Congratulations! You've decided that you can gain some fame, notoriety, and/or commissions from making a UsefulNotes/{{Furry|Fandom}} comic.

The good news is, much like Anime and Manga, you can come up with all sorts of plots and genres that stand out on their own, even if they can still technically be called furry -- so you better see how to SoYouWantTo/WriteAStory first and foremost.

Of course, having to deal with some animal and human-like animal characters does change this up a little bit...

!'''Necessary Tropes'''
Your characters are somewhere in the spectrum between fully human and fully animal. You're going to have this color your work at least a little.

* AnimalStereotypes - This is WHY you're writing a Furry comic in the first place, right? You want to take advantage of these, either in terms of playing 'em straight or [[PlayingWithATrope finding fun ways to mess around with 'em]].
* UsefulNotes/FurryFandom - These'll either be your target market from the get-go, or they're going to become a significant PeripheryDemographic. Better learn to love 'em either way.

!'''Choices, Choices'''
* Exactly where on the SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism will your characters fall? FunnyAnimal is by far the most common for the things commonly termed "furry comics", but if you're gunning for a larger or more diverse readership, sliding it a bit farther towards either end will likely expand your readership beyond the established furry fandom -- compare the popularity of ''Webcomic/VGCats'', ''Webcomic/{{Lackadaisy}}'', and ''Webcomic/CucumberQuest'' to more "traditional" furry fare.
* Furries as we know them don't exist in the real world, so if your comic has any basis in reality, you'll need to justify this somehow... or not. If your world is mostly a modern world except with furries in place of humans, and there's nothing especially different about their world that requires justification, there's no reason to complicate the world with elaborate details of alternate dimensions and ancient viruses and catastrophes, unless these things have any actual bearing on plot.
** AlienAnimals - for when you want to take an ordinary terrestrial animal and justify its human-like behavior by saying it's just that good at keeping its true nature hidden from humans.
** IntelligentGerbil - No, they're really aliens, they just look an awful lot like the animals we know and love.
** HalfHumanHybrid and ArtificialAnimalPeople - We've gotten really, really good with bio-technology. Best used for ScienceFiction works.

For the more mundane aspects of your furry setting:

* AnimalStereotypes vs. settings with less FantasticRacism. Sometimes these tropes end up applied to other species just because of AuthorAppeal (i.e. The author likes cats and/or reptiles and thus makes one the star of the comic, therefore we're ''supposed'' to like them), so pay attention.
* CarnivoreConfusion - Carnivores eat meat. Meat comes from animals. Your animals can now talk, so... yeah, you need to come up with a rational solution to this. There's plenty of options. Read that article.
* {{Cute Monster Girl}}s vs. more realistic treatments of animals. If your cast includes lizards and birds, you may want to forgo NonMammalMammaries for the sake of realism, too.
* FeatherFingers - Sometimes it's just easier to give your characters extra hands rather than invoke this trope.
* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy - Are there humans among the furry characters? Is it a 50/50 split, or more like a TokenMinority?
* LittleBitBeastly - For when your characters are almost all the way human anyway, save for a few "cute" traits like ears and tails.

!'''Pitfalls'''

There's a solid {{Hatedom}} for furries, and while there are other issues at play here (including the AnimationAgeGhetto), there's a lot of things other comics have already fallen prey to, and there's no reason to give the {{Hatedom}} any more justification.

* AnthropomorphicShift - No, really, we don't care if you're going for WesternAnimation/WatershipDown realism or just doing a TwoGamersOnACouch comic (Well... we care about that, but for other reasons). We just ask that whatever your level of realism is between humans and animals, you STICK WITH IT.
* CopyCatSue - Please think long and hard about taking your Fandom OC and just building a comic around it. Yes, people use their fursonas in their comics all the time, but at least their characters were original to begin with. If you must, make DAMN sure to throw a few degrees of separation in and build a brand new setting for them as opposed to [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog just putting all of your characters on Mobius]].
* DarkerAndEdgier - We're chalking this up to a backlash from censorship and ExecutiveMeddling of childhood cartoons, but that doesn't make it any more unsettling. Even in fairly innocuous settings like ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'', the pitfalls of CarnivoreConfusion can make ordinary life fraught with peril and provide unexpected horror. Pay attention to what you're doing.
* FurriesAreEasierToDraw - But that doesn't mean you can get away with bad artwork. No, we don't care that it's just your style; we ought to be able to tell your foxes from your squirrels from your mice from your pangolins, dammit!
* FurryConfusion - Figure this one out in advance, or at least do your damnedest to prevent your humanized species from interacting with their more primal versions. And God help you if you show [[FridgeLogic a Cow furry eating a hamburger]].
* {{Hatedom}} - The sooner you accept this, the less it will affect you. Obviously, [[ValuesDissonance the country or region when you live or you pretend to sell your product also play a role here]].
* LighterAndSofter - It is in general a very bad idea to remove everything from the subject matter you were about to tackle from your OC just because you are afraid of a backlash from your readers. It usually makes your comic saccharine.
* RuleThirtyFour - If your furry comic does not need pornographic content in order to advance the plot it is in general a good idea to remove it entirely. In fact, if you are going to tackle sexual subjects in your comic book, you may want to reconsider. A ridiculous amount of furry porn is already out there, and there are a disproportionate number of furry comics with sexual themes compared to webcomics at large. It's not new (see ''ComicBook/OmahaTheCatDancer'' for pre-internet examples). If you however know that you are talented enough as a writer to tackle sexual subjects in your book and still make something that is of interest to your readers (if your subject matter has not been tackled yet it will always be that case), go for it.
* {{Stripperiffic}} - Yes, humans can be sexy, and your characters are being treated as though they were human. If a human character wouldn't wear that outfit, your furries shouldn't either. It is, however, excusable if an outfit's skimpiness serves to make the species more recognizable (think WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck) rather than to be sexy -- see HalfDressedCartoonAnimal for a more in-depth look.

!'''Potential Subversions'''

As stated above, the plots available to a Furry comic are diverse, so if you're already creating a good story for your genre outside of the furry aspects, you're above and beyond most folk already.

WITHIN the furry aspects, though...

* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy - Very few plots have humans living side-by-side with furries, and when humans have been shoehorned in later on to otherwise all-furry casts (see [[Anime/SonicX Chris Thorndyke]]), it can feel very unnerving. Putting the two together from the start can make for a satisfying contrast between characters, as well as a way to explore/parody the differences between furries and humans (How many humans do you know that have to worry about where their tails go when they sit?)
* FeatherFingers - Even if you've avoided this by giving your avians extra limbs, at some point you're going to have to worry about the fact your characters may not always have the same four fingers that humans do. How they go about compensating for this can be an entertaining twist.
* CarnivoreConfusion - If you can come up with a fresh twist to what's already listed here (or even a new approach entirely), go for it.
* WhatMeasureIsANonCute - Similar to the above; it seems like that, even if the characters in question ''are'' rarely seen, they will probably be [[CuteKitten felines]], [[PreciousPuppy canines, lupines, vulpines]], [[BunniesForCuteness lagomorphs]], with the [[BearyFriendly occasional]] [[BearyFunny ursine]] here or there. Mix it up! How 'bout some [[AvianTropes avians]], some [[SillySimian simians]], or some non-[[ReptilesAreAbhorrent abhorrent]] reptiles! (See AnimalStereotypes above.)

And hell, almost every webcomic approach to UsefulNotes/FurryFandom has been [[YouAreWhatYouHate negative]], consisting of ubergeeks at best and sex freaks at worst. If you can do a comic about UsefulNotes/FurryFandom without falling prey to the usual pitfalls and stereotypes, more power to you.

Maybe none of this stuff really matters to you - the story may, in fact, be all you care about, and the only reason you're here is because FurriesAreEasierToDraw. Of course, this isn't really a subversion so much as it is you're just a LazyArtist.

!'''Writers' Lounge'''
!!'''Suggested Themes and Aesops'''

Animals, and therefore Furries, reek of symbolism on several levels. Use it.

* FantasticRacism - From ''Maus'' on up, different species have been used as placeholders for various nationalities / races / religions for a long time. Works best if your setting is not all that different from the modern world.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman - Found in works where Humans and Furries coexist, especially if that existence is an unequal one (Think ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', especially in episodes where Brian is trying to be treated like a human being)
* WhatMeasureIsANonCute - For plots where WhatMeasureIsANonHuman seem to already be (mostly) hammered out. Works well for monsterous species, or even simply bizarre ones compared to the usual creatures we see, and can even be extrapolated for Aesops about body types and physical abnormalities / deformities.

!!'''Potential Motifs'''

A furry's species can be used as a stand-in for several themes - from [[FantasticRacism various races]] to personality types to moral alignments. And of course, within a species you can have themes as well - ''WesternAnimation/RoadRovers'' used an all-dog squad with different breeds for different countries, for example.

In more fantastic settings with unusual creatures above and beyond the usual anthropomorphic, the lines become further blurred , to the point that there's no great difference between species except for artistic flavor.

!!'''Suggested Plots'''

Anything, really. Furry artwork has been used to illustrate everything from slice-of-life comics to full-blown holocaust memoirs, so there's no special plot that furry work trends towards as a result.

But dealing with animals always provides ''some'' ideas...

* Plots centered on the distinct issues that a furry society would have to deal with (special furniture, housing situations) are ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'''s stock in trade, and are just waiting to be used, especially if they can parody real life situations. Why worry about security at the airport, for example, if you already have wings and the only thing keeping you from flying yourself is an overpacked suitcase?
* Environmental issues make sense, especially if your character of choice is only slightly removed from its natural habitat -- and given the AuthorAppeal inherent in this, especially if the primary characters of choice are endangered, it's one of the more justified uses of animal characters.
** Even if humans aren't involved in the setting, don't be surprised to see furry characters and plots being more directly connected to nature in general, ala ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994''.

!'''Departments'''
!!'''Set Designer''' / '''Location Scout'''

A large number of furry settings are either in nature (though naturalized settlements are also common) or the modern urban world, and sometimes both. The more realistic the story, the less likely these two will overlap.

Settings where humans are curiously missing[=/=]avoided entirely are common, though if humans DO exist in settings that are mostly natural, it's often to hammer in that HumansAreBastards.

!!'''Props Department'''

If your furries have FeatherFingers or other anatomical differences from humans, adjust your props to compensate.

Don't forget that your characters come with their own accessories (claws for most creatures, teeth for your predators, and skunks come pre-equipped with their own mace), and for more fantastical creatures, this can include things like fire-breathing, wings, and other fun "built-in" toys.

!!'''Costume Designer'''

Make sure the characters you draw have at least a passing resemblance to the animals they're supposed to be based off of, at least as far as the heads and tails are involved.

Depending on your levels of realism and proximity to human behavior, don't forget to render the more ambient details of furry characters, [[ShapedLikeItself like their actual.... y'know, fur]].

A dedicated artist can extend this even further to giving furries special hands, which may or may not have all the same fingers that humans do, as well as figuring out whether to give them human-style feet (plantigrade) or more animalistic legs (digitigrade). And if you go the digitigrade route, make sure the right animals have that style, or someone will call you out on it.

The more human the setting, the more clothes should be worn. Make sure they match whatever setting you're in, and even more importantly, they should be clothes the character can actually put on by themselves.

!!'''Stunt Department'''

Most of these stunts will fall under Feats of Strength/Speed/Hearing; you've got exotic animals, so making sure they can still use their special traits even if they're mostly human now helps.

The most common of these is a dog's sense of smell, which can be hard to illustrate.

!'''Extra Credit'''
If you haven't checked out most of the furry comics listed on this site, go ahead and do so.

As for film, the supreme example of great furry stories is the ''Franchise/KungFuPanda'' franchise. Here we have a well written, and even better acted, furry world that plays intelligently with AnimalStereotypes and the {{Wuxia}} film genre by producers who knew Chinese culture inside and out.

For VideoGames, take a gander at ''VideoGame/StarFox'' and ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' for two franchises that codified numerous tropes related to the fandom. [[OnceOriginalNowCommon They also popularized numerous tropes which would go on to become cliches, so watch out!]]
----