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Nice celebratory round numbers aside, it’s a usual round of furry trash and lots of links in the roundup this week. That said holy crap episode 250! Thank you for sticking with us over all these years! Hope you stick with us for another 250. :3

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Dog Chocolate Toxicity Calculator
• CJ sees a Chik-Fil-A for the first time in a while
• Abandoned Steel Plant right near the studio goes up in flames
• Adorable Fox fursuit up for auction, get it for MFF!
• Soulfire Jackal goes Shopping during Extra Life
• Adjective Species turns five
• Furry subreddit /r/furry reaches 30,000 subscribers
• John Lewis Christmas Advert 2016 – #BusterTheBoxer
• Making of Dreamcatcher with EZWolf & Fox Amoore – when you start a howl
• A few furs at FurPock found mushrooms growing in their hotel room
  • Link 2
• HIllary Clinton campaign photo from inside the DLCC, same convention center as AC
• Shoutout to FurcoNZ, New Zealand’s Furry con
• Etsy Store of Animal Jewelry
• The official hashtag for MFF 2016 is #FurFest
• ESPN Tweet with mascot
• Milo gets questioned by a furry
• Will Johnny Depp play Dumbledore’s gay lover in new Harry Potter films?
• A Soviet Scientist Created The Only Tame Foxes In The World
• Macro furries rejoice, there is a VR game for you
• Urban Coyote Twitter handle, tweets news about… urban coyotes
• Shoutout to FurryStuff.ru, selling a Christmas Mini-box
• Youmacon 2016 Rave feat. Magic Ruined
• German too soon

News:

• [SciShow] Bloody Amazing Facts About Vampire Bats
• [MinuteEarth] Why Are There So Many Tigers In Texas?
• Killer Russian robot can detect a human from over four miles away before shooting them dead in an instant
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Must Recommit to Red Wolf Recovery in the Wild
• Caught on camera: Deer crashes through Stillwater store’s window
• Grandad having a bath stunned when fox scales walls and jumps through window
• Man takes pet crocodile for walks to the shops, brushes its teeth and cuddles it
• Suspect Wearing a Wolf Mask Robs Suburban Bank at Gunpoint

Emails:

• Kashmir – “You need more cats on your show. Just saying.”
• Kito Softpaw – “Furcast- Fursuiting,Making Friends & Original Speices”
• Silverhoof – “Breakup/moving on advise”
• Fan Mail – “Relationship Advice!”
• Felis Ridibundus – “PHI and paw”

FC-250 Live Action Memes - Nice celebratory round numbers aside, it's a usual round of furry trash and lots of links in the roundup this week. That said holy crap episode 250! Thank you for sticking with us over all these years! Hope you stick with us for another 250. :3

Nice celebratory round numbers aside, it’s a usual round of furry trash and lots of links in the roundup this week. That said holy crap episode 250! Thank you for sticking with us over all these years! Hope you stick with us for another 250. :3

Download MP3

Link Roundup:

• Dog Chocolate Toxicity Calculator
• CJ sees a Chik-Fil-A for the first time in a while
• Abandoned Steel Plant right near the studio goes up in flames
• Adorable Fox fursuit up for auction, get it for MFF!
• Soulfire Jackal goes Shopping during Extra Life
• Adjective Species turns five
• Furry subreddit /r/furry reaches 30,000 subscribers
• John Lewis Christmas Advert 2016 – #BusterTheBoxer
• Making of Dreamcatcher with EZWolf & Fox Amoore – when you start a howl
• A few furs at FurPock found mushrooms growing in their hotel room
  • Link 2
• HIllary Clinton campaign photo from inside the DLCC, same convention center as AC
• Shoutout to FurcoNZ, New Zealand’s Furry con
• Etsy Store of Animal Jewelry
• The official hashtag for MFF 2016 is #FurFest
• ESPN Tweet with mascot
• Milo gets questioned by a furry
• Will Johnny Depp play Dumbledore’s gay lover in new Harry Potter films?
• A Soviet Scientist Created The Only Tame Foxes In The World
• Macro furries rejoice, there is a VR game for you
• Urban Coyote Twitter handle, tweets news about… urban coyotes
• Shoutout to FurryStuff.ru, selling a Christmas Mini-box
• Youmacon 2016 Rave feat. Magic Ruined
• German too soon

News:

• [SciShow] Bloody Amazing Facts About Vampire Bats
• [MinuteEarth] Why Are There So Many Tigers In Texas?
• Killer Russian robot can detect a human from over four miles away before shooting them dead in an instant
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Must Recommit to Red Wolf Recovery in the Wild
• Caught on camera: Deer crashes through Stillwater store’s window
• Grandad having a bath stunned when fox scales walls and jumps through window
• Man takes pet crocodile for walks to the shops, brushes its teeth and cuddles it
• Suspect Wearing a Wolf Mask Robs Suburban Bank at Gunpoint

Emails:

• Kashmir – “You need more cats on your show. Just saying.”
• Kito Softpaw – “Furcast- Fursuiting,Making Friends & Original Speices”
• Silverhoof – “Breakup/moving on advise”
• Fan Mail – “Relationship Advice!”
• Felis Ridibundus – “PHI and paw”

[Live] Live Action Memes

A new announcement over at Cartoon Brew: The German visual FX house Luxx Studio (known for their work on features like White House Down and Independence Day: Resurgence) have started work in earnest on their first CGI feature film, Manou the Swift. “The cg animated film, which is still a work in progress, is set for release in 2017. It tells the story of a swift who grows up thinking he is seagull but soon finds out his real calling.” The article includes a teaser trailer — which oddly does not seem to include the main character.

Image c. 2016 Luxx Studios

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This is an odd one — but what about the world of Jim Woodring isn’t? Back in 2010 the creator of the iconic/weird-and-wordless funny animal comic Frank brought us his first graphic novel, Weathercraft. Now Fantagraphics Books have re-released in a new hardcover format with some additional new artwork. “As it happens, Frank has only a brief supporting appearance in Weathercraft, which actually stars Manhog, Woodring’s pathetic, brutish everyman (or everyhog), who had previously made several appearances in Frank stories (as well as a stunning solo turn in the short story “Gentlemanhog”). After enduring 32 pages of almost incomprehensible suffering, Manhog embarks upon a transformative journey and attains enlightenment. He wants to go to celestial realms but instead altruistically returns to the Unifactor to undo a wrong he has inadvertently brought about: The transformation of the evil politician Whim into a mind-destroying plant-demon who distorts and enslaves Frank and his friends. The new and metaphysically expanded Manhog sets out for a final battle with Whim…” It may or may not make more sense if you pick it up, but it will be very interesting. Check it out over at Fantagraphics.

image c. 2016 Fantagraphics

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Tried to stay upbeat with this one. We talk the outcome of the Presidential Election, answer your questions and more! Reminder: We're on Patreon! If you could kick us a buck or two, we'd greatly appreciate it. www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow ALSO, we're not just on SoundCloud, you can also subscribe to this on most podcast services like iTunes! Don't forget to hang out in our telegram chat, now w/ over 100 members!telegram.me/draggetshow ep 145 - Trumpland - Tried to stay upbeat with this one. We talk the …

Hello Everyone!

We open this week's show with a discussion on an article that asks the question: which makes you more fulfilled-- making money or having free time? We look into the pros and cons of both, as well as an explanation of opportunity cost. 

Our main topic is on Success. Last week we spoke about Discipline; this week we go over what Success is and how to define it. As you require Discipline for Success, this is part two of an odd episode pairing. We discuss ways to determine success in life, love, and in general. In the face of the recent US Election, this episode might be more necessary than we thought.

We close out our episode with two questions on Long Distance Relationships.

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

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 044 Defining Success - Is Time more valuable than Money? How should you define success? Are Long Distance Relationships easy? HOW DID TRUMP WIN SERIOUSLY?! All this and more on this week's Feral Attraction

We couldn’t even begin to describe this one, folks. So we’ll leave that up to the publisher, Drawn & Quarterly: “Dogs and Water chronicles a piece of a lonely journey, without origin or destination. A young man wandering a nameless path has only a stuffed bear as a companion, which inertly endures his desperation, anger and musings along the way. The landscape is cold and bleak with few landmarks, and offers only precarious encounters with animals and armed men. These interactions are rife with instinct, the drive for survival, and human ethics concerning the killed and injured. He finds acceptance with a pack of dogs, though their nature is wild and their potential threat is as unsettling as the sudden presence of a massive pipeline on the horizon. In a dreamlike state, the endless land becomes a vast body of water where his boat is destroyed and his body floats in a subconscious space. On land, the road disappears and only blind circumstance remains. All is uncertain and all can be lost, but he continues on regardless. Created by Anders Nilsen, it’s available now in hardcover.

image c. 2016 Drawn & Quarterly

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Want a change from intense American news?  German furry fan Stefan sends a tip (thanks!)  This is very nice to get, since otherwise it would be completely missed by American furs.  It’s from comic site “Erzaehlmirnix”.  It has 80,000 followers on Facebook and over 13,000 on Twitter – but likely no English-only followers for images that won’t translate easily. (Patch)

(Stefan:) A quite popular german comic site just made two furry-related comics in quick order.

First comic:

Text:

“I just don’t know why this is, but I hate it: People all the time tell me lots of very personal things I really don’t want to know about.”

“Yeah I know this. Maybe it’s because I am working in the service sector…”

“… or it is because of my vibes of being sexually very open minded, and because on weekends I like to dress as a zebra and get fisted in front of the camera in extreme furry gangbang parties.”

Well… boring. Standard cliches. Heard them all.

But then… immediately after that… that’s followed by this comic:

Text:

“Hey, you are one those “furries” and you like animal costumes and such stuff, right? Did you see? The last Erzaehlmirnix comic is about furries and gangbangfisting. Hehe.”

“Yeah… not funny at all. It’s just that boring “People having sex in animal costumes” stuff the media always show.”

“It is just a totally dumb cliche. Usually this all has nothing to do with sex but more with being a hobby in which you put a lot of love, time and money. But media alway shows some people in cheap costumes having sex, just to make fun of them and make some very bad puns.”

“Oh, that sound like a lot of prejudice” (Pun on “Vorurteil” [prejudice] … “Furrr-Urteil”)

“Yes, that…”

“I guess one needs to be thick-skinned.” (lit: be thick-furred; pun on german “dickes Fell haben.”)

So… this standard normal German comic site just made two furry comics. The first using well known bad cliches, and the second making fun of just this comic.

Brilliant

– Stefan 

 

You may recall the comedy/horror film WolfCop from a couple years ago now. Well, it seems that Dynamite Entertainment have taken it upon themselves to adapt the movie into comic book form. “Ever since hard-drinking local Woodhaven police officer Lou Garou had a late-night bender and stumbled onto dark magic, his life has been turned upside down. Now he moonlights as WolfCop, a rage-fueled, bourbon-swilling, magnum-toting, rabid warrior for justice! WolfCop #1 sees everyone’s favorite alcoholic lycanthropic lawman tearing out of the big screen and onto these gorgeous pages to fight bigger, badder, and meaner monsters than anything that has threatened Woodhaven before!” It’s written by Max Marks and illustrated in full color by Arcana Studios. The first issue is on the shelves now.

image c. 2016 Dynamite Entertainment

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

War of the Third Demon, Part 1: Parents of a Savior, by Casey Thomas Lehman.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, July 2016, trade paperback $7.99 (288 pages), Kindle $2.99.

I’m not sure quite what to say about this book. The cover, which appears to be by crayon, gives an idea of its quality. The title is taken from the cover; the title page says Part 1 is Raising a Savior. The Copyright Notice, usually on the back of the title page in small type, is two pages in boldface leading with “1. Monetary gain directly from fanfiction or fanart is STRICTLY PROHIBITED unless you have received permission and verification from the authors!!!” There are five such rules. The Dedication is three pages ranging from to Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the creators of Dungeons and Dragons®, down through Hayao Miyazaki and James Cameron to his mother. There are 11 pages of Glossaries at the end explaining the Japanese, draconic, and science-fictional terminology used in this book.

The principal characters are dragons. Here is the main villain:

“A monstrous dragon had just awoken, opening his four sunken eyes, allowing their red glow to illuminate a small area front of him and his six-goat like horns respectively. His jagged, sword-like black scales made a scraping sound as his legs dragged against the purple-tiled floor. He rose to his six legs, letting his rapier-like claws click against his gray, embroiled, rune-encrusted bed. He stretched, letting his saggy, dark-red underbelly stretch like an aged balloon as his six thin, bonelike, pale, sickly green wings spread menacingly. He finished by letting his pitchfork-like tail-blade slam against the colossal ruby roman-style pillars of his chambers – the demon dragon, also known as Rayburn.” (p. 11)

But don’t think that all dragons look like him. There are copper-, red-, sapphire-, silver-, and white-scaled dragons. There are onyx, ruby, and topaz dragons. There are mountain dragons. Yorek, the main protagonist, is a grayish-blue adolescent feathered and furry wind dragon. Here is a marsh dragon:

“The specie known as the marsh dragon could be seen as unusual to say the least. Their bodies’ coating was that of a rubbery skin reminiscent of a dolphin in place of scales. This was something that was present in a few species, yet Marsh dragons bore elaborate markings like that of a leopard, zebra, cheetah, tiger, or such animals. However, there were multiple varieties carrying markings reminiscent of Poison Tree Frogs, snakes, anoles, and other creatures. Their paws were shaped like a Leopard Gecko, including four digits. However, this was coupled with thick webbing and long-cat-like retractable claws carrying more length and sharpness than your average dragon breed. They also sported whiskers like that of an Axolotl, which functioned as a balancing tool. The oddest attributes, however, was their elf-like ears and barbed tail, along with their size being half of an average gemstone dragon’s. In this instance, said dragoness had blue and red zebra-stripes, black claws with purple webbing, pink whiskers and a deep orange barb and light blue eyes. She also sported multiple small and large scars on the lower underside areas of her front legs.” (p. 73)

She also talks with a high-pitched Swedish accent.

Other characters are furry kobolds, and – well, here is the city of Sekai Tachiiri:

“The barrier dissipated, revealing the marble housing, sandstone-covered streets and golden-covered archways of Sekai Tachiiri. It was a flourishing metropolis of dragons, kobolds, wyverns, elementals, centaurs, satyrs, kappa, trolls, nekomata, and every other creature under the world’s sun.” (p. 33)

One other important creature is Vinusto, a Tikbalang. For readers unfamiliar with Tikbalangs, Lehman’s description is “a handsome, male Filipino-accented voice spoke in an impressed tone from what seemed to resemble the head of a horse upon the body of a powerful man as two equine hooves tapped the ground.” (p. 25) Lehman seems fascinated by accents. The dragons are specified as speaking with American, British, Australian (“Welp, the little bloke sure the dinky-di when it comes to protectin’ his cook! Whaddya’ think, sheila?” –p. 233), and Irish accents; the kobolds have German accents; and the Tikbalang, as we have seen, has a Filipino accent. (More on the Filipino mythological tikbalang can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikbalang.) Guess what accent the nine-tailed kyuubi and the tengu have.

Well, I’ve gotten carried away describing some of Lehman’s characters. Suffice it to say that you never know what exotic dragon or other creature you will encounter next. And colorful wordplay like, “Yorek leaped into the air, turning a full 980 degrees in a wind-assisted spin-jump […]”, and “The golem gnashed at him at mach 4 […]”

The plot! Mustn’t forget the plot. Yorek, an insecure 12-year-old wind dragon, falls in love with and weds the older white-scaled (British-accented) Radiata, Sekai Tachiiri’s Temperance Councilor. Together they become the caregivers of the copper-scaled dragoness Aria’s white-&-black egg that is determined in the shell to be:

“Radiata gave a kind smile and spoke in a saddened tone, ‘I’m here to tell you something about your egg, Aria…,’ Her face turned to depression as the next words escaped her muzzle in dismay, ‘It’s a… balance dragon. This means a demon dragon is on its way in fifteen years.’

This information shocked the entirety of the domicile. The world would be forced into genocide. It would have another decade and a half of preparation, and after that another war – The War of the Third Demon.” (p. 26)

Yorek and Radiata become the caregivers (foster parents) of Electus, the balance dragonling, for the first three years of his life, under the guidance of Hope Councilor Leon. (What is Leon? Read the book and see.) This book ends with Electus leaving his family to choose one of the other dragon Councilors as his mentor, and continue his training to confront Nocturnal, Rayburn’s leader of the demon dragon troops, in twelve more years.

War of the Third Demon, Part 1: Parents of a Savior is full of dragon love, lust, loss, redemption, raw sex, and all that stuff. Also lots of italics and boldface text. The trade paperback and Kindle editions have slightly different versions of Maura Pompili’s cover, which shows Yorek and Radiata gazing fondly at the infant Electus. Buy if you like dragons.

–Fred Patten

• Buy Paperback on Amazon
• Buy Kindle Edition on Amazon

Speaking of Mike Kunkel (which we were recently), he returns with a new edition of Herobear and The Kid in the Herobear and the Kid 2016 Fall Special, out now from Boom! Studios. “Tyler and Herobear are able to stop the dinosaurs that are attacking the parade, but at what cost? With the help of Elmo (oh yeah, Elmo totally knows that Tyler and his stuffed animal are Herobear and the Kid!), they soon discover that Von Klon has kidnapped Henry!” Trust us, it makes sense if you’ve read the previous installments. What, you haven’t? Go do that now! Then check out the preview pages over at Comic Book Resources. Below is the special variant cover by well-known comic creator Roger Langridge.

image c. 2016 Boom! Studios

Here at Dogpatch Press, we get an awful lot of confused outsiders asking, “what’s this all about?”  Here’s some definitions to help. If you have family or friends who want to know more about your hobby, share this to help them understand.

Anthropomorphic: Mixing animals with human characteristics. Think of cartoons, Aesop’s Fables, werewolves, and much more. 

Furry: Anthropomorphic media and its fans. They often (but not always) role-play an animal character. A reptile one is a Scaly.

The fandom: Furry subculture. It’s different from others because it doesn’t follow specific media like Star Trek. Furry is it’s own thing.

Fursona: The character representing a furry’s self.

Fursuit: The costume that brings a fursona to life, and can fulfill a wish to transform.

fursuiting.com

Furmeets and Cons (Conventions): Organized gatherings that include fursuiting, art, creative writing, parties and more. Cons are usually held at hotels once a year. Meets can be casual and regular and held at houses, public social places, or special ones in the woods.

Weres, Otherkin, Bronies, and Planties: These fandoms are sometimes lumped in with furries, but they aren’t the same. Weres (AKA Therians) take a fursona literally. Otherkin feel like a different species or entity in their body. Bronies are adults who love My Little Pony. Planties are the anthro-botanical fandom.

Fleshies / Smoothies:  Outsiders to the fandom.  Furries often make fun of them as “Steve” or “Steves”.

Steve, founder of the first Smoothie bar.

PCD (Post-Con Depression): Grief about having to return to life among Steves.

Con Crud: A rare itchy fungus harbored in fursuits. Cons bring vets to help everyone get vaccinated.

Hugs, Huggles and Cuddles: Also called “the furry handshake”, a hug is the typical greeting among every furry. Huggles are so enthusiastic that you fall over. Cuddles continue for a while. 

Breaking the Magic: A taboo act with a fursona. It can happen by talking out of character at the wrong time, or if a costume comes off among fleshies, or if you ignore their furry name and call them by their Steve name. (It used to mean when a cat and a dog do things together against their species, but the fandom has evolved and looks down on racism now.)

Scritching: Grooming and massaging for affection, or to make sure there’s no Con Crud.

Yiff/yiffing: “Yiff” is a sound of excitement made by foxes. If cuddles and scritching get sexual, that’s yiffing.

Marf: To proposition a furry, say “Yiff?” If they answer “Marf,” they probably aren’t in the mood. A neutral expression that can also work like “smurf” in the Smurfs cartoon: “Can you marf me the salt?

Murr / Murrsuit: “Murr” is a sexy murmur. A Murrsuit is a fursuit equipped for yiffing with SPH’s (Strategically Placed Holes.)

Fursuit Crush: A fursuiter who gives you butterflies.

Furpile: Group cuddles, not necessarily for yiffing. 

Fursecution: Prejudice against furries by Steves.

Furfag: An outspokenly flamboyant furry who delights in ogling tails and fursuit crushes, and will marf and scritch without shame or breaking the magic.

FurFu: Martial art developed for fursuiters and for combating fursecution. You can find online music videos of synchronized dancing by skilled FurFu artists. There have been controversial incidents of fursecution at cons that led to Steves getting swarmed, taken down and furpiled. However no furry has been arrested, due to the targets reporting a pleasant experience and refusing to press charges.

Popufur: A popular furry, or a bad word for ones who appear arrogant and only loved for their suits. Like “hipster”, nobody self-identifies as one without irony, so it’s a meaningless word that can be thrown at anyone.

Suit Envy / Suiter Gap: Some furries can’t afford fursuits or feel underappreciated, so they give sour grapes about popufurs. The suiter gap is the portion who want suits and don’t have them. Many cons have panels about how to end these problems. 

Confuzzled: Furries speak of a well known tendency for new, curious members to enter the fandom with very conservative sexuality, then over time shift from straight to very open and bisexual or gay for furries. That’s “Confuzzled”. They joke that “the fandom turned me gay!” It’s not the same as “jailhouse gay” in regular society; it’s same-sex attraction specifically for furries, but not Steves, and it’s permanent.

Squizzled: Squeakers are popular fursona enhancements. They should be used carefully. Overuse is incredibly annoying. Inexperienced users tend to wander around cons sounding like field mice on crack, leaving a trail of snarls and tinnitus. Being sick to death of squeakers is “squizzled.”

Toony and feral:  Animal features can be realistic, but the more caricatured they are, the more toony. Most furries have two legs, but ferals have four.

Musclefurs vs. Fluffers: Some fursonas show highly exaggerated muscle tone.  “Furry abs” are especially distasteful to fluffers who prefer soft, sweet and cuddly characters. A classic fluffer icon is Rabbit from Winnie The Pooh. (He/she turns the wedge shape of a musclefur upside down). Around the year 2000, there was major fandom drama with both sides fighting over the definition of “real” furries.

Some preferences. Fox art by Demi-Beast

Plushie / Plushophile:  A plushie is a stuffed toy.  Plushophiles collect them, and get huge respect from ebay sellers for doing astonishing bidding wars.

(Art: Bencoon)

Scat: A style of jazz singing, used by furries to talk among Steves without giving away secrets or breaking the magic. 

Macrophile: Wants to be stepped on by Godzilla.

Vore and Rooting: Vore is an interest in being consumed or inserted in orifices of a macro character.  Rooting is mainly seen in art where a character (like a snake) goes in one hole and out another, often at the same time.

Weaseling, Double Weaseling and Cuckoo Play: When one furry puts on another’s suit for yiffing with a partner who doesn’t know. A typical reaction when they find out is delight or humor (rather than shock or outrage.) A less typical but even funnier situation is when one fur catches on to another’s plan, and flips it back by having the target secretly switch places with someone else. That’s Double Weaseling. Cuckoo Play is another word for this interest. A Cuckoo Play party is when a whole group of furries switch suits at the same time. And sometimes weaseling can mean posting from someone elses account or just telling ridiculous stories.

@DogpatchPress yeah, I try to keep it to facts. Like our Otter Satan testicle clamp initiations. Just keep it to the regular stuff.

— Alecta Andromeda (@alectayiff) November 2, 2016

Having returned from a little mini-vacation we are back with more news of Furry Stuff coming up. Here’s one from this summer we missed: Ohio Is For Sale, a black & white comic by Jon Allen. “Three cartoon animals live in a house together in the American Midwest. They get a job, get sick, and throw a party. Their lives are lit by street lamps and the flickering TV set. They do incredibly stupid things with hilarious and disastrous results. It’s about friendship, booze, and the slow collapse of western civilization. And they’re so cute!” After Jon self-published several issues of Ohio, now Alternative Comics is offering his first compilation in trade paperback. Visit his web site to catch up with the latest, too.

image c. 2016 Alternative Comics

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new fireside chat w/ some of our long time Superpatrons! We will be doing a stream once a month now since we reached the Patreon goal. You can see the video of the cast here: https://youtu.be/sd9KvDSC1So Also, you can still support us on Patreon with awesome new rewards here! https://www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow ep 144 - Fireside Chat! - new fireside chat w/ some of our long time Superp…

Savrin is alive, Shiva cooked us dinner, and Fuzz is decidedly not helpful. It's a fresh episode of Knotcast delivered right to your ears this week from Shiva's patio. Savrin has tales of convention and new PC, Shiva talks Furry Fiesta stuff, and Fuzz talks about Alamo Comic Con and his road trip with his sister. Then the emails happen! Want to help support the show? We have a patreon! www.patreon.com/knotcast Episode 331 - Dangit Fuzz

What does Papabear recommend as a first job? And what was your first job out of high school?

Failaria (age 18)

* * *

Hi, Failaria,

Hmm, interesting question. My first job was actually while I was still in high school. I worked at a burger joint called Boomer's Burgers in Tecumseh, Michigan, and then I worked as a cashier at Meijer's. While in college, I had the good fortune of having a father who could pay for my college while I lived at home, so I didn't really work much. My first job after college was as a factory worker in Ohio at a plastic extrusions company for the auto industry, and then I got my first "real" job as an assistant book editor in Detroit (annual salary $13,500--yikes--but that was back in 1988).

What would I recommend for a first job? The ideal situation would be that you already know what you wish to pursue as a career, and then take an entry-level position or an internship at a related job. If you don't know what career you want but have some special interests, see if you can do something you will enjoy doing. For example, perhaps you like dogs: you could become a self-employed dog walker or dog sitter. If you like kids, you can try babysitting. If you like being outdoors, try gardening or maybe being a lifeguard. Endless possibilities. If that is not something that works for you, the next thing I would say is try to find work with a small, family-operated company rather than a large, heartless, soulless corporation. I would much rather work for a Mom & Pop gift store or ice cream shoppe, for example, than as a fry cook at McDonald's or pizza delivery guy at Papa John's. It's much nicer to work at a place where you know, trust, even like your boss(es). Even if you don't particularly like the job itself, a pleasant work atmosphere goes a long way to making for a happy job experience. The best way to find jobs like this is to talk to friends and family and ask them if anyone they know is hiring.

First jobs are a great way to learn the ropes of a wage-earner. Learning to save money, pay taxes, and the joys of having FICA yank dollars out of your paltry bi-weekly check. More important is that these early jobs help you to learn how to work with other people and to explore what tasks you are good at and which ones you stink at. Always keep a lookout for an occupation you believe you will really enjoy, because if you find a job you enjoy you will never have to work a day in your life. Lucky are those who look forward to their daily jobs.

Good Luck!
Papbear
​

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

The Art of Trolls, by Jerry Schmitz. Foreword by Anna Kendrick.
Petaluma, CA, Cameron + Company, October 2016, hardcover $45.00 (160 pages).

Trolls is a 92-minute 3D computer-animated musical comedy fantasy feature film from DreamWorks Animation, released on November 4th, 2016. The Art of Trolls is a coffee-table, full-color art book describing that film, and its making, in detail. Jerry Schmitz, the book’s author, is a Hollywood PR, marketing, brand management, and awards consultant veteran who has written several other The Art of animation books before. The foreword is by Anna Kendrick, the voice actress of Princess Poppy, one of the film’s two stars.

From a furry viewpoint, Trolls and this book are dubious subjects. No anthropomorphic animals appear in either. Yet the trolls aren’t human, either. If you consider humans to be a species of animals, then trolls qualify as anthros. Anyway, here it is. You decide if it is of interest to you.

The Art of Trolls is a de luxe art book about the film and its making, with detailed visual samples and background information. For those interested in the film, this book is worth getting for the names of all the characters alone. The rejected preliminary designs of the main characters will be fascinating, also.

The popular troll dolls as a merchandising phenomenon were created by Danish woodcutter and fisherman Thomas Dam in 1959, when he could not afford to buy a Christmas gift for his young daughter Lila. She showed the wooden dolls to her friends in Gjøl, Denmark; they all wanted troll dolls; Dam realized their potential; and he and his family created the Dam Things company to mass-produce them in plastic. Troll dolls became one of the biggest toy fads in the U.S. from 1963 to 1965, and have never stopped selling well. DreamWorks Animation licensed the rights to feature them in a movie in 2013. Here it is.

From DreamWorks’ standpoint, the lack of a Trolls backstory allowed its creative team free rein to create their own story. Trolls co-director Mike Mitchell, who had previously worked on DreamWorks’ Shrek Forever After, was already familiar with the Scandinavian legends of trolls, including how they had become gentled over the centuries from fearsome monsters to children’s friendly sprites. He built the film around the latter.

Trolls features two main characters; Poppy of Troll Village, and Branch, the village’s pessimist. The trolls have escaped from Bergentown, where they were a culinary delight, twenty years ago, and have lived happily in their own hidden village ever since under popular King Peppy. His hyperenthusiastic teen daughter, Princess Poppy, does all that she can to keep all the trolls constantly joyous. Only Branch, the village’s pessimist, worries about the giant Bergens finding them. When Chef, the Bergentown king’s cook, does and captures Poppy’s friends, she and Branch are thrown together into an odd-couple rescue mission. What they find in Bergentown, described in this book, leads to the expected happy ending but not the one that the audience was anticipating.

The Art of Trolls is full of the detailed profiles of both the trolls and the Bergens. Poppy. Branch. Biggie and Mr. Dinkles. DJ Suki. Satin and Chenille who are joined by their hair. Guy Diamond, who is nude but it’s okay because he’s flocked. And others. The Bergens (who hark back to the legends of trolls as flesh-eating monsters) include Chef, King Gristle, Jr., the scullerymaid Bridget, and others – all with snaggly fangs.

Production Designer Kendal Cronkhite-Shaindlin made the trolls and their village all bright and multicolored, with lots of primary colors. The Bergens and Bergentown featured a dark palette. The Bergens were a visual challenge. The trolls were based upon the toyline, so their models were clear. The Bergens were all original. They had to look completely different, but not too different. They had to look ugly, but sort-of cute at the same time. The Art of Trolls shows how Cronkhite-Shaindlin and her design team, led by Art Director/Character Designer Timothy Lamb, achieved this.

Most of the DreamWorks’ design team grew up in the 1970s. While the trolls had a fairytale village, the designers had fun packing Bergentown with ‘70s imagery. The architecture and interior design of King Gristle Jr.’s castle was based on overlush Hollywood kitsch, while the Bergens wear ‘70s-style bell-bottom trousers.

As usual with these coffee-table animation art books, all of the artwork is identified: Philippe Brochu, Avner Geller, Tim Heitz, Sayuki Sasaki Hemann, Kirsten Hensen Kawamura, Craig Kellman, Timothy Lamb, Carlos Felipe León, Mike Mitchell, Sebastien Piquet, Simon Rodgers, Ritchie Saciliac, Philip Vose, Priscilla Wong, and others.

In addition to the design sketches and finished character art, there are storyboards, lighting studies, modeling, rigging, and more. The Art of Trolls is a visual companion to the movie that may not show any anthro animals, but will reward any furry fan.

Based on the popular Trolls dolls created by Thomas Dam, Trolls is a 3D computer-animated musical comedy from DreamWorks Animation directed by Mike Mitchell (Shrek Forever After)

Princess Poppy (Anna Kendrick) is a relentlessly upbeat, if slightly naïve, Troll who inherits her crown on the very day her people face the first challenge that can’t be solved with a song or a hug. Accompanied by Branch (Justin Timberlake), she ventures “far beyond the only world they have ever known” in a quest that tests their strength and reveals their true colors.

Full of playful designs created in the optimistic and fun-loving spirit of the Trolls, The Art of Trolls showcases hundreds of pieces of concept and production art to illustrate how DreamWorks’s team of talented artists created an enchanting reinterpretation of the Trolls phenomenon that has gripped collectors and popular culture for decades.

–Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

With all the endless chatter about what a “furry year at the movies” we’re having in 2016, we’ve somewhat been missing the opportunity to talk about furry-friendly films coming up next year. Now here’s one we just learned about: It’s called Animal Crackers, and no, it does not have anything to do with the Marx Brothers. It’s a new CGI animated film being produced by Blue Dream Studios (whom we have not heard of before, we admit). According to the Wikipedia article, “Animal Crackers follows the Huntington family whose life is turned upside down when they inherit a rundown circus and a mysterious box of Animal Crackers, which magically change the person who eats them into the animal they have eaten — including monkeys, giraffes, lions, elephants, tigers, rhinos and bears. They must save the circus from being taken over by their evil uncle Horatio P. Huntington (Sir Ian McKellen).” Other notable voices include John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Danny DeVito, Sylvester Stallone, Wallace Shawn, Raven-Symoné, Patrick Warburton, Gilbert Gottfried, Harvey Fierstein, and Tara Strong. The film is being directed by Tony Bancroft (The Lion King, Mulan), Scott Christian Sava (Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers), and Jaime Maestro. Interestingly, some other well-known names on the production team include Will Finn (famous Disney animator) and Mike Kunkel (creator of Herobear and the Kid). It’s coming to theaters next April.

image c. 2016 Blue Dream Studios

 

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Hello, Papa Bear!
 
I'm in my late twenties, and only started going to furry events earlier this year. Before I started hanging out with furs, my peer group was with nerdy gaming folk, and we mostly hung out to play pen and paper games and stuff like that. Lots of rules to follow and number crunching and stuff. And I always needed my wits about me, so "substances" were never even a consideration.

But now that I've been spending time around furs, I've learned to like liquor in the past few months. I've learned to like it a lot. I drink solely to get intoxicated, and once I hit that sweet spot, the feeling is almost transformative. I'm far less self-conscious, any social anxiety I have melts away, and I always seem to know what to say. I don't second guess myself, or hesitate when talking about touchy subjects, or overanalyze things. When I've got a good buzz going, and I'm in a social situation, the right words just flow out of me effortlessly. I've forged friendships and made connections that I can't imagine would have happened had I not been drinking. And with multiple (!) furry-friendly bar meetups in the area, it's easy to put myself in a situation where drinking is very much acceptable.

According to other furs, I've never been "drunk." Never slurred, never staggered, never had issues with my coordination. I respect the BAC chart, and I set timers for how long I need to wait before I can drive safely. I try to be as responsible as possible. And I've been told by furs that I should only experiment with my limits at home, in a safe setting, which sounds reasonable enough to me. If I make myself sick, I can just sleep it off—and make a note of it in my drinking journal, which is (believe it not) a thing I actually keep.

But where my responsibility falters is where drinking at home is concerned. When I've got an evening with nothing planned, I love to knock back a couple drinks, and keep feeding that buzz with more liquor when I feel the effects waver. I'm able to hop in chats with other furs, either local or global, and talk about naughty stuff that would normally make me uncomfortable. And once I start drinking, I don't stop until it's time for me to get some sleep. Even though it's what I'd consider light drinking (usually within the legal limits for driving, actually—I’m a lightweight, and my alcohol tolerance is exceptionally low,) I end up consuming a lot of alcohol over many hours in an evening. And when I empty a 1.75 liter bottle of vodka in less than a week, I'm inclined to believe there's a problem.

So, where do I go from here? I feel like I'm on the road to a substance abuse problem. I've tried cutting myself off the liquor temporarily, and though I've been successful in meeting the sobriety goals I occasionally set for myself, it doesn't stop me from getting cravings. I've got this real dangerous complex where I like myself more when I've got booze in me. But I also don't feel like I'm a heavy enough drinker where I should be looking into something so extreme as rehab, especially since I just "discovered" alcohol about 3 months ago. It feels like one of those things that most people figure out for themselves in their teens ... but because I totally missed out on that experience, I'm just now working things out, and the adult in me has a lot of concerns.

Thanks, Papa Bear. It feels weird having all these questions and concerns so late in my life, but maybe you can shed some light.

Anonymous (Riverside County, CA)

​* * *
 
Dear Furiend,
 
The easiest way to figure out whether or not you have a problem with an addiction (any kind of addiction) is to answer the following honestly:

1. Is this interfering with my work?
2. Is this interfering with my relationships at home and/or with friends?
3. Am I losing sleep?
4. Is my weight going up or down dramatically?
5. Is my mood changing (more sad, more angry, more reckless than usual)?
6. Am I trying to hide my behavior in any way? Acting secretive?
7. Do I binge?
8. Do I wonder whether or not I have a problem?
9. Do any of my close family members have addiction problems (addictive behavior has been shown to have some genetic components)?
10. Do I maintain a stash (hoarding behavior)?
11. Is this costing me a lot of money, possibly even affecting my ability to pay expenses?
12. Do I get nervous or anxious when I stop this behavior, even temporarily (withdrawal symptoms)?
13. Do you do this to try to “escape your problems”?

 
If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, then that is a sign you have a problem, indeed. Based on what you have written, I think you probably have said yes to a couple of these, at least. And you clearly sense you might have a problem. It doesn’t matter if it has only been a few months since you started drinking heavily. Addiction can arise very quickly.
 
The effects you’ve been feeling once you get that buzz going (less self-conscious, more confidence) is the result of one of alcohol’s known effects: lowering of inhibitions. This might feel really great, but it can also be dangerous and lead to poor judgment as a result of being more inclined to take risks. The “friendships” you are making with other drinkers probably aren’t the real friendships you need. It makes this bear rather sad that hanging out with furries has influenced you in this way.
 
Then there is the sitting at home and drinking heavily by yourself: also a very strong sign of addiction.
 
Furiend, you have a problem. Non-alcoholics do not exhibit the behaviors you have described to me. I’m glad that you have written to me. The first step is to recognize you have a problem. You do. Do you acknowledge that? It sounds like you do.
 
Next step is to stop drinking booze. Combine that with getting some support. I recommend you contact this site: http://www.addicted.org/riverside-addiction-treatment-services.html to get some phone support and to get your questions answered.
 
Please take care, and please contact the link above.
 
Hugs,
Papabear