OVERDUE BIL’

Better late than never is our motto around here.


We’re finally getting back to paperback artist Gene Bilbrew, whose odd style, with its scantily clad women and their muscular butts has become collectible in recent years. We didn’t get it at first, but like a lot of art, once you’re exposed to it regularly you begin to appreciate its unique qualities. There’s clear intent in Bilbrew’s work, a deliberate attempt to approach illustration from a different angle, and we’ve grown to understand that his cartoonish, chaotic, often humorous, and often bondage themed aesthetic is purposeful. In fact, his imagery has become so intertwined with the bdsm scene that in 2019 the National Leather Association International established an award named after Bilbrew for creators of animated erotic art. While it’s not exactly a Pulitzer Prize, the point is that Bilbrew’s bizarre visions keep gaining wider acceptance. So for that reason we’ve put together another group of his paperback fronts. You can see more of them here, here, and here, and you can see a few rare oddities here, here, and here.

Sexplay goes south in a big way for cock cage gamesters.


Everything—truly everything—is going digital. We’re thrilled to inform you that they finally upgraded the cock cage. We’re surprised we missed this tech bombshell when it happened a while back, but finding out late is better than never. Longtime readers will know right away why we had to write about this, because they’ll remember the Pulp Intl. cock cages. For newer visitors, back when we bothered putting ads on our website, for a few months we accepted the filthy but spendable lucre of a manufacturer of cock cages. They’re metal devices designed to keep your junk trunked, and the idea is to prevent erections, bdsm style, for purposes of denial or punishment. Fun, right?

Now it seems there’s a digital version, remotely controlled, compatible with the internet of things. The device, seen above, is called the Cellmate. It’s from China-based manufacturer Qiui, and basically you slide this puppy on, lock it, and give someone else the code—and the power over whether to unleash your kraken. This is a quantum leap in sexual discomfort. Back during the analog cock cage days you’d whine to your master or mistress in person to set your peehole free. Now you text them. Maybe send them a frowny emoticon. And somewhere, near or far, they tap a code into their phone and it’s sweet release for you.

Except some cheeky hacker found a security flaw and kept an unknown number of unlucky willies locked up against their will. What can you say? Hackers gonna hack, right? And they weren’t content just to harass and terrify. They also demanded bitcoin ransoms, and sent messages to the effect of, “Your cock is mine now.” We don’t know how many dismayed consumers lost their digital innocence through this scam, nor how many—if any—paid the ransom, but we would. Fuck yeah we would. We’d pay plenty. But we’re happy to say it could never happen. The only people who keep our cocks locked up are the Pulp Intl. girlfriends.
Analog cock cage with cheap dime store lock.

Digital cock cage with encrypted security. Which would you choose?
Once is bad luck. Twice is a trend. Six times looks more like a career choice.
Yes, Junko’s back. Counting this movie—Dan Oniroku onna hisho nawa chyokyo, also known as Secretary Rope Discipline—we’ve now watched six of Miss Mabuki’s roman porno outings, and what can we say? They’re all crazy. In fact, sources say she retired because her body couldn’t stand up to all the kinbaku in these flicks. This time around she’s a worker at a fashion house, mostly filing and typing her days away. But she’s also stealing trade secrets. When she’s caught, she refuses to reveal who put her up to it, and to make her talk, the company’s chairman… well, you can figure out what happens next. It involves ropes, whips, and enemas.
 
There’s a subplot. Does anyone care? Okay, her boyfriend is a cheating dawg. He even does it right in front her because he’s a terrible guy. It gets worse and worse for Junko. Later the chairman’s son takes a liking to her and assumes the duties of disciplining her, which leads to her being forcibly tattooed—a standard and terribly disturbing motif in these films. The two plot streams intertwine, so to speak, in a final manic orgy. We knew fashion was a tough industry, but we had no idea it was anything like this. Next time you buy a new outfit, try to remember the pain and suffering that went into it. Dan Oniroku onna hisho nawa chyokyo premiered today in 1981.
No wonder divorce rates are sky high.

Did we mention that the Pulp Intl. girlfriends are out of town? No? Well, they are, so it’s time to screen the craziest shit vintage cinema has to offer—’70s roman porno. We don’t truly understand the films, but we try. What we do understand is that on some level the previous decades’ restraint in Japanese cinema was being challenged by filmmakers given almost total artistic control, as long as the films had four sex scenes per hour. So what you get is a lot of daring explorations of previously untouchable themes, and a lot of visual artistry designed to titillate without violating censorship restrictions. Japan’s oldest studio, Nikkatsu, made these films, and many were hits with both audiences and critics (who we suspect in both cases were preponderantly male).

The above poster was made to promote Dan Oniroku hanayome ningyo, aka Bridal Doll, which is based on the writings of acclaimed author Oniroku Dan, and stars Asako Kurayoshi in her cinematic debut as a woman who’s sold to a man as a bdsm sex slave. It’s pretty twisted. Not only does he dress her as a bride, but he has a glass walled bathroom so he can watch her do her business, and at one point literally has her shackled to a ball and chain. But his idyllic set-up goes awry when a neighbor learns what’s going on and decides to save Asako. He does this by kidnapping the sadist’s wife, who’s played by the luminous Izumi Shima, putting her through similar ordeals, then proposing a swap.

Does this swap go as planned? Well, we won’t tell you that. We will, however, remind you that there are three true outcomes in roman porno: irony, tragedy, and ambiguity. Nobody ever gets out happy. At least not often. They’re always transformed by their ordeals, one way or another. As always, not being Japanese and lacking the lifetime of cultural knowledge that would bring, we know there’s more going on here than we can discern. But we still can’t recommend this one as anything other than Shima eye candy. And you get that by looking below. So maybe save the seventy-one minutes for a walk in the sunshine. Dan Oniroku hanayome ningyo premiered in Japan today in 1979.

Junko Mabuko is unjustly detained yet again.

t’s Junko Mabuki again, beset by her usual troubles on this poster for the roman porno flick Dan Oniroku joen fujin, which premiered in Japan today in 1980. This movie seems to have been retitled for its English language release either Blazing Bondage Lady or Madam Rope Flame. Different sites say it’s one or the other, but both titles kind of mean the same thing, so both are probably correct.

How does Junko get caged? It’s her husband’s fault. He accidentally runs over a woman who’s a star S&M performer and her widower shows up to claim Junko as his own (and as a bonus also kidnaps her sister, played by the ethereal Izumi Shima). Junko’s captor introduces her to aspects of bdsm such as whipping and enemas (always a favorite of roman porno flicks), and her shame and resistance eventually turn to acceptance and pleasure.

Mabuki burst onto the roman porno scene in 1979 and in 1980 made a dozen films. Nikkatsu thought they had another Naomi Tani on their hands and even staged a press conference at which they introduced Mabuki to the assembled journalists while she was done up in bondage gear. These types of publicity stunts weren’t unusual for Nikkatsu. They had barely enough time to congratulate themselves for finding a new star when in 1982 Junko abruptly retired.

But Mabuki left behind more than a dozen films and established herself as one of the era’s most popular stars. Even so, we rarely recommend these movies and can’t recommend this one either, but we love roman porno posters, which taken out of context are always amazing art pieces. Junko is like art too, below. Rest assured, this is not the last we’ll see of her.

Shima's education costs become too much to bear.

Above is a poster for Dan Oniroku hebi no ana, also known as Snake Hole, starring Izumi Shima. We wish she had made a few movies in the mainstream, but she was a roman porno star, and that means some of her output can be hard to watch. We make no judgments. Well, no, we do make judgments, but we try to be open minded about these crazy flicks. Japanese filmmakers were exploding old taboos and on the balance that was a good thing, but where Toei’s pinky violence usually empowered women, Nikkatsu’s roman pornos recast them as victims.

In this film, for example, Shima is forced to participate in bdsm fantasies. She’s shaved, hung from ropes, walked with a dog collar, and is erotically vacuumed (don’t ask). This was Shima’s last starring role, and it came near the end of Nikkatsu’s roman porno obsession. But of course that was just a marketing label. The studio continued its explorations of taboo subject matter. As far as this one goes, we don’t recommend it, but we’ve seen worse films. If it sounds like something that’d interest you—so pee it. Dan Oniroku hebi no ana premiered in Japan today in 1983.

She was mysterious in life but all her secrets came out in death.

This National Insider published today in 1964 highlights an event that was of global interest at the time, but which has since been forgotten. Julie Molley, pictured on the cover, led a double life. She worked in a dentist’s office by day and was a party girl by night. Apparently this hidden life began with placing newspaper ads for a friend who wanted to hook up with men but needed to protect his reputation. The responses seemed almost innumerable, and exposed her to the world of clandestine sex in repressive 1960s Britain. This in turn eventually led to full-fledged participation in underground bdsm orgies. Wealthy men rewarded her with money and expensive gifts for whipping and humiliating them.

When she was found dead of an overdose of sleeping pills in a Buckinghamshire mansion in November 1963, police labeled it suicide, but friends said it had to be murder. Found in her effects were 3,500 photos of her in compromising positions with various men. Two diaries she wrote contained the names of numerous high profile figures. Police believed Molley was involved not only in an underground sex ring, but may have been part of an extortion racket that took advantage of various well heeled Brits’ kinky sex preferences. But as late as 1966—the last year we found articles about the case—police still had not found evidence of foul play.

This National Insider labels Molley the “High Priestess of Love” and “Pocket Venus,” and compares her underground parties to those at the center of the Profumo Affair. But her death is today still officially a suicide. Police believed she was depressed, basically friendless, and they noted that her pill usage had been increasing for months before her untimely end. In the final analysis, authorities decided she ended it all because she was simply fed up with an unhappy existence. The general sentiment was summed up by her mother, who said, “I sent her to a convent school because I wanted her to be a good girl. But she wanted a good time—and it ended like this. It always does.”

Don't look now but you're soaking in it.

Above, an amazing Japanese poster for the French adult film Orgies en cuir noir, which was known in the U.S. as Water Blue. It starred Anna Lombardi, Annick Chatel, Elinia Martinelli, Eva Jaeger, and Minouche, and it’s a ridiculously low budget effort about a bdsm sex cult ensconced in a Parisian basement. The group lures a woman into its circle and, after feeding her what appears to be ecstasy, introduces her to assorted carnal variations. The movie is notable for its pansexual content, including gay and transexual scenes. You can find it online if you care to, but we don’t recommend it—the copy we saw looks like it spent months soaking in the enema water that features prominently in the plot. Just enjoy the poster art. The movie premiered in France today in 1984.

And she's already starting to sprout hair.

This interesting poster was made for Kemono ni natta hitozuma, aka The Beast: Married Woman, which was produced by Shintoho Company and starred Maki Tomota, aka Maki Tomoda. She’s an adult video actress who began her career in Japan in 2002 and today is a popular figure in milf porn. In case you’re wondering, they do use the term milf in Japan, but just for effect. The preferred word is actually jukujo, literally “mature woman.”

Tomoda’s armpit hair is not just any armpit hair. It’s a trademark. One of her more successful jukujo series has been Kāsan no waki no ke, which means “mother’s armpit hair.” As we’ve mentioned before, we’re indifferent about female body hair, and it isn’t an age thing—we’re fully from generation wax. We just feel, you know, her body, her choice. Tomoda probably has hundreds of hirsute images out there, because she’s quite well known.

This particular film, on the other hand, is not. We couldn’t track it down, nor uncover any plot info, though it’s an ironclad certainty it’s bondage related (hello, de Sade). What we did find were some promo images and we’ve shared two—nice Maki, and naughty Maki. Kemono ni natta hitozuma premiered in Japan today in 2008.

De Sade administers shock treatment in new art book from Goliath.


Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade, was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and author of novels, short stories, plays, dialogues, and political tracts. But he’s best known, of course, for his libertine sexuality. Since his death in 1814 he has continued to enthrall scholars, social critics, and historians. Now Berlin based art publishers Goliath, a group always fascinated by the sexually bizarre, have taken their own careful look at de Sade, publishing Marquis De Sade – 100 Erotic Illustrations, a collection of art from various Marquis de Sade books, put together as a hardcover volume.

Goliath points out that everyone knows what sadism is, but nobody actually reads de Sade. They’ve solved that problem by doing away with text entirely. It’s a canny choice, because for all de Sade’s renown, critics remain passionately divided over his literary worth. There are those who say his writings were merely a fig leaf for his obsessions. If that’s the case his fig leaf has been ripped away in this book, and you get a set of ink drawings that detail everything he loved without trying to intellectualize, condemn, or justify it.
 
The illustrations are shocking, of course, but de Sade lived to shock. He’d probably be thrilled to know he still manages to do that more than two centuries after his death, as well as to learn of his influence on Japanese roman porno cinema, women-in-prison movies, bondage literature such as Fifty Shades of Grey, and other odd niches of modern media.

Considering de Sade’s fame, those who don’t know his history might assume that French society was hopelessly depraved to tolerate his acts. Actually, the opposite was true. He spent thirty-two years of his life in prisons and asylums, and escaped having his head and shoulders separated by the guillotine—more than once—due only to political upheaval.
 
When examined by psychiatrists the diagnosis was that de Sade was “insanely obsessed with vice.” There can be little doubt this diagnosis was spot on, as he gambled away his fortune, consorted with prostitutes, staged orgies, forced servants and maids to perform sexual acts, drugged the unsuspecting, indulged in corporal punishment, and of course engaged in every sexual variation and deviance known.

Though 17th century France didn’t find much humor in de Sade, with the passage of two hundred years the illustrations in Goliath’s book do provoke a few laughs—from us at least—as lords and ladies relentlessly diddle, fondle, suckle and paddle each other. We don’t mean to make light of de Sade’s crimes—the French were probably right to stuff him away. But considering the fact that his work has been routinely banned and burned—even by his own son at one point—it’s instructive to be able to look at the contents of a mind that has had such an influence on our own weird and depraved age.
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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

2011—Elizabeth Taylor Dies

American actress Elizabeth Taylor, whose career began at age 12 when she starred in National Velvet, and who would eventually be nominated for five Academy Awards as best actress and win for Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, dies of congestive heart failure in Los Angeles. During her life she had been hospitalized more than 70 times.

1963—Profumo Denies Affair

In England, the Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, denies any impropriety with showgirl Christine Keeler and threatens to sue anyone repeating the allegations. The accusations involve not just infidelity, but the possibility acquaintances of Keeler might be trying to ply Profumo for nuclear secrets. In June, Profumo finally resigns from the government after confessing his sexual involvement with Keeler and admitting he lied to parliament.

1978—Karl Wallenda Falls to His Death

World famous German daredevil and high-wire walker Karl Wallenda, founder of the acrobatic troupe The Flying Wallendas, falls to his death attempting to walk on a cable strung between the two towers of the Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Wallenda is seventy-three years old at the time, but it is a 30 mph wind, rather than age, that is generally blamed for sending him from the wire.

2006—Swedish Spy Stig Wennerstrom Dies

Swedish air force colonel Stig Wennerström, who had been convicted in the 1970s of passing Swedish, U.S. and NATO secrets to the Soviet Union over the course of fifteen years, dies in an old age home at the age of ninety-nine. The Wennerström affair, as some called it, was at the time one of the biggest scandals of the Cold War.

1963—Alcatraz Closes

The federal penitentiary located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay closes. The island had been home to a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison over the years. In 1972, it would become a national recreation area open to tourists, and it would receive national landmark designations in 1976 and 1986.

1916—Einstein Publishes General Relativity

German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity. Among the effects of the theory are phenomena such as the curvature of space-time, the bending of rays of light in gravitational fields, faster than light universe expansion, and the warping of space time around a rotating body.

Cover art by Norman Saunders for Jay Hart's Tonight, She's Yours, published by Phantom Books in 1965.
Uncredited cover for Call Girl Central: 08~022, written by Frédéric Dard for Éditions de la Pensée Moderne and its Collection Tropiques, 1955.
Four pink Perry Mason covers with Robert McGinnis art for Pocket Books.
Unknown artist produces lurid cover for Indian true crime magazine Nutan Kahaniyan.

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