МЕДОВЫЙ МЕСЯЦ

This story appeared in May 1977, the second issue.  It was the first story in the issue, credited to Tardi, Jacques Tardi I believe, who appears to have had other entries in the early years of the mag, including Polonius, as well as a distinguished history of other work.  A story of space love and pirates, I liked it much, but I never knew what the Russian dialog was.  I'm sure others have figured it out before me, but I didn't see it online anywhere.  Now, with the awesome powers of the internet at my fingertips, I can figure it out.  After slightly tedious text entry, the space-age telecommunications system all around us gave me the translations in moments.  I left the translations mostly alone, only a couple slight edits. and I thought the garbled syntax and word selection was fitting, with the long tradition of humorous translations in HM's history.  I further amused myself photographing the pages (no scanner) to place here.  What fun.  Clearly, this is another pinnacle of my Heavy Metal Magazine fanboyhood.  Enjoy!

МЕДОВЫЙ МЕСЯЦ


HONEYMOON


(CCCP)


(USSR)


Очи жгучце очи страстные ... Очи красные и прекрасные ... Как люблю я вас


The eyes of the burning eyes are passionate ... The eyes are red and beautiful ... How I love you

(ЛАБОРАТОРИЯ)

(LABORATORY)


"СТУК СТУК"


"KNOCK, KNOCK"


Светлана, как чувствует себя наш сын, первый ребёнок шпации ... Ну, расскаж ...


Svetlana, how our son feels, the first child of the space ... Well, tell us ...


Всѐ хорошо!  Он совсем нормально развивается.  Через несколько часов, он имеет взрослый рост.


All is well! It is quite normal. A few hours later, he has adult growth.


Отлично!  Мы сможем вернуться домой.  Тебе нравилосъ бы покидать твои контроли несколько минут?


Excellent! We can go home. Would you like to leave your controls for a few minutes?


Согласно, Никита ... А, пожалуйса, не слишком долго.


I agree Nikita ... And, please, not too long.


Наше свадебное путишествие оканчиьается, ребёнок растёт, миссия наша-успех ... Светлана, я тебя люблю!


Our wedding journey ends, the child grows, our mission is success ... Svetlana, I love you!

Всё чудесно произошло!  Надеемся, что приято вернёмся!


Everything happened miraculously! We hope that we will return!

ГАД!


GAD!


"ХЛОП"


"CHLOP"

В то же время ...


In the same time ...


Надеемся, что Светлана и Никита прожили чудесное свадебное путешествие и что нам приносят прекрасного ребёнка шпации ...


We hope that Svetlana and Nikita have had a wonderful wedding trip and that they bring us a beautiful space baby ...


КОНЕЦ




END

Heavy Metal #288

This is the Weird Issue.  While the theme is emphasized in the editorial, and some of the content does qualify as weird, I still think it's weird that Jett Lucas is noted as Creative Executive on the Contents page, with the other executives.  I wonder what's going on with that weed "edutainment" magazine they were working on.  None of those Contributing Editors this time.


I got the Cover "A" from the bookstore, with Death Dealer by Frank Frazetta.  If ever there was a piece of fantasy art that qualified as Classic, this would be it.  It's older than the recently 40 year old Heavy Metal magazine itself.  You might think Mr Frazetta has been all over HM in its 40 years, but it appears he's only done a couple covers, November 1990 and the #286 Cover B, and a couple other interview features, besides (according to the HM website cover gallery, which I really hope gets updated and maintained, it doesn't seem to have been touched for a year).  So it's highly cool that HM has this famous work on its cover.  This issue also has an article about Mr Frazetta by his son about the painting, much like the article in #286, and an ad for the museum in the back.  I think it's nice Mr Frazetta is getting some regard in HM.  Once I actually saw an actual Frazetta in an actual museum, it was cool.  I won't pretend to be qualified to apply a quantitative rating to this work.


The Table of Contents art is "Berenice" by Natalie Shau, who also did the Cover "B" and has a gallery in this issue.


Mr Morrison's editorial begins with an homage to Len Wein, whom Mr Morrison considers an inspiration, and who contributed to HM a few times in the early years.  It continues with some comments about weirdness, and a handful of mentions of this issue's works.  I noted no mention of Mr Frazetta though.


But he did note the return of Richard Corben, with what seems to be the beginning of a story, "Murky World!".  Anyone who knows about HM certainly knows about Mr Corben.  He's been in dozens of issues, known best for "Den", one of the iconic first stories, and many, many, others.  While he's been working for decades, it's been almost 20 years since he's been in HM.  This story feels quite familiar, not only Mr Corben's lovely and familiar style, but also the setup of a lone wanderer put on a quest.  I am unnerved by the image at the bottom of the first page, I can't tell what the blob of flesh in front of the "Fairy Godmother" is, a foot, a boob, unborn twin?  And the lone eye, eek.  But it's great to have Mr Corben's work in HM again, it's fantastic to see and appreciate the effort and ability displayed.  Such as the shadows of the clouds of dust as the round door closes on the last page, a touch of realism in a fantastic world.  Coming across as a bit irreverent, it makes me think more of Neverwhere than Den.  Especially the last panel with "... he is confronted with a gay masquerade."  We'll see where we go with this one, I'm hoping it'll be fun.  I'll give this one a 9, perhaps inflated for sentimental reasons.


"Where Vices Lead" by John Bivens, with Art Assistants Alex Conkins, Iris Monahan, Hannah Jerrie, & Virgil Franklin - 7 - Dommiel the Gatekeeper confronts a wayward Lord to return him to his circle in Hell.  The art is dynamic, if a bit frantic, and the story, with the implication of more, was enticing.  If we really get entries for the rest of the Lords/Deadly Sins, it'll be cool.


"Frank Frazetta:  The Creator of the Death Dealer" by Frank Frazetta Jr.  Where the famous illusrator's son writes of the history of the iconic painting, how it could never be improved, how Mr Frazetta was convinced to produce more of the series, and how Jr is going to write the story, to be featured in Heavy Metal magazine.  I'm impressed that HM has forged a relationship with the Frazetta franchise, though I will wait and see how this plays out.  No number rating applied.


"Shaman Himiko" by Peach Momoko - 7 - A shaman fortuneteller responds to a supplicant's pleas, by seeing through his lies and condemning him to the misery he inflicted on others.  Pretty to see and does well with its two pages.  I'd like to see more of this creator.


"The House of Heart's Desire" by Grant Morrison and Dominic Regan - 7.5 - A philosophical adventure, a guy finds the door, to the house without a door.  Existential hijinks ensue.  The art style is a bit jagged but evocative, and the story is told energetically and with a joke.  Makes ya think.


"Mouth Baby" by James Harvey - 6 - Young urban parenting, sort of.  This one is certainly weird, and there's much to like in the art and storytelling, and I got at least some of what it tried to say, but it wasn't something I enjoyed.  Maybe the pain is too close to home.  Maybe that's its greatest success.


Gallery - Natalie Shau with an interview by Rantz Hoseley - 6 - A good number of images with plenty of evidence of the artist's great ability.  They can be quite pretty to see.  Though they may not excite me so, there's much to offer to those who are excited by this style.


"The Color of Air" Part 5 by Enki Bilal, translated by Jessica Berger - 8 - Turmoil is coalescing to its unreal apex.  Our intrepid adventurers tumble towards their intersection.  The art gets even prettier and more self aware.  It is yet to be "continued next issue."  My delight continues apace.


"New Madonna" by Grant Morrison,  Menton, Adam Wollet - 5 - More parenting in "Fallen Times."  Weirdness to spare, and I kinda liked to art and the unpaneled image sequence style.  This one didn't grab me like "Mouth Baby" did.


"The Bleeding" by Kevin Eastman, Simon Bisley, Ryan Brown - 7 - It says "inspired by the Song..." by Five Finger Death Punch.  Makes me wonder if there wasn't enough room in the previous Music Special #287 for this one.  Anyway, more HM alums reappear.  Mr Eastman contributed art to the mag a number of times in his tenure, as well as some editorial, and Mr Bisley a bigger number in that time.  (I didn't find Ryan Brown credited in any.)  A song about love, or the opposite.  Multiple settings for multiple facets of the story, in multiple worlds.  I've said it before, Mr Bisley sure can draw.  His portions of this show a familiar and welcome dynamism, ridiculous detail, and inflated rage.  Maybe more to come?


"Preview:  The Heroin Diaries Graphic Novel", Nikki Sixx interview by Rantz Hoseley - 6 - So I think it's a good thing Mr Sixx is using his story to help others (as well as himself), and he seems passionate about life in the interview.  I doubt I'll see this book, but I hope it works out for everyone.


"Hellraiser - The Test" by Ben Meares, Christian Francis, Mark Torres - 6 - Apparently a promo for a Hellraiser book.  I never saw the movie or any books, so I'm missing some background here, but it's a nice little bit of storytelling, and I like the art style pretty well.  Alternate realities with torture and chains?  Perhaps not so much.


So a great deal of stuff for me to like in this issue.  Even with stuff I am less fond of, there's plenty variety in the things we're offered.  I hope the mag can keep on keepin' on like that for a while.

Why?

Why do I do this?  What is it about Heavy Metal that's made me some sort of fanboy, that makes me write stuff and throw it into the void?  I ask myself this, as my time passes and my life happens, as I seek the mag out and try to think about it enough to have something to say, why?


For one thing, a big part is so I can have all my stuff and links in one place.  I check my blog often, check my Links page for new things (my Links page is in need of a tune-up though, it's getting stale) and see who's been visiting, usually just a couple hits a day.




But why am I interested in Heavy Metal Magazine, after so long, for so long?  It's often good, sometimes not.  Some things I think I can explain, some things I'm no so sure of.  It's like a combination of contrived amusement and innate affinity.  There's some history and early exposure, some good timing, and some desire or need for some illicit thrills in a tiny dark corner of my existence.  I'll try to have some fun figuring it out.


I read some comics when I was a kid, but I wasn't a big comics buyer.  Newspaper comics were cool, I read things like Mad Magazine and Peanuts collections.  I remember reading a Buck Rogers collection at a friend's (big book, I actually found this at a resale shop in more recent years).  I also saw some actual comics at an uncle's, war comics like Sgt Rock, and G.I. Combat with a story about guys in a Sherman tank (around 1970, war was big, Vietnam was happening, Korea and even WWII seemed almost just yesterday) and those could have a real emotional impact.


I liked sci-fi, a few books but mostly movies, mostly old ones on the black & white tv on rainy Saturday afternoons.  Also my dad took me to 2001 in the theaters when it came out, I was maybe 9.  That was really something.


Then in 1977, I was in my first year away at college, someone showed me the first Heavy Metal magazine.  I liked it enough to start buying them from the second issue.  The attraction was an otherworldy depiction of fantasy worlds, where stories didn't have to be told explicitly, or even understandably, with art that was so much more than comics, and with more vicious violence and overt sex than a young lad had seen at the time.  The tagline for a long time was "the adult illustrated fantasy magazine" and it lived up to that.  The party-dorm environment probably had an influence on my perspective at the time as well.  I was still at an impressionable age, and it made an impression on me.


Over the next few years as I went through school and got myself out and employed and otherwise pretended to be a grown-up, I kept buying the mag.  I saw new stuff, watched stories come and go, or go on and on, and learned about some art and artists.  The mag was an actual cultural force for a while, when magazines were one of the more sophisticated media around and could cater to limited audiences more easily than they might today.  People knew about HM and its place in fantasy art.  It could have sword and sorcery, or sci-fi, or humor or horror, and it could be quite "adult" (though perhaps in immature ways).


It got big enough to spawn a 1981 movie, that got some serious hype in the mag as it was being developed.  I wasn't too excited about it, since I was skeptical that a movie could do justice to how I felt the magazine could inspire imagination with printed images that could be ingested and processed to fill the spaces in my mind, as well as how well the images and styles could be replicated with the animation technology at the time.  I didn't even see it in the theaters during its short run, I did finally see it on HBO, and my opinion was reinforced.  It has its high points and a few not so high, it went for humor more than wonder, and I understand it was a staple at college midnight movie nights.  I have a copy now and I've watched it a few times.


After the movie, the mag sales declined, and it stopped issuing monthly at the end of 1985.  In my opinion this was the end of the "classic" age of Heavy Metal Magazine.  My interest waned as well, as it went to quarterly then bimonthly distribution, and the stories were less compelling to me, and by 1990 I had lost interest and had given away my (not quite complete) collection.


About fifteen years later, in a resale book shop, I came across an almost complete collection, and remembrance of my misspent youth, and extra cash from being an employed grown-up, led me to buying the collection.  I started reading from the beginning, enjoying fond memories of wonder and excitement, and noticing some new things in what I'd seen before, and took advantage of the new-fangled internet and searched out and bought the rest of the issues to complete the collection.  I have since read them all, though some only once, and have kept buying and reading them.


Not too long after I re-started my interest, I came across Lostboy's Heavy Metal Magazine Fan Page (I thought to search for the Timothy Leary interview in the October 1983 issue, to see if anyone else had something to say about it) and it came up near the top of the list.  It's still linked on my Links page, even though it hasn't been updated in several years, it's still a great resource.  He had a forum once, that I enjoyed contributing to, and that's where I started with issue reviews.  There has also been an official HM web site for years, having gone through several iterations and revisions, there was also a forum there for a time, where I picked up on reviews in a 1-10 format started by a contributor known then as Intone Flux.  When that forum was closed in 2011, I was annoyed and disappointed enough to start this little blog.
I was able to salvage some of my old reviews and post them here.  I notice that my early style was spare and short, compared to how I do reviews now.  Before I'd go for a few words to express an opinion, now I try for more substance.  I try to include the title and creators (for credit and to be found in searches better), the number rating, a description of the setting or type of story, and an opinion or two.  Early I was just making snarky remarks in an online discussion, now it's just me so I have more room to rant.


So that's how I got here.  But again, why?  There's the part that's a conscious choice, being a collector, making the effort to gather the mags and gather my thoughts, making this something I do.  I do stuff, grownup stuff, and some other things for fun too, and all of them are more important to me than HM, but I'm choosing to spend a few hours here and there on something inconsequential.  But it's neat, I have a nice pile of paper going way back, I get some satisfaction from having them all, and keeping up with it, and now I get to have my own web log on the world wide web that all the world can see (though hardly anyone does) and be an internet fanboy.


I do this myself, this blog is the only way I share it.  That's part of why I'm questioning this.  There's the part where keeping it to myself gives the illicit thrill of a secret, but there's also the part of being embarrassed.  Heavy Metal Magazine stopped being cool in the 80s.  It has a well-earned reputation for being a tits-and-ass comic book, it's often degrading to women and people in general, and readily displays high levels of gruesome violence.  It's not fit for polite company.


I like the sexy parts, there was more of it in the early days, and it was more than just girls and their boobs.  There was boy parts and girl parts, some pretty explicit parts, and enough variety to titillate and offend almost anyone.  Some of it has been exciting, even inspiring, plenty of it has been crude and juvenile, and much of it would be rightly criticized now for the objectification and exploitation displayed.  The violence is another kind of "adult" content, there's been hardly any limits on the ways and means of assault and battery, death and dismemberment, that the mag would show.  Plenty has been offensive, but mostly it can be fun.  I know people are capable of causing terrible harm to their fellow people, but it mostly seems appropriate on an adult comic level, to me this means accepting it as fantasy and being able to separate it from reality.  Comic sex and violence offer a way to experience "bad" things and thoughts without causing actual (physical) harm, and that separation lets me extract some enjoyment from the mental exploration of things I wouldn't do in real life.  I can only speak for myself, I can imagine where some could use comic violence to develop and encourage violence in their own lives, and I bet others have written better about the juxtaposition of comic fantasy with real morality.


With all that, I still buy it.  I enjoy that the magazine still exists in paper form, and it can be fun to hope it will get better and better, though over the years that hasn't always been the case.  I have my collection, I have my little blog, and I have space in my life to indulge myself on something that's trivial but that I find fun.  I like knowing that my interest in HM spans more than half my time here, and since nothing lasts forever, least of all me, it's nice to have something like that in my life.  Like I said, almost everything else in my life is more important than HM, but I feel fortunate to be able to have all that and HM too.


So, over the weeks it took to put this together, it's been fun to reflect and consider HM's place in my life and my interest in it.  My thoughts are a bit more organized but I didn't gain any great insights.  I guess I'm stuck with it's silly and fun and cool that I have all these mags from so many years.  And a blog.  And I should really get on that #288 review....

Heavy Metal #287

This issue is a Music Special, with stories based on rock songs.  This is an interesting prospect, but I am at a disadvantage since I know none of the songs involved.  I hardly know any of the bands.  Being old probably has a lot to do with it.  I can have opinions on the stories themselves and the mag overall, but I will be missing out on some of the intent, so my thoughts will be even less significant than usual.


HM has a good bit of music in its history.  Early stories had rock music themes and sub-plots, such as Heilmann by Alain Voss, and especially the October 1980 Rock issue with Rock City by Moebius and The Legend of the Magic Tone Box by Angus McKie.  The 1981 Heavy Metal movie got a lot of mileage out of its soundtrack.  There was also Lou Stathis with his nu-musik rantings in the later 80s.  But overall, there wasn't much direct connection between Heavy Metal the magazine and heavy metal the music genre.  Until now perhaps.


I got the cover A at the bookstore, it's called Mass Ritual by Kilian Eng, a depiction of a concert venue it appears.  There's some interesting aspects to it if you look closely, but it didn't really grab me, I give it a 5.


Inside the front cover is an ad for an Iron Maiden comic, promoting their video game advertised a couple pages later, and for a Taarna comic series.  I don't usually look for these HM-promoted other comics, but I may look out for this Taarna one.  I wasn't too excited by the promo Taarna entry in #284, but she's a pretty prominent character in the HM lexicon so it may be worthwhile.


The Page 2 illustration, Skeletron by Boneface, under the title Music Special, is actually pretty nice, a spare depiction of a classic rock pose with incisive detail.


Mr Morrison's editorial is expectedly wacky and has the requisite callouts of mag entries, but this one seemed rather strained.  I am impressed by how he's been able to keep at it, but this one didn't do it for me.  I heard a rumor he may be stepping away soon, I get the feeling I may miss him.


Iron Maiden - "Legacy of the Beast" Preview, by Llexi Leon, Ian Edginton, Kevin J West, Jason Gorder, Carlos Villas & Jacob Bascle - 4 - a promo for a video game, following the ad for said game.  I'm not interested in a game and not excited by the execution of this story.  Best of luck to the gang though, you don't need my approval to succeed.


An ad for a 1985 follows, I think this another comic that I won't see, but I like the picture, a gritty depiction of a helmeted guy or robot with broken manacles, crying out.


In Flames - "When the World Explodes" by Blake Armstrong - 6 - A guided dream becomes a manipulated nightmare.  It packs a lot into its four pages, and the final image is good.


Mötley Crüe - "Wild Side" by Simeon Aston, Leah Moore & Adam Wollet- 7 - An oppressive dystopia is taken down, and a new society formed.  The urban future and stick-it-to-the-man attitude would have fit right in to the mag in the early years.


Gojira - "Shooting Star" by Kevin Mellon - 8 - Shows a story of metamorphosis and tells a story of pain and reconciliation.  I can even imagine the ending being sung in several styles of music.


The Color of Air - Part Four, by Enki Bilal - 7 - The only feature that's not part of the Music theme.  Fine with me.  A story of juxtapositions, slow paced and suspenseful.  Perhaps storylines getting closer to each other?  And I like the art, misty and murky and sometimes, luminous?


Nine Inch Nails - "The Way Out is Through" / "In The Hills, The Cities" by Clive Barker, Sean Lynch & Hannah Jerrie - 8.5 - I liked how I could read the text as a song, but even though it seemed like it told me just a part of a story, it expressed its sentiment well.  What I really liked was how the art was composed and how it expanded its perspective to show its own sentiment very well.  Honestly it took me a couple times through it for me to see it well, but I got into the ideas of how individuals can be incorporated into a larger whole, and be at the mercy of its existence.


Gojira Art Gallery by Mario Duplantier, with an interview by Rantz Hoseley - 7 - The artist is a heavy metal drummer, so it fits, and some of it's pretty cool, imaginative images and neat techniques.


Rob Zombie - "Living Dead Girl" by Michael Moreci, John Bivens, Omar Estévez & Adam Wollet - 7 - Zombie wrestling, or something like that.  Looks cool, frantic action.  These days it's harder to take the depictions of manipulative abuse of women in the mag, than in the older, sexist-er days.  Still gotta long way to go.  At least the title victim survives as a total badass and destroys all that oppose her.


Marilyn Manson - "Coma White" by Richard Kadrey, Menton & Adam Wollet - 6 - Looks really cool, but I can't relate.  Songwriting, pills, vampires, Mr Manson with boobs, just not my thing.  If it's yours, go ahead and enjoy.


Queens of the Stone Age - Boneface Villains Gallery, with an interview by Rantz Hoseley - 7 - I actually saw the first image in a music store.  Some interesting images and a nice interview.  I liked "Putting stuff in there that looks like it means something, but actually doesn't, is also fun."


Hollywood Undead - "Origins" by Paul Allor, Drew Moss, Billy Martin & Flor Gpe Ortiz Rivero - 4 - LA locals are mystified by societal changes.  I was mystified by this, I was only able to glean specks of insight, I'm certainly missing the point.


Vamps - "Calling" by Tony Leonard - 5 - A tale of struggle against authoritarian oppression, told as a futuristic love story, maybe.  Perhaps cool to look at, still I couldn't get into the storytelling.


Ozzy Osbourne - "S.A.T.O" by Tony Lee, Vasilis Lolos & Adam Wollet - 6 - A bored king is rescued from the illusion of years of pointless rule by his true love, to go seek new dreams in S.A.T.O. their ship of gold.  Nice art, story is ok though I wasn't excited about it.


So, like many issues, overall nice with a couple stories that I really liked and a few not so much.  Hopefully fans of the bands can gain more enjoyment where I did not.

Covers

So BiLL, who sometimes comments on this blog, asked about my favorite covers.  I had to think about it.  The art on the covers can be cool, but the stories inside the mag are more interesting to me.  Also, there are so many, it's a lot to consider.  But I'll give it a shot.


I'll start right off by saying, the early covers were the best.  Not only were they imaginative and compelling, it was in the earlier years that the magazine hit the scene with some actual cultural force, as a pioneer in published storytelling and illustrative art.  It didn't really last, interest waned, though the mag continued, mostly thanks to Kevin Eastman.  For most of the mag's existence since, covers have mostly been posing babes in wacky outfits cheescakin' on.  It didn't start with Mr Eastman, but in his time babes were the norm.  Mr Morrison has branched out a bit, which is nice in my view.  It's not that I don't like a nice babe, and sometimes it could be lovely or powerful or both, but pin-up type art can be limiting, and too often it could be exploitive or demeaning.  There's plenty to talk about on HM's position in sexuality and human nature, but this is a post about covers.


So I'll pick out a few favorites and perhaps generate some interest.  If anyone has a particular favorite or two to mention, let us know.


In the beginning, it was robots:





(This and most images lifted from Lostboy's excellent fan page, www.heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com , the Magazine List, go there and see more.)


The first issue set the tone for me.  It's April 1977.  A girl robot beating the crap out another robot with a giant wrench?  Holy smokes, this wasn't Boy's Life or National Geographic, that's for sure.  It even said "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine".  Seeing this issue made me start buying them.  The artist is Jean-Michel Nicollet.  "Classic" HM, that's for sure.


Something else I liked from the early years was the occasional wraparound cover.  The first was a terrific Moebius for July 1977:





It's worth noting that back covers could have some nice work as well, that don't get much attention.  Lostboy's HM fan page does well to also include back cover images.  Go there and see.




Most of the rest of the 1977 covers are pretty good, and not a pin-up among them.  That starts in 1978, though only for a few.  One I liked was October 1978, by Ron Walotsky:





Imaginative and engaging, I'm sure the minor boobage smack in the middle of the page got 19 year old me's attention too.


1979 has some I liked, such as January with a photograph of art by Jo Ellen Trilling and Jay Brenner:





and one by Richard Corben and a couple by Angus McKie.


1980 had two I really liked, February by Patrick Couratin:





Weird enough to be cool...


and November by Hajime Sorayama:





Another "Classic", and that's not even mentioning HR Giger for June, and December by Chris Achilleos.


1981 was a good year for covers.  February by Jim Burns is one of my favorites, I thought it was really funny:





("look, up in the sky, it's a giant ... bone!")


July 1981 was cool, I seem to like robot chicks:





Of course there's the classic Taarna poster cover by Chris Achilleos for September, which may not have made a big impression on me, but is pretty iconic:





I really liked the Debbie Harry dressed in an HR Giger bodysuit for December:





There was also a bit in the mag about this photo.


Over the rest of the mid-Eighties, the covers made less of an impression on me.  There was less enticing intrigue and more pretty pictures.  My general opinion is that the mag lost steam after popular interest peaked after the 1981 Heavy Metal movie came out.  (A reflection of this is in the figures noted on the Sales History page on the About page on Lostboy's Heavy Metal Magazine Fan Page, again, go look.) 


There were plenty to like, at least a little bit.  There were Corbens and Royos and Liberatores, Hildebrandts and Jim Burns and Jim Cherrys.  And a robot or two.


July 1982 by Thomas Wartenkin:





I was amused by March 1983 by Carol Donner:





And I found March 1984 by Andy Lackow funny as well:





(no, I don't know what they're saying.  maybe the internet can help.)


October 1985 by Olivia De Berardinis impressed me (there were a few of these zebra woman pieces):





And I've been a fan of December 1985 by Ajin:





The cut paper sculpture had a fiercely alluring image, and made me think "how did they do that?"  And it was also the last monthly issue, as the mag contracted and tried to find a place in the shifting culture landscape.  The late 80s were when I lost interest in the mag and quit buying it regularly, as did others apparently. 


There were a couple I recall liking, such as Winter 1986:





I think it's a photo, of Daryl Hannah in Clan of the Cave Bear, which had some popularity at the time.


Spring 1987 by Jim Warren was one of the more imaginative:





Summer 1988 by Oscar Chichoni seemed somewhat thoughtful, and this image is seen again later...





July 1991 by Olivia De Berardinis was kinda special:





Around this time the tagline on the cover changed to "The Illustrated Fantasy Magazine".  And then HM was bought by Kevin Eastman with some of his TMNT money, and posing babes became the norm.  To be sure, there was some nice work by some good creators, like Luis Royo, Oscar Chiconi, Simon Bisley, Julie Bell, to name a few, and the settings and outfits could be imaginative, but it was mostly variations on a theme, with depictions of Julie Strain being frequent.


A fine example is September 1997 by Simon Bisley:





Which also promoted the second Heavy Metal movie, F.A.K.K 2, which was in the works for years and finally materialized in 2000.


Of course there are exceptions that I liked for one reason or another.


March 1996 by Richard Corben:





November 1997 by Gaetano Liberatore:





There were also more "Special" issues around this time, often with nonsensical themes, such as "Arcane Special" and "Steampunk Special", that had nothing to do with the actual content.  The covers for these were still mostly babes, though some were not just so, like the Fall 2001 "Mind Melt Special" by Simon Bisley:







But it was usually babes for years to come.  A few years into this was when I rediscovered Heavy Metal Magazine, fueled by an early find of a nearly complete set at a resale shop, and gathering the rest with the newly invented internet.  I also started buying new issues in local bookstores.  For a good while it could be a little embarassing to carry it to the counter and put it down to pay.  Sometimes it would be shelved with porn.  Sometimes maybe it even should have been there (there were some issues that included free porn cards, that's another story...).  I bought them anyway.


There have been a few covers that I have actually disliked, like where the posing was especially pointless or even too cheesy for me, but I won't dwell on them here.


Along the way the tagline would change, to "The Mature Illustrated Fantasy Magazine" and to "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine" to the "World's Greatest Illustrated Magazine".


One I wanted to point out is January 2002 by Oscar Chiconi, with the same art as Summer 1998.  It made me wonder if they even knew they did that.







And the Fall 2007 "30th Anniversary Special" which was actually a full reprint of Mr Eastman's and Mr Bisley's Melting Pot story (I thought it was a bit self-indulgent of them at the time, but whatever), cover by Mr Bisley:






Another I liked was September 2009 by Nathan Fox and Jeromy Cox:





Not only a wraparound, but the Fluorescent Black stories were terrific.  (And by the way, you would probably wreck your mag if you really tried to do this, since the binding is glued on the edge instead of stapled like the old days.)


And I did actually like the Fall 2009 "Terror Special" cover by Claudio Aboy:





Since then there were a few that were a little interesting in one way or another, like the War of the Worlds Special for Summer 2011, by Studio Climb, a promotional issue for the War of the Worlds Goliath movie that Mr Eastman helped produce, the last Special issue, and one of the few Specials whose title was reflected in the content:





and September 2011 by Stanley "Artgerm" Lau was pretty stylish:





More recently, Mr Morrison's tenure is marked by a de-emphasis on babe-itude, which if fine by me.  Perhaps an increase in the Morrison-itude, which I am also ok with for the time being, as illustrated by the cover for issue #286 by David Stoupakis:





(this image from the HM web store, since the HM website cover gallery only goes through #282 in 2016.  I do hope they can update the gallery and keep it current, it's my resource for anything after 2011 when Lostboy stopped updating his site.)


I'm not too excited though, by the increase in having multiple covers for mag issues.  Perhaps it's a thing in the world of regular comics.  For me it's just a bunch of stuff I will only see on the internet, and since being able hold the paper in my hands is the whole point (and perhaps spew letters into the void about it...) I have little interest.


Regardless of my crank-itude, it was fun to reflect and research and assemble this, so thanks BiLL for the suggestion.  Now to that issue #287 review...

Violence Becomes Tranquility

While I am slowly working on a post about covers, and on my review of #287, I want to to note that someone put up a Heavy Metal story from March 1980, Violence Becomes Tranquility, by Shinobu Kaze, and since it's such a wonderful example of the best work HM had to offer, I wanted to link it here:


http://thebristolboard.tumblr.com/post/164617614013/morioh-violence-becomes-tranquility-shinobu


Linked via The Bristol Board, a very nice and active collection of comic art through the years (apparently via a Morioh a few years back).


This has most everything I liked about HM in the early days, delightful art with terrific storytelling, that presented itself very well in comic form, and thought-provoking exploration of consciousness and reality.  Since most who have not seen this particular issue would not have seen this story, I thought I would promote it so others would have the chance.  Enjoy!

ONIRIA: GENESIS book

Ferran Xalabarder actually emailed me again.  It's always nice when an actual creator contacts me, especially since it happens so rarely.


The fundraising effort to publish his ONIRIA:  GENESIS book had little response and poor results, but he was able to publish the book by "using more regular methods", so it's for sale at his website: 

http://www.westwindcomics.com/oniria.html

So good for him and I hope he has better success with this.  I would certainly recommend that anyone with the interest and means to purchase this book, should do so.  I may, through "regular methods" or otherwise, and make a little review sometime.

Romero

So with George Romero recently passing, and the online memorializing, it's an opportunity to remember the HM article about the Dawn of the Dead movie in the October 1978 issue.  Now, I'm not a big zombie fan, I don't get the appeal (I think it's an expression of the innate human fear of the "other" in pop culture form, but it doesn't really work for me), but I will say that Romero's Night of the Living Dead is a pretty good thriller/horror movie, so I can see how that started it.  The article is an excerpt of a story of the Dawn movie, by George Romero and Susanna Sparrow, with a couple movie stills.  It was a nice entry for the mag to broaden it from just drawings, but I haven't seen the movie.  It's also an opportunity to plug one of my favorite HM stories that happens to be in the same issue, Shattered Like a Glass Goblin, by Harlan Ellison (also pretty famous) and William Stout, which I found fascinating.  I do have an early review of this issue on this here blog.

Heavy Metal #286

I will call this The Grant Morrison Issue.  Not only is "Grant Morrison's Epic Article on Chaos Magic Inside!" it's Mr Morrison Hisself on the cover A, in a painting with some magical metaphors by David Stoupakis.  I liked the pen and typewriter myself.  I don't think Mr Eastman ever put himself on the cover, but I don't mind Mr Morrison doing so.  The mag has done pretty well with him running it, in my opinion, so I can handle a bit of self-fluffery.  The image is pretty cool, the tagline is still "The World's Greatest Illustrated Magazine", there's a barcode sticker over the one printed on the cover, and this also has "MΛGICK SPECIΛL" on the front.  I'll give it a 6.


Another actual movie ad inside the front cover, and a Page 2 Illustration "The Magician" by Rian Hughes with a cool image of an astronaut/sorcerer/DJ, a sage for a modern age.  Sarah Deal returns credited as Contributing Editor, and Jett Lucas is now listed as Creative Executive with the other execs.  Hmmm.  Some arcane symbology at the bottom of the contents page, then a two-page ad for HM coffee.  The bag with the 1981 HM movie poster image of Taarna by Christos Achilleos is interesting me enough in maybe actually getting some.


Atomahawk Chapter Three: Berserker by Donny Cates, Ian Bederman, Taylor Esposito, with a special thanks for Nick Derington - 8 - All the blood and flaming dismemberment is with an amusing variety of cartoon warriors, so it's more cool than horrifying.  At least that's what I tell myself.  I liked the frozen-in-action cartoony violence style, and the clever first person dialog, and some depth of expression in the storytelling.  The End, or is it?


The Sword of God by Edgar Clément, JAME, Alberto Calvo - 7 - I really liked the art style, expressive and dynamic, and the sidebar lizards/little dragons reminded me of an earlier HM story (it had a one-eyed soothsayer/narrator but I'm not recalling the name right now).  The storytelling was pretty good too, and the ending was funny if not insightful.


Herald by Diego Grebol and Sebastían Píriz - 6 - A robot museum tour guide blows some little kids' minds with some thoughts of magic and reality.  Looks cool and fun to read, but it didn't really sell me on its premise.


An ad for a Heavy Metal 40th Anniversary art show.  This might actually be cool, but I doubt I will be in the neighborhood during its run, so I'll miss it.  It wouldn't be an HM thing without a couple misspellings or quirks, my favorite is the reference to Cel Art from The Film.  I'm pretty sure it's about the 1981 movie, rather than Heavy Metal 2000, which makes me wonder if they're trying to forget HM2000 ever happened, or how they still have cel art from the first movie but none from the second.  Or maybe they just forgot the "s" after Film. 


The Smile of the Absent Cat by Grant Morrison & Gerhard - 6 - Continued kitty crime capers.  Some compelling storytelling, and a nice "Bedlam" scene reference.  More to come.


The Color of Air by Enki Bilal - 7 - The art is getting even more murky than the story.  Some of our intrepid adventurers continue on, through difficult and ridiculous peril, presumably towards some sort of story development and resolution.


Beyond the Word and the Fool by Grant Morrison - 7.5 - with illustrations by David Stoupakis (including an image I recognized from a previous Gallery entry).  Subtitled Heavy Metal's Mag!c Primer, this is Mr Morrison's "Epic Article on Chaos Magic" as declared on the cover.  Skipping this issue's editorial, Mr Morrison spends ten pages outlining his views on Mag!c and including some of his own experiences.  I enjoyed reading this, more than I was afraid I was going to.  I was going to get tired of different spellings of magic pretty soon, but Mr Morrison harnesses his logorrhea to the greater good of producing an actual Primer on Mag!c, with some basic activities after some orientation and instruction.  I liked how along the winding path of his discussion, some of his views of reality, consciousness, and meaning, would intersect with mine.  His effort is light on pretention and even expresses compassion for the reader and others.  I'm not too interested in actually trying new things, but it was interesting to learn some ideas from a different perspective.  Also I think this is the longest prose entry in the mag for quite some time, so I liked that too.


A Magician and The Wooden Boy by Z. Pahek - 7 - So a circus magician brings a wooden puppet of a boy to life, so he can kill him for his act, but surprise!  This time the boy kills him.  It's pretty creepy when you think about it, but it's a pretty well executed piece that brought me in.  And I thought "Blade Hell" as an exclamation was humorous, "bloody hell" perhaps?


Frank Frazetta Reign of Wizardry by Frank Frazetta Jr.  A two page article about some history of one of this issue's covers, written by the son of the renowned fantasy artist.  I decided to not apply a rating for this, but it is pretty cool that HM scored this image and the article.


The 1000 Deaths of Harry Houdini by Neil Kleid, Michael Avon Oeming & Taki Soma - 6 - I won't reveal the Secret of Houdini's success, but I thought this had an interesting premise that could have gone farther, and the art is probably pretty good but I wasn't too excited about it.  (But Kleid was the name of the demon in the sheets in John Findley's Tex Arcana in HM back in the 80s...)


"Lil Charlie" Part III by John Bivens and Omar Estévez - 5 - The story continues, of the destruction of Creation by God's creations, but it's a flashback?  There's some interesting bits in this one, the two-page spread on the universe coming into existence, and I kinda like the infinite-headed depiction of God, but I'm not following this one well.  No sign of the Lilith character introduced in the past installment, I'm hoping she can spice things up.  And Mercy Sakes, there seems to be a pageorder mixup, I haven't noticed one of these in the mag for a while.


Art Gallery - Ars Goetia: Demonic Tarot by Jim Pavelec - 6 - Depictions of named demons presented in Tarot card form.  Some nicely conceived and executed images, I liked the two-page spread at the end the best, but it felt pretty contrived to me at times.  But it's got the word magic in it.


Air by Diego Agrimbau and Martín Túnica - 7 - Searching for the old magic in a wind-swept post-apocalyptic wasteland.  Tells a nice story in just a few pages.


Zentropa by John Mahoney - 8 - This last installment includes an "Origins of Zentropa" essay by Mr Mahoney, which includes some description of an illness and producing Zentropa during his recovery.  While my thoughts of a story emerging were fruitless, the essay set me free of my expectations and helped explain some of the imagery seen in the story.  He gives credit to HM for inspiration and support, but I didn't see the word "magic" anywhere.... But again the scrutinizing and imagining the process were fun for me, and the spliff'n sistahs returned.  The ending is almost minimalist.  A delightful journey to nowhere in particular.


Gallery with Clive Barker and Interview by Rantz Hoseley - 6 - I'm not familiar with Clive Barker, though I've heard the name, and I didn't look it up.  Some interesting images and viewpoints are presented.  I imagine the interview was conducted over email since the dialog seems to be written rather than transcribed, so I found amusement in the interviewer asking about "Magick" but the answers respond with "magic".


Lighting the Way by Mark Alan Miller, Christian Francis, Ben Meares, Gonzalo Ruggieri, Omar Estévez, JAME - 7 - Based on a painting by Clive Barker, indeed the painting is included in the previous Gallery entry.  They sure got a lot out of that painting, there's a lot of action and scary implication in the story that I didn't see in the painting, but the art and writing tell a brisk and gruesome tale here.


The inside back cover has an ad for the Frank Frazetta Art Museum in Pennsylvania.  The back cover is an ad for a show on the Starz network.

Heavy Metal #285

The Love Special.  I got the newsstand cover A, "Demonheart" by Florian Bertner.  A pink heart valentine.  I enjoyed discerning that the background and the heart shape's border foliage are essentially mirrored images, while the demon is not.  And the bucket of tentacles.  It gets a 7 from me.


Another actual ad for an actual movie inside the front cover, for a movie I actually saw before the issue came out.


The contents page is illustrated by the controversial cover C, "Lapins d'Amour" by James Jean, so it was nice of them to make this available to all who get the mag, even those who got their issue with the cover C.... 


Also a couple new names on the contents page, Sarah Deal as Contributing Editor, and Jett Lucas as Coordinator (this is where I mention that Jett Lucas is in a recent deal with HM to publish a weed "edutainment" magazine.  weed has its place in HM's advertising history, so does booze, and porn.  and comics and t-shirts and posters and movies and albums and turntables and....  I'm not sure what to think about this new effort, so I'll wait to see where it goes).



Mr. Morrison's editoral is but a single page, but with such a breadth of verbal hyperventilation as to equal any of his other efforts in wackiness.  Using food-based descriptions of the mag's entries, allows access to hosts of nouns, as well as adjectives.  I admit I didn't get the abbreviated admonitions at the end, but the semi-literal bleeding heart valentine graphic was kinda neat.


Ai Shiteru! by JD Morvan and Liberatore - 5 - After some anticipation of Liberatore's return to HM's pages, I was a bit disappointed.  Perhaps my own fault for whatever expectations I set.  The Liberatore art and the Morvan story start out interesting enough, a gaijin works up the courage to approach the object of his adoration, a girl working for a "maid cafe", but the ending, of the art and story, seemed sudden and incomplete, superficial, to me.  Maybe I'm just not in the mood for deranged obsession today.


The Color of Air by Enki Bilal - 7 - Still brooding and mysterious, I'm enjoying seeing the various storylines unfold, and wondering how they will tie together.  That and the many lovely bits of art.  Pretty dark in there though.  The terror zeppelin full of explosives and nuclear waste is extra silly. 


Lure by Matias Lázaro and Chas! Pangburn - 6 - (Chas! gets first billing on the contents page).  Unexpected fauna at a deep sea lab site.  This one was a bit uneven for me.  There's some good storytelling going on, and some nice drawing work, but there were some spots that I was less impressed by.  Like why was she still there, alone for weeks in a submerged lab?


Zentropa by John Mahoney - 7 - Though I noticed a few annoying things, like a couple instances of excess pixellation and inconsistent coloring, there's still lots of scrutinizing fun to be had.  Just imagining generating 3D characters and moving them about to create images, noticing creative copying and mirroring, things that aren't noticed until the second or third look, that kind of thing.  What I thought might be an emerging storyline doesn't seem to be, maybe the skeletal character, with some organs and veins but no flesh but his dick, is taking us somewhere.


Artist's Studio by Rubens LP - 5 - With an interview by Rantz Hoseley, and Sarah Deal as contributing editor.  While it's an interesting and appealing style, the poses seem obviously lifted from porn, and diminish rather than enhance the attractiveness of the art for me.


Frankenstein Unrequited by Dean Haspiel - 7 - It's like a monster movie battle royale, with Frankenstein's Bride storming the castle to avenge her love.  I don't know who the bald guy at the end is though.  Sometimes the art seems hasty, and silly (bazooka), but it puts up a furious pace and tells quite the wordless story. 


They Lived Happily Ever After by Fernando Baldo - 6 - This time it's the girl who slays the dragon to enter the castle tower to wake the sleeping prince from his spell, but it's a joke.  A pretty good joke, I'll admit.


Gutt Ghost:  The Letters of the Beast by Enzo Garza - 6.5 - I kinda like this guy from the last entry in # 283, and I'm glad I was wrong about never seeing it again, and this story of meeting a blind date and then his ex is kinda insightful.  But now I wonder about what else is in the story I don't know.  Maybe more is to come.


"Lil Charlie" Part 2 by John Bivens and Omar Estévez - 6 - While the three of god's charges proceed destroying creation, a new being Lilith is created, making this a potentially more interesting story.  I got a bit lost near the end, but it says continued so I hope I get to figure it out.


Tattoo Gallery by Brando Chiesa - 5 - I'm not very excited by a tattoo gallery in HM, but I will say the art depicted is very cool.  Though the images of mostly shaved arms are pasted onto some background, making me wonder about other effects that have been  applied, and after a while they start looking pretty the same, there's some nice skill and technique on display.


Salsa Invertebraxta by Mozchops (noted as Part 5 on the contents page, but I believe it's the 6th and last entry) - 8.5 - Yayyy!  That was fun.  My appreciation of the art and story, and even the poetry, grew as this went on.  I enjoyed the lush style and bright colors and brilliant imagination, and the dark parts too.  I enjoyed noticing there were protagonists, and I enjoyed their hijinks.  I enjoyed figuring out that the creatures depicted were much more imagined than real (angular egg-carrying robot drone!).  I even enjoyed the hokey "circle of life" thing.  Fun to see.  Thanks.


Artist Spotlight by James Jean, interview by Rantz Hoseley - 7 - Mr Jean gets some fine praise in the introduction, some nice work is displayed.  An interesting paragraph is a short description of how he came to do the "Lapins d'Amour" Cover C art.


Mythopia by Grant Morrison, Andy Belanger, Omar Estévez, Serge LaPointe - 6 - A rather farcical telling of many SF/Fantasy tropes.  It's pretty nice to look at, and even I got some of the jokes, but its tongue is so firmly in its cheek, it's hard to understand what it's saying.


The back cover is another actual ad for an actual movie, that I wanted to see but was actually out of the theaters before I was able to.

Forty Years

Forty years, who could have imagined?  A magazine from another time, living in the future.  A bundle of paper that continues to exist, that now stirs not only imagination, but memories.  Thanks.

Only took a couples weeks to get this after it came out.  A review will be several more weeks....



Xalabarder's ONIRIA: GENESIS

Well, the response to Xalabarder's fundraiser for his ONIRIA: GENESIS project has been puny.  It's not like I have any real influence, but I had really hoped he would get a better response, so he'd be able to proceed with collecting all the work he intended to.  At this rate, it'll be a surprise if he even fulfills the few backers he's got.


So come on slackers, there's only a few days left, sign up to back this cool project, you know you want to.


ONIRIA: GENESIS

Heavy Metal #284

It took a while to find a store that had this issue, and when I did, it was the cover B, noted as for comic shops and the web store, and it had a sticker with a UPC on the front, and a sticker covering the UPC on the back.  I got it at a mainstream B&N rather than a comic shop.  When I had a chance later, when I was away from home, I checked an independent bookstore and found the same thing.  It made me wonder, if the cover A (for "newsstand") had more demand than copies and they moved the cover B issues to cover, or if there was some other mixup.  The cover A appears to be still available on the HM web store.  I may have preferred the cover A for the Royo.  For reasons unknown, this is the Mythic Special.  And the cover price is up a buck, to $8.95.


Cover by Ken Kelly - 7 - "The Savage Sword of Jesus Christ" may have been a slightly clever take on the Xmas spirit, but it's a little late for that.  It's a pretty nicely done, if farcical, Conan/Jesus mashup.  Mr Kelly is apparently accomplished in his field.  As I was afflicted with Catholicism at an early age, I was able to note the absence of the stigmata, the nail holes in Jesus' hands, and of the wound in his side, but since it's blond roid-rage zombie-killer Jesus, I won't take any points off.  Conveniently, the cover B goes with the first story in this issue.


The page preceding the contents page has a a title Mythic Special and a credited work, the Call of Cthulhu by Francois Baranger.  Looks pretty cool but a bit on the murky side.


Mr Morrison's editorial is a slightly topical and expectedly unhinged, end-of-year rant, supplanted with the requisite magazine plugs.  I enjoyed the reference to Situationist pranksters, not only timely but something I've read a bit about recently.


The Savage Sword of Jesus Christ by Grant Morrison and the Molen brothers - 6 - I like the Molen brothers' art and Mr Morrison has crafted a wacky Hitler-writes-a-Jesus-screenplay story, that I'm not too sure about.  It's to be continued, so maybe it will gain some traction.


Atomahawk by Donny Cates, Ian Bederman, Taylor Esposito - 7.5 - Wow man, I wanna party like a cyberzerker.  Not so sure about the lust dungeon though, ick.  I'm having fun enjoying this one, I like the style and imagination of the art, and the writing is amusing or outright funny.   The story shows a history of the Atomahawk destroying enemies and smashing barriers.  It ends abruptly, without a "continued", but I hope it does. 


Taarna by Alex De Campi, Tony Parker, Leonard O'Grady - 5 - This starts with an excellent full page image of the title character made of fragments of various depictions with different outfits in basically the same pose.  I found it intriguing and engrossing.  The story that follows had an ok look but I had a hard time following it.  Varying framing implied multiple storylines, but they didn't come together for me.  Hopefully this continues and gets to define things better for me.  I need to admit some misgivings.  When the 1st HM movie came out in 1981, I didn't think the thrill I could get from having my imagination inspired when reading the mag, could be duplicated on the screen, and my preconceived notion was reinforced when I saw the movie.  It was interesting and sometimes fun, but the visual impressions were rarely stunning.  When I heard that a Taarna story was coming, I had a similar feeling, that the character had such a reputation, it would be hard to live up to.  So far, I still feel that way.  I hope this story persists and grows and proves me wrong.


Cerberus Ate My Homework by Dwayne Harris - 6 - called Hercules on the Contents page.  A mildly amusing one-page gag, nice looking with fun stereotyped characterizations of an enormously beefy student and the remarkably skinny graybeard teacher.


Art Gallery with Andrew Brandou - 6 - subtitled N the Garden of the Surrealist (or In, I suppose), with an interview by Rantz A. Hoseley.  I found a few bits of the "fine art" interesting.


The Simulationists by Duncan Trussel, Donny Cates, Andy Belanger, Lee Loughridge, Taylor Esposito - 6.5 - It says Adam Belanger on the contents page.  An interesting update to the door-to-door proselytizer story, they're using VR goggles to tell their story of repent or perish.  Some enticing big images are shown in their presentation, and some weird mixing of religious themes.  There's a joke or two in there too.  It even says to be continued, maybe it'll stay good or even get better.


The Color of Air by Enki Bilal, translation by Jessica Berger - 7.5 - It appears we get a third Bilal story to complete the set, with the previous Animal'z and Julia & Roem.  While there may be less of the sheer thrill of seeing Bilal in HM again, than the first time, this looks to have another part of the same broken world, and more mysteriously obtuse storytelling and marvelous art.  Since I wasn't paying close enough attention to know this was coming, it's a pleasant surprise to see more from a titan of HM's early history, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this fits together with the other stories.


Zentropa by John Mahoney - 7.5 - I'm having some pretty serious wow going on here.  It's fun for me to examine the plentiful detail, and I'm starting to notice perhaps some characters and story trying to emerge.  Or maybe not, and that confusion is fun for me too.  Even finding that amusing is amusing to me.  I guess that's part of the fun I get from doing this.  This doesn't say to be continued either, but I hope it does.


Lil Charlie by John Bivens and Omar Estevez - 6 - Three of God's creations, Lil' Charlie, Death, and Duncan, are charged with cleaning up the Universe.  Most of this is fun to read and entertaining to look at, but so far it's not quite grabbing me.  There may be more, it doesn't say to be continued, but with only parts of two of the three's stories told and an uncertain ending, it seems it may.


The Last Mortician by Tim Hall and Dean Haspiel - 5 - I wish I liked this one more.  Not only do I like the changing color schemes for different timelines, like The Last Romantic Antihero by Dean Haspiel in HM #281, but it has an interesting premise, that aging and death have been eradicated.  It goes to thoughts on love and death, but I couldn't follow it well.  The stories and timelines were confusing to me, and not in the amusing way where I like to infer possibilities, but in the frustrating, what the heck? way.  Add a liberal dose of suicide, and I didn't have much to enjoy.  I know I'm missing out.  I would have been helped if this one was a bit longer and gave itself more time to address the depths of emotion I thought it was trying to explore.


Concept Designer Gallery - Angelarium by Peter Mohrbacher - 7 - or Artist Designer Gallery on the contents page.  The project is about illustrating the "thousands of named angels throughout multiple mythologies" according to Mr Mohrbacher.  While I'm not big on poster type art of costumed posers, even I can see that these are imaginative and well-crafted.  The concept itself sounds pretty cool, I like some mythology, but I'm not motivated to explore further.  The back cover appears to be part of this project as well.  I will say it seems that fantasy art has a lot to offer to, and to be thankful for, the games industry.  It's provided an avenue for this type of skill, where digitization may have otherwise diminished it, it seems to me.


Salsa Invertebraxa by Mozchops - 7 - Our pesky little protagonists' hijinks continue, in often colorful and terrifically rendered ways.  I'm enjoying this one a bit more, maybe the text is even a bit less annoying.  I think there's one more left.


Snow Blind by Kong and John Bivens - 5 - Bullies in winter avenged by snowmen?  Besides the story being a bit unclear, it's drawn and composed nicely.


The Rabbi by Jok and Carlos Aon and Alberto Calvo - 6 - Subtitled "Tatele" translated as grandfather.  It appears a rabbi saves a condemned man, by constructing a golem of clay.  It's drawn and told well.


The inside back cover hints #285 will be the Love issue.  Besides an ad for a Dean Koontz book on the inside front cover (a book!) the ads are all for HM books.  So far I'll give the Morrison era a thumbs-up.  I'm not often thrilled but there appears to be some consistency in the quality and direction of the mag.  And I can still buy a paper copy to read in my grubby little hands, and for me that's the whole point.

Ferran Xalabarder

I received an email from Ferran Xalabarder!  An actual HM contributor of stories such as "Saving Poor Elsy Shelby" and "Heaven's Inferno"!  The HM cover gallery says he has been in HM eighteen times, I've reviewed a handful.


It's a rare thrill for an actual HM contributor to contact me on my blog, for any reason.  In this case, he wasn't writing to admire my incisive review work or eye-opening viewpoints (no one does, or would), but to share his funding effort for his Oniria: Genesis project, collecting many of his stories into a four volume mini-saga for publication:


igg.me/at/oniria-genesis


More than once I have expressed a desire to see the rest of the story, when making a review of a Xalabarder story.  It seems this may be my opportunity.  I'm considering signing up.  I'd like this to happen, and having a collected printed Xalabarder would be pretty cool.  I suggest that anyone who reads this should consider it also.