Would having a predominantly animal cast at the start of your comic turn people off?

[MeltingCORE]

We have beloved movies like "Toy Story" and "Cars" where the characters aren't humans or animals. I personally think you'll be just fine if that's the route you want to go down! Yes, some people may not like "furry" art but overall I don't think most would judge you. Anthro characters are pretty popular. Besides it's your series and you get the final say!

[darthmongoose]

I don't like some "furry" stuff, but it doesn't mean I'm automatically put off if a series is about anthopomorphic animals. There are a bunch of things with animal characters that I like, like Mouse Guard, Duck Tales, My Little Pony, Ruby Quest etc.

I think so long as the creatures are either like... quite realistic fluffy animals like Mouse Guard, or they're cartoony looking like Duck Tales, I'm perfectly happy, so the first example in the thread I'm like "aww! That's cute! I'd read that!" So anything like Sonic the Hedgehog or Pokemon I'm happy with... and the point where it triggers my "NOPE" reaction is when the anthro characters are....drawn to be sexy.
So as soon as they like... have proportions a bit too close to a sexualised depiction of an adult human with defined muscles and prominent breasts, and it's combined with a cartoon animal face with big shiny eyes, that's the kind of stuff where a non-furry like me goes "uhhhh... okay, this is for furries, not for me, seeya!".
Like no shade intended on furries for liking that and enjoying it, but that art style, where the face is very much "cartoon animal with big cute anime eyes" but the body is "sexy human but with fur and a tail and paws" is what will immediately put a non-furry off. Like as soon as it looks a bit too much like the artist would like to have sex with the purple cartoon wolf, not accompany them on cute adventures, I'm immediately uncomfortable. About the furthest I can go is Disney's Robin Hood or Zootopia, largely because the characters are still relatively animal-like and not too muscular or with really pronounced sexual characteristics.

Of course, some non-furries will put the bar even higher and won't touch ANYTHING even a little anthro, but I think most are like me and it's all about not liking that specific furry aesthetic of very anime-animal-like face, hands and feet combined with unsettlingly human-like torso, arms and thighs. So if you don't want to get pigeonholed as a "furry artist" that's the area to avoid and either go more cartoon-like or go "they're humans but with horns and some patches of scales". Really though, there's nothing wrong with being a furry/scaly artist, furries seem like mostly decent people and they're an audience that lavishes stuff with attention and support, so it's really just whether you want to be in that niche or not.

[NickRowler]

I think some people assume animal stories are for kids. But other people also assume animal stories for older audience are just furry fandom stuff.

Personally I don't mind it but I think I am bias to the stuff with cute animals. I like Yokai Watch, Sonic, Neopets, Zootopia, that sort of stuff. I am not really a fan of the stuff that tries to be sexy. I am sort of weirded out by Goldie from Rockadoodle and Angela from Duckman. They have a sexy human body but a bird mouth. I know some people in the furry fandom can be very nice, so I am not going to shame people for liking that, it's just not for me.

[irresponsiblepics]

Is this where line is drawn? XD

[darthmongoose]

Oh god. Yes, that's definitely crossing the line for me. Don't like that.

I think the line can easily be defined as "if it's drawn any sexier than Princess Sally from the old Sonic cartoon show, THAT'S TOO MUCH."

This is Sally, she is the line.

[DanielRKM]

You just hit me where I live, but I gotta say: throw a vest on her and you have the line. Vested Sally is the line.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Lolol
Some of the artists in the Archie Sonic comics era definitely took Sally (and others) just a smidge over the line for me

[irresponsiblepics]

Totally. I think a bit of projection creeps in with character designs. You just know that Cleo was made hawt because the artist had a certain proclivity.

My comic could be misinterpreted as furry but when designing characters they are representations of where they grew up or their personality. Doyley is awkward so I gave him big feet for example. Midradia does have a lot of female attributes (a bit of an hour glass shape) but shes a is a dancer and in good shape.
There are bird and lizard types who are Chad's and Stacy's in design but If a design has a sexy attribute I tend to put an unattractive element into the design.
I'm evil. Haha

[rajillustration]

So like you can't make a comic that makes everyone happy: it is impossible. The fact that you've niched down into "this is for a demographic that likes anthro" is going to help you, rather than hinder you, because then you know who your audience is. A lot of people making comics for everyone have no clue who their demographic is and that hurts them in a big, big way when it comes to marketing their comic on socials.

Like I enjoy anthro stuff becuase I'm an animal person (not a furry, I surprisingly never got into that style and I just never make persona type characters because it just doesn't click for me) but I love it when someone draws me a good anthro character, and most of the cast of my own comic does not look human at all. Does it hurt my views? No, I don't think so.I can use the tag anthro on social media, I can show off these cute critters, and I know my followers love that. It's partly why they are there.

There are so many artists who draw anthro comics (like Lackadaisy, for instance) and have a pretty successful time at that. It may mean that getting discovered on Tapas/webtoon may be more difficult becuase they have a more narrow demographic here (big foot traffic, but small demographic) but you're going to be relying more on social media to get numbers anyway, since if you rely purely on the foot traffic of this site you need to do what is trending here, or wait for front page promotion. So just go with your gut on anthro, it does match the tone of the comic you were making.

[aqua03]

Thanks. Meanwhile I'm wondering if the Dragoons are "On the line" given that even though they're not drawn to be "Hot" so to speak, they do have a more humanoid anatomy. (Though I was planning on having more diverse body styles as background characters and side characters.)

Though moreso was going for a vibe akin to Dust: An Elysian Tale, Cave Story, Undertale/Deltarune, and Solatorobo than a typical anthropomorphic thing.

[darthmongoose]

Those don't cross the line for me, they're cute and fluffy and in a simple style like Undertale characters, and they're not posed or viewed in a sexy way.

[aqua03]

Cool, thanks. Yeah, so I guess I managed to do my job in terms of trying to capture the vibe of Undertale and Cave Story then.

[KennethLopezJr921]

I'd say just go for it and not worry about people being turned off your series because of your animal characters! I know because of that amount of hate directed towards furries online that some believe anything that could interpreted as being furry wouldn't do well and would only attract an furry audience (not saying you are a furry). But that's not the case most of the time. I myself have a series that who's main cast is mostly anthro and majority of the fans aren't actually furries. I guess it really depends on the type of series you're making and what audience you want to attract.

Personally, I'd love to see more comics with animal casts in the future, since they'll stand out more in a sea of human dominated stories. And I also wouldn't worry about having to deal with the furry hatedom. I'm not a furry myself but I have gotten my fare share of harassment all because my series could be interpreted as being "furry". It's stuff like this that has led to the conclusion that furry haters are much more toxic and cancerous than furries themselves. I could go on a whole rant about them but for the sake brevity, they're incredibly pathetic and you as an author shouldn't give those people any of you're time because they are not worth.

Hope this helps

[aqua03]

Thanks. Yeah, I never really considered myself a furry either. (mostly just went with robotic animals for the Dragoons because A: I was a huge fan of Mega Man X as a teen and B: they were easy to draw and make soemthing look decent compared to humans, so it just kinda stuck even after I started to work on my art more seriously.) Nothing against those people, just don't want to be pigeonholed as mentioned before.

Yeah, there are some people who you just can;t please no matter what, so probably best to ignore them. (Thank goodness for the block button.)

[nekochi]

I am actually planning to publish my comic about horses here. Not a furry either.
I was wondering the exactly same thing whether animal characters seem somehow "shady."

[aqua03]

Bumping this as well so it doesn't lock on me given that I was planning on doing some doodles of possible new directions to take the Dragoons to get feedback on if that makes sense.

[Kuma]

There are a lot of animal-led or anthropomorphic-led stories that are interesting and wildly successful. Like Beastars.

One of my projects in development hell involves a WWII allegory using the animals of a forest, some day I'll do something with it.

[aqua03]

And here are some of the rough redesigns. Feedback would be appreciated on if it could work with more refinement. Thanks.

[Fafnir]

I designed a couple characters that had some animalistic properties. I scaled them back to be more humanoid..
Clover got the biggest scale down. started as a full on furry. But now just has ears and a tail, which I feel is established as mostly normal by anime.

[Fafnir]

these seem cartoony and stylistic enough it doesnt matter if they're animals or not. imo
like samurai pizza cats. Its just a great cartoon. with animals.