"It's a brutal world for all of us, really, and some aspects of it are not comfortable for the sentimental or the squeamish. Somehow that's never dimmed my love for all animals. I celebrate their beauty, even the darker side of it." (Introduction, The Book of Deadly Animals)

"The predators far outnumbered the vegetarians."
(last words, The Red Hourglass: Lives of the Predators)

It's October, the "spooky" month with Halloween at the end of it; I sometimes take advantage of that to bring to light something a bit more horror themed than the usual Flayrah fare.

This year, I'd like to share the non-fiction books of Gordon Grice, which are about animals and their sometimes very tense relationship with man, because they are some of the scariest things I've ever read, and so appropriate enough under the "it's about animals and it's spooky" month to stretch the boundaries of what a furry publication can cover. Furthermore, from a personal angle, Grice spent much of his life where I'm originally from, the Oklahoma Panhandle (we share a birth town), and I occasionally like to shine a light on what would be to me local authors.

"The Red Hourglass: Lives of the Predators", Delacourte Press, 1998, 259 pages, Kindle $5.99, hardcover $19.32, paperback $17.10
"The Book of Deadly Animals", Penguin Books Ltd., 2010, xxvii + 383 pages, Kindle $4.99, paperback $24.00, illustrated, originally published as Deadly Kingdom

WARNING: READ BEFORE PLAYING

Liar's Bar contains intense and graphic depictions of violence and death, themes of suicide, and other mature content that may not be suitable for all audiences. Player discretion is adviced. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of self-harm or suicide, please seek help from a qualified professional or contact a local mental health service. Your well-being is important to us, and we encourage players to prioritize their mental health while engaging with our game.

The game features mature themes, and is intended for adult audiences only. If you are under 16, please step outside.

This warning is one of the first things you see after booting up Liar's Bar. I want to stress, and I don't care what you think of "trigger warnings", this warning is not kidding. This is a messed up, repugnant game; I think I kind of love it. (It also contains depictions of tobacco use.)

Okay, real talk, this is kind of a dark streak of submissions from this contributor (thank goodness for animated movies ... with jokes about infant mortality!), this game might be the most worrisome yet. I retweeted some fan art of the game, then realized, out of context, that might not look like something entirely, well, healthy to be reposting. Because the marquis attraction of Liar's Bar is that it's basically a furry Russian roulette simulator. Just so you know what you're getting into.

Liar's Bar is published by Curve Animation, and is currently available on Steam for $6.99, where it is still an "Early Access" game.

In this episode!

• This episode can hold so much charities!Breaking last years record! But by how much?
• Animations from around the web
• An interview with Labb Rat, known for her commentary videos, about the importance of caring about mental health and escaping toxic environments.

But first, the latest charity news from the fandom in this October edition of Digging Up Positivity and boy are here a lot of them! Do keep in mind, all amounts are converted to US dollars.

We have another GIANT list of games this season for the Fall 2024 Steam Next Fest! We're looking forward to a ton of these, and have compiled as many as we could find with animals and/or anthropomorphic characters featured in them! Be sure to let us know of any others you find by commenting below!

We'll be playing some of these demos this week and next, and hopefully providing some previews and progress updates throughout development! Additionally, we have an actively updated Furry & Animal Games List over at @GamingFurever that you can follow and get updates for lots of indie titles with TONS of lovely furry characters!

If you're a developer of any of these games, feel free to hit us up on email over on our Contact Us page!

We're sure everyone will find at least a couple games that strike their fancy during this Next Fest!

Check out the full October list here!

The 2024 Good Furry Awards were presented this Tuesday, 15 October, at Biggest Little Fur Con.

This year saw the Award divided into three categories, the winners of which were:

• Image Award: Finn the Panther
• Furtastic Award: Spottacus Cheetah
• Good Egg Award: Shutter Karelian

Meanwhile, 2024's Lifetime Achievement award was presented to Albedo creator Steve Gallacci.

Chris Sanders has only directed four animated features (plus a live action adaptation Call of the Wild), and the previous three (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train your Dragon and The Croods put him in four way tie for most nominations without a win in the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars. It feels pretty certain that The Wild Robot will be the movie that finally wins him that Oscar, but we'll keep such speculation to a minimum.

Sanders's first feature, Lilo & Stitch, is probably the only truly great movie to come out of Walt Disney Animation Studios in the first decade of this century. (To be clear, you're allowed to like other movies from that decade, but most were flawed.) Anyway, the upshot of Lilo & Stitch becoming a beloved classic is that its directors, Sanders and his writing and directing partner, Dean Deblois, were driven out of Disney by John Lasseter a few years later (I don't like that guy).

Sanders and Deblois took their talents to DreamWorks Animation, where they delivered How to Train Your Dragon to the studio, often seen as one of the highlights of its output.

I've often seen Sanders cast as the "idea guy" in the Sanders/Deblois partnership, as well as being the guy who brings a lot of unique visual aspects to his projects, while Deblois is the more story-driven member of the partnership, bringing in the emotional aspects. I'm not so sure about that, especially after this movie, which features an emotional story just as potent as Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon, sans Deblois. The Wild Robot also features a visual design that echoes the original illustrations of the book it's based on, by Peter Brown, showing Sanders is more than just a recognizable art style.

In the wake of the devastation rendered by Hurricane Helene, Carolina Furfare released a newsletter on October 1 stating the cancellation of the event that was to occur this weekend, and indicating that the hotels and facilities were needed in order to assist with rescue and sheltering efforts after the Hurricane hit the mountainous region.

This weather event hit the top ten most fatal and costly hurricanes in the United States even before full recovery efforts could be finalized. People who pre-registered have been given the option to roll over to next year, or to Bewhiskered 2025; due to the cancellation being so close to event day they cannot guarantee refunds for now.

Animalities have returned to Mortal Kombat. Players of the infamous fighting game series can finish a defeated opponent off by transforming into an animal and brutally mauling them death for the first time since 1995's Mortal Kombat 3 with the "Khaos Reigns" update to Mortal Kombat 1.

So, what follows is a list of every Mortal Kombatant's fursonas, basically, from Mortal Kombat 1. Two warnings: In explaining different characters roles, there may be spoilers for the games, and also, extreme, over the top violence and gore is the point of Animalities.

Contributors this month include 2cross2affliction, Acton, dronon, GreenReaper, and Rakuen Growlithe.

In this episode!

• It’s high season for conventions, and it shows in the amount raised for charity world wide!
• Learning about neurodiversity through cute animations
• A wonderful interview how the fandom changed an aspiring cartoonist

But first, the latest charity news from the fandom in this September edition of Digging Up Positivity!

It always pleases me to say, particularly to furry audiences, that a hiatus was taken for less exciting and dramatic reasons than those they may have cooked up. In this case, I’m glad to return to posting an occasional media review here and there after five years of being between smartphones, plus the additional snag of quite the dry spell in terms of worthy things to write of. (Thanks for holding back on Jackbox, guys.)

Making use of snazzy resources, both analog and digital – remember your local libraries, folks – takes you a long way. It certainly brought these two disparate cat stories back to my attention.

When discussing modern adaptations of classical Greek myths, you can frequently see people complain about the changes the authors made: "That's not authentic, not traditional; that's not what really happened in the original." In fact, reinterpreting old stories, giving them a new, contemporary meaning, weaving several different tales into one - is the truest, most authentic Ancient Greek tradition. That's what Greek (and, later, Roman) writers always did.

Of course, some older texts - Homer, in the first place - were regarded higher than others, but there was no 'canon', no Old Testament; no single authority on what 'really happened'. In one of Euripides' tragedies, Helen of Troy is a callous, cynical adulteress; in another by the same poet, she's a woman of the highest moral qualities who's never even been to Troy. That's because, when writing these two plays, Euripides set very different tasks before himself.

'Icare' (2022) is a French-language feature film mixing 2D and 3D animation. It was made by Luxembourg studio The Iris Group, directed and co-written by former Pixar employee Carlo Vogele. The movie was the Luxembourg's "Best Foreign Film" submission for the 2023 Oscars. It tells the story of Icarus, son of the illustrious artist and inventor Daedalus, entwining it with another famous Cretan myth - that of Asterion ("stellar", "star-like"), more commonly known as the Minotaur.

It's a flood of reviews! Today's trailers are for:

Those are in increasing order of recommendation. The first three are for kids, the fourth is anime, and the last one isn't furry but is worth mentioning!

Adam Woolacott of Burnaby, British Columbia, known as O'hare-ah and vivalink in furry fandom, has plead guilty to five of nine charges against him related to sexual offences involving a young teenage girl, after failing to get evidence thrown out over an incorrectly-issued warrant.

Adam - who was then 35 - made contact with the child in December 2019 on a furry Facebook group, and reportedly continued to interact sexually with her through text messages after learning that she was 12. He later met her in a park and touched her breast through clothes, before inviting her to his townhouse where they had sex and he showed her a dragon sex toy.

The girl met Adam in his hotel room at VancouFur 2022, and after further sexual touching sought sex with her again, telling her he had condoms; but she just wanted to hang out. Becoming upset, she left the room and told the event organisers, who contacted police. Adam went missing for a time after the convention, causing friends to request help to find him.

The 6th Annual Good Furry Awards have completed the nomination process - you can read about the nominees. There will be four awards this year:

• The Good Egg Award for volunteer work
• The Image Award for promoting a positive image of the fandom through the media
• The Furtastic Award for general pawsomeness, and
• The Lifetime Achievement Award, selected by committee

Voting for the three popularly-selected awards is now open through the end of September.

The winners will be announced at Biggest Little Fur Con in Reno on October 15.

Good luck to all the wonderful nominees!