Heavy Metal #304 has the USD$13.99 cover price and 144 pages. I got the cover A by Andrea De Dominicis, in March, off of ebay since I didn't see it on mycomicshop.com where I usually go these days. It's pretty cool and it gets a 6 from me, while I'd think it'd be easier dragging a dragon head first (though I've never tried). Image I lifted from HM's site:
This image appears lighter than my copy:
A bit odd, though inconsequential. Also odd is that I noticed, sitting here with my HM collection staring at me, that the logo varies. Slightly, but noticably, over the years. Comparing this issue with April 1977, below, the proportions of the "Y" look like the letters are "thicker". Even ignoring the outlines, it can be seen by measuring the edges and comparing ratios. Looking back I also saw variations in how the "E" edges are more or less parallel between issues, and some other small differences. Which blew my tiny little mind, which thought the logo was fixed, and the differences in color or texture or outlines were just applied to the same template. Perhaps different logos were generated from scratch, with likely variations occuring. Mostly I'm just surprised I didn't notice until now:
Amusing but inconsequential. A bit more interesting in light of Peter Kleinman now being credited regularly for the logo. I'm sure others are more knowledgeable about logos in general and the HM logo in particular.
On to the mag, where again the three big shots wax eloquent, on comics. I never really thought of Heavy Metal Magazine as "comics", since it was "adult" (though I barely was), and it was so far removed from reading Mad Magazine and Peanuts, and Sgt Rock, and G.I. Combat, in my youth (though it did hit some of the buttons hit by my friend's brother's undergrounds like Zap and Mr. Natural). I realize now, as much more of an "adult", how HM has always been comics-adjacent, at least, and it sure seems to be getting closer to "comics" every day. I'll give the three big shots credit for producing these editorials and sharing some opinions and viewpoints.
"Maiden - Neoma: The Bride - Chapter Three: The Massacre" by Michelle Sears, Bart Sears, Ilaria Fella - 6 - A massacre indeed. The bride is a demon, filling the panels with blood.
"Azra Alaraph" by Darko Perović - 7.5 - A story of one of the horrors of war. A gritty black and white style that helps the mystery of the storytelling, seen less these days than in the mag's early years.
"Backup" by Hal Jay Greene, Joel Ojeda, Enrica Erin Angiolini, Bernardo Brice, Sabrina Del Grosso, Zach Howard - 7 - A long-haul space freighter pilot, with her homemade robot companion, are imperiled by a high energy piece of space junk piercing their hull. She won't make it, and doesn't expect the ship to be found, or the "backup" she made of herself, to be retrieved to be "recorped". Buuuutt, somehow she is, and her robot buddy finds her immediately. Despite some of it being on the thin side, I thought this did well to tell a thoughtful story.
"Funeral - Final Chapter" by Emilio Balcarce. H.C. López, Jok, JAME, Alberto Calvo - 7 - God's worms overrun the earth, but there is hope in a new ark and new worlds. Growing even more busy and far-fetched, I still enjoyed how much ground this covered. It's noted as from '09 at the end, and with a Color: Haus Studio credit as well.
Interview with Gideon Kendall - 7 - Subtitled "Between Life and Death" and with Joshua Sky doing the interview. A collection of delightfully bizarre and meticulous drawings. Mr Kendall has the required HM-influence name-drop, and it's promoting a HM published book, so good for him. I like wacky stuff like this, reminding me of some early undergrounds as well as Garbage Pail Kids.
"Story Time" by by Ron Marz, Bart Sears, Andrew Dalhouse, JAME - 5 - Extremely buff Santa from "A Midnight Clear" in issue #297 is featured in a two-pager with Santa not reading stories to kids. Pretty cool looking art with not too much story. I'll complain here again about how poorly two page spreads work with the mag's current "perfect" binding. Without wrecking the binding to spread the seam apart, the continuity between the two pages' halves of the image is non-existent. The image really suffers.
"Synap$e" by Blake Northcott, Giuseppe Cafaro, Bryan Valenza - 6 - Subtitled "Corruption(dot)exe" and with Frank Forte and Matthew Medney getting Edits credits. A wronged woman pays some sort of AI for revenge. Pretty good art, an ok premise of a creepy data dystopia. Does anyone pick up anonymous calls anymore? It ends with a cliffhanger, but no indication of continuation besides that.
"Starward: Chapter One" by Steve Orlando, Ivan Shavrin, Saida Temofonte - 5 - With Tim Seeley and Joseph Illidge credited as Editors. I read somewhere that this was going to be a HM YA graphic novel. It's a comic, complete with superhero outfits and disaffected youth. The art is pretty cool, notwithstanding a couple more two-page spreads.
"The Wizard's Curtain" by Mark McMann - 6 - An eight-page long prose piece, telling the story of a consciousness time traveler. It has a "Wonderwerk" mark, so maybe it came from the podcast. It develops its interesting premise well, that humanity lives on as tank-living organisms able to cast their consciousnesses through human history. The narrating protagonist prefers ruthless dictators' last moments, but pursues his dreams of a seemingly ordinary 21st century man. I felt the ending didn't meet the story's promise.
"Viral" by Benton Jew - 6 - A nifty virus/zombie joke, the brevity of its two pages is just right. The art is ok and the joke isn't new, but I thought this did its job well enough.
"The Last Detective: Redemption - Chapter Two" by Claudio Alvarez, Geraldo Borges, Arthur Hesli, Maycols Alfaro, Guillermo "Kobayashi" Nuñéz - 6 - A long installment (31 pages) completes the story started in #303. The broken detective finds the source of the drugs and the cause of his misery, with some droid/transhumanism help. Some interesting story twists keep this from being just another shoot-em-up cop comic.
"Forgive Us Our Sins" by Mark McMann, Boo Cook, Frank Forte - 6 - A scientist sees the results of his work. Good art with lots of expression, pretty good premise that perhaps too quickly came to its conclusion.
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