A-Z of Fetish Artists - Ajay (Part 3)

The two principal characters of the Harry Chess adventures in relaxed mood, indulging their interest in sleazy, fetishistic activities. It's slightly less caricatured than the comic strips conveying more of their relatively youthful personalities. In the comic strips they are shown as adventurous and open to erotic experiences but they always seem to encounter the wrong man. Ajay described Harry Chess as his alter-ego but the characters that interested him most were his villains and their generous pecs. The other images presented here capture that fascination with big, dangerous men.

A much meatier, masculine man showing an equally meaty attitude to the enjoyment of bondage and domination. Whilst some take pleasure in maltreating weedy boys, the possibility of a beast such as this submitting to discipline seems much more exciting to me.

The fleshing out of the comic-style character seems surprisingly effective in conjuring up a more believable erotic ideal. But notice the sophisticated, angular shading technique on his six pack and the accomplished detailing of the biceps. More than a mere caricature.

Ajay - Marine Discipline

 In images like these, the frivolity of similar Harry Chess scenarios is transformed into something more substantial with impressive, equally muscled men engaged in earthy and forceful erotic encounters. The milder caricaturing allows deeply masculine qualities to emerge that would not be apparent in more realistic imagery.

There's still humour present of course but in this case it's the intimidation of the captive, the imminent, unexpected stretching of his limits that amuses, rather that the incongruity or absurdity of the situation which has mysteriously evaporated.

I'm not a fan of the "Yes Sir! No Sir!" style of submissiveness, but the Marine Corps labelling provides a legitimate context for it here. It's strange how potent dressing two men in identical clothing can be. Be it jockstrap, team kit or uniform, just telling them what they have to wear and giving it to them, assigns to them a subordinate status. It also links them together and curtails their individuality in a mitchmen-esque 'putting them in their place' sort of way.
 

The bubble reads "Go...Fuck! ...I gotta think fast. He's heating up those nipple irons"

In this image Ajay explores the concept of limits and danger more explicitly. An array of S&M implements and paraphernalia seem to indicate that this hunky brute is receptive to a wide range of fetish exploitations but he shrinks from more the prospect serious pain and permanent scarring. The danger of submitting to inescapable bondage in an S&M situation is part of it's intrinsic excitement and the trust needed to enter into it can be intense bonding experience for the men involved. 

But do you ever really know someone that well, can you truly trust someone who wants to engage with you in this way? The discovery by a captive, that his trust may have been misplaced, that his captor's intentions are misjudged or even malign, that is a moment that sets in motion excitement of a different sort, an emotion that forms the foundation of every horror pic.

 I've tagged this image 'In The Lair' because it seems to encapsulate the ever-exciting allure of the mysterious, dark and dangerous, big and masterful man, here given a hint of Latino as an extra exotic twist. His captive, caged for his master's pleasure and discovering the delights of being dominated is pretty hunky himself. Contrastingly blond and still dressed in remnants of his clothing he seems to have a degree of innocence or inexperience about him that is already going the way of his clothing. 

You'll find Ajay's characters' sex equipment' quite often migrates to impossible but convenient places, I suppose you just call it artistic licentiousness!

 This poster for a fetish club shows something of Ajay's softer side and more serious application of his technical skills to create an image that seems stylised rather than caricatured. However 'straight' images like this by him are hard to find. 

For more about Ajay, the man, I recommend you read his interview with Jack Fritscher

There's a decent archive of Ajay's work  at Daddy's here. It includes 4 of the Harry Chess comic stories (not all complete unfortunately). They are presented in deconstructed format for easier screen reading. The strips do work better in their original crowded multi-frame format but you can only still see Harry Chess in printed form in some of the 'Meatmen' comic compilations (including Nos 1, 2, 3 and 11), also old issues of 'Drummer' if you can find them. I believe there was also a collected edition of his work at one time.