Sunday Comics: “The Plumber” by Josman

Even the plumber who fixes your toilet has massive pecs of granite and a Julia Roberts Smile in Josman’s gay comic world.

I’ve been avoiding this entry in the Josman canon because I thought I had already published it. But, as it turns out, the story I published was actually a different story about plumbing, and not by Josman at all! If you’ve got the time today, do check out Robin Walden‘s 2002 story, Twice Plumbed, about a father/son plumbing duo who make sure all the pipes are thoroughly inspected before they call it day.

But Josman’s story is a bit of a different turn. Well. It’s a Josman turn, at any rate.

In The Plumber, first published in Handjobs Magazine’s April 2004 issue, a hunky, muscly plumber comes to fix the toilet and ends up turning out a shy teenager. It’s typical Handjobs fare, with signature Josman elements.

We’ve talked before and at length about Josman’s ability as a storyteller to craft worlds where power dynamics between the men involved in the sex he’s illustrating are not detrimental and leave no permanent scars. He gives men the power to have sex freely, and without emotional consequence. This leads to excited exploration and a smiling, healthy afterglow, instead of what one might expect from intimate father/son relations, or coercive or threatening older guy/younger guy play.

In fact, coercion is almost never a part of Josman narrative. He instead prefers to show younger guys enthusiastically and proudly delving into a newfound part of their full personhood. Sometimes that happens with their fathers, sometimes with strong male figures in their lives. Never does it happen in a way where someone says “no” or even thinks “I don’t want to do this.“

In gay comics like The Plumber, it’s significant to note that the titular, unnamed plumber, never forces the younger man involved to do or act in any way.

The plumber merely invites him to share his lack of personal inhibition about his own genitals and then happily encourages the boy when he becomes suddenly aroused after their group piss together.

This kind of encouragement and celebration is what makes these stories light and fun. That the plumber doesn’t attempt to force the boy or even say anything that might be construed as condescending or ridiculing is significant. Unlike so many young men, this dude gets to start his sexual adventures with someone who is happy to be there with him, and elevates his pleasure, rather than adding shame or weight to his youthful desire.

It’s very cool.

The Plumber

Written and Illustrated by Josman | Handjobs Magazine, April 2004

Josman’s attention to details always make me harder than any other illustrator, gay comics or not; the wide, permanently aroused nipples on the plumber, the curving, fluid drama of the spurts and drips of cum and spit, and the still-hard boner of the kid being pressed out to the side and under his leg as the plumber holds him close when he cums.  It’s beauty that one might never expect from blue comics about plumbers.

Happy Sunday.

-t