2012 Guests of Honor

SonicBlu

SonicBlu is described as a "partying prehistoric predator" to reflect his overly outgoing personality as a Dilophosaurus within this fandom of ours. He has been in the furry fandom since 1997, but was one of those types of people that was born to be furry--and he can show proof of this statement. He's been a performer on stage since he was a hatchling of age ten. He made his debut furry convention stage performance at Anthrocon 2003, and has been performing at various conventions ever since. When not performing, SonicBlu is an author and parody music recording artist by day (having released 8 albums to date), and an internet radio broadcaster by night. He feels that he is rather easy to get along with, and he can take control as a level-headed leader in organizing stage presentations and skits based on his own experiences of performing. SonicBlu is also a voice actor and puppeteer, and is the director, writer, editor, and lead voice/performer for a Saturday night puppet show called Oh! Pawpets! which has been running since the spring of 2009. To date, SonicBlu provides over 30 voices between 17 puppets (since one puppet is a 3-headed dragon, and one puppet has a severe case of memory loss, and can never remember who he was in the previous week, and has the tendency to change not only his personality, but also his voice.)

You can find more information on SonicBlu at:

• Oh! Pawpets! (puppetry/voice acting/film productions)
• Time Machine Show (radio show)
• WikiFur (details, history, credentials, etc.)
• FurAffinity
• IMDb (filmography)

Luthien Nightwolf

Originally from Kansas, Luthien Nightwolf now resides in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma with her mate Theron. She supports herself entirely from commissions, and can proudly say she loves what she does for a living! She is an Art Institute of Phoenix graduate, but has been drawing since she could hold a crayon and has had almost 30 years of practice to get where she is today.

As an avid fan of Lord of the Rings and all things Faerie, Luthien has her roots firmly planted in Fantasy art. She happily applies this theme to the furry world, and also enjoys creating burlesque pinups and spiritual or tribalistic artwork for her commissioners. She does everything from sketches and badges, all the way up to large full color pieces.

Luthien first discovered furry art in 2007, but didn’t find her way into the fandom until 2009, when she moved to Oklahoma and met up with the local furs. Her first convention was Oklacon 2009, where she became instantly hooked on the con buzz, and is really excited to be taking a larger part in Wild Nights 2012. She’s an elusive creature and a bit shy, but very friendly, so if you see her, be sure to come up and say hi!

Luthien Nightwolf's art can be found at on FurAffinity.

Ned Wilkinson

Ned Wilkinson graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 1987 with a degree in Commercial Arranging, or "notes on paper for fun and profit", and an emphasis in trumpet performance. He has spent the ensuing 2 1/2 decades trying to find more interesting things to do than simply draw notes on paper and play trumpet.

Ned spent 24 1/2 years as the bassist/multi-instrumentalist of the comedy/parody vocal trio "Nick, Ruell, and Ned The Band" (he grimly tolerated the idea that his last name had been changed to "The Band"), while also performing for several seasons at Silver Dollar City and providing musical direction for The Haygoods. He produced albums for members of the Cajun Connection, and arranged and played wind instruments for various productions by The Osmonds. He produced hundreds of jingles for regional radio and TV and sang backgrounds on thousands more.

Thirteen years after picking RhubarbCub as a screen name in response to the then-new "bear" scene, he watched "that infamous CSI episode" and immediately knew that the writers had gotten something wrong because who would bother going to such a grim, dreary event as "PAFCon"? In October 2009, enlightened by his own recent plunge into the fandom and spurred on by a looming deadline, he wrote what would become the opening song to "Julie Bunny Must Die!", his furry-influenced stage musical which garnered positive reviews at the Orlando Fringe Festival 2010 despite his having never attended an actual convention. Wild Nights 2011, his second convention, was the first of what he hopes will be a long and distinguished list of conventions to host "the bunny".

Ned lives in Orlando with his husbear Chris and his kittycat Rosalynn. He teaches private instrumental music and continues to do production work while exploring his new direction as a musical theater writer. "The bunny" continues to play the Fringe circuit, and his new project, "Fosgate: Ferret Loan Officer", will be produced later this year at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater.

Wildwolf A.K.A. Chad Laubach

Wildwolf was born in Emmaus Pennsylvania on December 24th 1975. At an early age he was interested in cartoon animals, growing up with cartoons such as Scooby Doo, Looney Toons, Disney cartoons, and various others. By the time High School hit, cartoons such as Tailspin, Gargoyles and Tiny Toons inspired him to start drawing the characters and join forums. One of which was called "The Gathering", a Disney Gargoyles fan forum. He met a couple of "Furries" on there that he became friends with. These furs also introduced him to the Furry Fandom. He was hooked, and his persona Wildwolf was born. Seventeen years has passed since he was introduced to the fandom. He has built many fursuits, performed as professional mascots and worked in the entertainment field.

Wildwolf's first convention he went to was in 1996. It was Confurence East in Cleveland Ohio. He was introduced to many amazing fursuits there and was inspired to build his own. Wildwolf, his first fursuit was debuted at Confurence 9 in 1998. Years down the road, he has built many well known fursuits, professional mascots for colleges and businesses, and icon fursuits for conventions or gatherings. He built Ozzy the Bat for the Furloween event held in Orlando Florida every October. He built an exact likeness of Underdog for Anthrocon, the year Joe Harris, the creator of Underdog, was the Guest of Honor. He also built and wears the mascot for Megaplex, "Mega" Pounce Panther. This mascot changes costumes every year, depending on theme. Some of his well known fursuits include, Kuddlepup, Ditto the Dragon Wolf, Blue the dog, Rakket Raccoon, Ace the foxbunny, Grynn the Sabretooth, Ripner the Cabbit, Gary the Rat, and he was the 1st to build an Anubis fursuit. He also built and donated a mascot for a non profit, children's organization called "The Sunshine Foundation". It was a Florida Panther called Sunnie.

Wildwolf has also performed as professional mascots and character for the last 10 years. Some of these mascots and characters include Scooby Doo, Tony the Tiger, Bullwinkle, Cat in the Hat, The Grinch, Razzles from the Raggs Kid Club Band, Timmy the Termite. He also performed as Sealvester for the Orlando/Florida Seals Hockey team for 5 seasons. He was Blitz the Bobcat from the Florida Bobcats Arena Football League. He also played Stuff the Magic Dragon, for the Orlando Magic basketball team. Other teams he has done mascot work for was the Orlando Solar Bears and the Orlando Miracles. He has appeared on Nationwide TV shows like Early Show, The Daily Show and News programs as various mascots and characters.

Wildwolf also does a lot of charity and volunteer work. He has played characters and mascots for Give Kids the World, Arnold Palmer Childrens Hospital, The Sunshine Foundation, Boggy Creek Camp for Children, The Boys and Girls Club, and various others. He has won many awards for his Volunteer work throughout the ten plus years he has been involved in it.

Wildwolf has been working professionally for the past 10 years, in the Costume and Prosthetic Shop for a major theme park in Orlando Florida. He works on park, show, TV and Movie costumes and props. Some of the costumes he works on at the park are Scooby Doo, Alex the Lion, Woody Woodpecker, E.B. from "HOP" movie, Shrek, Cat in the Hat, Grinch, The Simpsons, Marvel Superheroes, the Werewolf from "Van Helsing" movie, and many more. He also works on costumes and props for the nations largest Halloween event, Halloween Horror Nights.

For over a year now, Wildwolf has co-founded a Paranormal Investigating group called the "Sunshine State Paranormal Investigators" (S.S.P.I). The group travels around Florida to investigates famous haunts and tries to find proof of the Paranormal World.

More information on Wildwolf can be found on FurAffinity!

2011 Guests of Honor

Foreign Diplomat Pacer Fox (Guest of Honor)

2011 Guest of Honor, Fursuit Performer

PacerFox has been performing in the fandom for several years. Starting in college at local SciFi cons in the Virginia Beach area, he got his first suit to attend Anthrocon 1999. Since then he has been to several cons and given panels at many on performance and fursuiting in general.

Professionally, in 2000, he got a job playing "Fang" for the Austin Ice Bats and stayed with the organization until it folded in 2008. He has also performed for such organizations as Give Kids the World, The March Of Dimes, The American Cancer Society, the Red Cross and the Austin Children's Hospital. He has given training at organizations as to how to perform in their mascot costumes and how to be a spotter for mascots.

PacerFox is a native of New Jersey where he was often seen cheering on his beloved Devils. He now resides in Austin, TX where he lives with his mate Ipequey and his dog Elvis. When he isn't suiting he is trying a new beer, ghost hunting or keeping his old cars running.

Foreign Diplomat Eris (Guest of Honor)

2011 Guest of Honor, Fursuit Performer, Fursuit Creator, Artist

Hey all you awesome furs out there!!! Its me Eris Valgen, the new guest of honor for Wild Nights 2011! Some of you may know me as Isis the Oryx gazelle, but soon you'll know me as someone new.

I'm your average girl that originally lived in southern California, but now reside in the wonderful state of Oklahoma. I've always loved anthropomorphic art since I was a child. From cartoon characters such as Mickey mouse and the ninja turtles, to the awesome video games characters like Star Fox and Garrus. It wasn't until i saw the episode of CSI called Fur and Loathing that I realized the furry fandom existed. I know...strange way in joining the fandom.

I quickly began to make fursuits of my own and fell in love making to the point that I now do it for a living. I'm know as Fur it Up and boy am so busy with making suit, but love every minute of it. You can see anyone of my fursuit or art work at http://www.furaffinity.net/user/erisvalgen/

USO Special Guest (Entertainment guest)

Musical Performer

Born in November of 1952, Max DeGroot (not his real name) spent his first year drinking milk and filling diapers, much to the initial delight and later disgust of his parents.

He wasted his youth listening to Tom Lehrer and Allan Sherman, but not exclusively, as he really got into the Beatles and the Four Seasons. This was also the time his head got filled with Hanna Barbara and Disney.

He attended college and majored in Astronomy...no, wait, it was Mathematics...hold on...no...Computer Science, yes that was it...um...well...maybe Music...

His father got disgusted with his indecision and cut him off after four years of this nonsense.

He then spent the next twenty years or so doing volunteer work, and encountering music and comedy put out by Monty Python, Weird Al Yankovic, and Doctor Demento.

Around 1998 he began to get involved in the furry fandom, first as a fursuiter, and then a puppeteer. His sheepdog, Ozark, became a staple of puppetry shows at several conventions.

He recorded his first parody, The Ferret National Anthem, in 2004 which was performed with his puppet Twitch at Midwest Furfest, and there it sat until 2008, when he recorded his second parody, Campaign News.

This was followed by a flurry of parodies until he had enough to record a CD. Since then, he has recorded more parodies and funny music, put out a second CD, a Christmas CD and is close to finishing one more.

Anyway, his first public performance of his parody work occurred in October of 2009 at Con on the Cob, and he has since rocketed to obscurity. He did manage to hit Dr. Demento's Top Ten for March, April, and May 2010 with "Census" which is on schedule one of the top five songs on that show for 2010.

For more information please visit the artist's web site at:
http://www.maxdegroot.com
or visit
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/maxgoof
for more of his stuff.

Samples of his work:

http://www.thefump.com/side.php?id=787
http://www.thefump.com/side.php?id=681
http://www.thefump.com/side.php?id=488

USO Special Guest (Entertainment Guest)

Musical Performer

Hailing from the celestial wastelands of Procyonicybin IV, Kwaz the Drumming Raccoon initially came to Earth intending to destroy the human race. However, upon seeing that the humans were doing a good enough job of killing themselves already, the hallucinogenic rhythm-based alien lifeform took pity on the sad self-destructive species, hijacked one of their bodies at a furry convention and decided to entertain them with wild untamed music as a one man band. With auditory weapons of mass awakening at his side, he has set out on a new mission in life: bringing people together by fusing rock, funk, R&B, metal and tribal drumming together with the unique sounds of his own raccoon/reptoid space fungus ancestors. By opening the humans' hearts and minds to love one other unconditionally, perhaps they can be built back up into a respectable race worth annihilating.. or at the very least, worth partying with.

2010 Guests of Honor

Tzup

2010 Guest of Honor, Fursuit Performer

Tzup is a well-known fursuit performer and mascot from Melbourne, Australia. He comes from all the way across the big pond to join us at Wild Nights in 2010!

You can view his Livejournal for more about him!

Crys the Hybrid

2010 Guest of Honor, Artist

Crys grew up on the east coast, and her love of animals started very young. She started her life with a love of them, dressing up every halloween, drawing and scribbling them, everything.

As she hit highschool, she moved to Texas for her 10th grade year. She there met another prolific artist, Hazard. Hazard introduced her to the thought of more than just werewolves, and creatures of the like. She also introduced Crys to drawing more of a storyline based set of characters and a character to represent Crys herself. From there, Hazard and Crys became good friends and grew as anthropomorphic artists. It took them a long time to learn of the Furry fandom as it is and not what it looks like, however, they did finally succumb to the title of "Furry".

From there, Crys became an avid furry loving artist. She drew nothing but and started to improve exponentially! Finally in 2005 she decided on getting into the online community. She joined Deviantart and started to slowly post her work. Getting a tiny bit of a following, she made friends quickly and started to do art trades and learn the ways of the "fur".

After graduating, she moved to Dallas to go to the Art Institute. She was there for about amonth before going to her first furry convention "Oklacon". At Oklacon, her and Hazard met up and decided to start taking commissions for badges and small sketches. Here she truly learned about the fandom. And at this Oklacon, Crys met the love of her life, Skylor. they started to go out about a month after the con and they grew closer every day.

Within a year, Skylor had moved down, and they were back up at Oklacon again. After two years of trials and some serious tribulations they decided on moving up to Oklahoma. Where they now live!

Crys is currently Art Track Lead at a convention in Dallas called Furry Fiesta (www.furryfiesta.org). She did a great job and ran around like a chicken with her head cut off, but overall, everyone had fun.

She's a funloving person, with an adoration for any of her friends. She's also a fursuiter and a fursuit maker. (slowly learning of course) But She's teaching herself how to build better fursuits, paws, feet and tails.

In Crys's own words:

Take the time to view Crys's FurAffinity page.

2009 Guests of Honor

Baka Sukonku

2009 Guest of Honor, Artist

We are pleased to announce that our Guest of Honor for 2009 is none other than Baka Sukonku! A well-known and talented furry artist, Baka hails from the Kansas City area. You've almost certainly seen his art, and his badges have become legendary. Come meet him this year at Wild Nights, 2009!