RIP Greg Hildebrandt

Greg Hildebrandt has passed away.  One of the famous Brothers Hildebrandt, well known and respected artists over decades-long careers.  Scifi Art had a nice feature of a handful of art pieces by them.

Perhaps most well known for work other than for Heavy Metal Magazine (such as an original Star Wars poster), their work on Heavy Metal Magazine covers, many in its earlier years, as well as illustrating a promotional release for "The Sword Of Shannara" (by Terry Brooks) in Issue #1, earns their place in Heavy Metal Magazine history.

Sadly, Greg's twin brother Tim passed away in 2006.  Remarkably, Tim continued and was active and prolific to his end.

Happily, Greg Hildebrandt had been more engaged with Heavy Metal Magazine in more recent years.  As well as a re-use of one of my favorite HM cover art pieces for Heavy Metal #314, and what I believe is a now-iconic rendering of Taarna for Heavy Metal #320, the last of its era, and a Heavy Metal 2023 Calendar, Greg Hildebrandt just recently produced a new cover art piece for the planned rebirth of Heavy Metal Magazine, which I quite enjoyed seeing.

It is sad to lose him; my condolences to his family and loved ones.  May their memories be honored, maybe even by Heavy Metal Magazine's rebirth, with the new cover art.

Heavy Metal Kickstarter

The Heavy Metal Magazine reboot seems to be proceeding apace.  After the couple of articles surfaced noted on my Look at 'em Go! post, traffic on the new "official" Discord skyrocketed, after being quite quiet during the preceding weeks.  It's kind of chaotic, many chiming in on what they want the mag to be, asking for things, with some self-righteous crankiness causing moderators to step in.  

A lot of it passes me by.  Many many creators jumping in, but that's not me.  Most fans seem to have got the itch seeing the 1981 movie, usually much later than its debut, so not many so old as me it seems.  Many people have many other interests in HM-adjacent things, like games and other fantasy comics, but I'm pretty narrow minded myself.  I don't care to pounce on every comment by self professed Heavy Metal Magazine experts pushing factual errors, or pretend to be much of an authority myself.  So I mostly lurk and chirp up a bit.

But it's really active now, with a large list of channels, and a handful of big shots, including Frank Forte, joining in discussions and dropping slightly less-obtuse hints about their plans.

Including the Kickstarter announcement:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heavymetal/heavy-metal-magazine-1

I'll sign up to see what happens.  At this time it's just signing up to notified of the launch, but I'll see what comes of it.  While there is evident optimism, there is still much to happen.  

I did like how the art in the Kickstarter ad, teasing a cover by Greg Hildebrandt, has the astronaut character reading the February 1982 issue, cover by Mr Hildebrandt, and that the reflection on the visor looks like the mag is open to pages 22 and 23 of the issue, showing The Incal Light by Jodorowsky and Moebius. 

Good on Mr Hildebrandt for the attention to detail.  I am amused.  

May we actually see this rebirth become true.  But don't hold your breath.

Look at 'em Go!

A couple of articles containing "official" announcements of Heavy Metal Magazine's rebirth have appeared:

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/heavy-metal-relaunches-with-frank-forte-chris-thompson-dave-kelly/

https://www.cbr.com/heavy-metal-magazine-returns-new-lineup/

Both apparently drawn from the same press release, and both rather lacking in "official" links.  There are some ideals expressed and references to a kickstarter for the first issue.  It sounds ... hopeful ... sad ... so many things.  It may illuminate how hard it is to restart it, how deep the hole must be, how hard the climb out will be.

But perhaps a little optimism may be warranted.  It might be nice to have a Hildebrandt cover again.  There's likely to be an initial rush of interest, there may be enough energy to make a splash and gain some momentum.  Maybe it won't suck.  So much to hope for.

I'll believe it when I see it, of course.  And we'll see then what "it" is. 

I got the links via the "fan" Discord.  There has been more chatter on the "official" Discord" as well.  There's other social media out there, of which I am without clue.  I signed up via the "official" website for a newsletter a while ago, but nothing yet.  We'll see what happens next.

HARZAKC

Retro Sci-Fi Art has done the world a service, by posting scans of Moebius' HARZAKC, from the July 1977 issue of Heavy Metal Magazine.

A snap from my screen:

I figure many Heavy Metal Magazine fans may not have been able to see this early Heavy Metal story, from the fourth issue of the magazine, so I think it's nice that Retro Sci-Fi Art put this up for all to see. 

I think it contains multitudes, but mostly I think the glimpses of violence and sex, and fear and fantasy, along with its terrific art and only somewhat cohesive storytelling, make it one of the finest examples of what Heavy Metal Magazine brought to the world, as "The adult illustrated fantasy magazine". 

So go take a look, and thanks to Retro Sci-Fi Art for sharing this with the world.

Updates

Allow me to direct your attention to the excellent heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com, where Lostboy recently and helpfully summarizes the nascent rebirth of Heavy Metal Magazine.  The heavymetal.com website shows under construction, the shop is shut down, and a new Discord is active.  I did join the new Discord and I see there are people claiming the mag will be reborn and making other positive noises, and there are many others joining.  Input is being solicited and statements seem sincere.

I want to believe, but they have such a big hole to dig themselves out of, and there is so little firm information available, about who is making this happen and why.  And when.  So I'll believe it when I see it.  But thanks for trying, hoping for the best.

Movement?

Perhaps some movement on the Heavy Metal Magazine front?  Not a political movement, or a cultural movement, nor a bowel movement, though it might yet turn to shit.

Though Bleeding Cool seems to only have rumors, lately about overheard bar gossip and more, they've been closer to right than not, over the last couple years, during Heavy Metal Magazine's demise.

The facts of the Heavy Metal website indicating "under construction" now, and a note on the "shop" page expressing contrition and vows to do better, are indeed encouraging.

Snapshots from the pages, hoping they change to something more real:

I want to believe the rumors are true, that Heavy Metal Magazine will really rematerialize, but it's hard for me to imagine that HM can successfully regenerate, make right with the many who were ripped off, and produce a print magazine again.  And that it won't suck.  I worry about who really owns it, what their intentions are, and which direction(s) it will take.  The miserable failures of the previous regime make me worry it will try and fail again to become another comic and merchandising franchise, even beyond my concerns that even the ill advised forays into digital properties and other grifts will not be avoided.

Worst, if they forgo print entirely.  If Heavy Metal Magazine is not a print magazine, what's the point?

I doubt there will be another Kevin Eastman, who came with good intentions and lots of cash, to save Heavy Metal Magazine as before.  For one thing, Kevin Eastman didn't wait until the mag was dead and gone.  (I still think Mr Eastman should be credited with keeping Heavy Metal Magazine alive long past its expiration date.)   Indeed, he came in and made it his own, for over 20 years.  But it's too much for me to hope for a similar heroic effort this time around.

If in fact they do restart the magazine, and actually address wronged customers, and it's great, I will be very happy to be wrong.  One can hope, I suppose.

So best wishes Mr Forte, and if you're really taking this on, thanks for trying.

Illustration Art

Considering my interest in illustration, from kids drawings and reading newspaper funnies years ago, to some comic books and MAD Magazine, to undergrounds then Heavy Metal Magazine, and my interest in the historical rise and fall of technologies, I think it's valuable to see this article that refers to the beginnings of illustration as we knew it:

https://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2024/06/at-starting-line-when-gun-went-off.html

(I've not seen Heavy Metal Magazine referred to over at illustrationart.blogspot.com, but I've visited via theporporbooksblog.blogspot.com/ site, and enjoyed seeing and learning more about illustration from it.)

I thought it was cool to think about how printing technology could develop to make printing illustrations cheap enough to foster an artistic flowering that benefited artists and the consumers of their art, and influencing the social landscapes as well, from around the mid-19th century.  And how digital technology has developed enough to now supersede printing on paper as the dominant media tool.  

And how Heavy Metal Magazine can be considered to have come into being near the end of print's dominance, and lived until the beginning of digital's ascendance.  

I'm interested in groundbreaking technologies, that are surpassed in the fields they birth, like film for photography, like cathode ray tubes for TV, like VHS or Beta for home video recording.  Like wired telephones.  (Like Heavy Metal Magazine for Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazines?  Maybe not so much, I don't know of anything close.)

With this interest, and with my interest in illustration sustained by my enjoyment of Heavy Metal Magazine, I have enjoyed looking at illustrationart.blogspot.com for many bits of historical knowledge, and this post more than many.  I hope you can gain some enjoyment as well.

Heavy Metal Movie Music Ads

I forgot one of the amusing parts about the Heavy Metal 1981 Movie Music.  The only ad I came across in the magazine from the time, was in the September 1981 issue, with the now-iconic Chris Achilleos Taarna art used for the movie and music:

Inside the front cover is this ad for the Heavy Metal Movie Music:

Interesting for the lack of detail on the music itself, with little mention of songs and formats etc, soundtrack nor score.  

And amusing for referring to Taarna's mount as their "pet Edaphosaurid".  Not only is the edaphosaurid not a flying type dinosaur (more of a dimetrodon), as I was surmising in my review of HM #302, but this ad is the most attention given to Taarna's mount in the entire production and time since.  (I purposely ignore the ill-advised attempt to give it a name as was tried in the recent disastrous regime.  Medney and Erwin?  Yeah fuck those guys.)  And it's like they just picked a funny dinosaur name.  At least they got a lot of use out of Achilleos's artwork (hope he got paid for it).

I also came across an ad in the January 1996 issue, for the Movie Soundtrack on CD, which reinforces my idea that it was released at the same time the Movie was released on video.

Hard to believe this is coming up on 30 years ago.  How about writing in a card number on a piece of paper and mailing it in to order something?  Online shopping wasn't quite a thing in 1996.

Crap I'm old.  Such fun, finding amusement in these old magazines.

Heavy Metal Rumors

I learned from Lostboy over on the HM Discord, that a Bleeding Cool article is spreading rumors that Heavy Metal Magazine will live again.  And that Frank Forte will be the Editor.  Huge news if true.  Rumors can be fun too I suppose.  We could do worse than Mr Forte.  Lostboy also posted an update on his excellent site, with links including Frank Forte's blog.

Bleeding Cool had the most regular info on Heavy Metal Magazine during the End Times.  There may be something to these rumors, but I shudder to think of the challenge to re-birth Heavy Metal Magazine.  With so many burned bridges and all the vaporized money, and the shredded reputation, how could it possibly succeed?  I will wish with faint hope.  But I won't hold my breath.

Heavy Metal Movie Music

I recently took the leap and purchased a copy of the Heavy Metal 1981 Movie LP off ebay.  It fills out my Heavy Metal Movie music collection greatly.

The LP came with the 45rpm record as well.  I've had the CD copies for years, I used to listen to them in my car.  

The Score LP by Elmer Bernstein, I came across in a resale shop last year.  I was dimly aware it existed, but it was the first time I ever saw one, so I grabbed it.  (Years earlier, I had passed up a copy of the Heavy Metal 1981 Movie on Laserdisc, since I didn't have a laserdisc player.  I later regretted it, just since it was a unique HM artifact, so it was easy to make the decision to get the Score LP.  I never had a laserdisc player, and I maybe I never will, but I have a turntable dammit (it's almost as old as the LPs) so at least I can play these).  The Score LP is nice since it really has the orchestral pieces that played during many of the movie scenes, so in a way it's more reminiscent of the movie itself than the soundtrack.

Since then I'd had my eyes open for the Soundtrack LP in resale shops, but I started to lose patience, so when saw one on the ebay for a pretty good deal, I ordered it.  The cover's a bit worn, but the discs are fine.  I don't mind if any of my Heavy Metal Things show signs of wear after the decades, I sure as heck do.  The 45 was a bonus, and I learned later on the terrific heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com that there were several 45s issued with the movie soundtrack.

There are a number of amusing quirks about these.  Both albums are cutouts, which was the bargain bin back in the day of records stores and radio stations.  The albums were notched near the corners, "cut out" it seems, to indicate they weren't full price.

The 45 has the Devo tune "Working in the Coal Mine" on the A side, and "Planet Earth" on the B side, which was not in the movie.  From www.heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com/musichm.html, it appears there were six 45rpm singles released for the movie.  This one and another have music that was not in the movie.

Unfortunately, and humorously, the Score LP misspells "Taarna" on the back, three times:

It's really too bad, some communication breakdown I suppose.  So many typos in Heavy Metal's history.

The Heavy Metal 2000 movie soundtrack CD came out with the movie.  It came in cassette too, not vinyl apparently.  This CD also came with a HyperCD, with art and interviews and other extras.  The Summer 2000 issue of the Magazine was the "CD" Special, that also came with a HyperCD with much of the same content.

The Heavy Metal 1981 Movie Soundtrack and Score came out with the movie in 1981 in vinyl.  It was also available in cassette and 8-track, released around the same time.  I believe that the 1981 Movie Soundtrack CD appeared around the same time the movie was released publicly, first in 1996 on VHS then in 1999 on DVD, and it's my understanding it took Mr Eastman wrangling the myriad music rights after the many years since the movie first came out.

My opinions of the music, are that they fit the purposes of the movies.  The soundtrack for the 1981 movie wasn't really in my favorite music categories from around then, though Devo was getting close.  The HM2000 movie soundtrack was even less of a fit for my tastes.  But in both cases they did the job.  Really I should think about writing about my opinions about both of the movies, I've got some.

But for now, I got what I wanted in my Heavy Metal Music collection.  And I finally made a post about it.  I'll leave the cassette versions and CD of the soundtracks, and the other 45s from the first movie, to stumble across in a resale shops.