The origins of furry, by Jace

The furry fandom. I doubt anybody here would disagree that it is a really great thing to be a part of. But the thing is, how did this whole sha-bang start? Who started it all? And when in our entire history did cute walking, taking animals become so popular that it started off a cult?

Well, if you're trying to discover about this sort of stuff that the fandom started in so many possible ways. So, let's get stuck in and go right back to the start!

The first thing discovered to be in any way shape and form "furry" was art made in the Egyptian times, telling the story of the Egyptian god Osiris (Set was the anthro character). But this isn't the last time anything furry has been created in our history, obviously there were countless things that involves our favourite two-legged critters! Not only have the Egyptians used anthro characters for myths and their own religious traditions but also the Ancient Romans, the Ancient Greeks and the Native Americans to name a few.

One example of this is the story of how Rome came to be which has a scene where after the two brothers who were soon to discover Rome got abandoned by their natural repents in the woods, a "she-wolf" took them into her care up until they were old enough to look after themselves. I would go on about this forever but let's move on!

So that possibly was where the whole idea of these sort of characters started, but it didn't suddenly stop after that until some guy started a talk about anthropomorphic characters in a Science Fiction Convention in 1980 (you'll know more about that later).

Noooo! Many things happened before that still! The books of Beatrix Potter (which involved talking animals and such) became very, very popular and then people then started drawing and writing about more characters like this and before they were named "furries", the un-professional term (or synonym) for these characters were "funny animals". Then a few decades later, needless to say, the film industries and animation industries were born and then eventually animated movies were made using these characters and when comic books became popular enough, more and more of those characters were created.

Which leads up to that day in 1980 when a guy in a Science Fiction Convention in 1980 started up a discussion about anthropomorphic characters in sci-fi novels and started what came to be what we now know as the furry fandom. The rest, they say, is history.

So, what about those questions at the beginning of this report? Well, you decide. The furry fandom has such an amazingly long and colourful history that it's pretty hard to tell how or when it actually came to be.

But look at it this way, whatever answers we get from this, it's good that it's now what it is today (plus, if none of this happened, this great fanzine wouldn't exist!). Let's enjoy being in such an awesome community and let's treasure it's charm and originality. Here's to the future!