Pulpy Porn and Gutter Romance

Time for another look at the luridly wonderful world of pulpy porn and gutter romance.

Love the Forbidden Women art, and the catchy premise.

Myron Jubilee's Always Young Enough is a title that surely reflects the viewpoint of the terribly handsome fellow pictured on the cover. And perhaps the intended reader? Priceless cover.

Subtle image of a woman who likes her meat rare. The gentleman, a cast member of Mad Men, isn't quite sure where to take it from here, so he bangs his head against an empty glass.

Carnal Close-Out is a perfectly evocative title.

Good old Liverpool Press puts out again. Simple, effective illustration that says everything that needs to be said about this book "for mature readers". I reckon some immature readers got a hold of it, too.

"Her body was sin-bait in this lust game!" Sin-bait? 'A' for effort, Sundown.

Trying something much finer here to sell Mary's "misfortunes". 

A cover Tinto Brass would give his stamp of approval to. The gent appears to be sketching a woman not seen in the image here and she's naked also.

Brutal, dark art for Terrorist Tormentors, a series known for its more extreme illustrations.

A hint of Robert Bishop in its shading, too.

"Shame" was a frequently used word back in the day. "Shame-stunts" wasn't so common.

Hidden Pictures of Cruelty

Kazunori Kanze is one of three artists whose extraordinary work is showcased in Hidden Pictures of Cruelty (2011) from Japanese publisher Atelier Third.

A digest-sized book, it features more than a hundred truly dark and disturbing visions from Kanze, Seiyo Usui, and Takashi Shima. 

This Seiyo Usui piece is typical of the artist's deliciously troubling work.

One of dozens of Takashi Shima's contributions. 

Anybody with an interest in artists Robert Bishop, DeMullotto, Hiroaki Samura, Toshio Saeki, Trevor Brown, Romain Slocombe, Jun Hayami, Horihone Saizou, Shintaro Kago, Waita Uziga, and Suehiro Maruo will more than warm to this intense and beautiful publication.

Available from akatako.net

More Love For The Brute Beauty of Samura Hiroaki

A brief return to Hitodenasi no KOI  (Love of the Brute; 2006), the Sadean masterpiece by Samura Hiroaki.

Easily one of the most confronting, aesthetically brilliant, potent works of the imagination I've ever seen, it contrasts idyllic images of youth with Bosch-like visions of horror, torture, and euphoria.

I've always admired artists who bring such finesse to such inflammatory subject matter.

Pieces like this demonstrate the raw power of uncompromised expression.

Sexual abuse often involves gross betrayal. Samura's work is rife with betrayal and the shattering of trust.

The theme was explored rigorously in his disturbing  Bradherley's Coach, a heartbreaking manga in which  the hopes and dreams of orphans are destroyed by an aristocratic patron.

The manga remains one of the most moving affirmations of life by virtue of its intense focus on the taking and abuse of it.

Samura's art depicts a world of carnal nihilism in which the appetite of one is satisfied at the expense of another --  certainly not a theme foreign to any of us living in economies driven by the accumulation of capital.

The modern artists I'd most closely associate Samura with in terms of their aesthetic are de Mullotto (see separate blog) and Frenchman Antoine Bernhart (see separate blog also), two creators of extraordinary visions of sexual psychosis.

Samura also shares company with Toshio Saeki, Suehiro Maruo, Hideshi Hino, and Robert Bishop.
   

 

A stunning piece from Antoine Bernhard

The work and courage of these brilliant artists celebrates the complexity and preciousness of life by illuminating its fragility.

de Sade's work continues.

"The Rembrandt of Bondage Illustration"

I discovered the powerful work of the late Robert Bishop (1945-1991) in '87 when I was combing Melbourne's porno bookshops for a rare Greenleaf paperback.

The illustration above adorned the cover of F.E. Campbell's The Seigneury II from HOM Books (House of Milan), the leading publisher (at the time) of bondage/S&M-themed literature and paraphernalia.

Beginning life as a manufacturer of fetish clothing, the company grew into a primary producer of books, magazines and videos thanks to co-founders Barbara Behr and Yogi Klein.

On the back cover of most of F.E. Campbell's 100+ bondage novels, you would find this:

To read an F. E. Campbell novel is to enter another world: a world filled with lust, pain, intrigue, agony, and ecstasy. The author gives his tales of maiden woe a decidedly English twist. It is here that the eternal damsel in distress finds herself presented in sympathetic fashion to a cruel modern world, where she must deal with the physical and psychological aspects of loving restraint.

Campbell was a talented English writer approaching his twilight years who took the writing of novels with bondage themes very, very seriously.

The result is a cannon of extraordinary work that is rich in characterization, written with great attention to detail, innately aware of its readership, tightly plotted, and skilfully resolved.

Robert Bishop, who often signed off as "Bishop" provided provocative, gorgeously rendered illustrations for all of Frank Campbell's novels, and for other HOM projects including the Fanni Hall comics.

Initially influenced by John Willie, the Michigan-born and educated artist worked for Centurian Publications and Harmony Publications early on in his career. His style met with resistance from Harmony because of their strict guidelines regarding the consensual nature of the fiction they were putting out.

At HOM he found a more liberal artistic environment that allowed him to produce the amazing, airbrushed masterpieces that ended up adorning Campbell's novels and those of writer Geoffrey Merrick.




Bishop's work, like the work of Toshio Saeki, has a strong, situational theme to it.

Each image evokes a world way beyond the frame.




Bishop's settings often provide a soft, stark counterpoint to the action.


The work has a brilliant sheen to it that Bishop achieved with the pencil and the airbrush.



One of the more explicit examples of Bishop's work.




Superb!




One of my absolute favorites -- Bishop's take on a "Rocking Dog" with accompanying "pet".


The illustration below (which I had blown up to poster size and placed on my living room wall) provoked outrage many years ago when a friend of my ex-wife took exception to it.

She insisted that it be taken down from the wall during her visit.

Naturally, she was shown the door.


Exquisite use of color.



Panel from one of Bishop's mind-bending comics.

Note the wonderful "Hut of Horror" in the illustration at top left.

Sadly, Robert Bishop, dubbed "The Rembrandt of Bondage Illustration", used a gun to take his own life at 46.

The work of this card-carrying Apostle of Pulp will live on forever.

R.I.P., Sir!