The hidden eroticism of Bill Mac Lane

Bill MacLane was a popular gay artist in the 50's and 60's, with his work appearing often in the fledgling gay magazines of the time, indeed it's largely via this source that his work survives for us.

Mac Lane - Bare Chested Man Reclining on a Beach

You can see he had a fair eye for beefcake,
studies like this were usually copies of photographs,
but there's an interesting element of 'aloneness' about this image.

Bill Mac Lane - Loggers

The heroic, working man in art was largely a product of early socialist thinking, Ford Maddox Brown being a notable practitioner. It was turned into a religion almost by communist Russia and perverted into hyper-masculinity by the Nazis, but the more romantic view, reflected by Mac Lane here, is ideally suited to homo-erotic imagery. In the 50's it conferred masculinity on the subject matter as well as reflecting admiration.

 (At this time Tom of Finland was also glorifying loggers and their remote, rough lifestyle of course. This iconography is less powerful in the UK which has no significant logging industry, 
the Monty Python view of lumberjacks is more usual here).
 
This image makes the point about magazines preserving Mac Lane's work. This is from 'Physique Pictorial' of course. The editorial at the bottom is a period piece in itself, these days gay artists don't feel obliged to emphasise their masculinity in quite this way.

Despite PP's reference to Mac Lane's artistic research, you can see how he uses photographic sources here. The skillful rendering of the foreground figure and background landscape contrasts dramatically with the far less accomplished secondary figures which also don't really seem to fit into the perspective properly or interact with each other (and is that dome really a logging building?). The rope-pulling one on the right distinctly looks like it too originated from a beefcake photo and is lovingly woven into the composition. The disconnect is evident and almost inevitable but still serves an atmospheric purpose in this particular picture.
 

Mac Lane - Game Over

'Game Over' shows this disconnect effect even more strikingly because Mac Lane is clearly trying to integrate this composition of a Basketball team changing after the match. But the picture is full of men who don't look at each other. Even the smiling pair at the back seem to have closed or averted their eyes. It's an unwittingly powerful portrayal of the strength of the homo-phobic paranoia of its day,
when even meeting eyes is a dead giveaway.

In this context the knowing smile of the foreground figure, towelling himself off, suggests he has secret knowledge, a situation which any gay viewer identifies with. This secret may be simply about his own proclivities or may refer to other members of the team, that's part of the mystery - are they or aren't they? However the fun of this merely masks and underlines his own separateness in this group. Mac Lane's composition technique, building backwards from a foreground 'main' figure, automatically results in that figure seeming to stand apart and underlines this sense of isolation.

Notice the stray foot to the right of the picture, which suggests this is a detail of a larger work.

Mac Lane - Sailors

 I have taken the title of this picture from the source given at the foot of this article but I very much doubt that it's Mac Lane's original. Boat sailing images invoke a sense of freedom and privacy which gays relate to but unfortunately it's also symbolic of wealth and idleness which is rather less appealing to modern tastes.

This image comes down to us from the magazine 'Butch', now defunct. The quality has suffered from primitive copying technology but luckily we do have a better version, shown below.

It's a much better, more integrated composition than Mac Lane's other work with some impressive detail like the wet surfaces in the foreground. It's also notable for the obvious expression of affection between the two young men (neutralised for suspicious straights by their averted eyes, again). However, if you look back at the magazine version you'll see this 'touching' element of the picture had been cropped out, censored, and none too skillfully either.

This may seem clumsy and excessive to modern eyes, but it's trickery, for there's another provocative ingredient you may not have spotted. Take a look at the spindle of the boat's wheel, angled at about 10 o'clock. I probably don't need to point out where it originates from (or appears to). The hand grasping the adjacent spindle at a more erect 11 o'clock  now assumes a quite different significance, as does the peculiar shaping of his friend's right hand (also cropped out by Butch).

Mac Lane is thus revealed as an extremely polished exponent of the art of 'hidden eroticism'. Presumably 'Butch' magazine felt the hand on shoulder was too much of a clue to let it go onto a front cover.
If you look back at the locker room scene now, you may now wonder what that guy in the shower is doing and notice the close proximity of a head and crotch in the middle ground. I'm wondering what might have been cropped out on the right! There's some 'naughty looking' going on in the preceding  'Logger' picture as well.
 

Mac Lane - Becalmed

The averted eyes in this image now look decidedly suspicious! Well, perhaps it's boredom or just the way the sources were posed, but look at that rope and the way he's holding it. There's a significant bulge as well if you hadn't noticed and Mac Lane has deliberately chosen to seat him erotically, astride a rail rather than neutrally on top of a flat chest or some other nautical seat.

The wistful sailor appears to be trying not to look at a scantily dressed man, who seemingly wants to be looked at, judging by the way he is standing, though not perhaps by our friend in the foreground. It's another essay on gay loneliness to my eyes and if you think I have an over-active imagination I invite you to consider the word on the life buoy at the bottom of the picture. Incidentally note the simple but convincing detailing of the ship and of the sailor hauling rope in the background.

Mac Lane - Sailors (!)

I don't have a date for this picture, but it seems to represent an notable advance from the series of frustrating, repressed images above to an open recognition of gay possibilities.

At first glance it is a fairly bland and dated ‘pin up’ picture with casually assembled figures. Mac Lane gives these sailors extra masculinity by portraying them in poses which echo body building and heroic, Greek statues. There's still a distinct physical and compositional 'disconnect' between them, but looking closer, the details bring the image to life in a quite startling way.

The left hand sailor’s expression is knowing and lustful even, and he's clearly looking at that manly back, not avoiding such sights. As gays we may surmise that it's also his shipmate's shapely bottom that has caught his eye. As well it might. This is the first picture in this article to show that part of a man's anatomy and it's laden with erotic intent. Mac Lane does not stint on the detail, the centre seam is graphically depicted, seemingly bursting under the pressure from all that flesh, which is also pulling down on the waistband above and drawing up between the buttocks underneath. This erotic display is bracketed by radiating side creases and sensual shading.

This man is clearly a sex object. But is he uninterested, distracted, simply gazing out to sea? Or is he, sensing the eyes upon him, stealing a furtive backwards, perhaps encouraging glance?  Hoping for those idly dangling arms to encircle his waist? It's a delicious ambiguity and the understated depiction of the 'hunter's' bulge scarcely seems adequate to the possibilities here, but in that much at least Mac Lane limits his ambition to the norms of his day.

This is a bold image that is suggesting not just gay relationships, but gay sexual intercourse, so blatantly that it seems anyone would have spotted it.

Mac Lane - Mail Call

As we have seen, sailors are well represented in Mac Lane's art, reflecting a fascination with that profession generally in the post-war 1950’s when young men were still being 'called up' to serve in distant parts of the world.
This is an informal visualisation of life on board a navy vessel (dated 1955) depicting bored, young men living together, enjoying a letter from home, a welcome change from the usual routine.

The uniform of the ’postman’ on the right is nicely drawn with good detail which makes me wonder if Mac Lane had 'served' himself. This sailor actually shows a discreet, little bulge too, but the depiction of most of the figures is not particularly erotic in style - apart from the foreground figure whose nudity is heightened by sweaty highlighting and barely visible underwear which is clearly not providing much modesty at the front. The eye is drawn to this hunky young man, who is well drawn as is usual for Mac Lane's foreground figures. He has put his letter aside and is clearly thinking lustful thoughts about his girl back home. It's unnoticed by his companions but we can secretly tap into his heightened sexual state.

In this early picture Mac Lane seems to have limited his hidden gay eroticism, you can find some subtle physical contact and suggestive shorts and hands but I get a sense that this is simply about the life of a sailor, perhaps biographical.


There's a good selection of Mac Lane's art at the Homoerotic Art Museum
have fun spotting the hidden eroticism!

For other examples in this blog click on the 'hidden eroticism' label below

Part of this article is a reworking of one of my posts In Praise of Sailors

mitchmen's war No 12 - Not Going Commando

These two pictures from a 'Commando' Comic caught my eye because of their striking imagery. 

However, on closer inspection though I discovered an amazing, hidden erotic message.

(N.B. I have removed inappropriate and racist language from the text)

(1)

Were it not for negative character traits shown in the thoughts of the man above you might find him quite attractive in a boyish way. The artist who drew him was a frequent contributor to 'Commando' in the 1980's. He has a bold style that sometimes veers into outright caricature, but he has a knack of capturing 'something about a man' which I rather like. He depicts more heroic types in just the same way as the example above, showing them not as stereotypical, square-jawed, hunks (not that I've got anything against square-jawed hunks!) but as ordinary, slightly immature men, which is what most WW2 soldiers were of course (at least, when they joined up).

(2)

This picture of the same character is infused with the same gangling, not-quite-mature characteristics.
The open legged pose is mildly erotic with cute turned-in feet, but scrupulously 'proper' in accord with the norms of the genre. At this point in the story, 18 pages later, his desertion has evolved into outright collaboration with the other side. I'll fill in the story line at the end of the article.

My main interest is in some surprising homo-erotic details in the pictures,
which are revealed if you look more closely......

~

If you look at the backside of the running man in the first picture (1),
you'll see some thin lines cutting across his thigh,
but they don't look quite like crease lines should look.

They hint at an alternative version of the picture, which I have developed below (3).
 .

(3)

I visualised the original artist doodling these extra lines and wondered idly what this man would look like if he was dressed in shorts. My colouring brings this vision out. Not just any old shorts, but shorts which have been rolled up at the leg and look very short indeed and rather sexy! The baggy, lower leg details don't fit in with this alternative vision, but notice how the shadow on the far leg takes on a shorts shape too. There's even a discontinuity in the top of this thigh suggesting a matching turn-up. The curve of these imaginary shorts makes the man's stance look open-legged, more static and rather more sexy than simply running.

I started wondering if these odd 'thigh lines' appeared in any other pictures in the story and a search turned up the second picture (2, above). Similar lines also appear here with even less obvious purpose than the first example, but also suggesting leg-hugging shorts. However, I then noticed another detail in this picture which put shorts right out of my mind, illustrated in the revised version below.

(4)

 In case you are wondering, I haven't added anything but colour to this picture and if you refer to the original (2 above) there is an unmistakable line of circles around the Cooper's upper thigh which look just like the hem of frilly knickers. I can't think of any other thing this pattern might be intended to represent.

It may be that the artist is playing on the cowardly character of his subject (using clumsy female/gay associations which we would reject today). If that was his intent I'm happy to own it and interpret it as a subversive, hidden, erotic message. Maybe he's secretly confessing to an interest of his own!

 Whatever the intentions or leanings of the artist might be, there is no suggestion in any of the story that Cooper is gay. There's actually no sexual dimension or depth to any of his relationships with the other men.
~
I outline the plot of Cooper's story and his fate below.

The pictures featured here come from
Commando Comic No 1432, 'Trapped!'


 At the outset of the story Cooper, who we met above, is depicted running from the battlefield.
Unluckily for him, he runs straight into his own Sergeant, 'Frank'.
(Sergeant Frank is tagged with his first name because he is a 'goodie'!).
Both of them have been cut off behind the opposition forces front lines, hence Trapped!

The Sergeant vows to take Cooper back to face disciplinary action.
 You can see here how the 'hero' Sergeant is shown as a callow youth rather than the traditional hunk. I think the depiction of a sullen Cooper, hands in pockets (left), is marvellous, much more interesting!

The voices they hear (right, above) turn out to be two US soldiers who are also cut-off behind the lines. They join forces and then run into a pilot who has just crashed in the same area (!).

It's inappropriate to label this scene as homo-erotic,
but I would observe that the artist did not need to depict it quite like this!

The group agree to rescue the senior Officer who was a passenger in the plane.
The opposition forces, however, are also hunting for him themselves,
hoping to extract vital intelligence from him.
Their pursuit gives Frank's group a torrid time and Cooper deserts them (below).

 Cooper's flight leads him straight into an opposition patrol.
  Their Commander obtains Cooper's collaboration by threatening to execute him.

Under threat of death, Cooper betrays his colleagues twice, once by revealing their whereabouts and when that capture attempt fails, he rejoins the group and signals when they are vulnerable to attack.
However, Sergeant Frank catches him doing so, foils that attack too and knocks Cooper out.

Cooper's demise, two thirds of the way through the story, avoids an awkward, messy ending.
It's a rather sad tale really. A not-very-subtle lesson in morality, bravery and loyalty for young readers.

I confess I'm drawn to Cooper's rebellious, outsider character
 imagining there must be a redeeming feature we haven't been told about.

The more interesting moral for me is that there may be more 'hidden eroticism' in this artist's output!
Watch this space!

For other imaginings in this series click on the 'War Comics' label below
or read all these War Comics articles from the Start
 

For more hidden eroticism also click in the label below.

A-Z of Fetish Artists - Cas

 

Cas - Hustler

The 1960's artist Cas was an omission from my original A-Z series on fetish artists which seems unwarranted in retrospect. This image, one of his better known, probably explains why I left him out. The hustler clad in skin-tight leather pants has a splendid muscular body but Cas has depicted him as a coquettish vamp right down to the way he is holding his symbolically smouldering match in a pose worthy of Marlene Dietrich. 

It's not a look that grabs me erotically but I suppose I should have appreciated that Cas is emulating Marlene's deliberate, bold assertion of female sexuality and strength that completely debunked the 'little woman' conventions and restraints of her era. Cas's hustler is likewise mocking the stereotyping of gay men by owning and flaunting it. He oozes (almost literally it seems) self assurance and confidence. If you cover his face, the depiction of his muscularity is probably the most erotic in all of Cas's work.

Cas - Aperitif

In this brilliant picture, Cas flips the coin, poking fun at gays who adopt a façade of rough, butch-ness but cannot hide their self-consciously cultivated, inner-selves. This biker is a visual treat for leather lovers. He is beautifully drawn, casually sprawling across an antique chair, in torn, dishevelled clothes with unkempt hair and stubbled cheeks projecting an image that promises rough and dirty sex. There's a cleverly disguised outline of something big in his pants. However, his delicate cigarette holder and tiny glass of aperitif, reveal him to be highly refined. The shoulder-ribbons suggest he's something of a dandy too. 

You can also take this to be an Eliza Doolittle scenario where a tough is being taught manners by a man of a 'higher station' in life. That was not an uncommon experience for gay men back then. By necessity, they met anonymously in public places - toilets, discreet gay bars or clubs - where they were equally likely to meet a plumber or a professor, a rich man or a poor man, a young man or a pensioner, a soldier or a ballet dancer.

Cas - Director's Cut?

Humour runs through much of this artist's work but it's not without it's harder edges. It was commonplace in this era for actors to strip off and be chained up in 'sword and sandals' films. In this jokey take on that, the hapless, aspiring actor suddenly imagines that his role is about to be played out for real. That wouldn't really be funny at all - but it is sexy predicament.

The label to the left of the captive's foot says 'Intolerance Scene 1724', as though part of a long list of additions to DW Griffith's epic 1916 film, on the subject. 

It's ironic that the sadism of Christian story-telling and imagery has for centuries provided a cloak of legitimacy for homoerotic art that explores the darkest forms of  desire.

Cas - Laundromat

The 'mitchmen' blog has visited the laundromat scenario a few times recently (see Art of Oztangles 5 , 'Laundry Day' image for links) but you might be surprised to learn that Cas beat Nick Kamen to it by about 20 years. It's another wry dig at the 'butch biker' image of course but he's done it by taking a common, semi-clad, beefcake magazine pose and dropping it into a real world setting where the erotic implications of the residual cap and boots are enhanced and can ferment in the pants of imaginative viewers. 

The oppressive restrictions of the day deterred him from suggestively showing another man in the image, although a cartoon woman or women registering some sort of comic response, like that in a 'saucy' seaside postcard by McGill would have probably have been perfectly OK.

Smoking cigarettes features in many of his pictures. In those days it was a near-universal practice, often characterised as masculine and expected of you if you wanted to fit in.

Cas - Roughhouse

This image shows the sort of scenario that might have been triggered by that innocent, laundry image. Ostensibly a dramatic wrestling scene it's pretty obvious on further inspection that this man is being enthusiastically helped out of his jeans by the other two. They are both essentially naked as far as we can see, leaving the strong suspicion that his underpants will ultimately go the same way but it's left to us to imagine why. The wooden boarding at the back and the cap and boots worn by one of the combatants look rather like sea-faring imagery and since posting I have stumbled across a copy of this drawing labelled equally clearly as being by Holzmann, part of a series called 'Merchant Navy'. I am still looking into whether they are aliases for the same person.

Cas - Bar Fight

Fight scenes were a legitimate way of showing men interacting in a highly physical manner with their inadvertently ripped clothes exposing sexy flesh. Cas here seems to rely more on the ambiguity caused by relatively featureless, skin-tight clothing. A scattering of playing cards provides a simple excuse for the argument if not the extensive semi-nudity (strip poker doesn't usually get this heated)!  

The scenario is a blank canvas for placing men in close proximity to one another in all sorts of undignified states which is exactly what Cas has done. The careful juxtaposition of bulging crotches, rounded backsides and phallic bottles do the rest. 

This image contains an (Heavenly) host of hidden eroticism. At this time of year I'm tempted to ask readers how many they can spot! The most notable for me is the champagne glass held aloft, as if to an optic in a bar, poised to catch the produce of the bulge directly above. The man holding it is distracted by a curvaceous ass emblazoned with the Cas logo in a way that accentuates it's shape, like a tattoo.

Cas could not have imagined that magazine staples would make an eyewatering S&M addition when the image was published. Or am I underestimating the cunning of  the artist - or the magazine editor? It is a very curiously precise, vertical alignment after all. 

Etienne - Bar Brawl

Etienne also did a bar-room brawl around this time, with sailors. It's a simpler, more fragmented composition but offers a more direct sensuality with the use of colour accentuating the revelatory effect of ripped clothing. There is one notable 'hidden' erotic reference, however, in the pair of sailors far left who could be construed as enjoying a hand job. Etienne's men are remarkably handsome and adult (I love that dishy blond on the floor!) but they are arguably less real and less varied than those of Cas in the preceding picture.

Cas - Balancing Above

Cas loved to depict tight jeans which was the most legitimate way for a man to dress sexily in those days. The biker jacket slung across naked shoulders was a classy embellishment - 1960's cool if you like. Around this time there was also a fashion for low waisted trousers with tiny zips and this picture seems to reflect that trend. Cas, like Oztangles, was abreast of what was fashionable. The upwards looking viewpoint accentuates the effect of the tight jeans and suggests a dominant personality.

This is an exceptionally well-drawn image, breezing through a tricky perspective. 

*Compare with Etienne's skewed bar room perspectives  

Cas - Tights

Although I'm not fond of the way Cas drew eyes, this picture seems very sexy to me with a pugnacious, insolent face (which might have been a prototype for The Hun's trademark blond convict) set atop a muscular torso (glimpsed through an open shirt) and patterned tights that accentuate thick thighs. 

This isn't so much a portrait as a vehicle for erotic characteristics. The patterned tights seem to be those of a circus performer but the sword and distant seagulls point to him being a pirate. These two professions were blurred together of course in the swashbuckling movies of the day starring ex-circus performers like Burt Lancaster - in tights.

Cas - Gardener in Ledehosen Shorts

The half-dressed gardener is the mitchmen brand image and has been the suggestive, saucy background  decoration of numerous adverts and film scenes, most of which post-date this image. 

The clothing of this young man accentuates his physique in a similar way to that in the tights picture above. Here too the open shirt looks as if it is being pulled tight by something hidden inside his shorts. The tattered sleeves are augmented in this image by a tear on one shoulder but are completely missing on the other revealing hairy arms (another brawler?).

He has deliberately turned up his leather shorts, far more than seems necessary for doing his job, but accentuating his hairy thighs and flaunting his masculinity. The prominent pouch does the same job even more directly. He stands, hand on hip with a serious, pouty face, looking like a rebellious teenager whose just been told he's got to do an extra hours. 

You might prefer to see him as confronting someone out of the picture, warning him not to try and interfere with that tempting flap. 

~

Cas was a regular contributor to beefcake magazines in the 1960's but he hasn't acquired the same lasting fame as his contemporary, Etienne, although he was arguably a better draftsman. Etienne had a canny eye for the commercial and played safe with his characterisations, he was also bolder with his subject matter. For all his sharp satire Cas stays within the tradition of innuendo and hidden artifice. 

No direct link for Cas I'm afraid, but there's lots of his images to be unearthed at Tim in Vermont

Tom Of Finland - Tailors and Hidden Eroticism

In my review of Royale Studio's Soldier-Sailor set, picture 11, I remarked how Tom of Finland used the 'man and his kneeling dresser' theme in pictures produced about the same time. The picture I was thinking of is shown below, it was produced in 1959.

Tom of Finland - At The Tailor's

.

Inside leg measurement is a classic subject for corny innuendo, Tom's young tailor has a good fistful at the top end of the tape but the young man seems completely oblivious of it. Like Royale, Tom plays down the erotic intent. But this picture is relevant to Royale in another way, as it also contains disguised sexual content like Royale's pictures did. If you don't know the piece already, look at the image on the back cover of the fat man's magazine and you will discover exactly what he thinks of the young man being fitted out. I can't recall any other picture by Tom that has a hidden explicit message like this - but perhaps I've just not spotted them yet. 

 .

Tom of Finland - Fine Adjustments

  .

The second 'dresser' picture is from 1963 and, together with the previous picture from 1959, brackets the Royale era quite neatly. This time it's a modelling theme and exploits the idea of a hunk being 'adjusted' by a lesser mortal. Tom uses the clothing in a much more adventurous way. The G-string is extremely revealing and its unconventional strap, made from chain, plunges down between the model's buttocks, creating a sexy rearview which even today gives a bit of a jolt. Note how Tom uses the mirror in exactly the same way as Royale did to provide this second viewpoint. The dresser's adjustments are less intimate this time, but as he bends in his ever-so-tight jeans, his backside seems to have caught the hunky model's eye.

.

Tom of Finland - Measuring Up

 

Picture 3 is less well known, a locker room scene whose date I can't discover, but the frontal nudity fixes it later. The fashion looks circa 1970. This picture captures the 'kneeling dresser' pose in classic form and the drawing of this particular young man is rather nice. Tom used submissive kneeling quite a lot around this time in a variety of situations. In the best ones, like 'the careless motorcyclist', the victim is being forced down.

 

This image is a curious mixture of the explicit and the coy. The spectator's cock is rather substantial but points downwards - at one point in the crazy world of censorship this was a genuine yardstick of acceptability. It doesn't really add a lot to the picture but did represent a statement of liberation to it's audience at the time.

 

The proximity of the dresser's face to the jocks equipment is another fairly obvious erotic feature, but what exactly is the dresser measuring? Inches count in this area! What is he doing with his hidden left hand? Probably up to no good judging by the various facial expressions.

The tape measure is quite a useful accessory here, visually highlighting the jocks backside and providing a sense of his being temporarily captured while his 'vital statistics' are assessed.

I have a recollection that there is another picture by Tom on this theme but I haven't been able to find it. It shows a kneeling shop assistant assisting a young man into a very revealing new outfit but in this picture the assistant is very obviously embarrassed. If anyone can help with this, please get in touch with me via the comments feature or the e-mail link on my profile.

The Muscle Art of Stefan

I only have two posts at this blog reviewing body-builder photo-morphs - IFNB (2018) and 'Built By Tall Steve' (2017) but they are amongst the most popular articles here. Back in the mid 2000's the artist 'Stefan' was experimenting with similar ideas, putting beefy posers into richly erotic situations and clothing them in costumes that were skimpy to the point of downright rudeness. 

Stefan - Out and About

I love this image showing a mature and highly masculine-looking man squeezing himself into a sexy, near-transparent G-string on the beach and finding himself being observed by two younger muscle guys who are more conventionally dressed and watch him with serious, enigmatic faces. 

It's as though they are shocked and he himself is embarrassed by his desire to be an exhibitionist.   

Stefan - Check This!

Body builders are exhibitionists almost by definition and not necessarily modest in this day and age. 

Many flirt with the audience on stage wearing skimpy costumes made from exotic, glamorous materials.

Stefan's take on that imagines a smug-looking competitor showing-off the daunting girth of his love muscle as well, which matches the meaty bulk of the rest of his body. It seems as if there might be an equally impressive length dimension, but it's held back, compressed even, by the material of his G-string. Not quite enough to fully cover the root, however, leaving one to imagine a concertina-like expansion on release.

Stefan - Dream Ass

In this picture the overall bulk of the competitor's body is emphasised rather than his muscle detail.
Stefan re-imagines this chunky man in a backless thong with sexy side-strings which seem to cry out for a fan to creep in from the wings and give them a sharp tug to see what will spring out.

The garment gives extra exposure to the impressive gluteal development mentioned in the title.

It's front pouch looks tiny by comparison and is even cut away at the sides for added (revealing!) brevity.

It's rubbery look and bulbous, rounded shape give an impression of serious containment.

Stefan - Beach Routine

This man's garment is reduced further to condom-like proportions, with a serious risk of side-spillage.

That concern seems to be reflected in the beach hunk's face and inhibiting his outdoors work-out.
Dismayingly, his exercise excitement has lifted the pouch away from his body, giving a glimpse of an abdomen area which is normally hidden behind it. It's a very sexy moment.

Stefan - Come Closer

Despite the near-nakedness of body builder displays, they are normally safely separated from their admirers by a stage or a camera, set apart like the Gods of masculinity they hope they truly are.
The caption suggests the muscle man is drawing in the camera (which is the principal channel for the love affair with the fans) so that he might be admired in intimate close up. The skimpy, root-revealing Gee-string is clearly not excluded from that invite.

The image suggests an appealing desire to loved by the multitude of faceless followers, coupled with the equally attractive confidence to permit it and enjoy it. A slightly different take on the voyeuristic, adoring relationship between body-builders and their fans.
~
There is an alternative reading of this image, equally evocative to those of a 'mitchmen' turn of mind. You can imagine this exceptionally bulky, gym fanatic looking down at the tiny pouch, perhaps not quite realising just how inadequate it actually is, and exclaiming "do I really have to wear this thing?"

The camera man of course has a repertoire of persuasive arguments to quell any real rebellion.
Controlling a strong man for pervy pictures by manipulating his vanity is perhaps a more exciting challenge than getting models (who really need the money) to reveal more than they intended.

Stefan - Teaser

This man has a very nice body indeed, with beautiful proportions and competition-standard muscularity, mellowed by a modest layer of fattiness that sensualises the skin texture by concealing the veiny, gritty detail deemed essential by true BB enthusiasts. Set against this perfection, the prodigious bulk of his poorly-hidden cock is almost shocking, the elephant in the room you might say.

   Stefan's title here seems to suggest that these hunky chaps are deliberately being provocative when posing, as though their desire to be admired is not fully fulfilled by their success in developing their bodies. Simply by substituting minimalist posing outfits for the more conventional clothing he draws attention to a hidden vein of earthier needs. In this particular image Stefan cleverly dips the top line of the pouch just that little bit further to give the bearer generous credit for his good fortune in the reproductive department and a warning to would-be beneficiaries.

Stefan - Muscle 21

In this delicious image he even conjectures a desire to shock and intimidate the other competitors.
Challenging by example their courage to go the extra mile (or extra inches perhaps I should say).

He's also intimidating them with the possibility that the judges might be tempted to add that final, crowning part of the male body to their Competition marking sheets (a la IFNB). In which case they might be found wanting in comparison with the mighty beast flaunting himself in front of them.

Competitor 104 certainly looks as though that thought might be in his head.
Number 108 already looks a no-hoper in that department, and seems genuinely impressed,
perhaps he's thinking about accepting a different sort of challenge.
 

Stefan - Untitled

Stefan is adept a choosing evocative images to manipulate - not just ones showing a man with a great body, but ones that catch a sense of personality or here a reaction to a significant moment.

This hardy character has entered the gym dressed in a typical Stefan gee-string of fairly conventional design but made of a lycra-like material that leaves nothing to the imagination. At least it doesn't now after a few vigorous exercises have got the blood flowing and sweat pores open.

It's a garment that would create a stir in the average gym at the best of times, although you can see in the background that trunks are acceptable here. I suspect our hunk might have gone too far with this little number and has been approached by a member of staff or fellow user who is unhappy about it offending other users or leading to unacceptable soiling of the apparatus.

Thus we get the image of a mature man of intimidating proportions looking cowed like a schoolboy as he is being told off for wearing gear more appropriate for someone half his age. At any rate his face and the out-of-balance pose suggests he's being told something he doesn't like and is at that delicate moment when he has to decide whether to accept gracefully and retire in humiliation or erupt in a bullying, steroid fit of anger.

Of course the explanation may be more prosaic. The next user asking him to get a move on or an admirer asking how he gets that lower body definition, or a lurker asking if he can buy his pants.

Stefan - Get Ready

This is a slightly softer variation of the themes we have seen above. The body-builder seems to be preparing to remove his pouch for the photographer to record evidence of his amazing dimensions. His look of concentration and fumbling is sweet, he's human underneath all the muscle tissue.

The photographer is already poised for his shot as though wary that the moment of exposure may be too fleeting. After all, the beach is deserted at the moment, but this modest chap might be spooked if any dirty old men or jealous body-builders notice what's going on and close in for a better look.

Stefan - Soviet Spaceman

Stefan's flair for putting real naked men into interesting and sexy fantasy situations finds a rather more artistic expression in this image combining a beefcake pose from the sixties with iconography relating to the great scientific adventures of that era. I'm pretty sure that body and sexy posing pouch (which has not been altered) belongs to the great Vic Siepke. The face does not however and it's possible it belongs to a real Russian astronaut. They briefly enjoyed the status of global, heroic pin-up celebrity in that era, although it's hard to believe such a thing could ever have happened now.

Deconstruction of uniforms and working gear usually yields sexy results and I have a weakness for sexy astronauts and their discipline myself. It's no surprise to see Stefan pairing astronaut kit with one of the briefest, legal Gee-strings ever seen. However in doing so he's making a quite profound connection between being gay (in an era of oppression) and having - and achieving- the highest human aspirations. It's not clear whether he's elaborating on that and encouraging young gay aspirants or cocking a snoop at the whole idea by putting a toy rocket into the  cosmonaut's hand.

You get a glimpse in this image of Stefan's wider abilities in artistry, design and style and I will explore this further in another article soon.

 This image doesn't have Stefan's signature and it's more grainy than his usual style, but it's a neat postscript, drawing on the same themes, arguably more emphatically. This body-builder seems to be hot with embarrassment and almost on the verge of tears as he struts his stuff in incredibly revealing posing briefs before an enthusiastic audience of men and women. The artist has tweaked his facial features to create a slightly awkward, geeky effect although the models chin, lips and nose are actually very sensually shaped. This has the side benefit of obscuring the identity of the original model, which is probably for the best.

Reinaldo Angra

I'm not sure if this is a morph at all, the model's endowment seems too modest for that
(although miniaturising is a sexy joke an artist might play on a muscle head).

His smooth, shaved abdomen accentuates the diminution, but real or not I find it sexy.

The slightly out-of- focus effect suggests some age for this photo 

but I can't find any trace of the model under the name given in the image details.

~

Go to Part 2 'Joey'

 

Stefan is still active on Deviant Art but seems to have left this type of art behind

Art by Holzman

Holzman - Merchant Navy 1

This Hussar advert in Fizeek magazine in 1963 introduced a new artist to the gay scene, Holzman, with a 'playlet' about a nautical thief. The illustration shown is one of the opening images of the series showing the 'toughie' arriving with his kit bag. You can tell he's tough because he's got a torso-revealing, open jacket (leather?) and a cigarette drooping from his mouth. You sense he's a man with attitude although the cant of his head here is what smokers do to keep their cigarette smoke out of their own eyes. In that respect this is a neat little piece of observation by Holzman, documenting a practice that's gradually dying out. The tough is thoughtfully examining something that he's found, his seaman's papers perhaps although I suspect it's a bottle  (see below). 

I don't have all 16 images in this story or any information about their sequence and have therefore  simply numbered them in what seems to be the logical sequence

Holzman - Merchant Navy 2

The new boy climbs on board with a long, butt enhancing stride and a determined look on his face. 

The texturing of his jacket and jeans suggests they might be leather, which in the 60's was thought of as the uniform of wild bikers. However, the presence of turn-ups and the styling of the jacket with visible seams is more suggestive of denim, a more suitable material for working on a boat.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 3

Below decks, the toughie examines a bottle of alcohol which has a label promising serious gut rot. It's enough to make him drop his cigarette, which apart from being a breach of good manners, is liable to start a fire on a boat, a danger to life and limb. 

Despite these shortcomings in character we are learning about, he's portrayed as a sexy beast. The 'Latin look' was quite common iconography at the time and very exotic to UK eyes. The exaggerated fleshy lips and dark-rimmed eyes seem to be borrowed from female notions of sexual allure (unfortunately for the image of gay men). A distinctive vocabulary for the male equivalent had yet to be developed (and probably wouldn't have been accepted by society at large anyway).

The straw-clad carafe of wine in the cupboard behind him is a nostalgic image from a less sophisticated era in the UK. You might also recognise the 'Heinz 57 Varieties' label on the tin on the bar, amazingly it hasn't dated in 60 years and I suppose the same is true of his fashion wear.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 4

In this image it seems that the new crewman has removed various articles to his cabin and is about to hide them in his kit bag, furtively concealing his actions from a member of the crew working on the deck just outside. It must be a hot day because everyone seems to be undressing. The enticing glimpse of flesh through the porthole is the calf of a crewman walking towards the left of the picture. 

You could be forgiven for thinking here that the thievery entailed drinking the liquor and then topping up the bottle to hide the theft. However I can imagine this clever 'hidden eroticism' probably escaped the attentions of the censor and deservedly so, because it's very nicely drawn, a neglected classic. 

The villain has become more Anglo-Saxon-looking in this image, but I think it is the same character. judging mainly by the turn-ups (image 2) and the presence of the two tins. The Latin look does return later but only in one special example.

The smoky effect at the left, by the way, is not the result of his dropped cigarette but a scanning effect. It has fortuitously added a nice texture of dappled light to an otherwise 'flat' image.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 5

The villain's activities are disturbed by the arrival of a 3rd crewman (also apparently wearing a leather jacket). He too starts to undress, whistling as though routinely changing into his work clothes, which judging by the porthole vision in the previous picture might consist of very few clothes indeed. The thief is horrified, presumably imagining he's about to be exposed - as a thief, according to the story line, or, in the more subversive sub-text, as a man who has problems with naked male flesh. 

Holzman's picture here copies classic, film noir imagery, with the unsuspecting innocent making himself ever more vulnerable to a hidden threat of which he's unaware. The hidden eroticism in this image surrounds the ambiguous interpretation of the bottle, angled just right to suggest the villain is getting other ideas about dealing with this new arrival. The coat hook just above his head provides a more graphic hint of what he might have in mind with the backing plate suggesting a tight fit. 

Holzman - Merchant Navy 6

The crisis seems to be precipitated by the arrival of a third man. He appears to be the skipper of the vessel, previously glimpsed through the porthole in picture 3 and now revealed to be dressed only in a cap, skimpy slip and sea boots (the last a worrying link to the contents of the bottle!). At this point the undressing crewman has lowered his underpants. In fact they are nowhere to be seen, presumably lost in the folds of his jeans, unless they're ripped to pieces on the floor.  

The villain's reaction seems a bit over the top. In the story plotline he seems to think that his exposure as a thief is imminent and so goes into self-defence mode, smashing the bottle to use as a weapon 

(or it could be that he's suddenly revolted by the thought of sampling it's contents!) 

Alternatively, in the delicious ambiguity that pervades this story, the young skipper's sexy appearance here offers an explanation of the actions of the villain back in picture 3. His panicky reaction now is triggered by the rapidly accumulating male nudity and the sudden prospect that he might be about to witness something unspeakable going on between these two men, whom, we should remember, didn't know he was there until he announced himself by smashing the bottle.

There used to be a accepted legal principle of 'homosexual panic', i.e. a fear of being in imminent danger of being raped by a homosexual. This was advanced as a legitimate excuse for assaulting gay men and even killing them. In some cases the reaction hid the fear of having his own, secret, homosexual leanings exposed. This concept perversely confers a power on gay men over straights that is erotically appealing, if entirely fanciful.

 Holzman's rendering of the hunky skipper is masterly but some severe cropping seems has gone on, spoiling the depiction of his crewmate. The villain's aggressive act has been converted into a disembodied eerie 'manifestation'. This may have been intentional, to amplify the sense of panic and the shock to the sailors. It might even allude to an explosion of a different kind. However, it was also common practice in this period to publish incomplete images in order to encourage viewers to buy the full artwork.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 7

Somewhat surprisingly, the villain chooses to confront the defenceless, nearly naked seaman with the bottle rather than the Captain. It's him (or his nudity) that he finds most threatening, or it could be that this crewman has challenged him or is attempting to calm him*. Interestingly, his jeans have now dropped round his ankles and the villain is suddenly sporting a recognisable manifestation of excitement in his jeans rather than the generalised bulge seen occasionally in the preceding pictures. 

*Perhaps Holzman simply thought it made a better picture. Whatever the case it's a great image using a challenging viewpoint. The quality of these pictures in both technical and dramatic terms is certainly on a par with the emerging stars of this era - Tom of Finland and Etienne.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 8

The captain intervenes with a mighty upper cut. By this time, his half-undressed crewmate is down on the floor, on his knees (and with bare ass raised in a classic, passive pose). The broken bottle is nowhere to be seen, suggesting that he managed to disarm the villain before he could do any damage with it.

Holzman has included the coat hook (from picture 4) in this image, positioning it a short distance from the villain's half-open mouth. It sort of matches the sweep of the Captain's fist and suggests there's an erotic consequence in store for him, but is slightly off-piste in the circumstances.

I don't have a satisfactory copy of this picture but it's too important to leave out. 

The cartoonised version below gives a neater sense of how the original might have looked.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 8 (AI variant)

This more balanced variant gives a better sense of the drama of the moment. It also brings out the nudity of the fallen sailor, almost seeming to suggest that the other men are fighting over him (hence, I suppose, the presence of the phallic coat hook, which, in a bizarre AI tweak, is suddenly dripping!). 

However, we can also see more clearly that the fallen sailor's arm is entwined with the villain's foot, confirming his active role in overpowering him. 

Holzman - Merchant Navy 9

The thief is down but not yet out as the crewmates pile onto him. The captain's hands are clasped tightly together round the villain's neck and he is struggling manfully to detach them. The second crew member, having disentangled himself completely from his jeans and underpants, has grabbed the villain's free arm and is pulling it into his uncovered crotch, where it can't cause any mischief but feels nice. 

Ominously for the villain, his flies have come undone and his Y-fronts are pushing up through the gap and being nuzzled by the skipper's shin (entirely accidentally, I dare say). His choice of underwear makes the bulge in picture 6 improbable, although the picture below shows they are not a very tight fit, so maybe it was an escaper.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 10

The sailors turn the villain upside down, perhaps hoping to see what will fall out of his pockets, which is the traditional way of exposing a thief in kids' comics. It has the effect here of pulling his jeans off anyway, which will enable them to conduct a more thorough search (or something like that). Losing his pants also makes it a tad more difficult for him to run off, but I suspect that being undressed by these men is only going to intensify that instinct.

You may think you've seen this picture before and you'd be right if you're a regular visitor to this blog, because exactly the same picture appears in my article on the Art of Cas. The same that is, except that it is signed there by Cas. Cas and Holzman are the same person.

Another Cas-Holzman picture can be seen at the mitchmen Royale Studio blog in the 'Timeline' post section 63.1. It's in an ad, emblazoned with the Cas logo, but a contact address has been positioned on top of the original Holzman signature. The background to this name changing is a mystery. Perhaps something to do with publisher's exclusivity.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 11

Finally the villain seems to have collapsed, or at any rate he has stopped resisting. The crewmen lift him bodily almost as if intending to pitch him overboard. Their bulging trunks symbolically almost touch in a sort of low five (or three) you might call it . Apparently the stripper has managed to put his underpants back on. The enhancement and clarification of this image has brought the villain's underpants into stark relief, stretched tight round his buttocks and deep between them. 

The clues to what is actually about to happen to him can be seen behind them.  

This picture and 13 below have both been retrieved from small thumbnails in Hussar ads, hence the inferior, fuzzy quality. They suffice to allow us to understand what is going on, however. 

If any reader can supply better versions, please get in touch!

Holzman - Merchant Navy 12

The sailors hold the would-be thief down over a barrel, which can be seen standing against the wall in the previous picture. The captain takes the lead in punishing him, flogging him with a knotted rope. His crewmate sits on the villain's head to hold him down (with his balls resting on his shoulders where they can monitor the villain's movements as he reacts to the thrashing). His pose here, with the characteristic turning of the head is reminiscent of Spartacus.

The skipper's fleshy physique does not disappoint in this picture but his face has now transformed rather unpleasantly into an appearance similar to that of the villain when he arrives at the boat. This seems to be a look chosen by Cas to represent nastiness and it's been gradually developing in the Captain in the preceding pictures, like something out of Dorian Gray. 

Cas seems to be playing with a very dubious stereotype of foreignness here and unnecessarily so since it would perfectly OK for the cute, hunky, young man in picture 6 to maintain order on his own boat without turning into a demon. I suppose there's a certain satisfaction in the villain being 'out-nastied', having underestimated his intended victims. The crewmate steps up for his own crack of the whip next.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 13

The villain must have struggled energetically during the Captain's assault because the two sailors have now tied him down over the barrel with his arms and legs spread wide. The sailor who was earlier threatened with the broken bottle stands astride him with the miscreant's head between his legs. He pulls it up by the hair so it's snugly wedged in his crotch, almost face upwards here so it gets the fullest experience. He proceeds to flog him himself with the knotted rope, no doubt enjoying the villain's struggling movements between his thighs which seem to be dislodging his already skimpy trunks.

The skipper watches them, flexing his muscles triumphantly. He even seems to be rubbing his packet with his left hand, but that may be wishful thinking on my part!

Holzman - Merchant Navy 14

In this final image, again recovered from an advert thumbnail, the punishment seems to finished. The scene has shifted to a bedroom with a washbasin in the corner and the chastised villain meekly seeks the comfort of a cushion to sit on, on the bed. He's now without any underpants at all and there's a faint suggestion of criss-cross weals on his buttocks. It's possible that a bare-ass final spanking was the subject of one of the two missing images.

His two adversaries stand, lording it over him, with undisguised enlargements on their pants. One of them is resting his arm on a long pole which faintly suggests the punishment may even have reached into internal regions in some shape or form. The Captain, restored to normal handsomeness, breaks out the liquor that seems to have been the root cause of the problem. The villain hasn't got much to celebrate but it doesn't look like he's free to go just yet . You sense the affair is not yet over.

~

These images were obtained from the internet and some from TimInVermont

and enhanced by mitchmen where my logo has been added.  

 

more about artists featured by Royale and Hussar