Monkey See, Monkey Do

As I've said, vintage paperback collectors cannot resist a good green gal cover. It's like dangling a banana in a starving monkey's face. Which brings me to my next genre-- paperback collectors cannot ever ever ever ever resist a good ape cover, ESPECIALLY an ape cavorting with a beautiful woman. I'm not sure what it is-- could it be that some collector once somewhere decided to go bananas for ape covers and everyone else followed suit? Could it be as simple as the fact that ape covers are homages to "King Kong"? I can't speak for everyone, but I can tell you that I could stare for hours at the caged primates at the zoo. The human qualities they possess fascinate me-- their movements, their self-aware expressions, the way they walk... Could it be that when we see an ape cavorting with a human it reminds us of the beast in all of us? Ah, I don't know. Maybe it's just kind of sexy.

Mistress-at-Large=Cover Art by Ed Smith
The Sin Veldt=Cover Art by Robert Bonfils
Captured=Cover Art by Gene Bilbrew (Eneg)

Leather Underground

Earlier I featured two gay pulps with art by the great fetish artist Gene Bilbrew. Today, I showcase fetish, what he did best. It's interesting to note that a woman is the dominatrix in both scenes, and in one, dominating both men and women. These are rare digest sized sleaze pbs.

Gene Bilbrew Gay Pulp Art

These 60's era digest-sized paperbacks are interesting cultural artifacts for two reasons. 1.) They feature homosexual themes. 2.) The cover paintings are by fetish artist Gene Bilbrew. Gay pulps are fun collectibles in and of themselves. Now, adding the delightful art of Gene Bilbrew (aka "Eneg") just makes them all the better. Bilbrew is a little known artist to the mainstream, but to fetish art connoisseurs and 60's sleaze paperback collectors, he is an icon. So, enjoy these two gems of sleaze paperback history. They aren't making more of them.