Melvis Barksy

Artwork of Melvis by Orlando Fox

Melvis Barksy (real name Mark), is a fursuiter who lives in Long Island, New York, USA.

Fandom involvement

Melvis 1.0 by Kodimade: original (left), facial upgrade (right), and added orange hair (bottom)

Mark joined the furry fandom when he was fifteen years old in May 2016. His first attended convention was Anthrocon that same year. Upon attendance, he fell in love with the furry fandom and was eager to make new friends and express his creativity in it. He has been continuously attending Anthrocon, among other eastern US furry conventions. He also attends furry meetups around Long Island, particularly the annual LIFurs OMGWTFBBQ in Sunken Meadow, as well as some out-of-state meetups.

In addition to attending conventions and meetups, Mark occasionally makes his own artwork and Telegram stickers. While no professional, he enjoys expressing his creativity with his character outside of fursuiting.

Fursona

Melvis is a young adult wolf with red and black fur and a head of orange hair. Mark has given Melvis exaggerated character traits that he sees in himself as a person; cheeky, mischievous, short-tempered, goofy, and not the brightest bulb in the room, but all-in-all, a fun-loving, jovial, and warm-hearted fella who sees the good in everyone he meets. Around groups he's unfamiliar with, he can tend to be more shy and reserved, not quite knowing what to say. However, he typically warms up and familiarizes himself with people quickly. Being mostly red, Melvis is very often mistaken for a fox, which has become sort of an ongoing joke, much to his annoyance.

Fursuits

Melvis 2.0 by That's Furred Up (foot paws by Waggery Costumes)

Mark's first fursuit, Melvis 1.0, is a full-body plantigrade suit made by Kodimade in November 2016. Its first convention debut was at Anthro New England 2017 and has appeared at several other conventions and furmeets. He commissioned Waggery Costumes in December 2018 to make indoor foot paws with orange toe beans to go along with it. A second plantigrade suit, Melvis 2.0, was made by That's Furred Up in June 2020, putting 1.0 on hiatus. 2.0 consists of an orange hair tuft, bigger eyes, bottom teeth, a longer tongue, soft claws, and more detailed fur with two different shades of red. It also has been to several furmeets and conventions, with its first being Furrydelphia 2021.

While fursuiting, Mark mostly uses his normal speaking voice, but makes it sound more cartoonishly jolly and bubbly. He'll often make it very high-pitched and squeaky when he's excited, shocked, flustered, or angry. His performance is always hyper, silly, chipper, and a tad clumsy. He is also a major hugger and just about everyone gets at least one big hug upon meeting him. To keep both bodysuits clean and sweet-smelling during long periods of use, Mark often adds scent boosters into the washing machine before they're washed.

Modifications

Mark made a couple of modifications to the 1.0 suit head shortly after Anthro New England 2017 due to two discovered issues; the face wasn't as lively or expressive as he wanted it to be and the bodysuit was too big and loose-fitting. To fix the former, he added small bottom eyelids made of red paper and two pieces of fleece shaped into eyebrows, making the facial expression more lively and jovial. As for the bodysuit issue, Mark's first solution, throughout a little over a year, was to wrap foam and/or polyfill around his arms and legs, which would act as padding to make the bodysuit fit tighter. However, not only did this make getting in and out of the suit more time-consuming and tedious, it also restricted his body movement and built up heat more rapidly, increasing the risk of heat stroke. In October 2018, the bodysuit was brought back to Kodimade to be downsized. While padding is no longer needed for wearing it, it's still a looser fit than the 2.0 bodysuit.

For Furpocalypse 2019, Mark experimented with the 1.0 head by removing the happy eyebrows and replacing them with thicker, angry-looking eyebrows. With this change of expression came a change in his performance as well. He portrayed Melvis as grumpy, angry, and "fierce", but still retained his usual silly and over-the-top behavior. The regular happy eyebrows went back on for all conventions afterward.

The 2.0 head received two pairs of detachable velcro eyelids made by That's Furred Up in May 2023. These include half-closed eyelids to give Melvis a tired/sly expression and fully closed eyelids to make him look either giddy or asleep.

In June 2023, Mark made an orange hair tuft for the 1.0 head. After its 3-year-long hiatus, the whole 1.0 suit made its return to Anthrocon later that month and is now taken to conventions within driving distance alongside 2.0, albeit being used less frequently.

Melvis 1.0 with experimental angry eyebrows; Furpocalypse 2019

Convention attendance

• Anthro New England - 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023, 2024
• Fur the More - 2020
• Texas Furry Fiesta - 2022, 2023
• Anthrocon - 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023
• Furrydelphia - 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023
• Furpocalypse - 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023
• Midwest Furfest - 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023
• New Years Furry Ball - 2022-23, 2023-24

Plushie

Melvis 2.0 and Mini-Mel at a furmeet; June 2022

In 2021, Mark commissioned BuildAFur - owned by furry merchandise company, CorgiBeans - to create him a custom plushie of Melvis, which he has named "Mini-Mel". He can sometimes be seen fursuiting around conventions with Mini-Mel in his hands. The Melvis plushie was a person commission and is not up for sale on CorgiBeans's website. Whether or not this will happen in future is currently unknown.

Melvis 2.0 with giant plush cherries; New Years Furry Ball 2022-23

On August 27, 2022, at FurryDelphia, Melvis was gifted a giant cherry plush by the Fluffy Fur Friends international group as a token of gratitude, and likewise due to his birthday being in such close proximity to the convention. The act, dubbed "Operation: Cherry" by group members, was inspired by observing other fursuiters carrying around giant plushies, such as giant pieces of candy or food. Gold Ribbon Studio was approached at FurryDelphia 2021 on commissioning a "giant cherry," and agreed to the commission. Several members contributed donations to the project, which was kept in absolute secrecy so as to avoid spoiling the surprise. The cherry was kept in a member's private home for almost a year until the convention. The cherry was placed inside a box lined with red wrapping paper on both the inside and outside and topped with green ribbons to adopt the theme of a cherry.

After summoning Melvis to the lobby, where the Fluffy Fur Friends were organizing to take a group photo, Melvis attempted to enter the very elevator wherein group members were carrying the present so as to return to his hotel room to put on his fursuit. Immediately, a group member embraced Melvis enthusiastically and moved him out of the way so he would not compromise the surprise, while other members exited the elevator and entered the lobby.

The cherry was gifted in the presence of the Fluffy Fur Friends, along with a birthday card designed with the theme of Super Mario Brothers and signed by all members present at the convention.

External links

This person is a WikiFur user: MelvisWolf's user page MelvisWolf's talk page

• Melvis Barksy on Fur Affinity
• Melvis Barksy on Twitter
• Melvis Barksy on YouTube

This stub about a person could be expanded.