Tag Archives: Research by Bacchus

Dungeon

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This is a postcard with the caption in Russian, reading “Парижскій Салонъ 1910. Боксеры. — Жанъ Шарль Піерръ Ля Пались.” The caption translates as “Paris Salon 1910. The Boxers. — Jean Pierre Charles de Chabannes La Palice.” This particular image of the postcard appears to have been scanned and posted to Flickr in 2010. A similar postcard with the same caption in French may be seen here. The image on both postcards is, according to the captions and to this page, a work by Jean Pierre Charles de Chabannes La Palice called The Boxers, which was indeed exhibited at the 1910 “Salon des Artistes Français”:

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Depicted, presumably, is a fanciful scene from the Boxer Rebellion, during and after which many lurid accounts of rape and torture circulated.
Image provenance by Bacchus at Erosblog.

Opium den in Vietnam

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Image contains the text:

Opium Den in Vietnam, by Lawrence F. Watkins.

When I told the editor of Exotic Adventures that I would shortly be leaving on a longish trip to Saigon, he immediately said “Good, I want you to visit an opium den and give us a complete report.”

His request shocked me. I had been to Saigon three times in the past four years, as a travelling representative of the rubber company for which I work. Each time, I had scrupulously avoided Saigon’s numerous fumeries, or opium-smoking parlours, despite frequent invitations from Saigonese friends and business acquaintances to “come have a smoke.” My curiosity was high, but I had the Westerner’s fear of the sinister habit.

Nevertheless, I agreed to consider the idea. And before I left for Vietnam, I did some checking on opium addiction. I found that opium addiction is much more difficult to attain than addiction to other drugs. It takes six months, at least, of regular (continued on next page)

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Image contains the text “The French Deputy Inspetor led his American visitor into the dark and murky opium den. There, in the smoky gloom of the unreal world, he saw a half-naked girl reclining on a wooden bench.” and a signature “J.F. Apgar, Jr.”

From the text contained within these images, we can deduce that these are two illustrations by J.F. Apgar for an issue of Exotic Adventures magazine. This page tells us that the Opium Den In Vietnam story appeared in Volume 1, No. 5, from 1959 (see cover). Interestingly, the article’s attribution to author “Lawrence F. Watkins” is said to be pseudonymous; the true author may have been none other than science fiction legend Robert Silverberg. However, in a 2013 Yahoo Groups posting commenting on the Exotic Adventures attributions to him, Mr. Silverberg said “I wrote some of the EXOTIC ADVENTURES items listed below, not all. I do have a record of which ones they are … but I don’t have the time to look them up now.” So the matter is uncertain. As for artist J.F. Apgar, there seem to be no references to such an illustrator in the searchable record, giving rise to the suspicion that this, too, was perhaps a pseudonym for another artist.
Image provenance by Bacchus at Erosblog.

Shadow of the Spider

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This photo is from a set called “35” by photographer Edgard Berendsen. A blog interview here offers more information about the photographer.
Image provenance by Bacchus at Erosblog.

Fantasy Illustrated

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As is evident, this is the cover from Fantasy Illustrated #6. According to this blog post, Fantasy Illustrated was an early comics fanzine published by Bill Spicer in the 1960s. Issue #6 was published in 1966 and features cover art by D. Bruce Perry according to this site, which also lists more contents of the ‘zine.
Image provenance by Bacchus at Erosblog.

Public auction

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Second image contains the text “Slave girls were imported and sold at public auction.” According to a pair of posts ( 1 2 ) on the Drake’s Way tumblr, these are two parts (perhaps appearing on facing pages) of an illustration by James Meese for a story called “The Wantons Who Ruined a Nation”, appearing in For Men Only magazine in April 1955.
Image provenance by Bacchus at Erosblog.

Raging Sex Monster!

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According to the Drake’s Way tumblr, this is an advertisement that appeared in Horror Sex Tales #1, advertising Monster Sex Tales #1 “by” infamous director and author Ed Wood Jr. According to this forum post, Wood wrote at least three of the stories appearing in Monster Sex Tales #1; another site claims that Horror Sex Tales #1 was also “apparently written and edited entirely by Ed.” (An article at BadMags credits him with work for both publications, but also goes into detail about the difficulties with attributing Wood’s prolific magazine writing.) Both magazines were published by Gallery Press in 1972. This site claims that two stories in Monster Sex Tales were “partly cannibalized from The Adult Version of Frankenstein by Hal Kantor”, which may explain the theme of the advertisement art. However, The Adult Version Of Frankenstein appears to have been an adult novelistic treatment, not described in catalogs as having associated artwork. No information could be discovered about the magazine artist who drew the advertisement.

The advertising copy reads:

“Frankenstein, Raging Sex Monster! See the famous Frankenstein monster rage a lust-frenzied path across the pages of the most shockingly strange magazine to come to you in ages!! MONSTER SEX TALES!! A startling collection of tales about the half-man/half creature of book and movie fame — exciting and diverse interpretations by astute writers of today — guaranteed to keep you pinned solidly to your chair as you read from cover to cover!! Each story is illustrated in art and photos — and is definitely for the sexually-oriented reader!! You’ll find your collector’s first-edition copy of MONSTER SEX TALES at the same magazine stand that brings you WEIRD and HORROR SEX TALES.”

Image provenance by Bacchus at Erosblog.

Christmas turkey

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According to the Drake’s Way tumblr, this is a cover from the Paris weekly magazine La Vie Parisienne, specifically from the December 22, 1917 issue, and the cover art is by Georges Léonnec.

A website now preserved only in the Internet Archive offered this description of La Vie Parisienne as a magazine:

‘La Vie Parisienne’ was one of the more famous and well-known of specifically Parisienne magazines. Originally intended as a guide to the privileged social and artistic life in the French capital, it soon evolved into a mildly risqué publication in which illustrations of scantily clad damsels abounded. It was all done in very good taste though it had more than its fair share of detractors. General Pershing for one is said to have personally warned American servicemen against purchasing the magazine – for little good that would have done. ‘La Vie Parisienne’ was also banned in certain countries such as neighboring Belgium for instance, though in war-time it appeared that such silly regulations were not always adhered to.

The magazine was very popular and spawned a number of pre-war imitators, such as ‘Le Sourire’, ‘Le Rire’, ‘Le Regiment’, ‘Fantasio’ and others. As a source of erotica, ‘la Vie Parisienne’ was by far overshadowed by its (foreign) reputation. A reputation that was certainly undeserved, for apart from some slightly revealing drawings of lightly clad ladies or the occasional tastefully executed art-nouveau nude illustration, the magazine was not much more than a high class literary humor magazine. Supposedly infamous for its private advertisements, these small personal ads were seldom much more than classic lonely-hearts or marriage-seeking personals.

Image provenance by Bacchus at Erosblog.

Weird Comics

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As is evident, this is the cover of Weird Comics #2. Text on the cover includes: “Weird Comics. The mummy stirred…a gun flashed and blasted the fiend into eternity. Thor – Sorceress of Zoom — Blast Bennett.” According to this page (where the comic may be viewed in its entirety and where its entire contents are listed) the comic was published in May of 1940 by Fox Feature Syndicate. According to ComicVine the cover artist is Lou Fine.
Image provenance by Bacchus at Erosblog.

Another lady and tiger

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This image of a reclining nude and a snarling tiger is captioned “La Proie” (“The Prey”) and the artist’s signature visible is “E. Klem.” This signature appears to match illustrations (such as this one) that appeared in the 1930s in the Paris weekly magazine La Vie Parisienne; this link shows eight examples of similar artwork for that publication. This is probably the same artist as the Eugene Klementieff (or Klementief) who is said here to have sometimes signed his work “E. Klem.”, but it’s not certain. His artworks listed here are for the most part quite distinctively different, but this one offers some visual similarities and the E. Klementieff signature visible on it looks to be in the same hand as the signature on “La Proie”. Here’s a capsule bio of “Evgenii Klementiev” stating:

The son of the artist Aleksei Klementiev (1875-1946), Eugène Klementieff spent most of his life in France. A graduate of the famous Cubist Académie André Lhote, Paris, he exhibited at the Salon d’Indepéndant and Salon d’Automne. Known for his portraits and still lifes, Klementiev is best remembered for his murals in the Eglise Sainte Jeanne d’Arc in Nice.

Image provenance by Bacchus at Erosblog.

Terror Tales

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As is evident from the image, this is the cover of a Terror Tales magazine; text on the cover reads “Terror Tales. Blood-chilling novelettes: Satan’s Love Bazaar by Wayne Rogers. Dance of the Bloodless Ones by Francis James. Dale Cummings and others.” According to this page our cover is from the July-August 1937 issue, and the cover artist was John A. Coughlin. This offer for a replica edition details more about the stories inside the magazine.
Image provenance by Bacchus at Erosblog.