Overview

What a remarkable book. I’ve read several other books by Perez Seves which were excellent, and this was no exception, in fact I feel this was his best work to date. As long-time readers of this blog will know I am very interested in the history of fetish art, and the artist in this biography is one of the true legends of the genre. John Alexander Scott Coutts was an English born artist and magazine publisher most famous for his magazine simply titled Bizarre. Known to fans and historians as John Willie’s Bizarre, after the pseudonym that Coutts adopted for himself. This is important to note, as if you have read my reviews of Gene Bilbrew or Eric Stanton pseudonyms were de rigeur in the times of the Morality Mobs. Although there was no actual nudity involved in the publications this kind of material was considered immoral, degenerate and deviant. Mostly by people who were so repressed and angry that they had to push their ignorant and bigoted views on everyone else, as indeed they continue to do so today. If anyone else is having fun they need to stick their nose in and shut it down, which I think is a fetish in itself but more about that later.

Style

As far as style goes there is nothing too unusual here, start at the beginning and go through the career and life, finally culminating in decline and death. I really like this format, I read a lot of biographies and many of the more modern biographers seem to prefer a non-chronological, narrative format which I find distracting.

Narrative

Right out of the gate I find out that Mr. Coutts was English, not American as I had assumed due to most of his publishing took place in America. Educated in English public schools and he graduated from Sandhurst (Sandhurst!!) where he was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant. Coutts received his commision and decided to take his leave of the British Army and make a go of things in Australia. Sailing to Fremantle his occupation was first listed as sheep farmer but he later took work as a policeman in Sydney. And then… well things sort of kick off in the fetish department that would change the trajectory of his life and would transform John Coutts into John Willie.

According to Coutts a pivotal event occurred when he discovered a unique shoe store on a visit to Sydney in 1934. He had seen the following advertisement

and decided to head down to King Street and check it out for himself.

And…thanks to the private fitting room he did get to check out some high heels…for himself. And in the process, he discovered that his high heel fascination was not unique to himself, and as he later related in an interview “a great weight was lifted off my shoulders, I always thought I was perverse, peculiar, weird and I learned that not only was I not alone, but there was a thriving community of fellow enthusiasts.” I went through this myself, starting way back in the 1980s. Am I queer? I must be a pervert? Well, no, you’re not, full stop. There’s a lot of self-discovery in this book, and what today we might call “outreach” as well. Building relationships with other bondage enthusiasts, both through personal letters as well as correspondence through his publications.

But getting back to the narrative, when war broke out in Europe Coutts enlisted with the Australian armed forces and went off to fight what he described as “all this bother from this ridiculous Austrian paper-hanger.” Well said, and well done, as he did his bit and then after discharge he could concentrate on his dream of publishing a publication to showcase his art with fellow fetishists. The magazine which would become his greatest achievement and would become synonymous with his name: John Willie’s Bizarre was a dream at the time, but would later, with a transatlantic relocation finally become a reality.

And with a dream and some crucial contacts he set sail for America, but stopped in Canada first. This would prove fortuitous as his Montreal PO Box address saved him many times from the predations of the US Postal Inspectors that would dog him for his whole career.

When he finally set up shop in New York he quickly made a name for himself in the seamy underworld of fetish photography, fetish art and fetish publishing. 1950s New York was a great place to party, but not so great for men and women in this line of work. People did serious, proper jail time on obscenity charges for a lot tamer stuff than Bizarre featured. So the key things were to meet the right people, pay off the right people, and keep a low profile. By low profile I mean pseudonyms, post office boxes, private back rooms by invitation only, and carefully oblique advertisements. Writing in 2026 it sounds really cool, like how we think of prohibition era speakeasies as a fun adventure, but at the time it was a clear and present danger every single day.

Bizarre Magazine

Coutts did all sorts of art, photography, cartooning, he even made shoes, but the main thing he is remembered for, and what really drove him, was producing Bizarre Magazine. Under his administration Bizarre ran for 20 issues, with gaps of months or even years between individual issues for one reason or another. In fetish art history Bizarre Magazine stands above all others, always has and likely always will. How to describe it though? Coutts described it as a fashion magazine to make it less susceptible to the above mentioned US postal inspectors. I guess I would describe it as a variety magazine with fetish themes. Each issue featured John Willie art, original fiction, fashion photography, cartoon serials like Sweet Gwendoline, and lots of letters from “readers”. I put that in scare quotes because a lot were from the pen of Coutts himself, although as the magazine began getting better distribution numbers more actual letters began to pile into the Montreal PO box. For my North Americans reading this, think of it like the letters section in Penthouse if you remember those. I know you do. The laws at the time did not allow for any nudity so Coutts became adept at dancing right up to the line and then pulling back a little bit. For those of my comic collecting friends wondering: yes the original copies of Bizarre are very rare and very valuable now. I wish I could get my hands on some, to own an actual piece of fetish art history would be so amazing. There are some top quality reprints in hardcover volumes but even those are hard to find and very expensive.

Later Life, Decline and Death

Like myself, Coutts was a heavy drinker but unlike me he never found recovery, sadly. He drank in some pretty cool bars in New York and California with some legendary characters; from the Beat poets right through to jazz legends and writers who are now studied in schools. But it was still hard routine and it began to take a bigger and bigger toll on his health as he got older. Also like myself, he attributed symptoms of a much more serious problem simply to the after-effects of alcohol. I came away with diabetes, Coutts came away with an inoperable brain tumor. Having inadequate insurance for the US healthcare system (nothing has changed) Coutts flew over to live with his sister in Guernsey where he could be treated on the NHS. In the event however, there was nothing remaining that the doctors could do for him. On August 5, 1962 after a one mile walk to visit his favorite pub, John Alexander Scott Coutts died peacefully in his sleep. He wished to be cremated and on his memorial is a verse from his (and my) beloved Rubaiyatt of Omar Khayyam:

Lo! Some we loved, the loveliest and the best,

That time and fate of all their vintage prest,

Have drunk their cup a round or two before,

And one by one crept silently to rest.

My Conclusions

As I stated in my overview, this was an extraordinary example of scholarship and a wonderful, thoughtful biography. Perez Seves really outdid himself on this one and I simply couldn’t put it down. I was reading it everywhere even outside while planting my garden so I REALLY could not put it down. Coutts somehow managed to do the impossible by combining fine art and fetish seamlessly and beautifully. Hidden away in back room studios and pop-up darkrooms there blossomed a phenomenal talent, and the legacy of John Willie has inspired and delighted generations ever since. And will I hope, continue to inspire for generations to come. There was no question that this would earn the coveted Neilosian five stars, but in this rare and exceptional case I have added a star. Mr Coutts and Mr Perez Seves: you beat out Proust, Tolstoy, Homer, and even Willa Cather and I take great pride in awarding you the first ever 6 Star Rating.