Etienne's Fishermen - 1

Etienne - Fishing Is A Dangerous Sport - 2

 

Etienne's dramatic confrontation between two fishermen is one of his most forceful and technically convincing images, but it's rarely seen. 

There's a subtle contrast between the comprehensively equipped 'pro' fisherman on the right  and the intimidated amateur angler on the left whose incompetence has caused the conflict (see next picture below). The first has quite a military look about him but the other is portrayed as a bumpkin, admittedly with stylish hair, but inappropriately dressed in trainers and skimpy cut-offs held up by a knotted rope. 

He seems highly vulnerable as his T-shirt is pulled upwards and in danger of being ripped off altogether. The drooping waders provide a corresponding hint of undress in the aggressor party. Both men sport interesting bulges, but any more suggestive erotic flavouring is limited to a fish tail* dangling from the basket just above the offender's crotch and a solitary bulrush amongst the reeds groping up his legs. We might add perhaps the handle of the fisherman's 'rod' at a stretch. 

(Those reeds look as though they might have been a late addition to disguise an unsuccessful foot).

*Tom of Finland also employed the niche eroticism of fish in a less serious encounter (see Part 2).

Etienne - Fishing Is A Dangerous Sport - 1

This picture is from the same series and shows the cause of the fisherman's anger,
the bumpkin's wild line-casting has hooked his pants and torn them wide open. 

Both these images were published in Mars magazine No 12 (1965),
apparently there are 4 more in the storyette but I don't think I've ever seen them.
The rope 'belt' in the first picture seems ripe for exploitation later on!

One month on, I stumbled across the full version of the picture above including a nice view of the clumsy young fisherman, even this version still looks cropped!

Etienne tended to portray men with cute, diminutive bottoms but the cautious portrayal here probably also owes something to the uncertainty around censorship of sexual imagery in this period when controls were being challenged.

Tom of Finland - Two Fishes (1956)

Tom of Finland can lay claim to having spotted the erotic potential of flying fish-hooks first in this 1956 image. The back-to-back, over-the-shoulder looks here don't exactly reek of sexual excitement but the fish lying on the ground do seem to allude to a hoped-for conjunction of men's parts (big and little!). The picture does look oddly cropped, so a more indicative bulge may lie just out of sight! 

1956 was not a good time for provocative gay pictures.

MacLane - Surfer Hooked

This picture by Bill MacLane must date from around the same time as Tom's. It dodges round the eroticism of the ripped swimming trunks by introducing a melodramatic menace. There's an interesting thought process going on, here relating sexuality to danger. and threat. It's similar to the moment when Freddie Kruger decides to chop up a pair of teenagers steaming up a car. 

~

There's also a mitchmen version of this scenario by Mitchell (next post)

More Etienne and Tom in Part 2