Lust Unearthed: Vintage Gay Graphics From the DuBek Collection

by Thomas Waugh

On the heels of his bestselling and award-winning book Out/Lines: Underground Gay Graphics From Before Stonewall , Thomas Waugh offers more historic and erotically charged drawings, depicting aspects of gay male sexuality that were once hidden from public view. The more than 200, never-before-published images in Lust Unearthed are from the private collection of Ambrose DuBek, a Hollywood costume and set designer (his work included George Cukor’s 1939 film The Women ) who died in 2002 at the age of 87, and whose estate included a wealth of erotic materials, including books, periodicals, prints, and films. DuBek was a passionate advocate and patron of the arts who felt that life and the body were to be celebrated; he had no patience for other people’s attempts to make him feel guilty for his attractions and desires, nor any qualms about the different worlds in which he operated. The images from DuBek’s collection published here are remarkably frank and explicit depictions of gay men “in action” created by numerous artists both famous and unknown, and produced during a time when even nude images of men were illegal, and thus rare. Lust Unearthed brings these images out of the boxes in which they were carefully kept and into the light of present-day, where expressions of gay male sexuality can be validated and indeed, celebrated. Waugh’s text is a remarkable history lesson that illuminates a once-furtive underground culture. Gay porn for the thinking man, Lust Unearthed will beguile and arouse. Features an introduction by Willie Walker, the founding archivist at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Society in San Francisco, where DuBek’s erotic materials were donated. Thomas Waugh is the author of the Lambda Literary Award shortlisted Out/Lines and Hard to Imagine: Gay Male Eroticism in Photography and Film from their Beginnings to Stonewall . He is a professor of film studies and director of the Programme in Interdisciplinary Studies in Sexuality at Concordia University in Montreal.

Genres: Gay, History, Graphic Novels, Art, Queer, Erotica, LGBT

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

Thomas Waugh is Concordia University Research Chair in Sexual Representation and in Documentary in Montreal, Canada. In addition to writing, he loves teaching, programming, swimming, cycling, travelling in India and sweating at Montreal's ninety-year-old community steambath.

Reviews

[George Ilsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

More vintage graphic from a trove which was unearthed after the death of the collector Ambrose DuBek.
The collection contained more complete sets for some work, and Waugh was able to fill in some of the blanks in Out/Lines, as well as discover the identity of more artists.
This volume is enhanced by selections from topical literature accompanying many of the images.
As well, there is an essay on DuBek, as well as scholarly discussions from the editor Thomas Waugh.
Obviously you will want to read the articles, although Waugh jokingly assumes you will have looked at ALL the pictures before reading a word.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating catalog of a private erotica collection (it's not porn if it's hand-drawn).

[Gerisgrltrl2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illustrations of 20th century homoerotic art. Unfortunately, several drawings are cropped- would be better to have left them out of the book completely.