Happy Valentine’s Day, all you lovely souls, all you lovers of comingled words and art and top shelf talent!
Today is the day for fond Hallmark cards and flowers, chocolates and fulsome embraces, surely. But it’s also a wonderful day for affections of the more, shall we say, literary and carnal variety. It’s a day to celebrate those images and stories that can only be found at the top of the magazine rack, hidden away from young hands – and desperately eager eyes!
There’s a long and storied history to the comic book magazine anthology. This very column has regularly mentioned the delights found in Epic Illustrated, 2000 AD, Heavy Metal, Taboo and Creepy. Over decades of publishing, all of those famous titles presented matured-themed stories by top writers and artists of the comic book industry in the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror, among others.
And then there’s the infamous history of Penthouse Comix.
The product of Bob Guccione, founder and publisher of the adult pornographic magazine, Penthouse, Penthouse Comix was a magazine-styled comic book that premiered in the spring of 1994 and ran for thirty-two issues through to 1998. Guccione was an illustrator himself, a lover of comic books and this first magazine iteration featured the works of industry greats like Adam Hughes. Garry Leach, Richard Corben, Gray Morrow, Milo Manara, Kevin Nowlan, Arthur Suydam and many others.
Mixing the inherent real-world drama of both the comic book publishing industry alongside elements of the pornographic industry and you’re bound to get some kind of stormy weather. Amidst staff firings, accusations of embezzlement, the suicide of the magazine’s Editor-In-Chief, company takeovers, government interference and bankruptcy, Penthouse Comix eventually went, well, flaccid, and ceased operations.
But today, thirty years after the original comic book debuted, Penthouse Comics <a-hem!> rises again!
Penthouse Comics #1, the first issue of a new bi-monthly series, is an oversized, magazine-styled comic book anthology offering stories in the action, thriller and horror genres. With a smattering of nakedness and sex thrown in for good measure! How could it not?
Contained within the pages of Penthouse Comics, you’ll find works from some of comicdom’s top talent, including Jean-David Morvan, Stephen Desberg, Jean Dufaux, Guillem March, Alain Queireix and others. The four ongoing stories include Gun Crazy which tells the wild ride of Dolly and Lanoya, two girls fighting for survival in a violent world. The Dream is a story about a Hollywood casting director, attempting to bring out the actor hidden within a suburban San Francisco stripper. I Spit On Your Graves is the comic book adaptation of the Vernon Sullivan novel about debauchery, sex, racism and vengeance. Miss October, meanwhile, follows a young woman who must find a serial killer before she becomes the next victim. Like every great anthology, each issue of Penthouse Comics also features a bonus photoshoot alongside editorial material.
Put the chocolates on hold, if only for a moment or two, and make the run to your local comic book shop to show yourself some love this Valentine’s Day.
Available in a plethora of different, sexy covers, reach for the top shelf and pick up a copy of the wholly exciting and fully titillating Penthouse Comics #1 today!
