Femdom Fiction, Photography & Art ebooks

Nights of Horror, Issue No. 7
illustrated by Joe Shuster
The Bride Wore Leather by Ted Rand
Malcla [MALetta+CLAncy]Publishing
ca. 1954
reprint by Festival Publishers Ltd.
Los Angeles, California
1971

digital replica

Tortura
by Gamilin
B. Macdonald Press
Los Angeles, California
ca. 1957

digital replica

Nights of Horror, Issue No. 7

Nights of Horror, was launched by Malcla Publishing in 1953. The 16-volume series was the subject of legal action involving a Manhattan bookstore the following year. The mayor’s office prosecuted Kingsley Books for allegedly selling literature that violated decency law. They lost at the trial level and on appeal. A small fine was levied. Only the retailer was pursued. No action was taken against the printer, publisher, writer or artist.

In many volumes, prose and pictures tell stories about women who are captured, placed in bondage and whipped. Men dominate, but women also abuse women. Some of the stories in theNights of Horror series may have been loosely based on sensational fiction found in detective magazines in the 1930s and 1940s.

the reprint
The ebook is based on a 1971 reprint that shows a peculiar star emblem on the cover. Every effort has been made to make the ebook like the reprint. Pages in the ebook appear in the sequence of the reprint.

In the reprint, Chapter 6 seems to be incomplete as no Chapter 6 heading appears. Two pages missing from Chapter 6 were replaced by illustrations from another Nights of Horror volume. One page has no content. The text was produced on a typewriter.

the story
While most other Nights of Horror volumes present damsel-in-danger scenarios, this story deals with a predatory beauty who uses her charms to bring a wealthy man under her complete control. The text begins with these words: “When Estelle Romaine decided to accept Hartley Wentworth for a husband, she had the experience of two previous marriages to guide her choice, and it could well be said her selection was made 'with malice afore thought.'”

Hartley proves ideal for her diabolical purposes when he confesses his fascination with high-heeled footwear, a staple of Estelle's wardrobe. She conflates his fetish passion with masochist tendencies. During their courtship, she dresses to entice him, inflame his passions, tease him with her gorgeous body, and deny him satisfaction.

On their wedding night, Hartley expects to be a gratified groom, but the bride in thigh boots tosses him across the bedroom and kicks him to unconsciousness. In the following days, the husband is confined to a small room, chained to a bed. Etty, the silent maid, visits him daily.

Holding a whip, Estelle visits her bewildered spouse and explains that he is now her slave and she his absolute mistress, who is pleased when he suffers. When he objects to this relegation, she whips him for the first time, and he falls to the floor at her feet.

Slowly Hartley grasped with his extended hands, contacted one of her pump-shod feet, pulled himself forward on his stomach, his face still hidden in the carpet, then he raised his head slightly, reverently kissed the gleaming toe of the shoe. His tongue emerged and slavishly he licked the entire surface of the leather, devoting special attention to the whole length of the narrow, stilted four-inch heels.

The expression on Estelle's face was one of delight beyond human comprehension. She inhaled deeply, pushing her pointed breasts out to prodigious extensions from her slender torso.

For long moments she held this pose of supreme mastery. Then she exhaled her breath, sharply. "Spread your legs, slave — wide," was her command to the mastered male, prone on the floor at her feet, his hands still clutching her foot, his tongue still coupled and occupied in its servile act of subservience.

Without hesitation, her order was obeyed. Then Estelle raised her whip high and with all her might brought it down . . . .

In a punishment scene later in the booklet, Hartley pays oral homage to the seven-inch heels on his wife's thigh boots. At the conclusion of his leather worship, she says, “For a miserable slave, you receive altogether too much pleasure in your submission!” Then, she whips him.

This characterization of a perceptive femme fatale who knows about her target's fetishism has no precedent in erotic literature. But the audacity of the author bursts into another hot boudoir tableau with the appearance of Dr. Mowbray.

Planning a lengthy training (i.e., punishment) program for her helpless spouse, Estelle seeks an unscrupulous physician who will treat injuries. Dr. Mowbray's notorious offenses made him an outlaw among reputable professionals, but suited for the service Estelle wanted.

After several days of dungeon fetters and whippings — by both Estelle and Etty — she brings Hartley to the bedroom and chains him to a wood post. When Estelle and Mowbray enter, they embrace and disrobe.

In addition to physical torture and being bound naked, the cuckolded husband must observe a strong, handsome intruder enjoying his bride. That Mowbray delights in the lascivious woman, and she his skillful intimacy, twists piquant torment into the groom's humiliation and defeat. In 1954, this, indeed, would be a dirty book.

the prose
Mr. Rand's studied prose references exotic footwear, silk bands, tulle skirts and leather gloves. He describes the mechanisms of Harley's captivity and implements that hurt him.

He does a fine job of weaving nuances of Estelle's fetish seduction with her tempt and deny strategy. While obscured from her prey, the presentation of frustration schemes have erotic edge for the reader.

The author shows impressive audacity in the exposure of fetish lust, masochist surrender and sadist pleasures. When describing sex, an oblique vocabulary prevails, sometimes employing metaphor.

the illustrations
Joe Shuster rendered 9 ink drawings for The Bride Wore Leather. The shapes of his female and male characters match the style of his other Nights of Horror figures.

In this case, dominant roles are reversed and the male spends most of his time on his knees: looking into a closet filled with shoes, kneeling before his smoking girlfriend with a leash attached to his ear, tied to a stool while the maid whips him. In a few pictures, his bound wrists hold him in place for whipping.

Probably because we know Mr. Shuster's graphic style and his authorship of the Man of Steel, the dominated figure reminds us of Superman. His alias — Clark Kent — never had a sex life, with or without fetish fantasies.

Usually shown in heels or negligee, the artist defines his vicious diva with smooth, graceful curves. Neither Estelle nor Etty are nude, unlike female characters in other Nights of Horror episodes involving women in bondage.

the ebook
The ebook contains all content of the reprint in the original page sequence, including one blank page and two illustrations from another Nights of Horror volume. Brightness and contrast were adjusted. On poorly printed pages, missing letters were replaced.

All new scans.

Tortura

The story of Bianca reads like a fairy tale with classic bdsm and fetish notes. It's included in this product as it is also a now obscure artifact of 1950s curiosa and has plot elements similar to those of The Bride Wore Leather.

With promises of wealth and security for herself and family, poor Bianca marries an old man who brings her to his luxurious estate. There she must dress for him in high heels and a lace hat and submit to his wild whippings. Marta the big housekeeper enforces her employer's rules and sometimes whips the captive bride. Two other male characters play minor roles in Bianca's domination and release.

The text may have been written by two people or possibly composed by two typists. The first pages have more spelling errors and typos than the last. Pages are numbered consecutively from 1 to 76, but episodes in the story do not observe chronological continuity.

The ebook contains all content of the booklet, including the front cover and title page. The original has eight illustrations with captions that include quotations from the text and corresponding page numbers. In the ebook, the pictures were placed after the pages shown in the captions. The graphic style of the pictures and obvious delineation of good and bad characters suggest the comic innocence of a Jay Ward cartoon.

All new scans.

Two ebooks, delivered by download from your 30th Street Graphics account.