Mark and Rodney may have proved a con for furries could happen, But you and Reed literally started it.

Thank you. We just knew from fan-history that we could help produce a 'starting point'.

Looking back, we both knew 'furry/funny-animal' fans were already happening, from funny animals published in mainstream comics, independent comics, and underground comics. And even in mainstream media (animation features). We saw some of the sf fans and comics fans (and many fan artists) starting to slip critters into their pro and fan artwork. We knew that we could start part of a small-scale path of providing communication among the fan & semi-pro artists. (In those pre-web times.)

I know I was focused on the fan cartoonists sharing more art & communicating, even though the readers and fans and writers existed and were also starting to communicate their interest in 'furry' characters. I didn't start to 'see' the larger furry fandom until after the convention parties started to happen in the 1980s. Those parties and social events were also part a tribute to the art, but rapidly became about writing, socializing, costuming, web-chat role-playing... And becoming local events, getting together outside of conventions. And the local events were open to general 'furry' fans, and encouraging them to also be creative contributors to their social group.

Thank you very much for donating your extra issues of Vootie to the Prancing Skiltaire library.
Changa is starting to scan them for our archives, preserved for fur-ture generations.

Thank you. You are welcome.

Surprised you didn't comment on that fourth paragraph. Describing SJW's 40+ years before they became a thing :D

Quite an historical document there... Aaaah, those pre-net times................

Yes, pre-net. We both knew some of the history of the USA science fiction fandom & comic book collectors fandom. The postal zine (semi-newsletter) was a low-cost way of communicating even nation-wide for special interest groups. But it was really small scale (100 copies was a large zine distribution.) But perhaps it would find the right people....

What we half-way expected did happen: Cartoonists would put a copy of the Vootie apa-zine out on a table during a party. The fans of the interest did discover that other furry cartooning fans existed... and could be a social group. We helped give them a social vocabulary.

So many of these artists, having seen a zine with their interest, would start their own zines. And perhaps watch for similar artists at the fan conventions. And they did.

We had guessed this would happen anyway, because the fan-style interest in critter-comics had started to appear in the USA culture by 1970. We decided to be among the first to assist in a start-up in 1976. But 'furry fandom' has become much wideer, open, and more complicated (and more creative) than I certainly expected. Much more than onl "funny animal cartoonists" as fans.

I knew back in the early 1970s (thanks to the writing and reviews by Fred Patten) that European comic creators and readers were already much more of a sophisticated culture in reading 'critter art', and accepting that it could also be an adult interest, instead of being entertainment only for children. (One of the semi-secret social restrictions in 20th century USA culture).

Ha ha, yes, in those times, people with "special interests" knew how to actively search, sometimes hundreds of miles away from their home (or more), instead of typing behind a screen. Moreoften, the meeting between the "producers" and the "consumers" was a pure question of luck anyway, luck and a lot of patience... But because the material was rare, many "consumers" were then sooner or later becoming "producers" in a way or another, either by discovering their own talent in drawing or writing, or by advertising or entering and supporting a group that then grew up from really highly motivated people.

I lived the same kind of thing here in France with japanese animation, discovering remote and hidden shops (libraries or model kits places), contributing for a long time to the biggest, longest-living and finally first to become professional magazine about it. Having an interest in it but without having much material that helped me put a name and a label on it (although you nailed it, we have quite a tradition on the anthropomorphic thing in Europa! But no community of specialized lovers in that matter until very recently), I discovered the furry world much later, that was then even more restricted than the japanese stuff although it was already quite developped in the US.

I know how proud I am to have given my contribution to these two worlds in France back in those "dark" (but so much happier at each new discovering) days, so I can imagine how you can be proud of your own action,and I encourage you not to minimize it because of modesty or anything.

Thank you for this testimony!!!

You are welcome! You well understand, and you have well-experienced the events and the fan-cultures.

Many of the people at the real start of the furry-fandom (in the region of Los Angeles), also began (as you describe) as part of that searching culture. As science fiction fans in the late 1950s, comic book collectors in the late 1960s, and also anime searchers in in the 1970s. They had learned the patterns of what could happen socially -- with the long-distance searching, communication, and within the creativity local groups.

You relate that the European furry groups may have seemed later to find (or form) than in the USA.... but I would guess that would be only because the interest of the anthropomorphic cartoon fans was already much more accepted within the graphic album fan-community in Europe.

I do not minimize very much for the the feeling of modesty. It may be for my hubris of believing I was playing a character in an Isaac Asimov novel... perhaps "Hairy" (or "Furry") Seldon?

Ah, those were the days!

And it wasn't just sharing viewing sketchbooks! It was also xeroxing pages from sketchbooks!

The part about "funny vegetable/mineral/Machine" is interesting, cus I wouldn't have considered those related to the furry fandom. (The "funny mineral" part is especially amusing considering the popularity of Steven Universe... you guys really where ahead of your time, wheren't you?) But it makes sense, and come think of it, I have seen a few machinesonas and "object-head"-fans lurking around here.

It is difficult to remember details, and everyone is going to have their own legitimate experience with the history.

That being said, while there were actual furry fans much the same as they are today, most all of the lively fan activity was centered on the cartoons, graphics stories, cartoon settings, and character drawings -- by the fan artists. Very few of the fan artists at that time would have one personalized persona or role-playing character (or totem avatar). They might have a favorite character that they would use in stories, but would not often use the character as a personal 'alter-ego'. The cartooner-fans' models were professional cartoonists... who would do cartoon characters to order for a client, or maybe construct dozens of characters for a comic strip story.

So the reference in 1976 (to funny vegetable/mineral/machine) was mostly to the subject matter of the contributed cartooning, but using the character 'identity' as a code to talk about that. If we insisted on having only "funny-animal" comic strips contributed, we knew that (for 'fun') many of the cartooners would start slipping "funny anthropomorphs" into the stories. Funny robots. Funny carrots. Funny lava. As long as the cartooning was 'funny' (and that could be 'funny, as in alternative') then these strange cartoon characters were OK with the editors.

That's not to say that 'furry-style' personas did not exist in 1976. They did exist, but they weren't often subject of attention. Some pro and fan cartoonists did have personal characters that were alter-ego characters. There were some in newspaper comic strips that were supposed to be the cartoonist. There was an sf fan cartoonist, Johnny Chambers, who was also drawing himself as The Little Green Dinosaur. Other fan artists might do that. 1976 was also half-past hippie-time. I know some of the cartoonists did have their own personal dream-time character...but that was usually more in the background, or kept private, for private role-playing. I'm sure private personas have been going on for 100s and thousands of years.

By 1976, fantasy role-playing had also started as a cultural phenomena. If you think about it, this started introducing thousands of game players to the idea of constructing a character and playing inside them. While one game player might experiment with dozens of different characters, they might learn the skills of acting in character. They might also choose to return to playing a favorite.

I don't know if the net is responsible for there being fewer apas now, but it is definitely easier to find whatever you want instead of feeling isolated.

I think the net has a strong influence, just for the possibility of faster interaction & response. I don't know if that is 'good' or 'bad'. Finding people of similar specialized interests can be easier now.

But maybe we won't be satisfied with finding kangaroo-drawing cartoon fans... we'll hold out until we can find left-handed farsighted kangaroo-drawing fans from West Lansing, Minnesota....

Oooooh, modern history fun time! Thanks for posting these! (Both here on FA, and way back then in the "dark ages"! )

Thank you. There may be a couple of more to come.

this is so cool this is literally so freaking cool

Thank you! You've shared a very pleasant complement. ☺ I think that Reed & I were mostly contacting amateur (and some pro?) cartooners that were already active in some of fandoms that were growing in the 1970s (sf, zine, animation, comics collecting). We guessed that some of the readers would be very happy to be reminded that their "funny-animal cartooning" interest could also be the focus of fan social groups. We guessed that cartooning-fans would be tolerant of seeing a message that was also silly/satirical: A bit of Monte Python, and satires of political posters or earnest pamphlets for cultural change.