Carlo's Spanish Ladies

What's that I feel in the air?  What could that be?  Why, if I'm not mistaken, it feels like it's time for another

Evil Dolly's Featured Fetish Artist of the Day:  Carlo.

There's not a lot I can say about Carlo because hardly anything is known about him.  At least not that I've been able to dig up.  Even the name, I believe, is pseudonym.  He's rather obscure, though perhaps you've seen his work before if you've ventured often into these stygian circles of art.  If you have, it probably came from one of the nearly two dozen books he illustrated.

Leather Triumphant. As well it should be.

Wait a minute. Dolly, Slave? I hope that's 'Dolly and Slave' not 'Dolly the Slave'.  Hmph.

There's a fair reason he is obscure and that is because his work was mostly published in the early 1930s.  I know!  Who knew there were even kinky people back then?  Well, of course there were.  But you probably didn't find stuff like this very easily in those days.  You might think Stanton was vintage, but Carlo pre-dates a lot his earliest work by nearly twenty years.  Think about it -- these were being drawn when "Talkies" were still an innovative new thing in movie theaters;  drawn at the same time as Disney's Snow White was still being animated.

On to the subject matter.  With some exceptions, it's mostly black and white line drawing with minimal shading.  Simplistic, yet expressive.  For the most part, the women (the scenarios are mostly female-on-female, women whipping and tormenting their servants or slaves) wear heavy corsets and stiletto boots.  I appreciate the design of the outfits.  There are are a lot of ruffs and ruffles, pom-poms, and other things which are feminine but can also be exaggerated in order to humiliate.  The subjects are frequently protrayed roaming over the grounds of a large garden or in the rooms or dungeons of a mansion.  The books were published in France, but the clothing and environment appear Spanish.  I don't know whether that is because the artist was Spanish, or if that was merely the setting of the books he was illustrating.  Either way, I like the look.  It's alluring.  Dare I say, sultry?

The art style is typical of that of the 20s and 30s, but it feels more modern than that.  Perhaps it's the subject matter, a certain creativity, a deviousness, which wouldn't look out of place if compared to many current, jaded fetish art.  It's a strange mix, honestly;  it looks old but it doesn't seem that old.  Here are some ponygirls:

Note the one on the left.  The bridles, the tack, the plumes and restraints would fit right in with today's real life pony play.  It's practically the modern standard of the proud modern pony, if there could be said to be one.  Which makes me wonder.  For just the ponygirl design, did Carlo have other earlier artists from which he drew inspiration and ideas, or did he come up with it on his own in a vacuum?  Who was the first to seed the design, to sire if you will, the look of modern ponies?

One thing Carlo seemed fond of drawing is predicament or encumbrance bondage, where the purpose of it is to make simple activities very difficult.  I've always been fond of the concept of ball-and-chains, myself... though, sadly, it's just not that practical these days.  Heaven forbid what would it do to wood floors, much less stone tiles.  Ah, anyway, as examples:

"Of course you need the hat. It's pointless without the hat."

"Tsk. Fallen again. Barrel Girl Four, why can't you be more like Barrel Girl Three?"

Carlo's predicaments often involved multiple women bound together, forced to cooperate in order to get anywhere or sometimes to simply survive.  Aw, she's crying.  How nice.

There's no "I" in "Teamwork."

He also seemed to enjoy drawing situations where the girls were forced to fight, often bound together and often armed with whips, purely for the sport of others.  I don't know why but I just love the "cock" on the left.  So brassy!

I'm really not sure where you can find these books today.  I did see one reprint for sale over at Last Gasp books.  Last Gasp, by the way, is a pretty good place to start when looking for books and compilations of any fetish artist.  Or any obscure/underground artist, for that matter.

For any artist who feels isolated by their own desires, take heart.  You aren't alone and this stuff has been around long before you were even born.  You come from a long lineage of beautiful perversities.  Carlo's work reminds us: There is nothing new under the sun.

"And now:  The Dance of the Wiggly Bagworms!"

Stanton: An Early Influence

A number of the artists I'd like to review are rather obscure and there is little I can find out about them.  I suppose that is the nature of this kind of art.  But such is not the case of this next artist who had a long and prolific career that spanned decades.  Heck, he's one of the few fetish artists to end up with a Wikipedia page.  So that brings us to...

Evil Dolly's Featured Fetish Artist of the Day:  Eric Stanton.

Eric Stanton (1926 - 1999) started his career at the tender age of 21, making illustrations for Klaw's publications from the 40s through the 60s.  We seem to be developing a theme here, as the previous featured artist, Tom, also appears to have done some work for Klaw magazines.  And he won't be the last.  A lot his better-known early work comes from the Bizarre Comix publications made from serials from the early 50s.

Stories originally from 1952, I believe.

Now, I didn't choose to write about Stanton simply because he is well-known and no list of fetish artists would be complete without him.  No, I chose him because his work influenced me personally at a young age.  My father collected a lot of erotica, you see, including clippings from a Stanton issue of Bizarre Comix.  Why just clippings?  I have no idea.  He kept all this stuff responsibly locked away, of course.  And, of course, a precocious adolescent Evil Dolly rose to the challenge and secretly found a way into it, where she found, among other things, samples of Stanton's art.  But don't say, "Oh, exposure to all that must have corrupted you!"  I already liked this stuff.  I was born liking it.  Regardless, Stanton's imagination left its mark on my own very early on.  Though it wasn't until my college years that I met someone with a full set of these comics (before such things could be found on the internet), allowing me to see them complete for the first time.

For this brief overview, I'll mainly focus on Stanton's early work since that's what I enjoy the most, and because his later period is much different in style and subject matter.  They could almost be considered seperate bodies of work.  His early art style had a certain look to it -- inked, tight lines, heavy shading.  Almost sculptural.  Later on, his style would become looser and softer and at times much more watercolory... a little more free form and organic.  His women had distinctive faces and, even though the faces evolved over time, they all make his works easily recognizable.

Early period.

Later period.

As for subject matter, the Klaw era themes focused mostly on female-on-female bondage predicaments, perils, and oft-inexplicable punishments.  It was the style of the time.  There was never any nudity.  He seemed to enjoy drawing girls in stringent bondage and contorted poses.  There is a prevalence of crotch-high laced boots, impossibly tiny corseted waists, gloves and hoods.  Lots of snug leather outfits fastened tightly with dozens of meticulously drawn laces.  He drew a lot of hoods and masks that hid the gagged wearer behind life-like or sometimes doll-like faces.  Armbinders were common, and he sometimes used outfits that completely hid the arms, smooshing them against the back, making the woman helpless and, ah, smoothing out her silhouette... giving us that armless look that we all enjoy.

 

Everyone knows ponies don't need arms! Silly pony.

There was much spanking and discipline to be had in every conceivable way, infernal machines, and encumberances.  The storylines' excuses for such things could get rather contrived... well, it's bondage just for the sake of it.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  It seems almost innocent in that regard;  with the lack of sex and nudity it becomes more of a showcase for inventive bondage, damsels in distress, and bizarre fashion.  Of course, in reality, it was meant to be extremely erotic to those who would appreciate it.

The bound women were sometimes used as furniture or decoration.  Perhaps that stuck with me.  Consider the fact that my slave role generator includes both Furniture Slaves and Art Objects.  A bound girl used as a vanity table?  Impractical, yes... but it never goes out of style!  Plus: ergonomic seating.

This is, of course, just a very broad overview which barely scratches the surface of only a short period in Stanton's long career.  After working for Klaw up through the 60s, he went on to such things as making short books he called "Stantoons" and drew his "Blunder Broad" series about a superherione who is regularly soundly defeated and fucked.  It's good stuff, but it's not my favorite.  I prefer the older drawings.  I like the look of it, the nature of the bondage, and all the fun outfits.

So that's how they get tiny waists. Welded steel corsets!

And this thing.. doing.. whatever it does.

'Yeah, the employment agency screwed me. But at least the hours are good!'

After Klaw, Stanton's work would get much more sexual and explicit.  The bondage and torture would grow much more graphic, with frequent use of heavy breast torture.  I wonder if he grew bored with the older stuff with the changing times and expanded his horizons or, freed from the constraints of publishing in the 50s, he simply started drawing more of what he always wanted to draw.  Here you can see the looser style, along with more a more polished, more painful piece.  I love the brief interaction in the one on the left.  Telling someone to relax before plopping their sore butt on a bristly welcome mat.  That's how it's done.

Later on, he would veer heavily into the area of femdom/male sub, with tiny men being wrestled into submission and physically dominated and abused by giantess-statured, pathologically cruel women.  His women became more muscular and fuller-figured with exaggerated breasts and vast round backsides.  Some were hermaphroditic with huge penises.  Emasculating the men even further, no doubt.  Face-sitting and toilet slavery became very common themes.  That's all well and good, and while I do love a good butt-smothering, I'm only dealing with the older work otherwise the review could go on forever.

Some of Stanton's work is available in collections, I saw some on Amazon, including biographies that can go into much greater detail on the man.  Some of the Bizarre Comix get reprinted now and then, and I'm sure there are originals around but I don't expect you'd find them cheap.  But, by all means, if this is new to you and I've piqued your interest, check it out.  It's a huge body of work.  Thank you, Stanton, wherever you are:  may you be eternally smothered by the cruel giantesses you so loved.

All images are copyright Stanton and are used here for review purposes only.

Rainy Windy Day

First big rain of spring, it is.  It started sprinkling right after I woke and has hardly stopped pouring all day.  The yellow-green blanket of pollen is being washed away, and any turtles in the yard are certain to be dampened.  Why turtles?  Last year I counted 5 or 6 different box turtles of all sizes living in my yard, ranging in size from a big old one with a cracked (but healed) shell all the way down to a baby barely over an inch long.  I have no idea why they like my yard so much.  It's no more remarkable than any other yard, and it's not all that big.  Not that I'm complaining.  Never hurts to have a few extra turtles around.  Anyway, here's a little mood music for your own respective rainy windy days.

 

World of Goo is an awesomely quirky physics puzzle game, by the way.  It's cheap, it's on Steam, try it if you're into that kinda thing.

Tom's Latex Lesbian... Lasciviousness?

I'm a little fuzzy-wuzzy on pain pills from a dentist visit today, so I thought it'd be a good time to start a series I've been planning on in which I reveal some of my favorite bondage artists.  I mean like pen and paper artists, not photographers.  I've always loved fetish drawings.  While I also love photography (and who doesn't?) for some reason a drawing can sometimes push my buttons faster than a photograph.  I don't really know why that is.  At the very least, you can a get farther and get a bit more creative with a pen than a person.  So, chosen almost entirely at random, we'll start with...

Evil Dolly's Featured Fetish Artist of the Day:  Tom of Germany.

Not to be confused with Tom of Finland, who is famous for his gay male art.  I don't have a ton of information on Tom, real name of Boris Bergson.  The little info I found says he got started doing pencil and ink illustrations for Klaw's (see the vintage bondage post earlier) Nutrix magazine, and went on to do more magazine illustrations and covers up through the 80s.  It seems like he was reasonably prolific.  They're mostly black and white, though a few are in color.  I first found some of his stuff floating around online in my college days in the 90s.  Grainy, poor scans, typical of the day.  I always kept an eye out for more.  Sadly, I learned that he died in the late 90s, so what little art is out there is all there's going to be. 

As for his subject matter, it exclusively features lesbians and almost always includes latex.  I always liked the way he drew latex, making it look shiny without going crazy with the reflection.  Sometimes it's easy to get carried away.  He did them tight and shiny and sometimes loose and matte.  It's the loose, blousy latex you don't see presented very often, so I appreciate it.  He also did strict bondage, hoods, heavy corsetry, inflatable outfits, ponies, and sometimes AB stuff.  A lot of his drawings are slice-of-life, where the women are in the middle of getting dressed or simply lounging.  I think that's cool.  Here's a few more samples.  I really don't know if any of his stuff is still in print anywhere.

Little Green Nubbins

Referring to the budding leaves on the trees, of course.  Spring has come early this year.  It had already hit 80 on a few days in late February, and bulbs everywhere had started blooming.  Short sleeves... in February!  That may be normal for some people, but it's pretty uncommon for here.  Although it is the South and you'd expect it to be warm, the lowest point of the jet stream comes right over top of us in the winter.  We may not get blizzards or anything, but we get plenty of that arctic wind blowing through for a few months.  But not this year.  There was no snow to speak of this winter, alas.  It barely got below freezing.  A few months ago I bought a bird bath heater so the little birdies would have fresh water when everything was frozen... I've only turned it on like three times.  I don't know if it's indicative of anything, but last summer was super hot, as well.  Record breaking highs.  It's just weird.  I do hope this extremely short and mild winter doesn't make the bugs go crazy this year.  We kinda rely on some hard freezes to kill some of them off.  But there's already mosquitos out there!

Evil Dolly's Movie Recommendation of the Day:  The Skin I Live In.  Foreign, subtitled, it starts out with Antonio Banderas, an obsessed plastic surgeon, running some sort of long term skin-grafting experiment on a woman he has imprisoned in his mansion.  It's slow-paced, somber, and mainly psychological, and I thought it was quite good.  In fact, it's very similar to something I'd write.  It's always a rare delight to see a movie or read a book that goes to the places my own mind would go.  If you give it a watch, try and guess the one line reveal that made me laugh out loud and slap my thighs.

Oh yeah... and heavy lycra bodysuits!