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

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, by Margaret Killjoy
NYC, Tom Doherty Associates/TOR Books, August 2017, trade paperback, $14.99 (127 pages), Kindle $3.99.

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion is the first novella in the new Danielle Cain horror series, “a dropkick-in-the-mouth anarcho-punk fantasy that pits traveling anarchist Danielle Cain against vengeful demons, hypocritical ideologues, and brutal, unfeeling officers of the law,” as a blurb says. #2 will be The Barrow Will Send What It May, to be published in April 2018. This is not a furry series; #2 will pit Danielle against zombies. But this #1 is fantasy-animal-related, although not anthropomorphic.

Danielle is the foul-mouthed narrator, a late-twenties now-cynical anarchist, no longer looking for the idealized commune where everyone loves everyone else and anarchy really works. As The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion begins, she is hitchhiking in rural Iowa to such a rumored commune, and she has to pull a knife on the car’s driver who does not want to let her out in the middle of “nowhere”.

“Ten years of putting up with shit like that from drivers. It was getting old. Hell, at twenty-eight, I was getting old. Ten years ago I’d talk to drivers about anything and love them for it. I loved the nice ones for their kindness, I loved the crazies for their stories, and sure, I hated the racist pieces of shit, but if nothing else I got to feel like I had the pulse of this racist, piece-of-shit country. But a decade is an awfully long time, and whatever shine I’d found on the shit that is hitchhiking had long since faded. Still, it got me where I wanted to go.” (p. 12)

Freedom, Iowa is a commune of about two hundred squatters and anarchist activists in an abandoned ghost town. But why Danielle wants to go there is:

“It was the last place Clay had lived, the last place he’d spent much time before he’d found his way west and his hand had shown his razor the way to his throat. No warning signs, no cries for help.

I had a lot of questions. If there were answers, I might find them in Freedom, Iowa.” (p. 13)

Danielle encounters the first horrific animal near the town right away.

“After a hundred yards and a couple turns, when the trees were getting thick enough to cast the whole of the road into shadow, I saw a deer on the shoulder ahead, rooting at something on the pavement. The beast was crimson red. Bloodred. I didn’t know deer even came in that color.

I crossed to the far side of the street so I wouldn’t disturb him, but I couldn’t help staring. A rabbit was dead on the ground beneath him, its belly up, its rib cage splayed open. The deer looked up at me then, his red muzzle dripping red blood.

On the right side of his head, he bore an antler. On the left side of his head, he bore two.” (ibid.)

Freedom, Iowa turns out to be the kind of deserted Midwest small town that you would find in a Stephen King short story. Houses’ roofs have fallen in. Cars are rusting at the curbs. It’s quiet. Too quiet. When the punk and hippie squatters appear, they’re all friendly but afraid. Clay had talked about her while he lived there, so they welcome her. They have names like Vulture, Doomsday, Thursday, Eric Tall-As-Fuck, and Kestrel. Danielle’s name is also her own adoption, but it’s not weird like that. She sees that one has a tattoo of a stylized three-antlered deer head on his neck.

“I was about to ask about it, but a sudden fear shut my mouth. There was something more to Freedom than I knew, and as much as I wanted to feel right at home, I didn’t.” (p. 21)

Okay, it’s a horror novella, so you can expect something grisly. It’s all animal-related.

“The sun sat fat and low on the western horizon, at the top of the street, and the last light of the day lent everything vivid faded colors. White lambs, dappled with red and purple wounds, paced a circle around both lanes of the street, not twenty yards from where we stood. Geese dodged in and out between them, and a regal goat oversaw the parade. Each creature had only a gaping wound where its rib cage had been, yet they lived. They opened their mouths to bellow and squawk and bleat, but their organless bodies let out only strange rasps.” (p. 24)

The ghoul animals are controlled by the deer.

“‘The deer’s name is Uliksi,’ she [Doomsday] told me again. ‘An endless spirit. A demon. A creature of vengeance hat walks these woods, swims in this river, watches this town. He’s been a guardian spirit, until tonight.’” (p. 28)

Why, if Uliksi has begun killing them, do Freedom’s hippies want to stay? Because they’ve finally gotten an anarchic community that works. A community of free-living friendship that’s worth fighting for, from The Establishment and from Uliksi’s ghoul animals. But the community’s defense leaves something to be desired.

“‘What do we do if we see anything?’ I asked.

‘Oh, right,’ Vulture said. He unslung a hunting horn from his belt. An honest-to-god hunting horn, like the kind that comes off an animal, with the tip cut off so you can blow through it. ‘Blow this. Or, you know, call someone. There’s decent cell signal everywhere in town and on this side of the hill. Maybe do both. I would do both.’

‘Okay,’ I said.

‘You’re looking for cops on the highway, large gatherings of undead animals, or I guess in this case very tall figures running around with my no-good ex-boyfriend or especially making their way toward the house.’

‘Got it,’ I said.

Vulture put his arm around my shoulders. ‘Did you floss?’ he asked.

‘What?’

‘Flossing is super important. Some people say it’s more important than brushing your teeth. It’s easy to forget to floss at times like this, but you’ve got to live today like you’ll survive till tomorrow.’

He was being serious. Kind of scarily so.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘I floss.’” (pgs. 62-63)

There turns out to be three forces, not two, menacing the anarchist commune: The Establishment/police, Uliksi and his undead/ghoul animals, and a cabal within the commune-where-everyone-is-equal who secretly plan to seize power over the rest. The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion is more of a detective novella than a horror novella. Danielle must figure out who the true enemy is.

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (cover by Mark Smith) is full of suspense and fear – but more because it tells you that it is than because of anything that happens.

“He lit a second cigarette with the end of the first one. He wasn’t smoking as an affectation, he was smoking because he was scared as hell and trying to keep his cool.” (p. 46)

But the scenes with the ghoul animals are creepy:

“Animal eyes turned toward us with mute curiosity, which turned to malice as we tried to rush past them. A silent mess of geese got underfoot and lunged for my hands. I started swinging. It wasn’t animal abuse. They were dead already. Some of the ones I hit didn’t get up again.

Brynn was almost to the gate when the goat ran at me. Someone or something had sheared off the beast’s horns, presumably before Uliksi had stolen the creature’s rib cage. Not an easy life, or unlife or whatever. I pulled back and swung from the hip, like a one-handed batter, and hit the goat in the skull with all my strength.

I must have grown up watching too many zombie movies. Hitting that thing’s skull was like hitting a boulder, and I probably hurt my hand more than I hurt the goat. Still, the blow seemed to have stopped its charge. It was still in my way. It tried to bleat, but had no lungs.

I heard a low rumble like distant thunder and turned in time to see a demon bull crash out of the trees and barrel toward us.” (p. 77)

The ghoul animals may not be anthropomorphic, but The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion is a good Halloween read.

– Fred Patten

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Looks like Chrysler is targeting California furs with a new plug-in Hybrid. There appears to be a whole series involving this bear.
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Ventana Sur, Argentina’s annual film marketing convention, has a division called Animation! — which, no prizes for guessing, covers animated film and TV produced in Argentina and other Latin American countries. Recently Variety had an article about the latest crop of films being pushed this year, and at least two of them are of particular interest to furry fans. Noah’s Ark (perhaps not the most original title…) is being directed by Sérgio Machado (The Violin Teacher). According to the article, “…the musical comedy unspools as both an adventure and political fable turning on two bohemian mice – inspired by celebrated Brazilian composers Vinicius de Moraes and Carlos Jobim – confronted by the flood.” Then there’s Escape to India, produced by Juan José Campanella and directed by Gastón Gorali — the same team that gave us Underdogs, the foosball-come-to-life movie. “Escape to India follows Azadi, a courageous cow who, destined for the slaughterhouse in Patagonia, escapes and begins an epic journey to India, where her mother tells her that cows are venerated.” Again, no word yet on when these films might be released, but they are in the works.

image c. Videofilmes

Our Patreon! www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow Telegram Chat: t.me/draggetshow ep. 182 -MFF 2017 w/ Boozy Badger! - Our Patreon! www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow Tele…

Huevocartoon is an animation studio from Mexico that made a name for itself with the Huevos series of animated films — which were quite profitable north and south of the border. Now they’re taking things in a different direction with their new CGI film Grimalkin. According to an article in Variety, “…the horror comedy narrates how a domestic cat’s love for his family is tested when mischievous creatures invade the house, a foster home run by a loving young couple. Being the only one with the ability to see them, the cat must confront the creatures before they take over the house and its inhabitants.” The film is being directed by storyboard artist Sant Arellano. There’s no word yet on a planned release date — but check under your bed just in case.

image c. 2017 Huevocartoon

Busy animals are often on the move, and, when they need a little help getting where they're going, anything can happen. Passing Through features six furry stories of hitching a lift and lending a paw. From straight up horrific to downright sexy, one thing's for certain—it's going to be one hell of a ride. "First Time Ain't Easy" (Tyson West) is a rough-and-tumble tale about a nice guy who falls in with the wrong crowd and learns a hard, hard lesson. Rod is a raccoon coming out of a relationship who decides to hitch to Seattle to help his cousin with a job. On the way, however, he climbs into a car full of trouble and ends up on the wrong side of the law and forced to learn some hard and fast survival skills. "Seed of a Doubt" was written by this reviewer and will not be considered in the review. "The Savage Caravan" (Jako Malan) features a wily mutt who picks up a sexy sheep for a ride that is bound to be full of surprises. Set in South Africa, the tale plays on the predator-prey relationship of the two characters and pulls off both sexy and creepy in a great hitch-hiker horror that twists in delightful and unexpected ways. In "El Vucko" (Billy Leigh), we meet Jamie, a broken-hearted dingo on a driving trip around Spain with his best friend. But when they pick up a sexy and mysterious hitchhiker, things take a twist toward trouble. The wolf who climbs into their van might not be who he says he is, but he does a great job of stealing Jamie's heart. "Highway to Hell" (Thurston Howl) is a fun flash piece that reads somewhere between the Twilight Zone and a morality fable. A lecherous truck driver picks up a hitching kid who ends up taking him for a ride right into surreal territory. In "Underpass" (BanWynn Oakshadow), a down-and-out cougar relays his trials and tribulations to his therapist in a gorgeous, stream-of-consciousness style story. His road to recovery wanders through themes of spirituality, mental illness, and redemption, and the beautiful writing makes this my favorite piece in the collection. The stories in Passing Through are diverse but also cohesive. There is a gritty, knife-sharp edge to most of the stories and a sense of depth and beauty in even the darkest moments. It should be a welcome read to any reader who enjoys edgy entertaining stories with anthropomorphic protagonists.

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

Passing Through; Tails from the Road [edited by Weasel]
Manvil, TX, Weasel Press, September 2017, trade paperback, $9.99 (138 pages), Kindle $2.99.

There is an editor’s introduction that sets the mood of hitchhiking drama, but isn’t clear whether it’s just a mood piece for this anthro universe, or if it was a real-life personal event that inspired this anthology. Here are six short stories and novelettes about anthro hitchhikers. “Cash, Grass, or Ass, open up and hitch a ride!” (blurb)

In “First Time Ain’t Easy” by Tyson West, Rod (called both Roderick and Rodney) is a 20-year-old raccoon whose father and friends consider to be soft and immature. He hitchhikes from Illinois to Seattle to visit a cousin, gets a ride from a friendly black panther (clearly an African-American), and the two are arrested and jailed in Montana. Rod hopes to be released in a few days, but is he tough enough to survive in prison until then?

“Seed of a Doubt” by Frances Pauli is a rare anthro story with sealife:

“‘Raise your right fin.’ The bailiff fluttered silver gills and rolled one eyeball the size of Ray’s head in the direction of the judge. ‘And state your name.’

‘I’m Ray.’ The courtroom water ran a good five degrees warmer than he was used to, but the increase in temperature behind his scales was more from nerves than the fact that hey were in the shallows. ‘Sorry. Ray Blythe.’” (p. 27)

The judge is a squid, the bailiff is a cod, and the defendant who Ray is a reluctant witness against is a shark mob boss. A big shark. Ray is a remora who had hitched a ride — was attached to Carl Sanguini, the shark, at the time of the alleged murder. A remora is a small fish, used to being silent and unnoticed, as Ray was when the alleged murder took place. He is extra nervous at being the center of attention in the coral courtroom.

What happens in the trial could only happen if the characters are anthro sealife. Kudos to Pauli.

“The Savage Caravan” by Jako Malan takes advantage of the author being South African:

“It was then I saw her by the roadside.

Her tiny hooves leisurely disturbed the roadside gravel. A small backpack of possessions slung over her shoulder and a pinstripe of smoke curled upward from a cigarette clasped in her left hoof. An upturned third digit on her right signaled her intentions. She trawled the highway or transportation. Companionship. Maybe more? I would take the bait. A twisted smile stretched across my muzzle, and my tail flicked beneath my backside on the sagging leather seat.

[…]

‘Rebellious, small-town adolescent,’ I thought to myself. Not the kind of ewe your parents would want you to bring home. My parents, however, would hardly approve of anyone or anything that didn’t have a wonderfully shiny coat, sported canines, perky ears, and had a bushy tail.’” (pgs. 53-54)

The narrator is Ed, the lorry driver, a dog (breed unspecified but German shepherd would fit). Any description of what happens would be a spoiler, but let’s just say that they’re both psychopaths; there are zebras, leopards, and meerkats; and there’s a lot of blood. And that this is another story that requires the characters to be anthro animals. Kudos to Malan, too.

In “El Vucko” by Billy Leigh, Jamie (Dingo) and Evelyn (Vixen) are a couple of tourists who fly to Spain a rent a van to tour the countryside. As they set out they hear a radio news report that the police are looking for El Vucko, a jewel thief. They pick up a hitchhiker; Rufus, a handsome Wolf with a British accent who claims that his car has broken down. As they spend time camping out together, Jamie who is gay begins to resent the attention that Evelyn shows for Rufus. He also begins to suspect Rufus of being El Vucko. There is a bit of excitement at the end. “El Vucko” isn’t a bad story but not much happens. It’s successful mainly as a story about three young friends camping out in the Spanish countryside.

“Highway to Hell” by Thurston Howl is about Harry, a drunken driver, and Stan, the hitchhiker he picks up. I can’t say anything about the story, not even their species, except that it’s short; less than four pages.

“Underpass” by BanWynn Oakshadow is stream-of-consciousness narration from Sutah, a cougar mutie vagrant with Bi-Polar Personality Disorder who usually lives under the eaves of a highway underpass, to a government shrink examining him:

“I’ve got my bedroll, but I ain’t ‘bout to use it here. Highway Patrol cops are total shits ‘bout ‘vagrants’ sleeping up here, specially muties. They grab my tail most every time I try, haul my fuzzy ass in to take my paw prints and check for priors – I got one for ‘Inducing Panic’ and a couple for vagrancy – then, if I’m lucky, they’ll toss me in a cell ‘til I get a TV face-to-face with the judge an’ DA. It don’t matter if I’m found guilty; I ain’t got no money to pay the fine, so I get a couple weeks in the county jail instead. […]

[…]

“I was also seeing animals, natural looking, not like muties, but they talked and did shit. Once, a raccoon climbed out of the trash can in my California shrink’s office. He crawled up onto her desk behind her and swiped some of her paper clips. I pretty much ignored the shrink; which pretty much put her girdle in a twist. The ‘coon unbent and rebent the paperclips and made them into glasses just like the ones Dr. Yeng was wearing. He put them on and started making faces at her and imitating every move she made behind her back. Made me laugh so hard, I blew snot bubbles. I wished I had a mirror. I’d kill a skin to see what a big cat with a snot bubble hanging from his muzzle looked like. […]

[…]

After a couple months, the VA decided that I had enough fixing. They measured that by dollars, not recovery. Even that I was a disabled vet didn’t help me stay. Mutie disabled vets is only worth half as much. The food was actually good there, and my yowling from the nightmares got me a private room. I gotta love my anal glands. Spraying the bed when I had one of them nightmares made the other seven muties in the room raise hell til I was gone. […]” (pgs. 113-115)

Sutah rambles on and on. The government in this country doesn’t cure those fucked up with mental problems; it dumps them out into the public, and onto the road. “NO FUR!” muties included.

Passing Through; Tails from the Road (cover by Tabsley) is a short anthology about anthro hitchhikers with someplace to go; hitchhikers with nowhere to go; hitchhiker predators and victims; and permanent drifters. “Seed of a Doubt” and “The Savage Caravan” depend on their characters being anthro animals in an anthro world. “Highway to Hell” and “Underpass” depend on their characters being anthro animals in a human world. “First Time Ain’t Easy” and “El Vucko” are just funny-animal stories. The former is a fine one, but the latter is the kind of story where the writing is good enough but you keep waiting for something to happen, and waiting … and when it does, it wasn’t worth the wait. Sorry. “Seed of a Doubt” and “The Savage Caravan” are worth the price of Passing Through alone, though. Overall: recommended.

– Fred Patten

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

Here is a making of for the costume over at Tested: https://youtu.be/Yirumj7Ftr8 "It's been one year since the great migration and there is a nationwide hunt for the blue alien population "Tierra Amarillas," which is also the name of the rumored enchanted land they call home. The government has deemed Tierra Amarillas dangerous because of their mystical powers, but deep in South Central Los Angeles, a group of outcast teens are secretly protecting one of them, Yoshua. Now that the group is growing up and moving apart, they are forced to make decisions on how they will protect their big blue alien friend. Will they stay in South Central or flee?"
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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Imperium Lupi, by Adam Browne. Illustrations, maps by the author.
Kent, England, U.K., Dayfly Publications, July 2017, trade paperback, £15.99, $20.99 (724 pages), Kindle £3.99, $5.99.

The book starts off with three complex full-page maps and several insignia. One map is of the walled city of Lupa, captioned “The capital of Wolfkind”. The insignia are of such things as “Buttle Skyways”, showing a dirigible, and “Lupan Laws”, the seal of the Lupan Republic’s government. There is also a ten-page lexicon at the rear of the book of terms used in the novel, such as:

Chakaa: The hyena answer to the Howlers, they are forbidden to use white-imperium by their beliefs, but unlike wolves they cope well with the psychotic side effects of purple-imperium. Even so, Chakaa are often unstable and are sidelined by the exacting standards set by noble-born hyena society, and only tolerated at all for their great strength and usefulness in battle.

The Politzi: Lupa’s police force, consisting largely of hogs, rats, rabbits and other lesser beasts who are for the most part unable to wield imperium directly.

Queens Town: Cat colony on the east coast, independent of Lupine Law. It was allowed to remain sovereign Felician territory as part of an ancient peace settlement between Felicia and Lupa. It is the first port of entry for any cats, or other beasts, coming to the Lupine Continent from across the Teich.

Imperium Lupi is set on the world of Erde. The first character that the reader meets in Part 1, Chapter 1 is Howler Rufus, a red-furred wolf, on a train:

“The pain subsiding, Rufus leant back into his seat, chest heaving beneath his cloak. He glanced around the dilapidated carriage; his fellow passengers diverted their curious gaze or hid behind newspapers. Little beasts mostly, mice, rats, rabbits, all the lesser races, who wouldn’t dare speak to Rufus without being spoken to.

The train slowed and the station panned into view, its fine marbled columns standing proud, each tarnished by the faintly spangled lustre of imperium ash. Rufus reached over and grabbed his helmet from the adjoining threadbare seat. He placed it over his brow; the padded metal hugging his sleek wolfen skull. It was black, save for the cheeks, which were white. Luminous red triangles were set beneath each eye-hole, like that found on Rufus’ brooch. Made of the wonder mineral imperium, they glowed even in the muted daylight, and against the helm’s white cheeks they resembled two bloodied fangs lying atop freshly fallen snow. The helm’s nose was covered by a grille punctured by a dozen round holes that enabled Rufus to breathe. Only his inquisitive green eyes and perky red ears remained visible, endowing him with menacing anonymity.” (p. 25)

The minutiae of this civilization are described in fine detail. It would be easy for a cosplayer to make the costumes, or for a model-builder to craft the vehicles and devices:

“At the bottom of the sprawling stairs, Ivan peeled away from Rufus, keys jangling in paw, and found his monobike parked by the road – and a fine machine it was, too, its large, singular wheel housed seamlessly under a chunky, polished black chassis marked on the flank with a small white spider motif.

Brushing globules of rainwater from the seat, Ivan threw an armoured leg over his marvellous bike, inserted the keys, and started it up with a kick of the pedal. Amidst a loud bang and several ear-thumping pops, imperium ash exploded forth from the exhaust in grey, yet slightly glittery clouds. The inside rim of the bike’s lone, broad wheel nestled between Ivan’s legs lit up in a bright ring of white as the imperium-laced gyroscope came to life. The bike rose up a little and righted itself, like a metallic beetle awakening from hibernation.” (p. 28)

It takes an age for the plot to get moving, but the richness of the buildup is exquisite. Here is an important quote:

“‘The imperium in our bodies is what gives us Howlers power,’ the imperologist went on, enjoying his role as the wellspring of knowledge, ‘but there’s a price. Whenever it’s burnt, whether it be in a car, a train, or our muscles, imperium of all colours decays into imperium ash. It’s bad enough when it clogs Lupa’s air, but when it fouls our bodies up it causes great pain…it’s well you know.’

Bruno gulped audibly.” (pgs. 35-36)

There is also drama:

“A flash of light and puff of ash burst from the pistol’s end. A fraction later and a colourful spark dashed off the leading monobike’s one wheel. The tyre exploded and tore itself apart in an instant.

The assassin’s monobike shuddered and twisted violently to one side, before catapulting itself seat over wheel and flinging the rider in front. He sailed through the air and disappeared amidst the carnage as his machine slid along the cobbles, shedding a shower of sparks and pieces of chrome bodywork all the way, before smashing into a heap of rubbish piled against the end of the alleyway.” (p. 41)

Here is more detail:

“Uther danced over to his locker and turned the dial on the combination lock, all the while flicking his tail and jigging his legs like some cabaret star. He removed his helmet like a hat, twirling it deftly over one paw and into the darkness of the locker, whereupon the red-imperium fangs slowly lost their lustre. Uther’s whole helmet was fortified with imperium not just the fang decoration, his leg armour too. The metal comprising Howler armour was known as eisenglanz, an alloy of steel and, of all things, imperium ash. Eisenglanz was not only physically tough, but the ash melded within the steel acted as an insulator and helped diminish the burning plasmatic attacks Howlers could inflict on one another. The ash gave naked eisenglanz a distinctive grey sheen, like pencil-lead.” (p. 66)

There are many major characters in Imperium Lupi. Some of the most important are the wolf Howler officers Rufus Valerio and Ivan Donskoy, Troopers veteran Uther “Wild-heart” (orphan; family name unknown) and young Linus Mills (all Bloodfangs); Rufus’ politically well-connected wife Janoah Valerio; the effete Felician aristocrats Montague and Penelope Buttle who keep appearing or being referred to; the Hyena terrorist Prince Noss and The Hyena Organisation for Recognition of Nationhood (THORN); the rabbit tavern cook Casimir Claybourne; and Casimir’s adopted son, the mysterious wolf pup Bruno Claybourne, and his wolfess girlfriend Sara Hummel.

The highly convoluted plot revolves around the Lupan Republic’s dominance of the Lupine Continent on the world of Erde. There are schemes within Lupa’s elite wolf government to turn the Republic into an Empire; there are schemes by some of the other animal peoples within Lupa for their own independent nations; there are fears around Erde that Lupa’s dependence on the powerful but ultimately deadly imperium (Lupa city is perpetually under “the choking clouds of the Ashfall”) is slowly poisoning the entire world, and schemes by some to get rid of imperium by ending Lupa’s dominance; and there are schemes by some who just want to end wolfkind’s rule.

Imperium Lupi (cover by Mike Nash) is a rich mixture of action, comedy, mystery, tragedy, political intrigue at the highest levels, and sentient bugs, among the animal peoples of the world of Erde. The wolves dominate, but there is plenty here for the fans of rabbits, pigs, hyenas, otters, and others. Imperium Lupi is proof that not all of the best furry literature is being produced within furry fandom.

– 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.&

More stuff we found at a recent My Little Pony convention. Snuggle Trumpet is, according to their web site, the home for t-shirts, dice bags, athletic jerseys, and other good stuff all decorated with custom-made vinyl decals.  So far, it’s mostly about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic of course, but they not only make stuff based on canon characters but also based on fans’ own creations. Plus, they plan on expanding their line before long.

image c. 2017 SnuggleTrumpet.com

So is this Night in the Woods meets the Lathe of Heaven pushed though When the Wind Blows? After watching this trailer and seeing the company is called Gkids I just have to say: [1] [2] "There is light and beauty, even in the darkest of worlds. Stranded on an island in a post-apocalyptic world, teenager Dinky and her friends hatch a dangerous plan to escape in the hope of finding a better life. Meanwhile, her old friend Birdboy has shut himself off from the world, pursued by the police and haunted by demon tormentors. But unbeknownst to anyone, he contains a secret inside him that could change the world forever." "Based on a graphic novel and short film by co-director Alberto Vázquez and winner of the Goya Award for Best Animated Feature (where Vázquez won Best Animated Short Film in the same year), BIRDBOY: THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN is a darkly comic, beautiful and haunting tale of coming of age in a world gone to ruin." [1] https://furry.today/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/You_898fdb_5956808.jpg [2] https://furry.today/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Kids.gif
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Here's the audio of our Black Friday Stream! We hope to see you at our show at Midwest Furfest on Saturday night! Our Patreon! www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow Telegram Chat: t.me/draggetshow ep. 181 - Black Friday Stream - Here's the audio of our Black Friday Stream! We …

Hello Everyone!

We open this week's show with a discussion on a comic concerning cuckholding from Oh Joy Sex Toy! We go over what cuckholding is and why there has been heightened focus on people who are cucks within the past few years. What starts out as a lighthearted discussion almost turned into a full episode's worth of content. Stay tuned for a future show on cuckholding because we have a lot to say on this topic!

Our main topic is on Sexual Etiquette. While we've discussed more of the varsity ideals of sex, we realized that we had not had a talk about the basics. An oversight on our behalf has turned into a discussion of best practices, of things you can ask, look for, and try to do. We talk about mistakes we've made, ways we've learned, and whether or not you should "superman that hoe". 

We close out the show with a question on breaking up. Our questioner has more to lose than romance if he breaks up with his boyfriend-- should he keep in a relationship he wants to end in order to keep the additional benefits? 

For more information, including a list of topics, see our Show Notes for this episode.

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 094 Sexual Etiquette - Cuckholding! Sex Toys! Sexual Etiquette. Having sex to the Pokemon theme song. All this, and more, on this week's Feral Attraction.

Too real, man. Also if it isn't obvious the music is Habanera from the opera Carmen.
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I’m in love with this exclusive animation that Jib Kodi made for a B&A (Bark & Awoo) with me!  It was so cool of him to put the appeal and personality of his art on display with his words. He caught my eye, as I’m sure he did for many others, with his outrageously cool short .gif animations on Twitter. In a very short time (months) he’s built a massive 14K following based on how infectiously shareable they are. It’s a winning strategy for an artist, and as far as he’s told me, it just happened accidentally out of love for what he’s into. Kind of like furry fandom grew itself. – Patch

Follow Jib Kodi on FurAffinity and Twitter

Hi Jib, can you talk about how you got into furry, and what do you think about it?

Welp, here goes nuthin’.

I was interested in the fandom since I was little, but obviously back then I wasn’t aware of fandom’s existence. And finally when I did get to learn what it was all about… well, people around me had negative views on it. That was my first impression from the public. So I naturally I suppressed my interest, hoping it would eventually fade away. During that period I’d hear more about the community, all the cons, and events. And oh boy, it sounded really really fun. Finally after 10 years, around March of 2017, I finally decided to make my own character, do little drawings and animated clips, and get myself involved. Basically all the stuff I wanted to do back in the day. To be able to open up, gosh, what a liberating feeling that was. As I look into the community more, there are many aspects and interests that I could relate to. With in less than a year, I was able to meet peeps from all over the world, with various careers, and interesting stories. When I look back, it makes me regret not joining the community earlier.

How did you get into animation, and what do you like about it?

Story telling was something I always enjoyed doing since I was little. Happy stories, sad stories, funny stories, you name it. Hehe I was one of those kid that spread silly rumours like how the school bathroom was haunted, and got myself into all sorts of troubles. But the point is, if I can get the person to react in some sort of ways, then I was all in. Drawin’ is one of my other big hobby, so it was inevitable that I drew pictures that tell some sort of stories. Those two interest eventually snowballed and I came upon animation. This opened whole new components to story-telling! From timing, to adding music, how to reveal punchline, and all that jazz. One of the first thing I animated was an alligator waggin’ its tail. When I saw that tail move, I was instantly hooked. Since then, animation has been one of my favourite medium to tell stories or show a little slice of life that the viewers can relate to.

What have you done with animation before?

I’ve made bunch of personal animated shorts. I love making them, but to be honest they can be really exhausting. In a way, it’s a marathon; you will be drawing thousands of same thing over and over again! And when you do get it done, and lets say right before you post it on the internet or submitting it to a film festival, theres so many emotions that goes thru your head. But its really worth it cause, due to longer runtime, you get to tell longer stories, and develop characters much more in depth. It really feels like a long journey that you go on when you make these shorts. Other then that, I’ve freelanced and worked for animation studios. For the bigger studios, I’m a story board artist. It’s a process where you draw the film almost like a comic book. But in a movie format. It helps the director and the rest of the crew visualize what the story of the movie is going to look like.

What inspires you, and who do you work with? (Are there other furry animators?)

Fandom has inspired me big time. Especially coming from someone who loves to draw animals. I know thats been a HUGE motivation for me to crank out all these animation in a short amount of time. I honesty thought I would’ve burnt out within a month or so. But that fire is still burning and even after I come back from work which is drawing all day, I get really excited to work on these animations! As far as collaboration goes, there are some artists who I’ve discussed about working together on something which I’m excited for! Though I’m still somewhat new kid on the block, and I don’t know a lot of artists in the community. But I really hope I get to meet more em in the future.

What do you plan to do with the animation you’re working on – is it for fun or do you have specific ambitions?

A lot of these animations I’ve been doin’ lately were mostly just for fun. My initial purpose joinin’ the fandom was to have a good time, and I’m having so much fun working on these little animated clips. I’m really excited to see what other stuff I can get involved in other than working on these animations. When I learned about how big charity events are in the community, that alone makes me really happy!

Within these several months, I think I’ve made handful of animated clips with similar topics that I think I can compile em all together with music and make little shorts out of them. At the moment I’m not thinkin’ too much into making longer contents. They often require a lot of planning and I’m bit aloof those might drain the motivation out of me. However, some of these animation unintentionally became more like a little short/ daily episodes. For instance, I animated a Shiba Inu gettin ready for business. At first, I just wanted to show how he wears a tie. But the moment I posted the gif, all these ideas popped in my head. So I started building a story based on the first gif. I certainly enjoy all these spontaneous encounters. And I’ll embrace em with open arms. Despite a lot of intense work, they force you to improvise and I personally think thats a real good exercise for animation and story telling.

Let me throw a bunch of stuff at you about your work process. When you get an idea, how do you sit down and prepare for it? What are your steps for making it? Do you use a lot of reference? What are you using to animate? How productive are you, and does it help your flow to use twitter to post small chunks?

My animation process is kinda all over the place. But they all start with something I want to show or express. Or characters I simply just want to animate. I’ll quickly brainstorm and start elaborating on what I want to show. And how I want to execute the content. Then I would quickly thumbnail the visuals just to check if its worthy of spending 10-20 hrs on it. If I’m happy with it, Ill go to town. Starting off with some main poses of the character and then timing out the overall animation. I work really rough. In my animation style, the roughness shows even in the final look of the footage. I just don’t have the patience to spend days making everything pristine and clean. If that was the case, my work flow would be a lot more slower and each piece would probably tag on twice the amount of production time. For others who are interested in story telling or animation, I highly recommend researching and gathering reference for your content. whether its the idea, or movements, research makes everything more solid. No matter how cartoony your animation may look, you can still add the realistic quality that helps the viewer relate to the content. And thats a great way to let the viewers engage and become invested in the characters you’ve created. These days, research is a whole lot easier than ever. Yup, thanks to Internet. Though, if you can somehow experience it in real life, I recommend that cause theres no other better way to gain experiences other than living it.

Anyway, the clean up process for the animation takes a good chunk of time. It can be a bit of a brain dead activity as well since you are most likely colouring something hundreds of times. I generally watch movies as I work on this process to keep myself somewhat entertained. But when you get it all done, its such a rewarding feeling. Oh and yes, for those digital animators. don’t forget to save!!! And save multiple versions of files. Last weekend, my file got corrupted and I lost 17 hrs of work. Don’t do what I do! XD

Your small animated gifs are getting tons of views and look like a really smart way to use twitter to build up for a bigger project.  Can you say anything about using Twitter that way – is it intentional or did it succeed by surprise? And can you say anything else about promoting your work?

I had zero intentions for anything with twitter. I still can’t believe I have twitter now, I was never too crazy about having one. I’m quite wary that whatever I post may expose to the wrong group of crowd. Heh I guess thats just me being paranoid. Anyway, I finally opened an account. From there on its been about 5 crazy months for me, and I’m very thrilled and overwhelmed with the attention I’ve received. The community has been really inspiring and friendly. But really, in all seriousness, I’m still quite unexperienced in social media. So there’s a lot of new stuff I’m learning. It just started out with posting contents Ive been working on. The only thing Ive really caught on are the fact that timing for posting your stuff is really important. I do have to say, internet is one big massive mysterious beast. There’s level of randomness when it comes to putting your work out there. Good content, that goes without saying, but the right timing, good amount of luck, and something that catches the viewers eye are all the elements that comes into play when getting your stuff out there. Keep creating, keep posting, and eventually viewers will notice your work more.

What thoughts do you have about “furry animation” for the future – do you think it’s growing, and could there be a scene for it?

I have high hopes that animation will have a bigger spotlight in the fandom. Especially for a fandom that’s so heavily inspired by animation, there’s big potential. I hope there are more artists out there who are inspired to try animation. It is a lot of work, but the sky is the limit in animation. Whatever you imagine, you can animate. After all it’s just bunch of drawings seen at a high speed. But you can add so much life this medium! That charm alone is the reason why I chose animation to tell stories, it’s the reason why many other artists animate, and why we enjoy watching them so much.

Is there anything else you want to talk about?

As an artist, always try to find ways to improve, and don’t be afraid to try new gigs! Be open to critiques. Some feedbacks may sting, but it’ll overall help you grow a tougher skin. Along the way you will make mistakes which means you’re on the right track, cause you will learn from those mistakes! Don’t get too precious with what you make. In the long term, this may work against you as you stop looking for ways to improve. If what your working on gets really frustrating. Take a breather. Don’t hack at it. You can work on something else and then once you’ve cooled off you can return to what you were struggling on. And remember to give your eyes a break, load up on fresh air, h2o and exercise. Your health comes first before everything else!

Thanks!! I hope it all makes sense and thank you for the opportunity!

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.

Last week was a very bad week to be a nazi furry. (Every week is bad for that, but this one was exceptional). Call them the Incel ISIS, or just a bunch of trolls, but the week kept bringing reminders that the furry fandom is past the limit of tolerance for their hate. There was a wave of critical attention:

• Newsweek published a deep look at the racist alt-right origins of alt-furry.
• Dogpatch Press posted an expose by a mole inside the Furry Raiders, and their hate group activity led former members to repudiate it.
• @Deotasdevil posted an essay about neo-nazis recruiting in nerd groups. It reached far outside of fandom, including 41,000 watchers of Sonicfox5000.
• More evidence was found in a video from Casey Hoerth/”Len Gilbert”, an altfurry recruiter/bottom-feeder. He soon regretted his words in the video and tried to bury it with a whack-a-mole game of DMCA claims. His rare moment of candor was too revealing about their private narrative.

Life is short. @AltFurryBlocker is your ticket out of #altfurry bullshit. pic.twitter.com/6I2w1tvmcv

— Tempe O'Kun (@TempoWrites) November 14, 2017

Finally finished my magnum opus. 3,000 words on brutality and intrigue of the ongoing furry political strife. https://t.co/jSFTxCV1x2

— Will Hicks (@William__Hicks) November 24, 2017

What I learned from lurking the Furry Raiders chat – guest post by Aristide https://t.co/KVRyXQuyO6 pic.twitter.com/M6nirn5ir1

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) November 22, 2017

I wrote this article to explain what tactics neonazi's use to recruit people, how those tactics work, and why the tactics are especially appealing in niche internet nerd subcultures like the Furry Fandom.https://t.co/yhxkq1B5xY

— Deo (@DeoTasDevil) November 23, 2017

Made a short thing since the other video we were linking was open to DMCA claims. I proudly present the seedy origins of AltFurry; enjoy! https://t.co/uQKUUcva0G

— Ed "Bad Bear" Bear (@That_Edward) November 24, 2017

Alt-Right racism that inspires Altfurry, in their own words.

All that indefensible stuff didn’t stop them from making a sideshow of deflection and backlash. It started with Len/Casey’s attempt to bury the video. Now they’re pushing forward with hope to raise even more aggression at critics. Altfurry is more like a NEET gang than a street gang, but there’s something deeply creepy about the plans. Read on to see how they’re grooming kids for an anti-SJW jihad, and how the kids even call themselves “weaponized”.

It’s a small piece of a bigger issue.

Briefly: in Hollywood, a wave of sex abuse revelations is reaching people who were too powerful for accountability before. It extends to politics, including the career of Roy Moore, the Alabama politician who is being investigated as a child predator.

As backlash, the Washington Post was targeted by a right-wing hoax group. A false claimant about Moore was sent to them as an attempt to get in the news, and instigate embarrassment and undermine critical reporting.  But investigation by the Post caught the hoaxers red-handed. They failed to stage fake news.

The O'Keefe thing at first feels like a hilarious own-goal. But think about what they did. They expropriated the child victims of a sex predator. And they did it because they want that sex predator to win a goddamned senate seat. You think they can't go lower. And then they do.

— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) November 28, 2017

It ties into the way Altfurry and Furry Raiders members are following the example of the hoaxers, with predictably poor judgement.   They hope to trash critics with similar manipulation tactics.  You can see them below. Solution: with an informed community, it will fail just as hard.

Altfurry backlash includes sexual exploitation of kids.

Get informed about this ugliness, but don’t be surprised – it’s nothing new. Go back to summer 2017 with activity by Altfurry Discord, Len/Casey’s group. Moles exposed logs of thousands of pages of the group chat (download in the link.) The chat logs demonstrate the racist intentions seen in Casey’s video, and plans for trolling against targets from critics to cons. You know it shows what they’re really like, because the planning happened before they were exposed, and members assumed their candid chat was confidential with each other.

Member Siggy was planning backlash against Dogpatch Press. What Siggy posted indicates he may be a minor.  In the screenshots, the profile is left unredacted because 1) it’s not a real name 2) those who associate with Siggy need to know this is real.  It implicates them for being in a chat where Altfurry allowed planning for child sexual exploitation on behalf of their group. (Luckily their lousy judgement extends to picking a target who wouldn’t go for such goofy entrapment, but they didn’t even care about someone considering being bait.) Complicity could have been avoided at the first post:

Doubling down to project guilt at targets.

Let’s return to November 2017. On Twitter, I posted about the Furry Raiders recruiting an apparent middle schooler.  A screenshot of the member list happened to include them and one other member. That member then demanded to be removed from the post.  He explained that he isn’t a real nazi, he was only there to advertise a different hate group and really hates everyone.

Proof of being a nasty troll meant no results for the demand. So the Furry Raider member doubled down. (They just don’t know when to quit and cut their losses.) He took the screenshot posted about the middle schooler, and photoshopped my pic in place of his own to claim that “Dogpatch is a nazifur”. (The term for that is projection.)

Next he dug up a 2014 photo of myself and a controversial furry who I didn’t know when it was taken.  He’s active at events and cons as a staffer under power of organizers to handle. (What I had to say about it was previously posted in this article about a fandom problem.) The photo was manipulated to imply that the controversy somehow included me. When it was reported, Twitter and Facebook judged it was harassment and limited the troll’s accounts.

Underage recruiting by Furry Raiders. Newest member on their Facebook is an apparent middle schooler added by Foxler. pic.twitter.com/o5X7p1knPm

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) November 20, 2017

The fake screenshot with my fabulous face photoshopped in.

My furry culture is taking fursuit photos with anyone who wants to be in them, including people I don't know. Much appreciate if you could report this targeted harassment about it and add to Twitter's file for it: https://t.co/fFyqpese1Q pic.twitter.com/nR5sz3Pdn6

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) November 26, 2017

They lie in public but know the truth in private. Tip: Vappyflame

We know they’re full of shit. Sometimes they figure it out too.

Harassment info from mole inside the Furry Raiders

Altfurries will continue to retaliate but suck at it.

This post can help respond to future harassment, manipulation, and faked instigation. Were you targeted by nazis like many who were left out of the story to avoid overexposure? Anyone can link this article to show what’s really going on.

The evidence here is already part of law enforcement cases. Other altfurry activity may not be shared to avoid interfering with investigation. If you or someone you know is aware of illegal activity by or in these groups, you can provide the FBI with an anonymous tip. Or get in touch for off-record discussion of how to keep yourself safe for getting out of the group or sharing important info about it.

Don’t forget to sign up for the Altfurry blocklist. Every new member adds distance between them and their targets, plus every time a nazi cries about being blocked, someone else gets a hug. Look out for each other and keep showing them the door.

Join the party!

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.

Allan Gann made a name for himself as a crafter of custom plush toys for various organizations and individuals since 1999. Then in 2014, he expanded his vision with Midnight Mares, designed not only as a plush toy line but also as an animated series. Inspired by My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (obviously!), but Midnight Mares takes things in a darker and more grown-up oriented direction. Visit the official web site and you’ll see what we mean. Interestingly, Mr. Gann has retained the services of Duo Cartoonist to help create the animation. Duo Cartoonist is well-know as the creator of the Children of the Night animated short, which won a Special Ursa Major Award.

image c. 2017 MidnightMares.com

...he could just be bi. ...wait? Aren't all snails hermaphrodites?
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Dear Papabear,

What are the benefits of psychedelics, if any? I ask this because it may or may be possible certain ones may be legal someday. It's not like they are all bad; it's just ... is it right from a moral stand point to make certain ones legal in Canada?

Sergie

* * *

Dear Sergie,

Good question :-3 Some people, such as, famously, the late Dr. Timothy Leary, have promoted the benefits of drugs like LSD. There are those who say it has a spiritual effect, allowing people to experience things they could not in the mundane world. Scientists who have studied drugs such as psilocybin (psilocybin, baeocystin, norbaeocystin, and psilocin are all hallucinogens found in eleven different mushroom genera), speculate that this is because psychotropics bring down the barriers around our sense of self, our ego, and make us feel more open-minded and connected to the world around us.

While there have not been any major studies on the effects of hallucinogens just yet, there have been a number of smaller ones involving a couple dozen subjects. Focusing on psilocybin, they concluded hallucinogens have benefits for both healthy and mentally ill patients. For those with various emotional and mental illnesses, the drug has been found effective for such disorders as depression, anxiety, and addiction (one study reported successfully curing 80% of test subjects of nicotine addiction). When administered to healthy patients, the drugs have notable effects on personalities. They tend to make people calmer, more creative, more focused, compassionate, tolerant--in short, NICER people! Interestingly, these effects can be noted with a single dose of a hallucinogen and can last over a year.

There is an important caveat to this, however, which is that psychotropics do have risks. For some people, they can cause "bad trips," as people who dropped acid in the Sixties and Seventies used to say, which can make you go literally nuts. For this reason, should drugs like psilocybin be approved someday for medical use, they should only be administered by skilled physicians and not taken recreationally. Taking the wrong dose of these medicines is highly dangerous.

So, when you ask about whether hallucinogens are good from a "moral" standpoint, I would say they are as moral as any other medication might be. There are many potential benefits for them that I don't think we should ignore and that require further research by the medical community.


Hugs,
Papabear