terdburgler

Welp, I got a new scanner. Well, actually it’s an all-in-one printer. I’m a little hesitant… While it’s nice to get the scanner off of my desk and consolidate some equipment, I’m not sure if an all-in-one scanner will be able to stand up to a stand-alone scanner. Granted, the old scanner was a five-year-old model but I’m still cautious. So far… it ain’t bad. It does what I need without a bunch of bells and whistles.

-TB

#Ghastly#Haunter#Gengar#Pokemon#Selfie

So I had every intention of coloring some of the drawings I have sitting on my scanner today. But my scanner is broken. She served me well these past four years but she finally kicked the bucket. Fare well, old friend! Drawings will have to be put on hold until I can acquire another scanner.

-TB

#Scanner#Broken scanner#So sad#so very very sad
I have a question regarding the clothing-related Political Act in the world of Seraph's Neighborhood. Is it meant to highlight the demonization of sexuality present in our world?
Anonymous
terdburgler

In a manner of speaking. The idea for the Fur Feather and Scale Act, like many of my other ideas, came from real life. My father was a very fuzzy man. His legs in particular were quite hairy and one thing that stood out to me as a child was how he didn’t like to wear long socks. He would complain that after wearing long socks for a long time, it would cause his legs to start hurting- a result of muffing up his leg hairs against their natural direction for too long. I remembered this when I started getting into furries. If socks could cause discomfort to a human that was a little fuzzy, what would happen if a creature absolutely covered in fur was forced to wear tight clothing? It could be quite uncomfortable for them! So I decided that one of the early furry rights victories would be the Fur Feather and Scale Act which no longer forced anthros to wear clothing when it was physically uncomfortable or painful.

But as I mulled how that would effect this world in my head, the results were a little different than expected. Many furries saw it as a godsend; that they were no longer required to wear clothes that put them in constant pain. Others began to use it as a political statement. Some furries began walking around completely nude as a matter of principal, rebellion against the human laws that once required them to bundle up. Many humans in turn used sexuality to to condemn these furries and paint them as evil. It certainly brings the question of sexuality to the forefront in the story though I admit that it wasn’t my original intention. I was just taking a personal experience of mine and melding it into this fantasy world. Everything else just sort of built up from there.

What was the worst question that someone has asked the gang since the debut of the Tumblr account? If privacy is an issue, worst anonymous question?
Anonymous
terdburgler

Honestly? I haven’t really gotten anything horrible. Everyone warned me that Tumblr was filled with anon weirdos but I haven’t seen it. Guess I’m just not popular enough to get the anon hate yet. Perhaps I’ll get there some day but for now, I still have faith in humanity.

And I was just about to ask if you feel like you put a lot of yourself in your characters. That said, do you ever feel like your characters develop personalities different than you originally intended? Like you think about how the character would react, not how you want them to react? Or that their personality gets away from you and end up changing the idea you had in your head?
Anonymous
terdburgler

That happens with every single character I make. They all have where they started and as I develop them more and more, they begin to get their own thought and perspectives. Whenever I write for them, I never think what I want them to do. It’s always about how THEY would react and what THEY would do. There are characters that behave dramatically different from myself and I’ve played characters that consistently make terrible decisions- but that is just how they would behave. Sandy Rivers is the epitome of that. She’s headstrong, assertive, quick to assume and fast to dismiss. In many ways, she destroys everything for herself but it is the only way she knows hoe to live and from her perspective, it’s rational and logical. Understanding characters and their perspective is paramount to writing characters people can love and relate to.

Since Chahiro is now in the spotlight, as an artist, what inspired you to create him?
Anonymous
terdburgler

Life? That would be the short answer, really. Chahiro is incredibly personal to me in that he represents some very difficult and troubling parts of my own life, as well as the suffering I’ve seen in my close, personal friends. Chahiro is at the cusp of adulthood with everything before him and still questing to decipher the mystery of his own identity. We all go through it to one extent or another but for Chahiro, the questions are an overwhelming behemoth.

His search for identity, who he is and what he is, represents a lot of my own strife while at the same time, living out the strife I have seen others bare. Myself, I had to struggle with my own sexuality on some major terms. I grew up Mormon where straight was the only acceptable orientation. Then I fell in love with a transgendered individual who was my same sex but mentally the other gender. That was confusing as hell. Was it really gay or is it kind of straight if I love them for their mind? I explored same-sex relationships for a while before eventually concluding that both dicks and pussies are awesome and settled into being Bi.

A bit of the difficulty I saw my trans friends endure came out in him being a transvestite. And even more came out when I made him an orphan after forming a close friendship with someone who grew up in foster care. But at his core is my own identity crisis I fought with for years. I’m comfortable with where I am now but I express a lot of my feelings through Chahiro- which is why I’ve been fairly guarded about the character for some time.

-TB