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More news we picked up at Stan Lee’s L.A. Comic Con. According to Screen Daily: “Stan Lee’s POW Entertainment has licensed its animated alien characters, The Unknowns, to be used in animated feature Panda vs. Aliens, which is currently in production at Canada’s Arcana Studios. Co-produced by China’s Yisang Media and Los Angeles Beijing Studios (LABS), the film is about aliens landing on an animal planet and seeking the power of a panda that they’ve seen through satellite broadcasts of a TV show. Gill Champion and Stan Lee will executive produce the film, which is directed by Arcana Studios founder Sean O’Reilly and is being lined up for release over Chinese New Year 2018.” You heard it here. Sean O’Reilly previously produced and directed Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom (which we’ve talked about before) and its sequel.

image c. 2017 Arcana

The Growth of a SubcultureOne of the marks of maturity is a growing capacity for self-reflection. When we are children, we act without thinking, completely in the moment. We just exist. It’s only as we get older that we start to question what it means to be who we are and why we do what we do. This trajectory of growth holds as true for societies as it does for individuals. Thus, I take it as an encouraging sign that books like Furries Among Us 2 are out there.This current title is the second in what I hope will be a series of non-fiction essay collections about the furry fandom. The first volume appeared in 2015 and contained an eclectic mix of essays by authors, artists, and social scientists. The 2017 volume contains a similar mix of authors, but seems much more focused on questions relating to the furry subculture and identity. The essays by non-scholars (with perhaps one exception) all maintain a high tone, while the essays by scholars are quite readable rather than being jargon-heavy.Here’s a brief rundown of the contents:Televassi writes a fascinating essay based on the theories of Michel Foucault in his “The Importance of Being Seen.” He posits a theory that furry fandom creates a space in which furries can be seen for who they are in a safe environment. This opening essay finds echoes throughout the collection, as it raises questions of concealing and revealing identities. While furries may seem to hide behind their fursonas, within the furry subculture they find a place where they feel most truly themselves.Patch’s essay on “The Furclub Movement” traces the history of regular furry dances in several communities. He relates his personal experiences with furclubs, and goes on to note how these regular events are safe places for furries and how the venues are often connected with the gay club scene. His thoughts on why furclubs are thriving connect back to the questions of identity at the heart of the collection.More tongue-in-cheek is the in-fursona interview with Facebook furry celebrities Jesus Fox and Satan Fox. The first part of the interview gives one example of how furry fandom interrelates with social media, while the second half, when the fursonas are dropped, returns to issues relating to furry fandom and individual acceptance.Makyo’s essay “Gender: Furry” looks at how self-exploration of gender and involvement in furry fandom can intersect, especially as seen through the author’s own experiences. Furry fandom provides a safe environment in which questions of gender and sexual orientation can first be articulated.Mary Lowd’s “Am I Furry?: Fandom Vs. Genre” in some ways is a plug for furry fiction as a genre, but perhaps that’s to be expected from one of the premier writers of furry fiction. Yet it does again touch on the main theme of furry identity inasmuch as it looks at the question of how writing furry fiction and belonging to the furry subculture may or may not intersect.Phil Geusz, another prolific furry fiction author, writes “Furries and Science Fiction, Or...From the Very Beginning, We Were There.” This essay reads mostly as advice to furry writers on grounding their works in credible speculation. Yet by calling authors to examine and determine why there should be furries in a story at all still touches the meaning of furry identity, here in the world of a specific story.Bill Kieffer’s “TF=Transformation” is simultaneously an examination of transformation as a genre and its relation to the furry fandom as well as a moment of self-reflection on the part of the author. This essay has one of the greatest lines in the entire book: “Sure, sometimes TF is just thinly disguised torture porn...but then there are days when I can say the same thing about real life.”That grayest of graymuzzles, the venerable Fred Patten continues his essay from the first volume of Furries Among Us with his “History of Furry Publishing II.” This reflection on the current state of furry publishing seems the furthest from the theme of identity. But because furry fandom is so strongly connected to the creation and consumption of furry art and stories, examining the state of publishing is a way of reflecting on the state of the subculture.The last four essays in the book are all contributed by members of the International Anthropomorphic Research Project, a group of social scientists studying furry fandom. Many (if not all) of the researchers are themselves furries, yet they work within the restrictions of their individual disciplines, giving these essays a unique insider/outsider perspective on the furry subculture. While each essay lists a primary author, in the tradition of scientific papers, footnotes also list contributing co-authors. These notes highlight the interrelations between the research of all members of the IARP.“‘It Just Clicked’: Discovering Furry Identity and Motivations to Participate in the Fandom” by Dr. Stephen Reysen in some ways is a justification for using social science to examine furry fandom. His research on why furries became furries is fascinating, showing again the strong overlap between the furry subculture and journeys of self-discovery. For many furries, their exposure to the fandom simply gives them a name to what they were all along.Dr. Sharon Roberts examines the so-called “post-con depression” among furries in her essay “The Highs, The Lows, and Post-Con Depression.” Her research into positive emotions during furry conventions certainly touches on issues of identity and belonging that lie at the heart of the collection as a whole.Dr. Courtney Plante’s “Say It Ain’t So: Addressing and Dispelling Misconceptions About Furries” is perhaps the only essay in this collection written for those outside the furry subculture. In dispelling five common misconceptions, Dr. Plante delves more deeply into who exactly furries are and why they do what they do. The section of misconceptions within the furry fandom itself is also welcome reading.Drs. Kathleen Gerbasi and Elizabeth Fein round out the essay collection with their introduction to the “furry-adjacent” subcultures of Therians and Otherkin with their study “Furries, Therians and Otherkin, Oh My! What Do All Those Words Mean, Anyway?” One of the things the study shows is how members of these differently defined subcultures discovered their own identity within the furry fandom.As a writer of stories that sometimes are furry who has only recently self-identified in public as a furry, I found Furries Among Us 2 to be a fascinating read. I think furries will take it as an invitation to reflect on their own identity as it relates to the fandom. But anyone interested in questions of how subcultures relate to self-identity and self-actualization will find these essays an interesting read.

I'm sure most of you have seen this by now but damn it is on topic for today and cute and furry. BOO!
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In lieu of an episode for 2017, we are rolling our 2016 Halloween episode! We hope you enjoy this blast from the past and have the spoopiest Halloween!





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Ilya / EpicRive The Best of FWIW: Halloween 2016 - In lieu of an episode for 2017, we are rolling our 2016 Halloween episode! We hope you enjoy this blast from the past and have the spoopiest Halloween! - NOW LISTEN! - Want to see the original show notes? Click this line

Welcome to Bessie, of Marfedblog, a comics review and criticism site. There’s furry stuff there, and much more, with the devoted curation of a fan doing exactly what they love. It’s my favorite kind of writing – thoroughly researched, thoughtfully presented, in magazine style long form. I suspect it may be underexposed considering the high quality, so if you like this, give a follow. And expect syndicated content reposted here too.  (- Patch)

“Don’t be scared! He doesn’t bite. That’d be gauche”

Scot Zellman’s Buster Wilde first appeared on-line around the mid-nineties back in the prehistoric days of the internet. Following the exploits of our eponymous hero, lover and maybe most importantly, gay lycanthrope as we quickly discover the he twist in the familiar folk tale and pop culture staple. Sinewy, flamboyant party animal by night at sunrise Buster switches back to his beleaguered alter ego, Bernard. Stressed, uptight and again most importantly, straight. As Buster humorously and enthusiastically throws himself into his new life, navigating the gay club scene with its drama and clichés, Bernard struggles with a double life he doesn’t remember and more often than not waking up in other guys beds. It was among one of the first web comics I discovered when I finally got on-line and I quickly made my way through every strip on the now broken and mostly forgotten geocities site. You heard that right, Geocities. It’s been around fourteen years since the final strip was posted and it’s a testament to both the quality of the strips and Zellman’s considerable skills as a writer and gifted cartoonist that those who saw it at the time still hold it in such high regard over a decade later. Apart from one of two references that date them (Buffy, who Buster declares is a bitch because of her treatment of fellow werewolf Oz) the Buster Wilde strips have a timeless quick paced humour to them that’s still as funny today as when they were first conceived.

They continued sporadically for four years and fifty two strips until one day they just, stopped. One last strip with the energetic Buster switching the word ‘fetch’ with ‘felch’ and then, nothing. The site was never updated again and still remains, albeit a little bit more broken. If anything it reminds me how easy it was in the early days before social media and constantly online presences for people to simply disappear from the surface of the digital world. Details are still frustratingly few. Beyond a few mentions on forums here and there, the odd broken link, I feel confident in saying this post will be the most ever written about it. In the last few years web comics have really come into their own as something unique and separate from other comics, gaining a lot more attention and exposure in the process. It’s a real shame that in being an early example of the medium that it’s fallen through the cracks when it comes to wider recognition and it feels bizarre to be the first one writing about so many moons later.

My understanding from what I could gleam from a question here and there on twitter is that Zellman simply moved onto other projects, before eventually retiring from comics completely. It was a pleasant surprise a few years ago to find that a print version of the Buster strips existed, released by Furplanet who now helpfully host copies of the originals online. Alex Vance, writer of the Heathen Cities series and also a fan had reached out to Zellman with the offer to touch up the original artwork and release them on paper and ink “There was a new generation in the furry community and when I was still in publishing I reached out to him and developed scans of his originals into a book,” says Vance on giving Buster a second chance in the spotlight  “They represented a significant work. Drawn and lettered entirely by hand, a vanishing art”. The volume collects all of the original comics, promotional artwork, a fascinating artists sketchbook giving a glimpse into the creative process of the comic. Most tantalisingly it features two partly inked, mostly  unfinished strips both in a larger format with more experimental layouts. One of these featuring Busters strange toilet habits is now among my favourites and gives a fleeting glimpse of what could have been. I inquired if it might be possible for him to reach out to the man responsible for the strips Scot Zellman in the hope that he might answer a few lingering questions I had about his creation. He graciously obliged and I honestly didn’t expect a reply, it has been over a decade after all. A few days later however Scot shot me back a message and took time out his schedule to indulge me with rather a long interview. I’d like to thank him again for taking the time to answer me and give a wonderful insight into what went into the making of a comics classic all those years ago.

Bessie: The first boring, obvious question a lot of people must have asked. Why did the Buster Wilde strips stop, was it simply a desire to move onto other projects, lack of time and interest in it or something else?

Scot Zellman: I think I lost interest mostly due to frustration. I’d hoped the strip would reach a wider gay audience, especially through the gay-interest newsweeklies I was sending copies to in the hopes they would run it, but I quickly found the strip and Buster character made a much bigger impression on a gay furry community. That was an education because at the time I had no idea there was such a thing as “furries” gay or straight.

My education in furry fandom was hard and fast and while the specific trappings were never of personal interest I certainly appreciated the enthusiastic response even if I did have to turn down a large number of requests for commissioned pieces featuring a much less G-rated version of Buster.

I saw the strip as a slapsticky, funny animal, Warner Bros.-style cartoon antidote to the gay strips I was seeing at the time, most of which looked and sounded the same and featured no talking animals, something mainstream comic strips were full of. It was pretty easy, actually, to end the strip. I needed to focus on my “real” job and I wasn’t really interested in being a niche cartoonist with a small audience. After a couple years I thought “OK, playtime’s over. Time to move on.”

B: It’s unusual you made the comic and it caught on with furs, an audience you didn’t even know was out there, did it lead you to look into what other anthro comics were popular with them or artists who considered themselves furs?

SZ: I did look around a bit, especially when I’d get fan mail from other artists or from folks who’d recommend other artist/cartoonist sites.  The only anthro comic/character I really eventually found interesting and still follow these days is the Blacksad series. And that’s mostly because I love hard-boiled detective stories and film noir. Plus, the artwork is beautiful.

B: Why do you think the gay weeklies and such were so reluctant to run the comics? The comic itself or partly the attitude towards LGBT at the time?

SZ: Most gay weeklies weren’t really reluctant to run the strip, they were reluctant to pay meto run the strip.  I think the ones that were reluctant to run it for non-financial reasons wanted something a little less slapsticky and a little more mature and thoughtful (Dykes To Watch Out For, Curbside, and The Mostly Unfabulous Life of Ethan Green were big back then.) Or whoever was in charge of picking the comics to run just didn’t think it was funny. That happens, too.

B: The comic debuted around 1997, was it difficult working with the limitations of the internet back then in terms of storage and bandwith?

SZ: I know nothing of computer tech and wouldn’t know where to begin in setting up my own website, especially in 1997. I had a tech-savvy friend do all that for me. I had been a cartoonist for my college daily newspaper, so I was well-versed in the process of keeping artwork looking good when it’s reproduced/reduced for the printed page.  As for the original website, I supplied my webmaster with good-sized, pristine copies and let him do his best with the internet limitations of the time. 

B: What attracted you to the idea of showcasing Buster Wilde online as a webcomic? What was the reaction of other artist or those around you to adopting such a new medium in terms of comics?

SZ: I never really heard from others about the novelty of being online. Mostly people sent me emails telling me how much they liked Buster and the strip. I actually forget sometimes that the strip is still online these days. I usually just think of it as a book.

B:What was the audience and there reaction like at the comics peak? Was it difficult to find an audience in a time when comics online were not as recognised

The reaction was uniformly positive. In fact, I can’t remember getting any negative email at all.  As for my expectations, I had none.  I assumed people were seeing it and the ones who really loved it were the folks sending me the fan mail.

B: Buster Wilde now seems like a snapshot of, albeit a humorous exaggerated one, gay club culture at the time. Is that how you saw it and how do you think the strips might differ if they were coming out now? Would any characters differ or just settings and such?

I haven’t been out clubbing in ages, but I don’t imagine things have changed too much. Going out will always be about the same things:  fun, excitement, adventure, and the giddy hope you’ll meet someone thrilled to meet you no matter how sceptical or clumsy or overexcited or over it all you may be.

B: The printed book shows a few iterations of Buster before the one you settled on. What was the original idea and how did that develop into what you eventually drew? What was the eureka moment when it all fit together?

SZ: I was trying to come up with a gay-themed “funny animal” comic strip for my local gay paper and at one point I thought that a straight man who turned into a gay werewolf would be funny and allow for a lot of opportunities to poke fun at both gay and straight people. The eureka moment came when, after some time trying to come up with a name for the character, the name “Buster Wilde” popped into my head after Oscar Wilde, of course. Once I had “Buster Wilde” the rest just poured out of me.

B: How do you feel about webcomics becoming a lot more established since Buster Wilde and do you ever follow any at the moment? Do you think you would have an easier time building an audience now?

It’s a logical technological progression, so I’m not surprised and it certainly makes it easier to get your work “out there.” I still worry that books will be marginalised to the point being hard to find or disappeared entirely. That said, I do have the book versions of my favourite online strips. I follow Bob the Angry Flower, Poorly Drawn Lines, Scenes from a Multiverse, and Doonesbury regularly. That’s about it.

I don’t know. Probably, but I’m still pretty disconnected from what’s going on online.

B: Are there comics that inspired the humour and structure in the Buster Wilde strips? Are any of the events (obviously not the lycanthropy) inspired by real events or people?

I’d say the primary inspiration were the old Warner Bros. cartoons, especially the Chuck Jones Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote and Daffy Duck cartoons. Plus, I’ve always just loved slapstick and pratfalls.

The personal inspiration was just my years going out, my friends, and my love of good-natured, accepting straight people who are easily unnerved and exasperated by gay people.

B: The Unfinished strips included in the print version have a more experimental panel layout than the other strips, would this have been something we would have seen more of if the strips had continued? Did you ever find the regular format limiting in any way?

SZ: That was an experiment in longer-form  storytelling told in a comic book page format that, because I’m a comic book reader, thought I’d try just for fun.  The regular format I’d already been working with didn’t feel limiting in any way since I felt like I could do whatever the gag called for.  That said, I do like the inherent restrictions of the “Sunday comics” format.

B: Did you have an overarching story or a direction the strips were going in?

SZ: Sort of, but not really. The goal was to cram as much humour into each “episode” as I could without overloading it to the point of incomprehensibility. As for the overarching story, I just knew that the character’s stories would continue to unfold and more characters and adventures would be introduced as time went by.

B: Are you surprised that people like myself, still talk about and hold it in such high regard after all this time and Do you have a favourite strip out of the bunch?

SZ: Not really. Once people find something they love it usually sticks with them. I’m the same way with older comic strips, TV shows, movies, comic books. The ear-piercing strip. The bare minimum amount of dialogue, the right amount of slapstick, and a funny the turnaround/topper.  The strip still makes me LOL as they say.

B: Overall what do you think the appeal of Buster is?

SZ: The exact same appeal of the friendliest, sweetest Golden Retriever you’ve ever met. He’s just happy all the time and you’re his best friend

B: Raspberry Flan. Are there any other suitable bathroom foods?

SZ: Baked Alaska Flambe.

Buster Wilde can be read in it’s entirety here. The printed version can also be purchased here or from amazon.

Originally posted on marfedblog, where Bessie reviews and spotlights Furry and mainstream comics.

This is about how my day was.
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Dear Papabear,

Lately, I have been feeling down and lonely quite often. The problem is I kinda prefer to stick to my old friend and not struggle to talk to new people. Do you have any advice?

Lara X (age 20)
 
* * *
 
Hi, Lara X,
 
When you say "stick to my old friend," do you mean just one friend? How is your relationship with that friend? Many people struggle to talk to new people. Telling me a little more about your life and background can help me to provide feedback.
 
Bear Hugs,
Papabear
 
* * *
 
Well, yeah, it’s mostly one relationships with new people don’t seem to last long and we get distant. As for my past life, I unfortunately grew up watching my father abuse my mother and sisters, and kinda feeling guilty for not also getting hurt. This has given me a distrust of most men, which is awkward considering I’m gay, but I also have a distrust of women because almost all of the girls in school used to bully me. This has caused me to be pretty lonely and to limit who I talk to.
 
Thanks for your time and patience.
 
Hugs,
Lara X

* * *
 
Dear Lara X,
 
I can understand why you might be socially shy, given your past. I don’t know why your father didn’t abuse you the same way he did your mother and sisters, unless it’s because of your gender (i.e., he would only abuse females), but please don’t feel guilty about that. Bottom line on that part of your life is that it is NOT your fault; it is your father’s fault. Assign blame and guilt where it is due. You are guiltless.
 
Recognizing you should not feel guilty is Step 1. Step 2 is to realize that just because your father was an abusive douche doesn’t mean all men are like that. As for women, your experience in school is pretty typical. Schools can be horrible social environments where kids who are seen as outsiders in any way are picked on and abused by their peers. Like packs of wolves seeing a weakness in a non-alpha, they swoop down to nip and bite you (both boys and girls do this). In your case, because of your father’s abuse, you were probably shy going into school. Kids sense that and go on the attack.
 
Okay, so, I’m hoping now you are out of the house and well out of high school. Getting out of negative environments is key to your mental and emotional well-being. What you need to do now is try to put the past in the past and focus on where you are today.
 
The good news, I believe, is that you have recognized and accepted that you are gay (some people drive themselves nuts for years refusing to believe their own identity). The other good news is that you have at least one friend, so forming friendships is not an impossibility for you since you’ve done it before.
 
The key to finding new friends is to start in a comfortable environment. Since you are gay, I would recommend that you look within the gay community and other people who are similar to you and will more likely empathize with you. See if you can find a gay men’s social group near you; I would not recommend gay bars (and certainly not gay clubs) at this point, since they might be overwhelming. Anyway, you’re looking for friends, not hookups.
 
See if you can find a social activity with gay members. A quick Web search, for example, shows me that there are several LGBT Outdoor Clubs in Wales. There is also the South Wales Gay Men’s Chorus (if you like to sing). If you visit the Meetup website and enter some appropriate parameters, you are going to find some social meetup groups, too. So, give that a shot.
 
Finally, don’t push yourself to make a lot of friends all at once. Start slowly, making one or two new friends to start. What often happens after you get a core group of friends going is that these friends will, eventually, introduce you to their friends, and so on and so on. Before you know it, you’ll have dozens of friends and probably some of what I call “good social acquaintances” who are not close friends but fun to hang out with. It is the lucky person, after all, who has more close, sincerely genuine friends than he has fingers on one hand.
 
I hope that helps. Good luck!
 
Hugs,
Papabear

There’s lots of furry movie outings, and sometimes they even rent a theater for a special occasion, but I’m not aware of many permanent furry movie clubs. Oslo’s Cinéma Anthropomorphique isn’t just well established, it seems to be the premiere fur meet for the capital of Norway. I’m going purely on stereotype about the frozen northlands of Scandinavia, but I imagine that in between good cold weather fursuiting and, I dunno, pulling sleds with husky friends under the Northern Lights, indoor movie time has to be a great pastime there.  I’m also assuming that the fur community there must be close-knit, making this an inviting gateway to fur stuff. Here’s what I learned about it from TF Baxxter – founder and administrator of the Norwegian furry community Norwegian Paws and department head for NordicFuzzcon. Extra questions are further down. (- Patch)

TF Baxxter continues:

Cinéma Anthropomorphique started in December, 2012. We were only four people. Now we average at around 20 – 25 (maybe closer to 20; our record was 27 attendees). The event is held in someone’s home in the Oslo-area (which means it can get really cramped); we have main hosts, but like to vary it when we can.

Meets are announced on the Norwegian furry forum, Norwegian Paws, and through a couple of Telegram channels (mainly Tigerstaden, the furry Telegram chat for Oslo-furs). We try to get people to tell us beforehand whether they’ll be showing up, but people are pretty bad at it and will often just drop by.

We have a different theme every month. This month it’s Halloween, so we’ll be watching three horror films (Zombeavers, Tusk, and Frankenweenie). Before that, we watched all of the Watership Down TV-series in one go, without sleeping (it was about 14 hours in length, I think); we try to do an annual series marathon. We also have other annual themes, like the “VHS Special” where we watch VHS-tapes with animation and animal films you can’t find elsewhere. We also have the annual “Rufserulett” (Furry Roulette), where we will choose the films randomly during the event from larger budget box-sets of animal films (like this).

One soft rule we have is that we only watch material we have physically available. It’s to make it feel a bit more like a proper film club, and to discourage us from going the easy route and just using Netflix, YouTube, and torrents. But if something is unavailable physically but fits into a theme we want to have, we might ignore the rule. One example of this is the Norwegian dub of The Animals of Farthing Wood TV-series. Only the first season of the series was made available for the home market (on VHS). So we had do download the remaining two seasons for our all-nighter marathon (which was the first time we did the now annual series marathon theme).

We also have a guest book that all guests either write or draw in. We didn’t introduce the book until a year or two in though, unfortunately, so we missed out on a few evenings initially. But we have some fun drawings and good memories captured by that book.

We usually order food together, some bring snacks or cake to share, and people are free to drink if they want.

I’m the main driving force behind the event, but we have a small “council” of organizers and hosts who help to choose what we watch, which dates work, etc.

Since starting the film club, I have started increasingly collecting furry films – films and series with animal characters. I will often scour through flea markets and charity shops, looking for hidden gems, and might have to do some detective work online to track down certain titles at affordable prices. Sometimes I get other furs to help with importing titles; e.g. Animalympics is currently only available on DVD in Germany (with both the German and the original English dub), so I ordered it on amazon.de and had it sent to a German furry, who then passed it on to me at Eurofurence. A Spanish furry who visited Norway helped me out with transporting a few film titles I’d ordered from amazon.es. I have gotten a pretty good personal collection, and must have spent several thousand kroner. It’s always exciting when I stumble over a VHS of some furry animation I have no idea what is and which might be a candidate for our annual VHS Special-themed movie nights.

Right now, it’s the only monthly furmeet event that takes place in Oslo, and people seem to enjoy it! I know many people have met good friends through the meets, including myself. Noise level can be an issue with so many people, and we have gotten playful complaints that the films and series we watch are sometimes too obscure or poorly produced (like Dingo Pictures films), but people keep returning and seem to have fun. While the vast majority of attendees are Norwegian, we have had a few Swedish and American furs drop by, and we try to cater to them if we know beforehand (like showing films in English rather than Norwegian, or at least with English subtitles).

We have had a couple of “specials” at NordicFuzzCon, a furry convention in Sweden. The two first years of the convention we had room parties where we watched some loosely animal-themed MST3K episodes (I believe Puma Man and Werewolf), inviting both Norwegians and non-Norwegians. The third year we got to use the hotel’s large auditorium/movie room to have a public screening, showing a few brief highlights from CinAnt (as we regularly abbreviate it). The last two years we skipped it, partially due to stress, but I’m hoping we can try having another CinAnt room party at the forthcoming NFC convention.

We chose a French sounding title for the film club to play up the snootiness of film clubs. We might not be watching art haus films, but that’s no reason not to be a bit snooty! And the tiger is because the city of Oslo is known as “tigerstaden”, which translates to the Tiger City or the City of Tigers. So it seemed appropriate with a monocled tiger.

Did you put on the Zootopia screening at NordicFuzzcon?

We didn’t put on the Zootopia screening, no! Alas. So that’s unrelated. Except I’m also on the board of NordicFuzzCon. Trax was the person who organized it.

When it goes around between members houses each month, are there any with special screening setups? And does it ever do a formal theater outing?

The gatherings are usually held at Emphy and Leophan’s place, who help to organize it. But we try to vary it when we can, and whoever has a TV and a living room that’s big enough is welcome to host! And it has to be in Oslo, of course.

No special screening set-ups, no. But a large TV is good, and we need to know what the hosts are capable of playing. If they have region-free players, if they can play LaserDisc and/or VHS, etc. Emphy has a pretty good collection of electronics like that, which is also why it often ends up being at his (and Leophan’s) place.

Would love to go full movie theater with this, but renting a location would cost a lot. Most would also exclude us from bringing any of our own food and drink. Maybe if we had the right contacts (I know there are smaller film showings at locations organized by student groups and fully official film clubs), but alas.

We are very much at the limit of the amount of attendees we can handle, and we’re considering options. Maybe requiring people to pre-register and having a hard cap, and actually turning away people who just show up unannounced to join – which would be rather sad. Or we’ve joked with consistently watching more bad films to discourage people from attending, reducing the amount of people who want to come.

Is this one of the biggest meets in Norway? Are there others that meet monthly or more in other parts?

I’m fairly sure that this is the biggest monthly/regular meet in Norway, yes. But there’s a yearly new year’s party that’s definitely larger, with 40-50+ people attending. We have thought about “franchising” CinAnt, but that would be hard to organize! And we’ve gotten a few requests to somehow stream it, but again, not that easy (especially when we are watching different formats on different devices).

Here you can also see the meet’s official thread, with the complete run-down of themes (with a lot of Norwegian).

UPDATE: Some meet photos.

• Crowd: Various ‘crowd pictures’ from a few different nights.
• Teasers: Pictures to tease about movies we are watching at forthcoming movie nights (Usually at the @CineAnth twitter account).
• Guestbook: Pictures from the guestbook! (A lot is in Norwegian.)
• Collection: Some of my movie collection.

Thanks to TF Baxxter. A super cool thing about furries is having an international conspiracy – wherever you go, there may be a nest of them to welcome you. Know of any cool or unique ones? Tips always welcome.

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.

Spencer & Locke is a new full-color comic series that slipped on by last summer, but we finally caught up with it! Locke: He’s a hard-boiled police detective. Spencer: He’s Locke’s imaginary childhood friend, now grown up into a 6-foot tall panther. Together, they fight crime. (Sorry, couldn’t resist!) Writer David Pepose describes it as ‘Calvin & Hobbes meets Sin City‘, and that sums it up pretty well! Illustrated by Jorge Santiago, Jr. and Jasen Smith, it’s available now from Action Labs. And check out the spoiler-free review over at Pop Cult HQ.

image c. 2017 Action Lab

Fayroe and Paradox are back after a two week break to churn through a plethora of news and links.

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Fayroe was an extra for a film called Pottersville, coming out soon
• Paradox’s Flickr including Fursuit Photo Shoot photos
• Blue fox marketing
• Telegram Live Locations
• Hyatt Hotel credit breach
• Hiyu Explains Rocket Science
• Map divided into sections based on furry con
• SwiftOnSecurity continues to make fun of furries
• Fursuiters mock American Dad
• Wikihow: How To Be A Furry
• 14 Times People Tried in Vain To Understand Furries on Tumblr
• Anthro Northwest
• Furry’s grandmother loves fursuits
• Boozy Finds A Furry School Bus

News:

• Scientists Have Made Genetically Modified Low-Fat Pigs
• First Wild Bison In Germany For 250 Years Is Shot Within A Day
• Wild Badger Sneaks Into Home, Impersonates Family Cat
• Man uses blowtorch against spider left homeless
• First Evidence That Online Dating Is Changing The Nature of Society
• Bad News About Oral Sex
• Weird Science Studies
• Smart toilet’s bidet hacked via Bluetooth, gives new meaning to ‘backdoor vulnerability’

Emails:

• Avery – Becoming a Part of the Fandom’s Community
• Wisperkity – Fond memories for you, and interesting question.
• 0101 – Fanmail
• Wolfe – Went to my “fur-st” con

FC-282 Wildlife Wrestling Federation - Fayroe and Paradox are back after a two week break to churn through a plethora of news and links.

Fayroe and Paradox are back after a two week break to churn through a plethora of news and links.

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Fayroe was an extra for a film called Pottersville, coming out soon
• Paradox’s Flickr including Fursuit Photo Shoot photos
• Blue fox marketing
• Telegram Live Locations
• Hyatt Hotel credit breach
• Hiyu Explains Rocket Science
• Map divided into sections based on furry con
• SwiftOnSecurity continues to make fun of furries
• Fursuiters mock American Dad
• Wikihow: How To Be A Furry
• 14 Times People Tried in Vain To Understand Furries on Tumblr
• Anthro Northwest
• Furry’s grandmother loves fursuits
• Boozy Finds A Furry School Bus

News:

• Scientists Have Made Genetically Modified Low-Fat Pigs
• First Wild Bison In Germany For 250 Years Is Shot Within A Day
• Wild Badger Sneaks Into Home, Impersonates Family Cat
• Man uses blowtorch against spider left homeless
• First Evidence That Online Dating Is Changing The Nature of Society
• Bad News About Oral Sex
• Weird Science Studies
• Smart toilet’s bidet hacked via Bluetooth, gives new meaning to ‘backdoor vulnerability’

Emails:

• Avery – Becoming a Part of the Fandom’s Community
• Wisperkity – Fond memories for you, and interesting question.
• 0101 – Fanmail
• Wolfe – Went to my “fur-st” con

FC-282 Wildlife Wrestling Federation - Fayroe and Paradox are back after a two week break to churn through a plethora of news and links.

Fayroe and Paradox are back after a two week break to churn through a plethora of news and links.

Download MP3

Link Roundup:

• Fayroe was an extra for a film called Pottersville, coming out soon
• Paradox’s Flickr including Fursuit Photo Shoot photos
• Blue fox marketing
• Telegram Live Locations
• Hyatt Hotel credit breach
• Hiyu Explains Rocket Science
• Map divided into sections based on furry con
• SwiftOnSecurity continues to make fun of furries
• Fursuiters mock American Dad
• Wikihow: How To Be A Furry
• 14 Times People Tried in Vain To Understand Furries on Tumblr
• Anthro Northwest
• Furry’s grandmother loves fursuits
• Boozy Finds A Furry School Bus

News:

• Scientists Have Made Genetically Modified Low-Fat Pigs
• First Wild Bison In Germany For 250 Years Is Shot Within A Day
• Wild Badger Sneaks Into Home, Impersonates Family Cat
• Man uses blowtorch against spider left homeless
• First Evidence That Online Dating Is Changing The Nature of Society
• Bad News About Oral Sex
• Weird Science Studies
• Smart toilet’s bidet hacked via Bluetooth, gives new meaning to ‘backdoor vulnerability’

Emails:

• Avery – Becoming a Part of the Fandom’s Community
• Wisperkity – Fond memories for you, and interesting question.
• 0101 – Fanmail
• Wolfe – Went to my “fur-st” con

[Live] Wildlife Wrestling Federation

Papabear,

​​First off, I apologize if I sent a version of this letter that is similar. I had a problem with my browser.

So, seven days ago (October 20th) I was feeling bad, possibly depression-level bad. I ended up self-harming using a rather sharp boxcutter. I've only cut three different times, causing a few cuts each time. I cut on my upper thigh high enough that my boxers cover them well. I had been considering cutting for quite some time before my first session. It's a way to show control over myself and I've started to enjoy the pain afterwards. I'm willing to risk the scars.

Now, to my question. Is this a truly unhealthy, unmanageable behavior that I need to stop? I don't want to stop.

AFoxThatIdentifiesAsADoggo (age 15)


* * *
 
Dear Doggo,
 
Thank you for your important letter. Cutting and self-harm is a subject I have touched on in other columns, but now I get to do so directly, so this is something that is good to add to the “Ask Papabear” column.
 
Cutting, by its very nature, is not healthy, but it is understandable and treatable. It is also quite common. Statistics show that nearly 1 in 5 Americans have harmed themselves in this manner at some point in their lives. Typically, self-harm occurs during adolescence.
 
There are a couple reasons why people cut themselves. One, as is the case with you, is depression or anxiety. If you are in a situation where you can’t express those feelings openly to others (family etc.), cutting affords a kind of release of emotional tension. The pain caused by cutting also distracts one from emotional pain, which provides some relief.
 
Another reason for cutting is self-punishment. People who feel unworthy of love and compassion become angry at themselves and feel they deserve pain. I don’t think this is what is going on with you, however. I think the former is more likely. I also don’t believe you are in danger of committing suicide; such drastic acts are usually not part of the self-cutting paradigm.
 
Answering your question, any time you cause trauma to your body, it’s not a good thing. It would be best if you stopped. You don’t want to stop because cutting yourself is offering you relief from your psychological and/or emotional pain.
 
The best solution, therefore, is to figure out what is causing that pain and put an end to it. You don’t explain what is causing it, so I would need more information there. You will stop cutting once you stop your emotional pain. This might come with a personal revelation, or with help from a therapist, or simply by outgrowing the need to cut.
 
Hope this helps. Feel free to write again if you wish to discuss what is really going on behind the cutting.
 
Hugs,
Papabear

We got this right from Animation World Network: “Belgium-based studio nWave Pictures has teamed up with French sales company Charades to help sell its upcoming 3D animated feature The Queen’s Corgi… With a budget of more than $20 million, The Queen’s Corgi is being directed by nWave chief Ben Stassen with Vincent Kesteloot. The screenplay is by Rob Sprackling and Johnny Smith. The movie follows the adventure of Rex, the British monarch’s most beloved dog, who loses track of his mistress and stumbles across a fight club with dogs of all kinds confronting each other.” With films like House of Magic, Wild Life, and Son of Bigfoot already in their repertoire, it looks like nWave are trying to be a very furry production company. This new film is due in 2019.

image c. 2017 nWave Pictures

This is the season ... Rhino produced this music video for Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London. Ok, Somebody needs to do this properly with fursuits. Also, Going to have to fine them $350.
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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer

Furry Nation: The True Story of America’s Most Misunderstood Subculture, by Joe Strike. Illustrated.
Jersey City, NJ, Cleis Press, October 2017. Trade paperback, $17.95 ([ix +] 342 pages), Kindle $10.99.

Yes!

Here it is! What we’ve all been waiting for! The book about furry fandom!

Full disclosure: I’m quoted by name on a back-cover blurb, and cited as “a founding father of furry fandom”.

Is it perfect? No, but it’s probably better than any of us could have written. I gave up writing a book “all about” furry fandom long ago. If I may be permitted a moment of “I told you so”, I told those who asked me to write such a book in the late 1990s that it would take me around ten years to fully research and write such a book. They turned from me to find someone else who could do it right away. They couldn’t.

Joe Strike has been in furry fandom since the 1980s. He has been working on Furry Nation for at least fifteen years. It’s full of both his own knowledge and the interviews that he conducted. He has interviewed not only all the earliest furry fans, and the current leaders of furry fandom – Mark Merlino, Rod O’Riley, Jim Groat, Mitch Marmel, Dr. Sam Conway, Boomer the Dog, leading furry artists like Heather Bruton and Kjartan Arnórsson, fursuit makers like Lance Ikegawa and Denali, academics like Dr. Kathy Gerbasi, and so on – but those outside the furry community who have impacted it. The writers of newspaper and TV news stories about furry fandom? He interviewed them. The executives of Pittsburgh’s tourist bureau? He interviewed them. The directors of TV programs and theatrical animation features that have used furry themes? He interviewed them.

What Furry Nation covers: a definition of furry fandom, the influences that gave rise to it back to prehistoric times, the history of how it started, profiles of the earliest furry fans, how the rise of the Internet affected it, a description of furry fandom in North America today, with emphasis on its conventions and a profile of Anthrocon in depth, its artists and furry art, its fursuits, its public perception, an acknowledgement of its seedier side, and how it has grown from a tiny, unnoticed subgroup to an important influence on popular culture today. The book has 189 footnotes throughout it. There are over two dozen photographs and samples of furry illustrations from the 1980s (early fanzines and Furry Party flyers) to the present.

This flyer is an illustration in the book – by Mark Freid, from Loscon XXIII in 1996.

Some chapters: The Many Flavors of Fur. A Fandom is Born. Pretty as a Picture: Furry Art. Together is Just What We’ve Got to Get: The Convention Age Begins. Walk a Mile in My Fursuit. I Read the News Today, Oy Vey. Anthrocon: The Convention that Conquered Pittsburgh.

What Furry Nation does not cover: furry fandom outside North America, and areas of furry creativity in addition to its fursuits and art, especially its literature: the furry specialty publishers, the novels and anthologies and collections, the furry writers’ organizations, and the literary awards. This is deliberate and really nobody’s fault. I can confirm personally that Strike interviewed me at length about furry literature. Allyson Fields, the Marketing Manager at Cleis Press, apologized that Strike’s manuscript was so huge that whole chapters had to be edited out. A look at the attractive but small book tells why: Furry Nation is only 5” x 7.9” wide, almost a pocket book (most standard hardcovers are 6” x 9” or slightly larger) but nearly 1” thick; bulging for its size.

The result has unfortunately reinforced the stereotype that furry fandom is primarily an American subculture, and that most furry fans are only interested in wearing fursuits, and drawing or collecting furry artwork. There are mentions still in the book of the furry conventions outside North America, and of activities besides the furry art and fursuits; but they are so small that they are easy to miss.

A further flaw is that, as Strike alludes to in his first chapter, “And quite a few people who enjoy anthro characters no longer call themselves furry […]” (p. 5) Specifically, a few people who were crucial or influential in starting furry fandom in the 1980s and 1990s refused to be interviewed for this book, or to answer any of Strike’s questions. I know personally of one who hopes that it fails. For potential legal reasons, they are not mentioned in Furry Nation. Yet they were very important furry fans twenty and thirty years ago. Any history of furry fandom that does not even mention them is badly flawed.

So what are the merits of Furry Nation (cover photograph of “Madelein the Lynx” fursuit head constructed by Temperance, by Temperance; cover designed by Scott Idleman/Blink)? It’s always flattering to read an entire book that presents a favorable picture of your self-adopted hobby or lifestyle; that pats ourselves on the back. (Or should that be, scritches our fur?) For the furry neofan who wonders when and how it all got started, here is the answer! For the adolescent fur whose parents want to know what furry fandom is before giving permission to go to that convention or to attend that rave, here is the book to give them.

The main physical drawback of Furry Nation is its small size and paperback nature. Libraries tend not to get such books, so you probably can’t refer anyone to it. If you want to show it to anyone, you may have to buy your copy, or show it on Kindle.

Joe Strike has said that if Furry Nation sells well, he will write a second book that contains all of the material cut from it: Furry Planet. So what are you waiting for? Get it now!!

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• On Cleis Press

Don't forget sub types like baby furs.

— Been Doxx (@PupRylee) October 27, 2017

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.

Bonus video from Cartoon network Asia! "Ever dreamed of being a car racer? Let Paddle Pop show you how!" Damn, I want to be a car racer lion now. Also I want a Paddle Pop now. [1] [1] https://furry.today/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/rejected-4-300.jpg
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