Heavy Metal #315

I got my copy of Heavy Metal #315 via ebay in early April, and it has 144 pages with the $13.99 (USD) cover price.  Mine is the Cover A by Kim Jung Gi, with Vasator and Crunch hacking up some insectoid creatures.  Also, inside the HM logo is a part of a scene with Taarna, it appears, with perhaps some insect-y foes as well.  It's fragmentary and not clear.  Photo of my copy:

It's pretty energetic, I'll give it a 6.

We are spared the Big Shots' blatherings this issue.  Instead a simple full page In Memoriam for Ivan Reitman, whose involvement with Heavy Metal is in producing the 1981 Heavy Metal Movie.  Mr Reitman was featured in the "Imagining Heavy Metal" documentary included in the Columbia Pictures DVD of the movie.

"The Axe" by Joe Trohman, Brian Posehn, Scott Koblish, Diego Fichera, Lucas Gattoni, Morgan Rosenblum - 7 - Misfit suburban detritus high school kids, encounter "The Axe", an evil mysterious scary guitar, in a seedy guitar shop.  Stereotypical characterizations, but I like the energy of the art.  It ends with a fine splash page promising some freaky otherworldly horrors, despite being another unfortunate two-page spread.  And it's "Te Be Continued" so we hopefully get to see some of that promise realized.

"Engagers - Part 1" by Matthew Medney, Bruce Edwards, John Roi Mercado, William Soares, Lucas Gattoni, Morgan Rosenblum - 4 - More of the same as in the Preview in #314, social media tech startup enjoys unbelievable engagement.  I'm not excited by the art or storytelling, but at least the question is asked:  we could, but "should we?"  It says "To Be Contintued", but should it?

"Swamp God - Chapter 11" by Ron Marz, Armitano, Werner Sanchez, ALW Studios' Troy Peteri - 5 - And with Joseph Illidge getting an Editor credit.  At last it ends.  After all the BLAMs and killing, the remaining Union soldiers find out the war has been over for weeks.  That's the twist?  Honestly I thought that kind of slow communications was pretty common at that time.

"Black Beacon - Chapter 6" by Ryan K Lindsay, Sebastián Piriz, JAME - 6.5 - with Joseph Illidge getting an "Edited By" credit.  This ends with this long sixth chapter.  The art is really good, engaging and dramatic, and the story progresses, but it's too bad that the mystery of the storytelling didn't really create much interest for me. I was just watching it go by.

"Vasator and Crunch" by David Erwin, Valerio Befani, Javier Mena, Saida Temofonte, Morgan Rosenblum - 6 - The mercenary brothers scheme to kill their employer, on learning that he plans to have them killed.  There's a flashback to younger days, when it was Cade rather than Crunch, which somewhat plays into this story.  This is the fourth installment of these two characters' story, and there have been different artists each time.  What's up with that?

An Interview with The Wizard of Barge by Joshua Sky - 3 - This is subtitled "Across the Barge-E-Verse and Beyond!"  The Wizard of Barge describes his artistic upbringing, from skateboards to animated movies (including the 1981 Heavy Metal Movie) to t-shirts.  In the middle of the interview, the reason this is here comes out.  The Wizard was approached by HM to make six images for NFTs (... JFC! ...), and six little images are the graphics for this interview.  They look pretty cool, but ...  One draws direct inspiration from the HM movie.  It's telling that he states "I don't know if they will be in print or not".  Three guesses, and the first two don't count.

"Stable - Special Preview" by Matthew Medney, Morgan Rosenblum, Voodoo Bownz, Jonny Handler, Francesco Pisa, Ismail Nihad - 5 - This also has a subtitle "Created by Herø Projects & Tomato Farm".  A guy breaks the security perimeter of a not-quite-abandoned industrial facility, and gets stunned for his trouble.  The art is not bad, in a modern comic digital style, but it's so flat.  Even the bits of supposed action look static.  The story?  Who can say?  This ends with "Available in Stores and Digital Now!"  Perhaps we'll see more of this in the mag, perhaps not.

"Dark Wing - Chapter Nine" by Matthew Medney, German Ponce, Andrew Dalhouse, Saida Temofonte, Joseph Illidge, Bruce Edwards, Pete "Voodoo Bownz" Russo - 6 - Nine of the fifteen pages are filled with fiery explosions, one is filled with explosive lightning.  There's lots of action movie framing and posing.  This chapter does end in a twist (only a little Matrix-y) which at least counts as story progression.

"Savage Circus" Chapter Eleven" by Brendan Columbus, Al Barrionuevo, Candice Han, Dave Sharpe, Joseph Illidge - 3 - Bonus in this issue!!  This one ends too!  Sorry to the creators but I disliked everything about this.  And just because I don't like something doesn't mean it's bad, but I didn't like any of it.  And it's like they're toying with me; now it's Candice Han on the Contents page, and "CANDiCE HAN" in the story.

"Winnie the Poe" by D⦁MINT⦁ID - 5.5 - Subtitled "Rum, Rum, Rummy", this is kind of a wasteoid-trash parody of Winnie-the-Pooh.  Somewhat funny characterizations, a clever bit or two, a handful of pretty nice illustrations, and a smattering of typos, come together to make a somehow not-totally-awful bit out of it.

"Starward:  Chapter Nine" by Steve Orlando, Ivan Shavrin, Saida Temofonte - 6 - With Joseph Illidge credited as Editor.  The Seven Starward Sisters reminisce before they must fight again.  Again the art is working really hard, and the story keeps backfilling, but I'll admit I thought "fist-fucked" in a YA graphic novel was unexpected.

Well, I actually finished this review before I got the next issue, it's been a while since that's happened.  #316 is ordered but it'll be a few days for it to show up.  Though the mag isn't exactly monthly, they're actually running pretty close.  I'll just keep hoping it keeps up and we get more interesting fun bits and less crap.