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Patch here, with Part 2 of the story submitted by guest writer Duncan R. Piasecki.

In Part 1, we mentioned the theatrical nature of anthropomorphism: how fursuiting is related to a world-wide love for humans performing as animals. In the mainstream, it’s in musicals like the stage version of The Lion King or Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats. Then, as we discovered, there was even a small, overlooked chapter of fandom history with not one, but at least two musicals focusing on the furry subculture.

One of these unique projects was Yiff!/<furReality>, which was fading from memory until we rescued documentation from the director.  It can make you wonder… while the mainstream celebrates anthropomorphic performance, why haven’t such ambitions carried forward as fandom has grown?

Perhaps the ideas may get tried again, with bigger and better resources, stages and audiences this time. Looking into that may get you excited for a certain con in 2018.  More on that at the end. (-Patch)

Duncan R. Piasecki continues with the story of the other musical:

Everything awful dot com (Furry Tales)

Strangely enough at about the same time as Yiff! was happening, another musical about furries was in the works, but completely unrelated and covering slightly different ground. A lot less was done with it, though, so there’s a lot less to say about it, unfortunately. This one, however, you’ve more likely heard of – at least if you’ve gone to Anthrocon consistently for the last decade or so.

In 2007, to coincide with Anthrocon’s first day, a musical was performed in Pittsburgh, at the CLO Cabaret theatre. The musical was titled Furry Tales.  There was hope from writers Bill Medica and JC Carter to have furries around, and have them give input. (They were Pittsburgh residents themselves, and had seen many an Anthrocon come and go, though never been to one themselves).

Medica (left) and Carter (right) at the premiere.

The story of the musical was basically that a journalist for a slag rag website named “everythingawful.com” (a play on Something Awful, who are… not exactly fans of us) goes undercover at a furry convention.  His mission was to go all Vanity Fair Pleasures of the Fur on our collective tails/nubs/whatever you have attached there, and expose the weird, kinky, sordid details about our sexual deviancy. (Apparently, even if you hate us, being in the middle of it doesn’t contaminate you if you’re there ironically – once a philosofur, twice a furvert? Sorry, Voltaire). He meets three others – “Gorillanator”, “HuggyBunny” and “MisoKitty2”. Music, and stereotype-breaking-down, ensues.  By the end, our grand troll protagonist, who calls himself “BlueWolf22”, finds his people, and The Truth of the Furry Fandom™ (dun dun dunnnn)… or something to that effect.

Something sticks out to me personally as interesting: one of the characters in this musical was a gorilla.  When was the last time someone met an ape furry, or was one? I mean, there are primate ones, but even the IARP doesn’t have any apes listed in their research on fursona species. It’s an oddity that sticks out a bit. I’m sure there probably is one somewhere out there, but I think it speaks to the lack of proper research at the time about who was what species.

(Note from Patch: here’s esteemed greymuzzle superhero Ultra-Gor meeting Nichelle “Uhura” Nichols!)

Now, reaction to this musical is a lot more visible than could be found for Yiff!. Furries apparently liked it well enough, giving it a standing ovation, but Anthrocon’s board members were less convinced. Uncle Kage himself was in attendance and was… not totally happy, to put it in simplest terms. I’ll paraphrase, but the gist is that he while he felt they had good intentions, tried to be sensitive, and the performance was well done – they were misinformed.  It seemed they were relying on misinformation common in the media at the time especially, so their attempted sensitivity was a misfire due to the misinformation (as he put it, the story was about “four losers trying to get laid”). He invited them to come to Anthrocon and get a good look for themselves at what all this fuss was about.

Nothing more seemed to happen after that, as far as I can tell – nothing more seems to have ever been said or done since that performance. I can’t even tell if they took up Uncle Kage’s invitation.

Unfortunately for us, it seems that no files of this exist anywhere, unless someone somehow recorded it. As best I can tell, the creators never released anything, and the musical was never performed ever again. The writers are also quite hard to track down nowadays, which doesn’t help either (I mean, you can find people with their names, but it’s really hard to tell if they’re the right people, or someone who simply shares a name and broad location). Plus, the website was heavy on use of Flash, so it didn’t archive at all, making finding primary source information nowadays really hard.  So this one’s a bit of information and not much else, unfortunately. I wish there were more to say.

We are the fantasy generation

So there you have it: a small part of furry cultural history you might not have even known existed, represented by Yiff! and Furry Tales.  It’s a pity really, it’s quite interesting in my humble opinion just for how weird it is as a cultural artefact. Good, bad, in the middle, whatever you feel about these things, I think we can all agree: this was something unique and worth preserving at least the memory of.  More desirably, it would be helpful to archive the full content, if just for interest as an odd, short-lived, and (so far) unsuccessful sub-branch of the broader story of the Furry.

– Duncan R. Piasecki

Patch here: Are we missing anything to mention? There was a stage show (but not a musical, I don’t think, I haven’t watched it) by Chris “Sparf” Williams:

But now for that 2018 news I was teasing at the beginning.

A Furry Musical Con!

Biggest Little Fur Con has grown, in a few short years, to be one of the highest-profile cons. Their 5th annual event in 2017 shot into 3rd place among largest cons (behind Anthrocon and Midwest Furfest.) By reputation, they are supposed to be one of the most fun and most well-run of all cons for several reasons.  One is their location at the Grand Sierra resort in Reno Nevada – with Go Karting, bowling and more on site.  Another is their attention to organization and theme; their “Big Brother is watching” style dystopian theme several years ago was praised as one of the most well-done anyone had seen, with the pervasive “propaganda” and interactive element of a “resistance”.

When they announced 2018’s theme is “Furry Musical,” I heard it from a con guest of honor who is a professional in theater. I believe they are helping to produce it.  I’m going to check in for a followup article to coincide with some important BLFC news. Stay tuned for that and stay fabulous.

On behalf of any furry who likes musicals, thank you very much to Duncan for his extraordinary effort to research and present this fandom history. I hope it may inspire those excited for BLFC, and those who bring the idea back to life after years of gathering dust. (- Patch)

A MUSICAL!!!#BLFC18

Mother's Day weekend 2018

For real this time. https://t.co/IGCcCTZpe9

— BiggestLittleMusicon (@BiggestLittleFC) June 5, 2017

ANNOUNCING: OMG we are writing a musical for @BiggestLittleFC next year!!! @peppercoyote. NO PRESSURE. pic.twitter.com/1KIvh7NfxE

— Fox Amoore (@FoxAmoore) June 5, 2017

Hey guys, sorry about the audio quality on this one...something happened and whatever it was won't happen again. Enjoy? That said we will have a regular episode up very soon. ep. 176 - Fur Reality '17 (audio borked) - Hey guys, sorry about the audio quality on this o…

Yeah, I have a map like that and it never let me down either. (Those churro carts are much easier to find with it)
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Previously posted – Review – Furry Nation: The true story of America’s most misunderstood subculture, by Joe Strike.

Finally, there’s a formally published book about furry fandom and its history. I think it’s overdue by a decade. It comes with excellent cred, being written by long time insider Joe Strike (who joined the fandom in 1989) and published by Cleis Press. Find out more from furrynation.com.

A book worth supporting- Joe Strike's "Furry Nation" comes out very soon. Please spread it on 10/10 via this link. https://t.co/13n3vPhdpN

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) September 28, 2017

To support the book: sign up to their Thunderclap campaign. Join fast, the launch is approaching!

Signing up concentrates support with one blast on social media.  Why help? Success of the book will support more and better plans. One commenter asked why the book says “America’s most misunderstood subculture.” It has to do with an American publisher focused on domestic readers, and much of the early history is tied to a few American places.  The book had to be kept inside a certain length, leaving wider topics out, but if it does well…

Altho 'Furry Nation' has emphasis on USA, any sequel -- assuming this sells! -- will be called 'Furry Planet' and be more international.

— Oliver (or 'Goldie') (@OliverGoldie1) September 28, 2017

Author Joe Strike writes in with news, and an exclusive offer of a free comic:

“The official publication date for Furry Nation is October 10 – and some interesting things are already happening.

Last week I was interviewed by The New York Post. I supplied them with an assortment of furry art and fursuit photos. It looks like they’re going to give Furry Nation a nice write-up, and possibly explain Furry a little bit better than just about everyone else has so far. I’m keeping my fingers crossed – the only keywords attached to their recent story about the Connecticut councilman “exposed” as a furry were “Connecticut” and “Fetishes.”

I did my very first podcast this past weekend, appearing on Furcast.fm and it was a ton of fun. They’ve asked me to come back anytime and I can’t wait to join them again. You can download or watch it here.

I’m offering a freebie to people who purchase Furry Nation through the book’s website.

There are links on the page to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powells.com. Click on any of those links, make your purchase, and forward purchase confirmation to me at joe@furrynation.com, together with your mailing address and an over-21 age statement. I’ll send you a free copy of Komos & Goldie Number One: the premiere adventure of that scaly ‘n shiny super-team created by myself and the British fur known as ‘Desiring Change.’” (-Joe Strike)

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The 10th Kingdom is a fantasy miniseries that first aired on NBC (US) and Sky One (UK) in February of 2000, and in Spain in November of that same year. It tells the tale of a young lady, Virginia (Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Father of the Bride), and her father, Anthony (John Larroquette, Night Court), who, living in less than optimal conditions in a tiny apartment next to Central Park in New York, are pulled through a magic teleporting mirror into a parallel world of fairytales. As they try to go back to their real world, they are accompanied in their journey through a fantasy land by a handsome man who is actually a half-wolf, simply named Wolf (Scott Cohen), and a talking Golden Retriever who is really Prince Wendell, a cursed human prince (Daniel Lapaine).

This miniseries is simply phenomenal. Award-winning screenplay writer Simon Moore, who also wrote Gulliver’s Travels (1996) and co-wrote Traffic (2000), wondered what may have happened after the ‘Happily Ever After’ of old fairytales, and his vision became the screenplay to this miniseries. But it isn’t just greatly written. It’s also endearing, funny, entertaining for both kids and adults, and, it’s immensely furry!

As the Evil Queen (Dianne West, Hannah and Her Sisters, In Treatment) is released from her moldy prison cell, a great menace looms over the Nine Magical Kingdoms of the fantasy realm. The Evil Queen, stepmother to Prince Wendell from the 4th Kingdom, uses magic to exchange the body of the prince with that of a Golden Retriever, so she’ll be able to easily train the phony prince (with the soul of a dog) into giving away his kingdom. The real prince, physically turned into a dog, runs away through a teleporting mirror into our real world (the 10th Kingdom), searching for help, and that’s when he finds Virginia and Anthony.

The miniseries has a great cast, and most of their scenes were recorded on location, throughout different places in Europe, with gorgeous scenery. Though not much was heard from the production team for some years afterwards, the TV premiere had many followers and VHS orders; and it currently has a cult status, with over 800 very positive reviews on Amazon for the Blu-ray release. It also has a petition for a sequel at Change.org, a Facebook fan group, and a Twitter fan group @T10Kfan

 
The use of animal anthropomorphism is all over the place in this lengthy adventure. Wolf is the main furry attraction. He looks like a charming and elegant human, except, he has a fluffy tail, a passionate devotion for juicy meat and tasty young ladies, and, literally growls and howls! There are whimsical scenes in which he has to control his inner wolf instincts, almost always in a playful manner, which are delightful to watch. The prince’s phony poser, the dog trapped in Prince Wendell’s body (obviously played by the same actor as the human prince, Daniel Lapaine), is nothing but furry too! Panting constantly, as he’s being trained by the Evil Queen to behave like a normal person he utters the lines “I demand to be a happy puppy!”,“Can I have a biscuit?” or “I found a juicy pile of bones, and buried them.” Meanwhile, the main four characters come across a shepherds village that’s celebrating their local festival. And guess what costume the villagers run away from, at the parade… A wolf’s oversized head, of course!

 

  Mice speak German, did you know? Now you know!
  If you keep panting like that,
they’re gonna think you’re really just a dog
  Virginia strokes Wolf’s tail.
Not against the fur, Virginia! With the fur!
  Awooo!
The wolf is coming, hide away your sheep, shepherds!
  Prince Wendell finds himself unable to communicate through speech with anyone but Anthony. Imagine having John Larroquette as your manservant!

  The Dutch actor Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) plays the role of wicked Huntsman, always menacing, chasing our main characters like prey

 
As furry as many things are, the miniseries is valuable too in that it can be watched and enjoyed by everyone, with a gripping story where everything has a reason for being the way it is. Nothing on screen happens for the sake of it. Every scene establishes the characters, their motivations, their background, their conflicts, their personal growth, and ultimately the underlying course of events that brings them to their destiny. It uses references from classic tales, but it’s an original idea, a fresh different story on its own that has stood the test of time, while other classic tale movie remakes haven’t.

Joining me to discuss the series is Scott E. Cohen, actor from New York City (US), who plays the role of Wolf. He’s had several appearances and main roles over the years on television and on the big screen, including the series Necessary Roughness (2011-2013), and a role alongside Natalie Portman in The Other Woman (2009). He’s worked in a ton of stage productions as well, on Broadway and off Broadway, including Three Changes with Maura Tierney at Playwrights Horizons, and Drunk Enough To Say I Love You at NYSF with Sam West.

 

 
Mickey: So, before we start Scott, I feel I should give you a bit of context. I watched the miniseries when it premiered here on television, with my little sister (I was a teenager back then). And we absolutely loved it! It remains one of my favorite series.

 
Scott: That’s so great to hear! It changed a lot of people’s lives. We are very proud of it. There’s a lot of family connection with it, and helping people through rough patches in their lives. Simon Moore and myself are trying to get a sequel made! But we need fans to speak up and demand it. So please sign the Change.org petition and spread the word on social media!

 

 
M: Your performance in this production seems more amused, more carefree, compared to the serious tone of most stuff you’re usually involved with on screen. In interviews you repeatedly say you’re proud of the work you did in the miniseries. Did you have fun playing the part?

 
S: I had some of the most fun ever! It was filled with challenges both in acting and personally. Traveling across the globe to shoot over 8 months was thrilling and hard. I felt like I was in a band touring. It was different, but I think the show is different than most of what gets made. Very seldom are we asked to play parts that demand so much research and instinct as this did for me. I am very proud of it mainly because of the effect it has had on so many people. It seems like, just when I forget about it, people pop up and talk about how it has moved them or changed them. Wolf was an amalgamation of everything I love about being human.
 

M: As a half-wolf, your character has a tail. Maybe you know many of our readers enjoy wearing tails at conventions and gatherings! Most of the time, storywise, your tail is hidden inside your pants, because wolves have a bad reputation. Did you actually wear your hidden tail when it didn’t show on screen?

 
S: I wore it when I felt like I needed to be aware of it. It was my choice, but often the lump would be too obvious for shooting. Yet I felt it important for myself and others to be aware that I had something that was unique and deeply connected to who I was. It was a big tail!

 
M: Did you have one or many tail props?

 
S: I had a moving one that was remote controlled, and one that laid there. My son played with the remote controlled one on set, when he visited. He was 4, and he loved it.

 
M: That’s so cute!

 
S: But the behavior was more important to me in the end. The question for me was always if I could behave like a wolf. That’s where the scratching came from, the eyebrow movement, the eyes.

 
M: Performing like an animal is not as easy as it looks, experienced fursuiters would agree. Yes, I think the role would have suffered if they had given you many more props. The props don’t make the character, they’re a tool. It was also fun that you weren’t obviously a wolf so you could fake being a regular person, throughout the story, if needed.

 
S: Agreed! We actually shot with masks for transformation, but I really wanted to “be” the character, and convinced them all to let me try to do everything without any mask or costume. I wish I had pictures of that.

 

Rawr!

 
M: I wanted to show you some remarks from the making-of, to see if you’d like to comment on them:

  Simon Moore (Writer):
“A big question for me was, how to introduce the character of Wolf. How to come up with somebody completely off-the-wall crazy, but nevertheless be endearing and intriguing.”

Herbert Wise (Director):
“Scott has done it completely successfully, being this ‘animal’ and yet being human. The animal is not offensive, it’s just excited. And the human is not quite human. And there’s always that delay of the animal within him.”  

S: Sure! I think this was a challenge that was introduced to me the first day I shot. We had two directors. The first I worked with was David Carson, and the first scene we shot was when I show up to Tony’s apartment. He took me aside and had this long conversation with me before I started shooting along with a jacket not fitting me I remember, or something, there was some kind of costume thing going on, maybe me deciding what I really wanted to look like… I think it was more that actually. But he told me to reach for the stars, go as far as I want, and he will bring me back if he needed. This way we saw Wolf off-the-wall and the script would do the rest really, show his more vulnerable side.

Herbie was (he just passed away) a genius. His take on Wolf was all about what was his conflict inside and how to communicate that through sheer internal angst and desire. He gave me the confidence to sit there and know how I felt would be seen. I loved them both for different reasons. And Simon is a wizard… truly. I can watch the film over and over and discover new things along with how Kim Williams performs… she was amazing.

 
M: In the scene where you have to climb up Virginia’s long hair, Kim’s hair, like in the story of Rapunzel…

 

… was that really you going up her mane?

 
S: Yes, that was me! I was hooked into a harness and climbed up hair that had a rope hidden in it. The harness was set up so I didn’t fall but they helped me a few times getting up. It was a real tree in the forest, at Pinewoods outside of London.

M: And the inner tree was filmed in studio.

S: Yes.

 
M: When ‘Full Motion Video’ (FMV) was a thing, you were part of an ambitious cast in the videogame Ripper (1996) for the PC (with Christopher Walken, John Rhys-Davies, and others). That shooting was almost fully green-screened. On the other hand, there’s rarely any green screen on The 10th Kingdom. Would you say the use of green screen makes it harder for actors to act well?

 
S: Yes. I am about to start a TV show that is all green screen. It’s harder, but your imagination kicks in and it’s fine. The problem is being confined to a space, a reality that is not there for you. For big action sequences I think it’s easier because your imagination is bigger, and fills it all in. But for little things like a room, a desk, etc., it’s harder. Ripper was one of the first to do that.

 
M: I caught you at work, so you’ll have to go on set in a couple of minutes. But I have one last petition. You see, we have a meme, a joke, in the fandom. Furries whose persona is a wolf, or a canine, are fined $350 for howling, for awooing. As most famous wolf of the ten kingdoms, I’d like to make a request. Could you gracefully extend the royal pardon you were given by King Wendell to all wolves, to include any charge for awooing in public?

 
S: Why would they be fined for being natural?! This is a horrible punishment!!

 

M: Thank you very much for your time, Scott!

 
Reader, please make sure to sign the petition for a sequel to this much deserving miniseries at Change.org! If you’re further interested you can join and/or follow the fan groups at Facebook or Twitter. You can find Scott’s social media accounts @scottecohen or as Scottecohen on Facebook. And, since it’s now, at last, formally legalized: Awooo!

 
 

The entry Interview with Actor Scott Cohen,</br> Wolf from ‘The Tenth Kingdom’ appears first in FurryFandom.Es.

EXTENDED PRE-REGISTRATION: Sign up by the end of day on October 10!

Register here to join the fun and support this young con.

San Jose, CA has two furry cons. Look at special places like that for ideas about how the fandom is growing. (See my article: One Town, Two Cons.) Do two cons show healthy demand and raise the bar for both?  Do they split the community?  Or are they just on different paths with one trying an out-of-the-box concept?  Well, it looks like win-win positivity in San Jose. The cons are so friendly that they share staff.

Pacific Anthropomorphics Weekend (PAWcon) is the upstart “relax-a-con” at the DoubleTree, previous home of Further Confusion.  400 or so furs went last year, making a just-right sized party on the shared balcony connecting the whole party floor. (You can bounce from room to room without traffic jams, and spend time with everyone – it’s the best party ever.) The con has grown by 100 furs-per-year, so expect more and better for 2017, their fourth year.

Keovi’s art

PAWcon is coming SOON, so register NOW! Here’s more info they sent:

“Pac Anthro League (PAWCon) is designed to foster co-involvement and inclusion between the intermingled groups within our shared community. We support local animal groups through charitable events, and educational outreach.

The goal is bringing together furry, pups, gaymers, and cosplay, among other groups, in a welcoming supportive environment. It enriches our community through outreach and educational inclusion of these various facets in the greater Anthropomorphic community.

Each community exists in their own right, though many members aren’t limited to just one group. Pac Anthro League believes that group co-operation and inclusion strengthens our diversity, making our community the open and welcoming place it is.

This years guests of honor Keovi and Alkali are both well known in furry community. Kevoi’s amazing artistic abilities in various mediums, from spray paint to print work, has delighted our community for years. Alkali is best known for his unique comedy style and generous heart, helping to raise money for charities around the country.”

Check out Keovi and Alkali on the GOH page.

And here’s the registration page again. Can’t wait to see you there.

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.

Vayro gryphon joins us for lots of silly discussion and news.

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Someone dressed like the Monopoly guy is photobombing the Senate’s Equifax hearing
• Why Do Female Hyenas Have Pseudo-Penises?!
• Discord releases video chat to all users
• Zanth Folf and the 11th doctor
• AIM shutting down in December
• Tooth and Tail Game
• Sauceeeeeee

News:

• “Furry Wolf Candy”: neural network invents fursona names
• Boy Swallows Piece Of Pet Toy And Can’t Stop Squeaking
• DeepMind Creates “Ethics & Society” Unit To Stop Us Fearing Our Potential Robot Overlords
• Firefighters Spend 3 Hours Removing Weight From Gym Goer’s ‘Sensitive Part’
• Man Claiming To Be From The Year 2048 Says He’s Back With A Dire Warning
• Hacking Buttplugs for Science
  • Link 2
• Lake Erie is Turning a Harmful Green

Emails:

• Anonymous – Uhh….What do I do?

FC-281 Moanware - Vayro gryphon joins us for lots of silly discussion and news.

Vayro gryphon joins us for lots of silly discussion and news.

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Someone dressed like the Monopoly guy is photobombing the Senate’s Equifax hearing
• Why Do Female Hyenas Have Pseudo-Penises?!
• Discord releases video chat to all users
• Zanth Folf and the 11th doctor
• AIM shutting down in December
• Tooth and Tail Game
• Sauceeeeeee

News:

• “Furry Wolf Candy”: neural network invents fursona names
• Boy Swallows Piece Of Pet Toy And Can’t Stop Squeaking
• DeepMind Creates “Ethics & Society” Unit To Stop Us Fearing Our Potential Robot Overlords
• Firefighters Spend 3 Hours Removing Weight From Gym Goer’s ‘Sensitive Part’
• Man Claiming To Be From The Year 2048 Says He’s Back With A Dire Warning
• Hacking Buttplugs for Science
  • Link 2
• Lake Erie is Turning a Harmful Green

Emails:

• Anonymous – Uhh….What do I do?

FC-281 Moanware - Vayro gryphon joins us for lots of silly discussion and news.

Vayro gryphon joins us for lots of silly discussion and news.

Download MP3

Link Roundup:

• Someone dressed like the Monopoly guy is photobombing the Senate’s Equifax hearing
• Why Do Female Hyenas Have Pseudo-Penises?!
• Discord releases video chat to all users
• Zanth Folf and the 11th doctor
• AIM shutting down in December
• Tooth and Tail Game
• Sauceeeeeee

News:

• “Furry Wolf Candy”: neural network invents fursona names
• Boy Swallows Piece Of Pet Toy And Can’t Stop Squeaking
• DeepMind Creates “Ethics & Society” Unit To Stop Us Fearing Our Potential Robot Overlords
• Firefighters Spend 3 Hours Removing Weight From Gym Goer’s ‘Sensitive Part’
• Man Claiming To Be From The Year 2048 Says He’s Back With A Dire Warning
• Hacking Buttplugs for Science
  • Link 2
• Lake Erie is Turning a Harmful Green

Emails:

• Anonymous – Uhh….What do I do?

[Live] Moanware

According to Previews, a classic British black & white wildlife comic called Marney the Fox is available again, now in a hardcover collection. We got this from Blimey, the Blog of British Comics: “Just to cover the basics; Marney the Fox appeared in Buster weekly from the issue dated 22nd June 1974 to 11th September 1976. This fictional story of a wandering fox cub was written by Scott Goodall and illustrated by John Stokes. The artwork was absolutely superb and many consider it to be amongst Stokes’ best work. (The artist himself regards it as some of his best too.) One thing that made Marney the Fox exceptional is that, unlike most other Buster adventure strips, it played up the emotional content.” The new collection is available now from Rebellion/2000AD.

image c. 2017 Rebellion/2000AD

Save

Here is one for the insect furs out there. Also, What did these guys think of Kafka's book Metamorphosis? This universe raises so many questions.
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Article submitted by guest writer Duncan R. Piasecki. (Part 2 is here).

Let’s face it: we furries are a pretty theatrical bunch. Fursuiting is, in itself, a form of performance art, dramatic and striking, and probably the most visible aspect of our culture to anyone looking in from the outside. (It’s certainly what is talked about the most in the media).

None of this should surprise anyone here, even those of you who stumbled into the furry internet after straying off the normal path. In fact, it’s not even that surprising to the outside world. One need only look at, say, ultra-successful Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats, or the stage musical version of The Lion King, to see that the visceral drama of humans performing as animals is widely acknowledged the world over.

But that’s not what we’re here to talk about today. No, actually, we’re going into a deeper rabbit hole (har), one that many of you probably didn’t even know about: the furry musical.

No, not the ones with furries as the characters in focus. One with furries in focus. As in, us. As in, fursuiting, going to conventions, role-play, yelling at people online, and that sort of thing. More surprising to all of you, perhaps, is that there wasn’t one, but actually at least two musicals about furries being our regular old selves… both written by people not entirely within the fandom.

In Part 1, we’ll look at a musical where our request for documentation yielded a generous response by the director.  In Part 2, we’ll look at one that seems to be a fading memory with no record to be found – as well as an exciting happening to come in 2018.

Mom isn’t home tonight – how Yiff!/<furReality> came to be.

Back in the mid-00s, a British man by the name of Tim Saward was studying a Master of Arts degree in musical theatre at Goldsmith’s College in London. As part of the requirements to complete the degree, he had to come up with a final project, a performance of an original piece of musical theatre. Inspired by some strange friends of his who were into some things he himself wasn’t, but liking the possibilities for storytelling and innovative modern theatre, he picked the subject matter: furries. With idea in mind, and after input from actual furries on the internet about what exactly the musical’s story should be, he began to write. It’d be a little while before more would come of it than simply an idea. Let’s start there.

A song called “Fursonality”, performed by “Mortimer L. Wombat” (which seems to be a screen name for our friend Tim Saward) and Stage Lion (a furry resident of Buffalo, NY) was written as a test, recorded and released in January 2007. It was meant to be part of the musical, and seems to be the first song written for it.  Later it was cut and replaced with a song called “FurReality”, which became a little more important… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There was also a quick animation by the show’s animator for the song, but we’ll also get to him and what I mean by that properly in a minute.

At some point around this time (it’s hard to pinpoint exactly), there was also a release of a song called “Wolves in the Forest”. The version was called SCV (for reasons I only found out recently – it’s short for “Sondheim Comp Version”, a reference to Stephen Sondheim, a very successful and popular writer of musicals).  The SCV version had different lyrics and dealt with finding hesitation marks, rather than a drawing of a fox, and other subtle lyrical differences (such as referring to Lee, rather than Russell). It would later be retooled and become a mainstay in the production, under the same name.

In September, with the help of Darren Wayte, and fuzzy help in the form of Vahn Fox (story consultant) and Kyle Evans (a.k.a. Edge, on animation duty), Goldsmith’s College held a 45-minute concert performance.  Songs were presented for a musical that was, at the time, called Yiff! A Furry Musical, version 0.1.

The website for the musical sold the story as thus:

Childhood fantasies sometimes last a person’s whole life. Some furries just like anthropomorphic cartoons or dressing up like tigers. Others want something a bit deeper and more adult: more sexy; more yiffy; more taboo. Russ knows he’s a furry, but is otherwise clueless. Can he come of age in the furry community, both online and in real life? Is having a second life always a good thing? And how do you deal with the world’s wolves? All the intrinsic comedy of the furry experience meets some serious questions about growing up and the fluidity of sexuality in a decade of easy fantasy in a perky new musical that is unmistakeably contemporary.

That doesn’t tell you much.  Let me fill in the exact story, at least as it stood in its most complete form:

19-year-old Russell from Whitby is heterosexual, lonely, has no friends, no job, and no real prospects.  He struggles with his interest in anthropomorphic animals, and feels it to not be normal. He lives with his conservative Christian mother, after his father left or died (it’s unclear), and feels like she doesn’t understand him. Russell finds his way into an IRC chat with furries. Realizing that these are the people he’s been looking for, he takes on the persona of RedFox (gee I wonder what species he is) and makes a few friends.  In particular, there is JadeVixen, a sexy (but rather unpopular in the chatroom) kitsune girl that he starts to fall for. As his relationship with her grows, he gets deeper into the furry fandom and lifestyle.  Russell makes art and gets a fursuit.  Relations with his mother start breaking down over her misunderstanding of it all. Drama, hilarity, and explorations of sexuality ensue.  There’s a twist and cliffhanger ending that we’re promised will be continued, and would lead to darker territory, in the finished musical.

Yes, if the title didn’t give it away, sex is a fairly large part of this. I can hear your cringing from all the way over here, but it’s not the sole focus of the story at least. It does get pretty explicit at times (the performances were all strictly 18+, partly due to profanity), so it’s not great for stereotypes. Yiff is overtly discussed a lot, as you’d expect… I mean, you don’t go to Hamilton and expect them to almost never utter the name Hamilton, right?

The performance was not acted out per se.  Mostly the characters are just singing the songs (this is true of all performances ever held of material from it), but there were animations accompanying several songs (including the title song… awkwaaaaaaard).  Animation is projected on a screen on stage, and, yes, at a few points the actors dressed in fursuits (the cheap store-bought versions, but hey, still).  That’s pretty ambitious for the time in which it was done.

The performance itself was… fine. There were some obvious flubs and I wasn’t a huge fan of this particular version of Russell, at least compared to others, but it was a start.  It gained a little attention. Things would not remain totally static. Before we discuss what changes were made, we need to talk about 2008, which was a big year for Yiff!.

The 2008 cast and crew. As you can see, most of the “costumes” for the performance were just shirts with a picture of the character they were playing, in the same style as the animations. A few of them also played several different characters at different points. Not pictured are the two fox fursuits, but they were there on stage. That’s Tim Saward in the front, wearing the glasses and striped sweater.

In 2008, a bigger, more complete version, numbered version 0.2.0, was performed at King’s Head Theatre in Islington.  It had two dates, with a mostly new cast. It ran for twenty minutes longer than the first, at 65 minutes overall, with new and retooled songs.

The story remained much the same, but more story beats were expanded on.  The sexual side you expect from the title was expanded on quite a bit too.  Now there was a song called “The Ultimate Yiff”, about “desiring cartoons”, not being sure if it’s normal or if it even exists in other people (despite knowing the common-ish word for it used by other people).  It had the lyric “animation, masturbation, these are the only reasons I have to live“.  Then there was another song in which Russell is drunk at a furmeet and frustrated he couldn’t meet a girl.  An amiable, camp raccoon named RaccoonBoy grabs him and asks if he knows what a jailhouse gay is, and he gets a little… excited by scritching.  Then there’s a song that, well… you can’t hear it in the audio, but it featured actual simulated masturbation on stage while on webcam with Jade, who is telling him that he loves her. Make what you will of that, and the fact that he’s caught doing it.  (And you thought Rocky Horror was awkward to see with your conservative parents!).

The performance was more professional.  There were less awkward bits where people flubbed their lines, so it was overall better done than the original performance. This would, ultimately, be the most complete we’d ever see the musical. It was also the most attention the musical would get.  There was even a performance of some of the songs at the Rainfurrest 2008 masquerade.

In 2009 and 2010 there were two other performances, version numbers 0.2.1 and 0.2.2.  They had only about five or six songs, and again a mostly new (albeit much smaller) cast. Another thing also changed: the name. Gone was the suggestive (well, to us) title.  In was the rather complicated new name <furReality> (and yes, the angle brackets are part of the title), meant to invoke the IRC roots and backbone of the show’s narrative. It’s actually really hard to find out anything about either of these, since they were almost never discussed.  The videos are now long gone and I can’t remember anything about them.  Nor did I personally preserve them due to feeling at the time that they added little to nothing to what was said and done in version 0.2.0 (I know one was performed at the Scenic Route theatre, just can’t remember which one).

The four performances were all filmed in full (bar an accidentally unrecorded song in one).  The videos were put up on YouTube (except for the raunchy song “Yiff!” from the second reading – YouTube removed it not long after being uploaded, for being too raunchy. Apparently lines like “the juice of my sex is flowing like the surging of a tide” were too much in 2008, even if they might not be today).  The songs from the second version were put on FurAffinity as MP3s. I personally also managed to hang on to MP3s of the first recording, ripped from the YouTube videos, but not the videos themselves (to my chagrin).  The videos were never high quality (around 240p generally).  All the audio of the musical is just ripped from those (so it’s not great, quality-wise – low quality, sometimes hard to hear what’s being sung, audience laughing, distortion, compression effects, that sort of thing).

After the fourth, there was silence, though there was talk just after that performance that most of the songs were being dumped. It seems now that the project is all but abandoned. It was due to premiere in full in 2010, but the year came and went, and nothing more was said afterwards. The websites died. Saward did graduate his degree.  After playing around with pantomime theatre based on unusual concepts (such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula) and some other musical projects, he wrote a few unofficial Doctor Who audio dramas, and went on to eventually become the theatre manager for the London Borough of Hillingdon. He works there today. A few years after all of these events, he rendered private almost all of the videos of the musical, for reasons we didn’t understand at the time.  That’s why you’ve probably never heard of it unless you were there.

It’s hard to really gauge now what reaction was.  Little reaction to it seems to still exist, but most seemed mixed to positive, from what I’ve seen. At least, it was good enough for the project to continue on for several years. Perhaps surprising, considering the musical clearly had a sexual angle, and that was still a major prevailing stereotype at the time. (The title song, as you can imagine, was about a role-play that went sexual… and yes, there was animation to accompany it). The musical even started off with the infamous video “Sarah discovers the truth about furries”.

There was plenty of bad reaction too.  This video urging you to boycott it will have you know that.  Part of it, for the video creator at least, evidently had to do with minor character CanusWolf.  He was never shown in any reading (just hinted at offhand in the song “FurReality”), but billed as some kind of mysterious antagonist that’d crop up at some point, possibly in the flamewar hinted at in the first reading’s bridging section.  Also, I find irony in their insisting that the musical will be bad for furries, but that it should include groups like babyfurs and mpreg fans. Yeahhhh… that wouldn’t help it be any better for us than you think it will already be. Anyway, spoiler warning:

That sounds like an end, but it’s not. Patch got hold of Tim.

The director’s response, September 2017

I was quite floored that he responded, and very happy!  But more importantly, he cleared up a few things.  For one, the videos disappeared because the performers requested it. They were unpaid, and long-term video recordings of their performances were not part of the agreement.  Plus, everyone was a bit put out by the ol’ let’s troll the furfags business that happened when Encyclopedia Dramatica caught wind of it.

Second, we found out from him that the musical’s cancellation was due to his feeling it didn’t achieve what he wanted. Ultimately, he felt it stuck a little close to the theatrical conventions he was hoping to break. He then got out of composing entirely, and that was the end of that.

Third, and most excitingly, he shared a trove of files from the development of the musical.  There’s a lot of interesting tidbits that show development over the several years it was in the works.  Actually a bit too much to look at, in some ways, if you don’t know much about music/als (as is the case with me).  I’ve downloaded and backed it all up into a Google Drive folder.

Archive.org would be ideal for this in a more permanent setting. (Does anyone want to put this stuff in a nicely-sorted collection on there?  I’ll happily link to it with proper credit). But in the mean time, I’ll just share the raw files pretty much as I got them, supplemented with my collection of files.  Leave the sorting and proper preservation to someone else with more time and understanding and patience for Archive.org’s oddities.

Development files for Yiff!/<furReality> 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0By0x9b18IXxqN29GWFJVQlF0X3c

Here’s what you’ll find in there:

• MP3s of the first two performances.
• A programme for the second performance in PDF format.
• A WAV file of the SCV version of “Wolves in the Forest”.
• A recording of one of the songs that was never performed live, called “Russ Outfoxes The Counsellor”.
• An MP3 of the cut song “Fursonality”.
• Sheet music of all songs performed live.
• Scripts in various stages of development, as well as outlines that show at least two potential directions the story was set to go.
• Documents from development, including notes that give a lot more depth to certain elements not discussed in the stage show itself, as of the last-seen drafts at least.
• Bits of research, including chat logs with furries.
• Various draft versions of songs, mostly in MIDI format.
• Google Drive also saw fit, in the process of my backing the files up to my personal drive, to mess with the metadata that showed when files were last modified, so I included an HTML file in there that lists all of the files and their original dates, which should help anyone who wants to archive this stuff properly and try make heads or tails of what order various drafts were written in.

A pity we couldn’t get the animations, but oh well. Anyway, you can do almost anything you like with this. There are just a few stipulations:

1. Credit him as Mort L. Wombat, not as Tim Saward. This was his personal preference on the matter, and so we should respect it. His actual name being known and discussed in this article is partly because it was actually common knowledge at the time, so there was no reason to not include it.
2. Whatever you do with it, don’t make money off of it. Record it, perform it, whatever, just don’t charge. If you insist on doing something commercial with it, you’ll have to speak to him first.
3. Not all the stuff under the “Staging and Rehearsal” folder is his work, so he can’t give permission for its direct use, obviously. You’ll see what I mean. There are snippets from other peoples’ blogs and whatnot, used for research.
4. Tim intends for the videos to remain down, due to the aforementioned requests and drama. While I’d argue they should be kept for archival purposes, this is a point to consider before sharing them publicly. (Please do drop us an email if you have the videos, though, and we’ll discuss it.)

It would be quite fun to have better quality recorded performances.  Maybe something like a live show at a convention, followed by an analytical discussion panel about the musical, and the portrayal of fandom it presents.  But I’m just being a nerd and jumping ahead of myself. At any rate, enjoy all that stuff. I’ll leave proper analysis to someone who knows more about music(als), rather than just being a fan.

In Part 2:

We discuss the forgotten musical Furry Tales.  Then there’s an unusual and very cool happening that may bridge this middle chapter of fandom history to one of the biggest events for the furry world in 2018.  Many younger furs may not even realize this history happened.  That’s why we dug it up to help you appreciate the fandom better.

Duncan R. Piasecki and Patch O’Furr

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.

Lion Forge have brought a new dark fantasy for young readers to North America with the English edition of The Little Red Wolf, written and illustrated Amelie Flechais. As edited and translated by Andrea Colvin, it goes like this: “A young wolf, on a journey to bring his grandmother a rabbit, is charmed by the nice little girl who offers to help him… but nice is not the same as good. A haunting fairy tale for children and adults alike.” It’s available now in hardcover.

image c. 2017 Lion Forge

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I guess this week is turning into a WTF week. Here we have music by Denki Groove and animation by Cyriak (Who else?)
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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Seven Deadly Sins: Furry Confessions, edited by Thurston Howl. Illustrated by Joseph Chou.
Knoxville, TN, Thurston Howl Publications, January 2017, trade paperback $16.99 ([4 +] 411 pages).

The seven deadly sins are Lust, Wrath, Greed, Envy, Sloth, Gluttony, and Pride. This anthology presents 27 stories divided into those seven deadly sins. Each sin is introduced by an Interlude by Thurston Howl in which three punk youths, Derek (German shepherd), Zinc (tiger), and Barba (horse), tell stories about those sins in a ruined church. They suspect that one of them is a demon…

An advisory usually fits an entire book, but the stories in this anthology are so widespread from G to NSFW that I’ve put my own advisory on each story.

In “Don’t Judge Me” by Sisco Polaris (Lust), an unnamed human man goes to a mixed human-animal gym, steamhouse, and sauna that is a gay hookup spot. He spends an evening playing enthusiastic submissive slut to the male dom anthro-menagerie that passes through, to get into the mood to go home and do his sexual duty to his wife. Very NSFW.

“Down in the Valley” by Billy Leigh (Lust) is narrated by Ralph Walter Travers, a Fennec British civil servant posted in Kenya at the beginning of World War II. He is invited to a dinner party of upper-class Collies, Foxes, Cougars, and others that turns out to be a wildly degenerate orgy, with excesses of drink and sex. There is a death. The police investigate. To tell what happens would give away a spoiler. PG for the orgy and some mild gay romance in a British early-1940s setting.

In “Click” by T. Thomas Abernathy (Lust), Jack is a suppressed human supremacist working with anthro animals. He has a job at a bank, but his wife gets pregnant, so he has to take a second job moving boxes at a warehouse to support the coming baby. He can’t have any more sex with his wife, so he fantasizes about a doe co-worker at the warehouse. His lust for “just an animal” betrays him. A mild R.

In “Fun at the Mall” by Teiran (Lust), “Wildfire” Fox is unabashedly gay, shopping for every sex toy at Yiff R Us at the mall. When he meets a smug wolf who sneers at “faggots” in the mall’s restroom, he teaches him a well-deserved lesson. Even a reader who isn’t gay will be satisfied at this sneering “superior’s” comeuppance. R.

“Bones” by Searska GreyRaven (Wrath) is told from the viewpoint of a husky belonging to a Lady who encourages him to Change partway to human, Changing her partway to a dog, so they can romp together. When a Bad Man forces himself on her and tries to make her get rid of the dog, she has him Change all the way to human to solve their problem. This is such a mild horror story that I’ll rate it G. Or PG, for those who think that any story more mature than second-grade level should be PG.

“Those Three Letters” by Rayah James (Wrath) are HIV. When Orion (wolf) learns that he has HIV, he’s sure he knows who gave it to him. He’ll get revenge… That’s it? This story ends before it’s really gotten started. G (or PG for implied violence).

“For the Sins of the Father” by Sisco Polaris (Wrath) is narrated by Forrin, a wolf who is passed over for a job he deserves because he’s openly gay. He’s angry, and he decides the best way to get revenge is to seduce his lion boss’ son. Things don’t turn out as he’d planned. (Well, he’d be the first to admit that he hadn’t been thinking.) This is also NSFW, but I liked it much better than “Don’t Judge Me” because it has a real beginning, middle, and end rather than being just a sweaty, sticky mood piece; and for showing intelligence once he cools down.

“I Burned the Bridges to Heaven” by Weasel (Wrath) is about Derrick (raccoon) who is in a very abusive relationship with Andre (wolf). But what it’s about is not nearly as important as how it’s written; very poetically. PG.

“The Collection” by T. Thomas Abernathy (Greed) is narrated by Coop, a tiger, but what’s important is neither his name nor his species. It’s his mania for collecting. The collector has to collect. He has to have the biggest collection; better than anyone else’s. What does he collect? Is it important? G.

“Stay” by Hypetaph (Greed) is about Cecil, her son Kal (Himalayan wolves), and Kal’s girlfriend Claire (panther). Kal is going away to college and Claire is helping him to pack. Cecil is an overprotective mother who doesn’t want her baby to leave home. How badly does she want to keep him there? Since Seven Deadly Sins is promoted as a horror anthology, “how badly” is pretty obvious. PG verging on R.

In “The Beauty Regime” by Evelyn Proctor (Envy), a nameless lynx goes through numerous self-mutilations to be as beautiful as the fashion magazines say and show what True Beauty looks like. This could be a funny-animal story, but Proctor keeps it furry by constant usage of the lynx’s fur and body shape. Gruesome, but how many real human women have hospitalized or killed themselves in their obsession to be Beautiful? PG.

“Richard Cory” by Tristan Black Wolf (Envy) is more about the narrator, Matheson Knox (rat), than about Cory (tiger), his roommate. “Somewhere, the Great Brain of the university must have thought it amusing to pair up a senior with a sophomore, or a feline with a rodent, or a jock with a nerd.” (p. 167) “He had it all, and he had it so easy. Rich family and private schools; picked for the college b-ball team in his freshman year, not a star, but a solid player; enough brains to get by, at the very least; a perfect body, perfect smile, perfect everything, and all the sex he could want.” (p. 170) Envy, for sure. So what happens to Knox and Cory? I’ll just say that this is the best story in the anthology, in so many ways that it would take too long to list them all. “Richard Cory” is worth the price of Seven Deadly Sins by itself. Read it! PG.

“Lucy” by Dax (Envy) is about an insane tigress who imagines herself to be the wife of a happily married tiger. She plots to get rid of his real wife so she can take her place. This plot is reminiscent of too many real news stories about obsessive fans, which emphasize the funny-animal nature of the story. PG.

In “Devil’s Snare” by Faolan (Envy), Savani is a beautiful black wolf in body but with unruly hair. She is envious of Amber, a vixen with perfect looks in every respect. Savani attempts to use black magic to steal Amber’s hair. The reader can guess that something will go wrong. PG.

“Black Fur” by Gullwolf (Envy) differs in detail, but it is the same plot as “Devil’s Snare”. Cherize, a jackal, is envious of Luciana, a red-furred vixen. “But when Luciana walked into the coffee shop after the fitful few weeks that Cherize had spent waiting for her, Cherize realized that this fox was the definition of perfect.” (p. 214) PG.

In “Repository” by Hypetaph (Sloth), Parks, a German Shepherd, is in bed with his lover, Simon, a coyote. At length. Reading this made me think of the nursery rhyme, “The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out; the worms play pinochle on your snout”. It’s a grisly mood piece. PG.

“The Bear Necessities” by Bill Kieffer (Sloth) features Ferdinand, a black bear; Prince, a raccoon (they’re married); and Sladek, a skinny tiger and their familiar. Ferdy, a Tantric magician, discovers a dimensional portal to our Earth; a world of hairless monkeys, unevolved animals, and LOTS of untapped Tantric energy.

“The monkeys were civilized enough to have brothels. More than one of these had bear skin rugs in them. Because the portal had been open for so long, it was easy for Prince to get a fix on a suitable item to copy. The two magic users made a rotisserie out of the tiger, creating a conduit that allowed them to copy and connect with the dead thing on the other side. Even as the bear came into his mouth and triggered the spell. Sladek could feel the bear flattening.

It had worked well.

Perhaps, too well.

Before Prince had even finished on his end, the magical energies had come roaring through the connection to the bear in an overpowering onslaught. They’d not only tapped into any sex on a bear skin rug on the other side; but they’d connected with a tidal wave of power.” (p. 248)

Ferdy remains a conscious bear skin rug. How Prince and Sladek are affected, and what they do about it, is the story. I give it an A+ for imagination. R.

“Relations” by TJ Minde (Sloth) features Aaron (mongoose) and Justin (rabbit) who have been open homosexual lovers for the last five years. Aaron’s sister Shelly thinks that Justin is shallow; Aaron can do better for himself. Aaron wonders if he really loves Justin, or if it’s just too easy to continue their existing relationship. R.

“A Voice Not Spoken” by Stephen Coghlan (Sloth) is about the predators in a predator-prey civilization gradually being persecuted, as seen by Smokey, a feline who doesn’t bother to protest the increasing indignities and dangers. I was reminded of Pastor Niemöller’s “First they came for the Socialists…” long before Coghlan rephrases it in furry terms. PG.

“Listmember Lost” by Banwynn (Suta) Oakshadow (Sloth) is a 15-page story in the form of an email from a fucked-up furry fan who becomes his fursona of Flare, a 7-foot-tall muscular tiger-man, and finds that it doesn’t help his psychological hangups at all. PG.

In “Victuals” by Dwale (Gluttony), Salma (Mau cat) runs a government-approved scrapyard. Adam (Saluki), a new inspector, introduces himself, to her dismay. What is Salma hiding? PG.

“Anthropophagy” by Zarpaulus (Gluttony) asks the old question: in a joint predator-prey civilization where the predators are forbidden to eat meat, will all the predators be willing to accept “meat substitutes”? “Another perk of being thought of as myth: those paranoid enough to actually look for us end up expecting someone completely different. We’re almost always thought of as either hulking half-feral brutes bloated with prey, or suave sexual predators who seduce you and devour you after making love. With these stereotypes, who would expect a petite little fennec?” (p. 307) I rate this R for its gory explicitness.

In “The Music on the Street” by NightEyes DaySpring (Pride), Shadow the wolf… no, I can’t give a summary without revealing too much. It’s a good story, though. PG.

In “Runaway” by Banwynn (Suta) Oakshadow (Pride), Drever (human) is driving from Pennsylvania to Atlanta when he picks up Ramble, a teen red fox morph hitchhiker. Ramble is the first morph he’s ever met. What’s it like to be a morph, and why is he running away? I certainly didn’t guess where “Runaway” was going! A strong PG or a mild R.

“Shelter” by Avin Telfer (Pride) is a classic example of a funny animal story. All the characters are called otters, but they could just as easily be humans. Todd is the captain on an underwater research station when nuclear war breaks out. Only the fact that they are underwater saves them. As the months pass, the rest of the research staff switch their efforts to survival, but Todd stubbornly continues his scientific research. PG.

“Drop Tower” by Varzen (Pride) features Daani Asrighelli, a goat reigning pop star, and Alexi Rosenbath, a vampire bat “Executive Accountant of Vertilaginous Projections” – her recording company’s assigned manager/keeper to her. Her delusions of “immutable musical brilliance” and her temper tantrums make Alexi’s job a nightmare. “‘Daani,’ he said, counting on his footclaws the thousands of dollars pissed away in lost recording time, thousands more burned in the wrath of Daani’s inferno.” (p. 370) But as the story progresses, you wonder which of them is the more prideful? “Pride goeth before a fall” – literally. PG.

In “Migration Season” by J. A. Noelle (Pride), Sophie, a snow leopard, and Breezy, a sparrow, are friends in school in Berrymount. When rivalry and hatred between Berrymount’s mammals and avians starts to tear Berrymount apart, will pride in their city or pride in their taxonomic classes prevail? PG.

The anthology concludes with a final Interlude by Thurston Howl that reminds us that all of the stories are supposed to be Horror.

27 stories. This is a long review, and it’s hardly a review at all; mostly just plot synopses. Well, all 27 stories are readable, from brilliant to mediocre at worst. My favorites, in the order they appear, are “Fun at the Mall” by Teiran, “For the Sins of the Father” by Sisco Polaris, “Richard Cory” by Tristan Black Wolf, “The Bear Necessities” by Bill Kieffer, “Listmember Lost” by Banwynn Oakshadow, “Anthropophagy” by Zarpaulus, and “Runaway” by Banwynn Oakshadow again. I’ve already said that “Richard Cory” is worth the price of Seven Deadly Sins (cover by Joseph Chou) by itself. Consider the others my personal roll of honor; and there are twenty more for your pleasure. Enjoy.

– Fred Patten

• View book at GoodReads.com
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Dear Papabear, 

I'm new to the Furry world, though I've always better identified with animals, and I really like pokemon, the games being kind of a refuge for me. So I've been wondering, is it ok for my furrsona to be a Pokemon? would it still be considered a furry?

Luxumbra

* * *

Hi, Luxambra,

Interesting question and one Papabear has not been asked before, so bonus points to you. Now, what I'm about to write to you is just an old bear's opinion, and there are likely to be those who will disagree.

"Pokemon," as you know, means "pocket monster," although some might translate it as "pocket demon." In Japanese folklore and mythology, demons, devils, ghosts, and other spirit creatures appear in many of the stories and are very important to that culture, so it is not surprising that in the modern-day world they should be reborn in television shows, movies, and games.

Now, let's compare that definition to "furry." A furry is an anthropomorphized animal. So, it is an animal that can talk, reason, and behave like a human being does. A pokemon comes from the spirit world and has no connection to humans. Only a couple of the Pokemon characters can speak, though most seem to understand human language and some can communicate telepathically, which is consistent with their folklore background. They can look like mammals, dragons, even plants, so as for species, they are kind of all over the place, whereas furries are limited to animal species, though they may include mythological ones such as dragons, minotaurs, and griffins (which in themselves are based on real animals). In many cases, Pokemon intelligence seems somewhat below that of humans, which is why, apparently, they can be captured and used by humans in competitive sports.

Another difference--and one that is often applied to Bronies, which many consider outside the fandom--is that they are part of a commercial franchise originating from the Game Freak video games of the mid-1990s.

All in all, I would consider Pokemon to be one of those tangential fandoms that include Bronies, Otherkin, and Therians. Some Pokemon might be more furry than others. But bear in mind that you are not limited to selecting a current Pokemon to be your fursona. You could create an all-new Pokemon with furry qualities and fit in quite nicely. Even if you don't, many furries are Pokemon fans and you'd likely get along well with them. Too, if you would like to get involved in furry culture and events, I'm sure no one is going to tell you "no."

Hope that answers your question.

Hugs,
Papabear​

In an era of Emojis and Netspeak, is there still a place where every word is carefully chosen and every letter carefully set in place? Is poetry still a thing in this day and age? Texas-based Weasel Press believes so. And they want to share the distilled joy of poetry with all furries. Civilized Beasts is now an annual publication - it is a showcase for all things poetic (and furry.) It is the only published work of its kind as far as I am aware.This second installment would be my first forray into the world of furry poetry. I am delighted to report that there is indeed a more lyrical, more romantic side to the Internet generation and the fandom as a whole.But perhaps calling Civilized Beasts a Furry Poetry Anthology is a misnomer. Were it not for the very distinguished clothed canine on the cover, this may as well have been an anthology of animal-inspired poetry by any mainstream press. The vast majority of beasts featured in this anthology are of the talking animal kind.Content-wise, the work is divided into eight sections, with the pieces grouped rather broadly therein. Canids, Felines, Equines, Rodents and Rabbits, Avians, Scalies and Sea Creatures, Insects and Arachnids as well as a Menagerie of Other Creatures.Common themes include the interaction between man and beast, as well as the relationships of beasts with their kin. It explores the relationships we forge with our furred, feathered, and scaly friends.Our senses are sharpened as we step into other creatures’ skins (or shells.) We are made to slow and reflect on life as seen from sometimes kinder, sometimes harsher eyes. And, of course, we are made to question our very own nature.The poetic styles in Civilized Beasts 2 are diverse. Word Pictures (such as July 4th, Assateague Island by Larry D. Thomas) and Quasi Lyrical pieces (such as Harmonize by Al Song) are my personal favorites. On the other hand, I never truly understood Haikus. But if you like them, they are here, too.In conclusion, Civilized Beasts has something to satisfy every taste. The tradeoff, however, is that hardly anyone will enjoy every poem. It is for this reason I have never given five out of five stars to a multi-author poetry anthology before and am unlikely to ever do. It simply is the nature of the (Civilized) Beast.Four out of Five. Recommended!

This is for WTF Wednesday ... This can't be unseen, you have been warned.
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Hello Everyone!

We open this week's show with a discussion of an article on nonviolent communication. A relationship counselor spoke of the power of the word 'ouch', which at first glance sounds rather strange, but in examination this word has the form of an emotional safeword with the power to potentially shift an argument into an empathetic, vulnerable discussion that leads to resolution.

Our main topic is on Planning Your First Con. While Feral Attraction is a show about relationships, it is also a show about the furry fandom. We have gotten several questions from listeners who are interested in attending their first con, and we have decided to do a two part episode on conventions in this lead up to convention season. In this episode we talk about how to choose and budget for your first ever convention. While not a super sexy episode, we hope that this helps everyone in their planning process.

We close out the show with a question on roleplay. The questioner loves sending yiffy pictures and then having sexy talk with the people he's exchanging the pictures with. His boyfriend doesn't want him to have those conversations and would like for him to just send and receive those pictures. Neither of them can see eye to eye-- what can they do?

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

Thanks and, as always, be well!

 

FA 088 Planning Your First Con - Is ouch a secret power word? Can we make budgeting sound sexy (spoiler: probably not). Is roleplay a type of sex? All this, and more, on this week's Feral Attraction!