Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Category: Opinion

December 5, 2014

De Cape et De Crocs is back! French anthro comic announcement, by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

1590_couvFor those not exposed to Euro media… “Bande Dessinee” is a format of richly illustrated, full color comic stories in large album hardcovers.  They make a tradition that’s a cherished national art in France and Belgium.  Think – TinTin, Asterix, and The Smurfs.  I HIGHLY recommend a visit to the Belgian Comic Strip Center in Brussels.  Get lost for hours with original inked pages displayed in a lavish Art Nouveau venue.

Story sent in by Fred Patten:

“Here is my new story for Dogpatch Press, about the surprise continuation of the French De Cape et De Crocs series.  I wrote about the publication of Volume 10, (what I thought was the end of the series) for Flayrah two years ago.  I’m including links to the series site which has graphics of other albums; and the French site that shows the cover and first dozen pages of the new album.”

De Cape et De Crocs, volume 11: “Twenty Months Before”.

Read the rest of this entry »

2 comments
December 4, 2014

Animation from India: a critical look for furry fans – by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Sent in by Fred:

“Dear Patch- Are you interested in samples of recent Indian anthropomorphic TV commercials?  Most are in Hindi or a combination of Hindi & English.”

“Hi Fred- I suspect that this work doesn’t get much traction in the USA, and there are few furry fans caring about animation specific to India.  Besides, I think that you can run into a common bias:  people are unhappy with the glut of generic CGI style animation and they like seeing traditional drawn art.  That’s a bias from young people in art school, North American fans with strong nostalgia for older cartoons… and cheap overseas work making it harder to produce.   I just wanted to put it out, that bias is there.  I’m sure some good work may be missed because of it, but I haven’t seen a lot from India, even at film festivals that actively curate obscure stuff.  I DO like focus on animation – the stuff I post is very creator-centric.  But if you include such material in a broad topic, that’s a way to share it. – Patch”

romeoReaders: is this story missing good work by not giving it a chance?  There are a few furry fans for the Bollywood animated movie Roadside Romeo.  One blog calls it the ultimate furry movie, highlighting “how unapologetically sexy it was for a talking animal movie” (A good or bad thing? Up to you.)  One furry on a “foreign animated animal movies” topic calls the movie “actually REALLY good”:

romeo2
 
 
 

What’s Wrong With Indian Animation?– by Fred Patten

Read the rest of this entry »

4 comments
December 3, 2014

Zoo City, by Lauren Beukes: Fred Patten’s review of Arthur C. Clarke Award winning SF book.

by Patch O'Furr

zcZoo City, by Lauren Beukes

Johannesburg, Jacana Media, June 2010, trade paperback R150,00 (344 pages).

Okay, I have a thing for listing books by their original editions, but I can’t really expect anyone (except Rakuen Grolithe) to order this from South Africa. The international edition (383 pages) was published by Osprey Publishing/Angry Robot in Botley, Oxford, UK, in July 2011, and distributed in the U.S. by Random House; U.S. prices hardcover now o.p., trade paperback $15.00, and Kindle $5.99.

“Zinzi has a Sloth on her back”. Literally. Zinzi December is required by both law and magic to go about with a live sloth clinging to her back, or hanging out of her handbag or backpack, for her involvement in her brother’s death. If she tries to get rid of or kill it, or gets too far from it, she will be almost instantly reduced to a cloud of ash.

She is not the only “animalled” character in this winner of the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award (for the best science-fiction novel first published in the U.K. during the previous year). In this alternate-world novel (that almost every reviewer has said should be classed as “urban fantasy” or “magic realism” rather than as s-f), the “Zoo Plague” has been in force worldwide since the 1990s. Everyone guilty of murder, or of being responsible for someone’s death, is “assigned” a domestic or wild animal familiar known as a “shavi” for the rest of his or her life. The shavi is linked to the human’s lifespan, so an animal that’s outside of its natural habitat, or would normally die of old age, will live as long as its human does.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment
November 25, 2014

Recommendations for the 2014 Ursa Major Awards for excellence in the furry arts

by Patch O'Furr

UMAweb1_2aCollege Humor’s “Furry Force” cracked up watchers with a grossout Furries parody that struck Youtube gold in April.  “Yiff mode activate!” probably won’t be heard in a big time superhero movie soon, but the two animated shorts were popular enough to get 3.5 million views up to now.  Even many targets couldn’t hate it, because it’s not outsider derision.  It’s laugh-with-you comedy from personal experience, according to my interview with the writer, Adam.

I sent Furry Force to the Ursa Majors Recommended Anthropomorphics list, for best “Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work” of 2014.  In April, I asked Adam how he’d like one.  He said:

I’d be incredibly honored to be nominated for an Ursa Major award! The furry community knows what they want and what they like, so I’d consider that a real honor as a writer.

Speaking of that list… a little blog like Dogpatch Press, which only reaches a handful of highly attractive readers, couldn’t compare to publications with real audiences.  But if you feel like it, I can’t stop you from sending it to recommended@ursamajorawards.org for “Recommended Anthropomorphic Magazine”.  (They don’t want “detrimental” material, so ask if they take bribes to allow scurrilous gossip anyways.)

Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian fan, submits this:

“There are less than two months left to recommend titles for the ALAA’s 2014 Recommended Anthropomorphics List.  See the Ursa Major Awards website for the current 2014 Recommended List.  The next update will be on November 30.  If you have read, seen, or played anything furry that was first published or released during 2014, and it is not already on the Recommended List, please recommend it yourself before the end of the year.

Nominations for the 2014 Ursa Major Awards will open on January 15, 2015 (the first day of Further Confusion 2015), and will remain open until February 28, 2015.  Fans often use the Recommended Anthropomorphics List as a guide to what is worth nominating.  If there is anything that you consider worth recommending, don’t wait for someone else to do it.  Speak up!”  – Fred Patten

Address again: recommended@ursamajorawards.org – I have hugs for anyone who sends anything, because furries are cool and sharing their stuff is cool.

Readers may value this tip that Fred posted at Flayrah:

I have not seen any mention of next year’s Ursa Major Awards presentations anywhere. This was announced at this year’s presentations at CaliFur X, but it has not been publicized anywhere.

The presentation of the 2014 Awards will be at Morphicon 2015, in May 2015.

The presentation of the 2015 Awards will be at What The Fur 2016, in May 2016.

 

2 comments
November 24, 2014

Pac Anthro Weekend weathers rough start to make newest West Coast furcon

by Patch O'Furr

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment
November 21, 2014

Poland: Weird, creepy conservatives make gross, inappropriate ban of Winnie The Pooh.

by Patch O'Furr

What I think about when I think about Furries.

What I think about when I think about Furries.

A Polish town had a problem considering the innocent cartoon bear as a mascot:

Winnie the Pooh has been banned from a Polish playground because of his “dubious sexuality” and “inappropriate” dress… one councillor even denouncing poor Pooh as a “hermaphrodite”.

What caused the dirty minds of the town council, who were thinking way too hard about Winnie the Pooh’s no-no spot?  

Read the rest of this entry »

2 comments
November 16, 2014

“New concept for furry events” brings enthusiastic response in San Francisco.

by Patch O'Furr

Last week, San Francisco had a series of back to back events: a street fursuiting “crawl”, a furry photo gallery opening, a fetish party, (a private special interest thing not representing others), and Frolic dance party.  The series drew more furries than my butt attracts fleas.

It was first-time fursuiting for Sketchywolf.  He attended all of the events, and posted about it:

I’ve never seen so much love for furries from random strangers! So many photos! So many smiling faces! … Fursuiting turned out to be even more fun than I imagined it to be! I love the reaction of others when they see a suit. Walking over to Frolic suited, and back to the hotel and the end of the night, I was stopped by people wanting to take pictures!  I danced, I partied, I hugged EVERYBODY. Oh! I had SO MUCH fun!

Before the events, I posted: “Independent shows and festivals offer new concept for furry events”.  Each was organized separately, but with loose ties.  They used special venues and locations to add character beyond the “sterile/consumer” vibe of a hotel (like one comment said).  I called it a model for growing beyond cons, and proposed a new, free-range fair or festival concept.  Judging by the enthusiastic response, the idea was more than hype.  It’s a sign of a burgeoning subculture.  Let’s look at how things went.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 comment
November 7, 2014

North Korea’s Dear Leader Kim Jong-un got pranked with plushie sex

by Patch O'Furr

kim1I’d save this tidbit for a “Furry Newsdump”, but why waste a perfectly good headline like that?

Here’s a story about a photo tour by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. It was produced by their Glorious Socialist People’s Ministry of Correct Learnings (or whatever they call their state propaganda machine). The setting is a disturbingly empty, candy-colored orphanage. I think it was supposed to make him look cuddly. (But I’m just wondering if they ate the babies?)

None of the dictator’s censors noticed that someone with steel balls had posed plushies screwing in the scene. (I just hope whoever did it made a beeline for the border.) Scroll down for delicious details.

Read the rest of this entry »

5 comments
November 6, 2014

This week in San Francisco: Independent shows and festivals offer new concept for furry events

by Patch O'Furr

unnamed

wild things poster2frolic

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four events are back to back in San Francisco:  Fursuit crawl – Furry portrait show gallery opening – Wild Things fetish party – Frolic dance party.  

On Friday 11/7/14 is the “Embarcadero Fursuit Crawl“.  The street fursuiting fun will move downtown, to a grand entrance at the gallery opening for Ron Lussier’s Furry portrait show.   Ron’s creative partner, Bobby Pin, shares:  More Press for the upcoming ‘Furries & Despair Photography Show’!

Saturday has the “art and sex” party – Wild Things.  This furry fetish and petplay party has gotten tremendous response. (It’s for a special interest and adult activity doesn’t represent furries in general.)  Afterwards is Frolic dance party: the monthly “mini-con” that attracts several hundred attendees, and helped influence spin-off parties across the USA.

The San Francisco Bay Area has so much activity, that furries often have multiple events to choose from at the same time.  On Halloween there was a cosplay dance party, a house party, and a street costuming meetup.  Consider what it says about developing subculture.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment
October 22, 2014

Animated Dawgtown news, cool pandas and creepy clowns. Furry Newsdump (10-22-14)

by Patch O'Furr

Here’s links, headlines and little bites of news to make your tail wag.  Story tips are always welcome.

_____________________________

Movies and video

_____________________________

maxNew updates from Dawgtown, animated movie featuring sympathetic fighting dogs.

It’s an ambitious, traditionally hand-drawn animated drama about captive dogs fighting for freedom.  It has voice acting by George Foreman, and the indie spirit of a Ralph Bakshi movie.  The  director was super cool about providing a great interview to this blog.  Storyboard progress is just posted, and he reports “Getting close to half the film (40 min) complete.”  The new scene shows Max, the hero, lost on the dangerous streets of New York City.  

See a rough animatic of Dawgtown storyboards in motion. 

Here’s the next fursuit music video you were expecting.  NOA NEAL – FULL MOON PARTY.

Call it a modest trend. Here’s a “sexy video full of crazy Cosplayers, playful cheerleaders and a band of exuberant dancers.” It’s from Noa Neal, a Dutch-born, Belgian pop singer since 2003.  In 2009 she had a career boost from a talent show.  Since 2012, she’s known for presenting kid’s content on Euro TV.  In 2013 she moved to the US to write and record with a producer associated with Katy Perry, Carly Rae Jepsen & Miley Cyrus.  Her new single was recorded in London and produced in Finland.  It might not be an Ylvis-style novelty hit, (let’s hope fursuiters don’t have to hear another song yelled at them), but it’s fluffy, harmless fun.

 

noa

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment