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Hey /r/furry I am in Berlin for the Eurofurence convention - so I figured I should start an official topic on here.

Post below if you have a twitter or FA so I can organize a Reddit Furs meetup! This will take place Friday or Saturday.

I would love to get to know all of you - it has been a pleasure modding for this sub and it would be nice putting some faces to the names! :)

If you want to meet up with me at any time just tweet me, I will be bouncing around somewhere! :) @iToShepherd

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Author: Fred I reviewed volumes 8-10 here in May 2013. My review was so favorable that part of it is quoted in the back-cover blurb on volume 12. Here are volumes 11 and 12, equally enjoyable and not-to-be-missed. These two pocket-sized books contain the Doc Rat daily Internet comic strips from #1427 to #1558 (December […]

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Author: Fred Red Devil, a sequel to Kyell Gold’s Green Fairy, is both the second volume of his Dangerous Spirits series, and part of his Forester series (Out of Position, Isolation Play, Waterways, Bridges and others), set in an alternate contemporary America inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. Solomon Wrightson, the homosexual teenage wolf who was the […]

You might have heard that Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai is turning 30, yes? The word is getting around. Well in celebration of this milestone Dark Horse Press will release The Usagi Yojimbo Saga, a collection of more than 600 pages coming this October. It brings together Usagi Yojimbo Volume 2 issues 1 thru 16 and Volume 3 issues 1 thru 6, as well as a full-color cover gallery. Check out the Dark Horse web page to find out more. Saga will be available as a (very thick!) trade paperback, and also in a limited-edition hardcover version (only 900 will be made!) signed by Stan Sakai himself.

image c. 2014 Dark Horse Press

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Instead of dumping ice water on ourselves, lets all donate (even if it's just a little) to ALS! Also, no need to get public about it, just thought we could do something nice without the waste of fresh water. Here is the donation page. https://secure2.convio.net/alsa/site/Donation2;jsessionid=A7DBCF3B6C77EA8F195B08AFC4461474.app275b?df_id=27420&27420.donation=form1

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NBC news visits Anthrocon, this is something I did not expect.

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The very real role that fantasy plays in our everyday livesBy Leah Sottile
http://www.inlander.com/spokane/imaginary-friends/Content?oid=2339157

Furries at Spokane’s First Night

NOTE: this is a very long article about many different fandoms and subcultures, thus I'veonly included the part about the furry fandom, feel free to visit the OP link to read the full article

It doesn't matter who this man really is. In this world, no one cares that he's a 31-year-old business owner who lives in North Idaho. What matters is who he wants to be.

Who he wants to be is Quip — a mostly white York Chocolate cat with a striped tail.

Quip likes to hide underneath desks and sneak inside cabinets when they're open. Occasionally, he'll nap in the afternoon sun on the top of a late-model sedan parked in the driveway. He likes stuffed animals and jumping on the counter.

Sitting at a downtown Spokane coffeehouse, Quip explains that he's a lot more than just a man sitting here. That this animal side is him, too — a part of his personality he has nurtured for decades as a member of the "furry fandom," a worldwide subculture devoted to animal characters with human traits. For some, being furry means enjoying books, cartoons or films starring talking animals — say, Watership Down or The Muppets. For others, it means adopting an animal personality, or a "fursona," like Quip. And for others, it means spending thousands of dollars to create a custom "fursuit" to wear at conventions and furry meetups.

Quip, who spoke on the condition his real name wasn't printed, is this man's fursona. Being Quip is his escape.

"My fursona — it's like a person's counterpart — is a cat. Others identify themselves as a wolf," he says. "We even have people who identify themselves as dragons, lizards — we call them scalies. There's no fur, but we still love them too."

Escapism is nothing new to the human experience. Ask the guy who drops his paycheck on Zags season tickets, or the people waiting in line for a movie on a Friday night. Ask comic book fans, artists, musicians, gamers, woodworkers, distance runners, Civil War re-enactors, avid fans of Game of Thrones. Odds are they'll all tell you they're just looking for a vacation from the norm, a few minutes when they can forget the bills to pay, the obligations to meet, the 9-to-5, the problems they don't want to address.

"When we fantasize, we experience the same emotions we would feel if we were in reality. Think of the fear you feel with a nightmare. Happy fantasies make us feel good," says Norman Holland, author of Literature and the Brain and a researcher of psychoanalytic psychology. "All work and no fantasy makes Jack pretty gloomy. We all should have some space for fantasy in our lives. Fantasies — escapism — give our emotions a workout. That's why the imaginative arts are good for you."

But even today, when there are arguably more outlets for people to escape their everyday lives than ever before in our history, some fantasy cultures still raise eyebrows. Some people feel they are social pariahs because of how they choose to escape. Some say they have keep their fantasy lives secret.

Like Quip. He says to him, being a furry is just a casual hobby. But he knows that's hard to understand — so his family and friends, and especially his clients, have no idea that he's a part-time cat.

"You know, you're a professional," he says. "What would happen if tomorrow you dressed up like a half-nude panda bear and started playing fetch with all the vases in the office?"

People aren't that open-minded, he says.

"I do much the same thing [as anyone else]," he says. "I just go home, I make myself a nice little salad, I catch up on email, and then I put on a dog collar and go to sleep."

Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, has made a career out of studying escapism. He writes about geek culture for the New York Times, Boston Globe and Washington Post and has appeared as an expert on escapist cultures on PBS, the Discovery Channel and BBC. He points to what he sees as one of the modern-day origins of fantasy-escapist culture: Dungeons & Dragons, a game that remains wildly popular today.

"Dungeons & Dragons, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, was ... one of the few 'games in town' for immersive fantasy escapism when it first came on the market in 1974," he says. "Back then, a game like D&D was cutting edge. Today, its tools — dice, maps, rules books — seem rather rudimentary compared with the sophisticated toys and diversions we have today."

But as technology has evolved, Gilsdorf says fantasy has become a part of day-to-day life. It's in the CGI movie effects that make movie monsters larger than we could have ever imagined. It's in the immersive digital communities and social media that have become as integral to our lives as going to work and eating breakfast. Fantasy isn't just for geeks anymore.

In fact, fantasy escapism is a booming business. Last year the largest comic and pop culture convention, San Diego Comic-Con International, attracted more than 130,000 attendees. Tournaments of one of the world's most popular video games, Defense of the Ancients — better known as DotA — have become so massive, they're being broadcast on ESPN.

"People are attracted to fantasy lives for a variety of reasons: to escape from bad times, to get a break or respite from day-to-day life, to experience wonder and magic, to feel empowered, to be able to do something or be someone they can't be or do in real life, to feel camaraderie, fellowship and socialization," Gilsdorf says. "Ultimately, we want to feel part of something bigger than ourselves, something grander, something more epic than day-to-day life."

Even the smaller subcultures, like the furry fandom, play to that notion.

This year's Anthrocon in Pittsburgh attracted 5,861 furries from 26 countries. That's a far cry from the beginnings of the furry fandom, which sprouted out of 1970s fanzines, found an online home in 1990s chat rooms and took off with the advent of the World Wide Web.

Here in Spokane, the Inland Northwest Fur Folk group on Meetup.com boasts more than 130 members — that's everyone from actual "fursuiters" who wear animal costumes, to folks like Quip who simply have fursonas but don't dress up, to people who just like to nerd out on talking animal characters.

Ritzgaul Gryphs is another member of the group here. The 28-year-old man works at a Spokane Valley grocery store, but he won't divulge any other details about himself or use his real name — and it's not because he's ashamed. He says it's how the media has portrayed the furry fandom as an a animal-costuming-wearing sex group of sorts that keeps him anonymous. He says that's not what the the majority of the fandom is about.

And yeah, sure, he says some furries do like to have sex while dressed up as foxes and wolves. But not all of them. And it's certainly not exclusive to fursuiters.

"There's no denying things like that go on," he says. "There's no denying that at Trekkie conventions there's going to be Klingon sex."

Ritzgaul says he's been a furry since 1998, but he's never assumed a fursona. He's a human. "I never found a furry side of me," he says, "but when you really deeply think about it, humans are animals too."

But he's just as much a part of the fandom as people who wear costumes. When Ritzgaul thinks about his attraction to the furry fandom, he thinks about being an 8-year-old kid watching afternoon cartoons. His still remembers his first crush: a villainous wolf on the cartoon TaleSpin.

When he found the fandom as a teenager, he said it actually changed him as a person.

"It got me social. It got me out of the house more. It got me to discover myself as a person. It helped me," he says. "It pretty much saved me from boredom. It helped me become more active and discover things, learn things."

Quip, the man who identifies in the fandom as a cat, says with furries he found a group that was more accepting of who he was than anyone else he'd encountered.

"That's the interesting thing about the furry fandom, it's really an anything-goes sort of community," Quip says. "Nobody will lambaste you because you listen to this type of music as opposed to another type of music. No one will rib you because you like to watch cartoons."

So it isn't sexual for these men, but would they prefer to date someone who is a furry, too?

Quip answers that with a laugh. "If you know anyone, just..." — and he holds his hand up to his ear like a telephone.

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Okay, so I'm relatively new to the Fandom, and only now getting into the online community, so I apologize for my lack of knowledge. Where do I go to find people who would draw my Fursona for me? Who do I ask? Sorry for being clueless!

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Like I said, my name is Finn. I'm working on a new project to get experience and build my profile – and this is where you come in. I'm trying to perfect a quick turnaround for the slice-of-life, a short glimpse of your character, in your setting, hand tailored for you. It's the written equivalent of a character sketch and for the next couple of hours I'll be churning these puppies out. Interested? Well let's read on and find out exactly what's going on.

They involve four prompts: Name, species, a descriptor, and a setting. Something along the lines of Alexander, the extremely lonely dragon in a dystopic future, or Orion, the broody red panda in space. You can give me some extra details too, to make sure I get the character right. After all, Ferris the clever fox puts on a brave face, but it's important to know that he's not afraid of running if he gets into too much trouble. Oh, did I say if? I meant when. Sound interesting? Well hang on, these are things I've already done.

They take ten minutes of writing with five to ten additional minutes of finalization. I've done a handful already and each one is a little better than the last. My ultimate goal with these is to reliably produce a quick story that both me and the commissioner are happy with, so feedback is important to me. Let me know what you think of your story (be honest). If you got this from some dude at a dinky stand at a convention would you be happy with it? What do you think would make the process smoother? I'm in the market to practice and improve, so any comments and suggestions will help.

Now, to request a story, tell me the
1) Name:
2) Species:
3) Descriptor:
4) Setting:

But also feel free to tell me a little bit more about the character. Something to clue me in to his personality. How does he react to confrontation? Where was he raised, and where is he now? It doesn't have to be terribly specific, just enough to help me get the idea. And I might ask you a few more questions before I write your story to make sure I get it right.

I'll tell you when I'm starting on your story and when it's done I'll just post it in reply to your comment. I'll queue you boys up and get your stories out in the order they're posted. I'll be here for a handful of hours so let me have 'em. I have an entire afternoon to kill and some pawpads that are itching to hit the keyboard. Let's see what we can do!

TL;DR - Post a comment that looks like my example post and I'll write a 15-20 minute story using that information. Give me your best shot!

EDIT - The first one just barely got finished. I'm out of practice and it took way too long, plus I had to reformat it when I brought it over from Word. The next story will go much more smoothly

EDIT 2 - Still closer to 20 mins to a story, but as long as everyone's happy that's the important part. If anyone else wants a go just let me know :)

EDIT 3 - I've done 5 stories now, with an average time of about 25 mins each, given that some took quite a bit longer than others. I'll have to work on my consistency, but that's what this is all about, so thanks everyone for participating! I'm going on about an hour's break to clear my mind, then I'll be back to keep working if anyone else wants to give me a prompt. Thanks again!

FINAL EDIT - Alright boys. It's gotten pretty late by now. I've done 7 stories today, the first five of them in about 2 and a half hours, and I'm about to work on the 8th one here just before I go to bed. I don't think that's too bad, considering. I'll post my more favorite stories from this thread on my FA so you'll be able to see them there. Thanks so much for participating and giving me something to do!

If anyone stumbles across this topic late, well - it's still not too late! I'll leave the offer standing for another day or so, and if you leave a request then I'll get to it when I can! It might take a day or two though, I just happened to have the day off today and nothing else to do. And thanks again for playing everyone!

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