#796 - Sorority Girls ENEG Bondage Sleuth JIM Prisoners Inquisition MARIO
Sorority Girls
Eneg/Gene Bilbrew1953
originally published by Irving Klaw
1953
re-published by Bélier Press, Inc., in 1984
in Bizarre Comix, Volume 20
digital replica
and
optimized for ebook viewing
Bondage Sleuth's Harrowing Plight
Jim
originally published by Irving Klaw (as a Nutrix booklet)
1960
re-published by Bélier Press, Inc., in 1982
in Bizarre Comix, Volume 14
digital replica
Prisoners of the Inquisition
Mario
originally published by Irving Klaw
1955
re-published by Bélier Press, Inc., in 1976
in Bizarre Comix, Volume 6
optimized for ebook viewing
Sorority Girls
In the 34 panels that comprise Sorority Girls, Gene Bilbrew, signing as Eneg, focused his comic strip talent on fetish illustration. The set is less a narrative-based serial than a bunch of scenes. In this early work, Mr. Bilbrew reveals a deep appreciation for appealing female forms and creates figures that epitomize a youthful, womanly ideal.
The face of one of the senior sisters seems deliberately drawn to suggest the radiant countenance of Bettie Page, the most popular pinup model of her time, which is the period in which these pictures were created. That both Mr. Bilbrew and Ms. Page repeatedly contracted with Mr. Klaw during the 1950s might suggest that there was a bit of cross-promotion in the likeness.
All the lovelies in these ink drawings are as pretty as can be, with long legs and alluring curves. Here Eneg characters are college-age sorority sisters who spend their days initiating newbies while dressed in tight sweaters, short skirts, stockings, garter belts, panties, bras, and high-heeled shoes.
Originally sold by mail order, photographic enlargement prints were the cost-effective duplication option for short runs prior to the invention of electrostatic copy technology. The chemical-based photo printing method resulted in inconsistent tonality in the small reproductions.
Each of the 34 episodes show two or more characters in various room settings in the sorority house. The digital replica ebook presents each panel complete on a separate ebook page.
The optimized ebook disassembles the scenes, placing characters on separate pages, enlarging attractive details to fill the screen on wide pages that match the aspect ratio of monitors. The text that narrates the panels at the top has been removed in the optimized version to allow the complete height of the available rectangle to be used for display of characters. The deconstruction involves enlargement, repetition and rotation of the original virtuoso graphics, and opens them to careful scrutiny on 90 ebook pages. This technique of ebook presentation intends to reduce the need for zooming and scrolling.
Bondage Sleuth's Harrowing Plight
Unlike most of the material that fill Bizarre Comix volumes, Harrowing Plight did not originate as photo prints but was first published as a Nutrix booklet in 1960. In other Jim comics we've shown, settings were mostly palatial and characters royal. This work has a contemporary urban setting with pictures that illustrate a story.
The narrative by John T. Quill tells of a woman who investigates the death of her sister, a model. To do so, she works for her sister's employers, gets tangled in their web, and finally gets to the bottom of the mystery. Fifteen Jim illustrations show attractive women in extremely high-heeled footwear, corsets and stockings.
The Nutrix text was reset for the Bizarre Comix version and the ebook is a conventional presentation of that publication, page for page. Neither the Bizarre Comix version nor the ebook version contain the photographs that were included in the 1960 Nutrix version.
Prisoners of the Inquisition
Mr. Klaw advertised the original set of photo prints for $14. Little is known about Mario, who gave his female characters attractive shapes and expressive faces.
Two lovely shipwreck survivors are mistaken for saboteurs by armada guards. Eventually, the innocents escape. As though they were pirates, most of the curvaceous characters wear clothing with torn hems and boots with cuffs, but some drawings show modern, high-heeled footwear.
Most of the 30 episodes of this comic serial have two illustrations and two blocks of text. In the optimized ebook, the text is placed on the page that precedes the panel it describes. The optimized ebook disassembles the scenes, placing characters on separate pages, enlarging attractive details to fill the screen on wide pages that match the aspect ratio of screens. The deconstruction involves enlargement, repetition and rotation of graphic components of the original 60 panels and opens them to careful scrutiny on 75 ebook pages (a total that does not include 55 pages of text). This technique of ebook presentation intends to reduce the need for zooming and scrolling.
Four ebooks, two optimized, delivered by download from your 30th Street Graphics account.