Obéis! sinon ... souffrir et jouir (Obey or Else ... Suffer and Enjoy) is Farrel’s first collection in his new pencil style, and the thirty drawings, subtitled ‘A Small Encyclopedia of Sado-Masochistic Practices’, was published by Jean Memmi for Éditions de la Durance. It is printed in bistre-brown on rather poor quality paper, which detracts from the subtlety of Farrel’s drawings, a point thankfully noted for later collections, which were all printed in black.

In Obéis! sinon Farrel signed himself ‘Jo Farrel, practicing sadomasochist’, and at that point in his life BDSM played a very important part. He built many of his own play instruments like paddles, crops and wooden dildos, and frequented a BDSM club in Paris. His domination in real life was always with willing partners. Drawing was his outlet, his safety valve, expressing a violence he could nor would want to experience in real life. As Christophe Bier notes, ‘Farrel is a horror movie buff, and yet he can’t stand the sight of blood! It is really important to distinguish between the man and his fantasies.’

Alongside his interest and participation in the scene (and not unlike many involved in kink today) Farrel continued to lead his discreet Parisian life with his wife Monique. He never knew how to show off. He never took himself seriously, and therefore never sought to get out of the dying network of sex shops. He could have approached more traditional publishers, but chose not to. Farrel’s secret, which also explains the strength of his work, is that he never drew for a living. He had many jobs, but he always drew for his own pleasure, occasionally executing private commissions which he sold at low prices. He continued to draw just for himself, without lamenting his invisibility in the publishing world.

In a recent posting in his blog, the ‘reformed journalist, writer and an alternative sexuality educator’ Ayzad corresponded with Christophe Bier about Farrel, a fascinating piece which you can read in full here.

When asked about Farrel’s motivation behind the drawings, Bier explained to Ayzad that ‘Farrel is guided only by his erotic impulses. When asked about a drawing, he always comments on the erotic tension, explains the extreme care he takes to draw expressions, eyes, the importance of placing a third person, a witness, who will reinforce the humiliation of the victim. He composes his drawings in order to arouse the reader, and attaches importance to every detail. He is immersed in the eroticism of degradation and misery, which really has nothing glamorous to it and yet can be very arousing. He only draws to arouse himself and his audience – that’s his only concern. The only message that can be drawn from his work would be to try and confront his fantasies without the slightest fear, to go like him to the core of an idea, however frightening it may be. His nihilism is impressive, but what is truly magnificent is his creative strength to face it. He does not always come through the experience unharmed: he says that he sometimes weeps over his drawings.’

Obéis! sinon was reissued in 1984 by the Toulouse-based bookseller and publisher Roger Finance in the Delta Plus ‘Collection Secréte’. It was promptly banned under a decree of 22nd June 1984, forbidding its sale to under-eighteens and any advertising – unsurprisingly this had no adverse effect on sales.