As gathered by my better half in The Suburban Jungle Livejournal Community, here’s my schedule at Fur the ‘More, but in a little more detail.

Items in bold indicate that I am a panelist. The rest I simply plan (or hope) to attend.

Friday, March 14, 2014

12 PM Opening Ceremonies: Main Events
1 PM Furry Writing for Landlubbers: Panels 2
2:30 PM Guest of Honor Q&A: Main Events
4:30 PM Furry Feud: Main Events
7:30 PM Dealer’s Reception: Cinnamon Tree Restaurant
8:30 PM Penciling 101: Panels 3
10 PM Selections from Poe: Panels 1

Saturday, March 15, 2014

12 AM Cards Against Humanity: Tabletop Gaming
12 PM Fursuit Parade: Main Events
1 PM Creating a Cast of Characters: Panels 2
2 PM Dance Competition Setup: Main Events
3 PM Fur the ‘More’s Fursuit Dance Competition: Main Events
6:30 PM Guest of Honor Dinner: Cinnamon Tree Restaurant
10 PM Fursuit Friendly Dance: Main Events

Sunday, March 16, 2014

10 AM Furry Writing for Captain Ninja Masters: Panels 2
12 PM Making Mary Sue Walk the Plank
1 PM Working as an Artist (Without Going Insane): Panels 2
2 PM Writing Good Villains: Panels 2
4 PM Art Show Auction: Main Events
5 PM Charity Auction: Main Events
6:30 PM Closing Ceremonies: Main Events
7 PM Feedback Session

At the table I will have “Rough House: Issue Zero” preview comics for $1 each, plus all of the usual books, prints, and on-the-spot sketches. I recommend, if you want art, you grab me early, because with my schedule as it is, I expect to fill up fast.

See you tomorrow! ^.^

-The Gneech

Last week was pretty darn huge, actually, but I didn’t have time to post about it except in the most cursory way, so let’s write up a full report, shall we?

Rough Housing

The obvious biggie is that Suburban Jungle (Rough Housing) is up and running! We’ve also got a shiny new forum thanks to everyone at Crosstime Café. The story runs on Mondays and Wednesdays, with a quarterly print release (the first full issue should be at AnthroCon)– and thanks to my Patreon supporters, there will be extra content in the form of an “Ask the Cast” page on the last Friday of every month.

“What Patreon?” You Ask? Funny You Should Mention It!

With a little prodding from Graveyard Greg, Maggie Hogarth, and others, I created a Patreon page, and so far it’s been a huge success, for which I’m very grateful! Someone even took a “Commission on Demand” slot, which I didn’t actually expect anyone would. :) Good thing I put a limit on those!

The Patreon program has already reached two of its goals, the Ask the Cast page and funding a new compy to replace this dying PC. The next one is the biggie– funding another comic project that a pal of mine would like to collaborate on but that I just can’t afford to do unless it’s a paying gig. He’s trying to raise the funds on his end, but I told him that if I got funded, I’d do the comic without charging him.

So we’ll see if it happens! Please consider adding your support if you’d like to see more comics from your ever-lovin’ blue-eyed cartoonist. :)

And, Of Course, FurTheMore!

Come Friday, I will be in Baltimore as one of the Guests of Honor for FurTheMore— SO jazzed! I’ll have “Issue Zero” preview comics c/o the good folks at FurPlanet, I’ll be running panels, it’s gonna be awesome. :)

So, yeah… big week! I’m very pleased.

Oh, and did I mention I drew Rarity? ‘cos I totally drew Rarity. Such a lovely pony! <3 Anyhow, that's it for now! I need to get back to work. Those pages won't ink and color themselves! ...darn it. -The Gneech

Charity and Langley FurTheMore Portrait by the-gneech on deviantART

The good folks at FurTheMore.org asked me to do an image that could go into the middle of “a dollar bill,” so I figured I’d go ahead and use it as a chance to stealth-promote the new comic. ;) So here are Langley and Charity, as ninja and pirate, respectively, in yet another standoff.

-The Gneech

Here’s a cool bit of news on the business end of things! The awesome folk over at FurPlanet have taken on the publication duties for a new edition of No Predation Allowed: Ten Years of The Suburban Jungle! Sayeth Teiran: “[We’re] long term fans, and we’re very happy to be able to help keep your comics in circulation.” At that link you can also grab Roar Vol. 3, which contains the Squash and Stretch whodunnit, “Blackbird Singing the Dead of Night.”

As you might imagine, I’m both pleased and deeply honored by this! Thanks, FurPlanet!

The new edition is mostly the same as the first edition, with a few small errors ironed out, particularly in Volume One. I have a small number of first editions left, which I’ll probably be taking to Fur The ‘More in March.

So. Awesome. /)^3^(\

-The Gneech

Well, as November’s NaNoWriMo was so successful, I’m going to try it again in January, only instead of writing a 50,000 word book, the goal is to draw a 24-page comic.

Well, sort of.

As you can probably gather from the art posts I’ve been doing, I have an idea for a Suburban Jungle followup comic which I’ve been noodling around with for a little while now. And since the most likely way for me to actually get something done seems to be to set an aggressive deadline, I’ve given myself the goal of debuting the comic at FurTheMore, which is in mid-March. That means I need to have lead time in February for the printing, which in turn means that to reach my goal, I’ve got to draw the comic in January.

That’s… a lot of drawing. O.o

To be honest, I have no idea if I have even a chance of succeeding, but I’m going to try my best. And even if I can’t pull it off, it will at least put me into a good position to have the comic ready to go for AnthroCon at the very least.

If you have a commission in the queue for January, I will be making those a priority and you will still get it within the three-week period. I will be working on one of those later today, in fact.

Wish me luck with Gneech Comics Drawing Month (GneCoDraMo)! ;)

-The Gneech

PS: In case you’re wondering whatever happened to my NaNoWriMo novel, it’s currently simmering on the back burner, along with the next novel in my queue. Both of them should get more attention once this comic is in the tin.

PPS: To answer what appears to be pretty much everybody’s question (“Will Leona/Drezzer/Raggum Da Frog be in the new comic?”), the answer is that it is a whole new cast. Only one of the original SJ characters is scheduled to make a direct appearance at this time, and that’s a few issues in. Everyone from the original comic is still alive and kicking, so it is conceivable that any of them could show up, but that’ll only happen if they have some part to play in the new cast’s story.

Diversity in “the fandom” (by which I mean a broad umbrella term that encompasses SF, fantasy, comics, conventions, and such related geeky pursuits) is a big issue lately, which is an awesome thing. But it’s one of those things which, because it involves human beings, tends to be complex and confusing at times.

I’m thinking just this moment of John Scalzi, who picked up a Hugo at WorldCon for his book Redshirts. I have not read the book myself, but Mrs. Gneech has and declared it an enjoyable read– I don’t have any doubt that it deserves the award. And Scalzi is certainly someone who at least tries to champion the broadening of horizons.

And yet… well, and yet… given recent events, I’m not sure how I would feel in Scalzi’s place. Scalzi, like so many Hugo winners, is yet another privileged white dude, and on some level, does that cheapen the accomplishment, no matter how hard he may have busted to get it?

I ask this because, although I’m certainly nowhere near being in contention for a Hugo myself at the moment, given my upcoming career change it’s not an unreasonable goal for me to shoot for… and I am also yet another privileged white dude. Scalzi and I share a lot of qualities, and a lot of opinions, and a lot of sensibilities, so it’s not hard for me to project myself into that place and wonder how I would feel there.

Certainly if he has any of these thoughts, he hasn’t said so, and I honestly don’t know if it wouldn’t be churlish if he did. The whole topic is fraught with peril. If you are a Scalzi here, what are you supposed to do? Turn down the Hugo? Recuse yourself from the running all together and throw away a valuable career opportunity? Use the moment to call for change (while still benefiting from the system)? Or just do as he has done, smile and say “thank you” and be yet another privileged white dude who won an award when some other just-as-talented, just-as-worthy author not in that category didn’t?

I don’t have a good answer for this. I’m open to suggestions!

-The Gneech