Arkham-Insanity's personal avatar

We've spent a good amount of time over the past few years searching for new spanking art, and in doing so have become familiar with the works of a new generation of artists. It occurred to us that a series of interviews with these young artists would be a good idea, since they deserve more exposure and the forums in which their art can be found are typically bulletin board-based websites (such as Anime OTK) which do not readily support the interview format.

For the first of this Young Artists series, meet Arkham-Insanity, who painted the Bat-Paddle you might remember as an illustration in our All About Paddles article. [For the benefit of those who never read any Batman comics, the name "Arkham-Insanity" derives from Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, which is the Gotham City facility housing certain members of Batman's Rogues Gallery such as Joker and Two-Face.]

The famous Bat-Paddle, painted by Arkham-Insanity. She has regularly felt its sting ever since!

When we first saw her work, we were struck by the unusual variety of orientations it expressed, but noting the large amount of M/M cartoons, believed they were most likely the product of a submissive male artist. As it turned out, we were only half-right, and once we discovered that the creator of all those Batman spanks Robin scenes was female, we just had to find out more about her. As you will see, Arkham-Insanity's work is the product of her desire to achieve originality in a form that is all too often lacking in this respect, combined with her own very strong need to be spanked.

This interview was conducted in February 2010 and copy-edited by the Web-Ed. Too see more of her work, here is a link to Arkham-Insanity's gallery at AnimeOTK.

CSR: We really like paddles, so we couldn’t help noticing that you call yourself the “paddle alchemist”, you painted your own Bat-Paddle, and did a whole series called “Legend of the Bat-Paddle”. It would seem fair to say that you have a thing for paddles and for Batman. We’ll ask about Batman in a minute. Why do you like paddles so much?

Arkham-Insanity: Yes, out of all the spanking implements there is nothing quite as intimidating to me as the paddle. There is just a certain sting and burn that you can only achieve with a paddle, as far as implements go I feel that the paddle symbolizes spankings, while a hairbrush or a belt may have dual uses, a paddle only has ONE use and ONE use only, and that is for spanking. I am an avid paddle collector and my bedroom serves as a sort of museum for all the paddles I have collected in my life.

CSR: We know that you feel the sting of the Bat-Paddle from time to time. This real-life discipline seems to have helped your grades in college. Has it helped your artwork in any way?

Arkham-Insanity: Yes, it has, many times as I am feeling that sting I can almost imagine how I might look visually and many times after a particular hard session the first thing I will do is grab a pencil and start to sketch a spanking picture while the experience and the burn is still fresh.

CSR: You have lots of Batman spanking Robin (of course, so did DC, but that was before your time). In fact we've never seen poor Robin take as many spankings and paddlings as he does in your work. It's rather unusual for a female to draw so much M/M spanking. What is the appeal for you?

Arkham-Insanity: I belive it started simply because I wanted to do something different. At the time when I started finding out that I was not alone in the spankingverse, I saw a bazillion pics of M/F spankings, after awhile it seemed so cliche'. I wanted to set myself apart, do something different. This of course was 10 years ago before the Yaoi boom, so seeing drawings of cute young male bare bottoms seemed so much more interesting to me...now I think I simply do it out of habit.

CSR: Partly because you picture all the possible orientations (M/F, M/M, F/F, F/M), it's hard to determine where your sympathies are in your work. Our impression is that you tend to identify with the spankee, whether male or female. Is this correct, or do you identify more with the spanker, or with both?

Arkham-Insanity: Your perceptions are correct, I almost always identify with the spankee, I pour all my expression into their faces and their red little bottoms. I am sure this comes from years of wishing to be spanked myself...When I would draw those pictures then, I always imagined myself as the spankee, wishing desperately to change places with them in the picture.

CSR: What is the greatest difficulty you face when you sit down to create a drawing?

Arkham-Insanity: Originality. I strive hard to draw unusual poses or situations or combinations of characters that I have not seen very much of; of course when I am in one of my "Obsessive" moods, I will continue to draw the same characters over and over until I am tired of them or feel that I have filled the gap of lack of the fanbase.

CSR: What direction do you want your art to move in? Where do you want to be, artistically speaking, five years from now?

Arkham-Insanity: Mmmm thats a hard one, since I am about to graduate with a masters in Advertising and Graphic Design, I am always thinking of how I can apply the skills I have learned to create high-end pieces for commercial industry, to the spanking community, I have concidered spanking art accompliation books and or special accompliation spanking comics to possibly sell, but we shall just have to see.

CSR: What would you like people to know about you that they might not be able to tell by looking at your work alone?

Arkham-Insanity: Hmmm, that I have actually never spanked a guy in my life *LOL* or a child, and have no plans to do so in the future *LOL* I will stick with my sister and drawing, thanks.

Interview with Cc