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Balticon 23. That's where it all started for me. And this poster is how it all started.
I'd been drawing cartoon animal characters for years, mostly for my own amusement, but I was primarily known as a Doctor Who nut by most of my friends, and also as a bit of a computer geek.
And, so it was that a friend of my brother's - Rob Seastrom (he, who introduced me to the internet, way back when it was just green phosphor on a text-only screen) got hired to help set up the computer room for this science fiction convention in Baltimore. There was no money involved, but it got you a free con badge, and crash space. He tagged me as an assistant, and off we went.
While taking the first cartload of gear up to the room in the elevator, I happened to find myself face-to-face with this very poster. It was one of those "light-bulb going on" moments. I jotted the room number and time down and made a mental note to get there.
A furry party was a lot like a really tiny furry convention, all in single a hotel room. You had your dealer's den (that table by the door with the magazines for sale on it) your artist's alley (both beds were full of artists, including people like Deal Whitley, and Vicky Wyman) your video room (TV showing cartoons, and a guy in charge of deciding what to play next) your con suite (bathtub full o' ice and drinks. snackage on the counter-tops) and even your hucksters (guy outside the room selling stuff out of his coat (which later turned out to be stolen. oops. everything got returned to the rightful owner.))
I ended up blowing almost all my money at that party, on that first night. I walked away from the convention with a hand-knitted super-long Dr. Who scarf, and a pile of furry mags, among them Scott Alston's BESTIARY, Filthy Beasts, and FurVersion.
As the convention was closing down for the weekend, I discovered the poster was still in the elevator, so I grabbed it (and a second copy with a different coloring job I found elsewhere)
I Started submitting my doodles to Bestiary, and FurVersion. I Started getting contributor copies in the mail. I started going to more furry parties (now at PHILCON in the former Adam's Mark.)
From one of the issues of Bestiary, I found out about this online internet thingy called FurryMUCK, and figured out how to get onto it: And thus Cobalt was created, to be my online alter-ego.
Everything else has followed along from there.
And it all comes back to this poster being in the right place, at the right time.
Pivotal moment. There it is.
I'd been drawing cartoon animal characters for years, mostly for my own amusement, but I was primarily known as a Doctor Who nut by most of my friends, and also as a bit of a computer geek.
And, so it was that a friend of my brother's - Rob Seastrom (he, who introduced me to the internet, way back when it was just green phosphor on a text-only screen) got hired to help set up the computer room for this science fiction convention in Baltimore. There was no money involved, but it got you a free con badge, and crash space. He tagged me as an assistant, and off we went.
While taking the first cartload of gear up to the room in the elevator, I happened to find myself face-to-face with this very poster. It was one of those "light-bulb going on" moments. I jotted the room number and time down and made a mental note to get there.
A furry party was a lot like a really tiny furry convention, all in single a hotel room. You had your dealer's den (that table by the door with the magazines for sale on it) your artist's alley (both beds were full of artists, including people like Deal Whitley, and Vicky Wyman) your video room (TV showing cartoons, and a guy in charge of deciding what to play next) your con suite (bathtub full o' ice and drinks. snackage on the counter-tops) and even your hucksters (guy outside the room selling stuff out of his coat (which later turned out to be stolen. oops. everything got returned to the rightful owner.))
I ended up blowing almost all my money at that party, on that first night. I walked away from the convention with a hand-knitted super-long Dr. Who scarf, and a pile of furry mags, among them Scott Alston's BESTIARY, Filthy Beasts, and FurVersion.
As the convention was closing down for the weekend, I discovered the poster was still in the elevator, so I grabbed it (and a second copy with a different coloring job I found elsewhere)
I Started submitting my doodles to Bestiary, and FurVersion. I Started getting contributor copies in the mail. I started going to more furry parties (now at PHILCON in the former Adam's Mark.)
From one of the issues of Bestiary, I found out about this online internet thingy called FurryMUCK, and figured out how to get onto it: And thus Cobalt was created, to be my online alter-ego.
Everything else has followed along from there.
And it all comes back to this poster being in the right place, at the right time.
Pivotal moment. There it is.
Category All / Miscellaneous
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 796 x 1024px
File Size 319.7 kB
kewl. I can say nice things about spring-loaded microphone arms from O.C. White, too.
http://www.ocwhite.com/html/ds.htm
The 51900 is what I use. Screws right to the flat top of the computer table, keeps the mic up out of the way when I'm not using it.
http://www.ocwhite.com/html/ds.htm
The 51900 is what I use. Screws right to the flat top of the computer table, keeps the mic up out of the way when I'm not using it.
You had 1200 baud? Luxury.
My standard internet connection back then was a Z29 dumterminal, with a 300-baud US Robotics modem patched to it thru a homemade ribbon cable. I used it to connect to many and sundry local BBSes, but I also used it to hack my way onto the internet.
The local university had a dial-in connection, and although you needed a login and password to sign onto it, they also had a public gopherspace client that was intended to be used as a sort of electronic card catalog for the university library. when you dialed-in you'd get a prompt asking you choose between logging into the univerisity internet, or accessing the gopher client for the library.
From the gopher client I would jump out to a page of links I found that all pointed to dead locations. Accessing anything on the page would cause the gopher client to crash, and you'd be dumped out to a raw telnet prompt. From there, I could go anywhere.
Telnet to tigerden, for email and USENET. Telnet to FurryMUCK, Tapestries, Brazillian Dream, or furtoonia.
Spent years exploiting that error.
My standard internet connection back then was a Z29 dumterminal, with a 300-baud US Robotics modem patched to it thru a homemade ribbon cable. I used it to connect to many and sundry local BBSes, but I also used it to hack my way onto the internet.
The local university had a dial-in connection, and although you needed a login and password to sign onto it, they also had a public gopherspace client that was intended to be used as a sort of electronic card catalog for the university library. when you dialed-in you'd get a prompt asking you choose between logging into the univerisity internet, or accessing the gopher client for the library.
From the gopher client I would jump out to a page of links I found that all pointed to dead locations. Accessing anything on the page would cause the gopher client to crash, and you'd be dumped out to a raw telnet prompt. From there, I could go anywhere.
Telnet to tigerden, for email and USENET. Telnet to FurryMUCK, Tapestries, Brazillian Dream, or furtoonia.
Spent years exploiting that error.
BTW, you might wanna let 
runeraion know his pic is here...
runeraion know his pic is here... 
heh, it's interesting to remember where you first start with something so intrical to your life. I remember where I was when i first heard of furry and the first site I went to when I heard of furry. Someone reposted a few of your pictures and I saved them. I later found your art I believe in VCL. This was...about 6 or 8 years ago for me. I'm not a young guy but I found this furry stuff late but I have to say, I LOVE your art, even your older stuff.
My intro to the scene was also via a flyer for a Furry Party, one being held at Philcon around '88 or so. The sucker arrived in my postal mail completely out of the blue and unsolicited*, and the second I looked at it I knew exactly what it was - and that I belonged there.
* - Sent by "Rune,' who found my name in a listing of sci-fi fans somewhere
* - Sent by "Rune,' who found my name in a listing of sci-fi fans somewhere
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