… or you can go ahead and buy the whole company. Bob Wingate, the man who started it all way back in the late 1980s, explains it all here.
Click to find out how you can purchase hard copies of the magazines and DVDs pictured above.
Bound and Gagged magazine was a HUGE influence for me and countless others. The magazines are definitely collector’s items — so get yours while you still can.
Those of you who are regular readers of this site know that I am a huge fan of gay bondage porn. Especially bondage STORIES! That’s right, I just can’t get enough of really well-written bondage fiction — stories like Trust Us, Waiting for Ross, Danny in the Dorm and The Roommate, and even novels like Brig.
Here’s another thing: While I am not an old man, I am no spring chicken either. I’m old enough to know what the world was like before cell phones and before cable TV. There were three channels and if you wanted to see something else you had to get up and turn the knob.
The Internet? When I was growing up nobody knew what it was. If you wanted porn, you had to buy MAGAZINES in X-rated stores. In the American Midwest, where I grew up, there were no gay adult bookstores. You had to go to the straight “XXX” bookstore, located in a bad neighborhood downtown, and walk to the back, where they had a small section of gay porn mags with titles like Honcho and Inches. But there wasn’t much in the way of gay male kink.
Later, when I was in college, I discovered a little digest called Manscape, and also Drummer magazine, which opened up a whole new world for me. Fuck it was great. I could read about all sorts of twisted ideas for gay male bondage sex. When Bound and Gagged magazine came out it, was the greatest thing ever. Another one of my favorites was Manifest Reader (pictured above).
Before I had this website, waaaaaay back a long time ago, I was a member of Gay Male SM Activists (GMSMA), a New York City-based organization. GMSMA aimed to promote safe, sane and consensual SM through three “pillars” — education, activism and social activities. Sadly, GMSMA closed up shop a few years back. (To read about that, click here.)
I was editor of NewsLink, the newsletter for GMSMA, for about five years, and I was recently going through some boxes of old stuff and I came across a bunch of old issues. Here is a sampling:
I did not want to throw my extra copies away, so Hilton over at Purple Passion here in NYC graciously agreed to distribute them. You can stop by Purple Passion, located at 211 West 20th Street just west of 7th Avenues in Manhattan, and pick up a copy.
While you;re at it, you might want to buy something, because they are having a huge sale this week. They also have a very large stock of vintage magazines available for really cheap.
Click the box below for the Purple Passion website:
If you stop in, be sure to tell them that Metalbond sent you!
That’s what it says on the Bound and Gagged booth at this weekend’s IML! If you are in Chicago this weekend, be sure to stop by and say hello to the guys from Bound and Gagged. You might even end up getting roped up, like the guy pictured here:
Find out more at Bob Wingate’s Blog
These images are from the vast library of material available from Bob Wingate, editor and publisher of the great Bound And Gagged magazine:
I remember when I first started getting Bound and Gagged magazine in the mail. It was digest-sized and arrived every other month in a plain brown envelope. Getting a new issue was an EVENT for me. This was before the Internet. I was living in Texas at the time, and I would read each issue, cover to cover, including all the personal ads. It was very exciting.
Eventually the magazine got full sized, and then they later added color pictures.
One of the many things I remember reading about on the pages of Bound And Gagged magazine was that there was a CLUB in New York City where you could go and get tied up! Fucking hot! So, when I moved to New York in 1992, I went to the New York Bondage Club as soon as I could, and guess who I met there? Bound And Gagged photographer James Bond, accompanied by Bound And Gagged editor Bob Wingate!!!
The two of them stripped me naked, blindfolded me and tied me down to a floating bondage table, where I was jerked off for the next three hours by lots of different, anonymous men! What an initiation.
I had lunch last week with Bob, and I told him this story. He of course does not remember this meeting, but for me it was a huge event at the time.
Through the Bound And Gagged personal ads I later met Alan, and we hit it off famously and remain friends to this day.
Thank heavens for Bound And Gagged!
Bob tells me that the Bound And Gagged crew will be taking a booth at this year’s IML event in Chicago, so watch for him there. You can also see more of the Bound And Gagged archives, including stories and tons and tons of pictures, at Bob Wingate’s Blog. You can also purchase back issues (hard copies) of the magazine by clicking here. Get them while they still last, as these back issues are quickly becoming rare collectors items.
I asked Morgan if I could post his very hot first-person story “Mark Goes To Jail” here on Metalbond, but he said no, and fuck me very much for even requesting such a thing. Instead he wants you wankers to buy his book, which contains the story and other tales of his adventures, on Amazon or get it on kindle.
Or … if you happen to have issue 40 of Checkmate (the “Prison Issue”) like I do, you can read it there.
JOHN H. EMBRY 1926-2010
John H. Embry, pioneer gay author, publisher and activist, died in his sleep at the age of 83 on the morning of Thursday, September 16, 2010 at his home in San Francisco.
After a successful career in advertising and marketing, John founded the groundbreaking magazine Drummer, which became the most successful national publication for gay men in the leather lifestyle.
John published the magazine from its inception in 1975 until 1986, when he sold it.
John and founding Editor Jeanne Barney shared a vision: To produce a magazine that celebrated the masculine gay male, while embracing the literary values of the Evergreen Review, a publication famous for content that was counter to the culture and sexy. As such, they attracted such talent as Phil Andros (Sam Steward), Scott Masters (Edward Menerth), Fred Halsted, Tom of Finland, Harry Bush and Robert Opel, among others.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of Drummer. For the first time, gay men across the country – particularly gay men in small-town America – saw masculine images of themselves and not the stereotypes presented in mainstream media. Through their encounter with Drummer, many gay men realized that there were others like themselves “out there.” At the same time, the magazine highlighted gay leather bars and businesses and gave those establishments a national venue.
The impact became even greater when, because of police harassment in LA, the magazine moved to San Francisco in 1977, generating an influx of gay Leathermen to the Bay Area.
Drummer was a significant contributor to the creation of the international Leather Community and gave birth to such famous San Francisco social events as the California Motorcycle Club (CMC) Carnival and the Mr. Drummer contest.
“Drummer presented an image of gay men previously unknown to me. When I saw the photos of the hot guys having fun at the Drummer parties in San Francisco, I gave two weeks notice and headed West.”
— Jerry Lasley, Embry’s business partner and husband
“John Embry was a pioneer of Leather who made gay male Leather/SM writing and art available to a whole generation of Leathermen. Those men were inspired and creatively brought out by his Drummer and other magazines over a 35-year period of Leather history. His influence is still felt today in gay men’s mass media, not just porn, but in mainstream gay media of all kinds from movies to art and writing!”
— Peter Fisk, longtime San Francisco Leather community organizer
“Most of us may never have had the introduction to this Leather scene had it not been for John Embry and the Original DRUMMER Magazine he started and published. I know it’s how I first realized I wasn’t alone in all my perverted fantasies. Finding that Drummer magazine on a newsstand in New Orleans in 1981 changed my life, and you can see where it all led for me. Tens of thousands of guys worldwide read Drummer every month and felt a bonding connection to each other because of it. John died peacefully last month here in San Francisco. His legacy stands for itself. I wonder if he realized what he was creating when he was in the middle of it all.”
— Richard “Big Daddy” Hunter, owner of Mr S
“When I was a young teen, my family moved to a new city (Bedford/Temperance, Michigan) in the middle of the school year (one of the worst things you can do to a kid) where I was thrust into to a very WASPy school. Yeah, it was rough. I knew nobody and they were just looking for a target. What made matters a bit worse was that I was one of those future Gay Kinsters who was discovering he was KINKY … before he discovered he liked MEN. I remember lusting over football uniforms, wrestling singlets, the motorcycle leathers in the SEARS catalog, etc.
“Since my parents didn’t pick up on how scared shitless I was to go to school each day and that I didn’t have friends (and my father could really care less), I’d go to the library after school. I tried to figure out my fascination for fetishes. This led me to books on sexuality where they always had a few pages on Fetish … and BDSM. And at the back of the book were the references. Where I found DRUMMER MAGAZINE.
“*A lot* of who I am today is by Drummer Magazine. At first, with a Post Office Box, I just ordered back issues with money orders. Got a subscription shortly after. Yes, at age 16.
“Each month that I got the magazine, I would have a masturbation marathon. Reading each magazine from front to cover several times. I’d also get on other mailing lists that I found in the advertisements. Which is where I discovered another influence, Mr S Leather (great article at that link on Drummer Magazine)
“I read today that the Publisher of Drummer, John Embry, passed away recently. While I never knew the man, I read his stuff and wish I could tell him thanks. I learned much from his magazine. I learned about HIV/AIDS prevention from his magazine wayyy before I got any kind of education at School or anywhere else. There was also many articles about the importance of respect, safe & consenting sex, roles and brotherhood.
“So, many thanks to you, John. I’ll see you later in that big dungeon in the sky.”
— Ruff, author of the popular Ruff’s Stuff bondage and SM blog
Drummer magazine publisher John Embry, who has died (1926-2010), hired me as founding San Francisco editor in chief of Drummer in 1977. Developing Drummer during the Titanic 1970s, Embry and I worked on leather articles intensely and then intermittently through 2002. He will be missed by the thousands of writers, artists, photographers, and staff who created Drummer.
— Jack Fritscher
