Digital Impudendum

Digital Impudendum (often shortened as DI) was a label headed by Kevin Duane, specializing in the pressing and distribution of art anthology CDs some years before the idea of art CDs became mainstream. Nearly always furry and unabashedly pornographic, these CDs were relatively popular for their high quantities of artwork by artists who, at the time, did not necessarily have archives available. However, the quality would slump in later years as Kevin's reputation soured and the contributors went on to other venues; the rise of Internet distribution--nearly every CD ever produced is available in full on multiple Internet outlets--would put the final nail in the proverbial coffin in 2002.

The discs
From 1997 to 2002, DI produced over a dozen of these CDs and announced several more before the company collapsed. Ranging from generic archives to more specific "themed" discs, these were initially sparse discs, consisting of nothing but large directories of numbered image files. Later discs would introduce PDF-based front ends and information about the artists involved.

Artists featured throughout the years include such names as Taral Wayne, Jeremy "Wolf" Kidd, Brian O'Connell, Steve Gallacci (as Art Ho), Cobalt, Mike Higgs, Micole Khromat, D.C. Rabbit, Caribou, Steve Martin, Robert Hill, Max Black Rabbit, Ferris, Eric Schwartz, and many many more. In some cases, these CDs are the only ways to find art that has been lost over the years as artists depart or take down archives.

Animal Magnetism
Animal Magnetism (often shortened as AM) was the original flagship product for DI. Consisting of a few dozen to a few hundred images, AM became a sort of "art dump" series. There were generally no restrictions: any species, any sexual orientation, even hermaphrodites were not uncommon. The quality, as could be imagined, wildly varied between the high-resolution colour images and distorted pencil sketches.

Animal Magnetism was the only recurring disc (though one other was planned; see below), appearing five times: Animal Magnetism in 1996, Animal Magnetism II and Animal Magnetism III in 1998, Animal Magnetism: Four-Play in 2000, and Animal Magnetism 5 in 2001.

The species series
After AM3, DI branched out into a series of species-specific series. These also featured a variety of artists, all working based on the central theme. There were fewer pictures per disc at this point, but hermaphrodites and gay/lesbian material was still included.

By 2000, production had slowed down significantly; later portions of this series were never released to the public, despite statements from artists that contributions had been collected.

The discs were:


 * Stripe Tease (skunks, 1997)
 * Howl At The Moon (canids in general, 2000)
 * Hare Trigger (rabbits/hares, 2000)
 * Cat Scratches (felines in general, 2001)
 * Hoof Prints (horses, 2001)

Artist-specific discs
At the same time Stripe Tease was released, a smaller series was introduced, working in much the inverse: while content was generalized, all the material was from one artist. The idea, it appears, was to catalogue an artist's best work from their entire career.

The discs in this series:
 * Steve Martin's Collection Of The Fantastic And Furry Volume One (1997)
 * Taral Wayne's Off-Colour (2000)

While a great many more were planned, various issues kept them from surfacing. Note that despite the "Volume One" reference, there is no direct "Volume Two".

Others
A handful of other discs popped up towards the end of DI's run; these were largely unnoticed after being announced quietly and produced in small numbers.


 * Fur-bidden Fruits (2000) - a collection of all-gay furry works.
 * The Digital Impudendum Sampler (2002) - bits and pieces of all the discs released to this point (notably, this was the last disc), at a budget price.
 * When I Am King (2002) - the only non-furry piece in the entire production catalogue, this disc was a collection of the free-form webcomic of the same name.

Cancelled projects
Many of these come from a flyer distributed at Midwest Furfest in 2000, the only year Kevin appeared there. None of them were ever released to the public, mostly for financial reasons.


 * Here Be Dragons - an all-dragon species disc
 * Deer XXX-ing - an all-cervines disc
 * (Un)Leashed - a bondage-themed disc; Kevin hinted that he was actually planning to "strap" early copies with a leather belt
 * Change Of Heart - a "gender-bending" and transformation themed disc
 * Heavy Artillery - a military/firearms themed disc
 * Bearly Normal: The Erotic Art Of Robert Hill
 * Net Product: The Complete Works Of Doug Winger - this would have been a double-disc set, containing every piece of Doug Winger art available, including works as early as 1983.

Volume Two of the Steve Martin collection would appear later as Steve Martin's Index Of Modern Grotesquerie in 2003.

Controversy
DI's short life was not without a few spots of trouble, from the contributors, the fans, and the artists themselves.


 * There were large and repeated reports that Kevin did not pay his artists, but instead provided contributor copies of any CD an artist was featured on for re-sale. There are also claims that some contributors never received their discs, or received so few that there was no way to have generated a profit, particularly with Duane willing to undersell. Brian O'Connell was, for some time, one of the most vocal contributors in this regard. In 2001, after waiting some years to receive any royalty or compensation, Cobalt retracted Duane's legal rights to redistribute any of his works. Doug Winger contributed some material that had been on the Internet for some time, then released the rest to the VCL some time later.
 * Many reported that once associated with the project, Kevin refused to leave them alone, insisting to the point of harrasment that he get new material for his compilations. Famously, Mike Higgs merely recoloured old sketches to "skunk colours" for his Stripe Tease contributions; on the same disc, Eric Schwartz tagged his pieces, which were notably bland and poorly coloured, with "D.B.K.D.W.L.M.T.F.A" ("Done Because Kevin Duane Wouldn't Leave Me The Fuck Alone").
 * At Midwest Furfest 2000, Duane released Off-Colour as his newest disc. However, when the case was opened, buyers found that instead of the complete product, they had purchased--at full price--a CD-R disc with no proper label. Instead, written on each disc in black marker was "Off-Colour Incomplete Version -- See Me At FC For The Real Thing" or a variant of the same. The archive on the CD-R was incomplete, and the interface was not present.