Gene Bilbrew

- October 28, 2020

Not to put too fine a point on it, Gene Bilbrew was an artist who specialized in sexually oriented images.

"Whoa! Hey Billy! These are awesome! I thought reading was boring, but this is different!"

This does not appear to be about the Stonewall riot. The depiction of an artist, is, however, dead on.

"You got that right! Artists are messed-up! What's with the paintbrush behind that guy's ear, anyway?"

This is a furry blog, after all.

"That gorilla looks like he just won the lottery!"

There is something wrong in this picture. Can you guess what it is?

"Nope. I can't see it. The guy on the chair is makin' sure his drink doesn't get booted, so I think everything's cool!"

He often signed his work 'Eneg'.

"Hey Billy! Guess what? 'Eneg' is Gene, spelled backwards! Pretty neat, huh?"

So much of his art involves this sort of thing that I suspect Mr. Bilbrew of being a 'weird-o'.

"You might be right about that, Billy! Hey, what's with the lady at the door, anyhow? Seems like she's got a real knack for makin' dresses out of knotted-up men's neckties!"

I see Harry Radford likes off-beat thrills. I suspect a proofreader's error here.

"I'll tell you what; if that Gwenn Radford offered her lush body to me, I'd tell her to get lost! A guy's got better things to do!"

Born in Los Angeles in 1923, Gene was a singer with The Mellow Tones and the Basin Street Boys.
He started working for Will Eisner and took over the Clifford strip from Jules Fieffer when he was drafted. Gene was black, and there are rumors, always printed as fact, that he drew the Bronze Bomber strip for the Los Angeles Sentinel, he did not. After the syndicated Clifford strip folded, he met the well known perve artist Eric Stanton who got him into the erotic art field. Stanton shared a studio with Steve Ditko at one point. Stanton made contributions to Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, a title right up his alley.

Eric Stanton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Stanton

Anyway, Bilbrew started drawing for all these adult titles and was incredibly prolific. As can be seen, he had talent.

"Well, that's true, Billy! I bet his momma cried a lot, though!"

This is almost but not quite magazine grade, so he could have been more commercial if he had wanted to do so. But Gene was a heroin addict, and died in the back of a 42cnd Street bookstore in 1974 of an overdose. Most of his art depicts Caucasians, probably what the publishers wanted. I suspect the market was not there for black fetish stuff, this is for people with too much time on their hands.

"Hey guys! Write a 500-word story about the picture above and send it to us! We'd love to read it!"

E. C. grade work.

"Wow, that car's as roomy as my grandma's Cadillac! I sure wouldn't try to drive it with those high heels, though! But I guess these folks aren't too worried about putting on the brakes!"

Dynamic.

"Looks like she's had enough of the sewer for now! Bring her up, boys!"

A rare depiction of a black character, and I have no idea what the dwarf thing is or how he fits into this story, and I don't want to find out. Ever.

"So we got a strong man, a dwarf, and a snake charmer! Circuses are awesome!"