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FC-227 FurCast Prime - No CJ this week. Fayroe and Paradox dive into the world of science, culture, politics and religion in this strange episode filled with legitimate discussion. Or not.
No CJ this week. Fayroe and Paradox dive into the world of science, culture, politics and religion in this strange episode filled with legitimate discussion. Or not.
Watch Video Media Discovery:- Zootopia ad in germany
- Where’s the fair use?
- Katsucon damage
- Flickr album of Anthrocon 1997
- Patreon CEO’s video
- Eternal 5D Data Chip Can Record All Of Human History
- Wolves have different Dialects depending on Species
- Males Vs. Females and sexual conflict
- Scientists get ‘gene editing’ go-ahead
- Maverick – “Religion and the fandom”
- NethGooRat – “Furry In A Human In A Furry In A Human”
[Live] FurCast Prime - No CJ this week. Fayroe and Paradox dive into the world of science, culture, politics and religion in this strange episode filled with legitimate discussion. Or not.
No CJ this week. Fayroe and Paradox dive into the world of science, culture, politics and religion in this strange episode filled with legitimate discussion. Or not.
Watch Video Media Discovery:- Zootopia ad in germany
- Where’s the fair use?
- Katsucon damage
- Flickr album of Anthrocon 1997
- Patreon CEO’s video
- Eternal 5D Data Chip Can Record All Of Human History
- Wolves have different Dialects depending on Species
- Males Vs. Females and sexual conflict
- Scientists get ‘gene editing’ go-ahead
- Maverick – “Religion and the fandom”
- NethGooRat – “Furry In A Human In A Furry In A Human”
FC-227 FurCast Prime - No CJ this week. Fayroe and Paradox dive into the world of science, culture, politics and religion in this strange episode filled with legitimate discussion. Or not.
No CJ this week. Fayroe and Paradox dive into the world of science, culture, politics and religion in this strange episode filled with legitimate discussion. Or not.
Watch Video Media Discovery:- Zootopia ad in germany
- Where’s the fair use?
- Katsucon damage
- Flickr album of Anthrocon 1997
- Patreon CEO’s video
- Eternal 5D Data Chip Can Record All Of Human History
- Wolves have different Dialects depending on Species
- Males Vs. Females and sexual conflict
- Scientists get ‘gene editing’ go-ahead
- Maverick – “Religion and the fandom”
- NethGooRat – “Furry In A Human In A Furry In A Human”
Confessing Sexual Kinks Could Improve the Relationship
I would love it if you could help me understand my biology and why I'm feeling so bleh about it. I've been with my boyfriend for over a year and a half and as far as emotional support, romantic interest, and communication go we are doing pretty swell. The part that's been driving me crazy is the sex ... or lack thereof. Everyone saw that line coming.
Though there's a snag that I'm having trouble finding info on. We are an open couple online. We allow each other sexually interact through role play, under a few rules. I know he still gets aroused but he seems content to idly tease himself online than come seek me out. I asked him if I can be a part of that and he said he didn't want our relationship to be brought down to trivial levels like that. It was almost as if he were embarrassed by it but he does it a majority of evenings.
Then on the other side is my own biology. I have never been so pent up in my entire life. We have been open online since the beginning. only when we moved in together did it start being a problem. I feel starved for intimacy. I'm the one who goes to him for 80% of sexual interaction. I'm the one whose always complementing him and flirting. And it's starting hurt more when he rejects and satisfy less when we do do the nasty. What the heck is wrong with my brain chemistry?
I love this man. I haven't connected with someone like this before. And I'm too stubborn to let something like this ruin what I have that's wonderful. You are the wise guru of furries. Any advice?
Anonymous (age 24)
* * *
Dear Furiend,
Why “do emotions gotta be so stupid?” Well, because they are not connected to the brain, but to the heart, which contains no grey matter. But to the point: this is another case of online porn getting in the way of real-life sex. I had a letter similar to yours last year in which the couple had a loving relationship, but the man was having some difficulties. In that case, it helped the woman a lot to change her strategy by approaching her husband in a low-pressure way. Sometimes, believe it or not, a guy feels a bit intimidated by a mate who aggressively approaches him for sex (other men love that, but it varies). That might be the case here.
The other thing you mentioned was how he wouldn’t let you participate in his online role playing. He said he felt it would trivialize your relationship; you said it seemed more like he was embarassed. My sense is that you are probably correct. He’s somehow ashamed of whatever fantasy(ies) he’s indulging in online. What you need to do in this case is get him to open up about his fantasies to you in a frank discussion of your sexual preferences. You might need to be the one to break the ice here by “confessing” to him some of your kinkier preferences (works best if he doesn’t know one or two of them), and then invite him to do the same, telling him that you accept him and love him for who he is and that everyone has a kink or two that might be considered outrageous in “normal” society. Jim and I had this frank discussion years back, and the result was he had a much happier time in bed (no, I won’t tell you what his kink was, but it was “unconventional,” though hardly rare).
There is nothing wrong with your brain chemistry. You’re fine and you deserve a satisfying sexual relationship. (Oh, and just a note: sex is not “nasty”; it’s a beautfiul thing, a bonding thing, a natural thing. Remember, language is powerful, and the subtleties of using negative language in any discussion can lead to someone misinterpreting your attitudes and opinions). If you can afford it, you might try some sex counseling. So many people go it alone and end up not being able to communicate their needs properly, and the result can be the breakdown of the relationship. I know it’s hard to do at times, and it might seem trite, but talking is the best thing the two of you can do. If you want to someday take this relationship to the next level, you’ll need to resolve your sexual complications, obviously.
Hope that helps, at least a little. Write again any time if you need more input or have more information to offer.
Hugs,
Papabear
Guest post: “The Critique Masochist” by Frances Pauli
As an art school veteran, I am no stranger to criticism. When I create something, I not only expect critique, I immediately crave it. Critique is necessary, it’s useful, it is required. And the more brutal the better. In essence, I have become a critique masochist. How could this have happened? Let me explain.
Art majors at the college level spend their week something like this… Monday through Thursday are filled with studio classes–three hour sessions of drawing and/or painting in the classroom. Sometimes, it’s a clever arrangement of old knickknacks, vases, and Styrofoam balls and sometimes an assortment of nude models which is not nearly as exciting as you might imagine when you’re trying to get the lines right.
Friday, however, is critique day. On Friday, you gather your week’s work, tack it to a wall, and wait for the guns to start firing at you. You learn to love Fridays or you aren’t going to be in art school very long. Freshmen feared the week’s end. Those with tenuous egos invented reasons to be ill on Friday. You could try to dodge, but no matter how clever you were, eventually, it was your work on the wall.
There were only two rules in a peer critique and they are very good ones. First, you must remain absolutely silent while your work is being trashed–er, examined. Second, a critic may not say “I like it” or “I don’t like it” unless the statement is immediately followed by a detailed explanation of “WHY”.
Fridays were fun days in the school of art. If someone wasn’t crying in the halls between classes, it wasn’t Friday. I’m serious. People fled critique day, people sobbed. Some stomped straight to administration and switched majors. But, no matter how you look at it, Friday was a good day. It was Friday that turned me into a critique masochist.
So, back to writing…and critique. Critique is a good thing. It is the single most vital tool to becoming the best at any creative endeavor. We cannot be our own critic. We can try, and please do try. It’s required, you HAVE to learn to look at your work objectively. On the flip side, you will never, ever be as objective as your reader in Connecticut who’s never met you. Seek out the guns. Please. As you do, remember a few things to nurse a happy relationship with criticism. It will find you eventually anyway. If not before publication, then after.
DETACH: Your work may be your baby, but it’s not your baby. Any discussion of your work is not a personal attack. It is not your job to protect it. It is your job to let it be ripped to shreds and reassembled into something better, and golden, and closer to perfect.
EGO AWAY: Put it in a box, lock it in its room, whatever. Your ego will be needed later (when the rejections roll in and make you want to quit) but while receiving and giving criticism, it’s dead weight and will only botch up the whole process.
LISTEN: With both ears and the whole mind. Listen and consider the slim possibility that the critic may be right. Don’t waste time disagreeing or mentally arguing, listen. Listen and pretend they’re a genius–just for now.
SALT: When you have listened, considered and absorbed, THEN remember the grain of salt. This is an opinion–one person’s opinion or a whole class’ opinion, but still an opinion. Do you agree with it? Try. If not, stick to your guns and trust that you know your own goals. Don’t ever think that a suggestion is a rule, that you must change and adapt to every criticism or you will never stop fixing and changing things back and forth. Do change what you agree with. Do give serious thought to any suggestion that comes up more than once, or over and over again from different sources. But in the end, you decide.
Remember the two rules–they are good ones. Don’t interrupt. Never argue during the critique. If anyone ever says, “I like it” or “I don’t like it” insist on a detailed “why.” Embrace the horror–that is, the process– and learn to love it. Laugh at your mistakes and yourself often. Eventually, you might find yourself craving it, needing it. Personally, I’m suspicious of anyone who reads my work and doesn’t pick it apart, at least a little. Don’t trust the “I loved it” or the “It’s great” without further discussion! With a little practice, you too can be a critique masochist.
This post first appeared on Speculative Friction.
Shadow Walkers – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Shadow Walkers, by Russ Chenoweth.
NYC, Charles Scribner’s Sons, April 1993, hardcover $13.95 (153 pages).
Shadow Walkers is one of those unillustrated novels that make it very difficult for the reader to decide whether the talking animals are supposed to be natural, unclothed quadrupedal animals or bipedal, clothes-wearing funny animals. Set on Cape Cod during winter, and featuring two rat children, Sara and her brother Peter, the different scenes imply both situations. Cover artist Gregory Manchess has prudently avoided depicting any of the characters.
“Rats are good climbers, but rats are good at many things that they are ordinarily too sensible to do. If Sara had told her parents what she planned, they would have asked her not to do it because it was dangerous and unnecessary. So she hadn’t told them, and that troubled her. […]
The trunk rose above her like a wall for thirty feet before the first great limb jutted out, as large itself as a good-sized tree. […] Sara climbed, carefully and surely, stopping every few feet to listen. She was exposed here and nearly defenseless, but still nothing moved in the woods. She felt safer when she had reached the limb and could stretch out for a moment on the rough bark and look and listen. […]
Two feet below the highest leaf, she had to stop. The branch had shrunk to less than half an inch and bowed slightly with her weight. It was high enough. […]
She never knew what made her glance down in time to see the shadow glide among the dim trunks with the silence of a moth and settle on a limb below her. It was an owl, a very big one, and he had decided for some idiotic reason to change his daytime perch and come to join her in her tree. […]
He couldn’t see her against the light – he or she. It didn’t matter – she’d get no concession either way. Owls had little sense of smell, but they could hear a seed drop on the forest floor. She’d better not shake off any acorns. He would hear her move or cough. […] He might wait all day, knowing she was there, and then in darkness come and pick her off the branch like a ripened peach.” (pgs. 2 and 4)
That certainly sounds like a natural rat and owl in a tree. But then:
“Peter watched from an opening in the tall grass as the large tiger cat progressed down the back steps of the library building and stood at the top of the path, only its whiskers showing any interest in the scene below. […]
‘Melvil,’ Peter called softly.
‘Peter? I thought I smelled a rat.’
Peter laughed politely and came up the path to where the big cat waited.
‘It’s good to see you, Peter. Will you come in for coffee?’
‘Thank you. I’d like that.’ The pleasure in the old animal’s voice had startled him. He hadn’t realized that his visits were important to the library cat. He followed Melvil up the stairs and through the flap into the workroom and then down the dark corridor to the kitchenette. […]
‘Is this a social visit, Peter, or would you like to use the collection?’
‘A bit of both,’ Peter answered with a twinge of guilt. ‘I did mean for us to have a talk.’
‘Well then,’ said the cat, ‘it had best be over coffee.’ He flipped on the light and bustled about the pots and pans while they talked of the small doings of the mid-Cape.” (pgs. 8-9)
So: natural animals or funny animals? Or a bit of both? Chenoweth plays it both ways. Cape Cod has its housepet and its wildlife communities, which despise each other.
“The rats, by contrast, were admired and feared, though equally avoided. The fear was unjustified, but fully understandable. Most animals made do. Rats had made their own society. Its outlines were flexible but strong, and their culture was very old and deep. Peter’s own species, the Norway rat, was the largest and most widespread, and they were familiar to their human neighbors by many names: the house rat, the sewer or wharf rat, and, locally, the water rats. The local phrase had stuck and had long ago become a family name.” (pgs. 9-10)
The rats have taken on a social responsibility to both animal communities:
“French’s old hound had an accident, I heard?’ It was clearly a request for information.
‘I’m afraid so,’ Peter answered. ‘An assisted accident, I gather, though I know little of it. They say he’d become a menace.’ To put it mildly.
‘Oh dear,’ was all that Melvil said.” (p. 10)
Peter’s and Sara’s rat home sounds very like the rats’ home in Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH:
“The rough plaster walls of Peter’s room were painted white and hung with drawings, bits of driftwood, and other objects that once had caught his fancy: a barrel stave, a piece of fishing net with colored floats, and Appleton the rattlesnake, the grisly gift of a playmate who’d been ordered to dispose of it. In a place of honor, where he could see it from his bed, was a watercolor of the marsh and dunes and sea and sky as seen from their own porch. His mother had painted it at his innocent request when he was young, and it served him better than a window on the world above.” (p. 18)
“And they talked. What rats do best, Sara thought: talk and eat. They talked about her studies, what all grown-ups asked about, in desperation, perhaps, and hope of some common ground or, as Luc said, genuine interest in her. Luc and Lasa were really interested, it seemed. Sara was learning French this year, from prim old Mademoiselle. She had a name, but she was known to three generations of adoring students as simply Miss. For how long and when the old rat had actually lived in Paris was unclear, but she recreated the experience convincingly for dozens of rat children who dreamed of romantic strolls along the Seine. Sara hoped someday to study Greek literature with Lasa, but not yet. She didn’t dare to mention this.” (p. 51)
“Their music was a shameless and nearly total borrowing from European classical traditions. There was music by Rattish composers, of course. It was interesting and favored the abilities and limitations of rats, but it was rarely adventurous. As with the other arts of life, rats were fine performers and sometimes brilliant in adaptation, but they lacked the demons that drove men to creativity.” (p. 56)
The rats wear backpacks, dig with shovels, have electricity in their burrows, smoke cigars, read humans’ books and write their own in Rattish about rat history, and Peter and his friend Tom are trying to scrounge or build the components to make a radio; but the novel does not contain any descriptions to let the reader know whether they wear clothing or go on two legs or four.
After 68 leisurely pages of building a picture of the peaceful and cultured rat community of Cape Cod, Peter and Tom complete their amateur radio and get into communication with the distant rat community of North Cape. The latter have just had a fire that has destroyed their insulin supply. “There were only about a dozen cases of diabetes at Cape End, Peter remembered. Human insulin would do them no good, of course. The rodent product was made in Bayport, a hundred miles away, but there were supplies here and at several places on the upper Cape.” (p. 69) Peter, Sara, and Tom offer to take the resupply; a journey of a week or more.
It should be safe enough, but the three rats are adventurous adolescents who lose no opportunity to get involved in human affairs. They bring aid to a man having a heart attack; they foil a bank robbery; they discover illegal dumping of prohibited waste. During these mini-adventures, the three young rats debate whether they should follow the age-old rat custom of never getting involved in human affairs, or act for the greater moral good of both species when they discover a crime that should be exposed. The ending leaves their decision still unformed.
Shadow Walkers is a bit frustrating in that there is very little drama. There is no big adventure; the characters are seldom in real danger; and what they decide to make of their adult lives is only implied. But a detailed picture of a peaceful rat society living in the shadow of human civilization is painted. Should this society risk calling itself to the attention of the humans by offering its cooperation for the potential benefit of both? You decide.
The Good, The Bad, and the Bunny
Writer Carlo San Juan and Eisner-Award nominated artist Rod Espinosa have combined their talents to bring us a new 4-issue full-color steam-punk fantasy comic mini-series, Immortal Wings. “Deep in the wild wastelands of the cosmic frontier, bounty hunter Blaze and her draconic partner, Gruffyd, combining fighting prowess and magical might to stay alive as they make a living. Now they dodge the forces of the Galactic Shogunate, as they have partnered with the greatest threat to the empire’s reign…a bunny named Mortimer. ” We think it makes more sense if you read it. Regardless, it’s on the shelves now from Antarctic Press. There’s an interview with the creators over at Two Geeks Talking.
image c. 2016 Antarctic Press
Episode 305 - Podcasts Du Jour
The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily, by Dino Buzzati. Translated by Frances Lobb. Illustrated by the author.
NYC, Pantheon Books, October 1947, hardcover $2.75 (146 [+1] pages).
The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily, by Dino Buzzati. Translated by Francis Lobb. Illustrated by the author.
NYC, New York Review Children’s Collection, December 2003, hardcover $18.95 (147 pages).
The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily, by Dino Buzzati. Translated by Francis Lobb. With an introduction and reader’s companion by Lemony Snickett. Illustrated by the author.
NYC, HarperCollinsPublishers/Harper Trophy, February 2005, paperback $5.99 (186 pages).
This is a book that I never expected to review. It was one of the first library books that I read, from the Los Angeles Public Library, presumably when I was seven years old since the American edition was published at the end of 1947. I loved it! I read and reread it, and memorized several poems in it. I still remember this, after almost seventy years:
One, two, three, four
These dark thoughts soar
Fear, sorrow, doubt, despair
Hover in the midnight air.
I eventually grew up and forgot about it. I was reminded of it this January when Jim Korkis mentioned in his column on animation history that Heinz Edelmann, the art designer of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine animated feature (1968), had later seriously tried to produce an animated feature of The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily, but had failed to get financial backing for it.
This led me to see whether Wikipedia had any mention of the book. It does, but the Wikipedia article just says that it was a famous Italian children’s book, La Famosa Invasione degli Orsi in Sicilia, published by Rizzoli in 1945, and “The American hardcover edition was published by HarperCollins in 2003 and the paperback was published in 2005, also by HarperCollins and The New York Review Children’s Collection.” Not only is that slightly inaccurate, there is no mention of the 1947 American edition that I read! This seems unfair to me, and since the LAPL still has that 1947 edition, here is my review of it.
I am also reviewing it because I think that it’s a book that adult furry fans will enjoy, especially those with children.
“Sit still as mice on this occasion
And listen to the Bears’ Invasion
Of Sicily, a long, long while
Ago when beasts were good, men vile.” (p. 21)
The bears live high in the mountains of Sicily, where life is hard and there is little to eat, but they like it. One day the bears’ King Leander (il Re Leonzio) and his little son Tony are searching for food when two human hunters capture Tony and take him away. King Leander is heartbroken, but he accepts this. Years later there is a particularly harsh winter and the bears are all starving. They resolve to go down into the lands of men because they have nothing more to lose.
“But one night in haste a messenger cried
‘A snake has been seen on the mountain side!’
And a serpent appeared, made of little black dots,
He-bears and she-bears and bear tiny tots.
‘Bears?’ laughed the Duke, ‘Just leave them to me,
And soon you will see a great victory!’
And then there was heard a fanfaronade
As the Grand Ducal army came out on parade.
‘Forward, you dogs! Quick march, you cattle!
Tomorrow at dawn we go forth to battle!’” (p. 26)
Guns! Battles! Monsters! Wizardry! Crime! Drunken orgies! Ghosts! Treachery! Blood! This was stronger stuff than was in any American children’s book in 1947. Buzzati’s prose is just as good:
“It was in fact the horde of wild boars of Count Molfetta, the Grand Duke’s cousin, coming to the rescue. Instead of soldiers, this important noble had trained an army of huge, savage pigs to war, and these were very wild and extremely brave, and celebrated all over the world. The Count cracked his whip from the hilltop on which he was standing so as to be out of danger. And on came the terrible boars at the gallop, their tusks whistling in the wind!” (p. 37)
An introduction to the 2003 edition says, “If the bears’ famous invasion of Sicily sounds too distressing to read alone, that’s because it is.” Don’t You Believe It! (but Lemony Snickett’s notes to the 2003 edition are worth reading). This is a wonderful book that is really for All Ages (meaning you adult furry fans), and can be read by an older 3- to 7-year-old reader by him- or her-self.
The Sicilian bears’ King Leander leads them into the humans’ lowlands during a desperately cold winter, hundreds of years ago. The tyrannical Grand Duke fights them with cannon and evil magic, but the bears are ultimately victorious. The bears settle into the capital city of Sicily, and King Leander tries to establish a peaceful kingdom of bears and humans alike. But the noble bears are corrupted by human vices, and King Leander finds himself having to deal with ursine crime and debauchery. Finally treachery against King Leander himself is discovered! But who among the bears’ royal court can be the villain?
Buzzati has been called by some art critics an amateur or a bad artist, but his own illustrations for The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily are Just Right. As a young child, I was particularly impressed by the corrupt bears’ orgy showing drunkenness, gluttony, gambling, fighting with wine bottles, and (since the now-civilized bears have adopted clothes) nudity. Strong stuff for a seven-year-old. (Much later, I read about how Carl Barks was ordered to redraw a barroom brawl in an Uncle Scrooge comic book because the editor considered Barks’ original too strong for 8-to-12 readers.) Several reviewers dismissed the book as too adult for children; but one pseudonymous reviewer, Anokatony, said, “I suppose the ideal audience would be children of the age of six or seven, maybe just before they are of an age for action movies.”
Dino Buzzati (1906-1972) was an Italian novelist, short story writer, theatrical and radio scripter, opera librettist, poet, and artist, but primarily a newspaperman for Milan’s Corriere della Sera where he was a reporter, essayist, art critic, special correspondent, and editor from 1928 for the rest of his life. During World War II he served in North Africa as a journalist attached to the Royal Italian Navy.
His life was active and colorful. John Bemelmans Marciano, the grandson of Ludwig Bemelmans and the continuer of his Madeleine children’s picture books, said, “Reading The Little Prince [by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry], you may feel like you are in the company of an author who can elevate you to the heavens. With La famosa invasione, you ride shotgun to a man who would come over to your house, drink all your liquor, burn your house down with his cigarette, and still manage to convince you how lovely a waltz the flames were dancing.” After the publication of Tolkien, La Famosa Invasione was compared to Tolkien “with the addition of a certain satirical edge.” Buzzati himself dramatized La Famosa Invasione for the stage, where it was performed in Milan in 1965.
La Famosa Invasione degli Orsi in Sicilia was his only children’s book. It was first serialized in Milan between January 7 and April 29, 1945 in Corriere dei Piccoli; the final installment appeared the same day that the machine-gunned bodies of Benito Mussolini, his mistress, and 14 of his ministers were hung upside down in a Milan city square by the citizenry. It was published as a children’s book by Rizzoli on December 10, 1945. The story and its reception were heavily influenced by the war that had just ended. A review in Life magazine in August 1948 said, “… the book stirred up protests both before and after publication. Buzzati’s publishers made him delete one illustration showing Russian-looking bears conquering a Nuremberg-like city because it might be offensive to the Germans. A good many Italians thought the bears in the story were Sicily’s U.S. invaders.” The 1947 American edition was in fact printed by Rizzoli, reusing the 1945 Italian dust jacket.
So I’ve reread The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily. Yes, it’s as wonderful for adults as it is for children. Guns! Battles! Monsters! And so on. The 1947 edition is long out-of-print and a valuable collectible today, but fortunately the 2003 hardcover and the 2005 paperback editions, with Lemony Snickett’s commentary, are readily available in cheap used copies at most bookstores. And check your local public libraries.
The 2005 edition adds Lemony Snickett’s reader’s companion analyzing the story, chapter by chapter (there are 12 chapters plus Buzzati’s introduction, a cast of characters, and the scene). Each chapter’s analysis includes a moral lesson, a list of “questions you may find interesting”, and a “suggested activity”. One of the possibly interesting questions: “It is almost impossible to find an interesting story – a true story or an imaginary story – that does not contain violence. Why is that?” (p. 167)
Incidentally, there are no bears in Sicily. Never have been. Or mountains as tall as those in this story, although Sicily does have lower mountains, including Mount Etna, one of Italy’s most active volcanos.
Humans and Werewolves vs. Vampires
Horror writer Steve Niles has a thing for vampires — just not in the usual settings, as he proved with his famous comic book 30 Days of Night. Now, he’s taken them in a more science fiction direction with his latest work: Broken Moon, illustrated by Nat Jones and published by American Gothic Press. Here’s their summary: “After the world’s superpowers go nuclear on one another’s lunar mining colonies, destroying much of the moon, the human population of earth is largely wiped out in the ensuing natural disasters. In the wake of humanity’s near extinction, the monsters that had been banished to the shadows have risen up and seized power. The kingdom of vampires thrives under the cover of nuclear winter on the east coast. The werewolves live like nomad outlaws, prowling the plains of the west. And in the north, Dr. Frankenstein and his army of the re-animated wait. But while an uneasy truce has existed for decades, the clouds are beginning to recede, threatening the vampires and their dominion. War is coming.” The werewolf tribes and the few remaining humans form an uneasy alliance to keep the vampire lords from destroying the world. Want to find out more? Check out the preview over at Comics Alliance. The first volume of Broken Moon is on the shelves now.
image c. 2016 American Gothic Press
Fur-Esports: A Competitive Gaming Team for Furries.
Dogpatch Press welcomes Smash Capps for his first guest post. He’s an eSports journalist who wrote about getting a warm introduction to furry at Further Confusion 2016.
At the Daily Dot’s “20 Under 20” series, see a profile of Sonic Fox, also appearing below. Their article came out with perfect timing after this one was completed and scheduled.
Fur-eSports logo
Of all the ways to promote the furry community at large, this may be one of the most unique attempts yet: Fur-eSports. This creatively named group looks to be “An eSports team for Furries, by Furries,” according to its Twitter account.
For those who do not know, the term eSports generally refers to competitive gaming. Many furry conventions hold gaming tournaments and some have even been reported on by their communities. eSports however, is something much larger than that. For games like League of Legends, grand finals matches can bring in over 14 Million viewers and fill entire stadiums to watch a match. Even on the smaller end of eSports events can be huge. The tournament Evolution 2016, one of the longest running fighting game tournaments of all time, plans to have its grand finals at the Mandalay Bay Events Center: a 12,000 seat entertainment complex that has hosted Katy Perry, UFC Fights, and even the Latin GRAMMY Awards.
Are there enough furries to support a large team for these kinds of events? 51% of U.S. households own a dedicated game console. 42% play video games at least three hours a week according to the Entertainment Software Association. It should come as no surprise that many of these people would also be among the fandom.
In fact, one of the most prominent Mortal Kombat X players is openly a furry and even wears furry attire while competing at events:
cR | SonicFox has been Evo champion for three games including Injustice: Gods Among Us and Mortal Kombat. He currently boasts 15.k followers on Twitter and is sponsored by Critical Reaction, making it his career to play video games. Last year at Evolution 2015 he competed in front of over 190,000 viewers watching online and thousands more at the event.
With so many viewers tuning in and seeing a furry win an event, could furries in eSports do big things to gain acceptance and respect for the community?
eSports journalist SabreWolf (and recently joined member of Fur-eSports) thinks so. “Respect for the orgazination will in turn provide more respect for furries and fur-culture.” he told us. “Even just seeing a bunch of FeS [Fur-eSports] members competing in tournaments will break down the barrier some other people have with their perception of furries.”
It seems not only could it help with outside perspectives, but for those people within the community looking for camaraderie and support. According to the application form to join the team, one of its goals is to be “a group of furries working together as a crew of sorts so we can all meet fellow fuzzy, scaley, feathery, (you get the picture) gamers and improve our skills.”
Wheeler, co-founder of Fur-eSports, discussed the future goals for the team with us. “To start, we are offering furries a place where they can meet others in the fandom and gain promotion and coaching from some professional furries in the field of eSports. In time we hope to help players by keeping their team organized, finding events to enter and teams to practice against, and eventually fully fund players to go to events. The other co-founder wants to see FeS do great things, but in my eyes personally, as long as it’s a safe haven for furry gamers to just be themselves and have fun playing the games they love, I’ve accomplished what I’ve set out to do. “
Sabrewolf confirmed it as a positive place to be. “I’ve really enjoyed the friendliness and atmosphere within the server and simply gaining more people to enjoy talking with.” he said. “It also feels lovely to be more open with you know just being a furry and the community aspect almost strengthens your pride with it. FeS definitely offers something different, warmer and more personal than other organizations for us. With time, development and growth we could easily build each other up and become something really big and cool.”
One of the challenges to face would be finding companies to sponsor the team.
Usually large companies step in and help provide funding for teams so they can fund their players in exchange for advertisement of their brands. Streaming services like Twitch, Hitbox.tv, and MLG sometimes sponsor teams, so they only stream on their channels while other companies require advertisements for their products or for players to use their products. With the unfortunate stigma surround furries in some circles, it may prove difficult to find similar sponsorships for the team.
However there is always the possibility of finding sponsorship simply within the furry community itself.
Services like FURSTREAM could be used over traditional services as an example. There is also the potential for companies that publish furry fictions to join in with promotion for books they publish, in exchange for sponsorship. Art websites like Weasyl, FurAffinity, or newly growing FurryNetwork could sponsor the team in exchange for featuring art and artists exclusively on their platforms.
There is also the value of WTF to consider. Some companies may dive in to support the team anyways, in order to use “the weird factor” to promote themselves. This must have proven powerful as them team recently acquired its first sponsor in NoScopeGlasses, a company that makes gaming glasses.
The Fur-eSports team itself is already growing quite quickly. The Twitter account was almost at 100 followers less than 24 hours after it existed, and has received over 90 applications for furs wanting to join the team and compete in several titles. Leaders of the Splatoon community have shown support as the team attempts to form a team there. The Smash 4 team is already sporting at least 20 furs who want to train together and represent the brand.
Know how to #GetWild in #Splatoon? We could use you! Come apply to join us! – https://t.co/eBQvdO6kY7 pic.twitter.com/Elc7jZyTr7
— Fur-eSports (@Fur_eSports) February 8, 2016
“I enjoy seeing everyone talk and have fun with each other, and I’m still sort of amazed at how quickly we’ve grown from the small group that started it.” said Wingnut, the artist who drew the Fur-eSports logo. “We already have a lot of skilled people and it’s only going to go up from there. I imagine there will still be a lot of controversy over furries in the community. It would be hard to get rid of that, but I think FeS has the potential to alleviate that.“
“My fellow co-founder and I are both furries and play Smash Bros.” Wheeler told us. “We were just joking around one day and I said ‘a lot of furries play smash/video games, what if there was a group/team just for them?’ The idea just kind-of stuck, and the work began to happen.” So far the team seems off to a good start.
The team is currently recruiting players in an effort to strengthen the team. Could furries potentially dominate in the world of gaming and bring more eyes positively to the scene? Only time will tell, but this effort looks like an interesting place to start.
From Deep in the Disney Vaults
IDW Publishing have a new hardcover collection out of truly rare comic strips. From their web site: “After more than 80 years—the complete Silly Symphony newspaper strips are collected in English for the first time ever! The artwork for these rare strips has come straight from the Disney vaults. Each page has been meticulously colored using as a guide the original bound file copies that belonged to Walt Disney himself! This first of four volumes includes all the strips featuring Bucky Bug, the first Disney character to be originated in newspaper comics. The book also includes the very first Donald Duck newspaper strip—an adaptation of The Wise Little Hen. Other classic adaptations are Birds of a Feather, Penguin Isle, The Boarding School Mystery, The Robber Kitten, and Cookieland.” Also, Westfield Comics has an interview with Bruce Canwell, associate editor at IDW.
image c. 2016 IDW Publishing
Episode -49 - Luster is not here
Episode -50 - Cheesy sexual predators
FA 006 Breakups - How do you breakup with grace?
Hello everyone!
Breakups suck. But how can they suck less? When should you call it quits and how should you breakup without causing drama in the fandom? Also, how do you handle jealousy from a mate that is not in the fandom?
For more information, including a list of topics by timestamp, see our Show Notes for this episode.
Thanks and, as always, be well!
CONTENT WARNING: We discuss abuse and physical assault in this episode. Please see the show notes for time stamps if you would rather avoid those topics!!
FA 006 Breakups - How do you breakup with grace?VICE looks back on the Midwest Furfest attack, earning kudos for thoughtful journalism.
You can’t get inside (The Hooded Utilitarian, 1/5/15) is one of the few best “mainstream” articles about furries. ‘Mouse’ wrote it with the perspective of an insider looking at outsiders who want an inside look:
“Furries are a little ridiculous. We have an understanding about that. But every blip of attention, even an attack on our second-most populated convention, investigated by authorities as an intentional act, is an occasion for poking fun. Midwest Furfest is in Rosemont, Illinois, and this year it attracted 4,571 fuzzy folks. My wife and I are regular attendees, though this year work obligations found us elsewhere. Very early Sunday morning on December 7th, someone laid chlorine powder in a ninth floor stairwell. Nineteen people hospitalized (one of them a good friend of mine), and hundreds endangered and inconvenienced, and all of them odd ducks. Please remember how odd they are, and that they sometimes have sex, which is odder still. So the gorge of distrust between our community and the media grows wider. “We’re just not going to talk to you people any more,” we tell ourselves periodically, when the eye of mainstream culture is upon us. Mainstream culture then obliges us. A pity, because insulation from outside scrutiny is poisonous for any human endeavor. But who is ready to cover us?”
The Midwest Furfest attack was perhaps the biggest spotlight moment for how furries and the media look at each other. The media didn’t come out looking so great. It was strange when a bunch of silly misfits kept the higher dignity.
A new article in VICE (2/11/16) breaks through that recursive mirror. It’s a refreshingly direct look back, engaging us personally with no giggling about the misfortune of strangers. It leaves outsider baggage at the door, while reminding us where it is. The attack is unsolved, but the lack of conclusion doesn’t matter. It’s about recognizing how impactful the story is. 
This would ordinarily be a small Newsdump item. It gets a full headline because it ties to many extra points and inspires sharing more to the story. And it gets a special thanks for great journalism to Jennifer Swann. Past VICE articles haven’t always been so worthy. Here’s the points that make it great.
Informative value. The police investigation uncovered no new answers, but this needed update shows the limits of what they found, and how they closed the case for lack of evidence.
Thoughtfulness. The storytelling puts you in the footpaws of someone whose hobby accidentally becomes a national issue. (Call it “coming out of the kennel.”) When a maligned subculture suddenly needs empathy, what does it mean to get some? It gently pokes readers to think about normativity and civility, when those can be scarce on the internet. (Case in point: the article’s predictably nasty reader comments.)
Writing about the impact of an event can make further impact. Exploitation media is thoughtless about that. That’s why I did background checks on the writer when she contacted Dogpatch Press to research the piece:
“After the Vanity Fair story was published, most furries collectively decided to shun the press, banning reporters from attending conventions. It’s the reason most of the people I spoke to for this story were reluctant to grant an interview request, initially referring us to spokespeople or doing extensive background checks to ensure I had no intention of misrepresenting them.”
Visuals. Among those doing documentary photography of furries, Tommy Bruce stands out for being most intimately involved. Being at the attack put him in the story as more than a tourist. He sent photos here when it happened. Good for Jennifer Swann for finding and involving him. It’s a great item for a furry artist’s professional resume, and shows how her piece was so careful to engage this community.
Further interest. The article brought out more stories that deserve a highlight. On Reddit, InfinitySquared comments:
“I still remember trying to shoo people outside when the alarms went off. See, conventions have an unfortunate tradition of someone ALWAYS pulling the fire alarm, so people just don’t pay much attention any more.
“This is NOT a false alarm, we need to evacuate NOW. No, it’s NOT another false alarm. No, out THIS door here. No, you CAN’T go up to your room for your coat. Yes, it’s fucking cold out. No, out THIS door HERE, you can look for your friends across the street. No, DON’T block the driveway, we have ambulances coming.”
I was in shorts and a T-shirt, I literally got hypothermia while directing pedestrian traffic for an hour. Like, my girlfriend walked me to McDonald’s, and I stood under the hand dryer’s warm air for ten minutes before I could start shivering.
My girlfriend counted ambulance and emergency units from at least thirteen different suburbs, because we needed them all STAT.”
The attack was random enough to make me wonder if it was a prank gone wrong from someone stupid on the fringe of the community. I wondered, did targeting the 9th floor mean they were way inside and part of the con? Or was that just a better way to spread chlorine gas? Chlorine is heavier than air and sinks down.
Midwest Furfest is run well enough that it overcame the attack positively. Other cons in 2015 didn’t have such luck with drama. On Flayrah, GraemeLion left a comment of experienced perspective that shows the strength this community can have:
My suspicion in this is that Rainfurrest has had problems over multiple years…
Contrast that with MFF, which has an incredibly stellar relationship with the hotel. The hotel asks MFF’s hotel liason for things, and things get done. There ARE problems at MFF, many of them. Tons of them. I’m good friends with a board member and there are always fires being juggled. BUT the attendees don’t see them, the action never drops below or outside executive staff, the hotel gets resolutions within hours if not minutes, and the event is none the wiser.
So when a chlorine gas attack occurs, and the hotel is evacuated, the hotel can trust that this is outside the scope of what is expected behavior at the convention. They can address it with the board members and executive committee, (who all found each other and were liasing with the hotel and law enforcement, I suspect), as the event was unfolding. The whole process could have killed different cons, but conventions that have good relationships and a history of getting things done and controlling the expectations and actions of the guests like MFF only looked like an even stronger entity for it.
So that’s the difference. MFF didn’t look bad out of the chlorine attack. They looked amazing.
This VICE article deserves recognition. If exploitation media continues to be a problem for furries, this kind is an antidote. That’s why I would like seeing the Ursa Major Awards add a specific category for nonfiction media, or excellence in journalism.
To encourage more goodness, please nominate Jennifer Swann’s article for an Ursa Major award at the end of 2016. (The “Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work” category includes nonfiction.)
Furfunding Highlights 2.17.16
Illustration from Mutant Genlab Alpha, tabletop RPG now on Kickstarter
Time keeps slipping away…every year around Furry Fiesta my update schedule gets away from me entirely, this year’s no exception. So a brief update from pornfundingland, and a lot of projects I wish I could spend more time on…
Sort of an end of an era, but one that we could see coming—Offbeatr, arguably the most established adult crowdfunding site, shut its virtual doors. In fairness, they hadn’t had any viable projects in a long time, probably five this year, and that’s an optimistic guess.
For us, Offbeatr will be remembered as a very fur-friendly site. We were their favorite kink. Go us!
Is there an heir apparent? “CumFundMe” tried, but it really seemed to focus on live, female, human videos, with a splash page filled with smiling ladies, selfie-style. It kind of felt sleazy and not very conducive to fantasy-type creativity. Also their website is down, which doesn’t speak well for it. I recently got a message from “Yourotica.net” saying they were going into crowdfunding, but it’s a story website with only 30 members and less than 70 submissions. I can’t imagine they’d be a viable platform any time soon. We’ll see.
A cute and fast-moving card game with an arcade fighter vibe, mammals vs. reptiles. And this extremely cute cat. His name is Pumpkin. I love Pumpkin.
Fur Vs Scale is having a slow start, not even at 10% after launch, which is generally a bad omen for a campaign. But the art is solid. Game play? Hard to tell. I’m not familiar enough with their core concept to guess. Would love to see it in play.
I love Goldenwolf’s art, she’s always been one of my favorite anthro artists. I know she’s kicked up some controversy over the years, and that’s its own story, but as one of the few furry artists who’s had some success simultaneously in the genre and outside the fandom, she deserves at least a golf clap.
She’s also really solid on crowdfunding, with six listed campaigns on Indiegogo. She started small, with some stickers, then followed with more serious content. Now she’s releasing her third Indiegogo-funded sketchbook. Work that platform, Goldenwolf!
I don’t really have a lot to say about this one, it’s…turtles. This one’s a miniatures-based sewer crawl, with fun miniatures, a good cast, and Splinter, you almost have to love Splinter. Sadly, Splinter only comes with the Kickstarter edition of the product. I can hear the bills unfolding now.
This kickstarter started with a very high goal—$250,000!—and amazingly, it’s just under $500,000, and blew past many, many stretch goals (Splinter, Casey Jones, Old Hobb…) With eight days on the clock, will Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fans of the world be able to add Bebop to the game? I suspect so.
I feel like I’m missing a beat, because I’m not actually familiar with this tabletop gaming system. I’ve flipped through Mutant Year Zero’s recent edition. Never picked up the original, which was apparently published 30 years ago (!) and was a part of the 80s tabletop RPG boom. In fairness, it was Swedish.
This standalone/supplement is focused on the “furry mutant revolution,” escapees from dark laboratories. The art is pretty damned amazing, particularly for non-furry anthro work. The world looks entertainingly grim, but post-apocalypse games really should be! And it’s almost past $60,000, which is ten times its lowball goal of $6000. Woo! I don’t trust lowball goals, but with a legit game company that usually shows it’s more about pre-buy and gauging interest than actual funding. So there’s that.
For a “complete” list of furry/fur-friendly crowdfunding projects, check out the Project Page New Projects ArtFuzzy Colors (Ends: 3/5/2016)
Coloring-for-adults product with very furry content, from 11111.
Goldenwolf’s Sketchbook #3 (Ends: 3/5/2016)
The latest project by the perennial and very crowdfundy Were artist, Goldenwolf.
Wilybeasts! (Ends: 3/8/2016)
Garden statues and possibly a children’s book, vaguely in the style of Where The Wild Things Are.
Inktober 2015 (Ends: 3/9/2016)
Art collection by Ishaway Friestad. Having a hard time summarizing the artist’s style, sometimes minimal, sometimes intricate and stylized.
Check the artist out on Furaffinity, her work is minimal, tribal, intricate, all kinds of words.
The Trial of the Majickal-Elders (Ends: 2/29/2016)
The third and final part of the Matlock the magical hare series, with spiraling and intricate art and vocabulary.
My opinions about the charm (high), art (good), and word-creating (strangleable) posted a few years ago…
The Pride of Parahumans (Ends: 2/29/2016)
Anthro sci-fi illustrated novel by Zarpaulus.
Unfortunately, the sales story on Kickstarter doesn’t show the product well :( Decent interior illustration though.
Compendium of North American Cryptids and Magical Creatures (Ends: 3/7/2016)
A humorous and cartoony field guide to north american cryptos (and Wyverns? Those aren’t North American!) now with TWO different werewolves!
Okay, my dog breed is sometimes misidentified as a chupacabra. Therefore, I have to like this product. Cards on the table.
Cyantian Chronicles V3 (Ends: 2/25/2016)
The latest web-to-print collection of Shivaecat’s Cyantian Chronicles furry sci-fantasy webcomic.
Gears and Bones Graphic Novel (Ends: 2/26/2016)
Dark and gritty, sword-and-sorcery anthro title with a deadly rabbit swordsman as the lead.
I get this comic every month, but it’s not for everyone. Very gritty and over-the-top, in the Conan style.
Jonathin Quackup of the Planet Weralt #1 (Ends: 3/9/2016)
A mini-campaign for a duck superhero comic, with other anthro strangeness. A bit rough, but it has its charms.
Over goal. I’m on the fence about the art, it’s primitive but sometimes really works.
Pony D&D Charity Special (Ends: 4/9/2016)
A bid to get voice cast from My Little Pony together for a live Dungeons and Dragons play charity event!
Bad Zoo (Ends: 4/16/2016)
Adults-Swim style cartoon series pilot: ‘What if a bunch of circus animals were retired, and ended up in a zoo, and were all drug addicts?’
Not in love with this one, but it was too on-topic to skip entirely. Check their website for the poster.
WeLink (Ends: 3/11/2016)
Okay, this is technically a dog tag and owner pendant, but I’m sure a lot of furry couples would like it as one of those two-part necklaces. Now, who’s the dog and who’s the owner?
Multimedia
The Stellae Key (Ends: 3/18/2016)
Pony-inspired webseries and music CD by OhPonyBoy. Episode 1 is already on Youtube!
Eee. Perky French sci-fi keytar pony spaceship :) This is full of win!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past (Ends: 2/25/2016)
An intricate TMNT sewer-crawling board game with nice miniatures Splinter stretch goal unlocked :)
Almost double its high goal of $250,000. Wow!
Parallax: Warbands (Ends: 3/4/2016)
A skirmishing minis game with an anthro cast and a dark gladiatorial fantasy style.
Last time around this game *nearly* made goal…
Escape Room in a Box – The Werewolf Experiment (Ends: 3/4/2016)
Part mystery box, part one-night party, a cooperative game modelled after the escape room concept. But this time, it’s a countdown to becoming werewolves.
Way over goal. How do you play this game with furries? ‘Oh, wait, he wants to make us werewolves? Should we be scared?’
Mutant: Genlab Alpha (Ends: 3/4/2016)
An Anthro-focused expansion or stand-alone for the post apocalypse tabletop RPG, Mutant Year Zero.
Way over its lowball goal :) And great artwork!
No Mercy: Kitty Vs Aliens Card Game (Ends: 3/13/2016)
Cute artwork and humor bring a lot of life to this game loosy based on the simple card game ‘War.’
Over goal!
Fur Vs Scale: A Fantasy Card Game with Arcade Fighter Themes (Ends: 3/18/2016)
A high-energy card game with a cast of anthro characters, mammals vs reptiles. And arguably the cutest of a long line of cat mages from the last year.
FNAF Lego Minis (Ends: 3/12/2016)
If you’re still riding the Five Nights at Freddies wave, perhaps these lego mini figures will creep you out?
Sunny Side Up Eggs Cat Mold (InDemand Ongoing Funding)
Charmingly dumb mold for setting up a creepycute fried egg kitten. This one’s open-ended through Indiegogo InDemand.
This would be even creepier if you put a lid over the pan so the poor thing got cateracts :(
Nobody Likes a Cockblock (Ends: 3/18/2016)
In the spirit of “Go the F*ck* To Sleep” but perhaps not quite as polished a gem. But with more aminal people.
Letter Stories (Ends: 4/13/2016): Cute and colorful children’s book series with lots of animals. A cheerful flashback to the kiddy books of the early 80s.
…MehGurgle: A Vorish Trading Card Game (Ends: 4/17/2016): Well, the title says it all, a vore-based trading card game. I’m really putting this in ‘meh’ because of its high goal, first-time nature, and flexible funding. It’s hard to imagine this not turning out as an accidental scam. Also, with a topic this niche, will you ever find anyone to trade cards with?
2015 Ursa Major Award nominations are open until Feb. 29 – nominate now!
Ursa art by Foxenawolf.
Last year’s Ursa Major awards had something different than usual. There was a unique spike of mainstream attention (with help from Dogpatch Press). Depending on your point of view, it was either amazing or the worst thing since Sexy Kitty showed up on CSI. It came with the nomination of CollegeHumor’s Furry Force, covered with exclusive news here. It led CollegeHumor to lobby their watchers to vote for recognition from the Furry community. Hasbro wouldn’t have paid attention for their MLP nomination, but CollegeHumor was proud to win the award.
Here’s a suggestion for how to make the awards more interesting still. If furries have a big problem with the media misrepresenting them, they could give awards to the kind of news they want to see.
For that purpose, I suggest nominating the options below. And at the end of 2016, nominate VICE for their recent article about the Midwest Furfest chlorine attack. It’s among the top journalism that’s been done about furries. (Tomorrow’s article discusses this further.)
The 2015 Ursas can accept nominations until Feb 29 – so please go to their website, and…
- Nominate “You Can’t Get Inside” by mouse for Best Other Literary Work.
- Nominate Culturally F’d for Best Anthropomorphic Website.
- Nominate Dogpatch Press for Best Anthropomorphic Magazine.
These could be yours
Is that shameless? I resemble that remark… I’ll even buy your votes with milk bones. – Patch
(Fred Patten continues:) Nominations for the 2015 Ursa Major Awards opened on January 14th, the first day of Further Confusion 2016. The awards will celebrate the best anthropomorphic literature and art first published during 2015, the previous calendar year.
The awards are selected by a two-stage process of nominating and voting. Members of the public send in up to five nominations in each of the eleven categories. The top five nominees in each category (more in case of a tie) are then presented on a final ballot for a public vote.
The eleven categories are: Motion Picture, Dramatic Short Work or Series, Novel, Short Fiction, Other Literary Work, Graphic Novel, Comic Strip, Magazine, Published Illustration, Website, and Game.
Many nominations are likely to come from the 2015 Recommended Anthropomorphic Reading List, which has been built up through prior recommendations. However, inclusion on the List is not necessary for nomination if a work is otherwise eligible; first published during January to December 2015.
Nominations take place until February 29. The nominations will be tallied between March 1 and March 14. The final ballot will be announced on March 15, and voting will take place until April 30. All those who send in nominations will be registered as eligible to vote on the final ballot. Those who did not nominate but wish to vote on the final ballot may register to do so.
The voting will be counted, the winners’ trophies prepared, and the results will be announced at the UMA awards presentation at a ceremony at What The Fur 2016, at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, Pointe-Claire, Montreal Airport, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on May 20-22.
The Ursa Major Awards are administered by the Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association (ALAA). For information, and to nominate beginning on January 14 and to vote beginning on March 15, go to http://www.ursamajorawards.org/.
The final 2015 Recommended Anthropomorphic Reading List is:
Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture
- Absolutely Anything (Directed by Terry Jones, released on August 14)
- Blinky Bill the Movie (Directed by Deane Taylor et al, released on August 21)
- Boonie Bears: Mystical Winter (Directed by Ding Liang and Liu Fuyuan; released on January 30)
- The Good Dinosaur (Directed by Peter Sohn; released on November 25)
- Hotel Transylvania 2 (Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky; September 21)
- Inside Out (Directed by Pete Doctor and Ronaldo Del Carmen; June 19)
- The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar (Directed by Howy Parkins; November 22)
- Minions (Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda; June 11)
- Monster Hunt (Directed by Raman Hui; July 16)
- A Mouse Tale (Directed by David Brisbano; February 10)
- The Peanuts Movie (Directed by Steve Martino; November 6)
- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (Directed by Paul Tibbitt; January 28)
- Shaun the Sheep the Movie (Directed by Mark Burton and Richard Starzak; February 5)
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Directed by JJ Adams; December 14)
- Ted 2 (Directed by Seth MacFarlane; June 26)
- Two by Two (Directed by Toby Genkel and Sean McCormack; April 9)
Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work or Series
- Adventure of a Lifetime (Directed by Max Whitecross; November 27)
- An Object at Rest (Directed by Seth Boyden; May 1)
- The Casebook of Nips & Porkington (Directed by Melody Wang; May 23)
- Cosmos Laundromat (Directed by Matthew Auvray; August 10)
- Danger Mouse (Directed by Robert Cullen, Season 1 episodes 1-16; September 28 – December 16)
- Mercedes-Benz Fable (Directed by Robert Stromberg; January 26)
- Furry Force 3: Furry Superheroes are the Grossest (Directed by Richard Duhaney; July 17)
- Katy Perry halftime show Super Bowl XLIX (Directed by Hamish Hamilton; February 1)
- Harvey Beaks (Created by C.H. Greenblatt, Supervising Directors Derek Evanick & Diana Lafyatis; Season 1, March 29 – November 15)
- L’Americano Returns (Directed by Ricky Renna; April 24)
- Littlest Pet Shop (Directed by Joel Dickie and Steven Garcia, Season 3 Episode 17 to Season 4 Episode 9, January 3 – December 26)
- The Muppets (Directed by Randall Einhorn & Matt Sohn; episodes 1.0 to 10, July 21 – December 8)
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Directed by James Thiessen, Jim Miller, and Denny Lu; Season 5 episode 1 to Season 5 episode 26, April 4 – November 28)
- Ram’s Horn (Directed by Jenna Hamzawi; April 27)
- Slack: Animals (Directed by Smith & Foulkes; December 29)
- Stay As You Are (Directed by EZ Wolf; August 22)
- Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit (Directed by Wesley Louis; June 24)
- Tales of Zale, Chapter 1 (Directed by Sif Perlt Savery; Jan 29)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Directed by Alan Wan & Chad Van De Keere; season 3 episode 9 to season 4 episode 4, January 11 – November 15)
- Tiger’s Eye (Directed by Alexander Shaw; episodes 1 to 25, May 13 – October 29)
- Under the Apple Tree (Directed by Erik van Schaaik; September 24)
- Wackatdooo (Directed by Benjamin Arcand; March 23)
- We Bare Bears (Directed by Manny Hernandez; Season 1 episode 1 to episode 25, July 27 – November 19)
- Why Do Furries Exist? – A Fur-real Look at the Fandom (Directed by Gnoggin; June 12)
- Zootopia Official Teaser Trailer (Disney, no director credit; June 11)
- Zootopia Official Trailer #1 (Sloths) (Disney, no director credit; November 23)
Best Anthropomorphic Novel
- Within the Hollow Crown, by EO Costello. (Furaffinity; December 14)
- The Painted Cat, by Austen Crowder. (Argyll Productions; May 9)
- Swallowtail and Sword: The Scholar’s Book of Story and Song, by H. Leighton Dickson. (CreateSpace; April 30)
- Learning to Go, by Friday Donnelly. (Jaffa Books; May 3)
- Valium & Vodka, by Duxton. (SoFurry; May 15) Mature Audiences.
- Heart Behind the Mask, by N “Karmakat” Franzetti. (Smashwords; May 4)
- Griffin Ranger, Volume 1: Crossline Plains, by Roz Gibson (FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
- Uncovered, by Kyell Gold. (24 Carat Words; September 1) Mature Audiences.
- Early Byrd, by Phil Guesz. (Legion Printing and Publishing; June 28)
- Either Side of the Strand, by M.C.A. Hogarth. (Studio MCAH; May 6)
- MoonDust: Falling from Grace, by Ton Inktail. (Ton Inktail; December 1)
- GeneStorm: City in the Sky, by Paul Kidd. (Kitsune Press; May 19)
- GeneStorm, Book 2: Fort Dandelion, by Paul Kidd. (Kitsune Press; November 23)
- The Vimana Incident, by Rose LaCroix. (FurPlanet Productions; February 20) Mature Audiences.
- In a Dog’s World, by Mary E. Lowd. (FurPlanet Productions; July 9)
- Rat’s Reputation, by Michael H. Payne. (Sofawolf Press; July 9)
- Off Leash, by Daniel Potter. (Fallen Kitten Productions; July 12)
- Mort(e), by Robert Repino. (Soho Press; January 20)
- The Echoes of Those Before, by James Daniel Ross (Copper Fox Books; May 13)
- Lost on Dark Trails, by Rukis. (FurPlanet Productions; January 15) Mature Audiences.
- The Long Road Home, by Rukis. (FurPlanet Productions; July 9) Mature Audiences.
- Thousand Tales: How We Won the Game, by Kris Schnee. (CreateSpace; June 5)
- Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard, by Lawrence M. Schoen. (Tor Books; December 15)
- Tiger’s Eye, by Alexander Shaw. (Amazon.com; November 5)
- Chasing the Phoenix, by Michael Swanwick. (Tor Books; August 11)
- Tinder Stricken, by Heidi C. Vlach. (Heidi C. Vlatch; May 23)
- A Different Perspective, by Bernard Doove. (CreateSpace; November 17)
Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction
- The Darkness of Dead Stars, by Dwale. (in The Furry Future, FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
- Thebe and the Angry Red Eye, by David Hopkins. (in The Furry Future, FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
- A Private Escape, by Kandrel. (in Heat #12, Sofawolf Press; July 15) Mature Audiences.
- The Dragon Tax, by Madison Keller. (in A Menagerie of Heroes; A Rainfurrest Anthology; September 24)
- All the Cats of the Rainbow, by Mary E. Lowd. (in The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, FurPlanet Productions; September 24)
- Cold Tail and the Eyes, by Mary E. Lowd. (in The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, FurPlanet Productions; September 24)
- Danger in the Lumo-Bay, by Mary E. Lowd. (in Inhuman Acts, FurPlanet Productions; September 24)
- Feral Unicorn, by Mary E. Lowd. (in Luna Station Quarterly #24 (December 1)
- Hidden Feelings, by Mary E. Lowd. (in Daily Science Fiction, November 25)
- Lunar Cavity, by Mary E. Lowd. (in The Furry Future, FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
- Shreddy and the Carnivorous Plant, by Mary E. Lowd. (in The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, FurPlanet Productions; September 24)
- Shreddy and the Dancing Dragon, by Mary E. Lowd. (in The Dragon’s Hoard; June 4)
- Songs of Fish and Flowers, by Mary E. Lowd. (in Lakeside Circus, Year 2, Issue 1; March 15)
- Ernest, by Lyn McConchie. (in ROAR volume 6, ed. by Mary E. Lowd; Bad Dog Books, July 9)
- Edward Bear and the Very Long Walk, by Ken Scholes. (in ROAR volume 6, ed. by Mary E. Lowd; Bad Dog Books, July 9)
- Crepuscular, by Clement Sherwin. (Self, May 2015)
- Pocosin, by Ursula Vernon. (in Apex Magazine #68; January 6)
- Tow, by Watts Martin (in The Furry Future, FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work
- Other Earth, Other Stars, by Marian Allen. (Per Bastet Productions, short story collection; September 1)
- Rikki Venix Does New York City, by James L. Brandt. (Second Ed, illustrated short story collection; September 1) Mature Audiences.
- The Wild Piano, by Fred. (TOON Books, graphic album; May 5)
- Rescued: The Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes, ed. Janiss Garza. (FitCat Publishing, anthology; January 26)
- The Book of Lapism, by Phil Geusz. (Legion Publishing, collection; May 13)
- Last of the SandWalkers, by Jay Hosler. (First Second, graphic novel; April 7)
- Furries Among Us: Essays on Furries by the Most Prominent Members of the Fandom, edited by Thurston Howl. (Thurston Howl Publications, essay anthology; July 4)
- The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, by Mary E. Lowd. (FurPlanet Productions, collection; September 24)
- ROAR Volume 6, edited by Mary E. Lowd. (FurPlanet Productions, short story anthology; July)
- The Furry Future, edited by Fred Patten. (FurPlanet Productions, short story anthology; January 15)
- Review of Bête by Adam Roberts, by Fred Patten. (Dogpatch Press; April 28)
- Inhuman Acts: A Collection of Noir, edited by Ocean Tigrox (FurPlanet Productions, short story anthology; September 24)
Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story
- Ask King Sombra, by Jordan “Wiggles” Mullaney. (Internet (Tumblr), January to December)
- Beatriz Overseer, by Walter “Chochi” Gomez. (Internet, January 10 to November 18)
- Chevalier: The Queen’s Mouseketeer, by Darryl Hughes and Monique MacNaughton. (Internet, January 7 to August 12)
- Code Name: Hunter, by Darc Sowers (Issue 21, Page 15 – Interlude page 4)
- Druids, by Amocin. (Internet, January 2 to December 28) Mature Audiences.
- Endtown, by Aaron Neathery. (Internet, January 1 to December 30)
- The Eye of Ramalach, by Avencri. (Internet, January 10 to December 31)
- Follower, by Bugbyte. (Internet, January 13 to December 31)
- Guardians of the Galaxy volume 3, by various. (Marvel Comics, issue 21 to issue 27)
- Howard the Duck volume 2, by various. (Marvel Comics, issue 1 to 5)
- Kat-Venture and the Terror of Xibalba, by Mark A. Smith and David Whamond. (Lulu, November 25)
- Knuckle Up, by Mastergodai. (Internet, January 23 to November 21)
- Lackadaisy, by Tracy J. Butler. (Internet, Lackadaisy Congregation to Lackadaisy Inspiration)
- Metazoa, by Peter Marshall Smith, artist Sandy Brion Spreitz. (Comixology, book 1 to 2)
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, by various. (IDW Publishing; Issue 1 to 5, April 1 – April 29)
- My Little Pony: Friends Forever, by various. (IDW Publishing, issue 13 to 24)
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, by various. (IDW Publishing, issue 27 to 38)
- Night Physics, by Austin Holcomb. (Internet (Tumblr), January 15 to December 19)
- Oren’s Forge, by Teagan Gavet. (Internet, November 16 to December 31)
- Our World, by Kuurion & Captain Video. (Internet, January 20 to December 29)
- Prequel or Adventures in Making a Cat Cry, by Kazerad and Ch’marr. (Internet, March 21 to October 31)
- The Probability Bomb, by Ralph E. Hayes Jr. (Internet, January 3 to November 3)
- Professor Amazing and the Incredible Golden Fox, by John Prengaman, Jr. (Internet, Chapter 1 cover to page 22)
- Rascals, by Mastergodai. (Internet, January 2 to December 25)
- The Sprawl, by DrawHolic. (Internet, page 23 to 66)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, by various. (Marvel Comics, issue 42 to 53)
- This Quiet Ur, by camicami. (Internet, page 63 to 67)
- TwoKinds, by Tom Fischbach. (Internet, January 4 to December 23)
- Uber Quest, by Skidd. (Internet, January 4 to December 30)
- The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, by various. (Marvel Comics, Volume 1 issue 1 to Volume 2 issue 1)
Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip
- Addictive Science, by Cervelet. (Internet, March 22 to December 31)
- Beyond the Black Stump, by Sean Leahy. (Newspaper & Internet strips from January 4 to December 31)
- Carry On, by K. Garrison. (Internet strips from January 2 to December 30)
- Doc Rat, by Jenner. (Internet strips from January 1 to December 31)
- Gene Catlow, by Albert Temple and Tawana Gilroy. (Internet strips fron January 2 to December 30)
- Housepets!, by Rick Griffin. (Internet strips from January 2 to December 30)
- Paprika, by Nekonny. (Internet, March 22 to December 29)
- Peter and Company, by Jonathan Ponikvar. (Internet strips from #223 to #243)
- Sabrina Online, by Eric W. Schwartz. (Internet strips from January to December)
- Savestate, by Tim Weeks. (Internet strips from January 7 to December 30)
- Schlock Mercenary, by Howard Taylor. (Internet, January 1 to December 31)
- Transmission, by Mark A. Smith (Internet strips from January 2 to November 27)
- The Whiteboard, by Doc N. (Internet strips from January 2 to December 30)
Best Anthropomorphic Magazine
- Dogpatch Press, by Patch Packrat (Internet, January 5 to December 24)
- Fangs and Fonts (Internet podcast, #37 to #56)
- Flayrah, edited by crossafliction and GreenReaper (Internet, January 2 to December 31)
- Fur What It’s Worth (Internet; podcasts Season 4 episode 7 to Season 5 episode 7)
- InFurNation ( Internet; January 1 to December 31)
Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration
- AlectorFencer, “An Empire Rises“, wraparound cover of ConFurgence 2015 souvenir book (January 8)
- Mark Brill, cover of An Anthropomorphic Century, edited by Fred Patten (FurPlanet, Productions, September 24)
- Unknown, cover of Off Leash, by Daniel Potter (Fallen Kitten Productions, July 12)
- Kenket, wraparound cover of EuroFurence 21 Program Book (August 19)
- Teagan Gavet, wraparound cover of The Furry Future, edited by Fred Patten (FurPlanet Productions, January 15)
- Teagan Gavet, wraparound cover of ROAR Volume 6, edited by Mary E. Lowd (FurPlanet Productions, July 9)
- Katie Hofgard, wraparound cover of Griffin Ranger, Volume 1, by Roz Gibson (FurPlanet Productions, January 15)
- Idess, wraparound cover of In a Dog’s World, by Mary E. Lowd (FurPlanet Productions, July 9)
- Humberto Ramos and Hector Delgado, cover of Guardians Team-Up issue #5, Marvel Comics, May
- Rukis, wraparound cover of Bones of the Empire, by Jim Galford (CreateSpace, August 7)
- Rukis, cover of Lost on Dark Trails, by Rukis (FurPlanet Productions, January 15)
- Sekhmet, cover of Huntress, by Renee Carter Hall (FurPlanet Productions, September 24)
- Seylyn, cover of Inhuman Acts, edited by Ocean Tigrox (FurPlanet Productions, September 24)
- Antonio Torresan, cover of Tiger’s Eye (Amazon.com, November 5)
- Heidi C. Vlatch, cover of Tinder Stricken, by Heidi C. Vlatch (Heidi C. Vlatch, May 22)
- Zhivago, wraparound cover of Forest Gods, by Ryan Campbell (Sofawolf Press, September 24)
Best Anthropomorphic Game
- Armello. (Developed and Published by League of Geeks, September 1)
- Aviary Attorney (Sketchy Logic Games; December 22)
- Eon Legacy Sourcebook, Content Creator and Earth Worldbook (Robert Rankin, various, February 11)
- Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 (Developer: Scott Cawthon; Publisher: Scott Games, March 2)
- Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 (Developer: Scott Cawthon; Publisher: Scott Games, July 23)
- The Furry Basketball Association (Buck Hopper; 2015 season)
- Majora’s Mask for 3DS (Nintendo; February 13)
- Ori and the Blind Forest (Developer: Moon Studios, Publisher: Microsoft Studios, March 11)
- Yo-Kai Watch (Developer: Level-5; Publisher: Level-5 and Nintendo, November 6)
Best Anthropomorphic Website
- Ask Papabear, by Grubbs Grizzly, furry advice column
- Culturally f’d, You Tube Channel, furry videos.
- E621, Furry fandom art community site. Mature Audiences.
- Equestria Daily, My Little Pony fandom community site.
- FiMFiction, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic site.
- Furry Network, furry art/writing/media social networking site.
- Furry.Today, furry videos.
- Furstarter, crowdfunding furry projects portal
- The Katbox, hosts anthropomorphic webcomics
- Sofurry, furry artist/writer community
- WikiFur, furry wiki