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

Saturday 29 June 2019

Milk Outlets


Catrasche - Milk on the go

Inspired by the Milking Factory series,
this is an imagining of a retail outlet for the product.
The artist is Catrasche.
 

Tuesday 25 June 2019

Seamus O'Reilly gets a shave

Part 4 of a series following the career of Seamus O'Reilly,

Seamus visits the barber with his friend Colin Bryant


The Barber (Joey D) has a the formidable reputation and the two pals are full of trepidation.
Colin makes Seamus go first. 



No sooner is Seamus in his seat than the barber flips him over and pulls his pants down,
revealing a hairy ass in need of barbering.
 

He sets to work immediately


Seamus discovers he has a very tactile technique.


The boy's relax and amuse themselves while the barber diligently works on Seamus anus*.


Pretty soon it's Colin's turn to take the chair and be inspected.


It's a bit of a shock when the barber suddenly knuckles down to his task.

Colin wonders if it's going to cost them more than a haircut does*

But it's too late for that, his ass is soon as smooth as silk.


The friends are enjoying themselves so much, 
it seems they've forgotten about the barber's reputation.


Until Colin suddenly gets a pointed reminder.


He discovers that a hairless hole provides a smooth, easy entry.
"Your turn!" he says to Seamus.


"Does servicing you mean we don't have to pay?" Colin asks, relaxed again.


The barber laughs. "No, but I'll think of something" he says enigmatically.

 Seamus sees the barber's shirt fall on the floor and realises he's in for the long haul.
Colin's just thinking of the money they'll save.


But even Colin becomes alarmed when the barber sheds his underpants
because he begins to act quite strangely.
"This is how you can pay me!" he says. 

*You may have noticed that the barber's clothing changes in the course of this scene from normal shirt and trousers to nothing more than a leather apron. In the film he remains fully dressed throughout but the official stills show him stripped to the sexier apron. 
Just pretend that it's Seamus' fantasy popping up!

which has a clip with the all the fun of the introduction.
Seamus and Colin's acting is pretty good!
  
There's a longer clip of this scene and the action that follows at Porndoe

for more shaving posts click on the label below

Friday 21 June 2019

mitchmen's war No 13 - Bizarre Brutality 4, Buried to the neck

This bizarre punishment from 'Battle Picture Weekly' Comic has such a devious complexity
 that it would have greatly sapped the war effort if it had become more widespread.
The artwork isn't that great but it's inventive!

It features a group of Commandos (known as 'The Rat Pack').
They have been captured, but their notorious leader 'Taggart' remains at large.


Some poor sods got lumbered with digging this enormous pit and erecting stakes in it.
The spoil heaps shown would only be a tiny fraction of what had to be shifted.
It's a feat comparable with the construction of elaborate 1-off gallows in spaghetti westerns
which seem to take for ever to build, while the condemned men watch from the jail.
This group seem to have been spared that torment.


The pit is refilled, a chilling moment for the Commando's
(despite the Commandant's assurances about not burying them alive)
The guard clumsily climbing out of the pit is a nice detail.


 As the soil piles up around the Commandos,
the dastardly captor reveals the true horror of his intentions.


This strange machine was real, a tank with rotating flails to explode mines in it's path.
It's a truly terrifying prospect for the Commandos, seeing it approaching.


At this point, you might wonder why the captives needed to be buried at all.
They could have simply been tied to stakes in the path of the tank - or just staked out.
(Although burial up to the neck does seem to be a military tradition of sorts).  

More pertinent perhaps,will their last minute confessions stand any chance of being heard 
above the noise of the tank engine and pounding flails?
 

 In the end it doesn't matter because Taggart, their missing leader, is close at hand
 and poised to rescue the lads with the help of a handy telephone wire.


The nasty 'Torturer' becomes the first victim of the flails,
despite the tank crew proving to have some humanity.

It's probably best not to think about the physics of how Taggart managed to swing 
across the gap, from such a great height and using a telephone pole that appeared to be 
further away from him than it's height off the ground.

With such ingenuity, no wonder he is such a hunted man!
 

The resistance workers seem to show scant gratitude.
To be fair though, digging these lads out is a chore not without it's risks (to them)

Other Bizarre Punishments in this series
 Bizarre Brutality No 1 and it's mitchmen sequel 'Devil's work'
Bizarre Brutality No2 and it's mitchmen sequel 'Loco Peril' ,
 Bizarre Brutality No 3  Darkie's crucifixion (no sequel yet)
~
or click on the 'War Comics' label below

Monday 17 June 2019

First Catch Your Rogue - 16 Military Discipline


They say that young tearaways ought to have a taste of Military Discipline.
That's what Dick got when he raided the house of Lt Colonel Thrust (retired)

He was caught in the act with his nose in the safe,
confronted by the Colonel brandishing his ceremonial sword,

Dick decided it was wise to obey the military man's command to undress,
rather than have his designer clothes (stolen) cut off him slash by slash.
(Although that was the only way he could be parted from his underwear).

Once naked, escape became quite tricky of course
and the Colonel summoned re-inforcements too,
his loyal batman, who lived next door in the annex
and turned out to be an intimidating, former Marine.

He arrived brandishing a set of hair clippers.
and dispatched Dick's spikey haircut to the bin
before ordering loudly him to "pre-sent ass!"
so he could shave him baby-smooth, down below. 

The two of them drilled Dick like this for several hours
Teaching him all they knew about military discipline.
By the time day began to break, Dick felt broken too

Denuded and drained, 
collared and cowed, 
he cringed and vowed
 He'd do his homework better next time!
.
THE END
For other 'Rogue' or shaving posts, click on the labels below.

Thursday 13 June 2019

Mitchell's Fetish Art for June - Strict Showering

Mitchell - A Strict Showering Regime
You never know who you will run into in a communal shower.
Who might be watching you and what they are thinking.
In mitchmen-land hairy hunks should beware.

Those who don't wash behind their ears,
 may find someone wants to do it for them!

For other pictures by me, Mitchell, click on the 'mitchpix' label below 
or visit my Gallery Hub which is one of the tabs at the top of the page

Sunday 9 June 2019

Butts and Saddles


Adapted from original artwork by Julius, this picture comes from 'Devil's Canyon II'

Other mitchmen-modified Julius images in this blog: 

Wednesday 5 June 2019

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Hasegawa Part 2

Hasegawa - Dragon Castle
Like many Japanese artists, Hasegawa had a great interest in tattooing and this beautiful picture expresses that very well. I confess I do not really share the attraction, but the body enhancing capabilities are well-illustrated on this beautiful boy that he has created.
The title (I think) refers to the tattoo design and is written on the picture in Malay - 'Puri Naga'.

Apart from those words you can also see other design influences and iconography that are not Japanese but drawn from across South East Asia. The model in this picture also seems to originate from that area. Hasegawa spent some years travelling in this part of the world, avoiding fame and no doubt widening his knowledge of spirituality and animalistic legends, which so often appear in his pictures.  

The style of the image combined with the boy's ecstatic pose and tattoos make this seem like a ritualistic, almost religious image, a gay icon.

Hasegawa - Paradise Visions 10
One expects Japanese erotic artists to depict captives in complex 'shibari' bondage. In this example by Hasegawa a fleshy young man is suspended from a scaffold-like structure in a particularly complex arrangement that accentuates his buttocks and creates a pose reminiscent of the flying cherubs that adorn the borders of renaissance religious paintings. It's an uncomfortable position in reality and Hasegawa would have been well aware that the ancestor of what we call shibari today was a technique for restraining prisoners of war with the intention of causing 'discomfort'.

Sadao sends a legendary creature to taunt and play with the helplessly bound young man. I believe this is Kappa, a cross between frog, monkey and turtle who, like the cats in Part 1, is capable of mischief and worse (with one particularly nasty practise, described here). In this picture he is offering the captive a drink of red liquid and the painting is spattered with spots of blue from the erotically-shaped flask at the bottom suggesting 'substances' may be involved in this fantasy. The sketched diagram to the frog's right seems to show a intention to climb the post to torment the hanging captive.

This image couples the artists interest in erotic bondage with suggestions of punishment and danger portrayed in a specifically culturally Japanese way as though he is hinting at the conservative disapproval of society for such practices.

Hasegawa - Ground Spider
Unspoken threats presented by various creatures in Hasegawa's work are made good in this picture.
It shows a man with his face in  traditional theatre make up. He is the captive of two, larger than life, ground spiders. A storm is raging with a lightning flash visible in the background and candles guttering in the wind in the foreground. This picture echoes the plot of a famous Kabuki play where the ground spider turns on his hunters, but the final action there is nothing like this!

The hero is armed but it looks like he's been paralysed by the spider's venom so was unable to use it. Somewhere along the way he's lost all his clothes and now he's being restrained and supported by the red spider (including one leg groping between his thighs) while the other one wraps him in silk thread (exuded from its spinneret bottom right). Presumably the victim is being wrapped for future consumption, but it's paying particular attention to his cock for some reason.

Beyond the theatrical fantasy we see here a fascination with death and exotic forms of sexuality (including bondage) whose attraction seems to hinge on the fear of the unknown and of falling under the power of others.

Hasegawa - Lion Dance

Hasegawa also uses more naturalistic 'Kabuki' scenarios to create complex carnivals of eroticism in which realistic figures dressed in the masks and impedimenta of traditional theatre create a dreamlike atmosphere. The lengths of cloth that entwine the action are the discarded fundoshi of the participants, one of them is tied round the neck of the central figure like a sexual trophy (see also comments to this post). To Western eyes it seems to have an element of threat, due to the intruding Samurai sword and the extensive use of masks and body colouring.  This work is unmistakeably Japanese, not just the faces and accessories but the culture, plays and legends it invokes to create a mysterious but exciting atmosphere. The presence of the lion is a reflection of the harmonic, respectful relationship which Oriental peoples have with animals which we in the West tend to relegate to childhood entertainment like Bambi and the Lion King.

Hasegawa - Elephant Dreams
The sun ray effect here, like the example in part one, suggests god-like qualities in gay men and enlightenment for the dreamer with the ancient, wise elephant spirits providing affirmation and approval. Some of Hasegawa's work is self-consciously 'arty'where he has attempted to modernise and adapt traditional forms to a gay palette, but there is plenty of meat in amongst it for aficionados of the male form and it's not always submerged in busy fantasy. Hasegawa draws the most handsome and desirable of men and generally without compromising ethnic origins. In style, his work has a semi-photographic appearance like Tom of Finland's work but there is a grainy texture in the shading which creates a most satisfying effect somewhat like pointillism.


His technique in depicting hair and stubble is striking. This interest in subtle body hair sets him apart from Tom, his anatomy is more realistic and his models have a lithe muscularity and youth which is delicate and enchanting.


His portraits of lovers can be stunning, creating a vision of tenderness and love that is unforgettable. In the example above a lover protectively embraces his tearful partner. In this context, the abundance of flowers, sprinkles of glitter and bubbles seem to be legitimate and meaningful elaborations,
emulating the joyful exuberance of South Asian weddings.

Of course you might reflect on what has caused the tears and why is the lover looking at us?
Is the yin-yang symbol (made of fishes) telling us of contradictions in this relationship?
Or is the look an expression of defiance for those who would make gay men sad?



In Hasegawa's world, however, even the most tender lovers (right) are haunted by ties and binding. It's as though the artist regards Bondage as akin to Commitment. This does not have to be a negative sentiment. After all, to an aficionado, bondage is a temporary restraint intended to focus and intensify the relationship between the two participants in a way that is mutually pleasurable.
Commitment can be the same.


Even the hunkiest of men can fall prey to the twining ropes. But in this image there's a disturbing hint of coercion by unseen forces. This fantasy seems to depict a yearning to restrict and control which is quite different to the submission depicted in the previous picture. The bleak setting is devoid of romantic flowers or mythological allusion.
It seems to represent a dark, soulless, lonely, sexual existence, a casting out that is chilling.

Submission is voluntary here and this image seems reminiscent of the youthful experimentation we saw in Part One. The face of the supplicant ,sucking on a lover's thumb like a baby, is beautifully drawn with an expression that seems to want to please. The traditional flower symbols unmistakeably convey the sexual excitement of both participants. The prominent geometrical patterns seem to speak of high nervous energy or perhaps the noisy confusion of a gay meeting place or watering hole.


Speaking of which! The contrast with this work could not be greater. There is no romance, no distracting symbolism, except perhaps the banana stripped back to expose the raw fruit within. Raw being the right word for this sex which is of the earthiest kind. And yet it's a sexual encounter without true intimacy, involving artificial penetration by dildo and the touch of a bodily fluid that is warm but separated from it's distant producer. There's a sort of honesty in this image, as though the artist is acknowledging his true self in some way, presenting it without artifice or artistic mediation.
The loneliness that haunts other images is no more.


The words on this image are in Indonesian and read from top to bottom:-
lust-passion-magic-love-fuck

In Hasegawa's work there is so often a subtle sense of isolation, loneliness and confusion and this picture seems to draw that out. Cat's cradle is a game for two and it seems to illustrate here the mystery of partnerships, sex and love. The game goes un-played while a hairy man shaves his body, preoccupied with himself.


In summary, I can only register my profound admiration for Hasegawa's sometimes perplexing art. His depictions of men in fetishistic situations seem to me quite beautiful and the complexity and sometimes the serenity of the world he depicts strike me as showing an essence of what it is to be gay.
~
Sadao Hasegawa briefly enjoyed fame as an erotic artist after publishing 2 books of his works in 1990 and 1996. He did not revel in celebrity and sadly took his own life in 1999 at the age of 54.
His images seem to offer subtle but ultimately undecipherable clues to his feelings
His legacy however continues to thrill and inspire.

He published two collections in book form - 'Sadao Hasegawa (paintings and drawings)'
and 'Paradise Visions' They are the principal source of his work for us.


I can't find an official on-line gallery for him but there's a good collection at LustSpiel and an image search throws up lots of examples
-
This article originally published in June 2009 
was comprehensively revised and extended in May 2019

Read Part 1 here

For other articles in the A-Z series click on the A-Z label below
or visit my artists index.

Sunday 2 June 2019

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Hasegawa Part 1

This article replaces my original A-Z entry on Hasegawa, published in June 2009

Hasegawa - Captive and Kittens

Sadao Hasagawa produced a wide range of gay art in a variety of technical and artistic styles.
 His most obvious fetish credentials stem from depictions of bondage such as that above. His pictures often include unusual, mysterious symbolism like the mischievous kittens on the right who appear to be implicated in the young man's bound-up state and have left their claw marks on his upper body*.

Meanwhile S&M clothes pegs lie unused on the floor and incense(?) smoke writhes around him
 lending an air of sexual ritual to the proceedings and suggesting that there are more trials to come.
No wonder the captive looks sweaty, confused and fearful!

Hasegawa captures herethe thrill of submitting to bondage by another another man.


His depiction of the captive man is sensual, with luscious, chunky muscularity,
somewhat in the style of Tom of Finland but more grounded in realism,
such as hair detail on his body and legs.

 * I gather that cats have great significance in Japan as cute bringers of good luck but also as creatures with a hidden capacity for great wickedness. However I hesitate to interpret their precise role in this picture, which I suspect is more complex than that! 


Hasegawa - Sailor and Kitten
This picture seems to show a man in the process of submitting to bondage - with another kitten in attendance. His face is expressionless, maybe a little sad, but the water lilies rising behind him seem to the symbolise the unmistakeable sexual excitement in the air.

The subject wears a US Sailor's cap but is unmistakeably Japanese. Westerners might relate this combination to the Madam Butterfly story or simply to the occupation of Japan after WWII. The headgear doesn't really fit with the lowered shorts but they are also somewhat Western in style. So there's a sense here of the exotic, of foreign and perhaps powerful cultural influences. His resigned face and proud posture suggests they are not necessarily welcome or considered benign.

Hasegawa - Athlete in Bondage
This is one of my favourite Hasegawa pictures. The ripped clothing and restraint to angled scaffolding conjures up the idea of a jogger waylaid on his morning run and carried off to an abandoned building site for further attention. His shorts carry the same double line motif as the sailor above, again hinting at Western branding.

Hasegawa - Swimmer

There's a similar impression of Westernisation in this splendid, Speedo-clad swimmer. This time though it has a message of modernity, reinforced by the jazzy, geometric background with it's anarchistic squiggles and paint splatters.

The model oozes youthful, puppy-fat sexuality but his seductive look is knowing, his lustful state obvious and the dangling drawstrings are openly inviting. He pinches himself too, suggesting that he's got more than romance in mind.

Hasegawa - Martyr
This image makes Hasegawa's connection with American culture much clearer. It appears to be based on a photograph that could have come straight out of AMG's 'Physique Pictorial' magazines (although the mystical symbolism in the bottom corners has a touch of Gilbert and George about it). This picture is from 1979 so the referencing of 60's imagery (when Sadao would have been around 20) suggest it was a significant formative influence.

Unlike AMG's situation, the framing of Japan's censorship laws (and the passage of time) allows Hasegawa to depict the young man's, snug-fitting, 'posing pouch' in a way that reveals almost all that is within. AMG would have labelled this image as 'The Slave', but Hasegawa elevates him to Martyrdom. He defiantly holds a blood-stained quill aloft, a possible clue to his crime.


Yuko Mishima as Saint Sebastian

Hasegawa's Martyr picture was produced shortly after the ritual suicide of Yukio Mishima, who was a famous poet and actor of the time with views which we might regard as nationalistic today. There's an obvious similarity between his memorable pose as Saint Sebastian (above) and Sadao's picture. It reflects the profound effect of that artist and his death on Japanese society and hints at a darker side to Sadao's personality.


Yuko Mishima wearing a Fundoshi
Mishima was profoundly Japanese in outlook and he is seen here holding a Samurai sword and wearing the traditional, male, underwear garment, the fundoshi, which consists of a single strand of fabric which the wearer winds round himself in a specifically defined manner. It's associated with manhood and learning the ritual is part of a young man's coming-of-age. The self-bondage implied has obvious sexual connotations. It not hard to see how the AMG posing pouch referenced in 'Martyr' might strike have struck a chord with an impressionable young Hasegawa.

Hasegawa - Impaled
In this 1980 picture, Hasegawa reworks the martyr theme with rope bondage in a more Japanese manner and the fundoshi taking centre stage. This martyr has been stabbed with the quill (à la Saint Sebastian) and the picture appears to show his final expiry with a spiritual essence emerging from his mouth, to be escorted to heaven by a hovering bird.

Hasegawa makes no secret of the eroticism he sees in this moment. The loosening of the fundoshi not only reflects that sexual tension but also represents its release from constraints, not least I suppose the constraints of what it is to be a man in Japan.



 The ingredients mentioned above, i.e. US gay culture, retrospective references and dark desires, also feature in this later, collage-like work.

It shows (left) a young man in restraint in a pose that is clearly based on the classic 70's bondage image which I have previously posted in 'My initiation'. Hasegawa's subtle alterations give the figure a 'clean' appearance, so he looks young and inexperienced. There's a sense of him submitting to the dangerous unknown (embodied by the lurking snake) and he's aroused by it. (There's also an element of that in the first picture in this article)

He is contrasted with a more mature man who is undergoing, and thoroughly enjoying, the demanding rigours and domination of a full-blown, leather scene of a later era. There seems to be a story being told in this picture, recalling a young man's passage from an immature interest in male bondage to full S&M sexual expression, with the candles signifying both his burning passion and the passage of time.

I think the creature on the right gnawing at the ropes is a rat rather than a mouse. It adds an element of basement sleaze to Western eyes, but in the East they are usually seen as clever, prudent creatures. Hasegawa has given this one sharp teeth and quite evil eyes, but it's only attacking the ropes.
The nagging of conscience, perhaps? 


Youthful yearnings and explorations are perhaps remembered too in this marvellous image. A young man has tied himself to a post and is enjoying a private fantasy of captivity. A lotus flower opens revealing it's full beauty and symbolising enlightenment and rebirth emerging from murky depths. However, it's a picture which also conjures up an impression of loneliness, accentuated by yet another cat which ignores the young man and pleasures itself.


In this picture there's a more obvious air of experimentation. It shows a young man developing his sexuality by tentatively exploring the sensation of penetration by a dildo (it's a vibrating one too, the electrical gadgetry being a touch of modernity which seems typically Japanese). I believe the picture is entitled 'Revelation' and that sentiment is reflected in the rays of light emanating from his head. These also seem to confer a god-like status on him.

This picture, like the preceding one, bears the 'yin and yang' symbol of spiritual balance and male and female in conjunction. There are more lotus flowers in attendance, they seem to cradle his nether regions in a manner that is highly suggestive of sensuality. Remarkably, Hasegawa manages to infuse this essentially, sexual imagery with a touch of artistic class.


The theme of solitary experimentation seems to reach a climax (if you'll pardon the pun) in this picture, in which pure, sexual sensuality almost succeeds in elbowing the mystical symbolism out of the way, leaving only hints of vulnerability (to prying eyes and sharp claws).

There's not a lot of artiness in this all-fours pose although this man and his sun-kissed bottom are undeniably attractive from a sexual point of view. Looking past that it's hard to avoid a feeling of self-abasement and isolation in this image. In some ways the trailing ropes and untended dildo give an impression of a departed partner. Regardless of that this young man is lost in the moment revelling in multiple erotic sensations and there's no crime in that.

More Hasegawa in Part 2 (next post)

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