While at a local vegan festival, your ever-loving ed-otter met up with author Bill Muir, also known as Sgt. Vegan. During his time in the U.S. military, Sgt. Muir served ably while maintaining a plant-based diet, which is no mean feat in itself. Since then he has become well known as a vegan body builder and nutrition expert. But one little side project bears discussion here: He wrote a children’s book, The Adventures of Sergeant Piggy, which was illustrated by Hayden Fowler. The book details Sergeant Piggy’s travels around the world to meet a variety of animals, while also teaching young readers the value of a plant-based diet and green living. And now it’s available on Amazon too!
Kirisis Alpinus, editor of 'Claw: Volume 1' and Writers' Guild member, passes away
Posted by Sonious on Sun 10 Mar 2024 - 10:01Furry author and editor Kirisis Alpinus passed away in a Swedish hospital on March 5th, following a visit to NordicFuzzCon.
Also known on Twitter as DaRhedDol, and as member of the Furry Writers' Guild KC Alpinus, she leaves behind a legacy of work and her mate and fellow furry author and guild member Ocean Tigrox.
As well as her writing and editing, Kirisis shared her activism and admiration for her fellow women of color, and supported furries of color by helping to organize gatherings and sharing experiences and history using her degree in political science.
Furries have been sharing fan art that features her dhole and dire wolf hybrid in her memory.
Bad Dog Books is celebrating her life by offering CLAW Volume 1 for free through March - a lesbian anthology released in 2018, inspired by the FANG series focused on male/male partnerships - as well as ROAR Volume 9 and Dogs of War II Aftermath in which she had stories. Her work also featured in Inhuman Acts and Bleak Horizons, and she won the 2020 Cóyotl Award for Best Anthology with A Selection of Anthropomorphic Regalements, Vol 1.
Trailer: DreamWorks Animation's 'The Wild Robot'
Posted by 2cross2affliction on Wed 6 Mar 2024 - 14:38"Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?"
"Can you?"
-The one good part of I, Robot
Bogged down in all the recent controversy about "generative AI" is that one of the reasons the research began was, in creating a program that can "create" a painting, we are theoretically trying to answer the evergreen science fiction question of whether a machine can become, well, perhaps not "human". Maybe a better word would be "anthropomorphic".
DreamWorks Animation's The Wild Robot will be coming to theaters September 20 of this year. Pretentious preambles aside, this movie is not just of furry interest because it has a robot that can be described as anthropomorphic; the trailer reveals plenty of animal characters who can also be described as anthropomorphic.
Leo Awards shuts down due to lack of judges
Posted by Sonious on Sun 3 Mar 2024 - 20:48On March 3rd, the Leo Awards announced that they would be retiring its writer's award. This award started in 2018 by Thurston Howl Publishing and its founding was written about by Fred Patten that year. Thurston had announced their consolidation with another furry publisher, Fenris Publishing, in December of 2023.
The announcement listed several reasons for making this decision which included: lack of judges and lack of interest in the awards outside of the writers themselves.
Their full statement can be read below the fold and on social media.
Newsbytes archive for February 2024
Posted by Anon on Sat 2 Mar 2024 - 02:50Contributors this month include 2cross2affliction, Acton, dronon, earthfurst, and GreenReaper.
Mary E. Lowd defrocked as Furlandia guest of honor for embracing AI art
Posted by Sonious on Tue 27 Feb 2024 - 22:47Furlandia announced on February 23 that Ursa Major Award-winning furry author Mary E. Lowd was removed as a guest of honor, citing her use of artificial intelligence to create her work’s cover art and the ensuing backlash.
Despite the strong response to her use of AI, the announcement’s second paragraph seemed to suggest that Furlandia is neutral on AI art itself:
Dear Furlandia Community,
Earlier this week we made the difficult decision to remove our Writing Guest of Honor for 2024, Mary E. Lowd. This is a decision we do not make lightly, and is all the more difficult for us as they have been a long time supporter of Furlandia. So why have we done this? It comes down to their decision to use AI-generated art as a tool in the creation of things such as book covers, the professional backlash that has accompanied it, and the general attitude towards this topic in the fandom.
Undoubtedly the topic of AI-generated art is incredibly divisive and controversial in our fandom at this time, and a lot of people have very strong opinions about it. We’ve made this decision not to push a particular opinion, but because our goal is to bring people together to celebrate the furry fandom, of which artists are the undeniable backbone. Continuing with Mary as a [Guest of Honor] would have made the people understandably uncomfortable and that’s not something we want. This is not an easy thing for any convention to have to do and we hope anyone who’s disappointed will understand.
Thank you,
Furlandia Executive Staff
Mark "Sy Sable" Merlino - founding furry who paved the way for furry conventions and original species - passes away
Posted by Sonious on Sun 25 Feb 2024 - 11:45One of furry fandom’s original founding members passed away from liver cancer on February 20, 2024. Mark Merlino, alongside the late Fred Patten, were two of the six founders of the first anime club in the United States in May 1977. This interest and fandom evolved into a focus on the anthropomorphic characters which became large enough to grow outside into a tandem fandom known as furry.
This would culminate in the founding of the first convention exclusively for furry fans in Greater Los Angeles, ConFurence, which he co-directed with his mate Rod O’Riley. It saw yearly growth in attendance until Mark left the board at the end of 1998. Other conventions would grow to replace the founding convention that closed its doors in 2003. Its direct successor Califur started in 2004 and ran until its closure in 2017.
Merlino’s legacy has been well documented, featuring in Ash Coyote’s The Fandom and Joe Strike’s Furry Nation.
The fandom has been mourning and memorializing his passing with articles of his legacy, and fan art featuring his original species, the Skiltaire. Ren Tradewind has come forward with the suggestion of making his birthday of May 12th a sort of Fandom Foundation holiday.
Digging Up Positivity February 2024
Posted by Pegla on Sat 24 Feb 2024 - 16:22In this episode:
- Zootopia 2 gets a release date!
- Small trains and giant cats!
- Several furry charities and the update to total raised this year!
- An exclusive interview with Nio the Dutch Angel Dragon!
Welcome to the February episode of digging up positivity. At the time this goes live, both me and this episodes’ special guest are at Nordic Fuzzcon in Malmo, Sweden, where I am helping the charity team raising funds for U-Animals. But besides this awesome charity, there is so much more! And I love to tell you more once future me has returned home.
But for now the charity updates!
My Little Pony fan gathering shut down in Russia
Posted by Sonious on Tue 20 Feb 2024 - 19:13The Insider covered news that broke on a Russian furry YouTuber’s telegram group about a Russian My Little Pony meet called the Mi Amore Fest. The gathering was allegedly ordered to disperse by the Federal Security Service (FSB). This is two months following when the cartoon show was deemed as mature content by the government. While a reasoning has not been given for this rating, rumors are that this was due to the rainbow mane and tail of the character Rainbow Dash and the growing animosity of Russia toward the symbol of the rainbow and its ties to the LGBTQ+ movement.
Second furry taproom opens in Seattle
Posted by Anon on Sat 17 Feb 2024 - 21:02The opening of a furry taproom called Slightly Furry in Seattle by Martinisoft and SpORK Styles was covered by the local alternative magazine The Stranger.
This establishment replaces what used to be called the Sovereign Brewing establishment,
This is the second furry-operated taproom to open in the city. The first is a facility called the Vulpine Taproom located near the northernmost shore of Lake Washington. The article by The Stranger contains interviews and stories behind both businesses.
Opinion: The top ten movies of 2023
Posted by 2cross2affliction on Thu 1 Feb 2024 - 15:20This year’s list contains movies directed by
It also contains two adaptations of toy properties and two Marvel movies! Got to let people know it’s still me.
Newsbytes archive for January 2024
Posted by Anon on Thu 1 Feb 2024 - 06:49Contributors this month include 2cross2affliction, dronon, earthfurst, GreenReaper, and Rakuen Growlithe.
Sixth annual Good Furry Awards open for nominations
Posted by Grubbs Grizzly on Thu 1 Feb 2024 - 06:08Fur your Consideration: 12 animation short reviews for 2023
Posted by Sonious on Sun 28 Jan 2024 - 13:01When writing this article for 2022's works, my thought was to help present short furry animations in a way that’d promote organic discussion. I enjoyed doing it, so will try to make it an annual tradition. As I was going through the Ursa Major recommended list, I found these entries had become a bit longer than last year; there were also more of them, so they took more time to review, but for most it was well worth the time.
These are the eleven I felt were most worth a view, plus a bonus, lightly-viewed short not on the Recommended list that I felt worth talking about.
Digging Up Positivity - January 2024
Posted by Pegla on Sat 27 Jan 2024 - 20:54Hello! In this episode we cover:
- The final numbers of the Furry Charity Index 2023 and a new total
- Charities by the furry fandom in January
- Controlling your fuzzy ears with your brain in VRChat
- Animation news
- An exclusive interview with Laser The Sharkfox
- Announcement winners of the Tshirts and Pawpillows!
Movie review: Three foreign animated films from 2017-2019
Posted by dronon on Wed 24 Jan 2024 - 10:45 Three foreign animated film reviews!
White Fang, and
The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily.
All of these films successfully blend 3D and 2D animation in their own different styles.
White Fang is the most 3D, applying a brush-like texture to characters to create a 2D, painted look.
2cross2affliction — 4 hours 54 min ago
2cross2affliction — 8 hours 7 min ago
Wolf-N-Bone (visitor) — 10 hours 53 min ago
2cross2affliction — 1 day 5 hours ago