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By now you have likely heard about the Mickey Mouse Shorts TV series — truly mad little animated cartoons brought to us by Paul Rudish and his crazy crew. Well now IDW Comics have been tasked with bringing us comic book adaptations of several of the Shorts, which they have done with the new Mickey Mouse Shorts: Season One full-color miniseries. “Join Mickey, Minnie, and all their pals in a comic adaptation of the celebrated, multi-Emmy and Annie Award-winning shorts from Disney Television Animation! In this issue, Mickey battles his way through a Tokyo bullet train during rush hour, an unlikely character competes in a dog show, and Donald suffers from….Flipperboobootosis?! And that’s just the start!” Adapted by Scott Tipton and featuring a variety of artists, the series is available now — and you can read all about it over at IDW’s web site.

image c. 2016 IDW Comics

Hello Everyone!

We open this week's show with a discussion on how your activity on Facebook (and potentially other Social Media) might be a reflection of your true self and what might be happening when your online persona differs drastically from your meatspace reality. 

Our main topic is on being your own filter. The idea of content warnings and trigger warnings have been a discussion now for several years. Unfortunately, there seems to be a disconnect where individuals are equating offense to a trigger, which can limit the ability to communicate honestly and openly. We talk about the important of discussion and how to approach individuals you find offensive, or how to handle topics you take offense to. 

Our question is on transphobia- our questioner is a cisgendered gay man who is being called transphobic for not wanting a relationship with a transwoman. 

We also have some feedback on other ways you might be able to send yourself sex toys without your parents at home opening them by accident. 

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

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 035 Being Your Own Filter - Is Facebook an accurate depiction of self? Are trigger warnings inherently anti-intellectual? Are you transphobic for wanting to date cisgendered partners? All this and more on this week's Feral Attraction.

Sixteen years ago, I was a not-so-wee lad just starting his freshman year of high school. I had grown a foot and a half in the previous few years, and my voice had fallen down the staircase from alto to baritone. I had just come out to my mom as gay. My favorite saying, which my step-mother hated, was “sarcasm makes the world go ’round”.

And I had just found furry. That too.

Now, today, I’m well on my way to becoming a giant woman working in open-source software. I’ve not grown any taller, really, though my hair is now quite a bit longer, and I no longer sing, not having an outlet I feel safe in. I recently came out to my mom as polyamorous, married to my cis male husband, loving my genderqueer partner, and looking forward to seeing my trans-girl pup again. I’m still in furry; but I no longer believe that sarcasm makes the world go ’round.

A lot has changed in the last sixteen years of being a furry. The tenor of the fandom has changed as the resources have shifted. MUCKs grew less popular, as did IRC, while things such as Twitter, Slack, and social sites have taken off. VCL still exists, as does Yerf!, in some form or another, but FA grew to take their place, and still others are vying for market share. Skype grew, then started to fade, to be replaced by Discord, while AIM and other direct messengers seem to have been overtaken by Telegram and the ilk.

I finished high school in that time, then started university in biochem, switched to music education, switched again to music composition, left university and started working for a health insurance company, and finally wound up at Canonical.

I dated, I stopped dating, I changed species once (from red fox to arctic fox), I composed and wrote. All of this, or at least most of it, took place within furry. At some point, perhaps around 2010, I managed to get in touch with Klisoura, so that I could snag some of his data from the Furry Survey for visualization practice. These visualizations would lead to [a][s] itself and the [a][s] panels, before long, and [a][s] would lead to Love – Sex – Fur and the guides to safer-sex, relationships, and gender.

I like to think that I’ve grown more sincere over the years, that I’ve started to prize earnestness above sardonic humor and honesty above glibness. This started as something that I found myself enjoying more and more in others. Not that I didn’t enjoy the occasional bit of snark, and I certainly enjoyed good humor, but I found myself starting to surround myself with people who were able to express the way they felt about something truly, without as much of a mask as I had built up for myself.

The journey to becoming a more earnest person, myself, has been one of the harder things I’ve had to go through in life. The habits formed when young are hard to break, and just as I still misgender or deadname myself, I still find myself slipping back into those sarcastic ways far too easily. It’s a mask I wear – one of many – and it adheres too readily to my face. For so long, it was inconceivable that I feel emotions other than anger and pride. Not forbidden, not even ill-advised, but, for me to have felt despair or elation, joy, depression, or sadness…well, that would have been a sign of just how broken I was.

As I put it to my therapist, I took a passage from the book Dune by Frank Herbert and applied it way too literally to my life. Young Paul Atreides is being tested by the Bene Gesserit reverend mother with the gom jabbar, a test which will determine whether he is a human or an animal. A human, the reverend mother explains, is in total control of his emotions and feelings, and can use those to better himself, while an animal is ruled by his emotions and feelings, and can easily be overrun. “You’ve heard of animals chewing off a leg to escape a trap? There’s an animal kind of trick.” she explains. “A human would remain in the trap, endure the pain, feigning death that he might kill the trapper and remove a threat to his kind.”

I was putting myself to this gom jabbar daily, continually.  I still do, if I’m not careful.  If I’m to be a human, I mustn’t let my emotions rule me. I took it far beyond the point where it was healthy, bottling up feelings to the point where they would on escape at moments of crisis. Running away, a suicide attempt, punching a hole in the wall, a fight, a cut, a burn. I would be less than human to feel any emotions but pride in my accomplishments or anger at the shortcomings of others. I would be an animal (and not in the fun way). I was trying to be my view of my father, I was trying to be a support for my mother.

My therapist (perhaps rightly) rolled his eyes, but the meaning got across well enough.

I’m still friends with Klisoura, of course, and had the chance of spending a lovely hour or two yapping with him at Rocky Mountain Fur Con a few weeks ago. As we discussed some trends showing up here and there within the fandom, he said something that knocked me on my tail for a bit with its weight: “My journey through furry has been a journey of decreasing irony.”

Mine has, as well. Of course, like everything I write for [a][s]. I must caution that this doesn’t necessarily apply only to furry: my journey towards living happily has also been a journey of earnestly accepting my emotions and feelings and then expressing them, in not feeling bad about liking the things that I like.

That said, I think it’s not worth discounting the ways in which furry is structured to encourage such a shift, from ironic to sincere. The shift may be one that happens in everyone’s life, but furry provides the social lubrication to allow it to happen more easily.

The primary means by which furry encourages sincerity is by the obvious fact that we’re all really here because we like something. There are plenty of hot takes about hipsters, geeks, sports nerds, and so on, about how uncool it is to be a part of such a group, as though one ought to be sheepish about the things that one enjoys.

I told my story earlier to show just how this is played out. In the competitive nature in which children, especially those in the formative years of the early teens, are so often raised, it’s not enough to like something, one has to excel at it. That is, one can’t form a portion of one’s identity around something lest that leave a spot for weakness. To enjoy the idea of philately or model trains is fine, but there’s risk to be found in enjoying them too much, basing a portion of your identity off of them There’s no pride to be had, and it’s opens you up too easily to damage and loss, should your stamp be unattainable or your train set ridiculed. Or, to recast in furry terms, forming a portion of your identity around your membership within the fandom opens you to shame as you watch your fandom being derided as a bunch of sad kinksters by an inebriated volleyball parent in the FC convention elevators.

Liking things – just earnestly liking them, without shame or defensiveness – is something of a skill learned over time. By the time that we are able to form a portion of our identity around something that we like, we’ve already learned the skill of shame. It has already become engrained in us as we start to actively pursue hobbies in our early to mid teens. To take that enjoyment beyond a simple hobby and into an identity, from a fan to a member, means stepping past that shame knowing full well that it’s watching your every move.

Contrary as it may seem, through our habit of connecting with each other through created personae and avatars, we are able to construct something of a defense for ourselves. It’s a sort of layer of indirection, which allows, e.g, Makyo to be a member of the subculture while, to her coworkers, Madison is more of a fan of anthropomorphics. The internet has proven a boon for subculture membership in this half-anonymized way; the same may as well be said of a gamer with a penchant for playing games as fast as possible with only one hand, or an entire subculture surrounding countless anonymous individuals playing Pokémon.

Mainstream culture doesn’t know how to interface with furry culture because furries are the only non ironic people left on the Internet

— gay victim soul (@tragicgay) August 24, 2016

It’s not so much that furry makes one sincere, as it provides so many opportunities to be sincere. Furry didn’t make me less ironic, that would be a silly statement for a fandom centered around creating personalized anthropomorphic characters. Furry did, however, make me want to be less ironic. It did help me in getting closer to being a more sincere person.

I think that I’m not alone in this, either. I felt it. Klisoura echoed the sentiment when he said that furry was a journey of becoming less ironic. Twitter user tragicgay felt it when they tweeted about mainstream culture being unable to fully understand furries due to the lack of irony.

@tragicgay I wonder if, despite some ppl saying irony died after 9/11, irony has completely triumphed.

— BilderstreitKünstler (@Christaphorac) August 25, 2016

Is that true, then? That mainstream culture has so enshrined irony that it’s baffling to be earnest? Is that us furries failing their gom jabbar?

I’m not sure, and perhaps am not one to say, given how much trouble I’ve had in my own new sincerity, but I think that may be it, at least to some extent. There’s no small part of me that wants it to be the case, too; that wants furry to be this staggeringly beautiful new way of looking at the world, experiencing enjoyment, showing emotions, just plain unabashedly liking things.

I think that is, perhaps most ironically, what makes us most human.

Hi, Dear Readers,

Today, Papabear is 51. I wanted to take this time to write a column about what this bear has learned by this time in his life. These are things that are at the core of the advice that I give people who write to me, so perhaps they will help you understand where I am coming from.

1. You do not need the approval of other people (even your parents) to be a valuable and worthwhile person.
2. Success is not measured in how much money or stuff you have, but in how much your heart loves.
3. Listen more than you talk. You learn more that way. When you talk, you just repeat what you already know.
4. Just because it's published in a book (even a 2,000-year-old book) doesn't make it true ... or relevant.
5. If someone asks for your help, and you are able to give it without harming yourself, then give it.
6. It is okay to think of your own well-being first, and then, once that is established, help others. This does not mean being selfish; it means taking care of your health, sanity, and spiritual well being, because if you don't have those things then you will not be capable of helping others.
7. There are two fundamental forces in action in this world: the creative force and the destructive force. Devote your life to being a creative force.
8. Appreciate those who are in your life now. They might not be there tomorrow.
9. Live in the now, for the same reason as the above.
10. It's okay to make plans for the future, but don't be surprised if the future is not what you expected it to be. Learn to adapt.
11. If someone cuts you out of their life and you are unable to change their mind, let them go, and don't feel like you are a bad person because, for some reason, they have done this. More than likely it is a problem they are having, not you.
12. Blood is not necessarily thicker than water. Many of my family members are not related to me by blood, but they are no less my brothers and sisters. (You know who you are.)
13. Be kind to and considerate of people, animals, and Mother Earth.
14. Let go of the things you can't change. You will only stress yourself out fretting over them.
15. It's never too late to learn something new.
16. Learn to forgive yourself. We all make mistakes. The only sin is not learning from those mistakes.
17. Learn to forgive others. Often, they, like you, have simply made an unintentional mistake. Even when they don't try to amend an offense against you, being angry and bitter about it only hurts you, not them.
18. There will always be someone smarter, prettier, or more talented than you. Don't worry about it. The only person you need to work on being better than is your present self.
19. Don't allow others to impose their beliefs on you. Instead, gather all the information you can, consider the opinions, listen to your heart, and then draw your own conclusions.
20. If you want to be an elephant, then be an elephant (if you haven't seen Zootopia, you won't get this one, sorry).

This is not everything I've learned, but it includes the highlights. Thanks for reading.

​Papabear

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

The Origin Chronicles: Mineau, by Justin Reece Swatsworth. Illustrated by the author.
Grampian, PA, Dolphyn Visions, December 2008, trade paperback $34.95 (391 [+ 1] pages), Kindle June 2016 $3.98.

“The universe is a living experiment in the realm of possibility. From the largest stars down to the smallest particles of matter, everything exists because at some point it became possible to exist. In this context, time simply marks the beginning and completion of these possibilities. Everything changes in the universe, yet amazingly it never stops experimenting. As one object reaches the end of its existence, a new one is born … the possibilities are endless.

The only constant in the universe is the experience of curiosity. Curiosity is not only the signature of possibility, it is the beginning of it.” (p. 6) Etc., at great length.

The Origin Chronicles: Mineau is the story of one dolphin’s experiences. To the reader, his background may be of greater interest.

“My family and I decided to swim over to the celebration on this particular occasion. After all we lived on the coastline directly opposite the city, and it was only a short swim to reach the docks. The levitation tram would be packed at this hour and honestly, something just felt more natural about the water. There was noting quite like a warm ocean on a brisk evening!” (p. 9)

“As we both glided through the water, I marveled at the sights taking place below us. Vast green tunnels and tubes could be seen stretching for miles, providing services like power, transportation of goods, and walkways for those who did not feel like traversing the waterways of the city and getting wet. These tubes were particularly busy tonight.” (p. 11)

Mineau is part of a world of anthropomorphized dolphins. He is an adolescent living in a coastal city designed by uplifted dolphins for uplifted dolphins. “Dolphins were shown being given legs and arms to be able to work on land, which allowed them to have increased mobility.” (p. 21) Who uplifted the dolphins? That would be a spoiler.

At an annual semi-religious celebration in the city of Atlantis (which helpfully shows key events of the dolphins’ past in a pageant), Minou is ceremonially chosen to give that year’s blessing. The experience, including a vision of Atlantis in ruins, calls him to the priestly Elders’ attention. This leads to Minou becoming an important part of the dolphins’ religious and political hierarchy.

Everything is described in great detail, which helps to bring the dolphins’ civilization to life:

“The elevator slowed, and then gently leveled off before coming to a final stop. The door opened, and the three Elders stood in front of a gleaming entranceway. Giant pillars stood guard on either side, flowing with some strange luminescent vapor. The pillars seemed to be made of the same material as the cubes each Elder carried as verification of their status. Makara had a slight grin on his face, unusual for such a solemn occasion, for he knew what the two elders were about to witness. The three scanned their Holoform Cubes once more, then walked through the door. The room opened up into a grand semi-circular hall, and had enough seats for all fifty current minor Elders. Up front, on a raised balcony, sat five seats for the High Elders, who were evidently present before anyone else; they sat with expressionless faces, and Makara could not tell if it had to do with the meeting or just their wait. Finally, in the middle of the room, sat the secret for which the Sanctum was created. Encased in a shielded pillar, the Orb sat for all to see, almost completely intact except for one corner where a large crack had formed. Tiny shards lay on the pillow all around the Orb, one of which Makara recognized from the Ceremony. He had recently held it himself.” (p. 32)

The reason for the Elders’ meeting is to discuss Mineau’s vision, and incidents that they know about which support it. Their conclusion is to keep a surreptitious watch upon Mineau. Makara, who turns out to be an important supporting character, has his own opinion. “He felt Mineau may be in more danger than anybody else in the hall realized.” (p. 36)

The Origin Chronicles: Mineau begins with a colorful combination of Mineau’s teenage life alternating with the dolphin Elders’ quiet watch of him, with further details at length of the Elders’ religio-political structure, and of the growing menace to the dolphin civilization. The detail sometimes seems excruciatingly slow, but it leads to scenes of action and violence, including military conflict:

“The battle appeared over, much to the amazement of the Ti’eminar Guard. As the smoke cleared, they surveyed what had just occurred. Outnumbered, outmanned, and outgunned, they had succeeded in averting disaster for the city. The battle was not without losses, however. As the guards began to gather and regroup, most ended up carrying fallen comrades. The mood was solemn; easily half of the guard had been lost. Many dolphins had lost close relatives in the battle; some even carried their family members themselves. Guardsmen expressed every emotion possible, and each took turns expressing the opposite emotions of joy and despair.” (p. 193)

Minou moves from an unaware adolescent to an informed and major shaper of events. Swatsworth provides 22 full-page illustrations, mostly in full color, including the cover. The dolphins’ world (which is shared by intelligent whales) is an exotic one, with sometimes-drastic changes. As the introduction indicates, the universe is a living experiment. Expect the unexpected.

Check out Swatsworth’s website. In addition to his artwork, it includes photographs (taken at Anthrocon?) of several high-quality fursuits that he has made, including one of Mineau.

–Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

Heyyyyyyyyyy, here's the audio of the fireside youtube thing we did on Saturday. If you prefer the vid w/ the chat, that's here too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUe4RsslHYk 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! Inner City Olympics! White people Olymics! Politics! Listener feedback! Exclamation points!!! Don't forget to hang out in our telegram chat, now w/ over 100 members! telegram.me/draggetshow Lastly, don't forget to check out our YouTube, where we have many extra vids, Dragget Plays, and live streams & recordings of the podcasts. www.youtube.com/user/DraggetShow/videos 132 - Fireside Chat! - Heyyyyyyyyyy, here's the audio of the fireside yo…

Disney animator Tom Bancroft (The Lion King, Brother Bear) has helped to bring out a new book that fans of fire-breathing winged reptiles should definitely notice: It’s called The Art of Disney’s Dragons. “Imagine if one sketchbook had been passed down through the decades from one Disney artist to the next, with each one making a contribution before leaving it in the talented hands of another. That idea was the inspiration for The Art of Disney’s Dragons. The drawings contained within this volume represent the entire range of dragon-themed development art from animators, live-action studio artists, and Imagineers. Inside find playful pencil studies of Mushu; color concepts on Figment (who was green before he became purple!); bold pencil layouts on Maleficent, and the latest character explorations of Elliot from the new Spring/Summer 2016 live-action film Pete’s Dragon. Tom Bancroft, often recognized in Disney circles as being lead animator on Mushu the dragon in Mulan, writes the book’s introductory essay.” It’s available now in hardcover from Disney Editions, and there’s a sneak peak over at Stitch Kingdom.

image c. 2016 D23.com

Today, on Love – Sex – Fur, we have a beautifully illustrated comic about the confluence of adult comics and the furry subculture!  Head on over to check it out here!  Note that, as with most all LSF content, the comic is not work-safe.

Yes, LSF is still out there and kicking!  All of our recent submissions have fit more under the purview of [a][s], though, and that’s okay.  This is your reminder, though, that both [adjective][species] and Love – Sex – Fur are always open for submissions, and as is evidenced by a comic post, we welcome submissions of all kinds!

Today’s guest post in comic format by Nero O’Reilly. Nero lives, loves, and works in Seattle, WA with his two cats and one cute partner. He is a web dev by day, freelance illustrator by night, and a comics-maker at all hours. More work can be found at his portfolio site and his currently running webcomic at http://www.carnivorepla.net/

This untitled comic previously appeared in the Alphabet anthology and is published with the creator’s express permission.

When most of us think of Furry writing we think of your standard novels, novellas, short stories, even comics, but one form that doesn’t get the same attention is poetry. Mainly cause there hasn’t been too many opportunities in the fandom to showcase anthropomorphic poems. There are a few exceptions like Heat and the soon to be released anthology Wolf Warrior III which offer collections that mix poems with short stories, but there hasn’t been an anthology dedicated to poetry alone. Until last year when Laura “Munchkin” Govednik released Civilized Beast. Now she’s back again for round two. Civilized Beast 2016 is open for submission.

So where did the idea of doing a poem anthology come from?

The idea for Civilized Beasts started in the Furry Writer’s Guild.  I was surprised to find there were other members and future members who also had a high interest in poetry and hoped to see more of it in the community.  Through various discussions, I realized that a poetry collection about animals for animals could be a great way for people in and out of the furry community to connect.

When it comes to theme, Civilized Beasts does the same thing as Heat by having a generally open theme for everyone to play with.

The theme this year is the same as last year: Animals, be it the outside observation of animals, in the mind of an animal, or the symbolism of an animal.  By leaving the theme so open, it allowed poets a lot of freedom last year, and an incredible variety of poetry was submitted because of it.  It is my hope that poets will be just as inspired this year, so I decided not to limit the theme.

Munchkin is looking for all kinds of poems. Whether they are your traditional rhymes, sonnets, haiku, or free verse. You are free to write what speaks to you. Munchkin wants you to think outside the box. To go wild. There’s even no word count limit to your poems.

For anyone interested, there’s no maximum or minimum line count, though longer poems will be looked at more critically since we only have so many pages to work with. 

The only thing to be aware of is that the poems must be suitable for a general audience.

We’re aiming to keep all the poems rated GA (General Audience) so that people can comfortably share Civilized Beasts with children and adults alike.  Variety is the spice of life, so anything from insects to whales, from the loyal canine curled up at your feet to the wild lion stalking to the Savannah to the weary elephant in the zoo, from the possible thoughts of the mouse near your dust board to the undeniable pull of the wild found within us all, we want to see it.

Munchkin herself has been an active member in the writing community. Having works published in both ROAR Vol. 6 and Will of the Alpha 3. Writing about walking, talking animals since she was a child.

I was writing stories about anthropomorphic characters since around 1994, at the age of ten, though back then I had no idea what the word was for it or that there was an entire community of people also interested in half human, half animal creatures.  They fascinated me though, and was only further fueled by my love for animals.  I became focused on stories that could explain how they came to exist and how their differences from humans would change things for them, and I’m not ashamed to say that I was a huge Animorphs fan.  It wasn’t until 2002 that a friend introduced me to a role playing site for furries, and I felt like I had finally found home.  Funny enough, it took eleven more years before I learned that there was an actual writing niche in the community thanks to the Furry Writer’s Guild, and that feeling of finding home blossomed anew.

As her involvement in the fandom grew, so did her roles.

I’ve been a beta reader over the years, but Civilized Beasts 2015 Edition was my first official editing job.  I seem to have a bad habit of diving into things head first when it comes to the furry community, though I have no regrets.  I’ve had one other editing job since (Fragments of Life’s Heart, through Weasel Press as well, an anthology all about love), and learned there’s a vast difference between editing for a collection of poems and editing for a collection of stories.

Civilized Beasts is a non-paying anthology. Contributors will be given a copy of the book, but all profits of the book will go to the charity, Wildlife Conservation Society.

The Wildlife Conservation Society is a non-for-profit group that works toward not only helping to save endangered wildlife, but also various habitats.  They’ve taken amazing steps in conservation and have played a large role in saving endangered species.  I wanted to stick with the animal theme and donate to a group that was involved worldwide, while also making certain that the money donated would go to the intended cause.  The WCS has an amazing track record with this compared to other groups I looked into, and a couple members of the Furry Writer’s Guild had worked with them before with positive results.

The deadline is October 1st and must be submitted to Civ.Beasts@gmail.com. More info about poem requirements can be found here. If you want to see what poems got accepted last year, pick up a copy of Civilized Beasts 2015 for reference. Go forth my Furry friends and let your muse flow. To bring to life a poem that will make the heart grow.

-Matthias

There’s a temptation to say “Only in manga, folks…” Check this out: “Kokuryuu Kaguya was only a little boy when he witnessed his father murdered by demons. He spent years trying to convince people about what he witnessed, but was dismissed as a traumatized child with an over-active imagination. Now a teenager, Kaguya still remembers what happened. One day, Kaguya is struck by a mysterious light and meets a young woman named Mao—a skillful warrior wearing bunny ears—who rescues him from a demons’ attack, then demands to know what planet he’s from! Kaguya finds himself inducted into a secret organization of other-worldly individuals whose goal is to defend Earth from monstrous invaders. Reborn as a Battle Rabbit, strange powers awaken within Kaguya which allow him to fight these creatures and seek vengeance for his father’s death.” Battle Rabbits is written by Yuki Amemiya and illustrated in black & white by Ichihara Yukino. Now it’s been released as a trade paperback in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment.

image c. 2016 Seven Seas

We streamed this a while back and decided it was time to upload it. There is also video of this in you Youtube channel. Hope you enjoy! 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! Inner City Olympics! White people Olymics! Politics! Listener feedback! Exclamation points!!! Don't forget to hang out in our telegram chat, now w/ over 100 members! telegram.me/draggetshow Lastly, don't forget to check out our YouTube, where we have many extra vids, Dragget Plays, and live streams & recordings of the podcasts. www.youtube.com/user/DraggetShow/videos ep 131 - Couchcast! - We streamed this a while back and decided it was …

There was a silly post here that mixed politics and the friendly community of furries. I got a little heat from all sides for that. (I wouldn’t have it any other way… whether it’s a controversy or a furry cuddle sandwich, I like being in the middle.) Why do that? Because it’s a group of people just like other people, so they mix it themselves sometimes.  Not my fault for noticing.

It relates to a post by another blogger. Let’s get to his in a minute, but first meet Zachary Byron Helm. He’s a talent I have appreciated since Livejournal, the kind who would be considered some kind of subcultural mogul in a big coastal city.  He has gathered a following of his own from his lair in Colorado. It’s an entirely different subculture, but you might have seen me post about loving punk/goth and industrial music from time to time. (Subcultures are at their best when they mingle and mutate.)

Zach makes up for lack of fluffy tail with outrageous fashion sense. Look at this guy:

• He collects hearses, rebuilds them by hand, and customizes them with no-shit working flamethrowers on top.
• He gathers fellow hearse enthusiasts for an annual event called Hearse Con.
• That’s totally a goth thing to do (goth in Colorado: why not), so he also makes goth-flavored Youtube videos with his own bad-ass auteurial vision under the moniker S.O.R.P. films.
• They’re funny. Goth humor can be as unexpected as seeing mainstream tastemakers act like they just discovered a cool new trend called “furries”. It makes me wistful for when SNL had Sprockets with Dieter.
• Check his Nine Inch Nails parody. I think there’s a micro-genre of those and it’s the best one.

• Zach has a super-ambitious labor-of-love DIY B-movie in the works, called “Death Hearse on Satan’s Titty Highway.” Look at that title. It’s a finely-crafted string of magical power words. The little bits shown so far have stunts with flaming police cars. Is that not bad-ass?
• So, like I said, a bad ass and he blogs like it. (I hope he replies and tells us his favorite or most widely-shared pieces.)

That stuff is a great example of true passion and creativity. I hope this brings him a new follower or two.

Recently, I saw Zach post stuff with some politics in it, about the 2012 movie theater shootings in Aurora, Colorado. (Zach said he knew people at the theater.)

It caused a problem specific to furries, a chill on activities that are close to our hearts.  Look no further than 2016’s biggest movie, Zootopia.  Many of us wanted to celebrate it in furry form, but theaters aren’t so tolerant about masks or costumes any more. (Previously a topic in “Furries and security worries“.)

Blame the shooter, James Holmes. That jerkwad ruined our fun (on top of everything else.) He was convicted for the murders and thrown in a hole for a few thousand years.  But sadly, that didn’t make it easy again for us to have movie meets and spread hugs in fursuits.

Despite the issue, Zootopia meets DID happen and boy were they popular. My article about furries renting theaters was the most viewed ever on this site.  I didn’t give it a fraction of the effort that some other Furry News gets, and it had thousands of shares on Facebook and quotes in national news.  Back in 2000, Vanity Fair did a hit piece about us on the level of a class jock picking on you every day in high school and then following you home to keep it up for 12 years. They were led to quote Dogpatch Press while positively covering furries and Zootopia. Our enthusiasm won out.

Zach probably doesn’t know about any of this, but he looked at another side.

Several victims of the Aurora shootings sued the theater chain because they said the theater didn’t have sufficient security to prevent a mass killing.

First off, WHAT theater in this country is equipped to stop a mass killing? ANY!? The whole lawsuit hinged on the notion that another victim in this whole tragedy (The theater chain) should have done something to stop a horrible event that no one could have foreseen….

…The one person we can blame isn’t someone we can go after any more than we already have, so people go “Well shit, who can I go after!?” Then someone suggests the theater chain and they see a payday for their suffering.

I’d like to mention the woman who sued McDonald’s for spilling coffee in her lap. It was widely ridiculed as a frivolous lawsuit.  If you take a closer look, it wasn’t (third-degree burns, skin grafts, and two years of recovery after the restaurant was warned about serving molten lava.) She made a statement about corporate practices. Don’t judge so fast!

With the Aurora victims, I doubt they were just looking for a payday. Look at how little money was on the table. It would have been $30,000 each for three worst victims and less than $2,000 each for the rest. I wouldn’t take that for suffering unconsensual noogies. That’s “condolences, have a jumbo bucket of popcorn.”

It’s known that movies are some of the last large gatherings with little to no security. They were looking for a change to corporate policy to stop future shootings. Justified or not, that’s good intentions. But the court couldn’t find the theater liable.

Fine, but… then they piled $700k in cost penalties on the last holdout plaintiffs, who apparently had so much grief that they would be martyrs for a message about corporate responsibility. IANAL, but I believe it should be said that was due to a special quirk of Colorado law.  Usually, sides are supposed to bear their own costs. So good intentions were treated as frivolous in a manner usually reserved for exceptional malicious litigation. Uncool, man.

That’s my small beef with Zach’s opinion. The theater isn’t Mom and Pop’s sandwich shop defending itself from an evil billionaire developer like in the movies. It’s a damn national chain. That’s not a person vs. person dispute. Getting to throw costs back just makes me think, even if nobody was a winner, it seems to award suited executives power to not even have to listen to The People for anything at all.

I sympathize at least with the victims intentions. And I’m a furry who wants less paranoia!  This connects to fandom in the way it involves business vs. culture. With the bigger-dumber blockbuster business, I see a trend towards soullessness, where art and passion is an afterthought.  They could be herding passengers on and off of busses as much as putting butts in theater seats. “Ass the movie” isn’t far off.

Caring Citizens and Fans were the losers of these broad happenings. Corporations and Holmes won that.

In the Furries and security worries articles, one is by Andrew, a furry movie theater employee. He discussed how Holmes used costuming (and how it’s unfair to judge us by his attack and ban all masks).

I’m no Dr. Fureud, but I think Holmes could be an example for Fandom Gone Bad. That genius confused movies with real life and somehow decided to be an actual Batman villain, at everyone elses expense. Unlike some of our own Fandom Problem Children I can’t find anything sympathetic about that.

You can say that the antithesis to Holmes is guys like Zach, and every furry who makes the activities we love possible. I’m not inviting Zach to a cuddle sandwich (it might mess up his mohawk) but I have dreams of wacky-ass mashups like the furries vs. Klingons bowling meets and Goth Day at Disneyland.

That huge preamble serves to make a point. I wanted to mention what convinced theaters to let furries come in costume to Zootopia shows.

Caring about community. We had to find the small, independent, or personally-caring theaters who would overlook things like liability or furryphobia or whatever, and let us come be silly animals anyways.

That’s the antidote to corporate soullessness and empty evil narcissism. It might bring a little of what those plaintiffs could use.

I don’t find it anywhere more strongly than with my furry friends. If you organize a meet, think about how to get support by showing what a great community we have. I don’t know if goths would care, but you can see the appreciation here. (And they have flamethrowers!)

The Harry & Bunny Show is a series of slapstick comedy short cartoons running on The Disney Channel (and several on-line video channels for young viewers). It’s produced by Animasia in Malaysia. “Introducing Harry the magician, Bunny the stage rabbit and Madam Penny, a Gypsy fortune teller. Harry and Bunny have a very close relationship, but yet they dislike each other sometimes. Every episode features the conflict between Harry and Bunny in their daily life, where Harry always construct a new plan trying to get his magic wand back, while Bunny sabotages Harry with the magic wand.” Seems straightforward enough. Watch the showreel over on YouTube and you’ll get the idea.

image c. 2016 Animasia

How do I become a furry? And where can I go?

Anonymous (Cape Town, SA)

* * *

Hello, Furiend,

How do you "become a furry"? Well, it is a very long and arduous process. You have to find someone who belongs to our secret furry organization to sponsor you. Once you've paid the $100 to join, you must go through a grueling period of training on how to be a "true furry." This is followed by an initiation that can be quite physical and painful (I cannot divulge the details lest I be punished). When you have been trained, you go into your apprenticeship during which you must find 20 furries to be your benefactors/owners. You will be their servant for the next year and you will have to do all they ask. Next, you are in your journeyman period for another year. This is when you must learn to make your own fursuit and you must wear it all the times, day and night. When that is completed, you are taken to the Super-Secret Furry Den, where you will be given a special ring you must always wear and swear your oath of fealty. If you ever break it or try to leave the fandom, you will be hunted down and eaten.

I'm kidding, of course. Please forgive a silly ol' bear. We all tend to make things much more complicated than they need to be.

Want to be a furry? Then be a furry. If you like furries, you're a furry. Ain't hard, hon.

As for "Where can I go?" That's all up to you. Easiest thing to do is simply search online for furry groups in social networks etc. and start chatting with furries. These days, you can't shake a proverbial stick online without hitting a furry.

Since you kindly provided your location, however, I can point you to a couple places in your area.
​

• ZA Furries at https://forum.zafur.co.za/ is a board where you can find local furs to chat with.
• There is a South African Furries group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SAFurries/
• On Tumblr check out a small group called South-Afrifur at http://south-afrifur.tumblr.com/

Good luck! Have fun!

Papabear

Here’s yet another cool animated series the rest of the world gets, while apparently we here in the USA have to do without! Hence why Adventures in Duckport flew beneath our radar — no pun intended. This is from last year at Animation Magazine: “San Diego-based Lawless Entertainment has partnered up with Italian producer Mondo TV to co-produce and distribute a new 2D HD animated series based on the Adventures in Duckport characters of internationally popular brand Suzy’s Zoo. The 52 x 11 series will be distributed worldwide by Mondo (excluding North America), while Lawless handles global licensing and merchandising (except for some reserved by Mondo) and NorAm distribution. [When, is the question…] The Adventures in Duckport series will feature original Suzy’s Zoo characters, including the duck Suzy Ducken and her friends Jack Quacker, Penelope O’Quinn, Corky Turtle, and more. Targeted to ages 4-8, the show will offer charming adventures of these characters as they interact with the world and do their best to help the elder members of their community with love and respect.” At least we can see the trailer on Vimeo.

image c. 2016 Mondo TV

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Here’s one we missed: Just this year DHX Media (home, of course, of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic) premiered a new animated TV series for preschoolers. “Rainbow Ruby is the story of a spunky, resourceful little girl who magically transports to Rainbow Village, a whimsical land inhabited by her toys, and transforms into different jobs to help save the day! This CGI-animated preschool series takes the childhood fantasy of dolls come to life, and mixes in an aspirational heroine who proves that you can be anything you want to be!” The series has been showing in Canada on the Family Channel. Not sure if it’s broadcast in the US or not! Check out the trailer over on Vimeo.

image c. 2016 DHX Media

I have a couple questions for you, Papabear.

For a while I have been looking for some fanzines or projects that are looking for artist submissions but have been unsuccessful in finding them. Could you tell me where a good place to look is or recommend some?

Second, I have wanted to do a zine/compilation project of my own but I'm not what people would call popular. How would I go about reaching artists to submit works to my zines? They would be pay what you want .pdf zines on gum road or something.

Zombunny

* * *

Hi, Zombunny,

Thanks for the letter. Couple of questions: 1) which fanzines have you contacted thus far? Which publishers? I don't want to take time suggestions people you have already tried. 2) Do you have any experience in magazine publishing? If not, I would suggest you get some before diving in to launch, edit, manage, promote, and sell your own zine. It's not an easy thing to do and you just don't decide "I'm going to publishing a magazine" and voila! 

Hugs,
Papabear

* * *

Hey Papabear,

I hadn't really contacted any publishers or anything like that to be honest and have no experience in publishing at all.

What I was looking for were projects that were openly accepting artist submissions.

I may look into publishing my own zine in the future so if you have any suggestions on publishers I would be happy to know about those too.
Just mainly looking to get my name out there and build a brand for myself.

Thanks so much for responding!

Sincerely,
Zombunny

* * *

Hi, Zombunny,

If you are interested in publishing, I would suggest you get some experience in writing, editing, and publishing. If you are looking for publications or "projects" (whatever those are) that are accepting art submissions, I suggest you contact those publishers. I have absolutely no idea who is accepting work for hire and who is not, since I don't work for any of those companies; that is up to those who are looking for the work LOL!

Getting into this field takes work, lots of work. There are no shortcuts, hon.  I have been in publishing since 1988.  You don't just start a magazine with no experience.  You don't just get instant leads on art or writing submissions.  Research the publishers you're interested in to see if they take submissions at all and to see what sorts of things they are looking for.  You have to contact them one by one.

Good luck,
Papabear

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

The Dragon Tax, by Madison Keller
Portland, OR, Hundeliebe Press, June 2016, trade paperback $9.99 (141 pages), Kindle $2.99.

This lighthearted little book is an expansion of the short story that appeared in the RainFurrest 2015 charity anthology, A Menagerie of Heroes; now out of print. Sybil Dragonsbane, a young professional dragon slayer, is called to the Kingdom of Thima. It has a dragon problem – but not the usual kind:

“‘Actually, we quite like having a dragon on the island,’ the King sat forward, eyes shining. Multiple chins jiggled as he wagged his hard around theatrically. ‘They bring lots of adventurers through the town, adventurers who all pay for a permit to hunt the dragon. They drop gold at local businesses before going off on their hunt. Whether they survive or not, that is not my problem.’” (pgs. 5-6)

None of the previous dragon hunters have survived, and the dragon has amassed quite a pile of gold and gems. Now King Jonathan has decided to tax it. The problem is getting the dragon to pay the tax. That’s why he has summoned Sybil; to offer her the new post of Thima’s dragon tax collector:

“‘My fee is double.’ Sybil placed her hands on her daggers.

‘Double?’ the King roared, surging to his feet. ‘I’m not asking you to kill the thing.’

‘True, what you’re asking is even more dangerous. You’re asking me to leave a dragon alive, a dragon that now will know my scent and my tricks. If that won’t work for you …’” (p. 8)

What happens, about a third of the way through, is unexpected. It is probably supposed to be a major surprise to the reader, but it is impossible to keep from giving away a spoiler and to go on reviewing the final 2/3 of the book. Briefly, Riastel the dragon turns human; Sybil learns that King Jonathan and his wizard Baldwin lied to her and have a more sinister plot, and the dragonhunter and dragon-turned-human team up to save both their lives. Also, Sybil is a young woman and Riastel makes a very handsome and hunky human male. Romance ensues. This is Book One of a series, so the reader will not be surprised to have an ending that leads to further adventures.

The Dragon Tax is Book One of The Dragon Tax Saga. It’s good fun, but it’s very lightweight. From a furry viewpoint, the dragon can talk – that’s it. Some of the rationalizations are not really convincing; for example, the laborious reasoning why Sybil doesn’t quickly kill Riastel when he’s turned into a helpless human in front of her:

“‘Look, it’s just a guess. In the meantime we should get out of here.’ The girl cocked her head, her eyes raking up and down his new form.

‘We?’ Riastel snorted and scooted back again. A sharp rock dug into his rear and he yelped.

‘Yes, we. You won’t last a day without some help.’ She stood and offered her hand to him.

Riastel shivered and flinched back. ‘You have a cloak made of a dead dragon. You’re a dragon hunter. Why would I let you help me?’

‘You think I want to work with a dragon? You’re all killers, but, look at you, I …’ she trailed off and shook her head, hand still extended out to him. ‘Just, I’m offering to help you. If you want to return to your scaly, fire-breathing self, you need my help.’” (p. 43)

I may be disappointed because I read The Dragon Tax in its short-story form in A Menagerie of Heroes. That was only 26 pages; a tightly-written gem. The 141-page novel seems bloated by comparison. Sybil’s refusal to kill the dragon-turned-human there could be justified by her surprise at Riastel’s turning human, and deciding not to do anything final until she’s found out what’s going on. The more that she consciously rationalizes the choice in the novel, the less convincing it seems. The first scene in the short story, of the dragon on the beach, seems weaker when rewritten to appear after the throne room scene. But for those who have not read the short story, the novel is fine.

Keller has done her own cover. It’s good in showing exactly how Sybil Dragonsbane is supposed to look. She might get a different cover that fits the paranormal romance genre, and package the book to play up the growing romance between Sybil and Riastel-as-hunky-human.

–Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon