Customer Reviews

Hard Boys

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A witty,light hearted and very energetic collection of crisp graphite drawings celebrating the sexy good times of the classic all-american, fresh faced lad. Mr.Bush's lush color pencil drawing mixes anatomical accuracy with bold cartoony touches brilliantly. His masterful rendering skills carves every muscle tone lovingly, obsessively etching and shading the biceps,deltoids, six pack and obliques to sheer perfection.Further more, Mr. Bush's sharp eye for only the most masculine young hunks playing out the classic 'boys will be boys' fantasy makes for a very unique and instantly recognizable body of work. The sun splashed settings and the happy go lucky attitude of his subjects gives the work a light and innocent spark. This unique approach clearly separates Mr. Bush's drawings from the two basic catagories that seems to dominate most contemporary homo-erotic art: the all too familiar gritty-piggy-sleaze (yawn) or the ridiculously glossy,extremely femme muscle queens(yuck). Mr. Bush worked from the 60's through the 80's and captured the mood of contemporary manhood in each era.His hilariously cute tongue-in-cheek narratives on many of the star boy toys from the 70's and 80's television and movies makes very clear just how popular the man-boy fantasy has been in American mass media. And considering the dark undertones of the artist's personal life, it's fascinating how bright and optimistic the mood of the work is. Mr. Bush's work shares the same enthusiasm for frisky teens as those depicted in the infamous catalogues that mr. Bruce Weber shot for Abercrombie and Fitch, which were soon banned for too much joyful nudity (courtesy of some joy starved censors). Marky Mark's sexy, cool persona in those sizzling Calvin Klein ads also comes to mind. God bless those incorrigible rascals..long may they rule (yeah)!

I saw this book at a small bookstore and I bought it without hesitation. I didn't have to look inside, because I knew it didn't matter. It would be great no matter what. After seeing snippets of Mr. Bush's work online and in magazines, a monograph of his work has been on my mental wish list for years. As a child growing up reading comics, interested in art, and gay, I've always been taken with the precision and perfection exhibited in Harry's drawings. His art is somewhat hard to describe. The care and time put in to each drawing suggests painstaking realism, which causes the viewer to overlook some of the blatant exaggerations in the subjects' superhung endowment. Compared to Tom of Finland's work, which is too cartoony for my taste, Harry portrays a realistically exaggerated world of beautiful characters in the throes of budding manhood. The drawings are both erotic and fun, in addition to interesting to study as art. The almost all pencil-drawn pieces are crystal clear, with great care given to line weight and shading. The reproductions of the original pieces are very well done in the book, capturing little nuances like the texture of the paper they were drawn on, and notes Harry wrote to himself while drawing them.

I could write for days about this book, but in short I'd like to thank the authors for releasing it. Based on the story of Harry's life and attitude, it seems it is nearly a miracle that the drawings still exist for the world to enjoy.

As a college student in my early 20's, I never experienced gay culture before Stonewall; before AIDS. The art in this book portrays a care-free fun attitude throughout the '60's and '70's that I wish still existed. Even if it never really existed that way, Mr. Bush did a good job of making the fantasy as real as it could be.

For anyone with an appreciation for gay male erotic art, this book is a MUST! Harry Bush was (is) clearly one of the great American illustrators, and this collection of images is a brilliant testament to his courage as a gay man in a gay-unfriendly world! The images are not only titilating, but each conveys a sense of humor and charm that would make virtually any adult observer feel at ease. This book just might swing a few homo-phobics on over to the "other side"... ENJOY!

As an artist who specializes in the male nude, I found this book to be extremely inspiring and educational. Everytime I look at a Harry Bush drawing I learn more about anatomy, and how better to capture the male figure not only accurately but with panache. This book is a treasure trove of beautiful works from an artist who has not been sufficiently recognized for his contributions to the genre. I'm very grateful to the people responsible for making it happen!

Pretty good book. Nice large format, full page images, fat and heavy. Interesting bio of the artist too. Seems he was on the verge of destroying his oeurve at the end of his life, when the author stepped in and saved it. The artist's personality seemed very at odds with the imagery he produced. The work is all-american, Norman Rockwell, go-go USA, porn, while Bush seemed an angst ridden eccentric. The drawings are infused with a boy-man innocence that works against giant cum churning balls and colossal endowments resulting in a playful hardcore notion of sexuality. Perhaps it is a notion coming out of the '60's, when porn was of a more innocent, playful sort, before triple X and raunch came into major play. Bush's line is beautiful, and his drawings are great. Major Fine Art? I don't know. He wasn't working towards that, but maybe in todays' market, he would have.

Great book, lovingly produced!
It's a pity that some who bought it are now putting scans on the internet. That makes it harder for publishers to come up with similar books. Don't be so foolish, please, tell your friends to buy the book.

This book is a must have for lovers of gay erotic art. The attention to detail in this book is simply amazing. It's completely loaded with well hung guys in different types of artwork- sketching, color prints, etc- the book is HUGE too- It has over 200 pages and the biography on the artist of the book is extremely interesting as well. This book was very well done- You will love it!!

Harry Bush, may have been a sad character in real life, but his male(homo)erotic artwork is exceptional. There is a lot to be learned from his drawing style. As an erotic artist I draw and paint for the adult audience. I needed to learn what male erotica could be, this book is an outstanding example.

An excellent compilation of rare images by this master illustrator of casual male nudes from the late 20th Century.

I saw this at a friend's place and was immediately sold. I needed it as a reference for my own artwork, and nothing could be better! The pictures are extremely well detailed, accurate and attractive. The artist is no dount extremely talented - he knows what the eyes want to see. A lot of it is just erotica, so don't know whether that's a bonus or a distraction. In all, it was a great buy, and awesome as figure drawing reference!