Dogpatch Press

Thanks to Summercat for this guest post.

Rabbit Valley is the oldest fandom publisher and one of the “Big Three” (with Furplanet and Sofawolf.) It’s been covered here in Furry Publishers – A Resource for Artists and Authors, and: The State of Furry Publishing – Fred Patten gives the inside story of eight groups.

The folk at Rabbit Valley also distribute books and comics by others. A fun way to try some is a “Buy It By The Box” deal: a pre-packaged box of merchandise pulled from back stock for just $25 (plus shipping). I’ve found it contains comics, books, dvds, cds, and one time even a shirt, a combined value of more than $25 when they packed the box.

Once again, I’m sharing what I’ve found in the The Box.  It’s about the only form of gambling I let myself enjoy, and as Rabbit Valley has been in the Furry mail-order business since 1987, they’ve got quite an interested selection of things in here! So what does the box look like?

Now admittedly, Rabbit Valley does open up the box and consolidate the contents with the rest of your order. So they see what’s in the box when they ship it to you, but it also saves on shipping and the number of suspicious packages being left on your doorstep by a rabbit when it’s not even Easter.

In this case, in addition to my blindbox, I ordered three comics to fill some holes in my collection. They got mixed in with the blindbox contents, but that was easy enough to sort them out. I list them here because, well, why not?

Circles #5 and #6

 That’s right I didn’t already have these. Fixing that.

Circles is a wonderful comic written by Andrew French and Steve Domanski, and drawn by K-9. It’s centered around a household of gay men, but surprisingly for a Furry comic there’s no visible sex. This is a slice of life comic with realistic characters dealing with issues in their lives. The comic was halted by K-9’s cross country move, but the story was eventually concluded in the 2014 novel “As The Years Keep Rolling By” – a book I delayed reading for years, and live-tweeted my responses and reactions when I finally did read it.

Spoo Presents – Issue 2

No I don’t see a resemblance, Lord Vader. And Who are you, Doctor…?

Spoo Presents is an adults only line from Rabbit Valley with serialized stories. Each comic was a double issue with half given to either side, and flipped around so both stories got their own cover.

Captain Pulsar’s Rocketship Rodents is an adults only male/male comic written by Trejaan and drawn by Werepuppy. It’s a pornographic scifi romp that borrows heavily from 1950s and 1960s scifi aesthetic. It was a suggested purchase on the website after I loaded up Circles. I guess because it was similar, somehow?

Professor Chronofur was also done by Trejaan and Werepuppy, and started off life as a Doctor Who reference story-within-a-story from Rocketship Rodents. It got its own issue by fan demand. I think I enjoy this one, but I might be slightly biased because Professor Chronofur is an otter.

Of course, those are what I ordered specifically. They did not come in the blindbox. I want to make certain it’s understood what came in the box versus what I specifically ordered. I do not want to misrepresent a product I’m technically shilling!

So with that, I shall move on to the items I got in the blind box. Some of these are repeats to my collection, but I’ve got a fairly large collection, and it’s to be expected. Two or three aren’t from the Furry Fandom, but are either tangentially Furry or published by one of the various ‘Furry’ publishing houses. All good in my book!

Welcome to Cappuccinos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written by Graveyard Greg, this novel is a collection of short ‘flash fiction’ no more than a page or two long each, following the lives of the staff of the titular coffee shop. IIRC Greg first started posting these to Furaffinity. I’ve only read snippets, but then again, each snippet is a chapter or two. This is easy to digest because each scene is no more than one or two pages.

The characters are gay and generally fairly beefy. Makes sense, knowing Greg – and I’ve known him since about 2003.

Farmost Star I See Tonight

Impact in three, two, one…

As soon as I saw the author, I sent the picture of this book to Thurston Howl, who currently runs a publishing imprint called Thurston Howl Publications (I can’t say shit, I still intend to do Summercatcon someday). His reaction was to metaphorically groan and bury his face in his hands. Farmost Star was his first book published, and he is apparently a bit embarrassed by it – but how many can say they’ve published a novel at all?

This book is an adolescent coming-of-age romance fantasy with feral wolves as the cast. As such, it’s totally not my speed, but I feel obligated to read it some day – if only to roast Thurston.

Max Hamm – Fairy Tale Detective (vol 2, #2)

There’s a cop joke here that I don’t want to make

Max Hamm, by Frank Cammuso, is a comic detective noir-ish story set in Storybookland. This was published by Nite Owl Comics in 2004, and appears to be geared towards a younger audience.  The art is heavily on the exaggerated toon side, but it’s not so busy as to be impossible to follow.

The Last Kiss #2

I feel the same way, cover woman.

The Last Kiss, organized by John Lustig, is an anthology series published by Shanda Fantasy Arts, focused mainly on placing new dialogue on older romance comic artwork for comedic and satiric purposes. This issue was published in 2001.

I don’t know how well the humor holds up to the test of time, but I did chuckle upon seeing “No, I can’t die, not like this! I’m not wearing clean underwear!” on a random page. Maybe I’ll take the Cover Woman’s advice on this one.

Liberty From Hell #1

This comic gets pretty Frank about the setting.

Liberty From Hell, by Smudge, published by Radio Comix in 2003. It’s an adults-only comic about a fallen angel improperly summoned, and both Heaven and Hell don’t realize it. Except that he was the angel of love and procreation. It’s set in 575 and has some minor anachronisms, but it was a pretty good story, even if the ‘action’ is mainly off camera.

Liberty Meadows #26

By happenstance, this is the TF issue. I love TF.

Liberty Meadows, by Frank Cho and published by Image in 2002, is a four panel webcomic strip. The setting involves both humans and toony anthro animals, and despite the cover orientation, the book is bound at the top and read sideways.

I’ll have to look into this one a bit more later on to see if I should be intentionally collecting it.

The Pound, Issue #1

Looks like a pounding is about to happen, yeah

The Pound, by Richard Moore and published by Radio Comix in 2000, is a scifi action heterosexual-erotic comic that features suggestive poses and exposed breasts, but not too much else. Kat and Caleb are feline morphs who are apparently covert mercenaries. A deal goes south and they’re stabbed in the back, then take revenge to get their pay.

Sabrina Online, Years 1 and 7

I don’t have anything witty to say here

Sabrina Online, by Eric Schwartz (and published here by United Publications, unknown year for Year One, assumed 2004 for #7). It was a webcomic that ran from 1996 to 2016. As one of the older comics, Sabrina Online was an influence on many people – and since Eric is an Amiga enthusiast, the titular character Sabrina appeared in many Amiga publications as well.

For those unfamiliar with Sabrina Online, the story follows the titular character Sabrina, a female skunk who despite her shy personality ends up working at a porn studio – as the graphic designer, not a star.

SFA Spotlight Presents #5 – Zebra Comics

I wonder if Wonder Ratwoman also secretly wants pants

SFA Spotlight was a series published by Shanda Fantasy Arts, sometimes an anthology of themed shorts (such as the various Women in Fur issues), but it also involved single-shots such as Mouse and Knight.

Zebra Comics is the work of Carl Gafford, who started doing comics in 1973 at DC, and was introduced to Furry Fandom when Fred Patten showed him a few issues of Rowrbrazzle (a Furry APA).

Ulster #1

Very obviously set in Ireland, as there’s no rabbit in a Welsh Rabbit.

Ulster #1 was written and drawn by Tori D. Ward, and published in 1999 by Dreamfield Comics.

I’ve read through the comic twice. I still don’t know what to make of it. Horror? Existential drama? What I can make out is that Ulster is the name of the region, there’s supernatural stuff going on, and the rabbit from the cover goes on some sort of journey.

Usagi Yojimbo – Dark Horse #42

I don’t think this bat wants brushies

Usagi Yojimbo, by Stan Sakai, was first published in Albedo #2 in 1984. Probably one of the most successful comics to come from the Furry Fandom, the main character – a ronin rabbit warrior named Miyamoto Usagi – has appeared in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comics, games, and TV shows, and if I recall correctly he is getting his own show soon.

Usagi was published first in Albedo by Thoughts and Images, then later moving to Fantagraphics, Mirage, and then Dark Horse. This particular issue, from 2000, is part of the Grasscutter II storyline.

Wild #9

I can’t come up with anything but obvious jokes here

Wild, from Mu Press (Issue 9, 2004), was an X-rated adults-only comic anthology series. This issue featured work from Zephery Hughs, Matt McAndrews, and Karno, and was edited by Ed Vick.

Wild ran for 15 issues, from 2003 to 2005, and was the successor to an earlier Mu Press offering “Wild Kingdom”, which boasted of being the first Furry X-rated anthology with a prestigious list of contributors. 

And that’s it for February’s Rabbit Valley Lootbox!

This is where I’d put in a plug or something if they were sponsoring me, but they know better than to pay me for something I’m doing for free, blast them! (Just kidding. Love you guys.)

I’ll be putting in an order for March’s Rabbit Valley Buy It By The Box soon. Hopefully I’ll have that unboxing report done BEFORE the end of the month. We shall see.

If you’re curious to see my ongoing Furry Library Archive project, check it out at https://furryarchive.librarika.com/ ! My mission is preservation of Furry History and education on the topic.

~Summercat