Domination Art by Russ 2 - Rustlers & Hustlers

 Read Part 1 of this article

Russ - Round Up 1, Over the Horse

This marvellous domination and bondage image was used as an illustration for a story about a novice cop who is abducted by the local leather group. It's his bewildered, outraged and attractive face that makes this image so striking and draws us in. Surrounded by leather boots and giant cocks the enormity of his predicament is more apparent to us than it is to him. Russ contrasts the muscularity of the leather men with the captive's leaner physique, showing he's out of his depth, but he also gives him generous stubble to show he doesn't lack masculinity - even in this fix. Like the jogger in Part 1, we can't see the faces of the men who are dominating him but you can almost smell their leather. 

Russ - Round Up 2, Cowboy Captured

The prelude to the cop's abduction involves the annual pageant of a small town, the highlight of which recreates the hanging of a celebrated rustler, who miraculously survived his sentence, only to be hanged another day instead. The cop volunteers to play the part of the condemned outlaw and is kidnapped afterwards, still in his cowboy kit (see above). Russ captures a cute clumsiness in the unfortunate captive. That's a gag in his mouth by the way, not a 'manifestation'.

In this image the 'outlaw' is being led away by a noose round his neck while his arms are being pulled backwards and upwards by a second escort behind him.   Unfortunately the image cropping here (presumably to accommodate the magazine layout) dilutes that fetish element considerably - almost to the point of invisibility. The mock hanging isn't illustrated at all and the leather men take him to their club and strip him so, sadly, the cowboy theme, so promisingly broached above doesn't have any sequels.

The attractive shading of these images seems to owe something to the technical style of Bill Ward who was a contemporary of Russ and then at the height of his fame in the US and the UK.

Russ - Round Up 2

Naturally the leather initiation begins with a spanking and this occupies a considerable amount of time in the story. Luckily the cop realises he likes being dominated and used by the leather men (Phew!). 

His new master proves to be butch-looking with muscles and a pugnacious face, a look that's more athletic and mainstream than the likes of Val Martin and Brian Dawson (below) who were the leather pin-ups of this era and cultivated a more mature, sometimes sinister aura. Russ captures the dom's sadistic determination here and the impression of a short arm whiplash. The slap of the leather is understated but you can sense the contraction of  buttock muscles in response.

The story eventually resolves with the happily-inducted captive discovering that his selection was not entirely a random consequence of his volunteering role.

Brian Dawson

Russ - Hustler Slave 1

In this amazing image Russ adopts a more conventional drawing style complete with background detail and shadowing that looks back towards the academic. But he still incorporates cartoon-like exaggeration and clever distortion, this time to produce sweeping, stretching body shapes which convey the drama and dynamic tension as the captive hustler desperately struggles to resist his captor even though his fate is already comprehensively sealed. There's a sort of Ying and Yang balance between them at this moment that foreshadows the sexual conjunction that will ultimately follow with the captive unwittingly angling himself towards his captor's improbably bulging jeans.

Russ - Hustler Slave 2

But before sex, the hustler must first prove his mettle and comprehensively submit. His face here has lapsed into a youthful version of Round Up 2 above but that's not reflective of the story it illustrates where the street experience and toughness of the hitchhiker-hustler is crucial to surviving his unsought taming and training regime. It also leads to an ultimate willingness to serve, having been bested but not crushed. 

The leather man is not depicted as  a run-of-the-mill representative of his class either but exhibits impressive solidity and power. This 'Macbeth-ian' stance set against the willowy, suppleness of his captive produces another memorable depiction of domination and demonstrates the essence of training with the sub's arching body being inexorably drawn against his will into that special place between his master's legs, unsubtly delegated here to a dildo.

~

More Russ in Part 3

Read Part 1 of this article