January Sticker - Pisser!

I am actually a little surprised that this one overwhelmingly won the poll. It’s the drawing of that lot that I put the least effort into, but maybe the most emotion.

Backstory: I had been doing occasional artwork for a slick and well-known kink magazine. A few artists I respect had already been working with the mag, so I was excited when asked to do some art for them. I was asked to do a few full page pieces, but first I had to join the Tom of Finland Foundation’s listing of gay erotic artists, something which includes paying dues. Okay, whatever. Soon I realize that this magazine doesn’t pay contributors either, they just do a really good job of convincing you that the exposure is worth it. This enthusiasm it turns out is because the editor is a proud “functioning tweaker” who even adds written pieces to the magazine defending the ability of meth addicts to be valuable members of society.

Anyway…

I turn in my first couple of full page illustrations to him, and he gets back to me saying he can’t use them, because it was 2004 and Bush’s attorney general is on an anti-pornography crusade (fueled by Janet Jackson, thanks Janet). My centaurs and satyrs and werewolves could be seen as beastiality... I always felt like this was an excuse, that my work wasn’t gritty enough for them, and this was just an out for not using them. The issue previous AND the next issue both featured sexy man-beasts, so that supported this theory.

I ended up doing a few spot illustrations for them in the following years, stuff that ended up being so tiny in the book you had to be searching for them to notice, and by the time I was last asked to do something, they had used some of my art without permission and altered it in ways I would never have approved of.

This (pisser) was the last spot illustration I did for them. I was fed up and didn’t care anymore and did this as catharsis, defecating artistically on the editor and his monument to his ego.

The first person I had met who had tried to convince me that meth addicts could be respected, valued members of society ended up in prison in England on a murder charge, and this magazine editor guy didn’t do much to dissuade my opinion that proud, evangelizing tweakers are delusional and dangerous.

Two of the other choices on the poll were also spot illustrations for this magazine, maybe I should theme this set thusly! At least I have interesting pieces to show for the experience.