Waugh - Lust Unearthed (ff): Vintage Gay Graphics From the DuBek Collection

By thomas waugh with willie walker

arsenal pulp pressvancouver

LUST UNEARTHED: VINTAGE GAY GRAPHICS FROM THE DUBEK COLLECTIONCopyright 2004 by Thomas WaughAmbrose DuBek: the Man copyright 2004 by Willie Walker

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form by any meansgraphic, electronic or mechanicalwithout the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may use brief excerpts in a review, or in the case of photocopying in Canada, a license from Access Copyright.

ARSENAL PULP PRESSSuite 101, 211 East Georgia StreetVancouver, BCCanada V5T 3P3arsenalpulp.com

The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council for its publishing program, and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for its publishing activities.

Design by Robert BallantyneCover illustration by Bellhops

Efforts have been made to locate copyright holders of source material wherever possible. The publisher welcomes hearing from any copyright holders of material used in this book who have not been contacted.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in PublicationWaugh, Thomas, 1948

Lust Unearthed: Vintage Gay Graphics from the DuBek Collection / Thomas Waugh ; with Willie Walker.Over 200 images from the collection of Ambrose DuBek, which was donated to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Historical Society.

Includes index.Electronic format.ISBN 978-1-55152-455-9

1. Gay erotic art. 2. Gay men in art. 3. Erotic drawing. 4. DuBek,AmbroseArt collections. I. Walker, Willie II. DuBek, Ambrose III. Gay,Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Historical Society IV. Title.N8217.H67W375 2004 743.928 C2004-902950-9

Frontispiece illustration: Jean Vincent, date unknown.: Unknown artist, c. 1960.

Acknowledgments

The artists, living and dead, anonymous and known, are above all responsible for this book, and Walker and I would like to acknowledge our great indebtedness to their lust and the raw beauty of their work.

Also to Ambrose DuBeks loyal and unforgetting friends and associates, who were unstinting of their logistical assistance, memories, vision, and generosity, Anddrew B. Alder, Gus Head, Ned Kell, Buddy McCarthy, executor David Schemmel, and surviving partner Clarke Riedy.

To the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada as well as Concordia University for their longstanding support of my research in sexual representation.

For their sharp eyes, solid shoulders and open hearts, to my Montreal and Concordia pals Sarah and Cris Brunetti, Jason Garrison, Marcus Skidley Greatheart, Ross Higgins, Steve Kokker, Simon Laroche, and my research assistant Tim Lawrence.

To pioneer artists and facilitators Felix Lance Falkon, David Lehman, and Charles Renslow for their gracious input.

Also to San Francisco stalwarts John Fagundes, Bob Mainardi, and Trent Dunphy for their friendship, support and expertise.

For their knowledge generously shared, to experts Nicole Canet of Galerie Au Bonheur du Jour, Paris ( www.curiositel.com/aubonheurdujour/default.htm ); Drummer; Louis Godbout; Paul Jackson; Gayle Rubin; Justin Spring; and Jonathan Weinberg.

To the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Historical Society (San Francisco) for their generous institutional support to this initiative to share their treasure, and to its individual officers Daniel Boa, Kim Klausner, Jacob Richards, and Susan Stryker for their indispensable contribution to getting this project off the road and seeing it through to fruition.

To Robert Ballantyne, Brian Lam, scanner David Clausen, and the entire Arsenal Pulp family for their commitment and miracles.

Above all, to Willie Walker indefatigable archivist, collector, cataloguer, and visionary, as well as champion of the right to desire.

T.W.

Introduction:

The Pleasures and Politics of Lust

unearthing lust

Where on earth did this lustful volume devoted to the treasure trove of explicit underground graphics from before Stonewall, collected by New York film and television art designer and gay bon vivant Ambrose DuBek (1916-2002), come from?

My last book, Out/Lines: Underground Gay Graphics from Before Stonewall , brought out by my friends at Arsenal Pulp in 2002, was the most successful Ive ever written. It surpassed by far, in terms of copies printed and sold and modest income generated, the other three books that Id written since the 1980s for scholarly presses. Nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in Visual Arts, I was even a little more gratified by an Honorable Mention citation for the Gustavus Myers Book Awards, from the Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights (Boston), an organization Id been unaware of. And, as I write this at the end of a sultry July 2004, Out/Lines had an Amazon.com sales rank of 261,741, whatever that means. I am humbled by this success, since I know that it was not my pontifical musings, but rather those naughty drawings that sold the book, despiteor perhaps even because oftheir often misty reproduction from ragged and thumbworn duplicates. I wish I could thank those artists, mostly dead and unknown, for the immense satisfaction that I experienced in birthing that collection of their work and pushing it out into the world. But there is enough of the Protestant work ethic and attendant sexual guilt in me to be also a little embarrassed that the book which was the easiest, fastest, and most fun to write should have been the most successful, and that those earlier ones which emerged from so much blood, sweat, and tears should have been less successful than the one which emerged from, well, other bodily fluids.