Royale Studio 3a - Navy Gash (Introduction)

Royale Studio - 'Navy Gash', Image 11

 

Above: A highlight of Royale Studio's 'Navy Gash' storyette

"The sexual chemistry these two men and the photographer
manage to create between them is still amazing".

(from the mitchmen NAGA commentary, publication pending)

~

 

Royale's brochure image for Navy Gash

Royale Studio's “Navy Gash” (aka NAGA) is the story of a novice sailor being initiated into the demanding standards and ways of naval service by two of his more experienced colleagues. In the Royal Navy and Royal Marines 'gash' was military slang  for rubbish or garbage, something that is considered useless, broken or otherwise of little value. The words written on the victim's shirt in the picture above are 'Gash Can'. That gives you some idea of the thrust of this piece which bears striking similarities to 'Navy Romeo' (No 2 in this mitchmen series on the work of Royale Studio in the 1960's).

Royale Studio - Navy Gash, The Cast

The stars of this storyette are portrayed in the picture above with the 'novice', Percy, sitting in the middle. The two men on either side of him are Ned Willigan (left) and Tom Harding (who also appear as Spike and Tom in the Navy Romeo saga. This disparity in names is discussed in Identifying Navy Romeo models. 

In these images Ned and Tom come across as big men and even in this innocuous cast picture there's a tremendous sense of physical disparity between them and their sandwiched victim (and a salivating display for all crotch watchers!)

 

Royale Studio - Catalogue entry for Navy Gash (NAGA)

Royale's catalogue description for Navy Gash opens with the words 'Introducing...(the cast)' which suggests that it is those models' first appearance for Royale Studio. In the catalogues Navy Gash does indeed pre-date Navy Romeo but it's not Tom's first (published) appearance, Unapproved School is earlier still.

 

~

Next time: The Navy Gash storyette in full 

and an updated link to the mitchmen Open Archive of Royale Studio Photos

Gay Spank Art Site

ISM@ - Here It Comes

 If you like spanking art it's worth looking at the new 'Gay Spank Art' gallery.

 

ISM@RT - It's Your Turn

Gay Spank Art is still under construction but already has an enormous collection including a comprehensive compilation of my own Mitchell spanking images and several artists I haven't come across before like ISM@ whose varied work decorates this post.

 

ISM@ - Bedtime (afterburn)

'Isma' does conventional spanking cartoons, but I like these relatively mature examples which have a sense of unreality and disbelief about them, very mitchmen-esq!

Visit Isma's blog and ISM@RT on Twitter

Most Viewed mitchmen Post of All Time, 2021 (MPP3)

Priapus of Milet - Antechamber 12 (from Inner Sanctum 4)

 

Above, art by this year's winner. A scene from Antechamber (The Inner Sanctum 4) by Priapus in which a naked explorer (who looks remarkably like a bulked-up version of a well-known royal) wanders into a derelict Underground (Subway) station and runs into scary, mechanical skeletons who put him into chains and enslave him. Should have stayed with the wife!

~

According to my Blogger 'hit stats', out of all the mitchmen articles published to date, 

those registering the most total hits since publication to the end of 2021 are as shown below.

Table 1 mitchmen Articles With Most Hits Since Publication to end 2021

Posn (last yr)	Title of Post (& link)	Year of Pub'n	2021 Hits	2020 Hits
1 (1)	Priapus of Milet - 1	2012	38,605	35489
2 (5)	IFNB – A Fantasy World of Bodybuilders	2018	35,606	23619
3 (4)	The Milking Factory	2017	34,032	24101
4 (2)	A-Z of Fetish Artists – Mike Carcel	2010	30,985	28452
5 (3)	A-Z of Fetish Artists - Cavelo	2008	30,958	27569
6 (9)	Milking Factories - 3	2018	21,017	14966
7 (6)	A-Z of Fetish Artists - Jotto	2009	20,856	19546
8 (7)	Etienne - index of articles at mitchmen	2016	19,420	17450
9 (8)	A-Z of Fetish Artists - Malex	2010	18,111	17223
10 (13)	Homoeros Gallery Guide	2018	17,487	10091
11 (10)	A-Z of Fetish Artists - Franco	2009	14,687	13801
12 (11)	A-Z of Fetish Artists – Martin of Holland	2010	13,122	12084
13 (12)	A-Z of Fetish Artists – The Hun	2009	12,401	11253
14 (14)	A Christmas Criminal by Mitchell (1-5)	2015	11,569	9924
15 (-)	Milking Factories-4	2019	10,850	7335
16 (15)	A-Z of Fetish Artists - Heredia	2009	10,260	9536
17 (16)	A-Z of Fetish Artists - Julius	2009	10,201	9040
18 (-)	The Art of Homoeros – 6 (Art of The Cross)	2018	9808	(7856)
19 (20)	A-Z of Fetish Artists - Kalabro	2009	9504	8359
20 (19)	My Initiation	2012	9338	8447

Stats compiled 31/12/21

 

This year Priapus of Milet – 1 retained the No 1 position in this table for the third year running but his lead was drastically reduced from 7K to 3K hits by the 'article of the year', which was IFNB – A Fantasy World of Bodybuilder Morphs which scored a near-record 11K hits during 2021. At the present rate IFNB will take over the number 1 spot next year. I am pleasantly surprised by the enormous interest in this article which in most weeks is at or near the top of the 'Popular Posts' gadget at mitchmen blog (in the right hand side bar). This may partly be due to the disappearance of the original IFNB blog for reasons only it's author will know.

 

The Priapus article which stays at No 1 for another year relates to some of his early work but is still scoring heavily. Priapus continues to produce stunning new imagery over at Telemachus12 and Patreon, like the image I've chosen to top this post. I don't rule out posting another mitchmen feature on him like 'Shooting The Past' last year.

 

In third place The Milking Factory (lead article in the popular series) continued it's rise, as I predicted last year, and Milking Factories–3 also jumped to sixth place with Milking Factories-4 also breaking into the top 20 at fifteen (up from 28 last year). I'm finding it harder to find new images to stimulate this series so it will be interesting to see if these challengers continue to make similar progress in the coming year.

 

Two long-standing stalwarts of this table filled fourth and fifth places, A-Z of Fetish Artists – Mike Carcel (a former winner) and A-Z of Fetish Artists – Cavelo. Both dropped two places, elbowed aside by the two new upstarts but there's a big gap below them down to 7th place and their scores in 2021 suggest it won't be easy for anyone else to get past for a while. Cavelo narrowed the gap between the two of them in their private running battle and is on course to overtake Mike Carcel in 2022, but neither are in the running for top spot any longer. The destruction of Yahoo! Groups seems to have taken down the fan clubs for these artists with it, but if anyone knows better please let me know via the comments facility.

 

Further down the table, a group of eight more posts about well-established and veteran artists all dropped one position in response to the rise of newer art - Jotto, Etienne, Malex, Franco, Martin of Holland, The Hun, Heredia and Julius. Two other significant artists dropped out of the chart altogether this year - 'demonic' Sean Platter and Leo. The Etienne - Index of articles at mitchmen which caused such a sensation last year wasn't able to repeat that performance in 2021 but managed to keep it's position in the top 10. The hit rates of all of this group dropped significantly this year, except for Martin of Holland whose score rose fractionally.  

 

Kalabro is another member of the 'well-established' band and he managed to improve his position, from 20 to 19 this year. He scored marginally more hits than in 2020 (possibly helped by his role in inspiring the Milking Factory phenomenon). Unfortunately his total decamp to Patreon has made his exciting art more difficult to access.

 

The other surprise of 2020, Homoeros Gallery Guide continued scoring at a substantial rate in 2021 which lifted it to 10th place and will get it significantly higher if repeated in 2022 (much to my bemusement, I must admit!). It was joined in the top 20 by another article on the same artist,  Homoeros – 6 (Art of The Cross), a subject which for me is the meat of this artist's work and clearly popular with others too. Crucifixion also featured in the Art of Roa, the No 2 new post of 2021. 

 

Like Etienne and Homoeros last year, My Initiation also had a spell of inexplicable, euphoric support a few years back, but now clocks up more mundane counts. It actually had a better year in 2021, however, which enabled it to cling on to 20th place, but is still in danger of being ousted from the top 20 next time. It is still the only photograph-based article in the chart unless you count the photo manips of IFNB and Priapus.

 

Last but not least, hanging on to 14th position (much to my delight), was A Christmas Criminal by Mitchell (1-5). It is the most successful of my 'own work' posts at mitchmen and did better than the ebbing fortunes of other mid-table articles, but is equally menaced by newcomers coming up below. 

 ~

 

 The entry level to this all-time top 20 is now 9338, about a thousand up on last year. It's sobering to reflect that this total is more than four times the score of the 2021, New Post winner, Come and Get It!.  However, the previous year's runaway hits  The Art of BrosFate – 3 and The Art of Amalaric – 1 A Slave To Passion however are fast approaching in at Nos 28 and 40 respectively. Both have a chance of getting in the all-time top 20 next time.

All of the older articles which still make up the bulk of this table were originally posted when the levels of visitors to mitchmen were much lower than they are now, which makes it all the more remarkable that so many are still holding off the 'new order'. Their on-going scores are probably helped by the mitchmen 'Index of Artists' page which reached 65,018 hits at the end of 2021 (more than 23% up from last time). This would have earned it top spot in this ranking if I counted it as a post.

mitchmen bog was first published in 2008 and nine of the fourteen years since then are still represented in this survey, the missing years between 2008 and 2021 are shown below

• 2011 - Top Contender is A Tribute to Bound Gods at 29, down from 25
  
• 2013 – The nearest is still my 2nd article on Mike Carcel but it slid again to 46 from 44
• 2014 - The Art of Baron is at 24 (23)
  
• 2020 - BrosFate - 3 is at 28 (up from 98) 
• 2021 - Come and Get It! entered the list at 223 only 6 months after publication.
  

Average hit rates

The total cumulative hits method I use for assessing the all-time popularity table is obviously biased towards older articles which have had longer to accumulate their hits. However, the higher traffic counts in recent years are offsetting that advantage more and more, enabling the best of the newer articles to contest the top positions. It's interesting to compare the total hits ranking (above) with that based on average hits per year since publication, which gives a more balanced view of long-term popularity - see table below.

 

In this list I have left out the 2021 posts because they don't even have a full year yet and their initial surge (if you'll pardon that expression) produces ridiculous hit rates. They are covered by a separate table (MPP1). 

 

Table 2

Articles with the Highest Average Hits per year Since Publication

 

Article	Published	Hits per year	Position (& last year)	'Total Hits' position
IFNB – A Fantasy World of Bodybuilders	2018	9330	1 (1)	2
The Milking Factory	2017	6990	2 (2)	3
Milking Factories - 3	2018	5825	3 (3)	6
Homoeros Gallery Guide	2018	5735	4 (4)	10
The Art of Amalaric – 1 A Slave To Passion	2020	5264	5 (-)	40
The Art of BrosFate – 3	2020	4222	6 (-)	28
Priapus of Milet - 1	2012	3976	7 (6)	1
Etienne - Index of articles at mitchmen	2018	3770	8 (5)	8
Milking Factories-4	2018	3667	9 (7)	15
The Art of BrosFate – 1	2020	3006	10 (-)	52
The Art of Homoeros - 6 (Art of The Cross)	2018	2911	11 (8)	18
A-Z of Fetish Artists – Mike Carcel	2010	2692	12 (10)	4
A-Z of Fetish Artists - Cavelo	2008	2690	13 (11)	5
The Art of Amalaric – 2 Ancient History	2020	2512	14 (-)	118
The Art of Amalaric – 3 Hunks & Manipulators	2020	2479	15 (-)	124
IFNB is most popular new post of 2018	2018	2432	16 (9)	37
The Art of Homoeros - 1 (Beefcake Boys)	2018	2336	17 (12)	26
Milking Factories - 5 (Development Lab)	2019	2216	18 (14)	48
A New Life For Our Air Force Boys	2017	2143	19 (13)	23
The Art of Amalaric – 7 Institutional Slavery	2020	2092	20 (-)	197

 With the top 4 articles impressively holding on to last years positions, the most striking feature of this chart is the entry of 4 new articles from the 2020, 'Art of Amalaric' series at 5, 14, 15 and 20. Also two of the 'Art of Brosfate' posts at 6 and 10, also from 2020. 

 These six newcomers swept away more of  'the usual suspects' which have dominated these charts in the past:- Hunk Hunt – Mitch Colby 5,  A-Z of Fetish Artists - Malex,  A-Z of Fetish Artists - Jotto and  A Christmas Criminal (ep 1-5) Now only there are only 3 articles left that are older than 2017, a sea change that is gradually being manifested in the total counts table (top). 

 The cut-off point for the 'hit rate' table rose from 1584 to 2092 hits per year. That is a total which was exceeded in 2021 by most of the articles represented in the 'Top 20 scorers during 2021', which indicates that these top scorers are not totally out of sight.

You can see how this method tends to benefit popular, newer articles in the short term by the new entries whose overall totals, reflected in the last column have yet to demonstrate long term consistency. The score of newer articles decays more quickly than the older ones if they don't keep up their initial post-publication surge and this year we also lost two newish articles which have already run out of steam The Art of Sparkieshock and Another Milking Factory No 2 (both from 2018).  The bottom end of the table is full of other newish articles in decline, it remains to be seen if new boys Amalaric and Brosfate can make a lasting impression on these rankings.

If you scan the years in the second table, newer articles fill 9 of the top 10 spaces, but the amazing long term performance of Priapus sticks out like a sore thumb in 7th place as do Mike Carcel and Cavelo which are running neck and neck (as usual) at 12 and 13. These articles have sustained heavy hit rates for 10-14 years not just 4 and the newer articles will have to do likewise to keep their present positions.

 ~

The articles I post to this blog are very much based on my own interests and fancies but the results of this survey do help me plan future offerings. My readers preferences doesn't always match my own (where are Les, JoeT and Link?). Nevertheless it's gratifying to see such interest in the great artists who often have a fairly low visibility on the web.

Remember, this comparison is only made for entertainment, since I don't really know how accurate Google's stats are, they don't seem to add up to the overall hits at the blog and I suspect they don't count the activity of people who just browse through the blog roll.

Thanks to all of you for your continuing interest and support.

 

This annual set of articles is made up of 3 charts

MPP1 - Most Popular New Post of the Year 

MPP2 - Most Popular Post of the Year (Old and New articles )

MPP3 - Most Popular Post of All Time (i.e. cumulative performance)

that's this article!

 

Charts and reviews for earlier years can be accessed by clicking the 'MPP' label below

Art by @ Anakuodo

Anakuodo - Captive In The Tower

 

A naked man kneels before his captor, bound in a web of green ropes with his hands tied behind his back. 

 

His master places a hand upon his forehead almost as if he's conducting a healing session, a religious induction of a bad boy - or perhaps contemplating something more exacting for his captive subject. They are in a room in a soaring tower with walls of glass so that it seems removed from the world rushing by below and yet feels disturbingly exposed for the captive. The sky has glow of departing sun, heralding the night.

 

 The room is bare but somehow seems luxurious in style. The submissive captive is forced to kneel on a red cushion like a prized pet. He lookes up with a strange, glazed expression as if resigned, but is obviously excited. The master is formally dressed in neat clothing that accentautes his trim physique and creates a sense of distance and superiority. He has removed his shoes as if not wishing to soil the plush carpet and seems poised to draw his captive's head forward into his crotch.

 

This is a curious image, painted in a slightly naive and yet self-consciously arty way but strangely atmospheric.  There's a striking similarity in the sinister atmosphere with the image by David Hueso which I posted last year

 

More by this artist: Anakudou @Twitter

IFNB - Most Viewed 'mitchmen' Post During 2021 (MPP2)

IFNB - A Competition Hopeful, Well Pleased with his Progress

 

Above, an image from the now-defunct IFNB blog (this year's top article) with artwork on the wall by Matt who also figures in the table at No 19. If you're unfamiliar with IFNB (The International Federation of Naked Bodybuilders) click on the link in the table entry below to read the mitchmen review of the organisation.

 The table lists the 20 most visited mitchmen posts during 2021. Commentary notes follow. 

(Titles have links to the original posts, overall hits in third column, ranking position based on annualised rate of hits in column 4 ).

 

TABLE 1 - Top 20 Posts at mitchmen (2021)

 

Rank (last yr)	Title (+link)	Total Hits	Last year	Pub Date	Note
1 (2)	IFNB A Fantasy World of BodyBuilders	11987	9435	2018	1
2 (3)	The Milking Factory - No 1	9931	8863	2017	2
3 (5)	Homoeros Gallery Guide	7396	7803	2018	3
4 (4)	Milking Factories - No 3	6051	8037	2018	2
5 (16)	The Art of Amalaric – 1 A Slave To Passion	5022	2103	2020	4
6 (10)	The Art of BrosFate – 3	4562	3407	2020	5
7 (-)	The Art of Brosfate – 1	4053	1671	2020	5
8 (8)	Milking Factories – No 4	3515	4515	2019	2
9 (9)	A-Z of Fetish Artists - Cavelo	3389	3732	2008	7
10 (7)	Priapus of Milet - 1	3116	4583	2012	7
11 (19)	A-Z of Fetish Artists – Mike Carcel	2533	1735	2010	7
12 (-)	Come and Get It! (Royale Studios Archive)	2304	-	2021	6
13 (13)	Milking Factories - 5 (The Development Lab)	2287	2412	2019	2
14 (-)	The Art of Roa 1 – The Conquered Hero	2210	-	2021	6
15 (-)	The Art of BrosFate 2	2170	1134	2020	5
16 (-)	The Art of Amalaric – 3 Hunks & Manipulators	2169	1146	2020	4
17 (-)	Control Room Violation	2122	-	2021	6
18 (14)	Another Milking Factory (No 2)	2076	2380	2018	2
19 (-)	The Art of 'Muscle' Matt -1	2064	822	2019	8
20 (-)	IFNB Revisited	2040	760	2020	1

 

(Stats collected on 31st December 2021) 

 

1

This year the mitchmen review of IFNB reclaimed the top spot it surrendered in last year's table to the surprise, record-breaking 'Etienne/Stephen article index' (which had 15671 hits last year). IFNB this year logged the 2nd biggest hit count ever recorded for a single year at mitchmen. For good measure the follow-up mitchmen article, 'IFNB Revisited' nudged into the chart at 20th position in it's first full year of recording hits. In view of the disappearance of this marvellous and very popular blog I'm considering doing a 3rd IFNB feature sometime.

 

N.B. 'Etienne/Stephen article index, last year's toppled winner (whose sudden popularity then both surprised and bemused me) turned in another reasonable performance by normal standards this year, but not quite enough to stay in the top 20, finishing at 23.

 

2

Milking Factories Nos 1&3 also reclaimed their former lofty positions just behind IFNB. Articles from this much-followed series continued to dominate the table, occuping 5 of the top 20 positions and maintaining similar rankings to last year. This sustained popularity speaks for itself.

3

Homoeros Gallery Guide (another article whose popularity seems bafflingly at variance with the rather dry content) managed to grab 3rd place. A couple of years ago this artist dominated this list but the last two other articles on his artist's work were pushed out by an influx of 8 newcomers,

 

To look at other charts for earlier years click on the MPP label at the foot of this post.

4

The lead article from the on-going mitchmen review of the Art of Amalaric, 'A Slave to Passion' topped the new posts table (MPP1) last year and continued to score heavily in this, it's first full year of hits. It rose to 5th place, overtaking Brosfate-3, it's rival from 2020, in the process. Another Amalic article 'Hunks and their Manipulators' also entered the chart, taking over 'Passion's 16th place. Other Amalaric articles did well enough to finish just outside the top 20.

5

Although Brosfate lost out to Amalaric in their rivalry this year, you can see that he still has the edge in total hits over the last two years taken together. In addition the other two articles from the Brosfate series at mitchmen both broke into the top 20 in impressive style, helped I suspect by my referencing their kinship with the work of TheMightyFoo and Roa, whose articles both scored well in their 2021 debut year.

6

Roa was one of three new articles from 2021 which broke into this all-comers top 20 chart, despite not having been able to register a full year of hits.The others were Royale Studio (Come and Get it!) and Control Room Violation. ( I discussed these posts in the previous 2021 New Articles post MPP1). 

 

It's not unusual for new articles to score heavily in their first weeks following publication, but it's another matter to sustain it long term. There is still a massive gulf between their counts and those of the leading articles above them, some of which date back over 10 years and yet still turn in big scores year after year.

7

Those articles are of course Cavelo (2008), Mike Carcel (2010) and Priapus of Milet (2012) who occupy a solid block in mid-table. MCarcel seems to have regained momentum after a dip to 19th position last year. The unflagging popularity of these three, quite different artists is amazing but entirely deserved. Sadly Jotto and Baron were amongst the casualties from the 'old brigade' this year, dropping out of the top 20. 

 

Apart from these three the list is filled entirely by articles published in the last 5 years

8

Of all the newcomers to the table this year, the one that delights me most is 'Muscle' Matt at No 19. His delightful, bodybuilding youths are loved by many, but rarely seem to be acknowledged on the net outside of obscure discussion groups. I'm glad mitchmen blog has provided a platform for a retrospective appreciation of his stylish and very amusing sketches. That admiration is reflected too in the IFNB image chosen to top this post.

~

This year's favourites are the usual mix of old and new, with photography, cartoons, renders, photo-manips and traditional art providing an impressive, eclectic range of interests. 

As I reported in the last post, overall visits to the blog rose 20% this year and although the winner's total in this table was down on last year, the 20th place, cut off figure rose from 1722 to 2040 (about 18%). 

The mitchmen 'Index of Artists' feature recorded 12,263 hits in 2021, up a modest 3% on 2020 but still less than 2019's record 13,951. However it was still visited often enough to have taken top place if I had included it in this general top 20 table above. I'm glad visitors are still finding the index useful and hope it will lead many more newcomers to a fantastic heritage of gay art they didn't know about. 

 

 Next time I will reveal the most popular mitchmen post of all time, based on cumulative hits - did Priapus of Milet manage to keep his spot at the top in 2021 or has he been overtaken by IFNB or Milking Factories?

Thanks to all of you for your continuing interest and support of mitchmen blog.

Keep it tight in 2022!

Royale Studio is Top New Post of 2021 (MPP1)

Royale Studio - Sailor Flogged in the Rigging

Above:- One of Royale's incredibly sexy, military photos from the 1960's,
Part of the Royale Studio Open Archive currently being established at mitchmen

~

The table below lists the most popular of the new mitchmen posts published during 2021. I've abandoned the complex calculations I tried out last year and reverted to my old method of simply counting hits with a mention of anomalies in the notes following the table.

(Titles have links to the original posts, overall hits in third column, ranking position based on annualised rate of hits in column 4 ).

 

TABLE 1 - Top 20 New Posts of 2021 at mitchmen

 

Rank	Title (+link)	Total Hits	Hit Rate Rank	Pub Date	Note
1	Come and Get It! (Royale Studios Archive)	2304	6	July	1
2	The Art of Roa 1 – The Conquered Hero	2210	1	Oct	2
3	Control Room Violation	2122	11	Mar	4
4	The Mighty Foo 1 – Military Capture	1858	9	May	3a
5	Milking Factories 9	1664	21	Nov '20	3c
6	Bizarre Punishments No 7 – The Sequel	1566	12	May	5a
7	The Art of Roa 2 – The Captured Commando	1545	2	Oct	2
8	The Art of Roa 3 – Eric	1433	4	Oct	2
9	Military Punishment by Paul	1391	18	Mar	6
10	Milking Factories 11	1375	14	May	3c
11	Dungeon Art by Papa Con – The Abbey	1358	20	Mar	3b
12	The Art of Robby Cop	1350	13	May	6
13	The Art of Roa 5 – Jamie & Kayle	1313	3	Oct	2
14	Eddie's Pre-sale Nerves	1278	7	Sept	5b
15	The Art Of Absolutbleu 1 – Icons	1190	16	Jun	6
16	Assorted Fetish Art by Gabo	1097	27	Jan	6
17	The Art of Madeira DeSouza – 2	1075	23	Feb	6
18	Papa Con Postscript – Office Party	1026	22	Mar	3b
19	The Art of Christopher Furminger	1019	32	Nov '20	6
20	The Mighty Foo 2 – The Ancients	1012	19	May	3a

 

(Stats collected on 31st December 2021) 

 

1

 

The outright winner is 'Come and Get It!', the lead article for the new 'mitchmen' Open Archive of Royale Studios' military erotica from the 1960's. This victory is a bit of a cheat because I have been re-issuing this post every time I add a new folder to the Archive, so the total will include repeat visits picking up the updates. 

The score of 2304 for the top post is a lot less than Brosfate's record of 3407 last year and the 2019 winner 'Milking Factories 4' which scored 2820, but they were both exceptionally popular posts and it's a perfectly respectable winning score in a longer term context. 

 

Overall visits to the mitchmen blog rose by 21% in 2021 to a record 825K hits, restoring the recent pattern of growth after the small dip last year, apparently due to Covid. At this point I must thank all my visitors for continuing to show your interest in mitchmen blog!

2

 

The runner up is the lead article for 'The Art of Roa' series, helped no doubt by the outstanding crucifixion image that topped it. This post also gained 'bonus' hits because I always direct casual visitors to start reading any series at the first article. This article has a valid claim to be the true, top post of the year because it was only narrowly beaten to first place and, published in October, scored a phenomenal number of hits in a short space of time to comfortably top the 'hit rate' table (ave hits per year). It would have won outright given another month. This performance emulated that of the 'Art of Amalaric' articles last year. It's annualised hit rate of 10,775 beat the previous record of 9195 set by Wrestling Arsenal in 2018. Three other articles from the Roa series also made the top 20 (at 7, 8 and 13) all with equally impressive hit rates (see table above). 

 

These stats unequivocally install Roa as mitchmen 'Artist of the Year', underlining his wide popularity and the loss we have suffered as a result of his sudden disappearance from the erotic art scene when it seemed he was just getting going. His renders have some strikingly original moments and strikingly handsome stars too (Sir Graham - yum!). Like many, talented, modern artists, though, some of his characters are disturbingly young, requiring judicious sampling on my part. I too have memories of adolescent longing for an older partner, but unfortunately it's a taboo subject for blogging in this day and age.

3

 

Two other artists also secured multiple entries in the top 20 - TheMightyFoo and  Papa-Con. Both of these make unique contributions to the fetish genre. Foo's frank explorations of homosexual love and the threat of death in a military context are disturbing and understandably controversial, but his renders have a bewildering beauty and are thought-provoking - on both a political and a personal level. He took 4th place and 20th.

 

There's an undercurrent of drama and violence in Papa-Con's work too (at 11 and 18). His wrestling images vividly complete the bizarre, humiliation rituals that professional fighters tease us with and his Abbey series reworks a popular homoerotic theme of secret, ritual punishment, but it's his dramatic and bold, traditional style and inter-generational focus on mature men that makes his work exceptional and very welcome.

The other double entry this year was for the Milking Factory series, No 9 (at 5) and No 11 (at 10), a recurring feature of the table in recent years. No 9 was actually a 2020 post but published so late in the year (mid-Nov) and such a beautiful render, that I've allowed it into this year's table.

 

4.

 

The third placed article qualifies as 'Surprise of the Year'. 'Control Room Violation' is an image by an unknown artist (or more than one artist, I suspect) which I rediscovered by chance in my archives. It attracted viewings on a sustained basis across the year. It exploits the theme of the anonymous, lustful intruder which can be a tricky subject, but the futuristic, quasi-military setting leaves questions of context and consent unanswered, so viewers can imagine their own erotic scenarios.

5

Another surprise (for me at any rate), was the appearance of one of my own War Comic re-workings in 5th place. It involved the denudification of two POW's under torture in 'Bizarre Punishments No 7'. This  re-imagining of comic book scenes that were already tantalising erotic was what drew me into this area, but I've not been able to do as much as I originally hoped, so far. I'm glad this one struck a chord with my readers.

I also gained another entry for my fiction writing in with 'Eddie's Pre-sale Nerves' at 14, an enslavement story inspired by a gorgeous gif of a body-builder nervously flexing his pecs. It's a theme that has slightly obsessed me since I discovered Amalaric's well-developed world of conscripted slavery and much of the credit for this piece is owed to him.

6

Some well established and vintage artists appear in the rankings this year - Paul at No 9 (whose military prisoners in shorts turn me on, but also tread a fine line on age) also Absolutbleu at 15, an uncontroversial colossus, whose sexy, 'Pirate Booty' just missed the cut last year. The detailed review of his work at mitchmen this year was long overdue. Likewise Madeira DeSouza at 17 whose relatively basic style belies some exciting (and often challenging) man-on-man confrontations.

 

Added to these were Robby Cop (12) and Gabo (16) representing newer artists. Robby has a surprisingly original and sparkling erotic style of traditional cartooning. Gabo's 'fan art' fantasies feature the modern style of neat, simple realism.

Also joining this group was Christopher Furminger (19) whose conventional paintings are more true to the homoerotic part of homoerotic art than most 'straight' gay painters who tend to lean towards 'Art' with a capital A. This is another article from late 2020 that I granted a pass into this year's table on the grounds of hit rate and sheer artistic quality.

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As usual there are a clutch of interesting articles which just failed to make the top 20 cut. They would have squeezed in if I had confined the multi-part articles to a single entry. They include Arsch (lab rat), Luxuris (the exclusion of his voluptuous packets from the top 20 surprised me), 'Spanking' Matt's humiliation scenarios , Ehrlik (another lab rat) and Amalaric's delicious 'Barbarian Prince' (part of the continuing mitchmen series on his work, but the only one that got close to emulating his sweeping success last year). 

This year's table features articles based on photographs, comics, cartoons, renders and 'fine' art, a cavalcade of gay, artistic talent which testifies to the wealth of sexy, expressive art available to us in the age of the internet. Long may it continue!

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Next time - The most viewed out of all the mitchmen posts during 2021 (not just the new ones).

 

A big, big Thank You! to all my readers for your interest in my blog, 

I hope mitchmen has managed to divert you from the tribulations of the world in 2021

 

 

 

 HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

from mitchmen blog

 

Crazy Cop Caps 9

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 Read series from No 1

 

 Go to Crazy Cop Caps No 10