Peter Kleinman

Peter Kleinman came up with the now-iconic Heavy Metal logo, back at the beginning, while he was employed by National Lampoon. The very first issue, Number 1, April 1977:

(Image lifted from heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com, cuz it's The Best)

(Also from heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com, more detail on Mr Kleinman and his time with Heavy Metal Magazine)

During the last few years, Mr Kleinman had been credited on the masthead for the logo, and I thought was nice to have his name in the credits again, mostly absent since the magazine's earliest years.  He was even credited with Logo Enhancement in issue #320 and issue #318, which made me wonder if he was actually involved in those end days.

I was curious about Mr Kleinman, and a bit of internet searching was rewarding.  First I came across an interesting blog entry by Todd Klein, another famous comics guy I wasn't familiar with, discussing and speculating about the Heavy Metal logo.  The blog entry contains a reminiscence from his friend John Workman, also Heavy Metal Magazine's Art Director in early years (1978-1984), which was fun.  

Even more fun on this blog entry, was a reply in the comments by Mr Kleinman himself, six years later.  I'll take the liberty to copy/paste the text of his reply below:

Peter Kleinman here. yes I designed the Heavy Metal logo. The story above is close to the truth. I don’t remember Len grabbing it off my drafting table. I was assigned to be the creative director of the new Heavy Metal magazine while also doing my fulltime job as Creative Director of the National Lampoon. I set the type in the heaviest font I could find. ….. Coated the back of The repro with 1 coat rubber cement, sliced the characters apart with my trusty exacto, and fashioned a pretty cool little visual pun. Then I traced over the design and comped it up to see how it would work over various illustrations, and how it would look with cover lines, dates, UPC codes, etc. I presented the pencil sketch, which I still have, to the editorial board and the publishers. They loved it. ……. to date I have yet to receive one penny in royalties though it has been used on countless covers, tee shirts, web pages, posters, movies, etc. It is one of the most recognizable icons of the fantasy universe….. And it took me about ten minutes to create. I also designed the Animal House logo and the ad campaign, for which I was paid 350$ for by Universal Studios……. ahhhhhh, the good old days. its been 40 years since i was hired by Doug Kenney and Michael Gross to take on the best job in the world with the smartest, funniest, most incredible people ever assembled. I’m still at it and I love going to work every day. Creating great communication is still the same challenge…. except for the fact that its all electronic and we get more done with less. I wouldnt change a thing, wouldn’t do one thing differently….. All is as it was meant to be…… And as they say, now, you know the rest of the story. – Thanks to all – Peter

I thought it was really cool for Peter Kleinman to comment on someone's blog like that, with some first-hand narrative about how the logo for my favorite magazine came about.  And that I found it almost 10 years later, still out there on the internet.

Even cooler, Mr Kleinman has a website, which even has a page for Heavy Metal.  And a few other things like National Lampoon covers (I recall the Fat Elvis cover, and there's even the March 1977 cover announcing a sampler of the "forthcoming illustrated fantasy magazine, Heavy Metal") and some other cartoons.  

But the coolest yet, is when I whimsically wrote in on the contact form, to say I was a HM fan and thanks for the cool logo.  And he actually wrote back!  We sent a few emails back and forth.  He was happy enough with how I built the PHFMEH from the Summer 1987 issue, that he sent me an image of a connect-the-dots Picasso he did for Esquire magazine in 1974:

Wow.  I accepted the challenge so enthusiastically, that I actually procured a copy of the July 1974 Esquire magazine, to get the intended resolution, greatly improving my chances of completing my quest:

 

Someday, I may actually do it.  And if so, it will show up here.

After the holidays, I reached out to Mr Kleinman, to perhaps continue our conversation, but no word.  Oh well, I enjoyed a friendly interaction with someone from Heavy Metal Magazine's very beginning.  It was a rare treat, so thanks.  He certainly owes me nothing more.

Well, that was fun, and I'll look forward to more fun working on the connect-the-dot puzzle, and posting it when I get there.  I've got a few more bits of things to write about too, so see ya next time.

DON'T BUY FROM THE HEAVY METAL ROBOT KIDS!

DON'T BUY FROM THE HEAVY METAL ROBOT KIDS!  The Robot is lying to you!

Almost a year after Heavy Metal Magazine collapsed, the HM websites are still up, though with no activity or updates of any kind I can see.

However, it turns out that the HM shop site is still "operating", zombie-like, enough to make people think they are still selling and shipping merchandise.  They are not.  Heavy Metal Magazine is dead.  I actually tried to place an order, and got to a credit card entry page.  No, I did not complete the order, I didn't want to join the unfortunates who got screwed by HM, ordering and paying for items that never shipped, which was a widespread problem well before the Heavy Metal ship sank.

It's appalling.  I even got a "you left items in your cart" email from the robot.  It's disgusting and funny that the email indicated a physical address, which appears to be in Long Island NY, and seems to be an auto repair shop.  It's another sad commentary on the clowns and jokers that ran Heavy Metal to its demise.  Medney and Erwin?  Yeah, fuck those guys.

I suppose eventually the site will die, if no one pays to keep it up.  Just as well, considering the mag's ignominious end.  But until then,

DON'T BUY FROM THE HEAVY METAL ROBOT KIDS!

Tripwire 30

I went and ordered a copy of the Tripwire 30th Anniversary book, since it was published by Heavy Metal, and I found it for $12 on ebay (vs the $40 original price, which it's still being sold for) including shipping.  HM advertised it in the mag right up to the final issue #320.

I'm not familiar with Tripwire, apparently it's a long-standing comic magazine from UK, and I'm not a comic book guy, but I decided to get it to see if there was anything about why Heavy Metal published it.  No one reason was indicated, and besides a couple words in the Editor's introduction and the publishing notes, there's a several page article about Heavy Metal Magazine at 45, which is about the most HM made of a 45th anniversary.

(I'm stumped by the last image, apparently a woman's portrait.  I know I've seen it, I thought it was in a gallery in a mag issue.  I recall thinking it was very different in style from the rest of the images.  I couldn't find it.  I paged through the last fifty issues, twice, and tried some internet searching.  I didn't see it.  If anyone has a clue I'd love to hear it.)

The article is unfortunate.  The handful of images are nice enough, mostly covers.  The text starts with some good early history, including more detail with names about how National Lampoon brought in stuff from Metal Hurlant to start Heavy Metal Magazine.  But then there's a very brief description of ownership transitions, so brief as to be misleading.  Some talk about their big plans.  There are a few paragraphs about the 1981 Heavy Metal movie, and the Magazine's influence on some creators.  It ends with a dumb quote from Mr Coriale, including an amusingly censored "- Buckle the f--k up, Heavy Metal has arrived."

Reading this article, and considering the recent past as I flipped through pages looking for that portrait, made me think of how much has happened with my favorite mag over the years, and how poorly this article reflects what happened.

The best I can figure, this was an opportunity for Tripwire to get their book published, and an opportunity for Heavy Metal to promote their future plans.  We all know how that turned out.  Heavy Metal Magazine didn't last a year after this came out.  (Medney and Erwin?  Yeah, fuck those guys.)

The rest of the book is outside my range.  There are a couple familiar names, Moebius, Corben, some Morrison and Bisley, but lots of superheroes on which I am clueless.  More power to them to enjoy their long history.

The worst part of it, is the egregious HM logo treatment, on the spine and the barcode on the back:

Never have I seen anyone try to separate the Heavy from the Metal with the HM logo, and for good reason I think.  It detracts terribly from the logo's visual impact, and it's an unfortunate commentary on the magazine falling apart immediately following this publication.  I'd bet Peter Kleinman had nothing to do with this.

So I'm glad enough I got this, for its small bits of Heavy Metal-ness, how it fills in some gaps, and adds gaps of its own, to Heavy Metal Magazine's history, and that I could share it like this.