Gene Bilbrew Amazing Artist of Vintage Sleaze Paperback Books

Paperback books of the most sleazy kind are grabbing attention of young collectors. Never mind the text is g-rated and dreadful, it is the covers they want. The best of the illustrators for their lurid covers was Gene Bilbrew. Bilbrew, an African-American School of Visual Arts student (!) fell into bad company and even worse habits. As he slipped into heroin addiction, his work became even more bizarre. He moved to the rear of a porno bookshop on the deuce where he died of an overdose. The mob-run publisher he worked for was busted out of business and his case even went to the Supreme Court. Bilbrew sold his drawings to sleazy publishers such as Wizard, Satan and Chevron. These date to the late 1960's. The new book "The Dangerous Years: Gene Bilbrew, Justin Kent and Eddie Mishkin tells his story.