The art of Oliver Frey
It’s inevitable when writing about gay art and artists that Oliver Frey’s name will turn up eventually, so here’s the requisite posting. Frey is often better known in gay circles under the nom de plume he used in the 1980s, “Zack”, when he was a very prolific illustrator and comic artist for Britain’s small number of gay mags. As Oliver Frey he was already well-known as an accomplished professional illustrator who was for a time an artist for Look and Learn’s long-running science fiction adventure strip The Trigan Empire. That professional work makes him probably the most widely-seen of all gay porn artists simply because he drew some Superman pages which are briefly seen at the beginning of the 1978 Superman.
His career as a comic artist honed his skill at dealing with figures and telling a story which is one of the reasons his gay strips are still highly valued today. Those strips tend to be completely pornographic right from the start so I’ll spare the delicate sensibilities of some of the readers here and link you to some collections of his Zack work instead. In the meantime, I’d love to know where the picture of the boy with the sword (above) comes from originally. It’s a lot more finished than his Zack drawings and is paired on this page with a similar picture of serpent-twined tribal youths which hints at some kind of Burroughs-esque Wild Boys scenario. If anyone knows the answer, please leave a comment. As it is, it makes a good addition to the Men with swords archive, as does the piece of fluff below.
Oliver Frey links:
• Arrumako’s Gay Blog | A substantial collection of complete strips and sundry illustrations.
• Daddy’s Here | More single illustrations and some magazine scans including an interview with the artist.
• Gay Erotic Art Links | Another page with further links elsewhere.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive
• The men with swords archive
10 comments or trackbacks
#1 posted by pe-jota
Jul 4th, 2009
a soft selection, jejejejeje
#2 posted by Oliver Frey
Aug 10th, 2009
The two paintings you refer to were indeed influenced by Burroughs’ work. They are ‘private’ works, i.e. not commissioned, acrylic on board, and hang here at home.
#3 posted by John
Aug 10th, 2009
Thanks for commenting, Oliver. Great to have the Burroughs influence confirmed, I’d have loved to have seen more work in that direction.
#4 posted by Michael Rubal
Aug 18th, 2009
Is any of Oliver Frey’s artwork available for purchase? I’ve been looking for years.
#5 posted by John
Aug 19th, 2009
Hi Michael. I’ve no idea whether any art is for sale. I presume if Mr Frey looks in here again he may be able to tell us. There are plenty of dealers selling comic art, of course, but I’ve never seen any selling hardcore gay material, their erotic sales are always straight pieces.
The Adonis Art Gallery in London may know about past sales of Zack work.
#6 posted by dancien
Aug 28th, 2009
I was flicking through Arrumako’s Gay Blog when I reached ‘message to the emperor’. Those hairbands and tunics were *very* familiar. I just checked, and sure enough, Oliver Frey is the illustrator to ‘The Midas touch’ and ‘The monster in the labyrinth’ from ‘Storyteller’ (80’s partwork tapes). I always fancied his depiction of Theseus, even as a little girl (7 or so) and I must have stared at his Dionysus for hours, mesmerised. I did wonder if there was anything else going on in those illustrations, even when I was little…
#7 posted by John
Sep 17th, 2009
Hi guys. As Michael, i would like to buy some poster of some colored pictures Mr Frey drawn, cause i’am a big fan of these. I think he really captured very well the gorgeous side of the young guys in the 80’s. With some relation slave-master like, these gay stories was absolutly very exciting and a real pleasure to read them with one hand :-)
I hope in a near future, we can found some books of quality with all the gay works of Mr Frey, like there is for Tom of Finland or other gay artist.
So please, mr Frey, i hope you are working on that project because i’am sure that i’am not the only one who want to buy it !
Best regards.
#8 posted by Oliver Frey
Oct 3rd, 2009
Hi guys.
Sadly there most likely won’t be a collected gay Oliver Frey book. It would be expensive to produce, and I doubt the sales would stack up. As to posters… nothing definite, either. Sorry
#9 posted by John
Oct 4th, 2009
Thanks Oliver. I understand perfectly about the prohibitive cost of colour printing.
#10 posted by Oliver Frey
Oct 31st, 2009
Hi,
if anyone is interested, a trip to oliverfreyart.com will reveal other areas of illustration I’ve been involved in. More is on offer at illustrationart.com
Any gay overtones are only natural…
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