Heavy Metal #312

Heavy Metal #312 has the $13.99 cover price and 144 pages.  It's the Sorayama issue, or at least the issue where they got Mr Sorayama to do the two covers and a feature in the issue.  I got the cover "A":

The art for both covers is shown in the feature, more on that later.

I'm amused that Mr Sorayama is so associated with Heavy Metal Magazine for the November 1980 cover, "Warmth", which is certainly excellent:

(Image from heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com)

But besides that, Mr Sorayama's work in HM, until now, was the back cover from August 1981 "Ready Set Go":

An illustration in a feature "Gallery: The Art Of Mickey Mouse" in the May 1992 issue (photo from my copy):

And in an excerpt from "Six Foot One and Worth the Climb", one of the Julie Strain features Mr Eastman was so fond of during their time together in the HM Multiverse (for which Mr Sorayama isn't even credited in the mag, I'm relying on Lostboy's assessment, presumably from the book itself), promoted in the September 1997 issue:

(I think it's the one in the middle on the right.)

Some of my amusement is from learning more recently, that the Sorayama cover "Warmth" inspired a bit in an episode of the cartoon Venture Brothers.  From http://www.heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com/about.html, copied directly from the middle of this page:

So that likely added to the popularity of this image and its association with HM.  Which seems to have its own little niche in a niche of popular culture.  I even saw a brief image of a sculpture that was much like "Warmth" in the first episode of the new Freak Brothers cartoon on Tubi:

Still, the November 1980 cover is certainly Iconic Heavy Metal Magazine, linking directly into the HM's long history of sexy robots, beginning with the first cover:

Hey, 18 year old me in the late 70s thought it was hot to see a girl robot beating the crap out of some poor slob boy robot.  And it didn't stop there.  "Miss Heavy Metal 1978:  Roberta" from January 1978 got my attention:

In "Heilman" in August 1978, our randy and reckless protagonist finds himself coupling with a component of his hallucinatory spaceship:

(Heilman by Alain Voss ran in HM from June through September 1978.  I really liked it, the fantastic art and wild story was full of freaky shit like this.)

The July 1981 cover was not a Sorayama, but it was cool, "Exhausted" by Chris Moore:

By this time, 40 years ago, my young adult brain is pretty warped for sexy robots fitting in to it, with the rest of what HM had to offer, and I'm sure I've missed other examples that helped it along.  For me it's certainly a big component of my Heavy Metal Attraction.

That was fun.  This is a good time to re-state, that just because I like something, doesn't make it good.  And that goes for you too.  On to the magazine.

The big shots prattle on about their shit.  I need to be less annoyed by these guys, but it bugs me as they apply their self-centeredness to the mag as if they'd been there the whole time.  And it's odd that Mr Erwin mentions three covers by Sorayama for this issue, where it appears there were two released.

"Jack Vance's Avenging Demon Princes - Part One:  The Star Prince" by Jo Morvan, Paolo Traisci, Fabio Marinacci, Carol Burell, JAME, Fabrice Sapolsky - 7 - This appears to be a space pirate story, it starts with a man saving a child from alien attack, to charge the boy with vengeance.  He gets a good start on that quest in this first installment, as a grown man burying his mentor in space and getting entangled in space real estate intrigue.  I thought this was pretty good, in a translated french story in HM kind of way (this is noted as from 2020, pretty recent, and based on an original novel by Jack Vance).  It takes up 58 of the mag's 144 pages, in two parts, and I think it was space well invested, except that it appears there's a page mixup.  I think the story's 15th and 16th pages (pgs 19 and 20 in the mag), should have come after the 17th and 18th (the mag's 21st and 22nd).  It's not the first page mixup in HM, but it's pretty rare.

"Swamp God - Chapter 8" by Ron Marz, Armitano, Werner Sanchez, ALW Studios' Troy Peteri - 6.5 - And with Joseph Illidge getting an Editor credit.  A pair of the currently allied enemies are sent back to the witch's cabin for lamp oil, apparently part of the plan to destroy the Swamp God.  And apparently the Swamp God was lying in wait.  But what is reality, what is hallucination?  Who can say?

"The Adventures of Adrienne James - Chapter 1" by Matthew Medney, Bruce Edwards, Santa Fung, Lucas Gattoni, Morgan Rosenblum - 5 - So this one started in #307, with what looked like the beginning of a story, had another installment in #309, then reappeared in #311 with a "Preview" with different artists, and now this installment is an expansion on the Preview.  The one in #307 had an amulet retrieved by the protagonist, which is featured in the Preview and in the story in this issue, which ends with it being stolen.  It's almost like they're trying the Loc-Nar story linking device from the 1981 HM movie.  It's even glowing green.  But not much follows from one installment to the other.  (hey that happens in the movie too!)  Part of my confusion may be conflicting titles.  In #307, where the contents page indicates it as Chapter One, but not in the story itself, the #309 contents pages says Chapter Two, but the story says "Prologue Part II".  Then of course there's the artist changeover from the first two installments to the next two, and the different editors.  I choose to believe it's because R.G. Llarena left.

"Basic Time Travel" by PeeJay Catacutan - 7 - A recent history on human time travel.  An amusing premise, that time travelers often don't account for earth's change in location in space over time.  Pretty well executed too, especially how it's written.

"Starward:  Chapter Seven" by Steve Orlando, Ivan Shavrin, Saida Temofonte - 6 - With Joseph Illidge credited as Editor.  The Sisters join their fight against Kaos.  Which may mean fighting amongst themselves.  

"Invasion of the Sexy Robots" with Hajime Sorayama - 8.5 - The contents page calls this "Article - a Profile of Hajime Sorayama by David Erwin".  I found the images wonderful (the text not so much).  I alluded above to Mr Sorayama's relatively low amount of work in HM, compared to the outsized association his cover "Warmth" on the November 1980 issue has with the legacy of Heavy Metal Magazine.  I think this little gallery, and the four images it contains, goes far to cement Mr Sorayama's place in HM iconography.  Not just the very sexy robots, but the care and feeling that are obvious parts of the compositions.  I'm happy to be able to see this in Heavy Metal at this time in its, and my, existence.  The "A" cover image is a portion of the larger work that's shown in this gallery, but oddly it's mirrored here, judging by the "RIP" that's prominently on a shoulder for the cover image.  Regardless, the full image in the gallery is much more impressive, there are details that really add to the expression.  For example, the below snapshot shows that the two robots are bound at the waist by a large bolt, as well as the strings that look like they are stitched through their skins.  Also there's a turnbuckle, and an interesting double overhand knot that's also in another of the images.  These details enhance the impact of the stitching being symbolic of how tightly they hold together:

Also the strings tautly pulling the metallic skin, as if it were flesh, impressed me.  It looks to me that the same airbrush technique is used on this artwork as the November 1981 cover.  (I am also aware that Mr Sorayama is accomplished in other art and design work that is not necessarily sexy robots, but in Heavy Metal Magazine, we get the sexy robots.)

The other images in the gallery may be less evocative, but they're more titillating.  Indeed, they're so much more explicit than most of what's been in the mag for years, that I'll decline to show them here.  I guess for the mag, they're just robots.  Sexy robots, but robots, so it's ok.

"Dafina" by Mikael Lopez, David Aguado - 7 - In a decrepit wasteland the color of dust, an explorer encounters an ancient library, and its ancient librarian, and comes away with a book.  A fine mix of post-apocalyptic sci-fi and inner-space musings.  The spare art is a welcome contrast to some of the overactive comic art we see more often in the mag these days, and I found the storytelling compelling.

"Black Beacon - Chapter 5" by Ryan K Lindsay, Sebastian Piriz, JAME - 6.5 - with Joseph Illidge getting an "Edited By" credit.  This is still very pretty, and the vaporous storytelling has its attraction, but I don't really feel connected as this creeps towards its inevitable conclusion.

This issue concludes with the second part of "Jack Vance's Avenging Demon Princes - Part One:  The Star Prince", which I think is pretty good, despite it starting to look more like a storyboard.  Then a couple ads for HM publications, with a Dotty's Inferno book on the back cover, which might be fun if I ever run across it in a resale shop or something.  Next up is #313, and I already have #314.  I want to get #313 up a bit sooner.  If they actually get on an actual monthly release schedule, I'll have to keep up.  Don't hold your breath.