Your Guide to the World of Furry Fandom
Spreading the word: The artist known as Barasaurus (David Alcántara Rubio) has a new Kickstarter campaign running for his book 151, a collection of Painted Pokemon Portraits (whew!). “151 is an unofficial Pokémon artbook re-visiting the 1st Gen, with redesigns inspired by folklore, video games, the Internet, and pop culture.” The Kickstarter for this hardcover collection is on ’till the end of June.
image c. 2021 by Barasaurus
Renegade Games and Oni Press present Aggretsuko: Work/Rage Balance, a new card game based on the popular and award-winning anime series. “Aggretsuko is a fast-playing card game for 3-6 players, where each player takes the role of a mild-mannered office worker trying to get through their work each day. If a worker becomes frustrated, they can RAGE to let out their inner heavy-metal rock star. RAGING will provide some much-needed relief from the daily grind, but it may have consequences later on.” Interestingly, the game is illustrated by Brenda Hickey, well-known for her work on the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic comic series. Board Game Geek have a review of the new game.
image c. 2021 Renegade Games
Welcome in the May! And welcome the 2021 Ursa Major Awards for the best in anthropomorphic media from 2020. While there was so much crazy (and let’s face it, sad) going on that year, somehow creative people managed to bring us some fine “talking animal” entertainment — and we love them for it. So here, as nominated and voted on exclusively by you, the Fans, are the winners for the Best in Anthropomorphics from the year 2020:
Best Costume (Fursuit): Zigc the Khajiit, created by Inerri Creatures
Best Web Site: Furaffinity.net
Best Game: Animal Crossing — New Horizons, created by Nintendo
Best Published Illustration: “Cheers” by Lofi
Best Magazine: Pocari Roo (video series)
Best Comic Strip: Housepets! by Rick Griffin
Best Graphic Story: Beastars (Volumes 4 – 8) by Paru Itagaki
Best Non-Fiction: The Fandom — A Furry Documentary, directed by Ash Kreis and Eric Risher
Best Other Literary Work: Difursity — Stories by Furries of Color, edited by Weasel
Best Short Fiction: What Makes A Witch, by Linnea Capps
Best Novel: The City That Barks and Roars, by J.T. Bird
Best Dramatic Short Work: Zoophobia — Bad Luck Jack, directed by Vivienne Medrano
Best Dramatic Series: Beastars (The English Dub), directed by Shinichi Matsumi
Best Motion Picture: Wolfwalkers, directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart
Needless to say, congratulations to everyone — the winners, and all the other nominees. To find out more about the Ursa Major Awards, or if you’d like to volunteer, visit the official web site. And start thinking about what sort of Furry Stuff you like from 2021! The Ursa Major Awards will return next year!
image c. 2021 Cartoon Saloon
Remember when we talked about Rivals of Aether, a very furry video game? Well now Dan Fornace and his creative team are exploring a new medium as they bring us Tales of Aether — Future Imperfect, a full-color comic book series slated to come out later this year. Over on YouTube they have a preview video that introduces a lot of the new characters and situations. Be on the lookout!
image c. 2021 Aether Studios
Nostalgia comes out of its shell again… Recently Dotemu and Tribute Games brought us Shredder’s Revenge — a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game notable for its look, based heavily on the oh-so-popular 1980’s animated TV series. “Get ready to take control of your favourite pizza eating and butt-kicking turtles, as Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael gear up to take down Shredder and the Foot Clan in TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge!” Check out the trailer on YouTube, and check out the game over on Steam. Cool!
image c. 2021 Tribute Games
Proper movie-trailer speak. This is one we came across on Facebook, of all places. Brok The InvestiGator is a new “narrative-driven adventure game” that’s coming soon from Cowcat and Gog. “In a futuristic ‘light cyberpunk’ world where animals have replaced humans, privileged citizens live under a dome protected from the ambient pollution while others struggle to make a living outside. Brok, a private detective and former boxer, lives with Graff, the son of his deceased wife. Although he could never elucidate her accident, recent events may shed some light on an even more tragic outcome… one that may be linked to their own existence. Will they be able to withstand the threats of this corrupted world and face their own destiny?” There’s a cool trailer on YouTube as well.
image c. 2020 Cowcat
Sad news: It seems that the next book in Katie O’Neill’s popular Tea Dragon series, The Tea Dragon Tapestry, has been delayed several months due to problems with the printing (??). It’s now set for the middle of 2021. In the meantime though, we’re hoping that Oni Press has an easier time with Autumn Harvest, a new card game based on the Tea Dragon series that’s been created by Renegade Game Studios. “Explore the secrets of Tea Dragon care-taking in this enchanting game of friendship and fantasy! Collect Growth tokens and cards to create memories with your Tea Dragon in this light deck-building card game.” This one’s scheduled to be released any day now.
image c. 2020 Oni Press
Thanks to Twitter we found out about Wild Lands, a new fantasy role-playing game created by Steve Wood — an animation and game arts professor and fantasy illustrator, to quote him. “Wild Lands is a High Fantasy Critter TTRPG inspired by the stories I loved as a kid like Redwall, The Wind in the Willows, The Rats of Nymph, and Once Upon a Forest to name a few.” Over at the official web site it says “Scurry into adventure with Wild Lands, a cooperative storytelling RPG where players control squirrel knights, mouse mages, badger barbarians, and more!” Free trial downloads are available now.
image c. 2020 by Steve Wood
So we’ve been learning about Party Animals, a new multi-species game available on Steam. “A physics-based party game” — their words. Visit their official web site and it’ll make more sense… at least a little. The important thing is, there’s a free version available for download through October 13th, so hurry! They’re also looking to bring in new members for their development team.
image c. 2020 Recreate Games
