Erich von Götha (born Wimbledon UK, 1924[1]) is the pseudonym of the British illustrator and comic book artist Robin Ray.[2] Robin Ray has worked under the pseudonym Erich von Götha and used another name, Baldur Grimm as an alter ego. Robin Ray has gained fame with his erotic and, above all, sadomasochist content.[3] He has had solo exhibitions in the Mondo Bizzarro Gallery in Bologna, titled Sweat Tears & Reflections and In “Larmes d’Eros” in Paris on the publication of “The Secret Notebooks of Janice”. He is represented by Talisman Fine Art who also distribute prints of his work.
He studied drawing and painting for four years at St Martins art school in London and enjoyed a career in London advertising agencies as designer and copywriter. He took time off for three years to teach graphic design at Ealing School of Art. A chance meeting with the English sex therapist, consultant, campaigner, writer and former adult model Tuppy Owens led to the “Sex Maniac’s Diary”[4], a remarkable and successful publication which amazingly sold mainly to women. Their publisher suggested to him creating an erotic comic “Torrid” [5] which appeared irregularly during the 1980s. “Torrid” was little more than a hobby and he enjoyed total freedom at a time when Swinging London was in its first flush, a fact which influenced all of his stories. He ceased when he discovered the publishers were selling the strips that appeared in the first 16 issues of Torrid and were published later in the French magazines YES and Bédé Adult without his knowledge. This publisher, Lionel Roc, then took up the task of vigorously promoting his work. He became famous as an artist with the works Conte à Rebours (for YES), a sci-fi story which was rendered curiously incomprehensible by the circumstances of the translation, and Crimes et Délits (the last work succeeding Georges Lévis) for which he illustrated the section on Rasputin.[6]