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At Wondercon we found out about Oddwell: The Frog of War, a new full-color comic book written by David A. Clarke and Walter A. Bryant III with art by Acacia T. Rodarte. This is from their Facebook page: “Oddwell is a fantasy epic about a Warrior Frog, with a robotic arm, from the world of Zamanga, a beautifully dangerous world with adventure lurking around every other corner. This is the story of his quest to find a cure to save a princess and the world. The book is published by SBI Press (Rick and Morty, Moral Oral, and more). The preview, Flyra’s Flight, comes out in Starburns Presents on Free Comic Book Day, and the regular series begins release in September 2018!” So head out and look for that preview issue this month.

image c. 2018 SBI

We have here today the thesis film created Victoria from Victoria Mietus of Sheridan College. Wow, Poor wolf ... what a cruel curse.
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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Camouflage, by Kyell Gold. Illustrated by Rukis.
Dallas, TX, FurPlanet Productions, December 2017, trade paperback, $19.95 (293 pages), Kindle $9.99.

Camouflage is a spinoff of Kyell Gold’s popular five Dev and Lee novels. It features tiger footballer Devlin Miski’s cousin Danilo in a very different plot. That puts Camouflage into Gold’s Forrester University world.

Danilo is an adolescent English 19-year-old white tiger, currently studying at the Student Center of the Université Catholique in Tigue, Gallia, on the Saône River.

“Tigue, like many Gallic cities, contained many identities within her borders. The main campus of the Université Catholique lay on the edge of one of the newer parts of the city, a small suburb that had been built up twenty years ago, stretching sleek glass and elegant steel skyward. Old photos of the Université’s stately limestone buildings from before the expansion showed their red clay roofs over grey-white arches amidst of modest forests and fields. In the Presqu’Ile campus in the heart of old Tigue, ancient limestone and red clay dominated, broken up by cold grey churches, and through them, modern cars honked along the rain-slick street, though down on the riverbank, the babble of the crowd faded next to the light hiss of rain into the river.” (p. 13)

“Currently” is the year 2008, when Dev has just had his press conference in the States announcing that he’s homosexual. Danilo is much more private and withdrawn, and he’s not interested in sports. He hasn’t announced his homosexuality yet, although he does have a gay lover; Taye, a mouse Romany fellow student. (Actually he’s bisexual, but he doesn’t realize that yet.) Readers of Out of Position, the first Dev and Lee novel, will know that Dev was forced to “come out of the closet”. Danilo resents the notoriety-by-association that makes it harder to conceal his own sexual orientation.

“Gah, this was going to drive Danilo crazy. All because some cousin he’d only met a couple times decided to make his sexual preference public. Who did that, anyway? There was a question he could ask: why would you do that, declare that you’re gay in a big spectacle for everyone to see? Nobody needed to know. Maybe when you were a big football star, you lost sight of the fact that not everyone cares about your private life. Maybe you didn’t stop to think about the other people who would be affected by your actions, like your cousin across the ocean who had used you as a shield because he couldn’t play footer, and nobody in this country wanted to play cricket.” (pgs. 14-15)

Danilo’s sister Lena is thrilled by the news (“He’s the first professional athlete to come out. He’s a homosexual. Isn’t it wonderful?”), and is determined to tell everybody, which makes him feel even more exposed. He tries to get away from his classmates by retreating to a private spot he’s found, underneath an old stone bridge across the Saône.

And then suddenly, impossibly, he’s transported back in time to 1508 A.D.

Why? How? The reason doesn’t matter as much at first as just trying to stay alive in 1508 Tigue. Danilo meets two local teenagers; Théodore, a mouse very like Taye but more aggressive, and Luc, an otter. Luc takes pity on him and takes Danilo to his room within sight of Tigue’s Saint-Jean le Baptiste cathedral:

“Danilo took a moment to stare at the cathedral. In 2008, it had been impressive, but as a monument. […] Here the cathedral rose in its prime. One square tower stood behind its twin, and to their right, the arched roof extended on and on, five times longer than the largest other building Danilo could see, all of it shining bright and new.   No, wait: that part on the was something older, where the stone did not gleam as brightly. But the cathedral itself still towered over the town, even across the river, and Danilo’s paws trembled against the window. As far as he could tell, it looked the same as it had been in his time (in the real world?); he wondered whether that weird clock was there and if the other features he remembered would be the same.” (pgs. 36-37)

Gold writes a good time-travel novel. There are a few quibbles, such as Danilo peeling potatoes in 1508 before they had been introduced from South America, but no more than in most authors’ time-travel novels. The magic that transports Danilo into the past turns his 21st-century Gallic into 16th-century Gallic. Danilo finds that 1508 Gallia is filthy and disease-ridden compared to 2008. He has to get used to much less modesty than he expects. Over weeks trapped in the past, he meets friends and enemies, discovers hetero sex, and builds a new life.

More importantly, Danilo discovers what it really means that 16th-century Europe was dominated by the Catholic Church. This was the century of the Iberian Inquisition and executing heretics; and neither the Church nor society in general are tolerant of those who stray from heterosexuality.

“The otter withdrew his paw slowly. ‘Here,’ he said, ‘the first time you are caught, the Church removes a testicle. The second time, you are castrated. Fully.’” (p. 107)

Danilo, as a bisexual, can pass as heterosexual adequately, but Luc, his first and best friend, is openly gay. Tigers are unusual but not unknown in Gallia (everyone thinks he’s from far-away Etrusca), and Danilo stands out by his white fur:

“‘Well, white fur in Tigue – in Gallia – is quite rare. White-furred people are said to be pure, to be touched by God. And so you will be more welcome in the church than… well, than if you were not white, we will leave it there.’ Luc lowered his voice.” (p. 74)

Danilo’s white fur brings him to the attention of Tigue’s highest ecclesiastical authorities, for both better and worse. When Luc is arrested and condemned to mutilation and execution, Danilo determines to rescue him. Somehow.

“All he knew was that he had to rescue Luc somehow before he was castrated, if that hadn’t already happened. […] Danilo sighed and rested his head in his paws. The only other option he saw was a movie-style jailbreak. And this was a sixteenth-century jail, so it was probably pretty solid, not one where you could bust up a computer panel or fake your entry and then knock out the guard and take the key.” (pgs. 160-161)

Cover by Rukis

Camouflage (cover by Rukis) is a novel of religious mysticism more than of materialistic s-f. Gold says in his Acknowledgements that he visited Lyon, France, the model for Tigue, in 2013, and the novel is steeped in the ancient city’s anthropomorphized history.

– Fred Patten

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

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.

So a platforming pinball puzzle that's a bit like Sonic Spinball pushed though Studio Ghibli that stars a pillbug postman that wakes up gods? Ok, sure...? "Meet Yoku, the pint-sized postman protagonist of Yoku's Island Express! Use a unique blend of pinball mechanics, platforming and open world exploration to unlock the secrets of Mokumana Island, help the locals, awaken ancient deities and much more in this amazing new tropical adventure!"
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(Adult content)

Armed with a ukelele and raunchy/smart songs like “Fuck My Toe”, Rachel Lark is an Oakland, CA based singer-songwriter with a fierce and funny voice. She has a new song, “Naughty Bits”, that playfully protests against sex-negative politics. It’s a response to SESTA, a law against sex trafficking that throws free expression under the bus. Furry dating site Pounced closed in fear of overreach of the law.

For those of you who don’t know what’s up with SESTA (and I’m not judging, there’s a lot going on these days) here’s what you should know….

1. It equates all sex work with sex trafficking (not the same thing)
2. It hurts sex workers AND victims of sex trafficking
3. It has serious and scary implications for free speech on the internet
4. It potentially criminalizes sex worker solidarity and advocacy

This law sucks, but when things suck, we make art, and that’s the only way out of the despair. – Rachel Lark

Rachel wrote an in-depth article about this: SESTA, Sex Work, and Art in the Age of Trump.

Her music career has included work with Dan Savage, media personality from the Savage Love column and podcast. That should tell you that her songs are perverted in a socially redeeming way. She plays at Bawdy Storytelling, a popular San Francisco performance series. (They warmly welcome furries). It’s not radio music, but now I have to compare her to artists like Moby or the Dandy Warhols, who are my evidence that successful artists use furries in music videos.

Rachel’s need for furries for the “Naughty Bits” video reached me early on a Sunday morning. The call for help came with almost no notice. I read a tip about it while waking up at a furry house party. It was full of so many cuddling animals that I crashed on the kitchen floor at 4AM.

Hey, San Francisco! @rachellarkmusic is shooting a music video about #SESTA and she needs furries! Are you a furry that can be in her video today? Reply to this tweet!

— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) April 21, 2018

A super fun furry party with super cool furries! pic.twitter.com/vg4VMOK6K8

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) April 22, 2018

Rachel had missed 3 furry parties in one day, including that private-invite cuddle party. Half of the Bay Area Furry community must have come out for all of them and it would have been a great opportunity to shoot.  But in the morning nobody had energy to come with me. She needed two fursuiters and I was alone. So I took both of my suits to Rachel’s house, where her non-furry helper was waiting to gear up with me.

“Sorry about the short notice”, Rachel told me while I unpacked in her living room. “I wrote the song and got it recorded with a video in 8 days. That’s a thing about making art in the age of Trump. If you don’t do it right away, every day some new scandal pops up and makes people forget the previous one.”

We traded chat about furry lore and the practicalities of suiting, and Rachel was as curious as could be, unlike an outsider looking for a jolt of sensationalism. She was just being an artist with a vision that needed both of my fursonas to cuddle. Of course, that wasn’t hot at all. It was just doing my professional duty to partner with an innocent yet enthusiastic non-furry and fluff him up.

Nuzzling for the video

Furry cuddling only got in a few shots of the video (3:40, 4:20 and 5:00) but it was worth the effort. I met the crew, spread goodwill and got a look at the production. The video has fabulous drag, puppy players (one is a furry too) and slow-motion flogging. The song starts with slow fingersnaps and swells into an epic chorus. Try some of her music, and think, what if we got her to do a show with Pepper Coyote or a furry song?

When puritans try to wipe out expression, artists are on the same side together. I’d already been in music videos with shared associates with Rachel. This was part of a thriving local subculture and I’m glad furries were included as a vital part of it.

• Rachellark.com
• Rachel on Bandcamp
• Rachel’s Soundcloud
• Her Twitter

Thanks to Summercat for this guest post.

Here’s the Kickstarter for Backbone. I’ll save you reading the article. Go check it out. I am more than impressed; I am excited.

Still here? Okay fine, I’ll elaborate.

Backbone, by indie developer Eggnut, is a “pixel art cinematic adventure with stealth and action elements” set in a dystopian retro-future Vancouver, filled with the sounds of Jazz, the scents of Anthropomorphic Animals, and murder.

You play as Howard Lotor (cough), a raccoon Private Investigator who, in typical noir fashion, gets drawn into cases he might otherwise have avoided. You’re free to investigate the cases how you choose, finding clues in the city of Vancouver – including real world locations.

The game boasts these fun points:

• Original doom jazz OST.
• There is a technology that will make you grow out a huge bear claw out of your small raccoon body.

There’s your standard combat and stealth mechanics, but something they also stuck in is scent – a mechanic that simply wouldn’t work with human characters, but it’s so obvious in a world of anthro animals.

The inclusion of scent as an important mechanic impressed me more than the detailed pixel art, but what got me excited for Backbone is how well put together the project appears to be.

EggNut may be a new indie developer but they appear to have all their ducks in a row – pre-production has been ongoing for a year, and they have mostly completed a working demo level, with an expected Summer release. They even have someone designated as a project manager, and the kickstarter itself shows a level of cohesion that I don’t often see.

Based upon what I see, I’m in. The gameplay looks intriguing, the art, noir aesthetics and original jazz music are pleasing, and I’ve got a good feeling about the developer. I recommend you check out Backbone’s Kickstarter for yourself.

– Summercat

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.

Just a sweet cow commercial for polish milk product Łaciate. Nothing much else to say.
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reminder that these stream SUNDAY @7pm on YouTube if you would like to join the chat! for all things Dragget: www.draggetshow.com Here is video of it at the con! -- https://youtu.be/99KcDNRCS1k Our Patreon w/ great new rewards! www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow Telegram Chat: t.me/draggetshow Dungeons & Draggets #13 - reminder that these stream SUNDAY @7pm on YouTube…

Furries are on a list of news articles by Kim Wall:

• How Cubans deliver culture without internet
• Inside the Ugandan Mall at the Center of China’s East African Investments
• Asian, queer and dancing defiance: ‘Everything we do now is resistance’
• When China’s Feminists Came to Washington
• Ghost Stories: Idi Amin’s torture chambers
• The Magic Kingdom Meets the Middle Kingdom in Shanghai Disneyland
• Tour Buses to Sri Lanka’s Battlefields
• Can This Tiny Island Restore Haitian Tourism?
• It’s not about sex, it’s about identity: why furries are unique among fan cultures

Does it feel special to be on such an interesting list? It’s on a site for Kim Wall and her work. She was an independent journalist writing about identity, gender, pop-culture, social justice and foreign policy. Tributes from people who knew her paint a portrait of a talented person full of curiosity, who made a warm and lasting impression. Her stories spread that vibe on behalf of their subjects.

This headline understands- “It’s not about sex, it’s about identity: why furries are unique among fan cultures”. The story mentions bad media attention and furries being targets of hate while they celebrate self-expression. In my opinion, we were lucky to get such a good story and it’s one of a handful of the best you can find. This is why to welcome media notice if this little subculture is going to get it.

She loved the idea of fursonas. From a tribute by one of her colleagues, Claire Cameron:

“Kim and I talked about subcultures a lot. I love subcultures, but just for my own interest. When I was younger, I was a goth and a steam punk and I was into body modification, so Kim was fascinated to learn all about it. I love talking about it, so we made a good match. More recently, we talked about even more unusual and niche subcultures — people who install microchips into themselves, for example, so that they can use their own hand as the card key to a building, or some other piece of machinery, and see themselves as cyborgs.

At one point she asked me what I thought my “fursona” would be — the persona I would take on if I were a furry. I told her I hadn’t thought about it, and she was shocked. I asked what her fursona was, and she said “When I was with the designer, she asked me and I just knew immediately, I don’t know why! I am a fox!” Of course she was.

Some of these conversations turned into stories — interviews with vampires and exposés of furry identity and days with desnudas — they are all stories I wish I had written, but I am so proud that Kim wrote them. She did them justice in a way most writers would not. She looked in from the margins and brought the weird and the wonderful into the light — never to mock or to sensationalize, but to tell the story of her subjects with grace and dignity.”

The circumstances of her murder made a dark side to the positivity she found in creative subculture. I was reminded to share the fandom connection and a tribute, because her killer Peter Madsen was convicted this week.

She had been trying to interview Madsen, an eccentric media figure and hobbyist/maker who built rockets and crowdfunded a submarine. I think it was a similar nerdy obsession that drew her to furries, but his took a twisted path with fantasies about sexual torture. He took her for a ride where he carried it out, dumping her body in the sea. She was killed while doing a job she loved like any good journalist would have done.

Danger was part of her writing, with fearless travel to war zones. It was part of her feminism. One irony of the story is how she was killed close to home while feeling safe – that’s not how one expects a journalist to die at work. It’s impossible to separate those circumstances from her concern for social justice, and the way she wrote about furries without othering or phobia, which would have been misplaced in light of where the real harm came from.

The killer had ties to the dark side of subculture. His team was active on Something Awful, the forum that spread hate about furries for many years. That hate was considered ironic, but he collected real videos of torture and murder found on his computer. And he “ironically” admired the Third Reich, styling himself as a military captain for his submarine while criticizing authorities and wanting to play by his own rules. Isn’t that sounding like a familiar checklist?

Furries often teach each other to distrust outside media, but subcultures can contain their own worst enemies (like the hate movements of Gamergate, that tied to the alt-right and it’s bastard child altfurry.) Reactionaries spread anti-intellectualism about “fake news”, but Kim’s article about furries makes an antithesis. I think she saw that what drags us down is lesser than our power to define ourselves as a group.

While the killer stays in prison for life, the bright side will carry on. I asked Menagerie Workshop about being a source for Kim’s article, and was told: “She was a very pleasant person to work with. Her genuine curiosity about the furry fandom was refreshing, she really seemed interested in knowing more about the idea behind the fandom and why people were into it.” It was  mutual.

Amazing artical, beautiful video, Really sad to see such a inspiration go, But I know She Will Live On Within The Fursona of the furry fandom, Thank you Kim

— Aggreskunko (@Viviomana) April 26, 2018

As a dane I've been following the case of her murder really closely. It's insane for something so bizarre to happen in my little country. I'm glad you linked this article, because it shows how many different things Kim wrote about. May she rest in peace.

— Mollybooboo (@MollyMalou87) April 27, 2018

I never knew of this article, and I'm sad to know that we've lost someone that really understood the fandom. Her depth shows a real effort to understand what I the furry fandom is at its core. I am glad that some sort of justice has been found for her.

— Lucavi LaFitte (@LucaviLaFitte) April 27, 2018

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.

We found this article over at Variety: “Production is now under way on Wish Dragon, a major animated feature being made in China for Sony’s Columbia Pictures Film Production. The film is a first feature for Base Animation, the new animation studio that is part of Beijing-based VFX firm BaseFX, and for Chinese super star Jackie Chan. Chan’s Sparkle Roll Media is a producer and co-investor, and Chan will voice characters in both the Chinese- and English-language versions of the finished picture. The family-oriented film is being directed by Chris Appelhans (illustrator on Coraline) from his own original screenplay. The modern-day fairy tale picks up the moral challenges that emerge from the encounter between a boy and a dragon who is able to make wishes come true… The U.S. voice cast includes Fresh off the Boat star Constance Wu, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Jimmy Wong, and Bobby Lee, alongside Chan.” Base Animation is hoping to have the film ready for release in 2019.

image c. 2018 Base Animation

Roo and Tugs are joined by the incredibly talented Sean Chiplock to discuss his career as a voice actor in this double length episode. Sean has been in a few small productions such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Revali, Teba, the Great Deku Tree), The Bedfellows (Sheen and Fatigue), Re:Zero (Subaru), Fire Emblem Shadows of Valentia (Jerome), Killer Instinct (Rash), and so many more! The fun starts from the moment he comes on and it runs until the last moment! Roo and Tugs open a mysterious box......along with Space News, Olde Timey Ads, and Get Psyched! NOTE: Due to some technical configuration issues some of the audio in this episode was compromised. Sorry!





NOW LISTEN!
SHOW NOTES
Special Thanks

Sean Chiplock - our guest! Check out his amazing work in your local copy of Breath of the Wild and in Funimation's upcoming Re:Zero. The trailer is below, too!



Dronon
Wes
LukarWuff
Kit
The crew at Furry Mystery Box, for their amazing box of goodies!

Music

Opening Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Century Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller– Cloud Fields (Radio Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Space News Music: Fredrik Miller – Orbit. USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Closing Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Headnodic Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)

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Next episode: Seuxal positivity, Leather, Kink and Sex Master Michael Sanders joins the cast! S7 Episode 13 – Such Incredible Range! - Roo and Tugs are joined by the incredibly talented Sean Chiplock to discuss his career as a voice actor in this double length episode. Sean has been in a few small productions such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of

Why? Why are Europeans such scum? I cannot understand. It's almost unreal how a race so greedy, vile, agressive and warlike can exist. No, I won't consider the fact that "European" isn't a race on it's own, but they... I just can't take it. 

Thieves and murderers. Bandits and barbarians. Terrorists disguised in uniforms. 

They've done all sorts of things but still have the audacity to call themselves the beacon of peace and love? The cradle of technology and civilized growth? After all the people they slaughtered, the wealth they violently took from the rest of the world. They're like parasites. And they STILL believe themselves to have the higher ground?!

"Moral superiority"? "Protectors of peace and mankind"?! ""Prestige?!"" Wealth?! """Culture"""???? .......... BULL-FUCKING-HORSE SHIT! None of what they own today is their own! NOTHING!!! 

Global empires built on foreign blood and tears, they hold no regard for human life. Pretty ironic of them to act like peacekeepers and protectors of human rights and civilization when they're the CORE of all those problems they're trying to fix, and they aren't even going to accept the responsibility. Their feeling of false superiority is more important than the world suffering. 

They say we, people of the Middle East are "primitive and stupid", that Africa is a "backwater shithole" BECAUSE it's the Africans' own fault, that Eastern Europe is lagging behind because they aren't as "cultured" or "superior" as the Western Europeans. None of that is true. All of those regions are like this directly due to the fact that European scum came to plunder, loot, burn, murder, fuck and take away. 

There exist no continent, on which the European cockroaches didn't make their move. Native Americans nearly wiped out, Africans and Indians race crippling poverty, Eastern Europe is lagging behind, Asia isn't looking good either, I won't even mention the Middle East and South America.

"Kill and steal, for wealth and glory!!!".

National Socialism? Imperialism? Capitalism? Nuclear Weapons? Battle poison? Genocide of the natives worldwide? Concentration camps? Colonialism? 2 FUCKING WORLD WARS LED DUE TO WESTERN GREED, millions of dead, not 100 years ago??!!?!

The European man doesn't seem to mind (when I say European, that counts the "Americans/European immigrants", they have no RIGHT to call themselves "American"), why, he's the man in the high castle, isn't he? He surely must have gotten "so high" because of his superb intelligence, strategy and culture, and not because he was the ONLY one who's capable of launching global colonial massacre and looting campaigns against "the lower races". No, they must be so wealthy and prosperous because they are so cultured and freedom/democracy-loving? Because they're "so good" and we're "so bad". 

The white race is the scum of the Earth. There is no race so lowly and unhuman to have killed the most people, burned and looted most settlements, massacred more innocent civilians, enslaved and exterminated more cultures, declared more wars... Than the whiteys. And they STILL feel superior to all other races. 

And the ones that aren't scum (hopefully there are many today), what did they do? "Oh, welp, can't change the past :)!". Living in luxury, having more than 70% of the world's wealth centered in 5 countries, all of which you know certainly.

And after all of this, we're supposed to be PRIMITIVE? WE'RE SCUM?! We're at fault because we had our wealth, lives and culture taken away from us?! Being forced to speak the language of the murderer and the tyrant?

They look at us the same way they look at the dog or the ugly spider. We are trash? And they... 

Forget it. This world sucks. All because of West Europe. The core of all mischief and misfortune. The home of the delusional man who believes himself to be the saviour of mankind, civilization, culture and technological advancement.

Why does it matter now... They've already taken everything the rest of the world had. And the countries that could've opposed West Europe aren't here anymore, no matter how flawed those countries were, they were truly more of a saviour than the West ever will be.

Why won't they stop even now? Don't they have enough?!?!?! They're still trying to rob us even when we have SO LITTLE COMPARED TO THEM! 

DAMN YOU ALLL! I HATE THEM ALL! Why won't you just leave us be? Why, why, why why why why why?

Icarus (age 26, Egypt)

* * *

Dear Icarus,

There is a lot going on in your email for sure. To answer your questions fully, it would literally take many books. I am going to try and address your issues concisely and clearly if I can, and you can take them as you wish. I'm not sure whether you know this, but your email is addressed to a man whose ancestors came from England, Germany, and Russia. So, given that my blood comes from Western European (and Eastern) scum, you might not wish to listen, I don't know.

To begin with, I don't disagree with you. Many of the world's problems today—especially in continents such as Africa and Asia—can be traced back to the period of European colonialism. To put it in fundamental terms, the problem is that Europeans came in, carved out large sections of land, declared them as "theirs," and totally raped them. One example of this would be the slave trade from Africa to the United States (although it should be noted that many African tribes got into the business of selling rival tribe members to the British). Another, more recent, example is Palestine. Basically, what happened there is that, after World War II, the Europeans shipped out a lot of the Jews to Palestine because they didn't want them in Europe (the Jews were happy to leave after the Holocaust, of course), and they kicked out the Palestinians, who had been living in what is now Israel, for centuries, without a second thought. It is a grave injustice, and I completely sympathize with the rage of the Palestinian people. They have been treated like garbage, and it coincides with your statement that the Europeans feel superior and thought absolutely nothing about treating the Palestinians like they didn't matter and they could just kick them out of their homes.

Then, as European powers began to collapse overseas, they abandoned their colonies and allowed them, one by one, to gain independence. The problem was that the borders that were created were based upon colonial borders. This meant that various tribes and ethnic cultures were thrust together artificially and told they were one nation. These people didn't really get along, and the result was a lot of internal strife. The wise thing to do would have been to create countries based on where various tribes had settled. Another problem was that the Europeans didn't help their former colonies transition into republics. Instead, they left them with holes in leadership, which made it possible for various military dictatorships to arise. Finally, because many of the natural resources had been raped by Europeans, they often didn't leave those countries much to get by on; too, when you are busy fighting internal wars there is not much opportunity to grow your economy.

Yes, many of these countries now struggle, but it is because they have not recovered from being colonies yet. These things take time (many countries didn't become independent until the mid-twentieth century), but I do see hope for many of these nations. One example of this is Vietnam. After France and the Americans finally left these people alone, the country has recovered and is now doing much better. One might say, "Oh! But the Communists took over Vietnam!" So what? If you look at it objectively, Vietnam is doing very well under Communism, thank you very much. China is, too, actually. It is not the political system that matters, it is how that system is run.  A "democracy" can be just as bad as a monarchy if it is run by corrupt people. Whether a country is socialist or democratic or a monarchy, it can be okay for the people provided they are allowed to live, work, practice their religion, get an education, and not be harassed by the country's leadership. The USA touts itself as a democracy, but that is inaccurate. We are a republic and one that has been downgraded recently to a "flawed democracy" because of Trump and the Republicans.

That said, let's go back to the generalization of evil white Europeans. We need to take a longer, historical look at human history to see that there have been many empires in the past that have used and exploited people. China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, unified China by oppressing all its minorities, taking over their lands, telling them they could not speak their own languages or practice their own cultures, so that he forced a monoculture on all he surveyed. The Mongols were the terror of Asia and half Europe for many years, creating one of the biggest empires in human history. The Byzantine Empire enslaved the Jews and many other people when it was the dominant power in the Middle East. The Ayyubib Sultans and Muslim caliphs also enslaved people and forced many of them into their militaries.  The Kingdom of Kongo enslaved the conquered Mwene Kabunga people.

I could go on and on, but the point is that those people who were killed and enslaved by those various empires probably felt the same way about their conquerors as you do now about Europeans.

The problem is not white people. The problem is human beings.  Humans have this flaw in which they crave power, and when they get that power they inevitably abuse it. Fast forward to the United States of America. The USA was actually a pretty weak country on the international scene until they flexed their muscles in World War II and became a superpower. Of course, by this point we had a long history of oppressing and killing people (Africans, Native Americans), but once we helped defeat Germany and Japan we developed this illness in which we saw ourselves as the saviors of the world (not entirely true, since actually, the Soviet Union was the country that turned the tide on Hitler when they chased them off the eastern front). Anyway, we got this big ol' freakin' chip on our shoulder and started telling everyone what to do with their countries. This has been a disaster, especially when it became clear that we were supporting various dictators (e.g., the Shah of Iran) because they had oil, and we bombed the crap out of countries that refused to cooperate fully with us (e.g. Iraq) while telling the world it was because they were evil. Meanwhile, we are good buddies with Saudi Arabia, a long-time secret sponsor of terrorism, because they sell us oil.

But America is now weakening, and despite your rant about Europeans, their countries have weakened considerably as well. Next country at bat is China. Watch them as they become the new superpower and I guarantee you that you will see them abuse their power wherever they can (they are already making moves on Southeast Asia with the artificial islands they are creating as places for naval bases).

White Europeans are not superior. Nor is anyone else. It's just that at this point in history (and it might seem like a long period, but centuries are really only a blip in history) they are holding the cards. But all empires rise and fall. Europe has fallen; America is currently falling; China will rise and then, inevitably, fall as well. Power is an illusion.

Now, let's address materialism. You correctly rant that Westerners are hogging the world's resources. Indeed, it is said that each American baby that is born will use 10x the resources during their lifetime as someone born in a--pardon me for using this term--"third world" country. Yes, we are materially prosperous, but that is not all good. Surveys show that Americans are extremely depressed and unhappy. Why? Because we are too concerned about money and things. Meanwhile, travelers to places like Africa, even poor countries, witness that these people are much happier because they have much stronger community bonds (the ones not torn by war, of course). As for Europeans, they actually, in general, are content to have "less" than Americans. They tend to live in much smaller abodes, own fewer cars (because public transportation is so much better than in America), and are not gluttons. We are already seeing the effects of runaway capitalism, gluttony, and greed in America as the nation is being torn apart because of the 1% hoarding the money. The average American these days is doing worse than their parents did. And so it goes.

So, to answer what I feel is the essence of your question: it is not all the fault of western Europe alone that the "world sucks." It is because of human nature that there are wars and poverty when there doesn't need to be. You must be careful, Icarus, not to stereotype people because of their color or nationality. That is the road to prejudice, which is likewise a big reason why there is so much hate in the world. Giving in to hate will only destroy your spirit and make you suffer more. In other words, it hurts you more than it does them.

It is easy to give in to hate and despair, Icarus. I have been guilty of it, too. And I wish to thank you for writing me because it made me stop and think about things, and you have made me feel a little better for doing so. While I am not saying that you or I can stop all the misery in the world, I would like to suggest that both of us would do much better to try and be good people, help those around us, and be shining lights in the darkness. As they say, think globally, act locally. The best weapon against hatred is not hatred. It's love. (Also humor; making fun of politicians is great fun).

Icarus, you have chosen an interesting name, a name from Greek mythology about a man who tried to fly and touch the sun only to go down in flames. It is a story of the hubris of humanity to think we can be equal to the gods. Just like Icarus, empires try to claim the sun as their own and they inevitably crash and burn.

Do not be like the empires. Be humble, kind, and loving. Then you will find peace because nothing in the world is so worth having as love in your heart.

I hope that helps.

Hugs,
Papabear

Hello Papa!

There has been trouble with me lately. You know how most people get crushes in school? Well I have one. It's a girl and her name is Sylina.

The problem is that I have had, well, very mature feelings. Okay let's be honest here, more like "sexual" feelings. This would be okay, if I were much older, but I'm still in school. It's very confusing that someone this young could get these feelings in the first place, but why? Is there something wrong with me? What is it? I don't know how someone can answer these questions but still, if you can answer, why and how do I deal with this?

Anonymous (age 12)

* * *

Dear Furiend,

Sorry for the late reply. I had to take a break from the column for a while, but I'm back now.

While being 12 does seem young to many people, the truth is that females have been reaching puberty at an earlier and earlier age. Thirteen is now the average, so at 12 if you are hitting puberty that is just on the lower side of the average. Here is an article about this trend, which, sad to say, could mean some health problems for women as they age.

Now the problem we have is that, in our society today, young teens are not established to support themselves financially and career-wise until at least their late teens, yet biologically we are seeing teens reaching sexual maturity in their early teens and sometimes as early as 9 or 10. The danger here, of course, is that very young people could start engaging in sex, possibly even having children at too early an age, putting stress on themselves, their families, and society in general. As you are clearly aware, this is going to make you question a lot of things in your life.

The first thing for you to understand, however, is that your feelings do not mean there is "something wrong" with you. There is nothing wrong with you that isn't happening to everyone else your age, you just have the courage to talk about it.

My suggestion is that you talk to the nurse's office in your school (you should have one, yes?) and, even better, talk to a school counselor if one is available. If you attend a church or temple, you could also seek some advice there if that makes you more comfortable. You need to arm yourself with information so that you are not working in the dark. You can also check out this helpful website designed just for you and your questions.

Good Luck!

Hugs,
Papabear

So for arbor day I give you a squirrel that won a ASUC Senate seat at UC Berkeley. Don't blame me, I voted for Tipppy Toes. [1] [1] https://furry.today/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image.gif
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Over at The Wrap they’re talking about three new animated features that Paramount Pictures have announced for their upcoming film line-up. One in particular should be of note to furry fans — especially since we’ve talked about the source material before. Monster on the Hill is a film adaptation of the graphic novel by Rob Harrell. Paramount’s description goes like this: “In a world where monsters are tame and monster wrestling is a popular sport, teenage Winnie seeks to follow in her father’s footsteps as a manager by turning an inexperienced monster into a contender.” That’s a little bit different than the original storyline, so we’ll see how it goes. This we got from Cartoon Brew: “Monster on the Hill will be helmed by Bradley Raymond, a veteran director of direct-to-video Disney fare (The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, The Lion King 1-1/2, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue) from a screenplay by Matt Lieberman (upcoming The Addams Family, Dr. Dolittle: Tail to the Chief) and Etan Cohen (Men in Black 3, Tropic Thunder, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa). Monster on the Hill will be produced by ReelFX (Free Birds), which first announced it was developing the project back in 2015, and Walden Media.” Look for it in 2020.

image c. 2018 Top Shelf Productions

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

High Steaks, by Daniel Potter.
El Cerrito, CA, Fallen Kitten Productions, January 2018, trade paperback, $13.99 (373 pages), Kindle $1.99.

This is Book 3 of Potter’s Freelance Familiars series, following Off Leash and Marking Territory. It follows the events in Books #1 and #2 without a What Has Gone Before, so you really need to have read the first two. Or just dive into the action.

Thomas Khatt, an unemployed librarian in Grantsville, PA, leaves a coffee shop (along with another customer) after sending out job résumés. A hit-&-run driver kills the man standing next to him, and Thomas suddenly finds himself transformed into an unanthropomorphized cougar.

In Off Leash, Thomas learns that he has been transported to “the Real World beyond the veil” that is ruled by magic. He is given the power of speech, but that’s all. He is told that he is expected to become the familiar of a wizard or witch; an involuntary magical assistant – in practice, a slave to a magus, for life.

“Yet one thing had become crystal clear; I wanted no part of this world. Losing my thumbs, my house and my girlfriend in exchange for the chance to be sold off to some pimple-faced apprentice did not sound like a fair deal to me.” (Off Leash, p. 35)

To quote from my review of Off Leash:

“Thomas decides to take charge of his own life, even if he is not familiar with the Real World yet. He faces the dangers of our “world beyond the Veil” […], and of the Real World, refusing to join the TAU [Talking Animal Union] or to become bound to a magus – or to an apprentice – as a familiar.”

“To stay off the leash, he’ll have to take advantage of the chaos caused by the local Archmagus’ death and help the Inquisition solve his murder. A pyromaniac squirrel, religious werewolves, and cat-hating cops all add to the pandemonium as Thomas attempts to become the first Freelance Familiar.” (Off Leash; blurb)

Thomas solves the murder and gains an ally; Rudy, the wise-cracking pyromaniac squirrel. In Marking Territory, Thomas becomes involved in magical politics, his werewolf girlfriend is turned into a werecow, and Grantsville is destroyed in the magus’ crossfire. Now it’s eight months later. Thomas and Rudy have led the survivors to Las Vegas – or under it:

“Into this [the Las Vegas underground flood tunnels] had walked about nine thousand people whose town – my town, Grantsville – had been put into a blender, along with six other realities. With help, I’d managed to get most of them out before everyone got liquefied into a refreshing transdimensional smoothie. In the eight months since, those with mutations that could be covered up or which had simply faded with time had found jobs in the above city or had migrated away. The less fortunate had founded small communities in the tunnels, each sustained by donations from those who had left.

The Ranch was the largest of those communities. The residents had all been blended with animals generally found in the barnyard. Trevor and I approached the gate to the Stables, the portion of the Ranch that housed those Grantsvillians whose mutations had gotten worse instead of fading. So complete were their transformations that the lucky ones – the dogs and cats – had been taken on as familiars by the magi above. The rest – the prey animals, those with hoofed feet and limited binocular vision who made poor familiars – were down here without much hope of ever leaving.” (pgs. 14-15)

There are plenty of human-animal blends:

“I threaded around a pair of horses that were playing chess on a high table and nearly tripped over a chicken. […] Horses, cows, goats, and a few sheep loitered in the central aisle, socializing and talking trivialities. […]

A black goat with a pencil in his mouth looked up from the laptop he had been prodding. ‘H-e-e-e-y freelancers!’ he bayed.

‘Hi, Jet.’ The goat was one of the few residents of the Stables who showed no fear in my presence. I came to a stop and blinked. His horns had been painted glow-in-the-dark green.

‘Nice horns. Really goes with the black,’ Rudy snickered.

The goat grinned. ‘Somebody from above sent us a case of the stuff, and now some of the young ‘uns are trying to scrounge up black lights. I’ll let you know when the dance party begins. Gonna be eighties all the way.’ His ears flicked with amusement, and his tail waggled.” (pgs. 17-18)

But the Grantsvillian animal-people are going stir-crazy living hidden in the drainage tunnels underneath Las Vegas. In the Real World, Las Vegas is openly ruled by the Council of Merlins, the five magical Houses (the Council knows the Grantsvillians are there; it apparently doesn’t care), and its allied Talking Animal Union run by Oric, an owl. Officially the TAU is a labor union for familiars that makes sure the familiars are not mistreated by their magi. In practice, Oric and the TAU make sure that the familiars do what the magi tell them to do.

By immemorial tradition, an animal familiar is bound to a human wizard or witch for life. Thomas wants to change that. If he has to be a cougar, he wants to be able to pick his magus, and to switch from magus to magus at his will – to become a Freelance Familiar. By refusing to join the TAU and coming to Las Vegas, Thomas and his only two allies – Rudy the squirrel, and O’Meara, a disbarred witch – are openly challenging the whole Council of Merlins and Oric.

Officially, Thomas and Rudy sign a contract as the Freelance Familiars with House Picatrix (which is headquartered at the Luxor) to do one temporary job. Unofficially, it will prove that familiars don’t need the TAU. Behind the scenes, some of the magi (but which?) plus Oric are trying to kill the cougar and squirrel (and their lone witch ally). The three Freelance Familiars, and the semihuman Grantsvillians beneath Las Vegas, are in for the supernatural fight of their lives against all the organized wizards and witches who rule Las Vegas, plus the TAU’s corrupt owl, not to mention the werewolves and vampire ghosts.

The animals are mostly unanthropomorphized except for being intelligent and able to talk:

“There, pulled up to the curb, was a pristine white limo that would have been quite classy if not for the line of bullet holes that raked its side. Before either of us could recover, the passenger door of the cab popped open, and a capybara in a smart-looking chauffeur’s cap leapt out. He had a plastic water bottle clasped in his jaws. The dog-sized rodent hurried down the length of the limo and splashed water against the silver door handle. There was a hissing sound, and steam rose from the metal. The bottle bounced on the ground while the capybara popped open the handle with his teeth. With a quick backwards hind-legged hop, the door yawned open. Rudy lay sprawled belly up on the seat next to a martini glass full of shelled hazelnuts.

He waved.” (p. 77) [The two Capy Bros. run the limo service. One steers while the other works the gas and brake pedals. The water bottle doesn’t have any magical significance; it’s hot outdoors in daytime in Las Vegas!]

“‘It is far too early for an employee to be drinking.’ A smooth voice pulled my eyes away from the woman and back to the doorway of the bar. A cheetah stalked toward me. His body appeared to be thin and breakable, but his motions spoke of supreme confidence. The patrons of the bar shifted uneasily; mugs of golden liquid were quickly pulled out of his line of sight. The tension in the bar ratcheted up several notches, and the air around us threatened to snap in half.” (p. 84)

“Where Bobby had sat, a coyote the size of a horse flashed an omnidirectional grin. She tossed her head back and howled like a hurricane. A downpour of power surged through the room, pinning me to the stool. Glasses shattered, the beer running over the tables as the employees desperately covered their ears. The howl faded, and Bobby trotted out into the casino, past the fallen linemen.” (p. 190)

High Steaks (cover by Ebooklaunch.com, which presumably means that Potter paid Amazon/CreateSpace the maximum to have it printed, well proofread, cover-customized, and published under his own imprint) features necromantic attacks (“‘You can’t be too paranoid in Vegas.’”), bar brawls, assassinations, pathos (“A crying cow was not a pretty sight.”), a sorcerous heist caper, a deadly romance between Thomas and another cougar familiar (a feline femme fatale), the Freelance Familiars vs. the TAU (Thomas vs. Oric), Rudy firing bombs and rockets (“‘Booooooom, baby!’”), and all the talking animals that a furry fan could want. Don’t miss the Fallen Kitten Productions’ website for a free Freelance Familiars short story.

– Fred Patten

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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.

Autumn Frederickson is another fantasy artist whose work involves a watercolor style — and lots of animal characters. “Autumn has been creating fantasy worlds since childhood. As she got older, crayon scribbles of unicorns gave way to stylized watercolor paintings of a variety of pop culture characters, wildlife, and the occasional yeti.” Recently, she’s been branching out with a new project she calls Pocket Pandas. She’s still working up a full web site for the various panda products she plans to produce, but so far the web site already has many of her designs up.  Keep checking to find out when she has more.

image c. 2018 by Autumn Frederickson

Today we have a nice FWA music video put out by Little Dragon Productions. So cute! "Spring wouldn't be compete without the wonderful Furry Weekend Atlanta. This years convention was a lot of fun and this little highlight clip shows how much fun it really was! This year I finally got some great footage of Renn!"
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