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Anthrocon + Room Party 2025
2 months ago
All of my friends have written some awesome journal entries on their experiences at Anthrocon, and after a week of sitting on the experience (and suffering from Con Crud) I thought I would write one too!
Before the trip was even close, I was already excited. AC would be the largest con I have ever attended, and the first time I ever traveled out of state for a convention. Plus, I was told by some of my buddies about Room Party, the contemporary furry art exhibition being held not too far away from the convention center, and it was just too good to pass up. Immediately after booking my plane tickets and pitching in for our group AirBnB (we would be inhabiting Bunk Bed World for this trip) I started making mini zine kits and DIY Fursona Zines. It was a lot more work than I anticipated it to be, and whenever I had a free moment, I would make more, experimenting with toploader clear cases to hold the DIY zines in and even getting clear badge clips so they could be attached to lanyards. By the time I was packed, a majority of my backpack was completely loaded up with these kits to the point that I hardly had room for clothes and had to wear my bulkiest outfit on the plane ride over. That, combined with the amount of original stickers I was bringing to trade as well, made hauling my bag a bit of a pain.
One of my friends was recording footage for a home movie of the event. They recorded us walking out onto the tarmac to board our plane, the Fourth of July fireworks as we flew over them, and the blue hue of the bus we took to our AirBnB at almost midnight. The next day, myself and 8 friends eventually offloaded all of our things, zipped through an extremely efficient registration, and beelined it almost immediately for the art show.
There were the kinds of pieces that I was expecting to see; beautifully painted animals, originals copies of prints, fiber and fabric art. I juggled the idea in my mind of placing a bid on a few pieces (owning an original Redacteur did tantalize me) but decided against it because I had just gotten there. My budget was a stringent one and I vowed that I would not pass it. Instead, I walked through the gallery and admired a piece made in Kidpix over stretched canvas, a painting of detailed balloon-latex monster so fat it crowded the entire frame, ABDL-themed trading cards.
I was broken off from my friend group for large swaths of the convention, pretty much the majority of my time in the hall being spent trying to complete a lap at the dealer's den. At every opportunity I could, I traded my kits (almost always for something like a sticker) and received a lot of responses like "wow, can I keep this?" which I thought was kind of funny. Almost every tabler that I offered a trade with said yes, and those who said no said it without issue. I was initially nervous to even offer trades in the first place, but everyone was so kind that it was soon a moot worry. So many people in the den would point me in the direction of someone else there who loved zines, or they would show me the bluesky of a furry zine publisher, or they would tell me about Room Party, and I would happily let them know that I had plans to visit it on Sunday. Easily, I traded more than a hundred zine kits and DIY furry zines over the course of two days. So many people told me that they thought that, soon, zines would be coming back in a big way. I was thrilled to hear that many of them made zines of their own-- one artist in artist alley even setting out some of their zines and clipping my fursona zine badge to their lanyard-- and told me that they were thinking about getting back to them.
Though I planned to attend a fair amount of panels and marked myself as interested in going on the Sched app, I wasn't able to make it to anything except for the trading panels. I had fun giving even more of my stuff away for free especially to smaller kiddos who didn't have much to barter with. Ultimately, there are some things I wish I could have seen/attended, but I still had fun going to the places I went-- I set out fliers advertising my webcomic on the skybridge, got to see a shitload of fantastic fursuits and cosplay, and just take in the energy of a conglomerate of excited people. Even the ambient energy from the environment around me was exciting enough; I was a bit disappointed I didn't make it to the 18+ sketchbook swap, however.
Once I heard that almost all of my friends had been at the Room Party for a little bit, I decided to hop a bus over and take a look at the exhibition. Even though I hadn't traded all of my things that I wanted to yet, I made a quick sign saying that everything I was leaving behind (surplus zine kits, pins I had been holding onto, buttons I had made) was free to take. At the bus stop was another furry who was going to the show as well, and without him, I probably would have missed my stop because he pulled the cord (lmao)
When I got there, I sat on a bed with my group and traded off comics with one another, finishing one and handing it to someone else as soon as it was done. The atmosphere was very close and, I'm sure, very evocative of the types of classic Room Parties that the furry fandom was founded on top of. I enjoyed the atmosphere, which had an odd mix of the reverent attention that people give to pieces in museums, the quiet focus of a library, and the energy of a local get-together. (I'm sure a contributing factor to this feeling was the fact that I was with a large group of people I am close to-- if I came alone, or at a different time, I am sure I would have had a different experience). Bunker Project as a venue in general absolutely rocked. The pieces displayed everywhere were wonderful; audio, video, written word, sculpture, paintings, multimedia work, and layers of zines on shelves that attendees crowded around. We were analyzing the art just as much as we were entertained by it; an aspect of furry culture that I hadn't done very much of in the past, but this was the perfect environment to help facilitate it.
We walked a long way in the hot sun to get to our bus stop, and then we walked even further to get a few pints of ice cream and head back to our AirBnB. The analysis continued even further as we played a game with each other where we guessed what particular furry images were to one another's tastes. I crawled into my top bunk and fell asleep easily.
I did not leave the convention with my bag any lighter than I first brought it in. Instead of identical packages of tiny coin envelopes filled with stickers and zine templates, my backpack was crammed with comics, zines, stickers, and a few red panda-themed gifts for my boyfriend. Despite how much I traded, I stilled ended up spending just a little under my budget. While waiting at our airport gate, I got to experience the sketchbook swap I had missed out on with my group of friends. I was so happy to scribble out my close pal's fursonas in their sketchbooks between hurriedly eating bites of salad. One friend filmed me giving a "talking head" style interview that I requested we include at the end of the trip; I apologized that they didn't have much B-roll of me because of how separated I was from the group while at the event proper. They got a lot of footage of me at the airport.
Saying it was fun is an understatement and honestly probably a very obvious thing to say.
My passion for zines has only gotten stronger over time; hearing from so many people that they thought that zines were coming back made me so happy. Even hearing from some "older" (heavy quotes) artists that they used to make zines when they were in college, one dealer in particular laughing when I gave him the DIY Fursona template and saying that he "hadn't seen a single sheet zine like this one in years". Furry zines should be more common to see in Dealer's Dens and Artist Alleys, but they are shockingly rare! Out of more than a hundred different vendors, they all together offered fewer zines for sale than Room Party did to read.
Furry as a subculture is so broad and ever-expanding that seeing works that evade the most popular public perceptions shouldn't be surprising; but it still is, and I am delighted every time I see works from artists that catch me off guard and interest me.
Maybe I just don't have the language yet to describe what pieces do this to me, what attributes they possess, how I seek to emulate them in my own work, the ways in which I try and fail. In both the convention itself and Room Party, I got to see different types of art created for different purposes; which, in turn, informs how it is created. How do works created to turn profit as well as appeal to a subculture differ from works that were made within the subculture for purposes of expression and display? Insular rules and, for lack of a better term, "lore" help dictate the path that certain pieces of art follow. How do we use these preconceived notions to subvert expectations? How many layers deep of inside baseball can we play until what we make is indecipherable to outside viewers? The works that I saw in Room Party's gallery both made perfect sense and were entirely new to me, yet of themselves. I wish I could articulate what I mean better. Lots of different thoughts have been cooking in my head for a week.
It was a weekend full of art and observation, in a town I had never visited before, and I can't wait for next year already.
Before the trip was even close, I was already excited. AC would be the largest con I have ever attended, and the first time I ever traveled out of state for a convention. Plus, I was told by some of my buddies about Room Party, the contemporary furry art exhibition being held not too far away from the convention center, and it was just too good to pass up. Immediately after booking my plane tickets and pitching in for our group AirBnB (we would be inhabiting Bunk Bed World for this trip) I started making mini zine kits and DIY Fursona Zines. It was a lot more work than I anticipated it to be, and whenever I had a free moment, I would make more, experimenting with toploader clear cases to hold the DIY zines in and even getting clear badge clips so they could be attached to lanyards. By the time I was packed, a majority of my backpack was completely loaded up with these kits to the point that I hardly had room for clothes and had to wear my bulkiest outfit on the plane ride over. That, combined with the amount of original stickers I was bringing to trade as well, made hauling my bag a bit of a pain.
One of my friends was recording footage for a home movie of the event. They recorded us walking out onto the tarmac to board our plane, the Fourth of July fireworks as we flew over them, and the blue hue of the bus we took to our AirBnB at almost midnight. The next day, myself and 8 friends eventually offloaded all of our things, zipped through an extremely efficient registration, and beelined it almost immediately for the art show.
There were the kinds of pieces that I was expecting to see; beautifully painted animals, originals copies of prints, fiber and fabric art. I juggled the idea in my mind of placing a bid on a few pieces (owning an original Redacteur did tantalize me) but decided against it because I had just gotten there. My budget was a stringent one and I vowed that I would not pass it. Instead, I walked through the gallery and admired a piece made in Kidpix over stretched canvas, a painting of detailed balloon-latex monster so fat it crowded the entire frame, ABDL-themed trading cards.
I was broken off from my friend group for large swaths of the convention, pretty much the majority of my time in the hall being spent trying to complete a lap at the dealer's den. At every opportunity I could, I traded my kits (almost always for something like a sticker) and received a lot of responses like "wow, can I keep this?" which I thought was kind of funny. Almost every tabler that I offered a trade with said yes, and those who said no said it without issue. I was initially nervous to even offer trades in the first place, but everyone was so kind that it was soon a moot worry. So many people in the den would point me in the direction of someone else there who loved zines, or they would show me the bluesky of a furry zine publisher, or they would tell me about Room Party, and I would happily let them know that I had plans to visit it on Sunday. Easily, I traded more than a hundred zine kits and DIY furry zines over the course of two days. So many people told me that they thought that, soon, zines would be coming back in a big way. I was thrilled to hear that many of them made zines of their own-- one artist in artist alley even setting out some of their zines and clipping my fursona zine badge to their lanyard-- and told me that they were thinking about getting back to them.
Though I planned to attend a fair amount of panels and marked myself as interested in going on the Sched app, I wasn't able to make it to anything except for the trading panels. I had fun giving even more of my stuff away for free especially to smaller kiddos who didn't have much to barter with. Ultimately, there are some things I wish I could have seen/attended, but I still had fun going to the places I went-- I set out fliers advertising my webcomic on the skybridge, got to see a shitload of fantastic fursuits and cosplay, and just take in the energy of a conglomerate of excited people. Even the ambient energy from the environment around me was exciting enough; I was a bit disappointed I didn't make it to the 18+ sketchbook swap, however.
Once I heard that almost all of my friends had been at the Room Party for a little bit, I decided to hop a bus over and take a look at the exhibition. Even though I hadn't traded all of my things that I wanted to yet, I made a quick sign saying that everything I was leaving behind (surplus zine kits, pins I had been holding onto, buttons I had made) was free to take. At the bus stop was another furry who was going to the show as well, and without him, I probably would have missed my stop because he pulled the cord (lmao)
When I got there, I sat on a bed with my group and traded off comics with one another, finishing one and handing it to someone else as soon as it was done. The atmosphere was very close and, I'm sure, very evocative of the types of classic Room Parties that the furry fandom was founded on top of. I enjoyed the atmosphere, which had an odd mix of the reverent attention that people give to pieces in museums, the quiet focus of a library, and the energy of a local get-together. (I'm sure a contributing factor to this feeling was the fact that I was with a large group of people I am close to-- if I came alone, or at a different time, I am sure I would have had a different experience). Bunker Project as a venue in general absolutely rocked. The pieces displayed everywhere were wonderful; audio, video, written word, sculpture, paintings, multimedia work, and layers of zines on shelves that attendees crowded around. We were analyzing the art just as much as we were entertained by it; an aspect of furry culture that I hadn't done very much of in the past, but this was the perfect environment to help facilitate it.
We walked a long way in the hot sun to get to our bus stop, and then we walked even further to get a few pints of ice cream and head back to our AirBnB. The analysis continued even further as we played a game with each other where we guessed what particular furry images were to one another's tastes. I crawled into my top bunk and fell asleep easily.
I did not leave the convention with my bag any lighter than I first brought it in. Instead of identical packages of tiny coin envelopes filled with stickers and zine templates, my backpack was crammed with comics, zines, stickers, and a few red panda-themed gifts for my boyfriend. Despite how much I traded, I stilled ended up spending just a little under my budget. While waiting at our airport gate, I got to experience the sketchbook swap I had missed out on with my group of friends. I was so happy to scribble out my close pal's fursonas in their sketchbooks between hurriedly eating bites of salad. One friend filmed me giving a "talking head" style interview that I requested we include at the end of the trip; I apologized that they didn't have much B-roll of me because of how separated I was from the group while at the event proper. They got a lot of footage of me at the airport.
Saying it was fun is an understatement and honestly probably a very obvious thing to say.
My passion for zines has only gotten stronger over time; hearing from so many people that they thought that zines were coming back made me so happy. Even hearing from some "older" (heavy quotes) artists that they used to make zines when they were in college, one dealer in particular laughing when I gave him the DIY Fursona template and saying that he "hadn't seen a single sheet zine like this one in years". Furry zines should be more common to see in Dealer's Dens and Artist Alleys, but they are shockingly rare! Out of more than a hundred different vendors, they all together offered fewer zines for sale than Room Party did to read.
Furry as a subculture is so broad and ever-expanding that seeing works that evade the most popular public perceptions shouldn't be surprising; but it still is, and I am delighted every time I see works from artists that catch me off guard and interest me.
Maybe I just don't have the language yet to describe what pieces do this to me, what attributes they possess, how I seek to emulate them in my own work, the ways in which I try and fail. In both the convention itself and Room Party, I got to see different types of art created for different purposes; which, in turn, informs how it is created. How do works created to turn profit as well as appeal to a subculture differ from works that were made within the subculture for purposes of expression and display? Insular rules and, for lack of a better term, "lore" help dictate the path that certain pieces of art follow. How do we use these preconceived notions to subvert expectations? How many layers deep of inside baseball can we play until what we make is indecipherable to outside viewers? The works that I saw in Room Party's gallery both made perfect sense and were entirely new to me, yet of themselves. I wish I could articulate what I mean better. Lots of different thoughts have been cooking in my head for a week.
It was a weekend full of art and observation, in a town I had never visited before, and I can't wait for next year already.
Also, have you ever run a zine-making panel/meet? It would probably go a long way to inspiring newbies and churning up creative juices in oldheads. If you'd want to and we end up at the same con again, I'd be so down to help you put it together :)