Yes, I will be attending FurWAG, the Australian furry convention of the west side of the country. Given that WA is the state where I grew up, graduated from medical school, learned art, made my cartoons and writings available to the international SF&F fannish community and jumped on board for the beginning of furry fandom, it’s only appropriate I return to Perth to join in the fun of these annual weekends. This will be my fourth, and I haven’t missed a single one.
The guest this year is the fabulous artist Silverfox! Go to the web site for details.
Caption Competition Sep-Oct 2016
Here is the latest competition picture. Please send in your entries for your most side-splitting captions. I don’t yet have a winner for the July-August picture, but I should be able to announce that soon!
We have a new Caption Competition winner: Dermot McAreavy!
Priceless Jenner original artwork found.
While moving house recently, a friend who had been involved in Aussiecon 2, the 1985 World Science Fiction Convention, found a single sheet of paper that he recognised as a piece of artwork I had created in 1984. It was one of the pieces I had submitted to the art show and hadn’t sold. So he returned it to me. A lot of my fannish art back then had used anthropomorphic animals, so in a sense my cartoons were known through the world SF fanzine community for their anthropomorphic animal characters at precisely the same time that (unbeknownst to me) furry fandom was in the process of being conceived by American fans with parallel likes and tastes.
This was a cartoon that was published in one of the Australian ‘zines of the time, taking a humorous look at the debated topic of the “no weapons policy” for costumes. I used my favourite personal characters – sort of commando sewer rats – as the ones to debate the point with a staff member. That was in 1984. A year later, I hopefully took it and a few others with me to the big convention Aussiecon 2, aiming to sell them all for big money in some enthusiastic bidding wars.
You’ll see from the attached bidding slip that the reserve price was $10. It didn’t sell.
Ink and Letratone on A4 paper, some damage and staining. Of vast historic value. It’s now back in my collection, and it is no longer for sale. As far as I’m concerned, it’s worth much more. I hope the potential buyers who held back are kicking themselves today.