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August 2011

Pittsburgh radio host deems Anthrocon furs 'party animals'

Your rating: None Average: 4.4 (5 votes)

Pittsburgh radio personality Jim Krenn spent some time with furries at this year's Anthrocon.

The message from 102.5 WDVE's co-host? Furries like to party. (As do the production staff)

Ringshadow debuts with rock romance 'Rainbow in the Dark'

Your rating: None Average: 3.8 (12 votes)

After a long journey, up-and-coming artist and writer Amy "Ringshadow" Meister (FA) has entered the publishing market with her first e-book, Rainbow in the Dark (originally named "Like a Rainbow in the Dark", as a tribute to the Ronnie James Dio song of the same name).

The story, set in an anthropomorphic/furry universe, concerns a closet-gay wolf-raccoon hybrid named Marcus Midnight, a fictional rock star, and his power-metal band Guillotine. After a successful musical career spanning twelve years and six hit albums, Marcus feels burned-out and extremely lonely.

Rumour: Anthro pandas to feature in next WoW expansion

Your rating: None Average: 3.5 (4 votes)

PandarenThis week a user on gamer website MMO-Champion noticed that Blizzard Entertainment (creator of popular MMORPG World of Warcraft) had, on July 28, applied to register the phrase "Mists of Pandaria" as a trademark.

This lead to speculation that the next WoW expansion will centre around Pandaria, the home of the Pandaren, a race of anthropomorphic beer-loving pandas who first appeared as an April Fool's joke in the leadup to Warcraft 3.

At this point it is not clear if the application is a genuine clue to Blizzard's future plans, or a piece of misdirection. Nor can anyone, at this point, say if WoW players might get "a chance to play furry alcoholic martial arts masters".

J-Lo killed by fox

Your rating: None Average: 3.3 (4 votes)

A chicken known as J-Lo because she was born with two rear-ends has been killed by a fox, ocala.com reports. The chicken – who had a large backside covered by white feathers – become a national sensation when news of her double lady-lumps spread over the Web.

As reported by the Ocala Star-Banner:

The couple brushed the feathers away and found two pubic regions, spaced about two inches apart. Typically, there is one such region in the center with a single orifice.

J-Lo was previously in the news in January, when her owners brought forth the extraordinary clucker. Even Jay Leno cracked a joke as the double-bottomed chicken went viral.

We bid ye farewell, J-Lo. You just had too much junk in your trunk to be in this world for long.

Lions, bears and cougars: oh, my!

Your rating: None Average: 3 (2 votes)

The past few days have been very active with animal-related stories from around the world:

  • An animal rights activist from Ukraine is protesting poor living conditions for zoo animals, living in the lions' den for five weeks to raise money for them.
  • A pair of cougars have been shot after they began attacking humans in Alberta.
  • Ukraine's government has vowed to end a sickening local tradition of animal abuse.
  • An Idaho man is in hot water after prancing around in a bunny suit.
  • A truck carrying bees has flipped and closed a major highway near Edmonton, Alberta.

Review: 'Exiled: Clan of the Claw' [edited by Bill Fawcett]

Your rating: None Average: 4.2 (6 votes)

Exiled: Clan of the Claw is ostensibly alternate-universe science fiction, not fantasy. Editor Bill Fawcett postulates that the Giant Meteor that struck the Earth 65.5 million years ago, causing the extinction of the dinosaurs (according to one theory), never occurred.

The dinosaurs continue to live, evolving into an intelligent humanoid reptile “man” – the Liskash. Mammals evolve, too, resulting in an intelligent humanoid feline “man” – the Mrem. The two are instinctual deadly adversaries; both use “mind magic” against each other, but this is arguably a psionic talent, not a supernatural power.

When the Atlantic Ocean breaks into and fills the dry Mediterranean basin 5.3 million years ago, it cuts off the Mrem to the north from the Liskash to the south – except for one Mrem clan stranded in our world’s North Africa. Vastly outnumbered by its vicious Liskash neighbors, the isolated Clan of the Claw begins a desperate trek around the New Water to reunite with its Mrem brethen, in four novellas by different authors in this “Book One of a new series”.

Anthrocon bumped for . . . 2012 NHL Entry Draft?

Your rating: None Average: 4.2 (5 votes)

Anthrocon announced Friday night that next year's convention had been moved up a week to accommodate a mystery event, at the request of the City of Pittsburgh.

The new dates are June 14–17, 2012. Anthrocon was duly rewarded for its flexibility:

Pittsburgh has been given a very rare opportunity to host an event that they have been wanting to host for many years. The only trouble was that the proposed event (and we won't say what it is until it is officially announced) would lie in part over Anthrocon's planned weekend. [...] As much as we love our adopted home city and would do anything in our power to support them, we were hesitant to change the date of our convention after having announced it.

Pittsburgh replied with, "What if we got you another hundred hotel rooms within walking distance of the Convention Center?" — We said, "Where do we sign?"

While the event has not been announced, it has been rumoured that the NHL Entry Draft, convened annually in late June, might be coming to Pittsburgh for the first time since 1997.

'Red Dog' opens in Australia

Your rating: None Average: 3.5 (4 votes)

Red DogThis week saw the opening of Australian family film Red Dog.

Based on the 2002 novel by Louis de Bernières, the movie tells the real-life story of a Kelpie/cattle dog cross who travelled throughout the Pilbara region of Western Australia in the 1970s.

Reviews of the film have been positive, and at present it has an 85% rating on rottentomatoes.com.

Review: 'The Saga of Rex', by Michel Gagné

Your rating: None Average: 4.9 (8 votes)

The Saga of Rex, by Michel Gagné
Illustrated by the author
Berkeley, CA, Image Comics, Nov. 2010
Trade paperback $17.99 (200 pages)

Michel Gagné is probably better known in animation fandom than in furry fandom. His major credits include animation on the feature films An American Tail and All Dogs Go to Heaven for Don Bluth Studios in the 1980s; on Quest for Camelot, The Iron Giant and Osmosis Jones for Warner Bros. in the 1990s and early 2000s; and on The Incredibles and Ratatouille for Pixar in the 2000s.

Gagné has worked on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and other TV and video game animation projects. His personal animated short films such as the 1995 Prelude to Eden (video) have often been nominated for the animation industry’s Annie Awards.

In comic books, DC Comics has asked Gagné to write and draw a Batman serial. In 1997, he began self-publishing picture and comic books with his first Rex book, A Search for Meaning: The Story of Rex. His books earned Ursa Major Award nominations in 2002, 2005, and 2006, for the colored edition of his first Rex book and for two issues of his comic, ZED.

In 2004 Gagné was invited to create a story for annual comic-book anthology Flight, edited by Kazu Kuibishi and (then) published by Image Comics. Gagné wrote and drew a second story with his fox cub Rex, The Saga of Rex, serialized in Flight #2–7. Now Image Comics has collected the story into a 200-page full-color trade paperback, printed on high-quality paper.

Bryan Talbot reveals artwork from third 'Grandville' novel

Your rating: None Average: 4 (2 votes)

 Bête NoireBryan Talbot, author of the Grandville steampunk/furry graphic novels, has released the cover and first page of the third volume in the series. [Bleeding Cool]

Featuring a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, Grandville has an allohistorical setting in which France won the Napoleonic Wars and invaded Britain.

Initially announced in November 2010, the third novel, Grandville: Bête Noire, will continue the exploits of badger Detective-Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard.

Read more: Reviews of prior works Grandville and Grandville: Mon Amour by dronon and The Chained Wolf

'Prequel' offers furry twist on interactive adventures

Your rating: None Average: 4.7 (6 votes)

PrequelDo you enjoy Homestuck, but find one therianthropic feline troll and a fan of anthropomorphic fauna insufficient to sate your furry desires? Consider Prequel, an interactive comic using characters, species and settings from the Elder Scrolls video games Morrowind and Oblivion.

Although the popularity of the comic caused it to be moved to its own site after two threads, suggested actions and fan-art for the comic's protagonist are still taken on the MSPA forums (which also feature the topic 'shit. let's be furries', now on its second thread).

2011 Recommended Anthropomorphics List: August update

Your rating: None Average: 2.8 (4 votes)

Ursa Major AwardsThe Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association, which administers the annual Ursa Major Awards, has updated the 2011 Anthropomorphic Reading List to include all of the titles recommended by furry fans through the beginning of August. This list is often used by fans to nominate in the next year's Awards.

All fans are invited to recommend worthwhile anthropomorphic works in ten categories (motion pictures, dramatic short films or broadcasts, novels, short fiction, other literary works, graphic stories, comic strips, magazines, published illustrations, and games) first published during 2011, if they are not already on the list.