The Art of Eric Stanton: For the Man Who Knows His Place Paperback – November 30, 2012

very happy

This is the one must-have book for Stanton collectors. It's filled with a wide variety of Stanton artwork and is in full color. Just make sure you are getting the large size version, not the smaller paperback size condensed version.

This large format (13.5 X 10.25 by 1.75 inches) Taschen Coffee Table books is amazing—it’s amazing it even exists. The family business for Eric Stanton “was putting women on top, and men in their place.” In the only public exhibition of his art work, in the four days the exhibit was open, 4,000 people viewed the show. Stanton was delighted that 36 women asked for him to sign the show’s program and catalogues and only 4 men. While the audience for his art was largely believed to be men, with his main theme of strong women over weak men, and fetish fashion, it would seem that more women would be interested in his work than men. Even the subtitle of this collection of his work is subtitled, “For the man who knows his place.” What’s somewhat amazing about Stanton’s career and art work is that it changed very little over his 60-year career. He liked drawing imaginary pictures of strong, large, Amazon-like beautiful women dominating each other and of course completely dominating and subjecting men especially weak and abusive men. Originally most of his subject matter consisted of women wresting or fighting with each other. And the winner was the woman who pinned her opponent and was able to spank her often with a hairbrush. The winner would often humiliate the loser by keeping her pinned down while she sat on her head or face. However, in his early work Stanton also had a more dangerous imagination. In this volume on page 82 is a drawing of a bound and gagged victim attached to a catapult. The rope that is keeping the catapult in position is being cut with a knife. Once cut, the helpless victim will be catapulted off the cliff onto the jagged rocks in the distance. This 1952 drawing was from his “Terror at the Bizarre Art Museum.” And Stanton is not credited with the text or story. He may simply have been illustrating what he was given by his boss or bringing one of his customer's fantasies to life as a private commission. There are many such deadly images in Stanton’s work from this period. Many of his torture instruments came from history including dunking stools (page 34), racks and a face mask with interior spikes (page 38) ala “the iron maiden.” Opposite this book’s title page is a photo of a smiling young Stanton with two of his models. There is another one of him sitting on the bed with three different models on page 11. Everyone in the pictures are obviously happy and pleased with themselves. The models are all dressed in high heels, thigh-high stockings, girdles and bras. There is almost no bare skin showing. A voyeur could see more bare skin by going to any beach and even most swimming pools. Stanton would take pictures of these mostly clothed women and add corsets, change the girdles for much skimpier garter belts and eliminate most of the bra for his drawings. It was the same situation with Bettie Page, one of Stanton’s and everyone else’s favorite fetish models. On page 41 of this volume Vultura is being given “the third degree” by female police officers to make her talk. She is tied face down, with arms and legs straddling a heating radiator while the steam is turned up inside the radiator. She may not talk, but she will get the desired “third-degree” burns. This was one of the photo shoots in which Bettie Page played the main role. Anyway, for her fetish modeling, Bettie Page seldom showed much bare skin, but was mostly covered with her fetish costume. Eric Stanton was always surrounded by strong women, starting with his mother Anna. According to biographer Richard P. Seves, it was his liberated mother who told him not to waste his life doing jobs he hated, but to do the drawing he so loved. She even allowed him to stay in her house when he wasn’t making enough money to pay anyone rent. It was she that once paid a prostitute to go visit him when she felt he was suffering from depression because she didn’t “want her son to give up on women.” Eric’s first wife was also a strong woman who divorced him because she didn’t like his profession as a fetish artist. She also took away his first two children along with all his possessions except his art work. His second wife, Britt was from Norway and loved modeling and being with Stanton. She had large breasts and when she was growing up in Norway, they didn’t have pantyhose so she always wore thigh-high stockings with garter belts. When he discovered this fact Stanton must have felt he’d died and gone to heaven. He and Britt later had two children together. On pages 268 and 269 of this collection are some pictures that might well have gotten Stanton real problems with the obscenity and postal laws. On page 268 is totally nude women talking on the telephone while straddling a man trapped between her thighs with his face buried in her pubic hair. This 1978 image from “Straddlers on Request” definitely depicts oral sex by almost any definition. But it wasn’t deemed obscene and it wouldn’t be included in this book if it was obscene. This illustration is made from a photograph of the situation that featured Stanton posing as the man between the model’s thighs. However, instead of an actual person, the published picture(s) has replaced Stanton with a cartoon-like drawing of the trapped man. That must have been the vehicle Stanton used to avoid breaking the law? These pictures are very sexy even with a mixture of real models and cartoon drawings. They are also a long way from the “No nudes, no sex or even implied sex” rules of Irving Klaw who was one of Stanton’s first employers. So strict was Klaw about these rules, that when he was making his fetish movies for sale, he had the actresses wear two pairs of panties to make certain no pubic hair could accidently be seen by the viewers of his movies. Beginning on pages 284-285 is the beginning of one of this reader’s favorite Stanton stories “The Punished Publisher.” This story involves a married publisher who asks one of his beautiful “girl” workers to come to his apartment. His beautiful female employees hate being called “girls” and have told him that numerous times, all to no avail. Once his employee arrives he still continues to call her “girl” and eventually she revolts and throws him on the floor and ties him up like a package. She calls her fellow "girl" worker and together they teach their boss the lessons of humiliation and anguish They tie him up and photograph him so they can share his situation with others including his wife. One of his “girls” is fired on the spot and so she decides he needs a good spanking and after placing a dildo over his mouth and nose, she has sex with her new Peter toy. The other office "girl" also resigns her job and goes to work for Double Day for more money and respect. Capturing photos of abusive male perverts is shown again on page 364 from another series called “Passive Peeper, 1986.” Another favorite story along the same lines is the series “Two Hapless Burglars.” It shows what happens when to two burglars sneak into an apartment occupied by two Amazonian-like women. There is no question that Eric Stanton was a unique artist. He was also a man who had to overcome 8 years as a bedridden cripple due to injuries in WWII and while working for Pan Am Airline. He was cured by practicing Yoga. As Eric Kroll points out in this page turning art book, “Stanton feels that if he hadn’t drawn fetish subjects he never would have gotten the recognition he has received.” There is no question that his artwork causes interesting reactions from each and every viewer. His drawings have a certain magic in them that is not found in plain photographs of the same subject matter and situations. And although color blind and ill much of his life, he managed to transfer his imagination and idea of female beauty into his art for all to enjoy.

An in depth look into the history of Stanton and his illustrations. Additional info into the publication of his work. This book will save the Specialty Pin-up and Fetish curious reader much time in that it covers a large variety of styles - year to year and publication variations - A very full overveiw of the style. As an art book, it is large, and may dominate some coffee tables. Also bear in mind that the subject-content isn't for the mainstream. Stanton's publications bring you through a wide variety of views, and Kroll's editing is very complimentary. If you are only a bit interested in the genre, and do not wish to buy lots of books, this one is your best find.

A piece of erotica history. A little dated and repetive, but still worth getting.

A used edition but accurately described (and I would say that the description aired on the side of caution as was much better than expected) and delivery was super-fast. Great service.

Naja der Inhalt des Buches ist Geschmackssache. Ich habe es als Geburtstagsgeschenk für eine Freund gekauft,der auf solche Comicbücher steht. Das Buch ist sehr schön gemacht und kann viele Stunden Freude bereiten.

This book is amazing, I did get it used but it was in really great shape and shipped super fast. It's such an intriguing addition to my library and I love the history of his work, it was so interesting to read! Not to mention the amazing art!

Arrived quickly. A great review of Eric Stanton's work. Can recommend.

It’s big