Jim French settled in New York and pursued a successful career in commercial illustration. He began to create homoerotic drawings under the name Arion and then started the mail order company Luger to sell the drawing reproductions. The Luger drawings were decidedly masculine with subjects like bikers, cowboys, wrestlers and other familiar macho figures. He dropped the Luger tag for his most famous persona Rip Colt and transitioned from drawing to photography. French, through his photography, proceeded to define the male physique for a generation and more, laying the groundwork for later artists to explore the male figure in photography in a fresh and powerful new way.