Your Guide to the World of Furry Fandom
Cynthia Petrovic is an artist and illustrator who has worked as a story-board artist at places like Warner Brothers Television Animation. Branching out on her own, she created a line of artwork and other products called Red Tango, based around her fascination for critters — especially rather slim and stylized felines. She has a very animated interactive web page that includes not only her current products but also samples of her story-board work.
image c. 2014 by Cynthia Petrovic
One of the big hits at this year’s WonderCon in Anaheim (California) was Tentacle Kitty. And why not? Who wouldn’t want a little pink 8-legged beastie crawling over to them and purring? Well… Created by the delightfully odd folks at TentacleKitty.com, this feline cephalopod lives with her friend in a strange and magical place of cotton candy mice (yum!) and rat-tailed unicorns (ooo!). Not making sense? Just visit the web site and check out the latest on-line comic and some of the available plushies and t-shirts and other tie-in items coming up. Plenty of people at WonderCon did.
image c. 2014 tentaclekitty.com
The creator of Tiny Titans is branching out in a funny animal direction now, as Art Baltazar and his friends bring us Captain Action Cat: The Timestream CATastrophe, a new full-color 4-issue comic miniseries starting this month from Dynamite Entertainment. Check out this promo from Comic Book Resources: “From the Eisner and Harvey award-winning, New York Times bestselling famous cartoonists Art Baltazar and Franco comes the crossover epic event of a lifetime! Finally, Captain Action Cat meets Action Cat and the characters from Aw Yeah Comics! Also crossing over with Dark Horse Comics characters such as Ghost, X, Captain Midnight, and The Occultist, this series promises the typical zaniness that the creators of Tiny Titans are known for. True story! In Captain Action Cat: The Timestream CATastrophe #1, there is something evil out there and Evil Cat is determined to find it… even if it means searching throughout the Silver Age to do it!”
image c. 2014 Dynamite Entertainment
In that same article at Broken Frontier in which we found out about the new Dragons comic they announced another new comic book of some interest to Furry Fans. The Weirding Willows, created by Dave Elliot, has previously run only in the comic anthologies A1 and Heavy Metal. Now Titan Comics have gathered together the first story arc — along with a brand new chapter — in hardcover. “When she was nine, Alice wandered into the Wild Woods and discovered a portal to another world. A world called Wonderland! Now a young woman, she has spent her childhood discovering just some of the wonders the dimensional nexus of the Weir has to offer – a place where the worlds of Earth, Wonderland, OZ, Neverland, Mars, Pelucidar and Elysium collide, and where anything, and anyone, could turn up when least expected!” The first story tells what happens when Alice’s father, Dr. Moreau, makes a dubious deal with the Wicked Witch of the West. Not to mention having Mr. Toad and his associates show up. This full-color collection is available later this month.
image c. 2014 Titan Comics
In 2005 Evan Dorkin (writer) and Jill Thompson (artist) won an Eisner Award for their original comic book series Beasts of Burden, about a haunted small town and the local dogs and cats who do nightly battle with the deadly forces of evil trying to invade. Now comes the brand-new Beasts of Burden: Hunters and Gatherers, a one-shot full-color comic designed to introduce new readers to the animals of Burden Hill and their struggles. This time around, our furry heroes discover that a friendly half-werewolf might just be more help than they bargained for. Hunters and Gatherers will be available at comic book stores this March, from Dark Horse Press.
image c. 2014 Dark Horse Press
Word came out recently that one of the originals of Furry Fandom, Mark E. Rogers, passed away this past weekend while out hiking with his family. Some might even call him a patron spirit of anthropomorphics. In 1984 (back when a certain group of Ninja Turtles were making their very first appearance) mark published his first book chronicling the adventures of Miaowara Tomokato, the Samurai Cat. Almost every other page of Rogers’ Samurai Cat books featured a black and white or full-color illustration by the author, connected with the action on the previous page. Through a series of five such books of historical satire, Mark was one of the first to take anthropomorphics away from “funny animal” silliness and into something completely new, in a big way. Ron Miller has a detailed obituary of Rogers which he posted up on I09. Sayonara, Mark-san.
image c. 2014 by Mark E. Rogers
New this month from Hermes Press is the new deluxe hardcover collection of Scratch 9: The Pet Project. “Following Scratch9’s FCBD adventure, comes the complete Eisner Award-nominated story of The Pet Project. Scratch is a house cat who must save his animal pals from the clutches of Dr. Schrodinger and the C.R.U.E.L. corporation. Fortunately he can tap into all of his nine lives to help him out in jam! This deluxe edition collects the original story plus the Cat Tails anthology, along with all-new bonus materials!” It’s written by Rob M. Worley with art by Jason T. Kruse, Joshua Buchanan, and others. Check out the preview at Comic Book Resources.
image c. 2014 Hermes Press
Somehow we missed these! Back in 2011, author Rael Bayellis released not one but two erotic fantasy novels (or as the author calls them, paranormal romances) on line. Both are set in a modern world that also features magick, fey folk, wizards… and shadow cats, winged feline spirits. In Helen and the Shadow Cat, a bored housewife fantasizes about an affair with a shadow cat she passes one day — unaware that he has his eyes on her as well! And in Allison & Tiberius, a young college student from a backwater town observes a shadow cat hovering outside her dorm room window one day — and thus begins her adventures. More books in the Shadow Cat series have followed since then. Remember, these books are decidedly for adults only! The author’s works can be found in electronic form at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
image c. 2014 Rael Bayellis
New in hardcover this month from Toon Books is a full-color graphic story for younger readers called simply Hearts — written and illustrated by Thereza Rowe. “When Penelope the Fox drops her heart into the sea, she’s swept off on a perilous journey, dodging sharks and royal cat-guards until a cartwheeling chicken leads her to the land of lost things.” It’s available at Amazon, or you can visit Thereza’s web site to see more of her modernistic anthro designs.
image c. 2014 by Thereza Rowe
