Historical debates
Review: The David Birkenhead series, by Phil Geusz
Posted by Fred on Mon 15 Oct 2012 - 13:32
Flash! Phil Geusz abandons writing anthropomorphic fiction; switches to military s-f to dramatically increase sales.
Featuring genengineered rabbit- and dog-morph soldiers.
Phil Geusz and Legion Publishing have chosen an unusual format in which to publish the adventures of David Birkenhead. Instead of publishing them together as three or more novels, they are putting out a set of seven booklets of roughly 150 pages to 200 pages each. Although most are available in trade paperback editions (and there was a 106-page trade paperback booklet edition of Ship’s Boy as a promotional giveaway at Anthrocon), Geusz and Legion expect virtually all sales to be of the Kindle e-books, to Amazon.com readers who cannot pass up the bargain of a “whole book” for only 1¢ or 99¢ or $2.99 in these days when an ordinary paperback is $8.
They are being marketed as military s-f, not Furry fiction. Amazon.com’s advertising targeted to its customers who buy military s-f is, “Are you looking for something in our Science Fiction & Fantasy books department? If so, you might be interested in these items,” with a list that includes the David Birkenhead books among ten or twelve other military s-f titles.
And it’s paying off. Geusz reports that:
[…] earlier today I had two books ranked in Amazon's top 100 for SF. […] Both were in the 90's, but they were there. […] There are almost never any furry books listed in connection with the Birkenhead buyers -- it's all either military SF or straight action-adventure stuff. So it's fair to guess that only a tiny proportion of my buyers are furs.
Will Geusz and the David Birkenhead series bring new readers to Furry fandom?
Review: ‘Ted’ was bearable, if you are into that sort of thing
Posted by crossaffliction on Mon 2 Jul 2012 - 22:27
Ted is the first movie directed by Seth MacFarlane, most known for his role in creating the hit animated sitcom, Family Guy. I am not a fan.
The sad fact is that a lot of people are in fact fans, and yes, I believe that that is a sad fact. To be clear, I am not down on gross-out humor, and can enjoy it as well as anyone else. Heck, I have done standup comedy, and such gags were a standard part of my sets. Gross-out humor is not my problem with this movie.
The problem is it is pretty much exactly what I expected. It is probably exactly what you expected, too. So, if you expect to like this movie, go on and get your ticket. If not, you can pretend to be a snob with me and the other cool kids, okay?
Review: 'Legend of a Rabbit' is impossible to enjoy
Posted by dronon on Sun 20 May 2012 - 00:40
Part of my fate in the fandom seems to involve finding bad foreign animated films. Granted, most folks in the fandom couldn't be bothered to know about them anyway, but if I can stop even a handful of people from wasting their time, that's a good thing.
So: Don't bother watching Legend of a Rabbit (trailer).
Video: G4's 'Attack of the Show' features FWA footage
Posted by GreenReaper on Wed 30 Mar 2011 - 17:14Fursuiters featured today on G4's Attack of the Show at 7PM Eastern, in a segment involving footage filmed a fortnight ago at Furry Weekend Atlanta 2011. [time tip: FNN]
FWA's decision to allow filming was controversial, with several dealers complaining that they were not informed of their involvement or given the option to opt-out.
2010 Ursa Major Awards voting underway
Posted by PeterCat on Sun 13 Mar 2011 - 19:23Voting for the Ursa Major Awards for the Best Anthropomorphic Literature and Art of 2010 is now open, and takes place until April 17. Anyone may vote, and you are encouraged to ask your friends to vote also — please help spread the word!
There are five nominees in each of ten categories, except where there was a tie for fifth place.
To be eligible, a work must have been released during the calendar year 2010; must include a non-human being given human attributes (anthropomorphic), which can be mental and/or physical; and must receive more than one nomination.
Owners of Fur Affinity, FurBuy clash over auctions
Posted by Sonious on Fri 11 Mar 2011 - 21:20The furry marketplace heated up today as FurBuy owner Jurann was "permanently banned" from Fur Affinity for "false threats against users holding auctions on FA instead of furbuy" and "disruption of the community, drama starting and interference with user transactions."
FA's Dragoneer gave his opinion of Jurann's attempts to pressure artists into using FurBuy:
Frankly, I'm sick of Jurann constantly threatening users, encouraging them to "Go to Furbuy...or else!"
In response, Jurann said Dragoneer "[took his] legal advice as a threat," while maintaining that FTC auction guidelines apply to Fur Affinity:
It's a simple fact that there ARE rules and guidelines, and they are quite clearly not being followed on FA at present.
Review: 'OMG! With Peaches Geldof'
Posted by The Chained Wolf on Wed 9 Mar 2011 - 17:55I was dreading to hear what Peaches (daughter of Bob) Geldof would ask a bunch of furries — in the end it was more what Dom Joly said which was annoying.
For those outside of the UK, OMG! With Peaches Geldof is a TV show on the digital network ITV2 which does not have a good reputation. It is considered by many to be cheap, tacky, low-brow infotainment, as is most of ITV2's output.
It was this cheap material that I had to wade through before they got to furries. For most of the time I as flicking between channels hoping that these fame-obsessed idiots would soon get off the screen. As a result I did not have high expectations of their coverage of the furry fandom.
I was expecting the usual stuff about having sex in fursuits to be trotted out. However, I was pleasantly surprised.
Flayrah adds rating-based comment visibility
Posted by GreenReaper on Thu 16 Dec 2010 - 13:50Today I enabled a feature that I've been toying with for a while: rating-based comment visibility.
The aim is to discount poor comments and mediocre replies while promoting good comments. You can see it at work in recent popular stories.
The algorithm is still subject to tweaks, but here's how it works now . . .
A fringefur's report on Anthrocon 2010
Posted by Treesong on Mon 28 Jun 2010 - 19:19As I mentioned in a similar report a couple of years ago, I consider myself a fringefur because I don't do things that more committed furries do (writing, art, fursuiting, taking on a fursona). Mostly I just like to read furry comics; most of my favorite Webcomics are furry, and I first got into the fandom when Fantagraphics stopped publishing Critters and I had to find another source. Text stories don't appeal so much, though I loved Michael Payne's Blood Jaguar, for instance, and I don't much care for movies or TV of any sort. I've never seen Disney's Robin Hood, which I gather is something of a furry gateway drug.
So why did I go to Anthrocon at all? Well, I'll tell ya.
Furry Weekend Atlanta draws ire as it books outside talent for musical shows
Posted by Sonious on Mon 19 Sep 2022 - 13:13Before the coronavirus shut down many furry conventions around the world, a strange thing occurred at Furry Weekend Atlanta in 2019. The popular electronic dance group Mystery Skulls performed a musical set at the convention. This is a pretty mainstream group, well-known for their singles such as Money and Ghosts.
When in-person events started happening again, Furry Weekend Atlanta's new headliner was again more known for their mainstream work than for their ties to the fandom. FRND, also known as Andrew Goldstein, is not quite as well-known as Mystery Skulls. After having worked with many mainstream musicians (such as Maroon Five's Beautiful Mistakes as a co-writer), he started to work independently and created his own singles.
Now in late 2022, FWA is giving a wink toward Little Nas X, a very well-known rap artist, born and raised near Atlanta. He's known for stirring up moralistic controversy with his music videos. I guess that's how you know it's real rap.
As FWA's drive towards mainstream musical talent has continued, furries have become a lot more pointed in their questioning of the convention. But whoever's been in control of FWA's social media account has continually dismissed such criticism. For instance, during the FRND announcement, they responded to one critique by posting a gif of Clauhauser calling the critical poster "cute". At the time, this post only drew more attention to the critique. FWA later deleted the tweet and apologized for their behavior. In response to the threads that appeared after the Little Nas X announcement, they have started to use their social media tools to limit responses to no one but the artist in question.
In this article, we'll be going over what defines a work as furry, why this is separate from how furry music is defined, and how Furry Weekend Atlanta may be able to help mitigate future concerns for their furry attendees and the musically talented within the fandom.