“But he was, above all, a brilliant artist, who was and remains the greatest bondage and fetish artist. As well as being a free spirit, he was also a militant, a pioneer in his own way of the sexual liberation movement of the 1960s.”

Beyond Bizarre, we are promised, will be a film filled and illustrated with unpublished information and documents newly unearthed by the makers.

Bélier Press legend JB Rund onboard

Early on in their preparations for the documentary, the project’s creators secured the collaboration of the single individual who has done more than anyone else to revive, nurture and promote the memory and work of John Willie: New York author, vintage fetish historian and publisher J B ‘Jeff’ Rund.

“When we began researching,” say the couple, “we very quickly found Jeff, and we contacted him. When he  invited us to New York, we knew that the project was well engaged.”

Rund has been publishing John Willie’s work in various forms since the early 1970s. Most recent product of his Bélier Press imprint is 2016’s Possibilities, a massive hardback collector’s volume (extensively covered by The Fetishistas — link on page 3) devoted exclusively to Willie’s photography.

Those with longer memories may also recall 1999’s equally collectable Bélier Press tome of similar bulk — Rund’s revised and enlarged second edition of his 1970s classic The Adventures of Sweet Gwendoline.

An avid JW fan since the mid-1950s, Rund had long dreamt of publishing a volume of the artist’s collected works. His chance came in 1973 when he was able to purchase the assets and IP rights of Bizarre Publishing Company from the mysterious ‘R.E.B.’.

As a consequence, and thanks to a co-edition deal with a German publisher, Rund was able to publish his first US edition of The Adventures of Sweet Gwendoline in New York in December 1974.

Gwendoline went through four printings and was published in French and Italian editions as well as the original US and German versions.

The French edition was released in Paris in 1975 by new sci-fi/fantasy imprint Les Humanoides Associés, publisher of Metal Hurlant magazine.

Fans of Les Humanoides’ revered output will therefore surely be delighted to learn that, alongside Jeff Rund, the documentary’s makers have also secured an interview with legendary Humanoides co-founder Jean-Pierre Dionnet.

More renowned vintage experts join

These two men will be joined in the film by several other esteemed French creatives who all cite John Willie as an important influence on their work.

ALEXANDRE DUPOUY photographed by fellow Beyond Bizarre contributor Gilles Berquet

Among those who’ve agreed to be interviewed are author/publisher/historian and Les Larmes d’Eros (Tears of Eros) bookstore owner Alexandre Dupouy, whose superb book City of Pleasure: Paris Between The Wars we reviewed in 2019 (link on page 3).

Photographer Gilles Berquet, a hero of mine from my Skin Two days with a very distinctive style of B/W fetish and bondage photography, is another contributor, crediting JW as “a backbone” of his imagination.

Mirka Lugosi, meanwhile, is a designer with punk and surrealist accents whose quest for “the perfect Willie-style leg curve” makes her, according to the filmmakers, a “perfect commentator” on the work of JW.

Final French contributor at the current time is Vincent Bernière, novelist, columnist, journalist, comix expert and most recent editor of Gwendoline in France — a role allowing him to write an important feature about it in Beaux Arts magazine.