Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Malex

Malex produces images which range from mild 'hazing' to amazing explorations of the death experience. In Mahoney's pictures the threat of death hangs as a terrible finale but Malex takes you by the hand and walks you though the door.

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Malex - Frat Hazing (my title)

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The Frat Hazing picture here is a fairly mild example but the evil pleasure etched on the face of the blond spanker is typical of the sense of malice that runs though his work. His young men can be handsome and muscular jocks, skinny, bony geeks or anything in-between. You can see that there is an interest in musculature and the detail of hands and feet but although the men's bodies and clothes are well detailed the volumes are not fleshed out by shading.

The dark wash of black in the background, a comic book technique, is characteristic of his work and although it is used fairly crudely it adds a good sense of depth and drama. The treatment of the side table is more sophisticated.

Malex - Weight Training (my title)

The vindictive intent is equally apparent in this well known weight training picture, the muscular jock is one of Malex's more sensual creations and the situation more obviously erotic with a strong man being forced into demeaning activity. The black arching roof presses down on him too.

Although older men appear occasionally as authority figures, the teens who comfortably populate the fraternity and college pictures are a central feature of his work. It becomes more disturbing when they appear in execution and torture scenarios with older men as guards and executioners. Malex has illustrated a wide variety of execution scenes, generally bloodless and apparently painless too. The Block (below) is a fair representation of this scenario, shocking but darkly erotic.

Malex - The Block

His most challenging works are protracted scenes in which young men are cajoled and bullied into allowing themselves to be executed as a punishment for a minor infringement - or even as a sexual experience, giving the artist the opportunity to explore the fear, power play and supposed erotic excitement which accompanies death. He does not spare us the calculating pleasure and excitement of the executioner, which is spelt out in unequivocal terms.

Malex is a versatile and inventive chronicler of malicious intent, the mitchmen motto 'putting men in their place' could not be more appropriate although Malex pushes the boundaries further than most. His explorations of death are unique. The youth of his victims is naturally more disturbing, but the sketchy drawing technique (which does not represent the full extent of his illustrative skills) takes some of the edge away. Hollywood, of course, has no such scruples when comes to death and erotic violence. 

There's a further article on the Sci Fi Art of Malex

The gallery of his work I found in 2013 (see comments) has now been removed
There's presently (2017) a small display at malesmpractices
 
He can usually be found on sites and groups dealing with more extreme fetish interests 
such as nooses and crucifixion but these come and go. 

The other place to look for his work is at the GMBA archives 
(see sidebar for current GMBA link which changes from time to time)

To see earlier posts in this series click A-Z in the label list below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Mahoney

Mahoney's work is very simply summed up - the crucifixion of naked men. Within this narrow field he explores the detailed process by which this form of torture and execution is carried out.

Mahoney - Raising The Crosspiece

The proceedings are nearly always seen from a distance, often looking down over the heads of the spectators. The reactions of the victims as the punishment proceeds - fear, horror, pain, despair - are portrayed quite well within the limitations of the drawing's scale but naturally they don't have the same impact as Mack's more intimate close-ups.

Mahoney - Outside the City Walls

Apart from facial expressions, the victim's reactions are self contained for the most part and we are simply witnessing the effects of a punishment sanctioned by the community (sometimes evidenced by the presence of uniformed executioners or plaques naming the victim's crime). The settings are detached from our reality, showing arid landscapes and walled cities, sometimes Roman soldiers and men in turbans are present. This biblical setting may be simply intended to give realism or perhaps suggest that the victim has met an undeserved but inevitable fate.

Although they are naked, he usually does not depict his victims in an overtly erotic way. They may be young or mature but their bodies are thin and wiry so the rib cages and breast bones and the muscles of the legs for example are clearly visible. In the absence of close-ups there is no visual sensuality. We are not invited to glory in the destruction of the beautiful man or sympathise with their suffering.

Mahoney - Shaking

The example shown above is a bit of an exception, the victim's unruly hair suggests a villainous character while the shading of his muscular body gives it volume and sexuality. He struggles to escape, shaking the whole cross. The spittle flying from his mouth suggests belligerent defiance or panic. The soldiers look on with contemptuous, casual interest.

Mahoney does sometimes suggest an erotic intention, the victim's clothes shown being removed, being impaled by his rectum or showing a twitch of sexual arousal but in general the pictures are concerned with portraying a process which cannot be experienced in real life and the eroticism is left to the viewer's leanings.

There's a good selection of his work at the MCR Group

To see earlier posts in this series click A-Z in the label list below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Mack

Mack - Blond Tourist

You can find pictures by Mack which are studies of male beauty in which handsome subjects are shown in attractive everyday clothing. It comes as something of a shock to find his fetish pictures where the same beautiful men are stripped naked, tied down and subjected to cruel tortures. His pictures are not dark or violent like Macbeth's but intimate studies of fear and helpless suffering. The expressions of agony are carefully crafted and lest you be in any doubt about their pain, even tears may be flowing.

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Mack - Collar

Unlike Macbeth, the torturer is just an accessory in all this, he is often not shown at all or may be represented by just a hand. His motivation and feelings are irrelevant and unknown except that he has a preference for complex and unusual ways of inflicting pain.

Mack - The Match

The men are well drawn with detail like eyebrows and chest hair realistically shown. Their faces could be those of models but there is a degree of ordinariness about their appearance, their bodies are not muscular but they are trim and defined. The objects used in their torture are equally well drawn. Mack sometimes using a pointilistic technique which demonstrates a trained hand.

It's difficult to sum up Mack's work. The subject matter is shocking but whereas other artists seem to be expressing a fairly blunt anger and revenge in their pictures the overwhelming sense you get from Mack's best work is of intense personal pain. It gives his work it's own special niche

The best place to look for his work is at the GMBA archives (latest link in sidebar)

To see earlier posts in this series click A-Z in the label list below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Macbeth

Sometimes called Macheath but I think it's the same man. Macbeth's pictures are dark in appearance and in content. They feature grim faced men wearing leather jackets and peaked caps in threatening poses, having rough sex and making brutal attacks on naked squirming victims.

Macbeth - Licking (my title)

The characters have exaggerated physical characteristics to make them more threatening with prominent square jaws, bulging thighs and big boots. Their leather jackets are deftly defined by white highlights and jeans they wear are skin tight and shaded with horizontal lines which create a sense of erotic bulk. The resulting appearance is sometimes frighteningly attractive (below).

Macbeth - The Belt (my title)

The picture above is my favourite, the two attackers have handsome square jawed faces and sexy bodies in heroic poses to match and this seduces the viewer. The imploring hands of the unseen, anonymous victim just seem pathetic. It's so well drawn you mentally stop and look closer. Then the full meaning of the picture strikes home: the victim's unseen injuries, the belt curling for another lash, the cruel, determined expressions of the two attackers and their unashamed sexual pleasure. I don't think for a minute it's meant to have a moral, but it's a very clever depiction of a very forbidden desire. Clever not only in the storytelling but in it's technical execution too.

Macbeth - Kick (my title)

In these pictures the facial features are sometimes very roughly sketched with a few spidery lines with volume shaping achieved by dark blocking, a technique similar to that often used in war comic books. The point of the pictures is not physical beauty but a sense of dark drama and action which climaxes in the most violent images showing attackers kicking and stamping on their victims. Many feature dramatic upward angles which puts the viewer (and the artist?) in the position of the victim. Not a comfortable feeling. The dramatic effect is heightened by exaggerated foreshortening and distortions of size.

There's slight resemblence to the style of Les, but Macbeth's aggressors show a deliberate cruelty in their faces and deeds which goes much further and perhaps is better compared with Greasetank's violent and threatening pictures except that you can't see the blood in black and white. And whereas Greasetank's meanfaced villains are chillingly calculating in their evil, Macbeth's seem to be boiling with urgency and anger.

Not everyone will find these pictures erotic, but there's no denying the impact.

You will find more pictures at the GMBA archive (latest link at foot of right sidebar)

To see earlier posts in this series click A-Z in the label list below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Michael and Mister X

Todays post covers a couple of more controversial artists. 

Michael based his work heavily on the drawings of Tom Of Finland, quite often copying complete compositions and making modifications to clothing and faces to add his own mark. Regardless of the propriety of this, the results are sometimes quite interesting and not totally lacking in originality. There are fetish elements in some of his pictures but, in every case I have seen, the fetish ingredient had been copied directly from Tom's work (see below)
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Michael - from 'Brotherhood' 
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Tom - from 'The Rope'

Although I might give Michael more credit in a general art survey, 
it seems absurd to include him here except as a curiousity.

*****
 

MisterX's output is heavily populated with boyish youths and those strange child-animal creatures
 that the Japanese like so much. His work is quite imaginative, but for me, placing childlike beings
 in erotic S&M situations is a no no. 
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Mister X - The bulge in his speedo's 

However I did find this image of an octopus or squid installing itself in a young man's swimming trunks which I think is extraordinarily original and sexy and it has an almost classic simplicity
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Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Macy

Macy - Trail Blazer (det)

I have only one work by Macy*, a comic strip from which this panel is taken. 
It's unremarkable cartooning, I just like the image.

The use of rope instead of the barbed wire to restrain the captive gives an insight to the limits of Macy's fetish credentials!
 

*I have slated this article for upgrading in the future having acquired a lot more work by the artist since the original draft (July 2014).

I originally posted another picture in this article under the name 'Madison' but have now concluded that was actually drawn by Sean, the discussion of it can now be found here

To see earlier posts in this series click A-Z in the label list

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - The Letter 'M'

Here we are at the letter M.

Malex, Manflesh, Martin of Holland, Mishima, the list goes on and on. No other letter so far has given me such a long list of major and minor artists, so I can see I will have my work cut out finding a favourite. As usual I exclude artists who do not have a major fetish angle to their work (like Mike and Steven Masters for example) and those who employ CG techniques (like McHolland and Minx) but the list is still very, very long.

Musgrave - Roped

To accompany this introduction I have singled out a one hit wonder. This is the only picture I have ever seen by Musgrave. It's almost photographic and no doubt derived from one but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt because of the way it's signed and simply because it's a superb, simple rope bondage image. Please see comments for more on Musgrave.

To see earlier posts in this series click on the A-Z label below