Before George R.R. Martin created the books that became the basis for the TV series “Game of Thrones,” the author was published by Penthouse guru Bob Guccione. According to a new blog by Dixon Steele at the Guccione Collection, Martin’s award-winning novella “Sandkings” — about some seriously scary pets — was published in 1979 by Guccione in his science magazine Omni. Steele also suggests that HBO’s version of “Thrones” wouldn’t have been possible without Guccione and Gore Vidal’s controversial film “Caligula,” with its “realistic depictions of sex and violence.” The blog explains that Steele’s a “pen name of a sub-sub-archivist at the Guccione Collection,” and his post imagines a sozzled chat with Guccione’s ghost.