Drub Report

The artist currently known as Drub has the same jitters any artist might have before a first exhibition. But that’s nothing compared to what the uninitiated might experience upon seeing the work he describes as “proto-porn” and “homo[erotic] trash illustration for the punk-and-skateboard generation.”

Drub says it would “definitely” be fair to call his work X-rated. The color drawings of young men engaged in two- or three-person sexual liaisons are graphic, recalling the explicitness of the late Tom of Finland’s iconic drawings of hypermasculine men in leather. But Drub’s work has a personality of its own.

“Tom of Finland’s work gives gay men the idea that there’s one body type they have to attain. They’re the gay equivalent of Barbie,” Drub says of Tom’s characters. “There are different body types, and not everybody has a dick as big as their arm. [Tom’s work] doesn’t explore a huge swatch of gay culture; it doesn’t reflect me or who I hang out with. My characters look like they’re having fun when they’re having sex.”

The 28-year-old Kansas City Art Institute graduate has a day job as a Web designer; for that, he uses his real name. He’s more comfortable going by Drub, though, and has found that his immersion in various subcultures — queers, punks, skaters, queer skinheads, for starters — has its limitations. “I’m on the far side of liberal, bordering on ridiculousness,” he says. “And a lot of people ask me why I’ve stayed in Kansas City. But there’s a punk scene here and things to do that I’m comfortable with. On the coasts, specifically San Francisco, gays ghettoize themselves. I can’t imagine spending your whole life in the Castro district.”

He won’t have to. Drub’s work is extremely popular in Europe, and when it comes to competition from other artists, he says, “What I’ve seen pushed me to pick up the pencils even more.”