I was not very familiar with the artist before reading this book but I really enjoyed reading it. The author takes a detailed look at his life and also provides lots of background on the underground publishing in New York City at the time. Some of the names will be familiar but there are also a lot of long forgotten ones. The author does a very good job of setting the time and place. There are lots illustrations and I really like seeing the evolution of the artwork. Enjoy

This is a terrific insight into the world of fetish art through the early comic strips to the more acceptable sexual fantasy and erotic comic art.

Eric Stanton has been called "the Rembrandt of Pulp-Culture. From the danger of police seizures and forced closure of any publication promoting and exhibiting this risqué subject matter in the early 40's. Stanton is focus and the hero of this artform, "I draw better than most of your artists," Eric Stanton is supposed to have told Irving Klaw.

It has been said that 'His imaginative, detailed full-colour comic strip narratives picture buxom, leggy femmes fatales having their way with tied-up, handcuffed, or simply awestruck men.' and
'Stanton's imagery is either an empowerment of female sexuality or a gross caricature of female-domination fantasy.'

This is what makes this illustrated biography so fascinating; Stanton is not a conventional character but he stayed true to his vision and expression of art. It shows what makes the difference when pushing social norms, corruption in such industries and often unchecked government power, it requires vision, a pioneering vision, self belief and raw talent. Stanton was the man who through his association with Irving Klaw, the enterprising businessman, famous for his photographs of Betty Page.

It is a brave book as it no longer sits comfortably with pictures on American warplanes, suggestive beer pumps, page three models and Miss World. But with over 400 illustrations, many rare images and through access to interviews with people who knew, worked with and loved Stanton, a fleshed out person is shown of the man. A normal bloke with an extraordinary gift that places him above all his contemporaries, and with John Willie as one of the very best and skilled exponents of erotic and comic art.

I was interested to read that between 1958 and 1966 he shared a studio and common ideas with Steve Ditko, the creator of Spider Man. Stanton at times did the drawings in ink and Ditko coloured them in. Other artists work was also revistited and perhaps rehashed in colour for commercial need but destroying original works of art and showing the lack of copyright.

Eric Stanton re-invented himself, used various names to sign his creations and was always fighting to secure recognition for his worth and fair pay. it was a difficult journey and an interesting account, it isn't a topshelf magazine to get cheap thrills from but an educated review of social history and sexual expression. In a sense, this movement was at the vanguard of addressing strict censorship and heralding the advances in freedom in the arts. Interesting, the very liberation it helped bring about means that a new appraisal of this genre and comic pulp culture.

A book that makes one review one's own life against the background of a revolution that perhaps has influenced you more than you can imagin. It isn't the internet, and all the freedoms that brings but that is the point. Here is the struggle, the determination and sacriface of people who had a vision and an innate belief that their art was more than an instant gratification but a process of true expression.

Coming to this as a fan of graphic novels and sequential art, it was clearly a very well compiled and thorough biography of someone in an offshoot of the industry who I had never heard of, and whose output I really couldn't care a great deal for – buxom beauties in impossible high heels tying each other up or beating each other up, basically. If you come to this as a fan of the man or his oeuvre of low-level kink, then you'll find this priceless. Family interviews; a strong breadth that ranges from his health to the health of the industry, police raids and Codes and all – everything you could want is here. There're certainly too much minutiae and forensic business reporting for the passingly curious, such as I – but you also get a great thinking aloud section regarding the creation of a friend and colleague's world-famous character. I hope the captioning, lowered speech marks (in the opposite fashion to the Spanish) and more is cleared up from my netgalley, and what I'd finally wish for was the last few decades of his life to not be so cursorily mentioned in a very abrupt ending. Four stars on the whole then, but some small bit of that is down to the fact that pretty much all the art raised no emotion at all.

Though Stanton's artwork is not my cuppa, I must applaud this fantastic record of his forgotten work. I appreciated getting to know more about this unique artist.

I expected this book to be an art book (i.e. a quick-ish read with more pictures than words); it turned out to be a biography of Eric Stanton and a history of early fetish publishing. I got many of the people mentioned in the book confused, possibly because I'm not familiar with the major players (Bettie Page was the only name I recognized) , but it was an interesting and enlightening read nonetheless. I would recommend it to those interested in either Eric Stanton or mid-century fetish publishers but not to the casual reader.

I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

I enjoy finding out about new artists, and here’s one I had no idea existed.
Right off I can say there’s lots of bondage drawings and comic strips amongst biographic text. Bettie Page shows up, as kinda expected. Exactly halfway through Spiderman gets makes an appearance.
To be honest, it feels like this artist is being celebrated more for longevity than any special artistry. This book is kinda fringe, good for the people interested in the subject. I wasn’t as much as I thought I would be, so I didn’t find it that entertaining in the end.
2.5 pushed up to 3/5