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Larry Flynt passed away recently.

Heart Attack, unlikely Covid and at least he skipped the great celebrity die-off that added to the suck of 2020.

AND he was old, lived a long and VERY full life and it was a miracle for a lot of reasons (including being SHOT) that he lived to 40, so he really had a good run!

I loved him.

And I mean "Platonically" of course, am straight, gotta clarify that.

I feel safe to say here that many of have been influenced by him - especially as he was one of the big 3 (Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler) and out-lived them all.  The other two died kind of poor, Larry was still making money hand over fist (casinos, clubs, apparel ware) even after porn declined due to internet competition.

He's of course known as a pornographer, but he was also a free speech champion. Yes, to defend his mag at first, but he ended up being a real champion of free speech, free expression.  He spent a year and a half in jail protecting the shaky standard that a journalist has a right to protect his source. (over the DeLorean tape)  Later he made sure a cartoonist Dwayne Tinsley got acquitted when most publishers threw away or fired them in a heartbeat.

I think also literature of all media owe him a big thanks.  From classic written words that Ginsberg/Burroughs in a landmark case were able to get near total freedom - to newer ones like Comic Books, Video Games, RPGs, movies.  First the precedents Larry Flynt set with all his court battles made it so any prosecutors and cheap media panderers thought long and hard before trying for any sort of action.  Second - well his outrageous magazine drew their attention.  Hey, Meese got to soak himself in more porn than even King Farouk to try to 'prove' it led to degeneracy....  Beats trying to learn Dungeons and Dragons or reading 10,000 comic books.

For RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons and the hobby it created and expanded - it was still a tough battle.  We were surprised no national 'ratings' standard that got tied to distribution and store space (like the comics code) or official age limits - or a "Mazes and Monsters #2 - because our lies didn't work the last time we'll just try again..." on TV.  I really think in a world with no Larry Flynt it would have happened.

Comic books dodgend a BIG bullet.  The "Underground" of the 60s inspired the "Independant" movement of the 70s into the 80s - Direct Market to stores, skipping the publisher/distributor monopoly that gave the Comics Code power as if in the law.  These comics broke the code in almost every way and added stuff to make Wertham SPIN in his grave.  Sure a few busts, a few local issues, but they were starting to outsell some of the 'mainstream' and by the time they noticed said mainstream started making more edgy comics.  This was the "Deconstructionist" era , such as Watchmen/Batman TDKR.  And then the 90s and "Comic book Boom" came along and the code became a withered mockery - a slow death until even Archie comics - first and last supporter - dropped them.

Again, a world without "Larry Flynt" we'd have had a "Seduction of the Innocent 2.0" fake scandal and attempts to make laws to enforce what the old racket failed - who cared Gaines (MAD magazine) had literally fought in court and won.

So, RIP, Larry Flynt!

Thanks for all your work!

Originally Posted by: shadoman

Rip Larry

Damn! I looked at a few of his mags..  I remember his centerfolds always showed what they called in the day "PINK"

One thing I was not a fan was his comic Chester the Molester  and that is why I stopped looking at his mags,  but he fought the good fight for the right to freely publish explicit material

Regards  Shadoman

Yeah - Larry pushed the limits for magazines.  I've joked he did to Bob Guccione what said man did to Hugh Hefner...  Raised (or lowered) the bar and gave the former a run for his money.

As far as Chester, Dwayne Tinsley's (also RIP)  wonderful character - well in a way it was neat - he did "Loli Hentai" way before it was a big thing in Japan.  Oh, btw, REAL stuff of that nature was legal till the mid 90s and they only even pretended to crack down on it recently.  2D drawn stuff still legal due to this silly thing called free speech.

That is also how cool Larry was;  He stood up for Tinsley.  They got him charged and convicted for molesting his daughter.  Flynt kept him working from jail, though he had to do "Raunchy Rita" and retire Chester for a while, and got the conviction thrown out.  This is due to lack of real evidence and many contradictory statements by his daughter.  In this day of "Cancel Culture" where many are worried they'll be ruined by a mob of "Hipsters of Hate" for the wrong tweet, what employer would stand by one of his men like that...?

Note also Tinsley did lots of cool comics including non-sexual, non-loli ones.

My favorite is on the medical profession:

A surgeon is butchering a patient.  Just ripping out guts and plopping them in a tray, the nurse and Anaestheologist are spattered with blood and giving him the evil eye knowing they'll take the blame.  Soon the surgeon will be done and pronounce the patient dead and tell the nurse to contact their lawyer to make sure to get payment.

The surgeon says: "I KNEW I shouldn't have cheated my way through Medical School!"

In a more innocent time this would have been a good moral lesson;  Find a profession you care about, study hard at it...

However, taking a sick relative to MANY appointments in the modern system I wanted to find that again (had lost the Hustler it was in for a while) and copy it, paste it over the ads in JAMA they lay around.  Ads designed for patients who might browse through so they whine for some kind of new garbage drug vs relying on their doctor for the right one...  But even a few years ago...what idealistic times.   No more Jama, it's all ancient TIME and other newsstand garbage - the doctors, nurses, all just like Convenience store clerks and fast food workers - standing around to get their checks and keep the floor tiles from growing little legs and walking away.  Doing as little as possible to keep their jobs but just living, not alive.  See that all over, even before this Covid thing...

I feel I could print that, put it in a frame, put it on their wall, no one would notice...while earlier I'd thought it would have been funny if someone had thought it an editorial cartoon in JAMA or another professional periodical and freaked out...