(The X-rated images are on AZBlogX, here, but let’s face it, the posting is about comics depicting man-man sex, and there’s plenty of explicit talk, so this is not for kids or the sexually modest.)
In between the Gay Comics compendium of 1989 and the recent Strippers compendium (2009), both discussed on this blog, there was 1989-2004, filled for comic-fan gay men by 26 issues of the book series Meatmen. Today, issue #1. Front and back:
(#1)
(#2)
The artist for the two covers is Nico, whose photo-realist style is easily recognizable, but whose identity I haven’t been able to track down. (He has some X-rated comics in the volume.)
From Wikipedia:
Meatmen: An Anthology of Gay Male Comics is a series of paperback books collecting short comics featuring gay and bisexual male characters. The comics included a mixture of explicit erotica and humor. Between 1986 and 2004, 26 160-page black-and-white volumes of the series were published by Leyland Publications, making it the longest-running anthology of gay male pornographic comics. During its run, the series featured “every gay male cartoonist of note who has worked [in English in North America] since the 1970s”. Cartoonists whose work was featured include Donelan, Tim Barela, Belasco, Bruce Billings, John Blackburn, Howard Cruse, Kurt Erichsen, Etienne, Patrick Fillion, The Hun, Jeffrey A. Krell, Jon Macy, Jerry Mills, Al Shapiro, Tom of Finland, Robert Triptow, Vaughn, Zack, Stepan Zubinski
(I have volumes 1 through 7, plus 10 and 11.)
On the editor, again from Wikipedia:
Winston Leyland (born 1940) is a British-American author and editor. Called “one of the seminal figures in gay publishing” by the San Francisco Sentinel, he was originally ordained a Catholic priest and later graduated from UCLA. He worked for the Los Angeles Times and Gay Sunshine, serving as editor for the latter when it was rebranded as the Gay Sunshine Journal. Under his direction, the Journal was praised by Allen Ginsberg for “its presentation of literary history hitherto kept in the closet by the academies.” In 1975, Leyland founded Gay Sunshine Press, the oldest LGBT publishing house in the United States, followed by Leyland Publications in 1984. The two imprints combined have published more than 135 books, and are known for their translations of gay-themed European and Asian literature into English, including works by Vladimir Makanin, Yukio Mishima, and Nikolai Gogol.
The volume has an introduction by Jerry Mills, who leads with an essay on gays and comics:
Comics and Gays. Plain and simple, that’s what this book is about. They go togerher well; after all, they have one major thing in common: both tend not to get any respect.
… Respect for comics has been late in coming.
… Respect for homosexuals came not as easily.
and then goes on to look at the history of gay comics, citing the artists in the volume (including himself). On Mills:
Jerry A. Mills ( February 26, 1951[1] – January 28, 1993 ) was a gay cartoonist, noted particularly for his creation of the “Poppers” comic strip. The strip told of the adventures of Billy, a West Hollywood muscleboy, and his sidekick Yves (based on Mills), a big-hearted nebbish who offered good advice and caution (usually unheeded) for his glamorous friend. Yves always went along for the ride with Billy, commenting on the action, a function he took over from a witty crab louse that lived on Billy’s pubic hair, when it was phased out after the first few strips.
In any case, the volume has contributions from the following artists who have already appeared on this blog: Tom of Finland, Howard Cruse, Brad Parker, Donelan, The Hun, and Robert Triplow. Most of the strips are X-rated, but one, strikingly, is not: Tim Barela’s Leonard & Larry, a touching couples comic. One strip:
(#3)
Ah, the old gay / queer thing. (Mills uses homosexual at several points in his introduction.)
Now, the items on AZBlogX: #1 a Brad Parker, with just a dickhead poking out of the character’s shorts; #2 and #3, the superhero Meatman, at the beginning of his adventure and at the end (the cartoonist “Sean” was one of the pseudonyms of John Klamik (22 July 1935 – 5 January 2005) — “Buckshot” and “Shawn” were others); and #4, an elaborate hyper-gaysexy burlesque of Star Wars (Come Wars) by “Steven” (which turns out to be another pseudonym of the Dom Orejudos who drew the Etienne comics I’ve posted about).
The Come Wars piece is a sustained burlesque on the Star Wars world, with rather strained and wearisome counterparts for almost everything: The Jedi Knights become the Jyrka-Knights (pledged to come by hand at least once a night), Luke Skywalker becomes Duke Skyjocker, Han Solo becomes Solo Hand, Princess Leila becomes Prince Layim (this is very much a man’s world), Obi-Wan Kenobi becomes Onli-One Ball Onmi, Chewbacca becomes Chu-Ka-Ka, R2-D2 and C-3PO become Du-U-Suck-Too and 3-4-J-O. There’s more. Meanwhile, blow jobs (by mouth or Accu-Jac) and hand jobs abound (plus some occasional fucking).
April 29, 2016 at 10:01 am |
I always found hard-core comics very erotic and stimulating. Back in the days when porn mags were the most common thing for one-handed activity (alone that is), I would usually focus and finish with the cartoons!