Heavy Metal #303

Heavy Metal #303 has a cover price of USD$13.99, 144 pages, it's the first issue I got in 2021.  Again editorials from the three big shots. They all talk about science fiction, and two of them end on dumb notes.  At least there is actually some sci-fi stuff in the mag.  I got the Cover A by Pascal Blanche, spaceships in orbit, cool and blue, from mycomicshop.com again.  They usually have them available earlier, and I'm not about to order from HM, not only because of the people complaining about not getting their stuff, but I don't want to be on their mailing list more than I already am (I only gave my email a couple times to comment on articles several years ago, now I'm getting their newsletter, twice each.  hmph).  Here's the image from mycomicshop.com, I think it's pretty cool so I'll call it a 7:

There's almost no change on the masthead, and they're still crediting Peter Kleinman for the logo.  Good:

"Lucy:  Hope - Chapter Four" by Patrick Norbert, Tanino Liberatore - 8.5 - With Frank Forte & David Erwin noted again as Editors.  Pain and loss, struggle and hope and perhaps redemption, the pre-human characters survive, in this final chapter.  Wonderful imagery and presentation, with the story bridging the gap in time and humanity.  Certainly one of the better HM stories of the post-Morrison era.

"Savage Circus" Chapter Four by Brendan Columbus, Al Barrionuevo, Candice Han, Dave Sharpe, Joseph Illidge - 5 - With killer cassowarys, a flashback, a yeti and a bejeweled panther.  The art may be getting slightly better, the story maybe not so much.

Interview with Brendan Columbus, by Matthew Medney - 6 - This also includes Chris Columbus, Brendan's father and famous film guy.  Indeed, Chris has most of the story, including the obligatory HM reference.  Maybe not exciting to me, but I liked the enthusiasm.

"The Last Detective:  Redemption" by Claudio Alvarez, Geraldo Borges, Arthur Hesli, Maycols Alfaro, Guillermo "Kobayashi" Nuñéz - 6 - A failed but legendary detective is commandeered back into service, and partnered with an insufferable robot, to find the source of a killer drug.  Okay art and writing good enough to not be too superficial.  Twenty pages and it ends with "End of Chapter One" so presumably there will be more.

"The Rise - Part Two" by George C. Romero, Diego Yapur, Dc Alonso, Saida Temofonte, Joseph Illidge - 7 - The broken professor goes in search of the missing component for his work.  The developing story is interesting, the telling is nice, and I'm liking the art even more, cool black and white and red style, and it does well to advance the story.

Interview with Liam Sharp by Geoff Boucher - 5 - Evan Copp gets an Editing credit.  Again a transcription of a Mindspace podcast.  Most remarkable to me is the transcription "band destiny" of what was so obviously supposed to be "bandes dessinée", that even a lunkhead like me who only has the slightest idea of what that is, could notice.  They were even talking about Heavy Metal!  Sheesh.

"Dark Wing - Chapter Four" by Matthew Medney, German Ponce, Protobunker Studios, Bruce Edwards, Pete "Voodoo Bownz" Russo, Saida Temofonte - 6 - Most interesting to me is the parts where Cell is showing the kids some history, with some convenient story background and nicely put together pages.  Much of the rest is either hard for me to follow or so obvious as to be flat.

"Sides" by Marko Stojanovic, Tudor Popa - 7.5 - I liked the art in style and subject, quite reminiscent of HM's best years, and it tells a nice story, almost a parable.  Not overly long, and my impression is that it has a very good translation.

Interview with Dylan Sprouse by Joshua Sky - 7 - I have not been impressed by the various entries in HM on Mr Sprouse's Sun Eater, but I admire that he is strong enough to discuss the personal side to the "cautionary tale about drug addiction and how it affects families" that he describes this work as.

"Neoma:  The Bride - Chapter Two:  The Wedding" by Michelle Sears, Bart Sears, Periya Pillai - 6 - The Bride is presented to the groom.  A heavy feudal Japan motif, a couple modern-ish bits.  I find it difficult to track characters, and who is talking.  The word/thought balloons are different, apparently to discern different characters, but the speaker is not always in the panel.  We'll see where this goes.

"Dominion" by Dwayne Harris - 7 - Future space archaeologists determine mankind's fate from the evidence.  Perhaps not a new story, but it makes its point well in its two pages, and I like the art, shiny and chrome.  I seem to like Mr Dwayne's HM entries.

"Funeral - Chapter Two" by Emilio Balcarce. H.C. López, Jok, JAME, Alberto Calvo - 7 - "They desecrated the casket!"  The art and text are dense, nicely displaying human stupidity and otherworldly horror.  With sex and explosions too.  I'm enjoying the broad scope and quick telling.

"String Theory" by Steve Orlando, Marcelo Borstelmann, Micah Myers, Morgan Rosenblum - 6.5 - A Soloist warrior fights the ruler of silence.  The art is technically very good in execution and composition, though it's riddled with posing, but the sword turning into a guitar was pretty creative.  And while the story comes across in a familiar manner, I quite enjoyed its ambition.

"Last Planet Other Side of the Sun" by Chris Anderson - 7.5 - Giant-robot driving humans fight a losing battle with an alien invasion, ending with the salvation of both sides.  With giant-robot-extraterrestrial-virtual-sex, wheeee!  Fantastic storytelling, and the psychedelic mind-meld flashback is really cool too.

The back cover is an ad for the "Green Slime" movie from Warner.  A space babe in the clutches (?) of a tentacled one-eyed space monster sure gets one's attention.  This is the first non-HM ad in the mag for a while.

Heavy Metal #302

Heavy Metal #302 has the new cover price of USD$13.99, and again has 152 pages.  I got it from mycomicshop.com in December 2020.  It was the last of the six issues I got in 2020, the first time in several years that six were published.  And that was after an attempt to go monthly again in September, which didn't quite happen right away, but lately it seems they're getting there.  I miss the long gone days of monthly Heavy Metal Magazine, and I'm skeptical they can make it happen sustainably, but as long as they publish the mag, and I can still afford it, I'll keep getting them.  I got the cover "A", "Battlebot B" by Patrick Reilly (image from mycomicshop.com):

There are editorials from the three big shots, going for more sincerity and some reminiscing.  I'll not do a photo of them, but I will for the Contents page, mostly for the churn in the masthhead:

"Lucy:  Hope - Chapter Three" by Patrick Norbert, Tanino Liberatore - 8 - With Frank Forte & David Erwin noted again as Editors.  20 more pages of really nice art and harrowing action, and uncanny rock-throwing accuracy.  The overlay of contemporary human thought on top of this (technically) pre-human story, is prominent but I'm not annoyed by it, it's clearly part of its charm.

"Taarna - Part Two" by by David Erwin, Matthew Medney, Butch Guice, Chris Sotomayor, Marshall Dillon - 6 - This is indeed a continuation of the story started in #300, where Taarna seeks the source of the sentinels plaguing the planet she has been called to.  Finding the perpetrators, she destroys their leadership, as a popular revolt conveniently erupts.  While Taarna's success is admirable, I found the storytelling fragmented and I wish the art inspired me more.  At least we learn she calls he mount Avis.  Which is something I missed in the #300 entry, Taarna speaks!  The character in the 1981 movie, and the four more recent Taarna stories, written by Alex de Campi (and collected in a 2019 issue that I bought on a whim in a comic store, just to see, and didn't think of reviewing since I wasn't too excited about it, pretty good art but a nutty story that didn't have the mystique I carry for the character from the movie), as well as the entry in HM #284, maintain the character's silence.  I suppose I understand they need to expand the character to enhance its marketability, but it's a pretty drastic change.  I am also amused by Taarna's mount (Avis) getting more pteranodon-looking.  Maybe it's to get closer to the form of Arzak's mount.  Maybe not, but I enjoyed spending too much time looking it up.

Avis, from #302:

Taarna's mount from #300:

Taarna's mount has a brief appearance in the 2019 series, and it's not even really hers:

Taarna's mount from the original movie:

Arzak's mount, from Heavy Metal April 1977 (#1):

For me, I wouldn't mind if they went over-the-top pteranodon, like in the old Jonny Quest episode #15 "Turu the Terrible" (I really liked Jonny Quest growing up):

That was a lot of fun.  Back to this issue.

"Angel of Detroit" by Timothy E. Bacon, Grant Fraggalosch - 6 - With Daveyabbo and Xurge3D getting special thanks, and Frank Forte getting an Edited By credit.  Transhumans, humans hybridized with technology, struggle against human fear and oppression.  Great-looking art, and I felt hints of Ghost in the Shell, and it packs lots of storytelling in a few pages, but I think there was more that could be told.

"Savage Circus" Chapter Three by Brendan Columbus, Al Barrionuevo, Candice Han, Dave Sharpe, Joseph Illidge - 5 - It's losing me in a predictable story line and uninteresting presentation.  Hope it gets better.

Interview with Wayne Coyne by Geoff Boucher- 7 -  With a subtitle "Somewhere Over the Psychedelic Rainbow".  An excerpt from Mr Boucher's Mindscape podcast, half of it seems to be Mr Coyne interviewing Mr Boucher about his interview with Mœbius in HM #300.  Which is probably why this is in HM in the first place.  It's still pretty amusing, even with Mr Coyne's sketchy memories of HM ("There's the one with Mœbius and Corben, Richard Corben.").  I once came across a video Christmas on Mars that was the Lips', which may not have been great but it was pretty fun.

"Dark Wing - Chapter Three" by Matthew Medney, German Ponce, Protobunker Studios, Bruce Edwards, Pete "Voodoo Bownz" Russo, Saida Temofonte - 6 - There is some interesting presentation of a youth accessing "Cell" to learn what a spear was, and about hunting for food in earlier human history.  And I liked the character name "Professor Quest".  But this mostly misses the mark for me.  I went back and read the preceding two chapters, and I can't tell who the funeral service was for, one of the crew of the lost A-113 gather ship from Chapter One maybe?, nor why the head pilot and the head mechanic are in bed together, besides setting up some relationship conflict.  The chapters seem barely linked to each other, and the colorful art hardly advances the story.  And they'll show a guy's nipples but not a gal's?  Is this Heavy Metal?  Hoping it gets better for me.

"Funeral - Chapter One" by Emilio Balcarce. H.C. López, Jok, JAME, Alberto Calvo - 7.5 - An archaeologist is summoned to the corpse of God.  Told as reminiscing while awaiting his death, the story begins with a space object detected on a collision course with earth, and its sea landing reveals an enormous casket.  Human conflict ensues.  I enjoyed how much the drawing told the fantastic story and the text supported it with accessible adornment.

"Sun Eater" by Dylan Sprouse, Carlos Magno, Saida Temofonte - 5 - With Joseph Illidge getting an Executive IP Editor credit and Matthew Medney getting a Short Story Editor credit.  It is short.  An elven alchemist in his oh-so-quaint lab.  Flirting with his assistant, or something.  It doesn't say To Be Continued, but you know it is, somewhere.

"The Rise - Part One" by George C. Romero, Diego Yapur, Dc Alonso, Saida Temofonte, Joseph Illidge - 6 - Set against the Cold War, a scientist loses his family and is pressured to continue his neurological research, this time for the military.  I think we know where this one is going.  Cool black and white and red art.

"Cobalt-19" by Mark Bodē - 7 - Continuing in the style of Sunpot from HM #301, Mark Bodē has some fun with space procreation, and comments on the more current pandemic.  Pretty and sad.

An Interview with Mark Bodē by David Erwin - 8 - Subtitled "Cheech Wizard's Heir Apprentice", this is interesting, informative, and enjoyable.  With some fun name dropping and more, including more info about Mark Bodē's coloring of Vaughn Bodē's Zooks for Heavy Metal, in July, August and November 1979, and January, March, and April 1980, when he was in his teens, and working for (the now ghosted former HM owner) Kevin Eastman. 

"Onslaught Prodigy" by Mark McCann, Peter Duncan, William Simpson, Frank Forte - 6 - With R.G Llarena getting an Edits credit.  Lifer Terror insurgents breach the Prescient Edge Chamber, to kill the oppressive Shapers and their Seer.  They are thwarted by their own questions.  Very cool and colorful art, with four of its six pages as two-page spreads, which unfortunately works poorly with the mag's edge-glued ("perfect") binding, with the image disappearing into the fold and hampers the effect of a single larger image, which diminishes the impact and disrupts the storytelling.

"Matter Jerry" by Edgar Roggenbaun, Patricio Delpeche, Mauro Gianetto - 7 - Cocky corpulent keyboard jockey Jerry, is selected as the only ideal specimen on Earth, to join the Guardians of Matter in the galaxy's War of Wars.  He leaves a note for his mom.  Some warmth and humanity rise from the cliché.

"The Tea House" by Mikael Lopez, Lem - 7 - In Tehran, a man visits a tea house, wanting to forget the horrors of war, the horrors he perpetrated.  Instead of the tea that makes him forget, the shop owner gives him the tea that makes him remember.  I liked the simplicity of the story, and how it uses historical and poetic references to give it complex mysteries.

"Maiden - Neoma:  The Bride - Chapter One:  The Dream" by Michelle Sears, Bart Sears, Periya Pillai - 6 - As if in a dream, plucked at by the undead, as if in a nightmare, confronting their demons, as if in a mirror.  And then they woke up.  This does a nice job of setting atmosphere, as it prepares for "Next:  The Wedding".

Quick note that all the ads are for various HM Products, Virus comics (still hard to believe they went with that name in 2020), Fishkill and Brooklyn Gladiator, Starward, Heavy Metal Elements, etc.  I guess it beats funko pops or statues.