Etienne's Medical Images

Where Would You Like It, Sir?

 I have added this better copy to the
 Index of Etienne Articles at mitchmen

 

Are You OK With Needles, Sir?

 Medical imagery by this artist is rare, but this one turned up recently in my uncatalogued collection.  

 

It's For Your Own Good!

 

I'm not sure that this really counts! 

Nevertheless, it's worth a look, if only for the wonderful

 expression on the patient's face! 

 

Medical Assessment

This one is from the Troopship story.

 

 

Medical Evidence

This one is a bit irregular too. A rating who has complained about being assaulted by the rest of the crew (a lot of them, anyway) is examined for evidence by his Senior Officer, instead of being sent to the ship's Doctor. The Officer's ulterior motive is easy to spot! 

 

from 'Navy Grease' 

 

Any other suggestions from Readers will be welcome

(via comments is best) 

 

Steve Masters' Fisherman

Steve Masters - Fishing For Sport

 Steve Master's take on Fishing is very different to Stephen's accident prone, 'Dangerous Sport'. 

The Angler here is amazingly well-equipped, with waders, a realistically detailed rod and an array of hooks dangling from his backside as well as a couple in his hat. A sophisticated harness enables him to rest his rod comfortably in his groin. He appears to be straining backwards purposefully, as though he's just caught a big one.  

The happy figures in the foreground seem as if they might to be his earlier catches. There's another swimmer passing by who looks as if he wouldn't mind joining them. A hook dangles dangerously just in front of his trunks and one wonders if a line, out of sight, connects it to the tip of the fisherman's rod. 

It's also possible to interpret this as a satisfied customer departing, and taking the dangling hook with him as a souvenir.  

The clothes worn by all the men are tight and revealing. The leotard of the reclining figure in the foreground quickly catches the eye. It was Steve Master's style to allow physique details to show through fabric, almost as though they were transparent, but he's muted them here in a concession to realism. He's depicted a daring double lump in the groin area, a clever example of 'hidden eroticism' (see label at foot of post). 

The swimmer, looking back over his shoulder, is the only character who is acknowledging the others. He is clad in trunks which are brief for the era*, showing lower buttock flesh. The waist line (also low) has a V-shaped dip at the back, repeated in the hoop pattern. The design points and flows towards the man's rear erotic zone, of course, so it's significant that he is presenting his backside to the others - and us.  

This V-dip back shape can also be seen in pictures by Tom of Finland. It mirrors the line of a posing pouch support string, but I have never seen a real pair of trunks like it.  

The most subtle item of clothing, and for me the sexiest, are the fisherman's shorts. Tight fitting and brief, they are easily missed, thanks to the panoply of leather straps and gear draped sexily over them. 

One such strap is supporting the waders. It's a curious design, with double attachment loops rather like the braces that used to be worn to support trousers in the days when a loose fit was the norm. Even more interestingly, the second strap, securing the far wader, somehow descends on the inside of the fisherman's leg, from somewhere in the region of his groin.  

The waders themselves are lightly shaded to identify them as clothing, but the leg shape inside them is visible, as if Masters was simultaneously visualising them as sheer stockings. He's left two leg positions visible, as if he couldn't decide whether the knee was bracing or flexing. 

 *This image was published in Fizeek Art Quarterly (Fall 1964) 

~

Steve Masters is badly unrepresented at this blog, an omission I must correct! However, there is also an article at mitchmen with a
 spanking picture by Steve Masters  

 

Stephen/Etienne's - Fishing is a Dangerous Sport (revisited)

  This article is a complete rework of my original post about this Fishing Storylet by Stephen/Etienne, augmented by the unearthing of several more images and an original Kris brochure with thumbnails of the 6 images belonging to the set. 

Stephen - Fishing is a Dangerous Sport

 

Stephen produced this delightful little vignette to accompany the brochure entry. His characterisations of innocent/naive, young men (usually blond) who seem completely unspoiled by life and ripe for new experiences at the hands of other men are one of the recurring joys of his work.  

 

Stephen - Fishing is a Dangerous Sport - 1

 I salvaged this first image from the thumbnails in the brochure (which is included as a link at the foot of the post). It's poor quality, but suffices to set the scene, showing a scantily clad man, standing by a lake, holding a fishing rod in one hand and reading a very large book with the other. Presumably instructions on how to use his rod (!) It looks as if there's a campfire burning just behind him. 

We can see he's quite muscular, with pecs and nipples showing through his tight T-shirt. He has legs are like the proverbial tree trunks and his skimpy shorts, accordingly, are slit open at the sides. 

This is the sort of picture that is easily overlooked in isolation. Hopefully there's a copy out there somewhere. 

 

Stephen - Fishing is a Dangerous Sport - 2

 In picture 2, we see the results of the novice's first attempts at casting his line. At least, I assume he is practising because he's facing away from the water and I would hope he hasn't decided it's supposed to be cast back over his shoulder! 

He has accidentally hooked another fisherman's pants and torn them wide open. The diminutive buns revealed are fairly typical of Stephen's work. His depiction of the novice is rather indifferent, but fear not, much better is to come!

This image looks as if it has been cropped* and the brochure illustration confirms that it has. Although we can't see the detail clearly, it also seems to show the angler's shirt being ripped off as well as part of his pants.  

*This image has probably been scanned from a magazine, hence the cropping and the dark stain at the top, which would take a better technician than I to remove! I can't ID the source.

 

Stephen - Fishing is a Dangerous Sport - 2 (detail)

Image 2 also circulates in this, more severely cropped form and with shaded details like the fisherman's skin and his hat band. It's primarily intended to draw attention to his exposure, I suppose! 

This version is from Fizeek Art Quarterly No 22 (1967), a darker variant also exists (even more cropped), taken from Mars No 12. 

Tom of Finland could lay claim to having used the pants-ripping fishing hook before Stephen (see my original post)
 

Stephen - Fishing is a Dangerous Sport - 3

Stephen's dramatic confrontation between the two fishermen is one of his most forceful and technically convincing images, but it's rarely seen, perhaps because of the lack of other images for context. 

There's a striking contrast between the comprehensively equipped 'pro' fisherman on the right (complete with hooks in his hat) and the intimidated amateur on the left, whose incompetence has caused the conflict. The aggressor has quite a military look about him, but the other man is portrayed as a bumpkin. Admittedly he has stylish hair, but he's dressed in trainers (see below) and skimpy cut-offs held up by a knotted rope. That rope 'belt' seems ripe for exploitation later on!

The offender has a deliciously sheepish look, quite out of keeping with his relatively mature-looking face. He seems highly vulnerable as his T-shirt is pulled upwards. It's in danger of being ripped off altogether. The drooping waders provide a corresponding hint of advanced undress in the aggressor. 

 

Both men sport interesting bulges, but any more suggestive erotic flavouring is limited to a fish's tail* dangling from the basket just above the offender's crotch and a solitary bulrush amongst the reeds groping up behind his legs. (Those reeds look as though they might have been a late addition to disguise an unsuccessful foot). We might include the handle of the fisherman's 'rod' as another erotic ingredient, at a stretch. 

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

 

 

Stephen - Fishing is a Dangerous Sport - 4

The hapless novice is upended, and his shorts are unceremoniously removed, revealing his own, peachy bottom. He seems to have sustained a fair amount of collateral damage resisting his attacker, with cuts, bruises and a black eye visible. It's a trifle disproportionate. No wonder the fish in the basket is drooping!

 

At this point, the attacker actually has his upended victim sandwiched between his thighs, but in order to maintain a decent distance between their 'delicate' areas, Stephen has had to give him an improbably long right thigh. He's signalling what he would like to happen, but daren't draw.

 

Stephen - Fishing is a Dangerous Sport - 5

Image 5, taken from the brochure (sorry!) is equally oblique. The novice, facing downwards, is straddled by his opponent, who leans back, ripping his shorts to pieces. The victim's arms draped over the over man's knees are a nice detail, accentuating his utter defeat. Stephen uses it a lot.

 

 The angry angler still has his waders on, so logically he would still have his pants on too, but it doesn't look like he does. There's no sign of the black belt, even in this indistinct image. There's something on the ground, extreme right, which might be the pro's pants or his fishing basket. Dare we think that he kicked off the trousers to hook his prey, then put the waders on again for the kinky hell of it? You might just discern the hint of a lump, or something curved, at his crotch. 

 

To the right, behind him, is one very naked backside and two very open legs (another Etienne trademark). Between the legs lies a fish, which I suppose is supplying one of the 'eyes' in the caption. Its phallic purpose is obvious anyway.  

 

I'm less optimistic about discovering this one,

 it seems too edgy to have languished so long, unshared. 

 

 

Stephen - Fishing is a Dangerous Sport - 5a

 This picture does not appear at all in the Kris brochure. It's clearly a draft for an alternative vision of the shorts-ripping episode above. A safer one in one way, with no hint of physical contact between the men, who are not even facing each other. 

 

It was intended to be more explicit, with the battered victim's crotch in plain view and no obvious excuse for a covering. The vengeful aggressor's heel is positioned where he can administer a back heel, as his coup de grâce. We can see that he has indeed stripped down to his waders and is displaying his backside to his victim, apparently with no qualms at all. 

 

You may recognise the victim's 'laid back' pose from other early Stephen/Etienne images. The damage is a bit too graphic for my taste. I probably got this image from the Leather Archives website. 

 

 

Stephen - Fishing is a Dangerous Sport - 6

In the final image, the scene moves to the Hospital. The careless novice sits on the bed, nursing his injuries. His arm is in a sling, there's a hefty bandage round one thigh, another round his head. Numerous sticking plasters can also be seen. In a neat symmetry, he's again reading a book, perhaps working out where he went wrong. 

 

Beyond him, the Doctor seems to be amused. It looks like he's carrying something that looks vaguely like a sundae, maybe fish pie!

In the foreground, a temperature chart suggests rising tension.

 

Like the first image, this one could lie, unrecognised in an Etienne collection somewhere, filed under 'medical' (like another well-known 'orphan'). 

 

Etienne - Medical Sadism 

 

This image looks as though it's been adapted from the same composition. 
 

~ 

 

View the original Kris Brochure for this set.

 

The original, mitchmen, Fisherman series explores other images with a fishy theme, both by Etienne and other early artists.

 

 ~

 

There are numerous other posts about Etienne here at mitchmen,

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.   

 

Art by David Angelo - 2

 More David Angelo in Part 1 

 

David Angelo - The Swimmers

Underwater swimming was another theme beloved of 60s artists who wanted to add a touch of class to their erotic imagery. There was great potential for playing with graceful body shapes, and it was a legitimate excuse for depicting nude men together, reliving youthful adventures. The intersection of knee and groin here is a great example of 'hidden eroticism' (see labels at foot of post) but you will observe that an attempt to sneak in something naughtier was foiled by a keen, censor's eye.

 

David Angelo - The Swimmers

 Angelo contented himself with modestly interlocking limbs here, using streams of air bubbles to obscure naughty bits. The result is not entirely what the censor would have wished. With the inverted swimmer, the bubbles unexpectedly convey a sense of sexual excitement. Down below, his hand seems to have swept across his companion's groin leaving a stream behind that is full of teasing ambiguities. Angelo's treatment of the swimmer's hair in both these images is a well observed, lifelike detail, but not entirely without erotic significance either.

 

~ 

 

Like the cowboy fad, the interest in underwater action had its roots in TV and film. War films had introduced many to the role of the 'frogmen' who sabotaged the enemies warships during WW2. Lionel 'Buster' Crabbe was something of a celebrity for his wartime exploits and mysterious disappearance. His handsome namesake, an Olympic swimmer turned actor, muddied the waters for gay men by starring as Tarzan and Flash Gordon. TV added a different dimension with craggy Lloyd Bridges having underwater adventures in 'Sea Hunt' while Hans and Lotte Haas were a leading part of an exploration genre which introduced viewers to the underwater wonders of the sea.

 

David Angelo -Divers

 The underwater adventure and exploration themes often converged in dramas that depicted interactions with the inhabitants of the sea. Octopus and squid were the usual dangers, but this is a very curious mix which seems to depict a dolphin or fish as a threat and yet there seems to be intensely erotic interaction going on between the three of them. Is the diver protecting his friend from the phallic enormity pressing down on him, or is he jealous of the frottage that seems to be going on? 

 

Both humans seem to be finding it exciting. Their incongruous posing pouches, an unnecessary choice in this scenario, are bulging and seem to signal that the artist saw it as having a gay, erotic dimension. One that is helped immensely by the pleasing composition he has developed.

 

David Angelo -Diver Rescued

In this astonishing picture, Angelo goes further than erotic innuendo. The rescuer's fingers are clearly touching his buddy's pouch, and his own, straining with desire, is nestling underneath an upraised leg. No gay man could mistake the meaning of this arrangement of limbs. Nor could they fail to connect with the rescue scenario, with the ultimate gay-fantasy outcome in prospect. 

 

Angelo - Door Knob 

 

Angelo's other contribution to gay culture of the 60s was a series of delightful cartoons. He wasn't alone in exploring the possibilities of accidental disrobing, but this character has an innocent, boyish charm that is memorable.   

 

Angelo - Pitch Fork

Rather less innocence is in evidence here, with the yokel's pitchfork having performed a more efficient job than the doorknob in the previous example. For the avoidance of doubt, he hitches his thumb into his waistband, pulling it down and touching himself. The victim meanwhile makes a show of covering up but doesn't take evasive action. Just checking which of those prongs is coming his way, I suppose. You know who else has 3 prongs.

 

Angelo - Valentine

A fanciful design for a Valentines card. The artist depicts Valentine/Cupid as a winged messenger, carelessly reclining across the top of his missive, like a Royale Studio model. His cargo seems to have 'accidentally' barged into the back of a nice young man, but he doesn't seem to mind at all. 

In some respects this is an image of separation, but the twin, trailing ribbons of a bow flutter between their legs, forging a light-hearted but distinctly erotic connection between them. Cupid draws it between his legs, seductively. His target lets the ribbon go, patting his pouch in anticipation and seemingly miming his size.

Their garments are frivolously decorated with flowers or bubbles (who knows?). However, the familiar ribbing of the jockstrap alerts us to their less romantic qualities, which seem destined to react together shortly. 

 

Angelo - Statue

Angelo's artiness got the better of him in this image, I fear, with a weird distortion of the horizontal and upright planes for the two figures to stand on. A slightly odd choice of pose for the chap in the foreground, too. Behold the conquering hero, I suppose, but the eye line isn't right and it looks rather like a weaponless archer at first sight. 

 

The interest lies in the way he has drawn his pouch, minimised and bulging. A captive beast. It's the same kink as the modern chastity cage. A far cry from modern depictions of this area, which usually demand much more fabric in any covering, in order to show an identifiable ramrod beneath it. 

More Angelo in Part 1 

For similar posts, click on the labels below 

Art by David Angelo 1

 

 The vintage gay art of the sixties that was printed in beefcake magazines of the time often seems quite amateurish, however this example by David Angelo has a pleasing blend of technical accuracy and sensuality. 

 

Inevitably, the model is clad in a posing pouch, a garment that often attracts derision in our own time, but the artist's treatment gives us a sense of size inside and entrapment, a straining to escape that shows us how the men of the time really saw it. Something truly erotic. 

More on vintage pouches 

 Angelo's drawing is based on a photograph of course, the model's physique and face looks rather like the great Rick Wayne.

 

David Angelo - Gunslinger

 

Cowboys were big in popular culture in the sixties, replete with handsome heroes. Angelo has given this one another idealised treatment, with prominent pecs and nipples straining at his tight shirt. The gun belt fulfils a similar restraining role below the waist. This last detail was not pure invention....

 

Robert Fuller as Jess Harper in 'Laramie'

  

Robert Fuller sneaking up behind John Smith in 'Laramie' 

 

David Angelo - Wrestlers

For this image of two wrestlers, Angelo has cleverly used the same stark lighting to cover up a bold erotic statement. 

 

One of the fighters is caught in a position where he's off-balance and vulnerable. His flimsy pouch inevitably draws the eye, but it's also attracted his opponent's hand. It's groping underneath, in the shadow of his groin. This hold has nothing to do with wrestling! 

In addition, the fighter in the foreground is totally naked, and the dark shadow that hides his far leg accentuates the impression that he's presenting his backside to us. 

It's not simply the sexuality that is so daring, it's the homosexuality. In 1960, just putting men together in a picture was suspect.

 

The lattice pattern in the corner is not part of Angelo's picture, it's part of an adjacent image in a magazine spread. 

 

 

David Angelo - Pop Star's Finale

In 1963 when this picture was published, pop music was starting to shed its veneer of respectability with Beatlemania converting music concerts into manic, adoration events. With its focus on young love, however, it was (and still is) relentlessly heterosexual. Not many pop stars dressed in transparent shirts and matador pants like this (not yet). 

 

Nevertheless, many gay artists tried to incorporate pop into their images. Tom of Finland's 'Ringo' openly sought to subvert the idea of straight entertainers and I suspect Angelo is doing that here too, by showing us his rear view, tensed above opened legs, raised up on tip toes. The singer seems to be ignoring his female fans, who are noisily lusting after his front profile. He's casting aside, too, the female shape of his guitar*. "Come and get me", he seems to be saying. To us, not them.

 

Ultimately these images fail to capture the magical attraction of pop stars, because away from the mic', he's just another bloke. I think I have seen art images of a star being seduced on stage, but I can't cite it at present. Sex in front of a horde of screaming women is a bit niche for me!

 

*The singer's own shape has interesting undulations at waist level, with an odd fit into his pants at the left. It's almost as if Angelo couldn't quite decide how slim, how masculine to make him look.

 

 

Angelo - Slave Auction 

Ever since Victorian times, the Slave Auction has been a 'go to' for artists seeking to portray gender power play and sexploitation in a semirespectable way. It fitted readily into the adoption of classical settings by gay artists seeking to avoid censure in the 50s and 60s. 

 

Angelo's Romanesque take has a very unusual night setting, giving him an opportunity to play with light effects*. The physiques of the two spectacularly muscular men who are manacled and up for sale, are greatly flattered by it - to the benefit of their value too, I suppose.  

 

A key ingredient in this scenario is the depiction of the slaves' emotions. One is proudly displaying himself, seemingly indifferent to the fate which might await him. His companion is, if anything, more muscular, but seems to be cast as a younger servant. He reaches forward, holding up the cloth which screens their groins (for the time being). 

 

The bidders we can see in the audience seem to have their own favourites, suggesting these two will not remain united after the sale.

 

*Angelo seems to have achieved this night effect using chalk or crayon on black paper. It gives something of an etched effect. Some of the detailing is spectacular - the creases of the toga for example. Unfortunately, his characterisation of the second slave, using voluminous hair and rounded cherub cheeks is very much of it's time and doesn't work for us, even if we believed in such improbable muscularity to go with it. With a man's head and face, the whole image would work much better.

 

~

 

More Angelo in Part 2 

 

 
 

 

 

FOOTNOTE 

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, signed by the artist, this scene was the middle section of a triptych of 3 related scenes which were joined together in a continuous panorama 

Full Size View 

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 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 also exists a colourised version, created by Hardtop (I believe). He added a figure at the right and left extremes to facilitate the creation of an animated, endlessly repeating sweep. The figure is derived from the operative in charge of the Body Scrub Station. I have to give him credit for a seamless alteration.  

 

 

Etienne produced a coloured version himself. The original hangs in the Etienne Auditorium at the Leather Archives & Museum in Chicago. This is a segment from it, otherwise the sheer width defies easy inspection on a computer screen. You can see quite a lot of detail has been lost in the 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 (see 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. It seems that Etienne was working to a fixed 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 may not be forgiven. In his 'History of Gay Art', Felix Falkon criticised Etienne's tendency to not plan or finish his images properly. Nevertheless, 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.   

Art by Holzman - Merchant Navy (revised)

Holzman - Merchant Navy 1

This Hussar advert in 'Fizeek' magazine in 1963 introduced a new artist to the gay scene, Holzman, with a 'playlet' about a nautical thief. The illustration shown is one of the opening images of the series showing the 'toughie' arriving on board the boat with his kit bag. You can tell he's tough because he's got a torso-revealing, open jacket (leather?) and a cigarette drooping from his mouth. You sense he's a man with attitude, although the cant of his head and squint here is what smokers do to keep their cigarette smoke out of their own eyes. In that respect this is a neat little piece of observation by Holzman, documenting a practice that's gradually dying out now. The tough is thoughtfully examining something that he's found, his seaman's papers perhaps, although I suspect it's a bottle  (see below). 

I have 15 of the advertised 16 images in this story but no information about their sequence and have therefore  simply numbered them in what seems to be the logical sequence based on continuity.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 2

The new boy climbs on board with a long, butt enhancing stride and a determined look on his face. 

The texturing of his jacket and jeans suggests they might be leather, which in the 60's was thought of as the uniform of wild bikers. However, the presence of turn-ups and the styling of the jacket with visible seams is more suggestive of denim, a more suitable material for working on a boat.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 3

Below decks, the toughie examines a bottle of alcohol which has a label promising serious gut rot. It's enough to make him drop his cigarette, which apart from being a breach of good manners, is liable to start a fire on a boat, a danger to life and limb. 

Despite these shortcomings in his character which we are learning about, he's portrayed as a sexy beast. The 'Latin look' was quite common iconography at the time and very exotic to UK eyes. The exaggerated fleshy lips and dark-rimmed eyes seem to be borrowed from female notions of sexual allure (regretably, for the image of gay men). A distinctive vocabulary for the male equivalent had yet to be developed (and probably wouldn't have been accepted by society at large anyway).

The straw-clad carafe of wine in the cupboard behind him is a nostalgic image from a less sophisticated era in the UK. You might also recognise the 'Heinz 57 Varieties' label on the tin on the bar, amazingly it hasn't dated in 60 years and I suppose the same is true of his fashion wear.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 4

In this image it seems that the new crewman has removed various articles to his cabin and is about to hide them in his kit bag, furtively concealing his actions from a member of the crew working on the deck just outside. It must be a hot day because everyone seems to be undressing. The enticing glimpse of flesh through the porthole is the calf of a crewman walking towards the left of the picture. 

You could be forgiven for thinking here that the glimpse of flesh has sparked an impromtu massage with the bottle or even that the thievery entailed drinking some of the liquor and then topping up the bottle with piss to hide the theft. This clever 'hidden eroticism' deserved to have escaped the attentions of the censors, because it's very nicely drawn picture, a neglected classic. 

The villain has become more Anglo-Saxon-looking in this image, but I think it is the same character. judging mainly by the turn-ups (see image 2) and the presence of the two tins from picture 3. The Latin look does return later but only in one special example.

The smoky effect at the left, by the way, is not the result of his dropped cigarette but a scanning effect. It has fortuitously added a nice texture of dappled light to an otherwise 'flat' image.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 5

The villain's activities are disturbed by the arrival of a 3rd crewman (also apparently wearing a leather jacket). He too starts to undress, whistling as though routinely changing into his work clothes, which judging by the porthole vision in the previous picture might consist of very few clothes indeed. The thief is horrified, presumably imagining he's about to be exposed - as a thief, according to the story line, or, in the more subversive sub-text, as a man who has problems with naked male flesh. 

Holzman's picture here copies classic, film noir imagery, with the unsuspecting innocent making himself ever more vulnerable to a hidden threat of which he's unaware. The hidden eroticism in this image surrounds the ambiguous interpretation of the bottle, angled just right to suggest the villain is getting other ideas about this new arrival. The coat hook just above his head provides a more graphic hint of what he might have in mind with the backing plate suggesting a tight fit could be his reward. 

Holzman - Merchant Navy 6

This growing tension seems to be triggered into a full-blown crisis, by the arrival of a third man. He appears to be the skipper of the vessel, previously glimpsed through the porthole in picture 4 and now revealed to be dressed only in a cap, skimpy slip and sea boots (the last a worrying link to the label on the bottle!). At this point the undressing crewman has lowered his underpants. In fact they are nowhere to be seen, presumably lost in the folds of his jeans, unless they're ripped to pieces on the floor.  

The villain's reaction seems a bit over the top. In the story plotline he seems to think that his exposure as a thief is imminent and so goes into self-defence mode, smashing the bottle to use as a weapon 

(or it could be that he's suddenly revolted by the thought of having drunk it's contents!) 

Alternatively, in the delicious ambiguity that pervades this story, the young skipper's sexy appearance here offers an erotic explanation of the actions of the villain back in picture 4. His panicky reaction now is triggered by the rapidly accumulating male nudity and the sudden prospect that he might be about to witness something unspeakable going on between these two men, whom, we should remember, didn't know he was there until he announced himself by smashing the bottle. He might even be drawn into it, producing an explosion of a different kind.

There used to be a accepted legal principle of 'homosexual panic', i.e. a fear of being in imminent danger of being raped by a homosexual. This was advanced as a legitimate excuse for assaulting gay men and even killing them. In some cases the reaction hid the fear of having his own, secret, homosexual leanings exposed. This concept perversely confers on gay men, a power over straights that is erotically appealing, if entirely fanciful.

 Holzman's rendering of the hunky skipper is masterly but some severe cropping seems has gone on at the sides. It has spoiled the depiction of his crewmate (left), while the villain's aggression act has been converted into a disembodied, eerie 'manifestation'. This may have been intentional, to amplify the sense of panic and the shock to the sailors. However, it was also common practice in this period to publish incomplete images in order to encourage viewers to buy the full artwork.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 7

Somewhat surprisingly, the villain chooses to confront the defenceless, nearly naked seaman with the bottle rather than the Captain. It's him (or his nudity) that he finds most threatening, or it could be that this crewman has challenged him or is attempting to calm him*. Interestingly, his jeans have now dropped round his ankles and the villain is suddenly sporting a recognisable manifestation of excitement in his jeans rather than the generalised bulge seen occasionally in the preceding pictures. 

*Perhaps Holzman simply thought cropping it made a better picture. Whatever the case it's a great image using a challenging viewpoint. The quality of these pictures in both technical and dramatic terms is certainly on a par with the emerging stars of this era - Tom of Finland and Etienne.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 8

The captain intervenes with a mighty upper cut. By this time, his half-undressed crewmate is down on the floor, on his knees (and with bare ass raised in a classic, passive pose). The broken bottle is nowhere to be seen, suggesting that he managed to disarm the villain before he could do any damage with it.

Holzman has included the coat hook (from picture 4) in this image, positioning it a short distance from the villain's half-open mouth. It sort of matches the sweep of the Captain's fist but also suggests there's an erotic forfeit in store for him, one that is slightly off-piste at this point.

I don't have a satisfactory copy of this picture but it's too important to leave out. 

The cartoonised version below gives a neater sense of how the original might have looked.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 8 (AI variant)

This more balanced variant gives a better sense of the drama of the moment. It also brings out the nudity of the fallen sailor, almost seeming to suggest that the other men are fighting over him (hence, I suppose, the presence of the phallic coat hook, which, in a bizarre AI tweak, is suddenly dripping!). 

However, we can also see more clearly that the fallen sailor's arm is entwined with the villain's foot, confirming his active role in overpowering him. 

Holzman - Merchant Navy 9

The thief is down but not yet out as the crewmates pile onto him. The captain's hands are clasped tightly together round the villain's neck but he is struggling manfully to detach them. The second crew member, having disentangled himself completely from his jeans and underpants, has grabbed the villain's free arm and is pulling it into his uncovered crotch, where it can't cause any mischief (but feels nice). 

Ominously for the villain, his flies have come undone and his Y-fronts are pushing up through the gap and being nuzzled by the skipper's shin (entirely accidentally, I dare say). His choice of underwear makes the downward pointing bulge in picture 6 improbable, although the picture below shows they are not a very tight fit, so maybe it was an escaper.

 

Holzman - Merchant Navy 10

The sailors turn the villain upside down, perhaps hoping to see what will fall out of his pockets, which is the traditional way of exposing a thief in kids' comics. It also has the effect here of pulling his jeans off completely, which will enable them to conduct a more thorough search (or something like that). Losing his pants also makes it a tad more difficult for him to run off, but I suspect that being undressed by these men is only going to intensify that instinct.

You may think you've seen this picture before and you'd be right if you're a regular visitor to this blog, because exactly the same picture appears in my article on the Art of Cas. The same that is, except that it is signed there by Cas. Cas and Holzman are the same person.

Another Cas-Holzman picture can be seen at the mitchmen Royale Studio blog in the 'Timeline' post section 63.1. It's in an ad, emblazoned with the Cas logo, but a contact address has been positioned on top of the original Holzman signature. The background to this name changing is a mystery. Perhaps something to do with publisher's exclusivity.

 

Holzman - Merchant Navy 11

 

This picture and 12 to 15 below have all been retrieved from tiny thumbnails in Hussar ads, hence the inferior, fuzzy quality. They suffice to allow us to understand what is going on, however. 

If any reader can supply better versions, please get in touch!

 

The crew have manhandled the villain so he's draped astride a convenient drum. 

 There's a provocative view of his underpants as they prepare to punish him.

The Captain is holding a knotted rope in his hand.  

A loop of rope hanging on that peg behind them offers further restraint options. 

 

It's unclear what the crewman on the right is doing. He appears to be holding a cane in which case this image might also be sequenced to follow on from the next one. However, there's no cane in the other pictures, I think it is just a flaw. He might be hand-spanking him however. 

Holzman - Merchant Navy 12

The captain begins, flogging him with a knotted rope. His crewmate (underwear restored to preserve decency) sits on the villain's head to hold him down (with his balls resting on his shoulders where they can enjoy the villain's movements as he reacts to the thrashing). His pose here, with the characteristic turning of the head is very reminiscent of the contemporary artist, Spartacus.

The skipper's fleshy physique does not disappoint in this picture but his face has now transformed rather unpleasantly into an appearance similar to that of the villain when he arrives at the boat. This seems to be a look chosen by Cas to represent nastiness and it's been gradually developing in the Captain in the preceding pictures, like something out of Dorian Gray. 

Cas seems to be playing with a very dubious stereotype of foreignness here and unnecessarily so since it would perfectly OK for the cute, hunky, young man in picture 6 to maintain order on his own boat without turning into a demon. I suppose there's a certain satisfaction in the villain being 'out-nastied', having underestimated his intended victims. 

 

 

Holzman - Merchant Navy 13

The villain must have struggled energetically during the assault because the Captain has lost his cap and the two sailors have had to tie him down over the barrel with his arms and legs spread wide. The crewman who was earlier threatened with the broken bottle, still has the miscreant's head between his legs. He pulls it up by the hair so it's snugly wedged in his crotch, almost face upwards here so it gets the fullest experience. He takes his turn flogging him with the knotted rope, no doubt enjoying the villain's struggling movements between his thighs. These exertions seem to be dislodging his already skimpy trunks (much in the style of Tom of Finland).

The skipper watches them, flexing his muscles triumphantly. He even seems to be rubbing his packet with his left hand, but that may be wishful thinking on my part!

 

 

Holzman - Merchant Navy 14

  

Finally the villain seems to have collapsed, or at any rate he has stopped resisting. The crewmen lift him bodily almost as if intending to pitch him overboard. Their bulging trunks symbolically almost touch in a sort of low five (or three) you might call it . The rope and barrel have been restored to their places against the wall*. The enhancement and clarification of this image has brought the villain's underpants into stark relief, stretched tight round his buttocks and deep between them. 

*This detail doesn't seem quite right, it would seem more natural for this image to sit before image 11, where the same loop of rope can be seen on the wall. Unfortunately that creates a different continuity problem - with the Captain's hat, which is on his head in images 10 and 11. 

Holzman - Merchant Navy 15

In this final image, again recovered from an advert thumbnail, the punishment seems to finished. The scene has shifted to a bedroom with a washbasin in the corner and the chastised villain meekly seeks the comfort of a cushion to sit on, on the bed. He's now without any underpants at all and there's a faint suggestion of criss-cross weals on his buttocks. It's possible that a bare-ass final spanking was the subject of one of the two missing images.

His two adversaries stand, lording it over him, with undisguised enlargements in their pants. One of them is resting his arm on a long pole which faintly suggests the punishment may even have reached into internal regions in some shape or form. The Captain, restored to normal handsomeness, breaks out the liquor that seems to have been the root cause of the problem. The villain hasn't got much to celebrate but it doesn't look like he's free to go just yet . You sense the affair is not yet over.

~

These images were obtained from the internet and some from TimInVermont,

enhanced by mitchmen where my logo has been added.  

More about artists featured by Royale and Hussar

 

(First published 8th May 2024)