Inhuman is not a furry comic.
To be very strict and blunt, it is science fiction. Those characters not of human appearance are aliens. They are not 'long-tailed tridactyl-clawed simian-handed human-faced bunnies' as one furry tried to make it. Chewbacca is not a furry, Chewbacca is a Wookiee. Yoda is not a furry, Yoda is an unknown alien. Worf isn't a furry, he's a Klingon. Do you see where we're going with this? For more in depth detail on why the choice to make main characters aliens was taken, read on.
The reason for the animalistic look of many of the characters is a very simple, very old literary concept. if you look in human history as recently as World War 2, you will see comics in which Superman, Batman and their friends battle Japanese and Germans. These two groups are always portrayed as almost animalistic. Japanese with accentuated squinting eyes, large buck teeth, scrawny builds- they almost resemble fish, or cats. Germans are drawn almost mechanical. This is a very very old concept called dehumanizing your enemy. If you can see the enemy as less human than yourself, you can readily excuse fighting and killing them.
You will find this kind of dehumanization used in other propaganda as well. For example, when movies wish a villain to appear evil, he becomes more angular. He or she may hiss, have claw-like hands, have serpentine or feline movement. In the case of Disney, they may even have horns (like Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty). This is more dehumanization. In this case, the dehumanization is used to keep the audience from identifying with the villain and sympathizing with them. There's something non-human about them that repulses the mentality of a human being.
Now, do Japanese really have buck teeth and bright yellow skin? Are Germans really taut-faced and grey in pallor? Do all bad people have claw-like hands and wear dark, flowing robes that hide their body? No, of course not. In the words of Lou Reed, 'Villains always blink their eyes.' Everyone, the world over, is just as human as each other. You can't tell what someone is just by looking at them.
Now, think of fairy tales. Very frequently in fairy tales a prince is trapped in a less than human form which is repulsive to those around them. The whole moral of the tale is for the princess to look beyond the monster and see the prince inside. To see beyond the frog, beyond the beast. In doing so, she overcomes the usual human aversion to anything dehumanized and the prince is magically transformed back into his true human self.
There is a concept in robotics referred to as the 'Uncanny Valley.' It is basically that the closer to human form something becomes, the more uncomfortable people feel around it. Individuals have different tolerances for this. For instance, a robot used to build cars is not threatening. It is not human at all, despite how it moves. But push a little further, to things like a Furby, and some people begin to get creeped out. Go beyond that- why is the little boy in Speilberg's AI scary at the start? Because he is human in appearance, but just slightly 'off.' The closer to humans inhuman things are made to be, the more people begin to IGNORE how they are LIKE us and pick up and how they are UNLIKE us. Kind of like if someone has very, very bad English, you focus on when they do something right and praise them. But if they are fairly accomplished in English and suddenly slip up, there's an awkward moment where everyone feels slightly uncomfortable.
The reason I bring up the Uncanny Valley is that Inhuman focuses heavily on role reversal. The most human appearing member of the cast, Grey, is the least human in his attitudes. He is part of the void. His actions are often unexplained, and he acts more like an animal than a man. His body is human enough that it is recognized as human, and yet his appearance is so abused from the 'normal' body type that it instigates discomfort in people who see it in the comics. A dehumanization of the human. But why would i do this?
Well, look at the rest of the cast and think about what I said earlier about the frog prince. If the human is not really human, his appearance slightly off, why might the others have a more inhuman look and yet a more human attitude?
That's right, the frog prince. But in the cases of Soshika, Kyotoshi, Ashido and the rest there is no prince hiding behind the guise. Instead there are simply average human beings. They react as a normal human being would, with the indignity, the escapism, the repressed rage. In this case the inhuman appearance acts as a filter. It allows the reader to see these flaws of character without alienating themselves from the character.
Even the most tolerant person will pull back from a character they feel hits 'too close to home.' The animalistic appearance is non-threatening because the filter is there for you- these aren't human, so you can deny that you too would do as they do in these situations. Yet, underneath it all, they are human. They are the frog prince and the beast. The outward appearance does not matter to the internal spirit.
Another reason for the non-human appearances is simply exaggeration. Reverse propaganda. Rather than dehumanize your enemy, I will dehumanize your friend. Sure, it could easily be that Ro Koji is just British and therefore persecuted against. Sure, it could just be that Solla is an aborigine who brought her tribe to the big city to fight. Of course, that could be the case. But where is the subtlety? And especially in online comics these days, and especially on the internet where people are rabidly claiming they believe in total human equality regardless of race or sexuality, the presence of different human demographics would be lost. It's almost token in comics, and it always has been. Kind of a frantic cry of 'I'm a tolerant and open minded author! Look at my generic lesbian and generic Mexican characters!' Because of this kind of trend, putting emphasis on racial tension and prejudices is nearly impossible to do in a pulp genre like comics. You have to take it one step further, exaggerate the minor physical differences that cause prejudice in the first place. You have to push these appearances so far that they can not be ignored, so they can not be glossed over.
If this was a 'furry' comic, it would not matter if they were human or not (unless I wanted to whine about how mean the big bad old humans were, which I do not). Furry comics are essentially completely human characters dressed up in animal clothes. It does not matter if you were to strip them of their fur. Jack could still be the grim reaper, Mab could still be a fairy magician, Vinci and Arty would still be a gay couple struggling with their problems. The fur is unimportant to them. Here, it serves a purpose.
Could Inhuman be drawn with humans? Well, while it PHYSICALLY could, it would not really work. Scenes such as when Soshika meets Grey for the first time would simply not work. If they were both human, the 'difference' between them (one being from the winners, one being from the losers) is much harder to physically SEE. The different species of characters are a physical representation of the internalized differences, the walls they have built around themselves. They are all different from one another, they can not really relate, and yet they try to for a common goal. Yes, this applies to Kyotoshi too- he and Soshika have the same experiences, the same ghosts and problems and the same upbringing. They are the same, despite how Soshika will repeatedly deny it.
To enhance the difference between the more human characters, to intensify the inhumanity of the most human appearing character. To make a physical, visual barrier between the characters. To set up a screen which allows the reader to identify with the human characters without feeling offended as a human themselves. To promote tolerance- no matter how different we look and think, we can all work together for peace and should.
They are not intended to be animals in Inhuman, but instead to be humans over-emphasized.
I see 'furry' as an art style, as a distinct statement about your work. That THESE ARE ANIMAL PEOPLE. Inhuman's characters are not animal people- they are human, inside and out, and you are asked to look beyond the appearance and find the parallels that lead you to their human flaws. There is a reason behind the fur and feathers, and it is not simply because I can't draw humans or dislike them.
Welcome to the world of science fiction- there are aliens here, and have been for far longer than people have been talking about brushing their tails and shaking paws. Aliens have always been just a cypher for human fear and emotion. Perhaps if furries picked up a book once in a while that wasn't titled "REDWALL" they would learn a little about things called literary devices, about things called metaphors.
This is not a furry comic. It is a human comic.
"Then why is it called Inhuman!?"
Well, that's a plot point. If you wanna know that, you have to wait.
