1986 was an important year for Horacio Altuna, then at the height of his popularity and at the top of his artistic game. He was approached by Playboy magazine to produce a regular series of stories and cartoons entitled For Adults Only, which allowed him to explore detailed risqué sexual scenarios as well as the pinup end of the magazine’s content. Many of the For Adults Only illustrations are standard Playboy fare, with groups of men ogling a conventionally beautiful young woman with her breasts on display, but there are also more complex scenarios of public sex, exhibitionism and voyeurism. Many of Altuna’s Playboy illustrations were also published in the Argentinian magazine SexHumor.
Also in 1986 Altuna produced the groundbreaking science fiction comic book Chances, which won him the Yellow Kid award, the highest distinction in the international comics industry. Chances tells the story of the escape of Riff, an 18-year-old clone who escapes from a cloning centre where they have been keeping him as a transplant donor. The police tirelessly search for him, but Riff takes refuge in one of the city’s slums, full of criminals, prostitutes and murderers. There he meets Lobo and old Héctor Chimi, characters who accompany him until he recaptured. Chances is a profound reflection on human nature, the journey of a young man who goes out to see the world, escapes from a bubble of innocence, and little by little learns to live in an environment where survival is paramount.