In an interview with MetalboondNYC.com, Pablo Greene, author of the popular gay erotic fiction book series “How to Kill a Superhero,” talks about his love of spandex and superheroes, and how these fetishes intersect with bondage. He talks about his many ongoing projects, and he gives us a sneak preview of Book 3, “Transformation Fetish,” which is due out this fall. Read on for details.
Metal: I think it is great how your various fetishes — singlets, rope, superheroes, cosplay and the like — can intersect. That is quite a combination, if you ask me! Have you always been wired this way?
Pablo Greene responds: I think most of my interests as a human being have always been a blend. Take music for example. I like hard experimental techno and indie rock, but I can also go deep into opera or Mexican folk songs. I cannot be satisfied with only one genre. And when it comes to kink, it’s the same. My two roots are leather and superhero fetish. Everything came from those two; I think my fetishes arrived full force around the time of puberty for me. But as I grew older, my love of materials like spandex really expanded into what they are today. I still love leather, but honestly, nowadays, I’d rather suit up in spandex or some type of rubber, which I consider related.
But I also love bondage and restraint. Rope bondage and other kinds of restraint came out of my original interest in leathermen and leather imagery. But let’s not forget rubber and sports gear! Those count, too. I love the cross section of these, and to me, superhero fetish in the 21st century has elements of almost all the fetishes I mentioned above. I mean, have you watched any of those Dark Knight or Avengers movies lately? It’s like a fetish festival.
I understand that you are currently looking for models to get tied up in singlets. Are you still looking for guys? Can you tell Metalbond readers what that is all about?
Yes, I am working on a superhero/rope bondage project with Bastard Ropes, and we are looking for a model and rope bottom who would be willing to get into the ol’ cape and tights and display their muscled physique for us on camera. For those of your readers who might be interested, they can see the full casting call blog post over at our official site. Superheroes and bondage go together like peanut butter and jelly, so we want our model in this project to go deep into that mode with us. Very excited. The shoot will be in the spring, and we should have some more announcements later on once we edit the video. Bastard Ropes is one of the best rope makers in the U.S.
So, you are selling wrestling singlets now? How did that project come to be? Who designed that gear?
Ha ha, we are selling singlets, and that’s only the beginning! After we released “A Gay Bondage Manual” and “World Without Daylight,” I received a lot of reader questions about where to get good spandex or superhero gear, as well questions on how to get resources for bondage and kink. As a result I wrote an extensive guide devoted to vendors that sell superhero stuff, but I always wanted our site to feature spandex gear directly inspired by the superheroes and villains in my book series. As a response, we launched nine new wrestling singlet designs in our store. Each one is named after a place or character from the books.
I designed these new singlets to please guys who want something tight and fetishistic, with or without logos. We offer various styles, including a pup singlet for all the pup-play guys. Incidentally, our singlets are approved for powerlifting competitions, so you can double up on your use after you finish your bondage scenes and need to compete at a meet. Singlets are great gear for bondage scenes, and the styles we offer cannot be found anywhere else.
But singlets are just the beginning. In the coming months, we have lots more gear arriving into the store, including bondage gear that I myself would recommend to other kinksters and that I use myself. There will also be more superhero-specific gear, so if you’re a lover of spandex tights, trunks and bodysuits with trap doors, stay tuned. You can find all our gear (and autographed books) at our online store. On our site you can also find many posts where we recommend other great websites and stores to get other gear.
Many of the readers of Metalbond will be familiar with you from your book series — “How to Kill A Superhero” — the first two books of which have already been published. When is the next book coming out, and can you give us a sneak preview on what will happen next?
2015 is a pivotal year for the series! Book 3 arrives this fall, and I am happy to reveal its new title: “How to Kill a Superhero: Transformation Fetish.” This book is even filthier than the previous two. Roland and his lover Stephan have arrived in New York City for Hide, the world’s largest fetish event, but the mood is hardly festive. Sinkholes are swallowing city blocks whole, and red dust covers the sky. In this book Roland will have to face The Crimson Hand head on, and he will discover that the seemingly evil powers of the Golden Man book have actually infiltrated the leather and kink community. Readers can expect new kinds of bondage and play in this book, such as long-term encasement, cement bondage and the craziest rope suspension scene in history.
Book 4 arrives in 2016, and it will also be big. The events of the series are leading up to a massive battle, one that will play out physically against villains like the Crimson Hand, but also inside Roland’s mind. And yes, we will also learn the truth about Salvatore Argento, the man who wrote the book The Golden Man.
Which of the characters in “How to Kill A Superhero” do you identify most with?
It has to be Roland. No one makes my emotions rise like Roland. He is flawed, but he is also a person who has changed so much, and in my opinion, he seems to change for the better as time goes on in the novels. I like the questions he asks of himself and of other people. I also appreciate how he never backs away from his fetish — he lets it take him to new places. Freedom, both inner and outer freedom, are his key values, and I never, ever stop thinking about Roland.
I also am very attuned to the figure of David Dallion, Roland’s reluctant mentor. I think we would all like a teacher like David.
Do you have any other books in the works?
Yes! This year I am also kicking off “Villain Hearts,” a new series of spinoff novels focused on new villains in the “How to Kill a Superhero” universe. These books will feature less bondage and will focus more on love stories, and the series will eventually sync up with the “How to Kill a Superhero” series as villains face off against Roland.
We will be revealing an all-new set of book covers for these gay romance books, and I think they will be a hit with many of my younger readers who might be a bit more vanilla but still engage with the superhero element of the universe I created.
“Villain Hearts” kicks off this year, and two more books will follow.
Do you have any advice for guys who might want to start writing their own erotic books?
I think my advice would be the same for erotic writers than as for any writer. Write a lot (as often as you can), show your work to people, expose yourself, and then write some more. Then repeat. Write, show, expose. And when you do this very often, you will also find your path to publishing. What I mean is that if you write this much, and you practice your craft, eventually you will be ready to seek a publisher or to publish yourself.
When it comes to erotica in particular, I would just say to aspiring writers that it helps to get out of your own head. What’s hot and erotic for you may not be for other people. You have to find the right balance of description and level of detail so that you are connecting with your readers. This is where publishing or showing your work to people really helps. You can learn what resonates, and what doesn’t. For example, I learned that many readers love the wetsuit bondage scenes in “World Without Daylight.” They really love it. Well, I had no idea that would happen. I will keep it in mind for future books, but through and through, I will try to make sure that the wetsuit fetish and scenes can connect with the reader, not just with the three or four readers who couldn’t stop cumming during those passages. I love those guys, by the way!
Also, I think every person who aspires to be a writer should be a voracious reader. Of everything, from milk cartons, to encyclopedias, to web entries, to novels and memoirs. Everything.
Do you have any personal appearances planned in the coming weeks and months?
My travel schedule for 2015 is a little more limited than it was in 2014, mostly because I am working on two books instead of one, and I need to be at home to write them. However, going to fetish and literary events makes me so happy, and I get to meet with (and sometime even play) with other kinksters.
I will appear at Urban Bear Fair in NYC in May, and during Memorial Day I am going to be appearing at International Mr. Leather. I will be hosting my own superhero fetish event in New York City in the fall to coincide with the release of “How to Kill a Superhero: Transformation Fetish.” That event will be a hot spandex party with lots of bondage demos. That’s a lot right there!
What is something people might be surprised to know about you?
I have a master’s degree in computer science — in human-computer interaction, to be specific. I also speak conversational Japanese, and, though I’m rusty, I learned book binding as an undergrad, so I can build a whole book — including paper folios, sewing, binding in leather — by hand.
Anything you would like to add?
I want to thank all the kinksters who keep returning to the book series and tell me it reflected their inner desires. Superhero fetish is real, and the hunger for it is real. There is no book series quite like mine, and I am excited that my readers want to come along on the ride. Many people on the Internet may only know me as that muscle bear who wears superhero costumes in New York City, but the fact is that most of the questions I get are about the book series and its hero, Roland.
I encourage everyone to indulge their superhero fetish, regardless of gender and body. The power is inside.
More information about Pablo Greene
Never heard of superhero fetish? Then it’s time you met author Pablo Greene, who is leading the genre with his four-book series “How to Kill a Superhero.” The books tell the story of Roland, who must learn to harness the powers of The Golden Man, whose secrets are found in an occult book by the same name. The series of superheroes in bondage has been dazzling fans of gay men’s erotica, as well as readers of fantasy and sci-fi.
“How to Kill a Superhero” has been featured at International Mister Leather, Southeast Black and Blue, the Leather Archives & Museum, Dart’s Domain, No Safeword and Ropecast.
The first two books are available now, and the third releases in the fall of 2015. This spring, Greene will also publish a new spinoff novella set in the universe of the series. For more information, visit howtokillasuperhero.net. You can purchase the books on Amazon, or at the How to Kill a Superhero online store. You can also find him on Tumblr and Instagram, and you can sign up for his email newsletter.
Pablo Greene on Metalbond
To read the first chapter of “How to Kill a Superhero: A Gay Bondage Manual” and the first chapter of “How to Kill a Superhero: World Without Daylight,” visit Pablo Greene’s section in the Metalbond Prison Library.
