Furry artist in finals of San Francisco Public Library card design contest
by Patch O'Furr
Walter Ringtail’s comic strip Paw Valley features a gang of cartoon animal friends who often end up in ticklish situations.
Now, patrons of San Francisco’s Public Library may be tickled to have his art work in their pockets.
According to this cartoon illustrated tour, seven million people a year pass through SFPL’s main branch alone (one of 27 branches in the city). Library membership is over 350,000, with over nine million loans circulated per year. That’s a lot of patrons who could become card-carrying appreciators of furry art!
3,000 submissions were received for the SFPL card design contest. Judges selected ten finalists in each of five age-based categories. The top vote-winners will be printed on SFPL library cards in 2013.
Walter Ringtail’s submission “The Bedtime Story” was chosen for the adult level finals. Now, it’s up to the public to vote for the winner.
According to Walter:
My library card design is a traditional drawing of my main character, Walter, a silver furred raccoon, reading to his best friend Rusty, a large, friendly reddish brown furred grizzly bear, who is laying in his bed in Paw Valley. It was created with ink, marker, and colored pencils.
If you are interested in voting for my library card design, first register here, then go to the finalists and look for the entry titled “The Bedtime Story.” You can view it by clicking on the title of the drawing and it would help a lot if you pushed the “love it” button! This would be a great favor to me and put a great design on San Francisco’s library cards too, plus giving the local furry community greater recognition!
While browsing for story connections, I noticed that Watership Down is listed as a bestseller for 1974 on the history timeline about the SFPL, and the library’s special collections include early illustrated children’s books, indie zines, and a wit and humor collection. Will there ever be a dedicated library collection for furry fandom?
If Paw Valley is a place for ticklish humor, San Francisco is cited by USA Today as having the highest per-capita consumption of both alcohol and books. I wouldn’t mind a little more recognition as a place for furries, too. (It’s already well past “weird”, so why not?)
