Bizarre Magazine (US)
Not to be confused with the English Bizarre Magazine. The US Bizarre Magazine was first started by John Alexander Scott Coutts, also known as John Willie (English Slang for Penis) in 1946. He was an artist, photographer, writer, publisher and banjo player, and was often called the Leonardo Da Vinci of fetish. The original Bizarre Magazine was sold purely by mail order and its pages contained amazing hand drawn pictures, photos and stories all written by Coutts and sometimes a contributor or two. During this time John Willie's most famous character, Sweet Gwendoline, was created, and each episode would detail how Gwendoline would foil (usually with help) the foul machinations of Sir Dystic D'Arcy (A comic book version of himself) and still be tied up in complicated rope bondage situations (John Willie was an avid fan) for most of the pages.
In 1957 Bizarre was given or sold (John Willie never specified) to his secretary and her then boyfriend but according to Fakir Musafar, who was both a correspondent of Willie's and a contributor (article on the Ibitoe), he was not happy with how they ran it or what they did to the magazine.
John Willie Couts died in 1962 a penniless and bitter man.
Trivia
- John Willie was born in Singapore on the 9th of December in 1902, the youngest of four children.
- In 1924 Willie played in two exhibition matches against the New Zealand Rugby team "The All Blacks". Rugby was a sport in which he excelled.
- When he joined the Australian Army on the 11th of June 1940 he listed his religion as "Pagan"
- John Willie had a speaking role in a film produced in 1954 called "Within a Story". He played a building superintendent who was also a religious fanatic.
- John Willie was friends with Eric Stanton (another fetish artist) but Irving Klaw (of Bettie Page fame) was against them meeting as he did not like "his" artists fraternizing.
- He had lived in Singapore, England, Australia and America before he died in 1962.
John Willie Quotes
- "I've tried a corset on myself and it was nothing else but damned uncomfortable. It gives a women a beautiful shape which I like but I shall get double pleasure out of using it as an 'instrument of correction'...I don't like extreme cruelty, I simply apply as much as is needed to correct disobedience."