Bob Guccione in New York, 1984. Photograph by Harry Benson.

Bob Guccione, the founder of Penthouse magazine, has died at age 79 after a long bout with cancer.Penthouse was founded in the late '60s as a racier answer to Playboy. Guccione shot most of the early cover stories himself.It got more and more hardcore as time went on but the design of the early issues is pretty classic. Back then, magazines like Playboy, Penthouse, and Oui were winning design awards for their bold layouts and typography — and photography that, while pornographic, was often also beautifully composed.I posted previously about Viva, Guccione's legendary short-lived adult mag for women, for which Anna Wintour was once fashion editor.Guccione founded Omni magazine as well, which I think we subscribed to when I was about 9 years old.

Guccione also had a 17,000 square-foot mansion in NY (some say the largest in the city) which we did a story about in V magazine several years ago. Not bad for a former dry cleaner. Say what you will about the guy, but he created his own world and lived in it — I don't think I'd want to hang out with him all the time, but he was definitely noteworthy. Click here to read Guccione's obituary at the New York Times.