'Duchess of the Bastille'.
Eric Stanton was an American erotic artist, specialized in fetish pornography regarding S&M and bondage. From 1947 until his death in 1999, he made a great many kinky illustrations, some of which use sequential narratives or the comic strip format. From 1966 on, Stanton rose from anonymity by establishing his own independent publishing company, Stantoons, which sold art directly to his clients. Among his most notable erotic comic series were 'Dianna' (1949-1951) and 'Blunder Broad'. Early in his career, Stanton also made the military gag cartoon series 'Tin Hats' (1942-1944) and was an assistant to Boody Rogers during the final years of his career. As a former collaborator of Steve Ditko, Stanton also made significant but uncredited contributions to the costume and abilities of Spider-Man. Eric Stanton remains one of the most celebrated pin-up artists of all time, earning him the nickname "The Father of Fetish".
Early life
Eric Stanton was born in 1926 in Brooklyn, New York City, as Ernest Stanzoni, Jr. Even though he was raised in a Russian family, his biological father was of Italian descent. The boy was born out of wedlock, the offspring of a fling his mother had during the early years of her marriage. After graduating from high school in June 1944, Stanton joined the U.S. Navy and served his country during World War II. One day, he had a serious head injury, which left him partially color blind. After being officially discharged in 1946, Stanton became one of many military veterans to receive financial support from the G.I. Bill. Instead of using the money wisely, Stanton simply stayed at home and did nothing substantial. Once the Bill's funding expired, he and his stepfather took a job at a nightclub.
'Tin Hats'.
Tin Hats
Between 27 July 1942 and 18 November 1944, Stanton drew the military-themed gag cartoon series 'Tin Hats' for the Philadelphia Post Gazette, which was also distributed by the Bell Syndicate. Even though the panel appeared largely unsigned, 70 years later the creator was identified as Eric Stanton by Dutch comic historian Ger Apeldoorn on his blog, posted on 23 December 2013. At first he wasn't sure, since Stanton would have been only 15 or 16 at the time and several episodes of 'Tin Hats' were unsigned. But he found one untitled episode from 30 August 1945, actually signed "Stanton". Uncovering several more episodes with this signature, Apeldoorn compared them with Stanton's later signed erotic work and concluded 'Tin Hats' was indeed by his hand.
Assistance to Boody Rogers
Throughout his younger years, Stanton enjoyed playing softball. One of his friends happened to be related to the comic artist Boody Rogers. Through this connection, Stanton became an assistant of Rogers in 1948, aiding him with background drawings and co-writing narratives for his superhero series 'Sparky Watts'. They also collaborated on the comic book series 'Babe: Darling of the Hills', published on a quarterly basis by Feature Comics. In 1949, both series were discontinued and Rogers retired from the comic book industry, leaving Stanton without a job again.
'Priscilla, Queen of Escapes'.
Erotic art
In 1949, while he was still assisting comic artist Boody Rogers, Stanton discovered an ad in the men's magazine Whisper, placed by publisher Irving Klaw from New York. Since 1938, Klaw ran his own book shop in Manhattan, titled Movie Star News. Irving and his sister Paula specialized in selling erotic media, including pin-up photographs, erotic books, drawings and films. Klaw made additional history by launching the career of pin-up model Bettie Page. In those years, pornography was still illegal in Western countries, so Klaw couldn't officially promote himself as such. Stanton applied for the vocation and soon found out that he wasn't supposed to draw a "comic strip", but make erotic art for kinky stories. As he enjoyed drawing women in sexy poses, this was the kind of job he was looking for. It kicked off a long career, during which he drew dozens of (semi)pornographic picture stories, often involving S&M, bondage or other specific fetishes.
As a publisher, Klaw had a DIY approach. Everything was cheaply produced, but sold at expensive prizes. He wrote his kinky stories on an ordinary typewriter and Stanton's drawings were then pasted on the pages and photocopied. Many followed a text comic format, with narration and dialogue accompanying the images. Occasionally speech balloons were used. The stories ran in Klaw's magazine Movie Star News/Nutrix, under titillating titles like 'The Perils of Diana', 'Cruel Duchess of the Bastille', 'Bizarre Museum' and 'Priscilla, Queen of Escapes'. Curious clients could ask for copies underneath the counter, or order them by mail. Further erotic art by Stanton was published by Leonard Burtman, Edward Mishkin, Stanley Malkin and George W. Mavety and in the magazine La Revue Érotique. Out of gratitude, Malkin furnished and paid all expenses for a small apartment for Stanton, where the artist lived between 1963 and 1968.
'Perils of Dianna' (Dutch-language edition).
One of Stanton's recurring characters was 'Dianna' (1949-1951), the heir of an uncle who left her his castle. Her cousin, Countess Elaine, is jealous and wants revenge. Together with the gardener, Marlène, Elaine captures the naïve Dianna and tortures her in the castle's cellar. What follows are long scenes of bondage and erotic humiliation, intended to make Dianna sign over the rights of the castle to Elaine. In later tales, Dianna and Elaine team up to experience new erotic adventures. After the death of erotic artist John Willie in 1962, Stanton also drew new adventures with his signature character 'Sweet Gwendoline'.
The vast majority of Stanton's erotic picture stories, especially for Klaw, revolve around bondage. Sexy females tie each other up and force their "prey" into submission. Stanton also drew several stories where sexy women fought each other. Published under the title 'Battling Women', two angry or jealous women typically start punching, spanking, pulling each other's hair and ripping parts of their clothing. Stanton didn't waste his readers' time with thinking up reasons for his female protagonists' aggression. They simply attack each other. Stanton became one of the most prolific fetish artists of the 1950s and early 1960s, although he sometimes used pseudonyms like John Bee and Savage. Other prominent artists in the genre during this era were Anders, Gene Bilbrew (AKA Eneg), C.W., Dixon, Jim, Mario, Ruiz and John Willie.
'Bonnie & Clara'.
Extra schooling and private life
In 1951, while making his career as an erotic artist, Stanton started an art course at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in New York. Comic veterans Burne Hogarth and Jerry Robinson were two of his teachers. Two of his classmates later became famous comic authors in their own right: Gene Bilbrew and Steve Ditko. Between 1958 and 1968, Stanton and Ditko shared a studio in Manhattan. There he worked on erotic illustrations, while Ditko moved up as a superhero comic artist for Marvel, launching the series 'Spider-Man' and 'Dr. Strange'. Stanton's biographer Richard Pérez Seves commented on the oddness of Stanton and Ditko's friendship. While Ditko had no real interest in portraying sexuality in stories, Stanton loved drawing sexy women. Seves also made a connection between Spider-Man's skintight mask, hood and costume, and Stanton's fetish drawings. In 1962, the same year Spider-Man debuted, Stanton had published an erotic story titled 'Black Widow Sorority', in which a woman wears a spider web-bra and pantyhose. According to his son, Tom Stanton, Eric Stanton also had an aunt named May, who inspired the Spider-Man character Aunt May. It has also been confirmed that Stanton sometimes anonymously inked some pages of 'Dr. Strange'.
Nevertheless, Ditko always denied having ever drawn or inked any of Stanton's erotic drawings. Similarly, Stanton gave Ditko almost complete credit for the creation of Spider-Man. The only thing he acknowledged in interviews was having suggested Spider-Man's ability to shoot webs from his hands. Stanton's daughter, Amber Stanton, gave her own explanation for Ditko and her father's behavior. They were once good friends, and valued this over any ego battle regarding Spider-Man's creation. But Ditko also didn't want to be associated with an artist who drew erotic pulp. Not simply because out of artistic standards, but also to avoid bringing extra unwanted attention to both himself and Stanton. Stanton too wanted to keep a low profile, to avoid his family, particularly his children, being harassed over his low-brow artistic profession.
'On A Kinky Hook'.
Controversy
Although Stanton was one of the most successful erotic artists of the mid-20th century, for a long while he couldn't benefit from this fame. The 1940s and 1950s were a time when pornography was still illegal. In most Western countries, erotic media was tolerated by the authorities, as long as it remained hidden from the public. Some shady book stores had a separate room where clients could buy erotic stories, comics, pictures or films under the counter, or order them by mail. This secrecy only added to the "hidden pleasure". Nevertheless, police raids were a genuine threat. Publishers of erotic media had to take precautions to avoid breaking laws against obscenity. Complete nudity and scenes of actual penetration were forbidden. Genitalia and nipples had to be covered up or obscured. Even in S&M bondage stories, whips and whiplash marks had to be toned down or removed completely. This explains why many women in these erotic illustrations are half dressed in bras and stockings. Scenes where characters fight each other, or force each other in submissive poses acted as metaphors for actual sex. The kinky dialogue helped readers fantasize additional imagery.
Stanton recalled that he was often asked to cover up certain illustrations and photographs by blacking out everything that could potentially get them into trouble. Much to his anger, he was even asked to censor artwork by some of his colleagues, like John Willie. Stanton asked Klaw whether he could at least do this on copies and not the original artwork, but to no avail. Although he hated ruining beautiful artwork like this, he didn't resist Klaw's orders, because otherwise the publisher would simply let somebody else do this degrading job.
Despite publishers' precautions, virtually all providers of fetish art or pornographic media in the United States sooner or later got into legal trouble. Most got off by paying a fine and restarting their businesses under a different name. Stanton saw many of his original artworks get seized or destroyed once the police got a hold of them. On top of that, he only received a meagerly pay for all of his work.
'Stantoons 9'.
Stantoons
Luckily, Stanton had time on his side. Already slumbering in the 1950s, the sexual revolution broke loose in full effect by the 1960s. Mainstream media slowly but surely became more open-minded regarding sex and nudity. In 1968, Denmark became the first country to legalize pornography and several other Western countries followed in the years beyond. Stanton observed the rise of underground comix, a genre strictly intended for adults and often very pornographic in nature. Many underground comix publishers sold their books through independent distribution channels, allowing the profits to run into their own pockets. Stanton decided to follow their example. While he was a prolific artist, he was always badly paid for his work. His artwork was also bootlegged by sleazy publishers, often without compensation or credit. In 1966, Stanton established a mail-order service, Stanton Archives, so people could order his work directly by mail. His friend Steve Ditko, who had just left Marvel after a falling out with his editor Stan Lee, helped Stanton along for a while. In 1969, one of Stanton's former publishers, Stanley Malkin, gave up his business and provided Stanton with a list of all his customers, good for over 20,000 names and addresses. Stanton put this information to good use.
Stanton comic from a Dutch-language edition of Penthouse magazine.
From the mid-1970s on, Stanton's erotic art was reprinted by Bélier Press, New York, in the Bizarre Comix comic book series. In the 1990s Fantagraphics' Eros Comix also reprinted Stanton's stories. His comics have additionally been translated into Dutch, French (in the series Bédé X), German (by Taschen), Italian (Blue, Glamour), Spanish (Kiss Comix) and Japanese. In the USA, they were additionally published in adult magazines like Leg Show, Leg World and Penthouse.
In 1982, Stanton launched his 'Stantoons' comic book series, collecting all of his character-driven series under one imprint. He also took suggestions from readers, writing and drawing stories based on the kind of scenes they would like to see. Two of Stanton's co-workers were Ken Landgraf, who worked under the pseudonym "Dancer", and Manfred Sommer. Between 1981 and 1988, the Spanish publisher Edmundo Marculeta also launched a Spanish-language pocket book series, 'Euro Stantoons', which paid homage to Stanton's work.
'Blunder Broad'.
Blunder Broad
In the 1970s, Eric Stanton and writer Andrew J. Offutt (who sometimes used the pseudonym Turk Winter) created the superhero parody 'Blunder Broad'. Blunder Broad is a spoof of William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter's 'Wonder Woman' from DC Comics, in itself already an adventure comic with heavy bondage themes. Blunder Broad tries to fight crime, but often finds herself in the clutches of horny men and women. Stanton also created a parody of the Amazon tribe, named the "Princkazons". These women grow tall and strong, while developing large penises. The shemales then attack men all over the world, forcing them in all kinds of submissive sexual acts.
Recognition
While Eric Stanton achieved cult fame with his work, the sheer pornographic nature kept it too controversial to be put on display. In 1984, his work was exhibited in Danceteria, a New York City nightclub. This remained his only major exhibition during his lifetime.
'Bizarre Museum'.
Private life
Contrary to the stereotype of erotic artists being desperate single men, Stanton was married, with two sons. However, his first wife didn't like his erotic art. At her insistence, Stanton took a more respectable job as a deliverer of parts for the Pan-Am aviation company. One time, however, he strained his back. The injury was so severe that Stanton couldn't continue his job. He was fired and got addicted to prescription painkillers, since his back sometimes hurt to such a degree that he couldn't get out of bed. In 1958, he and his wife separated, finalizing their divorce in 1960. Later in life, Stanton found a way to relieve his back pains by regularly practicing yoga.
Throughout the 1960s, Stanton decided to remain single and moved back into his mother's home, who was also divorced. He spent most of his hours working on his erotic art, delving deep in his fantasies. Since he didn't go out dating, his mother worried about him. At point, she even arranged a prostitute for him. Eventually Stanton met the woman of his life in Britt Stromsted, a Norwegian who visited the U.S. She didn't regard him as a "filthy" provider of porn comics, but a genuine artist. She even modeled for him and in 1971 they married in Norway. Nine years later they married again in Manhattan. The couple had a son and a daughter.
The artist's son from his second marriage, Tom Stanton, is an artist of photography, painting and multi- media film projects. His daughter Amber Stanton is a creator of surrealistic art.
Final years and death
Later in life, Eric Stanton had a written correspondence with Karel Biddeloo, the Belgian comic artist best known for his chivalry comic 'De Rode Ridder'. Inspired by Stanton, Biddeloo often used erotic innuendo and fights between female characters in his own stories. In 1999, Eric Stanton passed away at age 79. He remains one of the grandmasters of fetish art.
For those interested in Eric Stanton's life and career, the book 'Eric Stanton & the History of the Bizarre Underground' (Schiffer Publishing, 2018), is highly recommended.
Self-portrait.