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As you may have heard, a couple years ago Berke Breathed once again fired up his seminal comic strip Bloom County. Well for those among us who remember the first go-round, IDW has brought together a special box set called Bloom County: Real, Classy, & Compleat, 1980-1989. Here’s the press release: “Presenting every Bloom County daily and Sunday strip in chronological order from the first to the last! Bloom County debuted in late 1980 and ran until August 1989. Featuring an exceedingly quirky cast of characters, including the sweetly naive Opus the penguin, the flea-bitten Bill the cat, womanizing attorney Steve Dallas, Milo Bloom, Cutter John, and many others, Bloom County soon became one of the most popular comic strips in history, appearing in over 1200 newspapers. Then, at the peak of its popularity, Berkeley Breathed did something unprecedented… he walked away. Now, more than 25 years later, the complete collection of the Pulitzer Prize-winning comic strip is collected into a deluxe, two-volume box set.” It’s available now at your local comic book store.

image c. 2017 IDW Publishing

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Barnaby Dixon (Dabchick) has a new amazing puppet and it's a glowy bug.
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Guest post by Arrkay from Culturally F’d, the furry youtube channel.

With all the fire and ‘furry’ in the news, I think we should take a break from the political hardship to look at some awesome positive activity that’s been going on in the fandom. So let’s see what Furry has to celebrate lately:

“Vix N dwnq” reaches 100,000 Subscribers on YouTube

 

A milestone for the fandom. While not the first YouTuber who is a furry to gain the “Silver Play Button”, such as “Your Movie SucksDOTorg” and others, Rika and her channel Vix N dwnq is the first fursuiting channel to gain this level of success on her own merit. She wasn’t raised to this point by collaborating with mainstream YouTuber’s or by an aggressive marketing campaign. Instead her genuine fun in fursuit videos have gotten there organically, and she’s not alone. Majira Strawberry and Kero The Wolf are quick behind her which shows that this isn’t a single one-off event but a trend of rising Furry stars on the YouTube platform. It’s a big win for the fandom, and especially those on YouTube.

IT IS TIME GUYS pic.twitter.com/IcBTLPco2W

— Freaka (@VixNdwnq) August 16, 2017

 

Take all the furries attending cons last year and DOUBLE IT #100KFurries @tallfuzzball @VixNdwnq @KerotheWolf pic.twitter.com/NVfFAMnH9B

— Culturally F'd! (@CulturallyFd) July 23, 2017

The most popular artists on FA have ~70K subscribers. Furry YouTubers are topping that! #100KFurries @tallfuzzball @VixNdwnq @KerotheWolf

— Culturally F'd! (@CulturallyFd) July 23, 2017

Astounding subscription numbers. Could fill stadiums like The Rose Bowl, or LA Coliseum #100KFurries @tallfuzzball @VixNdwnq @KerotheWolf pic.twitter.com/XeAPberz8g

— Culturally F'd! (@CulturallyFd) July 23, 2017

Documentary maker Eric Risher Receives an Emmy

So this arrived yesterday. I'm still in great disbelief, but I'm honored to announce that I'm officially the owner of an Emmy Award. pic.twitter.com/ehElMsCBh7

— Eric (Ash) @MFF (@FurryFilmmaker) August 22, 2017

The Emmy award that Eric received is for his editing work on “Insight with John Ferrugia: Surviving Suicide“. Eric is the mastermind behind “Furries: A Documentary” which saw some success in the film-festival racket and even got a major distribution deal. The creator has also been working on short-format online videos like this amazing “Art Jam” video, the first of many we hope.

This is just in the past few weeks of course. You could argue that Zootopia’s Oscar win counts toward fandom recognition and of course we have had writers and artists receive other prestigious awards such as Ursula Vernon’s “Digger” series getting a Hugo award. I think this is yet another sign of mainstream acceptance of our quirky fandom. In a recent Vice Media Special on the fandom, Cooper/Roach said this:

“If you look back in fandom history, people were calling Trekkies weird, Trekkies were the weird thing. Being huge into Star Trek or huge into Star Wars was freaky. Now it’s casual. It’s like an initiation process for every different fandom or different lifestyle or hobby. It’s going to go through a period where it’s made fun of for quite a while or beat to shit and then it’s going to basically be accepted”

I think we’re nearing this breaking point of acceptance in pop-culture. Big companies are noticing us. Walmart, Hot Topic and Target are all selling what are essentially cheap fursuit heads and kigurumi’s, and Chinese mass-production facilities are stealing our very fursonas out of our paws. As a fandom our press coverage has never been more positive or well informed. As Furry becomes more known and accepted, it becomes easier for Furries to share their large portfolios and get meaningful, paid work out of it. As more furries see mainstream recognition, it gets much less awkward to share your weird hobby. Everyone benefits when they can be open and comfortable and taking on the bigger and better opportunities coming from it.

It’s a good time to be a furry.

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Arrkay’s Culturally F’d on Patreon.

Things take a furry turn once again over at Vertigo’s Astro City comic. (Remember that gorilla drummer?) This time, it’s canine costumed crusader. From Previews: “Meet G-Dog, possibly Astro City’s most unusual superhero ever. Half man, half dog – but who’s running the show? The answers will change a life, reveal another hero’s deepest secrets, and possibly, just possibly, save the world. Oh, who are we kidding… they’ll definitely change the world. Do you see that handsome face?” Issue #47 hits the shelves in early September.

image c. 2017 Vertigo

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So we bear bears own a Nintendo switch? I suppose that figures.
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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer

The Big Bad Fox, by Benjamin Renner. [Translated by Joe Johnson.] Illustrated.
NYC, First Second, June 2017, trade paperback $15.99 (187 pages), Kindle $9.99.

Benjamin Renner is a French animator and cartoonist. He first became known in America as the co-director of the 2012 Belgian animated feature Ernest & Célestine, released in America in 2013. That was an adaptation of Belgian children’s books by Gabrielle Vincent, and featured Vincent’s art style. It was an international animation festival favorite, winning many awards, and was a 2014 Oscar Best Animated Feature nominee.

In 2015 Renner began to develop Le Grand Méchant Renard, a cartoon idea for a series of three French half-hour TV specials in his own art style. He wrote and drew his own cartoon-art book to promote them, published by Delcourt in January 2015. The TV cartoon specials grew into an 80-minute theatrical feature, Le Grand Méchant Renard et Autres Contes … (The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales …), released in France on June 21, 2017.

Now Renner’s French book has been published in English as a trade paperback by First Second Books, an American publisher of literary graphic novels.

The main characters in The Big Bad Fox are the title fox, a wimpy loser; the fearsome Mr. Wolf; what Amazon calls an idiot rabbit, a gardener pig, a lazy guard dog, and a typical hen who organizes the other hens into The Fox Exterminators’ Club; and the three little chicks that the fox becomes the Mommy of.

The main reason that the fox remains endearing is that, although he is a puny weakling who never gets respect (a sparrow calls him “fartface”), he never gives up. He always comes back for another try. He develops a personal relationship with the farm animals. The duck, rabbit, and goose call out friendly greetings. The dog grumbles that his visits always mean cleaning up after him. The gardener pig sets aside a basket of turnips or beets for him. His entering the henhouse leads to one of the favorite scenes of the book or the movie trailer. Fox (to hen who is ignoring him): “GRROWWWL!!!” Hen: “No way! Not again!! This is the third time this week!” Fox: “Well, yeah, but I’m hungry.” Hen: “I DON’T CARE!” (p. 5)

Later, when the fox is talking with the wolf: Fox: “I don’t get it! Why doesn’t it work for me? What’s my problem?” Wolf: “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you look about as strong as an oyster. Or because you have as much charisma as a dried slug in a jar of salt. Also, you’re about as ferocious as a geriatric tortoise.” (p. 13)

Continuing routines include the hens’ demands for the guard dog to take his job more seriously, and the lazy dog’s attempts to avoid any real work; the wolf’s attempts to get the fox to lure the hens from the farm into the forest, where he can get at them; and the book and movie’s main plot: the fox’s stealing three eggs to raise into hens they (mainly the wolf) can eat, and the fox’s becoming the three chicks’ “Mommy” who comes to care for them, and to protect them from his wolf partner.

The fox can’t convince the chicks that he isn’t their mother. At first they see him as a Mommy Hen. When he finally convinces them he’s the Big Bad Fox, they decide this means they must be Little Bad Foxes. When he can’t put off the hungry wolf any longer, the fox flees with the chicks to the farm. There he has to go disguised as a chicken, and the chicks endanger themselves by insisting that they are Little Bad Foxes and biting the other chicks instead of playing with them.

The Big Bad Fox tells only the middle of the three tales in the movie. According to the movie reviews in The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, the three tales are “A Baby to Deliver”, in which a stork who breaks his wing tries to persuade the rabbit, the pig, and a duck who can’t swim to deliver a human baby for him; “The Big Bad Fox, this tale which is the longest; and “The Perfect Christmas”, in which the rabbit and duck believe they’ve killed Santa Claus and frantically try to fill in for him.

The movie and book both feature Renner’s art (or its animated imitation) as watercolors. The watercolor sketches in the book seem almost like storyboards for the movie.

The book contains much witty dialogue. A sparrow about to be eaten chooses the wolf over the fox. “If I have to get eaten, it might as well be by a creature with flair.” (p. 17) The guard dog to the hen, who has just stomped the fox into pulp: “In the future, I’d rather you didn’t throw your trash into my home. Thank you in advance.” (p. 26) Chick: “You love us, don’t you? Fox: “I don’t know. I haven’t tasted you yet.” (p. 103)

The book has an Amazon age rating of 7 to 11 years old; grades 3 to 7. Everyone else seems to consider it an All Ages book. The Big Bad Fox certainly is a graphic novel that furry fans should enjoy.

–Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• Eight Page preview on Mac Millan

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I just wanted to post more things with pangolins. "The story follows the journey of Wes, a young hooligan from 80s Hong Kong, retrieving a smuggled pangolin for his boss’s taxidermy collection. Throughout the story, Wes struggles to capture the pangolin, developing a friendship with it at the same time, and leading the story to end with a twist."
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Hello Everyone!

On this week's show we open with a discussion on valedictorians in high school. With so many people focused on finding a mate that has scholastic success we look into a study done of high school valedictorians and where they end up in life. Much like our previous discussions on success, this one might surprise you!

Our main topic is on DIY BDSM. With so many furries interested in the world of BDSM and with limited income, it can be a difficult choice between a steamy piece of art or a steamy piece of leather. For some, pre-fashioned gear lacks a personal touch, or maybe you want to remake that scene in Ghost (except with a whip instead of pottery). Fortunately, BDSM equipment is easy enough to fashion or, in some cases, a little imagination can convert common household items into playtoys (we call those pervertables). We discuss ways you can safely, sanely, and consensually fashion toys for use in your home without breaking the budget (or yourself)!

We close out the show with a question on selfish love. Our questioner loses arousal doing foreplay his partner loves: is there a middle ground to be had?

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

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 083 DIY BDSM - Are smart kids in school high achievers in life? DIY BDSM FAQ (don't tell Viro I put in another acronym please). Selfish love! All this, and more, on this week's Feral Attraction!

Last week, Dogpatch Press linked the alt-right of furry fandom with a violent neo-nazi rally in Charlottesville. It came on a wave of fandom news, synched with the even bigger one in the mainstream.  There’s too much for one update (more is coming.)

Open neo-nazi marching led to nationwide pushback.  It included hate groups being kicked off of many services, from Paypal to Discord. The Altfurries saw it coming in their own Discord group, and soon their group was gone. (Keep in mind that’s not a government act.)

That was a signal for inside leaks to be exposed.  I had access for months but couldn’t talk about it before.  Months of altfurry private communications are now here for anyone to see; what we’ve been saying all along wasn’t exaggeration.  Altfurry really does represent neo-nazi activity they are trying to push into the fandom. It was a huge blow to their pretense of just having different opinions.  The dust will be settling for a long time.

Altfurrydiscord logs get viral sharing and media coverage.

• Use this Discord Reader to look at the logs for yourself.
• Download six dumps from different points between wiping their servers.
• Single screenshots earned thousands of views already- more is still unreleased.

Flayrah covered some of the happenings: ‘Alt-Furry’ suffers blowback after Alt-Right rally leads to death of citizen.

Newsweek interviewed some involved people including Deo, and from the altfurries, Casey Hoerth and Nathan Gate. The journalist is a freelancer who did a previous piece on the alt-right, whose previous experience was writing for Heat Street (a conservative site that recently shut down). I spoke to his editor about reporting with false equivalency. And I spoke to another media source for coverage that isn’t open to talk about yet. Those articles are forthcoming.

Work begins for sorting info.

Confidential volunteers are tracing connections and identities in the altfurry logs. A few sample contents include:

• Asking Nazi leaders outside the furry fandom for their involvement.
• Hopes to ease the country into Nazism.
• Trolling against conventions and people they didn’t like.
• They were willing to plan violence like hiring a hitman.
• They enjoyed frequent antisemitism, racial slurs and discussions of supremacy and genocide.

Conventions come out against hate.

Furry conventions and groups began responding directly to the news. Whether carefully worded to stay diplomatic or not, the implications were clear – altfurry is oil and water with furry fandom.  “I haven’t felt so proud of the fandom in a LONG WHILE”, said Yuri the Lion’s post about it. (Let’s Keep Momentum: Furry Con List and Contact Information.)  New statements of policy came from Furrydelphia, Texas Furry Fiesta, and The Furst State.

Our announcement regarding hate speech at our events and in our online communities: https://t.co/UnqLvIE8U7 pic.twitter.com/FfH3RbFzt8

— The Furst State (@TheFurstState) August 13, 2017

Thank you for your patience. Furrydelphia is and will continue to be a convention that promotes love, acceptance, and equality for all. pic.twitter.com/D18vUn4IkH

— Furrydelphia (@Furrydelphia) August 15, 2017

Altfurry leader Casey Hoerth removed by former employer Motley Fool, and recent employer The Street.

Casey (AKA Len Gilbert and “The Furred Reich”) ran @altfurrydiscord.  When not writing nazi furry fiction, he freelances for financial news sites.  A reader sent a tip after speaking with Casey’s former employer, Motley Fool. They verified his involvement and deleted his previous work as a statement – you can verify the dead links here. It was several years old but won’t be a resume item any more.

Lately, Casey was working for The Street.  Apparently someone there caught on to his white supremacist activity because his author page is now dead. His professional profile on Muckrack still links to currently live articles on Seeking Alpha, with author name changed to “Dividend Stream”.

Soon: two more Charlottesville marchers linked to Furry fandom – FurAffinity mod problems – a Furry-Juggalo alliance (whoop whoop), and more.

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon, where you can access exclusive stuff for just $1.

We got this from Marvel Comics themselves: “They say every dog has his day — and this is Lockjaw’s! The Inhumans’ prodigious pooch takes the lead, teleporting into amazing adventures! When the Avengers and Inhumans come to blows, Lockjaw shows he has a nose for danger! With Attilan in turmoil around him, the colossal canine has his own agenda in an all-time classic tale that could only be named ‘Woof!’ What a revoltin’ development for the Thing when he spends the day babysitting and dog-walking — with Lockjaw on the end of the leash, it’s slobberin’ time! Plus: The humongous hound helps the homeless, has the Inhumans in dogged pursuit, and goes digging for his Original Sin!” Collecting together previous adventures of Lochjaw by a variety of artists and writers, the Lockjaw: Dog Days full-color one-shot is available now.

image c. 2017 Marvel Comics

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Lets hear it for more furry video games! "Meet BioMutant, the new open-world action RPG from ex-Just Cause and Mad Max developers that lets you mutate your hero on the fly."
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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer

Les Ailes du Singe. T.2, Hollywoodland, by Étienne Willem.
Geneva, Switzerland, Éditions Paquet, June 2017, hardbound €14,00 (48 pages).

The Lex Nakashima-Fred Patten plot to make American furry fans read the best of new French-language animalière bandes dessinées strikes again. This is the second album of Étienne Willem’s over-the-top thriller Les Ailes du Singe (The Wings of the Monkey), set in a funny-animal America during 1933, the depths of the Depression. Things got so desperate at the time that there were serious worries about a Communist revolution. That’s one theme of this album.

The stars of Les Ailes du Singe are Harry Faulkner (macaque monkey), a top pilot in the Lafayette Escadrille during World War I, and the owner of his own barnstorming and movie stunt-flying Jenny biplane; his mechanic-friend Lumpy (pig), apparently Italian since he regularly swears in Italian; and his girlfriend Betty Laverne (deer), a newspaper reporter for the New York Herald-Tribune. In t.1, Wakanda, Harry gets involved in and prevents the skyjacking of the U.S. Army’s zeppelin Wakanda by unknown enemy agents led by a sultry night club singer, Lydia Lessing (jaguar). However, Harry could only prevent the enemy from unleashing poison gas over NYC by crashing the Wakanda into the Hudson River. He is blamed for wrecking the zeppelin and, to escape warrants for his arrest in New York and New Jersey, Harry and Lumpy flee to Hollywood where Harry becomes a stunt pilot for Paramount. (In real life I think he could be extradited – isn’t it illegal to cross state lines to avoid arrest?)

Hollywoodland contains so much hugger-mugger that, frankly, it destroys the suspension of disbelief for me. The Depression has gotten so bad that the South is threatening to re-secede, setting off a second Civil War – or, as Harry finds out, that’s what Communist agents are trying to make the public believe. There’s a plot to assassinate President Franklin D. Roosevelt that only Harry, Betty, and Lumpy can foil, in stolen Paramount stunt planes. There are lots of real famous people as funny animals: FDR is a goose (Willem seems to show him as unparalyzed, as he was popularly believed to be at the beginning of his administration; but take a close look at the bottom panel on page 46), Howard Hughes is a Doberman, Cecil B. De Mille is a Boston terrier, Douglas Fairbanks is a – cougar? (A Big Feline of some kind.) Marilyn Monroe wasn’t a star yet, so Hollywoodland substitutes a fictional Clara Palmer – that’s her on the cover. (There’s a nude shot of her in the story.) Willem takes advantage of the urban legend that Howard Hughes may have been a spy for someone, or at least working against America’s best interests, to put him into suspicious situations. There are car chases all over Los Angeles, gunfights, a major character is killed, and Harry’s & Friends’ pursuit in old World War I warplanes through the New Mexico desert of the presidential streamlined train to prevent the president’s murder

In the previous album, Wakanda, the zeppelin was also carrying Z-03, an experimental gas of unknown properties. Harry got a good lungful of it. In Hollywoodland, the Z-03’s effect on Harry is used as a deus ex machina to get him out of apparently-fatal situations.

The last panel implies that in t.3, the action will return to NYC.

Besides standard French, Hollywoodland is full of French moviemaking jargon. Et coupez!

As with Willem’s other cartoon-art albums, there is a limited edition of the black-&-white pencil art alone, for €18,00.

Étienne Willem’s Facebook page is here.

– Fred Patten

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon, where you can access exclusive stuff for just $1.

Hello, Papabear,

Been a long time since I last wrote and I wonder if you will remember me. But that's beside the point.

I'm righting today because I want your opinion on something. I'm 26 and currently living my parents. But I'm thinking ahead a bit to when I live on my own. Thanks to my past I've grown to dislike my birth name. Specifically, I was bullied up through high school which led to the dislike of my first name. And my relationship with my father is iffy at best, a verbal war at worst, which has led to the dislike of my last name.

When I first joined the fandom in 2009-2010, it really helped cheer me up from the hardships of my past. A lot of my good friends (all furries, but still) refer to me by my fur name rather than my birth name.

My question for you is, when I move out, is it odd for me to want to legally change my name to my fur name? I feel that doing so will make it easier to forget how bad my past has been.

I appreciate your response.

Kumori Urufu

* * *
 
Dear Kumori,
 
There’s an old saying: “You can’t run away from your past.” Changing your name will not help you to forget the past. However, I understand what you are saying. There are many reasons to change one’s name: getting married, getting divorced, getting adopted, having a sex-change operation, and so on. Trying to start your life anew is also a legitimate reason.
 
I do know of a couple people who are friends of mine who have had their last name changed because they had unpleasant memories of—in particular—their fathers. So, to answer your big-picture question: no, it is not “odd” to change one’s name for personal reasons.
 
The next issue is what to change your name to. Your current name (which I will not reprint here) sounds like that of a male of Italian-American background. Your furry name, Kumori Urufu, if I have this right, means “Shadow Hippo” in Japanese. Well, whatever it means exactly is not so much the point as the fact that it is Japanese, and I suspect you do not look Japanese. You should prepare yourself as to how this would affect you socially and in the workplace. People will constantly be asking you why you have a Japanese name when you are obviously not Japanese. (And in the furry community might get you accused of being a weeb, although being fascinated by Japanese culture is common in the fandom.)
 
If you are okay with that, then fine. But if you are dead-set on changing your name, I would recommend you think long and hard about what you are changing your name to before you do so.
 
The actual process of changing one’s name legally is not too difficult, especially if you hire a service to help you out, such as NameChangeInc.com, which offers this service to adults for only $65. It is important to change your name legally so that your identity can be tracked for things such as social security, taxes, employment, etc. The good news is that if you, say, years later, decide you have made a horrible mistake, you can change your name back again.
 
Hope this answers your question.
 
Bear Hugs,
Papabear

From the it’s about hoofin’ TIME department: Ninja Division has developed and published the first official role-playing game (RPG) based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. (Several fans have previously created unofficial My Little Pony mods for existing generic RPG systems, of course.) My Little Pony: Tales Of Equestria is described as “…a storytelling pen and paper game for 2 to 6 players. Players create and role-play as pony heroes who explore and seek adventure in the various lands of Equestria. Guided by a Game Master (GM), players adventure together and use the magic of friendship to overcome obstacles as they learn more about each other and the world around them. With a full-color, hardback, 152-page rule book outlining character creation, scenarios, and play, Tails of Equestria brings My Little Pony to life for all who love the magic-filled world of Equestria. Using the rulebook, players are encouraged to create their own pony that represents them. Armed with core skills and special abilities, each player then ventures into the world with their pony peers, forging deeper friendships as they help one another in the whimsical world they create through every action they take.” The core rule book is available now on Amazon.

image c. 2017 Ninja Division

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Bonus video for today! I found an VHS tape of that old 80s detective show Hopps & Wilde that I remember being rather awesome back in the day. This was probably the opening from season 3, I would upload the whole episode but it gets an immediate take down from youtube. "Hopps & Wilde is an American detective television series that originally ran from 1981 to 1989. The series was broadcast on CBS and starred Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde as multi species couple who run a Zootopia private detective agency."
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Here is a proof of concept short from Piemations. There is hope to get this funded on Patreon so give this one a look. Piemation on Patreon [1] Thanks to @spyketyranno and @HappyWulf for mentioning this one. [1] https://www.patreon.com/Piemations
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Furry Nation: The true story of America’s most misunderstood subculture, by Joe Strike.
Cleis Press, October 2017, paperback $17.95 (288 pages), Kindle $10.99.

Here’s what I wrote for a cover blurb:

Like herding cats, gathering the history of furry fandom has been called impossible.  Furries love impossible things, so this is long overdue.  I’m happy to say it was worth the wait.  Joe Strike puts solid ground under the legs of the Furry Nation – genre, subculture, and yes, even kink – with his experience of watching it grow.  This book is for original 1980’s fans, new ones looking back, and outsiders drawn to the weird coolness of talking animals.  There’s many ways to get into it, but this is a unique view of how furries are breaking out.

Joe’s book isn’t the perfect bible for everyone – but expecting that from one book is unrealistic.  It’s just the kind of book that comes from a devout fan, and that’s why I recommend it.

I’ll summarize some reaction to the news that this book will exist: “It’s gonna suck! Who is Joe Strike?” – I knew who Joe was before I knew he was a furry, from his animation journalism. He does scriptwriting and his own comic too. He brings us a history that can live beyond bit-rot, supported by a firmly established publisher. Cleis has a 36-year history as “the largest independent sexuality publishing company in the United States.” It’s smart to focus on the word independent, which means open-minded support from the first ones to take the chance.

Let me get something out of the way.

You can’t have one bible if there’s a problem of basic definitions.  This one should be standard:  Furry fandom is “1 part genre fandom, 1 part DIY sub/counterculture, and 1 part kink community.” (Equivamp said it and I’ve been loving it ever since.)  In Joe’s Preface, he embraces this trinity with no apologies… perhaps to the shock of those who claim “it’s just fandom, we don’t support the porn”. (I’ll suggest that anything less than the full story is a lie.)

Joe weaves the parts together seamlessly.  There’s smooth logic in the introduction to the concept of anthropomorphism. It mentions earthy mythology, like the god Zeus’s sexual encounter with Leda as a swan.  That isn’t disposable titillation; it’s cultural DNA.  Joe goes on to say that furries aren’t modern overgrown children, they’re rescuing furry from a “dungeon” of low culture to where it’s been banished.  (Sure, some of us like dungeons, but who forged the bars?)

Stigma isn’t just the larger culture’s fault. There’s a fandom complex about it. Why not just admit furry porn is simply hot?  Like junk food, you can say too much makes you sick, but don’t say it isn’t delicious.  That’s a tastefully visible, yet not overdone vibe in the book, mostly in one chapter.

What you won’t notice is some infighting and filtering I heard about behind-the-scenes.  That’s why some notable events from the early days can’t be fully credited. (Who really created Rowrbrazzle?) Cue the herding-cats analogy, and don’t blame Joe – blame stigma.  Inclusion may rub some people the wrong way, so it may not be the furry book some want, but it’s the one we need.

Some chapter by chapter points.

• Furriness.  Trickster animals like Coyote begat Bugs Bunny. “When we draw them or dress up like them, we’re claiming a little of that freedom for ourselves.” (p17).  Some furs “identify with animals on a deeper level, with a growing awareness of a ravaged environment, and a way to distance ourselves from the humans who seem intent on destroying the planet; a sense of kinship with the natural world.” (p19)  And “it’s also just fun to pretend you’re someone—or something—else. For some people it might be a Hollywood celebrity, a rock star, a superhero, a pro athlete or a business tycoon.” (p19) Animals are for uninhibited imagination.
• In on the Ground Floor. Joe found the fandom in 1988.  Here’s why he has such a good perspective – he was a “proto furry” before knowing they existed, and watched things get started. Zines and anime brought fans together at first.  There was an early connection when West Coast/San Diego Comic Con furry parties were brought to science fiction cons in the east.
• Biodiversity. Suiters catch the spotlight, but there’s many more ways to express furriness.  Dr. Kathy Gerbasi of the Anthropomorphic Research Project/Furscience is interviewed.  Anthrozoology inspired her and she was amazed to find a group for it.  Joe talks about the personality of fursonas and how he found his.  “No one is in charge of furry” and it’s not about degree of furriness, but about your unique expression. Joe talks about discomfort with Boomer the Dog and lets Boomer talk about being comfortable as himself.
• Founding Furs. At The Prancing Skiltaire house, Mark Merlino talks about early 1970’s sci-fi fandom with a gentle hippie vibe. Fred Patten talks about discovering anime with Mark, and funny-animal media. “Funny animal” comic books once thrived, went extinct, and came back as Saturday morning cartoons. Underground comix and APA fanzines sprouted up. Reed Waller and Steve Gallaci segue to the 1980’s indie comics boom and its stars like TMNT.
• Furry art – who does it and how.  OK, does this make you want to know more?  I wanted to summarize 14 chapters, but it’s too much, so enjoy the sample.

Conclusion

I started with Furry 101 definitions.  It’s so boring to get nothing more than that from mainstream articles.  Furry Nation thankfully has the room to flesh things out with cool trivia and Joe’s own experiences.  He delivers good stories about asking furry questions with Hollywood directors – and getting his first fursuit and how it felt to wear.

Fursuiting brings up a dull complaint: “OMG, a fursuit is on the cover! They hog the spotlight!”  But it doesn’t matter because this isn’t a bible. It could take overlapping books to dryly cover everything.  This fandom is about personal passion, and everyone has a unique story of finding it and why they’re so devoted. What binds them is that feeling of “you too?  I was a furry before I knew they existed!”

Personally, if I was going to ask for more, I wish Joe had covered a few more fandom entrepeneurs who turn their love into a job and more.  The list could include some Hollywood-level furry creator, or the best cottage industry fursuit maker; maybe someone like EZ-Wolf and his cooling tech that’s been adopted by the military.  There could be one or more of the furry specialty publishers.  Then Bad Dragon (the biggest company), and Anthrocon (the biggest con.)  Out of that list we get a chapter on Anthrocon.

For someone else, what’s missing is coverage of fandom publishing.  (OK, I mean our star guest Fred Patten.)  He told me:

I am most distressed to see that there’s virtually nothing about furry writing and book publishing. That’s certainly worth a chapter.  There are two furry literary awards.  Why is the topic omitted?

It’s a worthy topic (and Joe’s in that business).  Now, go to a dealer den at a con – publishing has a presence, but expect only perhaps 2-3 such dealers at a large con.  Look at the size of the Furry Writer’s Guild – it’s a niche inside a niche. Which brings me back to the niche of fursuiting (and why is that on the cover?)

A book may take a week to digest.  That narrows audience a lot.  But a fursuit puts a few grand of show value in a 2 second glance.  Look at a fursuiter group photo from Anthrocon – it’s over $3 million in custom-designed, hand-made furry craft all in one picture.  $3 million. You have to admit there isn’t anything else furry fans do, on their own without mainstream patronage, that approaches that level.  That’s where the juice is in this fandom stuff.

It’s not really about suits or spotlight or money – it’s about that shared sense of “we made this”.  Joe tells it like that. There should be more books to cover other ways to do it, but don’t miss this one.

• Buy Furry Nation on Amazon
• Book promo card:

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Join Tal, Vox and Adoom as they discuss the week, and oh boy what a week it has been. Episode 7 - Sharks shouldn't drive