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

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Over the years, Stanton would produce work for several merchants of fetish art: Edward Mishkin, who ran a store near Times Square (in those days, the neighborhood of sexploitation with dozens of stores selling girlie magazines, photographs, movies, and smut); Leonard Burtman, publisher and merchandiser; Max Stone, publisher of fighting female serials; and Stanley Malkin, also a Times Square entrepreneur, who would hire Stanton, putting him on salary, to do covers for his magazines—Stanton’s longest salaried situation as a fetish artist, 1963-68. Malkin also furnished and paid all the expenses for a small apartment for Stanton.

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. Pointing to the Kirby sketch, Ditko might have disparaged the web gun Kirby’s character was brandishing: “That idea is old.” 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] :120–122I 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

We earnestly ask you to take each issue of EXOTIQUE home with you, read it carefully and let us know what you think of it. […]Maybe it shoots from his wrist,” Stanton might have said, demonstrating a maneuver with his hand and fingers. Each boy is assigned to a girl who laces him into his corset, dresses him and makes him up as a maid. They are then shown off to the entire sorority: The sorority girls decide to have a dance and have their maids come in formals. First, they must buy them. The girls lend the boys dresses for the shopping trip. 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.

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.” 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. 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.” EXOTIQUE is thoughtfully prepared and edited for those whose outlook on life is sound and hopeful: for those who find enjoyment in the bizarre and the unusual both in action and in attire. Why must we all be conformists… follow the crowd? Are we not able to think for ourselves, act as we feel and dress as we desire? This is an unbeatable combination and it IS within our reach.They pulled off our wigs. The girls shrieked with delight, while the fellows flushed crimson realizing that all the pretty things they had said to the three ‘cousins' were actually said to boys. Stanton seldom saw his erstwhile studio-mate in the years after they broke up the studio. He continued doing work until his death March 17, 1999, as “the most famous fetish artist in the world,” as Seves puts it. Of course, Gisele. You would hardly expect to see a smart maid mincing about in trousers, would you?" While Stanton wanted to honor Ditko’s work by not claiming any part of it for himself, he had another reason for avoiding the subject: he wanted to protect his family by keeping a low profile:

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. Her mother was angry that Stanton never claimed recognition or royalties because of his role in creating the character. When Amber asked her father about it, “his response,” she said, “made it clear that it was something he would never even consider because the ideas were freely given. Hugo Paul was a pseudonym of Paul Hugo Little (born Paul Hugo Litwinsky). Little supposedly began writing soft-core porn when he was 48 using hundreds of pseudonyms... he is referred to as the man of 1000 pseudonyms. It is claimed that he wrote over 700 of these pulp fiction novels. 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] : 120–122The Stanton-Ditko studio lasted until 1968, when they both set out again on their own. That year, Stanton met Britt Stromsted, a Norwegian woman visiting the U.S. Unlike Grace, Britt was fascinated by Stanton’s artistry, and she even modeled in wrestling poses with Stanton, photos he’d use as references when drawing fighting femmes. 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.”