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

Project Anthro, by Dallin Newell
Raleigh, NC, Lulu Press, October 2017, hardcover $28.80 (264 pages), trade paperback $12.00, Kindle $9.00.

I am confused. This book says both that it is printed by Lulu Press and by CreateSpace in North Charleston, SC. It also says “First printing, 2017”, but the Barnes & Noble website shows it with a different cover (but the same blurb), published by Page Publishing, Inc. and dated December 2016. Newell has a Facebook page devoted to Project Anthro, where it is described as “A Book Series”. Newall says, “Project Anthro 2 is written and ready to go out to publishing,” and that it is a planned quartet.

Whatever. The premise as described in the blurb seems furrier and more exciting than the novel itself. “During the Cold War, a project that was introduced during WWI has been revived, which involves weaponizing and creating anthropomorphic animals to become operatives, known as anthros. Chance Logan is a red fox, standing at five eleven, born in Australia [Newell says on Facebook and in the novel that Logan was born in London and raised in Canberra], and worked for ASIS (Australian Secret Intelligence Service). […]”

Chance learns that a high-placed American CIA executive, John Lance, has gone rogue and is planning to use America’s secret agentry “to completely obliterate the two world superpowers, the USSR and the USA.” Lance is also a human supremacist who believes that all anthros are bioengineered to “do nothing but kill.” Logan recruits “a whole team of anthros” to stop Lance and prove that anthros are more than killers dominated by their animal instincts.

That’s a great premise. Unfortunately, Newell develops it as a substandard Mission Impossible action thriller with funny animals. It’s wacky enough without wondering why funny animals? Chance Logan is introduced in the midst of a firefight with the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. He’s one of only two anthros (the other is a cougar) in a U.S. Army unit caught behind enemy lines. They don’t do anything that human soldiers (like John Rambo) couldn’t do, plus Chance gets his bushy fox tail caught and he has to be freed. Under what conditions is a bushy fox tail an asset in jungle warfare? This also makes the reader wonder if Chance is wearing a complete Army uniform with a tail hole, or (as the cover implies) only a helmet and Army jacket, and nothing below the waist?

Whoa! Here’s the answer. “‘By the way,’ he [a human lieutenant] said, ‘you guys may want to try on some pants when we get back to the States. Just try it.’

‘Nah,’ Kay [the cougar] said as he swiped the air with his paw. ‘We’ve got fur to cover our junk, right Chance?’

‘Yeah, right,’ I agreed with a forced chuckle.

All of us anthros never wore pants; it was a lot more comfortable to go without them. Even Katie [Chance’s girl friend, an Army nurse; also a red fox] wouldn’t wear them.” (p. 15)

But cougars don’t have much fur over their junk. Even an anthro fox standing up might want to wear pants when closely mixing with humans in social situations. It’s especially unlikely that anthros would go nude below the waist and not wear shoes or boots in jungle combat conditions.

“The cool water felt so good as it ran down my body. After sweating for many long hours in the hot and humid weather of Vietnam, nothing felt better than a cold shower. I scrubbed myself with a strong-smelling men’s shampoo that made my nose tingle whenever I smelled it.” (p. 19)

This is a furry red fox taking a cold shower. I may be obsessing too much about this, but to me Newell’s constant switching from calling attention to his anthros having fur and tails and not wearing anything below the waist, then being described as having smooth skin and apparently nobody noticing that they’re pantsless animals, keeps destroying the believability of the situation.

Oh, Chance has a flashing device that he shines in civilians’ eyes to make them not remember him as a fox. I think Newell has watched too much Men in Black, but that might enable anthro foxes with bushy tails and not wearing any pants to go about unnoticed in big, crowded, human metropolises. Maybe?

Whatever. Chance, Katie, Kay, and several regular soldiers are air-rotated back to the USA.

“‘Chance,’ Katie said, breaking the silence between us. ‘I really want to know; do you love me?’

I smiled, put my arm around her, and gave her a kiss on the cheek.” (p. 23)

Are fox muzzles capable of kissing? Licking, maybe. But to bioengineer the foxes to talk normally, the muzzles would have to be eliminated entirely … I get a headache trying to reconcile all the differences.

Whatever. During their plane’s stopover in London, Chance and Katie are warned by a friendly MI6 agent that someone is trying to maneuver the USA and the USSR into declaring nuclear war on each other, and America’s CIA is ready to make Chance its scapegoat. Chance decides to stay in London instead of returning to America (I thought he was Australian), but “they” come after him:

“‘You can’t come in!’ I said, blocking his way. That was when he pulled a pistol on me.

I quickly and vigorously slammed the door on his hand and he dropped it, then I kicked him against the wall. He hit his head on the wall and was knocked unconscious.

I began to walk out when someone with a pistol came out of the room across from me. I grabbed his arm with my left paw as he fired a wild shot, punched him in the gut with my left, and kneed him in the head as he bent own from the impact on his stomach.

Another guy came from behind me. He hit me in the back of the head and kicked […]” (p. 27)

It goes on and on. “[…] He screamed in pain as he fell […] another man came out […] Another came out […] yet another guy was waiting […] Another guy came from behind me […] I began to run down the hall, and a guy with a pistol came out of the next room […]” Even James Bond usually only faced one adversary at a time.

How about this:

“I looked at the [bullet] wound, carefully examining it. ‘It missed the heart,’ I said, ‘you’ll be fine.’” (p. 29)

Presumably getting shot anywhere except through the heart is only a mild flesh wound.

People keep coming out of rooms or down halls or staircases after Chance with pistols and knives for another three pages. All are human secret agents except a one-eyed anthro tiger with a big red star on each shoulder. Guess which country he’s from.

And I’m only up to page 34. Project Anthro (cover uncredited) reads like a James Bond movie scripted by the Three Stooges. Is it worth reading? Hey, the Three Stooges are popular.

If you don’t read Project Anthro, you’ll miss the scene where Chance and his team of anthros hide out in Disneyland disguised as Robin Hood and other animal characters, with their Berettas, Walther PPKs, Kalashnikov AK-47s, Uzis, katana and shuriken out of sight. Chance/Robin, of course, can carry his bow & arrows openly.

“‘Oh, my God,’ the girl said, ‘your costume is so cute!’” (p. 213)

Project Anthro comes to a definite, satisfying conclusion, but Newell says that there are three more volumes coming.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Page Publishing
• Buy on Barnes and Noble

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.

Our Patreon! www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow Telegram Chat: t.me/draggetshow 184 - Furry Royal Rumble - Our Patreon! www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow Tele…

It's CES 2018 and I thought I would share at least 2 furryish products out there. First we have A new Aibo dog with cute oled eyes and also would you also believe Aflac has a robot duck for sick children? https://youtu.be/U62POyi0tOk
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Guest post by KJ Kabza

Back when my schedule allowed, I enjoyed participating in the FWG chats every week. (Which you’ve tried and enjoyed too. Right?) Occasionally, a furry writer would mention that they hoped to someday sell one of their borderline-furry stories to a Regular Science Fiction or Fantasy Market.

Funny thing, that. Because I’ve been writing stories in the wider science fiction and fantasy field for 15 years, and I hope to someday sell one of my borderline-furry stories to a Definitely Furry Market.

Writing for furs versus the larger speculative fiction community can be very different experiences—so different that one switch-hitting author once told me, “You’d think that my furry fans would buy my non-furry work and vice versa, but that’s not the case at all.” When you have stories to tell that could fall in either camp, what’s the best way forward?

I’m sure your opinion gets colored by where you start. I find myself working in general SF and fantasy circles, but then again, I began selling my work well over a decade ago, when I barely even knew what furry was. Besides, when I started, some of my early work sold for one cent a word, which is comparable to what is considered professional rates for writers in the fur community today, 15 years later. And nowadays, when I can sell some pieces for what SFWA defines as professional rates (at least six cents a word), it seems hard to justify sending a borderline-furry story to a furry market that will give me a fraction of that pay.

On the downside, however, it took me many years to build my current network of other writers and editors. In contrast, I suspect that someone who starts off selling fiction in the smaller fur community will likely find it much easier to connect with fellow creators and fans and feel supported at every stage of their career. Sofawolf, one of the most prestigious publishers in the fur community, has a booth at Anthrocon, one of the most prestigious cons in the fandom, that’s staffed by friendly people who are happy to explain their submission process to you. I can’t imagine having the same conversations at a Penguin Random House booth at San Diego Comicon.

The best way forward is also colored by the degree of furriness in what you write. I doubt that Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine would be interested in an erotic love story about a kangaroo male model and a misunderstood muscle tiger, but those borderline-furry stories are definitely another matter. In 2013, I sold my story “The Color of Sand,” which features a single mother and a forgotten human civilization—but also talking sandcats and outright furry TF—to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Never say never.

If your motive is to write strictly for fun and not for profit at all, the considerations get even blurrier. I’ve written and posted fan fiction under other names, both on Fur Affinity (as a fur) and on Fanfiction.net (as a hopeless human weeb). Both experiences have been very positive, with far more feedback given to me than I’ve ever gotten from a general SF or fantasy piece published in any professional venue.

This month, my first print collection of short fiction, The Ramshead Algorithm and Other Stories, releases on January 16. It comes from the world of Regular Science Fiction and Fantasy, but you’ll find several of those borderline-furry stories within. A young man in a damaged family learns of his non-human heritage. A securities lawyer has a double identity as a cat-like being that can fly. And a race of talking sandcats reveals themselves to be powerful magicians to a mother in need.

I suspect that Ramshead will be interpreted and accepted as a not-furry book among the not-furry crowd, the same way some of its component stories have been accepted. However, my next project, a novel I’m going to finish drafting after Ramshead launches, can’t be interpreted that way. That project is unambiguously furry, to the point where I’ve had to explain it to general SF fans as, “Redwall, but with pre-literate, non-Western cultures.” I’ve told so many other stories in the borderline-furry category, I want to see what it’s like to take the plunge.

I’m not sure about Penguin Random House, but maybe Sofawolf would like it.

KJ Kabza has sold over 70 stories to venues such as F&SF, Nature, Strange Horizons, and more. His debut print collection, The Ramshead Algorithm and Other Stories, is available for pre-order now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indiebound.

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

Jack Wolfgang. T.1, l’Entrée du Loup, by Stephen Desberg (story) and Henri Reculé.
Brussels, Les Éditions du Lombard, June 2017, hardcover €13,99 (62 [+ 2] pages), Kindle €9,99.

Thanks, as always with French bandes dessinées, to Lex Nakashima for loaning this to me to review.

The Jack Wolfgang series looks like it’s designed for the Blacksad market. The main differences are that John Blacksad is a private investigator, and his cases are crime noir with excellently drawn anthropomorphic animals. Jack Wolfgang is a C.I.A. secret agent, and his adventures are, well, too light and too exaggerated for the James Bond market. Say they’re Kingsman clones, with a mixture of funny animal and human secret agents saving the world from megalomaniac funny animal and human villains.

The introduction states that the four Brementown Musicians in the late Middle Ages were the first animals to be recognized as having human intelligence. “They were the first animals to receive a charter from the local authorities guaranteeing their autonomy and freedom among humans.” (my translation)

 

Jump to the 21st century. Humans and animals are social equals. Well, not quite. The carnivores still have to eat meat, and this creates problems with the herbivores, who can eat only a vegetarian diet. The humans are omnivores, and some of them feel that this makes them superior to the animals.

But in the 20th century, true equality was established with the development of Qwat, a food based on tofu that both the carnivores and herbivores, and humans could eat. Finally, all animals and humans could live as equals.

Jack Wolfgang is a young C.I.A. agent with the cover identity of a famous food critic for the New York Times. Enter the Wolf begins when he is assigned to infiltrate a large, exclusive party at the estate of mega-rich Wilbur Carnavon. He’ll be told his real mission by his recruiter & trainer, Rocky Dakota (puma), once he’s past Carnavon’s armed bodyguards and inside. It’s to get Carnavon’s guest list of those invited – but a mysterious panther-woman is also after the list.

You can count on lots of laser booby traps, gunshots, explosions, and an eagle with poison-dipped talons. Rocky Dakota is killed, and whatever is going on is so top-secret that the C.I.A. fires all its animal agents and reassigns their cases to humans only. But Jack feels that he has to avenge Rocky, so he continues alone in secrecy. The adventure takes him from New York to Paris to Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, with car chases, muggings, gunshots, furbreath escapes, and a deadly cooking contest.

To give away a major spoiler, the “Mister X” has gained control of the world’s manufacture of Qwat by turning it into the popular and tasty Super Mega Tofu. He plots to spike it with a deadly addictive drug, so everyone has to eat it – on his terms — or die. The villains Jack faces on a daily basis are Podny, a Russian-French rooster turncoat, a giant one-eyed polar bear called just the Bear, and Sissy and Dave, two laughing-hyena assassins.

If you like Kingsman-type only-the-secret-agents-can-save-the-world adventures, with the main good- and bad guys being anthro animals, you’ll like Jack Wolfgang. The French is simple. Jack is wearing shoes on the cover, but is bare-pawed inside. The adventure comes to a definite conclusion, but the last page promises that “Jack Wolfgang reviendra dans “Le Nobel du Pigeon”. There are several trailers for Enter the Wolf on YouTube.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• Preview Jack Wolfgang
• Buy on Le Lombard

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.

Wow, what have we been missing? Turns out there’s an internet sensation named Johnny Wu (aka Sgt Bananas) who has made quite a name for himself with photography and stop-motion animation, featuring his impressive toy and action figure collection put together in some truly imaginative comic book style adventures. Now Mr. Wu has hooked up with comic book publisher Dynamite to bring us Ten Frames Per Second: An Articulated Adventure, a new full-color hardcover book highlighting some of Sgt Bananas’ best Instagram work. Outright Geekery has an article about it as well.

image c. 2018 Dynamite

I believe they will be pulling this short but I thought I would share it while I can. "In Tonko House’s first short-form series, written and directed by Erick Oh, we see how Pig remembers becoming the Dam Keeper. Seen through Pig’s youthful perspective, the visuals are abstract and surreal, but the source of his pain and his joy are clear. Produced in both Berkeley and Tokyo by a variety of international and domestic artists, the series showcases Tonko House’s global community through a story featuring universal themes, such as family, grief, responsibility, and growing up. The series is made up of over 31,000 frames, all individually hand drawn and painted."
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Welcome to the first FWG Awareness Week! This is a bi-monthly event, run by the moderators in the FWG Slack group (Searska GreyRaven, ritter_reiter, and George Squares) as a way to bring focus to minority culture and writers in furry literature. Through features such as interviews, reading lists, and author AMAs, we hope to provide ample material and a safe, respectful setting for inter-cultural dialogue within our diverse community.

The highlight for January 2018 is Southeast and East Asia, as well as their respective diaspora/immigrant cultures. To launch Awareness Week, we’re happy to present this spotlight interview with Allison Thai! A Vietnamese-American husky with the heart of a dragon, when Allison is not studying for medical school or delighting in all things science, she likes to bury her nose in a good book, scribble in a sketch pad, learn her target languages, swim laps, or spend 99% of her writing time pressing paws to her head trying to think of words to put down. Her anthro stories can be found in Symbol of A Nation, ROAR 8, Arcana – Tarot, and Infurno: The Nine Circles of Hell. She has dug out a den for herself on Twitter as @ThaiSibir.

Author disclaimer: While I am happy and honored to be involved in the awareness project through this interview, I am just one voice. I am just one face on a sociological polyhedron. I don’t claim to represent each and every opinion within my demographic. What it means to be me may not be so for someone else, simply because they are not me.

Tell us briefly about yourself as an author. How long have you been writing? What made you want to start and eventually pursue writing seriously?

I have been writing for as long as I can remember. I remember my first complete work, in third grade, was a comic shamelessly ripping off Treasure Island and Treasure Planet (a movie I still love dearly), only with bugs. I had called it “Treasure Grasslands.” It wasn’t good at all, of course. The doodles were bad. The handwriting was even worse. In middle school I ventured into fanfiction, and enjoyed entertaining readers without pay for the next 10 years. This provided an important foundation and built up my confidence to take the craft and my ambitions to the next level; in 2016 I began to write and get paid for original fiction.

How did you encounter the furry fandom, and what spurred you to contribute to it?

I grew up on Warriors and Redwall books. When I was young I had a hard time making friends and getting along with others, so I turned to books, tales of feral cat clans and brave mice swinging swords. I also grew up on Pokemon and Digimon. These worlds entranced and swept me away beyond the point of return, so my love for talking animals and monsters continues to be a huge influence in my work. Twitter provided me a proper encounter with the term “furry,” as well as the community who pours their love, creativity, and effort into this genre. I wanted to be a part of that community.

According to the creation myth, Vietnamese people are descended from a dragon lord and a fairy queen, and call themselves “children of the dragon.” That makes you/your fursona a dragon, right?

Indeed. I may have the (online) face of a husky, but I am a dragon by blood and heart!

Who are your favorite authors in general? How about your favorite furry authors?

In general, my favorites are C.S Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ken Liu, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Khaled Hosseini, Octavia Butler, George R. R. Martin, Ursula Le Guin, Elizabeth Bear, and Anthony Marra. Within the furry genre (or, at least, what I interpret to be furry), I would say Brian Jacques, Erin Hunter, Richard Adams, David Clement-Davies, and have recently enjoyed reading stories by Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher and Mary Lowd.

Your fiction covers many settings and genres, from fantasy to sci-fi to historical fiction, but you often return to Eastern locations in your stories: Russia, Mongolia, China, and of course Vietnam. Have you encountered any challenges in conveying these cultures to an audience which is largely better-versed in Western themes?

Being a diasporic Asian puts me in somewhat of a dilemma. I feel like I am both in and out of the culture I was born into and raised on. There’s always that nagging doubt telling me that being diasporic Asian means I’m not “Asian enough,” or a “real Asian.” Some Asians in Asia, believe it or not, voice that accusation. These mental, internal struggles may be invisible to the reader, perhaps not relatable to someone who’s not an immigrant or a child of one, but they are very real to me.

Regarding Russian and Mongolian history and culture, I’ve been fascinated with them partly because they’re so different from my own. I face the challenge of pulling off a compelling and believable story with this setting, and worry if I did it right. That’s why hearing good feedback from Slavic and Central Asian acquaintances, telling me that they can believe and relate to what the characters are doing, is very satisfying.

As a genre with strong foundations in sci-fi and fantasy (SF/F), furry fiction is well-equipped to explore situations and cultures beyond the norm. Like SF/F, furry fiction can also deal well with stories about diversity and cultural, as well as personal, identity. What has your experience been like writing for a furry audience?

Animals have served very important roles not only as sustenance for our physical and emotional health, but as sustenance for our tales throughout history. Giving animals human-like qualities, making them talk, think, and feel as we do, and making them the stars of their own stories, gives me the opportunity to immerse them in the history and culture that had defined us humans. In these stories, they’re more than beasts of burden or for slaughter. They are the warriors, the heroes, the villains, masters of their fate. I like that the furry audience can accept this without reservation or judgment, and I write freely and have fun knowing that.

You’ve written several historical fiction stories in a furry universe. How was it, integrating historical/cultural themes with anthropomorphic themes? Were there drastic similarities or differences?

When you write about anthropomorphic animals, you take species identity into account. This is what I love most about furry fiction. I love determining what species my characters will be during the outline stage. I love making those traits play a part in their stories, how they perceive events and the world around them. You take body language to a whole new level when you need to consider how the paws, claws, fangs, tails, and fur reflect how the characters think and feel—an editor once offered me to revise and resubmit my piece with this advice in mind, so I can’t stress the importance of the worldbuilding enough. If you don’t put this into effect, make it matter, then you might as well write a story about humans instead. I find this thought process remarkably similar to constructing cultural identity that strongly and plausibly weaves into a story. A furry story works for me when the plot and worldbuilding answers the question “why animals, and not humans?” In the same way, a non-furry story works when it answers “why this voice, and not someone else’s?”

You describe yourself as an “aspiring polyglot,” and you’ve learned Russian, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish. How has learning these languages enriched your understanding of these cultures and their literature/folklore? How does it influence the stories that you tell?

I’ve always had an interest and passion in learning foreign languages. I took on Spanish because it would be very useful, Russian simply because I love the sound of it, and learned them together when I found many striking similarities between the two. Because of my foundation in Vietnamese, spoken Mandarin was more intuitive to me and, contrary to the opinion of many Westerners, somewhat easy to pick up. The challenge is making sure I don’t mix up the pitches and words of these very similar languages! I say “aspiring” because I still have some ways to go. Of the three I’m learning, Russian is the most challenging. If I ever get to master these three, maybe I’ll pick up French or Korean.

Living in a bustling, ethnically diverse city, and with my goal to be a physician, I want to use my language proficiency to break down barriers and provide better, efficient care for patients who can’t speak English. Interpreters can be used, yes, but translating can be cumbersome, and I’ve seen that patients tend to trust and comply more readily with a provider who can speak their language. In terms of literature and storytelling: though I can read Spanish, Cyrillic and pinyin (Romanized Chinese), I have not gotten to the point of understanding original classic texts, though I very much look forward to the day I can. I already know from reading in Vietnamese that you can pick up beautiful prose, rhythm, and nuances that would be lost in English translation.

I don’t factor in languages every time I write a story, though I can think of one I did. I’m working on a short sci-fi that revolves around the way Russians use grammatical rules and different words to talk about animate/living and inanimate/nonliving nouns. The protagonist is a girl who hears voices from her hands and feet, and she talks to them as if they’re animate, but the Russian language dictates that they are inanimate. She (correctly, yet unknowingly) talks to the aliens in her hands and feet as if addressing people, not just body parts.

You often draw on your cultural heritage when writing stories. How has your personal experience as a minority in the US influenced your fiction?

Culture and setting is a core element in my work, whether I’m drawing from my own identity or not. Characters are a product of the people and environment that surround and shape them. I try to keep this in mind as I take them on a journey. Identity doesn’t exist in a vacuum. I don’t just make a fleeting mention of a character’s background and never mention it again, or never have it contribute in some way to the story. That’s not how people in real life think, especially POC. Even as I live in a country no longer bound by laws of segregation, I am constantly aware that I am a POC, for better or worse.

You must have read stories which inaccurately portray Vietnamese culture, or Southeast Asian/East Asian culture in general. Are there any points you’d like to draw attention to for fellow writers to be more aware when portraying these cultures?

I don’t think the problem is so much inaccurate portrayal, but rather not enough portrayal. I just don’t see enough southeast Asian stories as I’d like, and certainly have not seen enough growing up. I feel that southeast Asian culture is often shunted to the side, overshadowed and overlooked compared to the the more prevalent and popular east Asian narrative, cultures and settings, or the white lens. With Vietnam in particular, too often I’ve seen it reduced to some exotic, hostile, degenerate backdrop for Vietnam War stories. I keep seeing in these stories, told from the American perspective, how strange and ugly Vietnam is and how they’re aching to finally get home after blasting those Vietcong scum to kingdom come. Honestly, reading about any departure from this would be welcoming.

I can’t speak for the huge spectrum of Asian culture, but I can speak with more confidence regarding Vietnamese culture: people are constantly relating to themselves and addressing others according to age. Perhaps you know about Japanese honorifics. Vietnamese’s complex pronoun system is somewhat like that. In Vietnamese, there’s no single word for “I” or “you.” The use varies based on who you’re talking to, if they’re older or younger than you or your parents. As my parents get older it’s getting harder to tell which adults are their senior, and wrongly addressing them by accident have made for several funny bouts of embarrassment. It’s like the military, where you almost always end your sentences in some form of address to be proper and respectful. Definitely take age dynamics and respect for that hierarchy into account.

Also, if you want to try your hand at diasporic culture: consider disparities in language and attitude between the overseas and mainland communities. Language and attitudes change over time, right? Sometimes they’re preserved. My mom told me that the Vietnamese-American community, many of them refugees who fled Vietnam in the 70s-80s, continue to speak Vietnamese used before the fall of Saigon. They pass that way of speaking to their children, and so on. Meanwhile in the mainland, standardized Vietnamese continues to change and evolve, with some words falling out of fashion and others coming into popular use. Northern dialect prevails in the mainland, while the southern dialect stubbornly persists among the refugees. We on the other side of the world aren’t really “keeping up with the times.” Geographic distance maintained this difference. If my family were to visit Vietnam now, we likely wouldn’t understand half of what the mainlanders are saying.

Which of your works are you proudest of?

As of this interview I’m quite proud of writing “Malebolge,” a short story about a female Vietnamese-American pathologist who can hear microorganisms talk. They speak on behalf of Death, who takes advantage of the protagonist’s depression and grief for her dead brother and tries seducing her to its side permanently via suicide. It’s probably my weirdest, experimental, and most personal story to date, combining microbiology, Dante’s Inferno, and American Pie. Submitting this story got me accepted into Viable Paradise, a science fiction + fantasy writing workshop akin to Clarion and Odyssey with the rigorous selection process, curriculum, and how it fosters a sense of community among writers.

“Solongo,” a story about a Mongolian wolf, also has a special place in my heart. It won first place for fiction in my university’s writing contest. Winners presented their entries at the English Honors Society induction ceremony, so I got to read my story loud. Then it went on to get published in Wolf Warriors III.

Any parting words of advice for other aspiring writers, especially minority writers, in the fandom?

If I may borrow the invaluable insight Ken Liu had shared with me: don’t get confused between goals and milestones. A goal might be, among endless possibilities: “x words a day,” “complete NaNoWriMo,” or “at least one short story per month.” A milestone could be winning an award, or getting accepted and published in your dream venue, or signing up with your dream agent. If the milestone happens, great! But that’s not where you should focus your energy and sights on. Milestones are not within your control. Awards often have voting committees. Editors and agents are, well, not you, the author. Work on your goals: something you can reasonably achieve within your power. It doesn’t have to be big. And don’t make it too ambitious. You’ll set yourself up for disappointment that way.

For the marginalized and the minorities: Be true to yourself, believe in yourself, and have the confidence that you know yourself best. Listen carefully, appreciate, and learn from valid thoughtful criticism regarding craft, but don’t let others police the imprint of your identity in your work. Don’t let others say that your characters and setting “aren’t x enough,” or “if you did this and this, that will satisfy my idea of your background” or “it’s too y for the x audience to relate to.” Furthermore, you will get criticism even from those who share your background. That can hurt. But be ready for that, and keep in mind that there’s no one-size-fits-all voice for a community defined by ethnicity, faith, clinical condition, gender, or sexual orientation. You can never please everybody. Might as well stay true to your vision and how you want to make your voice heard.

 

Discuss this article on the Guild forums, or learn more about Allison on her website.

This article went out in January 2017 titled “Yiffing for Dollars”. Here’s a re-edited update a year later, to coincide with a bump in notice and a concerning situation. 

Fek announces becoming a full-time, well-paid pro yiff artist.

Furries have built their own small industry on creativity worth millions. Their membership is rising and it’s likely to see the “furry economy” grow with it. You can see what’s up by watching the small slice who are devoted enough to make a living in the fandom – Profans.

Adult art can have an edge in dollars because it has more of a niche quality. Clean art is perfectly valid, but perhaps the mainstream is where it succeeds most – making an apples/oranges comparison. This look at indie art business will focus on the naughty stuff, but doesn’t exclude other kinds, and it applies outside of fandom too.

Check the list of top creators on Patreon and play Find The Furries!  

When first looked at in January 2017, fandom member Fek was earning $24,000 per month for making furry porn games. (Quote: “Ditch the dayjob and live the dream.”)  He had the stat of #2 best-paid per-patron on all of Patreon.  (See his art on Furaffinity.) Others were in or near the furry ballpark (dogpark?) Most of the NSFW entries in the top 50 had furry content. #12 was the Trials in Tainted Space NSFW game, earning $27,000 per month. #30 was the kinda-anthropomorphic-NSFW artist Monstergirlisland, earning $20,000 monthly.

I haven’t checked these numbers since early 2017, and I think the list changed from “amount of money” to “number of patrons” which knocks furries down the list, but… Artists are getting rich from this, no joke.

Older news:

• Cracked – We Draw Furry Porn: 6 Things We’ve Learned On The Job. “Every artist agreed it would have been impossible to make a living doing this as recently as 10 years ago. But today they constantly have multiple projects going and portfolios with hundreds of completed works, and they find themselves in ever-increasing demand.”

• NYMag: The Secret Furry Patrons Keeping Indie Artists Afloat. “When it comes to commissioning original works of art, nobody can match the furries.”

• Vice: How Cryptocurrencies Like Bitcoin Could Save the Indie Porn Industry (featuring furry artists.)

• Vice: Offbeatr, the Kickstarter for Porn, Is a Furry Playground. (Old news about a defunct site.) More at Flayrah: Furry porn sweeps Offbeatr; their CEO, project leads explain. That business didn’t succeed, but the trend continues.

Since late 2017, Kotaku has given strong attention to adult art on Patreon:

• There’s A Website Dedicated To Stealing Furry Porn From Patreon Artists.
• Sex Game Cancelled After Taking In Five Figures A Month On Patreon.
• Patreon Starts Enforcing Stricter Rules On Sex Games.

These show growth being overshadowed by trouble. They aren’t just about furries, but notice – the first one is about a theft site that targeted furry porn first, then spread to any and everyone. Theft, instability, and creator-hostile regulations are looming. It even involves politics.

A tiny slice of Profans having positive success is also vastly outweighed by those who do it for less than a living – but more than a hobby. Competing as business with lower-expense hobbyists makes things complicated. Fandom is full of young, struggling artists who are figuring out how to use their talents, and deserve all the support they can get. Making money from art has never been easy, and this makes me think about the current state of things.

There’s a lot to say about being an artist in troubled times.

The planet is in trouble and every species has a complaint, so let a dog bark about politics for a minute.  If I had a crystal ball to see into a future with Trump in power, I bet it would show nothing but murk with occasional mushroom clouds. Expect isolationism, extreme nativism, and turmoil.  He gives lip service to bringing back jobs, but has no plan beyond drunkenly slashing and burning everything – corporate regulations, facts, and the social contract. Don’t be surprised when it simply helps rich people hoard money and leaves burger-flipper work and a Limbo-game race to the bottom for wages for everyone else. What I’m saying is, Millenials are facing poverty and instability beyond what their parents faced.

This space needed a graphic so have Old Economy Steve.

It’s scary, but even downsides contain opportunity. Not like in the old economy before they had robots doing all the jobs, but if nobody’s hiring for jobs worth doing – what’s better than making your own career?  Look at the indie level.

This business article caught my eye: “Can This Startup Reinvent How Doggie Portraits Are Sold?” Forbes explains that pet industry spending hit a record $60.28 billion in 2015, and MyPoochFace.com got a half million. It’s “the first venture launched by Niche Digital Brands”, who target “massive markets with specialized and differentiated products”, according to the owner: “‘Basically, if Amazon sells it, or has the ability to sell it, we are not interested.'” The part that stood out is “specialized and differentiated” and “Amazon can’t sell it”. Robots and Chinese manufacturing aren’t such a risk for that.

Doggie portraits? Isn’t that familiar to furry commission artists who make unique custom art for every client?  They do all kinds from Disney to dirty, and you can’t lump everything they do together, but there already is a Disney. What people don’t have is a stable business for adult media companies. (Even the weird kind is having trouble, like Kink.com closing shop.) The centralized production studio concept is going away, in general.

That’s why furries are poised for a little opportunity on the naughtier side. A modern “go west, young man” is “go yiffy, young furry.” Any person can get naked and it’s not very special when people do it – but who does “specialized and differentiated” better than fantasy artists?

Appreciate furry porn because it’s hot and cute and fun, and you can commission your own to match your desire – but also because it’s so independent. You can complain like hell about being broke and having no health care, but it may even be one of the few places to still find the American Dream.

Why this matters:

Does furry erotica even fight modern entropy? (Slate: How Can Literature Resist Islamophobia? One Writer Answers: Gay Muslim Furry Romance.) My feeling is a subtle yes – in ways like expressing queerness that lets individuals gain confidence to break barriers – and in being countercultural against stifling values that pit people against each other. In times when fear of strangers is fired up to the point of war, if you can say “hugs are the furry handshake” – hugging a stranger is a statement.

Free love and expression may not be overt “politics,” but it matters. It especially matters to people who make a living from this. We can find a small vision of a kinder, happier way to treat each other, in the fantasy and international conspiracy of fandom.

With risks on the rise, how can furries look out for themselves?

Furry artists should think of a guild or trade compact for group interest. Forget arguing "that's the internet", this is basically about thoughtless people using others. One solution - pooling info about who runs this site for group response. Send tips. https://t.co/QlzHRQTLkY

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) January 6, 2018

I had hoped Patreon would do exactly this but so far their silence has been deafening...

— Canada's #1 Counterfeit Pronoun Trafficker (@RewhanPottinger) January 6, 2018

The article is missing a key detail, IMO. The owner of yiff[.]party doxxes artists who file DMCA takedown requests as retaliation. It's not just about stealing art. It's about a systematic attack to ruin the lives of mostly marginalized artists. https://t.co/WudF8LuPKA

— Izzy Galvez (@iglvzx) January 6, 2018

It's worse. A wide variety of artists/content creators is affected. Bot accounts scrape paywalled content and post it to that site. Since it's run by 8chan, aka guys who thought 4chan wasn't Nazi friendly enough, they dox creators who speak up and incite harassment.

— Fence for counterfeit pronouns (@gryphoneer) January 6, 2018

I honestly can't believe in that article about yiff party it quotes the creator saying he doesn't know if it hurts the artists
That was the whole damn point

— Corgi Queen Liz (@Lizombi) January 6, 2018

I was actually around when that site was first discussed. It's original purpose was "a way to give middle finger to all the artists who hide all of their content behind paywall", essentially meaning they were going only after artists who made their stuff Patreon exclusive...

— Cr0nicallyInsane (@AngryCr0Bar) January 6, 2018

From a source.

See, politics. The theft targeting small, indie artists is being done with reprisal against remedies to attack them as a class. That’s one reason for them to consider organizing for their interest. They may be their own bosses, but still deal with various kinds of exploitation.

It gets more feasible with growing amounts of money involved. There’s an active Furry Writers Guild, loosely modeled after the Science Fiction Writers Association (which had a furry V.P.!) The SFWA exists to represent creators to (or vs.) publishers, as well as connect members for mutual support. Indie furry artists don’t deal with bosses or formal industry relations, but in a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps situation, there’s still the issue of what the downward forces are and how organization helps; stuff like dealing with abuse or figuring out standards among those competing with a semi-hobby level. Let’s not get into differing costs of living for international members.  Basically, Furry art is an incredible bargain for the skill involved – enjoy it, but don’t take it for granted. (My related article: Tip Your Makers! Why to pay more for art to improve commissioning and spread the love.)

I’ll leave these thoughts as a start for new topics to come. If you have tips on the theft situation, please get in touch.

UPDATE

Ever hear complaints about FurAffinity, but network effect keeps artists from leaving, despite alternative sites? There's a solution I've never heard anyone say - An independent artist guild (or trade compact) coordinating work stoppage or migration.https://t.co/PHgRDApiYh

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) January 10, 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.

In a nutshell, is my brother right about me liking something wrong?

From 2012 to 2014, I dabbled in the Brony scene after being influenced to see the first few seasons of "Friendship is Magic". Since then, I've regretted it a little based on the fact that it's still at its core a toy franchise for little girls, and forming a fandom really still isn't socially acceptable for a mix of both valid concerns and unfounded fears. When I spent the holidays with my younger brother, and I just happened to joke ironically, in a clearly unfavorable light, about the fandom, he upstaged me with the question "Why do you talk about it so much?" Then he went on with "I don't know why anyone older than 12 would like that show. I think it's a case of psychological infantilism," and "Twenty years from now, they'll wonder what they were doing with their lives". I almost had a heart attack because I could have been among the objects of his scorn. If I watched MLP: FiM again and reentered the fandom, the fujoshis (look it up), Rule 34 artists, bad costuming, those Bronies who use feminism/civil rights/the LGBT cause as analogies to their fandom, and the obsessive crossing over of things that have nothing to do with Hasbro's property, WOULD NOT help my case. And my uncles and grandmother would have a field day putting down someone interested in something simultaneously child-oriented and effeminate. Worse, I still feel a soft spot for, plus attraction to, the main characters whenever I find images of them. My best defense argument for my personal enjoyment of it would be “I also like my share of mindless fun, just like millions of other people.”

Addendum: It's just stupid entertainment, but I’d have to pursue it secretively to save my hide socially.

With Regards,
 
Joaquin the Boar (age 25)
 
* * *
 
Dear Joaquin,
 
When it comes to questions such as yours, I always fall back on the Wiccan Rede: “An it harm none, do what ye will.” (If you aren’t hurting anyone, do whatever you like.) There is nothing inherently wrong in your liking My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Lots of young men do.  Who are you harming by doing so? The only people who are doing any harming around you are your brother and, possibly, other family members by making you feel bad about liking something that is just a television show.
 
Why do people do such things? Because they allow themselves to be told what to do and what to believe by society. Thus, they are told that MLP is not “manly” and, therefore, you, as a male, shouldn’t like it. When you do like such things, it threatens their comfortable worldview of how people should behave, which then inspires fear and anxiety, which then leads to anger and hate. That is, sadly, how most human minds work.
 
What is cool about Furries and Bronies is that they dare to enjoy something (gasp!) that isn’t a social norm. That is a very brave thing to do.  But whenever people like you or me do that, the first thing that often (not always) happens is hate, and the second thing that happens is ostracism or dire predictions that the world will come to an end if we allow such things to continue. A great example of this is gay marriage in America. Conservatives and religious rightists issued Hellfire and brimstone warnings that if gay people were allowed to marry it would, literally, be the end of America and possibly the world. Well, we’re still waiting and nothing bad has happened.
 
Don’t allow yourself to be manipulated by small minds. People like your brother are the ones that hold society back, keep it from progressing.
 
It’s a sorry state of affairs that you feel like you have to hide being a Brony, but I understand. You still have to function in society and within your family, so if you feel that is something you must do, then okay.
 
But do not feel like you are doing something wrong or immoral. You aren’t. It is the people who are criticizing you who are the damaged ones. You’re fine.
 
Hugs,
Papabear

Whoops! A little present from the holidays we missed: Boom! Studios and Nickelodeon have announced the first Rocko’s Modern Life full-color comic book series. It’s “…a new ongoing comic book series based on the popular animated show about everyone’s favorite wallaby! Writer Ryan Ferrier (Regular Show, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) and artist Ian McGinty (Adventure Time, Bravest Warriors) team to launch the first comic book in the series… Each issue will also feature bonus short stories by different illustrators, including Tony Millionaire (Sock Monkey), KC Green (Invader Zim), and David DeGrand (SpongeBob Comics). Rocko, Spunky, Heffer, Filburt, the Bigheads, and the entire cast of O-Town are back, but all is not well. The town is facing a job shortage and Rocko is hit hard. With unemployment and potential homelessness on the horizon, Rocko’s problems are just beginning. But with help from his best friends Heffer and Filbert and his faithful dog Spunky, Rocko is (mostly) ready to take on the world (maybe).” The first issue is already on the shelves.

image c. 2018 Boom! Studios

Quite a packed episode! We kick off with Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote joining us for a fun interview about their new BLFC Musical album. Then we run through a massive link roundup, read about “normal iguana activities” and churn through plenty of news.

Download MP3

Watch Video Interview:

Two wonderful collaborative music artists Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote joined us to talk about their latest upcoming album “BLFC: The Musical!” which was written for Biggest Little Fur Con’s 2017 con theme and will premiere at the convention. We played some preview unmastered concept tracks of the performance & chatted for a good hour.

Fox Amoore:

• Twitter: @FoxAmoore
• FA: foxamoore
• Website: www.foxamoore.com

Pepper Coyote:

• Twitter: @peppercoyote
• FA: peppercoyote
• Website: lookleft.us

Biggest Little Fur Con:

• Website: goblfc.org
• Twitter: @BiggestLittleFC

Link Roundup:

• SuperDelux tweet about Hoof Shoes
• How Dogs Move
• Raffle for wearable Dragon Scales
• Cool “ref sheet” website
• FurSquared taunts user who pre-registered with the name “Con Chair”
• Further Confusion announces free anonymous HIV testing
• Rin’s Dance Drills Video
• KnotCast podcast renames to “Southpaws”
• Kurzgesagt retweets furries with 12,018 calendar
• Majira’s laundry pods video
• Flayrah’s “Are furries trying to poison your kids with laundry pods”
• CollegeHumor’s laundry pod video
• Denny’s laundry pod tweet
• ArcticSkyWolf & Fractal’s laundry pod video
• Kotaku post about a website that steals furry art off patreon
• Darkpaw & Nikolai are getting married
• New US Customs guidelines around personal electronic devices
• ArcticSkyWolf’s MidWest FurFest 2017 Con Video
• Revit’s “Supercut” video

News:

• Florida Confused After Frozen Iguanas Start Raining From Trees, Only To Come Back To Life
• Canadian Zoo Brings Its Penguins Indoors Because It’s Too Cold Out Even For Them Right Now
• Snoop Dogg Jack in the Box
• Dog Breathing Underwater
• There’s A Website Dedicated To Stealing Furry Porn From Patreon Artists

FC-289 Fail Until It Stops Hurting - Quite a packed episode! We kick off with Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote joining us for a fun interview about their new BLFC Musical album. Then we run through a massive link roundup, read about "normal iguana activities" and churn through plenty of news.

Quite a packed episode! We kick off with Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote joining us for a fun interview about their new BLFC Musical album. Then we run through a massive link roundup, read about “normal iguana activities” and churn through plenty of news.

Download MP3

Watch Video Interview:

Two wonderful collaborative music artists Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote joined us to talk about their latest upcoming album “BLFC: The Musical!” which was written for Biggest Little Fur Con’s 2017 con theme and will premiere at the convention. We played some preview unmastered concept tracks of the performance & chatted for a good hour.

Fox Amoore:

• Twitter: @FoxAmoore
• FA: foxamoore
• Website: www.foxamoore.com

Pepper Coyote:

• Twitter: @peppercoyote
• FA: peppercoyote
• Website: lookleft.us

Biggest Little Fur Con:

• Website: goblfc.org
• Twitter: @BiggestLittleFC

Link Roundup:

• SuperDelux tweet about Hoof Shoes
• How Dogs Move
• Raffle for wearable Dragon Scales
• Cool “ref sheet” website
• FurSquared taunts user who pre-registered with the name “Con Chair”
• Further Confusion announces free anonymous HIV testing
• Rin’s Dance Drills Video
• KnotCast podcast renames to “Southpaws”
• Kurzgesagt retweets furries with 12,018 calendar
• Majira’s laundry pods video
• Flayrah’s “Are furries trying to poison your kids with laundry pods”
• CollegeHumor’s laundry pod video
• Denny’s laundry pod tweet
• ArcticSkyWolf & Fractal’s laundry pod video
• Kotaku post about a website that steals furry art off patreon
• Darkpaw & Nikolai are getting married
• New US Customs guidelines around personal electronic devices
• ArcticSkyWolf’s MidWest FurFest 2017 Con Video
• Revit’s “Supercut” video

News:

• Florida Confused After Frozen Iguanas Start Raining From Trees, Only To Come Back To Life
• Canadian Zoo Brings Its Penguins Indoors Because It’s Too Cold Out Even For Them Right Now
• Snoop Dogg Jack in the Box
• Dog Breathing Underwater
• There’s A Website Dedicated To Stealing Furry Porn From Patreon Artists

FC-289 Fail Until It Stops Hurting - Quite a packed episode! We kick off with Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote joining us for a fun interview about their new BLFC Musical album. Then we run through a massive link roundup, read about "normal iguana activities" and churn through plenty of news.

Quite a packed episode! We kick off with Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote joining us for a fun interview about their new BLFC Musical album. Then we run through a massive link roundup, read about “normal iguana activities” and churn through plenty of news.

Download MP3

Interview:

Two wonderful collaborative music artists Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote joined us to talk about their latest upcoming album “BLFC: The Musical!” which was written for Biggest Little Fur Con’s 2017 con theme and will premiere at the convention. We played some preview unmastered concept tracks of the performance & chatted for a good hour.

Fox Amoore:

• Twitter: @FoxAmoore
• FA: foxamoore
• Website: www.foxamoore.com

Pepper Coyote:

• Twitter: @peppercoyote
• FA: peppercoyote
• Website: lookleft.us

Biggest Little Fur Con:

• Website: goblfc.org
• Twitter: @BiggestLittleFC

Link Roundup:

• SuperDelux tweet about Hoof Shoes
• How Dogs Move
• Raffle for wearable Dragon Scales
• Cool “ref sheet” website
• FurSquared taunts user who pre-registered with the name “Con Chair”
• Further Confusion announces free anonymous HIV testing
• Rin’s Dance Drills Video
• KnotCast podcast renames to “Southpaws”
• Kurzgesagt retweets furries with 12,018 calendar
• Majira’s laundry pods video
• Flayrah’s “Are furries trying to poison your kids with laundry pods”
• CollegeHumor’s laundry pod video
• Denny’s laundry pod tweet
• ArcticSkyWolf & Fractal’s laundry pod video
• Kotaku post about a website that steals furry art off patreon
• Darkpaw & Nikolai are getting married
• New US Customs guidelines around personal electronic devices
• ArcticSkyWolf’s MidWest FurFest 2017 Con Video
• Revit’s “Supercut” video

News:

• Florida Confused After Frozen Iguanas Start Raining From Trees, Only To Come Back To Life
• Canadian Zoo Brings Its Penguins Indoors Because It’s Too Cold Out Even For Them Right Now
• Snoop Dogg Jack in the Box
• Dog Breathing Underwater
• There’s A Website Dedicated To Stealing Furry Porn From Patreon Artists

[Live] Fail Until It Stops Hurting

​I'm still new to the Furry Fandom and as an adult with autism I never really felt any social connection outside the Internet. After over 10 years of trying, I finally got out of Mom and Dad’s house, but it’s still not complete. The guy I know I am is still locked inside of me and is still being stopped from coming out by them forcing me to take whatever it is they what me to use, what jobs they what me to have, having everything I do monitored, and more. Not caring that this guy is his own man and that makes me feel unsafe. I need to get out; I lost almost all my friends; all my dreams have been killed by them. The only hope I still have is if I could one day wake up as 0% human and 100% something like raccoon. That's the short version. The full would be over 500 pages long. 


Lance (age 35)
 
 * * *
 
Dear Lance,
 
Congratulations on moving out on your own and starting to take charge of your life. That is a major step and I hope it is working out for you.
 
Because I don’t know the degree of autism you are suffering or your health history, it is difficult for me to offer you advice on this subject.  But you sound as though you are eager to take charge of your own destiny.  I suggest you start by picking up the phone and talking to a professional in this area at an organization called Autism Speaks. You can find contact information here: https://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/autism-response-team. Another group you can look into is Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) http://autisticadvocacy.org/about-asan/; here you can educate yourself as to what is being done politically to help those with autism assert their rights and independence. If you feel motivated to do so, you might even try volunteering there, which will definitely help you feel more empowered.
 
I realize you feel as if your parents and others are trying to control your life, but I’m sure that what they are trying to do is protect you and help you because they care about and love you. The best thing you can do is learn more about the organizations listed above, set goals for yourself as to what you wish to do with your life, and make sure that those goals and wishes are communicated to your parents and anyone else involved in your life.
 
Good luck!
 
Hugs,
Papabear

This turned into commerical week ... So I guess we clear out the rest of the holiday videos we have another sweet advert for Heathrow Airport. I think there is something stuck in my eye.
View Video

Yes, obvious, we know, but too good to pass up. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Dimension X. We’ll let IDW explain it: “The brothers make an interstellar journey to different planets in Dimension X to save key witnesses in the Trial of Krang from assassination! Weird new characters, places, and events abound! This mini-series introduces an all-new villain, Hakk-R, into the world of the TMNT, directly affecting the events of the main ongoing series in this dimension-altering adventure.” The army of creators for this new mini-series includes writers Paul Allor, Devin Grayson, Ulises Farinas, Erick Freitas, Ryan Ferrier, and Aubrey Sitterson; with art by Pablo Tunica, Michal Dialynas, Khary Randolph, Chris Johnson, and Craig Rousseau. The comic mini-series is out already, and the trade paperback collection is coming later in January.

image c. 2018 IDW Publishing

Angry bunny! Never get in the way of a rabbit and a carrot. Also, I have no idea what they are saying.
View Video

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

Furries Among Us 2: More Essays on Furries by Furries, edited by Thurston Howl. Introduction by Thurston Howl. Illustrated by Sabretoothed Ermine.
Lansing, MI, Thurston Howl Publications, August 2017, trade paperback, $7.99 (179 pages), Kindle $2.99.

This non-fiction follow-up anthology to the Ursa Major Award-winning Furries Among Us (2015) presents a dozen more essays on furry fans and furry fandom, by “the Most Prominent Members of the Fandom” as the subtitle of the first volume put it. In his Introduction, Howl says:

“As in the first volume, his one has a three-part organization. The first part of the book focuses on social aspects of the fandom. […] The second section covers new aspects of furries and writing. […] The final section is again reserved for the dedicated and hard-working members of the International Anthropomorphic Research Project.” (p. 8)

In “The Importance of Being Seen: Foucault, Furries, and the Dual-Exchange of (In)visibility” by Televassi, he argues that furry fans need to stop being so insular over the Internet and socialize more openly in furmeets and conventions, even if they do so under their fursona identities. This will help furry fans themselves, who are often shy and introverted to become more social, and improve the general image of furry fandom in general society from that of a closed clique of social misfits to just another social fandom. “The Furclub Movement” by Patch O’Furr concentrates more closely on furry clubs: the mostly-monthly evening dance parties and raves, more than the more organized annual conventions. “Interview with the Foxes of Yiff” is a fictional interview by Kit and Khestra Karamak with Jesus and Satan Fox, two furry brothers with highly (even violently) different outlooks on furrydom and its activities. “Gender: Furry” by Makyo presents a “well-researched article on the correlation between gender identity and expression and furry.” (Howl, p. 8)

In “Am I Furry? Fandom vs Genre” by Mary Lowd, she distinguishes between the individual fans and the social movement, and the more physical furry fiction: the talking-animal fantasy and science-fiction books like Watership Down and Jacques’ Redwall series that may turn those who don’t know anything about furry fandom into a furry fan. “Furries and Science Fiction,, or … From the Very Beginning, We Were There” by Phil Geusz comments on talking animals in books and movies. “TF = Transformation” by Bill Kieffer concentrates on Transformation fantasy, in which a human becomes another animal, physically anthropomorphic or natural, but retains his or her intelligence. “History of Furry Publishing II” by Fred Patten is a follow-up to my essay in the first Furries Among Us. That surveyed the furry specialty publishers that have arisen in the fandom up to February 2015. This brings them to 2017, including the beginning of new specialty publishers like Thurston Howl Publications.

“‘It Just Clicked’: Discovering Furry Identity and Motivations to Participate in the Fandom” by Dr. Stephen Reysen, “The Highs, the Lows, and Post-Con Depression: A Qualitative Examination of Furries’ Return Home Following an Anthropomorphic Convention” by Dr. Sharon Roberts, “Say It Ain’t So: Addressing and Dispelling Misconceptions About Furries” by Dr. Courtney Plante, and “Furries, Therians and Otherkin, Oh My! What Do All Those Words Mean, Anyway?” by Drs. Kathleen Gerbasi and Elizabeth Fein are all based upon the results of the International Anthropomorphic Research Project (IARP), which has been surveying furry fans at conventions and online for the past six years. By collating the results of personally-asked questions and returned questionnaires, the sociologists have developed profiles of the average furry fan: age, gender, personality, attitudes, length of time in the fandom, and so on.

Furries Among Us 2 (cover by Tabsley) includes the cartoon fursona portraits of all the authors, by Sabretoothed Ermine; the same cartoons for the authors who were in the first book, and new cartoons for the new authors here. The two Furries Among Us books are important additions to the tiny but growing library of serious books about furry fans and the sociology (or “social anthropology”) of the fandom.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

(Back cover)

Are they human, or are they beast? Over the past several decades, the world has seen a new phenomenon on the rise, a group of people identifying as “furries.” They have appeared in the news and popular TV shows as adults wearing fursuits and participating in sex parties, but what are they really? As a sequel to the award-winning first volume, this collection of essays on the furry fandom reveals furries through their own eyes, with bestselling novelists Bill Kieffer and Phil Geusz, celebrity social media characters Jesus Fox and Satan Fox, the International Anthropomorphic Research Project, and so many more, covering topics from anthropomorphic animal science fiction to furry clubs to furry gender identity and the psychology behind furries. Some of the essays are comical and playful, while others are serious and academic. On one paw, this is a work for non-furries to get a glimpse into the anthropomorphic world. On the other, this is a chance for furries to hear from many of their favorite furries.

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.

Well, okay, putting aside a movie that not many seemed to like, there’s this: The Art of Ratchet & Clank. “Dark Horse Books and Insomniac Games proudly offer a look back at the history of the Ratchet & Clank saga in a Qwark-tastic collection of never-before-seen concept art and behind-the-scenes commentary chronicling eleven amazing games and the brilliant studio that created them! The 15-year anniversary retrospective of one of the most influential PlayStation games!” It’s coming in hardcover this March.

image c. 2018 Dark Horse Books