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

Cover by Marilyn Scott-Walters

Morning, Noon & Night, by Michael H. Payne. Illustrated by Roz Gibson.
Balboa, CA, “Hey, Your Nose is on Fire” Industries, September 2014, trade paperback $14.00 (325 pages), Kindle $3.00.

“‘You dare?’ Koyannaset, the Black Sphinx of Andeer, let herself burst upward, towering onto her hind paws, the now massive points of her crown smashing the marble of the throne room ceiling into boulder-sized chunks; plummeting, they shattered the tile floor, cracks spidering out from the craters to splinter the pastel mosaics covering the walls. ‘I am your Goddess Queen!’” (p. 7)

This is one book where it pays to read the dedication:

For Lauren Faust, Rob Renzetti, and all the creative people behind My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic without whom this story would not have been possible

Morning, Noon & Night does not try to hide the fact that it is little more than MLP:FIM fan-fiction in a transparent disguise. The two equine goddesses of Equestria – Princess Celestia and Princess Luna – are the benevolent white griffin Princess Equinox and the murderously insane black sphinx Princess Koyannaset. The “Mane Six” ponies – Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and the rest – are the Champions of Andeer; two each of humans, hawks, and dogs, all adolescent females. Spike the dragon, Twilight Sparkle’s juvenile assistant, is Chert the (adult male) housecat, human Larissa Noon’s familiar but in love with the other human Champion, Violet – “even though every article Larissa had read on the subject said that interspecies romances never worked out!” (p. 16)

The six Champions of Andeer are Larissa Noon and Violet, humans; Thermal Updraft and Pinfeather, hawks; and Astrid Spin and Flaxen, dogs. The latter two are specifically a French poodle and an Irish collie. They have just been appointed the latest Champions of Andeer by the griffin Princess Equinox, now Andeer’s sole goddess since Princess Koyannaset became homicidally mad. Once each hundred years, Equinox appoints six Champions – six mortals from the civilized peoples of Andeer, all young sorceresses or other magic-users – and leads them to the ruins of Koyannaset’s temple/palace in Sahan to renew the spells that keep her banished into limbo, and Andeer safe from her murderous rages. The Champions’ duty is over once that’s done, and they can relax for the rest of their lives, basking in their reputations of being this generation’s Champions.

Illustrated by Roz Gibson

The leader of the newest Champions (and the novel’s protagonist) is Larissa Noon, because she’s the most powerful sorceress. But she’s also the shyest and, with stringy brown hair and a nothing figure, the plainest. (It doesn’t help knowing that the two hawks and two dogs are considered very attractive among their species.) Violet is outright beautiful (Chert has promptly abandoned Rissa to drape himself around Violet’s shoulders), with styled blonde hair, a great figure, plus an outgoing, friendly personality, kindly and helpful … well, Rissa has gotten a serious inferiority complex. Which doesn’t help either her leadership or her spellcasting.

Before anyone can do any more, the unexpected happens. When Koyannaset reappears to be banished once again, she’s cured! She’s calm, rational, and horribly embarrassed for what she did while she was mentally sick. She tries to officially abdicate, but Equinox, delighted to have her cousin and best friend sane again, insists that they will reign together as co-rulers; Equinox in charge of the day and Koyannaset in charge of the night. The Champions are disbanded.

Time passes. The Champions are still getting together socially. Rissa has become Chief Archivist in Stillwater, Andeer’s capital. Violet is a leading couturier; “Pinfeather had signed an exclusive contract with the modeling agency Raptor House [and] the advertisements featuring the lovely yellow hawk that had started appearing in newspapers and magazines almost immediately” (pgs. 46-47) have financed the finest veterinary hospital in Andeer. Pinfeather retires as an avian model to concentrate on veterinary magic. Thermal Updraft is working with the Weather Wardens who control Andeer’s weather; but she’s at the ex-Champions’ parties. Astrid Spin the poodle has become a prominent stage director and playwright, and Flaxen manages the successful Ruby Red Farms.

This is the new status quo when Princess Koyannaset comes to Rissa. Equinox wants to take her first vacation in five hundred years. To show Koyannaset how much she trusts her, she is leaving the sphinx goddess in sole charge of all Andeer for a week, from the palace-city of Sahan. Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, but just in case, Koyannaset herself wants the six Champions to reassemble and watch her closely for that week. The Champions agree, figuring that this will be like a paid vacation. Besides, the peoples of Andeer are beginning to feel that the six are resting on past glory, and this will remind everyone that they’re still the Champions.

All of this is prelude. Chapter One starts on page 58. The Champions find that the inhabitants of Sahan, mostly officials, palace staff, and honor guards, and their families, are polite but little more. They consider themselves to be Equinox’s staff, and Koyannaset to be an intruder. There is an embarrassing “accident”. Politeness evolves into disapproval, then to ugly gossip that proves to be organized.

“‘We’re facing a smear campaign, dear fellow, a vicious slew of gossip no doubt organized by or at least allied with whoever dropped that beam at the Day Palace this morning.’” (p. 178)

An adolescent girl readership should be able to relate to gossip and a smear campaign. Then it turns deadly. Does someone just want to kill the Champions, or to increase the emotional pressure on Koyannaset’s fragile sanity in the hope of driving her mad again? Why? The Champions individually investigate, at the same time they collectively organize fabulous palace balls and parties.

Morning, Noon & Night, like MLP:FIM, is basically for adolescent girls. Like MLP:FIM, it features lots of talking, magical animals, although not horses. Furry fans will enjoy it, both for the fantasy story and for Payne’s humorous and lyrical writing.

“Pinfeather blushed – the only bird Larissa had ever met who could do that –“ (p. 22)

“A pop behind them, and Larissa turned back to see Astrid Spin trotting out, her jaw working a huge mass of bubble gum.” (p. 61)

“A clatter from the front door stopped Chert from saying he hoped so for all their sakes, and he turned to see Astrid Spin come bouncing in, panniers bouncing against her flanks. ‘This is so exciting! I mean, I didn’t even know there was a five o’clock in the morning!’” (p. 66)

“It wasn’t sad, but at the same time it kind of was. Just exactly like evening, she realized, the way it’s sad that the day’s over but not really sad since night time can be fun, too, and then there’ll be the next day and the next day and the next day after that, each one, she knew, destined to be the best day ever.” (p. 143)

The “cover design” is credited to Marilyn Scott-Walters, who has adapted an ancient painting of a phoenix. Roz Gibson has four full-page portraits of the main cast.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

Looks like we have not seen the end of anthropomorphic movies for 2016. Now another one has been added to the growing herd: The Wild Life, an English-language version of the Belgian CGI film Robinson Crusoe. From Cartoon Brew: “In this loose adaptation of Daniel Defoe’s tale of a castaway marooned on an island, Crusoe must team up with a bunch of animals to defeat a couple of savage cats who are trying to take over his tropical home. Ben Stassen and Vincent Kesteloot directed at nWave Pictures (The House of Magic, Fly Me to The Moon), which produced the pic with Studiocanal. It opened last month in Germany, and has grossed a respectable $4.6 million to date in that country.” Both Cartoon Brew and Animation Scoop have the first English trailer. Lionsgate (Norm of the North) is set to release The Wild Life this coming September.

image c. 2106 Lionsgate

Hello Everyone!

Episode Ten! Wow, it's been ten weeks of this show-- thanks for your support and listening in!

Today we discuss the Campsite Rule, a concept that deals with intergenerational relationships (or relationships with drastic experience differences). How can you be in a relationship ethically when you are with a partner who is much younger than you, or much less experienced at relationships / sex / intimacy than you? We also talk about whether or not you should have sex with an ex, especially after you've just broken up.

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

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 010 The Campsite Rule - How do you handle relationships with a significant age or experience difference? Also, should you have sex with an ex?

Guest article by Televassi.

Televassi is a bit of a newcomer to the fandom, however in his time here he’s been amazed by the friendly and creative nature of the people that make it up. Apart from being a writer, he also enjoys rock climbing and scuba diving, and has a keen interest in Celtic and Germanic cultures. You can find this torc wearing wolf on twitter as @Televassi, and find more of his writing and art on FA and Weasyl. He’s always happy to meet new people, so don’t be afraid to say hi!

For a long time I’ve never bothered to explain what I write about to friends and family. I’ve never bothered to explain why I have art of anthropomorphic wolf people. Nor have I bothered to explain precisely who I’m talking to online, or meeting on weekends. “Friends” is usually the monosyllabic and vague answer I’ll give – often met with little investigation now that making friendships online is a little less uncommon.

While such evasions may deflect questions, it isn’t satisfying to lie. It’s only natural to seek to openly express your interests to others. People often construct their identities based on their interests; they introduce themselves as climbers, divers, artists, and writers. In each of those examples, the activity the individual partakes in is not presented just as what they do, but also who they are. The activity becomes who you are, and when you do it, you are expressing yourself. Furry works in the same way too, yet even though it is something that binds Furries into a community through social, written, and artistic expression, many do not openly express it. This is seen in the recent [adjective][species] data snapshots on how open people are about being involved with the fandom:

It is clear that self-identification as Furry does not correlate with public expression of Furry. One probable reason for such a relationship is the media’s negative perception of Furry, a view commonly expressed by Furries and documented by [adjective][species]:

The resulting belief of media scrutiny however, is a perception that does not correlate to current levels of coverage of Furry, a subject which does not appear frequently enough in both print and online news outlets to justify the belief. Regardless, it is clear that Furry is concerned with how it is scrutinised by the media, and this article seeks to explore that scrutiny when it does occur. Analysing recent articles from The New Yorker and Inquisitr, this article will analyse how they misinterpret and misdefine Furry in differing ways.

In the New Yorker article, if you can get past its overbearing style, lies an example of the misdefinition of Furries. For an article delving into post-humanist themes, it falls disappointingly short of understanding the relationship between post-humanism and Furries. Instead, it opts to group Furries with other eccentrics who have undergone attempts to become more ‘animal’; the article specifically mentions the case of a man who tried to live as a badger. As a result, the conclusion of the article rather predictably ends with the caveat that despite human attempts to become more animal, human beings cannot transcend their essential humanity and achieve animality – at best we are left with a human experience of the animal; the anthropomorphic, which, is the essence of the Fandom. The article interprets achieving ‘only’ the anthropomorphic as a failure by all the groups it has gathered together. As a result, the man who failed to live as a badger (to the extent of eating earthworms and living in an earth den) shares the same failure as the Furries who dress up in Fursuits and act like animals – that regardless of trying to become animals, both have failed to transcend their humanity and become animal. Yet this is erroneous, as for most Furries, becoming an animal in the total, ‘feral’ sense if you will, is not the goal. While it is for some, it is not for others – and thus one sees the problem of grouping individuals together without consideration of their individual differences.

One must be extremely suspicious of theories that attempt to create generalising, overarching statements over groups that have vast differences – or to use technical language, to create a ‘totalising metanarrative’. Thus, examining Furries at the same time as a man trying to live as—and thus become—a badger should be treated with the same scepticism one would get for saying anthropomorphic cave paintings are the same as modern day Furry art. Both examples are different, and do not share the same goals even if they share thematic similarities; it is not enough that they are simply anthropomorphic. The mistake of the article lies in imposing a meaning on two similar but ideologically separate groups in order to make them fit a general hypothesis. The nuances of both positions are lost, or one position ends up defining the other. One should examine the differences in a search to find that group’s own meaning, independent from the other. Put simply, such simplistic grouping inevitably places disparate things in the same box, when they should have a box of their own even if they belong on the same shelf. As a aside, thus article was written with the understanding that it’s analysis may well impose an interpretation on the fandom – an amorphous group of individual interpretations of Furry. However, that is something this article shall try to avoid, and neither shall it pretend that it is an authority to a community of individuals with their own valid opinions. Conversely, the problem with the media is that it does impose its own meanings upon Furry, either because journalists do not have enough time undergo extensive research, or that further investigation goes against the type of article they went to write.

From that introduction one can see how Furry can be misrepresented or misdefined in the media. For journalists, Furry seems something to either portray as exotic, with varying degrees of scandalous behaviour added to flavour the mix. For those who are not writing an article that investigates the curiosity of the ‘Other’, they often attempt to define Furry and understand it which, while admirable, carries the risk of defining Furry with little regard for Furries’ individual terms. Thus, Furry can be placed into a category which it wouldn’t necessarily fit – like The New Yorker did. Given the amorphous discourse upon what makes ‘Furry’ within the fandom, any disappointment one may feel arising from erroneous definitions and categorisations is justified. However it is understandable that mainstream media seeks to define Furry in a simple, bitesize way for its audience to understand as time and space are limited. Yet one must keep in mind that the media’s main objective is to cater to its audience, which inevitably is not Furries. As such, there will always be a disconnect – making readers understand and representing Furries accurately are not mutually exclusive. At its worst, the media can simply seek to reinforce the prejudices of its readership, which is not healthy for the Fandom.

This article is not advocating a conscious blockage of the media, because that is a futile gesture. Furries are always going to provoke curiosity, and such curiosity makes the Fandom news-worthy material. Even when the article is about clean content, Furry finds its niche as in ‘eccentric/curiosity’ article, in which the report navigates a fine line between celebrating difference and finding it as an object for ridicule – or simply, for the ‘norm’ to have an object which they can compare themselves too, and find themselves favourably. The latter method in particular can be a mode of reinforcing a belief of superiority for the audience’s own standards, and we inevitably find this when the topic turns to adult content. Adult content wouldn’t be a shock factor for most if sexual activity was seen as solely the business of the parties undertaking it. Yet sexual activity is a vexed topic, and so Furry sexuality is going to receive undue scrutiny because it deviates from the heteronormative standards society commonly holds. For media outlets this is a gift – as it takes little effort to be portrayed as shocking or depraved, and we’ve seen how Furry has been used to that effect in the past. Again, the intent of such pieces isn’t to understand, but to give its audience an object to ridicule – in this case, for entertainment and to feel superior because they are not ‘depraved’. Conservative outlets are more likely to do so than liberal ones; however a significant portion of articles on Furries question Furry sexuality. The response is usually a defensive ‘it’s a minority’ claim. This is telling in itself. The answer really should be ‘it’s not anyone’s business what consenting adults do’, and yet, the fandom is always put on the defensive by such questions, forced to justify itself as acceptable in terms of the readers’ standards, rather than our own. Why should society care about what people find attractive? If it is of age, and if it is consenting, does someone else’s opinions matter? Yet this is not the case, and such scrutiny in articles about the fandom reveals it is not allowed to speak for itself – it rather has to answer the questions of the outsider in a way that is acceptable to them, not to Furries.

When Furry tries to present itself so that it appears acceptable to an article’s audience, it closes down the most liberal aspect of Furry – that it celebrates and embraces a diversity of sexual preferences and fantasies, and for the most part, doesn’t bat an eyelid about it. Of course there are problematic preferences, but if those are of age and consenting, there’s rarely a problem. However, the media isn’t interested in creating nuanced, investigative reports – if audiences really responded to furry sexuality with no judgement over what consenting adults choose to do, then Furry sexuality would not feature.

One can see such scrutiny of Furry sexuality in a recent story about how the Disney movie Zootopia, was allegedly marketed to Furries. As the story spreads from the original Buzzfeed article (which did not mention sexuality at all), the original headline changes into another story, one that is about the scandal of perceived ‘deviant’ sexuality. The article from Inquisitr (aptly named for the witch-hunt it undergoes) takes the title about marketing, and then tries to prove it in a unique way – by attempting to read any hint of sexuality in the film as appealing to Furries’ sexual tastes. There is a sleight of hand here – the focus changes from having a film marketed to Furries, to talking about how the film appeals to Furry sexuality. As a result, this theme appears throughout the article:

“But this doesn’t seem to be an out of the blue connection between Disney and the Furries, as many of the characters in the movie seem a bit sexier than your average Disney creature. One of the animals, voiced by Shakira, was obviously drawn and selected by Disney to exude sex appeal.”

The original topic is twisted in favour of the story the journalist actually wants to write – a sex scandal about a Disney film and Furries, which at the end of the day underlines how the fandom can be misrepresented by those seeking to generate some scandal for their readership to consume.

“The Guardian is saying that Disney fans will find it hard to avoid learning a whole new vocabulary associated with the furry life. Let’s just say that predators and prey mean very different things than in the traditional sense.”

This particular quote is interesting because it is suggestive. Seemingly innocuous enough, the comment of a deviant, alternative predator and prey relationship, works by suggestion. It leads the reader on with a sentence that withholds any facts, in order to give the opportunity for the reader to answer what the alternative meaning is with their own prejudice.

“Tommy Chong, Idris Elba, and Ginnifer Goodwin are just some of the main voices that will lure in adults, as well as the theme of not being judged by your species, and the Mammal Inclusion Program, that helps the bunny Judy (Goodwin) become the first bunny to become a cop, and a sexy, sassy cop at that, who is actively being checked out by all of those around her.”

It’s surprising that this is a PG rated movie being talked about, considering the efforts of the author to extrapolate some sexual interpretation from it. It serves as a good example of a journalist taking one story and twisting it to write their own, ultimately misinterpreting the facts in favour of a more alluring story, no matter how erroneous. The mere mention of the word Furry starts an inevitable link to sex and sexuality, seeking some sort of scandal, which in this case, is ultimately one of misrepresentation and misinterpretation.

Moving on from adult content, another issue is the perception that those who read interviews from figures in the fandom can take them to be authority figures for Furry, that their explanations are the truth, rather than their opinion. Returning to the fact that Furry is a loosely defined collective – united by an appreciation for the anthropomorphic, or the animal. Even in that sentence, one can see Furry is hard to define, as it is easy to find Furries who represent themselves as anthropomorphic animals, or simply as ‘feral’ animals. A common explanation of Furry is that Furries have fursonas, yet there are people in the fandom who do not have one. The challenge for any article is how to define (and thus allow understanding) a subculture where its meaning depends upon individual beliefs? The media simply cannot, or does not understand that Furry has no iron-clad definition; rather, it is individual expression. Furry is lots of individual voices all saying their own thing, rather than one voice saying what they all are. The meaning of Furry depends on how it is expressed, rather than a set of rules everyone follows – because we do not. To speak personally example, my expression of Furry is anthropomorphic Celtic/Germanic warrior culture animals, with classical motifs thrown in for good measure of diversity (and lots of mead!). Warrior wolves clad in mail drinking in mead halls abound, and it is clear that it is an individual expression of Furry. Furry varies between other people – and that is wonderful. However, the creativity arising from the way Furries express their own ideals of Furry has to be condensed and simplified for an article, for both the sake of brevity and understanding. Such compression comes at a loss though. Hence, we arrive at definitions that Furry is about the anthropomorphic, animals, or fursonas – and while those simple statements certainly unite individual’s expressions, they strip away the creativity of each individual’s expression of Furry; the nuances that make people fascinating are gone. Articles with interviews in particular have trouble with this, as they have to negotiate between two issues when exploring Furry. One, that it doesn’t simplify an interviewee’s individual expression of Furry; however such attention can give that individual the danger of seeming like an authority figure because they are the only one speaking. Two, that it takes many individual’s expressions and finds a uniting, often simplistic theme, which prevents an authority figure from rising, but also removes the creative diversity that makes Furry what it is.

Finally, the last point about Furry in the mainstream media is simply a suggestion that it is not actually ready, ideologically, for what Furry does. Outside of Furry, we live in an epoch of our own making – the newly declared Anthropocene, an age where humans have an impact on shaping what goes on this planet. Human beings are undoubtedly in control and at the top of the order of things. This conflicts with Furry, because Furry is post-human, Furry reduces that superiority of human beings. Furry is not anthropocentric in a time when society is. Furry takes specifically human traits – our perception of the world, our human brand of intelligence, our lifestyle, language, emotions, etc., and places them in post-human bodies. Furry looks beyond the human and unities it with the animal – at a time when animals, though seen as capable of intelligence and perhaps emotion, are seen as lesser beings compared to humans. Furry is subversive because it marries human traits with animal ones, creating hybrids that remove once human traits and place them into animal mixes; it deprivilages essentialist ‘human’ traits. In doing so, this redefines our conception of what is exclusively human, expanding them into universal traits any sentient being can hold – a move which reduces the speciality, and thus the superiority of humanity we see today.

In conclusion, the question is not whether Furries should ignore the media. That’s a futile question because unless Furry was to move offline and live in a cave (like the badger man), it would probably still gain media attention. So should Furries be concerned with the media? No, for the reasons that have been given – misrepresentation, justification of adult content, pressure to appear acceptable, misdefinition, simplification, and being ahead of the times. To pick one reason above all as to why Furries shouldn’t bother about the media, it is that Furry is individual. How you express yourself matters more than what people say about it, and if no harm is done, what justification do other people have to tell you how to express yourself? Furry is creative, and that imaginative expression should not be diluted, simplified, or made to toe a standard line* for the sake of pleasing others. Just as some in Furry may find ‘sparkledogs’ or Germanic warrior wolves in mead-halls their anathema of Furry, the principle remains the same. Express your individuality, celebrate it.

 

*with thanks to Patch of Dogpatch Press for catching a typo

 

​Papabear,

​I’m having trouble accepting my significant other's possible sexuality. You can refer to my boyfriend as Skittles, his fursona name. We're actually engaged but I’d rather call him my boyfriend until we're married. Anyway, just the other day I found out he thinks he may be asexual. He was homosexual before, and I myself am bisexual with a preference for men, but I consider myself homosexual. I love him more than anything and vice versa, and do not really care what his sexuality is, but I feel like he's more confused than anything. I don't know what has caused this seemingly sudden change. and as much as I don't like mentioning it, we ourselves have “explored our sexuality” one time before. With everything I know about him, it just doesn't make sense. Don't get me wrong, I want to support him, but I don't think that's the right thing to do in this case.
 
Unfortunately, I'm all he has to really talk to. He has a dark past. Both of his parents are dead, and his mom was very abusive, an alcoholic, and a literal whore. He currently lives with his grandparents, who he simply just doesn't trust. I can't go to my parents for guidance about the situation because they don't like him ever since they found out about that one time when we "explored our sexuality.” They don't know we're together, or that I proposed to him. We've been secretly communicating through email for the past several months. However, they do accept me for who I am and have nothing against homosexuality. I fear that both his past and lack of guidance may be interfering with him.
 
Kaleb Fox (age 17)
 
* * *
 
Hi, Fox,
 
Okay, first let me point out a contradiction here: you say your parents “have nothing against homosexuality” on one paw, but that they don’t like your boyfriend because you “experimented” with sexuality (meaning, I gather, had homosexual intercourse). So, they can’t have it both ways, and I’m guessing they actually don’t like homosexuals, though it’s nice they seem to be trying to be supportive of you.
 
While you might be wrong on the above point, I think you’re likely correct about your suspicion that Skittles is confused. He has had a rough life so far, and he is no doubt struggling with his sexual identity. (I’m one person who can certainly vouch for the fact that we sometimes don’t figure out our sexuality as teenagers.) Perhaps he is asexual, but this bear’s instincts tell him that Skittles is just going through some phases as he tries to figure himself out.
 
Therefore, the best thing for you to do is to be patient with him and don’t push him in any direction when it comes to sex; let him work on it himself. There are many many many other aspects of a relationship that you can explore and share in the meantime. In fact, if I were you, I wouldn’t even broach the subject of sex unless Skittles does first. If he does, let him talk, just listen, and bite your tongue to prevent any reflexive verbal reactions. Think carefully before you speak.
 
More important than sex right now is your relationship as a whole. You need to work on not having a secret relationship, which might not fully happen until you are both of legal age, but if your parents are understanding, as you say, it might work for that half of the family. His half, however, sounds like they will be more difficult to deal with.
 
Hope this helps. Good luck!
 
Papabear

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

Cat Crimebusters, Part 1

Cat Crimebusters, Part 2

Cat Crimebusters, Part 3

Cat Crimebusters and Other P.I.s on Paws, Part 4

Three series that are not “cat cozies” (and one which is), that do feature cat P.I.s who really investigate, are the Manx McCatty Adventures by Christopher Reed, the Sam the Cat Detective novels by Linda Stewart, the Buckley and Bogey Cat Detective Capers by Cindy Vincent, and the Cats on the Prowl books by Nancy C. Davis. These are fantasies where the cats do all the detecting, mostly in feline societies. The first two are hard-boiled P.I. pastiches set almost entirely in the feline world.

A Manx McCatty Adventure: The Big Scratch. November 1988.

Manx McCatty, a streetwise San Francisco feline P.I., is hired by “respectable cream-lickers” to break up Gato Nostro crimelord Tabby Tonelli’s racket of snatching gentle, comely female housecats to sell into prostitution abroad.

Reed apparently considered this as the first in a series, but the Ballantine original paperback didn’t sell. A sequel was written, but wasn’t published until October 1996, and then only in Germany as Der Fluch der Weißen Katze: Ein kerniger Katzenkrimi. Translation: The Curse of the White Cat: A Polynuclear Cat Crime. The Big Scratch was translated as Die Katzen-Gang the previous year; both by Bastei Lübbe Verlag.

Sam the Cat: Detective. February 1993.

The Big Catnap. August 2000.

The Maltese Kitten. December 2002.

The Great Catsby. September 2013.

The first of these is a broad satire of the whole Chandleresque hard-boiled P.I. genre. Sam is the Russian blue resident cat of a mystery-theme bookshop. When three flats in a luxury New York apartment house are robbed, sultry penthouse housecat Sugary hires Sam to find the real human burglar to keep Max, the custodian (and friend to all the apartment house’s cats) from being framed. Sam the Cat: Detective was a Scholastic, Inc. Young Adult paperback original, but it became an MWA Edgar Award nominee. It is reprinted as a Chelsea House Books all-ages title.

Stewart’s next two novels, original Chelsea House paperbacks, were The Big Catnap and The Maltese Kitten; specific parodies of Raymond Chandler’s 1939 The Big Sleep with P.I. Philip Marlowe and Dashiell Hammett’s 1929 The Maltese Falcon with Sam Spade.

In the first, Sandy, a star of TV catfood commercials, disappears. There are two human suspects. One demands a ransom, while the other wants to replace Sandy with his own cat actor. Sam must find which is the actual kidnapper, and enlist the help of the neighborhood cats to rescue Sandy before the villain can dispose of him.

In the second, sexy, slinky Miss Wonderful asks Sam to retrieve her beloved kitten whom her human companion gave away for adoption. Sam guesses the truth is more complex when the trail leads to burglarized houses, unconscious humans lying next to empty cat carriers, and a tough cat gang orders Sam to drop the case. It definitely helps to have read The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon before reading The Big Catnap and The Maltese Kitten.

Stewart seemed to have run out of hard-boiled P.I. mysteries to parody, but after more than ten years she came out with The Great Catsby, a parody of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 The Great Gatsby. That is not a hard-boiled P.I. novel, but Stewart made do. When the proprietor of Sam’s mystery bookshop goes on a vacation to ritzy East Ham (instead of West Egg) on Long Island, he takes Sam along. Sam visits the neighboring estate to see his cousin Pansy, the housecat of mystery author Rex Trout. Pansy fears that she may be murdered by a human gangster as a warning to Trout. Pansy, a languid female playgirl, is a friend of Georgia, a housecat of mysterious millionaire J. J. Smythington who also owns Catsby, an old acquaintance of Pansy who is also mysteriously wealthy, with unlimited catnip and fluffy balls. Sam attends rich parties at Smythington’s mansion where he treats his human guests lavishly and Catsby does the same to his feline guests. When Trout’s mansion is shot up and he disappears, Sam investigates seven human suspects who each have dirty secrets that their cats know. As with the others, it helps to be familiar with The Great Gatsby to get all the literary references. One wonders which literary work Stewart will tackle next.

The Case of the Cat Show Princess. November 2011.

The Case of the Crafty Christmas Crooks. October 2013.

The Case of the Jewel Covered Cat Statues. September 2014.

The Case of the Clever Secret Code. October 2015.

Most of the other cat-detective series are for adult readers, or for “all ages”. The Buckley and Bogey Cat Detective Capers are for juveniles; officially 8- to 12-year-olds, although I would put the age rating as for 6- to-10. Since they are for young children, this is the only cat-detective series that does not feature solving murders; nothing stronger than robberies and hidden treasures. Buckley and Bogey are two black cats belonging to cat-loving Abigail and Mike Abernathy and their 12-year-old daughter Gracie. Bogey is named after Humphrey Bogart as P.I. Sam Spade in the Warner Bros. movie of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, while the larger but younger Buckley is his hero-worshipping acolyte. Together they have started the BBCDA to solve cat-related crimes, using their human Mom and Dad’s home computer when the humans aren’t looking to impersonate humans in phony e-mails. As in other novels in this sub-genre, all the cats understand human language but they aren’t revealing it.

But the Buckley and Bogey Cat Detective Capers are excessively simplistic. The cats don’t just understand English; they speak it except when any human is within earshot. Then they meow in their secret cat language of feline. Bogey knows the difference between English, French, and Spanish. All the novels contain blatant clues that tell young readers that something is wrong; the cats realize this immediately, while the humans supposedly never do.

In the first novel, international cat shows are entered by an arrogant Austrian Count and Countess with a pampered white cat-girl with a diamond necklace upon a silk pillow. Only the cats know that the Count and Countess brutalize their show cat regularly. (And isn’t a “Count and Countess” from a country that’s been a republic since World War I a clue that something is fishy?)

In the second novel, somebody is burglarizing the homes in the Abernathy’s town at Christmastime and stealing all the presents. The police are clueless while Buckley and Bogey solve whodunit, and lay a trap to make the robbers reveal themselves to the other humans.

The third novel presents hugger-mugger in the dinosaur exhibit at the local museum, and a parade of suspicious characters after a long-missing treasure.

The fourth novel features a famous Hollywood mega-star who comes to the Abernathys’ small home town in a limousine with his entourage of secretaries, writers, stunt men, makeup artists, etc., and announces that he has decided to make a blockbuster hit movie there – with no mention of any studio or other actors. All of the other townsfolk including the police are star-struck; only the Abernathys sense that something feels wrong, while their cats know that this isn’t the way that movies are made. Summary: the Buckley and Bogey Cat Detective Capers are not recommended even for children, despite some glowing reviews from cat-lovers who think that they’re too, too cute.

The one that is a “cat cozy” is Cats on the Prowl by Nancy C. Davis, each marketed as an “Exciting New Cat Cozy Mystery told from a Cat’s perspective”. This is unusual as being presented as different volumes of the same title.

Cats on the Prowl, Book 1. August 2015.

Cats on the Prowl, Book 2. October 2015.

Cats on the Prowl, Book 3. November 2015.

Willow, a fluffy white Persian cat, comes to live at the Nelson Police Station. She is quickly taken under paw by Nat, the station’s tabby tom veteran police cat. Nat, Willow, and the town’s alley cats do their own sleuthing.

In Book 2, Nat and Willow attempt to investigate a new human murder, but they are sidetracked by gang warfare between the Thorndale and Stevenson alley cats.

In Book 3, the two police-station cats investigate the murder of the owner of a luxurious Cat Hotel for pampered pussies. One suspects that the very short time between these three novels means that the publisher (Collins Collective) stockpiled them before publishing any. Books 1 through 3 were published between August and November 2015, then nothing. Will there ever be a Book 4?

– Fred Patten

In this episode, we talk about time travel! Lots, and lots of time travel. Approximately two weeks of time travel.

Enjoy hearing Voice, Yanarra, and Roland talk about romance and slice of life. Listen to amusing anecdotes, life experiences, and our take on romance sub-genres and slice of life stories.

Send us your feedback, questions, concerns, complaints:

@FangsAndFonts

Facebook.com/FangsAndFonts

Fangs and Fonts

Click below to Listen http://www.fangsandfonts.com/FnF/Episodes/Ep61-A_Slice_of_Romance.mp3

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Ep 61 – Slice of Romance - In this episode, we talk about time travel! Lots, and lots of time travel. Approximately two weeks of time travel. Enjoy hearing Voice, Yanarra, and Roland talk about romance and slice of life. Listen to amusing anecdotes, life experiences, and our [...]

Voting is now open for the 2015 Ursa Major Awards — the furry community’s highest honor. In late May at What The Fur in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, awards will be presented to the best anthropomorphic media from 2015 in eleven categories: Best Motion Picture, Best Short Work or Series, Best Novel, Best Short Story, Best Other Literary Works (compilations and non-fiction), Best Graphic Story, Best Comic Strip, Best Magazine (print or on-line), Best Published Illustration, Best Game, and Best Web Site. Voting will remain open until April 30th, so visit www.ursamajorawards.org to get the full list of nominees, then register to vote.  2015 was a good year for furry stuff in many categories — and of course, 2016 is looking even better!

image c. 2016 by Heather Bruton

http://www.dallasobserver.com/slideshow/the-fast-and-the-furriest-at-the-furry-fiesta-2016-8123650

This is just a huge photo album, nothing reallt to the article other than that.

http://www.dallasobserver.com/slideshow/the-fast-and-the-furriest-at-the-furry-fiesta-2016-8123650

This is just a huge photo album, nothing reallt to the article other than that.

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

Endtown 3, by Aaron Neathery. Foreword by Carol Lay.
Bellevue, WA, Jarlidium Press, December 2015, trade paperback $25.99 (279 [+ 1] pages).

Endtown is an Internet M-W-F comic strip of the dramatic serialized variety rather than the gag humor sort; a Dick Tracy rather than a Pearls Before Swine. It’s dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction with funny animals.   To quote a blurb, “A mutagenic plague followed by a global war fought with disintegration weaponry has left much of the Earth a desert of fine powder and what remains of humanity fragmented into humans, animal-like mutants, and bloodthirsty monstrosities with lots of teeth. The surface, still teeming with the mutagenic virus, has become the domain of the dreaded Topsiders; well-organized, technologically advanced, and heavily armed un-mutated humans sworn to exterminate mutations of any kind in order to clear the way for the eventual resurgence of a new, genetically clean humanity. Faced with annihilation, mutants and “impure” humans have retreated into the depths of the planet to form communities and hope to win, or at least survive, what may prove to be mankind’s final war.”

Endtown is set six years after the global doomsday war. The surface of the world is a lifeless desert. Most humans are dead, either killed in the war or mutated by the plague into mindless, horrific, ravening monsters. The only exceptions are those who were unconscious or asleep when the plague changed them; those became anthropomorphized animals with their minds and memories intact. Six years later, the world is divided between the Topsiders, the remaining humans who live in airtight protective suits and kill anyone else they find as a non-human plague carrier, and the animal-peoples who live underground in hidden towns.

Endtown began on the Internet on January 18, 2009, and is still going.

The book collections have a complex history. Jarlidium Press published Endtown 1 and Endtown 2 in June 2012 as attractive trade paperbacks on high-quality paper at $12.00 each. Endtown 3 and Endtown 4 were published in July 2013 at $15.00 each, but Jarliduim Press announced that their printer had raised its prices so much that even with its price increased to $15, the books would sell at a loss except by Jarlidium Press itself at dealers’ tables at conventions. It promised to republish them in a quality that could be sold on Amazon.com at an affordable price. This happened in December 2014, with larger paperbacks on lower-grade paper. The new Endworld 1 contained both 1 and 2 of the first edition, and cost $24.99. Endworld 2, published at the same time at the same price, similarly contained the older 3 and 4 collections.

Now the book collections have caught up and are moving ahead. The new Endtown 3 contains the strips from October 25, 2012 to July 10, 2015, printed two strips per page of two tiers each, or four rows of two panels each.

Endtown’s protagonists have evolved slowly since the strip began, but the two in this book are Wally Wallechinsky, a cat-man who had spent five years living alone in the Topside wastes before being brought forcibly into underground Endtown, and Holly Hollister, a mouse-woman working as an Endtown waitress. Wally and Holly fall in love, but each has an unrevealed backstory.

Endtown 3 contains two long story arcs. In the first, Endtown is on the verge of falling into civil war between those who want to hold onto their humanity as much as possible, and those who embrace their new animal natures. Holly is one of three animal-women put on trial for “disgusting” animal acts, such as cow-women using their milk to make dairy products, or chicken-women scrambling their eggs to be eaten. Although this is not technically illegal, and a panda bureaucrat promises that there will only be a show trial with the three women embarrassed but not hurt, there are too many signs that the trial is intended to end with the women sentenced to death. Wally and his friends set out to free Holly, and find so much cynicism and factions willing to use their unknowing supporters as martyrs for their causes that Wally and Holly decide to abandon Endtown and take their chances on the surface.

In the second story arc, Wally and Holly meet two Topside humans, Jim and Sarah, who are willing to turn into animals to cure Sarah of cancer. Jim and Sarah become a raccoon and a lizard, but all four are captured and brought to another underground town inhabited entirely by lizard-people. The plot of this arc revolves around a new form of species prejudice, and a new form of apocalypse. Many are killed.

Endtown is grim but fascinating reading; well-drawn with intelligent, taut dialogue. It was an Ursa Major Award finalist in 2011 and 2014 in the Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story category. As with other Internet comic strips, you can read the whole thing for free on the strip’s Archives; but reading the book is so much easier than waiting for each strip to upload. Buy the book, and the odds are that you will become a regular reader of the online comic strip.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• Fred’s Reviews of Endtown 1 and 2 on Flayrah
• Fred’s Reviews of Endtown 3 and 4 Old Editions on Flayrah

1. Tell us about your most recent project (written or published). What inspired it?

That would be Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard, which was released by Tor Books on December 29th. The elevator pitch for the book was “Dune meets The Sixth Sense, with Elephants.” It’s a story about prophecy, intolerance, loyalty, conspiracy, and friendship. I invented some new subatomic particles for the book, which I combined with theory of how memory works, to create a galaxy in which a rare drug makes it possible to speak with the dead. All of the characters are anthropomorphic — uplifted animals to use the SF term, or as I prefer to call them “raised mammals.”

The origins of the book go back almost 30 years, to when I was a professor at New College in Florida, and legendary furry author and editor Watts Martin was the roommate of one of my students. Watts invited me to participate in an RPG based on Steve Gallacci’s Erma Felna: EDF, and despite the preeminence of felines in the story, I got it into my head that I wanted to RP an elephant character and started riffing on what their world was like. We never did play that game, but I began writing a novel and Watts even published the first two chapters in the pages of Mythagoras.

2. What’s your writing process like? Are you a “pantser,” an outliner, or something in between?

Like a lot of authors I started out as a pantser, but nowadays I’m a born-again outliner. Back in 2010 I participated in Walter Jon Williams’s master class, the Taos Toolbox. Walter teaches a technique called “novel breaking” in which you basically tear a book apart and rebuild it, scene by scene. When you’re done, you not only know how each scene advances the plot, informs characterization, serves the story (or possibly combinations of two of these, or even all three), but you can see how the scenes interconnect and support one another and serve the narrative engine driving the novel. I like to think of it as creating the completely articulated skeleton of a novel. Everything is there, and it all hangs together, and all you have left to do is add the flesh (words) to it.

When I have a completed set of novel “bones” like this, I can sit down and pick up any scene and I know exactly what’s going to happen there, who’s going to do it, and what it’s going to tell me. It’s a very nicely defined task. How I choose to arrange the words to make all of that happen is the fun part!

3. What’s your favorite kind of story to write?

One that teaches me how to do something I didn’t know how to do.

This may mean I’m stretching my range by trying something new — like writing in a subgenre I’ve never tried before — or perhaps pushing myself to get better at an area where I’m weak — like taking on the task of creating more complex plot and pacing.

I don’t think you ever finish learning how to be a writer. I’m always striving to be a little bit better. Some stories allow me to grow more than others, but when I can see clear improvement in my own style and process, that’s incredibly satisfying to me.

4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why?

The main protagonist of Barsk is a Lox, an uplifted African elephant (Loxodonta africana) named Jorl. He’s an academic, an historian who really just wants to stay home and do his research and write books and articles. He doesn’t get to.

There’s a long tradition of reluctant heroes who really have no interest in going off and having adventures or shaping the future or defeating evil. They enjoy their routines and they don’t want to be bothered and don’t tend to think of themselves as possessing the kind of agency necessary to do things.

There’s an awful lot of me in Jorl (and likely vice versa).

5. Which authors or books have most influenced your work?

My earliest influences were authors like Burroughs and Heinlein and Le Guin and Zelazny. They’re among the first authors I discovered and devoured. Nowadays I look elsewhere for influence and inspiration. Writers like China Mieville, and Daniel Abraham, and Karl Schroeder. They dazzle me with their abilities to tell stories, to present rich and compelling ideas, to engage the reader’s interest and emotions.

6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved?

That would probably be Charles E. Gannon’s Raising Caine, which is the third book in an ongoing series. The first two were very enjoyable (and both received Nebula Award nominations), but in this third one we’re starting to see all the pieces coming together and it’s deliciously compelling. I know Chuck, and every time I run into him at a convention I demand to know where he is with book four; I’m hungry to learn what happens next! You’d think that as a friend he’d hook me up as a beta-reader or something.

7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?

Does anyone ever answer this question without laughing? Free time? Seriously?

Writing and reading are both pretty sedentary activities. For reasons of health, I’m trying to find ways to move more, and in the past year that’s taken the form of geo-caching. Sometimes this has me wandering around in urban settings and sometimes along nature trails or out in the country. It gets me hiking and exposes me to sunshine, and  fresh air (and last summer, a brutal case of poison ivy) all while searching for tiny containers with random bits of silly swag. It’s fun and good for me, and often while I’m tromping around I’ll get ideas for new fiction or work through particular scenes that I’ve been writing. I highly recommend geo-caching for authors.

8. Advice for other writers?

Think in different time frames. You plan differently when writing a short story than when writing a novel, and you need to apply that same process to planning a career. We all want immediate satisfaction, but it’s important to have long term and far ranging goals.

When you know you’re going to be in this profession for the duration, it changes the way you look at the daily pieces.

9. Where can readers find your work?

In a perfect world, you’ll all rush out and pick up a copy of Barsk at your local bookstore. Here’s a quick Amazon link for your use: http://j.mp/BARSK-HCamz

Both of the Amazing Conroy novels are out of print, but are still available in ebook form. Quite a few of the stories from that universe are being offered for free under a Creative Commons license at Moozvine.com, which is a new publishing option that’s part CC license and part crowdfunding; a very fresh idea and one that I was happy to get in on the ground floor of, I hope you’ll check it out.

10. What’s your favorite thing about the furry fandom?

Unfortunately, I haven’t been exposed to much of it, but I’ll be changing that in the coming months. It’s going to be tricky because my schedule for this year is jammed, but I’m trying to squeeze in trips to a couple furry conventions. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about furry fans, and it’s past time for me to experience them directly. I just hope they like elephants.

 

Check out Lawrence M. Schoen’s member bio here!

Papercutz (home, once again, of Geronimo Stilton and family) have a new series of three Disney Graphic Novels coming to bookshelves later this month. Volume 1 is based on the world of Disney’s Planes (which is based on the world of Pixar’s Cars, of course). Volume 3 is called Minnie and Daisy: Best Friends Forever, which probably speaks for itself. Most unusual perhaps is Volume 2, entitled X-Mickey. “It’s a supernatural Disney adventure as Mickey Mouse meets Pipwolf, a werewolf who bears more than a passing resemblance to Goofy! X-Mickey is a fun Disney series that introduces everyone’s favorite mouse to another dimension full of spooks, ghosts, goblins and more. Accompanied by Pipwolf and an albino mouse named Manny, Mickey must do everything he can to keep Mouseton safe and keep these creatures locked up where they belong.”

image c. 2016 Papercutz

This time, on a very special episode of unfurled: We talk about a gun rights advocate getting shot by her own son in while driving, a naked man escaping the police after breaking into a little old lady's house, and microsoft getting creepily pushy about your upgrade to Windows 10. Also we'd like to give special thank you to our newest $3 level patron, Killick! Episode -45 - The UnFurled shark is a total nerd.

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag.  Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com. Thanks to Dronon for editing help!

Furry Media Events have never been so frequent!

Big stories come in clusters.  A blog reports something, more blogs catch on, and the story trades up to syndicated news. In Furry fandom, that used to happen maybe once a year… and that could be predictable stories about Anthrocon.

Dogpatch Press is only 2 years old, but there’s been a noticeable spike. There was the chlorine attack at MFF. #TonyTigerGate hit the “weird news” section. Not 6 weeks later, there’s THREE in the same week – Zootopia marketing to Furries; Syrian refugees at VancouFur; and notices for the Fursonas documentary.

It’s so much that you get two Newsdumps this week.  Soon: “all the controversy in the media”.  The pace makes it hard to keep up with the Year Of Furry!

Zootopia marketing to Furries – (Look for another article about this soon.)

It blew up with a Buzzfeed column full of fetish-snark: Proof Disney Is Actually Marketing “Zootopia” To Furries.

• Zootopia on WikiFur: Media notice and controversy about marketing to furries.
• Is Disney Marketing New Movie ‘Zootopia’ to Furries? (Inquisitr)
• Disney Seems to Be Embracing Its “Furry” Fan Base (Vanity Fair)
• Disney’s ‘Zootopia’ and furries: a match made in marketing heaven? (The Oregonian)
• Is Disney targeting its Zootopia marketing strategy toward Furries? (National Post; Canada’s right-wing newspaper)
• How The Marketing Of ‘Zootopia’ Won Big By Getting Weird (Forbes; disable ad-blockers)
• Disney is marketing ‘Zootopia’ to furries because it would be crazy not to (The Daily Dot)

How Disney Influenced Furry Fandom – (Look for another article about this soon, too.)

Furry artist Joe Rosales posted a retrospective about how Disney influenced the Californian side of Furry Fandom in its formative years, including early fursuiting.

(Patch comments:)  Good, but it doesn’t give enough credit for sci fi fandom, and misses early fursuiters like Robert Hill who were not professional (and not G-rated, either.)  The unnamed animator must be Shawn Keller, maker of the notorious Furry Fans flash animation and comic… if he didn’t want to be named, he shouldn’t have published “Shawn Keller’s Horrifying Look at The Furries.”

(Dronon comments:) Not only Robert Hill, also Ed Kline. Unnamed animator is undoubtedly Shawn Keller, he was the first fandom fursuiter. Skunk was not his first suit; that was actually Chip and Dale – one suit, but easy to change the costume to be one or the other because they looked so much alike. I heard a rumor from Robert King that an anatomically-correct canine fursuit wandering openly at CF6 or 7 (which I saw) might have also been Keller to deliberately piss people off, just a few years before his attack comics and flash animations. Rosales also skips over the huge influence of the Disney weekday afternoon cartoons in the late 80s through the mid-90s, plus The Lion King movie in 1994. That was a gigantic thing in the fandom. A number of animators were briefly in Vootie and Rowrbrazzle, usually just a page or two here and there. Tim Fay can rattle off a whole bunch of names.

Rod O’Riley preparing another “Art of Furry Fandom” gallery show in Southern California.

Rod is one of the founders of furry fandom, and co-host of the Prancing Skiltaire meet. Previous shows were written up for Flayrah.

Once again we are hosting an Art of Furry Fandom display at a Gallery in Santa Ana (CA) through the month of May. We are seeking out framed art to show, but we need to receive it by the middle of April. If you’re interested, we would love to have you be a part of this! Please let me know if you can.

Syrian refugees meet fursuiters at Vancoufur.

Vancoufur’s 5th convention happened over March 3-6, 2016 and got some local media coverage.  But what really attracted international attention was this:

• These Images Show What Happens When Furries Welcome Syrian Refugees With Open Paws (News.Mic)
• Syrian refugees in Canada got housed in same hotel as VancouFur furry convention and the children loved it (The Independent)
• Syrian refugee children dance with furries after being placed in same hotel as VancouFur convention (New York Daily News)
• A Furry Convention Welcomed Syrian Refugee Families to Canada (Vice)
• Syrian children met a load of furries in a hotel and it was brilliant (Metro, UK)
• VancouFur Bear Hugs Syrian Refugees (The Australian Huffington Post)
• Migrants Settled in Hotel Hosting Furry Convention (Breitbart)
• Syrian refugees greeted with furry culture shock at VancouFur convention in Canada (International Business Times)
• Syrian refugees placed in hotel hosting a furry convention (BoingBoing)
• Awww! Furry Conference-Goers Comfort Syrian Child Refugees (Unicorn Booty)
• Conspicuously absent – the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Culture shock much? Some Syrian newcomers are staying at a hotel where the #VancouFur furry convention is going on. pic.twitter.com/rPi6HN72Lz

— Ziya Tong (@ziyatong) March 8, 2016

Kyell Gold summarizes the fandom in Uncanny Magazine.

If you’re looking for a way to introduce the fandom to people who are fans of science-fiction and fantasy, furry novelist Kyell Gold has written an excellent description of some of the basics.

Tempe O’Kun reports from Brazil.

Abando, Brazil’s first furry convention, will not be continuing. Still, there’s a nice little con report by Tempe O’Kun.  To replace Abando, the organizers of the local bowling meet intend to start a new convention called Brasil FurFest.

Disney’s DuckTales will be coming back!

We have our first look at an image made for the revival of Disney’s DuckTales cartoon, which should be premiering in 2017!

This Tiger. Put together just in time for Texas Furry Fiesta: 

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AMAZING FURRY NEWS COMING SOON – Obama Declares National Furry Day In #7!

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The Furry Gang Menace: Are Your Teens Being Pressured To Draw Cartoons And Give Hugs?

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 6, 2015

6-2-1-ADPITHT Rule For Con Hygiene: 6 Hours Sleep, 2 Meals, 1 Shower, And Don't Poop In The Hot Tub

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 6, 2015

Amazing Secrets For Using Club Soda And Ordinary Household Ingredients To Make Crusty Fursuits New Again

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 3, 2015

Gay Trekkie Clown Feels Plain And Boring At Furry Convention

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 6, 2015

Urban Legend: Boll Weevils Will Not Infest Your Tail If You Share Seats With a Bunny

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 7, 2015

Furry Tries To Convince Club Doorman He's Over 21 In Dog Years

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 13, 2015

As of this writing, Disney Animation’s Zootopia remains number one at the box office in the USA and several other countries, breaking records left and right for an animated film — Disney or otherwise. Now Joe Books (no, we don’t know who they are either) bring Zootopia to their Cinestory series of comic book adaptation. Telling the story of plucky bunny cop Judy Hopps and “articulate” fox Nick Wilde in the all-mammal city of Zootopia, using full-color stills from the movie in comic form. Diamond Distributors have more information about it.

image c. 2016 Joe Books, Inc.

this is an in-between-a-sode! Xander and Draggor wax politics, both the current race, conflicting left & right philosophies, and exactly what is behind it all. Deep Shit: Politics! - this is an in-between-a-sode! Xander and Draggor …