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This AnthroCon I was able to touch base with Blotch, the duo team of BlackTeegan and KenKet abit at the con’s end for a few minutes and ask some questions about their latest release; NordGuard: Across Thin Ice, which debuts at AC ’11 via Sofawolf Press and can be found on the Sofawolf Press website. Blotch is already famous in the fandom for their cover work on Kyell Gold’s books (Out of Position, Isolation Play) as well as winning multiple awards for their cover work on conbooks and for their first graphic novel, Dog Day’s of Summer, also available via Sofawolf press.

Mad: Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. The first one I wanted to start off with was how did the collaboration between both you and KenKet begin?

Blotch: Well, we knew each other, we were friends and were both going to be house-sitting and dog-sitting for a friend. This dog is this crazy, crazy, crazy dog and we wanted to leave the house for awhile so we left it a soup-bone. And we were like, “Oh that will keep it entertained for a half hour, while we go get something to eat, the dog will be fine.” Well, we come back and the dog has eaten the entire couch, it was shredded and we were like crap, well what do we do? Sooo, it’s “O my gosh, she’s gonna be home tonight in about an hour” and I was like, “Well I can sketch her something” and Ket was like, “I can paint it” and so we did that and it turned out really well. So yeah, that’s how we started working together.

Mad: That’s interesting, honestly I didn’t expect such a story behind it.

Blotch: [laughs]

Mad: Alright, well while it’s not unheard of in the furry fandom its worth noting. Despite both of you being female artist you create predominantly male artwork, is there any reason for that?

BlackTeegan: Want to. [laughs] It’s like you know, I don’t really enjoy drawing things I don’t enjoy, so I don’t.

KenKet: [Laughs] So you enjoy gay things.

BlackTeegan:[Laughs] I enjoy drawing gay things, drawing gay porn. We like drawing Pi.

Mad: I was actually going to ask; back at your panel you mentioned how Pi is the main character, did you switch it? Was there a reason for this-

BlackTeegan: No, she was always the main character.

Mad: From the get-go? That was just what you thought of and it was the idea.

BlackTeegan: Yeah. The story is her story. The only reason that Nickel is on the promo poster is because he’s a striking character.

Mad: About the making of Nordguard, was it easier or harder than our previous short book, Dog Day’s?

KenKet: [laughs]

BlackTeegan: Well, the method was a lot harder. Dog Day’s was…sort of a joke, to see if we could do comics. It wasn’t a very serious project so…

Kenket: Parts of Dog Day’s were harder, because we were doing it online so the time frame was very limited, plus we were writing the story as we went along so it was quite difficult sometimes…

Mad: Well you didn’t even know what way the story would go when you started the voting system.

BlackTeegan: Exactly, we didn’t know if people would vote. So mentally, it was abit harder for those reasons, but overall I just think that there’s a lot more time and effort…

KenKet: Nordguard definitely took a lot longer and more effort, but the process was abit calmer because we had time to think about it.

Mad: You had a plan.

KenKet: We had a plan, it was more methodical, more control than [laughs] than Dog Day’s.

Mad: Um, a question about Dog Day’s specifically; The surprise reaction about whether or not the sex scene would occur.

BlackTeegan: Yes.

Mad: Well, you said that you were surprised when in was a unanimous, a near unanimous vote of no.

BlackTeegan: Well, every week, every week people had been voting for the option they thought would lead to sex. So we thought, well fine, we’ll just have it be very obvious these options lead to sex. And, you know, we were just surprised. It’s like, suddenly everyone changed their mind and just didn’t want sex.

Mad: Yeah, that’s what I assumed. I even told my boyfriend, “Oh that’s what’s going to happen.”

KenKet: We were very surprised and because that happened we decided, “Oh you know, these people really care about the characters and therefore we should do them justice and actually tell their story abit better.”

Mad: You mentioned you’ve done work outside the fandom, could you go into that abit?

BlackTeegan: Well, we mostly do stuff in the fandom now, but it’s like she’s been published by Cricket and other places. It’s just, as illustrators, you find a niche and you work at it and it’s where we really enjoy it so we’ll stay in the fandom now.

Mad: Yeah, you’ve won about 4 or 5 Ursa awards for your illustrated covers alone.

BlackTeegan: Oh yeah, a lot of Ursa’s.

Kenket: Ten.

Mad: Ten!? Yeah, a lot then. Anyway, Dog Day’sof Summer, it was the beach, Australia. Nordguard is darn near a polar opposite. Was there a reason for this? Were you tired of the sun?

BlackTeegan: No we just wanted to start with something that didn’t have a lot of architecture.

Mad: Oh, so the wilderness.

BlackTeegan: Yes, its outdoors so its easier

KenKet: Fundamentally easier to paint than something set in downtown say in San Francisco or something. [laughs]

Mad: Was it easier to paint?

KenKet: Yes, it was much easier to paint then say something taking place in a city or a spaceship for instance. But at the same time, it was difficult, just as hard in its own way.

Mad: What was your favorite part of Nordguard? And really your worst? If there even was a specific moment.

BlackTeegan: Um, of the actual book or the making of it?

Mad: Well the process, was there a favorite page or moment your glad you got completed or done?

BlackTeegan/Kenket: [laughs] Well, the moment we sent it to the publisher! That was my favorite moment ever.

BlackTeegan: You know I just…it’s so much a labor of love that it’s like…a lot of the time its pulling teeth but it’s something that you do because you really love to do it so it’s really hard to find like a specific moment or part of the process or part of it because it’s just this big ball of…

Kenket: Yeah, oh my god.

BlackTeegan: Yeah, anxiety and work and this emotional attachment, it’s like-

Mad: Yeah, you said at your panel, you did research for a year, saved up a year beforehand to offset not working on other projects.

BlackTeegan: The research was probably the most fun part.

KenKet: Yeeeah.

Mad: That’s a…I wouldn’t say gamble, but a really big investment for…

BlackTeegan: When you want to do something your passionate about it’s not, you know…it just seems worth the risk or worth the gamble so…

Mad: The last question, I think, I have for guys is have you ever had the worst con experience or ‘that’ fan?

BlackTeegan: I think everyone’s had someone like ‘that’ fan but its on a whole most people are really nice.

KenKet: Con’s are enjoyable.

BlackTeegan: Con’s are really fun, you know I love just to meet the people and its cool. You know there’s always the one person you remember and you think, “Wow, please go away.”

KenKet: In general the cons are awesome.

BlackTeegan: Yeah.

Mad: Alright well, Nordguard 1 is out; you said at your panel because you had to cut some material due to deadlines the second book is already somewhat started, do you expect it done anytime soon?

BlackTeegan: Well by the end of August were gonna ramp up and start working on it again full time, see how far we get, and we’ll have a better sense of time tables then.

Mad: Alright, I look forward to it.

BlackTeegan: Yeah, were gonna be updating the blog with stuff.

KenKet: I’ll do livestreaming of new paintings of pages.

BlackTeegan: All the info and stuff will be up there.

KenKet: Yeah

Mad: Oh actually, really quick; the names BlackTeegan and KenKet, is there any significance to them?

BlackTeegan: Uh, no [laughs]

KenKet: Well, I got my name from a character in a book years ago when I was still in the MUCK, roleplaying, it was my character name and I kept it throughout the ages.

Mad: I thank you for your time; I look forward to the book.

BlackTeegan: I hope you enjoy it. It was nice to speak to you.

Mad: Thank you

BlackTeegan: Thank you for being so patient.

Mad: No, its no problem.

KenKet: We appreciate it.

Mad: Thanks.

Nordguard: Across Thin Ice can be found on the Sofawolf Press website for purchase and more information on the book can be found on their website; http://nordguard.com
Earl Z. Madness can be reached at E-Mail Hidden or his work can be seen at http://www.furaffinity.net/user/zeratul-luke/

submitted by allenizabeth
[link] [8 comments]

Author: Vox

Hello to all our awesome listeners. Sorry this one is late a bit, life happened.

We stole a fox and had alot of fun with email this time!

Find the full article here: UnFurled » Podcast

Hello to all our awesome listeners. Sorry this one is late a bit, life happened.

Click below to listen:

http://www.unfurled.net/episodes/UnFurled_-_Episode_40.mp3

Click to download | Open Player in New Window

We stole a fox and had alot of fun with email this time!

Episode 40 – Vanishing Ferret - Hello to all our awesome listeners. Sorry this one is late a bit, life happened. We stole a fox and had alot of fun with email this time!

Author: Doug
The 3D version will be in US theaters on 16 September, 2011.

Fur Affinity and Furocity are joining forces! Our two communities are coming together and pooling our resources to provide the largest, most in-depth online Furry community on the internet!

Along with additional coding expertise, Furocity is bringing improved administrative structure and coordination to Fur Affinity's vast wealth of users.

Dragoneer (FA) and Daemonshyai (Furocity) will share responsibilities of the sites as equals (co-owners). We'll be working together to expand the community and offer a long-term, structured plan to improve the sites, re-aligning our responsibilities and improving end-user support.

It's been a long time coming, but together we feel together we will be able to reinvigorate the Furry communities and bring much needed improvement all around, allowing us to grow and share in ways that were previously unimagined.

We're sorry that we had to be so secretive of things up until now; we've been in talks for over a year, but we had to make sure that all sides were ready, willing, and able before we announced anything to the public. We know that many of you have been asking for (and demanding) change -- it was quite difficult to keep this under our respective hats!

More details are coming soon regarding our announcement. Stay tuned!

Author: Doug

Now that My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic has become a full-on cultural phenomenon among a certain group of fans (thanks, bronies!), the Hub TV network is playing right into their geeky little hands.

The latest promo for the animated show (above) is a take on Apple’s app-touting iPhone commercials. The clip rather cheekily notes that “there’s a pony for that” as a way of showing off each of the show’s unique characters.

Want magic friendship? There’s a pony for that: Twilight Sparkle. Want a weather report? Rainbow Dash. Want to know about grub? The appropriate pony is Pinkie Pie.

Kind of makes you wonder: “Could Derpy Hooves work a smartphone?”

Find the full article here: furryne.ws | Published News

Author: AppleCider

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today, Chef Sandy and I had Vanilla Bean on the show who is a very awesome female brony who happens to work in the comic book industry. Let us take a moment to mention for FREEKING AWESOME this is! Anyway, we chatted a bit about you and how your likely not the evil tyrant many of your followers make you out to be, how someponies say some bad things about this community, and we finally deal with that ‘cupcakes’ thing once and for all. Then we have a chat about what makes Equestria so great! I’m sure you will love it as will our superdy duper adoring fans! Woah, channeled some Pinkie there.

Sincerely,
AppleCider

PS – Show notes can be found on the following Google Doc.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B7slP0-lBv9MIDEi7taHsK0UirMrG5YsKSTRLC0_9dI/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CKHftWM

Intro – Friendship Forever Mix by ChainAlgorithm on Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V59MgGRHvo

Outro – Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Party (MLP:FiM Remix – Pinkie’s Gala Jam) by Infinitydash – http://youtu.be/g-4_kklM-Kg

Find the full article here: BronyShow

Long-time homosexual activist Frank Kameny’s claim to fame is successfully manipulating the American Psychiatric Association into declassifying homosexuality as a mental disorder, and today the Smithsonian honoree is now busily advocating bestiality "as long as the animal doesn’t mind."

Kameny, 83, has had a long career advocating the removal of any restrictions on human acts long considered by sane societies as obscene, dangerous, and disordered.

However the octogenarian has a new mission to complement his current campaign to pressure the APA to ban reparative therapy for homosexuals. Kameny describes his mission as "Americanism in action" by advocating bestiality and encouraging the saturation of American culture with what he calls "more and better and harder-core pornography."

According to Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH), Kameny wrote an e-mail to them saying that while he was personally opposed to bestiality, he found it an otherwise "harmless" quirk, so long as it was consensual with the animal involved.

"Bestiality is not my thing," Kameny wrote. "But it seems to be a harmless foible or idiosyncrasy of some people. So, as long as the animal doesn’t mind (and the animal rarely does), I don’t mind, and I don’t see why anyone else should."

Americans for Truth president Peter LaBarbera said Kameny’s outrageous statement begged a number of questions.

"We have many questions for Kameny, the first being: how exactly does an animal signal his or her ‘consent’ to have sex with a human?" queried LaBarbera.

In his May 31, 2008 e-mail to AFTAH, Kameny prefaced his comments by saying "the term ‘sexual perversion’ is devoid of objective meaning" and added that the correct definition for him was "any sexual practice disapproved of by the speaker."

"If something which someone arbitrarily defines as a ‘sexual perversion’ provides happiness for consenting adult participants, then its enjoyment is enshrined in basic Americanism," Kameny wrote. "So: Let us have more and better enjoyment of more and better sexual perversions, by whatever definition, by more and more consenting adults. We will all be the better off thereby. And that will be Americanism in action."

Kameny made the bold claim that the founding fathers of the United States implicitly approved of uninhibited sexual exploits or "sexual perversion" when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, because he believes it is part of the "Inalienable Right, of the ‘Pursuit of Happiness’".

Kameny included bestiality and hardcore pornography as "Americanism in action" and said that those who wanted to suppress it were "the American Taliban, and Christianofascism in action."

Kameny said he is the founder and president of the National Consumers Association for the Advancement and Protection of Pornography, Inc. He told Americans for Truth, "Give some thought to what Americanism and our American freedoms really mean. It is clear that you haven’t a clue."

Kameny has been painted by some on the moral left as a "civil rights leader." His 1965 protest signs that contributed to the removal of homosexuality from the APA’s list of mental disorders will be displayed at the National Museum of American History, and his papers will be archived at the Library of Congress. Americans for Truth, however, have protested against recognizing Kameny as a civil rights leader, observing that Kameny has advocated moral anarchy in all sexual matters, contributing further to the accelerating breakdown of modern American society, especially through the destruction of the family.

Hypoallergenic dogs don't actually produce fewer allergy-provoking proteins than other dogs, say researchers who put the claims to the test.

Researchers in Detroit analyzed dust samples collected from 173 homes one month after a newborn baby was brought home to check allergen levels from hypoallergenic dogs and other breeds.The Obamas were offered one of a Wisconsin breeder's Australian Labradoodle puppies for their daughter with allergies. WITI-TV/AP

Specifically, 60 dog breeds were involved, 11 of them considered hypoallergenic. Researchers found no significant differences in allergen levels in homes where either hypoallergenic dogs or non-hypoallergenic resided, they said in the July online issue of the American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy.

"We found no scientific basis to the claim hypoallergenic dogs have less allergen," Christine Cole Johnson, chair of Henry Ford's Department of Public Health Sciences and senior author of the study, said in a release.

"Based on previous allergy studies conducted here at Henry Ford, exposure to a dog early in life provides protection against dog allergy development. But the idea that you can buy a certain breed of dog and think it will cause less allergy problems for a person already dog-allergic is not borne out by our study."

Now that My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic has become a full-on cultural phenomenon among a certain group of fans (thanks, bronies!), the Hub TV network is playing right into their geeky little hands.

The latest promo for the animated show (above) is a take on Apple’s app-touting iPhone commercials. The clip rather cheekily notes that “there’s a pony for that” as a way of showing off each of the show’s unique characters.

Want magic friendship? There’s a pony for that: Twilight Sparkle. Want a weather report? Rainbow Dash. Want to know about grub? The appropriate pony is Pinkie Pie.

Kind of makes you wonder: “Could Derpy Hooves work a smartphone?”

The Headmasters, flying around in Fortress Maximus in space, pick up a couple creatures wearing exo-suits who are badly injured. They take them inside and work on them, while hearing their story. Apparently, there are aliens from the planet Beast, a place where the inhabitants resemble humanoid animals. Their planet has come under attack from the Destrons and they were barely able to escape with their lives. They request the help of the Cybertrons in removing the Destrons from their home. While the Headmasters plan their strategy, Wheelie and Daniel befriend a small Battle Beast, who leads them to the enemy's base, where they both get captured. Rodimus Convoy, having heard of the situation, arrives with the Trainbots and the Monsterbots. The Headmasters try to save Daniel and Wheelie, but are confronted by the Destron Headmasters. Rodimus Convoy squares off against Galvatron, with Cyclonus lending an unwilling hand. Inside the base, Wheelie and Daniel are freed by their little friend and manage to free all the slaves. The Destrons are sent running by Fortress Maximus and Rodimus Convoy leaves the Monsterbots on the planet to maintain the peace.

Author: GreenReaper

Fur Affinity and Furocity owners Dragoneer and Gavin Daemonshyai have announced plans to share staff and resources between the two sites.

The two owners have worked together on FA: United, and according to Dragoneer they will “share responsibilities of the sites as equals (co-owners)”, with Gavin’s team bringing “coding expertise” and “improved administrative structure and coordination” to FA.

Gavin explained that while “the sites themselves are staying completely separate” (accounts will not be merged), Fur Affinity is gaining administrators and programming staff to implement requested improvements, such as the delayed summer update.

Fur Affinity also added a 12TB disk array this week, after running out of space for work.

Creative Commons: Full post may be available under a free license.

Syndicated Content from Furryne.ws
Author: Doug
Long-time homosexual activist Frank Kameny’s claim to fame is successfully manipulating the American Psychiatric Association into declassifying homosexuality as a mental disorder, and today the Smithsonian honoree is now busily advocating bestiality “as long as the animal doesn’t mind.”

Kameny, 83, has had a long career advocating the removal of any restrictions on human acts long considered by sane societies as obscene, dangerous, and disordered.

However the octogenarian has a new mission to complement his current campaign to pressure the APA to ban reparative therapy for homosexuals. Kameny describes his mission as “Americanism in action” by advocating bestiality and encouraging the saturation of American culture with what he calls “more and better and harder-core pornography.”

According to Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH), Kameny wrote an e-mail to them saying that while he was personally opposed to bestiality, he found it an otherwise “harmless” quirk, so long as it was consensual with the animal involved.

“Bestiality is not my thing,” Kameny wrote. “But it seems to be a harmless foible or idiosyncrasy of some people. So, as long as the animal doesn’t mind (and the animal rarely does), I don’t mind, and I don’t see why anyone else should.”

Americans for Truth president Peter LaBarbera said Kameny’s outrageous statement begged a number of questions.

“We have many questions for Kameny, the first being: how exactly does an animal signal his or her ‘consent’ to have sex with a human?” queried LaBarbera.

In his May 31, 2008 e-mail to AFTAH, Kameny prefaced his comments by saying “the term ‘sexual perversion’ is devoid of objective meaning” and added that the correct definition for him was “any sexual practice disapproved of by the speaker.”

“If something which someone arbitrarily defines as a ‘sexual perversion’ provides happiness for consenting adult participants, then its enjoyment is enshrined in basic Americanism,” Kameny wrote. “So: Let us have more and better enjoyment of more and better sexual perversions, by whatever definition, by more and more consenting adults. We will all be the better off thereby. And that will be Americanism in action.”

Kameny made the bold claim that the founding fathers of the United States implicitly approved of uninhibited sexual exploits or “sexual perversion” when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, because he believes it is part of the “Inalienable Right, of the ‘Pursuit of Happiness’”.

Kameny included bestiality and hardcore pornography as “Americanism in action” and said that those who wanted to suppress it were “the American Taliban, and Christianofascism in action.”

Kameny said he is the founder and president of the National Consumers Association for the Advancement and Protection of Pornography, Inc. He told Americans for Truth, “Give some thought to what Americanism and our American freedoms really mean. It is clear that you haven’t a clue.”

Kameny has been painted by some on the moral left as a “civil rights leader.” His 1965 protest signs that contributed to the removal of homosexuality from the APA’s list of mental disorders will be displayed at the National Museum of American History, and his papers will be archived at the Library of Congress. Americans for Truth, however, have protested against recognizing Kameny as a civil rights leader, observing that Kameny has advocated moral anarchy in all sexual matters, contributing further to the accelerating breakdown of modern American society, especially through the destruction of the family.

Find the full article here: furryne.ws | Published News

submitted by catflaps
[link] [9 comments]

A cat wins the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions in the line of duty.

No cats were harmed in the making of this video. One cat named Danny became incredibly well fed, though!

Full-size pop-up image previewer for submission view on FurAffinity (see screenshot).

If you find it useful, I'm not asking for donations or anything: I do ask that you tell your friends with chrome, leave a rating or review, and/or give feedback for how you'd like it improved :3

The 3D version will be in US theaters on 16 September, 2011.

The 3D version will be in US theaters on 16 September, 2011.

The Beasts of Yore portfolio is a new collection of 12 illustrations, featuring mythical creatures as envisioned by 12 different artists. Each illustration is accompanied by a short story created by fantasy author Nate Newlon. The artists taking part include Abigail Scott, Bernice “Tarheki” Gordon, Char Reed, Erin “Narumi” Prince, Katie Hofgard, Katrine Hagmann, Kristine “Moonykins” Myrvold, Megara “DimeSpin” Gordon, S. M. “Synnabar” Hahn, T. “Melanippos” Cunningham, Eva “Thaily Brimstone” Palli, and Tiffany Xenia “Swandog” Eliassen. You can visit the Beasts of Yore web site to see samples of the artwork and order your own copy of the book.