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How furry is a furry webcomic?
14 years ago
I'm a big fan of folksonomies, both because I'm a postmodernist at heart and because, frankly, ontologies don't work. But when trying to categorize a list of 181 webcomics (and growing) it's not easy deciding what tags to use and how many, or how well they apply to particular entries. Especially when one tag can mean many different things.
One such problem tag is "furry".
At one end of the spectrum, it's fairly obvious that Lackadaisy Cats employs the eponymous felines purely for aesthetic reasons. In fact, I believe the author has admitted as much. And then there was that poster with all characters drawn as humans... At the other end, Skin Deep wouldn't even have a premise if it wasn't for the furries. But does that make one more furry than the other? And what of those in-between?
Better days is relatively unique in that it uses animal species in a deliberate manner, as stand-ins for race and/or culture. Interestingly enough, nowhere in the multi-year span of the comic (and its sequel) do we see any pets. Whereas in I.C.Q. (NSFW!) the cat protagonist owns a... perfectly ordinary housecat as a pet. Furry confusion indeed! The characters also explicitly talk species, although there don't seem to be any rules about how they're chosen.
(Speaking of furry confusion, one of my fellow players in SpinDizzy misses no opportunity to lampshade the fact that I'm the only non-anthro feline on the MUCK.)
At least both aforementioned comics are clearly furry. In the case of Inverloch, it took me a long time to realize that a fantasy species in a fantasy world might actually qualify as furry, and they are obviously cute and fuzzy. I still hesitate to classify Freefall as such, even though Florence is as furry as they get. She just makes too much sense in-universe to think of her as one. And then there's this sci-fi webcomic (I forget which) where the author insists the characters are aliens, not furries, regardless of what they look like.
What webcomics aren't furry, then?
Dog Eat Doug, for one, doesn't qualify in my opinion. Note how the dog and squirrels always "talk" in thought bubbles, while the eponymous toddler never says a word, and only his parents actually talk out loud. It's only a guess, but I think the animals' dialogue is supposed to be imaginary. It's not as easy to decide for Sandra and Woo, where the raccoon talks and walks upright alongside her human owner... except he never does that around the girl's parents, and we only see other talking animals on their own in the forest. The one time an adult hears Woo speak, he's taken for crazy...
In most cases, though, I can tell with confidence whether a webcomic counts as furry or not. Now, manga on the other hand...
This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
One such problem tag is "furry".
At one end of the spectrum, it's fairly obvious that Lackadaisy Cats employs the eponymous felines purely for aesthetic reasons. In fact, I believe the author has admitted as much. And then there was that poster with all characters drawn as humans... At the other end, Skin Deep wouldn't even have a premise if it wasn't for the furries. But does that make one more furry than the other? And what of those in-between?
Better days is relatively unique in that it uses animal species in a deliberate manner, as stand-ins for race and/or culture. Interestingly enough, nowhere in the multi-year span of the comic (and its sequel) do we see any pets. Whereas in I.C.Q. (NSFW!) the cat protagonist owns a... perfectly ordinary housecat as a pet. Furry confusion indeed! The characters also explicitly talk species, although there don't seem to be any rules about how they're chosen.
(Speaking of furry confusion, one of my fellow players in SpinDizzy misses no opportunity to lampshade the fact that I'm the only non-anthro feline on the MUCK.)
At least both aforementioned comics are clearly furry. In the case of Inverloch, it took me a long time to realize that a fantasy species in a fantasy world might actually qualify as furry, and they are obviously cute and fuzzy. I still hesitate to classify Freefall as such, even though Florence is as furry as they get. She just makes too much sense in-universe to think of her as one. And then there's this sci-fi webcomic (I forget which) where the author insists the characters are aliens, not furries, regardless of what they look like.
What webcomics aren't furry, then?
Dog Eat Doug, for one, doesn't qualify in my opinion. Note how the dog and squirrels always "talk" in thought bubbles, while the eponymous toddler never says a word, and only his parents actually talk out loud. It's only a guess, but I think the animals' dialogue is supposed to be imaginary. It's not as easy to decide for Sandra and Woo, where the raccoon talks and walks upright alongside her human owner... except he never does that around the girl's parents, and we only see other talking animals on their own in the forest. The one time an adult hears Woo speak, he's taken for crazy...
In most cases, though, I can tell with confidence whether a webcomic counts as furry or not. Now, manga on the other hand...
This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
[1] If they just go, "Why the hell should I care?" then it's probably not.