Showing posts with label nsfw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nsfw. Show all posts

Thursday, February 23, 2023

Sympathy for the Succubus, Part 4: In Search of the Sutherland Succubus

I have stumbled on some new information so I have decided to combine an older feature, Sympathy for the Succubus, with a newer one, In Search of, for something new.  In particular, my search for the roots of the succubus in D&D. 

You can see my first three parts here:

Today I want to explore one of the "urban legends" of the early days of D&D. The David Sutherland III succubus art from the AD&D 1st Ed Monster Manual.

Let's start with what everyone knows or thinks they know. 

Two 1977 publications
Two 1977 Publications. What do they have in common?

Oh, Sheila!

Sheila Mullen
Sheila Mullen
Sheila Mullen was the Playboy Playmate of the month for May 1977.  Certainly, the time period was right. The Monster Manual was published in December 1977. There are even a few pictures that *could be* right. The one to your right is a cropped version of the biggest contender. 

This notion has been taken up by many modern writers, bloggers, and chroniclers, myself included.  

Likely the source of all of this is the Blog of Holding. Which only claims that the "body of one of these original succubi was copied from a Playboy centerfold."  Sheila Mullen was a centerfold for 1977, making her the likeliest of choices.

Except that is *mostly* wrong.

Sweet as Honey

The date of 1977 is right, but the month was October. And it wasn't a centerfold.

I apologize for not remembering who it was that first clued me in on this idea, but it sent me down a rabbit hole of searching. 

This issue is rather famous for having an interview with Barbara Streisand. I posted the cover above. The centerfold/Playmate is Kristine Winder, who sadly passed in 2011 at 55 from breast cancer. But neither she nor Sheila Mullen lived on in the pages of the Monster Manual. 

No, that honor belongs to Honey Wells.

Miss Wells was featured in the "Ladies of Joy" pictorial by John Bowers, with photography by Robert Scott Hooper. It featured women in "the world's oldest profession." 

As you can see here with the Sutherland Succubus, her photo is a good match.

Honey Wells
Honey Wells and the Succubus. Covered for your protection as much as mine

We don't know much about Miss Wells here. Save for what she tells us.

Honey Wells

So there is no real way to research Miss Wells here. I doubt that is even her real name. Not to mention that this is a 45-year-old article, so much could have happened since then. If alive, she would be in her mid to late 60s now.

Which is too bad. I wonder if she ever knew that her pictorial inspired this art and that art was held in such fond memories of an entire generation of gamers.

Now I will concede that the succubus pic is likely inspired by Honey Wells and Sheila Mullen. The hands and hair fit a similar pose on Miss Mullen (pictured above), and the overall pose is Miss Wells.

Sadly David Sutherland passed away in 2005, so I can't approach him and confirm. Indeed, it was also more than 45 years ago, and any memory is likely blurred. 

Though it is comforting that Sutherland, Wells, and yes, Mullen have a bit of D&D Immortality to call their own. 

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Featured Artist: Brian Brinlee

Time for another Featured Artist post.  I discovered today's artist, Brian Brinlee, in one of the fantasy art groups I frequent on Facebook.  He had a great style and something about his art made me think of some of the old D&D books from the late 90s.   So I got him to commission a piece for me I was calling "Tea with the Witches." It featured five witches from various D&D worlds and it takes place in The Simbul's castle in the Forgotten Realms.

Tea with the Witches

Here are the witches pictured. Left to right (clockwise, never widdershins when dealing with witches):

Sagarassi the Sea Witch (Krynn/Dragonlance), Iggwilv the Witch Queen (Oerth/Greyhawk), The Simbul, Witch Queen of Aglarond (Toril/The Forgotten Realms and where this is taking place), Larina (my OC), Feiya the Pathfinder iconic witch (Golarion/Pathfinder).

They are playing Pentacles, a game played with five people using Tarroka cards.

I loved this one so much I wanted to share more of his art with you.

Art by Brian Brinlee

Art by Brian Brinlee

Art by Brian Brinlee

Art by Brian Brinlee

Art by Brian Brinlee

Art by Brian Brinlee

Art by Brian Brinlee

Art by Brian Brinlee

Art by Brian Brinlee

Art by Brian Brinlee

Art by Brian Brinlee

Brian Brinlee Korra

Brian Brinlee Valkyrie

You can find Brian online on his Facebook, Instagram and DeviantArt pages.

Thanks so much for sharing these with me Brian!

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Featured Artist: Rosaleen Norton

I have not done one of these for so long.  I am watching "The Witch of Kings Cross" the documentary of artist Rosaleen Norton.  The movie is great and it reminded me how much I love her work.  Before I get into talking about Roie, I want to mention that actress Kate Elizabeth Laxton who plays Roie in the documentary is just fantastic.  

Ok. On to Roie.

Rosaleen Norton

Rosaleen Miriam Norton was born October 2, 1917 and lived till December 5, 1979.  She was considered to be an esoteric artist and one of Australia's most notorious artists.  She was one of the first women to ever be charged with obscenity for her art. 

So I guess fair warning for the art that follows.

satanic orgies

She referred to herself as a "witch" and used altered states of consciousness to make her art. She often called herself "Thorn," much like a craft name.  But her friends all called her Roie.

I came to know her via her art "The Seance."  I thought she had tapped into something deep and maybe even a little dark.  For someone young and obsessed with witches and the writings of C.G. Jung she seemed like some sort of prophetess or seeress to me. 

The Seance by Rosaleen Norton

Later I learned her art was fueled by drugs, sex, and trying to commune with other powers, in particular Pan.  Sounds perfect to me.  

If The Seance grabbed me, then her Lilith cemented her in the pantheon of people that influenced my RPG writings.


Lilith

The Spinner by Rosaleen Norton

She does a lot of Jungian archetypes in her art and I use the same ones when I wrote my first books on witches.

Bacchanal by Rosaleen Norton

Firebird by Rosaleen Norton

Fohat by Rosaleen Norton

Her demon Fohat (above) was something of her personal demon or even a Jungian Animus. 

Black Magic

Norton art

Rosaleen Norton



Norton art

Norton art

Norton art

Interviewer: What would be the state of the world if evil ruled?
Roie: Exactly as it is now.

If I could, her art would be the covers for all my books.

"I came into this world bravely, and I will leave this world bravely."

- Last Words of Rosaleen Norton

Friday, May 10, 2019

Kickstart Your Weekend: Heretical Fates Tarot Deck

A different KYW for the Other Side today.  Hope you enjoy it!

HERETICAL FATES ART BOOK and TAROT DECK with Danika XIX


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1193179890/heretical-fates-art-book-and-tarot-deck-with-danik?ref=theotherside

A NSFW Tarot deck and art book with 78 photographs by Allan Amato, descriptions by Danika XIX and art by JAW Cooper + Lauren Panepinto.



I am not "into" Tarot, but I do love the iconography of it all.   And this would be a cool tarot deck to have to use with some games like WITCH: Fated Souls or Mage

I also think I like the idea of Vivid Vivka as the Devil in this.


Looks really fantastic.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Zatannurday: X is for X-Rated

Ok so in "celebration" of today being X day, how about some Zatanna from the X-rated side of things.

The biggest trouble is with "porn" versions of superheroes is not that people are having sex (come on, that is WHY we get them) it's that often the producers of the adult movies do a better job than Hollywood does!  Not always, but sometimes.
I have a number of adult film actors and producers on my G+ and Facebook friends and they are every bit as geeky about this stuff as I am.
Here is a post by fellow gamer  Zak Sabbath on his site, Playing D&D With Porn Stars to pretty much the same conclusions.

So here are two examples of X-Rated Zatanna.  This post though will be safe for work.

I had previously mentioned Super-heroines in 3D before.  I bought it and watched, for research of course!
It stars Chanel Preston as Zee.

The movie itself is Point of View.  So it's like you are part of her...magic act.
Chanel looks great, but I didn't buy her as Zee at all.   I honestly only picked up for the Superhero content, I am not into POV porn.

The next one though is an example of what you can do if you pay attention to your source material.

The Dark Knight XXX: A Porn Parody works better as a B-rate Batman movie.  I also own this one (thanks to Vivid's on-demand service; we live in a Golden Age!). I am not going to get into it too deep to be honest, but there are a few things I did want to bring up.
First, for a Vivid porn, it is rather tame, but it also has a plot. Batman, upset about the defeat of Batgirl and Nightwing, is in exile.  Meanwhile, Bane is tearing up Gotham.

The scene with Joker and Batgirl is straight (more or less) from The Killing Joke.

The scene with Zatanna is what brings me to this movie.  It is Zee (Christy Mack) and Constantine. The actor is a better Constantine than Keanu Reeves was; he has the look and the accent.
Christy Mack looks more like Zee than Chanel Preston.   Though they forgot the fishnets.

She has a scene with Constantine (the impossibly named Clarke Kent), but that is it.

I give the producers credit for knowing their material and casting actors and actresses that look the part (Catwoman and Poison Ivy were great; Bane in here is scarier than Bane in TDKR).  I gotta say the Joker scene ala the Killing Joke made my geeky fan boy happy.

All in all this is still better than the Justice League Movie from 97 or the Doctor Strange movie from 20 years before that, and right now it is the closest we have to a Justice League movie.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Zatannurday: Zatanna XXX in 3D

I am not even sure I should post this one or not.
Obviously I have noting against porn or anything like that.  But this blog tends to be more PG or PG-13 rated.

So forwarned is forearmed.

Zatanna will be the star in a new Super Hero Parody Porn.

You can read all about it here, http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/11/10/zatanna-and-emma-frost-come-to-superhero-parody-porn-xxx-in-3d/

It stars Chanel Preston as Zee.
Honestly she is not that bad as this pic will show,  no worries, this is a safe one.



I have no idea what the story is about but it features Catwoman, Supergirl and oddly enough, Emma Frost.

Did I also mention it is in 3D?
No? Well yeah it is in 3D.  The Red/Green type, but still.

If you are curious here is a link, Not safe for work.
http://superheroine3d.com/

Up for pre-order now, and you can use your 3D glasses on the website too.  How's that for value add.