lolrant

Not much a rant here, but I'll try to make sense of it.

I've been analyzing the highly infamous furry webcomic Concession for any other value besides exploitation and, after pondering on it for quite a while, I came up with an interpretation that might shock everybody, including the comic's creator Immelmann.

What if the comic is a darkly satirical black comedy aimed at the furry fandom and the movie industry?

I know it's a cop-out to name "black comedy" and "movie industry", as Immy has deviated away from those terms into disturbing dramatic story arcs and exposes about college (and family life), but the comic still retains those concepts from time to time. Even the darker subplots seem cheesy - there's something up with this type of humor. You know, where you have humor that constantly falls flat, but it's still funny nonetheless?

That's why I view Concession as a satire myself. Here's how I interpret it:

1. In the comic's history (and info page), furfags were always persecuted by humans for pretty much no reason besides their hairy bodies. Due to this, despite laws designed to give furs more protection and, eventually, freedom, humans (and scalies aka anthro snakes and small dinos with legs and arms) don't interact with furs. However, in the comic's early history, such a level of national "fursecution" was fake. All has been attributed to Immy's lack of talent when it comes to drawing humans. And the furs - they're supposed to be discriminating among themselves based on the level of sexuality. As in the early comics, the main character Nicole had a nice school life - in the new revisionist history, Nicole was discriminated for acting girly. Not by religious nutjobs - no such people exist in Concession's college town. By others. Artie Crowley types. And the only "love-all-serve-all" character is Joel aka the jerkface who wants to kill everybody.

In that view, I propose that Immy is making fun of fursecution and religious LGBT persecution. He doesn't believe in fursecution, as evidenced by the lack of fursecution in the comic. He claims that if any furries get persecuted, it's either out of a joke and that it's not persecution at all. He does not believe that religion is out to get all gays, lesbians, bis, and trannies - he believes we're against each other just because we're different.

2. The plotlines scream out webcomic. A lot. It's Immy's reply to every webcomic he has gotten tired of - hell, even Bill Holbrook's seminal furry comic (now in syndication in the AJC) "Kevin & Kell" is getting pretty low. Immy just saw it ahead of me. He's making fun of every love arc, every "boy-gets-superpowers" arc, and every arc that you've seen Rudy, Fiona, and the others in.

3. It's so over the top. Both sexually and through its dialogue. Nobody would dare say or do the things Matt has done to Joel just because of one infidelity - Matt, by all accounts, is overreacting like crazy. There are many furry comics from back in the day that are over the top. You know, where the only way to escape from life is through yiffing. Lots and lots of it. Every character has sex (save for David the panda boss, Julian aka Joel's even worse bro, and Miranda aka Joel's dead sister) - even the ones who make fun of others based on sex life. Artie even has a few sex scenes with a few flings in his life. And don't forget the constant fan service of seeing Matt and Joel bang each other.

4. Its metaphysics, I believe, is based on drug hallucinations. That makes me question whether or not Joel and Artie even have powers in the first place - I know they have people they can't forget due to a few accidents, but as I observed in Artie's newest love arc storyline (not the one with Millicent), Artie is mainly at fault for his dolphin girlfriend's death. So, from that (and from the major explosion of Dolphin City that Artie helped cause), I propose that Miranda and Melusine do not exist. Instead, they have become William Parcher and Charles Herman to Joel and Artie, respectively. They are a desire for companionship, whether it would be through a familiar or mutual means of doing so. They both represent controlling factors in each other - jealousy in Joel, love in Artie - driven by faults in their past - Joel's bro Julian got the inheritance to his dad's media conglomeration company, Artie's a virtual orphan raised by his preoccupied grandmother. I think Joel and Artie derive their visions from hallucinogens and marijuana - which I think that's where Immy gets his inspiration from.

Also, judging by how much people don't mention Artie (other than Dave, but he's a bit strange), I think that Artie probably died from his cancer - that could mention why he's sleeping with Millicent. Otherwise, Millicent (even under Joel's "possession") would have refused him - he was underneath her when he was manager at the movie theater's concession stand. That could also mention the trippy sequences when he sees Melusine talking to him via dreams - could he be living in his own personal heaven...a heaven where he finally overtakes Joel by a million miles and takes the glory?

5. God, the fanbase is so stupid. They love to interpret everything so literally. I, for one, am one of those guys who sees more than just a black comedy about mass media, LGBT liberation, and fursecution. How Immy can interact with those cretins is beyond me.

And plus, they love to imagine their characters as done by Immy. Immy does Immy - he's doing your characters because he's tired to drawing picture after picture of Artie sodomizing Nicole, who's giving Roland some head. You know - stuff that he does to make fun of fan service.

I bet Immy's amused by all of this.

At least it's not a terrible comic.