Enter the dank underbrush of Xarcon's swampy planet, where several young Spacegirls have come to track down evil aliens who are the scourge of the galaxy. But something has gone terribly wrong! Spacegirl Jade has fallen under the hypnotic spell of Xarcon, whose cruel snarl seems to curl into a devilish smile as he watches our nubile heroine slowly swooning, growing weak under his gaze. And that's when Xarcon brings out his secret weapon: Drax, whose giant, throbbing cock is the size of a garden hose, its double head tipped with little, hungry mouths. With a shudder of desire, the mind-controlled Jade allows the monstrous organ to probe her until it pulls out at the last minute, showering the hapless Spacegirl with several pints of bright green spooge.
As you continue to stare at the entranced Jade, who is rubbing the green goo all over her naked body, abruptly the story ends. "Once again Xarcon's mission moves one step closer to victory as he succeeds in transforming the powerful Jade Marcela into his Evil Alien Spacegirl!" blares the text on Sean McCall's site, XXXSpacegirls.com. "Stay Tuned as Xarcon's army of Evil XXXSpacegirls go to war!"
It's the cliffhanger formula par excellence, a recipe for repeat customers that's worked since the cheesy movie serials of the 1930s. Subscribers to XXXSpacegirls get more than nice galleries with new models every month; they also get to find out what happens when evil alien Spacegirls fight good Spacegirls (and tangle with a big machine cunningly equipped with numerous shiny, dildo-like peripherals). Webmaster McCall, whose studio is in Canoga Park, Calif., says he got the ideas for his site from watching science fiction and dark horror movies. After working as the director of photography on a number of B movies, he decided to start shooting adult photographs - and XXXSpacegirls was born.
"At my old studio in Santa Monica, there was a creature creator right next door to me," McCall remembers. "I contacted him and said, 'Hey, want to do something on the side?' He set up shop in a small part of the studio and turned out creature-looking phallic objects. We'd run tubes through them and have different kinds of goo - for space it was green. For horror it was red." Several photo series on XXXSpacegirls are classified as "horror sex," and feature fang-faced lesbian vampire nuns getting down and dirty with a very Buffy the Vampire Slayer-looking Satan, complete with a giant red throbbing member. And yes, there's the signature red spooge looking very naughty indeed dripping down the creamy thighs of a virginal victim.
Says McCall, "That whole standard 'girl meets boy, they meet bed' formula is boring. Everybody does it. I want to add a creative edge - an alien abduction maybe, where men search for aliens, then they get hypnotized into having sex with alien women to perpetuate an alien race."
Anyone who went to see The Matrix, Spider-Man, or The Fellowship of the Ring was willing to pay good money to watch their fantasies fulfilled on screen. That lust for fantasy is also what drives thousands to their favorite adult Websites month after month. Yet it's the rare Webmaster who realizes that the people who hunger to watch Trinity's latex-clad body gliding through matrix-space are also hungry to see her making it with the evil "agents" who pursue her.
And some of the fans who snap up every Lord of the Rings-related item at their local bookstore would also love to pick up a little bit of elf porn on the side.
Science fiction sex is the final frontier of adult content online. As erotic science fiction author and publisher Cecilia Tan puts it, "Science fiction is the realm of the imagination, where anything is possible. What red-blooded virile human being wouldn't use that unlimited imaginative canvas to think about the hottest sex possible?" Webmasters who are familiar with the worlds of science fiction, horror, and fantasy will find that fans of these genres - generally an open-minded and sexually adventurous lot - are eager to find stories on the Web which add explicit sex to their favorite tales of outer space and alternate realities. Box office returns and bestseller lists demonstrate that a vast audience for SF is out there. All the adult Webmaster with a flair for SF has to do is make first contact.
Oh, Captain Kirk! It's So Big!
Almost as soon as people began writing science fiction, they started creating SF pornography. Early SF/fantasy fanzines like Weird Tales, popular in the 1920s and '30s, featured lurid covers with drooling devils whose erect tails seemed about to slip between the legs of the women who were inevitably fainting in their arms. Horror stories, too, were filled with seductive vampires and lumbering sea creatures whose main goals in life appeared to involve getting babes to come back to their lairs. By the time Jane Fonda's Barbarella had done her famous spacesuit striptease on the big screen in 1969, and Lynda Carter filled out those red lycra Wonder Woman panties so deliciously in the late 1970s, SF and sex were old bedmates.
SF sex on the Web, however, owes its origins to a humble subgenre of SF writing known as "fanfic," or fan-authored fiction. This subgenre is called "slash," and it first came onto the scene in the form of stories written by women about the tawdry, secret romance between Captain Kirk and Commander Spock - often involving Pon Farr, a biological state in which Vulcans must have sex or they die. Who else can Spock turn to in this dire situation but his loyal friend, the ever-virile James T. Kirk?
These smutty Kirk/Spock tales were referred to using the designation "K/S," and as their popularity grew, fans began putting the slash into other favorite shows: Starsky and Hutch got slashed, then newer Star Trek characters (Captain Picard and Q, for instance). Eventually, any two sexy characters might be fair game: Scully and Mulder, Xena and Gabrielle, Buffy and Giles, Blake and Avon from British SF series Blake's 7. Even Harry Potter has been slashed to the max (Harry and Draco, Harry and Snape, Harry and you name it), although authors are always careful to set their stories after graduation, when the characters have come of age.
Once online, slash fiction spread like wildfire. Suddenly, fans could exchange sexy stories quickly and freely, unlike the old days when they had to hand out sometimes expensive photocopies at SF conventions and clubs. As a result, a lot of the very best SF adult sites have a bit of slash flavor to them: It's clear that their Webmasters and authors are fans who see no reason why they shouldn't get off while they're also being entertained by a damn good story. Although there are legal reasons to avoid using trademarked characters on an adult Website, SF sex sites nevertheless use familiar worlds and ideas to make their subscribers feel right at home.
Ken, the Webmaster of popular free site Superheroines in Bondage (www.shib.com), is a comic book fan whose sexual fantasies are inspired by Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman TV series. He explains that "people go for a storyline - traps, cliffhangers." He disparages the old style of comic book porn, in which "videos basically consisted of 'have a girl in a costume, tear it off' and that was it." Ken and his partners have invented a series of superheroines such as Wonderbabe whose live-action exploits - generally including some form of distress or bondage - are available in photo series and on videos one can order through his site. So, what makes the thousands of people who have bought his videos come back for more? "It's what we call D-I-D, damsel in distress syndrome," says Ken. "It's the idea of a powerful helpless girl, one who has super strength but somebody manages to capture her. I find just the storyline is sexy."
Meanwhile, a group of young women who met while attending college in Western Massachusetts have created a couple of gorgeous, fantasy-oriented Websites complete with ethereal, tarty faeries and throbbing-hot folk tales where the prince turns out to want more than a kiss on the lips. Mauvve, Webmaster of FaerieFantasies.com, creates most of her photo spreads of faeries in ivy bondage, drenched with Photoshopped sparkles, in the Massachusetts woods near her alma mater. She got the idea "coming home from a Renaissance Faire, when I realized that everybody there would totally buy this genre of porn. There are all these guys who fantasize about fucking elves from Dungeons & Dragons."
Her biggest inspiration, she says, is graphic novelist Neil Gaiman, famous creator of the Sandman series. "I love the idea of faerie lovers and mistresses who come from the other side into cities of men and do things to them. I also love that 'fey' has become a synonym for androgynous because my models are in a very genderqueer and genderfucky space." In one lavish photo spread, accompanied by an erotic short story, several white-clad faeries play in the snow and lure a mysterious boy-girl into their midst. Tying up the invader with silky ribbons, they torment her/him in that trickstery, glittery way only faeries truly can. Other sites, like ElfPorn.com, offer similar fantasies but without the creative, vividly-realized scenarios. Like many less-than-successful SF sites, ElfPorn merely recycles traditional adult images - a naked woman in the shower, for instance - and Photoshops pointy ears onto her head.
A sister site to FaerieFantasies is DarkPlay.net, run by Zille Defeu and her partner Alexi Defeu. Much of the site is traditional fetish and BDSM, but several layouts are devoted to Renaissance Faire-style fantasy (including one sumptuous, outdoor series with Mauvve from FaerieFantasies). Like FaerieFantasies, DarkPlay emphasizes artistry and storylines. A prince, played by the dashing butch Alexi, and a princess, played by petite, blonde Zille, meet in the woods for a tryst. Hand kissing turns to kissing other body parts, and finally the photo spread ends with one of the hottest strap-on scenes in all of medieval England. The stories that accompany DarkPlay's photo spreads are as lush and inviting as the images themselves, and the couple report that they earn over $1,000 per week from DarkPlay alone. They also run the Cyber-Dyke Network (www.cyber-dyke.net), which contains several other sites run by independent webmasters.
The Importance of Being a Fan
Mauvve asks, "If it doesn't get you off, why are you putting it on the Internet?" The key to creating a successful SF sex site is to be a fan. You don't have to dress up like a Klingon in your spare time, but you do have to be intimate with the genre you want to work in, whether that's horror, fantasy, SF, or some combination.
One of the newest SF adult sites is Bailee Arnett's SciFiSexNetwork.com, open since April of this year, and operated out of a Southern Nevada studio. Arnett's site, which is packed with original photo spreads, fiction, and MPEGs, is a perfect example of the way fan culture and SF sex culture can come together. "We cater to the SF community, and all fans of sci-fi and adult entertainment. We turn fantasies into reality," says Arnett. "We have a moderated message board, and member submissions sections, where members occasionally post their own material." Like those members who create erotic fiction on her site, Arnett is a fan, too. "I have had a science fiction fetish for as long as I can remember," she says. "[My fiancee] Durst and I have done horror films for many years, and I decided to use the resources I had to open the SF site, so people with whom I shared this special fondness for adult films and technology/SF could interact and directly impact the fetish they love."
One key to a successful fannish site is subscriber involvement in the form of message boards and feedback. Ken of Superheroines in Bondage has gotten some of his best ideas for stories from fans of his site who submit ideas via e-mail. Arnett says she also encourages members to offer ideas for their productions, and frequently adds elements from fan fantasies into the tales of mad scientists and pliant, voluptuous robots on her site. And even McCall's campy alien phallus scenarios were inspired by creature makers who work in the SF movie biz.
While fans may provide you with great fantasy fodder, it's crucial to keep in mind that you can't become a good SF sex Webmaster just by asking some X-philes what they'd like to see in a story about alien insemination or vampire cunnilingus. You have to be watching the shows and movies, or reading the books, yourself. Forrest Black, a Webmaster at GothicSluts.com, says that he sees a big difference between sites that are rip-offs and ones that are designed by genuine fans who know the culture. He points out that the models on his site are lifestyle goths, people who are fascinated by the world of erotic horror and take it seriously. Their sumptuous fetish outfits and sexy poses are getting them off, too. Fans will know the difference between sites by fans, and a poseur site where sun-tanned models slap on some black lingerie and fake fangs just to sell subscriptions.
Aliens On a Shoestring
Mark "Greenguy" Jenkins, who has spent the last several years combing the Web for adult sites to list on his popular Link-o-Rama.com, says there aren't that many SF sites out that that have caught his eye. "I think it's because the content is so expensive to produce," he suggests. And he's right. SF sites are heavy on props, makeup, and costumes - and if the sets look cheesy it can ruin the sexy effect. Often, Webmasters will use their connections with the film business to hook up with special effects artists and set designers who are willing to do something on the side. Arnett of SciFiSexNetwork has a horror film business, so she already has the appropriate paraphernalia to create an SF mood in her photo spreads.
Remember that one of the most beloved SF television shows is Dr. Who, whose special effects and sets are notoriously cheap and unrealistic. As long as you remain true to the storyline you've chosen, you can do a lot with a little, and entrance your subscribers without busting your budget. As McCall discovered while doing his vampire and alien sex layouts, you can repurpose a standard Satan outfit for diabolical booty just by adding a well-crafted phallus that matches the costume. If you're fitting a standard spaceship set for techno-dildo action, be as imaginative as possible. Don't just buy a cheap vibrator and have your model roll around in tin foil. Go to the hardware store and buy some scary-looking hoses and metallic wingdings and nozzles to attach to your sex machine. If you're doing an alien exam, be sure the alien cock captures the sense of "alien," whether that's a Flash Gordon-style campy phallus or a genuinely spooky, drippy appendage that looks like it could have come out of the monsters' third set of jaws in Alien. You're creating SF sex, not just some sex that happens to take place in an exotic Martian locale.
One way you don't want to lose money is in pointless lawsuits, so be sure that your SF creations don't look too much like any trademarked characters like Wonder Woman or Captain Janeway. Jennifer Granick, litigation director at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society (http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/), has researched the ways that media companies use legal means to shut down fan sites which use trademarked characters. She says to avoid cease and desist orders - or worse, an actual lawsuit - Webmasters should create characters which are "recognizably distinguishable from trademarked characters - you also want to make it really clear on the site that there's nothing that's sponsored by the trademark holder." She adds that "it's okay to have your character refer to or evoke an existing character, because these uses are often protected speech under parody or commentary about the character." So, for example, you could have a t-shirt clad babe called Shapely who is fighting a drippy alien as long as the situation couldn't be confused with an actual scene from Alien where a half-naked Ripley confronts her extraterrestrial nemesis.
So far, there are no reported cases of entertainment companies suing adult sites for using trademarked characters or worlds. But Granick says this is no guarantee that there won't be some in the future. Ken of Superheroines in Bondage says he knows of fan sites using the name Wonder Woman which have been shut down, but he has never heard a peep from lawyers who look at Wonder Babe on his adult site. To protect yourself, make sure there several ways for site visitors to distinguish your scenarios from trademarked ones - either change the names of characters, change details about their costumes, or use props (like giant alien phalluses) which never appear in traditional SF movies.
Finding Your Audience
The final challenge for SF sex Webmasters is finding subscribers. McCall says he gets all his traffic from advertising online, but his case is unusual. To reach the fans, most of the time you need to go out and live among them. Mauvve from FaerieFantasies says she hands out flyers for her site at Renaissance Faires and SF conventions. Ken networks at Comicon, a large comic book convention.
There are hundreds of SF, fantasy, and horror conventions held all over the world every year. Some of them, like DragonCon and WorldCon, have a strong family element and the organizers will frown on overt displays of adult materials in the showroom. But that doesn't mean you can't hand out flyers to people who are clearly over the age of 18, nor will it stop you from meeting interesting fans and industry insiders who have great ideas about how to enhance the marketability of your site. Some SF conventions, like Fantasm in Atlanta and Exoticon in New Orleans, are explicitly adult in nature. These are excellent places to find models, get ideas, and spread the word about your hot new site.
Sexy SF fans can also be found at fantasy-themed events like Renaissance Faires (where Mauvve first got the idea for her site), gaming conventions, anime clubs, and groups like the Society for Creative Anachronism. Burning Man, a Nevada-area festival for artists and outsiders, is another excellent place to meet people who will appreciate sex that's more creative than "boy and girl meet the bed."
Of course, your audience isn't just going to be the SF fans who are hardcore enough to actually go to conventions and fairs. They're also average people who like to go to the movies. As sex researcher Katharine Gates puts it, "Because sci-fi is so much in pop culture, it's part of our imagination, of everybody. It's not as if only sci-fi fans go to see Minority Report - sci-fi is the repository for mythic fantasy themes that humans have always played with." In an adult market that's glutted with boring, ordinary fantasies, people are hungry for extraordinary visions of sex, images which allow them to escape the planet and screw among the stars. Ultimately, if you want to deliver good SF sex to your subscribers, the most important ingredient is creativity. As the late Gene Roddenberry might have put it, your XXX fantasies need to boldly go where no one has gone before.
