The Kenny Chronicles

The Kenny Chronicles is a furry webcomic by Garrett Williams. It ran from April 7, 2008 to November 23, 2011. On the last comic, it's announced that the sequel called Ferrets Vs Lemmings would start on January 2, 2012. The sequel focuses on the main characters' experiences on their new island starting 3 years after the events at the end of Kenny Chronicles.

Premise
Kenny, the titular character, spends his teenage years aboard a retired cruise ship named the Ballyhoo, which is part of a large “nation” of ships called Tarnation.

The comics were originally perpetually set 115-118 years into the future, no matter what year you’re reading them. On comics from August 2008 and later, there’s a bar indicating when the comic takes place. Kenny was born 100 years in the future, which would make him 15 when the first comics were posted and 18 when the comics ended. On March 26th, 2011, the cartoonist made the years all relative to April of 2011 so that the calendar would stop moving.

Characters

 * Kenny Kagoon: An impulsive teenage fox(with a dab of feline heritage) with little respect for other people's property. He stole his current collar after Funky Skunk stole his and Rufus' collars. He loves to go streaking every now and then, but doesn't like it when he's naked against his will. He lost his right canine tooth in a dodgeball game when Funky caught him distracted by the coach's lack of enforcement. After a cat scratched Kenny's eye, forcing him to wear an eyepatch, Kenny was enjoying the sympathy of girls until Funky claimed that he's the one that hurt Kenny's eye. This enraged Kenny so much that he attempted murder on Funky.
 * Fuego Hare: Rabbit friend of Kenny's from school. His irises are shaped like flames, hence his name, which is the Spanish word for "fire". In the Spanish version of the strip, his name is not changed. He spent most of his life as a vegan because he was always told that rabbits can't eat meat. Then in the comics of March 2011, Fuego's and Kenny's meals accidentally got switched and Fuego was surprised that he digested it just fine. He then becomes addicted to meat. And chocolate.
 * Link to all comics tagged "Fuego Hare"
 * Rufus: Kenny became friends with this little kangaroo of the same age after they were both kidnapped by Funky Skunk. Unlike Kenny, Rufus has morals and thinks things through. Rufus actually prefers to have law enforcement around, in stark contrast to Kenny's preferences.
 * Link to all comics tagged "Rufus"
 * Patrick Kagoon: Kenny's little brother. His fur is blue, unlike his mom(red) or Kenny(black). The reason for this has not been explained yet, though Garrett once stated that he and Kenny had different fathers.
 * Link to all comics tagged "Pat"
 * Funky Skunk: The skunk antagonist of the strip until he died. Funky's and Kenny's rivalry started when Funky covertly recorded Kenny and Yay Fox having sex in a dumpster. He has provided insults toward Kenny since then. After Kenny tried to choke him to death, Funky told his robot to keep a close watch on Kenny. Ironically, this facilitated his demise, because the robot wasn't around to catch him when Funky fell through a skylight that he was leaning over. He fell into the dumpster he was trying to spit in.
 * Link to all comics tagged "Funky Skunk"
 * Guy King: A ferret with a narrow stripe for a mask and is a childhood friend of Kenny's. Currently he's a businessman who works in importing. In the Spanish version Guy's name is "Rey King"(Rey means "King" in Spanish), because Rey is "...a common Spanish name, keeps the double-meaning confusion potential, AND it works with exactly the same mouth movements". Guy sees herbivores as weak and would like to see Kenny dating a carnivore.
 * Link to all comics tagged "Guy King"
 * Death Golden: Kenny's girlfriend, then fiance, then wife. A steppe lemming. Can make anything be a weapon, and is very controlling. She kinda likes power. She has a robotic left arm, although its origin hasn't been explained.
 * Link to all comics tagged "Death Golden"
 * May Kitso: Death's friend, a yellow steppe lemming. Property manager of the Ballyhoo.
 * Link to all comics tagged "May"

Technology in the strip

 * Levitation devices: Manufactured in Tarnation with child labor. Used in many objects including Funky's robot, the interview duck, and some chairs. Later used in shoes that help characters to fly.
 * Collar: The characters' personal computers, which project data in hologram form. They're mostly used by teenagers, since the adults are used to their handheld computers.
 * Ferret: A scanning device that, when closed, is a cylinder. They can look inside unprotected boxes, as well as functions that haven't been shown yet.
 * Flying shoes: Introduced in the comics of January 2011. They are shoes with a levitation device in them that's strong enough to lift a person. To keep people from flipping over, they're paired up with stabilization bracelets that basically act like somebody holding on to your arms thanks to anti-gravity technology. In their first generation, there's only one style(blue & white) and they draw 100% of their power from a ship's wireless power emitters. This technical limitation causes Kenny to crash when he flies onto Ook Island, whose wireless power had been non-functioning for a while due to the island being abandoned.
 * Wireless energy: Not much is said about how this works, but it's energy that's emitted like radio waves to devices designed to use it. The Ballyhoo and the raft used by Death and Kenny both emit wireless energy. It's not mentioned how old the technology is, but Ook Island used wireless energy 10 years before Kenny & Death arrive there.

History
The comic originally started on the artist's monthly comic blog named Garrett's Sketchbook. After a year, he gave it its own website, officially starting Kenny Chronicles on April 7th of 2008 with a 4-comic storyline inspired by Ryan Estrada's expeditions. The comic was originally done with India ink on bristol board and hand-lettered. He eventually got a Wacom tablet and started using it a little in June's comics.

In July 2008, Garrett started updating daily using an experimental coloring style. He had drawn all of that month's comics in one day, except 2. This was the first "Doggone Dailies Of Summer" feature. He switched back to the regular style afterward(this time all-digital, but still hand-lettered with the tablet) and added a bar to the top of the comic with the website address, how far in the future the comic is set, and copyright info. In December, he switched to a font after hand-lettering caused too much stress on his hand, planning on it being temporary, but at the start of 2009, he made it permanent, switching to the font he now uses. In July 2009, he did the Doggone Dailies Of Summer feature again, but sticking to regular black and white this time and not done all in one day. Then in September 2010, he did one last Doggone Dailies, this time only being one week instead of one month. After this last Doggone Dailies, Garrett changed the comic size to be a single row instead of the double row of all the non-Doggone-Dailies comics before.

3D backgrounds
The very first use of 3D in the comic was on December 29, 2008 where Garrett used a snow man built in Blender. It wasn't built for the comic, though, as he says, "I just happened to have a homemade 3D snowman laying around my hard drive."

Garrett didn't use 3D again until December of 2009 when he started regularly using 3D backgrounds created in Second Life. In 2011, he started a gradual switchover to the open-source 3D software Blender, only using Second Life for existing sets and sets that required effects he hadn't learned in Blender yet. Ook Island was built in Blender, and considering all comics since the introduction of Ook Island have been set there, all comics since September 19, 2011 have used backgrounds built in Blender.

The characters have always been drawn.

Theme park
On April 1st, 2010, Garrett announced that in celebration of the comic's 2-year anniversary, he'd be opening the Kennyland theme park. April 1st was chosen because nobody would believe it at first, but it was revealed that the park was on Second Life in the Furnation Vista region. Originally at this plot, although now at this plot across the walkway. No plans exist for ever moving it out of this location.

Initial attractions include the "Comic Coaster", a dodgeball area, and the latest comic visible on stage(for users of Second Life Viewer 2.0, which had just been released). The dodgeball area includes the comic where Kenny loses a tooth in the game. Later, the Badgerkun Bandages shop was set up next to it, which sells patterned bandages to be worn by a person's avatar. Badgerkun is based on the comic at the end of the dodgeball storyline.

The Comic Coaster is styled like a roller coaster, but is walked through, since most roller coaster rides on Second Life create lag or are just plain slow. It takes visitors through the storyline where Kenny attempts to kill Funky Skunk. A video of the "ride" is available here. The comic coaster hasn't changed much from the original design. Later that month, an ice cream cart(with free ice cream) and a park bench were added.

The next month, the stage was replaced with a swimming pool complete with water slide, then moved across the walkway to be more visible from the sandbox, a very busy area of Furnation. The comic was still shown in its own kiosk and soon after, the kiosk was made compatible with all viewers by uploading each comic as a standard texture.

On May 25th 2010, Garrett started selling beach towels in celebration of Towel Day(a celebration of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy book). Beach towels will continue to be a regular product.

On July 12 2010, the ice cream cart was turned into a freebies cart, offering a wide variety of Kenny-related items(including a Kenny beach ball).

On July 29 2010, Double Rainbow Land was opened in Kennyland's old location. It was basically a double rainbow that spanned the diameter of the plot with 2 beach towels and 2 shirts for sale.

On September 1st 2010, a soup bowls ride(similar to Disney's teacups ride) was added. It was inspired by this comic where Kenny was eating lemming lentil soup, not knowing that his new girlfriend(Death) is a lemming. The actual model used for the soup bowl was offered in the freebies cart when the comic first posted. Also introduced with the ride was free pins that can be worn by an avatar or hung on a wall. The Death pin is available from the soup bowls ride by clicking on the icon that shows up after the ride has been running for 5 minutes(and every 5 minutes after that). The Rufus pin is available in the freebies cart, and the Fuego pin is offered when you pay the tips booth.

In October 2010, Double Rainbow Land was replaced with The Veterinary Hospital Of Horror.

In November 2011, The Veterinary Hospital Of Horror was closed and the land put up for sale. It will continue to be a seasonal attraction in different locations each October.

A remodel of Kennyland is planned sometime in 2012 to go with Ferrets Vs Lemmings.

It's believed that this is the first theme park based on an online-only comic.