Jeremy Ray has been producing XTIN - The Dragon's Dream World, for a while now. Link is on the "Links" page of this blog. I signed up for the Donations so I am getting the pages as they are produced. It appears to be nearing its end. There have been challenges but it has persisted.
He posted some images and links on the old HM website forums, which got my attention, and I continued to follow it. Over these many months it's had success and attention on his site rise and fall. It's my impression that he's been frustrated by its inability to grow its success, which seems understandable given my impression of his considerable ambition for this project. If one goes to the beginning of the webcomic and reads through it, and also follows the comments, one could see the sometimes wandering nature of how this has been presented.
The work itself appeals to me with its spectacular draftsmanship and mysterious storytelling. To be honest, some of it I just don't get, but in this case that adds to my interest. The art is fantastic, I happen to like black and white, and he has some great technique. Often there are depictions of horrible cruelty and violence, that I'm sure many would find offensive. Though the fact that much, certainly not all, of the violence is shown with female victims is scary, it seems the intent is to show the horror that people (so to speak) are capable of, rather than to arouse perversions. Again, the presentations are often obtuse, and the deeper meaning I think it contains can be obscured by the images that are first seen. This reminds me in several ways of the early days of HM magazine, where powerful stories were told in ways beautiful and often incomprehensible, and sometimes vicious and unsettling.
I'm looking forward to seeing it completed, then looking at it over and over to try to find more of what's inside it. I was encouraged to hear that he has a line on publishing it, I'm really interested in owning this on the printed page. I'll believe it when I see it, but there's something for me to look forward to.
If you're able to read through some renderings of horror and incomprehensible meanings, I'd recommend this, and if you're interested in supporting a struggling artist you should consider donating to his cause.
1 comment:
Of all the good people who were kind enough to share their work on the late HM Forum XTIN was a mile ahead of the rest. And that includes the "Heavy Metal's First Online Comic", as well.
It would be great to see it in a print format.
Strange thing is happening. More and more creators are releasing their work outside of HM, who claim to be fan's, readers, and unsuccessful submitters to the Magazine, while the Magazine itself is turning it's back to the heritage they have. Yeah, I said it. Apparently that #259 issue (I still haven't seen it yet) was lent out to a small comic book company Atomeka. Which itself isn't a bad company ( Yeah I'm looking at you MANGA issue) but it's no HM either. And the news is that the next issue will be of a same.
I think the question on everyone's mind is did Dave Elliot bought the HM Magazine and is pushing his work on the fan's of HM, or HM can be bought by any small publisher to spread their work wrapped in HM banner. It's like buying a Rolls-Royce chassis to find out it's all F*****G Ford inside.
Really looking forward to the new issues review. Hopefully, someone has it.
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