Most Popular Posts Listing - A Change In Method

Naked Thinker

At this time of year it is my custom to review the posts for the year just ended to see which attracted the most visitors. This year I have changed my approach to try and produce a more representative selection. For this year's list I have included some posts from the previous year (2018) which were published too late in that year to impact on the list. I have evened out the distortions caused by different publication dates by ranking them all based on a time- averaged hit rate*. The full result is shown and discussed in Most Popular Posts of 2019, this article explains the new methodology

Rationale for change of method

I have agonised in recent years about the arbitrary nature of this annual survey. As it is simply based on accumulated hit counts, the timing of publication significantly affects the opportunity to score and hence the position in the table. Thoroughly deserving posts often don't get chosen at all. Typically posts after mid year don't have enough time to register anywhere in the top 20. Wrestling Arsenal (December 2018) was a startling and unique exception last time, but notable recent anomalies were 'BuiltByTallSteve' and Chirenon's 'A New Life For Our Airforce Boys' both published in late 2017. Neither of these got a mention in their year of publication despite turning in a top 10 performance in their first 12 months.

This year (2019) nothing after July made the cut based on total hits. At the other end of the scale several posts from December 2018 registered counts during 2019  that would have got them into the top 20 in any year since records began (as they say) had their publication date been more favourable.

To address these issues I have cast my net a little wider this year, looking right back to mid 2018 to see if any of those posts ought to be recognised. Based on my usual criteria (i.e. considering 2019 posts only) the cut-off point for inclusion in the 2019 top 20 would have been 475 total hits or if I based the selection on an average hit rate* that irons out duration differences, the cut would have been 617 hits per year (pa).

I compiled a short list of posts from 2019 and the second half of 2018 which met both these criteria but excluding those that had previously made it into the 2018 chart. This gave me a list of 23 posts in total which left me some scope for 'tweaking' anomalies in the final top 20. 

The cut-off figures of the top 20 in this selection were lifted by about 10%  by this process, but for the top 23 they were exactly the same as they would have been under the old method. This is because the 2018 additions in the new list were offset by the loss of 2019 posts which met the total count criteria but had taken much longer to reach it.

Under this new method, late posts from 2019 still get excluded, but they have a second chance of inclusion next year when they have proven more durable appeal.

The table below shows all the affected articles listed in order of total hits since publication
2018 articles brought in under the new method are shown in red italics.
2019 articles excluded under the new method are shown in green
Column 2 shows how the table would have looked under the old system.
I discuss the results after the table.

Old Style Table Based on total hits since publication
New Rank	Old Rank	Title	Hits	Publication
1	1	Milking Factories – 4	2820	Jan
2		Homoeros Gallery	2288	Dec '18
3		Wrestling Arsenal	1697	Dec '18
4	2	IFNB is most popular new 'mitchmen' post of 2018	1302	Jan
5	3	Kasee's Wrestling Humiliation	1269	Mar
6		The Art of Ivan Bubentkov	1176	Dec '18
7	4	Milking Factories No 5 – The Development Lab	1166	May
8		The Art of Bowen	1051	Sep '18
9		Little Known Incidents of WWII (No 4) – Unlucky in War	1031	Aug '18
10		The Art of Colt 1	1002	Nov '18
11	5	The Art of Ephorox	938	May
12		Little Known Incidents of WWII (No 8) – Bizarre Brutality 2	701	Dec '18
13	6	Milk Outlets	690	Jun
14	7	The Art Of Oscar Waldes	639	May
15	8	Most popular 'mitchmen posts of all time (end 2018)	605	Jan
16	9	The Art of Hasegawa (New)	602 est	Jun
17	10	The Humiliation of Ray	544	Feb
18	11	The Art of German Twister	539	July
19	12	Mitchell's Fetish Art for April – Sports Star Captured	537	Apr
	13	Cavelo is most visited 'mitchmen' post during 2018	528	Jan
20	14	Get Carter!	520	May
	15	A-Z on Brick Revised	518	Jan
	16	Mitchell's Fetish Art for Jan – Devil's Work	505	Jan
21	17	Seamus O'Reilly, Beautifully Bound in 'Simon's Night In' Part 2	504	Mar
	18	Little Known Incidents of WWII (No 9) – Bizarre Brutality 3	489	Jan
22	19	Taken Off The Streets - 1	486	Apr
23	20	The Art of Turquine (Update 1)	475	Apr

Stats collected on 31st December 2019

This table vividly demonstrates the effect of publication timing once again, with nothing after July 2019 making the cut and the first seven posts published in 2019 all getting in. Unsurprisingly the older, newly-included 2018 posts do well in this basic hit count table, but the top 2 posts are actually the same under the new system too with the same winner romping away with the title
 (see final MPP ranking article for 2019).

The three 2019 articles excluded from the table by the new criteria are shown in green above. All these articles had a full 12 months to make their score so replacing them with three far better performers from December 2018 is not an earth-shattering injustice. I scored a bit of an own goal by excluding No 16, but the 'War Comic' article that's linked to it gets into the new ranking at No 9 so I'm happy with that.

The winning total of 2820 comfortably exceeds last years record by IFNB of 2519 by about 12%, but this primarily reflects a longer scoring period (12 months for Milking Factories vs 9 for IFNB). Also, total visits to the site increased by 24%. this year so this performance probably doesn't count as a meaningful 'record'.

The full final results produced by the new system come out slightly different and are discussed in Most Popular Posts of 2019

*The Average (Annualised) hit rate was calculated as follows

(Total Hits) divided by (Days since Publication) multiplied by 365 (days in a year)

This does not produce a 'real' number, the formula reduces the counts of articles that have been around more than a year and inflates those published less than 12 months ago but they end up on a level playing field for comparison purposes.

Remember, these comparisons are only made for entertainment only, since I don't really know how accurate Google's stats are and I suspect they don't even count people who just browse through the blog roll.

Thank you to all my readers for your interest in my blog,
I will publish the updated all-time list of favourites shortly.

 

Happy New Year!

Mitchells A-Z of Fetish Artists - My Favourite 'O'

It is my custom to select a favourite for each letter based on the criteria of Sensuality of style, Fetish Content and Artistic Technique. There are really only four contenders here with a relavant 'body of work', namely Okawa, Olaf, Osamu and Osze. It's one of the less difficult choices for me.

Olaf and Okawa are tops for technique, but I prefer Okawa's less photographic style. For fetish content you can take your pick from Okawa, Osamu and Osze. Osze's dark story lines get a special mention here. But for sensuality of style, Okawa for me is a clear winner with a very 'restrained' and attractive style.

Overall my choice has to be Okawa.

Okawa - Tethered Young Captive

This final example speaks for itself, a glorious evocation of a young male, well muscled with silky skin. I love the fuzzy treatment of his hair contrasting to the firm solidity of the flesh. His arms are tightly bound to his body in an intricate but asthetically pleasing harness and the coarse hairyness of the rope is superbly captured. Tethered to a tree and exposed to the elements, he wearily awaits his captor's wishes.

Okawa is one of the 'Greats' of gay fetish art.

For more articles in this series click on the A-Z label below.

Milking Factory 4 is mitchmen Most Popular New Post of 2019

 At this time of year it is my custom to review the last year's posts to see which attracted the most visitors. This year I have changed my approach by including some posts from the previous year which were published too late to get fair recognition last time and ranking them all based on a time-averaged hit rate. The full rationale for this change is explained here.

Detail of Sarander's 'Alien Semen Farm' (from Milking Factories-4)

According to my Blogger 'view count' stats, the 20 posts listed below
 are the most-visited mitchmen articles out of the 127 published in 2019
 This total compares with 119 in 2018. The titles have links to the individual posts.

2019 Most Popular Post Table based on average hit rate (not total hits)
2019 Rank (total hits rank)	Title	Hit Rate pa	Publication Date
1 (1)	Milking Factories – 4	2949	Jan
2 (2)	Homoeros Gallery	2186	Dec '18
3 (7)	Milking Factories No 5 – The Development Lab	1811	May
4 (5)	Kasee's Wrestling Humiliation	1672	Mar
5 (11)	The Art of Ephorox	1535	May
6 (13)	Milk Outlets	1361	Jun
7 (4)	IFNB is most popular new 'mitchmen' post of 2018	1316	Jan
8 (18)	The Art of German Twister	1185	July
9 (6)	The Art of Ivan Bubentkov	1136	Dec '18
10 (16)	The Art of Hasegawa (New)	1036 est	Jun
11 (20)	Get Carter!	883	May
12 (10)	The Art of Colt 1	865	Nov '18
13 (14)	The Art Of Oscar Waldes	833	May
14 (8)	The Art of Bowen	830	Sep '18
15 (9)	Little Known Incidents of WWII (No 4) – Unlucky in War	745	Aug '18
16 (19)	Mitchell's Fetish Art for April – Sports Star Captured	718	Apr
17 (22)	Taken Off The Streets - 1	688	Apr
18 (12)	Little Known Incidents of WWII (No 8) – Bizarre Brutality 2	668	Dec '18
19 (23)	The Art of Turquine (Update 1)	652	Apr
20 (15)	Most popular 'mitchmen posts of all time (end 2018)	640	Jan
21 (17)	The Humiliation of Ray	624	Feb
22 (21)	Seamus O'Reilly, Beautifully Bound in 'Simon's Night In' (Part 2)	617	Mar

Stats collected on 31st December 2019

This new style ranking contains a large number (6) of 2018 posts but 4 of them (including the highest 3) were published in December or November 2018 so their inclusion is not very hard to justify. I excluded Wrestling Arsenal (also from December 2018) because it actually made the 2018 list - an exceptional occurrence. The 2 posts from earlier in 2018 are slightly more controversial, but their hit counts have been averaged over a much longer period and so demonstrate a significant sustained interest which what this exercise aims to identify. However I have also included 2 extra 2019 posts in the list to allow readers to cancel out these 'anomalies' if they wish

The rankings in brackets are based on the old-style 'total hits' method which obviously favours older articles but doesn't change the top spots as much as you might expect.

The list is dominated by the three 'Milking Factory' posts at 1, 3 and 7 which have emulated the spectacular success of their predecessors, helped a little, I suspect, by the introduction of the 'Popular Posts' sidebar at the blog which has been dominated by this series recently and channels more readers to view them. The winner this year (reproduced above) was way ahead of the second-placed article but at 2949 did not quite manage to catch the previous years scores of Wrestling Arsenal (an exceptional 9195) and IFNB (3096). Wrestling Arsenal would have also finished 5^th in this years list had I included it, but enough is enough!

The success of the Milking articles was not a surprise but the appearance of Homoeros Gallery at No2 was. This article is no more than a guide to that artist's websites but there was a surge in visits in the closing weeks of the year which lifted it into this lofty position. 
It's a reflection of the level of interest in the artist.

Seeing 'Kasee's Humiliation' at No 4 did please me. This is (almost)the 'wrestling' article I have always wanted to write, ever since I saw a handsome novice being thoroughly humiliated by an old hand on late night TV many years ago. (I say 'almost' because the 'victim' in the match I remember more resembled Kasee's tormentor, Cason, and his nemesis was much bigger and older). Anyway, Kasee and his handsome tormentor followed up the previous success of wrestling articles on Wrestling Arsenal (2018) and Mitch Colby (2017). The 'Humiliation of Chace La Chance' (great body, terrible name!),  published in May, narrowly missed inclusion but has a chance(!) of making next years list.

There are 8 'Art of ...' articles in the list this year headed up by the excellent Ephorox, a long overdue arrival at this blog. Ivan Bubentkov was a notable and worthy beneficiary of the change in my ranking inclusion criteria, I recently discovered more of his work I hope to share here in 2020. The retrospective feel of his art was complemented by 2 golden oldies – Colt and Hasegawa. These two are genuinely great artists and I'm glad my followers appreciate them too. Modern artists TooBoShoo and Chuckie79 missed the hit count criteria this year but look certain to feature in next years list. Only 3 of the top 20 articles were based purely on photographs (Kasee, Get Carter! and Taken off the Street-1). It reminds me that although I like to have a varied magazine format at this blog, most visitors come for the Art.

The Hasegawa article is another minor anomaly in this years list. This was a comprehensive rewrite of my 2009 A-Z article on him but, unusually for 'upgrades', I published it completely anew this year. That's why I've included it in the 2019 list (plus the fact that I admire him so much!). I had to adjust the hit count to isolate this years figure. Unfortunately, (and astonishingly) the original article had never made it's way into my 'top articles' spreadsheet so I had no record of the opening count for 2019, I've had to rely on memory, hence the est(imate) tag in the table, but I am certain he's in the right position.

Hasegawa was part of an informal 'Asian Festival' which I instigated this year, prompted by the slightly embarrassing realisation that Chace La Chance's opponent, Jessie Lee, was probably the first model of Asian heritage to ever get decent exposure here (although I have featured Asian artists here many times, so don't shout at me!). Most of these articles were in the second half of the year and missed this year's cut. I plan to run this feature into the New Year with posts on Fundoshi and the Speedo erotica that Asian men seem to have made their own.

I've put more of myself into the blog in recent years so I'm gratified to see one of my own pictures (and it's one of my personal favourites) in the top 20 again this year - Sports Star Kidnap at No 16. I was surprised however that the colourised 'nude' version didn't attract so many viewings. Perhaps many of you share my prediliction for modest, traditional underwear wearers in fetish encounters! Even more unexpectedly, 2 of my 'War Comic cuts' squeezed in at 15 and 18 (also helped by the rule change this year). These articles don't seem to generate much excitement when they are first published but the interesting fetish content (captives staked out or tied to railway lines) seems to have been recognised more gradually over the course of the year.

The appearance of last years MPP, 'Top Post' analyses at 7 and 20 is also flattering in a way and suggests new visitors are finding them interesting and helpful but I'd have preferred these places to have been occupied by meatier articles.

These small, personal successes have been some compensation for the upheaval of Yahoo zapping my permanent gallery which had been on display at the mitchmen group since 2007. As I write the fate of the mailing list seems to be hanging in the balance too, but we all move on and the replacement 'Club' at Adonis Male is shaping up to be an even better showcase.

Remember, this comparison is only made for entertainment, since I don't really know how accurate Google's stats are, I suspect they don't even count people who just browse through the blog roll.

Thank you to all my readers for your interest in my blog,
I will publish the updated all-time list of favourites shortly.

Happy New Year!

A-Z of Fetish Artists -Quaintance

The letter 'Q' has only one artist who meets the criteria for my A-Z - George Quaintance, whose 1950's images of Latin men and sexy cowboys with distinctively sensual faces and bodies are so well known, it hardly seems appropriate to consider him a fetish artist and yet....

Quaintance's art abounds with erotically-flavoured imagery of death and danger and men menaced by deadly weapons. It is often disguised as Hollywood costume epic material and devoid of explicit sexual content but nevertheless, it is highly charged for fetishists who take the trouble to look.

Quaintance - Bacchant

Take 'Bacchant' (meaning a drunken reveller), for example. It's a pretty picture forging a fanciful connection between an attractive young man and a still-life of grapes. An allegory for the irresistible appeal of alcohol? Perhaps. Or if you prefer it's a naked, young man held in sensual bondage by a plant whose leaves appear to be intimately brushing his body as well as covering it. The tendrils wound round his limbs are a good deal more subtle than your average 'tentacle' picture but are obviously in charge of the situation. Plants, here are like Platter's devils - psychological fetishes, alluring fantasies impossible to fulfil in reality.

Quaintance - Aztec Sacrifice

'Aztec Sacrifice' is a more well known picture and has obvious fetishistic elements embellished with a glossy and glamorous presentation. The bondage is rather lifeless and fake, but it's sexual intent is pretty obvious from in the shapely golden G-string worn by the spread-eagled captive. He actually appears to be more of an entranced high priest than a victim, coldly presiding over the execution of the two luscious, near naked, young men who lie at his feet pierced by arrows. Freud would have something to say about all that, but for those who appreciate the more extreme varieties of fetish imagery no interpreting is necessary.

Quaintance - Slave Market

Slave Market shows men chained together in pairs under the whip of the overseer. It's possible see these last two pictures as representations of gay oppression but I cannot substantiate that impression.

This slave picture is rather too posed, but the little cameo of the two collapsed slaves injects some artistic quality, drama and also some daring erotic suggestion via the positioning of the dark haired slave's head and left arm. As always in this era, seek out the hidden eroticism!

Given the oppressive environment in which he worked, Quaintance's work is quite astonishing. These pictures don't really do justice to his technical skill. All in all I'm quite happy to list him alongside our other fetish exponents.

I'm not aware of any website for Quaintance, but Googling images brings up plenty of examples.

There is a review of the Taschen book of his complete works at Homodersiribus
 

For other articles in this series click on the A-Z label below.

Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - The letter G - Gicquel

After the rich choice of artists for the letter ‘F’ the only names I have found for the letter G are Garcia and Gicquel. There are some interesting artists working with computer generated images in the ‘G’s (Gorka, Gilgamesh, Greasetank) but sadly CGI doesn’t qualify under the criteria for this series.

.
Xavier Gicquel is a mainstream artist with a fascinating style. He uses strong lines to delineate the figures and their clothing and often uses a palette of rich bright colours. The backgrounds are equally strong and this, combined with the use of “naïve” perspective produces an ‘flat’ effect. The overall result is reminiscent of mediaeval stained glass windows and very attractive to view. The stylised trees in the example shown enhance this feeling even more.

Giquel - Forest Fun

The naïve feel carries through into the depiction of the figures as well who are often slightly overweight with chubby, short legs and dressed in clumpy shoes or boots producing a bottom heavy effect. However the naivety stops at the waist, he does a nice line in hairy bodies and manly faces which always wins my approval.

.

His characters are usually sexually cavorting in a variety of gay themed locations including leather clubs. In most of these pictures the fetish allusions are incidental to the depiction of joyous gay sex (although you do get the sense that he knows of which he draws!) I might have passed over them were it not for the set of pictures he has produced for ‘Rubberzone’ which show rubber fetish scenes and create a distinctive, dark erotic atmosphere which his other pictures don‘t have. A very interesting artist.

.

Lots more nice pictures at Daddy's Here

(Updated Apr 2020, http://www.xaviergicquel.com/ has gone)

A Fantasy World of Bodybuilder Morphs at IFNB

Did you know? 

There are now two IFNB posts at mitchmen (link at the foot of this article)

There's a third in the pipeline, look out for an announcement (Jan 2023)

If you like my recent BuiltByTallSteve muscle morph post you might enjoy these images from the IFNB blogspot (now sadly deleted). There the author had produced a large quantity of morph photo manipulations to conjure up a fantasy world of naked bodybuilding where cock size and performance formed part of the judging criteria with cum shoots a mandatory element in their presentation routines. The entire IFNB blog was dedicated to developing and exploring this fantasy in all it's aspects.

 
 

In his fantasy world, exercising this additional 'muscle group' becomes part of the body builders' training routines and gym assistants are employed specifically to 'spot' them in this crucial part of the workout. Getting 'spotted' themselves is an occupational hazard for these men due to the enhanced libidos of the contestants, who develop a constantly 'ready' state due to increased exercising of the muscle group in question. (This is somewhat contrary to most men's experience, sadly, and also to conventional scientific opinion on the effect of muscle development substances on the male libido).

The explanation of this unexpected phenomenon seems to lie in the introduction of studcum into the bodybuilder's diets. Top alpha studs are imported by the contest resorts to serve fresh milk to those competitors who can afford to pay for it.

Such is the power of the enhanced sex drives of these men
 that just flexing their muscles can be enough to induce ejaculation.
It's a valuable capability for the stage presentation.

 

Flying spray is not the only hazard for other gym users. Top ranking contestants develop an overwhelming arrogance and swagger and will pick other men out at random to help them finish off their 'cock bulking' routines. Typically, this body builder claimed that the other guys know that someone is gonna get used and it's up to them to keep out of his way if they don't like it.

Because of perpetually enhanced erotic state, lesser competitors at pre-contest formalities run the risk of being humiliatingly covered in deliberate emissions from the top rankers they encounter. They can take comfort from the fact that if they wipe it off and eat it their own regimes will benefit and it will cost them nothing but their pride.

Contestants are required to give up a sample before going on stage to pose formally. The ability to splatter yourself is seen as a sign of quality and is no disadvantage in the judging. In any case these bodybuilders all have their adoring fans who eagerly help out with spills to demonstrate their love. Perhaps also hoping that some of their hero's magnificence will rub off on them (as it were)

When organisers introduced all-nude dormitories for contestants it was almost inevitable that fans would break in and seek out their favourites to see if they could wangle an autograph, picture or sperm sample out of them. The more obliging bodybuilders would happily flex their muscles for them sometimes causing a simultaneous auto-ejaculation - to the delight of all.

Competitors can augment their income and finance their training by giving demonstrations and workshops for their followers, this one is on 'cum skills'. One lucky fan gets a great demonstration of the star lecturer's cum shooting skills. (You may recognise some familiar faces in this deceptively simple photo manip which cleverly turns an ordinary J/O scene into something much more interesting.)

When the competitors go on stage, they all hope to be winners and show off their best qualities.
The massed display of prime beef manhood can be very distracting for those watching from the side-lines. They must try and practice self-control lest they prejudice their own performance when their turn comes. Watching and waiting doesn't get any easier in the climactic stages.....

Here, Collegiate level amateurs spray cumloads, excited by having to flex naked in front of judges and fans. Their off-stage arrogance is tempered with anxiety when they become the ones to be judged. They know most of them will troop off as losers. But there can be worse outcomes........

 

  "Middleweight IFNB pro Craig Frewer (left) has a slight cock failure during an abs pose.  Frewer's extreme cock prep included controversial (and completely unpredictable) pre-contest treatments with SPH (sperm-production hyperdrive). This caused Frewer to have some of the most memorable cock posing failures – yet also enabled him to set an IFNB record for cum shots in a single round for Middleweight professional naked bodybuilders". (IFNB quote).

(IFNB quote)

The anonymous author of the blog writes lengthy commentaries against each picture like the one just above. He uses the same deadpan style as straight body builder magazines and lays out the erotic practicalities of the sport, back stories for the imaginary competitors and details of the numerous organisations who participate in it.

These morphs are based on real competition bodybuilders so there's a lot of heavily cut, tanned and veiny muscle which isn't normally my cup of tea and this blog author hasn't changed my mind about that. However there are 'softer' muscle images too and I do enjoy very much his accounts of the top contestants practice of squirting over fellow contestants, trainers, officials and fans alike and sexually abusing them whenever they feel like it as a crude display of male dominance. The quality of the morphing varies but there's plenty of good examples posted, as I hope I have demonstrated with my selection here.

There's a mass of material and you can't help but be drawn into the world he creates in a satisfyingly comprehensive way. Even if bodybuilding's not your thing you can enjoy the fictional manipulations and ribbing of those who take it more seriously.

If you enjoyed this article, you might like IFNB Revisited too

~

UPDATE July 2021

There used to be lot's more at IFNB blogspot but it's been deleted by the owner.

If it pops up again I'll update this page

(International Federation of Naked Bodybuilding)

A-Z of Fetish Artists - P

My A-Z of fetish artists resumes next week with the letter 'P' which will include such stars as Palanca and Player. Just to remind you that I only cover artists with a genuine fetish element in their drawings - leather jackets alone won't qualify! Those who produce computer generated art are not included either, partly to keep a manageable-sized list but also because I don't feel well qualified to comment on that genre. Nevertheless I hope to address it in some way in the future.

My criteria for assessing artists are:- fetish content, technical merit and sensuality.

Paul Patterson - Rugby Scrumdown

As a taster here's a picture by Paul Patterson who I wouldn't have expected to be including in the list, but he will get a proper mention later. Meanwhile any rugby picture is liable to get a mention from me. I particularly like the tight shirts in this image from surprisingly long ago.

For earlier posts in this series, click on A-Z in the label list below or use the search box in the header to find your favourite artist.

A-Z of Fetish Artists - Summary of 'M' Artists

I have covered 23 different fetish artists in my survey of the letter 'M' - a staggering number including many whose subject matter is very controversial. Selecting my customary 'favourite' is going to be a major challenge. There are three criteria which I usually employ - Technical quality, Fetish content and Sensuality.

Fetish Content is probably the least helpful criterion in this case, such is the array of peversity represented by these artists! For a whole host of 'M' artists it's the subject matter which catches the eye more than anything else - much of it pushing at the most challenging boundaries of conventional taste. Martin of Holland certainly takes the prize for breadth of subject matter - and it's successful erotic portrayal. Malex and Mike Carcel's bizarre festivals of death and torture also stand out. But who could overlook Manflesh and Mack's tragic victims, Macbeth's scary aggressors and Mishima's classic bondage poses?

When it comes to technical skill, Marquis's sometimes quirky but beatiful images are worth a mention as are the figure drawing skills of Mike Carcel. Mishima's delicate Japanese bondage images score for their simplicity and elegance but one other 'M' really stands out in this respect - Max whose work was a revelation when I surveyed it properly for this review. His picture 'Stone Step' demonstrates his original technique and ability to create a compelling, beautifully balanced and wonderfully erotic image.

The final quality I look at is the sensuality of the image, it's visual appeal - a quality typified for me by Tom of Finland's early work. 'Arty' work, comic styles and simple figure drawings like those of Malex tend to loose out in this area although the voluptuous bulges of Mentaiko and the cute, fleshy captives of moc put in a good bid. Manflesh's handsome, hunky heroes also score highly as do the silky skin tones of Martin of Holland and the stylish dramas of Max. But for all round appeal I favour Matsugoroh's sweaty, chunky rugby men and Mishima's subtle eroticism and elegance of style.

Putting all these factors together and adding in my entirely unscientific, personal preferences gives me a final shortlist of favourites - Mishima, Manflesh and Matsugoroh and picking a winner from these is relatively easy - it's got to be Mishima. I've represented him here with a mitchmen-esque captive sportsman.

A-Z of Fetish Artists,The letter N - Mitchell's Choice

It is my custom to choose a favourite for each letter and the letter N has provided the usual mix of artistry and eroticism.

My criteria are artistic merit, fetish content and sensuality, all overlaid of course with my own personal prejudices. In this group we had two notable 'artistic' contributions from Naomichi and Nobeast - beautiful but possibly not fetishistic enough to top the heap. Nicolas's more elastic draughtsmanship is also worthy of mention for it's successful portrayal of struggle and movement. As for fetish, Neil Bruce covers a wide spectrum of tastes, disguised with humour, but Nath66's sci-fi/medic fantasies also strike a chord for me. In the extreme art department Nikos' struggling torture victims, though simply drawn, quicken the blood in contrast with the art of NSM, Nimium and Nikolaas, which is perhaps a bit too careful and passive.

None of the artists represented here majors in sensuality (in the erotic sense) but I guess Nath66 and Neil Bruce come closest and these two artists are my main contenders and despite my reservations about mixing humour with fetishism there is only one choice here for me .... Neil Bruce whose subtly disguised nastiness and power play is very erotic.

A-Z of Fetish Artists - Xamda

It's slim pickings for my A-Z under the letter 'X' but I have found some interesting pictures to post.

 Xamda - Johnny and The Coach - After Hours

This is an interesting take on an old theme which has more fetish content than is apparent at first sight. I am unsure if Xamda is really the artist's name, I have been unable to trace him or this picture on the web. It's obviously computer assisted too making it a dubious qualifier under the criteria for my A-Z series, but I like it, it's colourful and topical even as we come up to Halloween. 

I'm not normally a fan of masks but that wierd, clumsily stitched variation is quite an evocative ingredient. Are we meant to think the coach is not really the coach at all....? Whatever the case, would that we could all boast the same level of leg flexibility he displays for the benefit of his bound and caned student.

(information on this artist is welcome)

For more articles in this series click on the A-Z label below or search for specific artists using the index page or search boxes (top right)

A-Z of Fetish Artists - Franco Part 2

When I produced my original A-Z entry on Franco featuring his spanking and 'lab-rat' art, he had been producing pictures using conventional drawing techniques for many years, I have a couple of line drawings from as far back as 1991 but most of his later pictures are undated or have had their dates obliterated by photo manipulations to add colour or (like the example below) to remove the original detailed backgrounds. 

Since my original article in 2009, however, Franco has struck out in an entirely new direction using CGI techniques in a revealing and exciting way to create a brand of spanking photo-realism that is entirely his own. These images did not qualify for inclusion in my A-Z under the original criteria which were focussed on conventional art, but now that I have got to 'Z' in the series I may relax my rules!

Franco's original folio of art was based around a selection of basic figure poses like the rear end, flailing legs classic above. He produced from these building blocks an endless stream of variations featuring different characters and different levels of explicitness in the erotic content. His new style of work revisits and recreates those familiar favourites but the result is something quite, quite different. 

Franco - Dr Redbottom's Physical Examination

Here we have many familiar ingredients - bare, plump, red bottoms (of course!), a spanker whose posture is slightly awkward and effeminate and whose clothing is extremely conventional. Not least we have the quirky facial expressions denoting secret pleasures on the part of the spanker and embarrassment and horror from his jock victims. The photo-manipulation technique transforms the images but you can still recognise Franco's hand behind them. 

There is also, however, a striking change in the content in that, although there is still a cross-generational flavour to this picture these 'boys' are unmistakeably men (hairy bottom and all) and the age ambiguities of some of his earlier work have been put aside in keeping with the mores of our times. So whilst the image below is clearly a headmaster's study, this is a fantasy school for grown up men. Their adulthood serves to make their humiliation all the more telling.

Franco - 3 Bad Bois

What is most remarkable of all, however, is how Franco has managed to remodel the faces and physiques of his new characters to infuse them with an extraordinary degree of sensuality and sexual attractiveness. Even the 'headmaster' here has an interesting and not entirely unattractive face, quite different to the gaunt, rather repellent features of many of the 'father figures' in his older work, like the picture at the top of this article. With the changing times Franco no longer has to hold back on explicit eroticism either, so the two 'voyeurs' here show an extraordinary level of excitement as they watch their buddy reduced to tears and think about their own special punishments - already received or still to come. 

Franco's interest in facial expressions has always been evident in his work. He uses them to embellish the story he is telling and accentuate the humiliation and pain of the men being dealt with. They acquire even more power with his newer technique and although his manipulations verge on caricature at times it doesn't seem to detract from the essential attractiveness of his subjects whose inept naughtiness seems quite lovable, well desirable anyway!

Franco - Monk's Spank Lust

Monks dishing out spankings to young men who fall into their clutches have always been a notable element in Franco's work, but in these newer images the victims have been upgraded to muscular adulthood, while their tormentors have also transformed from frustrated, religious perverts into men of a mysterious brotherhood, nurturing a dark purpose.
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Franco - Monk's Feather Torment

The captive's arched body pose here, straining against his restraints is superb and although I can't get excited about feather tickling as a sport, it certainly seems to be doing the trick for this hunky specimen. It does create the sense of precious, high quality juices being gradually teased out of this rare catch. 

Franco - Monk's Tender Torment

This image is even better, creating a sense of weird, deep intimacy between the two characters in which the coaxing of semen is like the casting of a spell, lulling the victim into a sort of defenceless (and tearful) ecstasy and giving the Monk the opportunity to enjoy his naked body much as a lover would - up close and personal. It almost looks as if they are shaping up for a kiss here. Delicious buttocks too.

Franco -Dr Sivana Milks

The third string to Franco's bow, and possibly his most popular outside the spanking community is the lab-rat, milking machine genre. This example is based on another familiar, Franco spanking pose of old, but the feel of the piece, embodying real lab imagery is quite different. Like the Monk's torment above, the Doctor's hands are actually placed on his victim's body in places which are unambiguously erotic. You'll struggle to find this frank intimacy his older pictures, where the machine is usually left to do it's work or perhaps just a steadying hand is placed on the victim's shoulder or leg.

In this picture, Franco is fully embracing (as it were) the Doctor's sexual pleasure in directing and watching this involuntary milking, he's monitoring his subject's body responses in the most personal way possible. Such caresses and touches could be valid elements of the extraction procedure, of course, intended to encourage him and enrich his product. That upturned bottom will probably get a spanking too at some point, for similar reasons. You'll notice that Franco has reverted to uglification here to underline and colour the inappropriate lust and the subject's inability to resist it.

Bound To The Harvester

This variant of the milking idea has a delightfully improvised quality with the handsome, bewildered hero tied astride an ordinary kitchen chair for his milking and seemingly trying to protest and negotiate about what's going on. This direct interaction enormously enhances the interest of the picture, transforming the captive from a passive recipient into a real person with a will and personality of his own. It introduces an element of doubt and suspense as his captor pauses in the act of turning up the stroke speed up and getting on with it. What can the captive possibly say to stop the remorseless draining?

Franco - Milk Extraction

This image provides a suitable climax to this article as a young jock registers disbelief at his own body's performance. It looks as if it has been enhanced by the contents of the syringe in the Doctor's hand ....or is this to be the trigger for the next phase of exploration?

The subject's face is reproduced on the monitor at the back. This is a device that Franco uses regularly in the lab images, underlining his interest in facial expressions. Notice how it appears that the horror on his face in the background seems to stem from seeing the poised syringe.

So many great images have flowed from Franco's rebirth that I have had great difficulty in making and limiting my selection for this article. Find more at Telemachus and Jockspank (where he is a regular contributor and has given interviews)

You can also visit my (now upgraded) original A-Z article on Franco (Part 1)

 For more articles in this series click on the A-Z label below or search for specific artists using the index page or search boxes (top and top right)