CONDITION:

Vol 1: VG - wear along foredge

Vol 2: Good to VG - wear and ink marks to cover

Vol 3: VG or better

Vol 4: VG - ink price to cover

Vol 5: VG - wear along spine

Vol 6: VG - old moisture resulting in some wrinkling

Vol 7: VG or better

Vol 8: Good - considerable wear, covers detached and tape repaired internally

Vol 9: Near Fine

Vol 10: Near Fine

Vol 11: VG - no staples, all pages present

Vol 12: VG - light spine wear, corner creases

Vol 13: VG

Vol 14: VG - partially erased ink mark to front

Vol 15/16: VG

Vol 17: VG - light rubbing to covers

Vol 18: VG - staple holes, price stamp, corner creases

Vol 19: VG - corner crease, faint foxing to cover

Vol 20: VG or better - price stamp to cover

Vol 21: VG or better - corner crease back cover

Vol 22: VG - price stamp, corner crease, staple holes

Vol 23: VG or better - price stamp

Vol 24: VG or better

Vol 25: VG or better - price stamp

Vol 26: VG - corner crease, light rubbing and two short closed tears to back cover

A complete run of John Willie’s groundbreaking fetish publication! There were a total of 26 issues of Bizarre, with John Willie editing and providing most of the artwork and writing for the first 20 issues. All issues of Bizarre were published by Bizarre Publishing Company, and show Montreal as the city of publication, even though all except volume 2 were published in New York. Bizarre featured unique fetish articles in addition to recurring segments and correspondence from readers.

Published at irregular intervals from 1946 to 1959, Bizarre magazine was the first major American publication to present fetish style and fashion, as well as bondage, to the mainstream. It's appearance would usher in the golden age of fetish publishing (1946 - 1970) in the form of digest-sized books and magazines. Bizarre was created and published by John Willie, whose real name was John A. S. Coutts (1902 - 1962). Coutts was born in Singapore but lived in London and then Australia, where he worked in Brisbane and Sydney from 1926 to 1945. This is where he began his fetish art and photography (as John Willie), ingratiating himself in the shoe fetish scene, producing countless photographs and illustrations distributed via the networks of local fetishists. In 1945 John Willie arrived in Montreal before settling in New York. He was introduced to the American fetish underground by the burlesque costume designer and fetish photographer Charles Guyette who was already something of a cult figure in the underground fetish community, a martyr to the cause having served time in prison in 1935 under ‘obscenity’ censorship laws. Willie also found inspiration from the UK publication London Life, a men's magazine which first appeared in 1920. London Life featured images of women in various forms of fetish attire but Willie was frustrated by what he saw as its conservatism; he wanted to outdo it. Most of the illustrations and photographs for Bizarre were by Willie himself, featuring long-limbed women bound and gagged, or in elaborate fancy dress costumes that combined bondage with whimsy. Willie took thousands of photographs, his model subjects succumbing to his extreme poses and expert rope work. He was a true practitioner of the art. Willie also produced a number of cartoon serials, segments of which occasionally appeared in Bizarre, the most famous being the Sweet Gwendoline series. Willie's illustrations and cartoon serials were a tremendous influence on many other artists, including master illustrators Eric Stanton and Gene Bilbrew, who were the two most prolific fetish artists of the 1950's and 1960's. In 1956 Willie sold Bizarre to a friend of his, someone known only as R.E.B. (now identified as Robert Braine, the "boyfriend" of one of Willie's Secretaries/models). Within the magazine's text there was no mention that Bizarre had been sold, although in issue 23 the new editor introduced Mahlon Blaine as the primary illustrator. After the change of hands, the quality of Bizarre noticeably declined, drained as it was of Willie's characteristic tact, humor, and whimsy, and the magazine finally folded in 1959.

Bizarre would have a far-reaching impact on fetish-themed publications from Irving Klaw, Leonard Burtman, Edward Mishkin and others, known and unknown, many of whom had serious run-ins with the law over endless accusations of selling obscenity and "pornography" through the U.S. mail. Willie managed to circumvent censorship and orders to cease publication because he was careful to avoid nudity, homosexuality, violence, and anything else that might be read as perverse or immoral. Willie would eventually move to Hollywood, CA where he continued producing and selling photographs. In 1961 he developed a brain tumor and was forced to end his mail-order business. He then destroyed his archives and returned to England where he died in 1962.