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Hi Papabear! 

I don't really know who else to ask this, as not many people listen or respond or don't really know. I'm 16 year old furry from the Czech republic, striving towards being artist.

I'm looking forward to moving to the US when I'm older and I was thinking.. how possible is it to work full-time as an artist/fursuit maker? I don't know how my degree is going to help me because degrees here in Europe work differently. I will leave with woodcarving degree.

I'm more than willing to get a job outside the furry fandom, but being a furry is big part of me and art is one of the only things I genuinely enjoy and value in life. I really want to like my job.

I worry there's already too many artists/fursuit makers, so there's no need for me to do the same thing and provide the same services. And also I'm worried if the fact that I wouldn't have art degree would make a difference. A lot of people say that I'm talented and could already make living off of what I do, but I'm honestly very unsure. I'm afraid there's no possible way to fulfill my dreams. Then, also, I have friends who would gladly help me out.

I'm feeling a little lost about this issue; it keeps me very unmotivated. So, thank you for advance!

Mika Kay (age 16; Czech Republic)

P.S ; I love what you do, its very wholesome to help people like this.

* * *

Dobrý Den, Mika Kay!

In the fandom, you will find that pretty much all fursuit makers and artists are freelancers and do not work for a corporation of any kind. Even the larger, more successful fursuit makers are small operations that aren't, generally, seeking new employees. This is because, unlike many other products, fursuits are pretty much all custom-made to match people's fursonas. Therefore, fursuits are not made on an assembly line, which would make such a business more conducive to becoming larger and hiring more people. Now, there are costume companies (many in Asia) that make standardized costumes, but these are all quite inferior in quality. Yeah, they are cheaper, but they are terrible. Odin Wolf has posted a couple of hilarious videos about counterfeit and fake fursuits from companies like Alibaba (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP_u3HaFYyM) and even Walmart (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDPX4t-8zdQ). You are not going to get quality from such places, and you do not want to work for them if you have any self-respect.

No, fursuit makers are typically individuals or, sometimes, small family operations, and it is very difficult to make a living at it. Even my maker, Beastcub, who is extremely talented and sells quality (and not inexpensive) fursuits, has trouble getting by (I highly recommend her, by the way, to any of my readers). Similarly, there are not companies that put out tons of furry art like some kind of firm that hires starving artists to paint oils for hotel lobbies. No, artists are freelance individuals, too.

Your concern should not, however, be a fear that there are too many fursuit makers. One can never have too many quality makers in a fandom in which waiting queues for fursuits are typically 6 months to a year or longer. If you're really excellent at making fursuits, then you will find customers. You will, of course, need to advertise your services, which is a whole other subject.

With your background in woodworking, you're going to need to be a freelancer for that, too, unless you want to do something such as architectural carving. This is a really cool field to get into, in my humble opinion, and there are companies you can work for who do it. What this entails is making carvings for things such as corbels, columns, mullions, staircases, brackets, and so on that are used in high-end construction. If I were you, I would look into it. See if companies such as Art for Everyday, Inc. (artforeveryday.com) are hiring (note: most such companies that I've seen are in Canada, not the United States). Another option is making wooden furniture. Again, there are many good Canadian companies (are you dead-set on moving to the United States or might Canada be an option for you?)

Anyway, when it comes to the arts such as painting, fursuit making, and wood carving, most people go freelance and/or open their own small companies rather than work for a large corporation. My recommendation for you would be to research how to start your own small business. If you are asking about U.S. employment because you want to obtain a work visa with employer sponsorship, then, again, I would recommend Canada over the United States, especially in your field of work. If you can find a Canadian firm to sponsor you, this will help you a lot in getting a Canadian visa, and, as I said, there are more opportunities in woodworking in Canada than in the United States. Another way to get a visa, of course, would be to become a student here. That would have more possibilities for you, if you were interested in attending university in the States.

In the meantime, I would recommend that you work on your carvings or fursuit design in the Czech Republic and build your portfolio. You can also start building your reputation in the furry fandom by accepting commissions from Americans. Because of our internet culture, you don't have to live in the United States to sell products here.

I hope this was helpful. Good luck!

Papabear

Animation World Network let us know that a sequel to the hit animated film Chicken Run is finally in the works. (Did you know that Chicken Run was the highest-grossing stop-motion animated movie ever?) “The unnamed sequel is set to enter full production in 2021 with Sam Fell (Flushed Away, ParaNorman) at the helm. Aardman co-founder and creative director Peter Lord, long-time Aardman producer Carla Shelley (Shaun the Sheep Movie, The Pirates! Band of Misfits) and Karey Kirkpatrick (Smallfoot) are returning as executive producers; Steve Pegram (Arthur Christmas) is producing. The script is being written by Kirkpatrick, John O’ Farrell and Rachel Tunnard. Nick Park, the Oscar-winning creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, will consult on the film… The sequel will revisit the world of Ginger, who has finally found her dream – a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock, far from the dangers of the human world. When she and Rocky hatch a little girl named Molly, Ginger’s happy ending seems complete. But back on the mainland the whole of chicken-kind faces a new and terrible threat. For Ginger and her team, even if it means putting their own hard-won freedom at risk – this time, they’re breaking in!” Stay tooned for more information on a release date as we get it.

image c. 2020 Aardman Animation

A quick bit of news before the weekend of Virtual Anthrocon & The Fandom film release.

FurCast is sponsored by Twin Tail Creations. Use coupon codes REDWOLF or BLUEFOX to save 15% on silicone products during checkout. Free FurCast Themed Colorations are also available which can be applied as a color choice to your toy purchase.

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Link Roundup:

• Virtual Anthrocon is next week!
• Reminder that Ash & Ash’s “The Fandom” comes out July 3rd
  • Flayrah Article
  • YouTube Premiere Link
  • Etsy Blu-Ray Purchase Link
• Furry porn shown on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight
  • Archive.org Copy Of The Tweet
  • Owner’s Writeup on Reddit
• Furry Migration rescheduled
• Telegram Video Calls in beta
• Neat Ampwave species
• Furvana 2020 Canceled
• Virtual Minecraft Furry Con
• LondonFurs get promoted for pride on a large display

News:

• Capital management problems cause closure of Capital City Fur Con
• Skin Hunger (New Term)
  • Article 1
  • Article 2
  • Cuddlist Website

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Taebyn talks about his time at Quarancon!  We hear about Chicken Little, and can a fox train a dolphin?  Tune and and find out. Spend some time with Bearly and Taebyn.

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Thanks to all our listeners and to our staff: Bearly Normal, Rayne Raccoon, Taebyn, Cheetaro, TickTock, and Ziggy the Meme Weasel.

You can send us a message on Telegram at BFFT Chat, or via email at: bearlyfurcasting@gmail.com

Bearly Furcasting #9 - Reo Grayfox, Storytime, and Quarancon!

Dear Papabear,

I know you likely get many questions like this but I've been struggling with making a fursona for a few years now. I've been too many sites and even looked through a few of the articles here about fursonas but nothing seems to help. Also because I love mythology I wanted to have a goblin, troll or similar creature as my "fursona" if it can even be considered a fursona using any of those creatures, but i'm afraid too use them thanks to the negative stigma such creatures have in modern media or the fact they are too "human-like". I even attempted trying to emulate said creatures by using real world animals that look like them. But I honestly don't know what to do at this point.

Thank you in advance,

Ymir

* * *

Hi, Ymir,

I apologize for the lateness of my reply. Okay, so, the subject is fursonas. First of all, don't forget that you don't have to pick just one character. So, my first suggestion is to have two: one that is more furry, and one that is a troll or gargoyle. Now, bear in mind that some gargoyles look more animalistic than others (e.g. Brooklyn looks very animalistic vs. Demona, who looks like a female elf with wings). Trolls, on the other hand, definitely look more human, but they vary widely. Are you talking the cute little trolls from the modern cartoons and movies, or the classic trolls of Norwegian origin that are big, ugly, stupid and eat humans? Either way, I wouldn't regard them as very furry.

Another possibility for you is to participate in more than one fandom. You could certainly go to Comic-Con as a troll or gargoyle, no problem, and then have a fursona to participate in that fandom. If you aren't already doing so, you could try RPing in MMORPGs or board games (WoW, D&D, etc.) The point is, don't limit yourself. You can have multiple fursonas, you can have hybrids, you can have fursuits, and you can cosplay as a troll or a character from anime. 

Next point: STOP worrying about "stigmas" and what other people, furry or otherwise, think. This is about YOU and what YOU enjoy. If you just worry about what others are going to say about your fursona, fursuit, costume, or whatever, then you have completely defeated the purpose of the imaginative world of furries and other cosplay and fandom groups. What is the point? The point is to escape reality for a while and just have fun being you and doing what you like. 

I think that you will find that once you free yourself of the shackles of outside opinion and judgment, you will quickly decide on a fursona or other character you wish to be.

Good Luck!
Papabear​​

UNITED STATES (FLAYRAH) – For many furries, the Fourth of July weekend would be a time that many would make their way to the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in order to partake in the convention of Anthrocon. Due to the current pandemic, most conventions have been canceled for the year of 2020. For those furries […]

Meet “Toon Furs” in Part 3: Charlie Tinn, Zen Fetcher, and Toothpick the Woodpecker. This story features the side of fandom where you can watch NEW cartoons with classic animal characters, and even turn into one! HBO Max has 80 eleven-minute episodes of fresh-but-faithful animation from WarnerMedia. Furries discuss their influence in this 3-part story by Rocky Coyote. (Rocky previously covered fandom in America’s biggest city on his tag here.)

Charlie Tinn is a monochromatic mustachioed mutt, self-proclaimed hat enthusiast and classic cartoon lover. He discusses how the toon side of the furry fandom drew him into it.

I grew up watching them a lot as a kid, they were on basic satellite TV during certain hours of the day usually in the middle of the day or late at night. The theme song was always memorable, you can always tell what kind of cartoon is about to play even if most of the ones I watched were Tweety and Sylvester. Anytime it was a heavy emphasis on Bugs and Daffy it was a delight.

I enjoyed the unique ways of slapstick and visual humor like with Wile E. Coyote and his signs along with the word trickery that Bugs would do to Daffy, just so Elmer would shoot him in the face. Duck Amuck is a really good episode, I loved how they broke the fourth wall and they did a lot of elements like that.

I wasn’t really fully interested in the fandom until I discovered there was a toon side to it. Definitely made me interact with more people and got more friends from it and all while getting to enjoy just the wacky and zaniness that is Looney Tunes.

Honestly so far it’s a perfect successor from what I can see from the two episodes. I was able to watch the Porky and Daffy cement short, and Bugs running away from Elmer Fudd. They seem like great honorary successors; they got the right slapstick comedy, and the pacing and timing of the gags are all great from what I’ve seen.

Hate being home? Why not go out for a ride!

Art by @illimearu pic.twitter.com/NFaN8N2ttt

— Gay-Scale Toon (@AWittyGentleman) May 15, 2020

Zen Fetcher is a toon artist, and he describes the appeal of the characters themselves in Looney Tunes.

Admittedly, I didn’t start watching Looney Tunes until I was in my teens. Before then, I ended up watching a lot of Animaniacs, Tom and Jerry, and Tiny Toons Adventures. Being a fan of Tiny Toons, I wanted to know more about Looney Tunes and quickly became hooked.

While Tiny Toons or Animaniacs probably had more of an impact on my love of cartoons, Looney Tunes was probably my first exposure to cartoons. I was quickly drawn in by the character’s designs, the chaotic nature of its humor, and how expressive each character was. If I’m honest though, the characters alone were enough to keep me hooked. I remember watching Baby Looney Tunes simply because Sylvester was my favorite out of all the Looney Tunes.

As mentioned before, I loved how expressive cartoons were and their designs. When it came to learning how to draw and designing my own characters, I wanted to recreate that aesthetic. That’s why my characters have such large, expressive eyes, three digit hands and paws, and don’t wear pants or shoes unless it’s for comedic purposes. As for how it influenced my place in the fandom, I would seek out other artists and furs with an affinity for cartoons to both learn more (and gush) about cartoons and improve my own style.

I’m really happy to see that Looney Tunes is getting a reboot. Even if it doesn’t live up to my nostalgia’s high expectations or isn’t that good, I love the thought that it could be what introduces someone else to cartoons. Many would argue that Baby Looney Tunes was probably one of the worst Looney Tunes shows, but it still holds a warm place in my heart simply because I loved cartoons. I wouldn’t want to rob that feeling from anyone.

Toothpick the Woodpecker is an artist who specializes in the 90’s toon aesthetic. He talks about growing up with shows directly inspired by Looney Tunes.

Truthfully, I was more of a Tiny Toons and Animaniacs kid growing up, but I always enjoyed Looney Tunes on the rare occasion I was able to catch it anywhere. Even as a kid in the 90’s, I found Looney Tunes to be timeless, unware the shorts were made several decades before I was even an egg. I was a child during the wave of wacky animal cartoons after Who Framed Roger Rabbit incited the entire animation industry to revive that genre. Looking back, I can tell there was a huge push to bring that Looney Tunes nostalgia back.

I’d say the aspect of the show I enjoy the most is how much of a “safe zone” it is for slapstick, no matter how painful the slapstick would be in real life. Not only are these characters brimming with personality, they’re indestructible! You could flatten them with a steamroller and they wouldn’t be any worse for wear in the next shot. There’s something about the way these characters can be exceedingly cruel to each other and never be in any real pain that appeals to me, especially when it’s treated as comedy.

Let me level with you on something; the furry fandom needs more toon OC’s (original characters). There’s so much potential for character interaction, and you can explore themes you simply can’t with a standard furry OC. It’s not very often that potential is tapped into, but when it is, it’s always very refreshing. If you have a toon OC, you can inflate them like a balloon, flatten them with various heavy objects, or stretch ‘em like a rubber band! Finding other toon furs who appreciate that wacky toon aesthetic, and knowing they feel the same way I do, makes me feel like I do have a place in the fandom.

From what little I’ve seen so far, I think it’s going to serve as a further reminder that toons have a place to thrive in today’s world, and I really look forward to seeing how the reboot will pan out. Like a frying pan. To the face.

Meet ten Toon Furs in Parts 1-3 of Rocky Coyote’s story.

Looney Tunes Cartoons is among the countless shows, movies and features available for HBO Max subscribers at $14.99 per month. A handful of trailers and episodes, however, can be viewed by anyone on WB Kids’ Youtube channel.

• NY Times: Bugs Bunny Is Back, and So Is the ‘Looney Tunes’ Mayhem
• Vanity Fair: HBOMax’s Modern Looney Tunes Keeps the Spirit of the Classics
• Forbes: HBO Max Brings Back Bugs Bunny And The Looney Tunes Gang In Classic Style

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Share news on these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for anything — or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here.

Welcome to another Furry Writers’ Guild spotlight for Pride Month! We’ve been so excited to share the viewpoints and stories of several of our guild members this month. Today we have an interview Madison “Makyo” Scott-Clary! Her pronouns are she/her. She is a transgender author, poet, programmer, and the editor-in-chief of Hybrid Ink. But why say more when she can tell you about herself? Let’s get right to the interview!

FWG: Tell the guild and our readers a bit about yourself.

Madison: I’m an author and editor living in the Pacific Northwest with my cat, my two dogs, and my husband who is also a dog. While I majored in music composition and work as a software engineer, I’ve been writing seriously for more than a decade. A lot of my work focuses specifically on queer folks, and often on exploring their lives in normal, comfortable situations – that is, genderqueer folks where their identity doesn’t define them, though it may influence the ways in which they interact with the world and vice versa. I also have a soft spot for metafurry works, where furries qua furries, rather than anthropomorphic characters, are at the heart of the story, as is perhaps obvious from my interaction with [adjective][species] in the past.

A lot of my writing is also defined by my identity as an ace trans woman and a polyamorous individual, and this crops up quite a bit in my writing. I can’t stop talking about it, really.

FWG: What is your favorite work that you have written?

Madison: Oh gosh, hmm. I think in terms of non-fiction, I wrote wrote a semiautobiographical work that took the form of a long, wandering website and book. In terms of fiction, while I’m fond of most of the pieces in the book, the story “Disappearance” in my collection Restless Town is probably my favorite, though I’ll be damned if I could tell you why. In terms of poetry, I wrote a cinquain ode called Growth that I’m very proud of.

FWG: What do you think makes a good story?

Madison: A good story should be emotionally impactful, have a consistent voice (or a well-reasoned and consistent change in voice throughout), and the characters should change throughout.

• Emotionally impactful — I don’t necessarily mean that every story should leave me crying, but that a story is best when it inspires an emotional reaction in me, something that inspires empathy. To rip off Winthrop, the characters and I should “rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together”.
• Consistent voice — One of the things that can turn me away from a work — novels especially — is a widely varying voice that leaves me liking some parts more than others, because it reduces cohesion. Voice need not be static, but if it is not, it should have a reason for its change. A good example of consistent tone is Frank Herbert’s Dune, which sets its tone immediately and sticks with it throughout. A good example of a well-used change in voice in a book is Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, which follow’s one character’s struggle with sanity through their prose and follows another character’s growing obsession through unique typography.
• Character growth — One thing that drives me bonkers about 90s/00s rom-coms (aside from the fact that 90% of them would be non-issues if the characters just talked with one another) is that the characters never grow or change. It’s usually the world changing such that they can suddenly wind up together. At most, the deuteragonists will change, and even then, it’s usually to disappear. A good counterexample would be Kevin Frane’s The Seventh Chakra in which both Arkady and Il-Hyeong both have well defined character arcs that leave them vastly different people than when they started.

FWG: How long have you been in the guild, and what changes have you seen with regards to how writing is handled since joining?

Madison: Oh gosh, since…2014? 2015? Hard to say! One of the big changes that I’ve seen within the guild as time has gone by is that it has gotten a lot more active along the writing front. When I joined, there was discussion about writing occasionally, and the coffeehouse chats were certainly a thing, but in a lot of senses, it felt more like a social gathering of like-minded folks than a guild. There’s no issue with that, to be sure, but I’m glad to see it heading in a direction more focused on craft and the growth of the individual members now.

FWG: You’re not only transgender and ace but also polyamorous! What kind of poly relationship do you find yourself in and what do you enjoy about polyamory?

Madison: As a loose believer in many of the tenets of relationship anarchy, my relationship structure is complicated and at times nebulous. I’m married, have a few partners, a datefriend, a power-dynamic influenced relationship, and several folks with whom I share a mutual fondness without necessarily being in a well-defined relationship. As the polycule has grown (we shall soon overtake Wyoming in terms of population, thanks to the Greater Seattle Postfurry Polycule), I have found myself more and more fascinated with various relationship structures and their rammifications. Probably the best thing about it is the feeling of compersion, that opposite of jealousy that goes along with seeing someone you love happy and complete in their life, even if it’s not necesarily with yourself. Just makes my little heart overflow.

FWG: What does Pride mean to you?

Madison: Pride goes beyond simply the opposite of shame, vanity, or celebration, but it is thoroughly enmeshed with a sense of community and with responsibility. When I was coming out to myself as trans, it was a halting and occasionally isolating process, and it wasn’t until I started interacting with more trans friends that I started to blossom. This is part of a psychological process called “mirroring”, when you see in others some aspect of yourself.

The moment at which I started to feel pride in my identity was the moment my partner somewhat jokingly referred to me as a “trans psychopomp” (someone who guides souls to their destination, such as Charon across the river Styx), and I realized that, at some point without me noticing, I became someone whom others would look to and see some aspects of themselves in. It came with a sense of weighty responsibility, but one that I was, yes, proud to take up.

FWG: Was there a bit of a journey or story to you uncovering your identity? If so, would you be comfortable sharing with us?

Madison: I mentioned character development and growth when it comes to what makes a good story, and I think that that also applies to our lives outside of fiction. My story of self-identification has its own arc, its own pitfalls and high points, and its own character development, even for those who were perhaps at one point seen as antagonists. At points, the act of transition was deliberate and considered to an almost fractal level of detail (my journey to starting HRT being a good example), while at times it was taken with a lightness of heart that seems almost maddening in retrospect. My journey to gender affirmation surgery began with a friend mentioning that they had surgery, me saying “holy shit, you can just do that?” and then calling up an office and scheduling a consult within a week. As a bit of self-promotion, I wrote extensively on the process in my most recent interactive-project-slash-book, ally, which is perhaps one of the things I have made of which I am most proud. I hope you’ll consider checking it out!

FWG: How do you think being transgender and polyamorous has inspired or affected your stories? Have you written transgender or polyamorous characters into your works?

Madison: I have come out probably five or six times throughout my life — gay, genderqueer, trans, polyam, ace, etc. — to the point where I’m all but convinced that life is the process of continually growing and coming out. This leads to an awful lot of dealing with the inherent coarseness of identity. After all, identity is psychopathological: we only feel identity when it is something that we struggle with (or, as mentioned above, something we see others struggling with.

Because of this, most if not all of my writing focuses on identity. I jokingly describe Restless Town as “sad queer furries in Idaho”, because just about every character in those stories is dealing with identity, many of them queer identities. Often this is taken as a given, since I really like stories in which minority identities are treated as No Big Deal, but it always plays some role. I’ve been told I write too much about gender, and been accused of writing parables, and you know what? I’m okay with that. It’s what’s important to me, and I think that it’s important to others as well.

FWG: You run and operate Hybrid Ink, do you think your identity has inspired what you choose to publish? If so, how so?

Madison: Hybrid Ink, as a publishing house, is explicitly focused on LGBTQIA+ stories. It’s in our tagline, in our mission statement, and in everything we focus on, so, not to be glib, but yes, and that’s very much the point!

FWG: Do you feel like the issues that affect the outside world involving your identity affect your writing or publishing within the fandom or not?

Madison: I struggled to answer this at first, as I would like to say that I am a flexible enough writer to be able to separate myself enough from my work, such that I can write any story. I really don’t think that’s totally true, though. As I’ve worked through my identity, and as I have seen it challenged politically and socially over the years, my writing has shifted drastically to this aforementioned need to show it normalized. There have been times when I have been tempted to take out my frustrations on my characters and write all sorts of horrible situations of them dealing with transphobia or the like, but every time I start a story like that, I immediately realize that that’s just not what I need. What I need is a bit of proof, however fictional, that happy queer people exist, and that this is okay.

FWG: Do you have favorite queer authors and has their literature affected your writing in the fandom?

Madison: Hmm! A few, I think, though with some of them, I don’t know their identities, but they have still written formative works. Jen Durbent, who wrote Hybrid Ink’s first publication, My Dinner With Andrea, is a pretty big inspiration for me. Ditto Blue Neufstifter/Azure Husky, whose microfiction works have often left me in awe. In terms of works, Max Gladwell and Amal El-Mohtar’s This Is How You Lose The Time War has had a huge influence on both my queer-writing-ness and personal style, and Hanne Blank’s Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality has very much influenced my non-fiction within this realm.

FWG: If you could convince everyone to read a single book, what would it be?

Madison: Aaargh, this is such a hard question! It probably changes by the month! Right now, I think it would be the aforementioned This Is How You Lose The Time War. That book wrecked me over and over again. Tore me up, spit me out, left me more whole than when I started. It’s scifi, but somehow manages to be so without being particularly “hard” or “soft”. It’s romance without being saccharine. The voice and style is just heartbreaking.

You’ll have to forgive me a pair of honorable mentions, but I hope you’ll understand the reason. I have been very much pushing that writers learn about their craft from media other than just the novel and the short story. Please, please, fellow writers, give graphic novels a go if nothing else. Both Nate Powell’s Swallow Me Whole and Craig Thomson’s Habibi similarly wrecked in in the best possible way.

FWG: Any last words for our readers and guild members?

Madison: You’re more important than you realize! I quoted John Winthrop earlier, and his words are well worth keeping in mind: “We must delight in each other, make each others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together — always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body.” Keep up the good work, and keep on supporting each other!

Also: back up your work.

We would like to thank Madison once more for participating in this interview! You can keep up with Madison’s writing on her writing twitter @makyo_writes and her Mastodon. You can also support her on Patreon or Subscribestar. Finally, you can find her writing at makyo.ink and you can find Hybrid at hybrid.ink.

We hope you all enjoyed reading, be sure to stay tuned for our final Pride Month spotlight next week!

 

 

 

Meet “Toon Furs” in Part 2: Billy the Collie, Clawy the Cat, Chaos Coyote, and Dunhall the Dingo. This story features the side of fandom where you can watch NEW cartoons with classic animal characters, and even turn into one! HBO Max has 80 eleven-minute episodes of fresh-but-faithful animation from WarnerMedia. Furries discuss their influence in this 3-part story by Rocky Coyote. (Rocky previously covered fandom in America’s biggest city on his tag here.)

Billy the Collie is an artist who grew up watching Looney Tunes with his younger brothers. He talks about the flexibility the toon world gives him when depicting his characters in various scenarios.

I do have strong nostagic feelings towards Looney Tunes, and as a result the show has played a significant part in developing my toon persona and toon art as a whole.

Looney Tunes is definitely the king when it comes to executing that classic ‘toon gag.’ The show wasn’t entertaining because it had silly slapstick, it was entertaining because it set-up a comical scene with wit and personality that concluded with silly and creative slapstick. That’s what I enjoyed about the show, and is a big reason why I do enjoy cartoon stuff to this day.

Considering my fursona is a toon border collie, I’d say that it’s had a pretty big influence on me! The creativity that toon-stuff lends me in playing around with the toon physics, effects and logic is highly entertaining as an artist. The toon concepts pioneered by shows like Looney Tunes has also been a fantastic way for me to connect with other furries in the community, as the majority of furries are familiar with a lot of these ideas and concepts so it’s been fun engaging with them on this innocent but silly level.

Despite very clearly being computer-drawn, I do appreciate that the reboot keeps the original character designs rather than going down the current animation trend of using a “Cal-Art” inspired art-style. I do worry that the show will overly-focus on slapstick and cheap throwaway jokes, rather that the wit and personality which made the silly slapstick far more entertaining. But, I think the show is worthy of a chance to prove itself.

Clawy the Cat is a toon artist, and she describes how Looney Tunes was a main fixture on television growing up.

In my younger years, I would watch Looney Tunes pretty much daily. As I grew older I would catch them as I’d find them on TV. Now I just watch them on the Boomerang app when I find the time to.

Looney Tunes had probably the biggest influence on my love of cartoons with Tom and Jerry coming in second. The Wile E. Coyote shorts were my favorite, followed by the Sylvester shorts. Clawy as well some of my other characters are slapstick centered toons. The toon subgroup has felt like its own community.

I honestly enjoy the new reboot. It feels like a present day revamp of the classics as well as the short revival of the 90s.

Chaos Coyote’s character is based off the 90’s cartoon Tiny Toon Adventures, which regularly features the original Looney Tunes characters. He talks about these shows forming an interest for writing toony stories.

I watched Looney Tunes an awful lot growing up. Like, a lot a lot. It was part of my Saturday morning rotation. I’d be up around 6 a.m. just to catch Bugs Bunny and his friends, dropping anvils on each other.

My fursona is based off of a story I wrote based on Calamity Coyote being tasked with keeping an eye on his younger brother (Chaos) while their mother is out shopping in the city. A prototype cartoon script I wrote based off of the Animaniacs sketches “Buttons and Mindy.” Realizing I could create new sketches, and opening new branches for storylines made me want to write even more.

I am exceedingly influenced by Looney Tunes. When I was much younger, animation was my all-time favorite form of media to ingest. I had wanted to become a cartoonist in the vein of Chuck Jones but I didn’t want to draw, I wanted to write them. Short little silly snippets of characters interacting with each other. Cartoons gave to me a sense of visual sight gags, and subtle puns. But mostly, cartoons gave to me a sense of slapstick humor you can’t find anywhere else. Three Stooges and Charlie Chapman are all well and good, but nobody can do slapstick like cartoons can. Specifically, for me, the best came in the form of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.

I found the new Looney Tunes show hilarious. I hope they bring in a clever mix of slapstick and sharp writing to the table. I’m looking forward to it!

Dunhall the Dingo (aka Prince Toon) is an artist that started watching Looney Tunes at a later age. Nevertheless, the cartoons he enjoyed had an influence on the characters he created.

This might surprise you, but I didn’t watch Looney Tunes all that much as a little kid. I LOVED Tom and Jerry though. I really started getting into Looney Tunes when I was around 13. Still, Looney Tunes played a huge role in shaping my love for cartoons! I was very lonely at the time, so I was looking for other things to watch. Taz-Mania caught my eye, and it made me feel so much better. After that, I watched TONS of Looney Tune stuff. Unsurprisingly, my favorite aspect are the characters, they just feel like real people to me.

My character, Dunhall the Dingo In terms of design was inspired by Stimpy the Cat, but I think Looney Tunes and Taz-Mania overall helped form who he was character wise. As for the new reboot, I’m beyond excited!

Meet ten Toon Furs in Parts 1-3 of Rocky Coyote’s story.

Looney Tunes Cartoons is among the countless shows, movies and features available for HBO Max subscribers at $14.99 per month. A handful of trailers and episodes, however, can be viewed by anyone on WB Kids’ Youtube channel.

• NY Times: Bugs Bunny Is Back, and So Is the ‘Looney Tunes’ Mayhem
• Vanity Fair: HBOMax’s Modern Looney Tunes Keeps the Spirit of the Classics
• Forbes: HBO Max Brings Back Bugs Bunny And The Looney Tunes Gang In Classic Style

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Share news on these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for anything — or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here.

GenPet is a new full-color science fiction adventure graphic novel, written by Damian and illustrated by Alex Fuentes. “In the year 2036, advances in genetic engineering have made it possible to create personalized pets genetically designed and linked to their owners. These ‘Gen Pets’ are still a toy for the elite, including young Nat Kanan’s dad, who is the new owner of the New York Knicks. But he might have another reason to buy little Nat such an extravagant pet: Protection. It soon becomes clear that Gen Pet ‘Niko’ was designed to be Nat’s ultimate bodyguard, with talents that attract the attention of the local mafia boss who has other ideas about how to put those skills to use…” It’s available now from Magnetic Press. Take a look at the preview over at Pop Cult HQ.

image c. 2020 Magnetic Press

An extended show full of news, plus Aureo joins us later on for dinner.

FurCast is sponsored by Twin Tail Creations. Use coupon codes REDWOLF or BLUEFOX to save 15% on silicone products during checkout. Free FurCast Themed Colorations are also available which can be applied as a color choice to your toy purchase.

Download MP3

Link Roundup:

• Boozy’s huge thread on CCFC
• Ash answers questions about “The Fandom”
  • Film review of “The Fandom” out July 3rd
• SCOTUS rules federal protections for LGBT employees
• Already Ratchet and Clank cosplay
  • Insomniac retweets it
• Student bitten by fox at UNSW
• FurDU experiences a data privacy breach
• Telegram back in Russia
  • Verge Article
• Animorphs coming to cinema
• Giant fox statue in The Netherlands
• Nican presents that tails are important to Microsoft
• Dreamkeeper’s virtual con: CouchCon
• Barely Furcasting
  • Taebyn’s YouTube
• SoCalShep’s new show

News:

• Student bitten by fox at UNSW
• Deer Runs into Black Lives Matters Protest
• Chuck E. Cheese Approaches Bankruptcy, Could Have to Close All Stores
• Dust Storms to Hit the US
• So Michigan is Flooding
• Ticks will be on the Rise this Year
• Flushing Toilets Spreads Covid-19

[Live] Pay to Pet

MOOBARKFLUFF! Click here to send us a comment or message about the show!

This week we chat with artist Paco Panda. Taebyn reads a PC bedtime story, and how can you tell if a number is divisible by 9?  Join us and spend some time with Bearly and Taebyn!

Support the show

Thanks to all our listeners and to our staff: Bearly Normal, Rayne Raccoon, Taebyn, Cheetaro, TickTock, and Ziggy the Meme Weasel.

You can send us a message on Telegram at BFFT Chat, or via email at: bearlyfurcasting@gmail.com

Bearly Furcasting #8 - Paco Panda, Storytime, and Divisibility

Papabear,

I've been a long time follower of your advice site, and have asked a couple of questions a couple of times. This time I have a little bit of a problem with my current mate. You see both of us are into kink and we've indulged in some things a couple of times, but breakdown in trust and communication on her part made me feel uncomfortable about bringing up things that are part of me.

Example, I was and still am questioning my gender and when I brought it up to her (a trans woman herself) she met it with disinterest and a small trace of hostility.

Example 2, both of us are into gaming, it was something we bonded over. But when I was getting into Warhammer 40K and learning the lore, of course I wanted to share it with her so we could share this too. I was met with a roll of her eyes and sigh with an exasperated "Oh god." Also try to share MtG (Magic the gathering) card game with her but when I'm playing online I'm cut short when I talk strategy to myself, it's the way my brain works.

There's so many more examples of why I don't bring anything up to her anymore or even try to share interests. So you can see my hesitancy to bring up the subject of something so personal as a kink. Just to put it out in the open, I'm into leather and pup play. I think of it as a big part of who I am and I want to explore that side of myself. I was thinking of just buying a pup hood and tail plug just to get it out in the open, like ripping off a band-aid. There would be no hiding it and it would bring up my kink, but there's also the risk of her throwing it away or me having to return it.

Now please don't have a negative view of her, we get along just fine otherwise. I love her and she loves me. We're friendly with each other, game with each other, joke, play around and everything that comes with a relationship. It's just my trust in bringing up things to her is a bit wounded.

What can I do? She's a sub too so I think that would be a problem, but we're poly so I think she would approve of me finding a handler/trainer, in theory.

Anonymous

* * *

Dear Furiend,

Many people believe that when you have a mate you should share all your interests together and do everything together. This is not true. It is okay for a couple to have different interests and explore different sides of themselves while also sharing other things. To be compatible does not mean you have to be clones of each other. In fact, it is better if you are not. Imagine doing everything together and having the exact same interests and activities. What would you talk about at the end of the day? "Hey, this morning I...." "Yeah, I was there, remember? I'm ALWAYS there!"

When I was married to Janet, she was way into crafts, including cross-stitch and quilting. I was never into that stuff myself, but I supported her in her interests, sometimes going shopping with her, but never to a quilting convention (yawn). It was great that she loved that stuff and would go on a trip by herself or with a friend and have some fun outside the marriage. Later, when I was with Jim, his passion was radio broadcasting and sound editing. I learned some of this myself and even, briefly, hosted a radio show on his station. But I was not passionate about it. I supported his love for the radio and did what I could to help. Now I am with Michael. He is into playing the organ and piano. Here, we have a little more in common as I am learning the piano, but really am not all that interested in the organ. I am having his mother's piano refurbished as a present this year.

In return, my spouses and mates have also supported me in my interests. One year, long ago, my wife paid to send me to a writers' conference in Maui. Later, with Jim, he was very supportive of my being a furry, as is Michael. Michael is helping me start my publishing business, even though he is not a publisher or writer himself.

And so, you see? Partnership is about complementing one another, supporting each other in the things that you love and do as hobbies or for a living. You don't have to do everything together. So, let's take your interest in pup play and leather kink. Does your girlfriend have to do these with you for you to enjoy them? No, she does not. Now, that said, she shouldn't be rolling her eyes and being dismissive of you. She might not like such things herself, but if she loves you she should be supportive and encourage you to explore this side of yourself.

You sound like you two have a pretty good relationship. I think, though, that you should talk to her about this and say something to the effect of what I have said above: she doesn't have to like EVERYTHING that you are into, but it hurts you when she looks down at you or judges you for liking things she doesn't like herself. (Is there stuff she likes that you don't? You can use that as an example of what she should do for you).

With patience, love, and understanding, I'm sure you two can work it out, and this whole experience can help you grow closer as a couple.

Hugs,
Papabear​

Meet “Toon Furs” in Part 1: Duino Duck, RomeTwin, and James the Duck. This story features the side of fandom where you can watch NEW cartoons with classic animal characters, and even turn into one! HBO Max has 80 eleven-minute episodes of fresh-but-faithful animation from WarnerMedia. Furries discuss their influence in this 3-part story by Rocky Coyote. (Rocky previously covered fandom in America’s biggest city on his tag here.)

Check it out here.

Looney Tunes gets a reboot: How an iconic cartoon forged a wacky and lovable side of the furry fandom.

Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang found a new home on May 27 as WarnerMedia launches its newest streaming service HBO Max.

Looney Tunes Cartoons is the latest show to marquee the iconic characters that have entertained viewers around the globe for over 80 years. Unlike recent reboots such as The Looney Tunes Show (2011) and Wabbit (2016), HBO’s series will closely resemble the format and art style of the original shorts crafted by the likes of Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng and Robert McKimson.

Naturally, the show’s wacky yet lovable characters have had an influence on the furry fandom, but this goes beyond the cartoon’s anthropomorphic nature. Shows like Looney Tunes paved the way for a subculture within the subculture, where furries create their own characters in the ‘toon mold.’ This includes big eyes and exaggerated body proportions, personalities that range from goofy to outright insane, and a penchant for slapstick comedy aided by an endless supply of mallets, dynamite and anvils.

To get a better idea of Looney Tunes’ impact on the furry fandom, Dogpatch Press reached out to a number of self-identified toon furs and let them describe how the series influenced their love of cartoons and helped them find a place within the fandom.

Think about it. There are ZERO downsides to being a toon.

-full of energy
-powered by laughter
-can play ANY instrument
-cute as a button

“But Duino, what about all the bad stuff that hap-“

Bud, if you don’t think having a piano dropped on you would be KINDA fun, you’re wrong.

— Duino D. Duck (@MainMandarin) May 13, 2020

Duino Duck is a writer for the Plotsburg Press and a slapstick aficionado. The self-described cartoon antagonist recalls how Looney Tunes forged his passion for all things animated.

Cartoon Network used to air an hour of Looney Tunes from noon to 1 p.m., and I’d watch them every time I was home sick. All I did on those days was watch TV, and Looney Tunes was a welcome reprieve from the slow-paced Nick Jr. and Playground Disney kids’ shows. I watched them and Tom and Jerry a bunch on the weekends, too. A lot of it blurs together, so I don’t have a thorough knowledge of the library of shorts. But I always remember feeling a wave of satisfaction wash over me as the first orchestral swell hit come noontime.

I loved cartoons growing up, but was raised in a strict and serious household. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be academically successful, so cartoons with this antithetical escape- nonsense, zaniness; freedom, in a way. I wanted to watch them, make them, BE them. It felt like making up for lost time.

There was also a level of intelligence that went into the shorts. I’m not going to call them educated entertainment, but there’s an incredible level of finesse and style involved in pulling that medium off. Making characters who you like, but don’t mind seeing blown up in an abandoned mine shaft. Witty one-liners that perfectly contextualize why this person is getting knocked on the head repeatedly. Mindful violence.

Soup to nuts, I’m a toon. I walk funny, I talk funny, I can’t stop talking about dropping bowling balls on my friends. I fell in love with larger than life comic characters, and I want to be one myself. I’ve been yelling about toons for years now, and most people recognize me as “that slapstick bird” which I take as high praise.

(For the new reboot) cautious optimism feels like the best way to put it! I was apprehensive upon the announcement, but the clips I’ve seen thus far have been entertaining in their own right, and it certainly lets me know there will be some real treats in store. I’m very skeptical of reboots since… well, we all know how many of them go. But there’s clearly a lot of care, talent, and passion thrown into these, and it’s looking like it’ll pay off!

Gwen “RomeTwin” Romer, creator of the “Paper and Plastic” comics, talks about the show’s wit and how the character design influenced her art style.

Though I was born in 1996, I watched Looney Toons as often as it was put in front of me; which was a lot as a kid. My grandparents recorded the shorts on VHS, and my parents were keen on having me watch classic cartoons like Popeye, Under-Dog, Tom & Jerry, etc.

The show was very particular in that while Tom & Jerry also used slapstick humor, Looney Tunes was very witty in its dialogue and visual gags that helped shape an idea of what made cartoons funny for me. Even as a kid I appreciated how clever it was and it never felt patronizing. I feel that the shows I grew up on (though I hold them close to my heart) needed to be loud for the sake of holding my attention, and Looney Tunes never needed to do that.

The show had no influence for my fursona personally. However, Wile E. Coyote and characters inspired by him have had an influence on how I draw my canines! That and Pepe Le Pew. They had the PERFECT snouts.

This is much more faithful than any Looney Tunes project I’ve seen in a long time. I was a kid when Lunatics Unleashed was on the air and even then I didn’t really get it. The Looney Tunes Show on Cartoon Network was fun, but it was trying to be its own thing; whereas this new show attempts to be faithful to a T and I’ve loved what I’ve seen of it so far.

James the Duck discusses how the show developed his affinity for toony mallards.

I watched it quite a bit growing up. I didn’t really get into them until I was around 8, when they had the Looney Tunes New Year’s Day Marathon on New Year’s 2010. Being a child of the 2000’s, you couldn’t really see Looney Tunes unless you were home from school for some reason, or it was summer vacation. During the summer, I’d always watch Tom and Jerry at 1:00, and then Looney Tunes at 2:00 on Cartoon Network.

Looney Tunes did have an influence on my love for cartoons. Personally, I’m more of a Fleischer/Famous Studios type of guy, but Warner Brothers is a close second. My favorite era is from 1935 to 1948. I love the music, and the fluid, detailed animation, as well as the somewhat “adult” humor. Back then, cartoons were made for adults as well as kids, and it really shows.

My favorites are The Daffy Duckaroo (1942), Nasty Quacks (1945), and Mexican Joyride (1947).

Daffy Duck was my “gateway drug” to my love for birds, especially toon birds. I love the bills and webbed feet. I’ve always secretly wanted to be one and mess around in a surreal universe. When I decided to join the furry fandom, I knew what I wanted to be.

I honestly don’t know much about the new version, but it looks great! I especially love how they seem to have reverted Daffy to his 1940’s “Screwball” personality. I never liked the post-1951 Daffy. They made him so unlikable then, and it hurts to see how that’s the Daffy that everyone knows now. So it’ll be great to see more love for his funny and likeable screwball incarnation! The animation also looks really good. I almost can’t tell it from the 1940s cartoons!

Meet ten Toon Furs in Parts 1-3 of Rocky Coyote’s story.

Looney Tunes Cartoons is among the countless shows, movies and features available for HBO Max subscribers at $14.99 per month. A handful of trailers and episodes, however, can be viewed by anyone on WB Kids’ Youtube channel.

• NY Times: Bugs Bunny Is Back, and So Is the ‘Looney Tunes’ Mayhem
• Vanity Fair: HBOMax’s Modern Looney Tunes Keeps the Spirit of the Classics
• Forbes: HBO Max Brings Back Bugs Bunny And The Looney Tunes Gang In Classic Style

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Share news on these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for anything — or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here.

CCFC on Wikifur

Contact-starved furries are having a bad year. Only a few conventions opened before COVID-19 made so many cancel and cut off the hug supply. (Quick, send emergency plushies before the furries go rabid for hugging anything that moves! Or set them loose in riot zones and tell them the cops need hugs.)

Capital City Fur Con was among the few that happened successfully, and it was a first-year con… so months later, it’s extra noticeable to see it blow up with a mushroom cloud of absurd drama. At least it makes a show. It also makes a lesson about a fandom full of DIY power. Uncritical nerdy love is good for starting your own art, stories, or even a sexy furry news site — but not just any dummy should start a con.

The dummy of this story is CCFC’s (ex-) chair, Nitro. He may now be hiding out in a luxury yiff bunker, with hopes to be forgotten in the furor about a pandemic/recession/uprising, because he allegedly took thousands of dollars for charity but failed to give it to them. That’s illegal.

I try not to go too deep into the drama of cons. It has to be egregious, and even some with clowns on staff have great volunteers who strive to make others happy. Even when cons don’t go right, they still make happy experiences. (Spoiler: which aren’t included here.)

Of course it’s the law that every con has to have weird stuff, and it’s hard to get the truth about it from all sides, like learning about orgies in private rooms and which ones are really worth getting into. (For example, the failure of Rainfurrest has a popular video from Internet Historian, but we might not verify all the bonkers stuff in it unless the infamous Diaper Guy was an undercover cop with a wire hidden in there.)

You can still watch this helpful summary of the controversy, then CCFC staffer Shadow the Wolf’s recounting of “gross financial mismanagement” by Nitro.

From Shadow the Wolf’s video.

See, it’s special to get inside info about how things went wrong. And there’s more than the outstanding financial stuff. It’s a lot to cover so I’ll just tell a few lowlights from memory. (Imagine you’re hearing from a sincere furry doing their best after a couple of marijuanas.)

• Before the con, I was tipped about controversy with a potential alt-right security staffer who you might not want to trust with securing you or your info.
• Controversy boiled over when the con denounced staff of another con for pointing this out, with an official letter. (When do cons bicker in public?)
• That furry was seen visiting the White House in a used murrsuit. (Look, no shaming, I’d deploy the SPH to disrespect Cheeto Mussolini and Make America Great, but being on his team? I’m not that dirty.)

Hey wanna laugh? #furries #fursuit #murrsuit #politics #MAGA2020 #MAGA #Murrsuit4Trump #keepingitclassy pic.twitter.com/YiwkySi8iI

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) June 7, 2020

• “Popufurs” were spammed to death about being Guests of Honor, until CCFC had 2.7 GOH’s per attendee. (OK, actually 7 for a few hundred attendees.)
• Some weren’t actually announced, and pricey room compensation wasn’t paid (to staff and maybe GOH’s.)
• On the first day of the con AN AVALANCHE OF SHIT got unleashed…
• Furries risked getting shot? That was the fear when a “rich people inauguration ceremony” happened in the hotel, with politicians and armed security giving beady eyes about potential costumed assassins. Con-goers were told to avoid giving them a reason for hunting season. No pup masks OR ELSE!
• Due to this genius scheduling, a bunch of panels were rescheduled to nonsense times without notice and didn’t happen.
• The hotel contract hadn’t been honored with payment on time, and there was a deadline. If not paid NOW the con would get shut as firmly as I’d get kicked out of the White House for peeing on Trump’s rug (or whatever you call that thing on his head — hey can you imagine him doing a pee tape with a furry? Yes, you probably can if you’ve been watching the news, that wouldn’t even get 15 minutes of notice.)
• A con bickering online with another con is one thing, but how often to they BEG other cons for thousands of dollars?
• A staffer was badgered about paying $15 grand in college money (I don’t think the money was actually given though.)

• No Non-Disclosure Agreement HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
• For months after the con there were ALL CON MERCH 50% OFF sales (were there any sales accounted for?)
• Finally, when all this came out, the allegations of charity money deception led to a lawyer assessing the potential fraud charges.
• Read his Twitter thread about this Fandom’s Most Wanted Public Animal #1. It’s conveniently blog-formatted for you here.

I don't have time to sit down and write a blog post about this right now, which I normally do to address issues that pop up in the fandom. Instead here's the summary in thread form:

1. Capital City Fur Con, a convention in Harrisburg, PA, folded yesterday. /1

— Boozy Badger (@BoozyBadger) June 12, 2020

View this document on Scribd

Great idea from @trippwubb: a form to collect details from anyone owed money by #CapCityFurCon to total up the damage. https://t.co/bI6tzXJkJe

— Con Staff Watch (@ConStaffWatch) June 14, 2020

• CCFC Twitter archive
• CCFC Facebook archive

Capital City? More like Crapital City… if I had a band, that would be the name of it, and the album would be Presidential Furry Pee Tape.

Here’s the part where I give sympathy to everyone who had a good time and put in their hard work, and hope this all gets sorted out!

UPDATE: You wouldn’t think it could get worse. It gets worse.

I absolutely know what a receipt for the Greater Philly Chapter of the ALS Association looks like.

And what their logo looks like.

You do NOT fuck with the charity.

— Boozy “Slightly Used Coffin Reseller” Badger (@BoozyBadger) June 27, 2020

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Share news on these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for anything — or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here.

Keeping in the realm of graphic novels for young readers, next up we have Baloney and Friends, written and illustrated by award-winning creator Greg Pizzoli. “Meet Baloney! He’s the star of this book, along with his best buddies: Empathetic Peanut the horse, sensible Bizz the bumblebee, and grumpy Krabbit — he’d rather not be here, but what can you do? In this graphic novel for newly independent readers, Baloney and friends step into the spotlight and embody all the charm of childhood in three short tales and three mini-comics that invite readers to join the fun! Giggle with Baloney as he performs some questionable magic, give him a boost when a case of the blues gets him down, cheer him on as he braves the swimming pool, and at the end, learn to draw all the characters with clear step-by-step instructions!” It’s available now in hardcover.

image c. 2020 Little, Brown Books

Capital City Fur Con, a convention based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania of the United States has recently announced closure. This was followed by a heavy backlash on social media claiming severe fund mismanagement and deception.

This week, furry conventions in Mainland China, Switzerland and Argentina have announced cancellations due to the current pandemic. In a statement, Guangzhou-based furry convention Fuzzy Oasis Party said the furcon could not continue as planned due to some of its core members as well as the invited guests currently being unable to return and come […]

The Sprawl was reviewed with a creator interview a year ago: “my favorite furry webcomic and certainly ranks among my favorite webcomics of all time” — so enjoy a fresh take. Welcome to Roz Gibson, furry artist and animator in Southern California. Roz was guest of honor at Confurence and created the Jack Salem comic character that first appeared in Rowrbrazzle in 1987. Roz is a community access guest and contents are hers. See Roz’s tag for more reviews.

The Sprawl volume 1-3 
Written and Illustrated by Snowdon
Published by Ringtail Café productions

I picked these three volumes up at AnthroCon last year. There are not a whole lot of new furry comics coming out, particularly if you’re looking for something other than porn, slice-of-life or gay interest, so I decided to give this series a try.

The back blurb describes this as “Sci-Fi/Horror meets Dark Fantasy on a dead world. It’s only inhabitants are  the descendants of an ill-fated colonization mission, now huddled together in an ever-growing mega-city known as The Sprawl.” But the story turns out to be closer to Bladerunner meets The Thing, with something from the original Heavy Metal movie thrown in for good measure.

Volume 1 is pretty simple: a survey team is sent to a distant part of the dead planet (referred to as the “South Pole”) to look for another survey team that vanished. You see boobs early on, as the female characters are either topless or wearing really skimpy clothing. The two female surveyors are apparently along solely to hump the guys, which they get to doing as soon as they leave on the mission. When there’s an explosion on the ship and they have to evacuate, the guys are all fully dressed, but the bunny girl bails out wearing nothing but bikini panties. When they arrive on the frozen, snowy surface of the South Pole, someone gives her a jacket that she never bothers to zip up, so she’s wandering around Antarctic cold in panties and an open jacket with her boobs hanging out. I think this is known as ‘pandering to the audience,’ which might have worked if the bunny girl was attractive, but all the characters are squishy lumpy with big Bugs Bunny-type feet.

While I waited for the bunny girl to either die of hypothermia or her bare feet to turn into frozen blocks, the team reaches the prerequisite spooky mysterious abandoned ruins with dead bodies. The previous survey team is dead and one of the characters– without even touching or examining the bodies–declares that they killed each other.

Then they find a mysterious evil glowing orb (a call-back to the original Heavy Metal movie) that is so evil it compels anyone around it to immediately kill each other.  The lone survivor takes the orb back to The Sprawl and sells it to a brilliant but eccentric scientist with a hot daughter (who is, unsurprisingly, more than she seems!)

Now the genre switches to Blade Runner, with a hard-boiled PI investigating the murder of the scientist, the orb and the getting involved with the hot daughter. She’s wearing skimpy clothes, and yes, we do get to see her boobs when she gets out of the shower and walks around naked. The rest of the comic involves a lot of chases and fights in a rainy, depressing city.

Like many other digital comics turned into print, the art is dark and muddy, so it’s often impossible to tell what’s going on. That is compounded (particularly in volume 2) with the action taking place in dark tunnels. And all the pages are on black or dark backgrounds without traditional panel gutters, which makes it even harder to follow the action.  The (male) characters wear so much baggy clothing you can’t tell what species they are, so if you’re looking for visually interesting character design, this is not it. To further complicate matters, most of volume 3 is dreams within dreams, or hallucinations, so by the end of it I honestly had no clue what was going on.

Online the comic is up to volume 5, but this review only covers the 3 printed volumes I purchased last summer. 

If you wanted to read it online it might look better, without the dark printing. The comic isn’t horrible, if you want a story along with the boobies, but it lost me early on with the naked bunny girl wandering around the South Pole.

– Roz Gibson

• The Sprawl Physical Copies available at Ringtail Cafe Productions
• Snowdon’s Patreon
• Snowdon’s Ko-fi
• Vote for The Sprawl on TopWeb Comics

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Share news on these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for anything — or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here.