Furry/Anthro Triple-Threat 08’ – Part 4 of 3 (LULZ)

So what did I get from this furry triple-threat?

All three were full-page sorts. Two were fantasy-anthro, characterized by humanish-yet-animal character designs—Macratlove was real-rats. Two were full color—Kaspall was B&W.

None of the three were sexualized, which is an important–perhaps the most important statement versus the furry/anthro stigma.

All three were quality storytelling using non-human characters.

That being said, I consider all genres a handicap, an audience limiter, with the only difference being how much your potential audience is limited (it’s easier to fight against fantasy-hate than furry-hate). And that’s my only point towards new webcomickers or those thinking about starting one. If your story can be told using ‘real’ people, there’s no need to corner yourself into a oft-reviled subgenre, unless you’re a closet furry, think animals are just more fun to draw and/or are a hobbyist that doesn’t give a fuck.

Simply put: public projects should keep in mind the public hate-level before they even begin to hit martyr, self-pity, or indignant pride mode. This happens a lot with any new gamer, photo, sprite…fuck, any webcomic; it’s just amplified against anthro.

Darc of CNH’S joking reply to my review pretty much says it all:

Damn it, Aarin. We were expecting a load of bad press so that we could whine how we’re being persecuted… sorry, I spelled that wrong. I mean fursecuted. Now what are we going to do for fun?

–the smart ones expect the hate as well.

That’s when you know a project and it’s creators are ‘fo realz,’ when they measure the expected feedback versus their own vision. I believe Code Name: Hunter and Kaspall felt that using anthros was the strongest way for them to build a modern fantasy. I expect Macratlove just wanted to have some fun—the only problem there being the current skill-level of the art. And while going furry/anthro may not always be the most marketable choice, it’s easy to see how the subgenre can support something like Macratlove, especially as Sophie develops, and how Kaspall should be that sort of cross-genre epic that fantasy fans enjoy so much.

All in all, there wasn’t any hint of hubris surrounding these projects, so for me, it’s easy props. They know people are going to come to blah-blah split-second misconceptions, and they trust that if people take a full-second’s glance, they’ll see the merit of the character design in storytelling and expression.

I may not always ‘get it,’ but I have come to accept it, and even respect it.

That’s what I got from this triple threat.

There’s a lot of fucking creepy furry comics out there. But in my mind, these three defend the genre.