Carole Curtis, co-founder of furry publishing house Shanda Fantasy Arts and writer of the comic series Katmandu, has passed away at the age of 71.

Carole was a prominent figure in the furry fandom since the 1990s, when she and her husband James Michael 'Mike' Curtis - an accomplished comic writer and artist in his own right – released the slice-of-life comic Shanda the Panda in 1992. Shanda would provide the namesake for the publishing company Shanda Fantasy Arts (initially an imprint of Vision Comics), which they founded in 1996 after Shanda the Panda and various other furry comics were dropped by Antarctic Press. SFA would go on to publish a number of prominent furry comics and anthologies, including Steve Gallacci's Albedo Anthropomorphics, Shawntae Howard's Extinctioners, the late Mary Hanson-Roberts' Here Comes a Candle, and many more over its 22 years of operation.

"My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today." --K'has, quoting Richard Adams, Watership Down

It is with heavy heart that we must report the passing of Tugrik d'Itichi, aka Tug, real name Tori (or Tor) Amundson, a much-respected figure from the early years of the fandom.

[Editor's note: Much of this was gathered from things said at the memorial service held on FurryMUCK, from social media, from people who responded to my inquiries, and with the help of the wizards on FM. Thank you all for sharing your memories.]

News of the passing of Doctor David “Spottacus” Benaron on Friday Friday July 18th, 2025 was shared and confirmed on Saturday. This doctor with a cheetah fursona was well known in the fandom for their work that enabled the capacity of smart watches to monitor heart rates. PC Mag’s Will Greenwald did a piece on the doctor on his technical and furry lives in 2022. This article had become highly shared as a focal point of people holding successful careers within furry fandom spaces.

The spotted doctor did not shy away from his hobby and the influences it had in his career successes. He gave a presentation at Berkeley called Furries, Neurodivergence and STEM: Finding Your Path From Zero to One to One Billion, which can be viewed on YouTube.

He was a prolific fursuiter that had multiple suits to his name. Other characters played by the doctor included a California sabretooth by the name of Toofs, and lion named Dandy, an Ocelot named Ozzie. More information and photos of these can be found on his WikiFur page.

We're sad to report that Ed Zolna passed away on November 4, 2024.

To most new participants in Furry Fandom, that's not a name that will mean anything. Ed played a vital and largely unique role in the 80s and 90s of the fandom, before the Internet kicked in, and consequently didn't leave much of a digital footprint. He's most known as the founder of two furry mail-order distribution businesses.

The first was Mailbox Books in 1987. There were a lot of furry fan-made zines, art folios and comics being produced, but the fandom had no obvious center nor common area in which to find them, so that's where Ed's mail-order business came in, based out of his home in Roslyn, PA. By 1995 his catalog was a 40-page booklet.

In the final hours of August 6, furry art community Fur Affinity released a brief news post announcing that its owner, Dragoneer, had passed away, after a nasty respiratory disease that he had posted about publicly on social media. During this time the purple Digimon gave a hopeful prognosis on his last Fur Affinity journal, believing he’d recover in one to two months, but also showing how serious the situation was on Bluesky with anxiety about getting appointments as the condition worsened. A July 15 post indicated he had suffered pneumonia-like symptoms since mid-June, but didn’t seek help prior; likely fearing the cost, being uninsured.

Sean “Dragoneer” Piche was a foundational individual in a new generation of furry community leaders, fostering a struggling art site called Fur Affinity to a dominant position in the fandom - as well as promoting and later taking over responsibility for a companion convention, FA: United, before COVID-19 caused the difficult decision to permanently cancel the con.

Taral Wayne (born Wayne MacDonald), a Canadian artist in both science fiction and furry fandoms, passed away last week at age 72. (October 12, 1951 - July 31, 2024.)

I had the opportunity to hang out with Taral many times from about 1994-2001 until I moved away, after which I sadly let myself become more distant. If you were a friend or colleague of Taral's, even if you're not in furry fandom, please feel free to post a comment or personal memory here!

Taral Wayne was a resident of Toronto and discovered science fiction fandom in the early 1970s. Within the next ten years he was an active participant, lending his artistic talents to zine culture. He was also a member of the proto-furry APA, Vootie.

Furry author and editor Kirisis Alpinus passed away in a Swedish hospital on March 5th, following a visit to NordicFuzzCon.

Also known on Twitter as DaRhedDol, and as member of the Furry Writers' Guild KC Alpinus, she leaves behind a legacy of work and her mate and fellow furry author and guild member Ocean Tigrox.

As well as her writing and editing, Kirisis shared her activism and admiration for her fellow women of color, and supported furries of color by helping to organize gatherings and sharing experiences and history using her degree in political science.

Furries have been sharing fan art that features her dhole and dire wolf hybrid in her memory.

Bad Dog Books is celebrating her life by offering CLAW Volume 1 for free through March - a lesbian anthology released in 2018, inspired by the FANG series focused on male/male partnerships - as well as ROAR Volume 9 and Dogs of War II Aftermath in which she had stories. Her work also featured in Inhuman Acts and Bleak Horizons, and she won the 2020 Cóyotl Award for Best Anthology with A Selection of Anthropomorphic Regalements, Vol 1.

One of furry fandom’s original founding members passed away from liver cancer on February 20, 2024. Mark Merlino, alongside the late Fred Patten, were two of the six founders of the first anime club in the United States in May 1977. This interest and fandom evolved into a focus on the anthropomorphic characters which became large enough to grow outside into a tandem fandom known as furry.

This would culminate in the founding of the first convention exclusively for furry fans in Greater Los Angeles, ConFurence, which he co-directed with his mate Rod O’Riley. It saw yearly growth in attendance until Mark left the board at the end of 1998. Other conventions would grow to replace the founding convention that closed its doors in 2003. Its direct successor Califur started in 2004 and ran until its closure in 2017.

Merlino’s legacy has been well documented, featuring in Ash Coyote’s The Fandom and Joe Strike’s Furry Nation.

The fandom has been mourning and memorializing his passing with articles of his legacy, and fan art featuring his original species, the Skiltaire. Ren Tradewind has come forward with the suggestion of making his birthday of May 12th a sort of Fandom Foundation holiday.

The furry community of South Africa have announced that Ivic Wulfe has passed away on Sunday May 22nd, 2022. Ivic, whose fursona was a green and white fox/wolf hybrid, co-founded the South Afrifur Pawdcast – a show hosted on Furry.FM, a radio streaming service where Ivic worked as English Community Administrator.

In the podcast, they bring in guests from the furry fandom to discuss topics of the day. They then post these to their YouTube channel. Some of these guests included Thabo Meerkat, Kyell Gold, Tonya Song, and myself.

Ivic also helped in the creation of the South Afrifur convention; a small gathering first held July 2017 in Krugersdorp, close to Johannesburg.

Friends of Furry.FM and South Afrifur,

Unfortunately, it is with heavy hearts that we have to inform you that our friend, Ivic passed away today at 7:19 PM. He fell asleep peacefully at home surrounded by his friends.

Ian George Stuart Curtis passed away some time in May of 2021. He was one of the founding fathers of the furry fandom in the UK.

Born in December 1946 in Hull, he grew up on Disney cartoons and funny animal comics like Bonzo the Dog and Rupert Bear. By the time he was in his teens, he also developed interests in wargaming, comics, science fiction and fantasy games as well.

While working as a writer for the military press, he travelled to the USA regularly and used his leisure time to frequent the comic book and science fiction conventions there. This was how he met early furry fans like Pauli Kidd and discovered furry fandom. By the 1990s, he was in contact with fans in the US, Australia, and the UK.

Disney announced some furry bait titles coming to a screen near you in 2022. One is Turning Red, a movie about a girl who is cursed to transform into a red panda when she becomes too excited. Along with this is a new animated series around the 2016 movie Zootopia, called Zootopia+, which was covered in Rod O’Riley’s In-Fur-Nation. It seems to be set up as a slice of life, reality format that will follow the lives of side characters.

But for Nick’s partner in crime, their voice may be missing from any side cast shenanigans. After showing symptoms for COVID-19, Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister passed on. The wrestler had many roles in show business. They wrestled Hulk Hogan and were featured on Star Trek, but most furries would know them as the voice of the diminutive fox with an attitude that will “bite your face off.”

It seems 2022 can’t get here fast enough, and not just for the sake of furry films.

Rick May, best known to furries and non-furries alike as the voice of Peppy Hare in the English version of the game Star Fox 64 passed away April 13, 2020 due to COVID-19. May was born September 21, 1940 (with the full name of Richard J. May), meaning he would have turned 80 later this year. May had also recently suffered a stroke in February, making him even more vulnerable to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

May will forever be known as the man who originally uttered the memetic line "Do a barrel roll! (Z or R twice.)" in Star Fox 64, explaining to players how to perform what is technically an aileron roll in order to deflect enemy attacks. May also played the villain of Star Fox 64, Andross. Outside of furry video games, May is probably best known for voicing the Soldier of Team Fortress 2; furries might also recognize his voice behind the villainous Dr. M from the third Sly Cooper game. In addition to voice work for video games, May has had a long history of working both on and for the stage as both a director and actor, beginning with USO shows while stationed in Japan. His part in a Renton, Washington production of Cotton Patch Gospel featured a combination of his voice and stage work, as he used different voices to portray 21 characters in what was reportedly his favorite stage role.

Furry icons on social media sites went dark on April 5, 2019, following a tweet from Dogbomb that he would be passing on soon. Known for his German Shepherd fursona, Tony Barrett had modelled his character in honor of Rodger, a canine companion he'd lost, who had been with him for 14 years.

Dogbomb's wardrobe consisted of a Hawaiian-style lei, which is why some of the recent icons have been placing the flowery necklace against a black background, a design put forth by The Forgess, pictured here.

It stands out as a beacon, as Tony had been in his life.

Update 4/8: Fixed statement where Lei art was falsely credited to Trinity. Thanks to BlindWolf8 for the correction.

Fred Patten was born in Los Angeles, California on December 11, 1940. By the time he was ten years old, he'd become interested in science fiction and had started to collect SF books and magazines. From 1958 to 1963 he attended UCLA, where he graduated with a master's degree in Library Science. During his university years, he discovered science fiction fandom, joined the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS), and started to write for fanzines.

In the 1970s, Fred became a partner in a bookstore in Long Beach, and also developed an interest in manga and anime from Japan. In 1977, along with Mark Merlino and others, Fred was one of the founding members of North America's first anime fan club, the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization. Partially through the C/FO, he and Mark expanded their mutual interest in animals in cartoons and science-fiction, which was a major step in the early evolution of furry fandom. A lot people aren't aware that in North America, both anime and furry fandoms share an originating root!

There is a balding man with glasses, standing in the corner, cradling a book against his stomach, reading. You saw him a lot. At the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society meeting hall, the APA collation room, in the library, at science fiction conventions in function rooms and room parties, at San Diego Comic Con in the Rowrbrazzle contributor parties, at furry parties.

His name is Fred Patten, and was in no way the passive participant he seemed. With a partner he opened a book shop in Long Beach, California that not only carried SF and Fantasy books, but comics from all over the world. He reviewed SF and Fantasy literature for fan and professional publications. His apartment was literally wall-to-wall books. He collected SF/F art, storing paintings in his bed frame. I don't think anyone knew where he slept... or if he did.