To my readers......

SITE UPDATE NOTICE

Thanks for visiting mitchmen, home of Mitchell's Gay Art

The Caps and Collars/ Flat Cap Gang story at Google Groups has been on a break since January,
I am working on it and hope to resume shortly. (see Group News for link)

Link to the Royale Studio Archive in the right sidebar

Message updated 6th Sept 2024

Sunday, 15 January 2023

Most viewed post of all time (MPP3, 2022) is IFNB!

Muscle worship by cum soaked fan

Above, art by this year's winner, IFNB.
An autograph hunting fan laps up his hero's generous gesture. 

~

According to my Blogger 'hit stats', out of all the mitchmen articles published to date, 
those registering the most total hits since publication are as shown below.


Table 1 mitchmen Articles With Most Hits Since Publication to end 2022

Posn
(last yr)
Title of Post
(& link)
Year of
Pub'n
Cum
Hits
2022 Hits
1 (2)
2018
44,570
8,964
2 (3)
2017
43,879
9,847
3 (1)
2012 
41,771
3,166
4 (5)
2008
34,305
3,347
5 (4)
2010
33,058
2,073
6 (6)
2018
23,391
2,374
7 (7)
2009
22,133
1,277
8 (10)
2018
22,042
4,555
9 (8)
2016
20,871
1,451
10 (9)
2010
19,077
966
11 (11)
2009
18,517
3,830
12 (12)
2010
14,034
912
13 (13)
2009
 13,475
1,074
14 (-)
2020
13,314
6,189
15 (14)
2015
13,020
1,451
16 (15)
2019
12,891
2,041
17 (18)
2018
11,628
1,820
18 (19)
2009
11,468
 1,964
19 (17)
2009
11,400
1,199
20 (-)
2008
11,077
6,027

Stats compiled 31/12/22
 


This year Priapus of Milet – 1 surrendered the No 1 position after a three year run, overtaken both by '2021's article of the year', IFNB – A Fantasy World of Bodybuilder Morphs and by The Milking Factory which was 2022's top article. Both these articles dramatically outscored the rest of the pack. 

I am pleasantly surprised by the enormous, sustained interest in the IFNB article which must be partly due to the disappearance of the original IFNB blog (for reasons only it's author will know). The mitchmen follow-up article, 'IFNB Revisited' also posted a significant rise of 68 places in 2022 to 96. I hope to publish more images from my IFNB collection in 2023.

The Milking Factory is still challenging strongly at No 2 and at the present rate will grab the number 1 spot next year. It is still accompanied by Milking Factories - 3 (6th) and Milking Factories-4 (16th) which continued to consolidate their own scores in 2022. I posted a couple of splendid additions to this series in 2022 - Jakarta's Milking Parlour and Penguin Frontier's Milk Outlet. These may also make their presence known in the year to come.

The other notable development this year is the arrival of  The Art of Amalaric 1 - A Slave To Passion in 14th position having risen 26 places since last time with a hit score which, if repeated, will propel it much further up the table next year, although not enough to worry the top 5 for a while. As lead article in the Amalaric series, it attracts most of the hits, others in the series are still lagging some way behind. 

The other new arrival was A-Z of Fetish Artists - Brick. It's a surprise to me that this talented artist wasn't present in the the top 20 already. His rise of 46 places was partly fuelled by a referral by my friend Metalbond who had the privilege of hosting the release of Brick's wonderful new pictures in 2022. These demonstrate great advances in the artist's technical and erotic skills.
 
Brick is the latest of mitchmen's all-time greats to join this table. The Priapus of Milet article, relegated to No 3 this year, now heads a trio of long established artists who have been ever-present near the top of this table for many years now. The continued interest in  A-Z of Fetish Artists – Mike Carcel (a former winner) and A-Z of Fetish Artists – Cavelo, both of whom are both relatively inactive now (I believe) shows that their technical and erotic qualities continue to attract new fans. 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. These two swopped places in their long-running private tussle but there's still barely a sheet of Bronco between them and it's a big gap below them down to 6th place so no-one is likely to catch them soon. 

Their nearest challenger (apart from Amalaric - 1) is the Homoeros Gallery Guide which posted another good count in 2022 and climbed two places to cement it's place in the top 10. Homoeros – 6 (Art of The Cross) achieved a similar feat towards the foot of the table. I think this artist's alluring crucifixion imagery is the basis of his popularity, largely transforming a bdsm genre that has tended to be cautiously academic in the past (for obvious reasons).

Homoeros is one of a tight bunch of six articles chasing the top 5 in 6th to 11th positions. Four of them feature classic and vintage bdsm artists - Jotto, Etienne and Malex who were joined this year by A-Z of Fetish Artists - Franco which unexpectedly posted a particularly strong performance for which I have no explanation although his popularity is entirely deserved. There's another group of veterans further down - Martin of Holland, The Hun, Kalabro, Julius and newcomer Brick of course who displaced another one, Heredia, from the chart. They all turned in substantial scores during the year, a heart-warming tribute to the 'old school'.
 
Last but not least, hanging on to 15th position (much to my delight), was my own 'A Christmas Criminal'. It is by far the most successful of my own works at mitchmen, my next best, 'Last Chance Saloon' languishes at 85. 'Criminal' matched the performance of other mid-table articles, but like them is menaced by newcomers coming up below.

This year we lost from the top 20, A-Z of Fetish Artists - Heredia, 2009 which was only a tokenistic selection of that artist's age-sensitive art and My Initiation, 2012, a uniquely sexy image to bdsm fans which actually increased it's hit rate in the year but was ultimately ousted by the two high-flyers of 2022 - Amalaric and Brick 

The leading outsider threatening the present residents for next year is The Art of BrosFate – 3  at 24 (up 4 places) and Homoeros - 1 Beefcake Boys at 26. These two have a decent chance of scrambling into the top 20 next year.

 ~
 
 The entry level to this all-time top 20 is now 11,077 about 1,700 more on last year. That increase alone exceeded all but the top 4 scores of the 2022 new posts. It's also sobering to reflect that the cumulative total is more than five and a half times the score of the 2022, New Post winner, New 'Slave Academy' Pictures by Brick illustrating the long slog is needed to join this elite. Last year's winner  Come and Get It! rose 149 places to 76 this time but is still only half way to matching that entry bar (which will probably be higher by the time it get's there).  

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 77,515 hits at the end of 2022 (19% up from last time). This growth was less than last year but is really quite remarkable in a year in which overall visits to the blog were a tad down. It would have earned it top spot in this ranking if I counted it as a post.


mitchmen blog was first published in 2008 and ten of the fifteen years since then are now represented in this survey, the missing years between 2008 and 2022 are shown below

Average hit rates

The total cumulative hits method I use for assessing the all-time popularity table above is obviously biased towards older articles which have had longer to accumulate their hits. However, the higher traffic counts in recent years are eroding that advantage more and more, enabling the best of the newer articles to contest the top positions quite quickly. That effect is evident in the table below based on average hits per year since publication, which gives a more balanced view of long-term popularity.
 
In this list I have left out the 2022 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 that are unlikely to be sustained. They are covered by a table of their own (MPP1). 
 

Table 2
Articles with the Highest Average Hits per year Since Publication
 
Article
Published
Ave Hits per year
Position
(& last year)
'Total Hits' position
2018
9254
1 (1)
1
2017
7477
2 (2)
2
2020
5657
3 (5)
14
Homoeros Gallery Guide
2018
5443
4 (4)
8
Milking Factories - 3
2018
5076
 5 (3)
6
2012
3900
6 (7)
3
2021
3722
7 (-)
76
2020
3560
8 (6)
 24
Etienne - Index of articles at mitchmen
2016
3393
9 (8)
9
2019
3256
10 (9)
16
The Art of Roa 1 - The Conquered Hero
2021
3230
11 (-)
128
2020
2945
12 (10)
34
2008
2742
 13 (13)
4
2018
2661
 14 (11)
17
2010
 2643
15 (12)
5
2020
2425
16 (15)
 67
2020
2213
17 (14)
82
2018
2203
18 (17)
26
2019
2034
19 (18)
45
Another Milking Factory No2
2018
2023
20 (-)
28

In this table, the top 2 articles kept their positions but 'The Milking Factory' was one of only three articles that raised it's lifetime hit rate this year. The others declined as would be expected from the natural effect of aging which was reinforced this year by the overall fall in blog visits. The other exceptions were Art of Amalaric-1 which jumped over Homoeros into third position and Cavelo which stubbornly held on to 14th. The Cavelo article has a long tail of low scores on account of it's age and it's current annual hit scores comfortably exceed it's long term average so it's position in this table seems assured for the immediate future.

The 'Milking Factory' collection increased it's presence in the top 20 to 5 articles this year with No 2 in the series entering in 20th position. Nos 3,4 and 5 all lost ground but only slightly. The other big group in the top 20, the 'Art of Amalaric' series, showed a similar pattern with the leading article strengthening it's position and the others suffering small drops, however The Art of Amalaric – 7 Institutional Slavery slipped out of the top 20 altogether.

The highest placed new entry was The Royale Studio archive notice 'Come and Get it!' which came in at No 7. It benefits from the fact that I republish it whenever I add new material to the Royale archive. As a result it's 2022 score was more than in 2021. This article is the only one based on photography in these tables unless you count Amalaric's photo-manips. Two others from last year were knocked out by the new arrivals.  A New Life For Our Air Force Boys (2017) and IFNB is most popular new post of 2018. dropped to 21st and 22nd places.

Another 2021 article, 'Art of Roa No 1' entered the chart at No 11, a good performance that was foreshadowed when it finished second to 'Come and Get It!' in 2021's New Post poll  but it's early days yet for both these articles.

The rest of the table did not change very much but most articles were shuffled downwards by Amalaric's jump and the new arrivals taking up their positions. Two notable exceptions were the 'old-timers' Priapus of Milet who bucked the trend by rising one position to 6th on the back of a slightly improved hit rate in 2022 and Cavelo who held onto his 14th position with a similar strong showing. The other member of the pre-2017 'big three', MCarcel, dropped three places after showing a more significant decline.

 The cut-off point for joining the 'hit rate' table dropped a tiny amount this year, from 2092 to2023 hits per year. Only two articles in the 2022 New Posts table beat that total this year and then only marginally so. They face a major challenge if they are to join this company next year. Although this method tends to benefit popular, newer articles in the short term, their score decays more quickly than the older ones if they don't keep up their initial post-publication surge.

 ~

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 during the Year (All 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
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Thursday, 12 January 2023

Platoon 69 by Jero

captured marine tied to bed ready for sexual toys tied by ropes to bed frame in vest and camo pants
Jero - Interrogation 

 Deep in the Jungle, in an abandoned military outpost, Sergeant Baxter was evaluating his position. He had led his platoon into a trap and now the rebels wanted to find out exactly what his mission had been. 

The muscular soldier had little fear of torture, he and his men had been too well trained to succumb to mere pain. But his interrogator seemed to have something quite different in mind. From an old wooden box on the floor, he had produced a collection of strange devices - brightly coloured balls, shiny tubes and plastic rods. His captor was already fondling a strange pink object in his lap. Baxter's superiors had warned him of the enemy's capacity for fiendish tricks and torments and now he realised that was exactly what faced him now. 

He tested the ropes that secured him to the bedframe. His captor clearly knew his stuff, it would take hours to get free. The frame itself gave not an inch when he tested his strength against it and was obviously bolted to the floor. There would be no easy escape for him this time. But even in his hour of danger he thought about his men hoping they would not suffer with him.


Marine captive restrained in wrist ankle irons sitting on floor stripped of uniform wears jockstrap and boots
Jero - Soldier's Difficulty

A short distance away Canelli was doing his own calculations. The farm boy from Nebraska was a strong man and had fought his attackers bravely before succumbing to overwhelming numbers. Now they were taking no chances with him. Curious about his exceptional muscularity, they had stripped his uniform from him, leaving him only the minimal dignity of wearing his military jockstrap and his boots. They circled around him touching his body and joking in their own language. 

For a few moments he remained unrestrained and thought about bolting, but the thought of running through the jungle like that, half-naked and with no protection, was daunting. Before he could decide to take the chance his wrists and ankles had been clamped in the loops of a heavy iron bar that forced him to sit and made any movement virtually impossible. They had amused themselves with him a little longer and then left him sitting on the floor, alone in the small room. Already the confined position was making his joints and muscles ache. The sun had risen now and already the cell was heating up. Sweat was trickling down his body but the day, which might be his last, had scarcely begun.


captured soldier suspended in chains and fetters bare top naked chest camo pants
Jero - Strung Up

Suarez hadn't even realised it was day yet. Suspended by chains in a dark, airless cell he'd been sweating all through the long, humid night. Picked off at the back of the column he'd been hustled away before his comrades knew he'd gone. They'd stripped off his shirt and used his hairy, muscled torso as a punchbag. He'd told them nothing yet, they hadn't even asked, they were just softening him up. An hour ago they'd left his bruised body hanging, stewing in the suffocating air of his prison. 
But they'd be back. He had no doubt of that.


Captured soldier marine stripped to jockstrap and boots clamped spread wide in lab torture machine brain-washing
Jero - Mind Melting

At that very moment private Scott was was learning the true capabilities of their enemy. When the remnants of the captured platoon had shuffled into the dilapidated camp, they'd quickly picked out  blond construction worker from Chicago as a prime example of enemy manhood, the sort of trophy captive who could be used against the politicians who had sent these men here and their public whose support kept them here. 

When they stripped the gentle giant of his clothes they were not at all disappointed, the humiliation and subjugation of such a fine physique would be all the more painful for the enemy on those distant shores. The rebel's own scientists would be delighted with such a fine specimen. He'd proved a good fighter but already he had shown blind obedience to command by stripping off his uniform as soon as they demanded it. Marched naked through the compound to the research lab he'd offered no resistance as they strapped him to the experimental platform. 

Scott faced his fate with calm bravery. He understood his duty was to resist these men as long as he could. When they took his clothes from him he felt as if he'd lost the protection of the Army. He was surrounded by enemies and when they strapped him down he no longer was able to protect himself. 

They'd left him like that to await the scientist whom he had little doubt had ways and means to test him. As though to underline his isolation and vulnerability the square-jawed guard left with him had idly explored his jock pouch while they waited. His fingers had induced pleasurable sensations in Scott that seemed a mockery of his sense of duty and patriotism.

When the scientist eventually arrived he did not bother with such frivolities but quickly switched on his equipment and as the room filled with humming sounds he sandwiched Scott's head between two massive ear pads and went to his control panel. Within seconds the strong man's mind was filled with confusing, nightmare thoughts and sensations that obliterated fear and rational thoughts alike. 

He remembered no more


Soldier marine prisoner stripped of uniform naked wearing jockstrap boots
Jero - Military Captive

Like all his comrades Corporal Hunt had been stripped of his clothes and exposed to the ogling of his captors, their fingers stroking his underpants. They'd been warned to expect that as a technique to break them down and had told him that his hairy, burly physique would be a novelty to them. So he was surprised when they simply clamped heavy manacles on his wrists and just left him like that. 

As the hours went by he could tell that his colleagues were suffering badly. Was his mild treatment just a way of weakening him? They even came and fed him and his guard remarked that the commanding officer wanted him 'well prepared'. This puzzling remark added to Hunt's confusion and he had many hours to ponder it as the day went by and still they made no attempt to coerce or torment him. 

Instead,  as day darkened into night, they returned and washed him from head to foot, making him stand in a small tin bath with soapy water cascading down his body and swilling round his ankles.  He braced himself for the worst, this was all too ritualistic, something was not right. 

Afterwards they led him through the camp and the soldiers sitting around and eating their supper stared strangly, almost as if they knew..... Finally he was taken into a hut that was comfortably furnished. A meal was set on the table and he looked at it hungrily. "Welcome Corporal Hunt" a voice said, "You are every bit as handsome as my men told me". Hunt turned and saw the speaker was clearly an officer. 

"Sir!" Hunt barked, remembering his etiquette and getting a nod in return. 

The Officer invited him to sit at the table, clipping his manacles to the surface so he could eat his food, but do very little else with them. Hunt's stomach stirred uneasily. "We will eat" the Officer said to him "and then you will join me in my bed where I will find out how much your army taught you". Angered by the trickery, Hunt's palms slammed down on the table loudly but the officer just smiled. "Something tells me you will be, shall we say, an interesting subject. Of course, I'm not averse to teaching you myself, if your devotion to bodily enhancement which, if I may say so,  has produced such pleasing results, has caused you to neglect the simpler pleasures of the flesh". 

In the silence that followed, the night sounds of the jungle filtered in through the mosquito net draped over the open window. To Hunt it felt like something was crawling inside his camouflage underwear. The Officer took a bit out of a chicken drumstick and then went on, "If you please me, I will spare you the agony that has befallen your comrades. If you please me and also give me information, I may even spare them too - from from further brutal interrogation at least, but probably not bed duties - not until they are recovered enough to carry them out to my satisfaction, of course."

At that moment, a blood curdling cry came in through the window.

Soldier spread-eagled tied to trees torn ripped vest sweating fisted bare ass naked
Jero - Mercenary Soldier Captured

Outside, beyond the perimeter of the camp Sergeant Baxter's interrogation was reaching a climax of sorts. It wasn't his first one that day, during which he had experienced the full range of toys available to his captors and been taught to give them the results they wanted. In the process, his camo pants had been ripped away and his vest shredded into holes. Now, outside in the humid jungle night his interrogation had properly begun with an experienced and uninhibited hand probing him deeply. To prevent any evasion they had strung him between two trees and a heavy weight had been slung from his aching balls. 

Baxter had spilt much that day, but not yet the beans, not yet the full information his interrogators wanted. But they were not unduly concerned, for them the journey was as important as the destination.

~

Art by Jero, see also Abduction Art by Jero for links
Fictional narrative by Mitchell of mitchmen (clock 'stories' label for more)

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Tuesday, 10 January 2023

Most viewed mitchmen post during 2022 (MPP2)

Milking Factory at mitchmen, man milked by machine while bound, tied up, cock tied, plugged
Kalabro - Milking Dave

 Above, a dramatic image by Kalabro taken from the original 'Milking Factory' article which was the most visited of all the posts at mitchmen in 2022. The 2009 mitchmen A-Z article on his early work also broke into the top 20 this year at No17 (below) and this artist also provided the second most popular new post of 2022.

 The table below lists the 20 most visited mitchmen posts during 2021. 

Commentary notes follow. (Titles have links to the original posts ).


 
TABLE 1 - Top 20 Posts at mitchmen (2022)
 
Rank (last yr)
Title (+link)
Total Hits
Last year
Pub Date
Note
1 (2)
9847
9931
2017
1
2 (1)
 8964
11987
2018
1
3 (5)
6189
5022
2020
2
4 (-)
6027
806
2008
3 
 5 (3)
4555
 7396
2018
4  
6 (-)
3830
886
2009
3 
7 (9)
3347
 3389
2008
3
8 (10)
3166
3116
2012
 3
9 (12)
Come and Get It! (Royale Studios Archive)
3241
2304
2021
5 
10 (7)
2828
 4053
2020
2 
11 (4)
2374
 6051
2018
1
12 (16)
2353
2169
2020
 2
13 (6)
2312
4562
2020
2 
14 (11)
2073
2533
2010
 3
15 (8)
2041
 3515
2019
1
16 (19)
 The Art of 'Muscle' Matt -1
1977 
2064 
2019
6 
17 (-)
1964
1145
2009
3 
18 (18)
1956
2076
2018
1
19 (20)
1900
2040
2020
1 
20 (-)
1820
1952
2018
4 
 
(Stats collected on 31st December 2022) 

1
This year the original Milking Factory post finally claimed the prize of being most visited during the year. It has been edging closer and closer to top spot ever since it first appeared in 2017 and in 2022 finally overtook the 'mitchmen review of IFNB' which has been it's principal rival in the last couple of years. However, the hit counts of both articles declined in a year in which visits to the blog generally were slightly down.

Milking Factory posts continued to feature further down the table at 11, 15 and 18 (albeit with reduced hits) and with three more bunched together just outside the top 20, the popular appeal of this series seems undimmed.

The same is true of the IFNB series which continued to score well despite being edged out of top position and the companion article 'IFNB Revisited' slightly improved it's position to No 19. The disappearance of this marvellous and very popular blog is a great loss, 
I must do a 3rd IFNB feature here soon!
 
N.B. The 'Etienne/Stephen article index (whose sudden popularity in 2021 surprised and bemused me) turned in another reasonable performance by normal standards this year, not quite enough to stay in the top 20, but it finished at 23.
 
2
There was quite a big gap down to the third placed article 'Amalaric - 1, A Slave to Passion' but that article did succeed in raising it's hit count during the year, considerably closing the gap on the leaders. No 3 in the series did the same trick, lifting it to 12th spot while Part 2 (Ancient History) just missed the cut at No 21. The institutional enslavement fantasies of these articles did much to set the tone of this blog in recent years and there's no sign that they are running out of steam yet. I didn't add to the series in 2022 but there is more material I would like to post, so watch this space.

Brosfate was a strong rival to Amalaric when they were first published but fell further behind in 2022. His more conventional bdsm scenarios still secured two places in the top 20 at No 10 and No 13.

3
2022 saw something of a return of the old days with a number of favourites from the mitchmen A-Z of Fetish Artists series unexpectedly entering the chart -  Brick (at No 4), Franco (6) and Kalabro (17). In the case of the last two it's been a gap of 4-5 years since we saw them in the top 20. 

The popularity of the Brick article was linked to the release of those tremendous new pictures from him at Metalbond , who helpfully guided his readers to read my 2008 article on his work.

The Kalabro article benefitted from the publication of his Slave Gang picture here at the start of the year and the 'Best of Kalabro' post I was prompted to write as a result. I admit that I shamelessly promote Kalabro's work here and greatly miss his contributions to our art.  
 ('Slave Gang' was one of two 2022 posts which would have squeaked into this table except that I have disallowed new posts this year, the other was a promotional post on Brick)

Franco is another great artist of long standing but his sudden return took me by surprise. His older works mentioned in my A-Z article can lay claim to being pioneers of the Mechanical Milking genre and he's achieved the remarkable feat in recent years of re-inventing himself in an entirely new style, producing more realistic variations of his old pieces that are supremely erotic. Like Brick, his hits mushroomed dramatically during the year but unlike Brick I don't know why. I guess someone has posted a link to my blog somewhere and wholeheartedly thank them!

These three re-joined the amazing Cavelo (7) and MCarcel (14) whose presence in this table seems permanent despite the articles being over 10 years old, their having ceased to publish new work and having no 'home' on the web (as far as I know, if you know better please tell me!). These are great artists but it's still an astonishing testament to their popularity. Priapus of Milet is a new boy by comparison but is shaping up the same way. His steady flow of super new art seems to assure him of continued popularity here. 

This phenomenon has meant that 8 different years are represented in this years table

4

Homoeros continued to maintain a presence in the table with the Gallery Guide (whose popularity seems bafflingly at variance with the rather dry content) in 5th place and 'Art of the Cross' reappearing at 20, possibly benefiting from the St Jinx picture I posted this year.
 

5

I was personally gratified to see that my Royale Studio Open Archive Post continued to attract hits this year at No 9. It's not really a measure of popularity because I regularly publish new versions linked to the Archive updates but I think the preservation of information on these pioneers of British fetish photography is highly important and the best way to achieve that in this day and age is copy it and copy it. My hope of consolidating as much as possible about Royale within the open archive is really just the first small step but I'm delighted that there are plenty of people out there who support it with their interest. 

This post and the two IFNB articles were the only photographic entries in the list

6

'Muscle' Matt continued to attract visits at No 16. I love his swaggering bodybuilders and am glad mitchmen blog has provided a rare platform for the retrospective appreciation of his stylish, amusing and very special sketches. 

~

The most interesting post that didn't quite make it into the top 20 was The Art of Black Prof at No22, helped this year, I suppose, by my new post about his Tarzan storyette (which only just missed the cut for the top new post of 2022). His male bondage scenes are something of a side-line but I'm hoping that one day he will produce something for us that emulates the voluptuous glamour of his female captives.

The four posts displaced from last year's table are:

Roa and Control Room Violation were two of the outstanding new stars of last year of course and their fall vividly demonstrates the difficulty for new articles in keeping up with the scores of their first weeks following publication. It underlines the achievement of the 'old timers', that seem to have 'built-in majority' any politician would die for. 
 
~

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

As I reported in the last post, overall visits to the blog dropped a little this year (by 1%) after last year's amazing 20% rise. The winner's total here and the 'cut off' figure for entering the top 20 dropped by rather more, suggesting visitors are exploring a wider range of articles.

The mitchmen 'Index of Artists' feature recorded 12,497 hits in 2022, up a modest 2% on 2021 but still less than 2019's record 13,951. It was still visited often enough to have taken top place if I had included it in the 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 still manage to keep his top spot and hold off IFNB and Milking Factories?

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

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


Keep it tight in 2023!


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Saturday, 7 January 2023

More Art by Team52Crazy

Read Part 1 of this article - Bondage Art by Team52Crazy

Military undressing by tailor

 

This playful image seems to recognise the special, inviolable status that a uniform has for it's wearer, but subverts it by showing him sweating with anxiety, or perhaps it's excitement, as the tailor's hands hover in the vicinity of his crotch. It's difficult to tell if the tailor's 'Asian-wink' is showing puzzlement, contempt at the absurdity of the soldier's sensitivity or is an aside to the viewer signalling his intention to embarrass the soldier even more with the classic, Inside Leg Measurement manoeuvre.

This image of course reworks a tailoring scenario made famous by Tom of Finland in the 60's


Soldier in urinal, pants down picked up by tough guy
This image explores a similar embarrassment but this time it's the lustful stare of the chunky specimen at the adjacent urinal that is discomforting the military man (or is he a cop?). He's had to lower his trousers to get his dick out and it's exposed his white underwear and glimpses of butt cheek, a pose which makes his uniform seem less than intimidating.

This image has a striking resemblance to one of my recent illustrations for the 'Flat Cap Gang' story at the mitchmen Google Group (Chap 133) but I didn't intentionally copy it. I thought I had invented something new! A spooky and humbling demonstration of the secret power of the subliminal mind.



I'm a sucker (as it were) for men in snugly-fitting, white underwear.

This military man seems to be rueing giving in to his impulses, but although we see him lying on a bed bottom up, it's not clear how far he has actually gone, his natty underpants look pristine at this point. If he's been picked up by a hulk like the one in the picture above though, it's possible he's irreversibly committed anyway, I suppose. In which case it's another example of a brave serviceman showing fear in the face of an invader.

I have this titled as a Navy Military Policeman, you can see he has the traditional square back collar shape although it's not differentiated from the rest of his uniform.



Uniforms are an irresistible attraction to many of us but I hope we wouldn't all go to these lengths to demonstrate our interest. The object of desire here seems to be a paratrooper judging by his badge and they are usually credited with being exceptionally well trained to look after themselves behind enemy lines. This Bluto-like character may find he's bitten off more than he can chew.

Of course it's probably just a couple of playful chums.



This tells the other side of the story with the soldier living up to the promise offered by his uniform - demonstrating power, assertiveness and a handy weapon. The intimidating hulk proves to be more sensitive and complicated than he looks.

This picture is a further variation on the eroticism of violating the sanctity of uniforms 
but I certainly can't accuse this one of lacking courage.

Two cops amuse themselves by employing their batons for a ball-beating challenge instead of using them to direct traffic. It's one of a series, a later picture shows one of them reflecting on the mound it has produced in his trousers.

This picture with it's painful test of manhood and the artist's curious way of depicting eyes, plus the cropped hair in earlier pictures reminds me very much of the Art of Andy Warlord who I plan to feature here in the new year. 



Even service men are allowed to have their own secret desires. At first sight it appears this one has been overpowered and gagged by some predator but the artist reveals to us that he has a secret fetish. Hidden beneath his uniform is a set of leather fetish regalia. We might suppose from his gag that he likes to be dominated in the uniquely ritualistic way that is leather S&M.

This curious way of trying to show erotic things that are normally hidden is a phenomenon that seems to be a particular feature of Asian art. It's more commonly used add explicitness in showing sexual penetration but this is a more interesting application. In effect it's trying to show us what goes on inside this man's mind. A sort of ying and yang image, although you might argue that a man in uniform is the embodiment of submission to a master anyway. The leather thongs merely add an explicit erotic dimension.


This image carries the same message, but less subtly. Ordinarily daubings like this are applied by someone else as a demonstration of their power, so the undressing action here is an act of voluntary submission in response to that. 

A man in the act of undressing always makes an interesting picture and this one cleverly combines two examples of that particularly sexy moment when the fastenings are undone and begin  to reveal what is underneath. In this case it includes an intriguing jockstrap with a military green waistband and a blue pouch covered with patterns which are vaguely reminiscent of camouflage but strangely suggestive of contents that are extremely interesting and full. Notice how the lower edge of the waistband detours round the mound. Nice.


There's a powerful sense of submission here too. A salacious detail is obscured on the left, but for me the main interest lies in the soldier's arching torso, bursting out of his uniform in a vivid demonstration of the real human inside. The depiction of his groin area is beautifully detailed but commendably restrained.




This is a great beefcake picture that combines the power imagery of a uniform with the accentuated masculinity of highly developed muscles. However, this image also seems to show there's a rather different, youthful and somewhat innocent creature within. He has just knelt at the altar of another man, communed and been duly anointed. This is the embarrassing comic aftermath and you get the impression that it wasn't exactly what he was expecting. 

Life is full of unexpected lessons!


Navy whites seem to have gone out of fashion as homoerotic dress but I personally am as entranced by them as ever I was in my youth (as you might guess from my current Royale obsession). I'm glad to see that Team52Crazy is carrying on the tradition.

Like the preceding image, there's a sense of experimentation here, with shades of Oztangles in the cum-splattered mirror. Bathroom selfies crop up in this artist's work quite often which reflects the modern day proliferation of such images on the internet. There's something quite sexy in this form of narcissism with it's overtones of private moments, modest men revealing their secret vanity and - in shared bathrooms - the lurking possibility of a stranger bursting in at the wrong moment.

In this picture one wonders just who was responsible for decorating the mirror so impressively, was it the selfie-taker or someone else who has left his mark behind for an admirer just as this? 



I don't speak Thai but the phone message in  this cartoon appears to be pointing out the relative merits of consuming different lengths of bananas (or something). The puzzlement of the butch-looking recipient is sexy but I'm not sure I know why!

~

This artist has multiple social network pages including Team52 @ Twitter and Team52 @Instagram but the best selection seems to be at Team52Crazy's facebook page. Most of the public art is censored or innocuous with a few exceptions but you get nice drawings of military men undressing or in suggestive situations. The adult content is (presumably) at Team52 @Patreon 

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