Mo' Better Beefcake

Hard to believe that in all these years of blogging about batfaggery I've never thought to include the single panel that, more than any other, definitively turned me into a young homosexual. You know it, you love it, and now you can revisit it here anytime you like:



Okay, it's actually the cover of that issue that got me so turned on, but the above variation from the actual issue is just as nice. After the damage was done, I came to long for images like this one:



(Note: both taken from our hero's early adventures with R'as al-Ghul. The tunic also comes off in a memorable episode of the animated series retelling the same saga. What is it about this ultimate adversary that brings out the shirtlessness in Batman?)

Both images were brought back to my attention (not that they've ever entirely left my imagination in the nearly 35 years since I first saw the first of 'em) thanks to "The Male Body in Comic Book Art," a swell collection of costumed hotties past and present, part of the always-reliable Gay Comics List site. (For the record, I was directed to the image gallery by way of this entry at Man's Adventure, the blog which has quickly become one of my favorites, even if new posts appear almost as slowly as the ones right here.)

Elsewhere in beefcake news, I recently checked out Dorian of PostModern Barney's archive of past "Men of the Moment" and discovered that not only do I enjoy his writing and appreciate his ceaseless labor as a blogger, I also share a lot of his taste in men. (This means you, ScissorSisters' BabyDaddy, Patrick "Tick, We Miss You" Warburton, Bradley "Naked in a Bathtub" Cooper, and Thomas "Lt. Dangle" Lennon.)

Speaking of Dorian and PMB, I love his recent post "My Trip to the Comic Shop". And I think I need to start shopping where he shops, instead of joints where everybody looks like a certain character from The Simpsons.

I leave you with one final image from that glorious issue of long ago, because that's just the kind of guy I am--specifically "a gay guy very smitten by Batman and various fantasies associated with bondage," according to the (very welcome) link to this blog from the GCL's amazing page of links. Take it away, Bruce and Talia:



Late-breaking update: I've been waiting since February for GlovdCop SF to update his photo gallery, and just when I'd given up and assumed he'd abandoned his site for good, I figured out where he was hiding the March gallery. Turns out good things come to those who wait, because it's devoted to 100 pictures of superheroes, in the flesh, in the comics, and in that painted-on-flesh phototrickery that holds no appeal to me but must work for somebody out there.Bonus selection of links, too. All is right with the universe, once again.