therithere | What if there was a book about otherkin?

!!

YAY!

Hello! It may just be some internet strangeness in my part of the world, but that link doesn't seem to be coming up for me. Thought I should mention it just in case.

Look at the way the link is titled: is it July 3 in your part of the world? :P

What can I say. Not too sharp on Sundays =)

I'm feeling the same July 2nd vibes you are, but that didn't stop ComicGenesis!

Glad to see you back in the loop with this. *grin* This one is great, as usual! I found the way you filled the speech bubbles to be especially amusing, mostly because I occasionally visualize the same thing- just as a mental exercise, wonder what a sound or concept would look like if it was to be reduced to a single dingbat. There are a lot of options for that...

I really like that "egad!" dragon in the lower-left corner, for some reason.

...I wish I knew why ComicGenesis keeps doing that. I asked about it in their forums and I checked my settings, and it looks like everything's just as right as it can be... but it seems like the site keeps auto-updating whenever it happens to feel like it. :/

I've always thought pictorial speech bubbles were neat and underused... they're visually efficient, since they tend to either communicate their message more rapidly than text, or they're a joke in-and-of themselves if they take some figuring-out on the part of the reader.

My roleplaying character in the interactive comic

paperspace is a centaur who communicates exclusively in pictorial speech bubbles. I hadn't even planned for him to do that; he just turned out that way. Reminds me, that place needs more activity...

I later found out about

irrimiri_comic, which also stars a nonverbal character who sometimes speaks in pictures.

The dragon in the lower-left corner had a more satisfying mouth-squiggle in the sketch. Something of its vitality was lost when inking, but it still works nearly as well. Cartooning is like that.

In other words, we're gonna have to wait until CG loads it on the 3rd. ;)

--Zhora

Cruel joke. *smile*

...What's a cruel joke?

Why, posting notice of a comic we cannot wait to read almost thirty-six hours before we can read it, of course. *wry grin*

Yay for Theri There returning :)

I think the basic summary is, no matter how I may feel about the whole thing coming out in one or more books...it's going to.

Just take a look at vampires the last few years, starting with "Mad, Mad House" (I think).

You just had to mention Silver RavenWolf, didn't you?

You can imagine what sort of book about therianthropy that Silver Ravenwolf would write. Also note the familiar crescent moon logo on the books. It was exactly the sort of thing that would make the elf in the background imitate Edvard Munch's "The Scream." That and the other wince-worthy book titles and covers, which I carefully tooled to be as many flavors of wrong as possible. Can you imagine up any other equally wince-worthy book titles that we hope we'll never see on a New Age Bestseller rack?

Therianthropy for Dummies?

I dunno, I'm bad enough at thinking of real titles.

I like the facial expression in this one, by the way.

You know what's bad? "For Dummies" already includes D&D and Wicca in their product line. If Otherkin gets big, there will be a book with that title.

*grin* Rest assured, I am NOT going with Llewellyn. "Field Guide" is already contracted with Immanion Press (http://www.immanion-press.com), who while having started with fiction in 2002, is branching out into nonfic, particularly new territory (ie, we won't be putting out yet another Wicca 101 book). While it's mostly along the occult/magical lines (my first book with them was my book on animal magic (http://www.thegreenwolf.com/lupabooks.html)) the editor and owner thought my idea was good enough to publish. In addition, I (and everyone at Immanion) am a stickler for citations, scholarship, and non-fluff. So I am going to do my best to put out a quality book--and no crescent moons or Dummies ;)

3 words: This is Good. I liked your portrayal of all the differing views and the like, particularly the elf's total dislike of it, and the wolf(that is a wolf, right?) and gryphon's changeableness over it. /character analysis.

I'd thought that a book would about otherkin would be rather interesting if released. Now, I'm not so sure...

If I had to take a bet, I'm pretty sure that it'd being the 2nd down, far right(the one with the sale sign).

The gryphon isn't exactly changeable... rather, the hypothetical book is changeable. This particular episode doesn't portray a chronological sequence, just a series of different possibilities. In one instance, the book turned out to be pretty good, and the gryphon is able to use the book as common ground to help explain herself to a friend who has read it. In a different instance, the book has done such an embarassingly awful job describing therianthropes and otherkin that the gryphon doesn't want to be associated with it, so she tells her friend that she's not like that. The same goes for the wolf's various portrayed reactions... he's not being changeable about the same book, he's actually reacting to different variations of possibilities for the hypothetical therianthropy book. The book might stink, or it might be lovable, or it might be gibberish without any connection to therianthropy at all.

We're used to seeing comics as a chronological sequence, so I wasn't sure if a series of random possibilities would be come across intuitively, rather than being perceived as a chronological sequence even when it isn't one.

I thought the wolf guy in today's comic was a wolf, but he looks different from the other-- more realistic-- wolf characters who've appeared in Theri There. So far, they've appeared as quadrupeds with specifically lupine markings. This new guy appeared only as a canine-headed human with plainer colors, and he didn't seem to want to appear as anything else throughout this comic episode. Maybe he's a cynocephalus.

Sorry if too many of the panels represent worries... these represent common views moreso than my own. I'm not quite as uptight as some of these characters. I'm looking forward to any books about otherkin that I can find... anything that sends a message of “you're not alone” to otherkin and therians who haven't stumbled across like-minded others online. Anything that can help us explain ourselves to other people and gather together information. I even look forward to seeing the wince-inducing books, though in a different way.

As I said, there are already some books that mention otherkin... for the most part, they are doing just like the book in the seventh panel, with the sale sign: they're gathering dust and cobwebs, and scarcely anyone's heard of them. With a couple of them, that's probably for the best. (Ouch!) Some of them set off other reactions as shown, but on a smaller scale. For the most part, the books in question haven't made a big impact so far.

*ROTFLMAO*

Oh, good gods, that's so true! That's about the gist of the reactions I've gotten thus far.

The thing I keep in mind regardless of what I'm writing about is that you can't please everyone. Particularly with a community that's as incredibly diverse (and strong-minded!) as Otherkin. I'm doing my best to represent Otherkin as "Here are some examples of Otherkin which show just how diverse we are, YMMV" rather than "This is what Otherkin ARE, no exceptions!"

I;m also making sure there's not gonna be a fluffy "Teen Witch" style cover. That's all we need :P

I *loved* this. Hell, even if I had inspired it I'd still love it.

You know, you could swap Theri for Furry and the comic would be still accurate.

The furry subculture has been agonizing over what to think of a hypothetical book about furries as well? I didn't know about that.

I doubt a book would go off shelves, it is likely to stay there and rot. Why? Unless you have a good advertising fund you will meet only a few people that might or might not agree with your ideas.

However, if you write therianthropy stuff into comic magazines or mix it with some other subject (like Marketing for Subcultures, Theri Market, InterneTh...) haha who knows?

Bad thing is media want to show furry = ped and dirty people in costume.

I'm primarily looking at a relatively niche market, not trying to make Otherkin watered down for the masses. I'm not $ilver Ravenwolf. I don't write for the money. (Hell anyone who gets into writing for the money is going to be sorely disppointed, regardless of genre!) However, my first book has already given me tons of experience in ground-level promotion, particularly because I do work with a very small occult publisher. We're working on getting our books distributed through pagan shops across the country, as well as just mailed off samples and marketing proposals to the small press departments of B&N and Borders.

As for the media thing, here are a couple of articles from the two biggest papers in Pittsburgh:

From the Post-Gazette (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06169/699273-51.stm)

From the Tribune-Review (http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/search/s_458482.html)

And chances are as soon as the media gets a hold of Otherkin/Teriantropes...we'll be placed in that SAME stereotype.

There is a way you know, and it is to show the people OUR truth before the media does. But it requires some heavy pouches.

I see ALL the cases in the strip happening. And three different wolves reading the same exact book will get three different takes on it, too.

AMEN...

Suggestion for a future comic?

First panel- two "Humans" sitting at a table, one is being patronizing and condescending to the other, but in that "Concerned manner" that's supposed to make you take their every word to heart.
Caption- "Don't you wish, just sometimes- you could make people actually SEE you? Like- New supervisors who think you can't wipe your Ar** without instructions?"

Second Panel - Other person has turned into thier "Furry/Draconic/Gryphonic/Otherkin" form and the first "Human" has wisely decided to shut up and be quiet, with a final comment about "I'm sure you know how to do your job and will be quite competent at it..." - suddenly delivered in a much more honest tone.

True- this was spawned from wanting to use the Dragon's form to impress on this woman that I Hate being Micro-managed and can't stand the fake concern and "Buzzwords" she used all through the "Meeting", and that by doing so- she's lost any hope of gaining my trust, loyalty or respect.
If you can use it- GREAT! If not- oh well... :)

I think that, when a book that accurately portrays Otherkin comes out, that it will be the only the beginning of media attention. It won't be too long before you have parades for Otherkin....>.<

On the other hand....Otherkin as a subculture is actually way more *extreme* than the furry subculture. Why? Because we take it to a more spiritual level. Furries dress up in fursuits because they have a fursona, identify with it, and like anthropomorphic animals and art and whatnot. Most furries do it as a hobby, but some lifestyle as it. It can be a very shallow, fleeting hobby, roleplaying online and drawing a lot, or you can lifestyle, have a furry pride bumper sticker and go shopping in your fursuit. You can take it lightly, or to an extreme.

Otherkin, on the other hand(hehe), well, it's a serious thing. We are speaking of our souls, of our past lives, of our identities. We bring up theories that are not only intangible, but highly controversial. Some of our theories specifically rely on the opinion that there is a diety, some rely on the actual belief in reincarnation, and a lot rely on the belief in auras, energy, and souls. If one were not to believe in any of the aforementioned, they could not potentialy equate one of more theories out there to be valid.

I guess it's like the difference between Goth and.....hmm....let's say Wicca. Goths can dress in dark colors, appreciate the music, and be nonconformists. Wiccans can do that too, but it's not Goth. They have spiritual beliefs that are not physical or tangible in any way.

But, for that very reason, we're not going to get the same kind of viewpoint on us as furries do. If people thought furries were sex-crazed animal lovers because they heard of the CSI episode, most still are starting to realize that that's only one kind of monkey in the barrel. Otherkin have metaphysical beliefs that can directly conflict most mainstream beliefs. It'll fuck with people's percieved viewpoints of things.

And, therefore, like someone previously said, we need to make our viewpoints clear before the media gets a hold on us and makes up their own thoughts on the matter.

But how will we do that if we cannot even decide on what Otherkin precisely is? The world may never know.

What if there was a book about otherkin?

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Off topic, sort of...

Very, VERY accurate...