#633 - Legacy of Pain Isle of Agony Citadel of Suffering Eric Stanton

Island of Agony Trilogy
illustrated by Eric Stanton
Legacy of Pain
Isle of Agony
Citadel of Suffering
probably Candor Books
ca. 1972

optimized
and
optimized, pictures-only ebook

There are at least two versions of each of these three booklet, sometimes published with different titles.
The first printing of the third episode was titled Citadel of Suffering. Another version, which claims to be published by Dominant Publishing Company of San Francisco in 1976, was titled
Kidnaped – Tale of Bondage. Kidnaped is the first word of text. The latter edition has a front cover by Gene Bilbrew and back cover by Bill Ward. Candor Books advertising in the Isle of Agony booklet leads us to infer Candor Books origins.

The three booklets continue a story of more than 14,000 words. Each has about 32 pages and 16 fine Eric Stanton illustrations.

The narrative concerns an Atlantic island willed to three people: beautiful Ernestine, her submissive brother and diabolical Judy. She wants the island for herself, but she's willing to sell her share to siblings Bella and Theda van Pyre, blood-drinking vampires.

Assisted by Essie, Judy captures Ernestine and Bob and transports them to the island by boat. There, people use each other for pleasure and some pay Judy for their fun. One scene describes an auction.

To get what she wants from Ernestine and Bob, Judy applies creative techniques that make them feel intense pain. Most island residents experience awful bondage, even some patrons in a brief turnabout sequence.

Writer and artist conjure unique bondage schemes to punish and persuade characters. Many of these designs involve unpleasant bending of hands and wrists, where the fingers of gloves have extensions tightened by buckles. For example . . .

“You evidently think your brother is soft and submissive,” Theda said, looking sternly at the bound and gagged girl with the beautiful, full breasts.

Even though her lips were locked in the expanded mechanical gag, Ernestine was able to nod her head “Yes,” in agreement.

“Perhaps you don’t understand how pain can cause one to submit to or admit to absolutely anything,” Theda said.

“Come. I will demonstrate with some ingenious gloves.”

Threatening Ernestine with pulling on the chains attached to the high-heeled pumps she still wore, chains that, drawn taut, could dump her on her face, breaking her nose, perhaps fracturing her skull, Theda persuaded the flushed sister to submit.

Terrible as were the pair that forced Barbara to hold his hands on his hips, these were even worse! For the fingers ended in a strap that could be fastened to a buckle near the elbow, forcing the hand to remain bent in the most uncomfortable of positions.

The pain registered in Ernestine’s face as soon as the gloves were put on her and the longer they were on her, the more painful was the wearing of them. Theda freed her mouth of the metal gag.

“Fascinating, these gloves, aren’t they?” Theda said, delighted with the way Ernestine’s mouth pulled down at the corners from pain.

“Please, at least let me take off these high-heeled shoes,” the captive blonde pleaded.

“Why of course,” Theda said, smiling grimly. And she did remove the shoes.

Ernestine’s relief was short-lived, though. For, even though the chained, five-inch heels were removed, a new and even more hellish torture was applied!

Cruel toe-cuffs of unyielding steel on the ends of an eight-inch steel bar were clamped onto her big toes. The chain from the middle of this bar was brought up and fastened to her long hair, pulling
her head back and baring her throat once again.

The cruel Theda knelt there watching Ernestine in her agonized position for a while, then she whipped her with a sharp-tipped whip, forcing her to hurt herself more as she involuntarily winced at every blow!

The prose does an excellent job of describing bondage schemes, which include metal bars, leather hoods, blindfolds, mittens, chains, mechanical gags, ropes and chains. Most scenes show women dominating both males and females, but men abuse on a few pages.

One ambi-gendered character is called a “feman.” Bob eventually surrenders to female domination as a feminine sissy named Barbara.

The text of the three booklets was re-set for the ebook iteration. Few changes were made to the fast-moving prose that describes bodies, torture tools and fetish attire. A few paragraphs were revised in pursuit of picture/text alignment. The abundance of exclamation points were retained.

Mr. Stanton's superb pencil work delineates voluptuous female forms in nylons, heels, boots, exotic bras, lacy panties and painful restraints. In several pictures, the protagonist's anger sizzles with contempt.

Brightness, contrast and levels were adjusted. Shadows were reduced to expose boot laces, waves of hair, drape of fabrics, transparency and stitching. Images retain the texture of soft graphite on paper. The optimized ebooks offer a convenient mechanism for enjoying Mr. Stanton's artistry.

The 48 pictures of the trilogy were optimized on more than 160 pages, with complete drawings and virtual enlargements of figure features, fetish elements and action. This presentation technique reduces the need for zooming and scrolling. The text was set large to facilitate close correlation of optimized images and narrative.

All new scans.

A second ebook contains only optimized images.

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