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Furry Art

The Front-side of Furry History

If you have not heard of the APA-zine Rowrbrazzle — well, every self-respecting furry fan should. After the famous APA-zine Vootie closed in the late 1970’s, Rowrbrazzle took up the torch of the “new wave” of funny animal art and comics, and in so doing laid the groundwork for much of Furry Fandom to come. It was also a springboard for many creators who went on to much bigger things — artists like Steve Gallacci and Stan Sakai, and big names in animation fandom like Jerry Beck, John Cawley, and Fred Patten. One of the big draws of every Rowrbrazzle issue was the covers — the front cover and covers for each section. And now, MU Press have gathered together a big set of black & white and full-color covers in a new compilation, Covering Rowrbrazzle Volume One, “covering” the first 50 iconic issues. It’s available for sale over at Second Ed.

image c. 2021 by Bill Fitts

Pokemon Paintings

Spreading the word: The artist known as Barasaurus (David Alcántara Rubio) has a new Kickstarter campaign running for his book 151, a collection of Painted Pokemon Portraits (whew!). “151 is an unofficial Pokémon artbook re-visiting the 1st Gen, with redesigns inspired by folklore, video games, the Internet, and pop culture.” The Kickstarter for this hardcover collection is on ’till the end of June.

image c. 2021 by Barasaurus

The Ursa Major Awards for 2020

Welcome in the May! And welcome the 2021 Ursa Major Awards for the best in anthropomorphic media from 2020. While there was so much crazy (and let’s face it, sad) going on that year, somehow creative people managed to bring us some fine “talking animal” entertainment — and we love them for it. So here, as nominated and voted on exclusively by you, the Fans, are the winners for the Best in Anthropomorphics from the year 2020:

Best Costume (Fursuit): Zigc the Khajiit, created by Inerri Creatures

Best Web Site: Furaffinity.net

Best Game: Animal Crossing — New Horizons, created by Nintendo

Best Published Illustration: “Cheers” by Lofi

Best Magazine: Pocari Roo (video series)

Best Comic Strip: Housepets! by Rick Griffin

Best Graphic Story: Beastars (Volumes 4 – 8) by Paru Itagaki

Best Non-Fiction: The Fandom — A Furry Documentary, directed by Ash Kreis and Eric Risher

Best Other Literary Work: Difursity — Stories by Furries of Color, edited by Weasel

Best Short Fiction: What Makes A Witch, by Linnea Capps

Best Novel: The City That Barks and Roars, by J.T. Bird

Best Dramatic Short Work: Zoophobia — Bad Luck Jack, directed by Vivienne Medrano

Best Dramatic Series: Beastars (The English Dub), directed by Shinichi Matsumi

Best Motion Picture: Wolfwalkers, directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart

Needless to say, congratulations to everyone — the winners, and all the other nominees. To find out more about the Ursa Major Awards, or if you’d like to volunteer, visit the official web site. And start thinking about what sort of Furry Stuff you like from 2021! The Ursa Major Awards will return next year!

image c. 2021 Cartoon Saloon

An Inspirational Fore-bearer

For those who thought that Furry Art got its start in the 1980’s…  meet T.S. Sullivant, who was doing this when Walt Disney was still in school. Now Fantagraphics Books have compiled many of his well-known black & white cartoons — along with words of appreciation — into a new book called A Cockeyed Menagerie. “Welcome to the cockeyed menagerie of Thomas Starling Sullivant. From the 1880s to the Roaring Twenties, Sullivant conjured up a whimsical world in pen and ink — riotous gag cartoons featuring anthropomorphic animals of all stripes; perennial American ‘types’ like hobos, hayseeds, and urban hucksters; and familiar characters from ancient myths and biblical tales. Imbued with infectious joy, his drawings have inspired generations of artists and countless Disney films.” It’s available now in hardcover.

image c. 2021 Fantagraphics Books

Teddy is Back to Save You

Okay here’s something different: A new movie, heading to Netflix, based on a single illustration. Slashfilm explains: “Back in 2013, word arrived that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was going to make a movie based on a single drawing that appeared on DeviantArt. That’s right: Not an adaptation of a story, but a drawing… a piece called ‘Sweet Halloween Dreams’ by artist Alex Panagopoulos. The project seemed to vanish as quickly as it was announced, but now it’s back – and headed to Netflix. Johnson will produce the film, now titled Teddy and the Guardians of the Night, with Dany Garcia under their Seven Bucks Productions banner.” No word yet on a planned release date, or even any more details on the plot, but many people are making guesses based on the illustration below. We’ll let you know more when we do. Pleasant dreams!

image c. 2021 by Alex Panagopoulos

The Best Laid Plans — In Space

[Sorry we’ve been dormant a few days folks — Had some technical arguments with WordPress to work out. That done, here were are again! — ye ed-otter] Ursa Major Award favorite Rick Griffin has a new science fiction book out. It’s available in paperback, and digitally at Smashwords: “The Captain’s Oath is the second installment of The Final Days of the White Flower II Trilogy by multi-award-winning artist and writer, Rick Griffin. Featuring nine illustrations by the author himself, this science fiction epic continues the exciting story of struggle against oppression that began in Traitors, Thieves, and Liars… The best-laid plans of geroo and ringel often go awry. Nobody knows that as well as the crew of the White Flower II, the geroo ship whose captain still bears the literal scars of his last failure. Despite their best efforts, his ship and its crew still languish in slavery to the cruel krakun. But when a new opportunity for freedom presents itself, will the geroo be able to pull off an even more daring escape plan — right under the nose of a krakun overseer?” We missed plugging the first book, so we’d better get off our fuzzy butts and help to plug the second!

image c. 2021 by Rick Griffin

Meet the Dork — and Friends

So furry fans (and many others) have been going crazy lately creating new art in celebration of Spyro the Dragon — new art of many sorts, of course. Well if they need some more inspiration, they could do a lot worse than The Art of Spyro: Reignited Trilogy, new from Blizzard Entertainment. “In 2018 Toys for Bob Studios thrilled fans worldwide by releasing SpyroReignitedTrilogy, a faithful remaster encompassing all three titles from the beloved Spyro™ trilogy introduced in 1998. The Art of Spyro™ is a meticulously crafted compendium filled with in-depth behind-the-scenes content, insightful quotes from top illustrators in the industry, anecdotes from the game developers, and a dazzling assortment of incredible concept art, some of which has never been seen by the public. It is a must-have for art lovers, gamers, fans… and the fun-loving adventurer in all of us.”  Compiled by writer Micky Neilson (Pearl of Pandaria), The Art of Spyro book is available now in hardcover.

image c. 2020 Blizzard Entertainment

He’s So Fluff-y

Hey look at that — some locals! At this year’s Anime L.A. convention we came across Fantastic Fam, headquartered right here in Orange County CA. Here’s what they say about themselves: “We are designers, illustrators, retailers, and manufacturers of fun and unique fashion and accessories.” Simple enough. Right now they’re specializing in comfortable designer cloth face-masks (funny that), but the reason we noticed them was for their line of clothing that features Fluff the Corgi! Not just clothing but stickers, art prints, and other cool stuff. Take a look at their web site and see what we mean. Woof.

image c. 2020 Fantastic Fam, Inc.

Chibi and Tasty

Interesting things we found at this year’s Anime L.A. convention. The artist Ryan Zanfei has gathered together a small crew to sell her creations through a collective known as Tasty Peach Studios. And what are her creations? Cute! “Tasty Peach Studios… is a sweet, unique boutique that sells cute merchandise inspired by Japan! We started out selling small hand made clay charms and commissioned artwork through our little Etsy shop in 2007. Since then we have grown exponentially! We now attend upwards of 70+ anime conventions a year & ship high quality acrylic items, professionally made products and more world wide every day!” Those high quality items now include t-shirts, plushies, enamel pins, and even wigs — and more. Visit the Tasty Peach web site to see what we mean.

image c. 2020 Tasty Peach Studios