Xanadu is a 1980s Furry comic by the late Vicky Wyman.
The story is set in a World of Funny Animals in the Empire of Xanadu, ruled by Empress Alicia, daughter of the late Emperor Alynrud who founded the kingdom. In this world, which is roughly of early Renaissance development level, there is a land with a Fantastic Caste System consisting of in declining order of importance:
- Noble: Fantasy creatures like Unicorns and Dragons who are the ruling elite of the empire.
- Freeborn: Animals that are considered wild in our world such as wolfs, lions, deer etc. who are roughly middle class who serve the Nobles if they are not engaged in their own businesses.
- Domestique: The lowest caste, made up on domestic animals like dogs, cats, sheep etc. They often work in menial labor or in outright poverty or engaged in street crime.
In this society, there is a Gentleman Thief of a cat called Tabbe Le Fauve, a combination of Puss in Boots and Errol Flynn, who is determined to make his own way in Xanadu in defiance of the caste system with the help of his sardonic mule sidekick, Jonathon. In the opening of the first tale, Tabbe is bold enough to break into the ruling residence of Empress Alicia, The Ever-Changing Palace, which magically rearranges itself to thwart such attempts.
Sure enough, Tabbe stumbles into the personal bedchamber of Empress Alicia's handmaiden and closest companion, a beautiful vixen named Fatima. With his trespass noticed, Tabbe gently seduces Fatima to keep her from raising the alarm, which incurs the wrath of her other lover, the Palace's Griffin Captain of the Guard, Reginald Plume who already wants to make the cat pay for his trespass.
However, Empress Alicia, a beautiful Unicorn who delights in shocking her peers with being a Shameless Fanservice Girl with a long list of lower caste lovers to the annoyance of her dragon adviser, Octavius, has other plans. Suspecting that Plume has designs of defying her orders and perhaps worse in the longer term, she plans to use Tabbe as a lure to test how far Plume is going to go by ordering him to capture Tabbe unharmed for her. The fact that Tabbe has fallen in love with Fatima since their tryst just makes that goal easier.
From that conflict arises a series of court intrigue and fantasy romance that will draw in the Asian Dragons of the allied Golden Realm (Such as the Lady Kajiko and the younger warrior Kinomon), powerful neutral figures and hidden enemies biding their own time. Along the way, Tabbe and Fatima find that Alicia agrees with the cat's disdain for the injustice of the caste system and is ready to gradually reform it with a razor sharp political savvy to achieve that.
The tone is of a largely lighthearted romantic Swashbuckler that is much like a combination of The Princess Bride and Disney's Robin Hood (1973) with a playful eroticism interspersed with serious drama.
The property consists of:
- Thief of Hearts
- Phelia's Tale - A one-shot colour special
- Across Diamond Seas
- The Ever-Changing Palace a 10 issue fan magazine containing various comic and text stories by various talents including Wyman herself with the third Xanadu tale, Into Golden Skies.
Regrettably, Wyman was not able to achieve the success she deserved with this property and the magazine was cut short and Wyman's main stories were never completed, with Wyman dying of intestinal cancer in 2018. However, there are several short vignettes featuring the characters that are available on her account on Fur Affinity. Regardless, the comics stand as some of the finest furry fantasy comics in the medium.
Xanadu provides examples of:
- Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: A male version where Tabbe is subjected to this. Being a cat, he is utterly resistant and had to be forcibly stripped and thrown into the magical Unicorn Pool. However, between the pool's magic and the entrance of the stunningly beautiful, naked and randy Empress Alicia coming in to join him, Tabbe changes his mind real quick about the experience.
- Berserk Button: In the second series, the foolish and flirtatious Kyryn Tzu Li learns the hard way that you do not want to try seducing Kinomon by transforming into the form of his murdered wife Firepetal.
- Fatima is usually a gentle, soft-spoken vixen. But if you try using her friends for your own ends, she will read you the riot act right to your face regardless of who you are. As both Princess Kajiko and Empress Alicia learn.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Fatima comes to Tabbe to both meet up with her lover and to convey Empress Alicia's request for his gang to perform a secret mission, with a good pay packet upon completion. Tabbe playfully notes that he has never worked for money before, and Fatima cheerfully answers that she wants to "pay" him as well. With that, she bowls him over with a big smooch and at that, Tabbe can't find a reason to refuse such a lovely lady like herself.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Tabbe. He clearly enjoys the sight of an attractive lady, especially Fatima, but he's still very much a gentleman.
- Deal with the Devil: After finally getting outlawed and exiled from the court, Reggie is convinced to make a deal with the undead sorceror Typhon. Said deal involves allowing himself to be possessed and controlled by the sorcerer. It ends very, very badly for Reggie.
- Fanservice: Empress Alicia is often in the buff either in her bathing chamber or in the magic Unicorn Pool and often has no problem conducting internal court affairs in that state.
- Fantastic Caste System
- Foxy Vixen: Fatima, Tabbe Le Fauve's main love interest, is a Bedlah Babe in a belly-baring harem dress. While indeed an example of Ms. Fanservice, however, she is notably outdone by the unicorn Empress Alicia in that department, the latter being a Shameless Fanservice Girl who has no qualms about holding court in the buff or joining Tabbe in the bath.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Some don't wear a lot like Tabbe or Fatima, but pants and/or loincloths are a must.
- Furry Female Mane: Largely avoided with Fatima who usually wears a long head hood that gives the feel of her having long human-like hair. By contrast, since Unicorns typically are depicted as having manes, Empress Alicia has head hair.
- Gentleman Thief: Tabbe, of course. His pal Jonathan is a thief, too, but he's no gentleman while still a hero. And then there's Reggie's criminal flunkies, Scratch the Rat and the rest, who are as bad as they come.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the first series, Kinomon's lover/wife Lady Firepetal disguises herself as him at one point, aided by the lack of major physical differences between male and female Golden dragons, to save him from a fight with Reginald. It works, and he kills her, leading to him being declared outlaw and being torn to shreds when Kinomon catches up with him.
- Hidden Depths: Alicia may seem an oversexed Ditz, but that carefully hides a political mind like a steel trap with a Machiavellian ruthless streak determined to secure the throne against any threat.
- Honor Before Reason: The Golden Realm dragons are warriors bound by a strict code of honor, which can be inconveniencing.
- Mr. Fanservice: Tabbe, a Gentleman Thief who is really cut as a cat.
- Ms. Fanservice: Apart from Empress Alicia, the Lady Fatima is like that as well to a lesser extent. Imagine Maid Marian in Disney's Robin Hood (1973), then subtract 2/3 of her clothing into a Bedlah Babe harem dress and double her bust size.
- Politically-Active Princess: Empress Alicia is notorious for her ribald antics, but she also has a keen political savvy as well, whether it is making sure that a politically ambitious colonel is no threat to her throne, or subtly dismantling her land's unjust caste system in a way that will be permanent.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Kinomon ends up going on one against Reggie at the end.
- Secondary Sexual Characteristics: The only way to casually differentiate the Dragons of the Golden Realm's sexes is by the color of their hair.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Empress Alicia is notorious for her ribald antics such as holding court in the buff for internal matters and her long line of Domestique lovers.
- Unicorn: Empress Alicia and her late father Alynrudd. However, the former playfully defies the creature's usual association with purity, but are in keeping with the early association with ferocity as they both have personally led armies into battle.
- Unwanted Rescue: When Tabbe is a prisoner of the Empress and enjoying her erotic attentions at the moment, he obviously is no hurry to be rescued for a while. However, Jonathan rescues him over his objections.
- World of Funny Animals
