There are illustrated stories that (translated, of course) would look like they were written for furry fans last week that would make you laugh or bring you to tears, that are almost 1000 years old. There are furry comics printed almost 100 years ago that would be probably be censored today, or at least be restricted to 'adult audiences'. And as far as I can tell, all this material, while it didn't exactly have a fandom and conventions the way we do at present, was seriously popular, widely known, and kept and treasured in a time when books were rare and expensive things.
Have an illustration of a wild furry party featuring lots of drinking, gluttony, and adulterous groping, from an 1840's edition of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe's epic Renart translation, Reineke Fuchs.
