Q&A: Eye of the Cyclone, godfather of superhero and spandex fetish
Welcome to our Q&A with Eye of the Cyclone, one of the Internet’s longest-running superhero fetish sites. The Eye of the Cyclone was generating stories and images of superhero, wrestling and spandex fetish from basically the very beginning of the explosion of the world-wide web. Nowadays, the ubiquity of superhero fetish images on sites like Tumblr, Instagram and YouTube mean that it’s a lot easier for superhero fetishists to find community, but EOTC was there first, and for many kinksters, it was one of the first sites that took the fetish seriously. Today we sit down with its creator Neil Page and ask him a few questions. We’ll find out why the site has endured so long, how he selects such hot models, and his predictions about the future of this fetish and community.
Q: Neil, How did you start Eye of the Cyclone? What year was that?
A: The format of the site in its present form started around 2005. Before that, it was still called Eye of the Cyclone, but it was more of a scrapbook of images I had photographed and sourced starting in 1998.
Q: What difficulties did you run into in the early years?
A: When I first started it was difficult finding costumes readily available to use in the stories. So I got used to using base dance unitards and customising them myself, slowly creating my own stable of characters.
Q: Did you have a moment in the site’s history when it started to pick up steam and become more popular? What was the cause for that surge?
A: There was never one time I experienced that. The site slowly gained momentum, hopefully due to more superhero live action images and movies being accepted, and not as a novelty or joke factor.
Q: How do you define superhero fetish for yourself?
A: I have always had a thing for comic book superheroes from a very young age. I knew I saw something different in that other people didn’t. The sight of an anatomically correct fit man in skintight suits got me excited in ways I didn’t understand at the time. Along with my wrestling fetish, I also was inspired and stimulated by the elements of good guy vs. bad guy and a battle in hot tight gear.
Q: What’s the purpose of Eye of the Cyclone?
A: The original purpose was to bring to superheroes into a live action format. Keep in mind that when I first started in around 1998, there were not many images of this kind around, either in the media of web. When Eye of the Cyclone was a free homepage on AOL, the aim was to share my view of my superhero and wrestling fetish. I wanted to see if any other people out there “got it”. Hence the name Eye of the Cyclone (Cyclone was a name I took on as a name in the gay wrestling world). It’s wasn’t until 2005 that I decided to take it to a professional level with the members sections and making it a paid site.
Q: Your site is different than others, because you actually make comic book panels and focus on the fetish aspect of the superheroes and villains. Can you talk a little bit more about that?
A. I always thought the panel and frame-by-frame images were essential for a superhero comic book. I was intrigued on making this live action stills via photography. I have been asked why I don’t do more video, even though I do small video clips. I feel the strength of the site is its photo comic book format. I still try to keep the characters and storylines as interesting, horny and also with humour as much as I can. The essence of a good superhero showdown with the clean cut hero in danger of being defeated and corrupted by and evil and perverted villain.
Q: Are there requests for stories or fetishes that you’ve had to turn down?
A. I love getting requests or suggestions for the site. Many of those I try and include on upcoming photoshoots. I steer clear from extreme fetish requests. That does not have any place in the superhero fetish.
Q: How do you find your models?
A.I used to use a lot of people I met through the gay wrestling world. These days I hire many models from various sources online.
Q: You feature many body types, from lean and athletic to bodybuilder-like, stocky and muscle bear-ish. Can you talk about why?
A: From publishing the site online for many years, I have had many requests for all types of superheroes, from young agile spiderman types to more mature beefy hulks. I try and incorporate as many different types as possible. When I hire a model for a shoot I usually tailor make the hero to suit his build and type.
Q: You used to produce DVDs. Why did you stop? Will you do more video work in the future?
A: I produced on DVD in the past called “Divide and Conquer” the trailer is still around on my youtube channel. The reason why I didn’t follow these up with more, even though we did have a sequel planned, was down to the lack of time and resources to do so. Because the site is updated every week, I didn’t want the main focus, the site, to suffer from this. You never know -- in the future we might get to produce another video, It was great fun to do and an extreme learning curve.
Q: Do you attend events in the UK for superhero fetish? What is the scene like over there?
A: There are no Superhero Fetish events over hero in the UK. I do attend gear fetish events that sometime do have a superhero gear element to them, I always try to gear up as much as possible. The gear fetish scene is building and diversifying from the main ones of leather and rubber, which can only be good news.
Q: What’s been your most popular storyline on EOTC?
A: There have been many stories had their popularity during their published dates. But one that seems to remain a favourite was the introduction of Supersonic and his battle with the Xtractor.
Q: What predictions can you make about the future of superhero fetish as a recognized kink?
A: I can only hope and wish it grows and is more recognised from new guys on the scene along with experience fetish guys. There is definitely is more of a crossover happening with the guys who are into bondage that now recognise the superhero-in-trouble aspect, long may it grow. Let’s face it -- we all need a superhero in our lives!
You can find Eye of the Cyclone at eyeofthecyclone.com. They offer free previews and offer paid memberships. You can also find EOTC on Facebook and Twitter.