Retrorope

These images come from the RetroRope Blog which is a fairly recent arrival.
It's full of original, good quality, bondage imagery.

For the most part the guys are fully dressed in simple, masculine clothes, like the classic white tee-shirt and jeans above. This gives air of authenticity, regular guys, a visiting workman perhaps,  come to fix the plumbing, then unexpectedly trapped and made captive.

The stuggles of the captives trying to escape their bondage are particularly well depicted and purposeful. This young man twists round to assess his position while his captor is away, no doubt examining the pockets of his trousers to discover more about his unwanted visitor.

There's no nudity on this site, but the occasional flash of practical male underwear is not short of erotic power. The shirt and tie, carefully placed on one side in this picture, suggest this business man intended to return to his office. But someone may have other ideas.

 The bondage formula is simple - hands, feet and gag. It allows the men great freedom to struggle and flex their bodies. How little it takes for a strong man to be placed under control.

There's an air of concentration about this workman as he tests the captor's restraints.

His simple clothing, complete with chunky belt and workboots is strongly masculine. The glimpse of nipple mound and defined forearm muscle is subtly erotic.
Who needs harnesses?

 The earthy colours and uncluttered appearance of the apartment setting used by the photographer gives a stylish feel to the pictures and focusses attention firmly on the models and their plight. No garish duvets here! This spread-eagle position does not permit much body movement but the use of a mirror reflection adds psychological interest, making it seem as though we are there, spying on the struggles of the frightened captive who is unaware of us watching him.

Compare this with the use of mirrors in other posts by Hoxton Rubber and Royale Studios

Hoping for a rescuer?

I'm glad the captor made this salesman remove his jacket before tying him up. Jackets look messy scrunched up with rope and shirts are more revealing, spot the nipple! The white vest worn unself-consciously beneath the shirt is another delightful 'real man' touch. 

For this man, the possibility of escape has been made more difficult by the removal of his shoes.The level of restraint is more aggressive too. The chest and upper arm binding limits the scope for him to slip out of his wrist ties, Tieing his ankles to the cross bracing of the chair makes lifting his leg that much harder too. His feet can barely reach the floor, showing their shape to good effect for those of us who enjoy such things.

For more examples visit RetroRope Blog

The Look of Desperation - Frightened Captive

The Look that says 'help me someone!'

He'd just been enjoying himself in the club when they siezed him.

They roughly stripped him of his clothes, gloating as his body was revealed.

Men like him - cute, natural and modest,

were highly sought after where they were taking him.

They let him keep his boots and shackled him hand and foot,

so he could walk unaided to the black van purring outside.

Everyone else in the club pretended not to notice.

They ignored his pleas for help.

Lest they be picked up too. 

 

~

So simple but so erotic.

I don't recall where I found this picture 

but if anyone wants to claim it I will provide a link.

Riding The Wedge again

Takenoya - Riding The Wedge

Another example, this time in the Yaoi style. The wedge apex looks pretty sharp but the sense of sitting and spreading of legs isn't strong. The pirate headscarf would almost qualify for my 'silly hats' series, but I like the collar, it chimes in with my current story at the Yahoo Group (link in sidebar).

Takenoya uses the wedge motif extensively and most imaginatively too,
unfortunately most of the images feature baby-faced captives
which I won't publish on this blog.
If anyone can give me a link for Takenoya I'll add it here.

Facchini - Dentist
I stumbled across this 'wedge-ette' while updating my A-Z on the artist.
It's just an ancilliary torment in this scenario. I am a fan of Facchini, but his ambiguous arrangement of the prisoner's tackle shows that the challenge of the wedge is not confined to it's victim!

If you like this piece, see also my A-Z entry on Facchini
and the mitchmen Facchini Exhibition link

Taikonaut - On The Horse
This is not a true 'Riding' image, either,
but it's a splendid wedge with a saw-tooth top edge.
The captive's protesting face alone makes the picture worth posting.

To see other posts in this series click on the 'Riding The Wedge' label below

Curios

Isn't it weird when men's bodies start looking like their wall coverings?

Mad I call it.

Picture of Lee John courtesy of Gilles Crofta

For other wierdness click on curios in the label list below

Most Popular 'mitchmen' Posts of All Time (2013)

According to my Blogger view stats, these are the 20 most viewed posts on this blog.

Again, this is for entertainment only, I don't know how valid or complete the figures really are and obviously posts from early years have an advantage.

No 2013 posts made the cut but there are 5 from 2012.

 

'531' by Mike Carcel

Click on the list entries below to link to the original articles  

Please tell me if you have difficulty with any links

1. Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Mike Carcel                      (2010)           8095 
2. Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Malex                                (2010)          5031 
3. Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Franco                               (2009)          5008
4. Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Jotto                                  (2009)           4881
5. Priapus of Milet - 1                                                               (2012)          4013
6. Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Martin of Holland               (2010)          2396
7. Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Heredia                              (2009)          2136
8. Vintage Bondage Blog                                                          (2012)          1946 
9. Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Mahoney                            (2010)          1927
10. Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Matt                                   (2010)          1774
11. Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Manflesh                            (2010)         1683
12. More medical male bondage at mitchmen                            (2008)         1652
13. Mitchells' A-Z of Fetish Artists - Platter                                (2012)          1598 
14. Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Michael Mitchell                 (2010)          1554
15. A mention of Josman                                                            (2009)          1510
16. My initiation                                                                           (2012)          1454 
17. Mitchell's - A-Z of Fetish Artists - Klaus von Brandenburg   (2009)          1409
18. Heavy Bondage                                                                     (2012)         1386 
19. Bound Guys                                                                           (2009)         1333
20. A Tribute To Bound Gods                                                      (2011)         1327 

 

The prevalance of A-Z posts stands out, in fact all the entries are about artists except for six which contain good bondage imagery. You could therefore read this as a crude measure of different artists popularity. The next three artists outside the top 20 are Leo 1257, Neil Bruce 1249 and Marc 1216.

The winner (if that's the right term) is Mike Carcel which may surprise some of you, but he's been chalking up visits continuously and is in the top ten in most months, usually near or at the top. The follow up article on him which  I posted this year featured in the top 10 for 2013 (see previous post). I suspect this popularity may reflect the difficulty web users have in finding his work which falls fair and square in the 'difficult' category. Mike posts regularly on the net but it's usually in membership groups which are closed to search engines. His showing in this survey is testimony to his popularity in fetish art circles.

Other controversial, difficult-to-find artists also feature prominently - Malex, Martin of Holland, Mahoney and Heredia. All but three of the artists on the list (Malex, Matt and Martin of Holland) are still alive and releasing new material, which creates interest in their work. The absence of Etienne (with 723 for his top scoring article), probably reflects this and the volume of his work available elsewhere, he would certainly figure in my top 20 artists!

The other phenomenal performance in this table is Priapus of Milet which was posted just over a year ago and is rapidly closing on the top 4. Another post about this artist just missed the cut at 21 (1293). His work has made an amazing impact in a very short space of time.

It's less surprising to see Franco near the top and commercial big hitters like Matt, Michael Mitchell and Sean Platter, but I am disappointed that Kalabro (1013) doesn't figure in the list alongside Jotto, his co-worker. Nevertheless, I'm glad to see some talented 'amateurs' mixing with the skilled commercial artists, proving that erotic content is king for fetish fans.

Artists from T onwards (e.g. Tom of Finland) of course have not yet appeared in the A-Z series and I have yet to cover many prominent computer centred artists like Baron and Ulf. This list is strictly confined by my article selection process but the sequence does not necessarily reflect my preferences.

 To see previous results click on the MPP label below

Most Popular Posts in 2013

According to my Blogger 'view count' stats, 

these are the most popular posts of 2013 (titles link to original posts)

Philip Swarbrick - Cruising Leather

1. A-Z of Fetish Artists - Swarbrick                774
2. Hethong - Male Spanking                            707
3. Some Classic Japanese Bondage Art           681
4. A-Z of Fetish Artists - Sean                         647
5. A-Z of Fetish Artists - Sardax                      608
6. A-Z of Fetish Artists - Ira C Smith              520
7. Riding The Wedge - 1                                  498
8. Riding The Wedge - more contributions      497
9. Mike Carcel                                                  485
10. Arrest No 7 - Piss Patrol - part 5                  468
11. Robbie's Spanking                                        448
12. A-Z of Fetish Artists - Sergey                      439
13. A-Z of Fetish Artists - Skipper                     400

This is for entertainment only, I don't know how valid the figures really are and obviously posts from January have an advantage over December. On this basis No 8 (posted in mid-November) could claim a moral victory!

Interestingly No's 10 and 11 are the only ones with photographic content rather than artwork.

The list shows the interest in my A-Z series. My post on Philip Swarbrick scored about 600 hits in a matter of days when first I posted it, I suppose someone posted the link on a bigger site, but it's not done so well since. The letter T will come up for review early next year and there's a possibility the series may conclude in 2014. I will probably rework the early ones but I also want to pick up computer artists like Borg, Bondageskin, Ulf etc.

I will publish the all-time list of favourites in my next post.

 To see previous results click on the MPP label below

First Catch Your Rogue - 3 Riley's Marbles

Shifty antique dealer, Jimmy Bristow, heard that old man Riley had an exquisite collection of rare glass and was reputedly loosing his marbles. He tried to con the old man into selling them to him, cheap.

But it turned out Riley wasn't as daft or as old as he seemed. He even produced his 'marbles' for Jimmy to look at, he found them very impressive. Eye-wateringly so.

Old man Riley was surprisingly strong too and persuaded Jimmy to stay for a demonstration of how the marbles sometimes went missing when young men called. When poor Jimmy finally left, he was still empty-handed, but he did have an uncomfortable, lingering feeling of fulfillment.

For earlier items search on 'rogues' in the label list below