The specific term furry fandom was being used in fanzines as early as 1983, and had become the standard name for the genre by the mid-1990s, when it was defined as 'the organized appreciation and dissemination of art and prose regarding 'Furries', or fictional mammalian anthropomorphic characters'.

This led to the formation of a discussion group that met at science fiction conventions and comics conventions. Vootie grew a small following over the next several years, and its contributors began meeting at science fiction and comics conventions.Īccording to fandom historian Fred Patten, the concept of furry originated at a science fiction convention in 1980, when a character drawing from Steve Gallacci's Albedo Anthropomorphics started a discussion of anthropomorphic characters in science fiction novels. Many of its featured works contained adult themes, such as 'Omaha' the Cat Dancer, which contained explicit sex. In 1976, a pair of cartoonists created the amateur press association Vootie, which was dedicated to animal-focused art.

The furry fandom has its roots in the underground comix movement of the 1970s, a genre of comic books that depicts explicit content.