TEN HUT!
At ease…
Welcome to ConFuernce 7! After 8 years we have become sort ofa tradition. In October of 1995 another convention dedicated exclusively to everything furry shared our name and much of the same traditions that started at Furry Parties all over the U.S.. Similar gatherings were attended in the United Kingdom and some are being planned in Europe and Japan. It seems that our particular fascination knows no ethnic or geographic borders. Our challenge will be to continue to keep ConFurence the example to everyone else interested in organizing a gathering for Furry folk. We want to be known not only as the first, but the best of the very special family of Furry conventions.
This year once again our main venue is the Atrium Hotel at Orange County Airport. Though their name keeps changing ( Airporter Inn, Airporter Garden Hotel, Atrium Marquee, and finally Atrium Hotel at O.C. Airport) their support and excellent service to ConFurence continues. Our population increase has demanded more and more function space and sleeping rooms. The Radisson Plaza Hotel, the Atrium’s next-door neighbor provides much needed “growing space”. Our art show moves back into one larger room, and the Fur Le Dance Cabaret show moves into a real nightclub environment, both at the Radisson. These moves allow the expansion of our den of dealers, a larger video theater, and a larger meeting room to handle bigger events. More importantly, the two hotels will give us room to expand in the future, so ConFurence may never have to leave the Atrium, the hotel that over 3 years has become almost as furry as we are!
Furries in Force!
Our theme this year is one that is certainly obvious even to casual comic fans. Anthropomorphics seem to make better soldiers, space marines, cops, gumshoes, cow-persons, warriors, thugs, bandits and spies then boring, normal human types. Those who believe that genetic research may some day actually create intelligent animals, recombinant human-animals or outright new sentient life forms have often speculated that the funding and impetus for such projects would mostly likely come from somewhere in the military industrial complex. Who can say if it will happen, or if it may already have… as long as we create Furries, some of them will always be “where the action is”!
Our Distinguished Guests
This year we are proud to welcome Frank-Kelly and Laura Freas as our artist guests of honor. Frank- Kelly is one of the pioneers in Science Fiction and Fantasy art and has been actively creating works of wonder and delight for over 60 years! He and his talented wife will provide an Artists Workshop for some of our interested artistic members.
Author Andrew S. Swann has written several popular novels in a dark future universe populated by recombinant animals called “Moreaus”, one of which is a Bengal tiger private investigator who graces the cover of this publication, thanks to the talents of Roz Gibson. His work has help define the new genre of Cyber-fur and his pioneering efforts will undoubtedly lead to more enjoyable fiction in the future.
It would be difficult to find a Furry fan who doesn’t know Amy the Squirrel. (or who wouldn’t want the chance to get to know her, and her endearing friends) Fewer fans have met the genius behind this perky “icon” (pun intended), Eric Schwartz. His wonderfully clever and often hilarious computer animated cartoons have won many awards in the Amiga Computer user community. Additionally, his animated-cartoon styled cute and sexy art prints are some of the most sought-after in Furry fandom.
Michael Higgs, Eric Schwartz’s good friend and an excellent artist also ceased the Kendari, the handsome centaur-like fox species which helped fuel the interest in these uniquely styled creatures that are practically an exclusive in Furry fandom.
In addition to our Guests of Honor, we are proud to welcome our other guests, some who have been with us since the beginning and some who are first-timers this year. We hope you enjoy meeting our guests, and we hope they enjoy ConFurence 7, and will attend future ConFurences, where ever they might be.
Joining our mascot Sydney Fisher ( the first female 007 ) this year is Atruim Marquis, the European ferret and his gerbil major-domo, Radisson.
And, Now a word from our Sponsors…
It is unique to ConFurence that we have Sponsor and Super Sponsor memberships. These people donate additional money over their normal membership to help us put ConFurence on. ConFurence does not make a profit, and costs continue to increase every year. The need for more function space, increases in food service, guest travel and accommodation expenses would force us, like many other fan organizations, to raise the membership fees. Due to the generosity of our sponsors, ConFurence membership rates have never been raised. We would like to thank every one of our sponsors listed below, as well as the people who will become sponsors after this publication has been sent to the printer. Hats off to you all!
1996 SuperSponsors (aphabetical order)
Scott Alexander, Brian Antoine, Ralph Atwood,
James Birdsall, Eric-Alexander Bitton, David Bliss,
Gary Breuckman, David L. Broadwell, Michael T.
Danaher, David Ewell, Rick Farnsworth, Steve
Gattuso, Amanda Geyer, John Geyer, Roz Gibson,
Pete Glaskowsky, Chad Glidden, Rich Griffin, William
Hass, Michael Hackett, Brock Hoagland, Mark
Iennaco, Ron Johnson, James P. Kelley, David E.
Klinkler, Robert Larson, Charlie G. Lee, Richard
Lewis, Kim Liu, Bruce A. Lolley, Sean Malloy, Jeff
Mancebo, Jacob Markow, Drew Maxwell, Paul P.
McNutt, David Meacham, Dennis Messer, Craig
Muckey, Matthew R. Muench, Ron Orr, John
Pennington III, Christopher L. Pesi, Dennis R.
Peterson, Deon Ramsey, Gary Renaud, Robert J.
Repas Jr., Jonah E. Safar, Mark L. Severson, Charles
E. Terrell Jr., Richard F. Thatcher, Phil Thomson, Tom
Traubitz, John Van Stry, Lance Videen, Bruce Wilhite
1996 Sponsors
Earl P. Bacon, Walt Bakes, Stephan Bartels, Steven
Bornstein, Thomas G. Brady, Anthony C. Brewer,
Richard Brooks, R. Cody Buchmann, David
Buttenshaw, Joshua Carpman, Jeff D. Castle, Kevin
Dong, Bernard Doove, James Drew, Romano
Eberwein, Don Fitch, William A Green, Willian
Haskell, Gerrit Heitsch, Jeffrey Scott Jonas, Robert
C. King, Ashley Kitto, Steven Lang, Walter A.
Lyzohub Jr., Charles Nezzer, Colleen Polak, Paul
Polak, Roy D. Pounds II, Jim Rauscher, Keith Steiger,
Brian R. Thomas, Gary Wells, John C. Williams, Paul
Williams
Irvine, CA
Our Staff
ConFurence could not happen without the valuable work of our Directors and Staff. Below is a list of many of them. If you happen to meet one of them, let them know you appreciate their efforts as much as we do!
Directors: Mark Merlino, Facilities / Logistics; Rod
O’Riley, Program / Dealers; Jazmyn Concolor,
Membership / Records; Sky Rigdon, Support; Shayn
Raney, Staff Liason
Publications: Mark Merlino, Rod O’Riley, Jazmyn
Concolor, Sky Rigdon, Dean Hellerud, John Stanley
Art Show: Viky Levitin, Lead; Sheri Mount, Second;
Tim Fitelson; Dennis R. Peterson, Jazmyn Concolor,
Records.
Registration: Karl Maurer, Co-Lead; DeWayne
Stuart, Co-Lead, Kay Shapero, Den Mother;
Johnathan Hartman, Jay A. Long, Daniel J. Torres
Information: Chaz Baden
Security: Tom McDaniel, Co-Lead; Zsanene
Klinkler, Co-Lead, James Patrick Callicot, Co-Lead,
Dawn Britt, Steven Bornstein, Beth Finck
Fur Le Dance Club: Mark Merlino, Manager;
Debbie Sternberg; Dancer Coordinator; Mark
Tennaco, Stage Lead, Lisa Iennaco, Support Lead;
Amanda Guyer; John Guyer; Lynn Kurtz; Christine
Armstrong; Michael Armstrong; David Klinkler,
Lead-FurRave; Avi Melman, USDA Inspector
Event Video: David Bliss, Lead; Jazmyn Concolor
Daily Newsletter: Brian and Lori Henderson, Co-
Leads.
Video Program: John Cawley, Lead
Gaming: Kurt Miller, Lead
General Support Staff: William Arnold; George F.
Chaney III; Derrick Dasenbrock; Stephanie DaSilva;
Robert K. Davis; Mark Freid; Dennis Mott; James P.
Mullen; Charles Nezzer Jr.; Ken Nielsen; Damon
Otoshi; Rob Powell; Gary Renaud
Atrium Hotel: Daniel Monnet, General Manager;
Doreen Skuse, Director of Sales; Caro Aguilar,
Meetings; Trisha Wall, Catering
Radisson Plaza Hotel: Yair Elder, General Manager;
Linda Amato, Director of Sales; Laura VanWinkle,
Sales Manager; Marsha Moore, Convention Manager
Printing: Metropolitan Printing, Costa Mesa, CA.;
Staples, Garden Grove, CA.
T-Shirts: Eric Schwartz, Design; Printing: RaSport,
Anaheim, CA.
Frank Kelly Freas
A Who’s Who biograpee, Frank Kelly Freas is recognized as the most prolific and popular science fiction artist worldwide. Author of three published books of his own illustrations, Freas was the first in his genre to make his works available as prints. He has been publishing his prints for over twenty years, and continues to do so today, with his 1991 limited edition collection.
Freas was the first to receive ten Hugo Awards (he was nominated twenty times). In addition to his work in science fiction, he was the cover artist for Mad Magazine for seven years. An official NASA mission artist, his space posters hang in the Smithsonian. His commissioned design for the Skylab 1 crew patch became the focus of his his article and his cover painting for Analog Magazine of Science Fiction/Fact.
Freas’s original paintings hang in museum, university, and private collections. One of his most numerous assignments was his commission by the Franciscans to create all 500 portraits for their Book of Saints.
Kelly Freas’s career extends from Astounding and Planet Stories magazines through current clients in science fiction, gaming, motion pictures, conceptual medical illustration, and advertising. He and his wife, Laura, jointly won the 1990 Chesley Award from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists for their painting, The Scribe, judjed Best Magazine Cover of the Year. In 1991 Kelly Freas was installed into the National Hall of Fame of the National Association of Trade and Technical Schools. Also in 1991 he received the Readers’ Poll Award from Analog for Best Cover of the Year.
Laura Brodian, Ph.D. (AKA Laura Freas) began her professional career as Interim Director of the Indiana Arts Commission, later as engineer, host and producer opf classical music radio programs at WFIU-FM, Bloomington, Indiana. She moved to KQED-FM in San Francisco, then on to KUSC-FM in Los Angeles where she hosted the nationally syndicated classical music program Music Through the Night for American Public Radio Network. Currently she announces the in-flight classical music programs for Delta Airlines, as well as hosts a weekend classical music program live over radio station KKHI, 100.7 and 100.9 FM, in San Francisco.
Anillustrator in her own right, Laura runs Kelly Freas Studios, where she is in charge of marketing, scheduling, merchandising, contracts, finance, and publicity. Her first nationally published illustrations appeared in Weird Tales, Analog, MZB’s Fantasy Magazine, and in special editions for the Easton Press. A co-recipient of ASFA’s Chesley Award in 1990, she has since been nominated again three times.
A former Director-at-Large of the costumer’s Guild West, Laura has won prizes at convention masquerades, including WesterCon. She founded the (San Francisco) Bay Area English Regency Society, and for two years was President of the Southern California Early Music Society. Laura recently completed her second term as Western Regional Director of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists.
J. ANDREW SWANN
S. Andrew Swann was born Steven Swiniarski in Olean, New York, but has lived most of his life in the Greater Cleveland area. He began writing at an early age, borrowing typewriters from his parents as early as elementary school. He wrote his first complete short story around the age 13. (An incomprehensible Lovecraftian piece with thankfully got it out of his system.) He spent an inordinate amount of time in Junior High and High School trying, unsuccessfully, to get his short story published. He entered College at the same time he decided that he was better off trying to write a novel. He wrote a fantasy epic as he did undergraduate studies in physics and worked as a lab assistant at Cuyahoga Community College. Swann refers to that 150,000 word opus as a “learning experience.” He continued through College, still writing, and transferred to Cleveland State to work toward a degree in mechanical engineering.
Forests of the Night was written while he was a full-time student, and working third-shift at a Jewish bakery in Cleveland Heights. It was based on an unsold short story with a best-forgotten title which he’d written in 1984. Forests of the Night was his first sale, and on the strength of selling it and it’s two (then yet unwritten) sequels, it only took two quarters for Swann to withdraw from his classes and decided to write full time. Swann is now 29, living in Shaker Heights, and still writing full time.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Published works by S. Andrew Swann:
The Moreau Series:
Forests of the Night (DAW Books Inc., July 1993)
Emperors of the Twilight (DAW Books Inc., January 1994)
Specters of the Dawn (Daw Books Inc., August 1994)
The Long View “Amazing Storiesâ€, Winter 1995
The Hostile Takeover Series
Profiteer: Hostile Takeover One (DAW Books Inc., April 1995)
To be Published:
Partisan: Hostile Takeover Two (DAW Books Inc., December 1995)
Revolutionary: Hostile Takeover Three (DAW Books Inc., July 1996)
ERIC SCHWARTZ
Eric Schwartz was born in Kettering, Ohio on November 27, 1971. He grew up much like any other suburban kid at that time, with the possible exception that her drew incessantly, to the annoyance of many of his teachers. (One tried to break the habit by forcing Eric to draw non-stop through a detention period, presumably on the assumption he would tire of it – it didn’t work.) Luckily, through High School, Eric found instructors willing to encourage a budding artist. HE further trained in his craft at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio. From High School through College, Eric produced short animation’s as a hobby with the aid of various Commodore Amiga computers, and showed them off as freely distributable software. A year or two later, someone contacted Eric, talking about how the animal cartoon characters he created were “furries” and how Schwartz himself was a “furry” as well. Naturally, Eric told this person he was full of crap and went on about his business. The fact that he started going to conventions and selling art to the fandom is just incidental.
Video tapes of Eric’s animated cartoons and other neat stuff is available. Write to him for details.
Eric W. Schwartz
E.S. Productions
P.O. Box 292684
Kettering, OH. 45429-0684
MICHAEL HIGGS
Born February 22nd, 1967
Michael has been involved in one way or another in the genre of furry fandom for nearly ten years. His first ever seen piece of fan-art can be found in the letters column of the anthology title Critters, published by Fantagraphics Books.
Micheal went on to put his art in various small-press fanzines, such as Furversion and the Hugo-elligible Centaurs Gatherum. On occasion he has even been known to send his art to the Bestiary as well. Michael dropped out of the big picture a couple of years ago, working on his style and building his confidence.
Michael is currently working on several projects, most notablely his own first real comics title, Elite. He is also doing inking on titles such as John Nunumacher’s Fox Gordon, and doing a lot of work on a title called Wild Frontiers, being co-illustrated by M. Sonoda and written by Todd Starr. Michael is also currently doing the layouts and intial pencils for Lia Graf’s Guardian Knights series.
Michael is a professional salesman by trade, working in the plastics and packaging industry. Some of his other hobbies include his activities with the Confederate Air Force, a nationwide group dedicated to the restoration of WWII aircraft, and his participation in the DCM program as a compitition shooter. Michael has just earned his marksman’s certificate from the US Government, qualifying as a sharpshooter with military rifles.
Michael is also an eligible, single guy, who is looking for a young lady to spend his free time with… any takers???
Looking Back: 10 Years of Furry Parties
by Rod O’Riley
It began like many interesting parts of science fiction fandom, at a convention where people were bored. The convention was WesterCon 1985 in Sacramento, California, and the people were Mark Merlino (Sy_Sable) and myself (Vinson_Mink).
WesterCon at the Red Lion Inn that year was actually fairly interesting, and even had an interesting setting. The hotel had been dubbed ‘the wooden spaceport’ for it’s interesting layout and architecture, and featured such odd touches as a huge glass-with-lights pillar/sculpture that we dubbed ‘the central power core’.
The Art Show and Masquerade were both impressive that year too. But, truth be told, much of the con itself was starting to feel like a lot of been there, done that. I’d been going to cons for about five years, and Sy had been a regular for nearly fifteen years, and try as we might it just seemed difficult to generate much enthusiasm for what seemed like so much familiar programming. And at night, it was worse: Except for high-pressure bidding parties, the con suite, and maybe a late night screening of a movie or anime, there was quite literally nothing to do during the night at a con, and this one was no exception.
Then, perhaps because he was feeling similarly after years of SF conventions, Sy’s friend Sheldon Linker (he of Linker Systems, now makers of fine animation software) approached us with an interesting concept: Why not have a free-form party in his hotel room, show our video copy of ‘Animalympics’ which we had with us, and have show-and-tell with our various collections of fannish art. What’s more we’d invite any con goers who had an interest in amateur art, animation, and the like. Okay, great idea, we thought. Now what to call the party? Lacking a better idea, we named it after our fannish household and called it ‘The Prancing Skiltaire Party’.
It went off rather well. Steve Gallacci (of Albedo), who was a regular dealer at WesterCon, even dropped by for a short while, and the party-goers who hadn’t seen ‘Animalympics’ before seemed impressed.
Fast forward one year, to WesterCon 1986 in San Diego – Halley Con, named for the comet’s return that year. Similar situation to the year before, though that year Sy was a speaker on an interesting panel regarding the new idea called ‘furry fandom’.
The panel had several speakers, each of whom was to present different ideas on what ‘furry fandom’ might be about:
Real animals, classic funny animals (represented by Fred Patten, later to be the editor of the funny animal fanzine Rowrbrazzle), _anthropomorphics (represented by Sy and Steve Gallacci), and plushies (represented by Bruce Pelz, complete with some of his personal collection in tow. What a hoot!). Later that evening, we again found ourselves in the same what-to-do-tonight position, and the idea of a furry party came to mind.
Now, since its inception in 1983, Rowrbrazzle had held reception parties for it’s members at the annual San Diego Comic Convention, but those were pretty much exclusively for members, and their weren’t really enough of them present at this WesterCon to have a proper party. So again, the idea was raised to have an open party for anthropomorphic artists and their fans, or just plain anybody who was interested. We had a good selection of artists at the con: Ken Sample, Christine Lampe (ne’ Markel), Steve Gallacci, Steven Martin, Terrie Smith, And Ed Kline were all on hand.
We set up the party in our room and put out the word. Looking again for a title, we hit off from the title of the earlier panel discussion and called it a ‘Furry Party.’ People came… and people liked it.
Can’t say many of them understood it, but they liked what they found when they got there! And Sy and I began to get the feeling we might be on to something there…
Over the next year, we experimented with holding Furry Parties at other Conventions along the West Coast; LosCon, BayCon, San Diego Comic Con, and so forth. People continued to find us, some of them more than once… and two interesting phenomena started happening.
One was people walking in, looking around in amazement and saying, “What, you mean there are other people into to this sort of thing?”. The other was people who, maybe not at their first Furry Party but maybe at their forth, would sneak out a portfolio of drawings and say, “You know I’ve never shown this stuff to anyone, I most drew it for myself but… what do you think?”. Often, what we thought was the ‘stuff’ was just great, and we made sure to tell the artists so!
The Furry Parties continued to grow over the next year, as we had unkowningly begun to ‘shake the trees’ and give furry fans a place to gather and meet one another.
The one-year anniversary at WesterCon 1987 in Oakland grew so crowded it was dubbed ‘Das FurryParty’, and the growth would eventually require us to move the Furry Parties to function rooms as they had simply outgrown the average hotel sleeping room.
At some of the smaller conventions we attended, it literally felt as though the Furry Party was bigger than the con itself!
It didn’t take long at all before the Furry Parties began to expand beyond the two of us and our friends, as word of furry fandom began to grow and grow.
At the 1987 BayCon Furry Party in San Jose, one Fellow whom none of us knew mentioned that he was interested in starting a furry fanzine, and asked us each for our addresses. “Sure, sure,” we all said, rather brushing it off, as we’d all heard of many fannish projects of that ilk that never got off the ground.
Well, that fellow turned out to be Karl Maurer and the fanzine turned out to be Furversion, which over the next few years would lay the groundwork for Yarf! and a whole slew of furry fanzines and APAs to follow it.
Toward the end of the 80’s, fan attending conventions that we couldn’t attend for time or money reasons began to get in touch with us and seek out advice for running there own Furry Parties, and soon enough the parties began to turn up and SF cons all around the country, and even around the world.
By 1989, we had met enough of furry fandom through the Parties and the fanzines, computer networks, and so forth that Sy and I began to talk about the possibility of starting up a specialized SF/Media convention dedicated to anthropomorphics.
But by now, you’re probably familiar with that story…
CONFURENCE 7 WHO’S WHO
Here’s a fast guide to some of the well-known types you’re liable to see wandering about the halls at ConFurence Six. Our Guests of Honor, S. Andrew Swann, Frank Kelly Freas, Eric Schwartz, and Michael Higgs, are profiled in detail elsewhere in this book.
Steve Addlesee is an artist, inker, and staple on the ‘zine scene, and probably one of the only people in America to start his own fan club!
Alicia Austin is a well-known illustrator of books, inside and out, as well as a creator of prints and greeting cards. She was Guest of Honor at ConFurence 5 in 1994.
Darrel Benvenuto is head of Med Systems Company, publishers of The American Journal of Anthropomorphics, Jack, and other furry titles.
Mitchell Biero is a freelance artist whose works have been seen in The American Journal of Anthropomorphics and in Tower Records stores throughout the southland.
E.T. Bryan is Elizabeth Bryan, who self-publishes (not to mention draws and writes) the black & white comic Gremlin Trouble.
Jose Calderon and Daphne Lage are, respectively, the writer and artist on the black-and-white comic Zall Tails from Golden Realms Unlimited. Jose is also the writer on Dream Weavers and other titles from GRU.
John Cawley is an author and animation historian, co-author (with Jim Korkis) of such books as Cartoon Confidential and The Animated Films of Don Bluth.
Jimmy Chin rose up through the ranks of cartoon fandom, and has now become an inker (and sometimes penciller too!) on such black-and-white comics as Buffalo Wings and Furrlough from Antarctic.
Carole Curtis is the writer of Katmandu from Venus Comics (Antarctic). Her new project is an adult adventure title, Nautilus, which will again feature art by Terrie Smith and Mark Barnard. She is also wife to Mike.
Mike Curtis is the writer (and sometimes artist) of the Shanda the Panda comic, as well as a long-time collector of Superman rarities. He is also husband to Carol.
Jeff Ferris, Kris Kreutzman, and Lance Ruud are collectively the group which began Yarf!, one of the longest-running currently-available furry fanzines.
Bill Fitts is all over the place in indy comics; his work has been seen in Hamster Vice, Furrlough, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, among many others. As of recently, he’s a dad!
Steven Gallacci is the editor of Albedo and the writer, artist, and creator of its most famous inhabitant, Erma Felna, EDF. Credited by many with bringing SF to furry comics and vice versa.
Roz Gibson is the writer and artist of Escape to New York, (in Furrlough from Antarctic Press) featuring the killer Jack Salem and his violent world of anthropomorphs and humans.
Dean and Lia Graf are, respectively, the writer and artist on the Guardian Knights comic, as well as frequent collaborators (with cach other, and outside help) on numerous furry comic projects.
Jim Groat is the creator and editor of Red Shetland and Equine the Uncivilized, and a frequent helper on other comic projects. He’s also recently a dad!
Paul Kidd is a recently published novelist (Mus of Kerbridge) who’s known in furrydom as the author of the Albedo Role-Playing Game, and the Zank Vixens comic.
Ed Kline and Kishma Danielle have been known around furry and SF fandom for their intricate costume work and masks.
Michele Light has become known for both her furry and anime-style art prints. Recently she’s been an artist on issues of Shanda the Panda and Katmandu.
Monika Livingstone has been an artist, inker, and/or cover-artist on a large number and variety of comic books and fanzines; as well she’s a famed t-shirt artist and general airbrush wizard.
Jymn Magon was producer and sometimes writer on Disney TV’s popular Jail Spin show. More recently he scripted Disney’s surprise hit, A Goofy Movie.
Jane Mailander is a recently published SF author, with short stories in Zomorrow Speculative Fiction, Isaac Asimov’s Magazine, and the werewolf SF anthology Tomorrow Bites.
Steve Martin is a prolific freelance artist whose works have been seen as the covers of comics, fanzines (e.g. American Journal of Anthropomorphics) and children’s magazines (Radio AAHS).
Chuck Melville is currently the top editor at MU Press, a spot he worked up to as the creator of Champions of Katara and the creator/editor of The Furkindred.
S.E. Mills is the creator, writer, and artist of Yendie Wildcritter, the publisher of Yendie Books, and a well- known figure on the ‘zine scene in her own right.
Lex Nakashima has been the editor and guiding hand behind several furry comics (like Fusion and Xanadu), as well as starting up fanzines dedicated to universes behind those comics.
John Nunnemacher has been a familiar face in fanzines for some time, and more recently has had his own black-and-white comic, Buffalo Wings, published by Antarctic.
Joseph and Trish Ny: He’s an artist, and she’s currently the guiding hand behind ConFurence East, the second regular furry convention in America.
Fred Patten has been a fannish historian and obscure comic collector for many years, though now he’s perhaps best known as the editor of Rowrbrazzle, one of the longest-running furry APA’s.
Michael Payne has had several short stories (often with furry themes) published in Isaac Asimov’s Magazine. He also has a weekly radio show on the air at local KUCI.
Steve Plunkett is making a name for himself in furry fandom as a maker of (and performer with) fine furry puppets.
Dusty Rhodes is writer and artist of The Hywayman comic, a print maker, and an inker on several comic projects with himself and friends.
Joe Rosales is the creator and lead writer of Wild Life for Antarctic Press, as well as a frequent artist for that title and other black-and-white comics.
Mike Sagara started as the creator, writer, and artist for Hey Neeters, and has since applied his artistic talent such comics as Shanda the Panda, Tank Vixens, and Little Oz Squad.
Carlos Saldana is the creator, writer, and artist of Burrito, Jack of All Trades from Accent Comics.
Dan Seneres has illustrated several underground and independent comics, often in collaboration with Bill Fitts.
Ted Sheppard is the creator, writer, and artist of Stosstrup, one of the longest-running titles in Antarctic’s comic anthology Furrlough.
Terrie Smith is an illustrator whose works have been seen in a wide variety of comic books and fanzines, as well as in her many commissions and art prints. She was also Guest of Honor at ConFurence Five.
Brian Sutton has been an artist and editor with Antarctic Press, and his work has also been seen in many comics and fanzines.
Jefferson P. Swycaffer is a science fiction author with more than nine books to his name, including Web of Futures, Warsprite, and Voyage of the Planetslayer.
Diana Vick and Mike Raabe are frequent contributors and artists for various comic titles from MU Press.
Edd Vick began as the top editor at MU Press, and has since moved on to head up MU’s sister imprint, Aeon Press.
Mel. White is perhaps best known as the artist for The Adventures of Duncan and Mallory, a trio of graphic novels she created with writer Robert Asprin. She is also a fixture in the ‘zine scene.
Tommy Yune is the writer, artist, creator, and computer wiz behind Buster the Amazing Bear.
This list includes only a few of the special people attending ConFurence 7. If you or someone you know would like to be included in this listing for next year, please contact us at our electronic or regular address.