As I Challenge others in my group to write a short story about how they found the fandom I submit one of two stories that detail my finding the fandom. As I have never been one to hide the fact that I am a Furry I post these publicly for anyone that wants to read them.
A Furry Trapped In Time
“Since Before It Was.” By: Relic B. Furry®
“Since Before It Was.” By: Relic B. Furry®
Blame always has to land somewhere, right? In this case I guess one could lay the ultimate blame on the Internet and the rise of social media … Go Figure. Honestly, before I connected my first computer to what they called the “Internet” I was clueless to the existence of the Furry Fandom, I had never heard the term, nor did I have a clue as to what it was all about.
Browsing the web was interesting and I soon found out that it was an excellent source for finding artwork that I enjoyed seeing, photography at that point was centered in my sights more than anything else. Within a year or two I began to take interest in what was coined “Anthro-art” or artwork that featured anthropomorphic characters.
I had seen this before, although at the time (this was back in the mid to late 1970’s mind you) I was ignorant to its significance, a good friend and I (Harold “Floyd” Brozzo that grew up next door to me) were always doodling and creating jokes and scenes with dogs of anthropomorphic nature using their two German Shepherds as models, we would all laugh at these comical creations for hours and even days later.
Although we tragically lost Floyd in 1992 to suicide, I started connecting our artwork from so many years ago to what I was now finding on the Internet and to what the Fandom was about. I was intrigued by the diversity of the characters and the myriad of ways other artists were creating characters of their very own, seemingly having a totally separate life on-line through these characters.
I began to single out one particular artists work that I could identify without even trying, “Tani DaReal” moved into my spotlight and became the first “Furry Artist” that I began to follow. Her abilities to capture thought and emotion in her work was astonishing to me. It was also through Tani that I first learned of “Anthrocon” and the entire world of Fursuiters although at this point and for many years yet this “Fursuiting” aspect of the Fandom had no real draw to me but the artwork that was being produced certainly did! I began to dabble around doodling different characters but always tossing them away as I just couldn’t seem to capture on paper what I was modeling in my head.
They say practice makes perfect and Tani reminded me of this many times but that is one thing that I have never realized as far as the anthropomorphic scene is concerned and I was always making sure my artwork remained private and much that I have done over the years is now lost forever.
My artwork to this day remains very private, unless it is something I have deemed worthy, even then it usually takes more than just months … in most cases YEARS for them to emerge from the “Closet” so to speak, and then my character Relic B. Furry as I have developed him has been the only publicly viewed anthropomorphic work released into the open in 2014 after 4 years of painfully slow progress.
I had finally developed a character to let loose in the wild on the Internet and that seemed like enough. By this time I was all ready immersed in the Furry Fandom beyond any point of retrieval. I was following 7 or 8 artists I had found on DeviantArt and then found a wonderful thing called Twitter! I began chatting with those artists world wide and soon became intrigued with the Conventions that were created by a sub-culture of people dedicated to Anthro-Art.
It would be a couple years later that I ran into Barry Verville whom would say the right things & spark my interest in Fursuiting, although even at that time it really didn’t interest me, the argument he made was compelling.
Mostly portrayed poorly in the news and public media in general, Furries have not had a fair introduction into the common culture. News is bad … period! If it isn’t BAD NEWS it simply is not worthy of any time on the air so it seems. In the early years during the emergence of the Furry Fandom it was pummeled by the media for its shock factor. The few bad things that the Media and series writers have published are totally one sided and are nowhere near the truth of what the Furry Fandom truly encompasses.
One of the most common beliefs is that all “Furries” are fursuiters … it is simply not true. On average the number of fursuiters number only about 20 to 25% of the fandom in total. The furries that are sometimes focused on as being BAD are a mere 1/10th of one percent of the numbers that make up the entire Fandom. Get over it all ready, there are bad people in every culture and we all have to deal with them, its no different for the Furry Fandom.
Moving slowly, I now look forward to stretching out with my character Relic to get involved deeper in the Fandom and hopefully educate others as to the fun of being in character and the many contributions the Fandom has made to so many charities throughout its existence. Contributions are not trivial either, with dollar amounts reaching into the thousands and 10’s of thousands of dollars (Anthrocon 2017 raised $35,000 for the Hope Haven Farm Sanctuary) during the conventions that are held all over the world with the auctioning of fantastic artwork of all kinds.
The Fandom has spread into every conceivable demographic, with every age group having membership in this growing sub-culture, with Fursuiters as young as 5 years old attending conventions and their competitions. Open-mindedness flourishes within the Furry culture with people of all walks of life co-mingling with no bias towards any one particular background, vice, or preference, which makes membership and interaction easy and mostly a rewarding experience.
In reflection I look back over the years and realize that I was a Furry long before it was existing as a known phenomenon, yet in all the known scientific facts now, I still fit into the the fandom under the same statistics as the majority that are part of it today. I was in my young teen years and loved the art with a passion, I was not part of the “In Crowd” through my school years, I often would seek to be alone or with my only true friends than to be bothered by others.
I simply had no access to any form of communication that I could participate with others that had the same passions. I was a furry trapped in time if you want to look at it that way, until the Internet opened up this fabulous fandom to me, I was lost.
Since the age of 48, which at the time of this writing is only 4 years ago, I have had a sense of urgency for participation in the Fandom that is fully age related I believe. I was introduced into this fandom so late in life that I honestly feel there is so much to catch up on and at my age I know all to well that I have far fewer days ahead than are behind me now. So many wonderful friends to meet and so little time left to do so.
I find that one very common question that so many people ask “How long have you been in the fandom?” a rather strange question to answer, as the only real answer that makes any sense to me is “Since before it was.”
Browsing the web was interesting and I soon found out that it was an excellent source for finding artwork that I enjoyed seeing, photography at that point was centered in my sights more than anything else. Within a year or two I began to take interest in what was coined “Anthro-art” or artwork that featured anthropomorphic characters.
I had seen this before, although at the time (this was back in the mid to late 1970’s mind you) I was ignorant to its significance, a good friend and I (Harold “Floyd” Brozzo that grew up next door to me) were always doodling and creating jokes and scenes with dogs of anthropomorphic nature using their two German Shepherds as models, we would all laugh at these comical creations for hours and even days later.
Although we tragically lost Floyd in 1992 to suicide, I started connecting our artwork from so many years ago to what I was now finding on the Internet and to what the Fandom was about. I was intrigued by the diversity of the characters and the myriad of ways other artists were creating characters of their very own, seemingly having a totally separate life on-line through these characters.
I began to single out one particular artists work that I could identify without even trying, “Tani DaReal” moved into my spotlight and became the first “Furry Artist” that I began to follow. Her abilities to capture thought and emotion in her work was astonishing to me. It was also through Tani that I first learned of “Anthrocon” and the entire world of Fursuiters although at this point and for many years yet this “Fursuiting” aspect of the Fandom had no real draw to me but the artwork that was being produced certainly did! I began to dabble around doodling different characters but always tossing them away as I just couldn’t seem to capture on paper what I was modeling in my head.
They say practice makes perfect and Tani reminded me of this many times but that is one thing that I have never realized as far as the anthropomorphic scene is concerned and I was always making sure my artwork remained private and much that I have done over the years is now lost forever.
My artwork to this day remains very private, unless it is something I have deemed worthy, even then it usually takes more than just months … in most cases YEARS for them to emerge from the “Closet” so to speak, and then my character Relic B. Furry as I have developed him has been the only publicly viewed anthropomorphic work released into the open in 2014 after 4 years of painfully slow progress.
I had finally developed a character to let loose in the wild on the Internet and that seemed like enough. By this time I was all ready immersed in the Furry Fandom beyond any point of retrieval. I was following 7 or 8 artists I had found on DeviantArt and then found a wonderful thing called Twitter! I began chatting with those artists world wide and soon became intrigued with the Conventions that were created by a sub-culture of people dedicated to Anthro-Art.
It would be a couple years later that I ran into Barry Verville whom would say the right things & spark my interest in Fursuiting, although even at that time it really didn’t interest me, the argument he made was compelling.
Mostly portrayed poorly in the news and public media in general, Furries have not had a fair introduction into the common culture. News is bad … period! If it isn’t BAD NEWS it simply is not worthy of any time on the air so it seems. In the early years during the emergence of the Furry Fandom it was pummeled by the media for its shock factor. The few bad things that the Media and series writers have published are totally one sided and are nowhere near the truth of what the Furry Fandom truly encompasses.
One of the most common beliefs is that all “Furries” are fursuiters … it is simply not true. On average the number of fursuiters number only about 20 to 25% of the fandom in total. The furries that are sometimes focused on as being BAD are a mere 1/10th of one percent of the numbers that make up the entire Fandom. Get over it all ready, there are bad people in every culture and we all have to deal with them, its no different for the Furry Fandom.
Moving slowly, I now look forward to stretching out with my character Relic to get involved deeper in the Fandom and hopefully educate others as to the fun of being in character and the many contributions the Fandom has made to so many charities throughout its existence. Contributions are not trivial either, with dollar amounts reaching into the thousands and 10’s of thousands of dollars (Anthrocon 2017 raised $35,000 for the Hope Haven Farm Sanctuary) during the conventions that are held all over the world with the auctioning of fantastic artwork of all kinds.
The Fandom has spread into every conceivable demographic, with every age group having membership in this growing sub-culture, with Fursuiters as young as 5 years old attending conventions and their competitions. Open-mindedness flourishes within the Furry culture with people of all walks of life co-mingling with no bias towards any one particular background, vice, or preference, which makes membership and interaction easy and mostly a rewarding experience.
In reflection I look back over the years and realize that I was a Furry long before it was existing as a known phenomenon, yet in all the known scientific facts now, I still fit into the the fandom under the same statistics as the majority that are part of it today. I was in my young teen years and loved the art with a passion, I was not part of the “In Crowd” through my school years, I often would seek to be alone or with my only true friends than to be bothered by others.
I simply had no access to any form of communication that I could participate with others that had the same passions. I was a furry trapped in time if you want to look at it that way, until the Internet opened up this fabulous fandom to me, I was lost.
Since the age of 48, which at the time of this writing is only 4 years ago, I have had a sense of urgency for participation in the Fandom that is fully age related I believe. I was introduced into this fandom so late in life that I honestly feel there is so much to catch up on and at my age I know all to well that I have far fewer days ahead than are behind me now. So many wonderful friends to meet and so little time left to do so.
I find that one very common question that so many people ask “How long have you been in the fandom?” a rather strange question to answer, as the only real answer that makes any sense to me is “Since before it was.”
