Sam Boykin spent a good chunk of the 2000s working as a full-time reporter here at Creative Loafing, and his presence resulted in many of the paper's most interesting pieces. If there was a colorful or off-the-beaten-path story to cover, Sam was our man. Folks with Tourette's syndrome; The Fabulous Moolah, TV's first female wrestling star (a South Carolina resident); the popularity of adulterous trysts set up on the Internet; the plight of transsexuals — Boykin tackled 'em all. (Honorary mentions should be given to Timothy C. Davis, who supplemented his CL music-critic duties by penning a number of stories as interesting and wide-ranging as Boykin's, and Jared Neumark, who took the crazy-stories torch in the mid-aughts.)
One of Sam's most enduring works is this cover story that examined Charlotte's fetish underground scene. "Unbuckle your Bible belt, Charlotte," Boykin wrote. "Whatever your kink, fetish, or sexual orientation, there's a burgeoning BDSM culture in the Queen City that can accommodate just about every proclivity under the moon. To join in, all you need is an open mind and an adventurous spirit — and some black leather clothing never hurts."
Interviewing the likes of Torch, Mistress Autumn Twilight and Mistress LunaSea, the story operated in the best CL fashion: Catching the faint whisper of a developing trend, it preceded mainstream exposure by covering the scene before it exploded on the local landscape.