Fred Patten, the editor of Best in Show: Fifteen Years of Outstanding Furry Fiction (Sofawolf Press, July 2003; republished as Furry!); Already Among Us: An Anthropomorphic Anthology (Legion Printing, June 2012); and The Ursa Major Awards Anthology: A Tenth Anniversary Celebration (FurPlanet Productions, June 2012), will have a new anthology published by FurPlanet go on sale at Anthrocon 2013.

What Happens Next: An Anthology of Sequels presents eleven new stories by fan-favorite Furry authors featuring their popular characters:

• M. C. A. Hogarth and her Alysha Forrest
• Brock Hoagland and his Perissa and Maelith
• Kevin Frane (Rikoshi) and his Iolite League
• Kristin Fontaine and the crew of the interstellar freighter Tai-Pan
• Michael Payne and Cluny, the sorceress squirrel with Crocker, her human familiar
• Jenner and Dr. Benjamin Rat, M.B., B.S. D.R.A.N.Z.C.O.G. F.R.A.C.G.P.
• Kyell Gold and a new tale of Argaea
• Elizabeth McCoy and her feline centauroid Kintarans
• Chas. P. A. Melville and his Felicia, the Vixen Sorceress
• Ken Pick and his Brigit Bunny on the planet of the foxlike Thalendri
• and Roz Gibson and her Jack Salem

32 days before the mayoral election in Xalapa, capital of the Mexican state of Veracruz, a feline candidate is making a mockery of the ruling coalition's politicians on social networks.

"Candigato Morris" has his own iconic posters and other campaign materials, and has captured the public fancy with such slogans as "no more rats in Xalapa" and "in Xalapa it suits you to vote for another animal; vote for Morris".

According to his Facebook profile, Morris, who was born in Xalapa, "promises no more than the other candidates" and "sleeps a lot, which is the ideal profile for a mayoral candidate."

It's yet to be seen whether the candigato's weakness for "quilts, sheets, pollows, couches, and clothing in general" will be his undoing. Still, given his charisma (and the fact that his campaign page has over 18,000 'likes'), the PAN and PRD coalition candidates may be in serious trouble come July 7.

Rabbit Valley Comics have three new titles to announce:

• The Mystic Sands by Alflor Aalto
• Pile by Kandrel
• Gratitude and Gratiuity by Varzen Dralmort & A. Kita (art by Stephanie “Ifus” Johnson)

These are available for pre-order and will ship within the next two to three weeks.

Torve The Trog, a proto-Furry costume from 1985's Costume-Con 3, is just one of the cool things you can learn about in the May 2013 issue of Virtual Costumer. It's titled "Here Come the Furries!"

Readers can expect 49 pages of thoroughly educational info, including the feature, "Running an Animal Mascot Business" by Eric Stevens (Snap E. Tiger), owner of ByCats4Cats.com.

The magazine also includes my updated article about street fursuiting, and fursuit-making book reviews. It offers a respectful, "gentle introduction to the Furry fandom and fursuit costuming" to other realms of geekdom, going against this tongue-in-cheek pecking order.

For the second column of the month, and the official one of this (well, now last) month, I’ll continue a theme from this time last year. It’s time for round two of Oscar snubs; furry style!

This unique and imaginative animal fantasy, set during 1932, features five cagemates from a large New York City pet shop specializing in exotic animals, who plan to escape and set out across Depression-era America for that legendary animals’ paradise, Sandeagozu – the San Diego Zoo. Led by Sherahi (“tiger killer”), the giant pythoness, the band of odd fellows consists of her, Manu the langur, Dervish the coatimundi, Dutchess the scarlet macaw, and Junior the venomous cascabel (a South American rattlesnake).

Virtually all the reviews summarize the plot as that: five exotic animals escape from a New York City pet shop to journey across America to the San Diego Zoo. Yet Sandeagozu is not exactly that, and very much more than that. That event, the meeting of the animals in the pet shop and their decision to escape together, does not begin until page 103. Jenner first builds a leisurely but fascinating backstory, rich in detail and characterization. The reader barely notices, and does not care, that the main story has yet to begin.

Illustrated by Robert Crawford. Harper & Row, October 1986, 442 pages, $18.95; ISBN: 0-06-015633-3

Contributors this month include crossaffliction, earthfurst, dronon, GreenReaper, Higgs Raccoon, Kakurady, Patch Packrat, Rakuen Growlithe, RingtailedFox and Sonious.

The 2013 Furry Basketball Association Playoffs begin on Saturday, June 1, with a weekend of games between eight teams. Informal voting is underway to choose which games will be covered on FBA Courtside: LIVE!, a radio podcast featuring sports announcer T. Matt Latrans (Coyote) and friends bringing live coverage of FBA action.

Mark Merlino and his friend Rod O'Riley might be called "first wave" furries from original geek culture, when that meant underground comics, fanzines and pen-pals. They held the first parties that turned into conventions, and WikiFur calls them "founding members of organized furry fandom." Mark owns The Prancing Skiltaire.

Rod's most recent accomplishment is The Art of Furry Fandom, at Avantgarden art gallery in Santa Ana, CA. It opens concurrently with this year's Califur, this weekend. In his journal, Mark calls it a dream he's had for over 30 years.

According to the gallery:

AVANTGARDEN is proud to present "Women Desperately Seeking Escape...a Series" photographically captured on film and digitally by ELLEN SEEFELDT. We also welcome JAY RIGGIO'S hand cut pasted collage work, SHARLYNORA WILKINSON's paintings, and The Art of Furry Fandom, curated by RODNEY STANSFIELD. This exhibit runs June 1–29, opening reception June 1, 7–10pm.

Mark reminded me of a similar show in 2012 in San Jose during Further Confusion, with "more artists, more art, same kind of independent gallery". Actually, there were two: a Slave Labor Graphics show, and "People-Shaped Animals" at Kaleid Gallery.

This 1'16" TV adv’t for the Peugeot 208, parodying Hanna-Barbera’s animated Wacky Races of the 1960s, is barely anthropomorphic due to the last-second appearance of Muttley; but it’s so clever that I’ll take any excuse to include it here. Directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet at Partizan/Movie & Art in … well, eight offices around the world from Paris to Los Angeles to Mumbai; commissioned for Peugeot by the Y&R Brasil advertising agency in São Paulo.

Once, Flayrah was the the only place to find information on the Furry fandom. You might see a comment on a board or on IRC, perhaps LiveJournal, but there were not a lot of options. The few conventions out there would make a post here, perhaps some themed newsletter, but that was about it. You knew you could find Flayrah with news on it.

Now, over the years the fandom has developed, but the news mediums really have not. There are more diverse sources out there, but many are self-seeking. I won't go into that. More power to them is all. Yes, you can say Furry News Network, but it never really got going. A year? Maybe two. It copied a lot of the stories here, and occasionally something new would pop up. But that died out soon enough.

The fandom is constantly growing and furries want news, but do they know where to find it? I don't think so. I looked at the visitor stats below. They represent what a meet might have, and are not a good representation of the fandom's numbers.

The last time I reviewed DreamKeepers, with vol. 2, Flight to Starfall back in Anthro #18, July-August 2008, it was by David Lillie & Liz Thomas who had just gotten married. Now it’s by Dave & Liz Lillie. The marriage seems to be working out.

Volume 1, Awakenings (Anthro review), was published in December 2006. There was a less than two-year wait for volume 2 in April 2008, then a five-year gap to volume 3. But it is 144 pages, as opposed to the 98 and 102 pages of volumes 1 & 2. Nevertheless, let’s hope that the wait for volume 4, chapters 10-12, is not as long.

“The Dreamworld is a mysterious reality that parallels our own,” begins the introduction in volume 1:

Humans cannot enter this reality – we can only catch fleeting glimpses of it through our dreaming, unconscious minds. […] Every last person has a DreamKeeper, an embodiment in the Dream World. So long as your DreamKeeper lives, the nightmare hordes cannot enter your mind through your dreams. Everyone’s DreamKeeper is completely unique – your personality and subconscious influence your DreamKeeper’s appearance and abilities.

Vivid Independent Publishing, April 2013, trade paperback $24.99 (133 [+ 11] pgs.), Kindle $4.20

Following a launch in Adelaide, South Australia, three mini-episodes of Wastelander Panda have been released on the project's website and YouTube channel.

The episodes show glimpses of brutal life in a vast wasteland inhabited by humans and the occasional, rare, anthropomorphic animal. The main characters are a human child (later adult) named Rose, panda brothers Isaac and Arcayus, and an anthro bison named Akira.

The story is presented as three discontinuous videos - viewers will need to read the accompanying background texts to understand how the story fits together as a whole. The producers now hope to expand their episodes into an extended web or television series.

For this exciting, groundbreaking, unprecedented 10th issue we’ve got the two IDW stalwarts, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It’s the first issue of a brand new character based Micro-Series for the ponies, while the turtles’ on-going shows up for the eighth time in a Pull List!

Joining these two will be a newly featured series, because it’s been a while since Pull List has featured a good, old-fashioned superhero-with-some-furry-characters comic. Finally, stay to the end for the super-duper bonus feature that … is actually just a previous issue index, so it really isn’t that exciting.

Avengers Arena #6

The story: the super-villain Arcade, best known for once trying to kill the X-Men with a pinball machine, feels his superhero body count isn’t up to scratch, so he’s decided to have himself a little teen superhero deathmatch. A bit derivative, but Arcade gleefully cops to this, calling this new Murder World inspired by a “children’s book”. Furry fans have Avengers Academy alumni Reptil to root for, as well as a new character, Nara the fish girl.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic garnered two spots on the February top-100 comic sales chart in this month; both issue #3 (which I wasn’t a fan of, but whatever) and the Twilight Sparkle Micro-Series issue (which I also wasn’t a fan of) made 45 and 62, respectively.
Meanwhile, Adventure Time #13 lands at 95, where that series manages to land just about every time!