How did you find out and enter the furry fandom?

I find the existence of the Furry Fandom in 2005, while looking for some tickle fetish stories and artworks involving "unreal" characters (dragons, anthropomorphic characters, etc.) I discovered Kyle Dragon's website (hosted on FurStreet) and that was how I entered the "rabbit hole". On the same website I discovered many other artists like Ximon, Seraphon, Equidna (DrJavi), the French artist Xss, etc. The same week, I also discovered deviantART where most of these artists were also posting and, of course, I discovered new artist sharing the same taste for anthropomorphism. I was drawing anthro characters since the late 90's and I knew that deviantART was a place for me… still, I waited until September 2007 to create an account and post my first picture under my nickname "Alphonse Lavallée". I hope that I have succeeded to somehow bring some kind of answer to your question.

What is the ultimate answer to life, The universe, and everything.

42

What do you think of the cartoonist Sine?

Siné ? You mean this one : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin%C3%A9 ???
Wow… this is clearly the kind of question I will try to elude. ;-p

Well, more seriously, even if I heard of him (I may have a Siné Mensuel from 2012 or 2013 somewhere in my "archives") I didn't get enough interest in his works to express a relevant opinion. Yet someone who is member of the Collège de Pataphysique is worthy of interest. I know that he was a far-left anarchist (against De Gaulle and against Zionism) and that he has shown support to some anti-Zionism movements that were considered as belonging to far-right (and I believe that they actually were). All the polemics he created during his life are quite interesting for anyone trying to understand the concept of freedom of speech in France in the late 20th century (and early 21th c.). So, as you may guess, I won't take part for or against him. I will just keep a reasonable distance in order to avoid any preventable troubles… more specifically in those troubled times.

I have seen a few of his cartoons, and when I read his biography years ago, it said that even the Communist Party wanted nothing to do with him, with his explaining he was too anarchic for them. I suspect that that was not the real reason.

You may have heard the story of Elia Kazan, the left-wing American movie director who was demonized for testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy era. He did it because he feared his career being destroyed and going broke, not out of patriotism. But he was never sorry about what he had done. Also he was scornful of both at American middle-class conformity and left-wingers of the 1960's.

Est-ce que vous prendrez des commissions un jour?

De combien chaussez vous?

Pain au chocolat ou chocolatine?

Vous aimez François Pérusse?

1°/ Nul ne peut prétendre savoir de quoi les lendemains seront fait !
2°/ Je chausse du 44,5 - 45 (46 pour mes chaussures de rando).
3°/ C'est quoi de la "chocolatine" ? On dirait une obscure patisserie catalane.
4°/ Je l'ai découvert avec ça : https://youtu.be/4pBO7wzA2CQ
Je me suis enfui avec un acouphène… passant ainsi à côté de son œuvre. ^^;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO0nkqvFPqQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD12g_SlY_0

LOL pour te faire passer tes acouphènes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjhRKhnSu0Q

Brassen aurait approuvé

What sort of characters do you enjoy drawing being tickled the most and in what situation?

Moles… definitely moles… and more specifically in a cruel and humiliating way.

How are you?

I am fine. Thank you. Although a bit concerned with many little personal issues that would be a bit long to develop here.

🐸👍

Did you ever considered living from drawing art as your main income cause quite a few people jump on that train if they are as good as you.

I didn't… yet my art teacher did when I was 15 or 16 years old. I knew I had the choice between studying maths or art. I choose maths for many reasons (on of them is that I was always considering drawing as a hobby and I wish I could become an astrophysicist). Nowadays, even if I do enjoy my job as an engineer in a lab and that I got the opportunity to sometimes carry on my "own" little researches on subjects I enjoy, yet I am not sure I wouldn't be tempted by some adventurous attempt to sell some stuffs. Maybe one day I might try to sell a sketchbook in an auction as some artist do here. Not sure, yet the idea has come to my mind a few days ago. However I don't believe I will ever quit my job, being a civil servant is quite a rare (not to say enviable) position in the unpredictable times we are now living.

Who are your biggest influences? This can be both in your style and content

Wow this is the kind of classical question that cannot be fully answered in one comment. To make it short, as far as I remember, I was clearly inspired by some US animators as Tex Avery (this guy was a pure genius) or Max and Dave Fleischer. I was also quite fond of Surrealism and was always quite fascinated by the works of Salvador Dali, M. C. Escher, or Roland Topor (the one who created Téléchat, a French TV program that was supposedly designed for kids… and it clearly wasn't, yet I grew up whit that). My childhood was also influenced by non-artistic "heroes" like the Commandant Cousteau, the astrophysicists André Brahic and Hubert Reeves and some other scientific personalities that were often appearing on TV (Philippe Taquet, Marie-Claude Bomsel Demontoy, Albert Jacquard, Yves Coppens… and I have forgotten some). Most of them have passed away, the others are very old. When I became a teenager, I started watching many movies, mostly old classical ones like the ones of Marcel Carné or -less old and more "mainstream"- like the ones of Sergio Leone, Alfred Hitchcock. Speaking of films, two of them were quite "influential" when I started drawing for myself in the late 90's early 2000's : Brazil by Terry Gilliam and The Trial by Orson Wells (I am tempted add also, from Orson Wells again, a 50 minutes short film called "Une Histoire Immortelle"). I have been mesmerized by the way these movies were describing in a very sophisticated way some nightmarish worlds mixing sometime corporatism, bureaucracy of sens of duty in an extent where the border between logic and nonsense was becoming very porous not to say nonexistent. I can add many other things like my admiration for Roman Polanski films where his ironical sense of provocation is only balanced by the deepest darkness of human soul depicted in most of his works (with a few exceptions of course). I have always been loving this disturbing sense of humour since I discovered his works in my teenage years (i.e. late 90's). I can carry on, with the cartoonists that marked my childhood (for instance, Cabu, the famous political cartoonist, was drawing little cartoon during the kids TV show "Récrée A2" in the 80's) but I should consider going to bed (it is 1:40 am in Paris now).

Favorite color?

COLOURS ARE FOR THE WEAKS !!!
Ϝυϛκ the International Commission on Illumination !

Apples or oranges?

That is a vicious question!
Even if I quite enjoy orange juice, I will answer "apples".
No I am not at all fan of Steve Jobs useless gadgets...
My religion is and will remain PC... always!!!

If you are expecting a justification, I will tell you that I am quite concerned about staying in good health and, therefore, I follow the example of the Conservative British Prime Minister (this "title" sounds like a rude insulte, doesn't it?) Sir Winston Churchill who explain than his secret to stay in good shape was "no sport" and that "one apple a day keep the doctor away... as long as you aim well".

Kong or Gojira?

Kong or Gojira ?
Gojira of course !
I am a patriotic rat after all...

Ok! Next question. Would it be that you may have a tiny suit fetish on the side of you main tickle fetish?

Qui est ton Dieu préféré, et pourquoi est-ce Jésus ?

Pourquoi lui ? Mais parce qu' « il tuera les porcs, brisera la croix, détruira les synagogues et les églises, et tuera les Chrétiens sauf ceux qui croiront en lui » - <source>

Désolé de te l'apprendre mais tu as fait une erreur. Le Jésus version musulmane n'est pas Dieu et tu ne réponds donc pas à ma question :O

N'empêche qu'il est vachement plus stylé que l'autre SDF dénutri suspendu sur sa croix… mais bon, il faut quand même admettre que, malgré son pauvre look de clodo, il a su promouvoir comme personne des pratiques BDSM allant du barefoot skiing à la crucifixion en passant par la flagellation en public. Il faut aussi ajouter à cela son fantasme un brin chelou de vouloir se faire bouffer par ses potes à la fin du repas. Finalement, s'il ne faut retenir qu'une chose de lui, c'est que près de deux mille ans plus tard, il y a des millions de gens qui se baladent avec des croix autour du cou et se réunissent dans des grandes bâtisses pour se faire humilier par un type en robe les traitant de pécheurs voués aux Enfers et tout ce beau monde semble y prendre du plaisir (j'ai même cru comprendre qu'il y a des séances individuelles que se font en tête dans des petites caisses en bois mais je n'ai jamais voulu vérifier par moi-même). Bref, ce Jésus a su mener son business comme un Dieu, et rien que pour ça il mérite le respect de la profession.

PS : Sinon, j'ai lu dans un bouquin qu'il a prévu de revenir parmi nous avec une méga "tournée d'adieu" pour ses fans, le tout avec un spectacle équestre, des effets pyrotechniques, des sauterelles, des PυtƐs qui auront fait le voyage exprès depuis Babylone, et -cerise sur le gâteau- Jésus lui même fera une apparition en mode Furry (typiquement, avec une fursuit de mouton, allez savoir pourquoi il a choisi cette bestiole). Par contre, pour assister à l'événement, il faudra présenter un pass sanitaire à jour. :-/

Fursuit de lion svp. Le mouton c'est quand il est gentil encore.

Certains disent que le spectacle est déjà commencé. Par exemple avec le cavalier blanc et sa "couronne" qui conquiert le monde. Ce qui est bien c'est que si c'est vrai on le saura dans les 10 prochaines années vu que ce sera bientôt le 2000eme anniversaire de son départ.

Allons-y ! Quels sont vos artistes préférés ? Qu'est-ce qui vous motive à dessiner ? Et, juste par curiosité, vous faites quoi exactement dans ce labo ?

Mes artistes préférés ? Il y en a tellement ! Voici quelques uns en vrac, pris uniquement parmi les "dessineux" : Salvador Dali, M. C. Escher, Roland Topor, Jean-Jacques Sempé, Victor Hugo, André Franquin, John Constable, Michel Granger, Tex Avery, Paul Grimault, Michel Plessix, Gustave Doré, René Magritte, et j'en passe…

Ce qui me motive à dessiner ? Euh… ça c'est une question que je ne me suis vraiment jamais posé en fait. Je dirai que j'ai toujours dessiné et que c'est bien pratique de mettre sur papier les images que j'ai en tête. Il y a même un petit côté satisfaisant à être capable de recopier ce que l'on voit ou dessiner les choses telles qu'on aimerait les voir. Je ne sais pas si cela répond à la question. ^^

Ce que je fais IRL ? Hé bien, sans trop rentrer dans les détails "compromettants", je suis ingénieur d'études et, du coup, contrairement à mes collègues qui ont fait un doctorat et sont devenus par la suite des chargés de recherches, je ne passe pas mon temps à monter des projets ANR en quête de financement, ce qui me laisse un peu plus de temps pour "faire de la science". Je suis peut-être un peu caricatural, mais à peine. Bon, plus sérieusement, mon domaine se concentre sur le traitement d'images (acquises surtout dans le domaine visible et parfois proche infrarouge) aussi bien en prétraitement (images raw) pour des applications 3D (que je ne fais pas) ou de la classification (pas mon domaine non plus) qu'en aval pour l'affichage (avec parfois des envolée lyriques dans le dataviz). Techniquement je m'intéresse à la "qualité" des images (résolution, bruit, couleurs) et mes approches se concentrent sur l'aspect traitement du signal (statistiques, Fourier, analyse en composantes principales, etc.) même si j'essaie de faire semblant de m'intéresser à des modèles physiques issus du Computer Graphics (ray-tracing, BRDF, etc.) pour me donner bonne conscience. Ma réponse est très "vague", j'en suis bien conscient, mais je me sens moyen de balancer un lien vers mon Google Scholar, d'une part, par ce que j'aime rester bien à l'abri derrière mon pseudonymat et, d'autre part, j'ai un h-index de sous-mЄгdƐ.

Aw,, these are always quite fun :) I'll bite:

Why do you like moles so much? And, for that matter, why do you enjoy tickling?

Why I like moles? Because they are the cutest creatures on (and under) Earth! - Well, more "seriously", I don't really know how it started. "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame was probably the origin… or maybe the fact that it is also the nickname given to students preparing the exams for engineering schools: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class.....es_%C3%A9coles - However, I started getting more and more affinity for these mysterious little creatures that were spending their whole life digging tunnels and enjoyed their representations in cartoons. There is some kind of contradictory feelings when you consider them: they look both shy and hard-working, curious and reclusive.

Now, concerning my interest in tickling, I don't remember when it started. As a child I always had this kind of fetish (even if I obviously didn't know what it meant). Paradoxically, I don't like physical contacts IRL and I have always been considering the traditional hands shaking between each colleagues as something annoying (with the pandemic, this kind of "annoyance" has disappeared). Well, I honestly don't know why I like the cartoony representation of tickling. Maybe by sadism? The mix between cruel suffering and cute laughing? Curiosity? The fact that just touching the soles of someone could create such reactions is somehow not so intuitive. Not sure I would ever be able to bring a relevant answer to this very simple question.

Follow up? Why are your moles sometimes invisible?

How have you kept yourself occupied since the lockdown frenzy began?

Alcohol.

Now I heard news about an upcoming alcohol shortage!

Good thing my parents bought a pressure cooker...

Do you permit fan-art of your characters? If so, then what requirements are on fanart?

I usually always enjoy seeing my characters drawn by other artists.
Well, I don't know if I am allowed impose specific rules on fan-art involving my characters...
I prefer letting the artist decide if he or she wants to be "kind" or "perverted" with them.
The fact that I may or may not enjoy the result should not be an obstacle to the artist creativity.

...nah. I am that respectful. Whether you enjoy or at leas tolerate the result is importan to me.
...same goes wi the characters. I actually enjoy being 'kind' to them.

Do you enjoy bastinado? And have you ever read the works of the Marquis de Sade?

Do I enjoy bastinado ? IRL ? Nope. Neither do I enjoy ticking or any kind of intimate tactile interaction. Yet, as part of artistic fetish... well... yes ! I don't remember having posted a picture involving this kind of feet torture. I may have drawn once a bastinado related picture but I had "lost it" (i.e. I had thrown it). :-/ ... Maybe, I should try to draw a bastinado picture sometime.

Concerning the Marquis de Sade, I haven't read any of his works... unfortunately.
Moreover, I never had the guts to watch Pasolini's last movie... not sure I will. ^^;
However, I quite enjoyed this weird stuff → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_(film)