(Mostly about tiki stuff, but with some initial talk of hot-hot man-man sex, which you should skip over if you’re modest about such things.)
A week ago, in “Sex comics: Brad Parker / Ace Moorcock”, I wrote about gay cartoonist Brad Parker (who also worked under the jokey name Ace Moorcock), especially in his 1988 book Oh Boy! — but without posting any X-rated images, an omission I’ve now remedied with a posting (about three strips from his series “Bigdicked Cocksucking Surfers”) on AZBlogX (more on this below).
But then readers of my earlier posting wondered what had happened to Brad Parker. Where was he now? The answer is: on the Big Island of Hawaii, creating Tiki Art — a genre of pop art, though Parker prefers the label Low Brow Art (for works that might be categorized as folk or outsider art, except that it’s created knowingly) — under the professional name Tiki Shark. More on the Tiki phenomenon and Tiki Shark below, but for a taste, here’s Parker’s Red Tiki Lounge:
(#1)
Parker’s surfer dudes are in fact hugely endowed and randy as hell. All three encounters could be described as Bigger Dick Gets Sucked, and two are framed as contests (that’s a gaysex trope). Meanwhile, we get an outburst of entertaining porntalk, of the sort actual men are unlikely to exchange in a sexual encounter (except as playful mockery of porntalk). (Note: to read the the text in the ‘toons, you’re going to have to enlarge the images.)
Box scores:
#1: for penis: big studdoggie (your big studdoggie: could refer to the fellatee), juicy 12″ foot long, squirting milkhose
#2 for penis: big bullhero, trouser trout, spurtin’ sex salmon
#2 for semen: torpedo juice
#3 for penis: meat monkey
#3 for semen: dick juice
Tiki time. Now to the artist biography for Brad “Tiki Shark” Parker on the Sargent’s Fine Art & Jewelry site:
Brad Parker paints “Low Brow Art” about Modern Tiki Culture. He does so from the most remote land mass in the world: the Big Island of Hawaii. “When you live on an active volcano, you learn to make sacrifices.” The artist doesn’t mean throwing virgins into the volcano, but rather his move from the fast lane of Hollywood to the slower pace of the small seaside town of Kailua-Kona.
Brad has worked in several types of media: writing, penciling, inking, coloring, and editing comic books from small publishers right up to the industry’s leaders: Marvel and DC Comics.
Brad did production illustration for several movies, but his most memorable contribution is the design of the infamous Creeper for the Jeepers Creepers films. “Finally, I reached a point where I wanted to realize my own vision instead of helping others realize theirs.”
Brad stopped accepting film work and moved to Hawaii where he began directing the art side of his company – Tiki Shark Hawaii Inc – and painting his interpretations of the Modern Tiki sub culture. [You can think of this move as a shift from one genre of popular art to another.]
Tiki Art is referred to as “Low Brow Art” as opposed to “High Brow” or “Fine” Art, only because it references modern or pop culture. Low Brow Art has seen tremendous popularity in the [mainland] West Coast art scene since the 1990’s.
Brad Parker’s style is reminiscent of the old Flemish masters, but with counter culture subject matter from a childhood of adoring comic books, cartoons, and Universal monster movies. A unique American culture of television, comics, the Hawaiian craze of the 50’s and 60’s (plus its re-emergence as hipster-retro-kitsch), all go into the Polynesian pop-art of this new work.
It’s unique. It’s strange. But it’s familiar. It’s Hawaii seen through a pair of cartoonland glasses.
“I love the work coming out of the Low Brow Art scene in LA. But, there just wasn’t enough being said about Tikis for my taste. Tiki art is a whole new and old art form at the same time. It’s the first abstraction of the human form and the birth of modern art, and it’s the re-creation of wooden idols into the 20th century idols of recreation!” — Brad Parker, Tiki Shark
(Digression: searching for information on Brad Parker can be tedious, because of the enormous number of men (from all walks of life) with the name Brad or Bradley Parker. You can cut things down some by using the fact that (so far as I know) our target Brad Parker has never used the name Bradley, and some Bradley Parkers seem never to have used the name Brad. Plus the fact that there’s a connection for our target Brad to art and design, illustration, animation, and the like. That still nets a Bradley/Brad Parker with a serious career in visual effects for the movies (and some film direction), — who’s clearly not our target, since he’s still in the business in Hollywood, while Tiki Shark left the place some years ago.)
Now to the original tiki. From Wikipedia:
In Māori mythology, Tiki is the first man, created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne. He found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond; she seduced him and he became the father of Hine-kau-ataata. By extension, a tiki is a large or small wooden or stone carving in humanoid form, although this is a somewhat archaic usage in the Māori language. Carvings similar to tikis and coming to represent deified ancestors are found in most Polynesian cultures. They often serve to mark the boundaries of sacred or significant sites.
But religious figures and practices are quickly put to popular or folk uses, often coalescing with figures and practices from other traditions entirely; think what’s happened to the Christian figures and rites associated with Christmas, Mardi Gras, Easter, and Halloween. So it was with tikis. From Wikipedia again:
Tiki culture is a 20th-century theme used in Polynesian-style restaurants and clubs originally in the United States and then, to a lesser degree, around the world. Although inspired in part by Tiki carvings and mythology, the connection is loose and stylistic, being an American form and not a Polynesian fine art form.
Tiki culture in the United States began in 1934 with the opening of Don the Beachcomber, a Polynesian-themed bar and restaurant in Hollywood. The proprietor was Ernest Raymond Beaumont-Gantt, a young man from Louisiana who had sailed throughout the South Pacific; later he legally changed his name to Donn Beach. His restaurant featured Cantonese cuisine and exotic rum punches, with a decor of flaming torches, rattan furniture, flower leis, and brightly colored fabrics. Three years later, Victor Bergeron, better known as Trader Vic, adopted a Tiki theme for his restaurant in Oakland, which eventually grew to become a worldwide chain. The theme took on a life of its own during the restaurant’s growth in the Bay Area. The Trader Vic’s in Palo Alto [now gone] even spawned architectural choices, such as the concept behind the odd-looking Tiki Inn Motel, which still exists as the Stanford Terrace Inn.
… The Mai tai is considered to be the quintessential tiki cocktail. A protracted feud between Beach and Bergeron erupted when both claimed to have invented the mai tai.
(#2)
#1 and similar paintings are where Tiki Shark makes most of his money, but in 2010 he ventured onto works that imitate (the covers of) comic books, in Tales From the Tiki Lounge #1 (the fake comic book is made to resemble the EC Comics publication Tales From the Crypt (some discussion on this blog here):
(#3)
Parker’s comment:
Super ultra-rare item I can guarantee you cannot find anywhere else! Why? Cause it doesn’t exist anywhere else!!!
This is the “COVER” only of a pulp-comic that solely exists in the Mai-Tai-light zone of Brad “Tiki Shark” Parker’s imagination. Beautiful high quality giclee on heavy “alure” paper, archival inks that resist fading. Perfect for framing, and fooling gawking-cocktail-party-guests into thinking you own a, as yet unheard of, extremely unusual treasure of vintage Hawaiiana Memorabilia.
Signed by Brad Parker [$25.00]
Later, #2:
(#4)
And on from there.
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