The bold publishers who commissioned, printed, and distributed vintage BDSM art through secret networks
Popular Publications dominated the 1930s “weird menace” shudder pulp era with lurid titles like Terror Tales, Horror Stories, and Spicy Mystery. Packed with sadistic villains, tortured heroines, and bondage-heavy covers by artists such as Norman Saunders and Hugh Joseph Ward, these magazines are essential precursors to post-war BDSM and fetish imagery. Continue reading Popular Publications
Leonard Burtman (1921-1994) was a pioneer in fetish publishing in mid-20th century New York. Founding Burmel Publishing, he launched iconic magazines like Exotique, blending high fashion with BDSM themes. Despite legal challenges and allegations of piracy, Burtman expanded his empire, shaping modern kink aesthetics and influencing future adult content until the 1980s. Continue reading Leonard Burtman: America’s Underground Fetish Publisher
Charles Guyette (c. 1900–1976) was a pioneering theatrical costumer who transformed his New York shop into America’s first full-line fetish supplier by the mid-1930s. Notably, he offered handmade fetish items and imported European designs. After a prison sentence for obscenity, he shifted focus but inspired key figures in American kink culture. Continue reading Charles Guyette
Ernst Schertel (1884 – 1958) was a multifaceted German figure: a writer, historian, scholar in religious studies, and specialist in the occult. He was also a dance pedagogue, an early promoter of nudist culture, a liberal free thinker, and a researcher of human sexuality with a particular interest in paraphilia, fetishism, and sadomasochism.SpankingArtWiki & Wikipedia Early Life, Education, Career and Contributions Schertel studied history and … Continue reading Ernst Schertel, Pioneer of BDSM Research
