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BF Needs Time to Figure Out His Sexuality

Ask Papabear - Wed 16 Mar 2016 - 11:30
​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

Cat Crimebusters and Other P.I.s on Paws, Part 4 – Book Review by Fred Patten

Dogpatch Press - Wed 16 Mar 2016 - 10:13

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

Cat Crimebusters, Part 1

Cat Crimebusters, Part 2

Cat Crimebusters, Part 3

UntitledCat 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.

1Sam 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.

512RRWV4VWL._SX307_BO1,204,203,200_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.

41zqffzY8lL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_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.

41pjIHp5bqL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_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.

51xIt67-toL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_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.

51qq+kv9UnL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_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.

41V1qOZrKuL._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_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

Categories: News

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

Fangs and Fonts - Wed 16 Mar 2016 - 02:19

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

Download here | Open Player in New Window

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 [...]
Categories: Podcasts

The 2015 Ursa Major Awards Open for Voting

In-Fur-Nation - Wed 16 Mar 2016 - 01:59

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

image c. 2016 by Heather Bruton

Categories: News

THE FAST AND THE FURRIEST AT THE FURRY FIESTA 2016

Furries In The Media - Tue 15 Mar 2016 - 17:36

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.
Categories: News

THE FAST AND THE FURRIEST AT THE FURRY FIESTA 2016

Furries In The Media - Tue 15 Mar 2016 - 17:36

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.
Categories: News

Endtown 3, by Aaron Neathery – Book Review by Fred Patten

Dogpatch Press - Tue 15 Mar 2016 - 10:10

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

41PLlraNpaL._SX362_BO1,204,203,200_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.

end141114

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

Categories: News

Member Spotlight: Lawrence M. Schoen

Furry Writers' Guild - Tue 15 Mar 2016 - 06:20

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

barsk coverThat 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).Lawrence M Schoen 2

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!


Categories: News

The Mickey Mysteries

In-Fur-Nation - Tue 15 Mar 2016 - 01:58

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

image c. 2016 Papercutz

Categories: News

TigerTails Radio Season 9 Episode 35

TigerTails Radio - Mon 14 Mar 2016 - 21:03
Categories: Podcasts

Episode -45 - The UnFurled shark is a total nerd.

Unfurled - Mon 14 Mar 2016 - 11:39
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.
Categories: Podcasts

Syrians, Zootopians, and all the love in the media – NEWSDUMP (3-15-16)

Dogpatch Press - Mon 14 Mar 2016 - 10:52

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

furparazzi5Furry 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.

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

323px-Horrifying_Look_at_the_FurriesFurry 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:

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!Screen Shot 2016-03-13 at 10.49.18 PM

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

Categories: News

Try Everything: From Movies To Comics

In-Fur-Nation - Mon 14 Mar 2016 - 01:59

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.

image c. 2016 Joe Books, Inc.

Categories: News

Deep Shit: Politics! - this is an in-between-a-sode! Xander and Draggor …

The Dragget Show - Sun 13 Mar 2016 - 01:49

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 …
Categories: Podcasts

Deep Sh!t: politics! - this is an in-between-a-sode! Xander and Draggor wax politics, both the current race, conflictin...

The Dragget Show - Sun 13 Mar 2016 - 01:47
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 Sh!t: politics! - this is an in-between-a-sode! Xander and Draggor wax politics, both the current race, conflictin...
Categories: Podcasts

Deep Sh!t: politics! - this is an in-between-a-sode! Xander and Draggor wax politics, both the current race, conflictin...

The Dragget Show - Sun 13 Mar 2016 - 01:47
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 Sh!t: politics! - this is an in-between-a-sode! Xander and Draggor wax politics, both the current race, conflictin...
Categories: Podcasts