I think he did something nasty to his wrist and retired, but I could be remembering that wrong.

Last seen in 2017 via Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kemononoshima as far as I know....

That had me drawn to his art as well as his fanart of some movies and shows that seem to be mostly forgotten these days.
But yes, I have been wondering what happened, though my list about the artists that dropped out of view is growing.

Dr.Comet was the first "mainstream" furry artist I ever came across. Back then it was just VCL (search for "yiff" lol), FurBid, and whatever little "studios" artists banded together to form (Tailswish Studio was my favorite).

I remember Dr.Comet's CDs went for quite a bit of money on FurBid, but I found his website eventually and ordered all his CDs. I still have all of them in a locked fireproof box I've long since lost the keys to. He very much was the gold standard back then, but time and technology moves on. I always preferred his early stuff anyway.

It feels like more artists disappear than appear these days. The "old" names that were widely circulated back when I found "furry" in the early 2000's are not much around anymore. Kacey still posts sporadically, but no adult art. Ayame still (I think) runs FurBid but doesn't do art, Hardiman died, Grrwolf disappeared, Nekogami disappeared, Doug Winger died, RomusZ disappeared, Ironwolf doesn't do art anymore. Jay Naylor is still doing his thing though and PurpleHusky posts sporadically. TremaineFox posted some old art of his to FA some months back, but I don't think he's doing new stuff.

Times change...

It's so sad that we lost so many good names in these past 10 years and just as the fandom was getting bigger.

Ayame had to retire from art when (I'm more or less quoting her) she discovered that raising an autistic child was very consuming of time and energy. It's my vague hope that, as her child grows up, she might find more time to draw. I miss her works so much...

I'm also curious what happened to the artist Kikurage.

Kikurage's twitter account had human pedophilia art on it, if I'm remembering correctly. I can't help but wonder if he/she wound up assuming a new pseudonym to either get away from that or pursue it further.

Sorry to hear about Ayame's situation. My brother-in-law is severely autistic and it never gets any easier to deal with.

Kikurage is still around on Twitter, and you can find stuff on e6 as people post it there.

Was going through that list of artists you gave. I noticed a trend.
The bulk of them where traditional artists (real pen-marker-ink, etc). Makes me wonder if they felt they couldn't keep up with the rise of digital art or something.
Good news, Nek0gami is still lurking around. They haven't posted in a while but they're still favoring things.

Grrrwolf is still poking around.
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/grrrwolf
https://grrrwolf.sofurry.com
https://inkbunny.net/grrrwolf
http://www.twitter.com/@GrrrwolfPrime

Im definitely a Gray Muzzle. I know all those artists and still have their art in my archive. I didnt know a few of those that you mentioned, had passed. Winger for example. that was shocking.
Dont Forget about T.O.R. (Timothy Oroarke) - He died a couple of years ago.
Steve Martin is still around
Fred Perry?? - No Idea What happened to him. Didnt the do all those Cheetah girl Characters?
Ken Sample??
Frank Gembeck Jr - Arrested
Bushy Cat is still around but I dont know where she hiding.
Ferris Responded(like 9 years ago) to some artwork that sketched and posted as a tribute to one of his characters.

Ayame Did a commission for me Years ago.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16782759/

And DR Comet.. He and I were in communication for a long time. Even when I went to Japan to a friend of mines wedding, he offered to meet with me for lunch and stuff. Unfortunately That never happened. He was upset that people were taking his art and posting it all over. He Felt as If his artwork wasnt good enough for people to buy. :(
But he remembered me because I spent like A LOT of money when I bought 4 of his Art CDs directly from him to show my appreciation. I currently have ALL of his CDs except for 2.
He even did a commission for me (which I treasure)

Which Dr. Comet CDs are you missing? If I have them (or think I have them) I'll drill the lock and get them out of the safe. I wonder what else I put in there...

Fred Perry took all his animations down from YouTube, but folks reposted them anyway. I couldn't find anything new from him though. And yes, you're remembering correctly: he was/is primarily known for Gold Digger a comic that features several cheetah characters. I have a bunch of World of Warcraft art of his from the early 2000's or whenever WoW was new and popular.

Ken Sample rang some bells, but again, I can't find anything newer than 2010 or so. Folks just age out of the community I guess. They lose interest or their style becomes unappreciated by younger people. No one is paying their mortgage drawing everyone's FurryMUCK/Furcadia characters, after all, but VCL is absolutely full of them.

Now I feel old. 👴

Wow.. I do too.. VCL is where so many artists were back in the mid to late 90's . Years ago I looked at VCL to see the dates of some artists posts.. It shocked me that some artists havent posted since 95-96. I wonder if they changed names and are on FA now..

Honestly, I think that most people just fade out of the community. Rare are the artists that are doing this decade after decade.  kacey and  hbruton come to mind

Are they still "arting"?

Yeah, there's still new art coming from both of them

Im very glad that they both are. I just wish Dr Comet would try to message me at some point. We used to chat fairly often years ago.

Hello, do you still have the old MIDI music mp3 file from Dr.Comet's website? I remember there was a harp playing in the background. since 2002 or 2003. Sounded a bit similar to Old Runescape music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb_-O-Qubxo OSRS Varrock Music Runescape 2007

Sorry for my late response!. Ill have to go through my Old Anthrocon /Furry are Box and get those 6 CD's that I have and see about the music on them. I dont remember music playing but , Im curious now :)

Hi there DonNafaro. Thanks so much for responding to my statements about DR Comet. First I have to say that it truly is very sad and saddens my heart that as artists , such as himself, felt this way about his work and his admirers . Im so glad that I had a great correspondence with him going way back to the early to mid-2000s and 2010s . I even scraped up some money and got a commission from him (which was insanely expensive) but I believe it was totally worth it.

(as a side note -I think I might have been the first to have him commission my character which was just a cougar girl- Herm ) ^.^

As an artist myself (one of the musical composing kind) , I know the feeling of feeling like there are those who dont appreciate, or even dislike your music/art.

When people download his art , It sent a mixed message to him . I think he told me "that my work isnt good enough to pay for, but good enough to pirate" - *whimpers* :'(

I think hed remember me because of that artwork commission (msg me privately If your like to see it) and I bought a lot of his work in the past all at once.

Hell always have his true fans , his admirers and furrs out there who really really appreciate his artwork and who would support him If he needed it. I feel like I did my part by giving him the compensation that he deserved for being such a great person and artist.


Coincidentally ,My friend got married in Japan, My friend from college lived out there, my brother was stationed in Okinawa..etcetc.. it seemed that all signs pointed to going to Japan.
Dr Comet even told me that hed be happy to greet me and show me around Japan *squeeeee**
But Alas,we couldnt hook up. My time schedule was too tight and I think his was too..


Speaking of health, some of the things that he told me about his health were things I didnt fully understand (mostly because of the language barrier and .. well .. Its medical jargon) I dont want to even venture a guess because I could be way off.

Anyway, I think from others who have searched around for his work seem to think he still might be active so Im extremely grateful for that. Im always hoping hed make a comeback , though with all of this A.I. generated art, Im afraid It might force him back into obscurity, and depression and worthlessness :'(

here is a link to my (pathetic ) attempt to draw a DR COMET- like Character
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16995098/
but then again , Im an artist of a different kind.

hope we can both chat sometime!

It was playing on his old website and it's gone. :I

Vixentamer too

I have no idea...

V.

I've asked that question of a number of missing artists over the years, both here and on other sites.
Can be pretty hard to track an artist down through dry spells, name changes, and sites closing!
I seem to recall Dr. Comet's art CDs being newly available from him some time in the past decade, don't recall where though. May have been on a Japanese site or his personal site.
Yeah, looks like his personal site hasn't been updated since 2016: http://www.kurumi.sakura.ne.jp/~kemono/

Never really looked into Dr. Comet, though going through the comments there are other names I see familiar, and to ad to the list, Strider-Orion, gone and taken his art with him
Bryan Harp aka Sharky aka Jace Hyena
Karabiner I remember having an art CD, not sure what he is doing these day, I do wonder if he also went by the name BlackJackal...
Caribou, HBurton, DarkNatasha, are still around
And the list of who is and is not here with us still is so comprehensive it would take what feels like a lifetime to list them all but is nice to remember back to then.

I don't much comment or use this site anymore... but I was tracking down an artist based on an image board, and I've randomly ended up reading this journal...
I never really knew Dr. Comet, but...

I personally knew Strider, and he left the fandom pretty much entirely due to certain individuals being a bit too invasive upon his personal life.
Bryan Harp is still around and posts every few months under the name "Jace".
Karabiner is a bit on in years, these days, and isn't very comfortable with the internet anymore. As of last year(2019), he said he was leaving, and not going post anything on the internet again. I have no idea if he's still doing art, or anything, because he's been gone since last April, and did his best to remove almost all evidence that he ever existed.

Well it must mean in the case of Karabiner must be his only recent stuff because older works are still on e621, he also seemed to work with or was also BlackJackal aka Reny (Renibarak) you kept better tabs on him better than i did
Strider has done better job to cleanse the internet from his art, sad it had to happen,
still not seen Jace art too often, such is life as it is much busy.

I know this is from a year ago, but I didn't see this originally. I have a lot of Strider-Orion's stuff from way back if anyone is looking for it, though it's not well organized. I remember he had a fix on large bovines or something like that.

well be looking for a cyber unicorn has circuits running along the body, that is the art i remember the most
old posts or not finding a new art source to regain what you lost is always good.

I'll look through my gallery and see what I can find. If I see anything as you described, I'll send you a Note

I'd certainly like the Strider art if you're still up to sharing it, as I was shocked when he vanished.

I don't have it organized by artist, at least for him. I can take some time and organize it, if you like. Just send me a Note so I remember.

This whole nostalgia thread is making me cry 😭 while everyone else was playing video games or watching tv, I would spend hours poring through vcl and other furry image boards looking at furry art and these were all my favorites. So long ago! So many good memories!

Dr. Comet was selling CDs through his own site up until a couple of years ago or so.

I am almost positive my pfp was found when I was looking for Dr. Comets art when I first discovered them around 2007-8. One of those artists you wish never stopped

Considering the way how Japanese culture works, it's very likely Dr. Comet could had became a johatsu, a person who dissapeared himself from society, and trying to find him, assuming he is not dead, would be incredibly difficult, and even more so for foreigners.