Reading these little almost-editorials, it’s fairly easy to see what issue was vexing the magazine in any given month. Here, the issue is maternal demands for censorship because teenager readers maybe could use the magazine as masturbation material.

Judging from the amount of naked flesh on display to this point – nearly every witchqueen designs lounging-around clothes with an eye towards casual nudity – this is a legitimate concern.

(Heavy Metal issue #17, August 1978 – Page 4 Moreover…)

Addendum: Kris Longo told me that one of the things that people would tell him at conventions was that Heavy Metal was the first magazine that they masturbated to.