Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week
January 20, 2020

2020 Good Furry Award nominees announced, open for more submissions

by Patch O'Furr

The Good Furry Award is for furries (or groups of furries) who have shown themselves to be good citizens of the furry community and deserve recognition.  It debuted in 2019 on the Ask Papabear advice column website, and Tony “Dogbomb” Barrett won. Check the tag for more about it.

Winners get $500 and a trophy. Three Honorable Mentions also get trophies. Nominations can be sent until May 31, 2020. After that, the furry community gets to vote, with winners announced in June 2020.

Below are the furries who have been nominated so far for the 2020 Good Furry Award.

You can nominate people through the end of May 2020 from this form.​

As shared by submitters:

Furry Weekly

Furry Weekly is a long-running magazine on Furry Amino that has been running for nearly 3 years. They highlight all kinds of people in the community, including dancers, musicians, artist, writers, and more.

They are a nonprofit organization, and they haven’t been paid 1 cent for all their hard work. A little award to promote these amazing people will surely be an amazing thing for them.

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January 15, 2020

SCADfurs: These furry animation students will make shows you love one day

by Patch O'Furr

Continuing from Furry college clubs — a place for artists and animators with dreams and fears.

Fall Fest 2019

Yesterday’s article looked at college clubs for furries being a new movement in a growing fandom. It covered clubs at art and animation schools being a special place for people who haven’t always been in synch with the mainstream. It could involve stigma with jobs, but the upside is pro artists making good ties to fandom, and indie artists finding opportunity.

Georgia’s Savannah College of Art and Design is a top rated school near Furry Weekend Atlanta, and a place to find furry talent. SCADfurs is a club for them you can see on Furaffinity or Twitter. SCAD furs president Bucky is a Sequential Art major, and here’s our Q&A.

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January 14, 2020

Furry college clubs — a place for artists and animators with vivid dreams and fears

by Patch O'Furr

A staple comic, 1998-2000

Furry College Clubs are a new movement

Furscience, the group researching furry fandom data, say the majority of members are around college age. By law, they can only track ages 18+, so this growing subculture may have an army of new lurkers just finding their whiskers and tails.

Looking back, furries at colleges are nothing new (check big furry comics of the 90’s) — but having enough members at the same schools to start official clubs is a new chapter in fandom.

A 2005-era Livejournal-connected list has a few dozen college furries — in the world, not the same place. A 2008 forum topic mentions handfuls finding each other (but more likely at anime clubs.) Then during a watershed time of mainstream media turning from mockery to fascination with the fandom (between MFF 2014 and Zootopia), a USA Today headline says: Growing community of ‘furries’ finds acceptance on campus.

Student newspapers love the topic now. It’s a common reason for alerts about furries in the media. And in big online forums, college location lists get hundreds of responses. Looking into it gives an impression that many are majoring in tech, science, or arts. But one subject stands out the most.

Pro animator dreams

Furry fandom overflows with art talent. And the animation industry is a hoped-for destination for many. For a guiding light, they can look at artists like Joaquin Baldwin (Disney’s Zootopia) joining furries as a popular convention guest.

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January 7, 2020

Hindsight is 2020 — Top 20 furry news stories of last year (Part 2)

by Patch O'Furr

Yesterday was Part 1 of a list for articles at Dogpatch Press. These stories aren’t just from 2019. There’s some older ones that had revived or ongoing interest in the year. They’re not ordered by most viewed on top (some of them are deeper dives into brief/specific stories) — but these were the top 20 listed in a way that makes a snapshot of a subculture.

11. Mainstream crossover. Margaret Cho barks about furries, pride, and costuming on The Masked Singer.

This is right on the line drawn by queer/weird power that keeps furry fandom independent. Here’s one of the bigger names in mainstream entertainment who has openly mingled with furries. She takes pride in supporting misfits, was Grand Marshall of a pride parade, and was in The Masked Singer as a singing robot poodle. This article with her drew mainstream news to ask for furry opinions of the show. Expect more because the Australian edition has costumes built by furry makers, and the UK edition had fursuits in a sponsor’s ad.

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January 6, 2020

Hindsight is 2020 — Top 20 furry news stories of last year (Part 1)

by Patch O'Furr

My chihuahua was amazed when I sneezed and fireworks exploded over the city. She stopped shaking and did a head tilt, like “did you do that?”

It was New Year’s Eve, and catching a plague kept me from going out. But pets like attention when there’s scary noise, and it made time to write.

This list is for articles at Dogpatch Press. That’s not the only way to get furry news, but how easy is it to get? Trust 1132 published articles here. It takes tons of work that few will do. Or ask those who start new sites, because great intentions often only last a few weeks. (RIP Good Fur News, Jan-Feb 2019).

This site has 6 years in service because it’s about DIY power, like a little sneeze really has power to make fireworks. It starts with one fan, but it needs everyone who sends tips, support, or guest writing, and makes art and events. That’s why 2020’s plans include supporting Moonraiser’s furry blog, a regular guest roundup of furry comics, and too many projects to ever finish (the site has hundreds on file).

These stories aren’t just from 2019. There’s some older ones that had revived or ongoing interest in the year. They’re not ordered by most viewed on top (some of them are deeper dives into brief/specific stories) — but these were the top 20 listed in a way that makes a snapshot of a subculture.

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December 16, 2019

Furry Raiders sex crime case: Arrest for felon tied to witness tampering and Milo’s “troll school”

by Patch O'Furr

Here’s a wild story that has all this: Internet harassment, the disgraced alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos, the furry fandom pariah Foxler (known for stories in Rolling Stone and Newsweek about neo-nazi furries and his Furry Raiders group), his right-hand man “Sneps” who has a felony record, and their plan to frame a witness for sex crime that Foxler is charged for doing. There was even a bungled plan to target me for reporting. It blew up in their faces, put “Sneps” behind bars, and leaves the crime witness needing vindication after being framed.

If you were Foxler — AKA Lee Miller of Fort Collins, CO — what would you do if:

If you were Foxler, how would you defend from these charges? Maybe get a good lawyer or well-regarded community member to help clear your name?

A smart person with a good future could do that. That’s not Foxler. He got his close friend and Furry Raiders admin, known as Flare or Sneps, and they cooked up a scheme to get him out of trouble by attacking the sources. I helped uncover it and report it to the police, with this result:.

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December 16, 2019

The diversity of coverage on Dogpatch Press

by Patch O'Furr

Front page news sequencing is part of the art of informing the public. The previous news story and next story posting on the site make quite an awkward juxtaposition.  I’m talking about an article about positive G rated parents and kids stuff, with one about a sex crime story to post just above it. That could make a mixed message.

I usually pad these things but I’m too busy to have something prepped to post between them, so I thought this would make a nice opportunity to address the content and how it works with a certain contradiction built in to furry fandom.

It’s what I call “the big umbrella from Disney to Dirty.” It’s all that stuff under the same tent. Which obviously needs careful handling. AD panels kept near midnight. ID checking for room parties. The first thing to say about this isn’t that it makes risk of the night side mixing with the day side. It’s that every parent did those things before they had kids, and parents are the first ones to protect them. Adult supervision can mitigate most concerns. And I think this fandom is doing an OK job of handling concerns that exist everywhere, from private homes to the Catholic Church.

That’s all, and enjoy a little off the cuff talk here from a curious contact asking for opinions how to write content for furry news.

 

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December 12, 2019

Help Make a Parents and Kids Programming Track at Further Confusion

by Patch O'Furr

UPDATE: The person running programming has had to drop out. Anyone interested in helping take their place should contact the con.

Who brings kids to a furry con? Check out Furscience.com: Resources for parents, or Moms of Furries. Vice has a report: How the Furry Community Became a Safe Space for Youth. Sometimes kids bring their parents, and sometimes furries have their own kids. Of course they do, this fandom started in the late 1970’s. Multiple generations is what makes it grow.

BunBun, a mom and furry near San Francisco, proposed kid-friendly programming to Further Confusion in January. She said the board really wants to make it happen. She’s now working to make special events for kids. There’s a schedule including guided story writing/mad libs (maybe with a writer guest?) and having the kids design a space ship, matching the sci-fi theme of the con.

It will be the best time ever for them. You can help!

  • WANTED: STAFF. Bunbun needs people willing to volunteer.
  • WANTED: ART SUPPLIES. Including hands-on craft or sewing supplies, like scrap fur, needles and thread to help them start furry costuming of their own.
  • Is anyone willing to put on a fun panel for kids, or be a DJ for kid friendly music?

Contact the con if you want to help make it happen.

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December 10, 2019

Bojack Horseman: Animals being more human than real life — review by Candy

by Dogpatch Press Staff

(Patch): It’s a special time to be a fan of this alcoholic, washed-up actor who’s also an anthropomorphic horse. With 5 seasons under his belt (saddle?) Bojack Horseman’s show is in the middle of its sixth, and final, season. 8 episodes arrived in late October 2019, with the final ones coming on January 31st, 2020.

I have to confess to being a bad furry reviewer, because I only got half way into the first season before I heard it got really good. I got too distracted to keep up and it’s been bugging me to watch everything. It’s not just for enjoyment — If I had hooves, I’d be able to kick myself extra hard for missing an interview opportunity with show creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg. He asked in 2015 when I interviewed Adam Conover, show cast member (and his former roommate), but I was too busy covering other furry stuff to reply in a timely way.

Which reminds me that the show designer Lisa Hanawalt‘s spinoff show, Tuca & Bertie, had a single season this year. It was canceled to fan dismay. This would be a good time to ask her what upcoming projects she may have — let’s see if her agent gets back to me. I can pay in carrots!

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December 3, 2019

When Fursuiting and Charity Radiates Positive Difference – Dogbomb, Furry Weekend Atlanta & The 2019 ALS Walk

by Dogpatch Press Staff

GUEST POST BY JOE GORIA (JOE G. BEAR)

Joe Bear in suit

As a young kid growing up in 1970’s Los Angeles, I was always fascinated by seeing costumed performers at events like circuses, or Disneyland and the now defunct Hanna-Barbera’s Marineland in Palos Verdes, CA. To see tall cartoon characters come to life as Baloo, Yogi Bear, and Scooby Doo let me escape into a virtual fantasy life of myself living in a world alongside Anthropomorphic Animals.

Though I grew up and went to college, graduated and attended grad school — and recently celebrated 19 years employed for a major telecommunications company with a Pension and 401k — I’m still that kid that refused to grow up. The ‘Hooman’ in me was not enough. I wanted to be my own ‘Bear.’ It led to my amazement that there’s a fan base just for this.

I discovered ‘The Furry Fandom’ in late 2013 by another Furry who had a German Shepherd fursuit stored in the trunk of his ol’ jalopy. His name was ‘Kaz,’ and he was picking me up at San Diego’s Santa Fe train station. When he popped open his trunk to put my bags in, I noticed his fursuit and asked him “is that a dog costume?”  I thought he was working at an amusement park or something. Instead he was a Furry, and I got my 15 minute crash course in ‘The Fandom’.

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