Feed aggregator

In this super bite sized Smallballd, Killick reads some old emails and thoroughly embarrasses himself.

Lindt v Haribo: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34334776

Drone freeze ray: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34475158

 

Smallballd 03 – Emails And Thank Yous - In this super bite sized Smallballd, Killick reads some old emails and thoroughly embarrasses himself. - Lindt v Haribo: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34334776 - Drone freeze ray: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34475158 -  

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

Swords and Sausages, by Jan
Hong Kong, Tiger Knight Comics, September 2015, trade paperback $30.00 (unpaged [128 pages]).

“Once upon a time, nestled somewhere amongst the rolling hills of Vale Valley, was a lively, albeit small, kingdom. And in this kingdom was …”

The main things that there “was” are Tor (a hunky tiger) and Silver (a svelte white vixen), two inept street thieves, would-be con artists, and even more would-be road warriors (robbers), plus the local sheriff (lion). Other supporting characters include the sheriff’s town guard (wolves), and varied town merchants (assorted anthropomorphized mammals, reptiles, and birds). The gryphons are unanthropomorphized and are treated as eagles.

This first collection relates the occasionally bawdy misadventures of Tor and Silver (she loses her clothing a lot, if funny-animal cartoon nudity bothers you) around Vale Valley proper and surrounding small towns. They regularly get thrown into the VV pokey, and are released or escape after a few days. It’s not that Tor and Silver are stupid, but they are less intelligent than anyone else. The stories feature typical funny-animal slightly exaggerated comedy-adventure. The social level here is about what you’d find at a Renaissance Faire or a Society for Creative Anachronisms event. This collection turns slightly more serious at the end as the tiger & vixen wander outside of Vale Valley and discover that the two neighboring kingdoms are at war.

This first collection of Jan’s Swords and Sorcery webcomic is in a “Sunday-page” format of two tiers per page in a large 12” x 9” size, in full color on thick, glossy paper. $30.00 may seem expensive, but when you see how large and impressive this collection is, you will feel it is worth it. It contains the first eight chapters of the strip, from June 1, 2011 to December 28, 2014, plus an original 8-page bonus chapter. Unlike the collection of College Catastrophe, Jan’s other webcomic, which is a black-&-white paperback that feels designed to fit into your pocket, this Swords and Sausages compendium is a large, lavish volume fit to be a full-sized coffee-table art book as much as a comic-strip collection. If you like a bright anthro pre-1600 A.D. world without the dirt and disease that real history was full of, get this book – or read Swords and Sausages online.

Jan’s College Catastrophe collection is actually printed in Hong Kong, where Jan lives. Swords and Sausages is produced by Jan’s printer in the U.S., Paw Pad Printing in Memphis, Tennessee (the printer of the Memphis FurMeet’s publications). Orders are shipped by Paw Pad through FedEx, resulting in faster delivery of American orders.

–Fred Patten

• Buy on Tiger Knight

Very soon (mid-February, in fact) a new Kickstarter campaign will be starting up, looking to finance a brand-new furry-themed card game called Fur vs. Scale. They explain it best on their web site: “Fur vs Scale is a fast-paced tabletop card game for 2-4 players, pitting heroes of rival kingdoms against each other in strategic combat. The game captures the ebb and flow of your favorite arcade fighter, challenging players to construct winning combinations of attacks, blocks, counters, and super moves over four rounds to be crowned victor. Featuring colorful anthropomorphic animal characters with unique special abilities, Fur vs Scale offers a variety of depth that can be enjoyed by kids and adults of all ages. Fur vs Scale takes place in the world of Junea, a land at war. The fragile peace that existed for decades between the Kindgom of Leon and the Kingdom of Wyrm is shattered by the disappearance of a sacred idol, and the quest to solve the mystery sets heroes from both lands on a dangerous collision course. Relive their tales of glorious combat and guide your chosen hero to victory!” The web site includes a link to a YouTube video telling you more about the game.

image c. 2016 WarSpider Entertainment

San Francisco Bay Area Furries are fluffing up for this weekend’s party.  It’s the kind of subcultural crossover that makes this place Furry Mecca. (Except when Pittsburgh takes the title once a year.)  Organizer Neonbunny says:

We did this a couple of years ago, and it was a ton of fun. We’ll have a space for fursuiters only, so we won’t have to worry about drag queens wondering what happens when glitter is combined with industrial fans.  I do hope you’ll join us!

Frolic @ Bootie Saturday, January 30th, 9pm – 3:30am (room runs until 2am). DNA Lounge, 375 11th St, San Francisco.  21+.

Frolic, San Francisco premiere furry party, is teaming up with Bootie, San Francisco’s top mashup & bootleg party, to bring you a mashup of multiple cultures, including furries, drag queens, hipsters, live bands, and dj’s.

Frolic will be hosting the upstairs space (over DNA pizza), with changing space for fursuiters. Guest DJs include LycanCatt, Ikumma, Raid Zero, and NeonBunny. Groggy will be mixing up some video for us!

Fursuiters are free, just show your fursuit to the person at the door (Bootie’s policy is full costumes & makeup are free all night).  And of course, this includes access to the all 4 rooms of Bootie, all night, from 9pm until 3:30 am (our room closes at 2am, but the main room goes much later!)

$10 before 10pm, $20 after — CASH ONLY $15 advance tickets — SKIP THE LINE! available here.

See the official facebook post about the night, and more info about Bootie’s night:

San Francisco is home to many amazing subcultures, some of which have gone mainstream, like drag queens, and others that are a little more confusing to the general population, like furries. But both are facets of the diversity that makes SF great. So tonight, Bootie brings them together for one insane party to blow your mind! At 11 PM, Pepperspray, the Bay Area’s favorite drag rock band, takes the stage for a special live set, and for the Midnight Mashup Show, Catalysta takes to the silks high above the floor to present thrilling aerial escapades. Main Room mashup DJs A Plus D and Entyme keep the party rolling late into the night with the best mashups in the universe, keeping your tails wagging and your wigs bobbing!

Personally I like going a level beyond drag… but whether it’s gender or species, there might be more crossover than you think.  Check these out:

Article: Facebook’s ‘Real Name’ controversy, Drag queens, and Furries.  And a little bit of NSFW art:

Can you think of some good “Furry Drag” names?  My drag dog fursona could be Rin Tin Tits. Drop a comment with yours.

Cynthia Read goes goes by the name of Sparky in Fandom circles, and fannish conventions are where you are quite likely to find her work. “Sparky’s Stitches is my small home-based business, mostly centered around machine embroidery, although I do dabble in other crafts.” Lots of embroidered patches for lots of fannish pursuits in fact — including fantasy, furry, My Little Pony, and more. In fact more recently she has branched out and created a line of My Little Pony themed hoodies. You can see them on her web site, and also see a big selection of her embroidered patches for sale at her Etsy Store.

image c. 2016 by Cynthia Read

Island #6 (Image Comics) – Even with the ever so slightly reduced page count, you can still count on Island to be the greatest anthology out there in terms of casting its net far and wide to bring attention to new and unheard of comics talent on a monthly basis. The highlight this month is the story “Badge of Pride” featuring a group of young anthropomorphic guys as they navigate the social minefield of their local Pride event. Having followed his work on and off for years now it’s thrilling to see Onta’s work shown to a more mainstream audience and I was fortunate enough that he had time to answer a few of my questions last week about his new, more personal and story driven outing for Island.

This month also presents work from Gael B as well as a recoloured, reprinted sci-fi classic in the form of Fil Barlow’s Zooniverse.

Saga #33 (Image Comics) – Thirty Three issues in and Vaughan and Staples sci-fi epic shows no signs of slowing down as it continues to shock, thrill and delight in equal measures. Staples beautiful cover shows that the adorable journalistic couple Upsher and Doff are back after being warned off reporting on the story of Marko and Alana way back in the books second arc. While only briefly touched upon I look forward to seeing how Vaughan develops the relationship between the pair as they become embroiled deeper in conflict and conspiracy. It’s been briefly hinted that the pairs society doesn’t look kindly on same sex couples and it will be fascinating to see what the writer has to say on the subject in a series that really pulls no punches with its social commentary.

<!-- SC_OFF --><div class="md"><p>I have to stay in my dorm room all day because the flu so I thought I&#39;d spend the day chating with you guys cuz you always put me in a good mood and make me feel better. </p> <p>If you want to RP I&#39;m ok with that too just send a PM so not to annoy others. Also my English is not great sorry.</p> </div><!-- SC_ON --> submitted by

Yesterday’s extra long post about Zootopia described complicated relationships between fans and marketers, and asked: are they intentionally winking at furries, but keeping it hidden?  According to Fred’s wisdom, the sensitivity is nothing new.  

Dear Patch;

Cartoon Brew’s article described the petition against fan pornography of Disney’s forthcoming Zootopia and the reaction to the subject.

What seems most interesting to me is the apparent assumption that furry fandom (and people in general) are just discovering the pornography of high-profile animated cartoon characters with Zootopia.  Doesn’t anyone remember the furry fan pornography of Warner Bros.’ Tiny Toon Adventures TV series in the early 1990s, with the series’ own emphasis on gags about Buster Bunny’s not wearing any pants? It faded away after the program went off the air. It’s discussed in Reading the Rabbit by Kevin Sandler, an anthology of articles about Warners’ cartoon characters from Rutgers University Press.

I said in a review at the time:

Fans will doubtlessly be most interested in the next-to-last essay, Bill Mikulak’s Fans versus Time Warner: Who Owns Looney Tunes? This cites the Hollywood Reporter’s November 1, 1995 story about Warner Bros.’s discovery on the Internet of fan-drawn pornographic cartoons featuring its characters, and follows it up. The essay is rather one-sided since Time Warner’s legal department had little to say publicly whereas Mikulak downloaded plenty of fannish comments. He also obtained copies of two of Time Warner’s cease-and-desist letters from the fans, and he quotes these to present WB’s official stance. Mikulak notes that the ‘appropriation’ of popular copyrighted characters by their fans for their own non-commercial, and often erotic use has a long tradition (he cites Star Trek fandom), and that WB’s charge that erotic depictions are a ‘perversion of [WB’s] innocent cartoon characters’ is belied by the obviously lusty nature of much of the humor and innuendos basic to such personalities as Pepé le Pew and Minerva Mink, which build upon an established public acceptance of exaggerated cartoon sexual humor going back to Tex Avery’s Red Hot Riding Hood (1943).

In demonstrating his point, Mikulak quotes from numerous fannish Internet open conversations. These require his defining for the academic record of such terms as ‘furvert’, ‘spooge’, ‘anthropomorphics’, ‘furries’, ‘FurryMUCK’ and ‘Drooling Babs Fanboy’. Furry fandom isn’t being discovered by only the sensationalistic tabloid media any more; this book is from Rutgers University Press.

Most of the most daring Internet pornography was by Karri Aronon, who lived in Turku, Finland, and assumed that he was safe from Warner Bros.’ lawyers there. I never heard the outcome of that — whether the lawyers finally shut him down; whether Aronen stopped on his own after he grew up; or whether everyone lost interest in porn of the Tiny Toon characters after WB ended the TV series.  I haven’t heard of Aronen since then.

Anyhow, furry fan pornography of popular animated funny animals certainly predates Zootopia.

Best wishes;

Fred

Illustration from Animal Superheroes, now on Indiegogo

It’s nice to know there are other economies as undervalued as the furry commission scene. I got a “Follow” from a startup company called Backerhack, which offers a really cool product: reviews, feedback, retweets, from Kickstarter “power backers.” Get your campaign reviewed by someone who’s got a lot of experience working with Kickstarter. Love it! Gigs for Kickstarter “experts.” Theoretically Indiegogo’s also on their list, but clearly they’re a distant second.

For future reference, on a platform that’s only run for four years, it’s pretty easy to be an expert :)

There’s a HUGE “buyer beware” thang happening here, of course. Theoretically there’s a review system for the experts, but in practice, the site’s saturated with providers. Most of the featured reviews are scandalously cheap: a good editor’s services in the real world are $25-50/hour, but most of the reviews and such are $5, $10…I listed mine at $65 for three hours, and it looks like that’s the highest pricetag on the platform for that kind of service :( It seems like the number of people that are interested in this service would never meet the demand…

Reviews this week: A quick look at fursona socks with Faux Paws, and a longer look at episode 6 of the “There She Is!!” series. Fun, fun!

  For a “complete” list of furry/fur-friendly crowdfunding projects, check out the Project Page New Projects Art

Animal Superheroes Posters (Ends: 3/11/2016)
Superheros reinterpreted as non-anthro animals. Weird little coffee shop art project.
This one’s got a very slow start, $0 in first 10 days, so probably a nonstarter.

Children’s Product

The Adventures of Sir Winston (Ends: 1/26/2016)
Two scotty dogs travel through time in space in this supercute kiddy book

My Bad Bad Dog (Ends: 2/9/2016)
Cute line-art children’s book about a very bad dog.

Clothing/Costumes

Faux Paws (Ends: 2/2/2016)
Cute abstractly animal-patterned socks to match your fox, wolf, or kitty alt-self!

LED Fursuit Accessories (Ends: 2/16/2016)
A small collection of LED harnesses and colors with a remote control.
May be an over-saturated market for this project? Not a lot of support.

Shirts are the Art We Walk In (Ends: 2/21/2016)
A beautiful nerdy lion tee, but with very little support looks like a nonstarter :(

Film/Animation

There She Is!! #6 (Ends: 2/11/2016)
Since 2003, this cat and rabbit have been making slow progress toward marriage equality. A fun anime-ish music video series. DVD coming soon!
I did NOT know they were up to episode 5.

…Causes

Ezoo: Tech Zoos Without Captivity (Ends: 2/9/2016): An impressive multimedia alternative to zoos, “cleverly” disguized as a so-so plushy kickstarter

…Coming soon?

Fur Vs Scale (Not Yet Launched): An anthro mammals vs reptiles fighting card game, going to Kickstarter February 16. Art by Tylthul.

Faux Paws
On Kickstarter through 02/02/16

Just a little callout for a cute project! Rick Hamilton has run at least one other Kickstarter that was cute and on topic for this blog: his cutiemark socks. “Faux Paws” are his latest project, cute little fursona-styled half-calf stockings. Each one has animal patterns up and down their length, in most cases a stylized color gradient resembling the paws of a wolf, fox, or cougar (these are, respectively, the paws of Walker, Fiona, and Chloe). Presumably they’ll want their paws back someday.

Oh, wait, update: Stretch goal #1, Derek the Drake, unlocked! Dragon-socks. With a stretch goal at every $1000, there’s an excellent chance that one of a dozen or so stretch species will make the cut and receive the ultimate immortality of being made into socks. On the shortlist, red and blue birds, pink kittens and puppies, bears (panda, polar, brown), bunnies, a few different dragons, and horses.

I don’t have a lot to say about this one, because it’s hard to write 200+ words about socks. Check ’em out! The kickstarter’s past goal and unlocking stretch goals already!

Follow @furstarter on twitter for the latest fur-friendly crowdfunding projects!