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Here’s a book we missed from last year. J.C. Stevens is an author as well as an artist — she has displayed at various fan cons. As such she is both the writer and the illustrator of her first book, Dragon Lad. It’s published through her own imprint, Dragon’s Egg Books. “Hatched into a world where dragons are on the verge of extinction, Dorg seems the dragon least likely to succeed. A magic curse has left him the size of a sparrow in a time and place where dragons are merciless predators. And Dorg is not just tiny. He has a different heart and soul than the rest of the dragons. He wants to be friends with the other creatures in his world, not eat them. He even empathizes with the humans that those of his species loathe. At first, all Dorg wants to do is to end the curse so he can be like the other dragons. But as he sets out on that quest, he encounters both friends and enemies who make him realize that being a big, mean dragon isn’t what he wants at all.” Find out more at the official Dragon’s Egg web site.

image c. 2016 by J.C. Stevens

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Hello Everyone!

We open today's show with a discussion on why millennials are having less sex. We also ask the question: are furries really millennials and why does it seem we buck this trend?

Our main topic is on hookup apps. Regardless of your gender or orientation, there is a hookup app that caters to your wants, needs, and desires. We discuss some of the more common apps, the common pitfalls and dangers of using hookup apps, and what you can do to ensure you have as positive an experience as possible.

Our question focuses on sexuality, BDSM, and therapy: how to find a kink positive therapist and whether enjoying being dominated by another man makes you less straight. 

We have some feedback on our opening discussion last week, and we close with an apology for the audio quality for the week. Next week our studios will be completed and the audio quality should return to a good level. Thank you again for your patience and understanding!

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

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 031 Hookup App Etiquette - Millennials have less sex, Hookup apps are for hookups, Therapy is good, debate on an editorial show is bad! All this, and more, on Feral Attraction

[a][s] had the pleasure to take part in a podcast, alongside Dogpatch Press, exploring furry media.  That is, we wanted to explore how media works within the furry subculture, rather than the ways in which widespread media treats furry.  It was a wonderful way to do a deep-dive into how media – specifically written media – works and spreads within furry.  The whole thing is well worth listening to, so give it ago!

Embedding is disabled at the request of the podcast owner, but you can listen to it in its entirety on its post on YouTube here.

Good day Fluffer Nutters. Around Anthrocon, we did an article highlighting all 25 books being released by Furplanet, but there were and are still more Furry books being released that we didn’t cover from the many other publishers and self-publishers. This list covers the rest that I can find. If you know any that I missed, feel free to mention them in the comments. Hope you enjoy your next furry obsession.

SOFAWOLF PRESS

Franko, Fables of the Last Earth by Cristobal Jofre and Angel Bernier (General Hardcover $39.95/ Softcover $19.95)

Franko, Fables of the Last Earth is a collection of six comic stories about Franko, a precocious lion living on the Atacama Desert of Chile with his friend Shin, thousands of years in Earth’s future. Theirs is a vibrant world of animal characters, where humans are long gone, along with much of their technology. Life on this desert, the driest in the world, is difficult, but also full of adventures and mysteries. In each fable, Franko and Shin encounter challenges and riddles that they must solve, and in the process they learn a bit more about themselves, and others. Not every fable ends with an obvious lesson, but each one is thought-provoking and full of surprises.

Franko was originally published in Chile in its native Spanish by Amapola Editores, Ltda. as Franko, Fábulas de la Última Tierra. We at Sofawolf Press fell in love with Franko, his friends, and his gorgeously-illustrated world, and so in 2016 we ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the printing of an English translation of this collection.

The fables included in this volume are:

• The Fable of Mana and the Treasure
• Chapter Title Page by Hax
• The Fable of Cobrafrog, the Merchant
• Chapter Title Page by Ekara
• The Fable of Megaboss
• Chapter Title Page by Martin Caceres (inks) and Ekara (color)
• The Fable of the Host of Midnight
• Chapter Title Page by Arashi Takemoto
• The Fable of the Slave Master
• Chapter Title Page by Seyorrol
• The Fable of Behemo, the Hermit
• Chapter Title Page by Rodrigo Lopez

Due to the success of meeting one of our Kickstarter campaign’s stretch goals, the collection includes three additional black and white comics:

• Box
• The Second Rain
• Florid Desert

This book is suitable for readers from age 7 to 700.

HEAT VOL. 13 Edited by Dark End and Black Teagan (Mature $14.95)

It’s time for (un)lucky number thirteen! In this auspicious issue of Heat, Volume #13, we offer another exciting selection of prose, poetry, and pictures, with an exciting dash of classic Americana.

In Skyleaper (by Slip-Wolf, illustrated by Kalahari), Lannar tries to ease the pain of her recently deceased love by throwing herself into her work: preparing for the first manned flight to the moon. But for wolves, the moon has always held spiritual and religious significance, and the journey might tear the world — and Lannar herself — apart.

Anubis (a poem by Televassi, illustrated by Simul) has long been a favorite of the fandom, and here we again see why as a devotee pens this prayer to the Egyptian god.

In Wolftown Detroit, you can find it all: werewolves, ghosts, vampires, berserkers. But when private investigator Jae Kim visits Wolftown and finds his former boyfriend, he discovers that his client isn’t the only one with Unfinished Business (by Kyell Gold, illustrated by Silverclaw).

In the comic Mile High Club, TaniDaReal invites you to join a pair of pent-up flyers joining the namesake club.

Life on the high seas can separate you from your family for a very long time, so when your lover is a Sailor Dog (a poem by Beagle.in.Red, illustrated by Lundi), you need to make those times together count.

Amadi is a tribal Zebra working in the big city, trying to understand and respect the strange city concept of privacy. But he and his neighbor are forced to deal with each other on more intimate terms thanks to a Hole in the Wall (by Kandrel, illustrated by Oouna).

With All Faults (a poem by Tempe O’Kun, illustrated by Merystic) is a quick glimpse into the love lives of two bibliophiles.

In Lunch Date (a comic by BlackTeagan), two lovers meet for a midday tryst of “eating out.”

In Glam, Slam, Thank You Sir (by Robin, illustrated by Mahrkale), we meet Fizz, keyboardist for the chart-topping rock sensation Corgi Orgi. While touring through Paris, he saves a feline fan from a band of thugs, but there’s more to this kitten than meets the eye and Fizz’s heart might be on the line.

Some parts of America are so empty you can travel for miles without seeing another soul, so why not take advantage of some of the privacy that affords while you’re out on the Open Road (a comic by Tsaiwolf)?

Sterling is too square a guy to be in such a hip coffeehouse. Then he meets a wild woman intent on loosening him up and who won’t take no for an answer. Before long, he will be at his Wit’s End (by Watts Martin, illustrated by TheTiedTigress).

This year’s Afterglow Husky is provided by Jeniak, and the wrap-around cover features art from Edge, inspired by Glam, Slam,Thank You Sir.

Heat is intended for an adult audience only and contains explicit sexual material of Male/Male, Female/Female and Male/Female nature. It is not for sale to persons under the age of 18.

THURSTON HOWL PUBLICATIONS

Wotan the Wolf Pup VOL. 1: Wotan Learns Respect by C.R. Benson and Scott Ford (General $10.99)

Wotan the wolf pup gets lost in the woods near his home. Follow him as he tries to find his way with the help of the most unlikely friend!

WEASEL PRESS

Fragments of Life’s Heart VOL. 1 (General $19.95)

They say Love is the oldest story on Earth, but we don’t have to tell it the same way every time. How many ways are there to explore our feelings that we may have never even considered? Countless fragments of different worlds, all held together by the greatest force of all.

Join us as we explore the many different forms of love—family love, forbidden love, love that embraces what society always taught was wrong. Seasoned veterans and brand new talents bring you seventeen anthropomorphic stories with all different forms of sexuality and relationships, in a journey across genres, worlds, and time.

Love can bloom, thrive, and end. Love can heal, mesh, and blend. We’re all Fragments trying to stick together.

 

 

Knotted: A BDSM Anthology (Mature $15.95)

Get entangled with darker worlds. Some of our desires are unconventional, maybe even taboo. A lot of folks out there just want a simple fuck, but others may want to indulge in something wilder. Knotted is a collection of eight anthropomorphic tales that explore this savage side. There are no baby steps here, readers are shoved into various worlds where the characters run off with what they want most. From losing control to getting restless in your search, some appetites are too addicting to let go. Stories featured:

01. Okami to Shika by Corgi.W
02. Pony She Wrote by Franklin Leo
03. A Moment of Darkness by NightEyes DaySpring
04. Due by Slip-Wolf
05. Family Ties by Hooves
06. Submit by Arian Mabe
07. Resolutions by Khaz
08. The Meat Market by Kits Koriohn

SELF-PUBLISHED

Marking Territory – Freelance Familiars Book Two by Daniel Potter (General $3.99)

Power corrupts. Can Thomas resist the lure?

Thomas may be the first magical cougar to go freelance, but he still has a lot to learn about selecting clients. Guilty over the injuries suffered by his friend and client O’Meara, Thomas resolves to collect enough magical essence to get her healed. Teaming up with an under-appreciated cabal of technomagi, Thomas finds himself battling encroaching mages, vicious spirits, and the forces of the multiverse itself to gather the energy mysteriously popping up all over Grantsville.

Will the promise of absolute power corrupt the people and town he cares for, or will Thomas overcome his own obsession in time to save the people most in danger?

Marking Territory continues Thomas’ adventures in the second installment of Freelance Familiars. If you like the Dresden Files, you’ll love this darkly humorous urban fantasy with an animal twist.

Buy this exciting four-pawed adventure today!

-Matthias

“Well before he becomes the famed horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, young Howard Lovecraft is a curious and imaginative boy living with his mother while his father is locked away in Arkham Sanitarium. But after his mother unwittingly gives Howard the legendary Necronomicon, he is transported to a dangerous and frozen world populated by horrifying creatures. After saving and befriending one such creature – Spot – Howard and his new friend set off on a perilous quest to save the kingdom and get Howard home. But Howard soon finds out that not everything is as it seems and not everyone is to be trusted.” That’s the idea behind Howard Lovecraft and the Three Kingdoms, a series of graphic novels written by Bruce Brown — based on the actual life of Lovecraft himself — and illustrated by Renzo Podesta. Now the first of the three stores, Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom, has been adapted into a CGI animated film (directed by Sean O’Reilly and featuring the voices of Ron Perlman, Christopher Plummer, and Jane Curtin, among others) which is coming this September on DVD from Shout Factory. You can find the graphic novels at Amazon, and learn more about the movie at the official site.

image c. 2016 Shout Factory

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Hi,

While I was googling why I was changing my fursona, I came across your lovely website. I've wanted to ask you, how can I have a more permanent fursona? Everytime I change, I feel bad and people are like "Thal, are you serious, you changed again?" I do it, since I get this sense of ennui from having to force myself into a role. I'm also afraid of having to have a fursona that's seen as trite like a fox or wolf.

For now, I am just going with the flow. Personally, I've been told to base some of my species off of my personality.

On the good side, I'm rather reliable and tend toward a soul that is rather more suited to smiles than to frowns. I tend to be self-sacrificing and a bit of a mediator. I'm also pretty self-aware.

On the bad side, I can stubborn and I've been told I can be arrogant. I also tend towards a defiant personality, and I don't hold like being around big crowds or having to work in a large team, like a sports team.

For more neutral or double-sided traits, I'm introverted, and tend to like work by myself or in a small group like I've said. I am also of a dominant ... at least when it comes to matters in the bed. Also, when I'm not sure, I tend to seek advice from people who I regard to be wise... which is why I'm typing this. xP

So, what do I do? have anything to suggest to me?

Signed,

Thal (age 21)

* * *

Dear Thal,

Yes, I do :-) First off, stop listening to other people about what your fursona should be. A fursona is deeply personal and only you can decide what it should be and what feels right for you.

Secondly, don't worry if you change fursonas (or have multiple fursonas). That's perfectly fine. And if people have a problem with your changing fursonas, that's their problem, not yours. Don't worry your fuzzy head about it. My fursona, over the years, changed from wolf to dragon to bear (I'm quite certain it will stay bear from now on). When I was your age, I was still a dragon.

Thirdly: should your fursona reflect your personality? Not necessarily. It can, but doesn't have to. My feeling is that a good fursona can reflect who you wish to be, what you aspire to be, rather than what you are. You might have noticed that people choose fursonas that are often more outgoing, talented, adventurous than they are. Fursonas often personify (haha) the traits we are afraid of expressing ourselves. Great example: the real me (Kevin Hile) would be terrified to perform on stage. I've never even done karaoke. However, as Grubbs in my fursuit I performed "The Bare Necessities" on stage quite expressively. Grubbs is stronger, more easygoing, more confident in himself than I am.

Perhaps the problem you are having is that you are listening too much to other people and it is making choosing difficult for you. My advice would be to plug your ears to all those other voices and listen to what is in your heart and spirit. Do not force it; let it come to you naturally. This is how Grubbs came to me. I really didn't think of it much, he just introduced himself pre-formed in my head and all I had to do from that point is commission a fursuit.

Think about your fursona at quiet times, such as when you are lying in bed about to go to sleep or perhaps while in meditation. In a way, fursonas pick us, not the other way around.

Hope that helps.

Bear Hugs,
Papabear

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

Fred writes: three or four reviews of furry books that I wrote in 2003 or 2004 have vanished from the Internet.  I wrote them for the first version of Watts Martin’s Claw & Quill site, which he has apparently taken down. Here they are back online.

Hoenix, by Ted R. Blasingame.
Morrisville, NC, Dennier Publishing/Lulu, August 2004, trade paperback $12.49 (343 pages).

For about a quarter-century from 1925 to 1950, millions of Americans thrilled to rip-roaring adventure fiction in pulp magazines and movie serials. Best Western, Popular Detective, Doc Savage, Jungle Stories, G-8 and His Battle Aces — there were dozens of them. The colorful locales might change, but most featured steely-jawed adventurers who slugged, slashed or shot their way through innumerable dangers. I loved these when I was a kid.

Ted Blasingame’s galactic adventures would fit in nicely with the works of Edmond Hamilton, Jack Williamson, and L. Ron Hubbard that supposedly were among George Lucas’ inspiration for Star Wars. Blasingame has been writing his adventures of an interstellar freighter spaceship in a galaxy of anthropomorphized animals, on his http://horizon.dennier.com/ website since 1996. Recently he has started publishing them in trade paperback format through the Lulu.com print-on-demand web-publisher. Hoenix is a stand-alone novel in his Blue Horizon universe.

A wolf regains consciousness at the bottom of a deep well next to the skeleton of another canine. He has been savagely beaten and left for dead. He has almost complete amnesia. Next to him and the skeleton are a suitcase containing clothes with a sales receipt to Aramis Thorne, some rations, and a crate of rotting bags of ancient gold coins — millions of credits’ worth. The well is in a deserted primitive city, uninhabited for centuries but with signs of having been recently looted. After hiding most of the gold, the wolf discovers that he subconsciously has enough survival skills to live through an arduous desert trek, and to face down a band of thieving fennec nomads who abruptly back off when he uses the Thorne name. “Nobody crosses Captain Thorne…” “Heard you were dead… It’s all over Castelrosso…”

Is he really Thorne? Since the wolf clearly has dangerous enemies whoever he is, he decides to take advantage of the Thorne name. He learns in the spaceport city of Castelrosso on the planet Brandt that Thorne is (or was) the captain of a space freighter rumored to engage in piracy. He recently disappeared after leaving with a partner on a quest for the fabled lost treasure city of Hoenix. The partner, Randon, came back alone and has temporarily left Brandt. If the wolf is not Thorne, he looks enough like him to pass as him. He is accosted by rough-looking space sailors who ask if he is hiring a new crew since they would be proud to blast off with the famous Captain Thorne. Actively posing as Thorne, he uses the small amount of gold he was able to bring with him to buy a spaceship (old and of dubious spaceworthiness) which he names the Hoenix, and start building a new crew: Goro Harada (pilot – coyote), Errol Colfax (chief engineer – Labrador), Tyler Ringo (cook – beagle), Jason Talos (first officer – wolf), Karla Crandall (gunner – husky), and others. In fact, it is considered noteworthy that the crew of the Hoenix are all canids since the galactic society is otherwise very multispecies. Among the supporting characters are a badger antiquarian and a kangaroo restaurant manager.

Anyhow, “Thorne” now has a ship and crew and is ready to face Randon and his feline crew on his return. But how loyal will the Hoenix‘s crew be when they realize that he has hired them for a private purpose rather than for the piracy that made the real Captain Thorne’s crew rich?

Hoenix is old-fashioned space opera with little ingroup references to classic pirate movies. There are mutinies, space battles, betrayals, searches for lost treasures, and the like. Blasingame’s writing is smooth and formulaic for the most part, except for when there is a development so dramatic that it feels like a deliberate effort to surprise the reader. (It usually works, too.) There are background references to other characters and events in the Blue Horizon universe.

Blasingame does a generally admirable job of putting superficial anthropomorphic characteristics onto what is really a human story:

“He shrugged out of the torn shirt and put the new one around his broad shoulders. The material was light and airy and would allow his fur to breathe properly without feeling stuffy. […] What looked like a pair of tan riding breeches was next, and as before, the garment fit him fairly closely. There was just enough play in the material that he could not be sure if it had been made for him or someone just a little larger, but the tail flap was at the right height for his anatomy.” (pg. 10)

If you like space opera in the classic style and don’t mind that there is no reason or explanation for the characters to be anthropomorphized animals, Hoenix is worth a read.

Note: This is the cover by Elizabeth Jackson of the 10th Anniversary Revised Edition. The cover of the 2004 edition is not online any more.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Lulu

Flydra Creative is a collection of animations students at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Cinematic Arts. Lead by Jabril Mack, their first production is a 6-minute pilot for a 2D funny animal comedy series called Bailey & Clark — featuring the adventures of a bee named Bailey and a penguin named Clark, along with their friends and frenemies. The animated pilot is up on YouTube, but there’s also an official Bailey & Clark web site where you can find out more about the pilot and more upcoming adventures.

image c. 2016 by Flydra Creative

 

Art by SabretoothedErmine

War. War never changes. Obvious Fallout reference aside, and yet it’s a subject that our fandom never fully explored. Especially in an anthology, but that changes. The new war theme anthology The Dogs of War is OPEN FOR SUBMISSION. Headed by our own Fred Patten, this anthology, as stated, covers the topic of war, but that doesn’t mean every story has to be your typical “war” story.

These [stories] may be serious or humorous, featuring battle action or the boredom of peacetime, from grim battlefields to recruiting stations.  Warfare from Bronze Age battles to Middle Ages warfare to far-future interstellar battles.  Anything with a military or army (or navy) theme and animal characters.  

You are free to tell your war story the way you want. You can do an All Quiet on the Western Front or a MASH. Do something modern or travel to the past or future. Plus any genre of your choosing from sci fi to fantasy to steampunk to whatever your creative mind can come up with. But that leaves us with a question. How did Fred come up with doing a war theme anthology?

Frankly, it was by accident.  Wikipedia ran an 1876 political cartoon by John Tenniel about the then-current political/military tensions in the Balkans that was based on Shakespeare’s famous line about “the Dogs of War” from his Julius Caesar.  I realized that none of the furry specialty presses had published an anthology of military stories yet.  I proposed it to FurPlanet before someone else used the theme.

Of course most of you are familiar with Fred with his book reviews he does for the site, but the man has been around the Furry fandom long before Furries even had a fandom to call their own. He witness our fandom take shape right before his eyes.

I was already very active in s-f fandom.  Furry fandom seemed at first to be just a specialty interest combining some s-f, some animation like Disney’s Robin Hood and Animalympics, and some comic books.  I think that most of us furry fans of the 1980s were surprised when it continued to grow into a separate fandom.

He also produces many anthologies for the fandom. All ranging from Sci Fi like The Furry Future to Fantasy with Gods with Fur to more experimental themes like Five Fortunes. Fred is always jumping from genre to genre.

I have a wide range of interests.  If something occurs to me that should make a good furry theme, and that a lot of furry writers should have fun with, I grab it.  

I have read s-f anthologies since the 1950s, and I have been amazed by some of the themes for s-f anthologies that have been used.  S-f stories about interplanetary postage stamps or postal delivery.  S-f stories about hotels on space stations catering to a wide range of exotic guests.  There are many that probably wouldn’t work for furry authors, but if they would, I’ll propose them to FurPlanet.  

And for those keeping count, Fred has produced ten anthologies for the fandom so far. Eight for Furplanet, one for Sofawolf Press, and one for Legion Publishing. With much work under his name, Fred became an editor in the simplest of ways.

 I just asked.  I proposed a theme and volunteered to edit an anthology that fit it.  FurPlanet has been very accommodating.  I get a theme approved and send out a call for stories, which I edit.  FurPlanet sets the word limit, pays for them and commissions the covers.  I have had to reject a few good stories because I got too many, but FurPlanet has extended the maximum length more than once.  The Furry Future originally had a maximum word limit of 150,000 words, and FurPlanet expanded it to 195,000 words so we wouldn’t have to leave anything out.  I insist on proofreading the books before they’re published.  

Along with seeing the fandom bloom, Fred has also witnessed how our small writing community expanded into the market it is today.

Art by NaruEver

 It has definitely increased and improved.  The period of paper fanzines, about 1990 to 2003, had several popular writers.  The period of online writers from about 2005 on coincided with the growth of furry specialty publishers.  Writers stopped writing for free for fanzines, and began posting their stories online or submitting them to furry magazines like Heat and New Fables, FANG and ROAR.  Theme anthologies have proliferated.  Furry writers have gotten more experience.  The Furry Writers’ Guild was established.  There has been an evolution from real names to pseudonyms like Ocean Tigrox and MikasiWolf.

Now you have a chance to add on to that history. Fred is looking for stories between 2,000 to 20,000 words with a focus on military action, you can have politics, but the action is the focus. Dogs are ok, but work to use species outside of the title. The stories are due by October 1st. If accepted, writers will receive ½ cent per word upon publication and a contributor’s copy and will be able to buy more at a 30% discount. Feel free to ask Fred if your story idea is different enough to stand out from the pack. Send your submissions and questions to fredpatten@earthlink.net

What are you waiting for, soldier? For your mommy to wipe your bum? Get those fingers typing, maggot! You have a deadline to meet. Charge!

-Matthias

The fable is probably the oldest literary form of animal anthropomorphism that exists, present in writings, but also of immense oral tradition. It appears in all cultures and societies, old and new, with a universal appeal and usefulness that never goes out of style.

The fable is a narrative composition, which may be in prose or verse, the main trait of which is that it has animal characters (or, less frequently, objects) with human attributes, such as the ability to speak or reason. Animal anthropomorphic stories.

The earliest written fables we have proof of date back to ancient history, to the Mesopotamian cultures of the 23rd to the 6th century B.C. (on the Middle East), written in the ancient and extinct Akkadian language of Assyrians and Babylonians. We have fragments of these because they used cuneiform writing: on clay tablets they would leave wedge-shaped marks done with a blunt weed, hence the name cuneiform (wedge shaped). The fable of the serpent and the eagle, included in the Legend of Etana, dates back to at least the 17th century B.C. It can be seen thus that long before the furry fandom existed as we know it, and long before any generation close to us, there was a clear interest in stories and adventures starring ‘funny’ animals.

The reason why the fable has fascinated, for centuries, adults and children alike, is its allegorical quality. An allegory is a literally false description. A made-up story that is fictional, but that metaphorically represents a real situation that feels close, in which people can see themselves. Therefore, the fable creates a parallelism between our daily real lives, and that fantastic world of animals, being able to marvel or learn from them, to empathize with their situation or with their decisions.

Apollonius of Tyana, a Greek philosopher from the 1st century, said to his peers talking about the fabulist Aesop:

“Fables, I believe, are more conducive to wisdom than other myths. Those who so much love poetry, that talk about heroes, outlandish passions, conflicts and crimes […] destroy the soul of those who listen; the pretense of reality leads jealous and ambitious people to imitate those stories. Aesop, on the other hand, had the wisdom, like those who dine well off the plainest dishes, to make use of humble incidents to teach great truths. […] The epic poets add violence to their false stories to make them more probable. On the other hand, Aesop, publicly recounting a story that everyone knew not to be true, told the truth. The purpose of fiction in his stories was none other than to make them useful; thereby offering teachings to its audience.” (Life of Apollonius of Tyana, by Philostratus of Athens, 2nd or 3rd century)

This is, amongst others, a reason why many writers and cartoonists, completely oblivious to trends somehow supportive of the furry fandom, have used animal anthropomorphism allegorically, as a tool to tell a story that would otherwise not have been as beautiful, or entertaining, or shocking or educational. The best known and most obvious modern work that mirrors this trend is Animal Farm, by George Orwell (1945), a political allegory written as a fable.

The fable thus has an appeal beyond literary aesthetics; also in pedagogy, ethics and rhetoric. And, it’s inevitable, following this stream of thought, to speak more in depth about the Greek Aesop, founding father and promoter of the fable in our Western culture.

Aesop was an ancient Greek from the 6th century B.C. who was captured and made a slave. Despite his acquired status as servant, as merchandise, he had the life of a scribe, a personal assistant to his owners. He had the reputation of being witty, ingenious, and telling animal stories in the process of negotiations and discussions, so as to ‘score points’ in a smart devastating manner that left his contemporaries impressed and astonished. He obtained his freedom, and later became part of the Assembly of the island of Samos, where he worked as a public speaker and lawyer, using his own fables for that purpose. He became famous to such a degree that anyone who wanted to make a good impression as a witty joker in banquets and symposiums of Athens in the 5th century had to have studied his work, or memorized those stories they were lucky enough to hear. They speak of him with respect and admiration the comic playwright Aristophanes, the philosophers Plato and Socrates, and Aristotle and his school. Some of his most well-known fables are The Fox and the Grapes (Perry Index 15), The Tortoise and the Hare (226), and The Fox and the Crow (124). Some sources cite his work being used as a textbook in ancient Greece.

Aesop’s name was so linked to ingenious animal fables, that hundreds of fables that are known or suspected to not be his, were attributed to him. The fable invariably became associated with Aesop, and he became a mythological character bigger than he was in life. To say that a story was originally told by Aesop meant receiving the immediate attention from the audience, and in some fables he appears as a character of the story. There is also a made up biography of Aesop called The Aesop Romance, an anonymous dramatized telling of his life, popular among ancient Greeks, in the same way other epic poems were at the time.

Nowadays, going to the children’s literature section at any contemporary bookshop, means finding the influence of Aesop everywhere. Most of his fables as we’ve received them finish with a moral, a lesson or teaching that is concluded from the story. However, these were added later on by their editors and collectors, and thus traditionally are printed separately from the story, or in italics. Some morals are absurd or stupid, others are educated and valuable. But we probably owe to these, the morals, that we’ve kept Aesopic fables in our popular culture.

Long before they were stories for children, fables had a rhetorical and argumentative use. Public speakers would leaf through the fables in search of anecdotes to defend their positions. For example, the Aesopic fable The Pigeon and the Painting (Perry Index 201), finishes with the sentence:

“Like the pigeon, some men, because of their strong desires, get into matters they know nothing about, falling into ruin.”

The moral could be used to deter those who, without ability nor competence, advocate their importance in matters of public interest. As in this example, fables were for many a useful tool for public speaking.

In fact, many of Aesop’s fables that are in accordance with their times, are cruel, scathing, have treachery and deceit, mockery and disdain, and show death and suffering without compassion. This is the case, among others, of The Ant and the Grasshopper (Perry Index 373). In the old version, the ant laughs at the hungry grasshopper, without pity nor remorse. Fables didn’t turn into mostly children’s literature until the 19th century. The Aesopic stories aimed at children are carefully selected, elongated and softened, so the mentioned fable doesn’t usually end up with the corpse of a grasshopper, but with an ant that’s ultimately merciful.

The use of allegories in literature had its peak in the Middle Ages, times during which Christian monks made interpretations of texts on various levels: literally, morally and spiritually. A famous rewrite of Aesop’s fables from the 12th century are the Ysopets by Marie de France, a retelling that reflects the feudal reality of the period, as well as the critical judgments of the author. The medieval fable gave rise to the Animal Epics, narrative written in verses with the adventures and misadventures of anthropomorphic animals. They’re more mischievous in nature, and satirize the weaknesses and absurdities of society. The most famous ones are from the cycle of Reynard the Fox.

Mainly from the 12th and 13th century, the cycle of Reynard the Fox (Renart, Reinhard, or equivalents), are a set of European works, from different places and in different languages (German, English, Dutch, French…), that have as their main character this anthropomorphic fox. Reynard is a witty and deceitful anti-hero whose public is nonetheless sympathetic to. His most regular enemy is his uncle Isengrim, a crude cleric wolf. These works were most famous and prolific in France, where to this day the word for “fox” is “renard”. Notably, they were a vehicle for social criticism and entertainment, not particularly aimed at children, but aimed at society in general, especially from those who were bourgeoisie. The Spanish Majorcan religious philosopher Ramon Llull included Reynard in several of his animal-anthropomorphic stories, also allegoric, in his book Llibre de les Bèsties (The Book of the Beasts) (1289). Reynard was, therefore, the furry superstar of the Middle Ages. It’s no coincidence that the movie Robin Hood by Walt Disney (1973), with a main character that’s a fox and an evil character that’s a wolf, has a resemblance to the adventures of Reynard the Fox – this medieval work was the initial inspiration for the art and the story of the film.

In the 17th century, the French Jean de La Fontaine tore the old prominence of Aesop by publishing many fables of his own and from assorted origins; twelve books in total, of increasing quality, for more than 25 years. Considered some of the best works of French literature (before Victor Hugo), he brought a renewed interest in fables to the rest of Europe as well, where compilations of fables included versions of La Fontaine, since then and until now. In Spain, in the 18th century, the writers Félix María Samaniego and Tomás de Iriarte followed suit. In later decades, other writers would use the literary structure of the fable, and animal anthropomorphism in their works, such as the famous Lewis Carroll, Kenneth Grahame, Rudyard Kipling, Hilaire Belloc, Joel Chandler Harris, and Beatrix Potter, among others.

Throughout all these works, the stereotypical personality of each anthropomorphic animal hasn’t always remained the same. Sometimes it’s even absurd compared to real documented habits we know nowadays for every species. However, this does nothing but reinforce the anthropomorphic nature of these works, since they were always meant to be a reflection of our humanity, of our customs, our passions, interactions and contradictions. As Uncle Kage says, we see in animals a reflection of ourselves. The furry is not only an aesthetic for entertainment, it’s a way to make introspection easier, to improve as human beings, and to enjoy learning.

 

 

Bibliographic references

• Encyclopædia Britannica (2013)
• The Literary History of a Mesopotamian Fable, by Ronald J. Williams; Phoenix Vol. 10, No. 2 (Summer, 1956)
• The Complete Fables (Aesop), introduction by Robert Temple, translation by Olivia Temple; Penguin Classics (1998)
• Aesopica: A Series of Texts Relating to Aesop or Ascribed to Him, by B. E. Perry (1952)
• Aesopica: Aesop’s Fables in English, Latin & Greek, by Laura Gibbs (2002) (link⇒)
• Disney’s Robin Hood: A Bit More Medieval Than You Might Think, by Andrew E. Larsen (2014) (link⇒)
• “Reynard the Fox” in Animation, by Fred Patten (2013) (link⇒)

 

Images

1. Drawings by Olven (link⇒), Janet Skiles, and Corgidoodle (link⇒)
2. Cuneiform tablet of the Legend of Etana with the fable of the serpent and the eagle,
   British Museum K. 19530 (link 01⇒) (link 02⇒)
3. Bust of Aesop, engraving from 1885 (link⇒)
4. The Ant and the Grasshopper, illustration by Milo Winter (1919) (link⇒)
5. Illustration of Renart le nouvel, from the 13th century (link⇒)
6. Reynard the Fox, drawing by Ernest Griset (1869) (link⇒)
7. Reynard the Fox, illustration on a manuscript from the 15th – 16th century, British Library, Royal 10 E IV f. 49v (link⇒)

The entry The Fable, a Timeless and Universal</br> Phenomenon appears first in FurryFandom.Es.

Papercutz have adapted Jules Verne’s story The Children of Captain Grant into a new graphic novel published through their Super Genius Comics imprint. In this case, an anthropomorphic adaptation (featuring male animals with Very Large Chins…) illustrated by Alexis Nesme. “It begins with a message-actually three water-damaged messages-found in a bottle removed from the belly of a shark. Written in three different languages the messages reveal that the long-missing Captain Grant was shipwrecked and is being held hostage. The only clue from the messages that might be of any help, will lead Lord Glenarvan and Captain Grant’s children on an adventure literally around the world!” It’s available now at their web site in hardcover and trade paperback versions.

image c. 2016 Super Genius Comics

 

My relationship with games could be described as patchy, at best. As I kid I all but destroyed my much loved Megadrive from constant play, but beyond the warm nostalgic 16-bit fuzz I’ve rarely picked up a joypad since. I even had to ask my husband if ‘joypad’ was still a legitimate gaming term just now, deciding on it over ‘controller’. Having played only a handful of games since; Max Payne, Starfox Adventures, and Bit Trip Runner, a video game per generation give or take I’d defiantly not fit anyone’s idea of a gamer. Which is weird, considering that Tim Weeks’ Savestate is currently one of my favorite furry webcomics. In case the name didn’t give it away, the motley crew of Savestate really, really love their video games! Centering around siblings Nicole and Kade regularly joined by their friend Rick ,Elder god Harvey and the demonic entity, Ness on their gaming misadventures. Weeks’ artwork really shines when he draws his characters in the game worlds themselves, showing off well known favorites like Mario Kart in his own charming and polished style, even incorporating animation, such as his crossover with gaming webcomic, Gamercat.

Last year saw another major milestone for Savestate when it was nominated for the comic strip category of the Ursa Major Awards, which are voted upon yearly and intended to award and highlight “excellence in the furry arts”. Although Savestate ultimately came in second it was to Housepets, a comic that has itself been running four times as long and won the category for seven years, consecutively. Moving up from third place the previous year and vastly outstripping much more established furry webcomics, it’s a testament to how well the mix of humor, positivity and gaming culture has built up such a strong and loyal fan base in it’s first two years.

The very first strip found Kade porting over the now infamous glitch Pokemon, ‘MissingNo’ (the easiest glitch to catch, an integral part of Pokemon lore although still considered by Nintendo as simply “a programming quirk”) proving from day one how deeply passionate Weeks is about gaming culture and how central it is to his comic. This last months strips have seen Savestate returning to it’s roots somewhat with the rewed interest in the now 20 year old franchise that came the release of Pokemon GO has started, rekindling the franchise once more. As you’d expect Kade, the consummate gamer lives up to every online scare story by getting himself into places he shouldn’t in order to catch them all!

Again, the highest praise I can personally give Savestate is that even as someone who isn’t a gamer, at all, it still has me engrossed and eagerly awaiting a new strip every Wednesday. Playfully incorporating pop culture and gaming staples in new ways, the comic exudes Week’s passion for video games and why it has quickly become and furry favorite.

  Okay, so some basics first, what is your favorite game and console?

Game: Ocarina of Time. It was the smoothest transition from 2D to 3D ever and had a huge “wow” factor in terms of graphics and gameplay. Console: Either the Genesis or SNES, I love 16-bit games. If I had to pick one then SNES, with classics like Star Fox, Final Fantasy III (VI), Chrono Trigger it edges out the Genesis.

How did it feel to come 2nd place in the Ursa major awards, especially very close behind a comic that is now in it’s 8th year? Does it help knowing you’ve built a strong fanbase like this in such a short time, what do you think has captured furries and gamers about your comic?

That was crazy! I thought Savestate could avoid last place, but never to come in second on it’s second year. Now I’ve got to work extra hard to keep that second place. I don’t think anyone is going to dethrone Housepets until Rick chooses to decline his nomination. It’s amazing how quickly the Savestate fanbase grew. When I started the site I was getting something like 300 hits every time I posted a comic which seemed like a lot. What’s most impressive, to me, is that before Savestate I had never really posted any of my art online; so all the hype was generated purely by the comic itself.

I think gamers enjoy the comic because Kade embodies a more child-like sense of gaming. Back when it was more about showing your friends your Pokemon rather than trying to beat them in a battle.I think furries are drawn to the comic because of the art style. I tend to draw things in equal parts cute and cool. I also hope people are enjoying that the comic is PG (or maybe PG-13 when Harvey gets angry). There’s just so much adult material in the furry universe that it starts to drown everything else out. People seem to forget that the furry fandom really started with children’s characters like Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny.

Is there any direct analogue of yourself in the comic in terms of characters, if not who do you think you identify with more?

Kade and Nicole are a split of my personality. Nicole was based on our family dog, Mandy. Any personalities I shared with Mandy went to Nicole and what was left over went to Kade. If you combine the two you basically get my messed up brain

.What drew you to using anthropomorphic characters in Savestate?

I’ve loved anthro since Rescue Rangers! Games like Sonic and TV shows like Swat Kats further embedded that fandom. I actually wasn’t even aware “furry” was a thing until I randomly found Havok, Inc in my local comic shop. Even then I thought Chester was a girl for the longest time. :3

A lot of comics like yours heavily reference video games to the point of the characters being shown in the game.Visually are there any game genres of games you wouldn’t include in Savestate or would be too difficult to accomplish?
I won’t do anything adult, so AO rated games are out.  If I ever used something violent like Gears of War 4 I’d just limit myself to blood and leave the gore out.  I suppose the only other thing I wouldn’t do is a game with extremely simple stylized graphics, like Limbo.
What are your favorite game elements or characters to draw?
Sonic.  I could never count how many times I’ve drawn Sonic.I also like drawing the Savestate characters in different game character outfits.  It’s fun to try and modify clothes to fit a furry build.
 How did including animated elements in certain strips come about? Was it something you were familiar with before or learning as you went?
Animation has always interested me.  Mostly traditional animation or the old hand drawn 2D sprites.  I love doing facial expressions and animation let’s you really play with that. I’ve dabbled with various forms of animation over the years, but the idea to put in a web comic came from GaMERCaT.  That’s why I had to make sure the guest appearance with Gamercat was animated.
What was your experience like working on the recent Starfox strips for Nintendo Force?
Nintendo Force is the spiritual successor of Nintendo Power and that comic was a lot of fun. Since the magazine is done by fans I could really do anything, like mention characters from the canceled SNES Star Fox 2 game. The original plan was to print the comic in the December issue which was going to be Star Fox themed to go along with the release of Star Fox Zero, but Nintendo pushed the game back a few months. Since the magazine is crowd funded we decided to print in the December issue anyway since there was no guarantee it would continue. Regardless, it was a lot of fun and I’m really excited that I got the chance to do it. My favorite part of EGM was reading Hsu and Chan. I really miss that comic.

 

Savestate is updated every Wednesday. Tim also has a gallery of his other work over on his deviant art page and can also be found on twitter.

The artist describes himself like this: “Michael Fleming has 15+ years of practical experience as a professional illustrator, working with both digital and traditional mediums. Specialities are children’s media and character design.” His web site, Tweedlebop, also shows that he has had his art displayed at numerous galleries around North America. Of course he also has a shop where you can check out his available prints and the books for children that he’s illustrated — many of the latter falling in the “early reading” curriculum.

image c. 2016 by Michael Fleming

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We can’t make this stuff up, folks. [We’d be a lot richer if we could!] This is straight from Cartoon Brew: “South Korean animation producer Redrover has teamed up with Canadian performing arts company Monlove to create The Nut Job Live! Monlove, founded by Cirque du Soleil composer Ella Louise Allaire, with Martin Lord Ferguson as partner, also created Ice Age Live!: A Mammoth Adventure, which is now in its third year of touring.The stage direction of The Nut Job Live! is scheduled to be led by Guy Caron, one of the founding members and first artistic director of Cirque du Soleil, and the world tour of the show will be coordinated by Barry Garber of Garber IMC. Nut Jove Live is intended to run for four years in over 100 countries, and will be accompanied by DVD sales, t-shirts, character plushes, and other merchandise sold on-site.” I had not heard of Ice Age Live!: A Mammoth Adventure. Had you?

image c. 2016 Redrover

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Reminder: We're on Patreon! If you could kick us a buck or two, we'd greatly appreciate it. www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow periscope video - https://twitter.com/xandertheblue/s.....15796719681541 ALSO, we're not just on SoundCloud, you can also subscribe to this on most podcast services like iTunes! #BFE. #BFE. #BFE. #BFE. Oh, and dragons and cars. And listener questions and stuff. This was a great episode. 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, like a fireside chat. www.youtube.com/user/DraggetShow/videos ep. 129 - #bfe - Reminder: We're on Patreon! If you could kick us …

Hello Everyone!

On tonight's show we open with a discussion about what happens when a sex-positive comic goes, perhaps, a bit sex-negative. We discuss anecdotal reactions to fursuiting sex, Metriko mispronounced Dr. Nuka's IRL name (sorry about that), and we discuss how furries and non-furs view pornographic material within the fandom. Watch that space.

Our main topic is on how to find a mate. Last week we discussed how to be Single and Happy. This week, we address the idea that not everyone wants to be single. We go over what you should do for yourself, various resources that exist for dating within the fandom, and how to keep your head up in the face of rejection.

We close out with a question on whether you should look up a date's social media on the internet before meeting them before the first time. Could this be our first disagreement?

Please note that this episode does have slightly different audio quality due to a cross-country move and setting up new studios. We are working on improvements and ensuring that Metriko's whistling s's don't kill your eardrums in the future, and we appreciate your patience and hope you enjoy the episode nonetheless!

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

Thanks and, as always, Be Well!

FA 030 Finding a Mate - Sex-Negativity Outlets, How to Date Well, Doxing a Date, Audio Quality Woes! All this and more on tonight's episode of Feral Attraction

August 2016’s Book of the Month is Sixes Wild: Echoes, by Tempe O’Kun.

Life’s not all whiskey and revelry for this bunny gunslinger. In a recent tangle, Six had cause to dynamite a lion crime lord in his silver mine. The kitty had the nerve to survive and vanish with one of the guns tied to her dead father’s spirit. A sensible hare would go to ground, lying low while she tracked down the varmint. And that’s just what she’d do, had she not stumbled into love with the local fruit bat sheriff. Love’s all well and good, but courting a gentleman when you’re no proper lady is a challenge Six never thought she would have to tackle.

All told, Frontier life is enough to trounce anybody. But then, Six Shooter has never been just any bunny.

Echoes is the sequel to Sixes Wild: Manifest Destiny, which won a Cóyotl Award for best novel in 2011. It’s available in print from FurPlanet and Kindle ebook from Amazon. (It should be available as a DRM-free ebook from Bad Dog Books soon.)

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

Fred writes: three or four reviews of furry books that I wrote in 2003 or 2004 have vanished from the Internet.  I wrote them for the first version of Watts Martin’s Claw & Quill site, which he has apparently taken down. Here they are back online.

It’s More Fun When You’re Not Allowed: Namir Deiter, Year One, by Isabel Marks. Fredericksburg, VA, Fuzzy Kitten Comics/Studio Ironcat, September 2004, trade paperback $11.95 (128 pages,.

This tidy little package presents the first year’s worth of Isabel Marks’ online Namir Deiter comic strip (November 28, 1999 through January 5, 2001), plus a lot of bonus goodies: biographies of 21 main and minor characters, an original ten-page story, a Fantasy Gallery showing the main gang in s-f and fantasy settings, a foreword by Bill Holbrook, and more. Almost as good as the strips themselves are Marks’ notes on practically each one describing the conditions under which it was written and/or drawn.

Basic advice for writers is “Write what you know about.” Marks appears to have done this to excellent effect. As she explains in her notes, she was a high school senior with some spare time in computer class. She had recently discovered on-line comics and wanted to try one of her own.   What about? High school dating! The first strip introduces four high school gals and a guy. The guy, Devlin, is just present to start the action (he asks Tipper out on her first date). The main cast is the girls: sisters Snickers and Tipper Namir, Blue Deiter, and Joy Satu. Snickers and Joy are relatively demure; Tipper, the youngest, is tomboyish; and Blue, who was neglected as a child and raised herself by watching TV, is self-centered and apparently attention-seeking. As Namir Deiter advances during its first year, Marks points out in her marginal asides the ways in which it begins to evolve. The art style shows her experiments with different computer drawing tools and techniques. The story starts with individual gag strips, and gains depth as her characters develop individual personalities and become involved in more serious human-interest situations.

It is this latter that has made Namir Deiter so popular. Marks has a very attractive art style, but it is the ongoing life situations of Snickers, Tipper, Joy, Blue, and their expanding circle of acquaintances that make readers want to follow the strip regularly. This first-year collection is frankly very rough and erratic compared to the current strip, now in its fifth year. The girls, who were high-schoolers during this first year, are now in college; Snickers is married. Hopefully Marks will not wait a year between collections to bring the strip in book form up to the present.

Since Namir Deiter is a high school/college human interest strip, the anthropomorphic nature of the cast is largely window dressing. Marks enjoys drawing cute furry characters, and the girls are mostly cats except for Joy who is a rabbit. Devlin is a raccoon, and other characters introduced after this volume will include dogs and pandas. The really jarring exception is Bob the slug, who was drawn as a slug because he was supposed to be just a one-shot exaggerated comedy-relief foil. Marks had no idea Bob would keep appearing until he was a popular member of the main cast. There are occasional story-acknowledgements of the characters’ animal natures; Tipper does a cat-food commercial, and Joy’s pink fur turns white in the Winter.

Fans of Namir Deiter have probably already read these strips on-line, but Marks’ “behind the scenes” notes add an extra dimension to them. And a paperback collection is always handier than having to turn on your computer and click on the strips one by one. The major drawback is that all of the strip reprints are in black-&-white; only the new material is in full color. But considering how much a full-color book would have cost, this is understandable.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on My Comic Shop

We're alive! And what a few weeks it's been. We have good reasons for our absence though.. Hope you're ready for Pokemon talk, Pokemon Go grumping, and more. We learn about Lone Star Noir, Shiva's plague, plans for the near term, and get a LOT of emails. Also lots of Savrin abuse this weekend. Poor fennecs. Want to support the show? We have a Patreon! www.patreon.com/knotcast Episode 323 - King Of The Dickies