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Alexander Henderson is head of a team of animators and film-makers with experience working for Disney, Netflix, and Amazon. Their first completed short film is called Breathing Space, which you can find on YouTube — and which just happens to have some anthropomorphic interest in it too! Now they’ve created a Kickstarter campaign to help finance their new film concept. “The Rhino and the Oxpecker is an action-adventure cartoon, featuring the story of Niles, a blind mercenary rhinoceros, and Redford, his neurotic-but-trusty guide bird. With Red acting as the eyes, ears, and brains of the duo, and Niles handling the action, the two work together to survive predators, poachers, and anything else the jungle can throw at them. That is, provided they can survive each other.” They’re trying to reach their current goal before Halloween, so hurry!

image c. 2018 by Alexander Henderson

My only weakness fursuits, the golden hour [1] and 4K footage. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hour_(photography)
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Our Patreon w/ great new rewards! www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow for all things Dragget: www.draggetshow.com Telegram Chat: t.me/draggetshow Dungeons & Draggets #22 - Our Patreon w/ great new rewards! www.patreon.com…

The Good Furry Award is here to spread good news! Without speaking for the award or anyone involved, here’s a message with an exclusive book excerpt.

Regular readers who come here for the pulse of the fandom know that negative news can have a lot of impact. Obviously, there’s good reasons to spread important issues and stand for the truth.

But do you ever get fed up with hearing about bad behavior by ignoramuses who can barely care for a potted plant, let alone maintain good relations with other fans? Would you rather not devote too much mental real estate to occasional stories here about:

• crooks, scammers, grifters, abusers, or puppy kickers
• trolls who raid and scheme to ruin conventions, anyone named “Fox Hitler” or anything similar, and hate groups
• suckers and Quislings who do apologism about “both sides” to cover for haters and attack caring about anything at all
• and other villains and underminers who don’t make anything better

The vast majority of furries DON’T do that:

• Creative people who have a goal to make things
• Hard working volunteers who carry out cons, meets, parties and parades
• Charity supporters and pro-active moderators who help for little in return
• and other cool people who genuinely care about things and share messages that show it

Some of them are so supportive, that they deserve a boost for recognition, a trip to Hawaii, a million dollars… and much more that’s way beyond the power of a little fandom to provide (except hugs, they’re free). But the Good Furry Award will boost their stories AND give them a thousand dollars.

The first four nominees are a key staffer for Morphicon/AnthrOhio, a 1980’s fandom founder, an animal caretaker and community volunteer, and a longtime event organizer and website hoster. Read about them here, from Grubbs Grizzly, founder of the award.

Speaking of getting the pulse of fandom…

If you’re a devoted member, you might be quite familiar with all the regular issues. But if you’re new and just starting to dip a paw in, you might not know where to start. For them, Grubbs Grizzly’s in-progress The Furry Book looks like a one-stop-shop to learn and get excited. I think this is something long overdue for book stores, gift occasions, or more.  Grubbs shared an exclusive excerpt and introduction.

Cover art by Charleston Rat

The Furry Book

The following excerpt is a preview from Grubbs Grizzly’s book The Furry Book: The Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of the Furry Fandom. Kevin Hile (the mundane behind the bear) is a published author and an editor of reference books. Combining his 30 years of professional experience in the reference book field with his years as a furry (including attending furcons in Illinois, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, and California), he has been working steadily to complete this manuscript in 2018. It is, in essence, a guidebook to the fandom aimed at helping everyone from inexperienced furries new to the fandom to their parents and other family members, and from journalists and other media professionals who seriously want to learn about furries to experienced furfans who would like a handy guide all in one book.

Kevin, who as Grubbs also writes the furry advice column “Ask Papabear,” originally began researching and interviewing for his book in 2015. Tragically that year, his mate, Jim, died unexpectedly, and for the next two and a half years he struggled just to keep his job and maintain his home and little dog, Ernie. By mid-2018, he started to feel well enough to return to his furry project.

The Furry Book covers all the bases, including some history of the fandom, of course, but also delving into the psychology behind this unique fandom that arose in the 1970s and ’80s. In addition, it is a practical guide on how to be furry, offering enough information to benefit both novice and greymuzzle alike.

Learn the answers to such questions as: What sorts of people are furries? Why are they fascinated by anthropomorphic characters in literature and film? Heck, what is an anthro? What makes the furry fandom different from other fandoms? Can anyone be a furry? Is it just a hobby or something more? What do people do at a furcon? Are there other places one can find furries besides conventions? Can you make money in the fandom? How has Japanese anime influenced furry art and culture? What’s an otherkin? What are the best online resources in furry culture? Why is Zootopia considered an important film? How does the children’s book The Wind in the Willows factor into the history of the fandom? Should parents forbid their children from being furries? And much, much more.

The following is an uncorrected sample from the “How?” section of the book….

Preparing for a Furry Convention

If you are certain you are attending a particular furry convention, the best thing to do is buy your tickets and make reservations early. Cons usually give you discounts on admission when you book early. Visit the website to see when registration begins and how long discounts are offered. Furthermore, discounts may be available for attendees under 18, and children accompanied by adults may be free, depending on the con. Online registration is by credit card or, in some cases, PayPal. If you are underage, you will, of course, need a parent’s or guardian’s permission to pay in advance. Paying at the door is always an option, naturally.

When you arrive at the convention, you will have to stand in a queue, whether or not you have preregistered (I have yet to see a convention that mails you passes to your home—would be nice, though, if, for example, QR codes could be sent to your phone like they do at other conventions; perhaps someday…). The preregistered line can often be as long as the line for those registering at the door, but once you get to the front it goes more quickly because badges and any other materials such as con books should be ready (this is not always the case; it depends on how well the con is organized).

Give yourself plenty of time to get your registration packet. At large cons, it can even be a challenge to find where registration is. I’ve been to furcons where signage was definitely lacking, and it was hard to find any staff to help. On the other paw, I’ve been to great convention that make this whole process simple. Biggest Little Furcon in Reno, Nevada, springs to mind in this case. It’s one of the best-run conventions out there, which is one reason it is also one of the fastest-growing furcons in the United States.

What should I take to a furcon?

If you have one, your fursuit, of course! (See the section on caring for your fursuit for more information regarding this.) The second obvious item is money. If you got it, bring it.

It’s more common to see furries budgeting and keeping costs low, however, than spending like someone who just won the lottery. The two areas where you can cut the most costs are the room and food. Now, con organizers typically work with hotels to reserve a block of rooms for furries at a discounted price, so you’ll automatically save money there if you can get into the main hotel (sometimes the main hotel is full, and you’ll have to find another nearby place to stay, so, again, there’s an advantage to planning early). Room sharing is common at furcons for saving more cash (check out the ConRoomies.com discussion below). If you already have furry pals who are going to the same furcon as you, you’re all set: room with them! Check hotel guidelines to see what the limit is per room, which is usually four to six (if the hotel allows a cot to be dragged in, or if you get a suite).

If you need a roommate, then there are ways to connect. One good way is to register at the furcon’s website, and then see if they have a discussion board where you can post your need for a roommate. You can also see if the furcon has a Twitter or Facebook page and seek roomies there, and, finally, you can just check out various furry groups online and, again, announce your need for someone to share expenses. Lots of furries do this successfully but be careful to try and talk to and get to know the other furries you may be sharing a room with to see if you’ll be comfortable with them.

The other major expense (other than buying fun stuff at the Dealers’ Den) is food. Hotel fare is usually a bit overpriced. Many furries, therefore, go on a bit of a shopping trip before a con, which works especially well if your room has a refrigerator and/or microwave. If not, buy dry goods and other things that don’t need cooking. Bring a small ice chest to keep drinks cool if there is no fridge. For food, it depends on whether you wish to be good or bad. Many people throw all caution to the wind during what can be a party weekend and don’t worry about unhealthy snacks. I, on the other hand, think it’s a good idea to purchase some fruit, which will be fine unrefrigerated for a couple days. You can purchase cereals (or pastries, when naughty) and put a quart of milk in the fridge or ice chest. This will save you a lot of money versus buying such things at the hotel convenience store or restaurant. At one Califur I attended, a friend of mine brought bread, packaged tuna, and oatmeal (use the coffee pot in the room to heat up water). There are several dehydrated or freeze-dried products you can buy that, while not the best in flavor, will do in a pinch at a con if you are really trying to save bucks. (Note: a no-no is to bring your own hotplate—a fire hazard that hotels, of course, forbid!)

Before you attend your furcon, check out the location of the hotel and see what restaurants are nearby—if any. When I went to Midwest FurFest in Chicago, the choices were not too great within walking distance, and I ended up spending a lot for food in the hotel restaurant and at a place across the street. Back in the day that Furry Convention North was still running in Novi, Michigan, the location was great! Lots of choices—from fast food to family restaurants—were within a block or two. Keep this in mind as you make your travel plans.

Other Ways to Prepare for Your Furcon Adventure

On to other things: you might want to bring a small bag of medical supplies, including some or all of the following: bandages, Bactine®, aspirin, Tums®, Imodium®, tweezers, and sunscreen; a pocket knife can also come in handy, as well as nail clippers if you break a nail. You might also want to take Airborne® daily while at the con to help keep germs away (the infamous “con crud”; see below). Take some multivitamins, too.

If you’re a fursuiter, remember to bring a repair kit with you, including things like needle and thread, fabric glue, and, if you have them, extra fur for patching or other spare parts for replacing things that might break. Bring Gatorade (or similar drinks with electrolytes, such as Powerade, Propel, or VitaminWater) to replenish yourself after suiting.

If you have one, take a cell phone with you. Make sure numbers of family members are there in the directory on your phone to contact in case someone needs to call and you are unable to. Barring that, just in case, keep a list of contact names in your wallet or purse. This isn’t always necessary if you are with close friends who already know whom to contact in an emergency, but in a panicky situation it might be should they forget the numbers to call.

Do not take valuables with you to a con, such as expensive jewelry, lots of cash, or expensive electronics, unless you can keep them in a safe while at the hotel. And keep an eye on your fursuit; it’s not unheard of for people to be victims of fursuit theft at a con, although that’s rare. Keep cherished items you might have been considering taking (e.g., a favorite plushie with sentimental value) at home. You don’t want to risk losing something like that at a hotel.

Check the weather forecast before you leave home and make sure you pack clothes appropriate for the weather, especially if you’re going somewhere that gets very chilly at night. Take a bathing suit if the hotel has a pool (they usually do).

What if the con hotel is full?

Some of the more popular cons see their reserved floors fill up fast! For example, at BLFC 2018, when registration opened the rooms were all booked within ten minutes. But don’t despair. You can sometimes find a room to share with furries who booked a room with the idea of finding roommates later, or who had roomies but they backed out for some reason.

There’s a helpful website for that called ConRoomies.com. It is organized by convention and allows people to post if they are looking for a bed to flop on or if they have one to spare.

Some of the larger conventions also have overflow hotels, so check for that on their websites. Barring this, there is no reason you can’t stay at a non-con hotel or motel nearby—often for less money, even given the fact that furcons reserve room blocks for guests at discounted prices, but con hotels are typically high-end facilities with premium prices, so it can still cost you a hefty chunk of change.

If you are a fursuiter, there are obvious advantages to being in the main con hotel: it is much easier to change and shower when this is the case. But if you have no choice but to stay off-site, I suggest trying to find a friend who has a con hotel room and asking them if you can borrow it to change into your fursuit and shower afterwards.

You’re at the Furcon! Now What?

There is so much to do at a furcon, but where do you start? Many first-timers tend to go a little nuts at their first con. The joy of being surrounded by furries like yourself can go to your head, and you find yourself making new friends, going to dances, hanging out in hotel rooms, shopping in the dealers’ den, watching movies, and before you know it, the furcon is over and you have to go home. Here are a couple tips….

Wikifur

The 6-2-1 Rule

Because furcons generally last only three days or so, it’s tempting to stay up all night and get in as much fun as possible while you can, snack all day and not get a decent meal, and even forego some basic hygiene. This is a recipe for what has been called “con crud.” When your body gets run down from lack of sleep and decent food, your immune system weakens and leaves you vulnerable to a cold or flu. This is why the 6-2-1 Rule became the word at furcons (some cons even hold forums about it for first-timers). What is it? Simple. Follow these guidelines:

• 6 hours of sleep a night, minimum
• 2 decent meals a day (that means, not cold pizza from last night or a pop tart as you rush out the door to see your friends)
• 1 shower or bath per day (please wash!)

Hint: if you want to make new friends at a con, it helps if you don’t reek like yesterday’s garbage. This is known as “con funk,” the stench that occurs from the buildup of bacteria on your body when you don’t wash regularly. This is particularly piquant for fursuiters, who sweat profusely. So please, take 10 minutes out of your schedule to shower.

Papabear Says….

Elevators! OMG! Elevators at a furcon can be such a hassle—almost hysterically so. I’ve seen them get so crowded that they have broken down early on, making for quite a challenge if you are a fursuiter with a 10th-floor room.

Etiquette standards quickly evolved for this reason: When boarding an elevator, preference is given (after any impaired or disabled guests) to fursuiters. The reason for this is that it is much more difficult for them to negotiate cramped spaces, and they also frequently come accompanied by a handler. In the case of an elevator going up from the lobby, too, the fursuiter may need to get to their room quickly to cool off. If you are not in fursuit, therefore, please be kind and considerate to those who are when it comes to elevators!

Are furcons safe to attend?

All well-organized furcons operate under a code of conduct (sometimes called the standard of contact on their website). That is, there are rules that you must agree to before you are allowed to register. This is a combination of what the convention administrators expect of you, as well as the hotel management. Hotels and furcon management reserve the right to, basically, kick people out of the con if they misbehave. This includes everything from rowdy behavior to being drunk and disorderly and from disrespecting other guests to not smoking (including e-cigs), no vandalism, no loud parties, no trashing of rooms, no sleeping in corridors and lobbies, and so on. If your offense is supremely … well, offensive, you may find yourself banned from the con. You might think to yourself, “Well, I’ll just attend a different con!” But con admins are known to share information about troublesome attendees with other furry conventions, so such plans by you could be thwarted.

In other words, don’t act like an idiot, and you should be fine.

To enforce the rules, there is a combination of both hotel security and security that is hired by the con management itself. You can anticipate that your room might be inspected by hotel staff, even if you put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door and don’t ask for room service. While most furries behave themselves, there are always a few people who act like (let’s face it) drunken fools. They can ruin it for everyone, which is why well-managed furcons have this kind of security. Everyone wants the attendees to have a good (and safe) time. This goes double for younger furries who are under 18.

Parents of minors who have not been to a furcon before have expressed concern that there may be adult material too readily accessible for their boy or girl. Standards for any adult material in the art room or dealers’ den are also long-established. An art room at a furcon is a room set aside for guests to view and appreciate paintings, sculptures, and other artworks. When there is any mature art on display, it is always put in a separate area that is clearly marked and not viewable unless you enter a designated door. Minors are not allowed in these areas. In the dealers’ den, there may be artists who have some adult work to sell, but such work is placed in closed folders or in boxes that are also clearly marked as being for 18 and over furries. The best thing for a parent to do, therefore, is to always accompany their charge when going into the art room or dealers’ den.

What about minors unaccompanied by parents or guardians? Furcon organizers will ask for a notarized parental permission form before allowing a minor to attend their convention. Read the Standards of Conduct page on your furcon’s website to learn more about what is expected of minors.

Another concern at conventions has been weaponry—not real weapons but toy weapons and props for fursuits. Some furcons I’ve been to completely forbid any weaponry props just to make things simpler, but other cons (e.g. Anthrocon), allow them to be carried for special functions such as the fursuit parade or the “Anthrocon Tonight” show. However, at all other times the props must be put away in a secured location approved by the Security Chief at the con.

[Stay tuned for more!]

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon.  You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward.  They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.

You may recall that a couple years ago (!) we talked about a new animated feature based on the 1960’s Depatie-Freleng TV series called Here Comes The Grump. Well it seems that Anima Estudios just recently completed the film and released it in Mexico. What’s more, according to Cartoon Brew it’s apparently coming to the U.S. for a brief theatrical run, under the title A Wizard’s Tale. “The film is directed by Andres Couturier, who also helmed Anima’s 2015 feature Top Cat Begins. Some key American talent was involved in the development of the film, including writer Jim Hecht (Ice Age: The Meltdown) and character designer Craig Kellman (Madagascar, Samurai Jack, Hotel Transylvania). English voice cast includes Lily Collins, Toby Kebbell, and Ian McShane.” Cartoon Brew has a trailer for the film as well. Look for it!

image c. 2018 Anima Estudios

An extended and fully featured episode ranging from the usual stupid shit, to mindful political debate by the end.

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Howlr Makes A Statement
• DenFur breaks record for attendance of first year
• DenFur shatters first year con record at over 2,000 attendees
• Resolume software will retweet furry gifs
• V_Werewolf’s Full Moon Club kickstarter
• Books of Monsters & Legends for IRONCLAW role-playing game Kickstarter
• Controversial poll on twitter

News:

• What’s in the box?! Three furry box subscription services
• Stealth vs blatant and the “Mouse Problem”; furry coverage in fictional media
• A Fish Has Passed The Benchmark Test Of Self-Awareness
• How to Survive Bee/Hornet or Wasps
• This Person’s Revenge Against The Impostor Using Their Email Address Is Hilariously Evil
• Sex Doll Brothel Coming to Toronto
• Sex Doll Brothel Not Coming to Toronto
• Dog owner who used pet-sitting service says he found shirtless men, lube in living room
• Florida Man Robs Krispy Kream Demands Money and their Donuts
• Thieves snatch shark from San Antonio Aquarium, wheel it out in a baby carriage

Emails:

• BBQ Skunk – Army and the fandom
• Tantroo – Settled into the area
• Wolfe – Thoughts and opinions

FC-305 Ant Shotgun - An extended and fully featured episode ranging from the usual stupid shit, to mindful political debate by the end.

An extended and fully featured episode ranging from the usual stupid shit, to mindful political debate by the end.

Download MP3

Link Roundup:

• Howlr Makes A Statement
• DenFur breaks record for attendance of first year
• DenFur shatters first year con record at over 2,000 attendees
• Resolume software will retweet furry gifs
• V_Werewolf’s Full Moon Club kickstarter
• Books of Monsters & Legends for IRONCLAW role-playing game Kickstarter
• Controversial poll on twitter

News:

• What’s in the box?! Three furry box subscription services
• Stealth vs blatant and the “Mouse Problem”; furry coverage in fictional media
• A Fish Has Passed The Benchmark Test Of Self-Awareness
• How to Survive Bee/Hornet or Wasps
• This Person’s Revenge Against The Impostor Using Their Email Address Is Hilariously Evil
• Sex Doll Brothel Coming to Toronto
• Sex Doll Brothel Not Coming to Toronto
• Dog owner who used pet-sitting service says he found shirtless men, lube in living room
• Florida Man Robs Krispy Kream Demands Money and their Donuts
• Thieves snatch shark from San Antonio Aquarium, wheel it out in a baby carriage

Emails:

• BBQ Skunk – Army and the fandom
• Tantroo – Settled into the area
• Wolfe – Thoughts and opinions

[Live] Ant Shotgun

Is it time to start thinking about the Holidays already? Evidently — Look what showed up in our in-box from Animation World Network: “U.S. distribution rights to Josh Hutcherson’s animated family feature Elliot: The Littlest Reindeer have been acquired by Screen Media, according to a Variety report, with a holiday season release set for November 30… In the film, written and directed by Jennifer Westcott, Blitzen announces his retirement on December 21, which gives Elliot, a miniature horse, only three days to travel to the North Pole, compete for the open spot and fulfill his lifelong dream of pulling Santa’s sleigh. Voice casting includes Hutcherson as Elliot and Samantha Bee as Hazel the goat, as well as John Cleese, Martin Short, Jeff Dunham, and Morena Baccarin.” Not sure if it’s a “release” to theaters or DVD, but we’ll find out!

image c. 2018 Awesometown Entertainment

Here is a very nice music video by BreadWolf of Eurofurence 24 and OMFG we have had 24 years of Eurofurence! Also, For his first con video I gotta say BreadWolf did a fine job. "Here is my take at this year Eurofurence as a video ! I included non fursuiters in it as a convention is not only fursuits and fursuits and it is worth remembering that. This is my first video of a furry event, it might be poor or not as good as you would expect it to be. I apologize for that and I promise I will do my best next time to deliver higher quality content ! Criticism are welcome and encouraged!"
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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Tales of the Firebirds, by Kyell Gold. Illustrated by Tess Garman.
Mountain View, CA, 24 Carat Words, June 2018, trade paperback, $14.95 (167 [+ 1] pages), eBook $6.99.

Kyell Gold is the author of the five mega-popular “Dev and Lee” novels, published by Sofawolf Press between 2009 and 2016, featuring the homosexual lovers Devlin Miski (tiger), a football star for the Chevali Firebirds, and Wiley Farrel (fox), a gay rights activist and football talent scout: Out of Position, Isolation Play, Divisions, Uncovered, and Over Time. Tales of the Firebirds is Gold’s own collection of twelve short stories about Dev, Lee, and their friends (mostly Dev’s Firebirds teammates), written to answer readers’ questions and to fill out their personalities.

Gold says in his Introduction, “Spending a decade in the Out of Position world inevitably led to me thinking about things that might have happened off the stage of the novels, first to the main characters Lee and Dev, and later to a number of the side characters. Many of the stories in this collection were published elsewhere; some were written just to explore certain characters, and one was written to round out the collection about a character who won a Twitter poll.” (p. [1]) Most were published somewhere, some appeared only on Gold’s website, and a couple is original.

Three of the stories feature Dev or Lee, mostly before they met each other. The other nine focus upon one of their friends, enemies, Lee’s father, or Coach Samuelson: Jay Cornwall (stag football player), Colin Smith (fox religious bigot), Gerrard Marvell (older coyote football player), and so on.

Since the Dev and Lee novels are about both gay relationships and football, those are the main themes of these stories. From “Halftime Entertainment” featuring Jay Cornwell:

“Later, after the game, there’ll be a quiet dinner in Crystal City’s gay neighborhood, where a big coyote and stag blend in pretty well with the rest of the gym rats from the beach. There’ll be a few drinks in a bar, maybe dancing in a club where the lights stay low and we can bump and shove without football pads between us. There’ll be time to undress slowly at his apartment, to look at each other and touch each other, to make comments on workouts and the injuries of the season, my sore shoulders, his sore knee. And there’ll be, maybe, a little time tomorrow morning before my team’s plane leaves. This moment here is all about the game and the sex, the need and the release, the here and the now, but it doesn’t stop me thinkin’ about the other stuff while I’m getting’ my hands on him.” (p. 24)

From “Heart” with Hal Kinnel (fox sports reporter):

“Chevali’s quarterback – Aston, the wolf – is not top-five. But he doesn’t turn the ball over a lot and he’s got a good arm. He’s not accurate, but his misses are usually low or out of bounds, not the kind of misses that turn into picks. The wolverine at running back gets compared unfairly to Gateway’s wolverine (Bixon, the one Lee was talking about), which is kind of like comparing me to the star of that new vampire movie because we’re both swift foxes. But Jaws is better than average, and when you factor in his durability, he’s probably top-five in the league. Maybe number six, depending on if you count Yerba’s tandem as one.

Aston marches them down the field and then the drive stalls. But they punt with good field position and pin the Pilots back inside their ten, and it’s on that series that Miski gets to make a play.

It’s second and four, and the quarterback zips the ball to the tight end. The rabbit grabs it cleanly and turns to run upfield –

–and Miski is right there, wraps him up and drives him down to the ground. There’s a hiss from near the front; I look up and see Lee at the end of a fist-pump, and realize that the hiss was the end of him saying ‘Yes!’

He catches my eye and grins, and I can’t help but grin back. His eyes sparkle and he walks over. ‘If you want to make another easy twenty,’ he says in a fox-whisper, ‘go lay some more money on the Firebirds. We’re gonna win.’” (p. 106)

It isn’t all gay sex and football. In “More Than a Game”, the marriage of Gerrard Marvell, one of Dev’s teammates, is breaking up because his wife has just found out that he cheated on her five years ago and has been paying the other woman $10,000 a month in child support:

“‘I’ll call a counselor.’ Her voice was dull. ‘Rebecca went to a good one when she and Fritz were having problems.’

‘Fritz was a second-rate safety,’ he said automatically. ‘And we don’t need a counselor.’

‘This time, we really do.’ She lifted her head and met his eyes. ‘We have to work through this.’

‘Work through what?’ He waved a paw around the room.   ‘You want me to stop sending her money, I’ll stop sending her money. Maybe there’ll be a lawsuit. That’d be good for the family, wouldn’t it?’

‘Not the money. I don’t care about the money.’ She rubbed her eyes. ‘I mean, I do. But we’re stuck in this situation now. I think you could get it down to a reasonable amount, but that’s a matter for the lawyer. Did you just give her whatever she asked for?’

He leaned back against the closet door. ‘It was my idea. I wanted her to be comfortable. I’d just signed a contract for five and a half million a year. We could afford it. What else are we going to buy Mike and Jaren, a private jet?’” (p. 143)

Art by DeusExMoose

Tales of the Firebirds (cover by Deus Ex Moose) is an unexpected collection of Gold’s excellent writing set in his Dev and Lee series. If you are a fan of those five novels, you won’t want to miss this. If you haven’t read them, This collection will ease you into that world.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• Buy e-book on Bad Dog Books

Twelve stories about characters from Kyell Gold’s award-winning “Out of Position” series. Includes all the bonus stories published in the hardcovers as well as stories published elsewhere and some never before seen, all collected in one place. Get a closer look into the lives of Dev and Lee, as well as Charm, Polecki, Colin and his wife Penny, Coach Samuelson, Hal, Brenly, Argonne, Gerrard, and Kodi.

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon.  You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward.  They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.

HEY! FIRESTREAM FRIDAY 8pm!!! be there! www.youtube.com/draggetshow also, this happened EXTRA! - mother fucking statues - HEY! FIRESTREAM FRIDAY 8pm!!! be there! www.yo…

Just wait until he finds a semi automatic weapon out there. #EarlyRocketRaccoon.
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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

ROAR Volume 9, Resistance, Edited by Mary E. Lowd.
Dallas, TX, Bad Dog Books, July 2018, trade paperback, $19.95 (297 pages), eBook $7.95.

ROAR volume 9, Bad Dog Books’ annual anthology of non-erotic furry adventure short fiction, is the fourth edited by Mary E. Lowd. It follows last year’s vol. 8 devoted to Paradise, and 2016’s vol. 7 devoted to Legends. This year’s theme is Resistance; “[…] the vision of resistance […] expressed through the voices of fifteen amazing authors.”

I suspect that Lowd accepted stories based on their quality rather than their relevance to the theme. The stories are all very good, and an excellent mix of types, although I don’t see what connection some of them have to “resistance”.

“Saguaros” by Watts Martin features Hanai, a coyote aristocrat, and Tamiisi, her shy rabbit maid, in a desert world of magic:

“Tamiisi stepped toward the wall. The neighborhood lanterns were first to meet her eyes, fixed lamps glittering from lawns and porches and thorn-trees, floating lamps trailing behind or in front of unseen travelers. As her eyes adjusted, she could trace the lines of sidewalks and carriageways, see the pennants atop the highest tents of the Great Market. Sky-fish flitted through the air, over and under the stone bridges, leaping to touch the rare flying sled. If she remained perfectly still, listened ever so closely, she could hear the clockwork birds twittering in faint harmonies as they returned to the park to roost for the night.” (p. 19)

But is the magic the coyotes’ or the rabbits’ – or someone else’s? The rabbits are unhappy with their lot, but what happens doesn’t seem to be due to anyone’s “resistance”.

In “Ghosts” by Searska GreyRaven, the resistance is that Cal, an Angora neko-form, is lesbian and rejects the straight heterosexual life her domineering father demands that she lead. Cal’s partner after he dies is Deanne, a black cat neko-form scientist trying to prove the existence of ghosts. When Cal’s father’s ghost continues to try to force her to “return to God”, the story becomes like a dramatic Ghostbusters:

“I squinted my eyes shut, and suddenly felt a burst of heat along the side of my face. My father snarled and let go, dropping me to the floor. I lay, gasping for air and opened one eye.

Deanne stood in the doorway, a heavy contraption slung over one shoulder. She held what looked like a gun from a game of laser tag in her paws.

‘What … the hell?’ I coughed. ‘Is that?’ I couldn’t think of the word.

‘Nope. It’s a spectral inverter. And it’ll scorch your retinas if you look at it!’

The ghost of my father roared and flew at Deanne, who roared right back and hit him again with a beam of red-black energy. My father dodged and laughed.” (p. 47)

Calling Cal and Denise “neko-forms” instead of just cats is necessary because there’s also a non-anthro pet cat in the story.   Also a rat-form, corvine-forms, and a lupine-form for anthro animals, plus humans. The ROAR vol. 9 cover by Kadath illustrates “Ghosts”.

In “Froggy Stews” by Humphrey Lanham, Uri, a frog, and Clyde, a sea lion, are roommates despite the disparity in their sizes:

“The [drunken] frog nodded. Clyde offered up a flipper for Uri to climb onto. On a normal day, Uri would never allow himself to be carried about by a larger animal like that. Today, however, he didn’t think he could successfully move from the sink to the couch without looking more ridiculous than he would in the arms of a sea lion.” (p. 57)

After six months, one of the two decides that the Odd Couple relationship isn’t working out. I’m not sure where the “resistance” is here. In fact, I’m not sure why a normal-sized frog and sea lion would ever decide to become roommates in a normal human house in the first place. All anthro fiction requires some acceptance of fantasy, but “Peeling off his grey turtleneck and $100 jeans” (p. 53) – this is a normal-sized, normal-physique frog? And a normal-physique sea lion doesn’t have legs. “Froggy Stews” reads smoothly, but the constant description of the frog’s physical normality (a small, hopping, cold-blooded reptile) made it impossible for me to envision him dressing in clothes, getting drunk, and living in a house-sharing relationship (a two-story house, at that) with a much-larger mammal who doesn’t have legs.

The protagonist of “Post-Isolation” by Ellis Aen is Ben Forec, a raccoon lawyer. It’s set after humanity has disappeared and anthro animals have populated Earth, but a human cast would work just as well. ENGRAM, a powerful company, has become omnipresent in society. It offers a psychological process that supposedly makes people more mentally stable. Dr. Connor Able, a German Shepherd friend of Ben’s, thinks that it does the opposite. This story has the creepiest imagery:

“The younger raccoon’s pupils were wide. So very wide. She kept staring at Ben. She was crying, but her voice went unperturbed, as if she were unaware of the fact.

‘What’s going on?’ the girl asked Ben. It was a simple question, but he couldn’t think, much less process an answer. ‘Did something happen to Jamie?’

Then the bees came. Thousands of them. They came from the ground, the walls of his home, from the vacant holes that had become the raccoon girl’s eyes. They crawled free of her flesh and left her body, flipping up tiny little patches of fur like miniature trap doors. They swirled and swarmed until there were so many of them that they blotted out the sun and all Ben could see was screaming, buzzing darkness.” (p. 63)

“Resistance” by David M Sula is set in a world of anthros and humans that has become deadly to the humans:

“He [Theo] inhaled it [the outdoor air] through his nose. It was crisp and dry, no different from any of the twenty seven autumns he’d experienced before. It even bore the same taste as before, but if Chase stepped into this atmosphere, it was almost certain that the human would catch the Chill. The disease came out of nowhere, a mutated flu virus that had evolved beyond the inconvenience this illness used to be. Anthros were immune, so immune that the virus couldn’t even survive in their bodies, but humans were so much more susceptible to it. Every day the death toll rose, but the virus mutated too fast for vaccines to have any real impact.” (p. 92)

Theo (Lion) and Chase (human), a M/M couple, have built a quarantine booth over the front door of their apartment. Theo can come and go to his job, while Chase has been trapped in their apartment for months. He gets cabin fever, which makes him bitter and threatens their relationship. The resistance here is what Chase and Theo hope will be developed to the Chill.

“The Hard Way” by Val E Ford features Liam and Katy, human soulmates. When Liam is crippled, becomes despondent, and commits suicide, Katy aches for him. But when he is reincarnated as a series of animals – short-lived animals – Katy finally says, “Enough is enough!”

That doesn’t stop him from returning, though.

“Coyote Magic” by Ryan Campbell takes place in a world of magic. Everyone (almost) has an anthro animal spirit guide. 16-year-old Pel has his heart set on something powerful like a bear or lion, but when he gets a lowly coyote – sneaky and a thief – he tries to deny it. He would rather pretend that he didn’t get any magic than that he’s coyote kin. Talk about resistance!

“The Last Roundup” by Amy Fontaine is a bittersweet story. Russ Clifford, an old Australian cattle dog who has grown up on his family’s ranch, does not resist the changing times as much as he is bewildered and trampled by the passage of time; from the cowdogs riding the plains, to their replacement by modern factory-farm methods, then the government’s declaring his ranching itself to be ecologically destructive and his ranch turned into a National Park and tourist center.

“Safe Mode” by John Giezentanner is reminiscent of E. M. Forster’s 1909 “The Machine Stops”, with furries. All industrial work of the world has been turned over to AIs. Most people can relax and do and become anything they want. Jonah has had pangolin modifications until he looks like a giant anthro natural pangolin, while Nekoda, his roommate (currently a girl), has had red panda modifications with extra fur, with the red parts turned green, until she looks like a sexless puffball. When everything stops working, nobody is worried at first:

“‘What’s going on?’ Jonah muttered.

‘I don’t know. It happened right after I got to work – everything just died. We couldn’t have classes, obviously, we had to wait for all the parents to walk down and get their kid so I was just babysitting all day. It was crazy.’

[…]

‘So…no internet at all? No drones came and delivered a message or anything?’

Her jaw pressed against him as she spoke without raising her head. ‘Nope. It was really weird.’

The feeling in Jonah’s stomach escalated to something like nausea.   ‘So it’s like this everywhere, then.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The school’s a pretty important place. Don’t you think someone would send word if they could, so you could tell the kids everything is going to be okay?’” (p. 150)

Again, it’s a good story, but I don’t see the resistance in it.

”Laotian Rhapsody” by Al Song features Duncan, the young Laotian-American Dhole lead singer of Southeast Ambrosia, a struggling rock band. He’s frustrated because he can’t make a success of either math or music, his two loves. The “resistance” is that Duncan doesn’t want to give up on his dreams. This story is steeped in Southeast Asian immigrant adjustment to American culture. The story is pleasant, but very much a funny-animal story. There’s no real need for the Laotian-American, Thai-American, Philippine-American, and Vietnamese-American youths to be Elephants, Deer, Tigers, and so on rather than humans.

“Qibla” by Bill Kieffer is set in the same world as Kieffer’s stories in his Cold Blood: Fatal Fables, but with new characters. Cecil Kanëhtaikhö, an older Rept (alligator) and Jinx Tonka, a young Warm (cat), are recent gay lovers despite very different ages and not knowing much about each other. When Cecil is called by a police station on the other side of the country to provide “expert translation” for a Fennec wearing a turban, Jinx goes along. The police captain, Captain Fisher, is an Avi (crane). The differences in “Qibla” are definitely important, from the physical differences between reptiles, mammals, and birds; the species prejudices between them; the religious prejudices; warm-blooded vs. cold-blooded, furry vs. not, and so on:

“Jinx typically slept in three or four hour shifts, whereas the Alligator usually slept like a log. The Tonk would catch a ‘cat nap’ just before dinner. His Darwinist heritage meant that he’d come from a long line of Cats that had been bred to be especially Feline. Human husbandry didn’t sit well with Cecil, but he felt he shouldn’t judge. It was no worse than their poly-cannibalism.

[…]

One shower and a good oiling later, Cecil walked down the stairs as gracefully as his short legs allowed him to. The tip of his tail tapped every other step clumsily.

Jinx wasn’t downstairs, but there was evidence that he’d been there. Half the kitchen floor had been swept clean of the fur that the Cat seemed to constantly leave behind, and the little pillowcase lined barrel that Jinx kept his excess fur in was smack dab between the kitchen and the dining room. Once a week, a ‘shed woman’ came to collect his silver-blue offerings, for reasons that were both about recycling and Darwinistic, but also thrifty. His pedigree coloring netted a few extra dollars a month.” (pgs. 184-185)

“Qibla” is powerful as a genuine furry novelette, and as a chilling suspense story as Cecil is targeted by a Warm Suprematist police officer.

“Dear Sis” by Matt Doyle is told as a six-page letter from an anonymous Trans college student to his sister. The resistance is the letter-writer’s determination to be Trans despite the social pressure against him. This is a pure funny-animal story; what species he is isn’t important.

“Every Last Paw” by Blake Hutchins is a fairy tale. Mittens the kitten gets out on Halloween Night and witnesses the battle between the Yondercat and the Greed Rat. Cute.

“Mixed Blessings” by Kittara Foxworthy is s-f. Tony, a young raccoon spaceman picking up supplies on a distant planet, is stranded there when his spaceship has to make an emergency departure. Tony sinks into the planet’s underworld and joins the resistance against the planetary government. It’s okay space opera, again with no real reason for the characters to be cougars, weasels, otters, and so on instead of humans.

“No Dogs” by KC Alpinus is a Civil Rights parable with dogs. Dominique and her daughter Taissa, terriers, are stand-ins for African-Americans in the South in the 1960s. The whole Civil Rights movement was about resistance to prejudice and inequality. I don’t see a reason for Alpinus to cast some dog breeds as the bigots and some as the fighters for equality, but maybe that’s the point. Beneath the type of fur and the shape of our muzzles, we’re all equal.

Art by Kadath

15 stories. I enjoyed them all, even “Froggy Stews” with its bizarre imagery of a talking but otherwise realistic frog and sea lion (no legs) living together in a two-story human house. Different readers will have different favorites; mine is definitely “Qibla” with its clear-cut species differences and its slowly growing threat against the protagonist. Bring on next year’s volume 10!

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Fur Planet
• Buy e-book on Bad Dog Books
• Buy on Amazon

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon.  You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward.  They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.

Another find from Comic Con, this time over at Humanoids. Nancy Peña is a French writer and cartoonist with several books to her name. Her latest is called Madame Cat, and this particular kitty is quite a character. From the publisher: “Madame means mischief in this series of slice-of-life vignettes that present the private love, laughter and frustrations of a pet who thinks she’s an owner! Whether she’s tearing up clothes, spilling ink on the carpet or filling the air with stinky tuna-breath, Madame is both wonderfully frustrating and endearingly whimsical.” Meanwhile Comics Beat has a preview, which also includes a look at the exclusive Madame plushie that’s available.

image c. 2018 Humanoids

We have come a long way in media coverage. "Explore the misunderstood community of people who like to dress up as animals. Is it a fetish? Or a way of making friends? Follow Luisa as she goes to her first Furry convention."
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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Cold Blood: Fatal Fables, by Bill Kieffer.
Capalaba, Queensland, Australia, Jaffa Books, May 2018, trade paperback, $17.00 (323 pages), Kindle $5.50.

Readers had better consider Cold Blood an adult book for all the graphic M/M sex in the original stories.

This is Kieffer’s collection of six anthro “furry noir” novelettes set in his Aesop’s World universe. Five of them feature his Brooklyn Blackie wolfdog private investigator. The sixth features Frosty Pine, a Bearded Dragon roadie of another Bearded Dragon who is a rock star. Two of them are reprints; “Brooklyn Blackie and the Unappetizing Menu” from the anthology Inhuman Acts: An Anthology of Noir, edited by Ocean Tigrox, and “Unbalanced Scales” from ROAR vol. 7, edited by Mary E. Lowd. If you liked those samples of Kieffer’s furry crime noir stories, here are more of them.

Cold Blood does not have a Table of Contents. Allow me to add one:

“Welcome to Aesop’s World”, a four–page Introduction, p. [5]

“Shepard”, p. 11

“Brooklyn Blackie and the Dude-Less Dude Ranch”, p. 61

“Brooklyn Blackie and the Rainbow in the Dark”, p. 110

“Brooklyn Blackie and the Unappetizing Menu”, p. 177

“Brooklyn Blackie and the Reverse Badger Game”, p. 233

“Unbalanced Scales”, p. 272

Kieffer’s “Aesop’s World” furry stories are set in the city of New Amsterdam, in the nation of the United and Independent States. It’s our world with differences, from barely-changed names to real supernatural forces. There are languages like Aenglish and Gallish; states like Tejas; religious figures like Xrist. The species names are the same (Dogs, Cats, Rhinos, Anoles, Roadrunner), but they’re divided into Warms, Colds (or Repts), and Avis.

Blackie is a minor character in “Shepard”. Police detective Andrew Shepard, an Alsatian, is not corrupt, but he is a sadist who gleefully beats up suspects and anyone he doesn’t like. But he’s loyal to his friends. Young Blake Black, the son of Waldo “Big Blackie” Black and his wife Lynne (wolves) is the seventh son of a seventh son, and is believed by the superstitious to be cursed. When little Blackie is kidnapped by the Illuminati Arcana cult to be sacrificed to their god, Shepard bursts into their church to rescue him. (He is really Shepard’s and Lynne’s illegitimate child.) But things aren’t what they seem:

“Ursine features registered surprise and then amusement. ‘Detective… That’s a Wheel of Exorcism, not a Wheel of Sacrifice. No one was supposed to die tonight. Once the demon is out of the boy, we are going to release him.’ The sound of a gun cocking was like punctuation to his next statement. ‘You will not be so fortunate.’

[…]

‘Lycanthropes are only one of the curses the seventh son of a seventh son might be inflicted with. In the case of Blake Black, it seems that he’s a Black Dog… the Incarnation of Death. Death is going to follow him everywhere, unless he’s purged of the demon. Brother Bleu’s death is proof of that.’” (pgs. 42-43)

Shepard’s attack interrupts the exorcism – which may not be needed if young Blackie is really not the son of Big Blackie, after all. Except that, in the following stories after he grows up, Death does seem to follow him everywhere:

“The Rhino gave the knife to the Fox. ‘You’ve released this Black Dog, this walking death, into a world ill-prepared for it. I know in your heart you believe yourself a good man, but you have always been blind to the truth. […] I forgive you for that, but will that child? You’ve condemned him to a life without satisfaction, without peace, without love.’” (p. 55)

The remaining “Brooklyn Blackie” stories are narrated by Blackie himself. “Brooklyn Blackie and the Dude-Less Dude Ranch” is set about 15 years later:

“It was 1945 and the world at large had trouble accepting Repts as people and not the alien monsters they looked like. Still, given the choice between a Warm Pervert and a Cold Xeno, they’d take the Reptile any day. My recent disgrace had me reconsidering my birth father’s advice when he’d packed me off to college in Europe. I needed to get straight. Stay straight.” (p. 62)

When Blackie became an adult, he joined the New Amsterdam City police force, but he got caught as a homosexual, which in 1945 is a huge no-no. In disgrace, he resigned from the PD and became a P.I.

The stories are so similar that there is no need to review each of them. They are all full of stereotypical cynical hard-boiled crime noir action. “I was so tired I was almost surprised that there weren’t goons waiting for us inside my room. That seemed to be how it was done in the movies.” (p. 98) “I hadn’t completely emptied yesterday’s bottle of whiskey. I poured a shot for Cecil and a shot for Ivory. I threw back the last whisper of the stuff onto my tongue. “I am [tracking a murderer]. I have no doubt the Rept I followed here killed the body they found in Harlem.” (p. 99)

It also humorously acknowledges why this world’s animal civilization ought not to work, or at least should cause Blackie constant inconveniences. “I grabbed the whiskey and practiced the complicated art of drinking out of a narrow neck bottle without spilling any out of my muzzle.” (p. 82) “I wondered how much fur I’d left behind on my own bed. Well, shed happens.” (p. 83) “Two [professional groomers] hardly spoke, except to tell me how perfectly black I was for a Wolf and that they ought to be paying me for my shed fur. Pure black was so hard to find. My privates got quiet clinical treatment while my tail was offered a braid.” (p. 84) “I didn’t dare go shirtless [in Las Vegas] with this heatsink hair growing out of my skin. I’d only cook that much faster.” (p. 85) “She called over the floor-walker to show me where the Cosmetic counter was and I thanked her. Then it occurred to me that she could have been a male as easily female. Cuckoo genders are hard to tell.” (p. 87)

Cold Blood: Fatal Fables (cover by Lew Viergacht) is for fans of what Kieffer calls “furry noir”; hard-boiled with much brutality, told with a cynical sense of humor. “Six stories of love and violence.” (blurb) The graphic M/M sex makes it very adult.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon.  You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward.  They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.

Found out about this at San Diego Comic Con: The same animation team that brought us Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom (we talked about that!) returns with a new feature called Hallowaiian. “In the vein of The Goonies, E.T., and Jurassic Park, Hallowaiian follows three kids who must put their differences aside to save the island from a monster thought only to live in legends. Kai, Leilani, Eddie and the Menehune, Hawaii’s mischievous creatures, must band together to stop the monster they have mistakenly awoken. Facing great dangers along the way, the kids realize the true meaning of courage, friendship and tradition. The voice cast stars Hawaii Five-0 alumni Teilor Grubbs and Mark Dacascos with Tia Carerre (Wayne’s World) and Kiefer O’Reilly (Howard Lovecraft).” Once again it’s directed by Sean Patrick O’Reilly from Arcana Studios. Looks like it should be available this October — of course.

image c. 2018 Arcana Studios

I would totally play this.
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Art of Robert Hill

Continuing from: Meet Robert Hill: Artist, performer, and history’s first sexy fursuiter.

Furry fandom has many members who were born after Robert Hill’s ahead-of-its-time (but perhaps underrated) role in its late 1970’s-1980’s formation. My previous introduction promised an interview. That involved some convincing to start it (so maybe others wouldn’t have gotten it?) That makes me extra happy to share it now.

For a little more background, you could browse his (very fetishy and hot) Fur Affinity gallery, or his Wiki that mentions successes in getting media notice. Some was for costuming, and some for art (like in the badly intentioned, but well exposed) MTV Sex2K documentary “Plushies and Furries.”

• Wikifur: Robert Hill
• Robertbear on FurAffinity (NSFW!)
• Robert Hill on Facebook (also NSFW)

When I say “ahead of its time” and mention MTV, the 90’s were a different time than now. Drama raged between furry fans about whether sexy stuff was acceptable, especially in reaction to media exploitation that overemphasized the fringes. A lot of the bad attention came with a nasty streak of homophobia.  In 2018, I think we know who won. It’s not about furries being indecent, it’s about radical self-expression with all kinds of supportive benefits. I’d say change didn’t come from pleading with outsiders to be nicer, but from the power of building a great community within. And the media followed along with some change from exploitation to a gentler view of loveable eccentricity.

All along, there were members who dared to explore what they wanted to express without taming it for outside recognition, but who were fiercely talented enough to get some of that too.

PATCH: I’ve shared the vid of Hilda The Bambioid from the 80’s quite a few times, calling it an amazing kind of a pioneer thing… basically the first fursuiter at a furry con. I think there might be a few others that can say that – like costumers who were active as mascots or at sci fi cons at the time – but that was the one that went on video and is known today, so I think the credit fits. Especially because it’s a pretty amazing sight to see!

Wanna talk about it a little as an intro? Is that OK?
Is it OK to credit Hilda to you, or should the character stay seperate?

ROBERT: You ask the questions and I’ll do what I can.

PATCH: Cool OK. In the 1980’s were you really into costuming? Or was that more of a sideline hobby thing?

ROBERT: I did it strictly for fun. It was an opportunity to stretch myself and study other aspects of my personality.

PATCH: How did you first get into it?

ROBERT: I’d always possessed a penchant for performing.
It was and still is “in my blood”. My mother made an open-faced lion costume for me to wear for Halloween at the age of 4 or 5.

PATCH: Fun! When did you start designing or making your own?

ROBERT: 1987. And I spent 12 years with The Mouse, as a character and stage manager.

PATCH: Did the furry thing kind of start up while you were working there, and did you juggle both activities at the same time?
And was this in California?

ROBERT: Ground zero for the “furry” fetish began in 1978 with a group called “The CFO”.

PATCH: Oh yeah, I think I’ve heard. Cartoon Fantasy Organization or something like that? Met at the LA Science fiction fan clubhouse, shared movies and involved in APA’s?

ROBERT: No, it met in the Animators Union Hall on Ventura Blvd in LA and later at various other locations.

PATCH: Ah, gotcha. I think there was some blending of fandoms, and I wasn’t there of course, so it helps to hear the details. I get some from Fred Patten who talks about the anime and science fiction fandom from then.

ROBERT: Animation buffs, both professional and otherwise would meet monthly to watch unique examples of animation, foreign and otherwise.

PATCH: I’d personally consider the 70’s to mid-80’s kind of the “proto furry” era that paved the way. I know Vootie, Rowrbrazzle and APA’s were important. I’m using ConFurence 0 in 1989 as a benchmark. It’s… It’s a bit subjective of course.

ROBERT: Fred was the consummate fan and was the adhesive that pulled it together.

PATCH: How did you first get involved?

ROBERT: A long time associate of mine whom I’d known since school – and a board artist at Filmation, contacted me and told me about the group idea that was being proposed.

PATCH: That was the CFO? Was it 1978?

ROBERT: Yes, that’s correct.

PATCH: How many people got involved right at the start?
And were you originally involved as an artist?

ROBERT: Oh about a dozen. Some just fans and others pros in the biz. I fell in somewhere in between, as I worked for The Mouse.

PATCH: Ah I gotcha. So you were with Disney as a character and stage manager in 1978, and worked there until the late 80’s, it sounds like?

ROBERT: I was an art major in college but learned nothing and did it because it was easy, I could fake it and get a decent grade. – Mid 80’s.

A rough I did for my senior comp in college, circa 1974.

PATCH: I don’t think there were many animation programs at that time – CalArts and maybe a small few others… that’s pretty neat. I know the 70’s was a really tough time for the American animation business.
But, working for Disney as a performer seems exciting.

ROBERT: I didn’t care. Animation was repetitious and frankly boring. I preferred performing.

PATCH: Can you tell me more what that was like?

ROBERT:

PATCH: That’s cool, which one were you?

ROBERT: That’s me as Eeyore summer 1973. Oh yes, by 1970 I was purchasing manga and later anime, hence the hachimaki I was wearing on my head.

PATCH: How active was the fandom stuff during all that time, from the late 70’s up to when you started designing costumes? Was it a small casual hobby thing outside of the job, or more?

ROBERT: It was composed of a relatively small cadre of individuals, both fans and pros. There were a handful of fan produced publications with a combo of human and anthro stuff.

PATCH: I like how it’s grown tremendously, so now there are people whose entire career is serving other fans with art and costume.
What kind of art were you doing at that time, before you started doing your own costumes?

ROBERT: By the mid 80’s the interest was increasing and there were more fanzines and occasional gatherings. The CFO was still very active but had swung entirely in favor of anime only.

PATCH: What was your part in things while the CFO changed?

ROBERT: I wasn’t drawing because I hadn’t the patience or desire to do so. I built models instead, as college was over by then.

PATCH: What kind of models?

ROBERT: I hung out with other like minded “funny animal” fans.
Aircraft, ships, etc on a professional level!

PATCH: Cool – what were they for?
For movie/TV or were people just buying them?

ROBERT:

An Aichi D4Y model I made in 1977, it was museum quality.
I made them for fun and for historical purposes.

PATCH: I can see how the hands on connection led to costuming.

ROBERT: I made my first model kit at 4 years old and began sculpting with clay at the same age.

PATCH: Animal anthropomorphism is a cool connection. I’m wondering how kink got involved, was it around 1987 with your first costumes?

ROBERT: I had no friends and disliked school with a passion, so I nurtured my imagination instead.

No, the “kink” went back to it’s actual inception.

PATCH: Was that part of wanting to work as a performer?
I’m curious about how Hilda came about

ROBERT: It was in my genetics..

PATCH: Was 1987 the first time you were expressing that?

ROBERT: A long time associate named Collins had created a matriarchal race of anthro deer called “Bambioids”. Out of honor to him I created Hilda.

PATCH: Cool. How daring did it feel to design, build and wear that at the time? I’m not aware of many other people doing that.

ROBERT: No one else did that as such. Again, I had no issue playing the female role and pulling it off.
I created Hilda in 1988.

PATCH: How did it go over? Like, what kind of reactions were there?

ROBERT: People were bowled over by it, to me it was no big deal.
They earnestly thought it was worn by an actual female.

PATCH: Ha yeah, the videos look awesome
Was that only at fur cons, or where else?

ROBERT: I followed Dr Frankenfurter’s philosophy: “Don’t dream it – be it!”.
Oh there were other venues as well, but mostly within the “furry” community.

PATCH: Personally I’d get a rush from being freaky and fabulous like that.

ROBERT: Odd, I never viewed it as “freaky”. It seemed perfectly normal to me.

PATCH: How many costumes would you say you have designed and built over time? And would you prefer to be known as a furry costumer/performer, or something else?

ROBERT: At least 18 over all. I’ve never felt the personal need for labeling, so I can’t really answer that.

PATCH: Can you tell me what kinds? Like were some male and others female, were there different styles of design, were some more G-rated and others not?

ROBERT: Yes, I made two “functional” male costumes but never used them as such. Some were just cute, others sexy and curvaceous..

PATCH: Where do you think you stand, as someone who was part of furry fandom when it started – like, were there others making costumes like you? I hadn’t seen any that were sexy like Hilda until at least the late 90’s, I think… is pioneer an OK word?

ROBERT: Again with the labels. I just did what I felt like and screw anyone that didn’t approve. The costume “thing” really didn’t start catching on in earnest until the early 90’s and with the advent of the net, it was unstoppable.

PATCH: Did anyone else start working with you or getting inspiration from you, or did it keep being a solo hobby?

ROBERT: To me it was simply a hobby and done for fun. Doubtless, when attended cons there a handful of other costumes that began to make themselves known. Most of them had no idea who I was, but when I’d come out to where they were just walking about, start performing and then they’d go elsewhere. They didn’t know who I was, but they sure hated me!

PATCH: Haha, they were trying to be more tame? Would you call your costuming controversial?

ROBERT: A former friend used to comment that when I made an appearance and began to be bop, they’d disappear.

PATCH: How do you think it would go over in 2018?

ROBERT: No, they had no idea of how to perform in their own costumes. I had 12 years of experience at the Mouse, that, and having it in my blood came naturally.

PATCH: Ah, OK, so it sounds like they didn’t care about the kinky, more adult part, so much as having a performer upstage them by being more interesting?

ROBERT: I’d be mocked or totally ignored, as everything out there looks like it was cut from the same cookie cutter mold, plus, all the kids that are doing it are in cliques, etc.
I dunno, I never spoke to them.

PATCH: OK, now I’m curious about your part in the infamous MTV Sex2K show. They used your art, and were you a performer in there too? What was it like?

ROBERT: Of course I was. I had a ball, as I knew how to work with the media and lived ate and drank it.

PATCH: I’d love to hear more about working with the media. Like, just with furry stuff, or with much more than that? Were there other highlights besides the MTV show?

ROBERT: I did at least 10 media based programs over the years. I didn’t come across like an illiterate bumpkin.
Oh HBO’s “Real Sex”, Discovery Channel, Tori Spelling, etc, etc.

PATCH: Cute one!

ROBERT: Myself and Tori Spelling doing her reality series: “Inn Love” in ’07.

PATCH: That’s a story in a picture… what’s going on there? Why is she smiling like that?

ROBERT: Publicity pics. Simply put.

PATCH: Ah OK. What kind of a part was it?

ROBERT: She was actually quite personable and even commented: “You know they’re going to make fun of you.” I didn’t care.

PATCH: Did they make fun?

ROBERT: It was her reality show where different people would visit her B+B.
If anyone did, I never heard it.

PATCH: If you can, I’d love if you can tell me any stories about the stuff we already got into. Like crazy, cool, fun or outrageous things that have to do with working at Disney, being in the CFO and fandom, costuming, furries in general in 2018, and the media.

ROBERT: That could quite literally fill a book in all seriousness. Perhaps, in the future, you might ask me about my drawing.

PATCH: How about just one story?

ROBERT: Now?

I wouldn’t know where to start. Do you follow my FB page at all? It speaks volumes about me.

As this posts, there’s only 15 followers for Robert Hill on Facebook (NSFW). You should check him out there.

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