Gay Porn Heroes

The absolutely wonderful recent book "Porn from Andy Warhol to X-Tube" provided a colorful history of gay film erotica, in both its prose essay and the photos of various porn actors. Now J.C. Adams has given us the ultimate porn fan's coffee table book.

The title, "Gay Porn Heroes" should tip you off where Adams stands on the status of porn actors. He considers them brave souls who risk ridicule to bring pleasure to the home-viewing public.

Maybe. But I've always found that most porn actors wandered into the profession. And as everyone from Paris Hilton to Pamela Anderson to former President Bill Clinton has shown, exposing one's sexual self to the world isn't quite as daring as it used to be.

In fact, porn, whether run out of rec rooms in the San Fernando Valley, or in the exotic locales of Bel Ami and lush productions of a Michael Lucas, has always been a business. Adams acknowledges that we are probably living in the twilight of the porn film industry. The Internet, which has already gobbled up CDs, books, and newspapers and magazines, is doing its work on the porn studios (as it is the Hollywood studios).

No one knows what the future holds, but the inclusion of at least one Internet-only actor here points the way. Furthermore, when everyone is taking out his iPhone and filming his sexual exploits (and everyone is working out as hard as these guys), it's harder and harder to find reasons to plunk down $50 for a two-hour DVD.

Gay porn was always on the margin of a marginal industry. Like a Bizarro World mirror to Hollywood, it had its version of the Oscars, its stars, superstars, megastars and supernovas. (It should be noted that in gay porn, in an entertainment version of grade inflation, everyone is a "star.")

Adams begins with a personal essay, in which he looks at the ghosts that inhabit Los Angeles. Once the epicenter of the industry, L.A. is still its capital, but far-flung places from New York to Rio have fragmented the industry. Adams doesn't tackle the 800-pound gorilla on the set, bareback porn.

He divides the book up into sections that categorize the actors well, including Bodybuilders and Superhung. I'm not quite sure why he didn't include "Muscle Bears" and "Twinks," since these are universally recognized types.

More troubling, not only does he not identify who does bareback porn; with a few exceptions, he doesn't note which actors are gay for pay. This seems like a pretty serious omission.

Most of the biographies, in fact, read like press agent one-sheets. They are all superlative, and nothing negative. Not to mention that Robert van Damme has a girlfriend seems strange. Besides the gay-for-pay factor, there's a lot wanting here, such as the extraordinary Matt Rush's racial heritage.

Even if the prose is not exactly involving, even by the standards of a coffee table book, the photos are all great. As with all books published by Bruno Gm�nder, the paper quality and color reproduction is excellent.

If you're one of those people who can look at a glance at a porn scene and name all of the participants, you'll certainly enjoy this encomium to the men who make the money shots. I'll admit that the shot of �ber-preppy (and pretty) Kevin Williams' Kardashian-sized ass is worth the price of the book alone.