Pixel Scroll 1/16/18 You Were Scrolling As A Pixel In A Sci-Fi File When I Met You

(1) VAN GELDER AUCTION BENEFITS PKD AWARD. Norwescon announced that Gordon Van Gelder, administrator for the Philip K. Dick Award, has put 18 sff books up for auction on eBay, including several first editions and signed editions (and some signed first editions), as a benefit for the award’s administrative fees. The Philip K. Dick Award, is presented annually to distinguished science fiction books published for the first time in the United States as a paperback original. The award ceremony is held each year at Norwescon.

(2) SECOND TAKE. Strange Horizons got some pushback about sexism in Adam Roberts’ review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and has now supplemented the original with an edited version —

Editor’s note: This review has been edited to remove sexist commentary about Carrie Fisher. The original version of this review can be read here. For additional background, please see this Twitter thread.

(3) TRUE GRIT. The BBC reports on “Transport Scotland’s fleet of gritters and their gritter tracker”. Contractors Bear Scotland ran competitions to name the various vehicles, and what roads they’re covering can be viewed online.

Thanks to social media, Transport Scotland’s fleet of light-flashing, salt-spraying kings of the road have become a bit of a sensation.

Followers have been glued to their screens following the roads authority’s Gritter Tracker.

They were surprised to find out the vehicles had humorous names like Sir Andy Flurry, Sir Salter Scott and Gritty Gritty Bang Bang….

The force was with the people of Ayrshire during Tuesday’s snow flurries, their roads were being protected by Luke Snowalker.

Along with strong snow-slaying names like the Ice Destroyer, Snow Queen and Ice Buster, more unassuming gritters like Fred, Jack and Frosty have also been out and about keeping the country moving.

Not forgetting Sprinkles, Sparkle and Ready Spready Go.

(4) ANOTHER HORRIFIC LESSON. Chloe N. Clark continues the excellent Horror 101 series with “Surrounded by Others–Anatomy of a Pod Person” at Nerds of a Feather.

As a child, two of my earliest film-related memories are watching the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and watching the John Carpenter version of The Thing. In both, what stuck with child me was the depiction of a monster who not only could be anyone, but also could be someone that you think you know so well: your crewmate, your friend, your lover. This early exposure to these two films led to a longtime obsession with pod people (which the Thing is not technically, but I’m extending my definition here to any monster who can appear in the exact visage of someone you know and trust). As a child, there was a visceral terror to the idea, because the world was one I trusted. As an adult, while I don’t think pod people are likely, they still strike a certain fear because the concept at the heart of pod people’s terror-making is very much real. In this edition of Horror 101, I’ll be diving into the anatomy of a monster (a thing I’ll do occasionally in this series).

(5) ABOUT THAT VENN DIAGRAM. Sarah at Bookworm Blues was caught up in a kerfuffle yesterday, and analyzes the underlying issues in “On Twitter and Representation”.

While most of the comments I received yesterday were displaying the righteous indignation I’m still feeling, there were a handful of others that made their way to me through various means that said something along the lines of, “I just love reading SciFi and Fantasy. I don’t pay attention to the gender of the author.” Or “Does the gender of the author even matter?”

Comments like that bother me about as much as, “I don’t see your disabilities.” Or “I don’t see color.”

As much as I don’t want to be defined by my chronic illness, or my disabilities, they absolutely are part of who I am, and by refusing to see them, you are, in a way, refusing to see me. You’re only seeing pieces of me. Not seeing my disability doesn’t make it go away. Putting me in a box will limit the reaches of my work, rather than expand it.

In another example, women tend to get paid less than men here in the good ol’ US of A, and not seeing the gender roles in that situation, is refusing to see the problem.

Representation matters. It matters for a hell of a lot of reasons. It is important to show young kids everywhere that they can be, do, accomplish whatever they set their minds to. Seeing disabled characters in literature normalizes disabilities in important ways. It provides education to those who might need it. It also gives me someone I can relate to in the books I read, and that right there is absolutely priceless.

This graphic that I posted yesterday doesn’t just have a dearth of female authors on it, but it also lacks any people of color, disabled authors, LGBTQ authors and basically any minority group at all. It’s a list of white male fantasy authors…

and Robin Hobb.

This is important because, I get pretty fed up with women authors putting out work that’s just as good, if not better, than their male counterparts and not getting equal recognition for it. This isn’t a Divide and Conquer thing, it’s a We’re all in it Together thing. Someone’s effort shouldn’t be seen or overlooked based on any of their minority or majority qualifiers. The fact that when asked for a list of fantasy authors the first ones someone gets are white male, says a whole lot. And the truth is, I think this inequality is so ingrained in our culture that it really isn’t even noticed until something like this happens. Maybe we don’t mean for this to happen, but in a way, the fact that this happens without malice or intent makes it just that much more insidious.

Women have basically cleaned the clock in the past few Hugo Awards, and where are they on charts like this? One of the most awarded, celebrated authors in our genre today is N.K. Jemisin, a black female fantasy author, and she deserves recognition for her accomplishments, but where is it in a list like this, and why in the world didn’t her name come up when someone was polling Twitter for fantasy authors? Nnedi Okorafor is getting her book Who Fears Death turned into a television show, and I’ve seen her name, her image, herself routinely cut off from many articles. Namely, when Vice News tweeted about this deal, and the graphic that followed wasn’t of the author who wrote the book, but of George R R Martin, and the book cover….

And today an alternate version is making the rounds –

(6) JACKET. Neil Gaiman’s cover reveal for the U.S. paperback.

(7) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • January 16, 1939 — The comic strip Superman first appeared in newspapers.
  • January 16, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager premiered.

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY

  • Born January 16, 1948 – John Carpenter celebrated his 70th birthday today – no matter what you may have read. Entertainment Weekly caught the competition’s mistake in listing him as deceased.

Happy birthday John Carpenter! Rotten Tomatoes has some bad news…

The mega-popular film review aggregation site mistakenly declared veteran film director dead Tuesday in a since-deleted tweet.

The 70-year-old horror icon is very much alive, though RT seemed to have a different impression when it honored the Halloween and The Thing director’s birthday…

(9) SEARCHING FOR A SIGN. Further Confusion was held this past weekend in San Jos and they have lost track of a convention icon —

(10) CATAPOSTROPHE. Apparently Kazakhstan is switching from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet, and the result is loaded with apostrophes, so the words look like they came from a bad SF novel. The New York Times has the story: “Kazakhstan Cheers New Alphabet, Except for All Those Apostrophes”.

In his 26 years as Kazakhstan’s first and only president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev has managed to keep a resurgent Russia at bay and navigate the treacherous geopolitical waters around Moscow, Beijing and Washington, keeping on good terms with all three capitals.

The authoritarian leader’s talent for balancing divergent interests, however, suddenly seems to have deserted him over an issue that, at first glance, involves neither great power rivalry nor weighty matters of state: the role of the humble apostrophe in writing down Kazakh words.

The Kazakh language is currently written using a modified version of Cyrillic, a legacy of Soviet rule, but Mr. Nazarbayev announced in May that the Russian alphabet would be dumped in favor of a new script based on the Latin alphabet. This, he said, “is not only the fulfillment of the dreams of our ancestors, but also the way to the future for younger generations.”

…The modified Latin alphabet put forward by Mr. Nazarbayev uses apostrophes to elongate or modify the sounds of certain letters.

For example, the letter “I” with an apostrophe designates roughly the same sound as the “I” in Fiji, while “I” on its own sounds like the vowel in fig. The letter “S” with an apostrophe indicates “sh” and C’ is pronounced “ch.” Under this new system, the Kazakh word for cherry will be written as s’i’i’e, and pronounced she-ee-ye.

(11) ON TONIGHT’S JEOPARDY! Rich Lynch says the game show Jeopardy! included an Asimov clue in the first round of tonight’s episode, mentioning the Hugo Award. The returning champ got it right!

(12) WHERE’S THE BEEF? Astronaut John Young, who recently died, once got in trouble for smuggling a corned beef sandwich on a space mission.

Gemini 3 had several objectives, from testing the effect of zero gravity on sea urchin eggs to testing orbital maneuvers in a manned spacecraft, which would aid the future moon landing. But another imperative was to test new space foods. Grissom and Young were sent up with dehydrated packets that they were meant to reconstitute with a water gun.

According to Young’s biography, “A couple of congressmen became upset, thinking that, by smuggling in the sandwich and eating part of it, Gus and I had ignored the actual space food that we were up there to evaluate, costing the country millions of dollars.” The House Appropriations Committee convened to mull over the sandwich incident, and one representative even harangued a NASA administrator, calling the sandwich stunt “just a little bit disgusting.”

Young was given a reprimand, the first ever for a member of a NASA space flight. He eventually regretted smuggling the sandwich into space, especially as the story came up over and over. But Grissom remembered it as “one of the highlights of the flight.” Grissom himself was in hot water for nicknaming Gemini 3’s spacecraft Molly Brown after the musical “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” (Grissom’s first space flight ended with his capsule sinking into the ocean after re-entry.) Grissom forced irritated NASA administrators to back down after he suggested the name “Titanic” as an alternative.

(13) STARGAZING. From the BBC, “Hubble scores unique close-up view of distant galaxy”.

The Hubble telescope has bagged an unprecedented close-up view of one of the Universe’s oldest known galaxies.

Astronomers were lucky when the orbiting observatory captured the image of a galaxy that existed just 500 million years after the Big Bang.

The image was stretched and amplified by the natural phenomenon of gravitational lensing, unlocking unprecedented detail.

Such objects usually appear as tiny red spots to powerful telescopes.

(14) RATS ACQUITTED! New simulations show “Black Death ‘spread by humans not rats'”.

“We have good mortality data from outbreaks in nine cities in Europe,” Prof Nils Stenseth, from the University of Oslo, told BBC News.

“So we could construct models of the disease dynamics [there].”

He and his colleagues then simulated disease outbreaks in each of these cities, creating three models where the disease was spread by:

  • rats
  • airborne transmission
  • fleas and lice that live on humans and their clothes

In seven out of the nine cities studied, the “human parasite model” was a much better match for the pattern of the outbreak.

(15) RARE CASES. BBC considers “The mystery of why some people become sudden geniuses”. Chip Hitchcock notes, “Readers of old-time SF may recall H. L. Gold’s ‘The Man with English.’”

But until recently, most sensible people agreed on one thing: creativity begins in the pink, wobbly mass inside our skulls. It surely goes without saying that striking the brain, impaling it, electrocuting it, shooting it, slicing bits out of it or depriving it of oxygen would lead to the swift death of any great visions possessed by its owner.

As it happens, sometimes the opposite is true.

After the accident, Muybridge eventually recovered enough to sail to England. There his creativity really took hold. He abandoned bookselling and became a photographer, one of the most famous in the world. He was also a prolific inventor. Before the accident, he hadn’t filed a single patent. In the following two decades, he applied for at least 10.

In 1877 he took a bet that allowed him to combine invention and photography. Legend has it that his friend, a wealthy railroad tycoon called Leland Stanford, was convinced that horses could fly. Or, more accurately, he was convinced that when they run, all their legs leave the ground at the same time. Muybridge said they didn’t.

To prove it he placed 12 cameras along a horse track and installed a tripwire that would set them off automatically as Stanford’s favourite racing horse, Occident, ran. Next he invented the inelegantly named “zoopraxiscope”, a device which allowed him to project several images in quick succession and give the impression of motion. To his amazement, the horse was briefly suspended, mid-gallop. Muybridge had filmed the first movie – and with it proven that yes, horses can fly.

The abrupt turnaround of Muybridge’s life, from ordinary bookseller to creative genius, has prompted speculation that it was a direct result of his accident. It’s possible that he had “sudden savant syndrome”, in which exceptional abilities emerge after a brain injury or disease. It’s extremely rare, with just 25 verified cases on the planet

(16) KEVIN SMITH’S RATIONALE. Sebastian Paris, in “‘Star Wars’: Kevin Smith Weighs In On The Backlash Against ‘The Last Jedi’” on Heroic Hollywood, says that Smith, in his Fatman on Batman podcast, says that one reason many fans were disappointed with The Last Jedi was that they expected Luke Skywalker to be like Obi-Wan Kenobi and were disappointed when he turned out to be someone else.

(17) 2017 IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR. Rich Lynch’s 19th issue of My Back Pages [PDF file] is now online at the eFanzines.com website:

Issue #19 absolutely deplores the undearly departed 2017 as one terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year, and has essays involving historic mansions, convincing re-enactors, subway cars, Broadway shows, urban renewal, pub food, deadly duels, famous composers, iconic catchphrases, tablet computers, 1930s comic books, noir-ish buildings, foreboding edifices, unpaid interns, jams & singalongs, storm warnings, ancient palace grounds, Buddhist temples, worrisome fortunes, sushi adventures, retirement plans, and lots of Morris Dancers.

(18) MUNDANE COMMERCIALS, WHAT ELSE? Should you run out of things to watch, there’s always this collection of Dos Equis “The Most Interesting Man In the World” ads – at least 8 minutes worth.

(19) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Richard Williams–Animating Movement is a piece on Vimeo by the Royal Ocean Film Society that describes the techniques of the great Canadian animator whose best known work is the Pink Panther and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, IanP, JJ, Chip Hitchcock, Greg Hullender, Martin Morse Wooster, Rich Lynch, ULTRAGOTHA, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jack Lint.]

2015 Ursa Major Award Nominations Open

Image by EosFoxx

Image by EosFoxx

By Fred Patten. The 2015 Recommended Anthropomorphic Reading List is now closed.  Nominations for the 2015 Ursa Major Awards opened on January 14, the first day of Further Confusion 2016. The awards will celebrate the best anthropomorphic literature and art first published during 2015, the previous calendar year.

The awards are selected by a two-stage process of nominating and voting. Members of the public send in up to five nominations in each of the eleven categories. The top five nominees in each category (more in case of a tie) are then presented on a final ballot for a public vote.

The eleven categories are: Motion Picture, Dramatic Short Work or Series, Novel, Short Fiction, Other Literary Work, Graphic Novel, Comic Strip, Magazine, Published Illustration, Website, and Game.

Many nominations are likely to come from the 2015 Recommended Anthropomorphic Reading List, which has been built up through prior recommendations. However, inclusion on the List is not necessary for nomination if a work is otherwise eligible; first published during January to December 2015.

Nominations take place between January 14 (the first day of Further Confusion 2016) and February 29. The nominations will be tallied between March 1 and March 14. The final ballot will be announced on March 15, and voting will take place until April 30. All those who send in nominations will be registered as eligible to vote on the final ballot. Those who did not nominate but wish to vote on the final ballot may register to do so.

The voting will be counted, the winners’ trophies prepared, and the results will be announced at the UMA awards presentation at a ceremony at What The Fur 2016, at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, Pointe-Claire, Montreal Airport, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on May 20-22.

The Ursa Major Awards are administered by the Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association (ALAA). For information, and to nominate beginning on January 14 and to vote beginning on March 15, go to http://www.ursamajorawards.org/.

The final 2015 Recommended Anthropomorphic Reading List is:

Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture

  1. Absolutely Anything (Directed by Terry Jones, released on August 14)
  2. Blinky Bill the Movie (Directed by Deane Taylor et al, released on August 21)
  3. Boonie Bears: Mystical Winter (Directed by Ding Liang and Liu Fuyuan; released on January 30)
  4. The Good Dinosaur (Directed by Peter Sohn; released on November 25)
  5. Hotel Transylvania 2 (Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky; September 21)
  6. Inside Out (Directed by Pete Doctor and Ronaldo Del Carmen; June 19)
  7. The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar (Directed by Howy Parkins; November 22)
  8. Minions (Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda; June 11)
  9. Monster Hunt (Directed by Raman Hui; July 16)
  10. A Mouse Tale (Directed by David Brisbano; February 10)
  11. The Peanuts Movie (Directed by Steve Martino; November 6)
  12. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (Directed by Paul Tibbitt; January 28)
  13. Shaun the Sheep the Movie (Directed by Mark Burton and Richard Starzak; February 5)
  14. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Directed by JJ Adams; December 14)
  15. Ted 2 (Directed by Seth MacFarlane; June 26)
  16. Two by Two (Directed by Toby Genkel and Sean McCormack; April 9)

Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work or Series

  1. Adventure of a Lifetime (Directed by Max Whitecross; November 27)
  2. An Object at Rest (Directed by Seth Boyden; May 1)
  3. The Casebook of Nips & Porkington (Directed by Melody Wang; May 23)
  4. Cosmos Laundromat (Directed by Matthew Auvray; August 10)
  5. Danger Mouse (Directed by Robert Cullen, Season 1 episodes 1-16; September 28 – December 16)
  6. Mercedes-Benz Fable (Directed by Robert Stromberg; January 26)
  7. Furry Force 3: Furry Superheroes are the Grossest (Directed by Richard Duhaney; July 17)
  8. Katy Perry halftime show Super Bowl XLIX (Directed by Hamish Hamilton; February 1)
  9. Harvey Beaks (Created by C.H. Greenblatt, Supervising Directors Derek Evanick & Diana Lafyatis; Season 1, March 29 – November 15)
  10. L’Americano Returns (Directed by Ricky Renna; April 24)
  11. Littlest Pet Shop (Directed by Joel Dickie and Steven Garcia, Season 3 Episode 17 to Season 4 Episode 9, January 3 – December 26)
  12. The Muppets (Directed by Randall Einhorn & Matt Sohn; episodes 1.0 to 10, July 21 – December 8)
  13. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Directed by James Thiessen, Jim Miller, and Denny Lu; Season 5 episode 1 to Season 5 episode 26, April 4 – November 28)
  14. Ram’s Horn (Directed by Jenna Hamzawi; April 27)
  15. Slack: Animals (Directed by Smith & Foulkes; December 29)
  16. Stay As You Are (Directed by EZ Wolf; August 22)
  17. Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit (Directed by Wesley Louis; June 24)
  18. Tales of Zale, Chapter 1 (Directed by Sif Perlt Savery; Jan 29)
  19. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Directed by Alan Wan & Chad Van De Keere; season 3 episode 9 to season 4 episode 4, January 11 – November 15)
  20. Tiger’s Eye (Directed by Alexander Shaw; episodes 1 to 25, May 13 – October 29)
  21. Under the Apple Tree (Directed by Erik van Schaaik; September 24)
  22. Wackatdooo  (Directed by Benjamin Arcand; March 23)
  23. We Bare Bears (Directed by Manny Hernandez; Season 1 episode 1 to episode 25, July 27 – November 19)
  24. Why Do Furries Exist? – A Fur-real Look at the Fandom (Directed by Gnoggin; June 12)
  25. Zootopia Official Teaser Trailer (Disney, no director credit; June 11)
  26. Zootopia Official Trailer #1 (Sloths) (Disney, no director credit; November 23)

Best Anthropomorphic Novel 

  1. Within the Hollow Crown, by EO Costello. (Furaffinity; December 14)
  2. The Painted Cat, by Austen Crowder. (Argyll Productions; May 9)
  3. Swallowtail and Sword: The Scholar’s Book of Story and Song, by H. Leighton Dickson. (CreateSpace; April 30)
  4. Learning to Go, by Friday Donnelly. (Jaffa Books; May 3)
  5. Valium & Vodka, by Duxton. (SoFurry; May 15) Mature Audiences.
  6. Heart Behind the Mask, by N “Karmakat” Franzetti. (Smashwords; May 4)
  7. Griffin Ranger, Volume 1: Crossline Plains, by Roz Gibson (FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
  8. Uncovered, by Kyell Gold. (24 Carat Words; September 1) Mature Audiences.
  9. Early Byrd, by Phil Guesz. (Legion Printing and Publishing; June 28)
  10. Either Side of the Strand, by M.C.A. Hogarth. (Studio MCAH; May 6)
  11. MoonDust: Falling from Grace, by Ton Inktail. (Ton Inktail; December 1)
  12. GeneStorm: City in the Sky, by Paul Kidd. (Kitsune Press; May 19)
  13. GeneStorm, Book 2: Fort Dandelion, by Paul Kidd. (Kitsune Press; November 23)
  14. The Vimana Incident, by Rose LaCroix. (FurPlanet Productions; February 20) Mature Audiences.
  15. In a Dog’s World, by Mary E. Lowd. (FurPlanet Productions; July 9)
  16. Rat’s Reputation, by Michael H. Payne. (Sofawolf Press; July 9)
  17. Off Leash, by Daniel Potter. (Fallen Kitten Productions; July 12)
  18. Mort(e), by Robert Repino. (Soho Press; January 20)
  19. The Echoes of Those Before, by James Daniel Ross (Copper Fox Books; May 13)
  20. Lost on Dark Trails, by Rukis. (FurPlanet Productions; January 15) Mature Audiences.
  21. The Long Road Home, by Rukis. (FurPlanet Productions; July 9) Mature Audiences.
  22. Thousand Tales: How We Won the Game, by Kris Schnee. (CreateSpace; June 5)
  23. Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard, by Lawrence M. Schoen. (Tor Books; December 15)
  24. Tiger’s Eye, by Alexander Shaw. (Amazon.com; November 5)
  25. Chasing the Phoenix, by Michael Swanwick. (Tor Books; August 11)
  26. Tinder Stricken, by Heidi C. Vlach. (Heidi C. Vlatch; May 23)
  27. A Different Perspective, by Bernard Doove. (CreateSpace; November 17)

Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction

  1. The Darkness of Dead Stars, by Dwale. (in The Furry Future, FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
  2. Thebe and the Angry Red Eye, by David Hopkins. (in The Furry Future, FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
  3. A Private Escape, by Kandrel. (in Heat #12, Sofawolf Press; July 15) Mature Audiences.
  4. The Dragon Tax, by Madison Keller. (in A Menagerie of Heroes; A Rainfurrest Anthology; September 24)
  5. All the Cats of the Rainbow, by Mary E. Lowd. (in The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, FurPlanet Productions; September 24)
  6. Cold Tail and the Eyes, by Mary E. Lowd. (in The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, FurPlanet Productions; September 24)
  7. Danger in the Lumo-Bay, by Mary E. Lowd. (in Inhuman Acts, FurPlanet Productions; September 24)
  8. Feral Unicorn, by Mary E. Lowd. (in Luna Station Quarterly #24 (December 1)
  9. Hidden Feelings, by Mary E. Lowd. (in Daily Science Fiction, November 25)
  10. Lunar Cavity, by Mary E. Lowd. (in The Furry Future, FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
  11. Shreddy and the Carnivorous Plant, by Mary E. Lowd. (in The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, FurPlanet Productions; September 24)
  12. Shreddy and the Dancing Dragon, by Mary E. Lowd. (in The Dragon’s Hoard; June 4)
  13. Songs of Fish and Flowers, by Mary E. Lowd. (in Lakeside Circus, Year 2, Issue 1; March 15)
  14. Ernest, by Lyn McConchie. (in ROAR volume 6, ed. by Mary E. Lowd; Bad Dog Books, July 9)
  15. Edward Bear and the Very Long Walk, by Ken Scholes. (in ROAR volume 6, ed. by Mary E. Lowd; Bad Dog Books, July 9)
  16. Crepuscular, by Clement Sherwin. (Self, May 2015)
  17. Pocosin, by Ursula Vernon. (in Apex Magazine #68; January 6)
  18. Tow, by Watts Martin (in The Furry Future, FurPlanet Productions; January 15)

Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work

  1. Other Earth, Other Stars, by Marian Allen. (Per Bastet Productions, short story collection; September 1)
  2. Rikki Venix Does New York City, by James L. Brandt. (Second Ed, illustrated short story collection; September 1) Mature Audiences.
  3. The Wild Piano, by Fred. (TOON Books, graphic album; May 5)
  4. Rescued: The Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes, ed. Janiss Garza. (FitCat Publishing, anthology; January 26)
  5. The Book of Lapism, by Phil Geusz. (Legion Publishing, collection; May 13)
  6. Last of the SandWalkers, by Jay Hosler. (First Second, graphic novel; April 7)
  7. Furries Among Us: Essays on Furries by the Most Prominent Members of the Fandom, edited by Thurston Howl. (Thurston Howl Publications, essay anthology; July 4)
  8. The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, by Mary E. Lowd. (FurPlanet Productions, collection; September 24)
  9. ROAR Volume 6, edited by Mary E. Lowd. (FurPlanet Productions, short story anthology; July)
  10. The Furry Future, edited by Fred Patten. (FurPlanet Productions, short story anthology; January 15)
  11. Review of Bête by Adam Roberts, by Fred Patten. (Dogpatch Press; April 28)
  12. Inhuman Acts: A Collection of Noiredited by Ocean Tigrox (FurPlanet Productions, short story anthology; September 24)

Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story

  1. Ask King Sombra, by Jordan “Wiggles” Mullaney. (Internet (Tumblr), January to December)
  2. Beatriz Overseer, by Walter “Chochi” Gomez. (Internet, January 10 to November 18)
  3. Chevalier: The Queen’s Mouseketeer, by Darryl Hughes and Monique MacNaughton. (Internet, January 7 to August 12)
  4. Code Name: Hunter, by Darc Sowers (Issue 21, Page 15 – Interlude page 4)
  5. Druids, by Amocin. (Internet, January 2 to December 28) Mature Audiences.
  6. Endtown, by Aaron Neathery. (Internet, January 1 to December 30)
  7. The Eye of Ramalach, by Avencri. (Internet, January 10 to December 31)
  8. Follower, by Bugbyte. (Internet, January 13 to December 31)
  9. Guardians of the Galaxy volume 3, by various. (Marvel Comics, issue 21 to issue 27)
  10. Howard the Duck volume 2, by various. (Marvel Comics, issue 1 to 5)
  11. Kat-Venture and the Terror of Xibalba, by Mark A. Smith and David Whamond. (Lulu, November 25)
  12. Knuckle Up, by Mastergodai. (Internet, January 23 to November 21)
  13. Lackadaisy, by Tracy J. Butler. (Internet, Lackadaisy Congregation to Lackadaisy Inspiration)
  14. Metazoa, by Peter Marshall Smith, artist Sandy Brion Spreitz. (Comixology, book 1 to 2)
  15. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magicby various. (IDW Publishing; Issue 1 to 5, April 1 – April 29)
  16. My Little Pony: Friends Foreverby various. (IDW Publishing, issue 13 to 24)
  17. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, by various.  (IDW Publishing, issue 27 to 38)
  18. Night Physics, by Austin Holcomb. (Internet (Tumblr), January 15 to December 19)
  19. Oren’s Forge, by Teagan Gavet. (Internet, November 16 to December 31)
  20. Our World, by Kuurion & Captain Video. (Internet, January 20 to December 29)
  21. Prequel or Adventures in Making a Cat Cry, by Kazerad and Ch’marr. (Internet, March 21 to October 31)
  22. The Probability Bomb, by Ralph E. Hayes Jr. (Internet, January 3 to November 3)
  23. Professor Amazing and the Incredible Golden Fox, by John Prengaman, Jr. (Internet, Chapter 1 cover to page 22)
  24. Rascals, by Mastergodai. (Internet, January 2 to December 25)
  25. The Sprawl, by DrawHolic. (Internet, page 23 to 66)
  26. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, by various. (Marvel Comics, issue 42 to 53)
  27. This Quiet Ur, by camicami. (Internet, page 63 to 67)
  28. TwoKinds, by Tom Fischbach. (Internet, January 4 to December 23)
  29. Uber Quest, by Skidd. (Internet, January 4 to December 30)
  30. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, by various. (Marvel Comics, Volume 1 issue 1 to Volume 2 issue 1)

Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip

  1. Addictive Science, by Cervelet. (Internet, March 22 to December 31)
  2. Beyond the Black Stump, by Sean Leahy. (Newspaper & Internet strips from January 4 to December 31)
  3. Carry On, by K. Garrison. (Internet strips from January 2 to December 30)
  4. Doc Rat, by Jenner. (Internet strips from January 1 to December 31)
  5. Gene Catlow, by Albert Temple and Tawana Gilroy. (Internet strips fron January 2 to December 30)
  6. Housepets!, by Rick Griffin. (Internet strips from January 2 to December 30)
  7. Paprika, by Nekonny. (Internet, March 22 to December 29)
  8. Peter and Company, by Jonathan Ponikvar. (Internet strips from #223 to #243)
  9. Sabrina Online, by Eric W. Schwartz. (Internet strips from January to December)
  10. Savestate, by Tim Weeks. (Internet strips from January 7 to December 30)
  11. Schlock Mercenary, by Howard Taylor. (Internet, January 1 to December 31)
  12. Transmission, by Mark A. Smith (Internet strips from January 2 to November 27)
  13. The Whiteboard, by Doc N. (Internet strips from January 2 to December 30)

Best Anthropomorphic Magazine

  1. Dogpatch Press, by Patch Packrat (Internet, January 5 to December 24)
  2. Fangs and Fonts (Internet podcast, #37 to #56)
  3. Flayrah, edited by crossafliction and GreenReaper (Internet, January 2 to December 31)
  4. Fur What It’s Worth (Internet; podcasts Season 4 episode 7 to Season 5 episode 7)
  5. InFurNation ( Internet; January 1 to December 31)

Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration

  1. AlectorFencer, “An Empire Rises“, wraparound cover of ConFurgence 2015 souvenir book (January 8)
  2. Mark Brill, cover of An Anthropomorphic Century, edited by Fred Patten (FurPlanet, Productions, September 24)
  3. Unknown, cover of Off Leash, by Daniel Potter (Fallen Kitten Productions, July 12)
  4. Kenket, wraparound cover of EuroFurence 21 Program Book (August 19)
  5. Teagan Gavet, wraparound cover of The Furry Future, edited by Fred Patten (FurPlanet Productions, January 15)
  6. Teagan Gavet, wraparound cover of ROAR Volume 6, edited by Mary E. Lowd (FurPlanet Productions, July 9)
  7. Katie Hofgard, wraparound cover of Griffin Ranger, Volume 1, by Roz Gibson (FurPlanet Productions, January 15)
  8. Idess, wraparound cover of In a Dog’s World, by Mary E. Lowd (FurPlanet Productions, July 9)
  9. Humberto Ramos and Hector Delgado, cover of Guardians Team-Up issue #5, Marvel Comics, May
  10. Rukis, wraparound cover of Bones of the Empire, by Jim Galford (CreateSpace, August 7)
  11. Rukis, cover of Lost on Dark Trails, by Rukis (FurPlanet Productions, January 15)
  12. Sekhmet, cover of Huntress, by Renee Carter Hall (FurPlanet Productions, September 24)
  13. Seylyn, cover of Inhuman Acts, edited by Ocean Tigrox (FurPlanet Productions, September 24)
  14. Antonio Torresan, cover of Tiger’s Eye (Amazon.com, November 5)
  15. Heidi C. Vlatch, cover of Tinder Stricken, by Heidi C. Vlatch (Heidi C. Vlatch, May 22)
  16. Zhivago, wraparound cover of Forest Gods, by Ryan Campbell (Sofawolf Press, September 24)

Best Anthropomorphic Game

  1. Armello. (Developed and Published by League of Geeks, September 1)
  2. Aviary Attorney (Sketchy Logic Games; December 22)
  3. Eon Legacy Sourcebook, Content Creator and Earth Worldbook (Robert Rankin, various, February 11)
  4. Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 (Developer: Scott Cawthon; Publisher: Scott Games, March 2)
  5. Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 (Developer: Scott Cawthon; Publisher: Scott Games, July 23)
  6. The Furry Basketball Association (Buck Hopper; 2015 season)
  7. Majora’s Mask for 3DS (Nintendo; February 13)
  8. Ori and the Blind Forest (Developer: Moon Studios, Publisher: Microsoft Studios, March 11)
  9. Yo-Kai Watch (Developer: Level-5; Publisher: Level-5 and Nintendo, November 6)

Best Anthropomorphic Website

  1. Ask Papabear, by Grubbs Grizzly, furry advice column
  2. Culturally f’d, You Tube Channel, furry videos.
  3. E621, Furry fandom art community site. Mature Audiences.
  4. Equestria Daily, My Little Pony fandom community site.
  5. FiMFiction, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic site.
  6. Furry Network, furry art/writing/media social networking site.
  7. Furry.Today, furry videos.
  8. Furstarter, crowdfunding furry projects portal
  9. The Katbox, hosts anthropomorphic webcomics
  10. Sofurry, furry artist/writer community
  11. WikiFur, furry wiki

Further Confusion 2013 Announces GoH

Hugo Graphic Story nominee Ursula Vernon is the first Guest of Honor announced for Further Confusion 2013.

Vernon is the author and illustrator of Nurk, Digger, and her cover for Best in Show (edited by Fred Patten) won the Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration in 2003.

Further Confusion takes place in San Jose, CA from January 17-21, 2013.

[Thanks to Andrew Trembley for the story.]