I was asked to put a sketch in a sketchbook, and I obliged; it’s not a request I get often. The theme of the sketchbook was, if I recall correctly, “firsts”. Naturally, I commemorated the first time I was exposed to the idea of “furries” as something more than kids’ cartoon characters along the lines of Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny.

Way, way back in the 1970s, Playboy featured, among its comic strips, an offering titled Dirty Duck. When I encountered it at the tender age of . . . um, I don’t remember; early teens somewhere . . . the top of my head blew off. This wasn’t for the reason one might suspect, though. One of the strips featured a rather buxom burro girl, and upon seeing her, the sudden epiphany struck me: if funny animals could be used in a comic strip for adults, then there was no limit to what an artist (or writer) could do with them!