Honoring our Legends
Legends
This year we lost two greats — Rex and The Barracks. We wanted to take a beat to honor them as well as Mikal Bales, the man behind Zeus Studios—all 3 legends of Leather.
Rex’s illustrations took us into the minds and worlds of the depraved, shaping gay leather subculture indelibly. We’ve chosen some of our favorite images plus Rex’s own words to honor his legacy.
For 31+ years the Barracks was the most well-known and arguably best leather bar in Palm Springs, if not Southern California. Writer Rob Hill and photographer Michael McFadden chronicle that very last Sunday Beer Blast before the doors closed.
And in the 1975, frustrated with the vanilla porn of the day, Mikal Bales created Zeus Studios to make the kind of fetish and bondage porn he himself loved which went on to influence so many others. We’ve still got today’s hot guys doing hot shit to each other in pictures and on paper –– another scorcher from Vince Andrews (“Flying High, Landing Hard!), art by Lancelot Runge and Mosirisart and photography from lens behind BoundLeatherZine.
But it’s good to remind ourselves and remember what came before…what made us who we are now.
In this issue
COMIXXX: A Lot To Lose
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HARD READS: Flying High, Landing Hard!
It was the last leg of my flight plan, and we had to make a ground stop due to weather hazards. I absolutely pounded one in on my first leg in the left seat of the ol’ “Pig.” I never knew why they called the B-737 that, but I always enjoyed thinking I was riding a...
LEGENDS: Daddy Zeus Mikal Bales – The Man Behind The Camera
Mikal Edward Bales was born in Pomona, California in 1939. As a California baby, it seemed almost preordained that he would end up in the movie industry. But he went about it in a direction most wouldn’t have. He did make his start in a traditional manner as a...
Broken In
Sometimes you gotta break ‘em down not-so-gently.[dsm_masonry_gallery...
LEGENDS: REX
Among the pantheon of great gay fetish artists – Tom, Etienne, The Hun – Joseph Cameron Fifield, or as we came to know him, REX, was in his own league. His work recognizable for the fetish but also for the commercial, having worked as a fashion illustrator at one...
Call Your BLUF
The wrong guy ends up in the right place and finds out real fast – uniforms aren’t just for show.[dsm_masonry_gallery...
Sic Transit Gloria The Barracks
*Leathermen have lost another of our bars—when do we start fighting back?* I. I have come to believe that some (many?) (most?) (all?) gay men wrestle with feelings of shame about being gay, and by “being gay” I mean our sexual desires directed at other men. I do not...
Last Call For Barracks Bar
*The Barracks Bar has spent over three decades serving as a place where gay men, especially those who are into leather could be themselves in the Coachella Valley area. This past August it shut down, leaving locals in search of a new leather bar to call home and to...