GENE BILBREW REVEALED: The Unsung Legacy of a Fetish Art Pioneer: 1 (African American Artists)

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It was, in short, just the kind of setup that encouraged the two artists to kibbitz each other’s work. And also to lend each other a hand when deadlines loomed. Spider-Man’s face mask is unusual among superheroes. The mask covers the entire face. “Prior to Spider-Man,” Seves writes, “heroes had open faces (like Superman) or half-faces (like Batman).”

During his last months with Rogers, Stanton was also producing work for Irving Klaw. Klaw, self-named the "Pin-up King," was a merchant of sexploitation, fetish, Hollywood glamour pin-up photographs, and underground films. His business, which eventually became Movie Star News, began in 1938 when he and his sister Paula opened a basement level struggling used bookstore on 14th St. in Manhattan. His text is accompanied throughout by lots and lots of illustrations, many in color, and Seves gives the histories of several of Stanton’s serials and tells their stories. The book is virtually an extensively annotated bibliography of Stanton’s life work. But it’s more than that. It’s also a detailed biography, a sketchy history of “the bizarre,” and an exhibition of Stanton’s ladies. Reproduction throughout is high quality.Some instances that Seves cites are not quite so convincing: if Ditko did them, he did them by dutifully imitating his studio-mate’s mannerisms to the extent that his own disappear. Or so it seems to me, but I’m scarcely a Ditko expert. The studio was bare bones. “It was a room about ten feet by twenty,” said Stanton. “One side was all windows. Steve’s desk and mine faced each other next to the window.”

Gene Bilbrew (1923-74) was one of the finest artists in the genre. Immediately following the Second World War he worked for the Will Eisner Comic Book Studio. He then enrolled in Burne Hogarth's School of Visual Arts where one of his fellow students was Eric Stanton. In 1952, perhaps at Stanton's recommendation, he began drawing bondage art for Irving Klaw. His Klaw bondage work is of little interest to the Petticoat Punishment enthusiast, but can be found in the Bizarre Comix series by Belier Press.

After her father’s death, she found Ditko’s phone number and called him. She wanted to know if he had any memories he could share. He couldn’t remember anything, she reported, and he denied that her father had anything to do with creating Spider-Man. Amber said her father always spoke highly of Ditko’s art, particularly his inking ability. “When they collaborated,” she said, “my father did the pencil work, and Steve would ink over it.” Seves accepts without qualification that Stanton helped Ditko and that Ditko helped Stanton. On full-fledged collaborations, Stanton usually did the pencils; Ditko, the inks. Stanton drew the women; Ditko, the men. And Seves points out evidence of Ditko’s hand in various of Stanton’s enterprises.

Fetish art specialist, Richard Pérez Seves is the author of GENE BILBREW REVEALED: The Unsung Legacy of a Fetish Art Pioneer, CHARLES GUYETTE: Godfather of American Fetish Art ,and the hardcover illustrated biography, Eric Stanton & the History of the Bizarre Underground. And Ditko was completely accepting of Stanton: ‘He thought my stuff was funny. We’d laugh a lot,’ Stanton said, as he fondly remembered years later. ‘Every experience that I had with Steve was terrific, as far as I was concerned.’” They married in Norway in 1971—and again in 1980 in Manhattan. This marriage was a happy one and resulted in two children, a boy, Tom, and a girl, Amber. The term "sob sister" dates to 1907, when Irvin S. Cobb derided the women reporters who were covering the trial of Harry K. Thaw for murder. M y interest in these stories began as early as I can remember. One early example was a story I read in Loony Tunes comic #113 in which Bugs Bunny was forced to dress as a girl (bunny).Island of Captive Girls, Prison for Women, [1] :205 The Whip Artist, [1] :88 High Heels in the Heavens, Madam Adista, Dangerous Years [1] :90 Satin Satellite, [1] :103 Exotique magazine [1] :120–122 At the store, the boys are separated to have their gowns fitted. Two pretty clerks attend to one of the boys, but they can't resist teasing him. This can be read in a single afternoon. Most of it is taken up by pictures, which is no complaint at all, given the fantastic quality of the art (this would be five stars if this book were bigger and in color), and the fact that almost nothing is known about Gene. I found my copy of the ‘Panty Raiders' in a small porno shop in San Francisco. It wasn't my favorite store; it wrapped its magazines so you couldn't open them. However, they didn't care that I was still not twenty-one. After all, I didn't buy the porn, just the fetish books such as Nutrix or Exotique THE SAME YEAR that he and Grace separated, Stanton joined Ditko in a studio at 276 W. 43rd Street and revived the camaraderie of their C&IS days.

GENE BILBREW REVEALED: The Unsung Legacy of a Fetish Art Pioneer by Richard Pérez Seves. New York, Fethistory, 2019. ISBN 978-1072487548 He explained that since Spider-Man was so famous, it might draw attention to him as an artist if people knew he contributed to the creation of the character,” Amber wrote. “My brother and I were children and in school, and he feared that it could negatively effect our lives if people knew he was an erotic fetish artist.” The Sorority plans a party for the ‘Delta Delta' girls, and the boys are mortified to find that they must serve. The boys were quite concerned. "But won't the Delta Delta girls spread the word around the campus about our being your . . . your maids?"Wrote Amber: “My father contributed to the costume, the idea of the web shooting out of Spider-Man's wrist, and the movement which he made with his hands to release the web. ... I still remember my father's beautiful, strong, broad hands as he showed me the movement that makes Spider-Man's web release from his wrist. It was just like my dad to come up with something like that. If you knew my father it would make sense that he had a hand in Spider-Man.”