Oh, the good old times.
doco and Cheetah are right, European fandom was mostly feeding on the teats of American fandom back in the day. While European comics had some anthropomorphic characters*, there never was a core cell of animators and cartoonists that kickstarted a dedicated fandom for them, as it happened for American artists (plus the science fiction fandom and their enthusiasts which provided the environment for meetings). Sure, there are both comic conventions and science fiction cons in Europe, even back then, but the "klick" between them and anthropomorphics was missing. (In Germany, I'd blame at least partially the lingering bad attitude towards comics in toto.)
The European fandom started only when American channels like alt.fan.furry and a few furry comics made their way over the big pond. I remember that my first furry comic were the paperback issue of The Furkindred and Furrlough #4, which I discovered completely by accident at my comic dealer. (I may even have gotten the alt.fan.furry link from one of these, but don't quote me on that; it's been some years.) From there, it was either the internet - limiting the fandom to people who had access to the net, mostly students who used the university computers -, or ordering fanzines from the US - limiting the fandom to people who had even heard about such a thing, again mostly on the internet...
I spent many nights at the university to browse for pics, and much money with Ed Zolna to get fanzines. But it was almost all American stuff. What regional Europe creates in furry characters was (and is) not really connected with the fandom, but rooted in the general comics scene, which in turn revolves around the francobelgian creators.
Looking at the first Eurofurences, you can see that there was a limited audience - ten, twenty, thirty people, much less than attendance numbers at US cons at the same time. There were artists among them but as the overall numbers suggest, not that many. And those that wanted to show their art used the internet - since that was where they found the fandom in the first place, and where they could show it to American fans as well -, not a printed zine. Hey, remembering some of those first art shows at EF, there was a lot of US prints** that someone bought at an American con and brought to Europe to re-sell.
Maybe a fanzine might have taken root before 2000, but the momentum wasn't there. I tried to talk some people into participating in a zine early on, but the idea simply didn't interest enough artists. Much later I made a second attempt with Storyfur Prime which saw a total of 6 issues in as many years - by then, however, internet access had become ubiquitous, and even the American zine scene had started to collapse. The black and white furry comic started to disappear***. (I heard people blame the end of the b/w hype in US comics, but furry comics survived that for several years before succumbing.) Out of hand I can't remember another European fanzine, actually, although I think there were one or two other attempts.
Since then, there have not been any fanzine publications (that I am aware of). While the "paper scene" in the US was saved by publishers who sell books**** and the occasional graphic novel (on a much higher quality level than fanzines used to be), there are no specialized furry publishers in Europe who attempt the same. (Perhaps the language barrier is an issue.) Clearly, the thriving internet community has replaced the fanzine as medium of idea exchange. (Cost being the other issue.)
Today, the professionally printed furry comic in Europe still resides outside of the fandom: Blacksad, Love, Horst, Mit Mantel und Degen, Die Kinder des Kapitän Grant, Canardo, or Alkandoor*****, all featuring notable furry characters, have no direct connection to the fandom******. What dedicated books or Graphic Novels (from inside the fandom) we can acquire is still almost all American material.
Also, European fandom is swiftly transforming into a fursuit fandom. I can't claim that art, comics, and stories are relegated to the sidelines but the major growth is clearly in suits.
Given the now-customary quality level of furry products, the almost free-of-cost venue of the Internet to present your works to a large worldwide audience, and the change in focus, I do not believe that the fanzine as we used to know it will ever make a return.
----- Footnotes -----
* I need to emphasize that the majority of well-known European comics - Asterix, Lucky Luke, Spirou, Tintin, Gaston, Johan et Pirlouit (unless you count the Smurfs), Valerian, and of course the many recent fantasy comics - all have human characters, with animal or anthro chars in a sidekick role at best (Jolly Jumper, the Marsupilami, Snowy...).
** In clear plastic binders.
*** Notable exception: Gay porn comics.
**** Gay self-discovery is one of the big themes in the US furry book market. That has, somehow, not been an issue in Europe, and not even this very specialized book theme was attempted by any European authors. Or maybe it is a lack of dedicated furry publishers who would be interested in distribution.
***** Partly titles of the German translations, since I am a lazy bum and cannot be arsed to look up the French titles.
****** I'm not sure about Alkandoor yet. Does "Christine Kaiser" sound familiar?
Author
Topic: Furry "'zines", APA's or comicbooks of Europe? (Read 29071 times)