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.