Off-off-off Broadway with Fursona Non Grata and I Was Loved By A Rat.

This week a long-overdue callout for the “for the fandom” play, Fursona Non Grata, one of those comparatively rare projects that’s directly fandom-relevant: a play about bringing a significant other home to meet the pack. I Was Loved by a Rat is a little modern fairy tale about a lonely young woman and her house-rodent. Neither is coming to a theatre near you, but both are worth a look.

And then a bunch of other stuff.

Fursona Non Grata

“A woman raised furry brings her fiance home to meet the family for the first time. Fur-larity ensues.”

Fursona Non Grata (FNG) is a two-act comedy about a young couple, a classic “meet the family” scenario, except that the family is, well, divergent. Mom and dad have a predator-prey thing happening, those mixed bobcat-zebra relationships never work out. The rest of the cast is variously genderqueer or alternative-species, leaving the young couple–Lisa and Dane–a little island of normality, until Lisa has to return to the pack to deal with a family crisis.

Skimming over the script (thank you, Reddit), the play is a banter-filled hour and a half of wacky, dense and rapid-fire, filled with family scraps, a challenging ex, and tons of one-liners and sly references, and a “why we are” monologue that’s actually pretty stirring. What’s hard to get in a reading is the “in the moment” of seeing the script as a play–Some of the characters and situations are cringe-inducing (not so different from real life in the fandom there) and it’s hard to imagine how they’d carry off on the stage.

However…however, the author is a real name in the world, the creator of American Dragon: Jake Long.  And the play is quirky, but ultimately loving. FNG is a satire of the fandom, but a warm one, and while we as a fandom may try for a veneer of normalcy when the media looks at us, we are at the end of the day fond of our running jokes and crazy shared hallucination, and if FNG is a bit of a cringe-fest (and maybe I’m a bit of a cringer), that’s because it has fun with the hallucinations.

I Was Loved By A Rat

FringeNYC is a launchpad for strange and wonderful plays and musicals. And if you happen to be able to be in New York City in August, maybe you’ll be able to catch this one. I Was Loved By A Rat is a twisted little black comedy fairy-tale about Antonia, a lonely young woman alone in the big city, and the chivalrous rat, RG, living in her walls.

Over the course of the play we move from Antonia as exterminator to neighbor to friend, and then the strange and hazardous–and ultimately tragic–space between friendship and love. RG is aging and lonely himself, looking for humanity in his life.

Unfortunately it’s hard to find to find information on this play, it’s evolved over time. But for fans of talking-animal tales and bleak comedies, it looks like a winner–and very close to goal at this point.

Art

Pin-Up Babe with an Attitude (Ends: 7/2/2013)
Fun semi-anthro, lion-headed cheesecake. Hard to explain, click and take a look.

Audio

Masters of the Tooniverse podcast (Ends: 7/1/2013)
“Two highly animated nerds seek funding to aid in their quest to create the universe’s best cartoon podcast.” Help two nerds build their recording studio for a weekly cartoon–vintage and modern–review.

Books/Print

The Moscow Metro Dogs (Ends: 6/30/2013)
An exploration (book and blog) of the complex society of the semi-feral dogs of Moscow who have–really!–learned to commute and adapt to the city.

World of Afar: An Illustrated Story Collection (Ends: 7/10/2013)
Mysterious little aardvark-like creatures in a magical, illustrated world.
Is it furry? Eh, maybe a little, but the illustrations are as pretty as stained glass, so stretch with me here.

The Howl of the Dead (Ends: 7/12/2013)
The outlines are your basic zombie apocalypse novel–asteroid strikes earth, things turn cannibal. But this one’s zombie dogs, which is worth bonus points. And, great title.

“The Incredible Hare” (Ends: 7/20/2013)
Illustrated book/ebook project: Harold Hopper, Man to Rabbit to Reality TV Show celebrity. A gentle parody of fame, and a kid-friendly book about fame and the media.

The Dragon Princess (Ends: 8/2/2013)
A princess cursed to be a half-dragon, half-human creature looks for love to lift her curse.

Children’s Products

Foxy and Quilly (Ends: 7/3/2013)
Educational animation project: the animals of the Empyrean Forest seek shelter as their forest home is invaded by big machines. Cute stuff.
Fans of South Park will know why naming your lead character “Foxy the Fox” is a bad idea.

Robot and Fox: The Amazing Journey (Ends: 7/10/2013)
Boy robot meets girl robot. They fall in love. Boy robot crashes ship on Earth, meets fox. That pretty much covers this book project. Really cute fox!
The fox’s cuteness is making me just a little ill.

The Great Safari Adventure Show (Ends: 7/13/2013)
A costumed, musical Las Vegas family production, with lots of chances for kids to get up and move. Plot: Child lost in Africa, finds magic talisman that transforms the local animals into exercise-obsessed mentors.
This would have been benefited by MORE exposure to the fandom, working through some anthro issues. Heart’s in the right place though!

Clothing/Costumes

Halo Mini Illuminated Pet Collars (Ends: 7/26/2013)
LED-illuminated pet collars with deep color and flash mode.
I know, these are for dogs. But they’d match one of my costumes!

Comics/Graphic Novels

The Lions of Valletta (Ends: 6/28/2013)
A graphic novel of cats, philosophy, and the meaning of life, with loving background detail and very charismatic cats.
Amazingly, this one reached its goal in three hours!

A Tiger’s Last Song (Episode 1) (Ends: 7/10/2013)
A graphic novel of the final days of the thylacine/Tasmanian wolf, in the talking animal-survival story genre.

The Digger Omnibus (Ends: 7/10/2013)
A dark fantasy graphic novel. Digger the wombat inadvertently digs her way into an underground world of hyenas, gods, and strange powers. A kickstarter for a bound edition of the original six-graphic novel series.
Great stretch goals and bonus items on this well-organized kickstarter!

Antarctic Press: Keeping it Cold in the Antarctic (Ends: 7/15/2013)
An ask from Antarctic Press to help restore their financial balance after some mass-distribution experiments and other financial challenges.
Before there was the Internet fandom there was Antarctic Press, makers of Albedo Anthropormorphics, Furrlough, Shanda the Panda…See also Radio Comix, who took on the furry mantle.

Kings of the Wasteland (Ends: 7/17/2013)
Action, revenge, and anthro dogs and cats in an apocalyptic wasteland

“Not Enough Rings” – A Sonic the Hedgehog Parody Comic (Ends: 7/19/2013)
A side-project of the Bittersweet Candy Bowl folks, a little romp through the wackier side of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Of course, you can already read the webcomic online, but lots of people have already made the book a success!

World War Kaiju graphic novel (Ends: 8/12/2013)
What if the ultimate weapon that ended World War II didn’t usher in the atomic age, but the Kaiju (giant city-crushing monster) age? Excellent video, great retro propaganda visuals, and bizarre immersive stretch goal toys.
“Furry” is a stretch, but there’s a lot to like here for fans of giant, Tokyo-crushing armadillos.

Film/Animation/Theater

Animals of the Urban Jungle – a Nature Documentary Series (Ends: 7/7/2013)
Animals in the cities, a six-episode web series in HD of the life and struggles of urban wildlife and their interactions with humanity. Foxes!
Plusses: It’s British, so MORE foxes. Negatives: The author did his PhD work on spiders.

SOLO Cannibal World (Ends: 7/13/2013)
One rat’s war in a post-apocalyptic word. This isn’t Redwall. Check the artist’s blog (it’s in Italian) for more art and world.
This must be the buffest rodent ever. Now I have to learn Italian.

Three Dog Night: Animated Film (Ends: 7/15/2013)
A group of revolutionaries–Wolf, Coyote, and Fox–set out to liberate the chained cats and dogs and start a pet revolution.

The Taxidermy Wonders of Walter Potter (Ends: 7/17/2013)
A documentary about the man who single-handedly made Victorian anthropomorphic taxidermy a thing.

Razor: The Hipocrisy Eating Hyena (Ends: 7/19/2013)
Comedy/horror/action about a one hyena’s crusade against lies and double-speak. Live action, animation, comedy, and a bit of splatter. And hyenas.
Watch the video on this one :)

Tikis & Mikis Show (Ends: 7/22/2013)
A quirky, animated tiger faces off with a quirky, animated alien with a disintegration ray. Fun stuff!
Check the animated shorts on YouTube.

“I Was Loved by a Rat” (Ends: 7/29/2013)
A twisted off-broadway fairy tale of a lonely woman, a chivalrous rat shut behind walls all his life, and their ill-fated love.
This theater group has launched some amazing dark comedies, I’m curious to learn more about this one, not a lot of information though…

Fursona Non Grata (Ends: 7/30/2013)
A play written for the fandom by the creator of American Dragon: Jake Long. What happens when a young woman brings her fiancée home to meet her all-furry family?
“This will be awesome if you can make it to California” seems to be a running joke in the fandom.

Solrac Ventures (Ends: 7/30/2013)
Animated short series for the bronies. Ponies: you can make it happen.
The art on this one’s pretty high quality. Pony fans should definitely take a look!

Produce Play Money (Ends: 8/3/2013)
A puppet show with, among other things, “a weasel that guzzles martinies…and explains Marxist dialectic.”
I don’t understand this one. It involves puppets, ghosts, and the afterlife.

Tabletop Games

Tonaba: The Book of Secrets Strategic Card Game (Ends: 7/7/2013)
A richly-illustrated card game focused on small decks, agency over luck, and a theme of narrative, authors, and writing.
This is a well-planned Kickstarter, with a hefty goal. Good luck!

Tech Stuff

Tanuki tails for USB devices (Ends: 7/3/2013)
With this flash drive in the shape of a faux-fur raccoon-dog tail, any USB compatible device instantly becomes a tanuki.
Where is the line between “effing BRILLIANT” and “incredibly stupid?” Is there any line at all?

Video Games

Pawtergeist (Ends: 7/1/2013)
Protect your house from a ghostly cat in this 360° gyroscopic shooter.

Goatlings: Virtual Goat Petsite (Ends: 7/7/2013)
It’s sort of “My Little Pony” meets “Neopets,” but with cute candy-sparkle goats and their human (or anthro) friends.
It’s sort of the “sparkledog” concept, but with goats. Diabetics probably shouldn’t play this game.

ElPetz (Ends: 7/10/2013)
Your basic Farmville/monster-breeder/combat mobile & tablet game, but with a weirdly cute set of monsters, particularly if you like your wolves perfectly spherical.
I’m not feeling a lot of originality here. But you get to hit your wolf with a hairbrush, so that’s something.

Fleish & Cherry in Crazy Hotel (Ends: 7/11/2013)
An isomorphic period adventure game and puzzler set in a 1930s wacky black and white cartoon. Lots of anthro characters and dancing furniture!
It’s a neat role-reversal to have the damsel save her boyfriend, but unfortunately for fox-lovers, you have to play the human :( Maybe there’ll be a fan-mod someday.

BEEF (Ends: 7/14/2013)
Now YOU play a sentient, walking mutant cow! Try to escape Meatjoy the Butcher and his abattoir of doom in this first-person survival horror/humor game.
…weirdly atmospheric.

Pooka Pets (Ends: 7/14/2013)
A cute sandbox/exploration interactive pet game featuring shape-shifting fairies. Very MLP.
Okay, maybe too many “pets” games this week. But bondage wolves and the African wild dog skin sold me on this.

Stray Cats (Ends: 7/17/2013)
Alley cats fight for food and territory in this quirky game for Android/IOS.
Not madly in love with the art or business model. Wasn’t sure if I wanted to include it, but the sketch art won me over.

Web

Batweasel: The Audacious Animated Web Series (Ends: 7/16/2013)
A loveable nerd falls victim to reality TV and becomes a terrible ass. Until he’s rescued by an evil genetically-mutated batweasel. You know, like you do.

Dustbunny Pictures Comics (Ends: 7/17/2013)
A collection of five web comics, including Popiki’s Island, gearing up for an expansion and relaunch.

Adult

Pixel Vixens on DVD: My Little Pony Cosplay Parody (Ends: 7/2/2013)
Fandom-inspired parody porn by the Pixel Vixens, who are ready to commit Rule 34 for the masses.

Neko Adventures: Real Cat Girl Porn (Ends: 7/29/2013)
DVD/web release of cat girls, free from their imprisonment on DeviantArt and sexing it up IRL. Not just for manga anymore.

Pocket Pussies: The Legend of Seven Purity Seals (Offbeatr voting period)
Zelda/Pokemon hybrid exploration/battling seizure monsters game, loaded with cheesecake pokemon, cat girls, and assorted anime-esque hotness.

…Meh.

Rat Realm: A Virtual Rat Sim (Ends: 7/16/2013): A virtual rat pet sim in development. I want to love this project but there is NO information available on it :(
“Willie the Wolf and the 3 Pig Brothers” (Ends: 8/9/2013): Children’s/YA illustrated book about bullies and coping. Points for an interesting wolf illustration or two.
Animato Anthropomorphica (Ends: 8/9/2013): A furry short film from the Bill Plimpton school of animation. I want to like this, but not a lot of love on the IGG itself :(. Try harder next time!
“Meet the Mascots!” Animation (Ends: 8/18/2013): Relaunch of the “Mascots” project, teen angst with anthro sports mascots. No change to business plan, which already failed once…

…Causes

Blue Wolf Sanctuary and Village (Ends: 7/6/2013): A sustainable community of simple houses with bed and breakfast, workshop space, etc, and a sanctuary for both wolves and humans.
Preservation of Dingo Records (Ends: 7/7/2013): Campaign to preserve archives of Berenice Walters, “The Dingo Lady,” a body of over 30 years of dingo research and preservation.
Save the African Wild Dog (Ends: 7/11/2013): Working to preserve the Wild Dog–veterinary costs, snare removal, tracking collars, research materials
Ma Pacu Meaw (Ends: 7/20/2013): Quirky live action/beatbox/stop-motion bird conservation awareness music video. Playful, fun stuff, particularly the intro video.
Sand Animals (Ends: 8/6/2013): An animated film series to teach the Armenian alphabet through animation, and teach students about animation. Simple, graceful, animated animals.

…Just For Fun

The Question Block Lamp (Ends: 7/18/2013): A glowing question mark block with a “daDING!” sound to light up your room :)
The Last Wolf of Ezo (Ends: 7/18/2013): Classic Samurai vengeance film, set in the Wild West. With a werewolf.
DUBWARS (Ends: 7/21/2013): “A dubstep-fuelled, top-down, twin-stick shooter.” Bringing wub-wubs and blasters to your mac, PC, or Android/iOS.
FurGlory: Luxury Hoodies and Laser Beams (Ends: 7/24/2013): Raver wear–fuzzy, UV-reactive hoodies that you can draw on (in a quick-fade, glow-in-the-dark sort of way). I want these to have fuzzy ears, and they don’t :(

…Coming soon?

“Otto” (pre-launch): An old-school Mario/Sonic-esque side-scroller. You’re the orb-slinging dog in a beret. Berets=love.