IN-FUR-NATION Volume 2, Number 1 April, 1992
Welcome to the newest issue of the Smurf Fan Club Newsletter —
April Fool!
It’s your newszine of anthropomorphics and furries, this time featuring a special recap of ConFurence 3 from last January. But first, the news:
Images of Omaha, featuring Omaha the Cat Dancer as represented or saluted by several well-known comic personalities (like Howard Cruise, Will Eisner, and Harlan Ellison) is a benefit portfolio from Kitchen Sink Press. All proceeds go toward the Reed Waller Get-Well Fund. It should be available soon from your local comic book shop (list for $3.95), or else call Kitchen Sink at (800) 365-7465 for more information.
In the meantime, Omaha the Cat Dancer #17 just hit the stands. Available at a comic shop near you.
Old News — By now you probably know that Walt Disney Pictures’ Beauty & The Beast won the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture (comedy or musical), and then went on to become the very first animated feature film nominated for Best Picture by the Academy Awards. The film garnered six nominations total: Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Original Score, and three nominations for Best Original Song (“Beauty & The Beast”, “Be Our Guest”, and “Belle”). Though the film lost out on Best Picture (to the psycho-thriller Silence of the Lambs ), it won for Best Score and Best Song (“Beauty & The Beast”). Another Disney triumph for the songwriting team of Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman (the first was 1989’s The Little Mermaid ). To date, Beauty & the Beast has grossed nearly 130 million dollars.
Meanwhile, Walt Disney Pictures’ re-released its 1987 feature The Great Mouse Detective (now re-titled The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective ). The film quickly rose to the number seven position on the national film charts for a week or more. (At that time, Beauty & The Beast had a hold on the number four position.) And on that note, we’ve recently been informed that the soundtrack to Mouse Detective (by none other than the great Henry Mancini) has been released on Varese Sarabrand [?] Records.
Another animated feature just released is Don Bluth’s belated Rockadoodle. It concerns a magical rooster named Chanticleer, who is distracted from his duty of calling up the sun every morning when he becomes a famous pop singer.
Recently released on tape is American Tail 2: Feivel Goes West, which features the voices of veteran actor Jimmy Stewart and Monty Python alumnus John Cleese.
Another country heard from! The ecological-themed animated feature Fern Gully…the Last Rainforest,has just been released by Twentieth Century Fox and FAI Films. It is directed be Bill Kroyer, who was nominated for a academy award for animated short in 1989 (Technical Threat), and worked as animation director on Animalympicsand Tron. The film stars the voice talents of Tim Curry,Smantha Mathis, Christian Slater, Johnathan Ward, Robin Williams and Grace Zabriskie,with music by Alan Silvestri. The story, based on the writings of Diana Young, involves a young man working for a logging company who is magically transported to the world of fairies who protect the Austrailian rainforest, Fern Gully. The film was produced jointly by studios in the U.S., Denmark, the U.K., Korea, and Thailand.
Rod O’Riley of ConFurence is compiling a song book of filk songs with a furry/anthropomorphic theme. This will include the four winning filk songs from each of the past ConFurences. Contact Rodney at the ConFurence address for more information.
Issues of Touch #2, featuring adult-oriented fantasy stories and art, are still available for $5.00 plus $2.00 postage and handling, made out to ConFurence (and sent to P.O. Box 1958, Garden Grove, CA 92642-1958). Featured stories by Watts Martin, Frank Gembeck, Ann Franchi, and Jefferson Swycaffer; with art by Sample, Smith, Gembeck and more!
Errata: In the last issue of In-Fur-Nation, we mistakenly referred to Reed Waller and Kate Worley as husband and wife. They are not. We humbly apologize to Reed, Kate, and their friends for this oversight on our part.
Blatant Plug: Looking to advertise a product of interest to the anthropomorphic fan? Like to get your name of 500+ interested people quick and easy? Why not put an ad in In-Fur-Nation ? Reasonable Rates! Just contact us at the ConFurence address for more information on ads and inclusions.
ConFurence Three Aftermath Report
Once more we break our own records. ConFurence Three (January 24-26, 1992, Anaheim) had a total membership of over 300 people, of whom 275 were in attendance. We outgrew our own hotel, and made a killing at some others in the neighborhood. Again we saw the premiere of several new issues of furry comics and publications, even if their respective creators couldn’t join us. Our special guests list, art show, and dealer’s room grew yet again. Even Artist’s Alley was fuller than before. We had furries in attendance from all over the U.S.A., Canada, and even Europe! The watch-word of the convention was — “A blast!”.
Special Guests –>
Though several of our usual guests could not join us (due to their presence in France), our impressive guest list at ConFurence Three ran to not only our special guests (Chuck Melville, Taral Wayne and Dave Garcia), but also the likes of: Juan Alphonso; Bill Fitts; Ken Fletcher (Vootie ); Mel. White (Duncan & Mallory ) and her fellow Barr Wars-er Scudder Kidwell; Jefferson Swycaffer (plus other writers and artists from The Furkindred collection); Jymn Magon and Mark Zaslove from Walt Disney Television; animators like Garret Ho (Tiny Toons ), Mike Kazaleh (Might Mouse ), Dave Kuhn (Tasmania ), and Noah Miller (The Simpsons ); Fan writer Watts Martin; the Yarf! crew, and a host of well-known fannish artists including Ken Sample, Terrie Smith, Steve Martin, Lia Graf, Brian Sutton, Jerry Collins, Mark Wallace, Tracy Kazaleh, Zjonni Perchalski, John Nunnemacher, Jimmy Chin, ETC, Etc, etc…
–> And Once Again Our Special Thanks
to our Sponsors, who helped to fly and feed and house our special guests. These special folks were: Mick Collins, Richard Falkner, Don Fitch, Steve Gattuso, Pete Glaskowsky, Darren Hanson, Jo Kellner, Jeremy Kidd, Walter A. Lyzohub Jr., John Merchar, Ken Nielson, Mark J. Paul, Michael Ray Reed, and Jerry Shaw. Tail fluffs to the lot of you!
<– To Those Who Came Through In A Crisis –>
That is, our tireless Gopher Squad. The likes of Frisbee, Jo Kellner, Pamela Kelley, Tim Fitelson, Jeremy Kidd, Kelly XX, Vicky XX, Jeff Singleton, Tom McDaniel, and Boyd S. Thanks a lot folks!
–> So Here’s What Happened <–
[dot] Meetings of the Furry Minds
Our well-known round-table format SIG meetings were well attended and thoroughly enjoyable. Among the most popular were the interactive computer/virtual reality SIG (the FurryMUCK Hugfest! Hugfest! Hugfest!), the Furotica SIG (actually featuring some male furotica this time!), the Furkindred SIG (with most of the artists and writers in one place!), the TaleSpin SIG (aka the Jymn Magon and Mark Zaslove appreciation fest), and of course the ever popular Costume SIG (with a parade of furry toons, furry aliens, dragons, and durn near everything else!). The Costume SIG had so much good stuff that we had people begging us to start awarding first and second place prizes for costumes. Well guess what…
[dot] Our Video Festival
Once again our video theater gave ConFurence a sampling of popular animated titles like TaleSpin , Darkwing Duck and Tiny Toons ; some unusual Japanese Anime like Dominion , Capricorn and the ever popular My Neighbor Totoro ; and some truly unusual items like Red Dwarf and Jim Henson/Disney’s Dinosaurs. Our thanks once again to Jim Lomax, Jerry Shaw and Henry Brown Jr. for their help and guidance!
[dot] Your Art Show of Shows
Once again the ConFurence Art Show was filled to capacity, and sales were brisk. (Recession? Vas recession?) Over XX artists displayed their 2-D and 3-D artwork, and yet another sales record was set by the Sunday Auction and the show overall. Once again our thanks to 21st Century Comics in Orange for helping set up our credit card system; and thanks to John Stanley, Larry Adams and their whole Art Show crew for their tireless efforts.
^ She Danced Her Tail Off… v
Shortly after we first learned of our friend Reed Waller’s illness, “Omaha” Sternberg (wife of Elf Sternberg, well-know fannish writer) approached us about a special benefit to help Reed through his time of need. As she is officially permitted by Reed Waller and Kate Worley to use the Omaha moniker, she wanted to present a modern, exotic dance performance as Omaha the Cat Dancer, with proceeds to go to Reed and Kate. And oh what a show she gave! Nearly two hours of solid dancing and rhythm and lights, in make-up and costume and with her own tail yet! And the audience loved it. Now, if you missed the show, or if you want to re-live fond memories, we’re offering a special VHS video tape of Omaha’s entire performance for only $17.00! (All proceeds going to the Reed Waller fund). Please state that you are 21 or over with your order — there’s some tasteful nudity in this show. And, by popular demand — we’ll be having another charity dance show at ConFurence Four, with even more dancers!
v The Kitty Funds v
In addition to the show, ConFurence put out receptacles for charitable donations not only for Reed Waller, but for former guests Monica Livingston and Deal Whitley (who are also dealing with hefty medical expenses). People responded in droves, raising several hundred dollars for each of the recipients. (One person put a check for over $300.00 in each of the kitties! Our heartfelt thanks go out to each and every single contributor!
<–> Contests! We Got Contests! <–>
The winners of the annual ConFurence contests (voted, as always, by the attendees) were:
For Best in the Art Show: “Roses on the Mountaintop” by Susan Van Camp.
For Best Costume: Toron and Panthris de Catsblood, constructed and modelled by Larry Adams and Rachel Tucker.
For Best Furry Filksong: “Seventh Blade” by Christina Hanson.
And once again, we’re On The Move…
CONFURENCE FOUR — IN SEARCH OF ANCIENT FURRIES
For our fifth outing, a celebration of mythical beasties and other anthropomorphs in ancient times and legends, we’re moving our facilities — back, in a sense.
Our new hotel is the beautiful Red Lion Inn, Orange County Airport in Costa Mesa, just across the street from the site of ConFurence Zero and One. Red Lion Inns are famous with fandom for their service, and the Red Lion Orange County is truly a wonder. We have one entire floor of meeting rooms to ourselves, plus a special larger room for our charity dance show, and a special lounge on the “executive” level for use as our Con Suite. And all this for the price of rooms at ConFurence One!
In addition we’ll be bringing you more —
Special Guests from the worlds of furry stories, art, comics, animation, fanzines, and fandom!
SIGs dedicated to our special theme, celebrating gryphons, dragons, unicorns, pegasi, centaur, satyrs, and even old Coyote himself! As well as our computer SIGs, art SIGs, and the return of our popular “species SIGS”, each dedicated to a different favorite animal type!
Plus our ever-popular Costume SIG, now featuring your votes for first and second place prizes!
Art in the form of a gigantic Art Show, our Sunday Art Auction, a print-and-poster shop, our big Artist’s Alley for those just starting out, and of course lots of discussions with those in the biz themselves!
The Dealers’ Room brings you comics, fanzines, T-Shirts, calendars, books, original art and tons of other stuff for the well-supplied furry!
Computer discussions, BBS presentations, virtual reality presentations, computer animation, and the inevitable parts exchange…
Games like Justifiers, Werewolf , Other Suns, Toon, T.M.N.T., and whatever else the crowd wants to do all night.
Filk Songs at the Filk Contest, and singing through the night.
Here’s a re-cap of the Important Points:
ConFurence Four:Fri/Sat/Sun, January 22-24, 1993
Our Venue:Red Lion Inn, Orange County Airport
3050 Bristol St., Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(Near South Coast Plaza Mall)
Reservations: (714) 540-7000
Rooms:$65/night, Single/Double
$75/night, Triple/Quad
$85/night, Executive Level
(includes breakfast and other
special perks)
Suites available. Call for information.
Memberships:$20.00 Attending until 12/01/92, $25.00 after
$30.00 after 01/15/93 (at the door)
$17.00 Special Pre-Reg for former members
(with your membership number, please!)
$10.00 always for Supporting Memberships
(receive all mailings and souvenir book)
Sponsors:$20.00 or more above membership price
(receive access to the guest/sponsor lounge and a
special sandwich fest on Sunday)
SUPER Sponsors:$100.00 or more above membership price
(receive all the stuff of a regular sponsor, as well
as a special commission from a well-known furry artist!)
Art Show:One 4 ft. by 4 ft. space included FREE with every
membership. Additional spaces are $5.00 each. (Please
write to John Stanley c/o ConFurence to reserve your art
space ASAP!)
Dealers Tables:$50.00 for one 6 ft. by 3 ft. table
(includes two memberships)
Additional tables available for $20.00 each
$30.00 for one 3 ft. by 3 ft. half-table
(includes one membership)
So write us today! Get your membership! Reserve your hotel room! Be a sponsor, or even a Super Sponsor! Get your Art Show or Dealers’ Room reservation!
Come see why we call this the Biggest Furry Party Around!
Your ConFurence Committee is: Mark Merlino, Rod O’Riley, John Stanley, Larry Adams, Shayn Raney, Henry Brown Jr., James Lomax, and Waverly Pierre.