 http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/14/kairos-tome-3
Koa of the Drowned Kingdom http://dogpatch.press/2015/12/14/koa-of-the-drowned-kingdom

Last of the SandWalkers http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/02/last-of-the-sandwalkers
Legacy http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/17/legacy-hugo-jackson
Léonid, t. 1 http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/22/leonid-les-deux-albinos
Lifeless http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/22/lifeless-by-graveyard-greg/
Light: A Tale of the Magical Creatures of Zudukii http://dogpatch.press/2015/05/30/light-a-tale
The Long Road Home http://dogpatch.press/2016/01/19/the-long-road-home
Losing My Religion http://dogpatch.press/2016/03/02/losing-my-religion

Mad Dogs and Englishmen http://dogpatch.press/2015/12/16/mad-dogs-and-englishmen
A Menagerie of Heroes http://dogpatch.press/2016/01/14/a-menagerie-of-heroes
The “Midnight Louie” series http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/30/cat-crimebusters
Minions: The Deluxe Junior Novel http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/07/five-juvenile-novelizations
Mort(e) http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/09/morte-by-robert-repino
My Little Pony: The Art of Equestria http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/02/my-little-pony-art-of-equestra

The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats http://dogpatch.press/2015/12/17/the-necromouser
Needle http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/14/needle-hal-clement
Ninja Timmy http://dogpatch.press/2016/01/04/ninja-timmy

Ocelot: Le Chat Qui N’en Était Un http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/09/ocelot-jean-david-morvan
Odyssey from River Bend http://dogpatch.press/2015/12/03/odyssey-from-river-bend
Off Leash http://dogpatch.press/2016/02/01/off-leash

Paddington: The Junior Novel http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/07/five-juvenile-novelizations
The Painted Cat
http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/22/the-painted-cat-by-austen-crowder-book-review-by-fred-patten
Palace of Dreams http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/19/the-familiars
Penguins of Madagascar: Movie Novelization http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/07/five-juvenile-novelizations
Pet Noir http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/31/pet-noir
Planes: Fire & Rescue: The Junior Novelization http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/07/five-juvenile-novelizations
The Prophecy Machine http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/29/the-prophecy-machine

The Rainbow Serpent: A Kulipari Novel http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/10/the-rainbow-serpent/
Rio 2: The Junior Novel http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/07/five-juvenile-novelizations
ROAR volume 6 http://dogpatch.press/2015/10/23/roar-vol-6
Roi Ours http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/19/roi-ours-by-mobidic

Unnaturals: The Battle Begins http://dogpatch.press/2016/01/20/unnaturals-the-battle-begins
The Ursa Major Awards Anthology https://www.flayrah.com/4242/review-ursa-major-awards-anthology-edited-fred-patten-watts-martin

The Vimana Incident http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/10/vimana-incident

What Happens Next https://www.flayrah.com/5398/review-what-happens-next-edited-fred-patten
Who Killed Kathleen Gingers? http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/11/who-killed-kathleen-gingers
Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? http://dogpatch.press/2015/05/29/who-wacked-roger-rabbit
A Whisper of Wings (Kitsune Press ed.) http://dogpatch.press/2015/07/30/a-whisper-of-wings
Wild Dog City http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/05/wild-dog-city
The Wild Piano http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/27/wild-piano
The Wind in the Willows http://dogpatch.press/2015/12/11/the-wind-in-the-willows
Windfall http://dogpatch.press/2016/03/10/windfall

FRED’S OTHER ARTICLES

Anthropomorphic Animated Features, 2015-2016
http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/26/anthropomorphic-animated

Did the Axis Have Any Funny Animals? http://dogpatch.press/2015/06/01/axis-funny-animals/
Don Oriolo’s Felix the Cat Art http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/20/don-oriolo-felix/#more-15820

Fred Patten discusses adult and mature cartoons before Zootopia http://dogpatch.press/2016/01/26/fred-patten-mature-cartoons-zootopia
Fred Patten presents http://dogpatch.press/2015/09/29/fred-patten-presents
Furry convention history call for information http://dogpatch.press/2016/01/11/furry-con-history

Hi-Jinx and the Hepcats http://dogpatch.press/2015/05/20/hi-jinx-and-the-hepcats/comment-page-1
Movie Novelizations http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/07/five-juvenile-novelizations
True-Tail http://dogpatch.press/2015/05/22/true-tail-animation/
The Worst Anthropomorphic Movie of the Decade http://dogpatch.press/2015/11/24/worst-anthropomorphic-movie
Zootopia http://dogpatch.press/2016/03/09/zootopia-review-by-fred-patten/

–Fred Patten

Categories: News

“Furry Film Festival” idea expands with the [adjective][species] team.

Fri 8 Apr 2016 - 10:28

Last year, I shared the fantasy concept of a “Furry Film Festival“. It was inspired by many potential reasons for why it could happen for real. Fred Patten recently shared a response article – and that brought even more response. It’s very encouraging to see the idea catch on for discussion with other super dedicated fan publishers. In time, hopefully it could lead to a festival for real.

Thanks to JM, editor of [adjective][species]:

“The [adjective][species] team think that the furry film festival idea is a fantastic one, and we would like to humbly submit the following suggestions (in screening order). This short list is a collective recommendation from several of our contributors.”

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Wes Anderson takes the already great story from Roald Dahl and elevates it with his signature style. The stop-motion animation allows him to stage the action with whimsical precision and the voice-acting breathes a perfect blend of feral and logical life into these characters. Silly, sweet, weird, and enchanting.

An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Everyone remembers the transformation sequence (and rightfully so — it’s still the best werewolf scene in film history), but this movie has a lot more going for it: the beginning of the film builds suspense wonderfully, and adds a few great touches to werewolf mythology that have never been duplicated. Rightfully placed, for more reasons than you’d think, as the pinnacle of its genre.

Robin Hood (1973)
Probably the most critically-dismissed movie on our list, this 1973 cartoon comes right out of Disney’s “dark period”. The studio cut corners every chance it could, and it shows — entire sequences are lifted from other movies, character models shift between frames and the story is a thin string of episodic set-pieces. But there’s still an undeniable charm about the debonair fox and his salt-of-the-earth companions as they rescue Nottingham from the feeble clutches of the maneless lion, Prince John.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
When Roger is framed for the murder of Marvin Acme, there’s only one man in Hollywood who can help him: Eddie Valiant, private investigator with an alcohol problem and a grudge against ‘toons. A love letter to the Golden Age of American Animation and the noir genre, the movie takes us for a ride in a world where cartoons are real and follow their own set of rules of physics and morals. Wacky, grimy, and a cornerstone for the tooniest among us.

Labyrinth (1986)
A fifteen-year-old girl travels through a land populated by loveable monsters from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop to rescue her baby half-brother from the Goblin King (David Bowie). A film about growing up without leaving the important stuff behind.

Ladyhawke (1985)
A great example of how far fantasy movies were willing to go in the 1980s: Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer as a pair of lovers cursed to change into a wolf at night and a hawk by day, respectively. The movie maintains a dreamy, mythic feel throughout that ages superbly as a testament to the imagination and aesthetic of the genre films of the decade.

Never Cry Wolf (1983)
Carroll Ballard’s masterpiece about a biologist who accepts an arctic posting in the hope he can rediscover his true nature. Starts slowly but once our hero is marooned, he starts to discover his inner animal-person. Transcendent, especially if you have a touch of the wolf.

That concludes the submitted post by JM.

That’s a great movie list, for quality as much as fan appeal. The only one I think is a stretch is Labyrinth, since isn’t it known for non furry reasons (maybe another Henson movie could fit better?) The two following it may not be highly anthropomorphic in presentation, just more in theme. But they likely fit the theme of “stuff furries love” which could be curated for a great film festival. If it includes vintage 1980’s fantasy AND a nature themed movie like Never Cry Wolf, how about The Beastmaster?

Pragmatic limits for a real festival.

Leaving behind fantasy ideas and making it real would of course bring challenges like getting screening rights. (Good luck getting anywhere near the Disney movies.) As Fred’s response said:

Such a festival could easily be filled by excellent but obscure features (many foreign). That would have the advantages of probably being cheaper to rent than those by large American studios.

It would make sense to use part original fan-made stuff (likely not put on big screens before), and part underexposed, obscure or foreign content – including a small selection of “marquee worthy” choices with name recognition or other draw.

I originally suggested the Furry Force shorts (since the creators approve, and possibly even CollegeHumor could put their name on it). And Finsterworld – since the director approved my request to screen it for a festival, it had it’s brush with Oscar recognition, has very little exposure in North America, and was made with Real Furries.

You’ve read this far… so here’s a tasty treat.

Finsterworld seems almost completely unseen by the devoted niche of furries who could enjoy seeing themselves in a movie of really special quality. It seems sadly impossible to see without importing a German region coded DVD with no subtitles. In 2013 I was given private access to a streaming english-titled festival screener. It doesn’t take away business to share something that isn’t available anyways…

See Finsterworld here. The password is ‘Furries2013’ (case sensitive.)

Expect “arthouse” ensemble drama, on the other end of the spectrum from explosion-based movies. It’s a movie of many moods – absurd, perverse, hilarious, thoughtful, cynical, satirical and magical. It’s incredibly German. The furry subplot is only a piece of the whole, but it’s key to the message. The director worked with some Eurofurence furs to research and shoot their fursuiting scene. Watch with the lights out and brain engaged for a really excellent experience.

– Patch

Thanks to Pup Mathias for the hard work of formatting Fred’s previous response article.

Categories: News

Your art wanted for furry art gallery show in Santa Ana, California.

Thu 7 Apr 2016 - 10:55

We got a note from Scale, the Italian furry artist. His lush paintings and gallery shows have been featured here: “Scale’s paintings push the limits of furry art, with surprising mainstream crossover.”

Hi! I hope you are doing well! Just a quick note for something you might be interested in promoting: historical fans Mark Merlino and Rod O’Riley are organizing for the third year in a row a furry art exhibit at the Avantgarden Art Gallery in Santa Ana (CA). There is not much time left – (the art needs to be there by the end of April) – but they still have space in the exhibit. They are looking for art from any furry artist or collector willing to join with either original art or limited edition prints.

Here are the relevant journal entires on FA:
Furry Art Gallery Show in Santa Ana
Still Seeking Framed Art!

Later,
Scale

Rod O’Riley runs InFurNation and can be contacted at [email protected]. His partner Mark Merlino runs the Prancing Skiltaire furry house. Both organized ConFurence, the first furry con, and are founders of furry fandom.

A third art show makes promising establishment of a new outlet for furry creativity. This kind doesn’t seem to have been done very much before. Shows are a staple of every con, but rubbing shoulders with more traditional gallery artists is a little different.

Read Rod’s own thoughts about the first show, covered for Flayrah back in 2013.

And here’s a great reason to pay attention – Scale’s art will be in it. Rod says:

We just received a beautiful furry art original from Italy (!) that is going to be part of this year’s Art of Furry Fandom display at the Avant Garden gallery in Santa Ana. Now, you know what we also want to have in our show? Your Art! If you have anthropomorphic framed originals or numbered prints that you’d like to have on display at the Santa Ana Art Walk (and afterwards for a month), get in touch with us! We want to have a good representation of what furry artists are up to — especially those from Southern California. Hurry! We’re hanging at the end of April.

It sounds super inspiring, and I want to share feedback and more about the show when it happens.

Categories: News

Cat Crimebusters and Other P.I.’s on Paws, Part 5 – Book Reviews by Fred Patten.

Wed 6 Apr 2016 - 10:30

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

Cat Crimebusters, Part 1

Cat Crimebusters, Part 2

Cat Crimebusters, Part 3

Cat Crimebusters, Part 4

As far as I am concerned, all of the other “cat cozy” series with cat detectives are phonies. The only two that “sort of” qualify are (1) the Magical Cats Mysteries by Sofie Kelly.

Curiosity Thrilled the Cat. February 2011.

Sleight of Paw. September 2011.

Copycat Killing. May 2012.

Cat Trick. February 2013.

Final Catcall. October 2013.

A Midwinter’s Tail. October 2014.

Faux Paw. October 2015.

Kathleen Paulson becomes the young librarian of Mayville Heights, Minnesota, and is adopted by two stray cats whom she brings to the library as “library cats”. They are Owen, a tabby, and Hercules, a fat black-&-white “tuxedo” cat. Kathleen and her detective boyfriend Marcus Gordon invariably become enmeshed in a local murder, and she comes to suspect that Owen & Hercules have mysterious powers that help her solve the mysteries. Owen can apparently turn invisible, and Hercules can “walk through walls” – it’s impossible to keep him shut in or locked up. Plus they regularly “accidently” call her attention to clues, too often to be normal. Maybe the two cats do consciously supernaturally help Kathleen, but they’re still at best only supporting characters.

And (2) the three … Said the Cat Young Adult paperbacks by Louise Munro Foley.

“Thief!” Said the Cat. May 1992.

“Blood!” Said the Cat. July 1992.

“Poison!” Said the Cat. September 1992. (Not online)

This was an aborted (it didn’t sell) Nancy Drew-imitation series for junior-high schoolers starring 14-year-old Kiki Collier, a writer for the Pioneer Junior High student newspaper, The Courier, who solves mysteries with her huge, fluffy orange cat, Pumpkin, tagging along. Pumpkin has a psychic understanding of what Kiki needs, and he provides it. In “Thief! Said the Cat, Kiki is babysitting at the new district attorney’s house and is in the cellar when two thieves break in. The lazy Pumpkin becomes a biting, clawing hellcat and chases them off. Kiki must discover who they were and what they wanted (a hidden will). In “Blood!” Said the Cat, Kiki is an intern at the local Galliard Museum of Fine Arts, and she uncovers a conspiracy to replace valuable paintings with replicas. Pumpkin has a psychic talent for telling which paintings or sculptures are genuine or counterfeits. In “Poison!” Said the Cat, Kiki must solve the who and why behind the almost-fatal food poisoning of some of her classmates. Pumpkin knows in advance which foods are poisoned. But the cat is not a detective as much as he is a psychic protector of Kiki; a purring guardian angel who suddenly becomes a yowling, hissing demon to defend her or warn her of danger.

Foley has gone on to many other juvenile books, but only one series of interest to furry fans: the four Vampire Cat humorous fantasies for children in which fifth-grader Tracey Wilson rescues talking, shape-shifting cat Omar from a village of vampires who want him back. In My Substitute Teacher’s Gone Batty!, The Bird-Brained Fiasco!, The Phoney-Baloney Professor, and The Catnip Cat-Astrophe!, published from 1996 to 1999 by Torkids, Tracey and Omar fight Norman the vegetarian vampire’s attempts to recapture Omar.

There are many other “cat cozy” series, but as far as I can tell, the cats do not really help solve the crimes as much as they are just pets who tag along with the amateur detectives. The biggest fraud that I know of is the Jacques and Cleo, Cat Detectives trilogy by Gilbert Morris.

What the Cat Dragged In. March 2007

The Cat’s Pajamas. March 2007

When the Cat’s Away. July 2007

In this series that apparently also did not sell and was quickly aborted, two very distant relatives who don’t know each other – Kate Forrest and Jacob Novak – are named the heirs of an equally distant and unknown rich relative, under two conditions: they must live in and keep up her large mansion in White Sands, Alabama, a beach resort town on the Gulf coast, and they must care for her many exotic pets. The widowed Kate brings a 12-year-old son and her own two pet cats with her. Kate and Jake naturally fall in love. Jake is an ex-Chicago policeman and amateur author who gets a P.I. license in The Cat’s Pajamas. He does all of the real detection in the books.

Jacques the Ripper, a huge, surly Savannah cat who looks like a miniature black panther and likes to claw people, and Cleo, a pedigreed “ragdoll” who likes to drape herself over people, talk with each other. They’re constantly described as loving Kate and helping her and Jake investigate and solve the crimes. But their idea of helping is limited to bringing Kate the mice, lizards, birds, and whatever else they catch. Any investigating they do is just normal feline prowling about; their presences at the scenes of the crimes is contrived; and any clues they bat out to call attention to are strictly accidental. In What the Cat Dragged In, 12-year-old Jeremy is suspected of murder, and the cats inadvertently help Jake prove who really did it. In The Cat’s Pajamas, a movie company comes to White Sands to shoot a beach movie on location; Jacques and Cleo are written into the script because they’re so photogenic; and when murders occur on the set, they’re on hand as “actors” while P.I. Jake investigates. In When the Cat’s Away, the murders are at an international cat show in White Sands; Cleo is entered in it; and P.I. Jake is hired to solve the crimes. What’s more, Kate is a devoted Christian (as is the author), and all three novels are pulpits for blatant Christian sermons. Cat detectives? Phooey!

The Cat Who … series by Lilian Jackson Braun (The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, The Cat Who Turned On and Off, etc.) is one of the most venerable of all, with 29 novels between 1966 and 2007. But retired newspaperman Jim Qwilleran’s Siamese cat Koko never really helps detect anything. Koko may or may not be a mutation with extra whiskers, but his strange actions such as knocking particular books off a bookshelf are always interpreted by Qwilleran after the crime is solved, as clues that should have exposed the murderer earlier – sometimes before the crime was committed – if he had only known how to interpret them. Koko is never involved with solving the crimes.

Young librarians or bookshop or tea shop owners with pet cats seem to be especially popular. There are the Bookmobile Cat Mystery series by Laurie Cass with bookmobile driver Minnie Hamilton and her rescue cat Eddie, and the Black Cat Bookshop Mystery series by Ali Brandon with young Darla Pettistone inheriting her late aunt’s bookstore and cat Hamlet. In the Second Chance Cat Mystery series by Sofie Ryan, Sarah Grayson’s rescue cat Elvis can detect lies. The Whales and Tails Mystery series by Kathi Daley gives Caitlin Hart both cats and dogs; her dog Max and assorted cats of the Harthaven (Washington) Cat Sanctuary plus the Coffee Cat Books bookstore/cat lounge/coffee bar. The Cats That … series (The Cats That Surfed the Web, The Cats That Chased the Storm, The Cats That Told a Fortune, three others) by Karen Anne Golden puts Katharine “Katz” Kendall and her late aunt’s five cats into murders in Erie, Indiana. The Klepto Cat Mystery Books by Patricia Fry feature veterinarian Savannah Jordan (she marries and becomes Savannah Ivey in later books) and her kleptomaniac cat Ragsdale who keeps dragging home clues. Savannah and her friends’ human love interests are the stars around the small, rural town of Hammond, but Rags has plenty of feline and equine friends. In novel #10, PAWtners in Crime, Rags is joined by a feline partner, Koko (no relation to Lilian Jackson Braun’s Koko).

In the Wonder Cats Mystery fantasy trilogy by Harper Lin (A Hiss-tory of Magic, Pawsitively Dead, Cat-astrophic Spells), Cath Greenstone, her cousin Bea, and her hippie aunt Astrid run the Brew-Ha-Ha café in Wonder Falls, Ontario, next to Niagara Falls. They are all secret witches, and each has a cat (Treacle, Peanut Butter, and Marshmallow) with “the magical ability to communicate with her telepathically”. Except that the cats aren’t magical at all. The modern witches can read all animals’ minds. Their cats are not familiars, just ordinary pet cats. They are too feline to be interested in solving the murders. Cath or one of the others may dredge up an important clue from realizing what their cats saw, but the cats have not consciously detected. In the Black Cat Detective Culinary Cozy Mystery series by S. Y. Robins (The Death Next Door, Gone Missing, Cold Death, all three published in February 2016), young Milly Dupont who runs a “quiet little tea shop” in the tiny village of Wirkster with her black cat Edgar and her employee (and boy friend) Callum Davidson, get involved in murders. In the veddy proper Oxford Tearoom Mysteries by H. Y. Hanna, young Gemma Rose’s quaint Oxford, England tearoom, her tabby cat Muesli, dashing young CID detective Devlin O’Connor, and Gemma’s matchmaking mother become involved in such mysteries as A Scone to Die For and Tea With Milk and Murder.

There are too many other cat cozy mystery series to list them all.

– Fred Patten

Categories: News

2015 Ursa Major Awards voting is open until April 15 – here’s the final ballot.

Tue 5 Apr 2016 - 10:07

The annual awards of furry fandom are open. Getting an award is only a pat on the back… the real reason is to gather things that furries love, and promote them as a creative community. Don’t be sad if something you love isn’t on the list or doesn’t win an award, because it’s not so much a contest as a celebration for everyone.

Or maybe I’m not revealing the Ultimate Power of the award before I ask this…

Please vote for Dogpatch Press for Best Anthropomorphic Magazine.

The precious award will be mine! Actually ours. Fred Patten’s writing makes it possible to put out a post every week day. Managing the editing and writing other original articles is really hard work. It’s basically a part time job. Not just for me, but also with help from Pup Mathias and great guest posters (most recently Dronon.) It’s a team effort to maintain an info source this active.

So please do give a minute to vote, and throw one our way if you liked or shared any article from here in 2015.

Fred shares more…

Voting for the 2015 Ursa Major Awards, for the Best Anthropomorphic Literature and Art of the 2015 calendar year in eleven categories, is open from now until April 15. The awards will be announced at a presentation ceremony at What the Fur 2016, in Montreal, Quebec, on May 20-22, 2016.

The eleven categories are: Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture, Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short or Series, Best Anthropomorphic Novel, Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction, Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work, Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story, Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip, Best Anthropomorphic Magazine, Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration, Best Anthropomorphic Game and Best Anthropomorphic Website.

Voting is open to all! To vote, go to the Ursa Major Awards website and click on “Voting for 2015” at the left. You will receive instructions on how to register to vote. You do not have to vote in every category. Please vote in only those categories in which you feel knowledgeable.

This final ballot has been compiled from those works receiving the most nominations that were eligible. Please check the dates of publication next year to make sure that your nominations are only for works published during the calendar year (January through December) in question.

Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture

Live-action or animated feature-length movies.

The Good Dinosaur (Directed by Peter Sohn; November 25)
Inside Out (Directed by Pete Doctor and Ronaldo Del Carmen; June 19)
The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar (Directed by Howy Parkins; November 22)
The Peanuts Movie (Directed by Steve Martino; November 6)
Shaun the Sheep (Directed by Mark Burton and Richard Starzak; February 5)

Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short or Series

TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.

Danger Mouse (Directed by Robert Cullen; Season 1 episodes 1-16)
Harvey Beaks (Directed by C. H.Greenblatt; Season 1 March 29 to November 15)
Littlest Pet Shop (Directed by Joel Dickie and Steven Garcia; Season 3 episode 17 to Season 4 episode 9)
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Directed by James Thiessen, Jim Miller, Denny Lu; Season 5 episodes 1 to 26, April 4 to November 28)
Tiger’s Eye (Audio Drama Podcast) (Directed by Alexander Shaw; episodes 1 to 25, May 13 to October 29)
We Bare Bears (Directed by Manny Hernandez; Season 1 episode 1 to episode 25, July 27 to November 19)

Best Anthropomorphic Novel

Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.

GeneStorm: City in the Sky, by Paul Kidd. (Kitsune Press; May 19)
Heart Behind the Mask, by N.”Karmakat” Franzetti. (Smashwords; May 4)
In a Dog’s World, by Mary E. Lowd. (FurPlanet Productions; July 9)
Tiger’s Eye, by Alexander Shaw. (CreateSpace; November 5)
Windfall, by Tempe O’Kun (FurPlanet Productions; July 9)

Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction

Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry and other short written works.

The Analogue Cat, by Alice “Huskyteer” Dryden. (in The Furry Future; FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
Lunar Cavity, by Mary E. Lowd. (in The Furry Future; FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
Pocpsin, by Ursula Vernon. (in Apex Magazine, #68, January 6)
Thebe and the Angry Red Eye, by David Hopkins. (in The Furry Future; January 15)
Tow, by Watts Martin. (in The Furry Future; January 15)

Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work

Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and convention program books.

Furries Among Us, edited by Thurston Howl. (Thurston Howl Publications, essay anthology; July 4)
The Furry Future, edited by Fred Patten. (FurPlanet Publications, short story anthology; January 15)
Inhuman Acts, edited by Ocean Tigrox. (FurPlanet Productions, short story anthology; September 24)
The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, by Mary E. Lowd. (FurPlanet Productipns, short story collection; September 24)
ROAR volume 6, edited by Mary E. Lowd. (Bad Dog Books, short story anthology; July 9)

Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story

Includes comic books and serialized online stories.

Endtown, by Aaron Neathery. (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
The Golden Week, by Douglas Kim. (Internet; January 2 to December 24)
Lackadaisy, by Tracy J. Butler. (Internet; Lackadaisy Congregation to Lackadaisy Inspiration)
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, by various. (IDW Publishing; Issues #27 to #38)
TwoKinds, by Tom Fischbach. (Internet; January 4 to December 23)

Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip

For newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.

Carry On, by Kathryn Garrison. (Internet; January 2 to December 30)
Doc Rat, by Jenner. (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
Housepets!, by Rick Griffin. (Internet; January 2 to December 30)
Peter & Company, by Jonathan Ponikvar. (Internet; page 223 to page 243)
Savestate, by Tim Weeks. (Internet; January 7 to December 30)

Best Anthropomorphic Magazine

Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.

Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch Packrat. (Internet; January 5 to December 24)
Fangs and Fonts Podcast. (Internet; podcasts #37 to #56)
Flayrah, edited by crossaffliction and GreenReaper. (Internet; January 2 to December 31)
Heat, edited by Black Teagan, Dark End. (Volume #12; Sofawolf Press; July 9)
In-Fur-Nation, edited by Rod O’Riley. (Internet; January 1 to De ember 31)

Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration

Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee table portfolios.

cover of EuroFurence 21 Program Book by Kenket. (September 26)
cover of Lost on Dark Trails by Rukis. (FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
cover of ROAR volume 6 by Teagan Gavet. (Bad Dog Books; July 9)
front cover of Tiger’s Eye by Antonio Torresan (Amazon, November 5)

Best Anthropomorphic Game

Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.

Armello. (League of Geeks; September 1)
Five Nights at Freddy’s 3. (Scott Cawthorn; March 2)
Ori and the Blind Forest. (Moon Studios; March 11)
Undertale. (Toby Fox; September 15)
Yo-Kai Watch. (Level-5; November 6)

Best Anthropomorphic Website

Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works; galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.

Culturally F’d. YouTube Channel; furry videos)
E621. (Furry fandom art community site)
FurAffinity. (Furry art specialty site)
SoFurry. (Furry artist/writer community)
WikiFur. (General furry information/history)

Categories: News

Soldiers of Ice, by David Cook – book review by Fred Patten.

Mon 4 Apr 2016 - 10:42

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

Soldiers of Ice, by David Cook. Map. (Forgotten Realms – The Harpers, Nº 7)
Lake Geneva, WI, TSR, Inc., December 1993, paperback $4.95 ([2 +] 312 pages), Kindle $7.99.

There are anthropomorphic novels hidden among the authorized books of popular fantasy-role-playing games. Case in point: TSR’s 1987 Forgotten Realms spinoff of Dungeons & Dragons.

According to Wikipedia: “Forgotten Realms is the name of an imaginary fantasy world that exists somewhere beyond the real world. The setting is described as a world of strange lands, dangerous creatures, and mighty deities, where magic and seemingly supernatural phenomena are quite real. The premise is that, long ago, the Earth and the world of the Forgotten Realms were more closely connected. As time passed, the inhabitants of planet Earth have mostly forgotten about the existence of that other world—hence the term Forgotten Realms.”

The Forgotten Realms merchandising includes well over two hundred novels and short fiction anthologies from 1987 to September 2012, in hardback and paperback editions, from TSR, Inc. (Tactical Studies Rules) and its successor, Wizards of the Coast (including one by furry author Paul Kidd, The Council of Blades). Soldiers of Ice by David Cook, the seventh in the subseries about The Harpers, features the fierce doglike gnolls of the valley of Samek.

“A semi-secret organization for Good, the Harpers fight for freedom and justice in a world populated by tyrants, evil mages, and dread concerns beyond imagination.” (blurb)

“In a snow-bound valley, beyond the aid of even the Harpers, a lone village sits in the path of the relentless advance to ice and the fleeing gnolls, pushing ever southward. Of all the Harpers, only the headstrong Martine of Sembia refuses to abandon the gnomes of Samek to their fate.” (another blurb)

The tomboyish Martine of Sembia is a novice Harper, an acolyte of the foppish wizard Jazrac in the Harper center in Shadowdale. Martine has been getting low-level messenger assignments, and is impatient for some more dramatic mission that will demonstrate that she is ready for full Harper membership. She sees her chance when Jazrac asks her to go to the far northern wastes of the Great Glacier with a talisman that he has prepared, to close an ice volcano dimensional rift.

“’Sometimes things cross over and enter our world. If it’s only one or two of these elemental creatures, it’s not much our concern, but if the rift should expand, it could prove to be a danger. You’re going to go up there and seal it.” (p. 12)

Martine assumes that she can easily fly north on Astriphie, her loyal hippogriff mount; a journey of about a week toward increasingly sparsely inhabited lands and suspicious peoples.

“By this subterfuge, Martine passed through Damara and found herself at last flying over the snowbound ridge of an isolated valley, the last before the walls of the Great Glacier itself. Samek, it was called, home to a village of gnomes, or so the garrulous frontiersman farther south had claimed. ‘Be the last outpost afore the wilds,’ he swore. ‘Mebbe they can guide you to the glacier, though ‘tain’t a harder-headed batch than them little folk. ‘Taint got no trade, an’ they put up with no truck at all from outsiders, big folk especially.’” (p. 19)

Martine lands in the valley of Samek, claims hospitality from Vilheim, the only human settler living there, and asks him to introduce her to the village of gnomes.

“The object of their courtesy was a little man who stood no taller than Vil’s waist […] Despite his stocky build, Martine knew the little man was actually lean for one of his kind. Airy strands of long white beard escaped from the top of the collar […] The gnome’s face seemed ancient, reminding Martine of a shriveled apple. The doorkeeper’s rheumy red eyes were barely noticeable behind his bulbous nose, a pronounced characteristic of his race. Tikkanen’s nose was limned with thin red veins and colored with age spots.” (pgs. 31-32)

Martine asks the gnomes to guide her to the Great Glacier. They decline, but Vil volunteers. Martine and Vilheim, flying on Astriphie, notice a tribe of fierce gnoll warriors at the base of the glacier; the real reason that the gnomes do not want to move further into Samek. The ice volcano on the glacier is more dangerous than Martine expects; Astriphie is killed, marooning her and Vil. The latter returns on foot to the gnomes to get supplies, leaving Martine alone to carry out her mission.

Martine does, but is captured by soldiers of ice, invaders from the other side of the dimensional rift.

“Towering over both of them, a good two feet taller than Martine’s five-foot frame, was an overgrown version of the mephit that had captured her. The beast had the same armor-sheened skin, smoothly flowing over its body to taper off into sharp-edged flares. The icelike carapace rendered the creature insectoid, even though it stood like a man. The look was further enhanced by the fact that its frame was overly thin and elongated […] The creature’s head was triangular, tapering at the chin into a beard of icicles that grew out of its flesh. The barbed ridge of its brow was crusted with more of the same, veiling the deep pits of its eyes. A mouth, small and precise, set below two narrow slots that were its nose, gaped eagerly, revealing a formidable line of spinelike teeth.” (pgs. 70-71)

The cold-blooded creatures dub Martine Hot-Breath because of her warm-bloodedness.

“‘Vreesar, I captured it,’ the mephit boasted with a prattling squeal. The ice-bred imp sprang forward to show off its conquest […] ‘It breathes smoke and steam, hot enough to burn me, but I captured it.’ With these words, the mephit danced about in triumph, waggling its long claws overhead. ‘I captured the Hot Breath! Me!’” (p. 71)

Martine uses her burning warm breath to escape from Icy-White and the other mephitis (ice imps), and is promptly captured by the gnolls. It is at this point that the novel gets furry.

“The leader tore back its parka hood and sniffed the air in suspicion, its glistening muzzle quivering to catch the scents of the night. Its black lips curled back from yellowed fangs as it barked orders to the others. […] The five dog-men acted quickly to take control of their prize. […] ‘What do we with it?’ the smallest gnoll in the group yipped finally. The fur of its hide was still raw beige and downy. It was barely more than a cub, Martine guessed. […] None of the hyenalike men ever once slowed its pace or suggested concern for the struggling human.” (pgs. 78-79)

The hunting pack take Martine back to their longhouse which blends into the snowy moraine at the glacier’s base.

“The fire illuminated a tangle of furry bodies that covered the floor, a carpet that drew back before the blast of winter air that accompanied her entrance. Tawny, spotted arms stretched curiously while muzzles raised to sniff the new scent that had suddenly intruded upon them. Ears twitched; fleshy lips curled back from needle-sharp fangs.” (p. 81)

Martine is about to be killed and eaten by the Burnt Fur [!] tribe when she is saved by Krote Word-Maker, their shaman.

“Martine’s first impression was of a skeletal mockery of a living thing, even of its own kind. He appeared emaciated, with a sunken muzzle and bony pits for eyes. […] From this distance, Martine could see that fully half his taut face was etched with tattooing. Two purple-black scars radiated from one eye, the first cutting a wedge from his matted hairline, the other running down the length of his muzzle.” (pgs. 84-85)

It is obvious to Martine that there is a tribal power struggle going on between the shaman and Hakk Elk-Slayer, the burly chieftain and Brokka, his chief hunter; and that Word-Maker wants to save her for his own ends. Since the alternative is the Burnt Furs’ cookpot, Martine plays along with Word-Maker’s scheming, although his immediate ploy to keep her alive is to persuade chief Hakk to make her part of his harem.

Martine and Word-Maker have just become uneasy allies when the ice warrior leader, Vreesar, arrives to kill Hakk in combat and take over the Burnt Furs. Martine and Krote Word-Maker escape to the village of the gnomes, but Vreesar leads the gnolls after them, on his first step in world conquest and to get Martine to reopen the rift so he can call for more ice soldiers. A grand battle develops of everyone: ice soldiers, gnolls, gnomes, wizards, and Harpers. Of importance to anthro fans is that the focus always remains on Martine and Krote. At first bound by mutual self-interest, they gradually develop a grudging respect for each other that turns into real friendship.

Soldiers of Ice is slow getting started as an anthropomorphic novel, but once Martine joins the gnolls, there are plenty of descriptions of the dog/hyena-man tribe. The original paperback is long out of print, but still available cheaply as a used book, and there is a new Kindle edition.

The somewhat confusing cover by Fred Fields shows Vreesar, the ice elemental (dark blue; he is always described in the novel as icy white), and Martine looking at the body of a gnoll warrior.

– Fred Patten

Categories: News

La Saga d’Atlas & Axis, T. 3, by Pau – Book Review by Fred Patten

Fri 1 Apr 2016 - 10:08

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

La Saga d’Atlas & Axis, t.3, by Pau.
Roubaix, France, Ankama Éditions, November 2015, hardcover €12.90 (60 + [3] pages).

Once again, Lex Nakashima & I present our conspiracy to get you to read French animalière bandes dessinées that aren’t likely to be published in English.

Has it really been 2 ½ years since I reviewed tomes 1 & 2 for Flayrah? Well, Jean-Marc Pau has been busy. Not only has he written & drawn this volume, he has made a “movie” of the whole series. If you look closely, you can find a little animation in it. The 3:25-minute “movie” starts with images from the first two albums; tome 3 starts at 2:09 minutes.

I described La Saga d’Atlas & Axis as “Their world looks like a doggy version of Astérix & Obélix …” Cutely drawn but without the humor. The setting, allowing for the anthropomorphic animals, is around the 9th & 10 centuries when the Vikings were taking over Armorica so thoroughly that it’s been called Normandy ever since. This series also differs from Astérix & Obélix in being one continuous adventure rather than standalone albums.

This tome 3 begins right where tome 2 ended in 2013. To repeat my translation of the blurb of the first two volumes:

In the world of Pongeo, where all the animals talk and walk on two paws, Atlas and Axis are two mutts of very different characters and pedigrees: the first is intelligent and rational, while the second is controlled more by his feelings. One day when the two companions return to their village for a festival, they discover it ravaged by the cruel Vikiens, bloody brutes from the North who pillage and kill all who fall under their claws. So begins the saga of Atlas and Axis, the astonishing epic of two friends overflowing with courage, who leave to brave the great North to avenge their folk. In the grand tradition of adventuring duos, prepare to live a story funny and terrible, tender and epic …

I thought that Atlas is a golden retriever, but the dialogue establishes that he’s an Afghan hound. Axis is a mutt; mostly a terrier mix. Atlas is the cool, thoughtful one of the pair; Axis is the hothead who rushes into trouble.

To quote again from my review of tome 2:

But after only a couple of days [in Miel’s tavern], they can’t help overhearing a noisy argument between two traveling scholars. The older claims that dogs are evolved from wolves, while the other insists that dogs were created by the god Toby in his own image. The believer in evolution offers to outfit Atlas and Axis for an expedition to bring back proof of the Tarses, a legendary missing link tribe halfway between wolves and dogs, which incidentally is connected to the magic bowl of Khimera. The quest leads to what is clearly central Asia, a canine Genghis Khan, and living mammoths and dinosaurs. The volume ends with Atlas and Axis impressed into a barbarian fleet en route to conquer a thinly-disguised Constantinople. Obviously the story is to be continued.

Volume 3 begins with Atlas & Axis learning that they’ve been tricked. Their canine armada isn’t heading for Constantinople and rich loot. It’s going to the fortress of the rival Maka raiders, to kill them all and annex their territory. “We’re finally going to annihilate the Makas and take their lands. No more of their pillaging and unpunished murders! Today marks the end of these criminals! This time, we’ve got the larger army… and if you’re tempted to spare them, think of our assassinated families and our pillaged homes! Remember them? Are we going to let these murderers see another day!? NO! It’s now or never! To the Maka fortress! Don’t take prisoners… I don’t want to see a single Maka alive! And we’ll take their lands!” (pages 5-6) As far as Atlas & Axis are concerned, one tribe of ruthless (and penniless) barbarian dog warriors is no better than the other.

The first 22 pages are Viking longboats landing and the siege of the Maka fortress. Attacks! Arrows! Sword killings! Beheadings! Boiling oil! Battering rams! (with live rams tied to them) Catapults! Battle axes! Atlas’ & Axis’ side kills deserters so the sneak away during the battle, killing anyone who comes after them.

They are successful, sort of, until they meet Vulk, the king of the Makas. (That’s him on the cover.) He’s not a dog; he’s a wolf. (You can’t tell the difference in Pau’s cartoony art style.) He sneaked out of the doomed fortress through a secret passage. He tells Atlas & Axis how he was a homeless wanderer who gradually collected dog robbers and built them into an unstoppable army with himself as their king. He was a bloody conqueror (I’m sorry I can’t include one panel in the review; you never saw such a berserk, blood-soaked – but cute – cartoon wolf warrior before), but he was fair to his own people (as long as they paid their taxes). Atlas & Axis leave Vulk to his destiny, and after several more adventures while getting further and further away, they are totally lost – but in sight of what is probably a clue to the magic bowl and lost dog-wolf mix lost tribe that is their original goal. A caption promises that tome 4 will be the climax and final volume of the series.

If you haven’t started La saga d’Atlas & Axis yet, get it from the beginning rather than jumping into the middle of the story. It’s a funny-animal fantasy, but it’s also good history in presenting how northern France came to be settled by the Vikings in the 9th & 10th centuries. The animalicity is mostly in the vocabulary; the dogs call their wives and girlfriends bitches and their children puppies. The peasantry is helpless prey animals like rabbits, goats, and sheep, and the dogs including Atlas & Axis casually oppress (eat) them. You won’t find anything like this in American cartoons.

– Fred Patten

Categories: News

“Furry Film Festival:” thoughts from Fred Patten and Califur’s video programmer.

Thu 31 Mar 2016 - 10:07

Gideon & BuckHopper

“The San Francisco Furry Film Festival” was a fantasy article inspired by many potential reasons for why it could happen for real. A movie journalist even told me it was an idea “way past due!”

Once put together, it could have built-in audience at any con. However, the practical work of organizing a festival wouldn’t be too different from making a small con. With such a special niche, that puts it out of reach unless a team of dedicated movie lovers gather around the idea. That hasn’t happened yet… but 2016 has brought amazing Furry movie events. There were sold-out furry screenings for Zootopia, and the furry-made documentary ‘Fursonas‘ won unprecedented notice on the festival circuit.

A furry film fest isn’t so far-fetched. Here’s hoping it happens. Meanwhile, below are reactions from Changa, video programmer for Califur and admin of Furry.today (check the site for great videos!) And then Fred Patten.

– Patch

From Changa:

One of the reasons I started furry.today was to keep myself constantly looking for new furry shorts and animations and keep track of them for things like our Parties and the animation festivals I had been putting on at Califur. Here was the play list for the Animation Festivals we showed in 2015. Warning: Lots of embeds. I mostly put that page up not linked anywhere as it was my way of handing out a link to people asking me what specific films were after the con. A dedicated Furry film festival is a great idea (not sure of the logistics.) From your article, I haven’t seen Finsterworld but was aware of Furry Force – they were at Califur, they received the Ursa Major award and it was rather awesome. I do know about your site and it’s cool that you noticed my video blog.

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

Furry Film Festival

The suggestion of a Furry Film Festival makes my mind overflow with potential titles. Such a festival could easily be filled by excellent but obscure features (many foreign). That would have the advantages of probably being cheaper to rent than those by large American studios like Disney and DreamWorks (which might snub a Furry Film Festival even if it was willing to pay really expensive rentals), and more enticing to the public that might be overly familiar with big American studio “classics” anyway. Here are some suggestions (emphasizing what I would like to see):

American Features
Mr. Bug Goes to Town, directed by Dave Fleischer. 78 minutes. December 5, 1941.

Bill and Coo, directed by Dean Riesner. 61 minutes. March 28, 1948.

Gay Purr-ee, directed by Abe Levitow. 105 minutes. October 24, 1962.

Shinbone Alley, directed by John David Wilson. 85 minutes. April 7, 1971.

Fritz the Cat, directed by Ralph Bakshi. 80 minutes. April 12, 1972.

Coonskin, directed by Ralph Bakshi. 89 minutes. August 20, 1975.

An American Tail, directed by Don Bluth. 80 minutes. November 21, 1986.

Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, directed by Barry Caldwell and six others. 80 minutes. March 11, 1992.

Once Upon a Forest, directed by Charles Grosvenor. 72 minutes. June 18, 1993.

Balto, directed by Simon Wells. 77 minutes. December 22, 1995.

The Nut Job, directed by Peter Lepeniotis. 86 minutes. January 17, 2014.

Foreign Features
Puss in Boots, directed by Kimio Yabuki. 80 minutes. March 18, 1969. (Japan)

Blinky Bill, directed by Yoram Gross. 90 minutes. September 24, 1992. (Australia)

Felidae, directed by Michael Schaak. 78 minutes. November 3, 1994. (Germany)

Catnapped!, directed by Takashi Nakamura. 76 minutes. June 10, 1995. (Japan)

The Fearless Four, directed by Michael Coldewey, Eberhard Junkersdorf, and Jürgen Richter. 89 minutes. October 2, 1997. (Germany) NOTE: Warner Bros. has an excellent American dub of this, unreleased. Ask for it.

Help! I’m a Fish, directed by Stefan Fjeldmark and Michael Hegner. 83 minutes. October 6, 2000. (Denmark)

The Adventures of Renny the Fox, directed by Thierry Schiel. 90 minutes. August 12, 2005. (Luxembourg)

Blinky Bill’s White Christmas, directed by Guy Gross. 80 minutes. December 24, 2005. (Australia)

El Arca, directed by Juan Pablo Buscarini. 88 minutes. July 5, 2007. (Argentina)

Niko & the Way to the Stars, directed by Michael Hegner and Kari Juusonen. 81 minutes. October 10, 2008. (Finland)

Roadside Romeo, directed by Jugal Hansraj. 93 minutes. October 24, 2008. (India)

The Missing Lynx, directed by Raul Garcia and Manuel Sicilia. 100 minutes. December 25, 2008. (Spain)

Cinderella in the Far West, directed by Pascal Herold. 81 minutes. April 16, 2012. (France)

Bitter Lake, directed by Shay. 41 minutes. August 19, 2012. (France/Germany/Netherlands)

A Turtle’s Tale 2: Sammy’s Escape From Paradise, directed by Vincent Kesteloot and Ben Stassen. 93 minutes. August 15, 2012. (Belgium)

Delhi Safari, directed by Nikhil Advani. 92 minutes. October 19, 2012. (India)

The House of Magic, directed by Jeremy Degruson and Ben Stassen. 85 minutes. December 25, 2013. (Belgium)

Sheep and Wolves, directed by Andrei Galat. Scheduled for 2014; postponed to 2015. (Russia)

Shorts

This is a mixture of furry films, animation school student projects, and even commercial films. It only briefly suggests the wealth of material that exists.

Anthrocon 2014: Compass. 5:16

Chicken or the Egg. 3:22

Children of the Night. 4:20

Control Bear. 4:04

Crayon Dragon. 3:13

Kickball. 2:26

Merry XXXmas from Room 366. 2:55

RusFurence 2012: The Movie. 16:37

I could go on, but this gives you an idea of how enjoyable a Furry Film Festival could be. These particular films might not be available, but others could surely be found to fill a three-day festival program. Would it be best to schedule such a film festival in conjunction with a furry convention? I’ll leave the details to the festival organizers.

–Fred Patten

Categories: News

WiLD party in Mission Viejo, CA – organizer DJ Ear gives a Q&A for the Furclub Survey.

Wed 30 Mar 2016 - 10:14

Furclubbing: “A repeat/regular nightclub event by furries for furries.” It’s a New Thing that’s been spreading since the late 2000’s. This kind of dance party is independent from cons. This builds on the growth of cons, and takes things farther. It’s more ambitious than events that happen once, house parties, or informal meets. Those can stay inner-focused for friends who already know each other. This brings partnership with venues that aren’t hotels, and new supportive interest in the kind of events they host. It crosses a line to public space. A stranger may walk in off the street to discover their new favorite thing. It encourages new blood, and crossover to other scenes. It makes subculture thrive. It’s a movement!

See the list of parties at The Furclub survey. Any party that gives a Q&A will get a featured article.

Featured here is WiLD, a new event in Mission Viejo, CA. So Cal furs have complained of a lack of furry parties. With Tail! recently started not too far away, WiLD promises to amplify awesome developments for one of the longest existing populations of the fandom. WiLD’s first venue was lost with ownership change, so it seems like hard work to get established, but their new place looks like it has a lot of potential. LOVE the toony graphics! Party organizer DJ Ear tells more:

WiLD party (2016) ____________________

The party name: WiLD (official website.)

Who: WiLD is organized by myself, DJ EAR – with lots of help from the Orange County Music League (OCML) as well as our local fur community and DJs (some of whom are not furry themselves – but love to come out and party with us).

What: We’re starting at a new location in Mission Viejo CA. We are not at a nightclub, there is no bar (although we do have a snack bar!) – and as such we have opened our doors to an 18+ crowd. Our ultimate goal is to pack the entire building head-to-tail in furries, speaker systems, and DJs for anyone who wants to enjoy a night out with friends, EDM, and fur. Our two previous incarnations the previous year saw roughly 20-30 people show up, and we expect that number to hold for our return until we can prove WiLD is worth returning to. (You’ve gotta start somewhere!)

When: WiLD is every last Saturday of the month and while we started last year – we’ve only had 2 previous events (due to a change in ownership at our previous venue.) We want everything to be as transparent as we can in the building and structure of WiLD – so feedback from those who come out to our event is really valuable to us and we’ve tried to learn from our mistakes. We’ve already been contacted by a few furs in the area wanting to help however they can – all it takes is a quick email or message on Facebook or Twitter. We’re always listening!

Where: Studio One Live Venue (Pacific Coast Center for the Arts) – 25732 Taladro Circle, Mission Viejo, CA 92691.Furs from around the Orange County area and beyond (San Diego, LA and more) have come out to WiLD.

How (the behind the scenes story:) I was approached by one of the Co-Founder’s of OCML with an idea to host a furry EDM event built on the success of recent EDM night’s they had organized. Details got ironed out quickly – DJs were lined up even quicker, and we had less than a month to promote for our first event! It was a big learning experience for me as I was basically given the reigns to organize almost all the aspects of WiLD with OCML providing the backup and know-how to help make it happen.

Vibe: WiLD hopes to be a place for furs to come enjoy a night of EDM from local furry DJs with friends. We’re an 18+ event and anyone’s welcome to come by. We’ve got a headless lounge & some changing areas setup so we hope to see some fursuiters stop by en mass.

Promotion: So far we’ve been getting the word out by mouth about our event at local fur meetups & online thru social media. It’s still too early to tell how business will go – but we do hope to make some money from this event so that we can improve WiLD and make it bigger & better!

Follow WiLD and check out previous events on Facebook and Twitter.

Good luck to DJ EAR and all of the So Cal furries – I hope WiLD takes off, and proves the awesome potential shared by furry communities starting their own dance parties all over the place.

Skitch and Corvin.

Haze Tiger.

Categories: News