US. Many magazines also feature supposed stories of their reader's sexual exploits, many of which are actually written by the magazines' writers. Many magazines contain a high number of advertisements for phone sex lines, which provide them with an important source of revenue. Gay magazines An early example of borderline gay pornography was the physique magazine, a genre which had wide circulation in the 1950s and 1960s. Physique magazines mostly consisted of photographs of attractive, scantily-clad young men, and occasionally homoerotic illustrations by gay artists like George Quaintance and Tom of Finland. The magazines contained no overt mentions or depictions of homosexuality, and used the pretense of demonstrating bodybuilding techniques or providing photos as visual references for artists, but it was widely understood that they were purchased almost exclusively by gay men. Major examples of the genre include Physique Pictorial (the first of its kind, debuting in 1951), Tomorrow's Man, and Grecian Guild Pictorial. Shifts in the judicial interpretation of obscenity in the US and elsewhere led to physique magazines being supplanted in the mid-to-late 1960s by new publications which openly acknowledged a gay audience and featured nudity, and later hardcore sex. Production, distribution and retail A successful magazine requires significant investment in production facilities and a distribution network. They require large printing presses and numerous specialized employees, such as graphic designers and typesetters. Today a new magazine start-up can cost as much as $20 million, and magazines are significantly more expensive to produce than pornographic films, and more expensive than internet pornography. Like all magazines, pornographic magazines are dependent on advertising revenue, which may force a magazine to tone down its content. Depending on the laws in each jurisdiction, pornographic magazines may be sold in convenience stores, newsagents and petrol stations. They may need to be sold on the top shelf of a retail display to prevent children reaching them, hence their euphemistic name top shelf magazines. Alternatively it may be necessary to sell them under the counter or in plastic wrappers. Some retail chains and many independent retail outlets do not stock pornographic magazines. They may also be sold in sex shops or by mail order. See also Fetish magazine Glamour photography History of erotic depictions List of pornographic magazines Pubic Wars References Bibliography Magazines Magazine genres