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January 2019

Newsbytes archive for December 2018

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Happy New Year! The Newsbyte contributors last month were so 2018. More specifically, 2cross2affliction, dronon, GreenReaper, InkyCrow, Patch Packrat, Rakuen Growlithe, and TyphonDog.

Review: 'Spider-Mans'

Your rating: None Average: 2.8 (5 votes)

spidermanintothespiderverse.jpgPerhaps it was me, but I sensed a smidgen of negativity towards my review of Avengers: Infinity War. Like, just featuring Rocket Raccoon on the poster (he's in there somewhere, I'm sure) just wasn't enough for some of you. To be fair, if Infinity War ends up winning the Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture, as billion dollar box office blockbusters from Disney are known to do, well, that would be both bad and also probably completely my fault, so preemptive apologies if it does!

Now I'm reviewing another Marvel movie with a supporting character who's totally furry, but that's about it. In this case, it's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and that character is Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham (voiced by John Mulaney), an anthropomorphic spider (bitten by a radioactive pig, see). On one hand, despite being a part of a much larger cast, I feel Rocket got a slightly bigger role in his movie. He has his own subplot with a bit of an arc to it, while Peter Porker is basically just another member of the team; the movie's focus is on other teammates.

On the other hand, Spider-Ham is part of a much smaller ensemble, so though his role is smaller, his screentime is bigger, and though the movie focuses more on the three versions of Spider-Man that are the most "normal" (Miles Morales, Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy) rather than the "gimmicky" characters (Spider-Man Noir, Peni Parker and Spider-Ham), Spider-Ham gets the most attention of that trio, being the last of the three to leave and the one who gets the stand-out action beat (as well as being just a scene-stealer in general).

And on the gripping hand, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is just a way better movie than Avengers: Infinity War.

Should comment require an account?

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Votes: 151

Winners of the 2018 Best Anthropomorphic Artwork Awards

Your rating: None Average: 4.4 (24 votes)

The Awards' Twitter icon.The results are in for the 2018 Best Anthropomorphic Artwork Awards! I'm going to summarize the results below, but if you want the complete version with thumbnails of all the artwork, take a look at the official announcement posted to Google Docs.

Almost all the links go to FurAffinity pages, and they should open in new windows.

Feral Attraction podcast ends as host faces multiple accusations of abuse

Your rating: None Average: 4.3 (17 votes)

Feral Attraction has been a podcast dedicated to relationship styles, and giving furry fans advice on how to navigate them. The hosts have been Viro the Science Collie and Metriko the red panda. The first episode aired in January 2016, and seems to have ended as of December 2018, after Viro was confronted by a torrent of abuse allegations.

The accusations started with Koji, who had been in a relationship with Viro for five years. He described being steered into major financial debt, creating dependence, along with being emotionally and psychologically manipulated. Afterwards, several more furs came forward to say they'd also been abused by Viro during their younger days in the fandom, and how they'd been coerced:

Soon after these additional stories came out, Viro locked his own Twitter account from the public. The Feral Attraction episode feed was similarly restricted, changing its description to say that the podcast's site was for archival purposes only.

Opinion: The top ten movies of 2018

Your rating: None Average: 3.3 (12 votes)

2018 in movies

I managed to keep the number of superhero movies way down from last year, just one instead of five, and that's only because there was a late entrant.

Ursa Major Awards 2018 - Nominations are open until Feb. 16, 2019

Your rating: None Average: 4.2 (20 votes)

The Ursa Major Awards logo.It's time to nominate the contenders for the 2018 Ursa Major Awards! You can send in your nominations until February 16, 2019. We'll see which of them get onto the final ballot in March, when voting opens, and the winners will be announced at AnthrOhio in late May.

If you really liked something in 2018 that had anthropomorphic content, either inside or outside the fandom, you can nominate up to five things in each category! Nominations are completely optional - you can even skip entire categories. All you need to do is go to the nominations page, click where it says "Enroll", and give it a valid email address. You'll be emailed a code, and you can use that to log in and fill out the nomination form.

Mitigation of the Line Cons

Your rating: None Average: 4.6 (17 votes)

November 29, 2018, Midwest Furfest, 1731 hours,

I write to you, my love as I enter hour two along the snaking way. My bladder aches for release of the carbonated beverage I bought from the far overpriced convention center vending machine. The legs keeping me aloft wobble, reminding me that the days I worked in retail that had adapted me to long stretches on my feet were long in my past. Those along with me pine for acceptance into the gathering which we placed reservations for. But as those ahead go into the adjacent room I cannot tell how much further our journey shall be. The company and conversation of my colleagues keeps us going, but for the first time we may be coming to the realization that there may be some unintended consequences for the growth of our eccentric rabble.

In the meanwhile, my mind wanders. I wonder if what if anything can be done to resolve our plight. Perhaps someone, someday, will write an article providing some solutions. But until that day, here I stand.

Hope to see you when this is through,
DarkFox7912

Worry not DarkFox7912, this article goes out to you.

Review: Dust: An Elysian Tail

Your rating: None Average: 4.4 (18 votes)

DUST1.jpgI may be a little late to the party, considering Dust was released in 2012 and nominated for an Ursa Major, but Dust was on sale on Steam late last year and I took the opportunity to get it (Dust is 75% off on GOG.com until 29 January). One positive aspect of Dust is that it works on Windows, Mac and Linux, so I did not have any trouble even though I recently switched over to using Linux exclusively.

Plot

Dust is set in a world populated with various anthropomorphic characters. General Gaius has been leading a crusade to purge the world of Moonbloods, which appear to be primarily reptilian whereas most of the characters seem more mammalian. I don't recall any real reason ever being provided as to what led to the conflict with the Moonbloods and the genocide.

As Dust, you wake up with no knowledge of who you are and are soon discovered by a magical, talking sword, named Ahrah, and its guardian, the adorable Nimbat named Fidget. Ahrah clearly knows something but refuses to tell you and you start to explore the world to discover who you are and what is happening.

Announcing Good Fur News!

Your rating: None Average: 4.6 (26 votes)

The Good Fur News logo.This news has already spread in the last few days, and bears repeating here - Haven T. Fusky has started new furry website called Good Fur News! As described in their opening post:

For awhile now I've seen quite a few folks say "We need a place where people can call out the good in the fandom and not just the bad. Some place that highlights all the awesomeness that is furry". And I nodded and agreed, but nothing came.

I waited and waited and thought maybe some of the sites out there would step up and change things up a bit from the "norm" of call out culture and extreme reporting that only showed how awful people can be some times.

I personally have had the privilege of meeting some really great, talented, inspiring people through this fandom. And those people often go unrecognized or are drowned out by the more scandalous things that occur every so often. And it's truly a shame. And so that is why I created a news site where we can allow those that bring their best to be seen, heard, and remembered.