The Rumpus, a blog aimed at the challenging side of pop culture, brings up Furry Fandom's most divisive topic in Oh So Furry: The Rumpus Interview with Kilcodo.

Rumpus: Are cartoons sexy? Are animals sexy? Or are both of those statements irrelevant? Is it more the re-imaging idea?

Kilcodo: It depends on the person, but I think if you look at the way that we use language and the way we think about what is and isn’t sexy, we’ve constantly used anthropomorphic language. We call a sexy woman a fox. We call an older sexy woman a cougar. We call men bear, wolf. I’ve heard otter being used in the gay community. And I think that’s because as sexual beings we can see eroticism in many different organic forms, and I think because animals are beautiful, people like to meld the two forms together, so you have a human body and a majestic head of an animal, and people find that beautiful and even erotic.

Kilcodo's thoughtful answer brings to mind the Freudian term "Polymorphous perversity".

From January 18 to 25, the GKids (Guerrilla Kids International Distribution Syndicate) distributor gave the 98-minute French animated feature The Rabbi’s Cat (Le Chat du Rabbin), directed by Joann Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux, produced by Autochenille Production (a studio set up in 2007 by Sfar and Delesvaux to make this movie), and based on Sfar’s French five-volume graphic novel of the same name (volumes 1, 2, and 5 of it, to be exact), a one-week American limited “general” distribution, in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego on the West Coast. It will have an East Coast release in mid-March.

The original French release, on June 1, 2011, won the Annecy Crystal for Best Feature at the 2011 Annecy International Animated Film Festival, and the 2012 César Award (“the French Oscar”) for Best Animated Film. It had a one-week release in one theater in America on December 7-13 to qualify for 2012 American film awards, and was nominated for the Annie in two categories, Best Animated Feature and Outstanding Achievement, Directing in an Animated Feature Production.

On January 20, my sister and I went to the Laemmle Town Center 5 in Encino to see The Rabbi's Cat, in French with English subtitles. It was playing for a week, and has gotten a mixed but generally favorable illustrated review in LA Weekly, January 18-24, 2013, the major citywide free alternative newspaper. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 93%.

To celebrate the recent premiere of Red Lantern: Conviction, Isiah sat down with Rukis to discuss her latest publication, Unconditional.

Isiah Jacobs: Hello again, Rukis! It's so nice to have you on the show again! It's been too long!

Rukis: That it has. Wait . . . it's been like a few months. Really not that long, honestly.

Isiah Jacobs: Much too long, in my opinion! I'm sorry you couldn't make it for the interview with Kyell Gold about Green Fairy. However, by that time, you were busy wrapping up Unconditional and preparing for AC, so I don't blame you. You had originally started working on this back in January or so, right?

Rukis: That was the plan. Progress was slow for a while, though, for purely financial reasons. It's tough to work on a free-to-read comic and pay the bills. The income I see from comics generally comes after they've been printed. So it's always a balancing act, making time for them.

Isiah Jacobs: Were you a little upset to work on your own again after working with Alector for so long?

Rukis: Not at all. I enjoy working at my own pace, honestly. I've only got myself to answer to. And I also really want to improve my background work before I work on Conviction, and this was a good opportunity.

Anthropomorphic? Noooo … But how can you not like an animated TV movie about “‘Swami Ayyappan’, based on the life story of a boy ‘Manikandan’ who became one with God worshipped by millions”?

That is on Indian TV, of course. Animation Xpress for 2 July reports that,

Swami Ayyappan is slated to premier on national TV channels and subsequently distributed as DVDs during the upcoming Sabarimala season in various languages like Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu & Kannada. [What, no Hindi?]

Sabarimala is a place of pilgrimage that welcomes devotees irrespective of religion, caste or creed. [Not many Christians, I’ll bet.]

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.

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.

Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter recently published a commentary (translated by Ora) of Alfred Holmgren's interview of a literally diehard Sonic fan in gaming magazine Fienden.

At the center of the debate is French woman Alix Henriol, obsessed with Sonic since 2000:

I could have given anything to have become a robot or a character in a game.

The piece, posted on the newspaper's website, described Alix's desire to become cryogenically frozen until scientists can transfer her consciousness to a console, while referencing cosplay, erotic fan fiction and fantasy sex toy manufacturer Bad Dragon.

While most would ignore a stray dog or call an animal control unit, Jewish rabbis in Jerusalem sentenced a wandering dog to be stoned to death. The crime? The dog was suspected to be the reincarnated spirit of a secular lawyer who had insulted the court 20 years ago.

Update (20 Jun): The court concerned has strongly denied the original source's claims.

We've been hearing of the horrible tragedy in Japan over the past week caused by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami and nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Plant, but there is one story of hope from the striken oriental nation: rescue workers discovered a dog guarding a fellow dog that was injured in the earthquake.

At first, the dog would not let rescue workers near its friend, but they were able to gradually bring the injured dog to an animal hospital in the city of Mito. The guardian dog was taken to a different shelter in the city; both are recieving medical treatment for their ordeals.

BBC 4's Inside the Medieval Mind recently touched on a question that puzzled medieval missionaries: were the dog-headed people thought to inhabit distant lands worth saving? [mekoryuk/furry reddit]

These beings appeared to be human in most respects, except that they had the heads of dogs. The question was, did they have the souls of humans?

Ursula Vernon's mythological representation of Capricorn as a sea-goat was commissioned as the poster-beast of the New Jersey Summer Reading Program, and featured in libraries and promotional material across the state.

Her work was packed with symbolism, but turned out to be controversial in a way she had not anticipated. [snow pigeon]

The official grand opening of MyRainbowArk.com is taking place right now, during Anthrocon '09.

Joining the original Christian furry mail group God's Creatures has been made easier.

In the past, I have run a closed group, requiring that all new subscribers come only by way of being referred by an existing member. I have lifted this requirement.

Concerned over those damnable atheist kitties:

TAIPEI, Taiwan - A man leaped into a lion’s den at the Taipei Zoo on Wednesday to try to convert the king of beasts to Christianity, but was bitten in the leg for his efforts.

My buddy Puck notes that it wasn't even a Roman zoo. MSNBC has the full story, including photo.

The Hindu worship more than just cows. October 24th is dog worshipping day as this neat photo and
story shows!