I recently unearthed a box of magazines from Delta Pictures and didn't know much about them. However, with the help of some other collectors, here are a few more facts.
Delta Pictures/Publishers was a small company that produced a large number of A5 photo storybooks from around 1970. The original format featured the names of subsequent magazines (usually three) on the back page. They included pictorial stories, where the opening page provided a few paragraphs that outlined a vague plot. The magazines often focused on couples or lesbians (often threesomes) and sometimes included multiracial content. All magazines had colour centre pages, with the rest consisting of full-page black-and-white images. It's all very 1970s, as you might expect, with stockings, boots, platforms, fancy knickers, and occasionally tights, all set against classic interiors.
They were not sold in newsagents but were mainly available in specialist shops in Soho, etc. They were all soft-core.
Around 1974, Delta created four series titles above the main story title: X Appeal, Erotic Dreams, Erotica Illustrated, and Liaisons. Shortly after this, Top Sellers, which published quality top-shelf magazines like Game, bought them. This was the time of the UK top-shelf golden era, which was very lucrative for publishers and retailers. We think Top Sellers was the UK arm of US Topps, a massive publisher that started the sports cards industry.
Top Sellers magazines added the four additional titles: X Appeal, Erotic Dreams, Erotica Illustrated, and Liaisons. The magazines became sequentially numbered, and storylines were integrated throughout the pictures. A few adverts were included, and the quality was upgraded, but the format was essentially the same.
It lasted only a few more years. We're not sure why it ended so abruptly—perhaps the American owners decided it wasn't their cup of tea. Vast numbers of magazine episodes were produced; we're guessing about 150 Deltas and 150 Topps.
I like them and have about 60 copies, which I think are worth preserving. I have made an initial eight available on Brazenebooks, with the rest to follow over the next few months. I have compiled a list of all the titles I know about, although I only have about half of these.
I have replicated this post on BrazenBooks, with the addition of a gallery of a few of the internal pages and a list of the titles I know about.
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