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Fanzines have their origin--as do most things of value, other than jazz music and good pasta--in science fiction fandom, dating back at least to the 30s and Hugo Gernsback's "Science Fiction League." (Yes, the Hugo of the Hugo Awards.) Early fanzines formed their own culture, perhaps insular even by sf's quirky standards--while they often contained stories and art by fans, rather than professionals, they served as sf's amateur equivalents of news magazines and book review journals. And, frequently, their subjects were other fanzines.
Anthropomorphic animal fanzines have existed for over a decade (in one or two cases, much longer). Some of them have been amateur press associations, or APAs, which are "members-only" publications--subscribers pay mailing costs and are expected to meet a minimum contribution requirement. The first of these was Vootie, Ken Fletcher's artist APA most famous now for launching the controversial adults-only comic Omaha the Cat-Dancer by Reed Waller and Kate Worley.
The first "open" fanzine was Karl Maurer's FurVersion, a cheap, cultish newsletter. No, I'm kidding. While FV started as a modest newsletter, it quickly moved to include art and stories and began to set an unusually high production standard for fanzines--typeset interior, side-stapled binding and cardstock covers. Issues typically ran about sixty pages. FV also set the standard for having titles that contained a pun on the word fur, something for which Karl should never be completely forgiven.
While it'd be nice to give an exhaustive review of fanzines, this isn't going to be one. I really don't know all the fanzines out there. I can only comment on ones that I've seen. There are a lot of fanzines I've seen in passing, and I didn't have much desire to see much more of them. There's a difference to my mind between "amateur" and "hack job." Generally, I won't buy a fanzine sight unseen, unless I get a recommendation from a friend, read a good review in another fanzine, or I know and like the work of the contributors.
The past few years have seen an explosion of what might be dubbed "pinup zines," which are basically stapled photocopy booklets with about 24 pages of pictures. They're usually put together around a "theme"--images of foxes, images of giants, whatever. Reviewing most of these is pointless: they rarely have multiple issues, and their quality is dependent entirely on who the collator can get to contribute. I'll be honest: some are okay, but most are about two-thirds filled with art by people who can't draw very well yet, with the other third mostly being recycled Terrie Smith artwork. If you just want art on that theme, unless you know what you're getting into you're better off ordering some prints from artists who are known quantities--and qualities.
Of the current fanzines, the best known--and in many ways the best--is YARF!, the Journal of Applied Anthropomorphics, published by Jeff Ferris. YARF! tries to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, and generally, they succeed. They've published stories by "real authors" such as Michael Payne, Gerald Perkins, and Jefferson Swycaffer, and art by animators Roz Gibson, Terrie Smith and Noah Miller. YARF! has also launched or popularized some of the better-known comics and fiction serials outside of the "pro" markets: John Nunnemacher's "Buffalo Wings" (later featured by comics publisher Antarctic Press), my own "A Gift of Fire, A Gift of Blood" (available online, without Zjonni Perchalski's illustrations, at the Belfry Archives), and Chris Grant's rambling 35-part military epic "Empires."
PawPrints, a fanzine produced by artists Conrad Wong and Jordan Greywolf, is relatively new (five issues as of this writing) but has high aspirations--and an unspoken but clear sense of competition with YARF!. Their web site is nearly a fanzine in itself, with an eloquent defense of anthropomorphic characters in literature and art, in addition to ordering information for both back issues and artist portfolios. Their issues tend to be more fiction-heavy than YARF!'s do, and run a similar page count (around 60 pages or so). In addition to work by the publishers (Conrad's an award-winning amateur artist, and Jordan is a talented and popular illustrator), issues have contained work by Maggie de Alarcon, Robert & Margaret Carspecken and Jessica Skolnik. PawPrints only comes out three times a year, but the issues are worth the wait.
After Vootie bit the bullet, a new APA, Rowrbrazzle, appeared. While 'Brazzle, now under the leadership of L.A. area "big name fan" Fred Patten, continues, many folks don't think it has the "feel" of the early days. And it probably doesn't. Most of the contributors early on were professional animators--or at least artists with professional training. Fred takes the "amateur" in APA seriously. This is an obviously defensible position: APAs can serve as workshops, not just showcases, and having at least one "major" APA whose purpose is exactly that could help a lot of people along in their art quest.
If there is a successor to that style of APA, it might be Huzzah!, published by Dwight Dutton. Fortunately, Huzzah! isn't really an APA--it's an "APAzine," which combines aspects of both. The details of how that works aren't important; all you need to know is that you can buy issues if you're interested in seeing a really professional-looking publication. Artist members include Bill Fitts ("Miami Mice," "Span the Lion"), Steve Gallacci ("Albedo"), Roz Gibson ("Escape to New York," "Blacklight"), Terrie Smith ("Katmandu"), John Nunnemacher ("Buffalo Wings"), and Mark Wallace ("Warthaven"). Issues of Huzzah! have color covers, are spiral-bound, run over a hundred pages--and cost $15 apiece.
Also, many of the original "Brazzlers" (and, er, Vootie-ers) went to an earlier, but still very much extant, APA called Ink Spots, started by cartoonist Timothy Fay. That "pro quality" is also very evident here; as the guidelines say, "Professionalism is not who you work for or how much you make. Rather, professionalism is a mature, intelligent attitude toward your work, the works of others, and in your relations with your fellow cartoonists." Unlike Huzzah!, the general public can't buy copies of Ink Spots--it's a traditional APA.
Perhaps due to its cartoonist origin, 'Brazzle has often been accused--frequently with cause--of being biased against people such as myself whose work is mostly in text. There aren't any "text-biased" APAs that I'm aware of, but one that does reasonably well by its writers is the Canadian APA Furthest North Crew.