August 21, 2007 | Arts / Entertainment

Justin Hall: artist, author, porn star

BG Exclusive!
"Justin Hall floated to shore on a half-shell and immediately fell in love with comics and chocolate." Or so claims an online bio of the comic book artist, author and -- ahem -- porn star. A self-admitted "experience whore" Justin seems to be the perfect spokesmodel for erotic, queer comics.

His work is varied, from the legend of the dead-sea scrolls to "Glamazonia, the Uncanny Supertranny." He's written about his travels, confessed to performance anxiety on the set of a porn movie, and revealed the lives and loves on a pirate ship called the Hard Roger -- all nicely inked and lettered for the horny geek in each of us...

As a medium, comics were a natural choice for Justin.

"I have always been fixated on comic books," he admits "It's the combination of verbal and visual storytelling which works the best for me. The only other medium that does that is film... but I prefer the static images. They're how I learned to read... I just never got over them."

And although not all of his work is erotic in nature, he quickly realized comics offered much more than just Disney-esque fairy tales for kids.

"It is actually a mistake to think of it as a children's medium at this point. In the past it was, but as the population of comic book readers have been aging there haven't been a lot of new readers... (younger people are) more into video games and other kinds of media. Most comic book readers are probably in their 30s."

Tales of the Hard Roger: an ongoing serial of pirate lust.

However, there is still room to grow. For example, the industry has yet to come to terms with its sexual self. The gay comic world is distinct, kept separate, from the straight comic world. As Justin points out, most comics are sold through comic stores which are still straight boy venues. Gay work, on the other hand, is published and distributed through different means: either serialized on gay websites and newspapers, or as collections sold in gay book stores.

And erotic comic books? These works are even more marginalized as most comic book stores are less likely to carry sexy titles, let alone adult gay material.

"I think "Hard To Swallow," the erotic anthology I put out with Dave Davenport is the only gay erotic comic in the Diamond Comics catalog... they have 90 to 95 percent of the distribution market to stores. So it is just starting to happen for us."

And the recognition for his work is growing. Justin was one of about 8 comic book artists to take part in the art exhibition TOONFETISH! "Having it up in a gallery, and framed makes you look at it again and say, yes it is art. It's all presentation... it doesn't mean the work is better, but the presentation matters."

But what about the porn movies? Although he hasn't done one for a few months --  "seems like they take fresh meat on, overexpose them and then never use them again, so I think I may have used up my fifteen minutes already" -- he did give it a go after hooking up with someone from Titan. "I did about 8 films for for Titan and Mustang (Falcon). I'll probably do a few more... but I don't think I'll do that many.

"It was fun. I had a really good time. I've never bought or rented a porn film in my life... I never really found them that arousing. I came to them because I am an experience whore, an experience junky, and I'll do everything, or anything, at least once.

"I came into it with absolutely no preconceptions about the industry whatsoever which is probably good. It was a really fascinating sub-culture to stick my nose into, basically."

Of course, his porn name pays homage to one of his favorite superheros, Wonder Woman. He chose the name Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman's leading man. 

"A lot of porn guys seem to be into comics, which is interesting, and there was this one guy who was from Mustang, a big hairy muscle daddy. I met him on the set. When he heard my name he was like "Oh my god, Steve Trevor, I love Wonder Woman. I have all the DVDs with me." I ended up spending the evening with this big hairy muscle daddy, not fucking around -- which we couldn't because we had to be on set the next day -- but watching his lap top DVD series of the entire Wonder Woman show."

These porn experiences did not change how Justin draws, but they did provide some interesting fodder for his stories. For a book called "Stripped," an anthology of gay erotic illustration and comic art, Justin wrote a short, autobiographical story about being on the porn set and not being able to cum. "You're like waiting for the cum shot and you're trying to do it... concentrate and concentrate, and you start thinking of hot vietnemese soup... then you're like 'gotta cum'... oh, hot guy..." Did he make it? Sorry, no spoilers here!

Porn Star: A porn star is having a hard time cumming on set
... a tale of concentration under pressure!

Justin is hoping to gather other porn star experiences for future books. He's working on one about Tober Brandt discovering his inner pervert. The story apparently involves a messed up ex-CIA agent, flashbacks, and being pistol whipped into submission.

A second story features an actor tied naked to a log in the woods by his boyfriend, much to the horror of the scout troop that stumbles upon the action.

Porn stars have all the fun!

As for a downside to drawing asses and cocks all day? There seems to be one: "I like to create characters and a plot line, but you have to keep on coming back to the money shot in erotic comics. But on the other hand it forces you to be constantly dynamic. You cannot have too much "down time" in an erotic narrative. The energy has to be high, got to be right to the point, and visually very dynamic."

The sacrifices some people make to bring us joy...

• All Thumbs Press - indie work [homepage]
• Hard To Swallow - erotic work [Marginalized Publications]