Welcome to fred's HM mag fan blog. The intent is to post reviews, past and present, of Heavy Metal magazine issues and related items.
Opinions are my own, except when they're not.
Disclaimer: I'm just a fan of HM magazine, I'm trying to find something to like. Sometimes I need to try harder than other times. I'm not a big comics fan, I'm not very well read, and this is barely a hobby. However, thanks to the awesome power of the internet, I can post my little rantings. What fun.
Heavy Metal #295, another "Music Special" in the vein of #287 (eight issues and over two years ago) with stories and art inspired by rock songs. They must have had some success with the previous Music issue, so they're doing it again. I'm ok with that. As before, I'm pretty clueless on the music, but I still get to enjoy the frenzy that seeps into the stories.
I got the Cover "A" by Killian Eng at the bookstore. It's pretty cool, a sorta-samurai guy at a keyboard, and actually quite reminiscent of the Cover "A" for #287, coincidentally also by Killian Eng. Imagine that. I didn't see a page showing all the covers in the mag, I had to go to the preview article to be sure which was which. The cover price is up to $9.99, and there are over 200 pages in this issue, compared to the previous #294 with over 150 pages at $8.95.
Judas Priest - "Firepower" by Jeff Krelitz, Diego Agrimbau, Agustín Alessio, Taylor Esposito - 6 - Besieged scientists release a robot warrior into spacetime. It joins some historical battles, laying waste to its finders' enemies. Kinda cool, if not dramatically intriguing. It says "To Be Continued".
"Crystal Planet" by Ned Evett, Joe Satriani, Brendon Small, Dan Morison, Dennis Calero, Micah Myers - 6 - A guitarist saves the world from alien invasion. It spends most of its space on the guitarist's back story, his long-gone father and the guitar he left him. The art's alright, the story goes pretty well, it seems like it could be continued, but apparently it's not.
HO99O9 - "Master of Pain" by Aaron Gillespie, Arturo Lauria, DC Hopkins - 8 - Pay-per-view snuff gang is destroyed by a bio-android vigilante. Incredibly violent and disturbing. The art is all deep purple and neon black shadows. The storytelling is brisk with an ironic twist to the justice delivered. It came together for me as a strong HM story.
"The Boss" by Diego Agrimbau, Marco Turini, Adam Wollet - 7.5 - "Story inspired by Dave Correia's cover art for Rob Sonic's Defriender album" which is conveniently located just before this story, and also the Cover "B" for this issue # 295. Death is overcome in a hostile takeover. I like what I've seen of Mr Turini's art in previous stories, but I didn't recognize this as his right away. Maybe it's the depictions of Death and demons instead of hot babes in improbable space suits. I still like it. The story gets a lot out of the one picture that inspired it, more than I could do, and makes strong reference to some present-day societal issues.
An ad for a Tenacious D tour, that was done by the time this came out, is followed by "The Metal" by Ryan Browne, Aaron Conley, Vladimir Popov, Taylor Esposito - 6 - Caricatures of urban musicians accidently summon The Metal and unite to send the demon back to where it came. They fail. Quick, fun, and a bit funny.
High on Fire - "Spewn from the Earth" by Phil Hester, Matt Allison, Frank Cvetkovic - 6 - The battle of gods and the suffering it brings. Greys and browns and quoted lyrics. The power and emotion it carries can't break into my skull.
Slipknot - "We Are Not Your Kind" by Corey Taylor, M. Shawn Crahan, Alex De Campi, Jonathan Wayshak, Fares Maese - 5 - Some guy wallowing in regret, wearing a mask, some book or game? The story may be unclear to me, the art is frantic and shattering, setting a stage for something maybe, since it says "To Be Continued".
Gallery with Grimes, and an informative interview by Hannah Means-Shannon - 6 - The musician is able to grow her art into visual space. Of course I don't know the artist's body of work, and though I get a high-school notebook feel from the art, I can also feel it trying to extend into fuller emotion and awareness, as well as technical execution.
Mastadon - "The Czar" by Jeremy Haun, Shane Patrick White, Nick Filardi, Micah Myers - 7 - Spelled "Mastodon" on the Contents page. I rather enjoyed this one despite my lack of familiarity with the music, I got into the epic though fragmented storytelling. A woman is betrayed at the heist of some alien monolith, or something, and is transported to another reality reincarnated as some sort of superwoman. Befriended by a local tribe, she's forced to repel an attack on them that leaves almost no survivors. The art is good enough, and does a great job driving the action of the story, with some fantastic imagination. And the storytelling drew me in, with few words, of which many were in an alien tongue, even though little is resolved.
Code Orange - "The Hunt" by Cullen Bunn, Andy Belanger, Tatto Caballero, Micah Myers - 5 - Told mostly without words. A car theft and chase in an urban wasteland. With Murder. If I had a clue about the song this is based on I probably would've gotten more out of it.
Def Leppard - "Hysteria" by Jeff Krelitz, Leah Moore, John Reppion, Simeon Aston, Moramike, Fabian Cobos, Zoar Huerta, DC Hopkins - 6 - Social worlds collide when a biker kid jumping over a ravine for a gang initiation, almost hits a bored socialite escaping her mum's snooty party. Of course she's smitten, and he leaves. But it says "to be continued" so we might get more from this story.
Amon Amarth - "The Berserker at Stamford Bridge" by Alex De Campi, Tony Parker, Carlos Cabrera - 6 - This story has some ambition and some success weaving the tale of a Beserker into the story of the Norman invasion of England. It tries to tell his origins and makes a nice reference to the Bayeux Tapestry.
Megadeth - "The Skull Beneath the Skin" by Justin Jordan, Rob Prior, JAME - 7 - A tale of personal anguish in a world full of evil. Cool art effects and the power of the storytelling was made plain to me.
Iron Maiden - "Legacy of the Beast - Night City Preview" by Llexi Leon, Ian Edginton, Kevin West, Richard Friend, Keith Champagne, Raúl Manríquez, Jacob Bascle - 5 - The long list of creators is not noted on the work, an apparent preview of a video game. HM is getting a lot of mileage out of this collaboration with Iron Maiden. I'm not a fan, but good for them.
"The Ghoul Screamer" by Dan Fogler, Burney, Justin Mohlman, Matthew Allison - 7 - A rather cool story about a band gaining possession of the guitar pedal of "Jimi Hyjinx". Reminiscent of "The Legend of the Magic Tone Box" by Angus McKie from the October 1980 issue of Heavy Metal, and with a layer of Spinal Tap. Derivative perhaps, but also funny, and I liked the art. And it also says "to be continued..."
"Murky World" by Richard Corben - 7.5 - I'm glad this is continued in this otherwise Rock-oriented issue. Our hero Tugat continues his murky quest, through a desolate landscape, encountering an old foe. Still more murky than mysterious, but it's fun and I still like seeing the wonky Corben art. "More violent punching and kicking" is in store.
Artist Spotlight by Gerald Scarfe - 8.5 - With a lengthy interview by Hannah Means-Shannon. Gerald Scarfe is a widely known cartoonist and illustrator (except my me) who did the art for Pink Floyd's "The Wall", so this does fit well with this Music issue. The artist is not shy expressing his opinions about his work or his politics in his art over his long career, and I admire the mag for displaying these opinions on its pages.
Soft Wood is labeled "America's New Comedy and Parody Magazine" and "From the People That Bring You Heavy Metal Magazine". First surfacing as an April Fool's joke, then announced as a real thing in June, I got my copy (with the Cover A "Gepetto" by Cedric Peyravernay, which is also the inside cover art) in a comic shop in September.
I'm annoyed this thing exists. If this had come out as a Humor Special or other HM publication in the course of a normal year, I would have felt better about it. But this year, when HM only publishes 4 issues, including this attempt at a new magazine, I felt the effort would have been better spent getting Heavy Metal Magazine published the stated 6 times in a year. (HM just announced #296, but it's just up for pre-order yet, so no way it comes out this year.) Most all of the stories, and there are many, would have fit just fine in "regular" issues. It's been disheartening these past few years that the mag hasn't been able to keep up a regular pace, pretty much since the end of the Eastman Era (which may not have been flawless, especially around the time issues started to be numbered. Hard to think that was 7 years ago).
I was almost annoyed enough to not bother with a review, and treat this as an aberration, but I figured the creators' work is worthy of attention (heck, they probably thought they were submitting to Heavy Metal, and I bet plenty are happy to be in something at least HM-adjacent), and I need to be able to take what I can get, with HM and everything else, 'cause nothin' lasts forever, especially not me. So here goes, then I can get to #295 before the end of the year.
First off, the logo is credited, "Heavy Metal & Soft Wood Logos by Peter Kleinman" right at the bottom of the first contents page. I had read before about the original logo on Lostboy's heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com/history but it's cool he was able to provide the Soft Wood logo too, and get the credit.
"Camp Micro-Penis" by Shannon Wheeler - 6 - A boy at camp tells the story of another boy's "Super Tiny Penis". This tries to rise above the joke by telling of the unfortunate lad's grace and sacrifice, but with only moderate success.
"Blue Haiku" by Marc Koprinarov and Scott R Miller - 5 - A series of illustrations in an inspirational poster style, but with subjects I can describe as sarcastic, accompanied by haiku-like verse with often sexual tone. The art and verse have little to do with each other, perhaps trying for a sharp mystery but I'm only getting a sense of murky confusion. If I liked it better, that might have been part of its charm, but...
"Jake Likes Onions" by Jake Thompson - 6 - There are a few of these one-pagers by Mr Thompson in this mag, with some decent black-and-white illustrations and a single joke, some are better than others.
"Suicity" by Osmarco Valladao, Manoel M, Carlos Cabrera - 5 - A citizen of a future-noir city jumps off a building, and is stopped by a security drone in mid-fall. Berated for law breaking by a clown-faced screen, including unauthorized suicide attempt. The penalty for which is death, so it lets him drop. Doesn't seem as funny as it may have been intended.
"Cartoon" by Shannon Wheeler - 4 - Angels in heaven, critiquing an angel rock band.
"Star Cycles" by Tom Pinchuk, Denis Medri, Troy Peteri - 5 - The story of a human interstellar hero, told as a tv retrospective with snippets of interviews of associates. It looks good and has some good lines.
Another "Jake Likes Onions" - 4
"Newsflash" by Krent Able - 6 - A tv news program seems to take its data from personal intimate measurements of the personnel. This is notable for the graphic depictions of the intimate measurements. There's a Readers' Survey at the end, I am apparently "just too thick to get it".
"Comix" by Alex Jenkins - 5 - A handful of one-page jokes. Wordless with simple art, they may not say a lot, but they do so with a certain amount of naïve charm.
"Watchmensch" by Rich Johnston, Simon Rohrmuller, Matthew Vega, John Higgins - 4 - Apparently a parody of Watchmen. I haven't read that, and but for a bit of recent internet jabber about Alan Moore and superhero comics, and apparently a tv show, I am clueless. I catch a couple cameos, Ozzy, Comic Book Guy, Krustofski, is that Mr Morrison? And there's some article parody in the middle that is not continued overleaf. I don't know from mainstream comics, and not knowing the inside jokes, I did not have fun reading this, my loss I'm sure.
"Baphomet Ad" by Krent Able - 6 - A rather fun two-page magazine ad parody, for a remote-controlled Baphomet toy. Some of the jokes were pretty funny, I liked the "omni-directional death mound" myself.
"Who, MD" by Tony Lee, Dan Boultwood, Adam Wollet - 6 - A family struggles to accommodate Grandpa's peculiar demands, starts off-the-wall and dials up the crazy from there, with a twist at the ending. Fun modern art with a fast-paced story, it's got some things to offer.
"BLARGH the Creature from Kraaka-5" by Rafer Roberts and Robert Sean - 7 - A scientist Dr Gravely and his assistant Billy encounter BLARGH in his hunt for his enemies on earth. Made to look like old comic dot-shading on tattered pages, it plays up the fun of sarcastic nostalgia. Maybe not pretty, but enjoyable.
"Evan Dorkin's Fun Strips" by (um) Evan Dorkin and Charo Solis - 6 - Sixteen Fun Strips, providing varying amounts of Fun. I liked the Socket Ghost in Busy Body Grandma, and the Extry the Quisp-looking alien in Science Fiction Theatre.
Another "Jake Likes Onions" - 4
"Doctor Gravely and Billy in: Lord of the Fruit Flies" by Sean Frost and Rafer Roberts - 7 - Doctor Gravely helps Billy with his Science Fair project. Classic.
"Food Fight" by Jesse Blaze Snider, Steve Kurth, D.C. Hopkins - 7 - A take on civil unrest in the context of an "uprising of anthropomorphic mutant animals". Nicely drawn with some bits of humor, and the writing had enough insight to find it enjoyable.
"Attack of the 50ft Fred" by Shannon Eric Denton and Benjamin Lackey - 6 - A horny 50s guy is abducted by aliens after getting shut down by his girlfriend at the makeout spot, and improbably survives mortal combat to emerge victorious. Moderately funny with nicely energetic art.
Another "Jake Likes Onions" - 5
"Blue Haiku 2" by Marc Koprinarov and Voodoo Salad - 6 - More perverted verse with a different artist's work accompanying. The art is stylized portraits with no relation to the verse, but I thought it was a bit more imaginative and interesting.
"Demonopolis" by Bob Fingerman - 7 - Sewage worker demons join their boss for dinner. I like Mr Fingerman's Dotty's Inferno, seen in HM #s 290 and 291, the art is fun and the jokes are funny, happy to see more of his similar work here.
"The Furious Friendship Goats" by Tony Fleecs, Celor, Vladimir Popov, Micah Myers - 6 - So, three magic goats have to throw verbal abuse at each other, or else the world stops spinning. The art is sparkles and pastels like a kid's comic, and the premise can be amusing, but the jokes are juvenile bro humor that I can find tiresome at my age. In conclusion, get off my lawn.
"The Second to Last Seal" by Sean Chen and Dee Cunniffe - 7.5 - Death comes for an unready man. I haven't really seen the Seventh Seal movie this is referencing, But I think I got the idea, and I quite enjoyed the storytelling and the jokes as the man delays his fate. And it says "To be continued..."
"Cartoon" by Shannon Wheeler - 5 - Another joke with Death
Another "Jake Likes Onions" by Jake Thompson - 5 - "If People Had Tails", more funny because it's more true.
So there is some Heavy Metal Fun available in this mag, and it would not be the worst Heavy Metal Magazine ever, by any estimation. Trying to get over my annoyance, I'll just sit here and quietly hope that HM will continue publishing and I will continue to be able to buy them and express my little opinions into the ethereal void.
So it's been over a year since I wrote about Dean Haspiel and his play "The Last Bar at the End of the World", and this flimsy connection with my HM fanworld. I recently figured out that an interview with Mr Haspiel about this play back then, was done by Hannah Means-Shannon, now HM's Senior Editor. So that makes it worthwhile to me to post about it.
Foreshadowing Ms Means-Shannon's interviewing prowess, as now on display in (both of...) this year's issues, she gets some in-depth answers from Mr Haspiel, and from some real-live New York performers from the show, Philip Cruise, Ed Miller, and Anna Stefanic.
It makes me wish there was more Mr Haspiel in HM. He seems busy, as noted on his website http://www.deanhaspiel.com/ and his other internet outlets, with his success with his Red Hook series. But this was a pleasant diversion from waiting for the #295 issue of the mag, and trying to decide how annoyed I am that Soft Wood exists.
It says "Industrial Special", I can't say for sure why, maybe it's because many of the stories have some technology. I got this year's 2nd issue of the mag in the 8th month of the year. It's a hefty issue at over 150 pages, and I enjoyed reading it. But it's hard to understand why they can still sell subscriptions for 6 issues a year, when they haven't produced more than 5 for a couple years, maybe since the Eastman era? I'm finding myself annoyed that they took the trouble to publish "Soft Wood", which seemed to start as an April Fool's joke (which I did finally find, maybe I'll make a review, dunno), when they can't publish a full year of bimonthly issues. It doesn't seem like lack of material is the problem.
As always, my whining gets me nowhere, and I'm better off finding the place where I can be grateful for what we do have. Working on it.
I got the Cover A, "Sorrow" by Donato Giancola - 6 - Two robots appear to comfort or caress a limp naked human form. Perhaps evocative but obtuse. This artist has a gallery in the issue.
Inside at the contents page, the art is from the Cover C, "Poursuit" by Tom Hisbergue, which I liked with its mashup vibe of Thelma and Louise meets Bladerunner.
"If/Then" by Genevieve Valentine, Agustín Alessio, Adam Wollet - 6 - A woman with a spear seems to be warily moving through a forest that appears patrolled by robots, when she encounters a robot dog trapped by a rock. She frees the robot dog, which then appears to bond with her. It's hard to say if this is simply a girl meets robot search dog story, or if we should find more to it. The title as program logic statement, makes me think the robot dog made the logical decision to protect the woman, based on her kindness in freeing it. But that makes me wonder if that would be a bug or a feature in the robot dog's programming.
"1NF3RNO" by Thom London, Curt Pires, Antonio Fuso, Stefano Simeone, Micah Myers - 7 - This seems to start as a future-religion morality play, then has the deaths and afterlifes of two people apparently mixed up. It mostly follows the deceased young woman's path through Hell and representations of the seven deadly sins, to try to find her way out. She was maybe successful? It's not surprising I could be a little confused, but I found enough intriguing questions in this to interest me.
"Smile of the Absent Cat" by Grant Morrison and Gerhard - 7 - Subtitled "chapter four: the whole of creation", and referred to on the contents page as "The Smile Absent Cat". Mr Catkins is convinced to join the "cult of science" that has been manipulating the world around him. Glad this chapter appears after "only a few" months (two issues) after chapter three, instead of a year and a half like the last time. And also glad for the conspiratorial plot exposition, though it seems our poor protagonist is being taken advantage of in his mentally unstable state.
Gallery by Nick Pyle - 7 - With an interview by Hannah Means-Shannon. From comics consuming youth to noise-rock musician to self-taught artist, Mr Pyle has a unique and recognizable style, heavy on armored and/or robot humanoids, with lots of colored lights and squggly wiring. I can imagine the lights blinking, though I can hardly imagine this style animating well. My untrained eye seemed to see the untrained means to the artistic ends, and I was more amused than annoyed by inconsistencies in perspective or anatomy. I think it's because I get the feeling he's having fun with it. I also enjoyed the imagination displayed, where the style doesn't get in the way of the story the images seem to convey.
"Caretaker" by Matt Emmons - 6 - A robot, apparently the "Caretaker", makes its way through what appears to be the decrepit remains of some sort of human space colony settlement. I liked the art style and execution, and the storytelling was good, but I got lost in the details, like who designs a robot with a fragile glass skullplate? And it had a fruit stolen by a raccoon-looking critter, but it had another one stashed to give away later? Just another day apparently.
"(Inspired by the Song...) Thieves by Ministry" by Aubrey Sitterson, Andrea Mutti, Vladimir Popov, Taylor Esposito - 6 - A complicated title, noted more simply as 'Ministry's "Thieves"' on the Contents page. I don't know the song, so I start disadvantaged. I liked the art style, ragged yet colorful and energetic, and the storytelling builds nicely. The story itself doesn't grab me, maybe I'll look up the song to see if that fills me in.
Gallery by Donato Giancola - 7 - With Hannah Means-Shannon with the interview. The HM website recently produced a News article with Giancola's work, many of which appear in this Gallery. The article calls this the "Empathetic Robots" series, oddly not mentioned in the interview here. I liked the realistic-ish classical-y art style, which helps display the Empathy the images are apparently meant to convey.
"Into the Black" by Keith Grassmick, Nick Philpott, Dennis Calero - 6 - A dark near-future cop thriller with several broken-down-cops tropes. It does have a knack for presenting contrivances as intriguing perspectives.
"Glitch" by Dwayne Harris - 6 - A simple future society-VR joke, this tells its joke well in just a couple pages.
"Murky World" Chapter 8 by Richard Corben - 7.5 - A search party seeks the kidnapped daughter of Lod Phatuus, finding instead the escaped slave Moja with Tugat waiting in ambush. Still terrificly Corben, and with some fine gratuitous nudity, I'm a bit miffed this one doesn't follow up on the old prophet's proposition to Tugat. I'll get over it, especially if this continues like this.
"Machine Age Voodoo" by Frank Forte, Michael Duplessis, Moramike, Carlos Cabrera - 6 - A disaffected mad scientist, as a musician, seethes at society's inability to recognize his genius. Energetic writing and furious art sustain the storytelling, despite flat characterizations and a disconcerting misalignment of the color register in some of the images. It seems intentional, and adds to the frenzy, but it made it a challenge to process some of the scenes.
"I am Your God" by Homero Rios, Davi Augusto, David Ocampo, JAME- 7 - A society where humankind is extinct, replaced by the "Synthetics" who "emulate their behavior for a better life experience". Until one starts questioning their existence, just like those flawed humans. The art has a nice style and the story unfolds apace. I thought this did a good job with the telling of this old modern story.
Gallery by xsullo - 7 - Hannah Means-Shannon interviews the artist, AKA Nick Sullo. Portaits of techno-fear, with strong colors and disturbing imagery, which I enjoy despite the visceral fright. The HM website also has a News article with more of this artist's work.
"Dance, Death, Dance" by Kevin Eastman, Esau Escorza, Tato Caballero, JAME - 6 - A robot has life, love, loss, and death. Starting with a lightining strike through a future-modern city, to the waste dump at its base, a Terminator-looking robot is animated into a Bisley-looking character, to experience his ghost-lover, to lose her in a zombie attack, and to die to give her "life". The art is vibrant and enjoyable, and gives the story its all, but I found annoyance that Mr Eastman's writing consisted of Hamlet's "To be or not to be..." soliloquy. I'm sure the writing of this story also included telling the artist what scenes to draw, and this is the most Eastman content in several issues. I guess I was hoping for more.
"The Second Rider" by Jesse Lonergan - 6 - A motorcycle riding assassin, the "second rider", fulfills his mission, and then some, replacing his target to rule in their place. Oh and he's a "shape shifter" and is last seen impersonating the ruler in the ruler's bed with a concubine. I liked the art and styling, the storytelling was effective, even if unexciting to me.
"Planet Carnivore" by Philippe Caza - 8 - Rating may be inflated for sentimental reasons. I greatly enjoyed Caza's work in the earlier years of the mag. The art was a delight, colorful and intriguing, finely executed, plenty sexy, and he could tell a story with wit, humor, and grace. The most recent instance of Caza's work in the mag as far as I can tell, was on an inside cover in #281, and that was apparently from 1983. Besides that I believe his last appearances were in 2001 (the January and Summer issues). Having newer work in the mag is a delight. For a long time, a link on Lostboy's HM fan page went to a Caza site, in French, but there were some items for sale, digital work and some printed. The link is long gone, and I regretted not acting on procuring some of this stuff, but I actually looked and found a link. Maybe I'll actually do something. Oh, and the story? A marooned space traveler, describing the native fauna trying to eat them as annoying downstairs neighbors (a perspective often used in Caza's HM stories), is plucked from the peril, but not to be saved.
Attila Kiss, known to me first as Intone Flux from the old HM website forums, has taken to creating his own work, I've noted his Blues Ratz #1, #2, and #3 previously, and other things, and he (not so) recently alerted me to a new project.
"Twisted Holiday Horror Tales" #1 is taking form and he is posting regular updates here. It looks promising and I will look forward to seeing its release in time for the hollydays.
As always I wish him the best in his projects and his life, and express my admiration for his determination, and my apologies for my lack of timely response.
Noted as the "Beyond the Darkness Special", I got this first issue of 2019 in the 5th month of the year. While I would be happy to be wrong, I think there is no way there will be six issues this year. I'll be surprised if we even get five like the last couple years. I try to be grateful for what we get, a printed magazine still being published for over 40 years, but it's pretty annoying. At least I don't have a subscription, I'd be pretty disappointed if I did.
The big changes in staffing previously announced are noted. Tim Seeley as Managing Editor, Hannah Means-Shannon and Justin Mohlman join as Contributing Editors, and Grant Morrison is now listed as Advisor. I'll take this opportunity to thank Mr Morrison for his time as Editor-In-Chief (and Kristan Morrison as Contributing Editor) as I have enjoyed the mag over the last several years. I felt his time stabilized the magazine's form and content, and my hope is that these editorial changes have laid the foundation for its continued existence for years to come. I also enjoyed Mr Morrison's fanciful editorials. Best of luck to whatever projects you'll be working on, that I will never see.
The editorial page illustration is by Denis Zhbankov. It looks like a gryphon-demon with their young picking at a bloodied corpse. The Cover "A" which I got from the bookstore, is "Family Dreams" by Flavio Greco Paglia, and is noted as for "Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre" which is apparently a sci-fi etc film fest. Each artist has a Gallery in this issue.
"S.O.L.U.S." by Timothy E. Bacon - 7 - The creator gives special thanks to Antfarm, SolCommand, Parris & Stonemason. A lone space traveller near the dead earth seeks memories. The art is nice looking, though the excursion suit looks pretty ungainly, and the storytelling turned out well, using first-person narration and the computer giving unheeded warnings. The "of course it's a girl robot with metal boobs" moment hardly detracted from its impact on me.
"DoppleDämons" by Emilia Pedrazzoli, Emiliano Pinto, Facundo Percio, Omar Estévez - 5 - From suicide to sacrifice to flesh-eating demons to a roiling hellscape, I couldn't keep up.
"The Door" Chapter 5 by Michael Moreci, Esau Escorza, & Adam Wollet - 7 - Well, in this final chapter our protagonist persists and resists the constraints of the constructs of the artificial world holding her captive, and successfully finds her way back to herself. The art is again lovely, and contains a scene of bodily disintegration so arresting as to rival my favorite shocker in my favorite story from the October 1978 issue, "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin". I'm a bit dismayed by the returning pervy smell, with more of the art toying with upskirting the poor girl, and I'm either annoyed or amused by, when she emerges naked from her own immersion tank, they get coy about nipples. Eeesh. C'mon, it doesn't need to be like that. Yeah, HM has a long history of crappy-ass sexism and objectification, and sexy is part of the fun, but nowadays shit like that gets called out. There's still a lot to recommend this story as a Heavy Metal delight.
Gallery with John Kenn Mortensen - 7 - with an interview by Hannah Means-Shannon. Line drawings of horrors that surround us. Apparently Mr Mortensen came to fantasy art from another life, and the art seems to have such an untrained skill, as to make me fantasize it's something I could do (but I couldn't, it's much better than I would do), which seems part of its charm. And such a visceral charm, certainly willies-inducing.
"Mother Death" by Homero Rios, Nephtali Leal, and Jame - 7 - Mother Death gives the damned their rest. Almost a throwback to HM's early days, with art with expression that exceeds the execution, and the translation giving the story a different perspective from what its original language may have had, telling a supernatural tale of shit and death. I think I missed a few things. The unfortunate mirrored background images and the extremely long hands in the last panel confused me, but the skull-headed cherubs were eye-catching and had some good lines.
"Little Green God of Agony" by Stephen King and Dennis Calero - 7 - A wealthy man, crippled in an accident, enlists an exorcist in a desparate bid to end his pain. Primarily told from the perspective of his very skeptical nurse. I have read little Stephen King, but I'm not surprised that this is a well-written, engaging read. Which is good, since it's pretty long, 15 pages, and it has lots of torsos surrounded by word and thought balloons. The art seems deliberately subdued, a darkened room with mostly stark shadows and muted hues. It ends abruptly, but happily, for the wealthy guy at least.
Gallery with Flavio Greco Paglia - 7 - With an interview by Hannah Means-Shannon. Some nice imagery from a successful fantasy/commercial artist. While I found some of it on the dark and murky side, the artist comments about working with contrast and learning to use light to tell a narrative, and I managed to see that.
"The Guest" by Manuel D. Montesinos - 7 - A lone survivor of a disastrous mission from Mars recalls the anniversary of the incident. It makes a pointed statement about humans destroying their worlds, and ends with a not-too-shocking surprise.
"Holy Wars ... The Punishment Due" by Tim Seeley, Ignacio Calero, Carlos Cabrera, Micah Myers - 7 - An excerpt from the Megadeth: Death by Design graphic novel. A lone techno-vigilante wages bloody vengeance against the corporatist machine. I'm not especially excited about the HM mag collaborations with heavy metal bands, my loss I'm sure. It does make sense in some ways, with HM's many music references over the years, and obvious marketing potential. And I did enjoy much about # 287. And if it works, good for 'em. This entry benefits from energetic art and some pretty good storytelling.
Gallery with Denis Zhbankov - 7 - With an interview by Hannah Means-Shannon. Some nice personal art from a professional artist. Some was pretty dark and murky, but I did like a couple a good deal, the smoke break and the night catcher, they were imaginative.
"Murky World" by Richard Corben - 8 - Chapters 6 and 7 back to back. Lots of furious action and escape, and recapture, and ... is the old storyteller coming on to Tugat..?? Whoa. Maybe we'll get to see what's up with that abdomen. Or ... Could be yikes either way.
"Green Grower from Rigbadal" by Z. Pahek - 7 - A marooned space captain tries to survive with his robot companion, landing on wild Rigbadal looking for something to eat. A little mix of Star Wars and Little Shop of Horrors. It's colored well and looks nice but I think I like Pahek's work in black and white just a bit more.
"White Death" by Diego Agrimbau, Eduardo Risso, Alberto Calvo - 7 - Rebelling slaves in a failed revolution in the Andes. Told by one of the rebels, as he remembers his late father and the voodoo he taught him, this story appears to be placed in certain historical time (I started looking and General San Martin is known as a hero for his role in South American independence from Spain, there's a lot I could learn about that) which lends weight to the tale. I thought the art was dynamic and engaging, fitting the storytelling.
So I liked this issue fine, and I'll look forward to the next, which is already being promoted for pre-sale, so when I saw that I got working on this post.
It announces this issue is now for sale, but I haven't seen it in a store yet. We're just getting the first issue of the year at the end of April, jeez.
But it's a pretty nice preview, touching on many stories I'm looking forward to, especially The Door and Murky World. There are cover images too. I expect to get the cover "A" at the store:
Though I was struck by the image for the cover "C", "REMANENT HEAD 2" by Wanjin Gim:
It's pretty fantastic and strikingly similar to the Spring 1987 cover by Jim Warren:
Paul Kirchner did The Bus in Heavy Metal Magazine, from the second issue until 1985, the end of the monthly era. I really liked it, it did a lot of storytelling in less than half a page, and thought it was a big part of what made HM what it was to me. He did several other stories in that time that I liked, like The Temple of Karvul in February 1979 and Critical Mass of Cool in November 1984. Maybe I didn't think his art was the most spectacular in the mag, but it was very good in stories that made you think.
There was a return of The Bus in HM #276, and I had hoped for more, but I haven't come across it. He does sell books including a couple The Bus compilations.
The Bristol Board recently had some Dope Rider stories listed, which is what got me thinking about this. Dope Rider was in High Times way back when, and it appears Mr Kirchner is producing new stories. It wasn't in HM, but it's pretty cool regardless. Check it out.
(man that webpage really hates my computer, takes forever to load with all the crap and ads)
Rantz Hoseley has "left the company" it says. Nothing on what he's doing or even a thank you.
Tim Seeley is apparently a well-known comics guy, and the article has Mr Eastman and others saying how great Tim is. No word from or about Mr Morrison. Comments on the article and the fbook post are all over the place, most like Mr Seeley and think Mr Morrison will hang on, though some seem even more clueless than me.
For me, it just came to me how HM has been trying to merge with comics, which I've been in denial of for a while. I still thought of Heavy Metal as "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine" and comics were more lightweight and transient, but with the popular culture impact of comics these days, I can realize why HM might want to seem a part of that.
I'm also a bit annoyed about such an announcement by a fbook link to another article, rather than directly from HM, but I guess that's just how they do things, when they don't have much of a PR stance, as seen by the haphazard nature of the HM internet presence. (it's been over a year since the main website has had anything new.)
So best of luck to Mr Seeley, and I hope he does at least as good of an interview as Mr Hoseley.
R. M. Rhodes has a great little article on his heavymetalmagazine.wordpress.com about the history of Heavy Metal Magazine cover prices, which includes history of the tagline, which was "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine" for a good while, with some discussion of the issue format going from monthly to quarterly to bimonthly to whatever it is now, including just numbering issues rather than noting the month or period and year. For fun I lifted the chart from the article:
The article nicely gathers these bits of info and helped my understanding of these trivial but interesting details of the history of Heavy Metal Magazine. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Ben Michael Byrne revived Kranburn last year, after dropping it in favor of other stuff, and there was a link to "Printed Kranburn" that never materialized. I had seen some references to new issues coming but I never found where to buy them, since he seems to be most active on Fbook, but I ain't on that so I don't get very far, until Mr Byrne recently put up a link on his Twtr, to his updated Ownaindi listing. Ownaindi is a site for Australian comics, where he was selling his NSEW (also pretty cool) before, and though it could be problematic, it worked for me to get them. He's gone and printed all the old Kranburns, and the new ones, and the NSEW, as well as something called Ektype (I have no idea what this is, but I want it anyway). I went and ordered everything I didn't already have. So this is great news for people like me, who really liked Kranburn and Mr Byrne's work, and are fortunate enough to afford to buy printed comics shipped halfway around the world.
Just got this issue in a bookstore on the last day of 2018. That made five issues in the year, based on when I actually bought them. Same for the year before. Falling short of the stated six issues per year, and the internet presence hanging by a thread, concerns me about the health of the operation.
But the mag itself is still pretty good. I got the Cover A, "Elefanka" by Ron English.
Pretty cool, I like it so I'll give it an 8, and especially the background elephant images reminded me of the Roger Dean Osibisa album cover art.
Yeah, not quite the same, but still kinda neat. The mag is labeled the "Psychedelic Special", and there is some attempted mind-bending going on, so the Special name has some actual meaning this time.
The Contents page illustration is by Adrian Cox, "Spectral Witness with Gathering Storm", which looks like just that, and Mr Cox has a Gallery entry in this issue.
The staff listing has some changes, no more Jett Lucas (and no sign of that weed "edutainment" magazine he was said to be working on almost two years ago), and there's a Paul Reder noted as COO/CFO, with Brian Witten going to Creative Advisor. Jeff Krelitz is still listed as President. I certainly don't know what's really going on, but I'll guess that an executive-level reorganization indicates a change in operational structure, which I will hope is to stabilize the organization to ensure its continued existence.
Mr Morrison is still around too, and his editorial for this issue is written as a story of illicit drug trials that produced "HM292" and its psychoactive effects on those subjected to it. Rather clever and it fits the theme. I'll give Mr Morrison credit for continuing to produce these editorials in such an entertainingly loquacious fashion.
"She Comes at Midnight" by Rob Sheridan - 8 - Musings of desire for late night tv images. Evocative and cool to look at. This very much makes me think of the time long ago, before cable, where a subscription for early pay-tv for sports and adult content, involved using a set-top box to unscramble the subscription channel signal. And it was rumored that if you didn't have a subscription box, but fiddled with the antenna enough, you could just make out a boob or something. Never worked for me, but this makes me think Mr Sheridan may have been a young teen boy in the mid 70s too.
"The Smile of the Absent Cat" Chapter Three by Grant Morrison and Gerhard - 6 - Noted as "the never condition". A cat lunatic asylum resident, tormented by the Great War, trying to get his life back in order, is approached by another resident, and pulled into some devious plan. Some nice storytelling going on, but even with the three chapters being mostly separate stories, the year and a half since the last chapter made it hard for me to get excited about it. I wonder when the next chapter might appear, or even if there's a whole story to even get through.
Gallery with Miles Johnston - 7 - with an interview by (surprise!) Rantz Hoseley. The artist tells us a great deal about himself with Mr Hoseley's help, and I thought what I learned helped my appreciation of his work. There's a lot to like, though I have to get over being picky about proportion in what looks like it should be photorealistic. Because it's not, it's supposed to evoke things like infinite regression and emptiness inside, not look exactly like them, because it won't.
"The Door" Chapter 4 by Michael Moreci, Esau Escorza, & Adam Wollet - 7 - The story continues for our young protagonist and her misadventures in worlds she does not know. Reappearing in a city scene familiar from the beginning, but where the residents have pig heads, she and her companion "Monster" are rescued from the crowd by a pig with manners, introducing himself with a "these swine know little when it comes to civil society" as Francois Bacon. Monsieur Bacon not only deduces that her paper crown indicates the Garbage King sent her for a reason, but expounds on the nature of the worlds they are in, helping us understand what's going on. Similar to the Matrix, they are in a series of software constructs of realities, the product of humanity retreating into their inner digital worlds, and her ability to step between them makes her unique, but also able to escape. He directs her down a darkened staircase, and this chapter ends with "to be concluded." The art continues to be enjoyably lovely, and the story exposition takes some shots at some of humanity's more selfish aspects, including the current aberrant administration and abdication of individuals' parts in society. I'm looking forward to how this concludes.
"The Oneiroverse" by R.G. Llarena, Garrie Gastonny, Omar Estévez, Jame - 8 - An aspiring writer pays for a dream journey into the Oneiroverse to search for the IDEA to write his first book. It starts with a joke (I've not read Hitchhiker's Guide, but even I know "why forty-two") and sends him to dozens of worlds with fairy princesses, mystical warriors, and bitchin' babe bands. He returns dissatisfied, still not realizing where the IDEA needs to come from. Nicely done art and I again enjoyed Mr Llarena's storytelling abilities, and I was impressed by how well the translation worked.
"The Rise and Fall of Empires" by Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes - 5 - A somewhat interesting execution of representing change with an area graph. Here it's apparently it's about distribution and reach of presumably societal factions shown with different colors and geometric patterns. It's pretty abstract and without context on the factions, so it doesn't really tell me a lot.
Gallery with Ron English - 8 - Titled The Art of POPaganda, with a short text introduction of Mr English (Not by Mr Hoseley!?) and a series of images that rather assertively demand your scrutiny. Some really wacky stuff going on there, not to say I don't enjoy it. Mr English did the first cover of the Morrison Era:
and the skully Mr Smiley is seen again here, as well as other recognizable and perhaps not-so familiar characters. I enjoyed looking at the images and imagining what it would look like generating this stuff, and considering the filthy mess of society I inferred from the compositions. And good thing I liked it, since there's more of Mr English later this issue.
"Influencer" by Michael Kupperman - 7 - In three pages and nine panels, a story of ergot-induced madness, prophecy, and immortality. The art is perhaps not refined, but so effectively plays its part in the storytelling, which I found fantastic, literally, including the unbelievability of the ending. And of course, it's on topic with the Psychedelic theme.
Another ad for the Dark Matter Heavy Metal coffee, which seems to exist only in the pages of the magazine. I've never seen it actually for sale.
"Hydroglyphs to Mania" by Miranda Smart - 7.5 - Heavens, a trip through the caverns of your brain doesn't have to be so scary, but it can be. A wordless depiction of a peer-pressured hallucinogen ingestion, looking every bit like it's describing a personal experience. And the story's success in telling me with the art alone is what impresses me. A similar trippy art style was more common in the mag's early days.
Gallery with Amélie Barnathan - 6 - Mr Hoseley makes up for lost time with a long-ish interview. Ms Barnathan shows a number of works with some thought-provoking images, and talks about her training, and a new Tarot she worked on, apparently Instant Archetypes, "an analog toolkit" for our digital age. I guess Tarot is a thing.
"Citied" by Rantz Hoseley & Andrew Brandou - 7 - Cute little art student critters dress up for the funnest Halloween party ever. Chemical assistance was applied. It was worth the challenge to discern the text and details in the colorful jumbled miasma of the art.
"The Color of Air" Part Nine: The Conclusion by Enki Bilal, translation by Jessica Berger - 8 - Still beautiful, even moreso with more color at this ending and epilogue of the old story, pointing to the beginning of the next. The Planet finishes its Bloody Coup and the inhabitants are re-invigorated and re-associated. Like life I suppose, it's only supposed to make as much sense as you can make of it. Thanks for everything Mr Bilal.
"Beatle" by Diego Agrimbau & Gabriel Ippóliti - 6 - Ringo impersonators are turning up dead in the city. A Beatles-loving cop goes undercover at a well-known impersonator agency, and uncovers the Beatles' final secret.
"Combrats" by Ron English - 9 - Mr English brings us to the Combrat Zone, where "feral clown kid soldiers" patrol the no man's land between Delusionville and hell. An inhabitant of Delusionville, a Rabbbit, wants to visit hell, but is detained by Combrats. It's just as wacky as it sounds, and it looks even more. The Combrats are like clown faced dolls with tie-dyed clown suit uniforms and helmets, and guns, and the rabbbits have three ears and three eyes (as also seen in some of the previous Gallery). There's a lot of 3D modeled background with fantastic imagery, some so clearly rendered as to make me wish he had constructed it all with modeling clay and popsicle sticks, some of hideously mutated creatures so Bosch-ian that I thought of the Bruce Bickford animation in Baby Snakes. Much of it had me thinking of the beloved (by me) Rock Opera by Rod Kierkegaard Jr from Heavy Metal in the later 80s. So much to see, so much weird as hell and so much creepy as shit. There's even some "regular" comic drawing and a "painted" image or two. The story gets right into the nature of belief and reality (Delusionville and hell) and God and Satan, and I enjoyed some of the banter, though I admit I didn't follow it all the way it was going, and there were parts in quotes I didn't know, so I missed out on some of it. But I got much of it, and I caught a joke or two in there, and the whole story was bunches of Heavy Metal magazine fun, so thanks for that.
Gallery with Adrian Cox - 7 - With more great interview work by Rantz Hoseley, and Jeff Krelitz is credited as being in the interview, at a gallery opening of Mr Cox's work at the Corey Helford Gallery in LA, but I guess he didn't make the edit (though he got in a couple photos). The work shows fantastical images of humanoids made of flowers, or iridescent energy, or ... something, and apparently it tells a story. The text was informative, and I was able to get a feeling of the story from the descriptions and images here. Cool.
"Cultscape" by Hector Lima, Patricio Delpeche, Martin Túníca - 6 - A couple makes their escape from a White Light cult based on a space station. It makes the most of the facets of insight and brilliance that shine through a rather opaque story and its serviceable art, as it tries to convey the mind control pressure inherent in a cult environment.
"Murky World" Part 5 by Richard Corben - 7.5 - A small chapter in the story, Tugat and Moja are to die in the arena, but the ferocious killer beast won't cooperate. Simply lovely to see, enticing and mind-boggling, and I'm having too much fun to be bored by the story's meandering. What can possibly happen next?
