Interview with Chuck Murnoe, A Size-Fetish Artist, Writer, and Creator of Chiki Vulpin

Chuck Murnoe is an artist and writer focused on characters who grow and shrink. He has created many humorous images featuring the character “Chiki Vulpin,” an anthropomorphic red fox. Chiki owns Growth Gloves, which enable her to grow to a height of 100 feet tall, and the Reducer, a mallet that can shrink people. Chiki uses those amazing artifacts to punish bullies who mock her short stature. Additionally, Chuck has participated in nearly every SizeRiot contests since WritersOct18. His WritersOct18: Giant Couples submission, “A Keeper’s Bond,” won the “Recommended to Outsiders” category. His GiantJuly19 submission, “Our night,” placed in four categories! Those folks at SizeCon20 who grabbed a copy of “the small print,” a collection of several stories compiled by Taedis, will find Chuck’s “Mistress Dana’s New Twist” included inside. You can also find his work on DeviantArt, Fur Affinity, Newgrounds, and Twitter.

#1) Can you tell the readers a little about yourself?

I could say I’m just a regular Spanish guy in his mid-30’s working in IT, but it’s clear I’m not that ordinary.

I have been quite imaginative since I was a kid —of the shy and introvert kind. I loved writing and drawing my own stories, even if they were completely absurd. In fact, that led me many years ago to be part of the Spanish webcomic community. Some Spanish-speaking readers still remember my first webcomic, which could be described as a crossover fanfic madness. That webcomic featured a couple of characters pretty much related to size fantasies, but I’ll talk about them later.

Despite how much i like being creative, I constantly struggle with some minor art and writing blocks, mainly due to stress from work, but I’m managing myself and still have something new to share. And despite considering myself a macrophile in the shadows, I’m actually more of a size shifter.

#2) How did you first become interested in size-fetish media?

I recall having a fascination for size-shifting powers since I was a kid, and I had even watched the “Attack of the 50ft. Woman” remake starring Daryl Hannah. But I was an innocent child, so this was just a fantasy in a fairy-tale sense.

In my college years, however, I found about ‘macrophilia’ by chance, while looking for fanfics. I just went down the rabbit hole when I started looking for it on Google. There was something fascinating about a fetish around giant and tiny people. Fascination turned into embracing the fetish… and as soon as I started to like it, I began to feel ashamed.

I admit that I tried to keep a low profile, and even fell into self-kink shame on my main persona, mainly because of people around me mocking any kind of fetishes. As I said I, I had a couple of characters in my first web comic who are related to size fantasies: Clara, a size-shifting vigilante, and Lucas, her best friend and macrophile. While Clara was a good character despite her size origins, Lucas was meant to make fun of the fetish, he was devoid of a proper personality. It was pure self-deprecation, something I regret, but also a lesson I had to learn —by the way, Clara and Lucas will be back in some way, but in a very different way… and Clara has crossed paths with Chiki a couple of times.

It took me years before I could start accepting it, as I watched other people’s work and how they were, and still are, so proud of it, as macro/micro isn’t wrong. The “Chuck Murnoe” persona is just one of my first steps in my own journey of self-discovery, mainly thanks to the people I’m meeting in this community.

#3) Are any of your everyday acquaintances aware of your interest?

My family and most of my friends have no clue about this. As I said, I was hiding it from most of the world —I mean, I wrote stories for Karbo’s Felarya and tried to pass them as fantasy-horror! Only recently I’ve been showing this side of me to a few friends I can trust. They mostly accept it because they either share this same fantasy or they have their own kinks and are relieved one of their friends understands them.

And of course, I’ve known macro/micro folks in person, which is great, because there’s someone you can share some experiences in person. Social media has been very helpful here, I wouldn’t have met them in any other way!

#4) What are a few of your favorite size fantasies from other creators?

That’s a hard question, because I have to choose from a long list. Oh, well, I’ll give this a try and mention a few examples…

I can talk about the raw power that emanates from Aphrodite’s pieces, both written and drawn. Or Elle Largesse’s exploration of the limits in this fantasy in many ways. Or Spitty’s astonishing drawings and constant improvement. Or Owl’s render prowess and fun with extreme sizes. Or the tenderness from Sihagen’s pictures and characters. Or Taedis’ captivating stories, being “Even an Ox” the best example of his quality… The list goes on and on, and I feel that this is the tip of a very huge iceberg.

Also, I’d like to give a shout out to Aborigen not only for his work but also for giving all of us the chance to prove ourselves through the Size Riot contests. And also to Katelyn Brooks, one of the first people I followed even in my low key days, as her work over the years has helped me in accepting this part of myself.

#5) How would you describe your stories?

They are an ongoing experiment, because I don’t have an established writing style so to speak. My entries for Size Riot show I can deal with several scenarios, from the smut of “Mistress Dana’s New Twist” to the softness shown in “Our Night”… but people would never guess my stories until my name was revealed at the end of each contest. It’s good for keeping your identity a secret, but that lack of identity is also a burden.

I know for certain that I’m a character writer. I want my characters to feel alive, whether you can relate to them or not. This is something I take into account, even though I also know how important a story by itself is: if my characters aren’t believable enough, I can’t make a story work. That’s why I’m more into creating characters than giving them proper stories…

Achieving your own style is hard, I know from experience as an artist, and I won’t give up. I’ll keep going and going. I have the tools, I have some experience, it’s just a matter of time and writing.

#6) How was Chiki Vulpin originally created?

Chiki’s origins aren’t pretty. Inspired by an underground Spanish fanzine, and also inspired by my love for rubber hose cartoons, I made a character called Madie Foxy, a toon from the 1930s. She was popular back in the day, but ended up being forgotten for decades and was dealing with depression due to that. It wasn’t pretty at all.

In 2018, I saw a tweet mentioning “giant ladies in some old cartoon style”, and that old toon part reminded me of Madie. So I picked her, made her size-related —that’s how her Growth Gloves and “Reducer” mallet came to be— and changed her personality so she’d be a joyful rascal. The character was no longer Madie, and since she’s a short anthropomorphic fox I called her Chiki Vulpin. I wrote a draft of her backstory, being a forgotten cartoon who’s come to life in the 21st century and all she wants is to have fun and be famous.

What I never expected was that her design and the non-sequitur size jokes would make Chiki popular enough for people to recognize her! My guess is that a cartoon character aware of the size tropes and giving them her own silly twist feels fresh.

#7) Do you have any upcoming projects that you would like to mention?

First of all, I’ll be introducing more characters. People have just met Kyria, a mute fairy —and another reworked character of mine, as she’s from my Felarya days—, and a good way to show my gentle side. And people have seen some glimpses of the Vega siblings or Randy Mann, but will need some time before we properly meet them.

And it’s good having more characters, but what am I going to do with them? Write stories involving them, of course! What’s good about having lots of characters if I can’t… play with them? I’m still working on the first story, with a few drafts for the following ones, and they’ll be known as “The Murnoe Chronicles”… unless I find a more accurate and less egocentric title.

Don’t worry: I’ll keep writing for contests and drawing just for fun —so yeah, there will be more of Chiki’s size shenanigans!

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Thanks for doing this interview!

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