Californian student newspaper The Santa Clara tailed a group of furs to the weekly "Crack Chicken" meet, and gives a overview of the fandom and fursuiting.

The article's tone is positive, though the claim that "most ... in the group own at least one fur suit, and many own more than five" may only be true in the Bay Area, if anywhere.

Cartoon Brew just posted Marooned on Watango Island, a 2012 personal animated cartoon by Australian animator Lluis “Fuzzhound” Sanchez (whose name sounds more Catalan).

The animation is absolutely non-Furry; I am reposting it here just to show that there are people outside of Furry fandom who take names like Fuzzhound. Also, don’t we wish that we had come up with a Furry animation studio with a name like Fuzztoon Studios?

Since we last covered MTV's True Life, the show has taken footage of several furs, but is seeking more. From an email:

This is a docu-series to chronicle the real life of a Furry. We have no intention of showing Furries in a negative light but instead hope to dispel some of the media myths out there about them.

The renewed casting call was recieved with scepticism on the furrymedia LJ community.

Meanwhile, UK-based Zig Zag Productions (whose shows are often "factual entertainment") hopes to contact a more rarified group – therians and otherkin.

Publisher Melange Books couldn't decide how to categorize author Phil Geusz's new novel, Stick and Bones – so it created a "Furry/Anthropomorphic" section for works in the genre.

Phil, whose novel joins his No Glory Sought series and C. A. Withey's Savagery in the section, highlighted the novelty of such treatment from a non-furry-specific publisher:

To my knowledge this is the first time that anyone, anywhere has done such a thing.

Melange spares no buzzwords in promoting the "downright magical" topic, describing furry as "the dynamic new genre that's pushing the limits and breaking the rules in every possible direction [...] where the young, cutting-edge authors with new ideas have all vanished to."

Read more: Furry writers discuss Melange at the FWG forums

Freedom City may be Phil Geusz’s most didactic s-f novel to date. The undated setting is roughly 100 years in the future. The locale is Freedom City, a nation-state on a very large and complex artificial platform constructed in international waters in the Caribbean. Geusz’s futuristic bioengineering transmutation science is displayed here. Most citizens of Freedom City are happy to remain human, but Harvey Foote, the protagonist, and his major rival have had themselves transmuted into a funny-animal rabbit and a cat for pertinent reasons. The rabbit-man has a large rabbit staff; so does the cat-man, but his staff includes funny-animal tigers, pumas, lions, leopards, a Siamese cat, lynxes, jaguars, and every feline that can be imagined. The story makes it clear that not only have humans chosen to be turned into anthropomorphic animals, there have been gender and age changes as well. Foote is a dynamically young 83 years old.

The novel is narrated by the rabbit-man, who is the manager of the Rabbit’s Foot Casino, the largest (76 floors) hotel/casino on Freedom City. He has had himself and his staff bioengineered into funny-animal rabbits partly as publicity for his Rabbit’s Foot, but mostly as a statement of individuality; to show what Freedom City’s science and technology can do, and to thumb their noses at the U.S. government which says, “You aren’t allowed to do that!”

FurPlanet Productions, March 2012, trade paperback $19.95 (275 pages; also on Amazon).

I was preparing this announcement, but GreenReaper has given away part of it on Newsbytes.

Fred Patten, who has been writing Furry book reviews since 1966, and who edited the first anthology of anthropomorphic short fiction, Best in Show, in 2003, has edited two new anthologies of anthropomorphic s-f & fantasy that will both premiere in June 2012.

1. Already Among Us; An Anthropomorphic Anthology, will be published by Legion Publishing of Birmingham, AL on June 4. It will be available in a $18.95 hardcover and $9.99 trade paperback (x + 390 pages), and $8.99 Kindle version, with a wraparound cover by Roz Gibson.
2. The Ursa Major Awards Anthology; A Tenth Anniversary Celebration, will be published by FurPlanet Productions of Dallas, TX. It will go on sale at Anthrocon 2012 on June 14, as a $19.95 trade paperback, x + 380 pages, with a wraparound cover by Blotch.

Part of my fate in the fandom seems to involve finding bad foreign animated films. Granted, most folks in the fandom couldn't be bothered to know about them anyway, but if I can stop even a handful of people from wasting their time, that's a good thing.

So: Don't bother watching Legend of a Rabbit (trailer).

Gods, yes. Dragons, yes. Monsters, yes. Giants, yes. Anthropomorphic animals, … eh. You might still be interested in this 2+-minute 3D stereo trailer for the Krishna aur Kans animated feature, slated for release on August 3, a week before this year’s Janmashtani (a major Hindu religious holiday to celebrate the birthday and youthful adventures of Krishna, an avatar of the god Vishnu).

Directed by Vikram Veturi, the movie chronicles Lord Krishna’s early years, from his birth as the nemesis of his tyrannical uncle Kans, to his combat against demons at the age of 10.

This is the last interview for a while, I swear! I had the pleasure of interviewing Kyell Gold on his latest publication, 'The Silver Circle'. My questions and comments are not to be taken seriously.

Isiah Jacobs: Good evening, Kyell Gold! Thank you so much for joining me tonight. It's nice to have you on the show, at last!

Kyell Gold: Thanks! Glad to be here.

Isiah Jacobs: So, you've recently come out with your latest book, The Silver Circle. I assume that's a term for some sort of gay cult?

Kyell Gold: Actually, you are correct. It's an underground society of homosexual activists that was formed in northern Germany in the late 1800s to attempt to bring back the Holy Roman Empire. But that's not what this book is about. In this case, it's an allusion to the moon, and the metal silver, because the book is about werewolves.

Isiah Jacobs: But having read it, it has more than just werewolves, doesn't it Kyell?

Kyell Gold: It does. It also includes female characters. It even stars a female character.

Isiah Jacobs: And a straight relationship.

Kyell Gold: Potentially two, in fact.

Isiah Jacobs: Who are you and what have you done to the real Kyell Gold?

Today’s feature in Mumbai-published Animation Xpress, a daily newsletter on all things animated in India, is about a new video game called Smell Raiser starring Spiffy, an anthro young skunk. (Also Tap Tap Sushi, for gamers who are also gluttons for sushi, but there is nothing anthro about that one.)

The official launch trailer for Smell Raiser was posted on YouTube on May 11.

Founded by industry veterans Ninad Chhaya and Chirag Desai, Mumbai based Playcaso has thrown its hat in the ring with the release of two games Tap Tap Sushi available on the iOS and Smell Raiser available on iOS [$0.99] and Android [free] platforms.

Smell Raiser is a side-scrolling, adventure game having Spiffy- a swift and energetic skunk on a mission. He wants to explore the lands of the unknown and travel as far as he possibly can. Using simple jump combination controls, help Spiffy collect stars, activate combinations and evade the creatures of the exotic. The game includes three exotic colorful environments with full retina graphics. It is a simple but skillful ‘one-touch’ control, endless game.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Rick Griffin about his latest novella Ten-Thousand Miles Up. My questions and comments are not to be taken seriously.

Isiah Jacobs: Welcome back, Mr. Griffin! It's a pleasure to have you on the show again!

Rick Griffin: Thank you for having me

Isiah Jacobs: Just so you know, if you come back five times, you get a free coffee mug, so make sure you have my producer stamp your card before we're done.

For starters, you lied to me, sir! Last time you were here, I asked you if you had any other projects in the works, and you didn't even mention this story! What gives?

Rick Griffin: Well I first wrote this story back in 2010 and for a long time I hadn't had any plans on updating and releasing it.

Isiah Jacobs: So then why did you decide to release it? Trying to get your claws on another award for next year?

Few "furry" ads past muster with the fandom, but furs might make an exception for this one, featuring actual fursuiters Croc O'Dile and Twilight – and a monkey. [Spottacus]

Update: Croc O'Dile details the shooting experience

Grubbs Grizzly's advice column "Ask Papabear", originally distributed by Furry News Network, has moved to its own site, although it will still be available to FNN for syndication.

The greymuzzle's letters of advice cover both traditional and furry-specific topics, including the nature of furry fandom, personal relationships, dealing with adversity, and "coming out" as a furry.

Grubss' previous host appears to be on hiatus, having added no content in over a month. 771 pieces (aggregated and original) were posted last year, but submissions declined sharply after July 2011, and slowed to a trickle late least year.

Update (17 May): Looks like FNN was listening; several new stories have been published.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Rei Vegan earlier this year, starting back in March. Due to a busy schedule, the interview wasn't completed until April. Final exams got in the way of editing, so some topics brought up will be out of date. Thank you for your understanding.

My questions and comments are not to be taken seriously. Also, this interview is pretty long. Might want to grab something to eat.

Isiah Jacobs: Good evening, Rei Vegan, thank you so much for joining me tonight!

Rei Vegan: Good evening Don, the pleasure's all mine.

Isiah Jacobs: So let's see here, you're obviously very well known for your web comic, DSV Nautica [NSFW], one of my personal favorites, I hate to admit, but you've actually been doing this whole furry thing for quite a while now. According to what the younger generation would call you, you're a "gray muzzle." You'll be turning 32 next week, is that correct?

Rei Vegan: This is indeed correct. I'm kind of fond of the term "gray muzzle" myself; it makes me imagine myself on the porch yelling obscenities at kids on my lawn or some such.

Isiah Jacobs: What, like yelling at them to stop their furpile?

Rei Vegan: -and listening to that dot matrix printer noise they call Dub Step. *chuckles*

This is very short notice, but the Big Wow ComicFest at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, CA this weekend, May 19-20, will have Juanjo Guardino, the artist of the Blacksad comic albums, as one of its featured guests, for his first appearance in the U.S.

A dozen prints and portfolios of his art, as-yet-unseen in the U.S., many including his Blacksad and other anthropomorphic characters, will be on sale.

Anime/manga fans will be interested in another of the Big Wow’s featured guests: Toshio Maeda, creator of the XXXXX-rated Urotsukidōji and other X-rated titles like La Blue Girl. Not anthro, unless you count the sex-crazed human/demon hybrids in Urotsukidoji, but still of some interest...