Granted, there are a lot of quirky individuals in there too, but I think that counts for any fandom. It is only more visible for the furry fandom because the internet magnifies that part of it, for some reason. Those lulzy communities chose to pick on dodgy furry art rather than on adult Star Trek fanfiction, and the hatred and misunderstanding started there.

People have already recommended Lackadaisy here; another artwork that I find uses anthropomorphic characters as part of shorthand-characterization is the anime Spring & Chaos, which is a biopic of the Japanese poet Kenji Miyazawa. I thought it was a great explanation of what you get and what you give up when you try to pursue life as an artist. It is also neat to see an anime that deals with Showa-period Japan.

Man, I loved Fish Police back in the day! (The comic, not the cartoon.)

This looks awesome!

At any rate, Lackadaisy and BlackSad are great.
I would also suggest Northern Star.

Somehow this is very symptomatic of France’s culture of comic where you can find the widest variety of the world, by far.

All 3 majors traditions are widely available (France/Belgium’s Bande Dessinée, America’s Comic, Japan’s Manga) but also it seems that there is a solid appetite for all secondary nations of comic (South America – esp Chile & Argentina, Spain, Italy etc…) And sometimes, those authors find in France a welcome that they couldn’t find in their country.

France’s account for more than a third of translation worldwide (all type of books mixed). I always remind myself of it when I hear people that the “old” France is turning back to the rest of the world.

I might have to check this out!

Fun fact : Guarnido used to work in animation for Disney. You can tell from certain parts of his works (the mice maids, for example)

I am a ‘fan’ of anthropomorphism, same as I am a fan of any art featuring interesting characters and good storytelling (as opposed to crappy art and storytelling). There is no special group or term for people who happen to appreciate brown-haired protagonists, is there? I just don’t like whenever I’m being branded a ‘furry’ whenever I rave about a story that happens to have anthropomorphism in it. I also have to remind people no to say I do ‘furry art’ whenever I draw a sentient animal.

Fandoms are usually associated with specific brands or genres (like Star Trek, Harry Potter, or Sci-Fi in general). Anthropomorphism isn’t a genre any more than ‘brown-haired characterism’.

I’m sorry. I don’t want to be harsh on a fandom that you enjoy and understand. But since I happen to be an artist and older than the movement (the term ‘furry’ is relatively new), I remember a time when one could create a non-human character without it being labeled anything other than ‘a character’ or somehow being seen as actively endorsing a whole movement merely by drawing it.

Now get off my lawn ;)

One recent issue of Usagi was on the topic of the Japanese tea ceremony, and the issue was nearly wordless throughout. Very meditative.

Somehow it reminds me of Lackadaisy, a work in progress webcomic that although significantly less serious than Blacksad, is amusing in it’s own right.

http://lackadaisycats.com/

Uh, isn’t this what “Maus” did over two decades ago?

Not saying it’s bad (in fact I really like the idea of merging anthropomorphic animals with hardboiled detective stories) but it’s hardly a new concept…

A few notes about the Dark Horse reprint: This is the first time the third story, Red Soul, has been published in English. They’ve re-done the lettering and re-worded the earlier translations, and have done a really good job, especially in keeping the hard-boiled ‘tone’ of the narration. (In a couple of places they could’ve used better wording, but then I’m bilingual so it’s easy to nit-pick – Dark Horse has done a fine job.)

Also, volume 4 of the series (in French) may be showing up in late September. Possible front cover art here, interior art here and here.

The premise of it, roughly translated: “1950, New Orleans, where the Mardi Gras celebration is in full swing. Through Weekly, a music producer named Faust meets Blacksad. Faust asks him to handle a case: one of his musicians, a pianist named Sebastian, has disappeared. He’s not been heard from for months, jeopardizing a star’s private music label. Faust is concerned that Sebastian might have gotten caught up in drugs once too often. His concerns are all the more urgent, knowing that Sebastian also has cancer. John accepts the mission and gradually discovers that Faust has not told him everything. Realizing that he’s being manipulated, he still decides to find Sebastian to understand the reasons for his disappearance.”

I really wish that ‘furries’ hadn’t hijacked anthropomorphic art as their turf. Anthropomorphic characters have always been used in clever, credible and sensible storytelling. Tons of great work have had animal or animal-like protagonists long before the furry movement, or that dumb TERM, even existed.

Nowadays, the minute an artist uses animals as sentient characters, reactions invariably include allusions to how “the furries are going to fap to this!”. That’s a meme I wouldn’t mourn should it die a fiery death.