Art by FranklynIE

FranklynIE - Coach Lost it at Practice

The accidental turned into something more intentional. This amazing picture shows just how much AI can do in the hands of an accomplished technician. The athlete's rosy cheeks and some tweaking of the tackler's age complete the transformation of a normal on-field tackle. The athlete's physique is amazing.

 

FranklynIE - Game On

This is another, cleverly ambiguous image in much the same vein. AI tends to have a mind of its own and doesn't yet understand how important eyes are in establishing what's going on. The artist here has got it just right, but we have to decide for ourselves whether the naughty Coach is walking into receptive arms - or a trap. 

FranklynIE - Unexpected House Call

A man in the hands of a Doctor is regular homoerotic scenario, when they are usually keen to get to the bottom of the problem. This is part of a series of 'bed' images, mainly about a man who is a malingerer, hence the title. Various efforts to persuade him to reform seem to centre on that same, particular area of the body. It's another startlingly bold image. The other variations are at the artist's website (link at foot of post).

FranklynIE - More Than One Way To Unmask A Superhero

I'm not a fan of masks, but I do enjoy a superhero takedown. Have you noticed how video captors nearly always have to resort to scissors to finish the job when they're supposed to be ripping the clothes off their prey? It spoils the macho imagery somewhat. There's a sequel to this image at the artist's website (see below) which is too close to the knuckle to post here.

 

 

FranklynIE - Punished At Work

I like the idea of this scenario, but the nature of the employee's offence seems to be a key, missing ingredient for this image. Has he been stealing the stock of lingerie and been caught red cheeked? Is exposure the sum total of his penance, or something more stinging? We need to know!

 

FranklynIE - Mr Caruso's Very Good Day

The tailor's inside-leg measurement is a hoary, old joke for gays, it turns up in my posts regularly, in art dating back to the 1960s. But I wonder, do young people, who've probably never had the pleasure, really understand it? (Answers in comments, please!). The retro briefs here recapture beautifully that sense of exposure when the pants were down. As I recall, the professional technique was to use strong hands. Oh, how our legs quivered!

 

FranklynIE - A Proper Apology

It's a nice image, but Franklyn flirts with some tricky, age-related scenarios in order to find a reason to expose this young miscreant. I think I prefer something like the straightforward, underwear shoplifter scenario. They're not yours, so take 'em off lad! 

 

FranklynIE - Another Helpless Victim of Aggressive Policing

He's on safer ground with this one. Gays have an interesting love-hate relationship with cops, something like Stockholm Syndrome. The artist leaves it up to us to imagine what this guy's offence was, but the open flies suggest he was involved in a bit of a scrap or else was caught exposing himself. 

 

FranklynIE - Good Ol' Country Boy In The City

I confess I haven't a clue what the title of this means, but the image is irresistible, not least because of the subject's maturity. Teasing callow youths is best left to their peers, imo, but grown-up men are fair game and much more interesting! 

 

FranklynIE majors on embarrassment, but I think anyone who gets in a wrestling ring must be beyond that emotion, otherwise they wouldn't be able to ham it up so badly. I take my hat off to their athleticism though.

 

FranklynIE - New Roomie Ritual

Well, OK. In an all-male household it's a rare creature that would be embarrassed as easily as this, so it doesn't quite work for me, but nevertheless I like the imagery. Psycho was never like this!

 

 

FranklynIE - 'Rough Night, Old Chap?'

This hunk has experienced gay sex the night before his wedding. The artist doesn't explain whether it was by seduction of his natural impulses or a rather cruel, stag night prank. Either way he's obviously got some thinking to do. He's going to feel a bit awkward walking down the aisle with the tingling aftereffects. All those people looking at him from behind. Possibly including the perpetrator.

 

Original

FranklynIE - The Need

This is rather powerful and meaningful articulation of inner gay feelings, even if we might not choose to express ourselves in quite this way in real life.

 

FranklynIE - Speechless

I just like this one. The zip is genius. 

~

 

FranklynIE posts at Deviant Art 

'Royale Studio Revisited' by DaveAlan01

 

Royal Marine Stevens - by DaveAlan01

 This video is a sample of the AI Art produced by DaveAlan01. He's trying to visualise how Royale Studio images might have looked if they were produced now. This example has the right ingredients - British military uniforms contrasted with underwear in a disciplinary situation. I think Basil Clavering would have enjoyed the double underwear joke in this videoette. In his day it would have ridiculed the restrictions on depicting nudity rather incisively. In the modern context, it makes fun of our obsession with it.

Subscribers to the blog feed can view this video by visiting mitchmen
or by using this direct link:Royale Marine Stevens - double underwear 

I'm not sure this video would have passed muster in the 60s, but there's an even funnier and sexier variant at the artist's site which definitely wouldn't! 

View Royale Marine Stevens - lubed underwear

 

Para Tom Taken To The Corrective Training Centre
by DaveAlan01

 Basil Clavering seemed to favour shorts rather than underwear as punishment kit. I don't know if that was simply because of his personal taste or the taboo on visible underwear in society as a whole, which was more aggressively conservative back them. 

 

He attempted to make sexy, tight shorts out of the baggy, non-elasticated products which were the only thing available at the time. His efforts generally resulted in something like the image above, with an impression of bulk at the front, but a much tighter fit at the rear. He used clever lighting to hint at frontal shapes, but they had to be very subtle to escape censure. 

 

Unfortunately modern AI seems to be incapable of producing anything sexier than this and thinks military = medals. It has no understanding of British uniforms. Nevertheless, the shortness of the escorts' shorts in the image above is a good simulation of Royale Studios' take on 'dress' kit, perhaps seen to best advantage in the Soldier-Sailor storyette.

 

Clavering did have a para on his roster - Ron Wiltshire, but he never photographed the model in his own uniform, only as a Horse Guard in breeches. I don't think there's a single example of a beret in his output, but exposure to modern day Royal Marines might have changed his mind!

 

 

Bad Lads Army,1961 - by DaveAlan01 

This disciplinary scenario (snipped from a video) fits the Royale style too, apart perhaps for the Guards wearing underwear. I think Clavering would have kept them in a uniform of some sorts. 

 

see the full videoette at Bad Lads Army,1961 by DaveAlan01.

 

 

Para Tom is handed over - by Dave Alan01

DaveAlan01 has also produced some police custody scenes. This is a scenario Clavering never covered, probably because it would have invited reprisals from the real force. In any case, the Police were so disliked by gay men in that era, because of the heavy-handed repression, that it was a perverse individual indeed that would find them sexually attractive. Clavering did do a storyette with Military Police which involved Tibor Urgay undressing in public.

 

I'm certain Clavering would have loathed jogging bottoms too, but the common association (in the UK) with the so-called underclass and thuggery would have certainly interested him. That connection makes this 'put in his place' image delicious indeed. 

 

~ 

 

Great stuff! These video scenes make you wonder how Royale's work would have looked if they had used this medium. Would it have just looked like all the other modern porn? His amateur models would have struggled, I suspect. Especially if they had to speak! AI would have got him off that hook, but AI speech is very primitive currently, with caricatured American accents. Let's hope Brits get a look-in soon, but I'm not counting on it.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing a naval scenario in this vein, sailors were Claverings' inspiration and his bread and butter, after all.

 

For more visit DaveAlan01 

 

See also Royale Studio Revival 

 

For related articles, click on the labels at the foot of the post 

Targeted

Holiday Tip 

Don't assume dress codes in foreign parts are as relaxed as in your home town.

Kyle knew he looked great and liked to show it off wherever he went. The invitation to join a yacht cruise in the Mediterranean with his girlfriend's rich parents was a great opportunity to wear his cute sailor outfit. He didn't know that the route would take them close to an island with a fearsome reputation for mobsters. Some of them reputedly involved in human trafficking of the sort that would land any handsome lad in the slave market, pronto.  

 

 For more Targets and Holiday Tips, click on the labels below

AI Art by AussieGuys

a

Rolls-Royce 1 by AussieGuys

 AussieGuys art is an eclectic collection mainly focussed on conventional AI Hunk-dom, but this is an interesting recent, development. Two guys embarrassingly stranded in their expensive car. I've posted a captioned version at 'X'.

 

Rolls-Royce 15 by AussieGuys

The artist has produced an astonishingly large number of variations in this Rolls-Royce series, all based around this scenario. It's sexy but difficult to decipher what's actually going on. 

See also RR17 and RR29.

 

Best Friend 2 by AussieGuys

As you might expect from an Aussie, there's plenty of beach fun imagery. I'm attracted to the shorts in this image. The yellow dangling rope is a worrying sign that AI might be secretly gay.

 

Big Fish by AussieGuys

 Beach boys don't have it all their own way, this is a marvellous study of more mature masculinity with a scary dash of phallic symbolism. Shame about the purse, though.

 

Couple 40 by AussieGuys

I think it gets a bit carried away with bulk here, but the muscle hunks parading in wet underwear is a nice idea. There's a sense of these buddies thinking of casting their own lines for a catch they've seen further down the beach (see below).

 

Couple 38 by AussieGuys

Maybe it's these two cheeky chappies that they're checking out. They've got bulk of their own to flaunt, tantalisingly disguised and yet emphasised by the patterns of their sagging pouches, which are slung oh, so low. 

 

Polycule, We Are One - 30 by AussieGuys

 This is a romantic, but very sexy image of a spontaneous kiss in the surf. The facial expressions and postures of the outer men are fascinating. Are they embarrassed? Disappointed? Jealous? Whichever is the case, they don't seem inclined to make up a second pairing with each other.

Apparently a polycule is a network of people connected in a polyamorous dynamic, so there. 

 

Polycule, We Are One - 4 by AussieGuys

 This expresses the same idea, slightly more subtly, with matching trunks substituting for linked hands as an expression of closeness between the right-hand pair - or perhaps revealing a lack of it. Did AI actually dream up that little twist? The body-hugging trunks themselves are rather less subtle and may distract you from contemplating the 'polydynamics' in depth.  

  

Couple Beach by AussieGuys

There isn't an image that can't be improved by taking the guys' pants off 'em. This one is also tender and romantic, with a hand clasp that seems to signal deeper feelings than casual friendship. Unfortunately, this idyllic, surging moment is about to be interrupted by a tsunami-like wave. That's AI for you, no sense of proportion.

 

AborgPinkLiz 5 by AussieGuys

This native Australian is certainly prepared for the big one (so to speak). He's another, pleasing example of the variety of men represented in this artist's pictures. 

 

Surfer's Pet Dolphin 9 - by AussieGuys

Check out this cheery chubbie.
Love the stuffed pouch.

 

Dreamtime 4 - by AussieGuys

The determination to represent Australian-ness justifiably includes an admiring flash back to the ancient, local cultures. Some think images like this are degrading and insulting, but we all have ancestors like this. The beauty is idealised here, but the originals had an ability to survive in an unforgiving environment that would compare favourably with many of the i-phone generation.

 

Australian Football League - by AussieGuys

The Aussies are formidable competitors in most sports, as English cricket fans know, all too well, but Australian Rules Football is a unique, fast flowing sport, that attracts gay admirers due to the skimpy shorts they all wear. This leaping pose with the corny, 'Reach For The Stars' subtext looks like it's an AI stock image, but the ultra-short shorts transform it, revealing an expanse of muscular thigh and a glimpse of the jungle-like interior for fans of up-shorting.

 

Cisboy 12 - by AussieGuys

One of Aussieguys' quirks is dressing some of his handsome models in fem-style underwear. The title, I presume, is a modernisation of 'sissy', owning the insult and, in the setting of a public beach, making it a Pride-style, defiant assertion of identity. 

That's fair enough, but my perverse temptation is to pair it with the earlier image of muscle guys in wet underpants ...(see below).

This image fails for me, slightly, because AI has simply fitted the lace fabric into the lines of conventional male attire. Adapting it to imitate the different shape produced by a female body would create a more startling contrast.

 

Couple 40 by AussieGuys
(captioned by mitchmen)

 No-one knows the secret thoughts that lurk in the hearts of even the most butch of tough, Australian, hypermasculine personas!

 

Jock 33 by AussieGuys

It may be that the muscle-heads are being sized up themselves 
by one, very excited bather in the water! He has a confident air that might make him more than a handful for them.

 

BeachBaby60 by AussieGuys

 This young man further down the beach also proudly shows his colours. He, too, has a look that suggests that he is adept at finding opportunities for all that stuff he's packing in that impressively load-bearing pouch-ette.

 

Jock 174 by AussieGuys

Just when you thought beach wear couldn't get any skimpier! 

It looks like this guy earned his athletic laurels in Starbucks. 

As you might note from the picture serial number, there are lots more of these at AussieGuys' website (link below). 

 

Couple 8 by AussieGuys

 This take on skimpiness, applying it to shorts, appeals to me. More than the semi-implied transparency, in fact. There was a fad for shorts/trunks like this a few years back, but they don't seem to turn up so often now. Maybe that's because they have too much of a tendency to turn downwards, once you start walking!

 

Big Kid 76 by AussieGuys

 

I ought to give the last word to a more conventional representation of Aussie manhood, with a slightly wild, slightly gauche personality and fierce patriotism. Never mind the ducks, mate, come and rescue me!

 

 

Like A Good Glass of Wine by AussieGuys

 

Cheers! 

 

 ~ 

 

AussieGuys posts at Deviant Art

Art Bob 1

Art Bob was a popular gay artist in the 60s with an unmistakeable, playful style. He depicted young men enjoying life and getting into 'interesting' situations. I've never reviewed his work here before but have previously posted sample images, also one more recently at the mitchmen account at BSkySocial.  

 

Art Bob - A Little Pull From A Buddy

 

Many of Art-Bob's images will be well known to my readers, so I'm starting this article with one of his less familiar ones. It shows a guy helping his dormitory buddy into a tight-fitting suit -  a diving or flying suit perhaps or, given the imagery on the walls, some sort of spacesuit. 

 

It's not exactly clear what he's doing to help, except that he's using a thread. The suit area below his foot shows cross-stitching and yet the suit seems to have a zip. Sewing it all up seems decidedly kinky. 

 

Even more surprising (for the 50s) is that his foot is placed firmly on his buddies' groin. You don't have to be familiar with foot fetish to perceive the erotic nature of this gesture, the recipient is clearly 'getting it', as it were! For the avoidance of doubt, rockets thrust skywards behind them 

 

The would-be astronaut is a typical example of the artist's usual fare of young and slightly gauche subjects, but his buddy is something else. Stubbled chin plus a hairy and muscular physique, complemented by a rare sight of Y-Front style, white underwear. Hunks like this pop up refreshingly in other pictures by Art Bob. 

 

The title is an example of Art Bob's humorous innuendo. It seems charmingly coy to us but was necessarily so in 1959 when this was published. Most of the images presented here were drawn in the 50s, an era of repression on both sides of the Atlantic. 

 

 

Art Bob - A Stitch In Time

This picture also has a sewing theme. Another hunky buddy helps to fix his (nervous) chum's jeans. The pithy title suggests it's a repair, but these look well past being fixed 'in time'. In the 50s, fashionable young men started to have their jeans altered to fit more tightly round the bum. The most professional technique involved unpicking the centre seam of the pants, like this, cutting away a 'dart', and then sewing it back up. 

 

Needless to say, few lads were accomplished sewers, but if they were lucky their mums or girlfriends would do it for them. Otherwise, they had to call on a 'best mate', whose expertise might be just as lacking as their own. Doing the alteration with the jeans still in place is a typically male solution to the problem of getting it as tight as possible. But it's not without risk, as the stick-on plaster shows.

 

Quite why the helpful friend is nearly naked for this task is a mystery, but who's complaining? His muscular body is clearly shaved below waist level. The 50s furnishings in the background are a delightful detail, not least because the artist's style exactly complements it. No modern home could be without a cheese plant back then. 

 

 

Ronald Wright - A Stitch In Time?

Art-Bob's 'stitch' was very well-received and was reproduced in a number of contemporary beefcake magazines. English artist Ronald Wright was so impressed with the idea that he made his own version, copying the original composition pretty much exactly, but dressing the characters differently and relocating it (bizarrely) to a sports locker room. It's not a patch on the original, but the deliberate reversal of the characterisations is quite interesting.

 

 

Art Bob - Just The Ticket

Buddy collaboration features in this image too. Two lads in a beach buggy are trying to talk a cop out of giving them a ticket. While the cop is distracted, another member of the party reaches out of the boot (US, trunk) to let down his tyres. You don't notice it at first because of the absurd perspective and distance. It's quite an artistic hand, feminine potentially. The passenger feigns innocence on both counts.

 

The characterisation of the cop is decidedly odd. Wearing a bow tie, tight shirt and sun shades that look as though they belong to a fashion model, he's not exactly the epitome of authority.  

 

Beyond the cartoon joke, the check shorts of the passenger are quite sexy and the flash on the driver's trunks hints at, yet disguises, suggestive shaping. In the distorted, visual vocabulary of the image the driver's hand appears to be nudging the cop's groin, possibly grasping something - and the cop seems to have noticed. The hidden eroticism of the time (see label at foot of post for more).

 

 

Art Bob - The Rescue 1

 

Still at the Seaside, a young man strips off on a jetty to rescue a drowning man. He's not wearing any underwear which only underlines his heroism, putting himself in double jeopardy!

 

The artist has gone over the top with wide-eyed boyishness which doesn't gel at all with the mature, hairy muscularity of the character's physique. However, there's a nice sense of urgency in his improbably confused undressing and off-balance pose. The grasping hand projecting from the water is masterly. 

 

 

Art Bob - The Rescue 2

In the sequel, we see a handsome, young man being dragged from the water by his rescuer, whose concerned face now shows rather more maturity. His discarded clothes can be seen on the jetty in both pictures, the sketchy style seeming to morph them into fishing nets! 

 

The water ripples are delightfully stylish. The lower legs visible beneath them don't reflect reality, in contrast to the hand in the previous picture. That might simply reflect hasty sketching, but there's a modernist argument for showing something that's there, even if you can't see it. You can compare Art-Bob's depiction of dripping water with Tom of Finland's below.

 

Art Bob produced a number of diptychs like this, but these images are a far cry from his usual frivolity and whimsy.
 

 

Tom of Finland - Sailor Rescued From Drowning 1

 

Tom Of Finland's 1963 mini story about a drowning sailor rescued by a biker may have been inspired by this couplet. It's equally brief.

 

Tom of Finland - Sailor Rescued From Drowning 2

 

Interestingly, Tom's and Art-Bob's images interleave rather well to produce a more complete storyline, despite the disparity in technique and dress. Both seem to have decided it would be prudent not to attempt to show the moment where the two men come together in the water.

 

There may be more images in Tom's story, he usually did sets of six around this time, but if he did, I don't have them. 

 

 

Art Bob - Down The Road A-Piece

 

The final picture shows two sailors who also need rescuing. They seem to be stranded in the desert with their kitbags and an empty fuel can. A cowboy is gleefully directing them to the nearest gas station - which is clearly miles away! Little wonder they both look so downcast and dismayed. 

 

The cowboy seems to have his horse with him, the reins are in his hand, but he doesn't seem to be offering to help, perhaps he wants to enjoy their predicament for a while, as do we. 

 

Perhaps his offer of help comes with conditions and he's pointing out the unpalatable alternative. He's dressed pretty provocatively for that species and there's a telltale handkerchief in his back pocket which they haven't seen yet.  

 

I love the depiction of the sailors in this picture - both the butch seated one and the boyish doll-like one on the left. This artist shows his understanding of the sexiness of tight sailor's outfits and mangled caps. His depiction of them can't be faulted. Which is why I posted it previously in the In Praise of Sailors series.

 

More Art-Bob in Part 2