The Look Of Momentous Indecision

 The look that says, "I've wanted to meet someone like him for so long, 

but now I've got the chance,  I'm too frightened to take it".

Much is written about the challenge of 'coming out', declaring one's sexuality to family and friends. But the moment when a man first decides to act on his attraction to other men is equally fraught and arguably much more important.  In the bad old days the subject of homosexuality was so taboo that it was very hard for a young man to find out or understand what 'going with' other men involved. Only that it was a practice despised by everyone else. Homosexuals were always portrayed as effeminate and camp or else as dirty men in raincoats who frequented smelly, public toilets. Most gay teens didn't (and still don't) see themselves like that. They want to explore sex with a man who is attractive, manly and considerate. Few are as lucky as this, but however the opportunity comes your way, the first time is a scary step into the complete unknown.

~

The photo is a still from the 60's TV Series, 'Surfside 6' with  Troy Donahue (left) and Van Williams. 

Of course they were actually talking about something completely different - probably.

Yummy blue shorts, I found a nice article on Van Williams' sex appeal

   This No 31 in 'The Look' series at mitchmen blog,

click on the label at the foot of this post to view the others

or use the mitchmen search function (top right in sidebar) 

Enslavement Art by Planet Gay

click to enlarge

In the Underworld, a raiding party has abducted a group of young men
from a local settlement, intending to sell them into slavery in the city.
Amongst them is Jake, an apprentice blacksmith, caught while making a delivery. 
Forced to wear an iron collar and shackles, he trails the others disconsolately.

Unknown to Jake, some friends who witnessed his abduction 
have followed the slavers, aiming to infiltrate the city and free him.
Luckily one of them knows a trick for getting past the guards.

The three captives are offered up for sale in the bustling market hall.

Jake is brought to the front, the first to be sold

To the delight of the slavers, the King's representative is present

having heard good reports about the latest catch.

He scrutinises Jake closely as the auctioneer extols his virtues.

Bidding is lively

While the Auction proceeds, the vibrant life of the Market goes on around them.

Jake spots the blacksmith, his mentor, is there at the back and tries to catch his eye

But he seems more interested in watching two young men who are having a fight.

 

Naturally, no-one can outbid the King's man, Jake is sold.
As he hands over the money the purchaser eyes him greedily.

Jakes friends arrive just in time to see him being led away towards the citadel

Two have allowed themselves to be chained by their guide, pretending to be captives.

They don't realise that they have been tricked.

They too will take their place on the auction block.

The grim reality of enslavement in this city has already engulfed Jake.

Stripped completely naked after the auction he is clapped in freshly made irons 

and chained together with two other unfortunates who found favour .

They are led into an enormous, soaring hall under the lustful eyes of watchful guards.

In the distance they can all see a figure seated on a massively elaborate throne

Jake suddenly realises that they are being taken into the presence of Anubis.

He is the Great Lord of the Underworld and pitiless judger of the dead.

Jake never believed he really existed until now.

But he is still alive, what can Anubis want with him?

Ahead of them another young man has already been forced to grovel

before the jackal headed deity at the point of a spear.

The judgement of Anubis consigns him to purgatory.

Awaiting his turn behind him, Jake trembles.

~

The artist behind Planet Gay has a refreshingly crisp style, populating his images with young men who look sexy and modern. I'm not usually drawn to 'costume' scenarios but his kilted guards look good and their dispassionate, knowing demeanour as custodians of the bewildered prisoners works well. He exploits the power of rendering to place the action of this piece in amazing settings reminiscent of the old Hollywood epics, but has the good sense to not let that grandeur overwhelm the story nor the attractions of the young men men who are the point of it. Jake's underwear makes an intriguing link between this fantasy world and real life. 

I have fleshed out (and probably distorted) the storyline suggested in these images and their captions, intending to give it a little more characterisation and drama, but the pictures are unaltered and can speak for themselves.

Visit Planet Gay at DeviantArt for more

see also 'Domination Art by Planet Gay' at mitchmen blog

Etienne Fishermen Update

 Purely by chance, I stumbled across this more complete version of Etienne's 'Fishing is a Dangerous Sport' this week and I've added it to the original mitchmen article

Love that Leotard

1

These images show 90's porn star JT Easton limbering up
in the opening minutes of an 'erotic wrestling' video.

2

He's wearing a tight-fitting white leotard.
It produces some very sexy shots.

3

Cut high around his thighs,

the leotard gives a great view of JT's muscular legs
- and also bunches up his pecs nicely here.

4

This butt shot shows the thong-like cut at the back
with the leotard pulling down into his crack.

5

It's also a tight fit around the torso

but less restricting lower down.

6

A thoughtful crunchie shows his pecs off

nicely accentuated by the shoulder straps.

7

Here JT mounds his tackle between his fingers. 

That's nice, but his crack looks equally alluring here

.

8

JT was blessed with a beautiful backside.

9

This thigh and buttock combination is to die for.

10

The tight fit around his torso is more apparent here,

it contrasts with a looser fit and perky moment down below.

11

Come and get me!

12

That 'V' between the buttocks is so nice.

13

An inviting submissive pose before the fight even begins.

You can almost see inside the leotard leg opening.

I like the feet shaping in this pose too.

(compare with this Olaf Irwin image also at mitchmen)

14

A body twist shows off his muscular back.

15

JT Sloan, finally ready for action.

~

These sexy images come from the Can-Am video 'Porno Boys On Heat' (!) 

It was one segment of the 'Fetish Sex Fights-3' compilation,

 which also included the Dean Spencer 'Rubber Rumble' 

featured at mitchmen earlier this year.

Publicity stills for Can-Am videos tended to be small in size and mainly simple, beefcake shots of the stars rather than giving much sense of what happens in them. The picture above is virtually the only clue they provided to the terrific opening sequence of the JT Sloan segment illustrated above. However, the prominent stars appearing in the compilation ensured it would be successful anyway.

Fragments of JT's posing routine are included in the Fetish Sex Fights 3 Trailer at Rope Mall.

See more leotards via the mitchmen label listed at the foot of this post

Ginger, gay porn veteran, Will Clark co-starred with Sloan in this encounter which continues into a naked wrestling rough and tumble with a wicked ending - of which more in Part 2 of this mitchmen article

JT Sloan also features at mitchmen in the 'Bound and Gagged' series of articles.

He starred in numerous videos. 

More: JT Sloan at Adonis Male

Oztangles Retrospective 2

Read Part 1 of this series

2010

Oztangles - Shocking

 In 2010, Oz stepped up a gear fetish-wise with this depiction of an electro-trial. The facial expression of the subject, a sort of stoic bewilderment, is very effective. I am not usually a fan of long hair but it seems to work here. In combination with a hairy body it seems to indicate a social gulf between him and his neatly turned out captor who is wearing a cap with 'Security' written on it. 

Whatever his day-job, he has changed into a different persona here wearing a leather leotard to deal with this intruder. There's a powerful sense of cold experimentation as he sits at his desk and fiddles with switches, casually looks round to observe what the results might be. 

In this year Oztangle's hieroglyphic logo and dates first begin to appear on his pictures.

Oztangles - Defiance

'Defiance' revisits the 'Garage' scenario from 2009, bringing forward the hairy captive who was suspended in the background then to face his own hour of reckoning. He gets a different treatment compared with his predecessor and from a new tormentor, but the equipment is the same, although it's function here is unclear. The title suggests his vividly erotic response is not what the captor intended.

Although the men conducting both these trials have dressed for sex, they seem content to watch their victim's responses from their remote keyboards rather than getting close up. That sense of distance and control is very apparent in this image, with the results of the victim's excitation splattering uselessly onto the ground in between them.

Oztangles - New Meat

Back-alley pick-ups and sex feature regularly in Oztangles images. I particularly like the biker in this one, casually leaning forward as though he's just pulled up to survey the new prospect. He's not dressed like a leather man, wearing only a jock and 'beany' hat which gives him a youthful, adventurous look. It's a similar appearance to one of the protagonists in 'Alley Cats' (2007)  

The would-be seducer exhibits a knowing eagerness somewhat at odds with his 'rough trade', tattered clothing. His slinky, somewhat feminine pose might put off a regular, leather biker, but it seems to have succeeded in grabbing this one's attention.

Oztangles - Rick Balls

The retrospective connections in 2010 continue with this interesting reworking of 'To The Edge' (2008). The space age restraint unit unit has been repainted a more sober black here. However, there's a total absence of fetish garb and no restraint in evidence, suggesting it's a scene of purely consensual exploration and experimentation going on. 

Oztangles - Acupuncture

This image is more ambiguous in that respect with the subject restrained in a purpose-designed frame to undergo some of the darker arts of S&M. It is a pretty intense scene, but the restraints look comfortable and undemanding. Moreover his 'Master' for this piercing procedure, depicted with blond hair and white jock, does not seem particularly threatening or deeply versed in the ritual. He shows great concentration as he applies himself to his task.

2011

Oztangles - Ophiuchus

2010 and 2011 were prolific years for Oz and that's made it easier for me to find S&M-ish images for Part 2 of this mitchmen survey but I don't claim my selection is fully representative of his output, much of which is devoted to creating beefcake shots and portraits of diverse characters in various garbs and locations. This one is an interesting example.

Ophiuchus is the name of a constellation in the galaxy commonly represented as a man entwined by a serpent. It's also claimed by some to be the 13th sign of the Zodiac and as such Oz has included it here in a series of inventive interpretations of those signs which he produced in 2011. 

You can see he has borrowed a classic pose from the Old Masters as the basis of this composition. It's one normally employed for women, the obvious example being Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus'. The cant of the man's head and his sun-shaped sceptre lend an air of South Asian calmness and mysticism to the image and he's given it an appropriate, temple-like setting. 

Oz seems to have interpreted the snake here as a sexual tempter, loosely coiled around his target and lustfully eyeing the goods which have already yielded to temptation. The eroticism is quite restrained but however you view it, it's quite a pleasing image.

Oztangles - Blue Reflections

This is a good example of the artist's experimentations with render effects. It's based on a character who might have been used in one of his 'Back Alley Sex' images, a handsome hustler simmering with sexuality, but giving an alluring impression of shyness (see also 'New Meat' above). It's possible to see this as a 'sounding' image, but more likely it's simply an example of edging and sticky fingers.  

The sexuality inherent in his pose means that the effect of surrounding him with blue bubbles does not create an idealised, dream-like effect so much as the impression of bubbling, erotic sensations. He seems cloaked in a tactile 'environment' which accentuates his nudity. These also a sense of fragility that goes with the bubbles matching his libido, teetering on the edge. 

The glass column against which he is leaning is capable of phallic interpretation and also fragile in it's own way. It also looks half full for some reason but I suspect it's mainly decorative and a vehicle for some clever reflections.

I will provide links to Oztangle's galleries, where you can view the full range of his work, at the end of this review.

Oztangles - Nightmare 4

Fantasy figures invade this this man's sleep in the 'Nightmare' series. They are intent on nipping him with fingers and a selection of crushing devices of varying severity. The clips on his thumbs and the garotte-like device around his neck are unusually nasty torments for fetish art, more likely to be used in real torture chambers than play scenes and they add a discomforting tang of realism. Miraculously, his cock and balls seem to have been spared attentions so far, although we do not know how the ghoul's pincers or the wares on the table are to be employed. That uncertainty is part of his nightmare. 

I tend to think that torture chairs are an odd concept, the seated position offering bizarre comfort to the condemned man and restricting access to him by his tormentors. In this case it offers him the possibility of escaping the prodigious member nudging his back.

We would frown upon the dwarf-like figure being cast as a villain these days, the character appears dressed as a clown in other scenes (another faux pas?). That dilemma also cropped up in the mitchmen article on BlackProf. The character here seems to owe something to the Batman comics and that ilk.

Oztangles - After The Battle

There's a further flirtation with tricky stereotypes and cruel realism in this picture in which a selection of defeated warriors have been stripped naked and hung on the victor's stockade. Displaying prisoners in this way is an emphatic assertion of control that has it's erotic aspects, illustrated by the parting in the chieftain's loin cloth. Historically, however, it's not simply a humiliation prior to imprisonment, but a permanent punishment and the circling birds are already anticipating that grisly outcome. 

This panoramic composition is not as successful as other images of this period. It seems technically less sophisticated. That's because the characters are diminished in size, so the background setting assumes more significance. In fact the pictures immediately above and below have equally simple backgrounds, it's one of their virtues.

Oztangles - Discipline

This image seems to revisit the 'Garage' scenario with electrically-driven hoisting equipment being deployed to raise a naked captive whose arms and feet are spread-eagled, X-fashion, by separator bars. The villain of the piece (or so he appears) is a striking figure, mature and chunky with impressively ripped muscularity for a man of his bulk. He casually surveys his captive with an undisguised erection that makes the nature of his intentions pretty clear. 

By comparison, his victim is slender, shapely and looks vulnerable. The title suggests this is a 'master and slave' or a 'boss and worker' scenario. The big man's, slightly incongruous leather pants suggest the former but his victim's long hair is not exactly fetishistic and he doesn't radiate experience in the way his captor does. With no sign of any discarded clothing it's hard to tell what their relationship is but there's no doubt about the procedure that is about to occur. The scattering of dildos and spreading of the captives' legs are self-explanatory (to us if not him). The presence of electrical gadgetry nearby adds the prospect of extremity that one suspects this man may find challenging. 

Oztangles - Out For A Walk 2

This unusual image daringly explores the wilder, earthier aspects of an imaginary master-slave relationship. It's paired with another image in which the sub is taken for a walk on the street like a dog and shown pissing on a rubbish bin, but for me this image is more interesting. It shows the sub endeavouring to master the art of pissing accurately while locked in a chastity device. 

His dom stands behind watching his efforts and getting off on the embarrassing spectacle he has engineered by caging him. His camp net T-shirt and sneakers paint him as a rather improbable dom to old fashioned eyes, particularly in comparison with his sub. Perhaps he's just starting out on that road but to coin a phrase, 'clothes do not a dom make'. I find it easier to imagine this as a boss-worker scenario than the preceding image. 

It's probably a matter of age, individual personality and cultural background whether you perceive there to be a racial dimension to this image. If you do the reversal of the stereotypically assumed, pecking order here is interesting but it's a stronger effect in the dog-walking, companion image. That schadenfreude effect is also present in 'After the Battle' (above), but in a rather more drastic form.

Oztangles - Welcome Home

I've chosen a refreshingly different picture to round off Oz in 2011 and in some ways it's the most convincing and erotic of the lot. There are some issues with the feet but that doesn't detract from the emotional effectiveness of the image. The simple passion of reunited lovers is expressed as being both romantic and lustful, although in real life lust after a long journey is a dish reserved for the young! The minimal, tidy background here underlines their preoccupation with each other. The soldier's side cap, discarded on the floor symbolises his escape from the restrictions of the military and return to normal life (temporarily at least). For gay men that situation has all sorts of political overtones, peculiar to the time.

~

This mitchmen review of Oztangles art continues in Part 3

Read Part 1 of this mitchmen series

Quiet Night In

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Etienne's Fishermen - 3

Etienne - Fisherman's Prize Catch

In this image by Etienne, the clumsy amateur angler of Part 1 and the admiring bystander in Part 2 are replaced by a man in a (wet?) pouch explicitly portrayed as 'The Catch'. He's hung up to await his fate, like the fishes in the background. Except that they are tiddlers and he certainly isn't!  The hooks that caught them lie on the ground.

It's normally angling practice to weigh prize specimens, to make a photographic record of  them and then throw them back into the water. That seems to be the procedure being followed here, but one can't help thinking that this big fish is in danger of being stuffed and mounted or even being eaten before the day is out, figuratively speaking of course.

 This comic image is one of Etienne's great might-have-beens in technical terms. The faces and physiques of the two men are beautifully drawn (particularly the catch) and the subject matter makes a fascinating bridge between the predatory nature of angling with it's dangerous impedimenta of hooks and knives and the world of captivity and domination that is S&M. Unfortunately all the beautiful detailing of this idea has been undermined by miscalculations, crazy perspectives and imbalances. These flaws which suggest to me that the artist got too involved with the eroticism of his subject and was distracted from the basics until it was too late.

Felix Falkon - Fisherman's Scuba Diver Catch

Felix Falkon was a contemporary of Etienne and once criticised him (in a friendly way) as 'lazy' but he imitated his style and recast a number of his compositions in a 'corrected' form. This may be an example of that. The two figures here do indeed look more 'correct' and yet it's not as sexy, despite the explicit details. 

The line drawing technique itself is intrinsically less sensual. There may be a colourised version of this image but Falkon lacked Etienne's mastery of shading technique, which was the equal of Tom of Finland's style. In Falkon's composition, the direct physical connection between the two figures has been sacrificed in favour of a more realistic suspension arrangement and there's less sense of lurking lust between them. Indeed the added scuba detail obscures some of the attractions of the catch. Etienne, the master of feet depiction, would probably mock Falkon's flippers as a cover-up job. Replacing the waders with boots makes a stronger S&M connection but loses an important element of the fishing theme. 

Etienne - Suspended in Jock

Compare Falkon's effort with Etienne's original suspension image and you understand the gulf in talent between them. It encompasses not only shading technique but more subtle elements like the cast of the two men's faces which successfully connects them in this version to establish a genuine sense of domination and mentoring even. Etienne's men both have a masculinity that is pretty much erased in Falkon's copied version.

Interestingly the sub's face here bears a resemblance to the that of the amateur angler pinned to a tree in Part 1 of this series, although his mentor is not the same. Etienne 'recycled' elements of his imagery sometimes and it's possible that an angling variant of this picture formed part of that set and led more directly to Falkon's imitation.

Read this series from Part 1

See the list of works by Etienne posted at mitchmen