January 2012
ANTHRO continues to live!
Posted by Cubist on Sun 1 Jan 2012 - 10:24On the last day of 2011, the latest issue of ANTHRO — #32 — is uploaded and ready for your browsing pleasure! In honor of the season, this issue's cover image is a tastefully-colorized version of Lucius Appaloosius' classic ANTHRO CLAUS. And what (you may well ask) can be found behind that jolly old reindeer's portrait? Find out 'below the fold'!
How may syllables does the word 'coyote' have?
Posted by crossaffliction on Wed 4 Jan 2012 - 02:40Retrospective: Talking animals in World War II propaganda
Posted by Fred on Thu 5 Jan 2012 - 23:03
You are probably thinking of the USA's World War II propaganda animated cartoons. There were certainly lots of them!
Long articles could be (and have been) written on the adventures of Donald and Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Gandy Goose and Homer Pigeon. In the last decade, most American propaganda cartoons have been re-released on DVD, so we can see them for ourselves; they are also on YouTube.
Volumes could also be written of the wartime funny-animal comic book and newspaper comic strip characters who fought the Axis, usually on the Home Front against saboteurs and hoarders. World War II's talking-animal propaganda novels are less well-known. In fact, they are forgotten today except in movie-adaptation credits. That’s too bad, as the books are still enjoyable reading.
Coming in 2012: 'Wolf Children', 'Norm of the North', 'Ribbit'
Posted by Fred on Thu 5 Jan 2012 - 23:32
The Cartoon Brew website has just (2 January) posted an admittedly incomplete preview list of 19 animated feature-length films announced for release during 2012.
Many such as Madagascar 3, Ice Age: Continental Drift, and Norm of the North will feature anthropomorphized animals. However, Japanese film The Wolf Children, featuring two human-wolf hybrid children, sounds likely to especially appeal to Furry fans:
Okami kodomo no ame to yuki (The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki). From the director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, the story of a college student named Hana who marries a “wolf man” and gives birth to two wolf children. When the wolf man dies, Hana and the children move from the city to a quiet rural town.
'Dust: An Elysian Tail' to make 2012 Xbox Live Arcade debut
Posted by TwilightShadow on Fri 6 Jan 2012 - 00:22
Dean Dodrill (Noogy) has announced on NeoGAF that his anticipated action-RPG Dust, which won Microsoft's Dream.Build.Play competition in 2009, is coming in 2012.
When a user said they were looking forward to the game's release, Dodrill replied:
Man, I have to play that every day.. Oh, wait, I mean it's great :) It's coming out in 2012, promise.
Furstivus brings cheer to PA furs, at six weeks' notice
Posted by GreenReaper on Fri 6 Jan 2012 - 09:32
'One-time' Philadelphia holiday convention Furstivus appears to have been a success, despite being announced a mere six weeks before it was scheduled to begin.
Lead organizer SkippyFox yesterday reported 238 attendees, with 45 fursuiters in its parade.
Furstivus took the place of the New Year's Furry Ball, which is expected to reoccur this December. The event raised $3,243 for childrens' video gaming charity Child's Play.
The state is also home to Anthrocon and the Western Pennsylvania Furry Weekend. Anthrocon was formerly held just over the road from the Furstivus hotel — itself home to 1994's Furtasticon, the first East Coast furry convention.
Review: 'A Dog About Town', by J. L. Englert
Posted by Fred on Sat 7 Jan 2012 - 03:20
I first learned of Overton’s death upon the return of my owner to our humble walk-up apartment. I had been rereading Robert Pinsky’s excellent translation 'The Inferno of Dante', an artifact from Imogen’s time in our lives, when I heard the familiar clump-clump on the stairs and the jangle and click of locks being opened – notably more urgent than usual. I did not have time to close the book or even move too far away from it. I imagined my owner’s imminent surprise. The book would be the first thing he would notice, no doubt. The reading light that had been off when he departed would be the second. (pgs. 1-2)
I first learned of Overton’s death upon the return of my owner to our humble walk-up apartment. I had been rereading Robert Pinsky’s excellent translation 'The Inferno of Dante', an artifact from Imogen’s time in our lives, when I heard the familiar clump-clump on the stairs and the jangle and click of locks being opened – notably more urgent than usual. I did not have time to close the book or even move too far away from it. I imagined my owner’s imminent surprise. The book would be the first thing he would notice, no doubt. The reading light that had been off when he departed would be the second. (pgs. 1-2)On the first page, Randolph, the Labrador retriever “with a nose for murder”, establishes himself as the first-person narrator, an intellectual and erudite – and rather garrulous - dog; moreover, as a dog who is hiding his intelligence from his owner, Harry, and other humans.
NYC, Dell, June 2007, paperback $6.99 (271 pages); Kindle $6.99
Opinion: The top ten movies of 2011
Posted by crossaffliction on Sat 7 Jan 2012 - 05:512011 has come and gone. Before we all get excited about 2012, now is a good time to take one last look at the best the past year had to offer. In movies, anyway.
MiDFur names Fred Patten as Hall of Fame '2011' honoree
Posted by Fred on Sun 8 Jan 2012 - 13:54This is a somewhat self-serving announcement, but MiDFur the 13th has just been held in Melbourne, and I (Fred Patten) have been inducted into its Furry Hall of Fame.
MiDFur's Furry Hall of Fame members are picked by prior inductees, which include Bernard Doove, Anthrocon/Uncle Kage, 2 Gryphon, Paul Kidd, Stan Sakai, BigBlueFox, Jenner and CynWolfie.
December 2011 Newsbytes archive
Posted by crossaffliction on Mon 9 Jan 2012 - 03:41A little late this month because I hit the wrong button submitting it the first time. Whoops.
September 2010 to September 2011 Newsbytes archive
Posted by crossaffliction on Thu 12 Jan 2012 - 06:17GreenReaper: Flayrah is trialling on-site chat (thanks in part to Giza), so let's see how this works . . . and with that, Newsbytes began.
NBC covers 'Flurry of Furries', leaves professionalism at door
Posted by Sonious on Thu 12 Jan 2012 - 06:40There are many ways a journalist can cover a local event, add a little humor, and still leave the reader with information and some chuckles. However, in its coverage of a campaign to promote giving homes to animals in shelters, one NBC employee became completely enamored by the first image that popped into her head from the name of the campaign, and ran with it until all useful content of the coverage was forgotten in the slew of 'edgy' comedy.