Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Greymuzzle Stickmaker (Rodford Edmiston Smith), an attendee and photographer of many World S-F Conventions and other s-f conventions of the 1980s through the 2000s, has been posting his photos on Flickr since late September.
Most are of interest to s-f fans, but some contain pictures of furry fans at bygone s-f conventions. (I’m in there, but never mind where – I don’t photograph well.)
A fox fursuiter (but the word “fursuit” didn’t exist yet) at the 1991 Worldcon in Chicago. (link)
Nominate Dogpatch Press for an Ursa Major Award – get fuzzy hugs! I love furries so much, blogging about them is it’s own reward. But I love shinies too, so can the highly attractive readers of this site nominate it for an award? Submit a Best Magazine nomination at the Ursa Majors site. These hugs are worth it. (OK, they’re worth nothing because I hug everyone for free. They’re just priceless.)
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Fandom News
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Ursa Major Awards nominations close on February 28.
The final ballot should be ready around March 15. It will be announced here. There’s a little time left to nominate your favorite creators. Don’t wait! (Please also nominate College Humor’s Furry Force, the millions-viewed comedy animation. Writer Adam Conover is super grateful for furry support.)
“Angel Dragon” fursuit sets new auction price record of $11,575.
The auction on Furbuy beat the recent record of $8,025 for Lavender Corgi, sold on 10/11/14. The “Angel Dragon” is by PhoenixWolf Fursuits, maker of the popular suit for Telephone. The contest of 187 bids ended on 2/14/15. There was controversy when some bids inflated the price to $14,000 before they were removed. A followup article will share comments from Furbuy admins, and the seller. (Confirmation of payment is still pending.)
Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Story tips are always welcome.
Nominate Dogpatch Press for an Ursa Major Award – get fuzzy hugs! I love furries so much, blogging about them is it’s own reward. But I love shinies too, so can the highly attractive readers of this site nominate it for an award? Please submit a Best Magazine nomination at the Ursa Majors site. These hugs are worth it. OK, they’re worth nothing because I hug everyone for free. (They’re just priceless.)
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Fandom News
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25 Years of Furry Conventions, presented by Sable and Mink – furry history gold.
In 1989, ConFurence Zero brought 65 original furries to Costa Mesa, California. The organizers have lots to tell you. Reddit has more comments, and there’s a good one about the “first iconic fursuits” in the video at 47:00. It shows Hilda The Bambioid salaciously played in “leather lingerie” by Robert Hill. In 1989, little did they know where this would lead… “There were TWO fur-suits there: Hilda in performance, as you see in the footage here, and the un-named bobcat who showed up later at the dance.”
Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Story tips are always welcome.
Site news:
Super linty hugs for everyone, especially if you send Dogpatch Press from the Ursa Majors recommended list to the Award nominations (now open!) For the next few weeks, my posting will be sparse due to time demands. Meanwhile, enjoy uninterrupted content from Fred Patten. His History of Furry Publishing is packed with amazing info. (It wore out my eyes to lay out tons of cool cover art from early zines and books.) You might also catch a few of my back-dated Flayrah articles reposted via @dogpatchpress.
I don’t often see outside companies actively reaching out to the small but thriving Furry subculture. Not directly. If I had to guess where it would happen, I’d guess for Second Life users. But there are signs that Furries count as modest but valued audience, for some game media like Furvilla aimed right at them.
“IMVU is the world’s leading 3D social network with over 130 million registrants… IMVU’s users seek and create new connections, lives, and lifestyles in a completely user-generated world that combines custom avatars, chat, community, content creation, commerce, and anonymity.”
It was cool of them to search my blog to talk about their plan for Further Confusion:
“I’m writing to connect with Dogpatch Press and let you know that Mountain View-based IMVU will be at the show to embrace the furry community, many of whom are a part of IMVU’s 3D, avatar-based social network. As a company, we meet “furries” every day on IMVU but look forward to meeting them in real-life at FurCon 2015.
If you plan to be at the show, stop by and see us at FurCon – we expect out “fan table” to be in an area outside the Dealer Marketplace – 2nd floor of the San Jose Convention Center in a walkway/hallway leading to the adjoining Marriott hotel.”
Please help answer the question at the end of the story!
“Furries & Despair” happened on 11/7/14. It was super successful. It featured portraits of fursuiters from Further Confusion by Ron Lussier, and Bobby Pin’s urban decay photos from Detroit. The show was packed with people having fun in and out of costume. You don’t often see such energy at a gallery.
Courtesy of Bobby Pin:
Thank you again for everybody that came out and supported our work. We hope you guys had a great time. It was great seeing everyone.
BAMM did an amazing job filming the opening night. Please give them some love.
Check out the wonderful video they did for the Furries & Despair Show:
On November 15-16, 2014, Pacific Anthropomorphics Weekend brought a second Furry convention to the San Francisco Bay Area. PAW’s official attendance was 213. It was the result of much hard work behind the scenes.
If only con organizing was always as serene as the palm trees on the website.
I’m sorry not to post pure sunshine here: I think it’s an OK time for honesty, shortly after the con. Next year offers a clean slate.
Conflict came even before a con plan, in early 2014. Staff changes with January’s Further Confusion con caused discord among watchers close to the action. Like most things in life, it was complicated. Sides were taken for private debates not qualified to air. (It wasn’t all personal: a long-standing supporter was left frustrated by hotel union regulations, that couldn’t allow some volunteers to “work” for the event.)
A faction of former Fur Con supporters and friends acted to start a new convention. It would compete to take Fur Con’s place. Watchers knocked the “revenge con” plan, noting that a negative reason was a weak draw, diminishing positive reasons to persist. It was ultimately resolved by abandoning a conflicting date, to simply offer a welcome new option at a harmless time.
