Royale Appeal

Royale Studio - Peter George, You are a footballer

 Can any of my readers identify the source of this Royale Studio image of Peter George dressed as a footballer in tight shorts? I'm sure I used to have it linked to a beefcake magazine from the 60's but have lost the attribution. He's facing a Hussar Guardsman in breeches, boots and spurs who I think is probably Tom Harding. Tom seems to be homing in on that bulge.

To reply just add a comment to the post below, thanks!

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Jungle Captives

Teracles - Jungle Man Captured

Two more images of capture in the tropics gleaned from the  BodyAdonis collection.

The first is by Teracles who is better known to me as the author of blood curdling, execution scenarios from way back in time. That historic focus largely accounts for his absence from the roster of artists here until now. This discovery suggests I ought to revisit his work because it's a very nice, all-male twist on the Ehrlik theme of heroes overwhelmed and helpless in the clutches of captors whose motivations are not known except to be feared.

The elbow restraint depicted is a simple but effective way of keeping the captive's hands out of the way. It also has the capacity to be quite uncomfortable if the pole is tight in the crook of the elbow. Visually, it works well here and although we can't see what his captor is doing to the 'Jungle Man' (punching him  I suspect) we can imagine all sorts of things going on. It's enough to know that he has virtually no chance of stopping it or protecting himself in whatever lies ahead.

The style of this picture, applying the appearance of water-colour painting to a photo-manip composition is probably software-driven, but pleasing nevertheless.

Tarzan Arrested

 This image looks like the work of  D Beverly who used to post on the old 'Chained Muscle' site and seems to specialise in depictions of improbably muscular, giants being captured and tormented by other residents of the jungle with poor manners but an understandable obsession with the charms of hunky men and an unquenchable enthusiasm for playing with them and making them howl.

Beverly's technique is unsophisticated but gets to the heart of the matter rather effectively. Those luscious pecs and what befalls them wins my vote. Another contender for a dedicated post soon.

Beached Hero

Arrested

 I found this image on Deviant Art at BodyAdonis but I don't think he's the artist. The narrative of a deliciously, muscular man falling into the hands of Amazonian beach-combers after apparently being washed ashore on the beach of a tropical paradise is very much the style of Ehrlik, but I haven't spotted this image at his Blades of Zambe site yet. 

The picture has a simple concept but it's a powerful 'hero in trouble' narrative. The impression of those spearheads being very sharp brings it alive. I for one am glad that the two captor's anatomical details are shrouded in deep shadow but that device also works on a more artistic level by throwing the focus onto the unconscious hero's impressive but vulnerable body.

.

Mitchell - Army Buddies In Tentacle Trap

Mitchell - Tentacle Trap (after Kurosilver*)

Broadbent and Davies had been wandering in the jungle for days. Separated from the rest of their Platoon after the surprise attack on their camp, they had watched the other survivors being stripped of their uniforms and ferried away in lorries. At first they wanted to follow and rescue them but the trail soon went cold and without weapons there was little they could do. But if they made their way back to their own lines, they would have to explain how they had escaped capture and why they had been away from the camp together, without their weapons and dressed only in their jockstraps.

These worries receded as they became preoccupied with just finding food and a safe place at night. They marched during the day but it was hard, tiring and dangerous in the hot, humid jungle. Several times they had to hide from enemy patrols. At night, it was good to have each other.

On the 7th day - or was it the 8th? they came into a particularly lush part of the jungle. For once the humidity was low. Birds were singing, blue sky could be seen overhead and a scenic waterfall of cool water cascaded down allowing them to replenish their water supplies. They washed out their jocks and fell asleep by the water in the idyllic, sunny glade. 

It was late in the day when they were wakened by voices. Realising it was the enemy they fled into what looked like the deepest part of the jungle. The voices quickly faded behind them and they knew they were safe from them then, but in their haste they had left everything behind including their jocks. They couldn't go back and it would soon be dark, they had to find a place to sleep. 

As they toiled though the jungle, progress became more and more difficult with foliage draping over the trail and sometimes blocking it altogether. Undergrown caught at their ankles and brushed their thighs. A gloomy twilight began to descend and the jungle seemed to be closing in around them.

"Drat it!" Davies heard Broadbent exclaim behind him, "my ankle's caught in something again". Davies turned and saw his buddy crouching down to disentangle the offending growth. "God it's tough, this tendril could trap a small animal". Davies smiled at his discomfort but not for long. 

"Shit! It's alive!" Broadbent exclaimed, "it's crawling up my leg!" 

"It can't be" Davies scoffed, "it's just a plant".

"Well it's growing bloody quick then" Broadbent replied in alarm "it's twining round my knee now and  getting bigger, I swear it is".

"Let me see" said Davies impatiently but as he stepped towards his buddy he found his own foot was snagged on something too and trying to free himself found exactly the same thing was happening to him. In fact a fat tendril was already sliding between his thighs and encircling one. He tried to prise it away but it was too strong and when he tried to pull his leg out of it's grip he found he could not. Another tendril caught at his wrist, pulling it behind his back. 

He looked over at Broadbent and saw his arms were already immobilised and the tendrils were sliding and twining round his groin, inducing an erection despite his obvious fear. For some reason that excited Davies too and that sensation was heightened as he felt a slender tendril winding round his own balls. He felt it getting tighter and tighter lacing his own terror with sexual excitement. 

"It's pushing into my ass!" Broadbent shouted out in horror and Davies too felt one touching his ring, then pushing it open. It seemed to be coated with some slippery substance which made it's invasion irresistible. He felt it's smooth surface sliding in, getting bigger and bigger.

"What are we going to do?" Broadbent  was wailing.

But Davies had no answer for his buddy.

The tentacles were engulfing his torso.

The night noises of the jungle resounded around them

~

*I freely acknowledge that this picture is extensively based on an original by Kurosilver.

It's also part of my long standing unfinished tale of 'The Lost Patrol'

For more pictures by Mitchell click on the 'mitchpix' label below 

or visit the Gallery Tab at the top of the blog

An Important Announcement About Royale Studio Posts

Royale Studio - Corporal Punishment (from The Arrest, ERTR-1)

Listen Up Boys!

I have been concerned for some time now about the conflict which is developing between the original purpose of the mitchmen blog (which was to showcase my own art and my interests in erotic art and photography generally) and my recent project to publish my entire collection of pictures by Royale Studio and it's associate Hussar to serve as an open archive for posterity. As time has gone on, the Royale project has grown in scale, partly due to the inclusion of model profiles such as the recent series of articles about Peter George. I am aware, however, that many visitors to this blog come here primarily for the art and are less interested in vintage British photography and it's significance with respect to Pride . 

Striking a balance between fetish art and the Royale posts has become harder and harder because the amount of material I have accumulated about Royale has grown significantly since I published my original articles about them back in 2010. Recently I have started systematically researching what was published about them in the old beefcake magazines and this has substantially swollen the total even further, including the discovery of storyettes which I didn't know existed. I currently have a backlog of 4 or 5 articles and hundreds of images which I am holding back to avoid swamping this blog with Royale stuff. In addition I am already having to revisit the new articles to update and correct them, which does not fit into the flow of this blog very well.

I could just dump all my material onto Drive but I think the supporting articles I write help me to organise my thoughts and give useful insights into the pictures themselves. Unfortunately one of the adverse consequences of the publishing constraint at mitchmen is that I am induced to write bigger and bigger articles. Bigger articles take disproportionately longer to produce and are not very digestible for the reader. 

To resolve this conflict I am proposing to open a new blog dedicated to Royale. The existing material at this blog will be replicated there but I will probably retain what's already here and continue to post new spicy trailers to direct interested readers to the new blog. 

My hope is that I can publish smaller articles more frequently at the new blog and update them as required without adversely affecting this one. I can also create a skeleton framework of the entire archive to be gradually fleshed out over time. For visitors, I hope it will provide a better organised, simpler access point to the material.

I'm sticking with blogger as the platform for now because I know it well. It's not ideal for what I want to do, but I'm not aware of a platform that is free or cheap that would be any better. To be honest, I'm not really sure at the moment what features I will really want in the final analysis but I have some new ideas which I can try out more easily in a dedicated blog. In fact my experimentations have already led me to create two new blogs which are interlinked, one being a photo gallery essentially, the other providing indexing and background information on the Studio. 

 The Royale Studio blog provides the main entry point with indexes and general material.

 The Royale Studio Gallery contains all the published sets and can be accessed directly for browsing

 or else via the indexes and links at the Royale Studio blog. 

PLEASE NOTE: The Gallery blog has some interesting new features which are explained in 

'How the Archive is Organised'. I'm keen that people explore them and give me feedback.

It's long been rumoured that Google will ditch blogger eventually but I can't really anticipate that scenario. Thanks to Yahoo, I'm accustomed to picking up my possessions and moving on and if the project is a success it will probably need a more permanent home later. The Adonis Male site is a possible alternative platform but I don't know that it is any more permanent. 

You are invited to visit the new blog to see how it is developing

Be warned that some links may not work properly at present. 

However, I welcome comments about any aspect of it.

I suggest you start by going to:

The mitchmen Royale Studio blog

Art by Anteros

Anteros - Careful They're Sharp! 

 At his best Anteros has produced dark, atmospheric pieces with sci-fi fantasy settings.
This one seems to be an unusual take on gay cruising but these woods are more like the hostile wilderness used to trap and protect beautiful captives in children's tales. The denizens resemble members of an American Football Team looking for dirty sex, but they don't look very inviting, Instead the caution they advise in the wording of the title, comes across like an unpleasant challenge, a dare with ambiguous meanings, rather than an expression of genuine concern. In fact there's something altogether other-worldly about them. 

Not a place for beginners to start their cruising education I would suggest.

Anteros - In Space No-one Can Hear You Moan

There's a similar irony in the humorous twist given to the title of this piece, inspired by 'Alien'. This Space Trooper is trapped on a grille and tormented by creatures emerging from the hell-like depths below. It seems likely that any sexual pleasure will prove to be a fleeting moment in a journey to an altogether more grisly fate. 

Although his gun (or blaster or whatever) still lies by his side, suggesting an interrupted military manoeuvre, we can also see his wrists have been handcuffed behind his back and virtually all his clothes have been taken from him. It suggests this is no accident of fate, but a deliberate punishment inflicted on him by an unseen, malevolent captor. 

I suppose you can't rule out a practical joke, a birthday treat,
but you sense these creatures play for keeps, so it's likely to backfire.

Anteros - Tentacles

A similar sense of lurking danger pervades this piece, which I think is rather wonderful. The unusual viewpoint provides a very sexy view of the man's hairy body and also seems to highlight the pleasurable comfort of reclining in this deep luxurious bed of living tendrils.

But at the same time the close-up give us that classic horror feeling that there's something else,

something unseen here, something which ain't quite right.

The picture is entitled simply 'Tentacles' but I imagine it originally had a more interesting title. It conjures up the vision of a traveller in a distant world succumbing to the sensual delights of the local flora (or maybe it's fauna, who knows?). Unusually, for a tentacle encounter, there doesn't seem any attempt to restrain him and there's no evidence that his clothes have been ripped off his body by these creatures, that he simply got undressed for them. For once the being toying with him isn't just intent on prodding and poking him but seems to be indulging some sensual need of it's own, inducing him, seducing him, to recline into it's bed of living organisms for some sort of mutual intimacy. 

Despite that, I can't help thinking that he's terribly vulnerable in this position. 

Will this creature eventually call on him to satisfy it's carnivorous needs?

Anteros - Lust At The Water's Edge

This picture seems to supply a chilling answer to that question, having an alternative, blunt title of 'Earth Tentacles and Skulls', It suggests this rather attractive man being overwhelmed and seduced by a tentacled being is destined to remain here for ever. 

Perhaps it's a misunderstood being, it's actually not intent on digesting him but enjoys human male charms so much that it's simply unwilling to let him go. Perhaps it's physiology allows it to experience it's own orgasmic pleasure differently to men, continuing as long as it wants instead of ending prematurely in an uncontrolled crescendo. Because of that our hapless wanderer is destined to perish in an eternal amorous, draining embrace.

Despite the reference to water's edge in the title there isn't any water to be seen, but I guess it's a reference to the primordial soup from which new creatures continue to emerge to take their place in nature's order. Is this to be mankind's first predator?

These picture feature various tentacle formats ranging from the smooth, translucent, jelly-like variety to the hard-ridged, duct-like ones just above. The bramble-like ones in picture 1, would have an embrace that doesn't bear thinking about.

Anteros - Arena

This image is a much simpler concept, an expression of man-on-man domination, but Anteros' skill with earthy colours and dark, suggestive atmospheres elevates the interest. The setting of an empty Arena suggests a private argument being settled in a traditional, ritualistic, but apparently bloodless way. Both men are wearing slave collars but subtle scars and tattoos give the victor the intimidating, edge of an experienced man. The submissive kneeling stance of the loser seem to be acknowledging that much. The top appears to be wearing a chastity device which means that neither man will gain much satisfaction by normal standards, but it is human nature to make the most of what you've got.

The background setting here is not dissimilar to Oztangles' temples, with slightly more sophisticated constructs and use of colour and light perhaps. That characteristic points back to a common rendering heritage that is very obvious in Anteros' older work of which I show a sample below.

Anteros - Medical Lab 1

This might have been a Milking Factory in another life but instead seems to be a space age, laser hair removal clinic, with punters patiently waiting their turn, naked in luxurious armchairs.

It seems to be staffed by medics who don't bother with professional boundaries.

Well we can't all be 'Angels' can we?

Anteros - Breeder Aliens

It would be wrong of me to omit from this brief survey the artist's preoccupation with devils and aliens of similar cast. The 'Breeder Aliens' series is one of the most impressive manifestations of this interest. It's a simple tale of Space Troopers who foolishly go on a mission dressed in space armour and very little else. They fall into the hands of highly developed aliens of the demonic, reptilian kind and suffer the inevitable homoerotic consequences. It's not really my cup of tea but vividly imagined and marvellously executed. 

There's a whole crop of out and out devilry and temptation in many other pictures by him.

Links for more pictures

Anteros at Renderotica

Anteros at Daddyshere

Vintage Bondage - 'Mikey' by Loquillo

A beautiful, neat, shoulder and arm harness is the foundation of Mikey's restraint.
Connecting strands make a striking cross shape across his back.
It lifts the wrists but prevents the upper arms from moving outwards.
The noose-like construction stiffens them. 

This crossed ankle restraint coupled with tightly folded knees

is a satisfying complementary pairing for the body harness.

Mikey's crossed wrists and ankles neatly bracket his peachy bottom thus < - >

His butt cheeks are also framed by a clever re-arrangement of his jockstrap bands.

The sight is enticing for on-lookers, but reassuringly for the prisoner, access is limited. 

Topped-off with a gag it's an excellent, decorative, parking arrangement.

The simple knee fold variant without crossed ankles is more comfortable for him

but lays his centre piece wide open for the man in control.

That wary backwards look is amply justified 

This 'in line' leg arrangement also features crossed ankles to create a closer, tighter restraint.

It inhibits general wriggle and also limits use of the feet for leverage or to stand and escape.

Mike's jock strap bands point the way home.

 The tight coupling of the upper thighs is both functional and erotic.

The double loops just above and below the knee look a little untidy

but is a foundation for the next step.....

...... as this restraint readily evolves into the classic hog-tie

Legs are pulled tight by linking the ankle ties to the thigh loops.

Those double knee loops now add an elegant detail

and their thickness creates uncomfortable leverage of the knee,.

Poor Mikey!

He's been allowed to sit up here, but in a crossed legs position is imposed.

In this position, you can see the tight rope wrapping of his torso

 and just below, new, gift wrapped temptations come into view .

Another noose-like construct imposes a bowing stance on his upper body

The linked ties to his crossed ankles can be adjusted to vary the discomfort.

 

Don't move, I won't be long!

A pause in the proceedings allows a modicum of respite for Mikey.

Congratulations Mikey! You've got the job!

What do I do now?

~

Images by ropemaster Loquillo, 

this series has the virtue of showing the captive's face.

see more at ropetopsfbay, also his tumblr gallery

Originally published in Bound and Gagged No 102 (2004)

The mitchmen, 'Vintage Bondage' Series:

• Mikey by Loquillo (Bound and Gagged)
• Dean Spencer (Zeus)
• Jeff Golden (Bacchus)
  
• David Stark (Zeus)
  
• Jack Wrangler (Bijou)
  
• Bo Richards aka Ryder Knight (Zeus)
• John Winship (AMG, 1-off sample in Vintage Season No 11)
• Leroy Nelson
• Mark Nixon (WPG)
• Leonard Chambers (AMG)
• Vintage Bondage Blog  (feat. Fred Halstead, Jack Wrangler + ano)
• My Initiation (William Higgins)
  
• Royale Studio series No 17 (Soldier-Sailor, notable for it's asses in tight shorts)

There's also some retro stuff in my Muscles and Rope series, notably No 11 (Steve Landless by Zeus), No 15 (Robert Black at CanAm & Beau Hopkins at Zeus), No 19 (Can-Am) and No 20 (Rocco De Vega, Zeus). 

Or simply click on the 'bondage' label at the foot of this post!