Gene Bilbrew, singer turned first black fetish artist in the NY Underground Comix scene. An underground smut artist who lived his art, perhaps too much. A tale of the burgeoning underground sex scene of New York City’s sleazy 42nd street, drug addiction, the mafia and the supreme court.

Eugene Bilbrew was born in Los Angeles in 1924. Before he became infamous in the underground art scene. He was apart of a Doo Wap group named the Basin Street Boys who had one hit in 1946, “I Sold my Heart to the Junkman.” Which was later recorded by Patti Labelle and has been performed by Bette Midler and Bruce Springsteen. The group would later fall out while on tour, Gene Bilbrew decided to stay in NY and pursue art.

• Basin Street Boys (Gene Bilbrew to the far right)

As not much of Bilbrew’s original work is available even more so can be said of his work before moving to NY before delving into fetish art. Rumors that he illustrated for a comic strip series named The Bronze Bomber which was considered to be the first black super hero are false.

Gene would enroll in the School of Visual Arts around 1951, then known as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School. There he would meet two artists who would change the course of his art career. One being popular Fetish Artist Eric Stanton. The two would share a studio in Hells Kitchen NY.

The other being Will Eisner a very popular cartoonist who created the “Spirit”. Gene would assist Will Eisner on the Spirit and would also take on the secondary children’s book Will Produced “Clifford”.

• Will Eisner

• Gene Bilbrew for Clifford

• Gene Bilbrew for Clifford

• Eric Stanton

Eric Stanton would be more of an influence on Bilbrews work, guiding him to do more “Bizarre Fetish” art which was in high demand at the time. Introducing him to underground publishers like Irving Klaw, Leonard Burtman and Mafia affiliated Edward Mishkin. During this boom of underground art teetering the line of legality based on obscenity laws during the 1950’s. Bilbrew used several pseudonyms, such as Van Road, G.B. Bondy and Eneg.

Gene also had a drug addiction, but It is unclear when and where Gene picked up his addiction to heroin. Whether it was before or after moving to NY. But as he began working in the underground sex scene on the infamously sleazy 42nd street during the 1950’s he would be surrounded by sex and drugs.

For Irving Klaw he drew lots of BDSM fetish art. Captive damsels in distress.

For Burtman, Gene Bilbrew did covers for Exotique Magazine.

For Mishkin, he illustrated books that would later be confiscated and used as evidence in a Supreme court case. Underground comics were blamed for the acts of the infamous “Brooklyn Thrill Killers” 4 teenage boys who terrorized girls with whips they ordered from ads in comics. The teens would later beat a man to death.

Their behavior was then blamed on the comics they were reading which started a big comics crackdown in the mid 1950’s. On December 29, 1959, New York City police officers seized a number of books and magazines from Mishkins store.

The state of New York charged Mishkin with multiple counts of possessing obscene books, of hiring others to prepare obscene books, and of publishing obscene books. Mishkin was finally convicted in 1966.

• Mishkin on trial, he was convicted in 1966

• Bene Bilbrew covers for Edward Mishkin

Although he was a black man hardly any of his fetish work depicted any African American men or women. One can assume because racism at the time even though he was paid to draw Bondage, Sadism and graphic sex. Depicting black men and women in sexual acts were still far too Bizarre for the publications he freelanced for.

Despite not being able to draw African Americans in his fetish work Bilbrew still would continue to do work in the Black community drawing art work for Jazz artists and the Old Aunt Dinah’s Dream Book of Numbers.

• Cover Art by Gene Bilbrew for Jazz Musician Charles Mingus

• Cover for Old Aunt Dinah’s Dream Book of Numbers

As time passed and censorship laws became less demanding in the mid 1960’s. Smut publishers would get more freedom and real photographs could now be used. Making artists like Gene in the underground fetish market in less demand.

With him losing so much work Gene would begin to publish art work for even sleazier publications whose taste level would not be as profound as the earlier publications. This is the beginning of Gene Bilbrew making art for publishers like Wizard, Satan and Chevron.

Many fetish art collectors consider this a low point in Genes career pointing out that his art skills began to diminish at this time due to stress from losing work and his worsening drug addiction. His proportions and scaling being off mixed with even more bizarre fetishes and scenarios created a strange look. Ironically the art from this era is in very high demand within collectors due to there bizarre style.

Tragically Gene would succumb to his drug addiction in 1974 and would overdose in the back of Edward Mishkins adult bookstore on 42nd Street.

Much like his work the story of Gene Bilbrew is bizarre and mystifying , there is very little information on him, he’s never given an interview had no children and even his death was poorly documented.

He is the unsung hero of a short lived era of the underground fetish world of New York City and a reflection of the city at that time. Who knows where he could have been had he kicked his drug habit before it consumed him.

Not much of his work was even archived as much of the smut books at that time were seen as disposable. Making the work of Gene Bilbrew sought after amongst fetish art collectors and enthusiasts.

In 2019 the National Leather Association – International created the Erotic Art Awards, in which they named one of the awards after Gene Bilbrew.

The legacy Gene Bilbrew leaves behind is one of an outsider who blazed a trail within the fetish art world and someone who lived his art as well, perhaps too much and to his detriment. Passing in the very sleazy bookstore that would sell his underground fetish art work. Making his hit song “I Sold my Heart to the Junkman” prophetic.