Category: Interviews

Joe Strike: Furry Planet Interview

Ahmar Wolf

This is my 3rd interview with Joe Strike and lets get into Furry Planet right away.
So tell us about the book


Joe Strike: Furry Planet picks up where Furry Nation left off. Like ‘Nation,’ It covers furry art, fursuits even adult furry, but from a different perspective than the first book


Furry Times: In other words a continuation of the world of furry and expanding on it.


JS: What I’m really proud of is Furry Planet” explores MAINSTREAM anthropomorphism – like “Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk,” Bojack, and so much more. It’s one of seveal chapters I wrote for Furry Nation there was just no room for in that volume.


FT: I wanted to ask what is your feeling about calling furries Mainstream.


JS: To me, it’s a continuum, not separate universes between the mainstream stuff and us furries. I truly, strongly believe that anthropomorphism – the desire to imagine non-human animals on a more equal footing with the human world is hard-wired into the human mind.


It’s expressed itself since the beginning of civilization, with folk tales, religious rituals, and celebrations all celebrating the non-human animal world.


It’s never gone away, but it mostly went “underground” in modern times, with cartoon & storybook animals, product & sports mascots…but we furs – imho – strongly feel that instinct to the point we created fursonas and wear fursuits to become those imaginary beings.


FT: Conventions where do you see them in the future, especially after MFF topping 15,000


JS: OK, now let’s see here… Oh yeah, they had over 15000 people? Well, once again Anthrocon’s back in second place attendance=wise


FT: Then there is Furry Weekend Atlanta who topped 10,000 this year


JS: but these growing attendance figures prove this instinct is returning to life Cool! I should do more conventions – my pubisher would certainly love it


FT: Furries want to have fun. Smaller cons are so much fun.


JS: Very – I love ANE & furthemore
I don’t care for MFF because it’s so sprawling. Anthrocon is great because it’s all packed into the DLL center, and I LOVE💖💖💖how much Pittsburgh loves us!


MFF isn’t in Chicago – it’s in “Rosemont,” out by the airport, so the city itself never gets to see us.
Sounds about right. I think the main thing i hate about MFF (aside from attending in 2022 in a wheelchair) is that endless hamster tube between the con hotel & the convention center
Narrow, crowded, overheated…and endless.


FT: Not exactly true, a lot of fursuiters hit Maggie Daley Park, the Bean when the Police allow it. Costume figures are normally banned. (A sad but true fact for Millennium Park in Chicago)


(Referring to The Skybridge at MFF)
JS: That doesn’t sound very safe


FT: All I know there was an ambulance called around 6 times


JS: Anyway, to talk a bit more about Furry Planet, it was great interviewing (&occasionally meeting) a lot of fascinating people, both in and out of the furry community.


FT: We are diverse


JS: And not all furs have sex in their suits while living in their parents’ basements
Have you had a chance to read the book? I tell a lot of their stories.


FT: I love The Book


JS: Like the guy who invented the heart rate monitor and owns about 50 suits


FT: One story I heard with that florida gov. bashed furries the IT furries who work for Florida cut his internet speed.


JS: like I said, it’s a continuum between us and them – they’re following the same instinct we are, even if they’re not aware of it to the degree we are I love it! Yep, I read the IT/tech world is basically run by furries.


FT: Living your life to make you happy


JS: I cannot help but agree

I’m so glad people like Stoddard are capturing this history. I’m a professional writer, been paid (to one degree or another) for my writing abilities since I left college…I’m a greymuzzle/baby-boomer who met all the first furries & interviewed them before they’re not around any more.
Anyway, I figured someone should capture this history and it seemed to me no one else was going to bother

Eufuria Mini – Con Interview

Ahmar Wolf

Strange enough this all began when I saw a random post about Eufuria Mini-Con which takes place July 22 in Troy, NY Wanting to smaller fur cons and events, I decided to contact them.

I’m Visaj, my pronouns are she, her. I’m Co-Founder and Board Member of Cafe Euphoria, a transgender and non-binary restaurant in Troy NY. At my restaurant we host monthly furmeets and next month will be the first annual furry convention, Eufuria Mini-Con.

Furry Times: What events do you have planned?

Eufuria Mini-Con: Opening and closing ceremonies. A con merch shop. Gaming area. Dealer’s den. Dance hall. We have confirmed five panels and have the capacity to add three or four more. The restaurant will be making food to order throughout.

Furry Times: Since I don’t know much about the Furry Scene in Troy, NY or the restaurant where it’s being held could you fill me in

Eufuria Mini-Con: Anthrocon, one of the largest furry conventions in the world, started right here in Albany. It’s a 15 minute drive from Albany to Troy, where we’re hosting Eufuria Mini-Con. The fandom in the area is sizable enough that there are events twice a month, every month. The furmeet at Cafe Euphoria, which I host, is the Second Friday of the month. The other local furmeet, hosted by HayPanda, varies in topic like a furbowl or a BBQ and it is the last Sunday of the month.

You can read more about Eufuria Mini-Con on the con website – https://eufuriacon.carrd.co

Cafe Euphoria has a lot of information on its website, too – https://www.cafeeuphoria.org

Cafe Euphoria is a transgender and gender non-conforming worker-owned and operated cafe and restaurant located in downtown Troy, NY. We feature vegan, vegetarian, and pescatarian cuisine, with additional menu items to support the tastes of our community. We also offer curated thrift, host events, and serve as a co-working space all on a true 3:1 sliding scale (2:1 for merchandise). Our menu features an upscale presentation combined with familiar comfort foods designed to serve our community, including all friends and allies.

Furry Times: I wish them all the success

Interview with Tim Stoddard

Ahmar Wolf

Kevin Hile of Uncle Bear Publishing put me in contact with Tim Stoddard who wrote Furtannia: The History of the Furry Fandom in the United Kingdom. In a short time I discovered someone who was just as curious as I about the fandom

Furry Times: What made you write Furtannia: The History of the Furry Fandom in the United Kindgom?

Tim Stoddard: I had gotten interested in furry history when I was reading Furry Nation by Joe Strike.

One weekend I was on a road trip to BristolFurs with two friends of mine (TyphonFox and Ozzy), and I was reading Furry Nation to pass the time.

When they asked about what I was reading, I showed them the book. TyphonFox noticed the subtitle of the book was “The True Story of America’s Most Misunderstood Subculture” and asked something along the lines of “What about British Furries?”

I don’t think I had a good answer at the time, just excusing the book by saying British Furries were mentioned, but that question stuck in my mind during the BristolFurs meet, that almost all of the discussion around the history of the furry fandom is focused on America to the point where one of the most comprehensive books on the subject at the time defined the furry fandom as “America’s” fandom, not an international fandom.

The next day, I started reading what I could find about early UK Furries, eventually building up a timeline.

Then in late 2018, ConFuzzled announced it was opening event suggestions and I thought that someone should do a History of Furries style panel but for the UK, someone who knew about what the furry fandom was like in the eighties and nineties for Furries in the UK.

Moments later, another thought came into my head, “It’s gonna be me, is it?” Next thing I knew, I proposed the event, it got approved, and at ConFuzzled 2019 I was scheduled to talk about UK furry history.

I honestly didn’t think many people would watch it, the talk was scheduled at the same time the Dealer’s Den would open, but the seats filled up to the point some folks had to sit against the walls because there were no seats left. I only found out after my talk from one of the event staff that they counted over a hundred people sitting in my talk, so many that some people were standing just outside the door to listen.

I even had a few people come up to say I did great, one of them said something like “Someone should write this all down so it can be preserved”.

I agreed, and soon had the thought “It’s gonna be me, is it?”

In conclusion, the short answer to your question is that I knew early on that the furry fandom was more than just America, and I discovered there were several people who were interested in learning about the furry fandom’s history outside of America, and since I built up a knowledge base I felt I was the one to turn it into a book for people to read.

Furry Times: So is there a point where you can say the fandom started in the UK there?

Tim Stoddard: There have been furries in the UK for almost as long as there have been a furry fandom, thanks to imported comic books and British sci-fans able to travel to the USA.

While there was a furry hotel room party in Brighton during the 1987 World Science Fiction Convention, I’d say the UK furry fandom got its start in 1992 when Ian Curtis organised a furry housecon at his residence in Yateley, being host to British and American fans.

That housecon would become regular, and a few British furry artists made their own fanzines to compete with the American ones. The rest is, as they say, history.

Furry Times: In all your research have you ever come across something that totally surprised you?

Tim Stoddard: There have been a few, comments from one of the co-founders of Eurofurence being inspired by British housecons for instance.

I also didn’t realise how far back the story of ConFuzzled went before I researched and learned about the wider context. It wasn’t as straightforward as how ConFurence started, there had been multiple attempts to start a furry convention in the UK for years, all of them failed, so when a team got together and announced plans for a convention in Manchester, some people assumed it wouldn’t happen. Meanwhile in the present day, ConFuzzled 2023 happened earlier this year and 2661 people attended from around the world.

Furry Times: Are you planning more books?

Tim Stoddard: I have a few areas of research in mind. Writing about the media presence of furries for the book got me curious about expanding that research.

One of my friends joked that I should do one to cover furries across Europe, though that’s a much more enormous undertaking. The benefit of working on Furtannia was that I am a British furry. I used to post regularly on the UKFurForums. I’ve attended furmeets across the country and most of the UK conventions at least once. That background helped me know where to look. The idea of doing that again, but for multiple countries? That’d be like reaching the peak of Ben Nevis and being told next to climb the Matterhorn.

Furry Times: I like to know your feelings from a US Perspective Eurofurence is a heavy influencer some cons actually delayed announcing their dates.

Tim Stoddard: Oh yeah, I’m one of the organisers for Wild North, a small UK convention in September, so we keep an eye on Eurofurence’s date.
You sent

Furry Times: Is there anything you like to add?

Tim Stoddard: Well, I have a few stories from doing research.

Instead of just reading a scan of a magazine article, I went out of my way to the British Library to read the original magazines in full and get a broader context behind the articles themselves.

Turns out some of the magazines are really hard to come by and the British Library are serious with keeping them taken care of in their archives.

For one in particular, I was only allowed to read it in their “Rare Books” room, and even then the magazine issue was provided to me in a box, and I had to take it to a specific “restricted section” of the room so I could sit down and read it. It felt very weird knowing I was reading something very secure just for an article about furries back in the day.

Anthro Irish Interview by Ahmar Wolf

Ahmar Wolf

Here is their logo of our mascot “Rebel” created by Irish Artist and long time friend of the rep., @Balese8

Anthro Irish is a brand new furry convention to take place in Cork, Ireland on August 5th and 6th. They agreed to an interview to talk about the upcoming convention.


Furry Times (FT): Furries in Ireland what is it like?


Anthro Irish: Well, in my near five years being active in this fandom, I’ve come across lots of people in the fandom here, if it’s going to local fur meets in Conventions such as Dublin Comic Con, or going to see a movie in Cork and Dublin.


Or as I’ve gotten older, attending Furry Not New Years , which is an event held by Irish Furries, and better yet creating and attending Anthro Irish,Furries in Ireland are a growing and thriving, small , yet strong community


FT: Sounds wonderful. How difficult was it starting a convention?


Anthro Irish: Simple answer is, not easy but I’m incredibly thankful for the amazing support it has gotten so far, online from the public and the amount of people who have volunteered there time and energy in various departments behind the scenes in order to make this happen.
I’m also very thankful to our venue, The Clayton Co.Cork , who were completely on board from day one


FT: So they were aware of the furry fandom?


Anthro Irish: Sort of? Our point of contact is actually a cosplayer and was semi familiar with furry. And only learnt about furrys in Ireland from Anthro Irish, as the phrase goes ” you learn something new everyday”

FT: How is the hotel situation?


Anthro Irish: As in?


FT: Locations near the convention. Are they going to set up times when fursuiting is allowed etc.
Hotels tend to attract fursuiters


Anthro Irish: Ah yes! Fursuiting is allowed from 11am on the Saturday until 8pm on the Sunday. Within the Anthro Irish space and once an attendee is registered, and wearing there lanyard


FT: Anything planned for the convention that you like to talk about


Anthro Irish: At current I’m keeping the schedule under pretty tight wraps, but I can confirm the full schedule will be coming out in July. We can confirm tho that the convention is in aid of the Irish Blood Transfusion Serivces (IBTS) . And more information on the IBTS can be found here :
https://www.giveblood.ie/


Yes, for many reasons the charity is close to not only myself but many members of the Irish Furry Fandom.

FT: I received a blood transfusion myself


Some including myself get to check out other cons on YouTube. Any plans on posting your own videos?

Anthro Irish: At current we have telegram , twitter and we recently joined Instagram to share content , we may share videos from the convention or opening and closing ceremonies to YouTube, but this isn’t certain as of right now.


FT: Any plans for say Dealers and Artists to have there own spot?

Anthro Irish: Yes, there will be an artist alley at Anthro Irish which slots for have recently sold out, and there is currently a waitting list.


FT: That is fantastic


Anthro Irish: In total, there will be five areas and they are as follows;
1) Main Stage , this will have chairs for events such as opening and closing ceremonies and where events such as Guest of Honor Panel ,Fursuit Games and Saturday Night DJ will be held.
2) Panel room , this is a smaller space for more intimate panels and will host 20 attendees.
3) Fursuit lounge – somewhat self explanation and will have water and snacks for those who need it.
4) Artist Alley- This will be where local Irish talent from artists , Fursuit makers and so much more will sell there wears
5) The Bar – in the center of our space there is a bar and will have lots of seating


FT: You got the floor is there anything you like to add


Anthro Irish: I guess I’d like to say thank you again for those who have been extremely supportive of both myself and the convention. And I’m very much looking forward to Anthro Irish 2023!
In addition

Anthro Irish Sold Out 2 days after Registration Opened.

Inside Las Vegas Fur Con

Ahmar Wolf

I reached out to a brand new fur con in the works named Las Vegas Fur Con. I know Las Vegas isn’t the first place you think about fur cons. So I reached out. I was contacted by Tanner there Public Relations rep for the convention.

Furry Times: Planning a fur con in Las Vegas must present some very unique problems

Tanner: A Las Vegas furcon certainly does – most venues are casinos and so are uncomfortable with fursuit heads near the gaming floor. This basically limits year one events to casinos where it’s possible to go straight from the hotel to the convention space (rare except for newer places) or non-casino venues, which is why we chose the Alexis Park.

FT: When it comes to furry Las Vegas usually isn’t the 1st place most think about. Could you talk about the fandom there, meets and the like.

Tanner: While the Vegas fandom is transient, it is actually very active: we have at least 4 active meetup groups and a student organization/club at the local university. The club actually is where a lot of LVFC’s initial board of directors came from.

FT: Seriously this interview has been so eye opening.

This is it as I can get what I need from your site.

Except for something I usually do at this point. Let you say whatever is on your mind.

Tanner: I’d just say that we’ve got a lot of stuff in store over the next several weeks and are confident we’ll be able to put on a really awesome event! With a hopefully minimal registration wait time since we plan to mail badges to attendees ahead of time free of charge.

Thank you for the interview; you’re always welcome to reach out to us for more!

The Details:

Las Vegas Fur Con takes place at Alexis Park All-Suite Resort 375 E Harmon Ave Las Vegas, NV from Friday, April 14 to Sunday, April 16, 2023

Registration is currently open

Let’s Meet Soton Furs from Southampton, England

Ahmar Wolf

Soton Furs are the main furry group out of Southampton, England. I took notice when I came across them on Twitter @sotonfurmeets turns out they regularly do twice yearly 1 day only mini cons in an area of England without fur cons.

In my effort to expand the world of furry, that we get a chance to know them.

My name is Steve, and my furry handle is Rhona Whitefeather, though it was formerly Silverwind Blade.
I’m the chairman and founder of SotonFurs, and lead the group that organises the meets.

FT: How it got started?

Steve: I first started SotonFurs – ‘Soton’ being a local abbreviation in slang for ‘Southampton’ here in Hampshire, UK – after the previous HantsFurs group based mostly in Southampton dissolved after the people running it moved away or moved onto other things. Having recently moved to the area, I wanted to make new friends, and after being absent from the fandom for a while due to work taking up my weekends, I was able to start getting back into it again, though I had lost touch with many former friends.

I decided to organise things properly. I looked into a venue for meeting up at, rather than an outdoor meet, wanting to have a roof over our heads and – selfishly! – a bar, so I could drink and relax. And so people could easily do things like draw, play games, and more comfortably socialise. I also had the idea that – since fursuits had become so much more common since I’d been part of the fandom – the opportunity to bring and wear them would appeal to people.

I found a pub with a function room that would serve as a changing and storage area for fursuiters, and that was eager to accept us, and then launched my post out into the Internet via the UK Fur Forums, and the ‘Hampshire’ section that was local to me. The response was surprisingly enthusiastic!

Our first meet was held in August 2015 at a pub called The Strand in Southampton. We had about 15 attendees at that first meet, about five or six of which were fursuiters. The first meets staff consisted of me and one other person, though we recruited others after they proved to be reliable, helpful and keen.

Shortly after this, we started to use Social Media more, as everyone else did the same. Our long-running Facebook Group was established, and has since become one of the hubs for SotonFurs activity.

We held our first party in 2016 to celebrate going for a year. We featured our first charity auction, a furry trivia quiz (with questions written by me!), a small number of dealers, and a dance. The first party was held at a separate venue, to enable us to have more space for the party, and to further set it apart from our regular meets.

It was a big success, and we started to gain larger numbers after it, leading to us also having a winter party, which involved more games and activities. Both quickly became part of our regular yearly schedule, and grew quickly in size and complexity, leading to us finding larger venues for our parties as their numbers grew.


And that in turn lead to us advertising them with fliers at conventions and events, and producing a timetable for events for attendees, so they know what to expect.

FT: I have heard such meets as London Furs operate get 200 or more for say an arcade or bowling meet. Are your numbers just as strong?

Steve: LondonFurs has been going a lot longer, and being in the capital city, do tend to attract more people for their large ‘event’ meets like their parties.

We tend to have around 40-ish people for our regular monthly meets, and then events like the upcoming Summer Party will see that increase to around 100 people (approximately, of course)

FW: If your Summer Party is successful, would you like to do another?

We’ve done Summer Parties since 2016, the first one started off as an anniversary of the meet running for a year, and they’ve been a regular part of our calendar since then; obviously excluding when Covid forced us to abandon everything. This will actually be the first one since lockdown ended in the UK.

We also usually do a winter party, but I think this year we won’t be, as we’re not really prepared for it.

Our parties usually have similar events and structure to the one you’ve come across.

The last few years running for the summer party we also had a bus party the night before – which is where we hire a party bus from a local company, which comes with lounge seating, drinks, and audio and interior disco lights – and sell tickets for that. But we ran out of time to organise it in advance, and there are still some restrictions in place that meant it might not have worked out this time.
Hopefully we can do it again next year though.

FT: Your open to say what you want.

Steve: I think the main thing I’d say about running SotonFurs is that I set out to run the kind of meet I wanted to go to. Keeping it friendly, positive, and with clear rules and guidelines has gone a long way to make the meet a very popular and successful one here in the UK. As the chairman and organiser of the meet, I’m proud of all I’ve managed to achieve, and I haven’t done it alone; I’ve always had a very reliable team to depend on and help me and all of our attendees at every turn. We are all very proud of everything, and enjoy what we do and attending our meets as much as our attendees do. And keeping in mind that we’re supposed to be having fun as much as the people attending has always been one of my firm rules as a meet organiser. After all, we don’t get paid for what we do, and this is still our hobby.

Seeing people grow and develop as they come to our meets, and seeing how people have met one another and formed friendships and relationships as they have attended our meets has been a rewarding experience, and I could never have forseen how much the meet has grown into what it is today. And I can only imagine it will continue to grow as the meets continue to be held.

Furever West Interview

Ahmar Wolf

Recently I posted an article on speculation that Furever West might have folded mainly do the problems related to 2021. I am very happy to say I was recently contacted by their representative @Dhammer104 to tell of what happened and are they despite everything are they planning a 2022 gathering.

Furry Times (FT): Given all that has happened, what is the current status of Furever West

Furever West (FW): Furever West is alive and well! The team is currently working on a public release of information about the 2022 convention that will happen in Laramie Wyoming this September.

FT: That is great news, I almost feel like the elephant furry in the room. What about the domain name?

FW: The domain name, most likely, is unfortunately lost. An unknown error occurred with the auto billing for the domain name, which in turn cause our hosting company (Wix) to put http://fureverwest.com up for auction. We will be rebuilding a new website, hopefully with a similar domain name

FT: So now about the upcoming convention. What do you do when your very 1st con was postponed by a bomb threat. Which from my understanding was a hoax.

FW: It was very unfortunate what happened to last years convention, and we still feel absolutely horrible for all the people who were genuinely looking forward to our convention. However, we did receive a message that a bomb would be detonated if the convention was to be held. Wether that message was genuine or a hoax, we conducted talks with local police and hotel management, and we were advised to shut down the convention to potentially avoid a large loss of life. In addition to moving venues to avoid a similar situation, we are also moving the convention to Laramie Wyoming. A more accepting city in Wyoming due to it being a college town.

FT: I assume you already have a venue

FW: Yes! Venue is booked and will be announced along with all other 2022 convention updates sometime next week.

FT: That is truly wonderful news, I really wish you the very best.

I think I’ll leave any additional questions for now. In order to wait for the official word. But if there is anything you like to say, here is your chance.

FW: Thank you for taking the time to talk to me!

It is so nice to be wrong, Furever West deserves a chance

So you have it here a Furry Times Exclusive

Furever West will return this September in Laramie, WY

Soda City Fur Con Interview

Ahmar Wolf

Soda City Fur Con will take place in Columbia, South Carolina at some future date. With so many things that are still unknown this interview with their representative gives us a glimpse what is happening now.

Furry Times (FT): I once heard that you got your start at another local convention. Could you tell me how it start and what it grew into.

Soda City Fur Con (SCFC): Starting a con was in the books for a while now, just recent events that happened at another conversation, started the process suddenly. So we took the opportunity and ran with it.

Plus a few local groups failed to start a convention here in South Carolina.

FT: From my understanding there is so much that goes into starting a con. Such as picking a hotel, and charity. I know it’s early and you really can’t say. But in very general terms have you an idea where you like SCFC to be held.

SCFC: We are currently eyeballing the Marriot Columbia and others around the area.

FT: Also will you be a non profit?

SCFC: We are going to be a Non Profit

We filed for our 501c3 Status last week thanks to a generous donation.

FT: Is their a general feeling on your end when you like to hold the con?

SCFC: As of now we do not have a set date but we have a a range of years 2024 as our primary With 2025-2026-2027 as back up years if 2024 does not work out.

As for the months we are doing our research. February is a possibility due to it still being winter

FT: Is there anything you like the public to know

SCFC; Pretty much everything we said above We need all the help we can get so if they want to support us our donation link to Ko-Fi

My Interview with the Con Chair of Stratosfur

Ahmar Wolf

Stratosfur is a brand new fur con which is to take place Aug 14 & 15 2021 at the Hyatt Regency Houston Intercontinental Airport. I know from previous interviews I had that setting up a brand new fur con can be hard, as there is so much to do. But combined with this current pandemic, and all the uncertainties between now and August. I really wish them the best of luck.

I was happy that Nite, Stratosfur’s Con Chair even agreed to this interview.

FT: I want to start out with how Stratosfur was founded

Nite: The con was founded by a small group of Houston locals that wanted a con in Houston. After a trip to TFF some were inspired and started exploring the idea of a Houston con. There had always been talk of a con in Houston but with their push its finally happening.

FT: Was getting funding hard?

Nite: It was. There were plans to have special meets as fundraisers. The bowlings meets i hosted actually kicked it off and the first meets was a giant success. But this was January 2020. So covid came in and shut those plans down. Now we have a few houston locals that have pitched in. Myself including buying some items the con needs.

FT: That is so nice to hear it was grassroots. How was getting the hotel involved, such as getting space for the con?

Nite: Ideas for locations were taken from locals. Many suggested where previous anime cons were held. The board did their research on each of those locations before making a final selection. Our current location is near Bush intercontinental so its a big help if anyone flies in.

FT: I live in Chicago and the Hyatt Regency where MFF does there con it’s in a great location right next to the airport. And the name Stratosfur where did that come from? I could only assume it has something to do with Houston’s history with NASA.

Nite: Originally the con name was space city furcon. This name for a Houston con has been around since i can remember. The name changed, i believe because of a comic con here with the name space city.

Yes we did want to stay with the space theme so Stratosfur was a good pick to represent Houston.

FT: It is a good name, Is there is there anything you can talk about plans for the con such as dealers area and fursuit parade? I understand it’s early.

Nite: Dealers we i could. Fursuit parade we are still working on plans for that.

At the moment we have 2 plans for dealers. 1st plan is to keep dealers socially distanced and not over crowd the room. We are assuming the covid restrictions will be in place still. The hope is that we as a nation are close to herd immunity.

The second plan is if we have a green light and there are no restrictions so we run as normal.

As the situation with covid evolves we evaluate the plans and adjust if needed.

FT: I know that is what got a lot of cons are thinking. How do you run a con during the middle of this?
Do you limit attendance or not?

Is there anything you like to add?

Nite: There are alot of changes and things to rework and its alot of work for us. Our hope is that the current administration is correct and by may immunization will be available for everyone. As mentioned before we are looking at news for this everyday.

We dont have plans to limit attendance. But we will limit room capacity to keep people socially distanced.

Still I seriously wish them the very best.

Interview with Arik Grant

Ahmar Wolf

Arik Grant even though they were not deeply involved in the fandom, they were there at ConFurence 1 which took place in 1990. I thought since many of my readers love the Dark Furry Past we get a first hand account of those times.

Furry Times: So when was your first encounter with furries face to face and what was it like?

Arik Grant: Through a friend. I was freshly out of the Army and relocated to a new city. I was raised in Boise, Idaho but went to live with a girlfriend in Costa Mesa, California. As I met new people and made new friends, one of them was a guy who was into “Furry Fandom”, which I’d never heard of before. He had gone to something called “ConFurEnce 0”, the sort of trial-run for the planned ConFurEnce, and came back with tales of all sorts of people that seemed to be doing things I liked or was interested in. I dabbled in cartoons a bit but nothing truly disciplined, little more than just organized doodles to pass the time.  I was intrigued and started meeting more and more people. Since cartoons was a way I could interact favorably with folks in this new setting, I started doing sketches and drawings, and things radiated out from there. 


In truth, I was primarily motivated by a desire to use my cartooning talent in a place where it was appreciated. While I enjoyed “funny animals”, it probably could have been anything. I loved being with like-minded creators. 

FT: So where did your next venture in the furry fandom take you?

Arik Grant: Hard to quantify. As mentioned, it turned out a guy I knew was a furry and so I had been face to face with one for a few months. Like anyone he had his own ways of standing out, weirdness one could say, but no more than anyone else, given other perspectives. I met more and more furries through his network –friends and friends of friends– and found mostly a large group of people who were generally eccentric by most “ordinary” peoples’ definitions but eccentric in ways I liked and felt at home with. So to me, it wasn’t a bad or off-putting eccentricity. There was a sort of normalcy or at least comfortable familiarity.


Probably I went to a convention of some sort –a sci-fi or comic one– and like a lot of people found a sort of comfortable home with people I could relate to. Between 1988 and 1989 I had gone to some cons and furry parties and such but they were always attached to other events: a sci-fi con with a furry crowd along for the ride. A comics con with a furry crowd along for the ride. And so on.  By the time ConFurEnce One rolled around in 1990 I was already steeped enough (and comfortable enough) to become a contributor. I put a comic in YARF! fanzine, and YARF! and ConFurEnce One both kicked off at the same time– so in my mind, the two are intertwined experiences. 


I’d say ConFurEnce One was the first time I saw a whole furry-only convention scene in one setting, and a forum devoted solely to furry interests. I of course wasn’t the only one; a lot of people point to ConFurEnce as the first stand-alone major furry convention that they experienced. We were all on the ground floor, taking the elevator to the top of something new. It was weird and overwhelming in a good way. 


Back then it was all comics and comic art creators. A lot of people did pin-ups and comics but there wasn’t much of a place to put them. There was Vootie and Rowrbrazzle and such but there was no common ground to share them all. ConFurEnce changed that, and YARF! happened to be the ‘zine at the time it all came together. The fact it was a bit more accessible to general audiences (and not hard R or X rated) meant it gained traction easier. Fursuiting pretty much didn’t exist, the “Bambioid” came later and then by the time I left in the 1996-97 era there were maybe a dozen or so. Now it is a major part of the fandom (if not the most prominent imprint in the larger cultural zeitgeist) which is a surprising thing to see.

FT: I have a small collection of Furry fanzines, and truly love the works from those days. I wish they were easier to find. But I have often wondered what was it like to be apart of up to now. I know it maybe hard to believe they have become highly collectable. From roughly $7 on Furbid when they were still around to $70+ on eBay.

Just asking you have any of the issues I really would love to see them.

Unless you had further adventures into the furry realm this might be it.

One question since you were at the very start. What is the biggest changes in the fandom you have witnessed?

Arik Grant: Well, I stayed in my circle of influence as a comic creator, but tried to expand it. Remember, at the time, fursuiting was rare and super expensive; animation was even more rare and more expensive. If you wanted to be anyone, you were an original comic creator. That was something I played well into, so I tried to do spin off series into Huzzah, Mythagoras, and Rowrbrazzle. Ben Dunn of Antarctic Press (at one point) approached me to be in Furrlough, and I was in the launch issue, but after that he handed editorial control to Shon Howell, who had different editorial priorities (he wanted all furries; no humans and aliens, both of which were well established in my series at the time). 


Over time I wrapped up my story in YARF! and was tired and eager to get on with other things, so by 1996-97 I was pretty much out. I had been an original comic creator at the fanzine level at least, and established a reputation I felt was pretty good: lots of material, good quality, and reliable. But I never really got out of that into other ventures in furrydom. But then, I was right where I wanted to be and didn’t really desire to pursue outside of that.

 

I left the fandom in 1996-97. My story wrapped up in YARF! and I fiddled with some spin-off ideas but in the long run I just got distracted. In 1998 I started college and in 1999 I decided to do a year abroad at Ben-Gurion UNiversity in Beer-Sheva, Israel. I met a girlfriend there and stayed with her; I ended up living in Israel from 1998 to 2002. I came home in 2002 and finished my last year of college and got a BA in History, then promptly got mobilized to go to Iraq as an Army Reserve Combat Engineer, from 2004 to 2005.. I started doing cartoons again for the people I was deployed with as a sort of way to cope with the stress.
 Here’s a Defense Department video that featured me on Armed Forces Network: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/78899/bohica-blues
–and a Stars & Stripes article: https://www.stripes.com/news/reservist-s-cartoons-detail-burdens-of-desert-deployment-1.22605
In that time from 1997 until 2004 I really did no comics at all and kinda “lost my touch”, and had to relearn my cartoonist’s hand. I began to chronicle my Iraq adventures in humorous form.
Sorry; I seem to have gone down a rabbit hole!
Anyhow, what has changed?

A lot! First of all is the cosmetic appearance. A lot of fursuiting, which (when I left) was rare enough to be counted on one hand. As mentioned, I remember when “the Bambioid” was all there was. The Bambioid was brought into conventions and paraded around as a sort of pinnacle of fan achievement; by the time I was on my way out in 1996 there were maybe a dozen fursuiters. Now it seems to be the face of furry conventions but that might just be because it is so visually obvious (and the CSI episode). 



Back in the day there were a lot of political divisions, primarily between the “porn” and “anti-porn” camps. These seem to have solidified into “left” vs. “right” camps. From my perspective it seems that “politics” is less of a thing now, but I know from watching YouTube videos that politics is seen as a major, bad thing. Mostly between “regular” furries and “alt-right” furries. From my old eyes it seems that there is less ambiguity and more clarity, which to me seems like an improvement… but at the same time, I can also see how the divides seem sharper, seeper, and more pronounced. So others might say it is worse. 
Like a lot of things, these are all tempered by perspective and time. 

Future Projects for Arik Grant

n a year or so I hope to re-release the “Empires: the Ace of Spades” story as it appeared in YARF!, with new color cover artwork and some editorial commentary pages added at the back, adding what the comic means to me after 30 years, and eventually the Empires universe will be rebooted and relaunched entirely with all new stories and characters… possibly on Webtoons, maybe somewhere like Tapas. I may do some YouTube videos of my art and other stuff as well.