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.
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Monday, December 16, 2019
Twisted Holiday Horror Tales #1
"Twisted Holiday Horror Tales #1", as advised to my humble blog by Attila Kiss, is now available for purchase, digital on comiXology: https://bit.ly/
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Soft Wood
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)