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Message updated 26th Jun 2025
Showing posts with label cowboy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cowboy. Show all posts

Sunday, 12 October 2025

Art by Steve Masters 4

Read this series of posts from Part 1 
 
Steve Masters - Greasing The Saddle

This image can't be found in the beefcake publications of the sixties, it's far too suggestive. Master's title seems to imply this is a regular rendezvous for the cowboys, a male brothel perhaps, which would account for the dodgy wallpaper and the rather deprecating title!   
 
'The saddle' doles out lubricant to a cowboy whose intense gaze and thin smile has a pretty scary look about it. Particularly when he's holding his belt like he wants to use it on someone's ass. In fact, you can interpret the image as showing that he just has done so, the rent boy rubbing his bruises rather than lubing himself. Luckily, the other cowboys seem up for fun rather than tormenting their steed. 
 
I've seen this image with the eyes of the two central cowboys blanked out (like the nipple shapes here). I'm inclined to think that could be the original version, because I can't think why anyone would make such an alteration, retrospectively. To modern eyes, it adds a menace that is coldly inhuman rather than lustful. The image above is a more complete version anyway, showing the bed in the foreground. That would have been a controversial ingredient in its day, sex in a bed is intimate and personal, not just a discharge (for which heterosexuals could be excused).
 
The styling of this image has a look of the 50s about it, the chair design being a part of that. The 'hollowed out' drawing style was later the trademark of the British artist, Bill Ward, in his cartoons.
 
 
Steve Masters - Men In a Bed
 
This picture illustrates perfectly the heightened intimacy of getting into a bed with a man. They are not actually having sex, but it's strongly implied. This looks like a hotel room so we can bung in the word 'seedy' as well. 
 
The sailor with his cap still on and sweetheart tattoo epitomises casual, 'rough trade' but this looks pretty affectionate and genuine. The highly stylised, drawing style has produced a picture that is more sensual than might be expected for such sparseness. It cocks a snook at the Peeping Tom in the background, conservatively dressed and looking very disapproving. 
 
 
Steve Masters -Matelot
 
I've censored this image to meet the blog rules, 
but you can see it unspoiled on 'X'
 
This early image in the same style is self-explanatory, a bit of R&R between men of disparate sizes and exceptional physiques. The title of this piece is probably derived from the cockleshell hat, the rear man is wearing. Masters associates it with fishermen in other images. He's also wearing a (just visible) rolled-up singlet with horizontal hoops, a nautical style (a la Gaultier, below). 
 
The background imagery looks like conventional room furnishing, apart from a rope-like construct that disappears through an elaborate hole in the wall like an anchor cable. The subs raised arms give a 'come and get me' tang of the bordello again.
 
Matelot Hoops
  
 
There's a further, early image in this style at my 'X' account that ceases to have any meaning if it's censored, but it's actually more interesting for its fetish ingredients than its dix. It features a biker with a captive in a baseball cap (subtly roped round his ankles). Masters uses his 'double vision' technique to disguise a sharp object as a book.
 
 Masters' proclivity for S&M is well-documented and his early images as 'Kurt' feature leather dungeon scenes, which unfortunately are too extreme to show here. The examples I have are poor quality reproductions anyway. 
 

 
Steve Masters - Cop and Biker

This image bridges the gap to Masters' better known style. The biker cum matelot reels back in wonder at the cop's enormous package, which has a pouch hidden in it, like a kid's picture puzzle. The cop's assets are supplemented by a truly 'bent' handlebar, which curls over his hip like a spare part at an orgy. 
 
The biker is wearing a matelot striped top that is sexily cropped. His jeans are already undone, but both men seem half undressed anyway, as their clothes seem to dissolve away below shoulder level, revealing nipples and abs. A bulbous fuel tank beneath the biker, between his thighs, signals the erotic momentum. 
 
 
Steve Masters - 'Lands End'

 This seems like a typical 60s surfer image at first sight, more wall hanging than erotica, with tasteful nudity. In fact, the two protagonists in the foreground are bikers, one a serious enough enthusiast to wear goggles. His discarded clothing, meticulously detailed in the foreground, 
is erotic in itself. No underpants! 
 
Masters employs a hybrid outline/shaded technique for the clothing that is fascinating technically. There's a slightly unreal quality that contrasts with the wearer's realistic nudity. The towel trailing between his legs looks wet and seems to show an appropriate outline beneath, but it's well disguised. 
 
The middle figure seems to be gazing out to sea as he undresses. His cap is not the conventional biker style, but more that of a seafaring captain, the nautical theme Masters often returned to. However, the jock suggests he's not pondering the mysteries of the Ocean. He's holding his belt stretched tight, suggesting tension (and perhaps a desire to unleash it). The end emerges from his clenched fist upright and looking like a banana, but I don't think it's his lunch. Not literally. His clothes also dissolve into outlines.
 
 The reclining figure in the background probably is a surfer or sunbather. There's a collage-like disconnect between him and the other figures that suggests to me that he, or his (sanitised) tackle, is the true object of the middle biker's attention. As though these are sketches for a larger, wide landscape picture.
 
I must admit I didn't know where Land's End was in the States*, although it turned out I'd actually been there a few years back. It's on the Pacific Coast side of San Francisco, not far from the Golden Gate Bridge. A popular cruising area, I believe.
 
*My efforts to find the answer to this seemingly simple question showed just how much Google has lost the plot as a search engine in recent years. It's much vaunted AI feature insisted there was no such place in the US, but, surprise, surprise, there was a clothing company of that name that I ought to know everything about. 
 
Thankfully, Wikipedia came to the rescue further down the page with that priceless commodity Google is no longer interested in - information. I can't wait for someone to launch a proper search engine again that supports research rather than advertising, I'd be willing to pay for it.
 
Steve Masters -Showers

I love the secret bottom-touching in this playful and fairly well-known locker room image. It's the best example I have seen of a coloured Masters picture. Authentic or not, I don't know, but it hasn't come from a magazine, it's an original picture. It looks as if it has been exposed to water damage, but that has fortuitously created a compensating effect of steaminess.
 
Read this series of posts from Part 1 



 

Tuesday, 7 October 2025

AI art by Remixing Reality

All captions are by mitchmen 
 
Bat Flirt

 
Bubble Bath

 You thought that AI stood for Artificial Intelligence?
 Welcome to Moonrise Boulevard!
(Inspired by the stories of mishandling of aspiring models at a well-known fashion brand).
  
 
Free Checks at the Pump 

RR has a portfolio of sexy encounters between petrol pump attendants and drivers. Some are romantic. Others show one or other of them making the first move. Mature men and sexy jeans add pleasing dimensions to this one. You just don't do this to a thirty-something!
 
Pumping Gas

 I particularly like this one. The customer shamelessly flaunting his body is a great image in itself. He seems bemused by the pump attendant's comic response, but then it's pretty obvious that erotic subtlety is not his style!
 
 
Where D'ya Want It?

RR also visualises the pump monkey as a bit of a himbo who dresses in skimpy shorts at the behest of the owner to draw in customers. New boys who are unfamiliar with exotic car models may be the victim of mischievous customers, exploiting their naivety.
 
Dressed For A Hard Ride

Paths that wind through woods are a favourite stomping ground for AI art creators. You never know who you might meet on the trail so it's a good idea to wear suitable gear. 
 

Careful What You Wish For

Secluded trails are prime territory for cruising. RR invokes the 50s look in this eager, young face. He might be a bold, new boy learning the ropes, but looks are sometimes misleading. Nice to see that this stud takes precautions but doesn't discriminate.
 
 
Pillion Pupil 

There's a retro look here as well, which is apt in the context, as the biker who picks up the surfer type can be traced back to the 60s imagery of Etienne's 'Road Kings'. This biker isn't wearing leathers but a leotard, which replaces mysterious, dark sexuality with sporty freshness. It wouldn't earn him any brownie points from a safety point of view, but does no harm at all to his sexual allure. The opportunity to embrace him from behind, astride a bike, is one not lightly refused!
 
 
Cow Pokes

This was the golden age of American teenagers enjoying the freedom of driving and posing in their parent's cars and hanging out at drive-in venues of all sorts. However, the gay flirting pictured here was at best discreetly under the radar.
 
It was a time when men were starting to show their bodies, and there's some great imagery of shorts here. Not sure about the boots, but they do enable a comical slant. This image complements the ongoing 'Scout' posts at the Royale Studio gallery, which were contemporary.  
 
God Bless Jeans 1

One of the distinctive features of RR's work is the use of media mock-ups, like this billboard for jeans. There's a whole series of these with varied brands and different wearers, plus a range of rips and tears. It's hard to improve on the basic, undistressed look on the right bottom, though. Capable of provoking a range of imaginings. The bike parked underneath makes it look like he's just hopped off to pose in the magic window.
 
God Bless Jeans 2

I like this one because he's older and doesn't look like showing off his ass comes naturally. As if that rip only just happened, and he wouldn't have been showing it to us at all if the photographer hadn't made him lie that way round. He can't wait to make his escape!
 
 
More RR to come ....
 
Official site, visit Remixing Reality  
 
 Previous RR post at mitchmen The Fearful Gladiator

Thursday, 14 August 2025

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....
 
81 Jess Harper ideas | robert fuller, laramie tv series, robert fuller actor
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 

Monday, 28 July 2025

Tuesday, 8 July 2025

What's at Adonis Male for mitchmen fans?

 This post is a guide to what you will find in the mitchmen Club at Adonis Male

The mitchmen Club is the principal archive of Mitchell's published stories and pictures. There are two sections - Images and Files. Most of Mitchell's pictures are published as illustrations to his stories, and the material at mitchmen Club is organised to reflect that. Thus, in the 'Images' section, the pictures are grouped by story into folders. The 'files' section contains a PDF for each story, with the images integrated into the text as it was originally published. 

There are also a few themed image folders containing pictures that don't belong in a story. 

These are the image folders as of June 2025:-

 

2007 Royal Navy Press Gang

A Royal Navy Captain decides to bring his crew up to strength by reviving the ancient tradition of sending out a Press Gang to forcibly recruit suitable men. 23 images.

 

The Pipe Frame

2007-2010 Bondage Furniture

 
  A collection of 12 ideas for furnishing your dungeon
 
 
 
 A collection of 14 images based on Tom's classic drawings but given a mitchmen flavour. 

   

 

2008 The Cactus Kid (Part-1)

 
How The Cactus Kid got his name - and lost his birthright. 
A young scientist is wrongly suspected of stealing gold from a rancher's land. 
19 images     
 
 
Tie Him to an Anchor 'Til He's Sober
 

2008 What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor?

 
The well-known Sea Shanty is given a 'mitchmen' twist 
with imagery derived from the traditional words - and some saucy new verses! 
22 images. 

 


2008 The Randy Erector

 
A poetic account of irregular behaviour on a building site. 
A Construction Site foreman takes drastic action to impose discipline on a randy builder. 
14 images
    


2008 The Strange case of Manley RFC

 
How a trainer's unorthodox training measures 
put Manley Rugby Football Club on the path to success. 
  15 images.
  
Boys on the Balcony

  2008-10 Loving feelings

 
A collection of 11 images by Mitchell exploring the many colours of gay love. 
  
 
Compulsory Cleansing

2008-13 S&M Clinic (with notes)

 
Following the publication of a damning report on the health of the nation's male population, the S&M Clinic summonses the men of the town for mandatory assessment (and treatment, if required) - for their own good. 61 images
 
 

Tough Guy Overpowered

2009 Neighbourhood Cops Fighting Crime

 
Crime levels have been rising relentlessly in Mitchville, but Commissioner Hardman has the answer. He's instructed his cops to introduce new '4S' powers:- Stop, Strip, Search and Secure, ready for transit to a 'no tolerance' holding centre, where they can be dealt with more thoroughly. The bad guys have no idea what is about to hit them!......... 57 images
 
 
The Guard's Temptation

2009 The Desert Rat

 
A short story about a 'Desert Rat' (i.e. A soldier in the British 8th Army fighting in North Africa during WW2). Sent to recce an enemy position, he is captured and interrogated. One of my earliest stories. 7 images.
 
 
Strip Search

2010 Fortunes of War

 
A British Army peace-keeping patrol stumble across suspicious activity in an alleyway.
15 images
 
 
 
Initiation

2010 The Legend of the Path of Pain

 
An Association of Leathermen realise that their numbers are declining and the organisation seems to be losing its old vitality. The leaders set out on a quest to rejuvenate the group. It climaxes in an audacious adventure which sets them on a new path, but not the one they had expected. 
An illustrated story in 7 parts with literary and legendary connections. 61 images.
 
 
Training Methods

2010-14 Sporting Losers

 
A Collection of 11 Short Stories built around images by Mitchell 
of Sporting Heroes in Trouble. 15 images.
 
 
 
Under The Moon

2011 Hunk On A Chaise

 
A story about a nightclub pick-up and the attraction of opposites. 15 images
 
  
 
Underwear Ad
    

2011-19 Naive Models

 
 
Four stories about the pitfalls of public performance. 7 images
 
 

2011 Squaddie Steve

 
The story of a Soldier Stripper whose audience chase him into the stern arms of the real Army. 
 14 images. A spin-off from Naive Models
 
 
Careful With The Candles

2011 This Christmas...... ......will be different!

 
A mitchmenesque, dysfunctional celebration of family, festive traditions
in a series of images.
 
 
The Olympic Torch Relay Makes A Detour

2012 London Olympics Sketchbook

 
14 stories inspired by the 2012 London Olympic Games. 
Covering a variety of sports with contemporary political comment 
 
 
Tempted By His Trunks

2012 Olympic Pool Pisser

 
A story of a swimmer who pissed in the Olympic Pool
 and paid the price (incomplete). 14 images
 
 
  
His Shorts Are In The Sin Bin, But Training Continues

2013 The PT Class

 
A collection of images about men in gym shorts and other gym gear 
learning lessons from their betters. 
Inspired by Royale Studio's 'PT Class'. 23 images
 
 
 
Strangers Sharing Their First Lesson

2013-16 The Flat Cap Gang 1 & 2

 
Long-running story about a young Policeman trying to solve the mystery of multiple disappearances of sportsmen and his fellow Officers. He finds himself discovering his sexuality at the same time. Meanwhile, his kidnapped police mentor undergoes the agonies of being trained for sexual service like a dog. (Ongoing). 97 images 
 

A Burglar's Christmas Lesson

2015 A Christmas Criminal

A complete story in colour. An unemployed man decides to get money for Christmas from those more fortunate than himself. But it leads to a torrid Christmas Eve. 

Not on Adonis Male yet, the link takes you to the serialisation at mitchmen blog. 41 images.

 

 

Caned By The Opposing Team

2017 Mitchell's 2nd XV Rugby Team

 
A series recounting episodes of life and customs in the mitchmen rugby league. 
15 players, 15 pictures, 15 rugby related 'incidents' to stir your imagination. 
A sort of sequel to the story of Manley RFC (my 1st XV).
 
 
Brick Regains Consciousness

2018 'Brick' and the Mad Scientists

 
The tragic story of a hard-up body builder who volunteers for a drug testing trial to pay his rent.
He finds it much harder than he expected.  32 images.
 
 
Tied To The Training Gate

Cowboy Folio

 
A compilation of Mitchell's drawings originally inspired by the Cowboy films and TV series of the 50s and 60s and their sexy protagonists - Ty Hardin (Bronco), Robert Fuller (Laramie), Clint Eastwood (Rawhide) and Clint Walker. Sadly, they didn't get stripped and tied up very often, so I thought I ought to put that right. (Ongoing, 24 currently) 

  

Humour

 
A collection of Mitchell's images with a humorous flavour. Some have been previously published as part of other series of stories. More will be added from time to time.  14 images.
 
 
The Night Visitor

Mitchmen in Colour

 
Occasionally I colour my images, this album contains 17 examples,
 including explicit ones which I can't publish at My Deviant Art Page
 
 
Jogger Horsewhipped for Trespassing

Spanking Gallery 1

 
A collection of 16 spanking images which are standalone and do not come from the stories.
 
 
 

Tightly Bound Collection

 
 Bondage is the central theme of Mitchell's art. 
Tight wrapping makes the captive male body into an art form.
Most of these images do not appear in the Stories. 

 ~

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