Doug Winger.





Could you tell? ;P

None will blame you, since he's one of the first artists on VCL archive, and his herms have grown popular and well... inspiration spreads. ;)

For myself, it as Chalosan but only becuse someone who was furry pointed it out for me. And before thaqt it was someone who drew art with Yoshi's in... but this was years before I actually knew what furries was...

hmmmmmm..


who was my mind warping influence,,,, the artist who did akira XD

Hmmm, about 4 years ago I started drifting towards anthromorphic characters. At the time the best I could do was an anime type cat girl. other than ears and a tail she didn't look anthro. Then one day this character named Cheska shows up at one of my groups and points me to this guy named LittleDragon who has to this day helped me and continues to, I don't know where I'd be today without him.  Little_Dragon LD(for short) had created this little skunk mesh. At the time I didn't know who this character was but researched and found it to be Sabrina Eric Schwartzs ews character which drove me over the edge to try and create more 3d anthro art.
Its been a domino affect since.

Oho! Another 3D artist! *watches*

I'm gonna say Doug Winger. But the person who turned me furry was K-9, about seven or eight years ago.

K-9? I don't think I've ever seen anything by him/her.

I don't know about mind-warping but Civasco's art was one of the first erotic sort that I came across. You can't imagine how happily surprised I was to notice Civasco here on FA. :)

Though for the mind-warping part it was probably Shannon Douglas, Mamabliss and Doug Winger(sorta mellowed me out to actually like herms) I'm not sure who it was first but something like in that order.

OH YEAH!! Shannon Douglas! Her stuff put me into a daze, too. I found that driving becomes difficult when you've got massively fat/stretched furries on the mind. Doesn't help when you're only 15 and using a learner's permit, either.

Hah! She'd be happy to hear that, actually. "Caused a car wreck? Awesome!"

Does she post still? I know of Tanuki Groto, but that dosnt seem to have updated in some time.

Hm... well, definately Doug Winger (he seems popular in this journal...). But I think it was Kamicheetah (when she was still posting on VCL) and Ayzewi (Amanda Payne) that had warped my mind into furryness. Shortly after though, I found Gideon, Daniel Kay... all that good stuff.

I give credit to shadowsmyst when she still posted on transfur as my intro to the furry world. Soon after I found John Barrett (Roxikat), Michael Higgs and Shannon Douglas and so on...

Bit of an odd one for me, but it was Captain Furry and Starfig. Icewolf and Azzy helped further my fascination and Gideon sealed the deal. I've been a hollow shell of a man ever since. Alot to absorb when you're just 14 but somehow I manage to grow into a fully developed, healthy pervert. Ahh, memories... we will enjoy them.

I saw bits of furry art here and there, but when I found Doug's archive, wow, I never knew that I liked that kind of thing until I had certain, mm, reactions. Then Shannon Douglas' art and on from there. Now look at me, I went and sorta helped start the Hyperfur movement, not created it, but I did start they Hyperfurs yahoo groups, which helped bring more of us out of the woodwork.

Anyone remember David Hopkins?

Haha yeah, I remember him. How can one forget when seeing the illogical amounts of money his scribblings go for on furbid.

Alot of stuff seems to go fo a illogical amount of money on furbid. Especially after seeing people spending as much money on a commision as a above average computer.

>_>

At least the artists won't starve.

Hah, some of them won't starve anyway. I keep my self relatively free of furry art community drama by method of never ever drawing anything that I think another person would want to look at, though as a result I can't do neat things like raise money for a wacom tablet that's larger than 4x5 inches, or purchase legal graphics software.

What? I just looked at your gallery, and it's beyond me how I could have missed that awesomeness.

If you're not popular, i will make so!!!! Becuse drama is so fun!

Ok, just kidding... although it's fun to make fun of drama. >_>

Aww, thanks for saying so :) I was fishing for complements in the first place I think.

It's fun to make fun of drama under controlled circumstances. One must be careful to not point directly at a specific drama, because once it is named it will arrive to consume you.

Chanta-Ra (aka Alyn Gryphon, aka Mad Dr. Griff.)

Automatic respect and awesome points for anyone else who knew of him.

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/maneatingkangaroo/ , I believe. Saw his stuff on VoreTex years ago. Ha, his stuff was twisted.

Holy SHIT. I love you.

Hooooly crap, I had written him off as lost and gone forever, as I presume happens to some furry artists. I should have known better. Everyone who leaves seems to come back sometimes. His art used to be a real guilty pleasure.

You weren't the only one... I been confused since his VCL gallery disappeared about where he's gone. >_< I liked his shiny style.

He seems to change his name a lot. Wish I knew why.

1. Avoding stalkers
or more likely
2. Changing his mind

Although stalkers aren't really that hard to avoid on the internet (seriosuly I meet a huge amount of... wierd people), so it's probably 2. :P

I've heard rumors about him trying to shake is attachment to furry for fear of being found out by employers. I've also heard suppositions that he displays a high level of the fickleness, ennui, and temperament that artists can have where he's never really sure if he wants to be well known for what he does or not... things like that. I don't actually know anything, I've just heard things.

Oi, hopkins. Too maudlin for me. It's such soap-opera stuff, and the characters are as 2d as you can get. Meh.

I remember I kept reading only to see how far he could get but...

At times it felt that he dependant alot on shock value more than anything... almost want me to make a serious comic, but probably with somewhat less emo and violence, and more depth. :/

Then... most furry comics tends to have wierd quirks, blah.

I kept reading mostly because I was hoping that eventually the characters would wake up and stop being so pitiful and soppy.

I mean, ever single character in his comics are always so freaking HELPLESS, it's maddening. Everyone is at the mercy of some person or urge or situation. Eventually you stop feeling sympathy for them and just want them to grow some balls.

Are you referring to his untrained artistic style and the fact that he doesn't know how to use perspective? Oh, wait that isn't what you meant by 2d...

Oh dear... must stop slamming same artist. I don't have anything against Hopkins, I was a real fan for a while until the same soap opera stuff began to wear on me, and I grew enormously jealous of how much money I saw his mediocre art selling for on furbid.

Yeah, I loved Jack for a while, but eventually I just couldn't stand the overly simplistic personalities of the characters and the lack of ethical ambiguity.

One of the biggest things that made me frustrated with Jack is that no one questions the absolute moral system all the characters are flung into. Hopkins is a pretty good storyteller: he has a very strong grasp of conventions. But he never takes any risks. Because of that, his work is nothing more than the sum of its parts, albeit that it's a rather large sum.

Also, I regard Drip as an absurdist hero and the most intelligent character in the cast (although he does tend to suffer from the same melodramatic posturing from time to time).

Yes, I generally don't like stories set in the Judeo-Christian cosmology because of the sort of sophistry it lends itself. "What? Hell? Why am I in hell? I led a good life and always gave 10% of my income to worthy charities!"

"Ahh, but you tore the tag off of the mattress... of destiny. And that is something god cannot forgive! Eternal hellfire for you!"

"Oh, I should have paid so much more attention to the will of god, even though it makes no sense at all and the author of this story isn't even going to attempt to explain it!"

Drip I found to be a fairly repugnant adolescent rape fetish turned into some sort of dramatic player in all of the Jack melodrama and I really didn't like the popularity the character enjoyed.

All that said, seeing the pretty darn excellent Jack fursuiter at AC06 made me smile a big smile.

I suppose I just characterize Drip differently, then. I was simply thinking of his unwillingness to repent and his actual pride in residence in hell over the more obvious rape thing (the latter being what I was indicating with "melodramatic posturing"). If I was a man prone to fan fiction, I'd have to rewrite Drip as a lucifarian gentleman... sigh.

But I ramble.

Pics of the fursuiter?

That's actually one of the reasons his stories held such a morbid fascination to me, because they were so HOPELESS. A girl with a good heart leads a good life, but she's distraught at the evil in the world that she decides to end her life, and then gets TORTURED FOR ETERNITY because of it. That's just ... man. That kills you a little bit inside.

I guess it depends on how you take it. I live in a place where such arbitrary and unbreakable rules are held as the basis for morality and legislature. I guess this sort of mythos deserves to exist only in the fictional realm, and it might be interesting there, but it rings too true and whenever stuff like that happened in Jack I couldn't get past the suspicion that Hopkins reveled in the way he made those sinners of his suffer, because although that might sound absurd I know a lot of people who want a lot of other people to be tortured forever for piddly little infractions.

Well, sometimes I wonder if the comic were either taking a stab at christianity becuse... that's where you wind up when taking suicide according to relgious people. >_>

It's in the bible... and intresting, it might speak against thoose... suicide bombers too. Hmm...

But yeah, I remember reading about one of the suicides and finding it unfair how afterlife were just... worse.

The bible also says that the dead are aware of nothing. Several times, actually. And that hell or hades is just an abstract term meaning a common grave. But this is neither the time nor place to discuss such things.

Bah! I don't sympathize with hopeless people. Camus sums up my ideas nicely in The Myth of Sisyphus.

"There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn."

I believe in a persons ability to triumph in their situation, no matter what it is, so Hopkin's moaning, depressive characters really rub me the wrong way.

mind-warping?

Jeremy Kidd, hands down.

Hm. Well, I found furry by accident looking for fat art. :)

First pictures I saw were on the old Fatastic Furry Fantasies site, and the ones that got me totally into the fat fur scene had to have been Bob Drake, Stellos, and Dutch. ^^;

Nowadays, Duo Radon, Tolstoy, Hoodah, and Zero. :)

Well, probably about the same time as you, Zombie Cat, I slowly got into the furry world through Doug Winger then Gideon(for herms), and Shannon Douglas, Michael Higgs and Stellos(for fat stuff)

H'oh yeah, I found The Round House a little after that. Shannon Douglas, Michael Higgs, Stellos and Fixate ... Ahh, Fixate ... Good times.

Good ol' Fixate, warping minds in such wonderful ways.

His work still frightens me.

Hell if I know o_O Prolly turned furry while reading Sabrina-Onlien adn DMFA, but warped? Lookit my watch list :P It will ALL become clear who those responsible are XD

Doug! Doug!
and Doug's amazing moustache

Oh god...hmmm...Gideon, Blue (Minagaseriu), Ekigiyu, Icewolf, and Bradford. DAMN! I got screwed hard!

And everyone on my watch list...XP

Fey Tas, Noise, Macop, Aku Tojyo -- basically the whole Empire Aniki crowd as it existed in the early 2000's before fey stopped doing kemono art

Well, lesse...

There are the usual suspects: Doug Winger, Wolf Kidd, Jay Naylor back when he did lots and lots of blood art.

Even though macro is a bit of a turn-off, Ken Sample's style and the way he draws paws were a huuuuuge influence.

Another nod to Chanta-Ra, although it was Mad Doctor Gryph back then. ;)

I used to be a massive Jack / David Hopkins fan... even wrote some fan fiction back in the day. I've kinda grown away from the comic; too much pathos and melodrama for me to handle. I also tend to get lots of creative ideas that I never act on, which really tends to irritate me over time. Nothing against Pepe or anything, I wish him and Katie the best, but I just can't do Jack anymore. ;)

For me it was a slow buildup starting with TMNT then Omaha the Cat Dancer, Shanda the Panda, then Genus... then I stopped for about a decade, and I never really thought anything was weird about it or that I was 'furry'. I had been drawing at the time, and eventually stopped drawing afterward too.

Then I discovered 4chan/b/, and had my brain squicked by Renamon pr0ns (mostly by Karabiner) and Rain Silves (Trancy Mick) - my mind was blown, but I liked it, found FA, got blown away again, and it made me start drawing again.

Besides the above mentioned, I am also greatly influenced by Masamune Shirow, Warner Bros, Jay Naylor, and many many classical artists.

To a certain extent, I think I was already twisted, before I saw my first furry image. Then I noticed how I'd get turned on reading the animorphs books and watching werewolf movies (I was 13 at the time). When I got the internet, I started searching for images of transformations and human-animal hybrids. I don't remember for sure the first artists whose art I enjoyed, although I think Lancer or Ian Williams or whatever his name is was one of them...Paul Defenbaugh was an early interest, and some of the first homoerotic stuff I looked at.

Doug Winger, of course, winds up in there, although I was already having thoughts of hypercocks before I saw his art.

Well I found furry when my mind was even more open to mass warpage. First discovered we're Drake Montana andd Faxx. Although heavy influences were the Ebonblades, Gideon, the ever popular Mr. Winger. Annnd Arillin and Cerebus as well. Just cause I'm odd like that.

Also I ralse I have no right to post any of this here because I'm not anartist bu I shall do so anyway.

PSH! You don't need to be an artist to experience the mind-warping effects of furryism!

Very few are artists in the furry community even, there might be alot but trust me... there's alot of furries who dosen't draw.

Infact, the most common furry is probably the silent one. The one that watches furry art, and maybe have a account for lurking but that's about it.

Infact, some people probably view artists as gods... but I think thoose people need a little bit of realistic view of the world.

The first furry site I found was a page called "The Stalking Grounds", discovered after trying to fix a broken URL on a gryphon info page (yes, my gryphon mind goes back even farther than my discovery of the fandom. I feel old). It had links to various artists and archives, serving as a nice gateway for newcomers to the fandom, lucky me.

First herms I saw were by Jeremy "Wolf" Kidd.

After I woke up from the ensuing minute-long coma, I was in love. <3

Dove into the YiffCo archive (was a year or so before it shut down and its domain name got bought by Foxxfire), saw every single piece of art there.

I think that's how I found Doug Winger too.

The rest is a blur, digging through countless archives and pages, my mind somehow building a resistance to the extremes (though some shock still occured). A year after I found the fandom, I tried to participate in it, creating Sym Dragon (was infatuated with Flammie at the time), and discovering just how little social experience I had.

Several years of hard knocks to the head, lessons that needed to be learned, and a bit of spiritual self-discovery (resulting in the change to Sym Gryphon), and... here I am.


I feel so lucky I had tolerant, non-religious parents... otherwise, I would have a mile-long line of priests standing outside my door, waiting for their turn to try an exorcism...

... dammit, I have to stop making long comments...

Big Horse, Doug Winger, Dave Corbett's stories I have been through the fire and witnessed horrible things. But. Still. No. Tanks.

Why no tanks? I'm going to have to draw them myself aren't I? Time to get a scanner and some of that paper stuff.

Yes. You must take it upon yourself to spawn the tank revolution! Go forth into the world and reap destruction!

...would be funny if we saw anthropomorphized tanks in the near future now.

<_<

You mean...BATTLEWALKERS?! BWAAHAHAAHHAHAAA

Sow wind to reap whirlwind hmmn? So be it, I'll have to dig up some old sketches and my scanner.

And why does Santa still use reindeer? They're obsolete, and they shit. In midair. On your car.

AM I THE ONLY ONE UPSET BY THIS!?

My first and greatest influance I stil give top credit to. Wookiee. Once I got into Furry Muck, I started talking with him back in 95 and he encouraged me to start. I strive to be as good as he is witrhout being just like him...I know what they say about mimicry and flattery, but I just don't want to copy someone elses style.

Doug Winger may well have been the first, 8-10 years ago, but I'm almost thinking it was Daphne Lage that got me moving in any direction. I own a number of her color comics and 2 of her original pieces when she decided to just about quite the furry scene some years back. It's too bad I didn't get a hold of the one herm original she made when I had the chance.

The only other primary influence was Ashtoreth. This must have been '97ish.

Ashtoreth ... that sounds familiar ... any links to his/her work?

It's a god
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astarte

Or more seriously, it's yet another one of thoose older furs who got fed up
http://furry.wikia.com/wiki/William_Haas

>_>

Ashtoreth is a god of old. Ye Furrae God 'o Thou.

It might help to say: Owner of Prick Vixens.

The internet didn't turn me furry. Instead, when I got an internet connection for the first time, I discovered (to my huge relief) that there were other perverts like me out there XD

Second paragraph: Ditto

Weird inn'it? I'm mostly influenced by cartoons from the early 90's though... Ren & Stimpy, Angry Beavers and Rocko's Modern Life were the big three.

A lot of people actively dislike Hopkins. Either he eats children in his spare time, or people just enjoy bizarrely misplaced pomposity a little too much. I've liked his works for as long as I've seen them. Not the most solid style, but it's enjoyable.

My first twistings were clean and giggly submissions to TeamArtail. But the artists responsible for making me say, "hell yeah, let's do this thing" were BattleAngel and ValleyKyrie. Some are ashamed of Sonic influence, but I say to those people, "get over it, you're a furry for Christ's sake."

I still like his stuff ... I hear people calling his stories flat, and maybe I was just young and naive at the time, but I still think they're deep and emotionally stirring. *shrug*

Oh hey, yeah! I used to check out BA's and ValleyKyrie's stuff on Jab all the time ... Man, Jab's changed a lot. Didn't Fatalis used to post there?

He sure did. He's all but disappeared now; you see maybe a drawing or two on a half-functioning message board every blue moon.

I think my very first fur encounter was through a website called Renard Sans Frontiers *french for foxes without borders*. From there, I ran into another website, ran by Bernard Doove. The Chatkat's den, I believe. As for TWISTED furry stuff, that was Mike Higgs on VCL. I really liked his stuff. He's not very active nowadays though...

First furry artist I saw was probably the late Greg Panovich. And for warping, Doug Winger was one, but there's probably quite a few more...

... Wha?? The LATE Greg Panovich?! He didn't die, did he?! ... Oh, hey, he deleted everything in his FA gallery. Hmm.

... Y'know, actually, Greg's work was some of the first erotic furry pieces I found. This was WAY back, before I discovered any furry archives at all, when I'd sometimes see a "furry" category on free anime porn websites.

... Cripes, no wonder I'm screwed up. I got thrust into the churning bowels of the internet as soon as I hit puberty.

Yeah, I saw his work back when he was on Temple of Luna. You can see his old pre-FA work on the Yahoo groups TGPS and TGPS2, but as far as I know, no FA refugees or new art has been posted there yet (although i still hope so, work as good as his is just too dang good to just die like that).

David Hopkins's stuff always struck me as kind of overly edgy in a juvenile way, but I've had trouble ragging on him since he had to have all his teeth ripped out from not brushing. I mean, I'm not be above kicking someone when they're down, but jeez. I'm not Satan, you know?

Whoah, really? I saw something on Jack about him being in the hospital, but ... damn. Poor guy.

Yeah man, he was on seizure meds that made his gum grow out as a side effect. When you get that kind of issue, you have to make absolutely sure to clean them or food builds up in pockets against your teeth. Dave didn't, and uh, every single tooth except for four of them got impacted and they had to pull them out or they would have poisoned him like that cowboy movie.

I guess Fraggle...it helped that he liked collecting toys too though. :p

Mmm, ok, I guess I'll weigh in here. I have to say, it wasn't Doug winger that got me started though I do find some of his work interesting, it's mainly for the humor value. What really got me started into the fandom were story archives like the Transformation Story Archive, and so on.

I started wondering, what it would be like to go through such a transformation, have ears tail and fur. Slowly I began to think that if I had a choice to choose such a form, what would I be, how would I look, and eventually the fur inside of me woke up. Yearning for release.

I suppose if you want to get all meta physical. I still have a human soul at heart... but does it make sense to anyone when I say I'd rather have the Fox I know I want to be in it's place?

Anyway...that's probably way to deep for this, but as to mind Warping...again it started in the stories I've read...but ultimately found it's true and complete liberation when I met up with someone who would eternally change my life forever. IRC is a wonderful place, and well, you meet some very interesting people there. One of which happened to be a very very very loving Kitsune who took a shy self-conscious fox and opened his eyes to a Whole New Existence of possibility.

She laid the foundation for everything that came after blew my mind open nigh completely. And she and I are still together to this day, and I hope for eternity and beyond.

Now, since some people have mentioned herms specificly... I'll say I owe that to another one of my mates, a very playful and affectionate dragoness, unfortinuely, shi's made some choices in life that may render her lost to me forever... both hir and my Kitsune mate...but I am still hopeful for my Kitsune love, that one day things will change again and we can return to what has been lost, if and when she frees herself from the Master/slave relationship she has gotten herself into.

Shame, that Story archive hadrn't updated in years.

Seems to be yet another one of thoose sites that hadn't upgraded in years.

My first introduction to furry was Gideon on macrophile.com. 13 years old at the time.

And the rest, they say, is history.

OMG UR WERE UNDERAGE!!!111

>_>

I for myself... uhm. I think I actually was 16 at the time when I became a furry (but like, turned 17 a month later). I'm 20 now, and I didn't become active in teh dirtier parts of the fandom until I reached the legal age. :P

I ran into Tolstoy's stuff one day while surfing the net. I was about twelve or thirteen. This was over the summer, and I was alone pretty much all day. I beat off so much that I actually began to bleed feom the head of my penis. Obviously, I have never been the same since.

Hmm, Micahfennec and some artist called Arch angel of death was probably something else early.

I was distressed when Micahfennec put some of her arts (for a few years ago) down, becuse of some drama... sure I actually found it disgusting but I couldn't keep looking and then intrest only grew...

"AoD" isn't really a good artist IMO, but was one of the first artists I saw doing... heavy toilet related stuff. It's beyond me if anyone actually pays for his paysite... since personally I don't belive paysites are profitable nowdays. Commisions are. :)

Ah yeah, I remember Archangel of Death. I wonder what's in his paysite. I've only ever seen him do scat-related stuff, and I can't imagine anyone paying to see it. They'd either not like the subject matter, or be too embarrassed to put it on their credit card.

Or they like it, but aren't desperate/willing enough to pay for it. >_>

On second thought, I've always had a thing for fat furries. Always. Seriously. When I found the internet and all the fat furry stuff, it just kind of took root and becaim my primary fetish.

Heh, I'm not much for it though I admit I like pudgy girls. Then, there's probably a fetish for every body part on the body.

"Oh my, you have sexy lungs"

What the hell is wrong with you?=P

Alot. :)

That lung thing might been a joke... or not. But you do have a pretty sexy liver as well.

Hush up, or I'll eat your kidney with some fava beans.

*ffffffffffff*

What really started my dive into the fandom?



Happening upon Darkwulf's website, "The Round House". It wasn't one artist in particular, just the stuff there in general. It was quite a few years ago when I found it. It actually took a while to get from looking at it to drawing it.


To this day my parents don't even know that site exists. I have no clue how I managed that. (I found it back in the day when I DIDN'T have a computer of my own.) Same with VCL and other places I looked through (Though I never really browsed VCL nor do I have the desire to. I only looked through it because certain artists who posted on other sites had a much bigger archive on there than they posted elsewhere.)


Stylistically, meh. I've borrowed stuff from people like KitsuneZero, Lyenuv (I adore the big fluffy ears. Still trying to get them to work in my style. I also borrowed the way she did hips for a while but that didn't mesh well), and other more current day folkses, just like people who dived in years ago were probably influenced by the people of their times. And I'm constantly borrowing stuff =p



Aside from the fandom, I've always been rather partial to anthro characters. Fandom was more of a confirmation than an actual change.


Not really mind-warping as it is confirmation of an existing preference. =p

(Liked Anthros
Liked pudgy/fat girls.

Put the two together :D )

Doug Winger.

Need you ask?

Seconding Kesarra.

My first instance of furry was before I knew furry art existed. I'd been roleplaying on AOL as an anthromorphic panther in the medievil fantasy realm they had going. It was about a year and a half before I saw a single other anthromorphic animal character on there. They showed me an early John Barret of a panther guy holding a redhead's chest (which quickly became my character pic) and research of John Barret lead me to YiffCo.

YiffCo introduced me to early Winger, all the black and white stuff from the mid-90s which was interesting but not quite compelling. It was actually Ashtoreth's work (aka, William Haas) which inspired me to make my first vixen character.

In my opinion, Haas' vixens are far superior to most other artists. Though, Dark Aldebaran comes remarkibly close in depicting the same 'vulpine goddess' form effect.

Anyway.. It was Haas who lead me to vixens, and Doug that made them hyper.

I've been a furry all my life, but like so many others, I didn't know it had a name until the advent of the innenernet. Holy Yiff'n A- Felicia from Darkstalkers was hot, so first thing I do is search for pix of her... stumble across Ken Singshow's site and from there to Furnation and VCL and I've been around since; that was late '97.

I actually met Mike Higgs when I/he was playing in Furtoonia (is that place even open still?) and asked him what the attraction to fat girls was; I probably sounded like some sort of persecuting troll at the time, but his answer made a lot of sense and got me to thinking a bit. I'm not head over heels for anything female so long as it's wider than it is tall.... quite the opposite... but I blame him for getting me started down the path to heavy set fems. ^-^
........but I'm still picky about what I like.

Kelvin Lion pointed me in a more specific direction when I commented on some of his fluffdragon characters; after I found furry I made it a personal mission to browse ALL of Yerf and VCL and I actually accomplished it in June of 2002 and that's where I found his stuff. Apparently Yerf knew more than I did about that perversion.

The whole Hopkins issue? Great artist, tho I stopped reading his stuff almost before I started... hits too close to home in a way. I can get my fill of stupidity and psychosis in the real of reality. Sad to hear he's hurting.
I've seen a few Winger pics, and while I like the faces and the body structure, herms creep me out, so again.... fantastic artist, but not into his stuff.

Inspirations are easy; everyone I've ever seen that's done a picture I like. XiJag, Megan Giles, Joe Rosales, Mike Higgs, KelvinLion, Michelle Light, Terry Smith, Brian Sutton, Brian Reynolds, Derrek Dassenbrock, Naylor, Howell, Carspeckens, Roz Gibson, Dutch, Bluth are all significantly notable inspirations with innumerable others in close competition.

Wow! So much blackmail material here, and given so willingly! ^-^

My first step into the furrydom as it were, would be sonic the hedgehog, and I mean the old cartoons way back when, when it was the "Roadrunner and Coyote" style back and forth comics of ploy, snag, and escape, over and over and OVER.

I started tracing and mucking around with 'how to draw sonic and co.' usually drawing sonic and characters as uber pudgy beefcakes.

I drew (very poorly) some expansion sequences on divider pages before they became clear plastic sleeves. At which point I met my first real critisizms and quickly found out that the world sucked for the most part.

Lesse...the wonder of the intarnets came to me while I was still very young (we're talking grade school here), and from there I got tame, but suggestive anime art while eluding detentions and bans from the networks. Later on I began looking into inflation art and found a few anime artists and Stuffed.com along with the Roundhouse. Shannon Douglas in particular got my attention, as well as a few others I can't recall.

The most prominent artist however was Big Horse (Where can I find his more recent stuff?), which was where my world of everything expanding and furs came together.

OH WOW!! Stuffed.com!! I remember that! Well, vaguely. Damn, that was a long time ago. I frequented a lot of "fat" sites back in the day too. I've completely forgotten about all of them, except for The Round House. I kind of miss their old format. The modern "gallery" design doesn't really fit it well for some reason.

Ah, Big Horse! No idea. From what I hear he's incognito at the moment, so probably nowhere.

Yeah, Doug Winger. I vaguely recall stumbling onto the VCL from a link from... Miavir's story archive, maybe? Something relatively tame, anyhow... Scanning the list of artists for those with lots of files, and his 500-some caught my eye. It was all downhill from there.

I happen to enjoy Hopkins' comics quite a bit. In fact, I read Jack regularly. It's good stuff, I think. Deep and what-not.

As far as inspiration, well, when I was but a lad, I remember RPing online with some good friends and getting that you-know-what whenever a certain character found herself transforming into this giant dragon majigger. I had no idea why I liked those posts the most at all, since these were the days where you didn't know a boner was a boner.

Later, after I found porn, I remember the very first furry art I found and also the first inflation art I found was an inflation sequence involving Guilmon by Panzer. After that it all slowly evolved from there. I don't remember how I found these places, but Cerine's Inflation pages were my big inflation kink-grower. Sephiroth Ebonblade I happened upon and that got me into the whole penis growing deal. VoreTex was there, too. Eventually more artists got me like Daniel Kay, Yiffer, and the like, and so on.

Once FA started up, I started drawing and here we are today.