#401421 - Robert Bishop on Bondage Number 5 HOM
Bishop on Bondage, Number 5
illustrated by Robert Bishop
HOM, Inc.
Van Nuys, California
1986
three ebooks:
one containing complete, full-size pages of text, comics and advertising
one optimized ebook of full-page illustrations
one optimized ebook of a Fanni Hall comic episode
Mr. Bishop writes about his oeuvre with a mix of feelings, including embarrassment and relief. At the time of Bishop on Bondage, Number 5, the popular artist also worked as “production manager” for House of Milan.
In the prose he crafted to introduce the current volume, he waxes nostalgic and modest about his 15 years as commercial artist and provides insightful commentary about his creative development and the difficulty of working in air brush. He scolds the Iwata company for not manufacturing a better drawing tool that's less noisy than their current model. (We wonder how he would have liked 21st century graphics technology?)
In an essay titled A Little Ruminating, he describes the current volume.
. . . . I have loosely grouped the drawings into what, for want of a better term, I have decided to call themes. The illustrations that strongly feature poles as an aspect of the bondage are by themselves, while rubber clothing and/or restraints form another subgroup, for example. The simple reason is that you, like I, have specific interests in bondage practices and to randomly shotgun the illos through the book with no distinctions made about the precise nature of the drawings themselves would produce a lot of needless page flipping.
As to the drawings in the collection, I have, as usual, produced what, to my satisfaction, is a very great deal of chaff with one or two half decent efforts buried under there somewhere. The problem for me is that while I have improved a lot as an artist in the years since 1971, the amount of chaff from the drawings hasn't decreased and might, in fact, be on the rise. As my skills have become more honed, I find myself expecting steadily more and more of myself. In a lot of cases, it isn't even the esoteric stuff either.
Sit down and try drawing a hand sometime. And feet! Madre! I've had lots of practice, but it's still a grizzly exercise. I think I hate drawing feet more than hands, if it ever came down to making a choice. Nothing against feet, shoe lovers! Don't get me wrong here, I like the look of a tall black leather boot as much as the next man; I just hate drawing the goddamned things. . . .
Perhaps the most wearing single thing about the drawing is that it never gets any easier with increased skill, not only because of concomitant demands that skill be utilized to a maximum level, but that drawing is me in a visual way. Charlton Heston once remarked that to be rejected as an actor was worse than being rejected as an author or artist because he emphasized that it was your person that was being rejected in his case. What the hell does he think an artist puts on the page! It may not be the right color, but it's damn well blood. They may say no to the drawing, but that drawing is as much you as the actor mouthing words. . . .
You know, the one thing I've really been watching for all these years is for somebody to come along and just blow me right out of the water. I am almost stupefied that some young turk hasn't come along already. A friend of mine graduated from the Art Center about the same time I moved out here and I spent some time over there when it was still on Third. I want to tell you, those kids can draw! They make my stuff look a little pathetic by comparison. I keep watching and waiting. It's just a matter of time, I expect. But then again, with all the anti-porno bleating that's going on, there may not even be an industry for the new kid to check into!
All the art in this volume show the master's fluency in air brush techniques. Mr. Bishop's diligence produced precise delineations of leather straps with gleaming steel buckles, smooth rubber wet suits, winds of rope and an occasional lacy garter. Firm young flesh bulges against taut restraints. He defines all the links in chains and every eyelet of a single-glove.
The tapering contours of slender bodies are rendered with subtle, silvery gradients, like rolls of a chrome bumper. The eyes of his captives add spoonfuls of personality to their predicaments.
The volume has the structure of a full-sized magazine. Color only appears on the covers.
We divided the content into three ebooks.
An ebook with full-sized pages contains two pages of prose by Mr. Bishop, five pages of advertising, and four pages of a Fanni Hall episode in comic strip format.
An optimized ebook presents full-page characters. Each page appears complete followed by virtual enlargements of bondage elements and figure features. About 140 pages.
A small-scale optimized ebook presents the panels of Fanni Hall, “Worser and Worser,” Part 1, on about 25 pages.
Brightness, contrast and levels were adjusted. Mr. Bishop's art transposed to ebook format with smooth gradients and edges.
All new scans. Nudity.
Three ebooks, two of them optimized, delivered by download from your 30th Street Graphics account.