Chicago Spanking Review

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Who Was the ACES Artist?     Part 1

By Web-Ed

I probably first saw the spanking art of the man we'll call for the moment "The ACES Artist" back in 1980s spanking magazines and Nu-West publications (I make the distinction because the former were put out by porno outfits who knew nothing about adult spanking but still wanted to cash in on it, while Nu-West was helmed by Ed Lee, a genuine spanko and enthusiastic photographer). I didn't keep any of it at that time because I lived in fear of my spanking mags being discovered so I got rid of them, and therefore I can't properly document this early ACES art. Certainly his art appeared in at least one issue of Spank Hard during the 90s, a better mag because it was edited (in its early days) by Shadow Lane's Eve Howard, but as I said, most of it had appeared earlier, and possibly before the 80s.

The reason for the "ACES" designation is that a goodly portion of this spanking art was used for a Bulletin Board System where the legend "ACES" along with a mysterious phone number had been added to it. From there, unknown parties saved it and later re-posted it on the internet. At some point, I began to study this art more closely and wonder about who the artist was. This kind of research, and art criticism generally, don't come easily to me (as say literary criticism does) because I don't have any artistic talent in the sense that I can't draw, paint, or sculpt anything. Nonetheless, I persevered and eventually arrived at what I think can be called an expert opinion.

Readers will have already seen varying amounts of the Artist's spanking drawings, from none to perhaps everything we're going to see here (almost all of my collection of his work). In putting this article together, I assumed minimal familiarity since I'm sure even those who saved this art years ago (as the late Phil Overbarrel did) won't mind seeing it again.

I'll share more information about ACES momentarily, but right now let's begin our acquaintanceship with the Artist by looking at three of his drawings, none of which would qualify as his best (spanking) work but which are fairly typical:

ACES #1

ACES #5. Original source unknown.

ACES #5. Version scanned by Web-Ed from Spank Hard #18 (Sept. 1999). © London Enterprises Ltd.

ACES #8.

ACES #8 (already cropped version). Scanned by Web-Ed from Spank Hard #18 (Sept. 1999). © London Enterprises Ltd.

Let's make an initial appraisal (and by the way, the numbering is completely arbitrary - I have no idea in what order any of the ACES drawings were done). #1 is the best of the three, with a well-composed OTK hairbrush spanking, fair OTK positioning, and good expressions. It also features characters who are just barely recognizable from Marvel Comics as we'll see later.

#5 is somewhat crude in its "exposure" and positions its spankee akwardly with her knees bent, yet the tree in the background is pretty well-done.

#8 has extremely awkward positioning with the spankee falling off the spanker's lap, possibly in an attempt to indicate that a real struggle was going on.

It is interesting to note that in all three the spankers are better drawn than the spankees and that here and there are hints of perhaps a greater technique than the Artist wishes to reveal, for example the background tree mentioned before, some of the shadings, and the folds in the bedspreads and the men's clothes.

I am going to suggest two particular forces are at work here: first, the Artist was not disposed to spend a lot of time on drawings that were probably only casual sketches to him and for which he was only paid peanuts (no spanking publication could have afforded to pay more); and second, he was deliberately trying to disguise his style as he had no desire to be "outed" as a spanko. And that raises two other points: (1) He must have been a true spanko doing this to satisfy his own desires rather than a poor, struggling artist hacking it out for the money (I know approximately how much he was making at his day job and it dwarfed whatever pittances he received for the works we'll see here); (2) is it o.k. to reveal his identity now?

My answer to the second question is that if he were still alive I wouldn't do it, but as he died over twenty years ago I can't see what harm the revelation will do now. He was a significant enough figure that we in the spanko community (and possibly even those in the comics community) have a legitimate historical interest in knowing who he was. Anyone familiar with Silver and Bronze Age comics may already feel the stirrings of a faint recognition; if not, I direct the reader's attention to the heads of the male characters (particularly in #1) for some subtle clues.

ACES #10 - another solid piece of spanking art.

So, what exactly was ACES? I had almost no idea until Jesse Ray came to the rescue with this explanation:

"ACES [Adult Computer Entertainment System - Web-Ed] was a BBS system (Bulletin Board System)- which essentially was a stand alone system in my office at 'Spanking Central' that required a direct dial access since I had to supply the phone lines to the system...- Since in those days out of state calls were pretty expensive, when the internet hit, most special interest BBS's went south.. ACES was dedicated to spanking, with maybe a thousand spanking drawings- most scanned by me... and several hundred spanking stories.... Somewhere the hard drive sits in some defunct computer and if I ever dig it up I will share what I can."

And let's wander even further from the topic at hand and take the time to say "Thank you!" to Jesse Ray, who not only ran the ACES BBS at the cost of considerable time and expense but also published Spanking Central magazine. Ray is one of the hardy pioneers of the modern spanko world and as he mentions on the CSR BB, he had a large collection of spanking material going back to the 1960s from which all the examples here labled "ACES" were (indirectly) taken. How much of that collection has made it to the internet in one form or another and how much survives to this day I can't say; it's possible that if any of it is still on the original server Ray may unearth it for us some day.

Let's return to examples of spanking art with an original and four variations. This is one of the artist's better compositions, with very good OTK positioning and an excellent wide-eyed expression on the spankee as the hairbrush begins to fall! Even so, it still looks to me like he spent less time on the spankee than almost any other aspect of the composition, which is strange in a work whose primary purpose is erotic. Once again we see some good work on the folds of the bedding and the man's clothing.

This might be a good opportunity to speculate on the artist's materials. My guess is that he did these by inking over his own pencils, which would be the comics technique he was most familiar with, unless he did it completely in pen, a possibility I will discuss in more detail later on.

ACES #4 - the original.

ACES #4 - "ACES" lettering added.

ACES #4 - colored by Mistique.

ACES #4 - the "ACES" version colored also by Mistique.

I don't remember where I found the colored versions but my records indicate the colorist is someone called "Mistique". Why she colored both the original and the lettered versions I do not know. It's good coloring that adds to the eroticism of the drawing without detracting from its original lines.

ACES #4 - the original with some bottom shading added by Ixnufarte.

Someone named "Ixnufarte" wanted to shade the spankee's bottom but in black and white only. The effect is good but we prefer Mistique's coloring. Whether the artist ever saw these versions is unknown.

By this time, we should be getting a good "feel" for this artist's work, but let's see three more examples anyway:

ACES #12 - from Sensualwriter.

ACES #14

ACES #16

#12 above features a slightly heavier spankee than the others, but with a nice expression of dismay. Perhaps to allow us to see that expression better, the artist chose a lower viewing angle that cuts off the top of the spanker's head, a compositional error unless it was Ed Lee who truncated the drawing to fit it into the original page. Even truncated, the way the spanker's head is drawn is another clue to the artist's identity, and we'll return to these heads later.

#14 exhibits a nicely-proportioned spankee and fair OTK position (she should be a little further to the spanker's left, bringing her hips over his right thigh), but is otherwise undistinguished. The spankee appears to be crying out, indicating she's feeling the heat! The male figure furnishes no further clues and his head does not resemble the ones I've pointed out so far. Perhaps the Artist drew this character more quickly or was more successful in disguising his style. Indeed, the style is differnt enough that it's possible this one is by a different artist, so we won't rely on its authenticity.

#16 is a strange combination of slapdash spankee and well-detailed spanker and surroundings. Why did the Artist expend more effort on the limousine's interior than the spankee's bottom, or even the entire spankee? I don't have any idea what the answer is and I don't consider this a clue to his identity. Possibly this drawing has been altered from its original version as we know happened with some of the Artist's other work. Once again, the spanker is better drawn and his head is significant. Anyone familiar with 60s comics should have the definite feeling that he's seen something like this face before, although as far as I know it doesn't strongly resemble any particular character of that period.

Our Artist did two multi-page strips for Nu-West (that I know of - there may have been more), so let's see them next. The first is called "Miss Hot Pants" and is rather strange. This is a paternal spanking - the daughter is apparently an adult college student out too late on a date - and bears almost no thematic or stylistic resemblance to any of his other known spanking work.

"Oh my God - it's 12:15!"

Her father delivers on his promise to spank her, grown up though she is, and she's left rubbing her sore bottom.

One of the odd things about this one is the way the boyfriend is drawn in this page. The mouth and eyes in particular look strange and I see nothing of the artist's actual style in them. My tentative conclusion is that he was again trying hard to disguise his own identity, possibly because the father's head is a little more revealing although perhaps less likely to be noticed in panel #1, where the spankee's bottom is the center of the composition, than the young man's face in panel #3.

I'm pretty sure I discovered this panel separately, but in going over the material in my ACES file I realized that it appears to have come from "Miss Hot Pants". Was it an outtake of some kind? Probably not, which means that someone may have re-edited the story from its original format as published by Nu-West. Old Nu-West stuff is hard to find and rather expensive so we'll probably never know for sure. Fortunately, it doesn't seem that important.

The second known strip is much better, feeling like old home week to anyone familiar with boss/secretary spankings:

It appears that our worried-looking secretary, Miss Lee, is late again. Dear, dear me - what shall we do?

Of course, as admirers of the classic Humorama secretary spanking cartoons, we all know the answer to that question! Notice that Miss Lee is probably the best-drawn spankee we have seen so far, an attractive young secretary who must submit to being spanked by her boss.

Miss Lee is "Late Again" - uh-oh! © Nu-West

OTK she goes!

Miss Lee takes quite a spanking, and with her eyes closed and mouth open in panel #6 we know she really feels it - she's still trying to rub the sting away in the last panel! This is perhaps the artist's best spanking work and is far superior to "Miss Hot Pants". The spanking is extended over eight panels beginning with Miss Lee being taken OTK, and the viewpoint is varied throughout the entire spanking to help tell the story. Except for being a little short on dialogue, this is the way a spanking should be done in the comics medium.

This is the first time we have seen a date (1984) or the artist use a pseudonym ("G. Fort"). I can't find anything significant about this name or that of the company here (F. Moss & Company), which is unsurprising as the artist clearly didn't want to leave any clues as to his real identity. The name "Miss Lee" may have been chosen to amuse Ed Lee (not his real name, either!) at Nu-West, which remember at this time still stood nearly alone in the realm of spanking material that was put out by an actual spanko. Shocking as the realization is to me now, this was nearly forty years ago and as I remember it Lee was in the process of switching over from 8mm film to a new-fangled invention called VHS tape.

Our ACES Artist didn't do a lot of F/F work. That is likely because his own inclination was to draw M/F spanking, and as that was Ed Lee's as well it's not surprising he would have turned out mainly M/F stuff. One of his rare F/F pieces is below. It's a fairly well-done OTK hairbrush spanking, and it's clearly in the style of his other spanking work but I didn't see anything in particular that I would have called a clue to his identity - until now. Stylistically, there's nothing I can point to, but after going through a lot of old issues of Spider-Man from the 60s I was suddenly aware of a certain resemblance of this spanker/spankee pair to two of the female characters from the series (hint: look at the hairstyles). It's not definitive by any means, and certainly deniable enough if it came to that, but it is interesting in light of ACES #1 and certain information about the Artist that was not available until Ed Lee revealed it in 2010. We'll revisit this drawing in Part 2 where I'll identify the two characters at issue.

One of the rare F/F spankings from our mystery artist.

Bottom shading added by a person unknown.

Most of the Artist's spanking work consisted of single-panel drawings, but in addition to the longer strips we've seen above he did this two-panel miniature I found someplace entitled "Marital Spanking". In it, a reluctant brat is taken firmly OTK, locked into place there (the only such example, I believe, of this modified version of the OTK position), and spanked with either a large hairbrush or a paddle-ball paddle. Good bratty pose and expression in the first panel and a fine view of the target and a repentant spankee in the second!

Marital Spanking #1

Marital Spanking #2

Next we have something I would call a sort of multi-panel cartoon rather than a strip. Such things certainly go back at least as far as Humorama, although I can remember only one actual Humorama spanking cartoon (by Bill Wenzel) that utilized multiple panels. I believe this one must have been originally presented in this form because the individual panels never appeared separately as far as I know, and there is no other reason why the Artist would have suddenly abandoned his contemporary settings in producing the individual panels. I'm not sure "Some Things Never Change" was intended humorously, but that's sure how it strikes me. True, some things never do change, like the necessity of hauling misbehaving brats over your knee for a good spanking!

The Artist almost always used the OTK position and I have seen only three examples where he did not. Two of them are below and have the spankee bending over on a chair and a horse, respectively. Both show superior draftsmanship but are otherwise unremarkable and not as strongly characteristic as many of the other examples we have seen.

ACES #20

ACES #22

"And convinced her on their wedding night who was in charge" - this marriage is certainly off to a good start! This example looks as though it may have been a part of a larger whole. I put the name "ACES Check Series" on it at the time downloaded it but I no longer remember why, and certainly there wasn't anything more where I found this.

ACES #24

An intense spanking, but the work is a little slapdash and the bottom shading was probably added later, by another hand.

ACES #25

Better, although something may have been lost in the reproduction. Good OTK positioning, fairly shapely bare buttocks, and a nice, serious spanking! Again, the bottom shading was probably added later.

ACES #26

ACES #26 (alternate version taken from a collage in Spank Hard #18). Scan by Web-Ed.

ACES #26 - another good OTK scene although the spankee's bottom in the version at left was obviously altered by whoever added the shading. The version at right was taken from a collage in Spank Hard and shows more detail as well as a pair of panties for the spankee. Her face is more squarish than most of the others and to me suggests that of a minor superheroine. I think the resemblance is unintentional and probably unconscious because the spanker bears no resemblance to any of the men - and there were several! - who would have been fully justified in spanking her in the comics. More on this later.

ACES #28

ACES #28 - A pretty, protesting spankee enlivens this one. Of interest is the variant OTK position in which the spankee's hips are centered on the spanker's right thigh but his left leg, instead of providing support for her upper body, is moved left out of the way to allow her torso to sink in between his legs. In practice I think this would tend to cause her to slide off his right leg, but as idealized here with the spankee's head and shoulders supported by only her right arm, the effect is to cause the back to arch wonderfully, turning up and exposing the buttocks as in the bending over positions where a good back arch is extremely important. Delightful!

Notice the potted plant, a frequent background fixture in these drawings that has no particular significance I know of, nor is it a clue to the Artist's identity.

ACES Spill 135.

ACES Spill 135 (version found on Lusciousnet). Another vigorous OTK scene, and another camera angle employed - this one giving us a fine view of the spankee's rear end! But once again, the spankee's buttocks are not delineated as clearly as they might be, and more effort appears to have been expended upon the spanker. The cropped version at right is included because it better preserves some of the original's details. The uncropped version at left seems to have been the victim of a mediocre-quality scan at some point, possibly when scanners were still a new thing. Notice that this is a problem with most of the art, and it made my task of identifying the artist more difficult.

ACES #18.

ACES #18 - Another very nice OTK scene, similar in composition but less so in style to ACES #14. All the essentials are there, including the potted plant again, and despite the minimal lines the spankee's bottom is shapely and attractive. It's one of the best spankings of the whole bunch, and yet it was only in reviewing it again while actually coding this page that I noticed a very slight resemblance between our pretty spankee and a certain Golden Age Timely (Marvel) comics character, which I'll return to in Part 2.

End of Part 1.