AI art by JovialDragon777

Jovial Dragon777 - Subject A301

As his name implies, JovialDragon777 has a light-hearted approach to his fantastical situations. In his 'Subject' series, he documents the reactions of men, restrained to face unspecified trials. One involving what looks suspiciously like a hairdrier in the example above. This subject appears to have arrived on a trolley, which is seen folded down while he takes his turn on the cross. He's still standing on the trolley platform. 

The whole series has been given a subtle Christmassy flavour, which makes perfect sense in the context of publication during the festive season. However, linking to the season of goodwill will seem a cruel irony during the rest of the year. 

 

Jovial Dragon777 - Subject J209

The extensive cabling leaves little doubt about the agent of discomfort in this example. The purpose of these trials, ostensibly, is to select and develop a cadre of recruits able to undertake the most demanding of 'missions'. The poster on the wall, bluntly points out the criteria to the latest prospect who is in the process of failing his test miserably.

 This artist takes a great interest in styling, there seems to be a 'Jules Verne' flavour in the imagery here (as in Hollywood's interpretations of the great author). The Victorian-style, pseudo-scientific underpinning of the exercise is reflected in the assistant diligently making notes at the side. There's a corresponding, low-key element of steam punk in the background detail.

 

Jovial Dragon777 - Subject G888

 This artist has eclectic tastes and his examinations deal with men of all ages, builds, and skin colours. This is one of my favourites, the strongest of stereotypes, most likely to succeed, you might think. The steel collar certainly fits his persona more than the other subjects here, but he too is about to be presented with his own nemesis. Possibly one not on the official test schedule.

The unusual restraint arrangement, utilising a tilted table, creates a sense of instability for the captive and his struggling makes him seem energetic and defiant, adding a great deal to his character and the drama. The scientific samples in the wall cabinets imply a cold, scientific motivation behind all this, but the behaviour of the lab staff is less objective.

 

Jovial Dragon777 - Subject X001

There are presently 19 other pictures in the 'Subject' series in which the artist explores other, more exotic ways of testing a man's mettle. In this case, it's the Tentacled Graspmoor. The X-spread vulnerability of the subject as he 'faces' this challenge, suggests the creature's forte is not so much grasping as probing. 

 

The note taker seems more at risk than him in the image above, but I dare say that the experimenters have a way of drawing the creature to the intended quarry. Perhaps 'scenting' of the target is the purpose of the object in the lead technician's hand, which might otherwise be mistaken for a microphone or babies rattle.

 

Jovial Dragon777 -Autumn Crush 006

This artist's back-catalogue is loaded with the usual AI fare of beautiful, muscular men, but his 'Autumn Crush' series is a particularly arty and colourful collection. He makes these models work for their eyeball time, sometimes spicing their poses with humorous, erotic innuendo, as in the double spouted, tea/coffee pot above and the more ambiguous object in the image below.

Jovial Dragon777 - Autumn Crush 035

There's a delicious vulnerability and neediness in this man that is unexpected in one so remarkably handsome. We find him passively communing with nature and goodness knows what else. The pumpkin stalks seem to be waiting in line for their turn, or maybe it's just excitement. 

 

Jovial Dragon777 - SpaceSubs 36

 Spacesubs is a delicious fantasy featuring men, often characterised as sports men, who have been abducted in a Jules Verne-style spacecraft and find themselves alone with a character dressed in a Venice Carnival mask and little else. Unreality, isolation with a mad man and fear of flying combine to make in a complex fright situation. His anxiety might also be related to being restrained with his sports top still on and nothing down below. It looks like he can rule out being ransomed.

 

Jovial Dragon777 - SpaceSubs 040

In much of Jovial Dragon's art, naughtiness is implied but not actually shown. This SpaceSub has clearly had sight of what is in store and it's not table-top soccer. A big, mature man, he's about to have his orbit extended. Unfortunately, the nearest help is thousands of miles away.  

 

Jovial Dragon777 - SpaceSubs 017

 

More sinister possibilities are seeded here. The bizarrely masked captor gently touches his subject's back, but since he's dressed in leather fetish regalia, this approach doesn't suggest a cuddle party is pending (even if his leathers are brown).  

My captioned variant rules out the simply lascivious option.

 

 

Jovial Dragon777 - SpaceSubs 032

I particularly like this hunk, in a similar leather harness, diligently recording the bewilderment of a basketball player who has yet to discover the full range of discomforts available on this vessel.  You will observe that the other illustrations suggest there is a whole fleet of Vernsian spacecraft out there, waiting to pounce on subjects of interest.

  

Jovial Dragon777 - Xibalban Dreams 011

In Xibalban Dreams, we see idealised men elaborately clad in ironmongery, roaming the mysterious ruins of their ancestors, now engulfed by the forest. Searching for the lost key, perhaps.

 

Jovial Dragon777 - Xibalban Dreams 07

 The 'noble savage' gets a bad press these days, but shorn of its derogatory colonial connotations, it's an ancestry any man could be proud of. Catastrophe may have overtaken his civilisation, but its crafting skills and impressive genes live on in this survivor.

Jovial Dragon777 - Xibalban Dreams040

 A device like this adorned some beefcake models in the 1950s as photographers sought a sleeker alternative to the dowdy, posing pouch. Their solution was clenched between the cheeks*, this one seems to rely on some other form of support. Possibly internal? A little impractical for the jungle, I would have thought. How would he cope if he was jumped by some sort of forest creature?

*See Royale Mechandising post for context 

~

 Jovial Dragon777 posts at Deviant Art,
more of his work and a link next time 

Art by Nevermoredesign

Inspection

There's a mysterious, dungeon-like atmosphere in this image. A muscular stud is secured in a pillory device. His rear end is being examined by a much bigger man, wearing a ritualistic mask. 

 

Crated, Trained

Another image of trapped muscularity. This man's collar is a mark of his status. The uncompromisingly strong iron gate that contains him shows respect for his strength but neutralises it.

 

Sub2

This artist looks at the more arcane activities of leathermen at play. This piggybacking harks back to archaic practices of servants transporting their masters around.  

 

Focus

 'Focus' by this artist depicts the notion of service in a more conventional manner, with a chained slave on his knees about to worship his Master's prized possession. 

Link to original image

 

Exposed

In this image, the artist depicts masculine power of a different sort, with the subject's flamboyant hair and lean physique suggesting streetwise wiliness and earthiness. He confidently removes his clothes in a public toilet. Anonymity is the custom here, and that gives power and freedom.

  

Support

This picture of a man loitering, brazenly naked, in a public alleyway is simple but powerful. Presumably it's a place that he knows will only be frequented by other men who will appreciate his seductive display. He offers himself but his boldness will intimidate some. 

 

Windows

This image seems to show a more organised and intense approach to the same transaction. Rent boys gather at an open window, not just showing their beautiful bodies, but projecting lust and sexual challenge. There's a slightly demonic cast to their expressions that suggests danger lurks within, despite the lure of sexual availability.

There are historical precedents to this imagery 

 

Three

You might sense a more clandestine demon lurking in this image. A man whose dark looks and personality seems to have brought him a pair of admirers jockeying for his attention. He encourages them both with a hint of pleasure to come, but they are not the focus of his attention. He is calculating.

 

Surrender 2

This image (possibly by a different artist) combines the two themes of dungeons and demons. It also seems to express two extremes of desire. A young man with a (possibly naive) interest in the black arts of S&M is being overwhelmed by a hardened expert. His bite condemns the young experimenter into a lifetime in his thrall. 

This scenario suggests a more believable interpretation of who seduced whom in the garden of Eden by taking a bite of the juicy offering.

 

Devil's Due

The title of this dramatic, demon piece suggests it is the inevitable price of bartering with the devil, but there is a sense of naive innocence in the young man's carefully trimmed beard. I suspect some of the toughened characters in this artist's work might see this as a romantic seduction, albeit one that lays bare the pecking order, as it were. Even this celebrant seems to be ecstatic rather than chastened.

 

Cave Troll

The same cannot be said of the hero in this image, which seems to celebrate the disillusionment of good intentions. This Knight Adventurer had no doubt set out hoping to do good by slaying some demons and monsters. Instead, he ends up getting stripped of his protective armour by one and getting the rough end of his stick. He doesn't seem too comfortable with this outcome. 

 

Damned

The title and soaring gothic background here seems to express the conventional, religious interpretation of demons being the agents of eternal, unspeakable punishment. Looking at the damned man's face, though, you can't help thinking it's all rather tongue in cheek. He seems to be not so much suffering, as savouring it to the full. His body language suggests willingness, too. 

But it's still unspeakable as it happens.

 

Dark Desires

 The title of this, similar image recognises better the dilemma of pleasure and punishment. The spikes in the background and suggestion of caging widen the options for both. The devil is bigger here, his hands gripping the human and firmly holding him down. It's a particularly explicit expression of the domination which pervades this artist's work. We can't see how the devil's 'victim' feels about this, just that he's braced himself. Damned if you do and damned if you don't, you might say 

 

Home Grown

This murky image also seems rather like a depiction of damnation, but the title suggests a Sci-Fi creation scenario. Despite the foetal position and umbilical connections the fledgling seems remarkably well-developed, tattoos and all, and yet he's still dependent and controlled, so it's not such a different subject after all. 

There's some clever assembly of imagery to create this storyline 

~ 

'Interface', another picture by this artist that I've posted at 'X'  seems to blend Sci-Fi and horror. It shows another, attractive, young man being overpowered by skeletal robots with glowing skull eyes.   

 ~

 

Tight End

What a great backside! The pun in the title of this picture is not new, butt I don't think I've seen it illustrated so precisely or alluringly before. Nor have I seen such a calculating temptation portrayed in a Locker Room context, it's usually the domain of manly posturing, casual nudity and furtive, stolen glimpses. This footballer has a scary look that links with the demons of other pictures and the challenge of the boys at the window. You can't be sure whether it's an inviting dare or a warning.   

 

Traffic Stop

This image suggests common ground between the uncertainty of the locker room and police stop scenarios (with another, mixed pun in the title). The body language is not threatening here, but the sun shades make it hard to be sure. 

Nice body curves

 

~

 

Sorry, I don't have a link for this artist.

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 

 

The Curious Art of Joxstrapp - 1

Inner Desires

 

The title of this picture speaks for itself. The Office suit is the height of conventionality and conformity. In a sense, it imprisons the wearer and suppresses his individuality. Ideal training then for the role of leather sub, in which this attractive young man visualises himself. But he has a lot to learn.

 

Leather 1

Here we see an acolyte being introduced to the mysteries of leather fetish in a highly ritualistic fashion. The attractive top who recruited him gives him a graphic demonstration of the sub's surrender of control by applying a blindfold. Being in the dark is not so very different to his job in a government office! A snugly fitting, leather waistcoat provides his first acquaintance with leather on his torso and a mild type of bodily restraint. 

 

The top seems to be inspecting his facial hair, as if assessing his cleanliness. If he's the old-school type that he appears to be, that flamboyant hairstyle will probably have to go once his application is approved. Which it probably will be if he continues to exhibit such calm obedience. His incongruous black underwear will be ripped off and replaced with a confection of leather and metal that puts his sexuality on display, available for external interference.

 

 

Leather 2

 

This image shows a leather master getting his sub ready, as if they are going out to a party. There's a nice sense of soft domination with an intergenerational, mentoring flavour that's almost domestic in nature. Like the trainees above, this sub doesn't exactly look like a leather boy. He has trendy stubble and coiffured hair like someone who works in the media. His clothing is somewhere between normal wear and true fetish, just respectable enough to go out in, but you know it's coming off when they get to their destination, so he can perform his duties for the night. He looks as if he knows it too and isn't particularly looking forward to being a sharing dish again. 

 

 

Leather 3

This is a compelling illustration of a full-on 'domestic'. Reluctance in a sub is OK, in fact it's secretly enjoyed by the top, since overriding it validates his power. But, alas, open rebellion is not an option for a leather sub. Even trainees must show total obedience, lest it causes the Master to lose face. A punishment must inevitably follow this regrettable scene.

 

 

Bondage Window

 

This is the drastic remedy for a sub's insubordination. The casual tape wrapping that secures him seems to show how much he has fallen in his Master's estimation, how much contempt he has earned. Anxious to be rid of him, he's thrown in his harness and leather briefs as part of the auction lot, gifts to his boy that now provoke painful feelings of betrayal. 

 

Slated as lot number 154, it's sobering for the sub to see a stream of men passing by and showing not the slightest interest in him. His tarnished attractions can't compete with a football match, it seems.  

 

You know you are entering the wacky world of AI when everything is back to front and dummies make captives of men. Joxstrapp's title is almost as confusing, appearing to be in conflict with the notice in the picture, but you can see where he's coming from.

 

 

Master 'n Slave

 A sub bought at auction doesn't know what to expect, but a new Master may be expected to keep a tight rein on his acquisition while he beds him in. This Slave has got a whole new bag of tricks to learn, and after his disgrace, will be expected to show eagerness as well as unquestioning compliance. That means putting up with a certain amount of unpleasantness. Well, quite a lot, actually. This one hasn't fared too badly in the looks department of his new owner, but looks aren't everything in a long term, service arrangement.

 

 

Daddy 'n Slave

 This new purchase finds himself in a very different situation. At an open auction, there is a good chance that a reject-sub will fall under the ownership of a rich, elderly gentleman. If he finds his new master sexually unappealing, he can take comfort in the fact that he probably won't have to perform for his pleasure very often. In fact, his first duty is to take a chammy and wash the car. He'd be well advised to make a good job of it, some old gentlemen can be sticklers and uncompromising in their approach to punishment, especially if they believe the new boy has an 'attitude' that needs to be corrected.

 

 

Butt Boys

 

 The acquisition may discover that his new master is rich enough to own multiple subs. He may feel it his duty and right to punish them on a regular basis, given their history. His only pleasure in life, quite possibly. He may derive a perverse pleasure in kitting them out with appropriate penance wear for such occasions and dealing with them together. This provides a useful opportunity for the new boy to get to know his colleagues and learn the tricks of the trade in his new home. Some of the men he meets this way may be nice enough to make the pain they suffer together seem worthwhile.

 

 

Latex Breast Boys

Some subs may be dismayed to discover that they now have a master with a kink for dressing his boys up. They may be called upon to don costumes that don't fit with their view of themselves, perhaps projecting femininity, which is the opposite of what they wanted when entering the world of leather. 

 

They may have to work hard in the gym to develop a body that fills their costumes to perfection. And it is only to be expected that the Master will want to show off the best results to his friends, resulting in a good deal of attention that they will have to put up with, like it or not. These two seem to quite like their new image and the lustful looks it attracts. Whether they will feel the same when told to serve as table waiters is another matter. Waiting on in a backless, latex leotard is fraught with the danger of distracting, intimate touches from behind, and woe betide any of them that spill fluid on the tablecloth.

 

 

Daddy's Boy

This former leather boy has been forced to confront an even more demanding taboo. Some men will take pink lingerie in their stride, this one obviously doesn't, which is why I like this picture of him! He's come a long way from the secret day-dreaming of the first image.  

 

His unshaved stubble here doesn't quite fit the persona assigned to him, which goes beyond girlie into assertive femaleness. Is this another rebellion coming to the boil? For his sake, let's hope his new master enjoys his male discomfort rather than deploring the amateurish female impersonation. There is a confident, faintly mischievous look in his eyes, as if he might do. Or, perhaps he intends to subject his reluctant servant to an all-over shave anyway, so his endearing attempt to preserve his masculinity merely adds meat to the subjugation to come for him in the bedroom.

 

 

Red Lingerie

This rather cute, jock-like sub is already facing the bedroom scenario, anxiously clad in female underwear which does nothing for his sporting image (and not much for his femininity either!). The lingerie has already made him feel uncomfortable, the more so coupled with the satin sheets and pretentious wall decor, which suggest he's been transported to an unsavoury house of ill-repute where all manner of disreputable men will want to take advantage of what he has to offer. It's unclear whether his Master, still clad in formal leather regalia, is to act as his pimp and bouncer or simply has a role-play in mind in which he punishes his sub for his supposed infidelity and prostitution. 

 

~ 

 

All images by Joxstrapp, but the narrative is all mitchmen.

Next time I will delve deeper into the fascinating oddities of Joxsrapp's Art

which we have glimpsed in this article. 

 

 

Index to Tom of Finland Articles

Tom of Finland - Stable Boy (1985)

I've seen this described as Tom's best picture. 
There's an endearing feeling of nostalgia as Tom's musclebound cop (his 'alter ego'),
extends a hand to the younger generation, each dressed for their own era. It brings new meaning to grooming. Tom was 65 when he drew this and AIDS was at it's height, decimating the gay community, so it seems an appropriate gesture. Note the envious horse!


My article on Tom of Finland
 in the 'A-Z of Fetish Artists' series comes in 9 parts

 

Part 1 - The Lasting Appeal of Tom of Finland

Careless men, Tom's harder edge, his technique and influences

Part 2 - Kake Nos 1-9

The classic 'lost leathers' episodes - and some bizarre diversions, misogyny, husbands and hijackers

Part 3 - Kake Nos 10-15  

Man hunting leads Kake to the dungeon - and a story of revenge that doesn't fit

Part 4 - Kake Nos 16-26

A final flourish of conflict and masculinity ends with a damp squib

Part 5 - The Sinister Tom of Finland

The darker themes no-one wants to acknowledge

Part 6 - Black and White -I

Stereotypes, sportsmen and the thrill of forbidden fraternisation

Part 7 - Black and White -II

A final flowering in maturity

Part 8 - Tom's Thieves
Repeated misfortunes and a lasting obsession.

Part 9 - Tom's Fetish Credentials
Spanking, bondage and leather. Tom returns to the barricades. 

 

In addition, there are other articles about Tom of Finland here:-

 

Selected series 

 

Bar Predators, Bar Predators Revisited - reviewing and extending a popular series, arguably his best.

New unearthed artwork - 3 motorcyclists cavort in mud, from 1959

The Thieving Cowboy - bondage and spanking from 1957

The Mystery of Mr Universe - skulduggery and justice from 1961 

 

 

Drawing Style and Themes 

 

The Petulant Leatherman - surprising attitudes and unexpected emotions in one picture
Boot Worship  part of an article on another artist

Tailors and hidden eroticism - hero worship as a form of submissiveness.

Tom's Sailors ,  Tom's Sailors 2
Beards in Tom of Finland - their frequency and significance
Tom's Beard in the Pekka story 'Loggers'  - the ' Loggers' seduction scene

Tom and Fascism - The historical background

Classic Homoerotic Images - Leather Buddies

 

 

You can find further references and images by clicking on the 'Tom of Finland' label at the foot of the post or by using the search function (top right, sidebar column)

 

Originally published 21st Nov 2014