I correctly identified the subspecies and was trying to figure out the artist. I knew it looked familiar, and -should- have guessed that it was Ken. He has a distinctive way of drawing weasellies.

Yay, Skiltaire! We need more Skiltaire art.

I am starting to do some archeology around the house and my shop, and I will be posting more skiltaire art as find it. If anyone has any skiltaire art that I can put in my gallery, please leves me a note.

Thanks!

Well, I did post a ton of stuff to the old World of Skiltaire site. Mike gave me permission to post 'em anywhere, so I guess I still can.

Yay I love skiltare :3
I have seen a lot of skiltaire stuff on internet, mostly by Ken Sample and some really old pictures, but the gallery(or galleries?) was canceled.

awwww n.n so cute :3 i love these guys n.n

I haven't' heard of the universe of the Other Suns RPG. whats that like?

Originally, I met some people at the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society (the oldest SF fan club around), who were playing a SF RP game (tabletop, like D & D) based on the Fantasy game Runequest. The games master wanted to know if I was interesting in playing, and if I would like my Skiltaire to be in the game.
After a few years of play-testing, the GM (Nicolai Shapero) wrote the game up and submitted it to publishers. The first publisher didn't want it, so he quickly rewrote the mechanics to avoid any copyright problems, and sold it to FGU in 1983. They hoped to sell it as competition to Traveller, but it didn't do well.
The quick rewrite left it difficult to play, though the 10 playable races (species, including humans) were unique in SFRP games, and many have attempted to reintroduce Other Suns, or just play the species in other game systems.

Ah.. so the Skiltaire race is yours? I've seen other art with them for years now and had no idea where they came from.

The universe had a federation of 10 races that, after many expensive interstellar wars, was finally at peace. They were exploring territory that was "lost" during the wars, and new areas, as well as acting like a galactic police force. The premise gave a lot of room for all kinds of player characters and game scenarios. Quite fun.

Ah the old 'get me the left-handed trans-phasic sonic-googlewotsit' joke. *chuffs in amusement*

I was five years old when this was drawn. Return of the Jedi had not come out yet.

Not often I come across furry artwork this old. If you dig up any more old gems like this, please keep posting! :)

Ok, now >this< is the oldest Coug'r art I know. I was... one. Wow.

It's one of the oldest we have. I believe the oldest original art we have by Ken is dated 1979. We have some copies of his very early art (he was a fan of the Saturday morning show Waldo Kitty) which aired in 1975. After that he got the art book "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" which was a huge influence in his dynamic pose style.