Are anthro characters in comics and cartoons inherently bad? How can they be done well?

Are anthro characters in comics and cartoons inherently bad? How can they be done well?

Read Beastars. It's a manga with the anthromorphic elements woven incredibly well into the plot.

Is it meant to be sexy? Usually not great.
Is it pretending sexuality doesn't exist for some reason despite not being a gag strip and stumble over itself? Usually also not too great, but more acceptable.
Is it not sexy, but acknowledges basic sexuality when appropriate (x is pretty according to character y, people date, the artist doesn't fear drawing diverse body types)? That's probably your best bet.

If the anthro nature of the characters are anthro for reasons besides the author's fetish, they tend to be better than the ones that aren't. Because writing and drawing with a boner is a self-defeating practice.

Here's some examples of 'good' anthro comics

Lackadaisy
>Anthro cats are more expressive and easier to draw quickly. Not much is known about Tracy's fetishes, but the characters are undersexualized so she's probably not a full-on furfag. People like this one for the absolutely gorgeous art and fun characters, but it doesn't so much update as it gains strata over time.

Poppy O'Possum
>The characters are animals for similar reasons to Zootopia, to see how creatures with vastly different dimensions and needs can get along in a civilization, also magitech and asshole gods. Morbi's fetishes are well documented, and while anthro stuff can be found in his works, they're hardly the main focus (i.e. shortstacks) People like this one for the art and the writing, though the story pacing meanders at times.

Out of Placers
>Not technically anthro since the non-human characters aren't animals, they're aliens. The artists does not actually draw porn, and their preferences, whatever they are, don't seem to pollute the comic. It's enjoyed for its fun characters and interesting world, though many readers want to fuck the ratbirds.

Endtown
>The reasons for anthro characters in this comic begins and ends with 'what if Looney Tunes did an apocalypse?' People like it for the story and setting, waifu posters came later.

Poppy and OoP absolutely suffer due to the author's fetishes, though.

How so?

>Poppy suffering from shortstack fetish
now see, I can't believe that

>OoPs transformation fetish

If it happened all the time, I'd get that, but it only happened once.
Unless the author's fetish is exploring interspecies relations in a quasi-middle-ages setting, then yeah, it totally sufferes from that

Usagi Yojimbo is also one of the perennial good, or rather, great anthro books.

In general if you're using characters as anthros to denote personality/positions of hierarchy or place in society more so for fetish reasons, or if putting different species together helps drive and create conflict then you're fine. Examples include UY, Zootopia, and Poppy and Endtown.

If you're drawing a fantasy series and there are anthro races instead of (or along side) orcs and elves, and you do so in order to diversify your world setting (or if you really just want to draw a lion man punching goblins in the face,) again for similar reasons above, that's okay too. Certain fantasy comics do this, and it's also prevalent in manga as well (Hyper Police is one of the first that come to mind.) Hell, even Final Fantasy did this (especially with 9 and the Ivalice games.)

It's a bit too generalized to say "as long as you're not making out and out porn" that Anthro can work well though...

we should have more crime/detective comics with cat people

What are these two from?

I know that the black cat is an OC by Teckworks, no idea who the bird is.

Antro is always unappealing to me, it's like make a story about human(ish) people or go full animal. Not this in between bullshit

I agree with Out of Placers but what fetishes does Poppy even have?

Looks like another OC
alacusserta.tumblr.com

OoP is basically if someone decided to take their fetish and create an entire world, setting, and plot after the sexual act happened once.

The comic doesn't suffer from a fetish, it was just birthed from one.

Horrible lesbian relationships.

>tfw, despite all the updates, the story has barely gone anywhere and the characters are still flat.

Anthro characters are a mainstay in comisa dn cartoons.
My favorite stuff my entire life has been Disney, WB and TMNT related.

There's a weird line to cross to make it furry and I can't place it though.

NEW ISSUE OF BLACKSAD WHEN

No character is inherently bad. It all depends on writing.

>Can't believe the shortstack fetish
Some folks haven't seen Morbi's Hellmouth I see.

>inherently bad
The fuck you're talking about? They've been a staple of western animation for decades and a shitty fanbase is not going to change that.

this

you can give a character huge tits and still be a good character due to writing

the best kinds

Whatever trappings anthro comics/cartoons fall into, literally any other comic/cartoon can fall into as well. Check the average Sup Forums not-general right now--more people than you care to admit are talking about fucking someone or something.

Its an inherent problem with the weirdo crowds who read/watch in the first place

muscle milf

>Are anthro characters in comics and cartoons inherently bad?
Of course not. They were overdone up to the 1990's.

Any modern work needs to be stronger than the furry community that will latch onto it though, or it will be overwhelmed.

>Anthro characters
>Inherently bad

You could argue most of the cast of Looney Tunes was anthro, so no.

Trying to make them 'sexy' however is a fetish I'm not really comfortable with. But I'm sure if I browse the net long enough, that'll change.

>You could argue most of the cast of Looney Tunes was anthro

By the textbook definition they were anthro, there is no argument there.

Oh, hey, Teckworks is still on his thicc OC cheesecake kick. Good for him.

Anthro characters do well at both ends of the anthro extreme. If they're basically humans with animal features, with anthropomorphism never referenced at all, you're basically reading/watching a regular show with cuter things to look at, like Regular Show or Habits. If it's central and integral that, say, cat anthros go nuts against rodents and have an issue with the Canine Empire, a lot of creative approaches to the idea of differing values can be dealt with thanks to peoples' ideas of what animal stereotypes should be. It's a cheap way to do racism allegories, though.

When the anthropomorphism is somewhere between ignored and transparent, that's when things go wrong. That makes people question how echidna dick can fit in bat pussy, or how a raccoon can impregnate a skunk nerd, and that makes sexually confused weirdos and wandering poorly-lored out storylines.

>Here's some examples of 'good' anthro comics

>someone else besides me reads Beastars