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So we now have cute squirrels to help inspire giving. More info can be found here: https://givingday.uchicago.edu/ [1] [1] https://givingday.uchicago.edu/
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Hiya, Papabear.

So, near the beginning of the school year, I developed a crush on this one guy named Jacob. He was a new kid in 8th Grade (so he was about a year older than me) and he hadn't heard about any of the rumors that had been circling around me at the time. He looked pretty good, too.

He's pretty much the only gay guy in school, besides me. Except he was open about it. Like, a lot.

Skipping ahead a week or so, word got out that I had affections for him (thanks to my "friends"). Now the whole school was laughing at me for two reasons:

1: Because they found out that I'm gay,
2: And because they knew I had a crush on Jacob.

Like I didn't have enough to worry about. Jacob found out, too.

On the other hand, he gave me his Snapchat through an e-mail, now knowing the feelings I had for him. He told me that he's had quite a rough history, and that, despite his good looks, he's never met anyone who's had a crush on him.

So, yeah. Enough of the past's happenings, let's get to the present's problem.

Despite us talking together on Snapchat, finding out we both like each other and such, there is one slight problem...

I haven't the strength to interact with him (or talk to him, for that matter) face-to-face. I want to, but every time I get near him, I run away for no apparent reason. I think it's because I'm afraid that things might not go so well, that things might become awkward if I go and talk to him.

But how am I going to overcome this fear of mine? How do I successfully converse with him? How do I avoid/resolve awkward moments or conversations? And once I get past that, any date ideas or activities (other than the obvious restaurant/movie option) that you'd like to suggest?

Thanks in advance.

mon~
 
* * *
 
Dear mon~,
 
One reason social media such as Snapchat are so popular is that they afford us a way to communicate with others through a kind of mask (screen names, fursonas, avatars) that makes us feel less vulnerable, less exposed.  That goes a long way toward alleviating shyness and social anxiety.  But when you face Jacob in person, all that shyness kicks in again because there is nothing between you and him except air.
 
Like all fears people experience, the best way to overcome them is to do so in small, incremental steps. In this way, you retrain yourself to replace a bad or undesirable behavior with a good, desirable one. In your case, you need to combine the desired goal of interacting with Jacob in person with the security of maintaining that wall—at least in the beginning.
 
Interestingly, there was an episode of The Big Bang Theory that dealt with this very topic. The character Raj was dating a woman with crippling social anxiety. His solution was to set up a date with her in a library (quiet), sit across from her at a table with some food in a kind of picnic, but talk to her over the phone using texting. You could try something similar with a “text date” in which the two of you meet somewhere that is a comfortable atmosphere and talk by texting. As you continue to text, the cool part of this is that you can see his reactions in real life, such as if he smiles or laughs at something you say. This will begin to break down that wall that you have erected, block by block, until you start to feel comfortable actually verbalizing the communication.
 
Give that a shot, and see how it goes.
 
Hugs,
Papabear

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

Jackal, by Joel Gallay
San Jose, CA, Gallanic Media, November 2017, trade paperback $12.00 (321 pages), Kindle $4.99.

Don’t be misled by the title. That is not a jackal on the cover but the narrator, Jobe Pungushe (pungushe is “dog” in Zulu), a battle-scarred dog-human hybrid soldier in late 21st-early 22nd-century warfare in southern Africa:

“‘And in local news,’ a newscaster proclaimed, somewhat dimmed by the white noise in my ears, and I went for my tinnitus meds in my wallet pocket. ‘A crime advisory is forecasted in Bulawayo’s northeast burrough given the influx of refugees from former South African states. As we know, officials in New Salisbury announced that they planned to accept the old South African Western Cape province’s offer to join Rhodesia. Offers made by Northern Cape, Free State and Lesotho are still pending. Rhodesian law enforcement predicts that, with the current, nearly anarchic state of the former South African provinces, that by taking in said provinces too quickly may result in adverse effects, from simple crime spikes to the reactivation of extremist cells and assorted loyalist violence, and thus must be undertaken carefully. The final lift on Martial Law in Western Cape is said to go into effect on September fifth. As we know, remnants of the International Kingdoms of Man, the racialist paramilitary group involved heavily during the Independence War, linger in various balkanized South African provinces, and many fear that they still receive support from their overseas comrades in the Greater Argentine Federation to operate as paramilitaries here in Rhodesia and in result, tensions in southern Rhodesia, such as Bulawayo and New Beitbridge, are on edge, especially with the horrors of the Independence War still fresh in many a Rhodesian and South African mind, human or hybrid. Local police urge residents to above all remain civil, and to report all suspicious behaviors to the police and not seek vigilantism or violent organization.’

A scowl met my face as I heard the name of the IKM once more, as my tinnitus subsided. I shuddered a little, despite the heat. My leg ached some more.” (p. 5)

Gallay says Jackal is set “in a world parallel to ours in the close future.” Jobe is a combat veteran, one of many returning to a civilian life in peacetime.

“‘Shit, Jobe.’ The foreman chuckled. ‘You were ready to slot that fucker, ain’tcha? Your fur’s all raised ‘n shit.” The foreman turned to look at me. ‘Kinda funny though. He kinda looked like you, didn’ he? You being a canid hybrid, I mean. Same color’a fur, spots ‘n all’” (p. 7)

But this prologue takes place about ten years before the main story. New Rhodesia has prospered since the war, and is more high-tech than the prologue makes it seem:

“Walking towards the convenience store, I brought up my holowatch, making a few motions with my opposite hand to bring up the display, haptic sensors spotting my movements. I brushed past the menus to my notes, seeing my shopping list. Carton of milk, smokes, dinner for the rest of the week. Frozen dinners were what I defaulted to. Maitabella pudding too, along with some cereal for breakfasts. I quickly paced my way inside, eager to get out of the coming rain. The store was manned by an older-aged draconic hybrid man with wrinkled red skin like dyed leather, wings drooping behind him as he eyed me with tired orange-yellow eyes. Draconics always seemed to draw my eyes, hard to be inconspicuous with those big wings of theirs stuck out like radar dishes.” (p. 8)

Jobe has a top-end electromagnetic flying hoverbike. He works for a pest control company in Bulawayo and the near countryside. He is allowed to carry an automatic rifle as part of his job.

Jobe foils a robbery at the convenience store, but he is arrested for using unnecessary violence against the robber, continuing to beat him after he is unconscious. Jobe, a standoffish loner at his company, is ordered to attend a friendly biweekly support group for anger control issues.

Instead, Jobe explodes at his first group meeting. Why does he need to change his attitude? It’s the rest of the world that needs to conform to him.

Jackal segues from two parallel stories; Jobe’s descriptions of the present and of his past, to his future. It’s from his peaceful youth that the reader learns about the Independence War; and from his future that the reader learns about the rest of the world:

“My [adoptive] parents were huddled around the television screen, sitting in silent concern, my mother’s draconic face washed in concern, wingtips quivering, dad’s arm around her waist with a hand gripping the top of her hip fearfully, though his face only portrayed a concerned distain. My schoolbag dropped to the floor as I watched with them. It was the national news channel, but it looked a lot different. I didn’t see the usual symbol in the corner, our national flag. Instead I saw the flag that I’d seen a couple of times on the news- the new flag of South Africa. It seemed to be an emergency service broadcast rather than news, repeating a phrase in a kind, female voice.

‘Attention: In Accordance to the Zimbabwean-South African Treaty of 2027, the nation state known as Reformed Rhodesia and all her provinces, including those of the annexed territories of Mozambique and Botswana, are hereby under the jurisdiction of The People’s Republic of South Africa, and Salisbury is now under our total control. The 2043 Reunification Act is recalled. A curfew is now in effect. All people found in active dissent with South African Command Forces, and in extension, the IKM-CTF, will be death with harshly. In accordance with South African law, all firearms must be turned in at your nearest police station or you may face the harshest penalty of South African justice. Please do not panic and cooperate with your officials, and together we can create a better tomorrow for the Greater Southern African States.’ The looping audio paused, before a few seconds later, the recording began anew.” (pgs. 48-49)

“‘…Do we really have that many ships?’ I asked.

‘Nah, a lot of those are Texan and from the Floridian Archipelago,’ Elliot explained, pointing to some of the ones looking a little different, more seaworthy. ‘Since we’re allies with ‘em they’re sending their Expeditionary forces to help us. Same with the Alaskans- I hear their navy will be here by next week. So far they’re letting us use their recon satellites and ionosphere platforms.’” (p. 138)

The present New Rhodesia seems like a hybrid’s paradise:

“‘Now, today, I think we’ll have a good discussion,’ Ono began, smiling ever so slightly at all of us in that circle of seats, every humanoid sitting, save for that canidtaur Mark and that orange serpentine, having bodies not really accommodated for chairs. Matter of fact, that serpentine hybrid girl sat right beside me, coiled up on her tail and sitting down on it the way their kind did. The very tip of her tail strayed close to my foot, quivering softly every now and then.” (p. 43. Ono Zelwaya, probably Jobe’s best friend, is a black human from Liberia.)

“‘… Lotta ‘taurs don’t wear shoes, Mark said.

‘Well, maybe you don’t because you’ve got metal legs,’ I said. ‘Most ‘taurs I see wear those shoes, the more shoe-like back ones and the kinda glove-y front ones. Maybe in the city they don’t, but out in the bush they sure do. Four legs just means two more to keep from getting bitten by snakes. But you know what I don’t get?’ I asked. ‘’Taur pants. Shit always looks weird, no matter what. I mean I get that sometimes you don’t want to be underdressed, but it just looks like a hassle. Like if I was one of you, I’d probably just stick to a shirt, a utility harness and the shoes.’

‘…Nuts’re hangin’ in the breeze, tho, that’s the thing.’ Mark added.” (p. 59)

But Jobe’s own history, his actions and his thoughts, are really fucked up. Eventually, even though peace has returned, Jobe wants, he needs to go on fighting:

“‘So you want to keep fighting. I get that. South Africa is 100% out of your Rhodesia but the war ain’t over. You’ve still got ass to kick if you want them to get the point, huh?’ He chuckled.” (p. 218)

That’s the leader of the Bloody Dogs, a PMC (Private Military Company) – mercenaries – talking as he recruits Jobe. That’s the Jackal talking.

Jackal (cover by Jason Cai) is 321 pages of teeny-tiny type that would be 400, maybe 500 pages in a normal book. I can’t decide whether to recommend it or not. It’s quite well-written, and it’s furry enough, but boy! is it a downer! Jobe isn’t just emotionally fucked up; he is FUCKED UP! (As he puts it, he hasn’t wagged his tail since he was a child.) If you like lots of descriptions of military hardware and action, and details of mental depression, mixed in with scenes of humans and anthropomorphic animals (some pretty exotic, like the serpentines) living happily together (except in IKM territory), go for it.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

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PolarTheLionStudio just put out this rather good tribute to The Cranberries Dolores O'Riordan who died recently.
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This episode talks about a few things and has a special phone in guest on crypto currency and it's technology! Episode 23 - Cryptoshark

Once more into the cast! Settle in for more of the usual chatter Episode 22 - Trendy Shark

Join the cast for a night of lots of talk and some laughs Episode 21 - Naked Shark

Back once more! Come join the cast for a talk filled evening Episode 20 - Shark meltdown

The crew is back with plenty to talk about! Episode 19 - Shark Neutrality

Audio from our very second session of Dungeons & Draggets!! Here is video of it w/ illustrations and more! --https://youtu.be/FyPsnAazO08 Our Patreon w/ great new rewards! www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow Telegram Chat: t.me/draggetshow Dungeons & Draggets #02 - Audio from our very second session of Dungeons & …

Furry hugs are amazing medicine, but sometimes you need something more. Here’s two guest submissions from two awesome furries who love the community and have something more to give.

Eye candy is best to start an article, so check out this adorable puppy Taebyn. He’s silly but has something serious to bark about. Even a fantasy world of talking animals has members affected by suicide. It can even be a special issue because of how surveys show this fandom has many young and LGBT people. When I met Taebyn in person at Further Confusion, the local community of the con just lost a young member who took his own life, but I wasn’t able to share about it for privacy. So this post is for remembrance as well as help and good vibes.

The Fur Health Training Guide – a message from TaxBeast

My name is Drew, or better know as @TaxBeast. The past few months have been what I feel to be some of the most rewarding I have had in this community. Through my years on twitter, i’ve always been known as “the guy who posts fitness” furry. It’s always been a hobby of mine. However I felt like I wanted to give something back to the community after having a lot of positive memories over the past decade. There has always been a somewhat consistent flow of of people asking what I do to to stay in shape, how to build muscle, or just how to get a better self image. For a while, I wasn’t sure how to answer. I had worked years in the nutrition and supplement industry, and even worked as a personal trainer for a bit.

In the Fall of 2017 I had a plan. I wanted to get like minded people together, and start a group with the goals of knowledge and motivation in mind. I talked to @FaarTheRam on twitter after seeing that he too was a fur into fitness, with a similar drive to want people to succeed. Less than a week later the original channel “The Furry Fitness Chat” was made. A month or two went on, we added admins, and in no time we reached over 100 members.

This led to making a guide to share everything I knew and for people to take as they wanted. I wanted to make something that was clear and to the point, something that I felt, and still feel that most of the health industry lacks. I began writing the “TAXBEAST WEEKLY GYM PROGRAM”.

Fifty-three pages of information to help you get your diet, exercise, and nutrition in line.

I wrote this for all of you. All I ask is you spread the word and Retweet this to help me help others. Google Drive Download will be in the link below.https://t.co/ScBvOI150z
pic.twitter.com/XX6dDDPllD

— TAXBEAST @ ANE 2018 (@TaxBeast) January 13, 2018

Within is an explanation of why I wrote the guide, an introduction to terminology and training terms, a four day workout plan, a way to find your nutritional needs, diet routines and tips, and finally supplements that I get frequently asked about.

It’s taken a mere 6 months to write this guide, created a safe and toxic free group for people to have an extra drive to better themselves, and help guide a twitter page for like minds to share and discuss their experiences.  Follow us at @Fur_Health.

Here’s a few words from individuals I’ve worked with:

“Comprehensive, no nonsense, and passionately written–Tax’s Weekly Gym Program is THE guide for anyone aspiring to be the best they can be.” – Fengalon

“Both the group and guide has helped me get the results I wanted. I feel more confident about myself and how people approach me to talk to me without me intiating conversation. I never experienced such a positive atmsophere with the group and Tax displaying his expertise on nutrtion and exercise. Also, both has helped me to be more knowledgable about fitness and my depression. With the group, I feel encouraged to continue in my endeavor to a better me and with the guide to understand what goes on in the fitness world. I never felt such a positive group and guide as this one.” – @Stryker_Fox 

“In the course of a week I went from stagnated to decimated.” – @SickleVox

Art by Tihusky

Thanks guys for sharing your good vibes and knowledge! Furries have some of the most creative people I know – add successful and healthy too. That’s what comes from following your passion far beyond what ordinary people do.  If anyone gets good results or help from this, please share in comments or on Twitter.

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.

The Lost Rainforest is a new fantasy novel series for young readers, written by Eliot Schrefer (author of the Spirit Animals book series). The first book in the series is called Mez’s Magic — and here’s what the publisher, Harper Collins, says it’s about: “Caldera has forever been divided into those animals who walk by night and those who walk by day. Nightwalker panthers, like young Mez and her beloved sister, have always feared daywalkers as creatures of myth and legend. Until the eclipse. Now Mez has discovered that she can cross the Veil and enter the daylight world. Her magical power has unknown depths, but she must rush to discover it after a mysterious stranger arrives at her family’s den, bearing warnings of a reawakened evil. Saving Caldera means Mez must leave her sister behind and unite an unlikely group of animal friends to unravel an ancient mystery and protect their rainforest home.” With interior illustrations by Emilia Dziubak, The Lost Rainforest: Mez’s Magic is available now in hardcover.

image c. 2018 Harper Collins

The director of Rukus wrote in with a new trailer:

I’ve been reading Dogpatch Press for a long time and am a big fan. The film is called Rukus and it’s a feature-length doc-fiction hybrid, centered around my friendship with a furry from Orlando, Rukus, who took his own life in 2008. It goes into his life, and childhood, and some of the people he was close to in the furry community, but then also goes into my teenage years in Memphis, and stories relating to mental health, sexuality, and the politics of documentary filmmaking.

I hope you enjoy it, and I would love to hear what you think!

Brett Hanover
www.bretthanover.com

Movie synopsis:

A hybrid of documentary and fiction, ‘Rukus’ is a queer coming of age story set in the liminal spaces of furry conventions, southern punk houses, and virtual worlds. Rukus is a 20-year-old furry artist, living with his boyfriend Sable in the suburbs of Orlando, Florida. In his sketchbooks, Rukus is constructing an imaginary universe – a sprawling graphic novel in which painful childhood memories are restaged as an epic fantasy. Brett is a 16-year-old filmmaker with OCD, working on a documentary about kinky subcultures in spite of his own anxiety. After an interview leads to an online friendship, their lives entwine in ways that push them into strange, unexplored territories.

facebook.com/rukusmovie/
bretthanover.com/rukus/

Written and Directed by: Brett Hanover
Assistant Directors: Alanna Stewart and Katherine Dohan
Additional Art and Writing: Rukus
Animation: Karolina Glusiec, Ben Holm, Eusong Lee
Original Music: Brian Saia

A preview was provided for a guest review, with thanks to Marbles:

Rukus is a film that is simultaneously familiar and unexpected. Director and writer Brett Hanover transforms a story about a lost member of the furry community into a series of moments that are so very human, while also depicting the struggles of feeling inhuman. There is a beautiful balance between reality and fantasy in which the documentary aspect takes the foreground and the narrative melts into it, the fiction becoming a part of the reality.

Brett Hanover takes advantage of the documentary style of filmmaking to fuse the stories together into a coherent message of feeling different and lost. The varying styles of camera work and editing set a pace for the film that is anxious yet comfortable. The audience is not ready to relax, yet can not help but relate to one or more of the issues that are involved in the lives of the characters and people in the film.

The story itself is a portrait of a bittersweet reality with moments of uncertainty and pain, but also discovery and bliss. The quiet dialogue between the story and the connection to the furry fandom itself is a brilliant one, connecting the idea that there is a sense of anxiety or loss in the human world, yet there is still hope in the realm of animals. However, this concept does not take the foreground, decidedly stating that sometimes there is no escape for those that need it.

Brett Hanover masterfully captures raw emotion in a well constructed and carefully crafted piece of cinema. The symbiotic relationship between the art of the film and the reality within it create a unique experience that is a delight for a cinephile, and an emotional experience for just about anyone else. Rukus is not a film only meant for those in the furry fandom. While others may be more hesitant due to the relation of the community within the film, I believe it can easily be overlooked by anyone who truly enjoys a good film and an impassioned story.

– Marbles

For anyone near the San Francisco Bay Area, join our furmeet for the movie premiere on Feb 2 – there will be fursuiting and dinner with the director.

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.

Jess “Rom” Looney — also known as Looney Raccooney — is a furry artist and a fur-suit maker. His web site is new and just getting built up, but he’s already got a backlog of his creative endeavors to show off. Besides taking commission work, he’s hoping to add his own comic series to the web site soon.

image c. 2018 by Rom Looney

So furs at JMoF made a parody of that weird Schmoyoho Chicken Attack video that was covered here September: https://youtu.be/h2pe01hEwUg
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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Skeleton Crew, by Gre7g Luterman. Illustrated by Rick Griffin.
Lansing, MI, Thurston Howl Publications, September 2017, trade paperback $11.99 (215 [+ 1] pages), Kindle $2.99.

The title page says Skeleton Crew. The cover says The Kanti Cycle: Skeleton Crew. The spine says The Kanti Cycle. 1 Skeleton Crew. Which is the definitive version?

Probably the latter. Skeleton Crew is the first book of Kanti’s adventures. There will be at least a trilogy.

I am more uneasy about calling this a “First Edition, 2017”. I reviewed Luterman’s CreateSpace edition a long time ago. This new version contains minor revisions and all new illustrations by Rick Griffin, so it may be a preferred version. Thurston Howl Publications’ smaller type size has reduced it from 259 pages to 215 pages. But it is not so different that the plot synopsis in my earlier review cannot serve for this edition as well.

“This is the first hard science-fiction novel I’ve ever read with absolutely no humans in it. The cover […] shows two of the main characters; Commissioner Sarsuk, a kraken, holding Kanti, a geroo. All of the other characters in the novel are geroo. There are […] full-page illustrations […] by Rick Griffin of Housepets! fame, showing such geroo characters as Kanti, Saina, Tish, Captain Ateri, Chendra, and more.

The geroo are unclothed, with thick tails and fur. There are frequent mentions in the text of twitching ears, tail rings, and the like. Kanti is called Shaggy for his unruly fur.

Skeleton Crew is set entirely on, or within, the huge generation exploratory starship White Flower II in interstellar space. […] Four centuries earlier, the krakun came to the primitive planet Gerootec and offered to hire thousands of the overpopulated geroo as their starship crews. The geroo who went into space and their descendants would never see Gerootec again, but they would live in luxury compared to the backward geroo on their homeworld. Technically, the White Flower II belongs to the krakuns’ Planetary Acquisitions, Incorporated, with a mission of finding new planets that can be colonized.

New planets for the krakun. Never for the geroo.

After 400 years, some geroo are asking if the krakun are their employers or their slavemasters. Commissioner Sarsuk is Planetary Acquisions’ representative to the White Flower II. As you can guess from the cover, he is the novel’s villain.

“Strictly speaking, all krakun vessels prohibited alcohol. But enforcement of that law was half-hearted at best. Showing up to work drunk might land a crewman before a judge, but only the krakun really cared if anyone drank during their down-time.

If a krakun caught someone drinking, he’d probably toss that geroo in the recycler. But that’s how the monstrous creatures handled most problems they encountered. Fortunately, the White Flower II seldom hosted anyone from Krakuntec. The commissioner visited periodically to check on the ship, but he wasn’t liable to stroll down any of the decks – not any of the ones with a three-meter clearance, at least.” (p. 14)

“Kanti headed off to the gravity down-wells and hopped back to deck twenty-four. The wells were essentially stairwells without the stairs – simple platforms that geroo could jump off to reach the level below. The artificial gravity in the wells was turned down to a tiny fraction of normal, so each hop was slow and gentle.

Each platform shadowed the opening down to the next level; so to travel multiple levels, one simply hopped, turned around, and hopped again until reaching the desired deck. The overlapping structure ensured that a geroo could not fall multiple levels accidentally.” (p. 15)

The White Flower II has a crew of ten thousand geroo. Exactly. 10,001would be overpopulation, and the krakun’s policy for overpopulation is – messy. And that’s one “law” that Commissioner Sarsuk enforces ruthlessly.

Both the tech-talk and the plot are fascinating. This review is heavy on the novel’s technology, and reveals almost nothing about its plot, because the plot is full of twists and surprises. Even revealing this much of the technology probably gives away some major spoilers. But Skeleton Crew is a real page-turner. I could hardly put it down for wanting to find out what would happen to Kanti and his friends next.

“A well-placed kick into Kanti’s stomach dropped him back to the deck, grasping his gut and gasping for breath.

Ateri knelt before the shaggy geroo and whispered in his ear. ‘Listen very closely to me, kerrati. You will not discuss what was said here today—ever. You will never, ever, say the words, ‘skeleton crew’ again. Is that understood?’

Kanti nodded. Tears streamed down his muzzle.

‘If you do, I promise that I will find out,’ Ateri said calmly. ‘And when I do, I will rip chunks of you out with my bare paws … and toss them into the recycler one by one … until all that remains of you … is your blood in my fur … and your screams in my ears.’” (p. 133)

– 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.

That’s how the artist known as Kiriska says it. On their web site they describe themselves as a “… Seattle-based artist specializing in surreal and macabre wildlife art, as well as monsters, creatures, and anime-inspired illustrations.” To that end they have t-shirts, prints, stickers, and other materials for sale through a variety of outlets like Redbubble, Inprnt, and Society 6.

image c. 2018 by Kiriska

Man, I wish the whole "Dancing on ice" on ITV was just bears.
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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Red is the Darkest Color, by Brett A. Brooks
Atlanta, GA, Pandahead Publishing, June 2016, trade paperback, $15.95 ([4 +] 280 [+ 2] pages), Kindle $2.99.

The Devil Was Green, by Brett A. Brooks
Atlanta, GA, Pandahead Publishing, January 2017, trade paperback, $15.95 ([3 +] 278 pages), Kindle $2.99.

Pussy Katnip owns and is the popular chanteuse at the Kit Kat Klub in Mutt Town. But she’s not reluctant to step outside her club to help someone in need – especially if this involves clashing with an old enemy:

“With more than a slight jag to his turn, Todd looked back at the stage, and then back to the bartender. ‘Does … well, that is to say, do you know if Miss Katnip ever sees any of the people who come to see her?’

Robby snorted softly. ‘Depends on who it is and what they want. You a fan?’

‘I … truthfully, I’ve never heard Miss Katnip sing before.’ He picked up the scotch and took a small sip. ‘I was hoping that I might …’ There was a moments [sic.] pause, followed by Todd taking a much larger sip and then looking Robby in the eye. ‘I’ve heard that Miss Katnip can help people. Sometimes at least. I was truly hoping that she might see me tonight.’

‘Oh.’ Robby nodded. ‘Well, y’see, Miss Katnip tries to keep a low profile, y’know? She’s not the type who goes out and gets in trouble herself.’ Casually, Robby scratched under his chin. ‘But, just for conversation purposes, what is it you was wanting to talk to Miss Katnip about? You got law troubles?’

‘What? No. No, nothing like that.’ Todd sat up straight. ‘The police and I … they haven’t been an issue. In fact, they haven’t been willing to talk to me much at all.’” (Red, pgs. 4-5)

When Todd Crocker comes into her club looking for help against a mob boss who is threatening him, he is told not to worry. Boss Dogg and his chief enforcer Mugsy are familiar adversaries. Pussy visits Boss’ rival night club, the Dogg House, during the day when it’s closed and persuades him and Mugsy to leave Todd alone:

“Faster than the eye could follow, Pussy grabbed the chair and raised it up, smashing it against the brute attacking her. Splinters of wood showered down as Mugsy flew up into the air, landing hard on the ground.

She was on him instantly. Grabbing him by the shirt, she spun around, flinging him over ten feet into the seating area. The table and chairs he met did not respond well, and the sound of cracking wood filled the space.

Pussy looked to Boss. ‘Don’t move.’ He didn’t.

[…]

‘Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to drop everything that Mr. Crocker owes you. You aren’t going to bother him, or even remember that he exists. Your dealings with him are through. Am I clear?’   She stopped inches away from him.

‘Yeah. Yeah, sure.’ He nodded rapidly.” (Red, pgs. 20-22)

Pussy seems to be the clear winner, until a mystery vixen, Foxy Kitt, offers to take care of Pussy for free. All that Boss Dogg needs to do is to get Foxy hired as a singer at the Kit Kat Klub.

Their plot involves getting rid of the Kit Kat’s other singer, Jenny Foal.   Foxy Kitt appears to be an innocent replacement when Jenny abruptly quits and leaves Mutt Town. Pussy, suspicious, goes after her, leaving Foxy free to work.

Pussy finds herself confronted in Big City by crooked Bulldog Baxter and more of his goons than she expects. She needs her super-strength potion.

“In the hours that she waited at the station for the noon train, Pussy swirled the bottle in front of her countless times. There was barely enough to even register. One dose. That’s all she had left. No way that she could handle all those goons with just one dose. She needed to get back to the club. To her supply.” (Red, p. 85)

But it’s not there. Foxy has been busy. She has the fizz now, and she knows how to use it.

• §         §         §         §         §         §         §         §         §         §

Pussy Katnip is not Brett A. Brooks’ creation. In a Foreword to Red is the Darkest Color, he explains how he found her in an old comic book of the 1940s. Pussy Katnip was probably the most obscure, most forgotten, most improbable, and ugliest funny-animal series ever created. Brooks considers it his one-man mission to rescue her from obscurity.

Brooks isn’t a cartoonist, so he has done this through a series of novels and short stories rather than comic books; the two novels reviewed here, and the Kindle short stories Under the Gray, A Hand of Gold, and The Hillside Murder Club. (The protagonist in the last is detective Lila Ringtail, a supporting character in The Devil Was Green.)

Brooks can do this because the comic books that Pussy Katnip appeared in have long been discontinued. Their publisher went bankrupt in 1950; nobody knows anything about the signed “Len Short” (it may be a pseudonym); the copyrights have all expired; and nobody cares, anyway. Look at the sample here from the original comics and decide: would you want to claim responsibility for this?

The combination of crime noir thriller and superheroes never worked well before, although Brooks does a much better than usual job of blending them here. He has made a couple of slight changes: he has turned Pussy’s Katnip Kafe into the Kit Kat Klub (“Kafe” was not convincing as the name of the night club shown in the comics). He has turned Robert the bartender from a pig into Robby, a bird (robin?), and Mugsy from a fox into a wolf. And he has lessened the funny-animal atmosphere by describing background characters as “men”: a hog-like man, the bull-like man, a cute little lamb of a girl, a wolfish man. But this works against the nature of the Pussy Katnip stories as funny-animal stories. If you are not familiar with the 1940s comic books, you’ll never know that the bartender was originally a pig or that Mugsy was a fox. And there is no way to know what new characters like Todd Crocker are supposed to be.

• §         §         §         §         §         §         §         §         §         §

Red is the Darkest Color (cover by Valentina Barmina) appears to be somewhat inspired by one of the original comic-book stories; the four-page “Eviction Enigma” in All Your Comics, a December 1944 132-page one-shot. Brooks has combined that with his own origin story of Pussy and of the Katnip clan’s ancestral fizz.

The Devil Was Green (cover by Toth “Darbaras” Dávid László) begins with an old friend of Pussy’s appearing in the Kit Kat Klub:

“The sixth row. Table eighteen, to be precise. She weaved her way to it without pause, and before she arrived the only person at the table was already standing.

Pussy stopped three feet away from her. The other woman stood shorter than Pussy. A delicate white covered her body. Long ears lopped down on either side of her face, peeking out from under a stylish coiffure of platinum blond hair. If you knew where to look, you could see a dark brown patch over her right eye, hidden by a good bit of makeup. Pussy knew exactly where to look.

‘Of all the clubs in all the world …’ Pussy shook her head. ‘I never expected to see you here.’

‘Sorry, Princess,’ the bunny’s voice was soft but clear. ‘I didn’t see a sign telling me to keep out.’

‘It’s been a long time, Spot.’ Pussy shook her head.” (Green, pgs. 2-3)

Pussy introduces Spot, Coney Hase, to Robby and tells him how they used to be old friends; that when Pussy came to Mutt Town, they shared a room in a cheap rooming house and were waitresses together in a diner. When Robby leaves, Coney gets more intimate:

“Her hand stayed wrapped around the drink in her hand, but Coney did look up at Pussy. ‘I’m sorry. I … I really am happy to see you, Pussy. I wanted to come here. Honest. It’s just …’

‘Just what?’ Pussy prodded.

‘It’s kinda difficult to come in here and see,’ Coney’s head turned as she took a quick look around, ‘all of this. It’s hard to know your friend is a big star when you’re as much a … a loser as I am.” (Green, p. 9)

Coney gets drunk, makes a big scene accusing Pussy of being a false friend, and storms out. Pussy goes to the apartment house where Coney is staying, just in time to find her being murdered:

“Pussy blinked and shook her head. A moment later she put her shoulder into the door a second time. The door exploded off its hinges, falling to the ground in three pieces.

A female figure lay on the ground. She was bruised and beaten, but Pussy recognized her at first glance. Above her stood a man. At least Pussy thought it was a man.

He was tall. Well over seven feet. His skin was alabaster in color, with an obvious rough texture. At the end of his hands were long, curved claws. Similar claws were at the end of his long, three-toed feet. A thick, scaled tail slid back and forth over the floor behind him. Running from the tip of the tail, up his back, and onto his head were a series of raised black spines. These spines became hundreds of smaller quills, curling back off his head like jagged black hair. Two brilliant yellow eyes stared towards her above his snout. And it looked as though smoke rolled out of his nostrils.” (Green, pgs. 16-17)

Pussy is suspected of Coney’s murder. She escapes from Mutt Town’s police to find Coney’s fantastic killer and prove her own innocence, but she is closely pursued by relentless police detective Lila Ringtail (featured on László’s cover):

“She leaned out the window, looking at the glass. Clean shards of glass scattered all the way to the edge of the platform. She pulled herself back inside.

‘Anybody been down below?’ Lila asked.

‘I don’t know,’ the officer [a pig] answered.

‘Okay, well, then stop what you’re doing and go down to that alley. Let me know if you see any blood down there.’ She pointed out the window.

‘I’m supposed to look for prints,’ he responded.

‘Okay. Then go look for prints down in the alley. And while you’re down there, do me a favor and see if there’s any blood.’ She took the cigarette out of her mouth and tapped the ashes outside the window.

‘I’m not –’

‘Do it!’ Any hint of request was gone. This was an order.” (Green, pgs. 29-30)

Will Pussy be able to stay ahead of Lila long enough to find the real killer – whatever it is?

The Pussy Katnip novels and short stories are funny-animal crime noir/superhero fiction that you can’t find anywhere else. Brett A. Brooks has four other books out from his Pandahead Publishing, including Edible Complex featuring teenage zombies, and a set of seven art prints featuring the Pussy Katnip cast.

– Fred Patten

• Buy Red is the Darkest Color on Amazon
• Buy The Devil Was Green on Amazon

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Benson Shum is an illustrator and animation artist at Walt Disney Feature Animation. (He worked on Moana, Zootopia, Big Hero 6, and other films.) As part of their Artist Showcase series, Disney-Hyperion published his illustrated children’s book, Holly’s Day at the Pool, which is available on Amazon. “Holly the hippo imagines the worst: Icebergs and icy water, penguins and seals! Her imagination bursts at every turn, making it harder and harder for her to step foot in the pool… Until she get the chance to be a hero. Holly may be scared, but she is a very brave girl.” Now on his web site Mr. Shum announced that he will be illustrating a new book, Go To Sheep, written by Jennifer Sattler. That one’s set to be published by Little Simon later this spring.

image c. 2018 Disney-Hyperion