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I do want some crumpets ... but not enough to eat haggis.    
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The back-up series from the well-known Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles comic has broken out on its own now. The Sasquatch Detective full-color one-shot was written by Brandee Stilwell with art by Ron Randall and Gus Vazquez. “Before Tonya Lightfoot became Los Angeles’ most decorated detective, she was a wee sasquatch roaming the Appalachian mountains, fed a steady diet of tennis and golf (as both of her parents are pros at the local country club) and CSI episodes. But her idyllic life of pranking campers and squatching around the local golf course hits a bump in the fire road when Bigfoot hunters come to the dense forest. Would Tonya back down in the face of adversity? Not yeti! But experiencing this abominable anti-sasquatch sentiment gives her the determination to leave her home behind-she heads to the dangers of the city. After all, it’s hard to fight un-conscious bias, but crime is something America’s sassiest sasquatch is ready to tackle.” The one-shot features the original Snagglepuss material plus a whole new story. Look for it on the shelves.

image c. 2019 DC Comics

Great moments in quirky news, plus some emails.

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Link Roundup:

• StarMan fursuit dance video from JMoF
• Pavel Durov to Close Company behind Telegram Messenger
• Surplus Toys-R-Us Geoffrey suit has a Twitter account
• How Yamer won a contest, a job, and the love of fandom by smuggling furry into the mainstream
• Man Hospitalized After Injecting Own Semen To Treat Back Pain

News:

• Some Murderous ‘Nazi Cows’ Have Been Murdered in the UK
• Abused Wolves And Troubled Teens Find Solace In Each Other
• Eco-Friendly Drug Dealers Want You To Buy Your Coke In Reusable Containers

Emails:

• FeneanShorca – No Subject
• Ryco – Shy Foxxo
• peppermint – A few questions
• Kodi – Being out of the closet

[Live] Fursona Lisa

Are you ready for Boonie Bears 6 Where they get blasted into he past? Did you miss movies 1-5? I did. This started as a TV series in 2012 and now a very successful film franchise in China. Apparently. ...I think I've been under a rock on this one. [1]. [1] https://furry.today/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/booniebear_blast_still_b.jpg
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Seems like we just can’t get enough of Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday celebration — and here’s a whole bunch of it at once! Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: The Complete History is a very thick compendium book from Taschen, edited by David Gerstein, J.B. Kaufman, and Daniel Kothenschulte. “On November 18, 1928, the world’s most famous mouse made his very first public debut. Today, we celebrate 90 years of Mickey in one of the most expansive illustrated publications on the Disney universe. Starting with the first sketches of a character who was almost named Mortimer, we trace the career of Walt Disney’s and Ub Iwerk’s most famous creation, one met with an explosion of worldwide popularity preceded only by the earlier successes of Charlie Chaplin. With unlimited access to Disney’s vast historical collections as well as public and private collections, the authors bring Mickey’s success story to life: concept art, story sketches, background paintings, and animation drawings as well as historical photographs trace the origins and evolution of such timeless favorites as Steamboat Willie, The Band Concert, and Brave Little Tailor. They also follow Mickey as he builds on this legendary library of short cartoons by appearing in two historic feature-length films, Fantasia and Fun and Fancy Free.” All that and much, much more. It’s available now in hardcover.

image c. 2019 Taschen

We are back in 2019! And already things are breaking. Come on in to listen to us chatter away in this new year! Episode 52 - New year, same shark

Here is this week's segment from Kaar in lieu of the episode. Enjoy! Kaar Segment - Solo 03 - Sharking the wall

I want pizza now. Dammit.
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Oh Bother.
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Sci fi and horror is a match made in hell. And that's where all furries yiff, right? When Tarl Hoch created the call for submissions for this dark anthology, he knew he was playing with a cross of genres that was ripe for a furry lens, and he was totally right. Bleak Horizons is more than just a loose collection of sci fi horror stories, the anthology stands as a testament to both Tarl's eye for good stories and his ability to organize diverse material into a cohesive structure, built from blood and ink.The anthology opens with Kandrel's "Adrift," a story of the horrors of cryosleep. It is a deeply chilling story and offers a new twist on the often cliche narrative of people not being able to stay unconscious during cryosleep. The emotional evocation throughout this piece was rich, making it a strong start to the anthology. My only real critique of it is definitely that it's probably one of the least furry stories in the anthology. It begins with a furry line, and we're occasionally told the character is a cat every other page, but otherwise we forget.Next is Franklin Leo's "4/13/2060." What we have here plays out like a mystery, not so much a whodunnit as a whyhedunnit. Science experiments on a virtual reality drive a very smart man over the edge, and his assistant is in utter disbelief. This story excels in its fast and gripping pacing, its use of furry elements, and its metaphysical horror of a twist. A fun read for anyone who likes sci fi horror with a touch of Noir."Hardwire" by Ton Inktail begins with, "I love you, Master. Won't you fuck me?" Yes, a furry android built to be a sexual object starts gaining intelligence of its own. The objectification of androids is such a trope of sci fi, it is so refreshing seeing this taken to a sexual level, and, more interestingly, taken to the fetishization level that furries have to their cartoon characters. Such an innovative concept, and it exposes a lot of the ethical horrors in the potentials of our own wish fulfillment. What's interesting with this story, too, is how the perspective of the tale (being from the droid) serves to shame the average furry reader, rather than include them. Stellar writing here.The next story is "The Ouroboros Plate" by Slip Wolf. Agh, this is one of my favorite stories in this collection, and it's so fucked. This is one of the few stories I've read that does time travel right, and it's done to such horrific effect here that it made me queasy. I refuse to spoil any plot details, but definitely make sure you're not reading this on a full stomach. As Slip Wolf told me before I started reading, "Bon appetit.""The First Viewing" by Corgi W. is paws-down my favorite story in this collection and—naturally—the most fucked up of the book. Dark Mirror meets furries in this story of a scientist gone mad with sadism and vengeance. I feel like Corgi W. tried to think of ways to make the worst possible tortures for his characters here. My only critique might be that the final torture wasn't surprising enough by the time we get there. Otherwise, a fucking flawless story in terms of horror and pacing.Next is Ianus J. Wolf's "Clicking," one of a few stories in this collection following the narrative structure of let's-visit-a-planet-that-looks-cool-but-starts-killing-us-so-we-spread-it-to-other-planets. While this isn't the most innovative story in the collection, I loved this story from the way it was written. The sensory details are just so evocative, and even while I knew where it was going from the first page, I was creeped out throughout the piece. The auditory details work exceptionally well in this furry universe, and I wish more furry writers took advantage of senses the way Ianus does here.James Stone's "Blink," however, seems to show how furry can ruin a tried-and-true narrative structure. Don't get me wrong: the piece was beautifully and creepily written, with probably some of the eeriest and most sublime setting and world-building in the anthology. My rub is that the species distinction necessary for the plot spoils the ending super early. Trying not to spoil it as much as I can, imagine if in Prisoner of Azkaban, we had a clear visual of what the caster of the Patronus looked like across the lake. Even if Harry had been confused and thought it was his dad, we wouldn't have been confused. We would have known what was up. Because of furry species, this story is spoiled for us in a lot of ways.In Ross Whitlock's "Pentangle," we get this lovely of Barkerian body horror in which a five-person body is fighting for survival, trying to pretend to be just four bodies—the max socially acceptable bodies in one. This story is grotesque and so action-packed. I think there's a lot of potential for Whitlock's world here, and I would love to see this setting in their future works.We get our second iteration of the let's-visit-a-planet-that-looks-cool-but-starts-killing-us-so-we-spread-it-to-other-planets motif in Searska GreyRaven's "Starless." This story is fun in its in-depth characterization. There are not many avians in this anthology, but this story is one of the rare exceptions. And it's one of the few stories where I actually wanted specific people to survive. Searska does a great job making you care for their characters, even if the plot itself is fairly generic. One of the "furrier" stories in the collection, and the author shows mastery of that kind of distinction here.Frances Pauli's "This Way" is all about intelligent spiders. Plotwise, it's very similar to the let's-visit-a-planet-that-looks-cool-but-starts-killing-us-so-we-spread-it-to-other-planets motif on a smaller scale, so...basically the parasite narrative. BUT I love this story because it's such a creative use of spiders in a sci fi horror furry context. Pauli puts so much attention to detail with their spiders, and it makes such a difference in the reading. The spiders become real, and that can be what makes this story terrifying all on its own. It forces readers into the heads of what they likely fear already.Donald Jacob Uitvlugt continues the let's-visit-a-planet-that-looks-cool-but-starts-killing-us-so-we-spread-it-to-other-planets with his steady mystery, "Outlier." Here, the survivors are telling inaccurate accounts, so you have to solve the mystery of who's telling the truth...and who could possibly still be infected... *cue dramatic music* Great pacing with this story, and, again, despite being a cliche plotline, the author makes it very fresh through this mystery tone.KC Alpinus takes us in a rather unique direction, toward The Twilight Zone, with "Not Like Us." Here, she tackles xenophobia in a small town when all power goes out...even for battery-operated devices. The creepiness of the situation escalates into the social justice/violence of "The Lottery," and even an involved reader will be pointing fingers. Alpinus excels with characterization throughout, and the pacing leaves you on the edge of your seat.Bill Kieffer is largely a TF writer, and he does not disappoint with his story, "Clear and Cruel," in which a cataclysm has deformed a hefty percent of the population, leaving the protagonist with shattered memories and a shattered form. But this isn't just a tale of futuristic transformations and body horror; it's about loss, dealing with that trauma, and facing the real horrors that dwell within us. The pacing for this piece is a bit slow and clunky, but the emotional payoff by the end makes it worth it.Rechan's "Blessed are the Meek" is unfortunately a counterexample in world-building, in which nine proper nouns are introduced in the first two pages, not counting world-specific lingo, too. After getting through the first five or six pages of infodump, the story really does pick up and has a captivating plot similar to The Secret of Nimh. It does not deviate from it too much, just making it with rabbits instead of mice. The ending is sadly also fairly anticlimactic.Chris "Sparf" Williams finishes the anthology out with his piece, "Hollow." This is also the last of the parasite/possession stories. However, what makes this story gripping is the gory detail of it. By this point, the suspense of this potential narrative had worn off for me, but the gore really stood out, making this easily one of the darker stories in the collection. There are images, particularly of the "hollowness," that will stick with me long after this anthology.While this anthology had its fair number of typos, I can see Hoch's clear love of and dedication to this project, and the finished book is a wonderful addition to any furry book reader's collection. Just be careful as the sun starts setting. The more you read, the bleaker and bleaker the horizon becomes...

They might say that this is the Year of the Pig, but as far as I’m concerned 2019 will be the Year of the Beast, with the hugely popular mobile title, Fire Emblem: Heroes, finally getting beast units as of earlier this month! The first confirmed units (all from the Radiant Series) will be Tibarn, Leanne, Reyson and Nailah.
These are all great (especially Tibarn), but this got me thinking though … what fluffs, birbs, or dergons did I want to come to the game? After all, if you include the sprinkling of beast units over the more recent titles, there’s a fair few to choose from. So, here you go, my five picks of beasts I want to see in Fire Emblem: Heroes!

Tiger vs. Nightmare is a new full-color graphic novel for young readers, created by Emily Tetri and published by First Second. “Tiger is a very lucky kid: She has a monster living under her bed. Every night, Tiger and Monster play games until it’s time for lights out. Of course, Monster would never try to scare Tiger—that’s not what best friends do. But Monster needs to scare someone…it’s a monster, after all. So while Tiger sleeps, Monster scares all of her nightmares away. Thanks to her friend, Tiger has nothing but good dreams. But waiting in the darkness is a nightmare so big and mean that Monster can’t fight it alone. Only teamwork and a lot of bravery can chase this nightmare away.” The book is available now in hardcover from Macmillan, and they’ve got a preview up as well.

image c. 2019 First Second

There is nothing in the rule-books that says a goalie can't be a walrus.
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Here’s something new from Europe, published by Cinebook: Distant Worlds is a full-color science fiction graphic novel series created by a team known and Leo and Icar. “18-year-old Paul, his mother, and his sister land on Altair-4, a recently established human colony. They expect to be reunited with Paul’s father there and start a new life, but he doesn’t show up to welcome them at the spaceport… Later, they are rescued from a gang of thugs by a Stepanerk, a member of a sentient alien species. It’s an encounter that will prove invaluable to Paul when he decides to go and look for his father.” Check it out (three volumes so far) over at Comixology.

image c. 2019 Cinebook

Actually, any excuse for a lightswitch rave and I'm there. [1] [1] https://furry.today/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/LightSwitchRave2.gif
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Good meowning! Once again, [a][s] will be attending Further Confusion and offering a few panels to choose from. Come stop on by as Makyo meows about data!

• Safer Sex – Friday at 1:00PM in Marriott: Willow Glen I-II
  Interested in what all goes into having a happy, healthy, sex-positive relationship with your partners? Curious on how to stay safe while playing? Safer sex is important for staying healthy, both physically and emotionally. Come join us in exploring ways to enjoy intimacy safely.
• Exploring the Fandom Through Data – Saturday at 1:00PM in Marriott: Blossom Hill
  Join [adjective][species] to explore the ins and outs of the furry subculture through data, prowling through seven years of the furry survey and additional surveys and data sets besides, investigating what makes up the fandom and exploring why.
• What We Like After Dark – Monday at 12:00AM (that is Sunday Midnight, just to be clear!) in Hilton: Santa Clara
  Come explore what we like as furries through the lens of the art site e621. Using more than 10 years of data from submissions and tags, supplemented by data from Tapestries, SoFurry, and the Furry Survey we’ll look at art, artists, species, characters, and media franchises.
• Gender and Furry – Monday at 1:00PM in Marriott: Blossom Hill
  Both gender and furry touch on very important aspects of identity. The fandom often provides a space in which to explore one’s gender in a safe manner. Come join us to talk about what gender is and how it interacts with the furry subculture.

More interesting non-human science fiction. Retrograde Orbit is minimal-color graphic novel written and illustrated by Kristyna Baczynski. “At the outer edge of the solar system, on the mining planet Tisa, Flint and her mother live in the colony of Swift Springs. Displaced by a nuclear event, Flint’s family settled in Swift Springs two generations ago to become miners. Soon Flint will be old enough to begin her apprenticeship at the refinery. But is the home that her family has built for her enough, or will a mysterious, irradiated planet pull her away from them? By following in their footsteps and leaving to forge a new path, is she betraying her family, or honoring their legacy?” It’s available now in softcover from Avery Hill Publishing. Broken Frontier has an extensive review.

image c. 2018 Avery Hill