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The following Usenet article has been formatted for HTML display.
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From: e.vick1@genie.com
Newsgroups: alt.fan.furry
Subject: State of Furry
Date: 12 Aug 1996 06:50:35 GMT
Organization: via GEnie Information Systems
Lines: 438
Sender: e.vick1@genie.com (Edd Vick)
NNTP-Posting-Host: rock102.is.ge.com
Keywords: MU Press, Melville, furry, comics, fandom
Well, if there's any one sure way to stir the waves on AFF, it's by expressing an opinion. Here comes one now!
The following is an essay I ran in ROWRBRAZZLE earlier this year. It was also posted to Genie about the same time. I thought it would be of some interest here on the nets. It's a few months old, and some things have occured since it was written, so bear with it for awhile, as it goes over a few things you guys already know or that has been discussed to some degree here. It's a bit longish, so brace yourselves.
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The truth be known, the first quarter of 1996 has been anything but dull for me... and little of it has been good. It's been a veritable roller coaster. First of all was Confurence, which was busier than ever, and a remarkable success for MU businesswise. With three books released at the convention (all arriving on time, much to our surprise... and all having been printed without flaw, which pushed our surprise to new levels), and having had published three or four new books just prior to the convention, MU made more money at Confurence VII than it has made at any one convention previously -- including San Diego, the biggest comic convention currently running in the States.
Our biggest error at the con... well, okay: -my- biggest error was to not bring enough copies of either The Suit or Vixens Keep; I frankly thought we had brought enough to cover the convention, and I was trying to keep the number of boxes we'd have to transport home. I seriously underestimated the fans. On the other hand, we had a whole box of Terrie Smith's pin-up book, Little Paw delivered to us from the printer, and we still didn't have enough!
And for all that, we still made more money than we have ever done at any other convention.
Remember that. I'll get back to that in a while.
Just prior to leaving for the convention, my other job, Diamond Distributors, where I had been working part-time for the previous year or so, announced that they were downsizing their operation, and closing two-thirds of their existing warehouses. Fortunately, the Seattle warehouse was one of those being retained, but the changes were already in motion. Firstmost was that the part-time positions were being eliminated; full-time employees only. That necessitated my rearranging my work schedules at both MU and Diamond. My work in the MU office has been sharply curtailed.
What really galled me about that was that a hole in the MU schedule had just opened up, where I would have a month of nothing pressing to do. I'd intended to use that time in pushing ahead on a couple of our stalled projects, and see if I couldn't get them moving again. Now, thanks to a capricious fate, those hopes were dashed off to oblivion.
The next thing to occur was that Diamond decided to go to a uniform release date for the books it distributes. (For years, each region released the books as soon as they received them. Because of the delays in freight travel time, New York would release their books to their customers a good three days or so before we would on the west coast. Now, because of the exclusivity deals with DC, Image, and a few others, Diamond doesn't have to worry about trying to race Capital in getting the books to the shops, so a standard release date throughout the chain was more practical.) What that meant for me was that my schedule was rearranged and shot to hell. I managed to attain a Monday - Thursday work week for awhile, but once I was assigned to the receiving crew, I was saddled with a Wednesday - Saturday schedule. (Could be worse; the sorting crew is stuck with a Saturday - Tuesday schedule. No weekend for those guys at all.)
Did I mention that I also received a cut in pay as part of the downsizing?
In the middle of all this, Edd got married. I got to be the best man. Unfortunately, during the week of the wedding, I had to miss the rehearsal and bachelor party, because that week I had mandatory overtime, as all of the Diamond employees were required to come in and gut the work area of the warehouse and build a new roller system for sorting, and attend new training sessions for the new system. Fortunately, I'd already arranged to have the day of the wedding itself off.
The wedding went off fine. Edd and Amy (the former Ms Thompson, writer of Virtual Girl) were wed in a small ceremony held on a permanently docked ferry (I hope that's not symbolic of anything), and are even now as I type enjoying a honeymoon in exotic Hong Kong. (Following a brief detour to APE III) Many were in attendance, including Diana Vick (no relation), Tony Waters, the Gallaccis, the Verres, Donna Barr, Roberta Gregory, Colin Upton, Burpo, Pia Guerre, Sarah Byam, David Lee Ingersoll... Standing in as ushers were Charlie (Blue Moon) Wise and Gus Norman, and Margaret Organ-Keene was one of the maids of honor.
The wedding was probably the one good thing to go on in the past couple of months, but no less stressful. Although, not so much stressful for me as it was for the newlyweds, I m sure...
On top of all this, my cat died.
Catch, the survivor of the two cats who had traveled across country with me to Seattle a few years back (Angela having died a year and a half ago), decided she couldn't get up one morning. A trip to the vet confirmed that she had an enlarged pancreas and signs of advanced cancer. Given her age, short of her 19th birthday, it was decided that it was best to put her to sleep. The hardest decision I ever had to make.
So, I enter into this little essay in a sober state of mind. It's been that kind of a year thus far. I m sure there's more to come. But keep this in mind. If the rest of this discourse seems unduly pessimistic, you can write it off to my feeling just a bit grumpy, and let it go at that.
Now, besides having done it to fill everybody in on a bit of news of my personal life and personal woes, I want to point out, that I told you that story in order to tell you this one:
The comics industry itself is still in a whirl of falling over itself. Like the old lady in the commercials of a few years ago, it's fallen down and it can't get up. I already mentioned the downsizing of Diamond, the single largest comic distributor in the business. Marvel is still distributing it's own books, and is cheerfully alienating retailers as it fumbles through its procedures. Capital is still desperately trying to hold onto the few publishers still left, as all of the bigger publishers line up with Diamond. (Diamond's most recent acquisitions have included Sirius and the venerable Archie Comics.)
Occurring just a week or so before Diamond announced its downsizing, Marvel purged its offices, putting over 275 employees out of work. (That includes employees in Editorial, Licensing, Toybiz, Fleer, and Welsh.) It also announced the culling of its books, dropping back to maybe thirty titles out of a hundred. And gone were all of the licensed titles, from Ren & Stimpy and Barbie to Dr. Who and even Conan. (Oddly enough, shortly after this Marvel and Paramount announced a joint operation to be managed by Marvel, in which several well-known Paramount properties such as Mission: Impossible would be published; including all four of the Star Trek shows. Go figure.)
I can already hear a few furry fans chortling in the hallways. Good! Let Marvel die! More room on the racks for Antarctic and MU and Vision Press! Who gives a whisker about super-heroes and mutants anyway?
Sorry, guys. It doesn't work that way. Super-heroes or not, Marvel is a rather important chunk of comic book real estate. If it should ever suddenly fold up and disappear, there would be a sucking sound to make Ross Perot's ears ring for a lifetime. The mutant and spider books are still the bread and butter of most comic book shops. If they vanished from the racks, those spaces aren't likely to be filled with furry books, or even alternative comics. They may be, but the fans buying the X-Men isn't interested in anything but another mutant book; the retailer isn't interested in replacing a sure-fire seller with a book that may or may not sell. Not when his paying the rent and stocking the kitchen depends on selling those books!
Marvel goes, the retailers go with them. And if the retailers go, the remaining publishers have no marketplace for their books, and unless they adapt and find a new distribution, they re also gone. Including the independents. Including the furry publishers.
Think that's far fetched? Remember my speaking of the distributors just a couple of paragraphs ago? Note that I only mentioned two. (Three, if you count Marvel, but they only distribute their own books.) That's because that's all there are left. Diamond and Capital.
A few years ago, there were maybe a dozen. Some went out of business; some were bought up. A couple of new ones started up. Ordinary business existence. But then, Marvel bought Heroes World, and started the avalanche rolling. Southern Fantasies quietly disappeared. Friendly Frank's was overwhelmed, and sold itself to Capital (just as Comics Unlimited had sold itself to Diamond just a few months earlier). Andromeda and Styx both declared bankruptcy and shut their doors, while Multi-Books and Periodicals decided to cease carrying comics at all. And Diamond and Capital stared signing up as many publishers to exclusive contracts as they could, with Diamond coming out as the winner thus far.
Sure, there's still a couple of smaller distributors left, such as Comics Hawaii, and Big Picture... but their impact and output is much smaller and far more regional. And there are a couple of smaller, more specialist distributors, such as Cold Cut and Ed Zolna's Mailbox Books, who run mail order to small shops or individuals who are interested in their specialized inventory.
It's a scary time in comics right now. It's become a rather fragile bubble that could pop at any moment.
Keep that in mind also. I'm still adding to the equation.
As I was preparing to write this essay, another factor rose its ugly head. The closing of Planet Comics in Oklahoma City.
If you are completely unfamiliar with this incident, here's a brief recap: Planet Comics was raided by police in September of 1995; they were responding to a complaint made by an unidentified woman about Verotika #4, published by Glen Danzig's Verotika Press. The owners, Michael Kennedy and John Hunter, were arrested on eight obscenity charges, including one charge of child pornography (based on drawings in an EROS book, The Iron Angel). A local Christian organization was so horrified by the material in the books, that they didn't even want to talk with either Hunter or Kennedy about it, but helped to press the charges in an attempt to put them out of business. (There were exact quotes from the group's representative regarding this published in the accounts.) They were released upon their own recognizance until the trial, but the shop was forced to move by the landlord... who also refused to allow them to post a forwarding notice so that their customers could find them in their new location. That Christian organization gloated over the local radio waves about how they had closed the shop down, and former customers, upon hearing the accounts, believed it to be true.
In January, police raided Hunter's home, confiscating over 250 computer disks and a computer. Within a week, a cinder block was thrown through the store's window. Kennedy lost first his home, then his wife, who left due to the stresses the incident left on their marriage. At Christmas, their sales were off by 65%; by early March, they were off by 80%. Finally, unwilling to incur any more bills they could not possibly pay, they closed their business.
And it's still not over. Kennedy and Hunter still have to go to court to defend themselves against the obscenity charges. The only thing they don't have to worry about, fortunately, are their court bills. Those, at least, are all being covered by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. And thank heavens for that.
But the scary thing here is that the thing that got them arrested probably wouldn't have happened anywhere else in the country. The books in question were not sold to any minor. In fact, Planet was very careful about that sort of thing. The books were sold to an adult. But in Oklahoma, it is against the law to sell adult material to anyone, regardless of age. (I don't know how the heck that must affect Playboy or Penthouse sales; is there a mass convoy of pick-up trucks to the Texas border every month to visit sagebrush Seven-Elevens?) That's according to state laws.
As I said: a very scary time. Keep this in mind too.
One last piece of the puzzle, as I bring in the furry angle.
I do a lot of cruising on AltFanFurry, the talk radio of the furry set. Sometimes I m very much involved in the discussion threads, and sometimes I just lurk and skim through the chatter. Lately, I've been too busy to really indulge, so I've just been lurking. It's an interesting place. There's a lot of fannish delight, curious chat, opinionated views, and passionate (and even heated) discussion. I tend to learn a lot from just observing. Sometimes, what I learn is just a bit alarming.
During a couple of recent, well publicized flaming sessions, each regarding the place (and even definition) of erotica in furrydom and its repercussions, I had it brought home to me just how myopic a good deal of furry fans seem to be. (At least, those furries connected to the net.) It was suggested that furry erotica, at least in a public market arena such as Confurence tends to be, might be more harmful than beneficial, insofar as drawing in new fans. It was further suggested that thought might be given to either setting up a separate over-18 room for furotica material, or encourage the dealers to be a bit more circumspect.
Well, those suggestions -- which were only for the sake of discussing the matter, and not declarations or ultimatums of policy - went over like a lead balloon. Indignant cries sprung forth, decrying any form of censorship . One of the arguments I had tried to put forward was that of the need for new blood in the fandom. Fandom always needs new blood periodically in order to prevent stagnation. If the overtness of furotica in the dealer's rooms was getting in the way of encouraging new fans, then perhaps it would be wiser to make it a little less in-your-face . Not every furry fan is interested solely in furotica, anyway. Somewhere in all this, I also mentioned the need for new blood and ideas in furry comics itself, and that we needed to encourage new sources of talent and inspiration... and in order for furry comics to survive as an entity, we needed to expand its reader base, and reach out more to the mainstream.
One individual hit me with a reply I did not expect. He asserted that he did not want furry fandom to change. He did not want it to expand or grow; he liked it just fine, exactly the way it was. He didn't believe that it needed anything more than what it already had, and he certainly didn't want bringing in any fans or talents from the mainstream, because they would only dilute the creative waters. The more people involved, the more likelihood of cr*p being churned out.
Well, I was a little stunned by that assertion. Of all the things I might have said about furrydom, the term perfect was not a label I would have ascribed to it. And I certainly never thought anyone would have objected to the potential of new Xanadus or Albedos being created. What if we had closed the door on furrydom right at that particular moment? We probably wouldn't have had Reality Check.
I was accused of taking my stance because I had a vested interest in comics. But furrydom wasn't about comics, I was told. It was getting more into fanzines and portfolios and pin-up art and art commissions. Who cared about Wild Life being canceled, so long as there was still Yarf!? Who cared if there were no more Xanadu comics, so long as The Ever-Changing Palace is published occasionally?
Is anyone else having a problem with this?
First off, I think a few of us are taking Furry just a little too serious.
Secondly, it's true I do have a vested interest in the comics. I m a comic artist. I grew up with the comics, and it's comics that I m favorably inclined towards, and it's comics that I want to create. I lean more towards furry and funny-animal comics because I find them fun and interesting, but it's the artform as a whole that intrigues me. So, yes, I do have a vested interest. No question there.
But fan activities -- forgive me if this sounds condescending; I don't intend for it to be -- are an echo of the professional level. It's the wannabe stage. It's the amateur emulating the auteur. It's the caterpillar to the butterfly. It's the minor leagues; heck, it's the goldarned farm team!
More importantly, it's the learning stage, where we learn by trial and error, how to draw, how to write, how to put together a zine or a book. How to communicate, and how to network. How to critique, and how to accept critiques.
It is a means to an end, not the end itself.
We're lucky that the fandom has incredibly talented people like Terrie Smith, or Taral Wayne, or Steve Gallacci who are very much involved in fannish activities, and bring a professional verve to the genre. But should their work be relegated only to a small corner of comic fiction? Don't they deserve to be seen by a much larger audience? For that matter, don't they deserve to earn more money for their efforts?
The genre itself is a fascinating one. (If it wasn't -- if we didn't think so, anyway, we wouldn't all be here talking about it, right?) There's no reason it couldn't be a bigger one. There's no way in heaven it's going to displace anything else in mainstream SF, or even the mainstream mainstream for that matter; but it could be bigger, and would do well to gather some wider acclaim.
As for comics... well, the fandom is an extension of the comics. Sure, we're very heavy nowadays with the calendars and the portfolios, and the fanzines, and the pin-up collections... but all of these were inspired largely by the comics. Would we have been interested in socio-political militech furries if it hadn't been for Albedo? Interested in romantic and exotic mythicals if not for Xanadu? Would there have been Red Shetland calendars if there hadn't been at least a Red Shetland comic first? Would Terrie Smith have been doing exotic furries if she hadn't been inspired by Elfquest? (There's an odd connection for you...) How much of the furry art popular today hasn't come about by way of inspiration from the comics? Precious little. Some mythological stuff, to be sure; some fairy tales. But it's largely the comics that have inspired the furry imagination the last several years.
Let's sum this all up, and bring the parts to a whole and a conclusion.
The comic book industry is sorta teetering on a precipice these days. It isn't quite in danger of falling into oblivion, but the possibility is always there, and it seems uncommonly fragile at present. Sales are at an all-time low. Not just for DC and Marvel, but for the entire industry. And we are down to only two, and practically one at that, distributors. A major shift has been occurring, and it's not yet finished. The big publishers are adapting to the changes, and they are finding ways to survive. They re not quite out of danger yet, but they re working at it. They have to.
But there are tensions pressing in from other corners, as a new breed of censors begin pounding the beats. What happened in Oklahoma City isn't just an isolated event; only one of the more extreme. But it's occurring with a bit more frequency these days, and not only in comics alone. (I refer people to Peter David's weekly column, But I Digress in the Comics Buyer's Guide for a list of similar occurrences; I did say it's a scary time, didn't I?) There is a rising of well-intentioned busybodies who are not content with simply objecting to material, but are determined to do away with anything that, in their eyes, is either obscene or indecent.
And furrydom, the least of the least, is a small subset of the whole. If the larger world of comics is itself on shaky ground, how fares the world of furries and funny animals? Well, its smaller size tends to serve as a buffer for the time being, so the major shocks have been cushioned by the Big Boys. But that built-in protection will only last for a while. Eventually it will all filter through. As Felicia says in the story this month (in ROWRBRAZZLE), Everything is connected .
Consider the Marvel situation. If, for some reason, it should close up shop, everything goes with it. Dominoes will fall with a clatter to drown out thunderclaps. Those dominoes could be tumbling anyway, if the market doesn't find a good turnaround in the foreseeable future. Right now, DC and Marvel are enjoying a brief windfall from their huge crossover event; but when it's over, then what? Should they close up, the retailers collapse, and so do the independent furry comics.
That would leave us only with the fanzines. They could probably hold on through sheer doggedness and determination, and genuine efforts of love. But their circulation and profitability will be severely limited. Can the networking links be strengthened and maintained?
Consider the censorship situation, now. If unchecked, they could potentially and effectively close down the publishers themselves. Given enough time, given enough rope. They proved it with Planet Comics. What's a publisher, then? Simply a larger target. And if the comics go, how soon before the fanzines become targeted? Not long, I would think; particularly given the nature of material we already do; regardless of how innocent, or how justified.
This has been a rather glum picture that I've been painting here. Well, like I said when I started: I've been feeling a mite grumpy lately. So my glasses are a little less rosy today. I've been feeling a change in the wind lately, and I've been taking stock of it. There's a certain myopia evident in some furry fans, and I m afraid it's time to get it checked. Furry, if it intends to survive, requires more than dedication to survive. It requires growth. Moreover, it demands adaptability. Maybe we've already been doing that with the computer nets, and mail order services like Mailbox Books. Maybe it demands something more. Whatever, we need to reassess and build accordingly. Building a shelter after the deluge starts is not only more time consuming, but incredibly messy.
There is one worthwhile thing to note in all this fret and concern, and I mentioned it way back at the beginning of this essay: the sales at Confurence were phenomenal. The attendance broke records for the seventh year straight. There are more fans becoming interested in furrydom. Danged if I could explain why, but they re there. They all sense a little magic present that just doesn't seem to be present in any other form of fiction. For all of its current fragility, furrydom has a chance, however slim it might be, to actually displace some of its competitors in the marketplace, whether it be mundane or fannish.
Be a shame to lose it all now.
ADDENDA:
--
Chuck Melville
Editor, MU Press
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