INTERNATIONAL and HISTORIC HOMOEROTIC HALL of FAME NOMINEE:
Once called “the most influential creator of gay pornographic images,” Finnish Artist Touko Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), is better known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland. His extraordinary stylized homoerotic fetish art were a great influence on gay culture of the late twentieth century.
Tom of Finland was a prolific artist, producing over 3500 illustrations featuring heavily muscled gay archetypes such as lumberjacks, motorcycle policemen, sailors, soldiers, bikers, and leather-men engaged in the animalisticly fleeting intimate moments preceding or during sex. His hunky illustrations usually wear very little and what they DO wear is always nice and tight and generally partially removed.
At the age of 19, he moved to the country’s capital Helsinki to study advertising, where he also started secretly drawing homoerotic images for his own pleasure. Conscripted into the Finnish Army in February 1940, second lieutenant Touko Laaksonen served as an anti-aircraft officer during the Winter War. In 1945, he returned to studies at the art college, but later attributed much of his fetishistic interest in uniformed men to encounters he had with men in army uniform while serving.
His career as Tom of Finland began In 1956 when the conservative social climate prompted Laaksonen to use the anonymous name “Tom” when he submitted drawings to the influential American magazine Physique Pictorial. His image of two log drivers and a voyeuristic 3rd man was published on the cover and others appeared within the Spring 1957 issue, and the editor credited them to “Tom of Finland.”
From the late-1950s to the early 1960s, his style was definitely cramped by the U.S. censorship codes restricting depiction of “overt homosexual acts.” The outlawing of gay pornography by the conservative and homophobic social culture of the era forced homoerotic publications to disguise themselves as “fitness magazines” until the 1962 Supreme Court case of MANual Enterprises v. Day decreed nude male photographs were no longer obscene. The pretense of being about exercise and fitness was quickly dropped and the newfound freedom allowed Tom of Finland and his contemporaries to publish much more explicit drawings featuring characters with extremely exaggerated anatomical gifts.
Laaksonen’s vision was influenced by the stylized masculinity of the biker subculture that emerged after WWII. Prior to this era, society’s image of gay men was mostly limited to stereotypical effeminate sissies seen in Vaudville and early films. The art of Tom of Finland and his predecessors/influences (George Quaintance and Etienne) and followers both energized and commercialized an underground leather counter-culture which emerged after World War II and was most popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The clothing, styling, and persona adopted by large numbers of gay men of the time illustrate the power of his work. Celebrities such as Glenn Hughes of The Village People and others who sported the Castro Clone look might well have just stepped out of a Tom of Finland drawing. Though the iconic leatherman style has evolved some since the height of its popularity in the mid 80s, Laaksonen’s images are still en vogue and appear regularly in today’s gay publications and on the walls of our bars, clubs and remaining bathhouses.
Not only has Tom of Finland’s work has been shown in a number of collections in museums internationally, inspired a documentary, and influenced leading artists of his time such as Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, Pierre et Gilles and countless film makers, but it has also been appropriated by a number of other artists to inspire new works. Most notably in the late 1970s, Laaksonen’s art graced t-shirts featured at SEX, a popular store run by clothes designer Vivienne Westwood and partner Malcolm McLaren.
Durk Dehner and Touko Laaksonen founded the Tom of Finland Company in 1979 to help Tom control pirating of his work. When the AIDS epidemic hit the gay subculture hard in 1984, the Tom of Finland Foundation was formed as a non-profit educational archive to catalog, preserve, restore, and exhibit erotic art created by homoerotic artists many of whom were stricken and sought ways to preserve their works for posterity.
Tom of Finland’s artwork affected his contemporaries and every homoerotic artist who followed in his footsteps. Without his body of work where would the modern generation of homoerotic artists (Patrick Fillion, Ismael Avlarez, HvH, Carlos Garcia, Glenn Hanson, Michael Breyette, Ian Hanks and Josman to name a few) be? They all owe a debt of thanks to Tom of Finland.
Except for his gender, age (37) and birthday (April 2 1972), little is actually known about the enigmatic homoerotic beefcake artist known only as HvH. His nom du illustration is not his initials but something he describes as a "game" on his name.
Email interviews with Nightcharm revealed HvH was a "well-known magazine illustrator and advertising exec before he remade himself as HvH, homoerotic Master of the Man-Bear."
Here are links to his published works – more on these below…
HvH’s men are often a bit meatier many of the subjects of other gay erotica, but his loving touch deftly captures the beauty of all sorts of body types – from twink to bear and everything inbetween.
In addition to fellow contemporary gay artists Glen Hanson and Patrick Fillion. HvH also cites a 1960’s Portuguese artist named João Abel Manta (”the thick outlines and the sense of design”) as a major artistic influence (which may be a clue to his country of origin). A traditional artist at heart, HvH sketches out all his images with pencil and paper before scanning and vectorizing them so he can refine them as line art and then convert back to bitmaps so he can add color, photographic textures and his distinctive shading with a digital pen.
HvH’s Blog is called HVHExpo, and while it hasn’t been updated in awhile, it is chock full of images such as the ones included in this gallery. HvH posts preview images of upcoming projects (such as 3 covers for Eric Arvin novels: “Subsurdity”, “Suburbilicious” (his Jasper Lane books), and “Slight Details and Random Events” as well as behind-the-scenes sketches along with the artists observations.
The past few years have been good for HvH. In 2007 Class Comics has published In the Blink of An Eye… a graphic novel containing three all new xxx vignettes featuring the manly men of HvH.
In 2008 was doubly blessed as he released two volumes. The first is a beautiful hardcover coffee table edition called Gone to the Movies – collecting HvH’s wilful new gay interpretations of famous movie posters. His second book of that year is the deluxe 24 page Class Comics Portfolios HvH. I’m not sure what if anything he’s been up to in 2009, the last entry at his blog is July 9 2008.
HvH’s art can be seen in “In the Blink of an Eye” published by Class Comics titles and in a gay superhero strip called “The Adventures of Link” at FRESHMEN (a preview page is included in the gallery above along with 2 earlier versions).
INTERNATIONAL and HISTORIC HOMOEROTIC HALL of FAME NOMINEE:
Pioneer homoerotic beefcake Illustrator Oliver Frey (a.k.a Oli Frey, a.k.a. Zack, a.k.a. Clint) was born in Zurich, on 30 June 1948. He grew up fluent in Italian ( his parents hailed from Ticino, the Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland) and German. His family moved to Britain in 1956 but subsequently returned to Switzerland where he followed an American correspondence course called The Famous Artists during his high school years.
As a child Frey loved The Eagle comic and taught himself to draw by copying the drawings of Eagle’s artists. As an adult was able to fulfil his childhood dream by working on the revived version, drawing the strip Dan Dare. Frey began his carreer as an illustrator of childrens books and comics to pay his way the London Film School, illustrating for IPC Media’s Look and Learn magazine, including the strip The Trigan Empire.
Oliver’s brother Franco and Roger Kean founded the computer magazine CRASH in 1983, and Oli became the illustrator for CRASH and its sister magazines Zzap! 64, Amtix and The Games Machine. Many of Frey’s earlier covers featured seemingly random homoerotic images of bare chested youths that had nothing to do with the issue’s content. You can check out much of his commercial work here.
Oliver Frey is sometimes better known as Zack or Clint, which are noms de plume he used for much of his explicit work published in the 70’s and 80’s in a few British gay magazines. Oli Frey may be the most widely-seen of all gay porn artists simply because he drew some Superman pages seen briefly at the beginning of the 1978 Superman.
After years of drawing innocents, Frey found a new genre when he met Alan Purnell and began creating the Hitchhiker drawings. Originally the images were intended for Playguy Magazine but they ended up in Him Magazine, where Frey created his popular gay bad-boy hero, Rogue who combines "the mystery of James Bond, the passion of Cassanova, the exploits of the Marquis de Sade and the imagination of Tom of Finland."
Oliver Frey’s Rogue embodies a whole mythology of gay sex. Some identifed with his predatory nature and others identified with or wanted to be counted among his victims who were generally Rogue’s equal in physical appeal if not in experience. Frey’s extremely homoerotic comics usually show the reader attractive young men in sexual peril, either forced into situations beyond their control or driven to dangerous situations by their own unrestrained libido.
Frey’s work was part of an underground era unfetterrered by things such as political correctness, and there are some failrly hot if COMPLETELY politically incorrect subjects of which he left us with graphic interpretations. More on that in the Poll after this gallery…
Since the late 90s, Oliver Frey has been working as publishing director for Thalamus Publishing in Shropshire, which specializes in illustrated historical reference titles.
Since Norman Osborn (a.k.a. the Green Goblin) has taken a H.A.M.M.E.R. to S.H.I.E.L.D but could not tell you what it stands for I held a contest for serious suggestions with the promise of free porn for the winner.
The vote is on at the top of the sidebar. The writer of the winning entry gets to choose ONE of the following DVD titles.
Most of you didn’t provide e-mails with your entries. So I’ll have to resort to shouting out to the winner and asking him to reply with a comment and and e-mail so i can arrange to have them send an address for delivery and copy of an ID proving they are 18.
This has to be one of the oddest things I’ve heard about in all my years as a porn fan. Now action figures of pornstars are not that unusual. Many female straight porn starlets have been immortalized in plastic. And the gay porn world is no stranger to toys either, as supercock Jeff Stryker has his own action figure, and he was preceded by the anatomically gifted Billy Doll (no relation to Herrington).
What is unusual is why Billy Herrington is getting his own figure. Apparently some workout video of his got posted on a Japanese YouTube-like site and then took off from there as an internet meme that is so popular he warrants his own toy. I do not understand.
UPDATE: Links to a fairly complete filmography of the work of Billy Herrington can be found at bottom of post.
That body… that appearance… they truly are mystical. The well-known idol from NicoNico Douga, the "underwear wresting aniki", Billy Herrington has been made into his very own figma!
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Using the smooth yet poseable joints of figma, you can act out various wrestling scenes.
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A flexible plastic is used for his breast muscles and biceps, allowing the proportions of his beautiful body to be kept, without compromising the posability.
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The first figma to bare his naked body, allowing for even more thriving poses!
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Barbells and dumbbells are included so Billy can keep his body in perfect shape.
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His underwear is identical to that which appeared in his videos, and there are two variations to switch between, or worn together at the same time. A skin-colored pair is also included for an even more naked appearance.
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A shower head and shower room paper craft are also included, allowing you to produce even more situations.
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Comes with a poseable figma stand that makes it possible to recreate various scenes.
It DOES make me how many Japanese are sitting at home wishing they had action figures of Billy Herrington, and exactly what kind of thriving scenes and situations they are envisioning for him. Will there be a deluge of stop motion Herrington animations online after they come out? Will people buy a pair for twin scenes?
Billy Herrington has also become an internet meme among the Japanese community after a clip from one of his videos ‘Workout’ was posted on Nico Nico Douga, a Japanese video sharing website. Over 3000 parody videos of him have been made, many of which utilizes deliberate mishearings of his lines in the porn flick. He is affectionately called “Big Brother” among the Nico Nico Douga community, and most of his videos are deliberately tagged with “Forest Fairy”, “Philosophy” or both.
DominicFord.com is a new porn site with a twist… 3D. The sites first scene stars veteran Arpad Miklos and the ever-alabaster ginger twink Blu Kennedy.
To get the images to appear in 3D, you have to wear traditional red lens/blue lens glasses. They will send a special set of 3D glasses with $16.95 per month membership.
I mentioned when I updated the Mike Branson gallery that I’d recovered my old smut files from my mid-90’s mac. In addition to the many folders dedicated to specific pornstars, I also had a number of folders filtered by subject matter that I thought some of the more nostalgic smutjunkies might enjoy or actually be able to help me identify!
So I’m introducing a new semi-regular feature… Random Retro. Will feature my old personal smut stills collection incrementally. As always you can enlarge images by clicking on them and each image has a caption below it (lightbox format only works if whole page has downloaded before you click). New images will continue to be found under By Request and Hot Shots.
If you recognize a star or even better the movie the photo is from, PLEASE comment with your 2 cents worth. I will update this post with any verifiable names or movies guesses and an “identified by…” tag.
TitenMen’s latest fuckjfest, Overdrive is basically a series of hot men having sex in, on and around cars. Not too much thought on the plot, but then again that’s not why we watch. If you don’t know why we watch you’re on the wrong site.
Watching Dirk Jager suck Marco Blaze is too much for François Sagat to handle, so he brings his own hose into the action. After some oral and piss fun leaves Marco drenched, he flip fucks with François.
Fratmen TV models “Nash” and “Cal” were outed by The Scarlet Project, a website about gossip and news at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Nash was a 2007 national champion in the 125-pound wrestling class and Cal was a 2007 national junior college champion before transferring to back to UNL last fall. Both athletes have been dismissed from the Huskers wrestling program due to NCAA rules stating that athletes may not use their likeness for ANY commercial (moneymaking) purposes while they are a NCAA athlete. It doesn’t matter if they are representing the school at the time or not. Their real names were published by Scarlet Project and most articles quoting them, if you have an “enquiring” mind, you can find them in the linked items.
(The wrestlers in question) “have been permanently dismissed from our wrestling program,” Nebraska wrestling coach Mark Manning said in a statement released Tuesday. “The history of behavior of these men, including the current matter, does not reflect the standard of excellence we aspire to on and off the mat.”
The cast of Studio 2000’s The Crew includes Kirk Cummings, Leed Scott, Brant Moore, Jason Longh, Steven Waye, Jonathan Gabriel and superstars Jesse Santana and Jake Havoc in a steamy scene together for the first time!
Although originally from Southern California, Mason Wyler considers himself a "proud Texan" after living in the Lone Star State for about 14 years. He currently attends University and majors in Social Studies Education (his myspace also says he’s single). He claims that what he wants to do in life is "teach kids to be liberals."
Mason first cropped up in 2005 on Corbin Fisher where (like the rest of CF models) he was billed as straight (as a self proclaimed sex-addict, he’s as gay as they come) and started out shooting solos but eventually both topped and bottomed for the site. His porn name comes from Mason – the name of a guy he lusted after in school – and Wyler – the last name of a friend’s crush.
FROM Mason’s BIO AT Mason Wyler.com :"When it comes to sexual activities, sucking dick is what I do best but I’d like to think I have a plethora of talents. Professionally I am most known for my accomplishments as a bottom but I am actually quite versatile. I love pounding the hole just as much as I love riding the pole. Nothing is hotter to me than a stud who can play both positions."
No stranger to controversey, Mason thrust himself into the news with a 2008 blog entry about he and his boyfriend being raped by a man claiming to be a captain in the U.S. army. There was wild speculation in the blogosphere that it was just a publicity stunt, but the Advocate and GayVN.com independently confirmed an incident report filed with the Dallas police department. Mason later explained discrepencies between the report and his blog entry saying he "modified portions of his story to protect his boyfriend and keep his address private."
Although he seems to have vanished from the new releases shelves, he’s joined the growing legions of pornstars-turned internet entrepeneurs (alongside studs like Pierre Fitch, Brent Everett and Jeremy Hall) and is making porn at Masonwyler.com
Personal favorite scenes of his include the finale of Spokes 3 where Mason’s eager orifces are passed around a gay bike club orgy as his initiation and his scene servicing boss Andrew Justice in Cock-Tease. What are YOUR favorite scenes of his?
Although originally from Southern California, Mason Wyler considers himself a "proud Texan" after living in the Lone Star State for about 14 years. He currently attends University and majors in Social Studies Education (his myspace also says he’s single). He claims that what he wants to do in life is "teach kids to be liberals."
Mason first cropped up in 2005 on Corbin Fisher where (like the rest of CF models) he was billed as straight (as a self proclaimed sex-addict, he’s as gay as they come) and started out shooting solos but eventually both topped and bottomed for the site. His porn name comes from Mason – the name of a guy he lusted after in school – and Wyler – the last name of a friend’s crush.
FROM Mason’s BIO AT Mason Wyler.com :"When it comes to sexual activities, sucking dick is what I do best but I’d like to think I have a plethora of talents. Professionally I am most known for my accomplishments as a bottom but I am actually quite versatile. I love pounding the hole just as much as I love riding the pole. Nothing is hotter to me than a stud who can play both positions."
No stranger to controversey, Mason thrust himself into the news with a 2008 blog entry about he and his boyfriend being raped by a man claiming to be a captain in the U.S. army. There was wild speculation in the blogosphere that it was just a publicity stunt, but the Advocate and GayVN.com independently confirmed an incident report filed with the Dallas police department. Mason later explained discrepencies between the report and his blog entry saying he "modified portions of his story to protect his boyfriend and keep his address private."
Although he seems to have vanished from the new releases shelves, he’s joined the growing legions of pornstars-turned internet entrepeneurs (alongside studs like Pierre Fitch, Brent Everett and Jeremy Hall) and is making porn at Masonwyler.com
Personal favorite scenes of his include the finale of Spokes 3 where Mason’s eager orifces are passed around a gay bike club orgy as his initiation and his scene servicing boss Andrew Justice in Cock-Tease. What are YOUR favorite scenes of his?
Well it takes all types, and I know my tastes are for everyone. So when I saw a video from Johnny Terris and Leland Stoelwinder highlighted on Fleshbot, I knew I had to post it to counteract all the high production value studio porn and twink clips.
