“When Hooligan Bear and his nephew Little Louie return home to the bear factory and find it has been closed, they are faced with a problem. It’s a turning point for the little bears and the beginning of many adventures.” That’s the description of Home, the first book in the new series of Hooligan Bear adventures written by Ian Toynton  and illustrated by Andrea Dietrich. Hooligan bear and his four friends are a set of plushie bears who must learn about the world around them as they work and play in this series for  young readers. This being the modern age, the books are not only available on-line (from Big Tent Books), but Hooligan Bear even has his own Facebook page and his own Twitter feed.

image c. 2013 by Big Tent Books

Furry Feline Creatives (cool name!) is the creation of Cheri Ong and Alvin Ong. Part-time musicians themselves, the Ongs have started an on-line store for their original posters, plushies, and 3D works of rock ‘n’ roll cats and other cartoony animal characters. They even do custom illustrated shoes! Check out their web site at www.furry-feline.com.

image c. 2013 Furry Feline Creatives

Flat Bonnie is called that because she’s, well, flat. And a bunny. She’s the lead character of a line of hand-made plushie animals, put together by a group of humans with a very specific agenda: Bringing attention to the number of real-live rabbits living in animal shelters and looking to be adopted by loving families. Flat Bonnie and Friends introduced several new designs at WonderCon this year, and you can see them (and more) at their web site, www.flatbonnie.com. Through the month of April, 10% of all sales will be donated to the Los Angeles Rabbit Foundation.

image c. 2013 Flat Bonnie & Friends

Yok is the final novel of the pseudonymous Swedish Davys’ “Mollison Town quartet”. The first three, Amberville, Lanceheim, and Tourquai, were reviewed here in January 2012. Each is set in one of Mollison Town’s four districts.

The quartet is unique among adult anthropomorphic fiction in featuring living plush animals, not the standard humanized “real” animals. Davys has established a complex history and biology for them (see the previous review for details).

HarperCollins/Harper, July 2012, hardcover $22.00 (368 pages), Kindle $7.99. [Translated by Paul Norlen]

Breaking out of the pages of Womanthology (a successful all-female-created comic anthology from last year) comes A Stuffed Bunny in Doll Land: The Furry War Begins, written by Anya Martin and illustrated in full color by Mado Pena. Here’s the basic description from their web site: “In Womanthology: Heroic, Munny, a lone stuffed bunny, showed her inner hero and entered the frightening world of dolls to save her best friend, Elephant, with only a butter knife and a sugar bowl lid. But the dolls are not pleased to lose their new pet and ready to launch an expedition of their own to take him back. Now Munny has to return to Doll-Land and venture deep, deep into their dark world of strange beauty and unexpected horror, accompanied only by a valiant band of fellow stuffed animals.” New updates for this on-line comic are coming soon.

image c. 2012 by Mado Pena

Ted is the first movie directed by Seth MacFarlane, most known for his role in creating the hit animated sitcom, Family Guy. I am not a fan.

The sad fact is that a lot of people are in fact fans, and yes, I believe that that is a sad fact. To be clear, I am not down on gross-out humor, and can enjoy it as well as anyone else. Heck, I have done standup comedy, and such gags were a standard part of my sets. Gross-out humor is not my problem with this movie.

The problem is it is pretty much exactly what I expected. It is probably exactly what you expected, too. So, if you expect to like this movie, go on and get your ticket. If not, you can pretend to be a snob with me and the other cool kids, okay?

The “Mollisan Town quartet”, by pseudonymous Swedish author Tim Davys, is (are?) four hard-boiled complex crime thrillers, each set in one of Mollisan Town’s four districts, with a stuffed-animal cast. Hey, if regular animals can be anthropomorphized, why not plushies?

“Amberville” (February 2009); hardcover $19.99 (343 pages), Kindle $8.99.
“Lanceheim: A Novel” (June 2010); hardcover $21.99 (371 pages), Kindle $9.99.
“Tourquai: A Novel” (February 2011); hardcover $19.99 (325 pages), Kindle $9.99.

The first three novels were published by Albert Bonnier Förlag in Stockholm in 2007, 2008, and 2010, and published in English by HarperCollins one or two years later; all three are translated by Paul Norlen. The concluding novel, Yok, is scheduled for July 2012.

Residents of the village of Hedge End, in southern England, called police after spotting a white tiger in a field near a local golf course. Armed officers and a police helicopter responded, along with staff from nearby Marwell Zoo.

As the police on the ground approached the tiger, they saw that it was not moving, and themal imaging equipment in the helicopter showed no body heat. At that point, the downdraft from the 'copter caused the tiger to roll over, and police realised they were stalking a life-size plush toy.

Police later commented, "It is being treated as lost property but we don't know how it came to be in the field and whether it may have been a hoax."

Ever wanted a hand-sewn bat plushie by noted author Edward Gorey? Now's your chance, as Bloomsbury Auctions is running an estate sale. [tip: Higgs Raccoon/OzFurry]

The focus of the auction is fur coats, including a tanuki coat. However, there's a variety of other lots, including the aforementioned bat – a present for illustrator James Marshall, reminiscent of the lead character in The Gilded Bat. There's also a plush Figbash of the kind which accompanied the 26 lettered copies of The Raging Tide, a choose-your-own-adventure-style book by Gorey.

But you'd better get down to the New York auction house at 6 West 48th Street quickly – bidding starts at 11AM Eastern today. (Bids also accepted at Live Auctioneers and the-saleroom.com)

German fursuit builder, author and Zeta-Pride organizer Fjordwolf tells us of the solitary life of one fur and his dog in A Furrytale. [Diadexxus/furrymedia]

Also recorded by Oddisee is The Naked Bunch, following a group of naked hikers in the Alps.

Fjordwolf's book, Mein Fruend Nobody ("My Friend Nobody"), is currently sold out; however, a sample story is available. He has also produced several music videos involving fursuiters.

As reported on Gadling, Paris-based "Furry Toys Tours" offers to escort your favourite plush toy around the French capital and photograph them in front of various landmarks.

The basic one-week package costs 100€, and takes in such sights as the Eiffel Tower, the Seine bridges, and Notre Dame cathedral. The price includes thirty photographs, a certificate, a surprise souvenir, and shipping of the plush toy back to its owner.

Meeko, a popular plush toy, now on display

New York City, USA – The Museum of Sex, which first opened in October 2002, has covered many controversial topics - from Chinese erotica and male objectification to pin-up photography and sex workers. Now they are extending their coverage to the erotic side of the furry fandom with a new exhibition: Kink: Geography of the Erotic Imagination.

Opening February 7, the show was patterned after the 2000 book Deviant Desires,^[1] and features costumes, props, photographs, videos, recreated environments and original artwork from the leather, bondage and shoe fetish communities, as well as "more exotic destinations" such as ponyplay, adult babies, macrophilia, sploshing, medical play, mudlarking, body expansion - and lastly, furries.^[2]

The exhibit's curator (and book author) Katharine Gates gained notoriety within the fandom for her book, as well as an interview in the Vanity Fair article Pleasures of the Fur.^[3] This, along with coverage like Sex2K's Plushies and Furries, led to a tightening of media policies that remains to this day, particularly at Midwest FurFest.

(From here)
Columnist
dwiesend@uwm.edu

I have written about many diverse subjects in the genre of sexuality, but this takes the cake. Let me tell you a little bit about a subculture of people who call themselves “furries.”

An untamed jungle cat - albeit a soft and cuddly one - scared the stuffing out of some suburban commuters passing through the Bronx yesterday, prompting cops and city officials to try and catch the tiger by the tail.

It wasn't too hard.

"The police wanted to know where the tiger was," said German Ortiz, 34, the super of 1194 Brook Ave. "I told them, 'It's mine, but don't worry, it's not real.'"

Read the rest of the article from the New York Daily News

If you haven't nosed around the toy section at your local Target, you may want to! Mattel has put out a line of rather detailed, roughtly 3-inch-high poseable plush figures entitled (I kid you not) "Furryville." While not yet up on the Target website, they were apparently featured in this year's Toyfair.

This in and of itself is no big deal, as there have been anthropomorphic figures aimed at children for a long time (Calico Critters & the Sylvanian series); but this series in particular has a broad range of species...