Just for shits and giggles, this was the image that was displayed side by side on my friends feed with this post:
AH HAHAHAHA I love when stuff accidentally does that.
anyway, I have noticed with a lot of furry artists that this is part of their identity. They are FURRY artists and it is part of their identity, as is that outsider status. it's all furry or nothing!
There is most certainly a demand for content featuring anthropomorphic or animal characters. Things released just so far this year in movies that are pretty solidly furry:
The Nut Job
Rio 2*
Mr Peabody and Sherman
Muppets Most Wanted
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
How to Train your Dragon *(while not strictly "talking" the dragons definitely communicate and are characters in their own right)
The starred ones are in the top ten for movie gross so far this year.
And Guardians of the Galaxy and Ninja Turtles are out in a week.
If you do a soft definition of anthro characters where its characters with animal characteristics or non-human characters with human like characteristics, there's only two movies in the top ten for gross this year that DON'T include some type of anthropomorphic or talking animal character. (Noah and Captain America: the Winter Soldier- I expect Guardians to knock Noah off the list shortly)
Newspapers and comics have sort of been circling the wagons and sticking with more of the same thing that works for several years as their business model undergoes serious seismic changes. So trying to get into that market is pretty hellish. Newspaper strips in particular are HARD but if you actually look at sunday comics, most markets the front page is Peanuts and Garfield and a third strip (here's its For Better or Worse, so the front page is TWO comics that are no longer producing new panels. DEATH TO THE NEW). Inside you find several other strips featuring talking animals. so they aren't exactly missing, but they tend to be very similar. don't fit the mold, don't get the syndication. Nobody wants to rock the boat.
Comic shops tend to be a little more diverse but you had serious shifts in distribution that made it DAMNED HARD to break in there. Diamond Distrributors pretty well has a monopoly and if they don't carry you, too fucking bad.
Traditional book publishers are in the same kind of publishing funk of the big boys largely only accepting manuscripts from known authors. If you do see a breakout, many of those were effectively writing for a smaller publisher and then recruited from there, like a sports team recruiting from farm team.
Now that said, you still see loads of anthropomorphic characters in those medias but you rarely see 100% all talking animal casts. But by far one of the most requested childrens series I get is 100% animal cast. (Erin Hunters "The warriors") Looking at the required summer reading for the schools I see four things there that are considered great lit with talking animals... but are almost never included in discussions about "furry." (The Metamorphosis, Animal Farm, Watership Down, and the more recent The ARt of Racing in the Rain)
So a lot of "furry" artists confine themselves to this very narrow corner of total furry purity and thus aren't being included in the mainstream of pop culture.
I'll leave longer comment about comics, books, and the furry ghetto later, but I need to go to the Arts Council meeting in my furry as all hell t-shirt you gave me and talk about my upcoming gallery show of furry as all hell art aimed at the general public. :P I'm taking my furry ghetto and getting it all over their serious art stuff!
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2014-07-29 08:28 pm (UTC)AH HAHAHAHA
I love when stuff accidentally does that.
anyway, I have noticed with a lot of furry artists that this is part of their identity. They are FURRY artists and it is part of their identity, as is that outsider status. it's all furry or nothing!
There is most certainly a demand for content featuring anthropomorphic or animal characters. Things released just so far this year in movies that are pretty solidly furry:
The starred ones are in the top ten for movie gross so far this year.
And Guardians of the Galaxy and Ninja Turtles are out in a week.
If you do a soft definition of anthro characters where its characters with animal characteristics or non-human characters with human like characteristics, there's only two movies in the top ten for gross this year that DON'T include some type of anthropomorphic or talking animal character. (Noah and Captain America: the Winter Soldier- I expect Guardians to knock Noah off the list shortly)
Newspapers and comics have sort of been circling the wagons and sticking with more of the same thing that works for several years as their business model undergoes serious seismic changes. So trying to get into that market is pretty hellish. Newspaper strips in particular are HARD but if you actually look at sunday comics, most markets the front page is Peanuts and Garfield and a third strip (here's its For Better or Worse, so the front page is TWO comics that are no longer producing new panels. DEATH TO THE NEW). Inside you find several other strips featuring talking animals. so they aren't exactly missing, but they tend to be very similar. don't fit the mold, don't get the syndication. Nobody wants to rock the boat.
Comic shops tend to be a little more diverse but you had serious shifts in distribution that made it DAMNED HARD to break in there. Diamond Distrributors pretty well has a monopoly and if they don't carry you, too fucking bad.
Traditional book publishers are in the same kind of publishing funk of the big boys largely only accepting manuscripts from known authors. If you do see a breakout, many of those were effectively writing for a smaller publisher and then recruited from there, like a sports team recruiting from farm team.
Now that said, you still see loads of anthropomorphic characters in those medias but you rarely see 100% all talking animal casts. But by far one of the most requested childrens series I get is 100% animal cast. (Erin Hunters "The warriors") Looking at the required summer reading for the schools I see four things there that are considered great lit with talking animals... but are almost never included in discussions about "furry." (The Metamorphosis, Animal Farm, Watership Down, and the more recent The ARt of Racing in the Rain)
So a lot of "furry" artists confine themselves to this very narrow corner of total furry purity and thus aren't being included in the mainstream of pop culture.
I'll leave longer comment about comics, books, and the furry ghetto later, but I need to go to the Arts Council meeting in my furry as all hell t-shirt you gave me and talk about my upcoming gallery show of furry as all hell art aimed at the general public. :P I'm taking my furry ghetto and getting it all over their serious art stuff!