In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, Satan Press operated as one of the notable imprints in New York’s underground fetish publishing world. Based in the busy, often seedy environment of Times Square, the publisher focused on small-format pulp paperbacks that offered direct and unfiltered stories centered on S&M, female dominance, bondage, spanking, and various forms of power exchange.
These books were produced quickly and sold discreetly, either under the counter in specialty bookstores or through mail-order catalogs. In an era long before the internet, they gave readers a private outlet to explore sexual interests that mainstream society still viewed with strong disapproval or outright condemnation.
What stands out most about Satan Press today is its cover artwork. A large number of the titles featured illustrations by Gene Bilbrew, who worked under the pseudonym Eneg. Bilbrew was one of the most productive Black fetish artists of the period. His style featured strong, expressive lines, dramatic bondage scenes, commanding female figures dressed in leather and high heels, and intense depictions of dominance and submission. The covers had a theatrical, energetic quality that spoke directly to the fantasies of a dedicated niche audience.
Gene Bilbrew had already built experience in the fetish scene through earlier work for publishers like Irving Klaw and Leonard Burtman, including contributions to the influential digest Exotique. By the time he illustrated for Satan Press (published by Joe Sturman, brother of the well-known pornographer Reuben Sturman), his drawings had become a signature element of the line. Many collectors still seek out these paperbacks specifically for his cover art.
The stories themselves usually combined straightforward erotic fiction with heavy fetish elements. Titles were short, affordable, and designed for quick consumption. While the production quality was basic and the writing often functional rather than literary, the books captured a raw slice of mid-century underground desire.
Today, Satan Press titles are valued as collector’s items. They serve as tangible artifacts from a time when fetish material existed largely outside the law and public acceptance. Along with the work of artists like Eric Stanton, Bilbrew’s contributions to Satan Press form an important part of the visual history of BDSM in America, a record of how these desires were imagined, packaged, and circulated before the cultural shifts of the 1970s and beyond.
Recommended Sites & Articles
Hyperallergic – A Long-Lost Artist of the 1950s Sexual Underground (2015)
Erotic Comic
Pulp International – Satan Press archive
Vintage Bdsm Art – Gene Bilbrew
