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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

Dave Hulteen Jr. and Jerome Green got together and formed Hulgreen Productions with the intention of making some seriously silly entertainment using puppetry, animation, and video effects. Their first creation was The Bang and Bump Show, featuring “two little monsters in a big studio”. According to their web site, “Finding two store bought and generic monster puppets, Dave and Jerome created a simple buddy style duet video naming the puppets ‘Bang’ and ‘Bump’. They were named after the respective sounds monsters make in the night. The video caused enough attention for the two to make a regular series.” They’ve since gone on to create many other humorous videos and animated shorts.

image c. 2016 Hulgreen Productions

Dear Papabear,

I have a bit of an unusual problem and I really don’t know what to do. I’m in a long distance relationship with another fur for three years (living in two different countries), we’re both trans women and despite having different schedules we both made an effort to talk to one another regularly through good times and bad. Though recently she has been responding less and less and becoming seriously depressed to the point that all she does is work (14 hours a day), make lunch, sleep and nothing else. She has no appetite and rarely drinks fluids. Nothing gives her joy anymore.

​We’ve talked about getting help but meds are expensive and therapy even more expensive. Last time we talked she was worried about her friends, one tried to commit suicide and was in the hospital. He might lose his job and can’t afford to pay the bills. Another lost his mother and another yet lost his apartment. She is usually a very helpful person but she feels she can’t even help herself let alone her friends. I’m legitimately worried about her to the point of tears. I feel so useless not being able to help her when she needs it the most, I just don’t know what to do. I know it’s not an easy problem but any advice you could give would be helpful, thank you. 

Concerned in Canada

* * *

Dear Concerned,

You don't explain why she might be depressed, so I can only respond in general terms. First of all, yes, she does need to get some professional help. Does she have insurance? You say she works, so she may have insurance through her company. As you know, the Affordable Care Act requires you to have insurance (you're in Canada, and I'm guessing she's in the USA? Actually, if she's in Europe she is even better off). Recently, a U.S. law was passed that said insurance companies need to include 3 free consultations with a psychologist; some provide more, depending on the policy. Anti-depressants, of course, must be prescribed by a doctor or psychiatrist and should also be covered by insurance. So, saying "medication costs too much" really should not be an issue (Lexapro cost me $20 for a month's supply, and my insurance is pretty lousy). Furthermore, a little Internet research should lead you to free group or even one-on-one counseling for depression.

Your friend needs to think of her own well-being first before trying to help others. You might have noticed, for example, that Papabear has been posting less often of late. This is because I am still grieving after losing Jim last year. On good days, I will write the column, but on bad days I focus on myself and feeling better.

Therefore, my advice to her is that, while it is nice of her to be concerned about her friends, she is not in a position right now to help them (other than being a shoulder to cry on, perhaps, on occasion). She needs to try and help herself first.

The same goes for you. Stop worrying about all those other people. Are you doing okay? If so, good, and do your best to help your girlfriend. Do some research on getting her help that is at no- or low-cost. Believe me, it's out there. Be there for her, she needs you.

If I knew more about what was going on with her, I'd try to give more details, but that's as much as I can do right now. Write again if you wish to.

Good Luck,
​Papabear

Submitted by Fred Patten

Fred writes: a few 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.

Rats, Bats & Vats, by Dave Freer & Eric Flint. Maps by Randy Asplund.
Riverdale, NY, Baen Books, September 2000, hardcover $23.00 (388 pages), Kindle $6.99; September 2001, paperback $7.99 (448 pages).

The Rats, the Bats, & the Ugly, by Eric Flint & Dave Freer. Maps by Randy Asplund.
Riverdale, NY, Baen Books, September 2004, hardcover $24.00 (391 pages), Kindle $6.99.

I had intended to review just the latter “sequel”. But it is such a close continuation of the former that to read RBU alone is like starting an 800-page novel in the middle. The introductory synopsis is adequate, but it is much more enjoyable to read the whole story.

Harmony and Reason is a colony planet founded on utopian ideals, which has evolved into a split between an elite upper class of founding Shareholders and an oppressed labor class of cloned “Vats”. Unknown aliens, the sea-urchinlike Korozhet, come to HAR to warn that it is about to be conquered by still other aliens, the brutal insectlike Magh’ empire. But the friendly Korozhet will share their superior technology with the humans to help them defend themselves. Among this technology are soft-cyber implants (brain chips) to increase the intelligence of animals. The two species of animal soldiers that HAR bioengineers are bats, for flying explosive devices into Magh’ camps, and “rats” (actually a bioengineered cross between rats and elephant shrews) which make fanatically vicious commandos.

It does not take long for the front-line troops to realize that the Korozhet are not the benevolent saviors they claim to be. They have engineered the Magh’ invasion to whittle down HAR’s defenses so they can safely conquer it for themselves. The creation of the bats and rats is to develop new cyber-controlled slave species. But by then, the Korozhet have gained psychological control over the incompetent Military High Command. To complicate matters, neither the Korozhet nor most humans realize that the bats and rats are more than just computer-guided cannon fodder. They are truly intelligent and are each planning their own revolt.

This may sound dramatic, but the two-volume novel is mostly a military-political s-f comedy. Much action revolves around the evasions that the front-line troops use to get around the stupidly suicidal orders from the pompous High Command so they can effectively battle the Magh’.

The main story follows Private Charles “Chip” Connolly, a Vat-bred conscript, and the handful of rat and bat soldiers who get to know each other when they are trapped behind Magh’ lines. Their friendship evolves into a popular front to unite the rats, bats and Vats at the same time that they save all HAR from the Korozhet and the Magh’.

The bats have taken human revolutionaries as their role models:

“Fluttering along behind Connolly, Michaela Bronstein tried to formulate strategy. Revolution! Throwing off the cruel yoke of human oppression! Liberty, equality and belfry! […] Of course, bats, by their very nature, had always chittered and argued about how liberation should be achieved. Eamon Dzhugashvilli was one of the notorious Bat Bund who had advocated straight and bloody murder, blowing every non-bat to kingdom come with as much high explosive as they could lay their claws on, and allying batdom with humankind’s foes.” (pg. 24)

The rats are even more anarchistic, and much more individualistic. An increase in intelligence has not changed their interest in not much besides food and sex, except to make them aware of alcohol. A rat community seems at first glance to be little different from a non-stop drunken orgy:

“‘Hello handsome,’ said the rattess who was supporting the ornamental light on the cornice. Unless Fluff’s eyes deceived him, she was wearing what looked like black fishnet stockings. ‘If you hath the money, I hath the time.'” (pg. 238)

Fluff — full name: Don Juan el Magnifico de Gigantico de Immaculata Conception y Major de Todos Saavedra Quixote de la Mancha — is a seven-inch tall galago, a lemurlike primate. He is the only uplift of his kind, a pet manufactured for a Shareholder’s daughter. It amused the Shareholders to give him the personality of a Don Quixote. But Fluff is no fool, and he uses his tiny size and arboreal abilities to aid the Good Guys. If Rats, Bats and Vats had not been published in 2000, almost four years before Shrek 2, Fluff would have looked like a shameless imitation of its Spanish-caballero Puss in Boots.

This two-volume novel, both with amusing covers by Bob Eggleton, is only about 50% anthropomorphic. But that 50%, about how Chip, other humans, and the animals propose to blend “normal” humans, high-strung bats and hedonistic rats into a joint society, is enough to put it onto any anthropomorphic reading list.

Please note that the order of the co-authors’ names is reversed on the second title. They may not be filed together in bookshops and libraries.

– Fred Patten

• Buy Rats, Bats, & Vats on Amazon
• Buy The Rats, The Bats, & The Ugly on Amazon

In a counterpoint to last week’s show, we talk about the ways in which the furry fandom elevates some individuals to celebrity status, and how perception changes with time involved in the fandom.

Metadata and Credits Furry: Popularity in the Fandom

Runtime: 40:04m

Cast: Levi, Path, Wolfin

Editor: Levi

Format: 96kbps AAC Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0.

Furry: Popularity in the Fandom - In a counterpoint to last week's show, we talk about the ways in which the furry fandom elevates some individuals to celebrity status, and how perception changes with time involved in the fandom.

In a counterpoint to last week’s show, we talk about the ways in which the furry fandom elevates some individuals to celebrity status, and how perception changes with time involved in the fandom.

Metadata and Credits Furry: Popularity in the Fandom

Runtime: 40:04m

Cast: Levi, Path, Wolfin

Editor: Levi

Format: 96kbps AAC Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0.

Furry: Popularity in the Fandom - In a counterpoint to last week's show, we talk about the ways in which the furry fandom elevates some individuals to celebrity status, and how perception changes with time involved in the fandom.

Tabitha Ladin describes what she does as “fantasy, science fiction, creepy, and nature art”. We couldn’t describe it better. She has a particular affinity for mice — winged mice (especially that!), robot mice, zombie mice… but gryphons, dragons, and other fantastic animals work their way into her paintings as well. And of course, many of them are available as prints at her web site also. She’s another artist you’re likely to see displaying at fannish conventions as well, in the dealer room or at the art show.

image c. 2016 by Tabitha Ladin

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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.

Leaping Beauty: And Other Animal Fairy Tales, by Gregory Maguire. Illustrated by Chris L. Demarest.
NYC, HarperCollinsPublishers, August 2004, hardcover $15.99 (197 pages, Kindle $7.99.

Some people can’t hear Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” without thinking of the Lone Ranger. I couldn’t read Leaping Beauty without imagining it being read aloud by Edward Everett Horton as the Narrator of the “Fractured Fairy Tales” on Jay Ward’s Rocky and His Friends/The Bullwinkle Show. Leaping Beauty is categorized as an Ages 8 – 12 children’s book. Sure, and Jay Ward’s TV cartoons were for kids, too.

Leaping Beauty is exactly in the style of “Fractured Fairy Tales” except that the eight stories all feature animal casts. Some are in traditional fairy-tale settings, such as “Leaping Beauty” which takes place in a swamp kingdom with a bullfrog king & queen. At their polliwog princess’ christening, a bumblebee good fairy blesses her with a loud voice. “She will have a beautiful voice for all to hear and enjoy. Her ribbit will be as loud as a foghorn.” Old Dame Hornet, the nasty fairy they forgot to invite, wishes she will die as an exploding frog, but the last good fairy who has not used his wish yet tries to save her. So the polliwog grows up to become a weeping, sleeping, leaping beauty who hops over to demand Dame Hornet lift the curse. “The sound came right up to Old Dame Hornet’s doorway and went away again, like an ambulance driving by, and driving right back. Like an ambulance going up and down the street, hour after hour.”

Some are in modernized settings, such as “Rumplesnakeskin”:

“Down by the old mill stream, there stood a mill. In the mill there worked a miller. He was a sheep named Bubba.

Now Bubba had a beautiful daughter named Norma Jean. Her fleece was as yellow as a field of dandelions. Furthermore it was naturally curly. When she went for a drink in the millpond, she tossed her flaxen locks and admired herself in a mirror. ‘How like a movie star I am!’ she said. ‘If only I could be discovered!'” (pg. 175)

She changes her name to Beauty and is discovered by a stag king who is a wannabe horror movie director and promises to star her in it. But he is really more interested in her spinning gold to finance it:

“The king stag chattered all the way to the studio about camera angles and foreign rights and how genius usually ends up on the cutting-room floor. ‘You’ll be a big star one day,’ he said to Beauty. ‘You’ve got the looks. You’ve got the curves. I’ve got a serious case of the nerves. Spin me some gold, sweetheart. All the world will thank you for it.’

And off he went, locking the door behind him.” (pg. 178)

Some stories involve gender reversals. “Little Red Robin Hood” is a boy, not a girl. A boy with an overactive imagination:

“Little Red Robin Hood pretended he was a superhero with special superpowers. Sometimes he wore a little red cape with a red hood. It was his superhero costume. It made a nice fluttering noise when he flew, like the sound of baseball cards slapping against a rotating bicycle wheel.” (pg. 107)

When he is sent to bring a basket of goodies to Grandma Robin “in a retirement village for old birds on the other side of the forest,” he is alert for the opportunity to confront any supervillains he may meet on the way.

The stories embrace all animals and locales. “So What and the Seven Giraffes” is an African tale about a chimpanzee prince of baboon parents, a gorilla evil stepmother, and seven female giraffes who are bespangled performers in the local circus. “The Three Little Penguins and the Big Bad Walrus” takes place at the South Pole. Or maybe the North Pole (does it matter?):

“Once there were three little penguins who lived in an igloo with their mother.

“The oldest penguin liked to eat fish.

The middle penguin liked to eat fish.

The youngest penguin liked to get dressed up in a ballet costume and put on a show. This was not usual for penguins, and it worried old Mama Penguin a lot.” (pg. 129)

The remaining three tales are “Goldiefox and the Three Chickens”, “Hamster and Gerbil”, and “Cinder-Elephant”. Betcha can’t read these without imagining them narrated by Ed Horton, and drawn in the Jay Ward art-style (which is pretty close to the illustrations in this book anyway). If you remember the “Fractured Fairy Tales” from 1960s TV and later video releases (they just came out on DVD), that should be all the recommendation you need for Leaping Beauty, and Other Animal Fairy Tales.

– Fred Patten

• Buy online

Frank Forte is a professional storyboard artist who has worked on projects as diverse as Bob’s Burgers and Despicable Me 2. In his spare time he paints largely-monochrome works that are often very funny-animal oriented… and very, very strange. He offers many of them up as prints through his company, Asylum Press. Visit his web site (if you’re an adult!) and see what we mean. You might also see his works at local art galleries or fannish conventions. It travels a lot!

image c. 2016 by Franke Forte

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