Posted on 07/14/2002 12:37:59 PM PDT by ItsBacon
 |
|
| Sam Conway, chairman of Anthrocon 2002, talks with fox Laura Lyle. Conway, who lives in Malvern, is a chemist. | |
Sam Conway of Malvern insists the convention he's running this weekend at the Adam's Mark Hotel here on humdrum City Avenue is not at all weird.
Nearly 1,100 grown men and women dressed head to toe in furry fox and wolf costumes are shopping for comic books and compact discs and he says that's to be expected.
"We're no different from a convention of model train enthusiasts," Conway insists.
You be the judge.
Conway is showing us around Anthrocon, the anthropomorphists' convention, which began Thursday and runs through today. It is not open to the public.
This is a gathering of people - adults, so to speak - who enjoy pretending they are furry critters with human characteristics or humans with animal qualities. It's a matter of perspective.
They identify so much with animals that they think like sly foxes, wear raccoon tails, and growl when they are approached.
They paint their Ford pickups orange with black tiger stripes and have vanity license plates that bear names like SHEEBAH and WULFY. They drive in from Ontario, Iowa and Arkansas and pay $30 in membership dues to attend this annual event - one of nine conventions held worldwide.
Participants call themselves furries.
At one extreme are the rare furries who have plastic surgery to make their ears pointy, their jaws elongated, or their canine teeth enlarged.
"Nobody around here has been dumb enough to do that," Conway notes. "Why would you want to turn yourself into a freak?"
So the majority of furries here are in street clothes with horns strapped discreetly to their heads and tails pinned nonchalantly to their pants.
Plenty more come in full furry regalia - cat and canine costumes that can cost several hundred to several thousand dollars.
Here's Kevin Kelm, of Colorado, for example, in a mechanically operated, 65-pound, 9-foot-tall, gray wolf suit made entirely of foam rubber.
And Lauren Lyle, a 29-year-old electrical engineer from Akron, Ohio, dressed in a tawny fox suit. It must have cost a lot, because the jaw is articulated so it moves when she speaks.
What would possess an individual to indulge in such an expensive and - dare we say - oddball hobby? Is it a love of nature? A fondness for fake fur? Do the costumes compensate for shyness? As children, were they kept inside on Halloween?
"I don't know; it's just really fun," Lyle says. "I like it."
Conway's furry self is a rat persona dubbed Uncle Kage. A chemist in real life (with a Ph.D. from Dartmouth), Conway as Uncle Kage wears a white lab coat with a Mad Scientist's Union emblem across the back. He is 37 years old and unmarried.
His mother, Wilma Conway, a retired secretary in her late 60s, is laughing it up at the registration booth. She's with Josie DeCarlo, 79, whose late husband, Dan DeCarlo, created Josie and the Pussycats for Archie comics. Josie's wearing a leopard print sweater set. Subtle.
Other near-celebs are here: Disney animator Herbie Hamill and Bill Holbrook, creator of the syndicated strip Safe Havens and an online comic called Kevin & Kell. That one features a large white rabbit and a foxy-looking wolf who meet online and fall in love before they realize they are from different species.
Publisher Lisa Allen says furry comic strips can raise sensitive topics such as difference and divorce, "and it's easier for the reader to accept when it comes from a cute, furry little animal."
Whatever.
Roughly 75 percent of Anthrocon members are men in their 20s or 30s, which might make this a good place to meet guys - depending, of course, on what you're looking for in a man.
Mostly, this convention is about "art."
In the Dealer's Room, furries are buying hand-painted refrigerator magnets, jewelry, comics, T-shirts, puppets, tails, wings, glow-in-the-dark horns, and (why does this seem weird?) stuffed animals.
When they're not shopping, conventioneers can attend workshops on watercolor illustration, photography and "conveying expressions." At the dance Friday night, the disc jockey played the Pink Panther Theme and The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
Oh, lighten up, Conway says.
Does our culture not revere Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and Tony the Tiger? Do we not buy plush animals for newborns and put them in their cribs? Did Cats not run for 7,485 performances on Broadway?
This is just good, clean fun, he says.
True, a small fringe of furries find this sexually titillating. That X-rated branch was featured earlier this year on an MTV special that raised many an eyebrow.
All factions of furries are welcome at Anthrocon. But, as in Animal Farm, some are more welcome than others. Public displays of affection are not allowed, and X-rated comic books and games are kept under wraps.
At the other end of the proverbial spectrum are furry do-gooders. Some perform for children in hospitals and others raise money for Canine Partners for Life, a Cochranville, Pa., group that trains dogs to help people who have limited mobility.
Takes all kinds.
Thanks for the info on your hobby/interest - hope I didn't offend you - the article made it sound very weird with sexual overtones - we were joking along those lines.
Take care.......
No problem--actually on the messageboard for our convention, someone asked to see some "press" on the Con, and when I typed in "Anthrocon Philadelphia Inquirer" into the search, your FR post came up. I was at the 2002 Con and was told the article would be coming out. I remember buying the paper and reading the article (I still have it) just down the street at the IHOP on Rt. 1 in Bala Cynywd.
We furries have gotten a bad rep. due to things like an episode of CSI, and MTV profile of us, and an article in Vanity Fair. yes, there are some who get into this for erotic reasons but most furries are a bit more wholesome than that! One example is Guy Gilchrist, creator of "Mudpie" and current artist of "Nancy". He's very moral and religious and he was our guest of honor a couple years ago. Good wholesome fun!
I am, as I said, a furry--and a longtime FReeper. Sad to hear of the death of the freeper in the thread, etc. Nope, I wasn't offended, but wanted to tell FReepers a bit more about furry! thanks
>>Conway's furry self is a rat persona dubbed Uncle Kage
ha! actually he's either a 90 ft tall wolf, or a cockroach...
http://www.unclekage.com
Now there's a shocker . . .
It reminds me of the episode called "Fur and Loathing" of CSI. That is the one where the furry "Rocky Raccoon" gets into a fight with his girl friend (after being exposed to Epicac) thrown out of her car and then shot by a farmer who thought he was a coyote.
He was at a 'con' called Furcon in LV.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.