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John Alexander Scott Coutts (1902 –1962)
known as John Willie
John Willie was a major figure in the development of the imagery and culture of BDSM in the mid twentieth century. His water color paintings, bondage photographs, and erotic cartoons became a template for most subsequent visual representations of heterosexual BDSM, and many were lesbian themed as well.
Willie's birth name was John Alexander Scott Coutts. He was born into an upper-middle-class family in Singapore, and grew up in England. In 1921 Coutts entered Sandhurst and in 1923 was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Scotts. He was forced to resign his commission in 1925 after marrying a nightclub hostess without the permission of his regiment--whereupon he moved to Australia, the marriage ending in 1928 or 1929. In the mid-1930s he began working for a Sydney-based fetish club as an illustrator and photographer. He married a second time in 1942, to one of his models.
He first started publishing his own erotic images in the early 1930's under the name John Willie. His frustration with the "conservatism" of the publishing industry led Willie to decide to publish his own kink magazine.
By the time Willie had saved enough money to start his magazine, World War II began and his plans were delayed until his period of service in the Merchant Navy finished at the end of the war. In 1946 the first of 20 issues of Bizarre magazine was published. The first printing of 5,000 copies sold out in two weeks. The next issue of Bizarre included many photographs, drawings of costume designs and many letters from readers which covered interests such as high heels, bondage, amputee fetishism, sadomasochism, transvestism, corsets and body modification. From 1946 to 1959, Bizarre set a standard for kink publication that has been imitated ever since but rarely matched for its visual sophistication, intelligent commentary, and wry humor. In 1957 Willie sold Bizarre and moved to Los Angeles where he continued to produce photographic and cartoon material. Willie was one of the first to disseminate written information on the technical details of SM and bondage, and he was willing to challenge the legal restrictions that hampered SM publication in the 1950's.
As a bondage artist, Willie is best known for his character Sweet Gwendolyn, which he drew in a clear anatomically correct style that influenced later artists such as Eric Stanton. Other characters include U69 (censored as U68 in some editions) the raven-haired dominatrix. In 1961 Willie became ill with a brain tumor. With his illness and postal inspectors nipping at his heels, he was forced to stop his mail order business whereupon he destroyed his archives and returned to England where he died in 1962.
Willie's approach to BDSM representation managed to be simultaneously charming, funny, and intensely erotic. He was a pioneer not only in his imagery, but in his unapologetic and joyous engagement with everything kinky. He fought against censorship and was a pioneer BDSM entrepreneur. Much of his artwork is in private hands, although there is a substantial collection at the Kinsey Institute. He richly deserves to be celebrated for his foundational role in the making of the modern world of kink.
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Charles “Chuck” Renslow
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Touko Laaksonen (1920 –1991)
Tom of Finland
Born Touko Laaksonen in Kaarina, Finland, Tom of Finland was most notable for his stylized homoerotic art and his influence on late twentieth century gay culture. Over the course of 4 decades he produced some 3500 illustrations.
Tom made his first erotic drawings in his youth, but none of them are known to exist today. Tom said that at first he kept his drawings hidden, and then destroyed them by the time he went to serve in the army. His drawings were based on images of masculine Finnish laborers he had seen from an early age. When Finland became embroiled in World War II, Tom joined the Finnish Army where he served as an anti-aircraft officer. Tom attributed his fetishistic interest in uniformed men to his own encounters with men in army uniform at this time.
In 1956, he submitted some of his homoerotic drawings to the influential American magazine Physique Pictorial under the pseudonym Tom as it resembled his given name Touko. The editor changed the name to Tom of Finland.
Tom of Finland's work soon gained the attention of the gay community and by 1973 he was both publishing erotic comic books and infiltrating the mainstream art world. (The Museum of Modern Art has a number of Tom's works in the permanent collection.) Tom's work is notable for its focus on homomasculine archetypes such as lumberjacks, motorcycle policemen, sailors, businessmen, bikers, prison guards, and leathermen. His most prominent comic series are the "KAKE" comics which included these men in abundance.
In 1979, Tom founded the Tom of Finland Company to collect and distribute his work. The company still exists and has expanded into a non-profit foundation dedicated to collecting, preserving and exhibiting homoerotic artwork. Before his death in 1991, Tom was the subject of the Finnish documentary "Daddy and the Muscle Academy - The Art, Life and Times of Tom of Finland". The European art publisher Taschen has published various collections of his work including three retrospective anthologies.
Many of Tom's drawings are based on photographs. The photographic inspiration is used to create lifelike, almost moving images, with convincing and active postures and gestures. At the same time, Tom presents his ideal of masculine beauty and leather sexual fetish, not combining realism with fantasy, but making fantasy real.
There are arguments over whether Tom's depiction of 'supermen' (male characters with huge sexual organs and muscles) is heroic or exaggerated. Bottom line, there's a huge number of gay men who admire Tom's work on a purely utilitarian basis. As the owner of a leather shop in Amsterdam put it, 'These works are not conversation pieces, they're masturbation pieces'.
Tom of Finland commercialized the underground leather counter-culture which emerged after World War II and continues to flourish. The uniforms, physique and attitude adopted by large numbers of gay men continue to be inspired by Tom's images. Tom of Finland's images continue to be used extensively in gay publications, bars, clubs, and online communities who associate with his BDSM subject matter.
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