Justin Kent was a pseudonym, that we know... and in fact the writer who used the name was held as a material witness to testify against mobster Eddie Mishkin, the Times Square publisher who printed so many vintage sleaze classics covered earlier (and discussed in extraordinary, ground-breaking work by Jay Gertzman) Mishkin was called before the Kefauver Committee in 1955, a few years later he was arrested and his warehouse raided. The transcript makes for interesting reading. But there is some question who the artist of Dangerous Years was. With characteristics of both Eugene Bilbrew AND Eric Stanton, it is hard to tell. In fact, just how much one may have collaborated with the other is under question. Both sold work to Mishkin, and both illustrated the covers for his line of paperbacks published under the imprints First Niter, Wee Hours and such. The elegant clean lines and narrow limbs of Stanton are here...but then the faces have all the characteristics of Bilbrew's work. Certainly early work by either, and splendid as well. Gertzman attributes it to Stanton.
Dangerous Years by "Justin Kent" Andiron Press, "San Francisco" 1955 Collection Victor Minx
