Bisare

~ c. 1940

Bisare is an extremely obscure American underground publication issued in Chicago in the early to mid-1940s. Produced by the shadowy imprint Press Esquire, it appeared as a numbered series of small digests, each containing a fresh set of illustrations devoted exclusively to the themes of flagellation, chaining, bondage and spanking.

Unlike the better-known later titles that would follow, Bisare belongs to the pre-Bizarre era of American fetish publishing. John Willie’s famous Bizarre magazine only began in 1946; Bisare predates it (or at best runs parallel in its earliest years) and represents one of the little-documented Chicago contributions to the clandestine “curiosa” market of the period.

Publication details

• Publisher: Press Esquire, Chicago, Illinois
• Format: Small stapled digests / booklets
• Series: Numbered issues (confirmed examples include at least No. 4, No. 7 and No. 8)
• Content: Each issue promised “Twelve New Illustrations” centred on the themes
  Flagellation – Chained – Bound – Spanked
• Dating: No year appears on the booklets themselves. Stylistic evidence, production methods and comparison with similar underground digests place the series most convincingly in the early to mid-1940s.

Physical appearance

The booklets were issued in inexpensive but distinctive covers. Surviving copies show orange, reddish-brown or green textured (sometimes described as “leatherette” or cloth-like) covers with simple, elegant typography. Other examples carry illustrated covers executed in the typical American underground line-drawing style of the era, straightforward, direct depictions of women in corsets, restraints and scenes of corporal punishment.

The rear cover of known copies carries the standard disclaimer of the period:

LIMITED EDITION
FOR ADULT COLLECTORS OF CURIOSA
Reproduction of illustrations in part or whole is absolutely forbidden
Violators will be prosecuted
PRESS ESQUIRE – CHICAGO, ILL.

No street address, price or publication date is given,a deliberate choice that reinforced the anonymity essential for this type of material.

Bisare belongs to the small, short-run Chicago underground of the 1940s: cheaply produced, stapled digests aimed at adult collectors of erotic “curiosa.” These publications circulated quietly, often by mail order or under-the-counter sale, and left almost no paper trail. As a result, complete issues are exceptionally scarce today.

6 albums/24 artworks
Latest Update: August 1, 2026 -> Created a dedicated page for Bisare (24 artworks)

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