Servitor at his ‘Contemplating the divine‘ blog recently ran a greatest hits post, where he reposted some of his favourite captioned images. In it he mentioned the important role Cruella had played in his sexual development and gave examples of some of favourite Cruella photographs. I share his feelings about the importance of the magazine during my earlier years, and his comment sent me scurrying back through my archives to see if I could track down any of the key images that I remembered.
It’s notable that after 15+ years I can still clearly remember dozens of great individual Cruella images. I don’t think there are any other image creators I can say that about. In the case of the image I’ve selected below I can remember first downloading it (I’m not sure if it was ever in their magazine) and being transfixed by it. I had no idea why, injections were certainly not something I fetishized, but it gripped me all the same. There’s just something about her expression, her stance and that needle that makes it work for me. It’s an image I’ve seen many times over the years, and it still gives me a shiver when I look at it.
Cruella wasn’t formative for me, given my age. But they did have the edgiest magazines back in the day. I still have them. One image which I scanned, with a thigh-booted, whip-wielding leather Mistress and a male eating from a dog dish, still makes the rounds among some blogs.
Certainly they went further in terms of cold, ruthless scenes and extreme leather-clad Females.
-saratoga
S – Their quality was also particularly impressive considering they were publishing out of the UK, which had far stricter laws on what could and couldn’t be shown. No bondage, no sexual activity, no real torture or punishment. They might brandish whips or canes, but there was never any real activity shot, or marks shown.
In some ways I guess it helped. I was always annoyed with US photoshoots that started as femdom/fetish images and then quickly degenerated into standard porn. I think the UK rules may have helped them to stay focused on the actual femdom elements and not try to pander to every possible reader.