Today, our rating is dedicated to hot stuff: top erotic magazines. Let’s observe their logotypes, the history, peculiarities, and philosophy.
17. AVN (Adult Video News)
AVN (Adult Video News) is the magazine that sets the industry standards and chooses whether a pornography picture or video deserves to be awarded or not. It likewise has services where top adult film stars, exhibitions, and films are granted every year.
Likewise, AVN magazine is followed by pornography stars, pornography filmmakers and pornography lovers, too. It was established in 1983 and is still among the top of the industry magazines – number one source of healthy criticism for adult content makers.
The industry of erotic magazines is a true shark pit: you have to find the golden middle between the quality and openness of photos and add an extra layer on this cake to engage the audience. These top-17 magazines are great examples of what the large audience needs and likes.
16. Perfect 10
Unlike large popular magazines that focus on celebrities and porn actresses, Perfect 10 prefer publishing photos of the future stars. For this magazine, women with imperfect bodies are viewed as sexy, hot and exotic when contrasted with the ideal petite zero figure models. Their team prefers working with models with all-natural bodies, which is always emphasized on the covering.
This magazine has likewise been engaged with numerous legitimate suites and is one of the most controversial products in the industry.
15. Oui
The publication appeared in 1964 in France, and then it was bought by Hugh Hefner in 1972 for the American market and joined Playboy Enterprises group of companies. By doing so, Hefner intended to take the audience away from the more outspoken Penthouse audience. However, Oui began stealing readers from Playboy, and, as a result, was sold in 1981 to the Laurant Publishing Ltd. publishing house. Until 2007, it published different content starting from soft eroticism to outright pornography, then was closed. In the golden years of its existence, it posted photos of Demi Moore, Linda Blair, Pia Zadora, and many others. Many celebrities were also interviewed, including Arnold Schwarzenegger.
14. Celebrity Skin
Celebrity Skin was established in the mid-1980s. To find a niche among many other pornographic publications, the editorial staff of Celebrity Skin decided to make the publication of intimate photos of representatives of show business – of course, without asking consent from the latter. Having become the symbol of the yellow press, a dream job for all the paparazzi, and after winning a couple of high-profile court cases (at different times, the magazine was sued by Barbra Streisand, Margot Kidder, Jennifer Aniston, and many others), the magazine was closed in the mid 2000s due to a harsh economic situation.
13. XBIZ
XBIZ is actually a magazine for businesses in the sexual industry: it publishes news and information. Aside from that, the company organizes conferences, award ceremonies, forums, and so on.
It publishes XBIZ Premiere Magazine (a trade magazine for the adult entertainment industry’s retail sector, which reports on the news and developments in the gay, retail, sex toy and video sectors of the adult entertainment industry), and XBIZ World Magazine (digital media sector) – both feature hot photos.
12. Das Magazin
Das Magazin is a German cultural and entertainment illustrated magazine, founded in 1954 in the GDR.
Artistic erotic photos and stories were the salient features of this magazine during GDR epoch. Often mistakenly referred to as underground production, the magazine was officially published in the GDR, was subsidized by the government, and had the largest circulation among the country’s magazines. At the same time, since 1959, it was banned for sale to young people in Austria.
Das Magazin was very popular not only in GDR but also in other countries of the socialist community. The secret of its popularity was artistic nudity hidden on its pages. It was like a lightweight version of the Playboy.
From 1959 to 1979 Hilda Isler was the chief editor, and the magazine published works of Arnold Zweig, Krista Wolf, Anna Seghers, and other famous writers.
11. June
This is a yaoi Japanese manga magazine that was established in 1978 and is released bimonthly. It has become very popular in Japan thanks to works of such talents as Keiko Takemiya, Moto Hagio, and Yumiko Ōshima. It does not necessarily include pornographic scenes or nudity – there are love stories, as well. The magazine played a great role in the construction of the gay community in Japan. The final issue was released in February 2013.
10. Screw
One of the most popular tabloids of the second half of the XX century, screw was founded in 1968 by Al Goldstein, and at the peak of its popularity in the 1970s, it was printed by half a million copies. Due to its low price, all men from the USA were familiar with this Screw. The scandalous and frankly pornographic nature of the tabloid made Goldstein famous and incredibly rich.
In 2011, the edition was bought by members of the former editorial board and, without pursuing commercial success, they began to produce it in modest volumes, so it is unlikely to find the magazine if you don’t know specific places for that.
9. Juggs
This magazine was designed specifically for lovers of large boobs. It doesn’t include hardcore photos – rather centers around softcore erotic entertainment. The first issue of this magazine was propelled in 1981, so the magazine has been in the industry for almost 40 years.
Various models would have appeared in this magazine to start the career path. Juggs magazine is most cherished and bought by men who adore large breasts. It is increasingly famous among the men of the United States, and what’s interesting ladies don’t mind that: the magazine features women who don’t indulge in completely naked photos and may look far from perfect.
8. Butt
BUTT was a quarterly magazine for gay men, established in 2001 by Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom. The magazine that originated in the Netherlands, included interviews, articles, and commercials and is dedicated to the lifestyle of the homosexual male community.
The magazine posted photography and interviews with famous gay celebrities and turned out to be popular right from the first issue in May 2001, which depicted German fashion designer Bernhard Willhelm in naked pictures taken by Wolfgang Tillmans. BUTT features the photos of many famous gays, as well as articles, photographs, letters, and interviews.
The founders stopped production in 2011.
7. Modern Man
The first issue of Modern Man magazine was released in 1952 – a year before the famous Playboy, for which it can be called its predecessor. Modern Man was not focused exclusively on erotica and was positioned as a magazine for modern and successful men: it published articles about sports, cars and popular culture. At various times, the edition was decorated with photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Pat Shiman, Jane Mansfield, Mamie van Doren and many other sex symbols of the 20th century. The magazine ceased its existence in 1960-70s.
6. Men’s Health
Men’s Health isn’t just another magazine that shows nudity and pornographic content. It also covers a wide number of issues identified with sexual wellbeing, various types of sex and so much more.
It concentrates more on the sexual soundness of the men and the issues looked by them, yet it likewise provides a lot of information that would be useful for the ladies too. It is one of the greatest men’s magazines in our days, and millions of monthly readers prove this fact.
It was founded back in 1986 and has been covering a lot of interesting topics, including health, nutrition, environmental issues, and so on. It also runs a website with millions of readers. At the moment, Male’s Health has 38 local editions all around the world.
5. Maxim
Maxim is an international men’s magazine established in the UK in 1995, yet situated in New York City since 1997. It’s noticeable for its photography of entertainers, vocalists, and female models at the peak of their popularity. Maxim’s audience is about 9 million readers every month. Today, Maxim is sold in 75 countries around the world and has many international editions.
Its covering features the photos of singers, film actresses, models, and so on. Since 2000, it releases Maxim Hot-100 of the most attractive celebrities.
4. Lui
Lui (French for “Him”) is a French adult magazine established in November 1963 by Daniel Filipacchi, Jacques Lanzmann, and Frank Ténot. They wanted to accomplish the same success as Playboy did in the USA. Indeed, France was one of the major producers of sexual content, and this magazine was especially popular in the 1980’s, thereafter it started a long decrease. It was distributed until November 1987. After 1987 there was a further endeavor to relaunch the title yet the production stopped again in 1994. Today, it’s published under the supervision of Frédéric Beigbeder, its editor-in-chief. Its coverings include many famous stars, including Rihanna, Rita Ora, Monica Bellucci, Alessandra Ambrosio, and so on.
3. Penthouse
Penthouse is a men’s magazine established by Bob Guccione in 1965. It features erotic and nude photographs that started turning into hardcore ones since the 1990s.
Unlike Playboy or Hustler, Penthouse focused on hot topics including scandals and government cover-ups: it revealed several corruption cases in the USA. The magazine worked with many famous novelists and story writers, as well as celebrities.
The Penthouse logo combines both the Mars and Venus images. The magazine’s centerfold models are known as Penthouse Pets and usually wear a particular accessory based on this logo.
2. Hustler
More pornographic and salacious than Playboy, Hustler was introduced in 1974 by Larry Flynt. It was an upgrade of the Hustler Newsletter that was originally designed as a cheap advertisement for his strip club. Gradually, the magazine has grown to a mind-blowing circulation level of around 3 mln. Today, the monthly circulation is about 500K.
Hustler is notorious for posting explicit views of female genitalia, which brought it a large audience. Besides, it‘s not above hardcore topics, such as sex toys, group sex, penetration, and so on.
Hustler mostly works with porn actresses and models, mostly amateur ones. It’s known to create a series of parodies, which caused a lot of litigation cases for Larry Flynt.
1. Playboy
Out top couldn’t have started with any other magazine. One of the world’s most hieratic erotic magazine, Playboy has been printed since December 1953. It was established by Hugh Hefner and his associates. The journal is famous for publishing nude and semi-nude photos of models and played a great role in the sexual revolution in the 20th century. It’s known to release magazine covers with the hottest models and celebrities from all over the world, including Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Kim Basinger, Sasha Grey, and so on.
Aside from erotic content, Playboy magazine publishes stories and novels by famous writers, interviews with notable public figures, and conservative celebrities. In 2017, total magazine circulation was over 300K.
As Hugh Hefner says, the famous logotype with a rabbit wearing tuxedo bow tie is a “humorous sexual connotation” and because the image was “frisky and playful”.
