Revised April 22, 2010

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PeterCat's Furry InfoPage

One of the top sites about furries on Google!       

Welcome to furrydom! Here's where you can find out more about "furries" -- a term which has come to be used both for furry characters, and for the fans of them.

Welcome especially to those seeking info after seeing something about furries on TV. Several shows, including Back to You, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Jimmy Kimmel, The Man Show, ER, Drew Carey, and specials on MTV and HBO have featured furries. However, these depictions have largely been along the lines of "lookit the freaks" and are not a fair representation of furries or furry fandom in general. Have you ever noticed in TV coverage of a football game, how the camera often focuses on the few fans (out of a stadium of tens of thousands) who have painted their bodies in the team colors? Yes, furry fandom has its share of colorful characters -- but most of people who are fascinated by furries are not that different from the people you know at school, work or church who enjoy sports, gardening, arts and crafts, cooking, collecting, games, or any other hobbies.

What Are Furries?

You've probably seen many: they're the stars of greeting cards, TV commercials, comics and movies entertaining millions of young and old alike. In short, folks with fur... characters in literature, film, TV, comics, or roleplaying who aren't quite human. Examples in popular media include cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny; mythical creatures such as werewolves and dragons (the possession of fur is not a requirement of being "furry"); or aliens such as the Wookies and Ewoks of Star Wars.

But for some folks, the furries appearing in popular media aren't enough... so they seek out independent comic books like Steve Galacci's Albedo and Mike Curtis's Shanda the Panda. These long-running series deal with mature subject matter: the former, the personal and physical devastations of war; the latter, the ecstasies, agonies, and intricacies of adult relationships. And in fact, the only comic ever to win a Pulitzer Prize is furry: Art Spiegelman's Maus, chronicling the experiences of his father in Nazi Germany, with cats cast as Nazis and mice as Jews.

The newsgroup alt.fan.furry is where you'll find discussion of all aspects of furry fandom; in many respects similar to science fiction fandom, but "furry" is a "meta-genre", since it cuts across traditional genre classifications of SF (the Wookies of Star Wars), Westerns (Feivel Goes West), heroic quests (Watership Down), and even sports (Animalympics). The Lynx/Greywolf Furry FAQ explains the basic topics about furries and furry fandom. Note that some a.f.f. posters tend to bicker; the contentiousness found on this newsgroup is not representative of furries in general.

Finding Furry Stuff

The vast bulk of furry material is available from other furry fans -- self-published fanzines and artists' portfolios, or stories and pictures archived at FTP and Web sites.

• Lynx's Incomplete Listing of Zoomorphic Publications has details about fan-produced publications.
  
  
• Cap'n Packrat keeps track of independently published comics:
  • A Not Quite Complete, but None the Less, Very Thorough Furry Comic Book List has dozens of entries.
  • Publishers Address List tells you where to get them.

  You can also get many comics and zines by mail order:

  The Rabbit Valley Comic Shop (formerly known as Mailbox Books)

  P.O. Box 540568, Waltham MA 02454-0568
  The premiere furry mail-order distributor. You can browse their catalog of current furry comics, portfolios, and merchandise, and order online by credit card, or send for a printed catalog.

  Historical Note: This company did business for years as Mailbox Books. The original Mailbox Books was founded by Ed Zolna, who retired in 1998 and sold the company's assets to Sean Rabbitt (who acquired the name Mailbox Books) and Matt Henry (who started "Bronzebear Media Distribution" to sell Ed Zolna's backstock). In spring 2001, Mr. Henry decided to return to college to pursue a master's degree, and began liquidating the business; at Anthrocon 2001, Mailbox Books acquired Bronzebear's remaining inventory.
  In September 2001, a company called Education Center, Inc. filed suit alleging trademark infringement: it had begun using "The Mailbox Book Company" in its marketing of classroom materials to teachers, even though Mr. Zolna's and Mr. Rabbitt's use of "Mailbox Books" predates it. Rather than face a lengthy and expensive legal battle, Mr. Rabbitt decided to change the name of the company and get on with business.

  Second Ed

  As the old saying goes, "You can't keep a good man... gathering no moss" or something like that. Ed Zolna came out of retirement in 2003 selling comics, folios and CDs by top furry artists and publishers from around the world, via a free Genuine Paper Catalog with monthly updates.

Commercially Available

• Dave Farrance's Furry Novel List includes science fiction and fantasy books featuring furries, but hasn't been updated for several years.
  
• Thyromane's Furry Films List compiles movies and video releases.
• The Furry Anime list of Japanese animation featuring furries, also overdue for an update.

The Recommended Anthropomorphics List is for fans who want to know what anthropomorphic comics, movies, TV series, novels, etc. are worth looking for, and lists the items eligible for nomination for the annual Ursa Major Awards.

Furry Art Info

• R'ykandar Korra'ti's Art Materials FAQ helps those who want to draw furries.
• Terry Whittier's Artwork Preservation FAQ has advice for those who want to care for their artwork.
• Thyromane's Furry Binaries FAQ is a guide for for folks who want to download and decode pictures from the newsgroups alt.binaries.pictures.furry and alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.furry.
• Mel. White's and Glen Wooten's Copyright FAQ explains the basics of copyright law for anyone who wants to create, use or distribute artwork, stories, or other material.

Furries Online

Artwork

• FurAffinity is the largest furry/anthropomorphic artwork, story and music community on the Internet.
• ArtSpots is a highly selective gallery site focusing on artistic improvement, helping newer artists develop their skills.
• The Velan Central Library (aka the Vixen Controlled Library) is an older, large library, with simple text-link navigation.
• FurNation hosts artists' galleries, web sites, forums and blogs.
• Yerf (previously known as The Squeeky Clean Furry Archive) permitted only images of a "PG" or less rating, but shut down after years of chronic server problems. Artspots hosts the remaining archives of artist galleries.

Stories

• As mentioned above, FurAffinity also features stories and poetry, browsable by type, species, etc.
• Mia's Index of Anthro Stories is an older, extensive archive of stories about furries, organized by title, author, and keyword (including species). (Part of Miavir's Treasure Chest of assorted Furryness).

Network Games

• Rhal's Furry MU*s Page describes the Internet roleplaying games where you can play a furry character:
  • How to Connect to FurryMUCK (and elsewhere) has technical info on getting started.
  • Descriptions of Various Furry MU*s features a handy address list that doubles as a MU* connector.
    
• Furcadia is a graphical online game for Windows computers.
• Second Life is an online, virtual 3D world where players can take any appearance they like, and many people have furry "avatars." Furry areas include Fur Valleys, The Forest, Luskwood, and FurNation Worlds.

Web Communities, Other Newsgroups, Mailing Lists

• LiveJournal users have created hundreds of communities with an interest in anthropomorphics and furries.
  
• List of FurRing Sites - hundreds of Web pages dedicated to furries! (See bottom of this page.)
  
• Foxen has compiled a link page of on-line comic strips, for your Web browsing pleasure.
  
• Introduction to the FurryNet (fur.*) Newsgroups explains a private hierarchy of news servers on the Internet which carry a dozen or so newsgroups on various furry topics, founded in late 1996.
• FurNet was a furry-themed amateur computer bulletin board system network using the FidoNet protocol, which was founded in the 1980s and disbanded by early 2000. Prior to the rise of the Internet, this was the main way furries communicated online.
  
  

Lifestyle Info

• alt.lifestyle.furry is a newsgroup for people who incorporate furriness into their lives more intensely, but the newsgroup tends to undergo turmoil from time to time. Its original FAQ is archived here for historical reference at the request of the author, and is no longer being posted to the newsgroup.

Fandom Info

• WikiFur is an online encyclopedia devoted to furry fandom and related topics.
  
• Flayrah.com is a site reporting the latest news on comics, movies, conventions and other doings of interest to furries.
• Yarf! fanzine's Furry Fandom Chronology by Fred Patten recounts the development of furry fandom.
• Terry Knight's "You Know You're A Furry Fan When..."
• Ross Smith's The Code of the Furries
• Rich Chandler's essay on Sketchbooks and follow-up addenda to it
  
• Matt J. McCullar What to Take to a Con gives helpful advice for those planning to attend a convention.

Conventions and Large Gatherings

Established conventions and gatherings of more than 100 people. A list of smaller gatherings, and science fiction conventions with a furry presence, can be seen on WikiFur's listing of Upcoming Events.

• ConFuzzled - Manchester, England: May 7-10, 2010.
• Morphicon - Columbus, OH: May 13-16 2010.
• Elliott's Spring Gathering - central Florida: May 21-23, 2010.
• Rocket City FurMeet - Huntsville, AL: May 28-30, 2010.
• FA: United - central New Jersey, near Philadelphia, PA: May 28-30, 2010.
• CaliFur - near Los Angeles, CA: June 4-6, 2010.
• Anthrocon - Pittsburgh, PA: June 25-27, 2010. Currently the largest furry convention; 2009 attendance: 3,776.
• Megaplex - Orlando, FL: July 23-25, 2010.
• Rocky Mountain Fur Con - Denver, CO: August 6-8, 2010.
• Elliott's Summer Celebration - central Florida: August 7-8, 2010.
• Feral! - near Toronto, ON, Canada: September 1-5, 2010. A summer camp for furries!
• Eurofurence - Magdeburg, Germany: September 1-5, 2010.
• Mephit Furmeet - Memphis, TN: September 3-5, 2010.
• RainFurrest - Seattle, WA: September 24-26, 2010.
• FurFright - Near Hartford, CT: October 29-31, 2010.
• Oklacon - Near Oklahoma City, OK: October 28-November 1, 2010.
• RBW - London, England: November 5-7, 2010.
• Elliott's Fall Festival - central Florida: October 23-24, 2010.
• Midwest Furfest - near Chicago, IL: November 19-21, 2010.
• MiDFur - Melbourne, Australia: December 2-5, 2010.
• Elliott's Winter Carnival - central Florida: ususally mid-January.
• FURther CONfusion - San Jose, CA: January 20-24, 2011.
• Furry Fiesta - Dallas, TX: February 25-27, 2011.
• Furnal Equinox - Toronto, Canada: usually early March.
• Furry Weekend Atlanta - Atlanta, GA: usually late March.
• Furry Connection North - near Detroit, MI: April 8-10 2011.
  

Historical Note: ConFurence (or, the International Anthropomorphic (Furry) Convention/Exposition, for short) was the premiere furry convention, founded in 1989 and running annually until 2003. CF0-10 were organized by The ConFurence Association. From 2000-2003, The ConFurence Group produced the conventions.

Media Coverage

The growth of furry fandom has attracted media attention, so much so that there's a LiveJournal community devoted to sightings of furries in the media.

Here's an article from the Tri-Valley Herald in the San Francisco Bay area: http://www.xydexx.com/anthrofurry/trivalley.htm , another from Jim Hill Media: http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/roger_colton/archive/2003/02/03/887.aspx , and from the Philadelphia-area paper Wayne Suburban: http://www.xydexx.com/anthrofurry/furries.htm .

Pressed Fur is a site that collects media mentions about furries and furry fandom, as well as essays, critiques, and views of how others see the fandom, but it hasn't been updated since 2002.

For a good, impartial overview of furries and furry fandom, check out the Wikipedia entries on furries and furry fandom.

The Lion King

One of the best furry films of recent memory, so since I'm a big lion fan, it gets its own section.

• The Unofficial Lion King Archive has the script, fan artwork, stories, essays, and more.
• The Lion King Digital Online is huge fan-run media repository.
  

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