Solano López’s collaboration with the writer Ricardo Barreiro started in the late 1960s with the science fiction saga Slot-Barr, and when López made his first leap into erotic comics the success was largely thanks to Barreiro’s storylines. El Prostíbulo del Terror (The Brothel of Terror), about a girl who is born a witch and explores a world of perverted sexualised magic, was an instant hit when it was published by AGB in 1992, and the English translation rights were quickly picked up by the newly-formed Eros Comix imprint of the US publisher Fantagraphics.

The first volume of The Young Witches appeared in 1993, just the second book produced by Eros Comix as Eros Graphic Album Series No. 2; over the next twelve years it would be followed by five further stories, each more fantastic and graphic than the last. Here we have chosen to show the beginning of Volume 1 and the end of Volume 5, showing how López’s graphic style developed over the history of the series.

Here are the details of the six volumes of The Young Witches:

The Young Witches Volume 1, Eros Comix, 1993
In 1866 London, Lilian Cunnington causes her mother to die at childbirth, and in his grief her father kills himself. The young Lilian is shipped off to her aunts who live near Coventry. The aunts are witches, who perform all sorts of perverted rituals in their institution, involving a great deal of sex and flagellation. Lilian discovers she has psychic abilities as well as a keen sexual appetite; she also finds her twin sister.

The Young Witches Volume 2: London Babylon, Eros Comix, 1997
The girls head to London, only to be enslaved and degraded at the hands of the sex-mad Dr Jeckyll.

The Young Witches Volume 3: Empire of Sin, Eros Comix, 1999
The young witches return, this time to battle an ancient Egyptian necromancer. With themes of bondage, lesbian harems and tantric magic, the empire of sin is an apt title.

The Young Witches Volume 4: The Eternal Dream, Eros Comix, 2003
Under hypnosis by Freud, the girls return to the institute, which is now a pandemonium of depravity ruled over by the goddess Ishtar.

The Young Witches Volume 5: The Legacy, Eros Comix, 2004
It’s demanding being a witch – you never know when one of your fellow witches is going to trap you in a nightmarish existence where you’re forced to have frequent and repeated sex with a wide variety of men and women at the same time, or when your wedding day will be ruined by your maid of honour and fiancé having sex with each other.

The Young Witches Volume 6: The Wrath of Agatha, Eros Comix, 2005
The final chapter of The Young Witches saga. Lilian is held captive by her former lover and rival, Agatha, who plots revenge against Lilian while using the twins’ power to make her a goddess.

All six volumes of The Young Witches can fairly easily be found on the internet as downloads.