Cute furry characters: do they distract you from a serious story?

[abbastudios]

That's great. If you had just written the last three sentences i would clearly see you only wanted opinions, please forgive me.

[SandraMJ]

No, no, it's my fault, in Spanish "doubt" can be used to mean "question", so I got them confused. I'm glad the misunderstanding is over

[SandraMJ]

Haha, yeah, I'm in love with Tracy's and gigidigi's crazy expressions. That's truly one perk of using non-human characters, there's more freedom when it comes to character design and expressivity, or so I believe. It's very easy to hit the uncanny valley of human proportions when trying to draw them in a less cartoonish way, whereas, making up your own race, for example, there's little in your way of making a jaw-dividing smile like that of the Cheshire Cat.

Regarding Cucumber Quest and the drawing-story telling relation as a good example, I've found these last pages a bit too dramatic for those lovely heroes. The story took a level up in creepiness, and it feels a bit strange, to me at least.

[AnnaLandin]

Considering the amount of times I have been genuinely moved to tears by Disney movies - no. No, they do not distract from serious themes.

And, as you mentioned, Maus. Maus is peopled with lots and lots of animals - some cuter than others - and it still manages to deliver a very serious and very moving story about the Holocaust, which is just about the most serious subject you can try to tackle. @abbastudios mentioned Watership Down - which is also extremely serious and quite brutal. I'd like to add The Secret of NIMH to the list; a movie that I am still a bit hesitant to watch on my own, because it scared me so much as a child.

It's not the race/type of the characters that matters - it's how you present them.

[VermillionWorks]

For me, it really depends on how they're drawn and if the style fits the story I guess. And if the furry character has human characters around them, their styles should match. It would be off-putting to see a cutesy anime cat girl alongside a gruff Frank Miller-type of guy. I think a good example is Sajin Komamura from Bleach, he's an anthro wolf but he looks badass and fits well amongst the other characters. I personally don't have anything against furries, but I am tired of seeing the same style of them (big eyes and overtly disney-fied).

Pretty much my thoughts on the subject.

[ErithEl]

@SandraMJ Thank you for this post! I've been thinking about this a LOT after several people have started referring to some of my characters as "furries." This threw me off, because I've been to enough anime conventions and seen enough webcomics to now immediately associate the word "furry" with a sexual fetish – and that's not what I was going for at all in Burning Bright!

I'm really glad that it seems like everyone so far can understand the difference between cute, furry, fan-service characters, and characters who happen to be half or full animal because it's part of the story.

For mine, the decision to use animal-human hybrid characters was partially from the fact that most of the story is set in another world, and I wanted to come up with a good design for the natives without just changing their skin/hair/eye color. A lot of it came from the fact that the character possibilities suddenly became immense, as well: You could make the characters stronger, faster, more intimidating, with the abilities to fly or breathe underwater without making them mutants. On top of that, the designs are so fun to do!

A lot of good examples have been mentioned here (and I've read most of them), but I think there will always be some doubt in there that your readers will interpret it the wrong way and then drop the story once they realize it's something entirely different.

[Kura]

I honestly didn't think I would get the kind of backlash and hate I did for creating a comic with anthro characters until I started releasing comic pages of Raven Wolf on the internet. I started it pretty much completely unaware of the furry community and the negative stigma that came with it, and then suddenly I was thrown into it all because of this comic.

It's odd that is so often a concern to creators actually, and that people choose to MAKE it a concern with comments like "I would take this more seriously if they were people, but they're animals, so I can't.", because it's pretty normal for productions in even the mainstream media to tell stories, especially to younger audiences, through characters that are animals or have animalistic features, so the idea that an animal character distracts or couldn't tell a serious story was honestly never a worry that crossed my mind until the internet, and even then comments like that didn't make me rethink if it could be done or not, it just made me think "These people are way too scared of liking animals as characters for some reason. That's a little bit weird..."

[gateofselidor]

I'm not put off by them as such, but I am more cautious when first reading a comic. Whether the designs are cute or not is irrelevant to me as long as they work effectively with the story, but I'm a bit more picky with the furry aspect. Something like Cucumber Quest is clearly aimed at a general audience, and the art is very high-quality and the writing is also great, so I immediately took a liking to it. A lot of comics are clearly aimed at the furry fanbase, though, and I rarely read comics like that because I don't find the designs appealing in the way that the target audience does.

I'm more open to Redwall-style bipedal animals or otherwise human characters with animal ears and tails than to typical anthro character designs, because they tend to be more common in comics aimed outside of the furry fanbase, and so I'm less likely to encounter unappealing fanservice.

[hades]

oh man aha I tend to rarely deem a story 'cute' just on the premise of anthro characters.

I see that Black Sad has been name dropped in here and I feel the need to push it a bit further due to not just the context of the story but the reasoning behind it's anthro characters. The creators themselves have stated that they wanted to create a very dramatic story that still pertains to anthro characters as both a tribute to some animation classics as well as a push against that same doubt you posted in the OP.

Black Sad is set in a highly realistic Noir type setting and has subjects that revolve around it. The comic confronts subjects anywhere from public adultery scandals, World War 2, to racism and organizations that inact it. Plus the art is so incredibly stunning that it wounds me. [I recently managed to get hold on a translated volume while traveling] Just to show what I mean, here are some panels and work from the series.

So no, OP, I have no doubts when stubbling on a comic that focuses more on anthros while still having a serious plot. :]

[Menbung]

I own and I have read most of the Blacksad books (still missin' 2 of em, daaaaarn), and I can say that Blacksad erase the cliché that animal characters are only for kids and children fables. The way the characters are portrayed and the topics of each book are def. not for kids.

It's a fine example that you can make stories for mature audiences using anthro characters.

So, If I know the story is for mature audiences and have animal characters, I wouldn't have any problems with it.

P.S: I recommend reading Blacksad to any comic fan.

[joannekwan]

Actually I got interested in Black Sad because it was casted with anthros. When I first saw it I thought, "Cool! A story with gritty kickass anthros!" Had it just been regular humans I doubt I would have taken notice.

I still have yet to read it. I'm gonna add it to my Amazon shopping cart now.

[jessiepolfliet]

I t wouldn't distract me, but my own story is revolving around furries. Didn't even know what they were before I came here.
I tried to make my characters humans after that but they didn't have the same... flair as they did before so I kept the design.

[SandraMJ]

Yeah, I speak from experience too! My first comic brought about a lot of people asking me "are you a furry?" because the main character was a werewolf of sorts. I'm very glad too to see that the community here is so mature and willing to accept stories more for their plot and storytelling than for their characters!

Also, I absolutely agree with you -- playing with human designs is definitely more boring when it comes to inventing races and such.
Let's hope that a lot more people will be understanding!

[Raven_C]

Heh, i think i can agree with you on the CQ subject. All the other times it got serious, it was just the right dose, but the recent stuff actually put me by surprise by how dramatic it suddenly got. I don't have a problem with it, just surprised. While on topic, one not-so-good example is a comic called Bittersweet Candybowl (or something like that, i dont recall). I don't follow it, but I've read a few pages of it in fragments, and in my opinion it is TOO serious and angsty for the kind of drawing style it has (very cutesy, sonic-esque style, not unlike other furry styles I've seen), too the point it really annoyed me.

[SandraMJ]

I suppose that some people have an insidious "animals = disney = kids" mindset that just can't be shaken off The fact that there are many silly furry comics out there doesn't help the cause, really. It's such a pity!

[hades]

I don't remember exactly how I came across it really but I've been a fan ever since. It is definitely worth reading. ;] Even the dialog is well crafted and can pull you in.

As well I will mention for OP. There is another print comic that sometimes features anthro characters alongside a very diverse cast [literally aha]. Saga is a sci-fi comic and kinda lives up to the name for Science Fiction since it deals with various different planets and races within it. HOWEVER, I will suggest only adult readers pick up the series. It is mature like Black Sad but is a tad more...nsfw aha. Granted they play it off well alongside the plot but some things still startled me when I first picked it up.

AS WELL
if you are looking for STRICTLY anthro and one that is still in the early stages of release as a webcomic. Then might I suggest empire of the new sun? It's plot deals heavy on war and other rough subjects. Plus the art is breathtaking.

To be fair, nowadays judging a story on the subject of anthro characters can be just like judging a book by its cover. ;]

[SandraMJ]

I'm really looking forward to the end of the drama and enjoying some more silly adventures >.<

[SandraMJ]

WHOA thought the second one was a film! That's STUNNING!

I haven't read Blacksad, but the artist is Spanish and it's got quite a BIG fame over here, so I've heard a lot about it. I've always been rather skirmish about mature comics, so I'll probably stay away though U_U

@jessiepolfliet You gotta stick to what you like, people will be jerks no matter what, so you should have fun!

[hades]

It is worth a read someday. ;] But I understand completely on steering away from mature comics.

The second one? You mean Empire of the New Sun? Oh man even their early developmental work was so crazyily stunning. Here are a few that I dug up.

[Raven_C]

@Marchen woah i....jaw drops i'll have to check that comic out, it looks awesome!