Penthouse Comix
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''Penthouse Comix'' is an American mass-market, magazine-sized
comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
, published by Penthouse International/General Media Communications Grand Comics Database: ''Penthouse Comix''
/ref> from spring 1994 through July 1998 and 2024 to present. Founded and initially edited by George Caragonne and Horatio Weisfeld, it originally ran 32 issues plus one special edition. Foreign versions of ''Penthouse Comix'' remained in publication through 2011. In late 2023 it was announced that Penthouse Comics will resume publication in February 2024. Comics new site
Bleeding Cool ''Bleeding Cool'' is an Internet news site, focusing on comics, television, film, board games, and video games. Owned by Avatar Press, it was launched by Rich Johnston in 2009. Avatar Press also publishes an associated magazine, also called ''B ...
officially covered the first solicitations, which included creators like Matteo Scalera, Jeff Dekal, Joshua Swaby, Marc Aspinall, Vanesa Del Rey, Maria Llovet, and others.


Publication history

''Penthouse Comix'' began as a series of short segments in ''Penthouse'' magazine. After 3 of these sections were printed (featuring artwork by Adam Hughes, Kevin Nowlan and Garry Leach), publisher
Bob Guccione Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione ( ; December 17, 1930 – October 20, 2010) was an American visual artist, photographer and publisher. He founded the adult magazine '' Penthouse'' in 1965. This was aimed at competing with ''Playbo ...
dictated that ''Penthouse Comix'' become its own stand-alone magazine, something which he envisioned competing in both US and European magazine markets. Guccione agreed to a budget that was designed to cherry pick art talent from both American comic book companies and non-US publishers and this resulted in ''Penthouse Comix'' offering a per-page rate among the highest ever paid to freelance comic book artists. The first issue of the stand-alone ''Penthouse Comix'' was a 96-page, color, glossy magazine with cover price of $4.95 US. It appeared in spring 1994 and featured work by
Adam Hughes Adam Hughes (born May 5, 1967) is an American comics artist and illustrator best known to American comic book readers for his renderings of pinup-style female characters, and his cover work on titles such as ''Wonder Woman'' and ''Catwoman''. ...
,
Mark Beachum Mark Beachum is an American comic book artist, writer, painter, publisher, photographer and filmmaker known for renditions of the female figure. Having worked for Marvel Comics, Marvel, DC Comics, DC, and Continuity Comics, Continuity, among oth ...
,
Garry Leach Garry Leach (19 September 1954 – 26 March 2022) was a British comics artist and publisher. Biography Garry Leach's early work for ''2000 AD'' included mainly one-off stories featuring ''Dan Dare'' and '' M.A.C.H. 1''.Kevin Nowlan Kevin Nowlan (born 1958) is an American comics artist who works as a penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer. He has been called "one of the few artists who can be called 'artists's artist'", a master of the various disciplines of comic produc ...
,
Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. Taking the PC ...
,
Arthur Suydam Arthur Suydam (; born May 18, 1953) is an American comic book artist known for his work on Marvel Zombies, Deadpool, Black Panther, and KISS Zombies. He has done artwork for magazines including '' Heavy Metal'', ''Epic Illustrated'' and '' Nation ...
, Jordan Raskin, Horacio Altuna, and
Milo Manara Maurilio Manara (; born 12 September 1945), known professionally as Milo Manara, is an Italian comic book writer and artist. Career After architecture and painting studies, he made his comics debut in 1969 drawing for ''Genius'', a fumetti neri ...
. Subsequent issues contained work by artists such as Roberto Baldazzini, Richard Corben,
Tony Salmons Thomas Anthony "Tony" Salmons (born January 1, 1957) is an American alternative comic book artist, film storyboard artist, and character designer. Biography Born in Rolla, Missouri, Salmons grew up in Casa Grande, Arizona, with stops in New Yor ...
,
Bart Sears Bart Whitman Sears (born 1963) is an American comics artist, toy and packaging designer and author, known for his work on such books as ''Justice League Europe'', '' Legends of the Dark Knight'', ''X-O Manowar'', ''Turok'', '' Violator'', ''The He ...
and
Gray Morrow Dwight Graydon "Gray" Morrow (March 7, 1934 – November 6, 2001)Gray Morrow
at the S ...
. The magazine's early issues avoided hardcore sex in favor of "soft-core erotica" and
satiric Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposing or ...
humor that poked fun at various popular genres and popular culture. Sold on
newsstand A newsagent's shop or simply newsagent's or paper shop (British English), newsagency (Australian English) or newsstand (American English, American and Canadian English) is a business that sells newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, snacks and oft ...
s, the periodical debuted in a squarebound magazine format 10¾" x 8¼" (27.5 cm x 20.7 cm). With issue #11, the size was reduced to 10½" x 8" (26.7 cm x 20.4 cm). From issue #26 to the end of its run, ''Penthouse Comix'' was published at standard modern comic-book size, with saddle-stitching, card-stock covers, and glossy interior pages. Issues #6-7 were published in both a magazine-size newsstand edition and a comic-book sized direct-market edition for sale in comic-book stores. Two additional titles were later added to the line: The seven-issue ''Men's Adventure Comix'' (cover-titled ''Penthouse Men's Adventure Comix'') (April/May 1995 – April/May 1996), and the three-issue (March/April 1995 – Oct./Nov. 1995) ''Omni Comix'', the latter a companion to the science magazine '' Omni''. The reboot released in 2024 similarly features a 96-page, color, glossy magazine, with the more expensive version including a nude cover that is polybagged and contains a free poster that is folded and covers the front. The periodical also has the original squarebound magazine size of 10¾" x 8¼".


Disintegration

After the magazine's successful start, editor-in-chief George Caragonne, who was developing a history of erratic behavior,Evanier, Mark
"George"
. ''POV Online: News from Me'' (July 20, 2005).
purged managing editor Horatio Weisfeld during the production of ''Penthouse Comix'' #4. After Weisfeld's departure, some top-line artists began abandoning assignments, to be replaced by lesser talents, while overall quality and sales declined. In 1995, Caragonne was accused of embezzlement by Penthouse, was fired, and later committed suicide. General Media then seized control of its comics-related publishing from the deceased Caragonne's packaging company, and installed Dave Elliott as editor. The ''Penthouse Comix'' line was then whittled to only the original magazine and Elliott edited the remainder of the magazine's run, largely printing sub-par material which had been contracted by Caragonne. General Media went bankrupt a few years later.


Censorship

In June 1994, Canadian authorities warned that they would prohibit distribution of ''Penthouse Comics'' issue #2 (July/August 1994) because of "six panels of comics dealing with the subjugation of women and other sexual themes." Some European countries also altered a story that featured
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
(under laws which prohibited depiction of the Nazi leader). Editor Carragonne then went out of his way to inflame the issue by prominently featuring a
swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...
on the cover of ''Penthouse Comix'' #3. Although the cover had clearly been modeled on 1960s men's
pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 until around 1955. The term "pulp" derives from the Pulp (paper), wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed, due to their ...
covers (which routinely featured
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
villains), for foreign markets the swastika was altered to become an "X," and depictions of Hitler's head and swastika ring (in one story written by Caragonne) were replaced with a smiley face.


Merchandising

In 1996, RC Cards issued a boxed set of ''Penthouse Comix''
trading card A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other t ...
s. The 27 standard cards were accompanied by a
chase card A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other t ...
of Penthouse Pet Emerald Heart; a 1,000-limited-edition Alfonso Azpiri autograph card; and an
Adam Hughes Adam Hughes (born May 5, 1967) is an American comics artist and illustrator best known to American comic book readers for his renderings of pinup-style female characters, and his cover work on titles such as ''Wonder Woman'' and ''Catwoman''. ...
Hericane promotional card. The set included art by Hughes,
Julie Bell Julie Bell (born October 21, 1958) is an American fine artist, illustrator, photographer, bodybuilder and wildlife painter. Bell is also a fantasy artist and a representative of the heroic fantasy and fantastic realism genres. Bell has won Che ...
,
Ernie Colón Ernesto Colón SierraColón in English translation of Via (July 13, 1931 – August 8, 2019) was a stateside Puerto Rican comics artist, known for his wide-ranging career illustrating children's, superhero, and horror comics, as well as main ...
,
Glenn Fabry Glenn Fabry (; born 24 March 1961) is a British comics artist known for his detailed, realistic work in both ink and painted colour. Career Glenn Fabry's career began in 1985, drawing ''Sláine (comics), Slaine'' for ''2000 AD (comics), 2000 A ...
,
Frank Frazetta Frank Frazetta (born Frank Frazzetta ; February 9, 1928 – May 10, 2010) was an American artist known for themes of Fantasy art, fantasy and science fiction, noted for comic books, mass market paperback, paperback book covers, paintings, p ...
,
Mark Texeira Mark Texeira () is an American comic book artist. Classically trained as a painter, he broke into the comics field in the early 1980s. Career Mark Texeira was born and raised in New York City. He attended Manhattan's High School of Art and ...
,
Boris Vallejo Boris Vallejo (born January 8, 1941) is a Peruvian-American painter who works in the science fiction, fantasy, and erotica genres. His hyper-representational paintings have appeared on the covers of numerous novels in the science fiction, sword ...
, and others.


Foreign editions

Foreign versions of ''Penthouse Comix'' initially reprinted the material from the American magazine, but later began contracting for new material by top non-American creators, such as Jordi Bernet and Enrique Sánchez Abulí. Foreign editions of ''Penthouse Comix'' continued publishing long after the American version ceased. Overseas editions of ''Penthouse Comix'' have been published in England, France, Greece, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Mexico. The Spanish edition of ''Penthouse Comix'' celebrated its 108th issue in 2011.


Notes


External links

* *{{comicbookdb, type=title, id=7768, title=''Penthouse Comix''
"A return for ''Penthouse Comix''?,"
''Bleeding Cool'' (Aug. 15, 2014) Erotic comics Comics magazines published in the United States Penthouse (magazine) 1994 comics debuts 1998 comics endings