mitchmen by Mitchell: 2025

Tuesday, 5 August 2025

Etienne's 'Car Wash' Reinterpreted

A Clean Slave Is A Happy Slave

A while ago, I posted Planet Gay's AI makeover of the desert trek scene from Etienne's 'Sailor Beware'. Here he recreates a scene from 'Car Wash' by the same artist.

In the original picture, This scene was the middle section of a triptych of 3 related scenes which were joined together in a continuous panorama (see enlarged).

Apart from renaming the image, Planet Gay's version stays pretty faithful to the original composition, but he's taken out the military flavour, which, to be fair, is only indicated in the (non-colourised) original by the sergeant's stripes on the far right and three, not very obvious, dog tags (see if you can spot them!). The overall result is impressive but less spectacularly so than his Sailor Beware image, which benefitted from having a less complicated, easily reproducible setting, i.e. a sandy desert.

There have been previous attempts to separate and colour the fascinating ingredients of Etienne's image, whose sheer width defies easy inspection on a computer screen. This one, I believe, was done by Etienne (Stephen) himself. With a paintbrush by the look of it. Quite a lot of detail has been lost in the colouring process*.

You'll notice, that he has left out the two figures to the left, the men holding the mop and a stick device. Strictly speaking, it is correct to omit them. Those two figures actually belong to a different station, not 'Body Scrub'....

'Teeth Cleaning and Mouth Disinfecting' (clearly labelled as Station 2) is sandwiched in between the 'Rectal Flush' and 'Body Scrub' stations, which each have their own, eye-catching, restraint device. Arguably, Station 2 consists only of a single man with a toothbrush strapped to an irrigation device. The foreground figure with the mop might equally belong to Station 1 (below), but it's tempting to imagine that disinfectant-soaked mop being thrust into the mouth of the unlucky client to his right!

In this framing, Mr Mop doesn't really seem to be very closely involved with Station 1. He and his pants-packing buddy seem to be waiting, quite impatiently, to get stuck into the next unfortunate on the processing line. Or perhaps he's just the cleaner, having a fag while he waits to clean up the mess left by the other guys. They are obviously having a lot of fun and taking their time!

You might be wondering at this point, if these are stations 1 and 2, surely there are two more stations on the right. Aren't there?

There are indeed two more stations to come, Station 3 - 'Body Scrub', which is the section re-imagined by Planet Gay, and the fourth station 'Lubrication' which presumably does have a number, but we can't see it, because it's hidden behind a tin of grease.

You'll notice also that this device is not slotted neatly into the line, it stands forward, slightly angled. The angling is justified by the artist's desire to clearly show what the operative's hand is doing, but there is a distinct sense of it being squeezed in

(the image, I mean, not just the hand!).

By obscuring its number, Etienne seems to be deliberately adding to the confusion about the number of stations, but it is more likely that it was originally drawn as a separate image in its own right. It wouldn't have needed to be given a station number, then. Hence, the difference in style and inclusion of a supervisor. It might even have been the starting point for the whole idea.

If you look back at the wide, panoramic view at the top of this post, there is a distinct sense of it becoming increasingly crowded from left to right and the distinct impression that the last station has been shoe-horned into a limited space. There's also another clue to that, the figure on the extreme right, partly visible and showing his back. Now look back at the extreme left of the wide image. He's there, too, assisting in the suspension of the first victim.

Etienne has conceived this piece as a continuous frieze, as though it was intended to decorate the inside of a circular space or to be fitted around the outside of a column or cylindrical object. A sort of gay version of the Parthenon marbles. I have no idea what his ultimate intention was, but it tells us that he was working to a rigidly defined length and when it came to fitting the last piece into the jigsaw, the last Station, he hadn't allowed quite enough space for it. Giving it a number was probably the last thing on his mind.

Leaving not enough space or too much is a common mistake for an artist and an easy one to make, especially if your creative juices are driven by the fantasy, but in a commercial context, it is unforgivable. In his 'History of Gay Art', Felix Falkon criticised Etienne's tendency to not plan or finish his images properly. However, he seems to have successfully salvaged this piece, and you might argue that the final structure creatively reflects the viewer's increasing erotic tension as he traverses the scene from left to right. Etienne was a genius and a flawed masterpiece is far better than uninspiring correctness.

I've posted another of the colourised segments,

'Greasing Station', on X

There are several other posts of Planet Gay on mitchmen
simply search for PlanetGayComic for the latest additions

Planet Gay's current work is video oriented and web locations include PlanetGayComic on X and PlanetGay onYouTube, but I prefer his non-video, Deviant Art Gallery

There are numerous posts about Etienne here as well,

check out my Etienne index for articles mainly about him,

a general search on Etienne will bring up every reference.

There's also an 'Exclusively Etienne' Google Group

that's easy to join.

Friday, 1 August 2025

The Suggestive Art of dures-annees

This artist's pictures are inspired by everyday life in a French provincial village, which is evoked vividly and comprehensively. But it's a version of the world where extreme traditional values still hold sway. Men have to submit to them and to anyone in authority, giving them whatever they demand. Many are obliged to wear short trousers to demonstrate their subservient position.

Dures-annees - Workmen Laying Cobbles

Rustic crafts and traditions are still part of everyday life, here, but these are three of those men, trapped in adolescence, still wearing short trousers at the unchallengeable behest of their employers.

Still talking about sex like kids too, in this scene. The clever bib and brace kit they have to wear may leave their legs naked and exposed, but the pockets keep everything else warm - and on the boil if they want! Dures-annees is French for hard years and the pun is intentional. We're talking cobbles here!

The French may not know the meaning of entrepreneur (according to ex-President Bush) but this one certainly knows the meaning of double entendre!

Dures-annees - Workmen fixing Roofs

This is a job everyone looks up to, keeping a roof over our heads. Wearing shorts for the job has its pro's and con's, though. It allows ease of movement with nothing loose thing to catch on things, true, but they give little protection from sharp edges.

Worse still, this sensitive man is not allowed to wear underwear beneath his shorts and he has noticed how certain men gather and gawp at his backside as he goes up the ladder.

Wellingtons and shorts make a sexy combination*, but climbing a ladder in them isn't recommended for safety's sake!

(*see blues, shorts and thighs)

Dures-Annees - Cutting Willow

A young man, charged with cutting willow for the thatcher, hurries back to his master. He knows that if he lingers to talk and is late, his master will use one or more on his backside. His friend smiles, secretly wishing he might be there to watch it.

Dures-annees - Labouring in the Fields

Labouring in the fields is a typical part of French rural life.

This farmhand has been singled out to work in tight shorts in all weathers. As he labours, he is closely scrutinised.

The artist says:-

"The labour is hard, but slacking off is quickly corrected. A stick is never far away to stimulate flagging enthusiasm".

There are two contenders for 'stimulation' in this image, the one who isn't working and the one who is distracting him!

That's how it works!

dures-annees - Sounded like a Great Spanking!

Village life has no anonymity, unfortunately. An embarrassed youth receives commiserations and congratulations from an amused neighbour, who overheard him being spanked. That's why he isn't actually riding his bike today.

The bystander with a guitar, seems to be providing a musical commentary like a bad staging of Shakespeare. AI seems to have a bizarre sense of humour sometimes.

dures-annees - The Breeding Bull

The artist presents this image with the wry caption,

'July's work is breeding the large and small livestock'*

The farmer thanks the Bull's owner for his services:- "In ten months I shall have a new batch of calves, but I can't sit down any more!"

To which the Bull's owner replies, "That's normal, I used the same size on your buttocks as your cows. Don't worry, in three days you won't feel anything, and I'll come back to see you again".

* The author also gives a lengthy quote from 'Palladius's Rural Economy' about the need to keep the cows in good condition so they can be bred each year. Literary quotes, wise sayings and fables are included in many of dures-annees posts, contrasting with his earthy narratives. They add depth, authenticity and coherence to the picture he weaves of a real rural community still practicing traditional values. It shows a pride in literary skill that seems very French

dures-annees - Still in Shorts

At the packing factory, a worker, still in his apprentice shorts after three years, complains to a colleague that his boss won't give him promotion to full worker status because he can't afford it.

Unfortunately, alternative employment opportunities are scarce in this community so he must continue to endure the groping of fellow workers and occasional spankings that his mandatory shorts seem to attract, like a magnet for idle hands.

dures-annees - Punished for Lust

Older workers fare little better. At the Saw Mill, an operative explains to a friend that the boss saw him eyeing his daughter and didn't like it, so he made him wear a chastity cage (and shorts) for a month, or else lose his job.

His (surprisingly knowledgeable) friend observes that 'it' will start leaking after a while, but apparently it already is. He reassuringly predicts that his colleague's dick will end up permanently shrivelled, like a hamster's.

The author's cryptic motto is:-

"In business, the art of leadership is all about using conjecture".

dures-annees - Soldiers on Leave

Even men in the military may be required to dress in short pants, including when they go home on leave. The pleasure of returning to camp and being reunited with their comrades is coloured by the knowledge that their customary lot of physical ordeals and injustices will also resume. Which in this world means corporal punishment and sexual services.

dures-annees - After The Fête

Military life is full of constraints. When you are surrounded by young men in revealing shorts, it's only natural to fraternise and want to take the best ones back to meet your comrades cooped up at base.

See 'Back to Barracks' at 'X'

The artist's own caption is more philosophical. "Returning home after the celebration is not part of it sometimes, but remembered only by others".

dures-annees - The Mature Altar Boy

Religion is a big part of life in this village, and the artist takes a typically French, contrarian view of recent church scandals.

The priest thanks a villager who has agreed to return as his altar boy. They agree he should wear nothing under his cassock, just as was their custom in the old days. The new altar boy is obviously relishing already, the prospect of new adventures in the crypt!

You have to feel sorry for the priest, this liaison may be legal, but it's still not in keeping with his vows. Being offered access to a hunk in shorts as brief as this would test the willpower of any man with gay leanings!

see also The Priest's Temptation at 'X'

dures-annees - The Best Equipped Win The Ball

Other men find their own opportunities to do good deeds as they fill their spare time, making the best of having to wear shorts.

The artist invents a suitably ambiguous saying to the effect of

"When you play near water, it is he who is the best equipped that gets the ball"

I find this character's, oddly retro look, curiously attractive. I expect he'll be off to the local cruising area when he's finished impressing the kids.

Winter weather provides a great foil for making the wearing of shorts more testing. Dures-annees matches all his posts to the changing seasons and religious calendar. That alignment is lost, of course, when reading his blog retrospectively, but the sequential rhythm of the year is preserved, amplifying the countryside feel and giving perceptive readers a pleasantly immersive experience.

dures-annees - Those Who Dare Win The Ball

This variant opines that it's the one who is willing to strip down to his underwear that gets the ball. The hero of the hour here is not just retrieving it, but splashing around in the water and playing with it to impress the youngsters with his wet-ball skills.

There's no sign of his discarded shorts. Let's hope there isn't a mischief-maker who has hidden them, he'll need them if his underwear gets wet! In fact, it looks as if it might have done already. He'll have to go cruising to dry them out. I'm sure his boldness will be appreciated there !

dures-annees - Drug Mule

When he's not being literary, this artist can be shockingly blunt and simultaneously witty. He titled this post:-

"Narco Transit – The Underbelly of Drug Trafficking".

– Come on, push! It's not hard to poop out a bag of powder!

– That's easy to say! It's not coming!

– Then get up and bend over! I'll get it out myself!

– No, wait, I think it's coming now!

(This is as the author wrote it. I've sightly adjusted the language).

On a more subtle level, I love the power play here, the butch builder being manipulated by his cunning young dealer to the extent that he submits to taking off his pants or shorts at his place of work and squatting to unload and hand over his package. That proves to be embarrassingly hard, and he panics at the thought of being given a hand with it. There's a companion piece for this with an even more vivid text.

The freely available AI engines are notorious for blocking attempts to produce rude pictures. Lacking an overall, real intelligence though, they are inconsistent and can be tricked with clever words into going round the rules. I'd love to know how dures-annees persuaded this one to produce an uncovered back end.

dures-annees - Cruising Area (The Spirit of Sodomy)

No gay man could mistake what this image depicts. The artist paints this as a place where two lovers have been taken by a more knowledgeable acquaintance, so they can enjoy their attraction to each other to its fullest. He says it is the 'Spirit of Sodomy' to give in abundance what one wants to give.

Here no-one will see and no one will hear the noise of penetration. It's a place where they don't have to worry about hostile intruders, since there is always someone around who hasn't clicked, keeping watch. You just have to be quick when the alarm is sounded.

Dures-annees work is a master class on transforming pretty but erotically limited AI-images into something more punchy by adding an interesting and sexy storyline. It's something I try to do myself with captioned versions, some of which are linked into this post.

More dures-annees can be found at his blog

Vie de Campagne

It's in French, as you would expect, but can be translated easily with Google Translate if you lack the full language skills. A somewhat tedious process and his colloquialisms cause confusion, but it's worth the effort, if only for the hidden shock value of some of his storylines.