Profile (Volume 1 No 1, 2, 3, 4)

London: European Publications, 1973.
First Edition.

24cm x 16.5cm. 4 issues. Illustrated saddle-stapled wrappers.

British “bizarre” periodical, edited by Carl Handen with art direction by Hans Deiter. Each cover is illustrated by the American artist Eric Stanton, whose bondage and fetish comics also run throughout all four issues; the cover of number four is billed as “More from America’s leading bizarre illustrator – Stanton. Exclusive to Profile.” The same issue announces that Profile has “obtained the exclusive rights to the creative and erotic writing of John Cleve,” the principal pseudonym of the American writer Andrew J. Offutt, extensively used for erotic fiction between 1969 and the mid 1980s; the story “The Chain,” appearing in this number. Also included is a feature on the pseudonymous French novelist Alan Mac Clyde and the illustrator Carlo, both associated with the interwar French sadomasochistic novel genre. Further contributors across the four numbers include Audrey Kendell, Iago, Maud Cameron, Bernard Valonnes, Gee Kay, Earle Dexter, Mark Ralphs, Victor Rhodes, Julie Hamilton, and Sally Fleming. Number four states that a fifth issue was planned; it is not known whether publication continued. Unrecorded in OCLC, and not mentioned in Richar Perez Seves: Eric Stanton & the History of the Bizarre Underground. A complete run (Nos. 1-4) is held by the Bishopsgate Institute’s UK Fetish Archive, London.

Moderate shelf and handling wear. Some rubbing to spines. Minor creasing. Good Condition.

AU$500