Art by Catweazle 2

 Whilst Catweazle's forte is for muscular heroes fighting scary, mutant creatures in fantastic worlds, he does venture into other areas and this is a fairly logical extension with humanoid aliens tormenting a muscle man in their laboratory. The scantily clad, hairy captive is hooked up with cables which are monitoring - or possibly 'stimulating' him. There's also a selection of other, highly original devices encircling him whose purpose is not clear. The skirt-like device around his lower leg is particularly intriguing. He looks resigned to his fate, but not particularly comfortable with it.  

The aliens meanwhile look excited by him and seem to be dying to get their hands on him, 

although they seem to lack sexual organs as we know them (Jim). 

Catweazle - Shark Attack

The artist uses the same pose to startlingly different effect here, with the captive facing a more obvious menace lurking in the water around his lower body and completely unable to defend himself. The title implies that the lurking is about to become something much worse. The captive looks suitably terrified.  By some accident of fate, the floodwaters are discreetly covering up his fishing tackle, but in the sexiest way possible, leaving just enough pubic hair showing to stir the imagination of on-lookers.

Quite how he came to be chained up naked in this flooded, ancient cellar is unknown, likewise how the cellar came to be flooded, let alone how the floodwater came to be shark infested. It's as if some catastrophic, geophysical event occurred after the captive was parked here. 

Now it seems he's about to become beyond rescuing. 

This simple image knocks those AI one-handers, oozing with shiny hunkiness, into a cocked hat, 

although on reflection 'one-hander' is perhaps not the best term to use in this context.

This is also a fairly commonplace fight image, but combination of muscles, military garb and cute characterisations is appealing. Catweazle has angled the viewpoint nicely to suggest a close quarters struggle and convincing impact. The swampy background (promising more wetness) gives the feel of a jungle with all it's mysterious dangers, but it's not completely successful. It feels like they ought to be splashing around a bit.

This image is so wacky that it deserves more than to be treated as just another 'man and monster' image. The technique is different too, that's a real photograph (of the man, not the monster) and the blending of the two styles is excellent. Nice, low-slung jeans too. Maybe that's what distracted the monster, leaving him open to the sucker punch. (Would be sucker?)

Catweazle - Geiger 5

This is a great image, a beguiling marriage of muscle, allure and sensitivity, of crude strength and artistic delicacy. The Chippendale-esque garb is cleverly toned down, no sparkle, just pure black and white. That gives the man an air of distinction whilst showcasing his essential masculinity. His tousled hair adds a touch of artistic wildness. The violin keeps his hands fully occupied, well away from his discreet, black briefs which tantalise us with their lack of detail but do highlight his bulging thighs. 

This is pure render but the muscles have a nice naturalism.

Catweazle - Pergola Musician 2

   Here the violinist is juxtaposed against two women, entertaining them and teasing them with his physique.  I mentioned in Part 1 of this article how Catweazle uses women in his pictures without letting them take over. The narrative seems to suggest that the musician is at their disposal, providing a service, but there is no sense that they are in control.  Instead they seem mesmerised by him. He is the centre of interest, relegating them to the role of desperate housewives.

Catweazle - Like Gaultier.

Here he's transformed the woman into a predator, inverting the traditional roles and fulfilling the fantasy of many who  have seen Gaultier's, homoerotic TV ads. She is overwhelming the bare top sailor with her lust and in this close proximity she can hardly fail to notice his sexual response, whatever it is. 

It's sexy for us, but it's far from clear that he likes being bent back over a top rail that looks like a cheese cutter. He doesn't seem to be reciprocating with his hands either. It's as if reality has suddenly intruded into the fantasy. Like the violinist, he has a job to do, and a position to protect on the ship. There's an appealing kindness of spirit in what seems like patient tolerance. Would it seem the same if the woman was replaced by another man? Perhaps not.

In this picture the male is reduced further to being the helpless captive of a seemingly powerful woman. However, she seems to be in awe of her new acquisition, adopting an alluring 'come and get me' stance. Rather than dominating him, she's dressed to kill as if she is the one in need of him. Even the dragons seem to defer to the man, even though he's naked and kneeling submissively before them in his fetters. One of them even dips his head to lick his body, like a pet dog making friends.

Catweazle seems to be illustrating the very traditional idea that a woman's power emanates from her sexual allure and like The Harpie in Part 1 of this series, having power over a man is motivated by lust for his cock. Even in captivity, this man wields the power and it produces an image that is unexpectedly homoerotic. Compare this image with with 'After Work'

To be fair to Catweazle, he does also portray men as the hapless helpmates of strong women. The man might even be her slave here, judging by the disparity of dress between them. If so, she must have very strong control over him to be able to trust him with a sword. 

In this nice atmospheric picture, he looks very sexy in his loincloth. This swamp creature has good taste. Could he turn out to be a stud under a spell who only needs a special touch from a hunky man to regain his human form and beauty?

There's a much more powerful sense here of the man being subservient to his captor ,who looms above him, militarily impassive and threatening. The iron collar and manacles he is wearing are more than mere restraints, they acknowledge the strength of his bulging muscles, containing them and controlling him. It's as if that is where his value to his new master lies. 

His shaggy hair suggests he's a bit of a beast, but his sexuality is clearly of no interest to his non-human captor and so that too seems to have been subjugated. His body is shaved, completely hairless and his reproductive organs are tucked away in a tiny, lovingly-detailed, leather pouch that, for me is very sexy.

This man is not in control, he's going to meet an unknown fate

 The birds circle overhead like an augury of doom.

Here, Catweazle gives male slavery a historical treatment. I'd love to know where these soldiers found this muscle-hunk with his capacious loincloth and showy, ethnic hair-do. Unfortunately he seems to have been found wanting by the judge standing behind him. It must have been quite a shock to find death in charge of all these Roman Soldiers (another wtf? moment from this artist). There was never much doubt about the verdict he was going to deliver, but it seems the dirty work has been delegated to someone else. The shocked and confused captive is led away at the end of a very log rope to meet his grisly fate, urged on by angry guards.

Read Part 1 of this posting