History
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Furry fandom is a popular cultural phenomenon and a community of people who are interested in aspects of animals and animal/human beings in art, literature, visual media and/or as the basis for a personal philosophy and/or lifestyle.
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Funny animal artists
Many agree that furry fandom had its origins in funny animal fandom, which has existed since at least the 1940s. In the 1980s, a group of fans interested in animal characters in comics and stories was forming around other organized fan activities. Room parties at science fiction conventions (furry parties), meetings of the C/FO, and APA collating parties (for funny animal and cartooning APAs, such as Vootie and Rowrbrazzle). Fans kept in contact with each other on computer BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems) like the Tiger's Den, StormGate Aerie and Kyim's Scratching Post; and in the early 1990s through on-line chat environments (e.g. GEnie, CompuServe, Prodigy and Delphi). APAs and fanzine "wars" became popular, with mail-in art and comic contributions collated and distributed to all members.
Science fiction and fantasy community
see also: History section of Furry fandom In the earlier days of the fandom, furry fans used to gather mostly at science fiction, fantasy, and comic conventions before the furry parties broke out into full-fledged furry conventions.
- In 1980, at the World Science Fiction Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, an Erma Felna painting by Steve Gallacci was entered in the art show. The funny animal artwork in an otherwise realistic setting drew attention among fans showing a common interest in science fiction and fantasy about intelligent animals. This led to an informal series of gatherings at Worldcons and Westercons, which eventually branched into a club centered around Rowrbrazzle to organize more "formal" furry parties.
- In 1985, at the San Diego Comic Convention, Judy Niver (one of the founders of the C/FO), hosted a party in her room at the Hotel San Diego. The Rowrbrazzle APA group was also having a party in the same hotel, and there was much overlap in attendance. After that party at Comic Con, it became a tradition to have at least one furry party during the convention. In more recent years, the Comic Con party has been called CritterConDiego and Califur Diego.
- At the 1985 Westercon Science Fiction Convention in Sacramento, California, Mark Merlino and Rod O'Riley hosted a room party in Sheldon and Tony Linker's room. Most room parties at sci-fi and fantasy cons have a theme, so the party was called The Prancing Skiltaire party, named after Mark's apartment. The show Animalympics was screened, along with some Warner Bros. short cartoons, and collections of furry artwork and short stories were on display. Several visitors to the party were very interested in the videos and the art. Some showed sketchbooks and collections of their furry art. Their party at the 1986 Westercon in San Diego, CA, was the first to be openly called a furry party. After the success of these parties, Mark and Rod began hosting similar events at conventions all over California.
- In 1989, Mark Merlino and Rod O'Riley decided to expand on the furry party concept and host the first prototype furry convention, ConFurence Zero. ConFurence continued to be the premier international gathering place of furry fans, until other independent furry-themed conventions were organized.
- On the U.S. east coast, furry fans were gathering at the New York chapter of the C/FO, founded by Ken Sample and friends. Ray Rooney and Major Matt Mason hosted parties in their suite at Philcon in Philadelphia for several years. Philcon eventually hosted the first major Furry art show and dealer's room. In 1994, Trish Ny organized Furtasticon, a prototype east coast furry convention at the Holiday Inn, next to the Adam's Mark hotel, Philcon's venue. Trish went on to found ConFurence East in 1995.
- In 1996, at the World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim, California, the Furry Fandom Lounge was organized by the ConFurence committee as five-day furry programming track. The general Worldcon program schedule publicized the furry parties, panels, and exhibits which even included a glass-encased "History of Furry Fandom" display by David Bliss.
- In 1997, Anthrocon is first held in Albany, New York and goes on to become the largest furry convention to date.
- In 1999, at the North American Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim, California, the Furry Fandom Lounge reflected on 15 years of fandom.
- In 2003, Dr. Samuel Conway (also known as Uncle Kage of Anthrocon) was a guest of honor at the I-CON science fiction and fantasy convention in Stony Brook, New York. His renowned story hour has since become a fixture of the convention through recent years.
- In 2006, at the North American Science Fiction Convention in SeaTac, Washington, the Stalking Cat was one of the notable program participants.
- At the 2006 World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim, California, the Furry Fandom Lounge returned under the organization of Rod O'Riley of the Califur group. The programming track included a furry artist reception and panels ranging from fursuiting basics to the new world of furry webcomics.
Small press publishers
Comics were the driving force in the early days, largely thanks to the wellspring of anthro-based comics that erupted on the American scene with the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the mid-'80s. Literally dozens of titles came and went, many of which simply attempted to copy the TMNT formula in order to make a fast buck. These ranged from the execrable (ala Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters, Geriatric Ju-Jitsu Gerbils) to genuinely readworthy (as with Pre-Teen Dirty-Gene Kung-Fu Kangaroos).
Of more interest were the burgeoning ranks of anthro comics which didn't seek to follow in TMNT's tracks. Some even pre-dated TMNT, as with StarReach's Duck!, which not only parodied the short-lived "Duck Craze" of the late '70s (remember "Disco Duck"? Right.), but also showcased then-new talents like Dave Sim (The Beavers) and Michael T. Gilbert (The Wraith). Independents and a wide divergence of topics abounded: Steve Gallacci (Albedo) wrote of animals warring amid the stars under the strict laws of Einsteinian physics, while Vicky Wyman (Xanadu) produced exquisitely-drawn fantasy romances starring unicorn empresses and gryphon wizards. Meanwhile, Jim Groat's GraphXPress came out with parodies of Conan and Red Sonja in the form of Equine the Uncivilized and Red Shetland. Independent comic-book greats such as Donna Barr (Stinz) and Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo) built their first readerships amongst the ranks of furries.
Even the mainstream publishers tried to get in on the act, with much less success --- Marvel's Power Pachyderms isn't known to have any fans even amongst diehard furries. DC's Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew took a more "Hanna Barbara" approach and won some support, but not enough to keep from going under as well.
Fantagraphics then published the funny-animal anthology Critters for fifty issues, after which point it appeared that anthro comics were running out of steam. The TMNT craze had created massive speculation in the comics market, which inevitably resulted in an equally massive backlash when investors attempted to sell their bootleg copies of poorly-drawn books and found that no one wanted to buy them. Whole publishing companies went under almost overnight, taking a number of exceptional anthro comics with them (such as Nervous Rex, a splendid book of surrealist comedy which happened to be published by Blackthorne, which itself became almost universally recognized --- after the fact --- as a fly-by-night ripoff operation).
By 1991, only a few anthro comics continued to maintain any kind of pretense at a publication schedule. Enter Ben Dunn's Antarctic Press. Mr. Dunn had previously created his own anthro title (Of Mice and Men) and had built a small independent publishing company on the strength of imported manga titles and a flagship manga-industry comic called Mangaphile. Furrlough was the first genuinely non-manga comic produced by Antarctic, and was shortly swamped with submissions by creators who had teethed during the "TMNT Boom/Bust". Eventually, Genus was created to allow for the publication of NC17/X-rated material.
The success of Furrlough and, later, Genus, catapulted Antarctic Press into serious competition with long-standing industry independents. Able to expand even further now, Ben Dunn created Warrior Nun Areala, which was non-anthro but whose overnight success greatly overshadowed the anthro line. To free up resources necessary to further promote Warrior Nun Areala and its related merchandise, AP cut loose the entirety of its anthro line (Gold Digger not being counted, as AP did not consider it to be a "furry" title).
Radio Comix was quickly formed by then-AP-editor Elin Winkler and a number of pro-anthro stalwarts to keep Furrlough and Genus alive. Small but steady sales combined with a lean and smart business plan have allowed Radio to slowly prosper to the point where it has been able to expand to carry other lines as well as publish the occasional one-shot or miniseries. Other existing anthro comic publishers include MU Press, GraphXPress, Shanda Fantasy Arts, Backbreaker Studios and Dream Weaver Press.
In terms of "fannish cred", being published as a comic artist was second only to being a animator at Disney. The top comic artists in furry were the real stars of Furrydom since they were the direct producers of what was readily available. More recently, due to online archives and forums catering to artists on the Internet, as well as sales of prints and art collection CDs, the fandom's focus has slowly moved away from sequential art and more into the realm of "classic", or single-frame, works. At the same time, the number of webcomics produced by anthro artists has escalated into the hundreds, some of which are exceptionally good.
This shift is readily explainable: producing a comic book is an expensive and time-consuming affair. Even a small run of a few thousand issues of an average-sized book can cost thousands of dollars to print, and then it must be distributed and fight for shelf space in tightly-packed comic stores. Once it gets there, it may simply be ignored amid the hundreds of brightly-colored titles of the competition. Internet publication avoids all of these problems, offering the artist the likelihood of potential return with virtually no investment.
Another important point is that, as with Science Fiction, Fantasy and Comic Fandoms, fanzines became an important part of Furry Fandom. Amateur Press Associations (APAs) produced "APAzines" like Vootie and Rowrbrazzle. These provided a place for artists and writers of the Funny Animal genre to showcase their work and critique each other in the days before online archives and forums were quite so commonplace. APAs are generally exclusive groups, with limited memberships, and the zines produced were usually for members only, although some notable exceptions existed.
Later, shared universe and collection magazines were published. Furry fans could subscribe to these magazines, or purchase them at convention dealer’s rooms. The first furry collection magazine, FurVersion, published by Karl Maurer, was born at a furry party at Baycon in San Jose, Ca, in 1987. Yarf!, published by Jeff Ferris, became the longest running collection magazine, with over 40 issues. Rowrbrazzle, the fandom's flagship and longest-running APAzine, is published on a quarterly basis with over 85 issues to its credit.
Internet
By 1992, furry fans could participate in on-line social role-playing environments for free, if they had access to the Internet. MUCKs, Mushes and MOOs were created by furry fans for furry fans and hosted at educational and commercial sites. With the dawn of the World Wide Web, furry fans found their Mecca, with personal web sites, art and writing archives and forums providing a way for furry fans to communicate and share their interests internationally. Yerf and YiffCo and VCL and other art archives soon dominated the art scene.
In the late 1990's, David J. Rust (aka Sylvan), attempted to document the internal social dynamics and trends within Furry fandom. While originally intended to be a fan film documentary, the research he conducted from 1996 - 1997 was eventually collated into The Sociology of Furry Fandom, a Subculture Study, the first academic study of furry sociology.