To my readers......

SITE UPDATE NOTICE

Thanks for visiting mitchmen, home of Mitchell's Gay Art

The Caps and Collars/ Flat Cap Gang story at Google Groups is on a summer break until July. (see Group News for link)

Message updated 25th June 2023

Sunday 31 December 2017

The Most Popular 'mitchmen' Posts of 2017

Kalabro - Milking Factory

At this time of year it is my custom to indulge my vanity and geeky side by reviewing the year's posts to see which attracted the most visitor interest. According to my Blogger 'view count' stats*, the 20 below are the most-visited mitchmen posts out of all those first published in 2017
(titles have links to the original posts).

Posn
Title (+link)
Hits
Published
1
1411
Feb
2
804
Apr
3
632
May
4
602
Mar
5
582
May
6
522
Mar
7
465
Mar
8
427
Sep
9
Control (by Chirenon)
422
Jul
10
422
May
11
419
Jul
12
417
Aug
13
406
Apr
14
403
Apr
15
402
Apr
16
389
Jul
17
386
May
18
385
Jan
19
376
Aug
20
359
Aug

Stats collected on 30th December 2017,
Where articles have equal numbers of hits, those with the later publication dates are ranked higher.
italicised entries are 'follow-ups' from multipart sets (see 'Duplicates' below) .

The winner this year is not an A-Z article for once, but a collection of Milking Factory fantasies by different artists. Themed posts like this have also done well in previous years (e.g. 'You're Going Down' which was 3rd in 2015) and I particularly liked this group which included some stunning art by Kalabro. A similar cluster of posts at GMBA (current link in sidebar) also attracted appreciative comments so I wasn't entirely surprised by it's popularity, perhaps by the scale of it's triumph though! It fell just 32 short of Woodunart's record of 1443 last year

A bigger surprise to me was the popularity of my 'hunk' series about Mitch Colby and his fetish & wrestling careers. Every episode scored well and 7 of the 9 made it into the top 20. This was my personal appreciation of a man whose persona seems quite modest but who has some very attractive, masculine qualities. The top scoring article in the set (No 5) featured some of his erotic wrestling performances with some great-looking partners, all wearing sexy gear plus (perhaps most importantly) a spanking gif. Never underestimate the popularity of spanking! The next 3 ranking articles from the set were all about his leather fetish appearances which are my favourites too and probably less written about than 'erotic wrestling', where I know he has a lot of fans. There are lots of sites reporting this subject, so I didn't expect my contribution to grab so much attention. Colby's articles also benefited from being posted early in the year and some episodes were overtaken by later posts in the closing weeks of the year.

Naturally posts from January have an enormous advantage over December (see 'Averaging Hit Rates' below). My articles tend to be 'slow-burners' so it's not surprising that nothing after September even made the cut, which at 359 was higher than both last year's 317 and 331 the year before. Apart from the winner, all articles scored higher than the equivalent ranking position last year, significantly so for the 4 runners-up. (View last years table). This was in the context of increased visits to mitchmen overall.

The good showing by my two articles on Siproites was also unexpected, simply because that artist deals often with male to female transformations. I toned down that ingredient for my article, but it's still a bit off-piste for a gay fetish blog! I'm glad that many of you also 'get' this intriguing predicament art. It follows a similar good showing by my review of Yomero's racial and body size transformations posted in 2015.

'A-Z of Fetish Artist' articles usually feature prominently in these charts and 7 made it into the top 20 this year (against 11 last year). This was out of a total 15 published during the year which concluded the first edition of the series. The total was boosted by a couple of one-hit wonders but I think this was a good showing in a relatively weak year (imho) and it reflects the continuing popularity of this series. In 2018 there probably won't be many new ones, as I have reached the letter Z and plan to direct my short term efforts mainly to bringing the early articles up to a better standard.

I didn't do a bondage collection post until the last few days of the year, but despite this the number of articles with photographic content rather than artwork was boosted by Mitch Colby's muscle from 3 last year to 8 this.

~


Duplicates
In my standard table above, popular multipart series, like Mitch Colby this year and Christmas Criminal last year, can give a distorted view of the subjects people are actually looking at. If I eliminate all but the first entry in these series (those italicised in the table above) the revised chart below is produced.

Posn
Title (+link)
Hits
Published
1
The Milking Factory
1411
Feb
2
Hunk Hunt – Mitch Colby 5
804
Apr
3
Siproites Transformation Art – 1
632
May
4
A-Z of Fetish Artists - Zelolee
427
Sep
5
Control
422
Jul
6
A-Z of Fetish Artists – Yael
422
May
7
A-Z of Fetish Artists – Franco Part 2
419
Jul
8
A-Z of Fetish Artists – Zamok 1
417
Aug
9
A-Z for Franco Updated
389
Jul
10
A-Z of Fetish Artists – Yahn
386
May
11
Mike Carcel still top post in 2016
385
Jan
12
A-Z of Fetish Artists – Zanuf
359
Aug
13
353
Jun
14
The Look 
(You won't mention this, will you?)
352
May
15
346
Jun
16
341
May
17
338
Sept
18
336
Aug
19
333
Jun
20
The Look (Huh? feat Tony Orion)
328
Jul

This approach allows 7 more articles to enter the top 20 including 3 more A-Z's 
(which then claim half the top twenty places). Links are shown for these additions only.
Perhaps more interestingly, the unexpectedly profuse Fetish Art of Beau appears at 15.

This chart also includes 4 single photo posts with modified images and a humorous commentary 
(i.e. 'Control', 2 'Looks' and 'Mitchell's on Holiday'). 
My jokes don't usually do this well, just blame it on Brexit!

~

Average Hit Rates

I mentioned above how early articles benefit from being available for a longer period of time, so finally, I worked out how this table would look if I took into account the publication date (i.e. days on the site) as well as the total hits.

On this measure (ave hit rate for a year of 365 days) Milking Factory (with 1653) is just pipped to the top spot by my article on 'The Other Zero' (1653) which was published much too late (in October) to break into in the main charts. These two are followed by Zelolee (1404) and much further back by 'Mitchell's on holiday' (1153), Zamok - Part 1 (1144), and Mitch Colby - Part 5 (1099) with Franco - Part 2 (974) squeezing Siproites-1 (973) into 8th place.

However this method is no less flawed than the simple comparison of totals, giving undue weight to later postings which fit their initial surge of readers into a shorter timescale. As a telling example, my December post of Fujimoto's 'Abducted Cops' has clocked up 211 hits in 16 days so far. That's a hit rate of 4813 per year. Don't ask me why! I excluded obvious anomalies like this but I don't expect 'The Other Zero' or my 'Holiday' post of the lovely Mike Radon to figure so prominently in future surveys! Time will tell.

Remember, this comparison is only made for entertainment, since I don't really know how accurate Google's stats are, I suspect they don't even count people who just browse through the blog roll.

If you want to look at previous years surveys click on the 'MPP' label below

Thank you to all my readers for your interest in my blog, 
I will publish the updated all-time list of favourites shortly. 

Happy New Year!


Thursday 28 December 2017

Beautifully Bound - A Selection

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Tuesday 26 December 2017

Bareass Blogs 12


Bareass 'Brator Date in the Basement
......on Boxing Day! 

Go to No13 

 View series from No 1

 for more bareass boys click on the label below

Monday 25 December 2017

Ministry of Silly Hats - 10 Santa's Gift

This post is dedicated to anyone who is alone,
 or feels alone this Christmas and I hope it cheers your day!

 


Nothing personal Frank, but I doubt that anyone could look sexy in a Santa Hat

Even Frank himself looks very doubtful here.
Maybe he's putting his faith in that smouldering look,
or is it just that he came down the chimney,
 while the fire was still alight?


Oh dear! You'd think the photographer would say, 
"Hey, Frank, just tilt the hat back or to one side. Give it a rakish look"
But no, he's opted for pulling it right down over the ears.
(That skinny belt's doing some peculiar things too!) 

 To give him credit, Frank looks pretty cross now.
Well, at least the hat doesn't resemble a male organ tip like hat No 9 did.
No, this one's red, floppy, with hair around the base......
No, perhaps we'll abandon that chain of thought!


Ah! Thank goodness that's over! 
Now we pro's can get back to some proper man-posing 
out in the open air with a chunky rubber accessory, 
That's more like it! 
Great pose Frank, reputation restored.


There's another Christmassy theme in Silly Hat No 6
for other silly hats, click on the 'hats' label below

Saturday 23 December 2017

Bareass Blogs 11


Bareass SwishBuckling Buccaneer

(Audition for Captain Hook? Or Pirates of the Caribbean?)

The mitchmen motto is :- "Where there's rope there's hope!"

Go to No12 

 View series from No 1

for more bareass boys click on the label below

Thursday 21 December 2017

Bareass Blogs 10

click to enlarge (if you dare!)
 
Bareass Rugger-Bugger Bootlacing on the Bench
(it's behind you!)

Go to No 11

View series from No 1

for more 'bareass' boys click on the label below

Monday 18 December 2017

Shaved and Discharged

"Shaved? Erm, are you sure that's what he said?
But I'm due for discharge tomorrow!"

As part of my policy of updating early articles in the A-Z of Fetish Artists series, I have now revised the article on Julius. During that exercise I discovered these two images which are a rather nice example of shaving fetish. I have taken the liberty of substituting new captions for Julius original which I think will have wider appeal to my particular audience. 

"Jeez! I think I'm gonna be discharged early!"

The two original pictures came from Julius' work: "Bavarian Chronicles - Part 3"

See more on the artist in my revised A-Z article on Julius 

For more shaving and medical themed pictures click on the appropriate labels in the list below.
For other examples of artwork modified by me, click on the mitchmods label below

Friday 15 December 2017

Fujimoto - Cops Abducted

click to enlarge
This is the cover art for Fujumoto's epic called 'Okinawa - Slave Island'

 It shows a squad of cops who are being abducted for manly service duties and this ties in with my long running 'Caps and Collars' story at the 'mitchmen' Yahoo group. My cops are cuter than this lot though (imho)! I do like chunky guys and mature men, but Fujimoto's characters probably exceed my lust boundaries. however it's always good to see a big man put in his place and cops often deserve it. There's plenty of that in this story but it was the noose-like rope play and pseudo-G string fashioned from the cop's ID card caught caught my fancy in this image. 

I have yet to review this artist here, his prodigous output of comic books makes that a daunting task, I'm still recovering from tackling Tagame's vast library! I've put a marker down for 2018 though.

Tuesday 12 December 2017

Tom Jones Fetish Art

 This article is an extension of my 2009 A-Z article on Tom Jones fetish art (which has also been updated slightly). In that article I presented a small selection of his fetish work and this expands on that.

Tom Jones - Wrist Bound
A striking, sexy pose which is conceived most simply, 
with long sweeping lines and luscious brush strokes.
It lays bare the vulnerability of naked captivity.

Tom Jones - GI Initiation
This image combines Jones' interest in wrestling with a more overtly fetish subject. There's a confident economy of detail in this picture also but the angular style couldn't be more different to the previous example. It feels as if this was painted rapidly and that energy communicates a sense of desperate struggle to the viewer. There's a subtle disparity in the size of the figures which elaborates on the title, hinting at bullying or even rank.
 .
Tom Jones - Watching a Tawsing
 This looks like an illustration for a story since it's highly unusual for a spanking scene to be relegated to the background of what otherwise might be regarded as a beefcake picture, albeit a remarkably edgy one (if you'll pardon the pun). The internal frame effect that doesn't actually meet up with itself, but connects the two main elements of the picture is also very typical of 80's/90's magazine styling.
This wouldn't belong in a commonplace beefcake magazine though, I would imagine. The details of the foreground figure - Mohawk haircut, very deep collar and nipple rings - take us suggestively into the steamy depths of the real leather fetish scene. This is no dabbler and the delicate shaping of his face seems to reflect a desire to play a subordinate role. We can guess how that plays out I think!

Tom Jones - Plug Gag
 This is intriguing picture. The crude plug gag and the fuzzy sense of threat here immediately put me in mind of the amazing work of RJ Blake (whose own A-Z entry awaits my updating). The impression of tension and genuine restraint is strong but there's a mild incongruity about the man's relatively luxurious hair which doesn't fit the norm for fetish interests (short) and therefore conjures up thoughts about his real life, his occupation and possibly doubts about his eagerness to be here. His tackle appears to be encased in a sort of moulded cock and balls harness which effects a flattering presentation of his goods, perhaps not what one might wish in these circumstances. There is also a strange hint of what might be a band of flimsy fabric (like voile?) laying across his groin area and possibly forming part of the cbt restraint and maybe hinting at feminine interests on the part of him or his captor. (This part of the picture can also be seen as some sort of sheer shorts at a stretch).
Like I said, intriguing!
 .
Tom Jones - Hard
 The nature of the bondage in this picture is not quite so obvious at first glance but it's actually a basic form of a punishment restraint that, thanks to the stick, can be most severe if made sufficiently tight. The thrown back head hints at that as well as creating a more erotic body shape. The wrists appear to be linked into some cbt ropework. This character too has relatively long hair, perhaps a contemporary fashion.

Tom Jones sophisticated, arty style is not unique, but it's highly distinctive in the world of fetish art successfully combining artistry and eroticism.  Tom has a website at TomJonesMen where you will find more about him plus dozens of his pictures. You can get prints of all the pictures featured here plus some originals. Don't overlook the 'illustrations' section.

See also my revised A-Z article on Tom Jones fetish art

Saturday 9 December 2017

Muscle Morph Art - BuiltByTallSteve

I don't think I've ever featured Muscle-Morph Art on this blog before but it's a genre I have a soft spot for. The underlying idea of taking a man and physically altering him to accentuate and improve his 'best bits' is a very appealing fantasy and has a respectable literary ancestory. I suppose it's also akin to the 'transformation art' I have occasionally featured here. 
This article features the work of 'Builtbytallsteve'.

Builtbytallsteve - Big Stick
'Big Stick' is an archetypal sort of morph with fairly extreme exaggeration of certain parts of the body notably shoulder width and thigh thickness. That creates a wasp waist, adorned and accentuated here by a skimpy black brief. The clumpy boots emulate Japanese cartooning styles but balance out the rest of the image. It's topped off by a very cute face. Placing this idealised creature in a place of physical work adds a sexy frisson.

Builtbytallsteve - He knows what you're looking at
There are similar ingredients at work here but the clothing plays a bigger role, accentuating the altered body shape. 'Builtbytallsteve' has an eye for bubble butts and the skimpy cut and tucked in crack he has produced here looks incongruously provocative on such a big man. Somehow, alluring dress seems to contradict hyper-masculine muscularity. The chunky thighs and elongated legs bring out that skimpiness all the more.

Builtbytallsteve -Kolt
The morphing here is much more subtle, a general reshaping of the body that creates an impression of bulk but retaining what appears to be normal proportions (except for the bulge in his pants!) The model's youthful smoothness has been retained, it's usually lost to muscle definition in gym-honed bodies and the result is strikingly seductive.

Builtbytallsteve -Over The Top
 Talking of muscle definition! As you might expect this artist is drawn to extreme bulk and highly defined muscular bodies but this example is about as far as I go with him. I'm drawn to the pec enhancement here more than the legs which though big seem shapeless. However there's an appealing submissive air to this man. Finely shaped, youthful faces like this don't always seem a natural fit with massively developed torsos and you can sense a sort of apologetic awkwardness in his face and bowed head. The muscle-flexing, hands behind back posing stance, normally powerful-looking, has been relaxed by the artist's intervention into something quite passive too. Add some wrist shackles and you have a fine captive slave!

Builtbytallsteve - Ripped Torso
 You may remember the photo on which this image is based. The erotic downwards plunge of the torso, framed by an off-the-shoulder jacket was always there in the original, but the enhancement of the model's upper body muscularity accentuates the tapering effect and gives that cocky 'come on' look added impact. Irresistible to muscle fanciers.
Builtbytallsteve -Tight Blue Shirt
The artist has transformed a modestly attractive image here but manage to retain believability. For me muscle looks it's best when it's bulging out of clothing like this. The enlarged, button straining pecs and biceps/short sleeves combo is masculinity personified.

Builtbytallsteve -Texas Cowboy
 Which I suppose is also true of the muscular cowboy. This picture features similar effects to the pictures above (cute face, big biceps etc) but is relatively light on visible musculature. However the artist's manipulations here have drawn out the inherent erotic appeal of the jeans and boots. It's also produced an unexpectedly interesting, opening-out effect with the bar-straddling crotch which now seems engaged in an interesting relationship with it's support rail.

 
Builtbytallsteve -Happy New Year Boys
The morphing here is far from obvious but the tongues are an inspired ingredient, a perfect foil for the voluptuous bodies of these two young men. The artist pokes fun at muscleboys' tendencies to mutual adoration but for the excluded, outsider looking in it's still highly erotic just to watch it (in the same way that straight men get off on lesbians doing their thing). Nice.

~

All gay artists have the power to create idealised men to populate their work. There is something deeply erotic about this process that is usually much diluted in the final product. Morphers have the added bonus of working with real men (at one remove). The downside for them is that mistakes or miscalculations, particularly with faces, can sometimes produce Frankenstein-ish results. Morph artists like Aquadude and JoeR create excessively, painfully beautiful men and then punish them. Looking at builtbysteve's work however there is little sense of that sort of urge. Neither the images themselves, not the captions allude to anything which we might can fetishistic (except for occasional images I found on his blog where his muscle hunk is caged or chained). This artist must experience the deep satisfaction that comes from creating a new man, but it seems his motive is simply and refreshingly, just cheerful admiration and lust. 
More power to his elbow!

Wednesday 6 December 2017

Jonathan's Hooded Villains

 I rediscovered these images which stock-taking my collection of pictures by Jonathan, 
they continue the theme of 'Intruders' in recent posts

This is a relatively early image (signed JT instead of Jonathan). It looks as if an armed intruder might have stumbled on a private spanking scene. He seems to find it both interesting and arousing but naturally his arrival  shocks and embarrasses the playful young men.

You can also read the scene as a forced spanking performance or self-inflicted buddy punishment, having been found in bed together. The ransacked drawers of underwear can be taken simply as evidence of their earlier passion or of his search for something to steal..or possibly the night visitor wanted something to make their performance more interesting.

Either way the white underwear certainly makes the action more entertaining and there's an unspoken question hovering of what he plans to do with them next.
 

 This later re-working sees the intruder dishing out the spanking himself having tied up the hapless couple, whose relationship is attested by the double bed and, probably, by the melange of discarded underwear on the floor as well. (Again, it's possible that this obvious experimentation may be the intruder showing a kinky interest of his own).

What is clear is that the boys are not just embarrassed by his presence, but not happy about what he's doing either, so it's probably just as well that erotic interest is largely left to us with the limited assistance of some nice, snug-fitting underwear again.

 

This final example is the most polished and there's a dramatic switch of emphasis with a solitary victim whose room, significantly, gives no clue to his sexual leanings (unless you take the sprayed slogan literally). The intruders shared glee in his helpless nudity and the single visible crotch is also ambiguous. Their contempt however is quite clear and powerfully expressed, not just by the slogan and their direct abuse of the victim, but more subtly in the comprehensive trashing of the young man's room and the foot resting symbolically upon his college T-shirt. 

The overt bondage and nudity makes this the most striking of this group of three pictures but the intruder's smiles seem to show a malicious pleasure that makes the picture far from jolly. That intensity suggests a lot of emotion has gone into the creation of in this picture

The occasional appearances of hooded villains through Jonathan's development as an artist are interesting, it's not particularly common iconography. In the first two pictures they seem to embody the disapproval and threat that gay men and non-gay spanking fans used to (still?) face from the world at large and the need to hide what they are doing. Our ability to perceive that situation as erotically exciting (as long as it's happening to someone else) is a brilliant example of our brain's capability to rationalise our fears through the power of sexuality. The associated idea that 'they' are all secretly gay anyway, as suggested in picture 1, is a more superficial mechanism to rationalise what is essentially, irrational hatred. In the final image, full of ambiguities, there's a more positive possibility of role reversal, although sadly that can bring it's own guilt to us sensitive types! Well, sort of.

Perhaps Jonathan's art is not as frivolous as it seems!

You can see other Jonathan pictures showing 'faceless' spankers and gay buddies being arbitrarily punished in my A-Z entry on Jonathan. There's information on links there also.

Sunday 3 December 2017

BareAss Blogs 9


Bareass Baritone

(as long as he's not interfered with!) 


Go to No10

 View series from No 1

  for other bareass blogs click on the label below
 

Saturday 2 December 2017

BareAss Blogs 8


Bareass Beater, Baseball fan?

Go to No 9

View series from No 1

for other bareass blogs click on the label below 

Friday 1 December 2017

BareAss Blogs 7


Bareass Baby-Posing Beef

Go to No 8

View series from No 1

for other bareass blogs click on the label below

Wednesday 29 November 2017

Home Alone

Andrew awakens from a strange dream and realises he is not alone.



It's a complete stranger


Andrew feels a scary excitement


It's like a wierd fantasy coming true, 
he appeases the intruder, playing for time.


But the intruder works fast, where will it end?

Just then the door opens, it's his flatmate
"Happy Birthday Andrew! How do you like your present?!"

Zane Anders tied up by Jae Amen at Bromo (more..)




BROMO.COM

Sunday 26 November 2017

The Ministry of Silly Hats - 9 Cowboy


Of course it's not the hat itself that's silly, the cowboy hat is a revered icon of the gay identity.

(Unfortunately this particular one bears a remarkable resemblance 
to the business end of a certain part of a man's anatomy).

Nor would anyone cast aspersions at the model, Adam Ayash,
a stalwart of underwear filling exercises,
who presents his best front for us (and UnderGear!)
in spite of the photographer's efforts to make him look silly. 

A simple tilt of the hat would suffice to redeem the situation,
I'm sure the photographer knew that.

There's a nicer shot of Adam straddling a bicycle at my gateway blog

For other silly hats click on the hats label below

Friday 24 November 2017

Liam Harkmoore Rides The Wedge

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.