Heavy Metal #5 (Legacy #325)

Heavy Metal #325 came out in the beginning of May 2026, and I got mine before the end of May.  What could be the first issue of the second year of Heavy Metal Magazine's rebirth, it will be the last before the magazine goes to bimonthly publication for six issues a year.  New bimonthly subscriptions were offered, and there has been confusion for some who started new quarterly subscriptions more recently, among others.  More on that subject for another time.

But already, notable changes were applied for this one.  For one, the various cover artists are not listed on the contents pages.  Now, the artist of the particular cover is noted across the top.

My issue is the store version Cover A by Pascal Blanché:

 

Pretty nice, I give it a 7.  I thought the variously horny bat-winged eyeballs were cute.  Some odd pixely stuff in spots, like it was on purpose, like they used to do with zip-a-tone.  Apparently only three variants this time, and one is a "webstore exclusive nsfw".  I'm not sure if this is an improvement:

Images from the HM store:

 

The back cover is a collection of images from the contents, a trick I don't recall being done before:

  

Mr Forte's brief editorial is mostly a summary of the magazine's contents, with just a small paragraph of opinion celebrating the "hand-picked chaos" of Heavy Metal Magazine in times of digital algorithms.

Likewise the Contents pages are different, without the list of covers and artists, fewer names on the masthead, pared down to big shots it seems, and fewer items listed in the contents, with 22 entries for the 232 pages.

No more Artist's Interpretation pieces, for now anyway.  There's no Dossier this issue either, but there is an article "Scrap Metal" (With a logo crafted from Scrap in an 80s-looking rounded font, and Metal as the Heavy Metal logo.  About which I have mixed feelings.), by Cody Goodfellow, subtitled "Neon and Chrome:  How Neotropolis/Wasteland Weekend Make It Epic".  Wasteland Weekend appears to be a fun time where people enjoy dressing up like it's a post apocalyptic wasteland, like a Ren Faire for Mad Max enthusiasts.  Similarly, Neotropolis is shown as a place where folks do the same with a blade-runner-in-a-galaxy-far-away vibe, though they say characters must be original.  Looks like a lot of fun if you enjoy that kind of thing.

"Thellus" by Simona Mogavino, Carlos Gomez, Lorenzo Pieri, JAME - 6 - Subtitled "The Cycle of Eva Samas", and with translations by Ivanka T Hahnenberger and Elowyn Castle, and edits by R.G. Llarena.  Eva seems to be a hunter, captured, and a couple flashbacks attempt to fill in some space.  I had a hard time with this one, lots of info fragments and hints that didn't seem to come together for me.  I don't know what I should be looking forward to next.

"The Blue Angel" by Gauckler, Jacob Bascle, Julia Skorcz, R.G. Llarena - 6 - Front line soldiers are given a new pill, called Blue Angel.  We're not told just what it's for, but it seems to work particularly well on one soldier.

"Gladiatrix by  John Stanisci, Dan Gordon, David Baron, Tom Napolitano,  Chris Thompson - 6 - First with "The Trials of Ta-Neen" then "Part Five Leap" and including "Special Thanks to Vlas and Charley Parlapanides".  My interest in this one is waning.  The pointless filling of pages with blood doesn't advance the story.  I'd hoped after the encounter with the Sistren in #324 there might be some progress, some more showing why, but here it's just more tortured wandering.  This feature is so popular and energetic, but it's losing my attraction plodding violently along.

"Short Term Memory" by Shintaro Kago - 7 - By the creator of "Deconstructing Manga" in #323, this is another wild and crazy exposition, on short term memory.  I thought the depiction as cascading screenshots behind a guy's eyes was clever, and it made for a fun journey following along as it developed.  Highly gross ending that might go harder than I needed it to, but I suppose it had to end somewhere.

"Millstone" by Michael W Conrad, Ilias Kyriazis, Nikki Spanou, Simon Bowland, Chris Thompson - 8.5 - Jet Black and Linus seek shelter in a tree, haunted by a hanging ghost with some serious hanging hardware.  Tormented by his own memories, Jet Black departs, and they climb to a foreshadowed doom.  I'm enjoying this more.  Terrific graphics and a story that's moving forward better for me, as it asks more questions.  Really hoping it keeps going.

"Noir Horizon" by Phillipe Pelaez, Benjamin Blasco-Martinez, Jacob Bascle, Julia Skorcz, R.G. Llarena - 6 - A handful of dangerous criminals are plucked from prison for a suicide mission on a treacherous planet.  Some big shot is assassinated on the streets.  Energetic busy art doesn't cover over the disjointed storytelling for me.  It has all the appearance of a finely crafted euro graphic novel, but the plotting and characterizations seem formulaic to me, like just another preposterous action movie screenplay.  Maybe the next of the two installments will add the depth and nuance I'm missing.

"Grinding Metal" Don Brown interview by Vince Pavey - 5 - What seems to be the first of some articles about Heavy Metal Magazine and skateboarding culture.  Don Brown is an old skateboarder (almost as old as me!) from UK and he recalls how Heavy Metal and skateboarding appeared at the same time, and how "The imagery appearing in Heavy Metal - a surreal, otherworldly, and elastic reality - was circulating through the same underground channels that skaters were already plugged into."  I'll take his word for it.  It sounds like he makes a pretty good case, but it's so far from my experience, that I don't get any of the crossover references he makes.  Skating wasn't a thing back in my day, and there weren't much of any skating references in HM, but for some board merch from the much later Eastman era.

"Cold Dead War - The Aftermath" by Craig Wilson, Frank Forte, Adam Wollet - 4 - The American leads the German to the Loc-Nar's "prison", then the German slays the American, and releases the Loc-Nar inside her.  Then she expires, the American is somehow living again, and he attempts to slay the Loc-Nar, but instead is subdued and subsumed.  "The End For Now" implies more is to come, but I hope not.  Maybe bring back something cool and less derivative, like Dave Anderson's Something Seems Off, one of the bright spots in the mag at the end of the Medney era.

"The Callistan Menace" by Fernando Fernández, JAME, R.G. LLarena - 7.5 - It says "Based on a story by Isaac Asimov".  A kid stows away on a dangerous space mission.  Conveniently saving the day.  This is a throwback to an earlier graphic novel era.  Fernando Fernández was well known for work in Vampirella in the 70s and on Zora in the 80s (which Heavy Metal published).  Here, there's fine line black and white art with evident skill, which I do enjoy.  The old trope of a stowaway kid and how the tense and worn crew take to him.  The concise storytelling of a fantastical tale.  And a happy ending.  They really don't make them like this anymore.

"Taarna - Incarnatus AD 2086" by Aaron Guzikowski, And Belanger, Ridley Scott and Ridley Scott and Scott Free Productions - 2 - While the commodification will continue until morale improves, I'm a lost cause to this effort.  I dislike this very much.  Inventing lore for a Taarna backstory is annoying, I find what we get dismal and dismaying.  The premises presented are simplistic and farcical.  The committee meetings to craft them must have been interminable.  My apologies to Aaron Guzikowski who may be a good writer, and to Andy Belanger, who must have some skill, but the commodification and mouseifying of Taarna is so distasteful to me that the efforts are contaminated in my view.

"Ink" by Charley & Vlas Parlapanides, Marco Failla, Riccarda Brusca, Tom Napolitano, Yi Yang, Chris Thompson - 6 - The inked protagonist battles his antagonists, as the violence escalates to ridiculous and mystical levels.  Then suddenly, a flashback!  Some fine efforts were exerted to create this, but but I'm not appreciating it like it was meant to be.

"SUDO-S" by Jonathan Wayshak - 8 - With a "Edited by Frank Forte" at the bottom.  Oddly noted as SUNOS on the Contents page, it sure looks more like a D than an N to me in the art.  In fact, the S in the Jonathon Wayshak signature, looks like a $ to me.  Regardless, the story is about a young couple expecting, and their efforts to avoid the mandatory nanobot integration for the child.  The scratchy Wayshak art is terrific at showing the story that the words are telling.  Way$hak has been in HM a few times, recently in #323 and #322, as well as arting for a story in #295 back some years ago.  I may enjoy this entry the most.

"Cyber Therapy" by Fernando Dagnino, Chris Thompson - 6.5 - With a backdrop of a world falling into a cyber-rebellion, a woman tormented by migraines joins her therapist for a new technique to unlock repressed memories.  By having robots play her departed dysfunctional family members.  What could go wrong, you ask?  Well, maybe not quite what you may think.  It looks pretty good and it does pretty well telling its story.  The twist is mercifully brief and clever.

"Sick Futures:  The Man Who Once Was" by Peter Milligan, Goran Sudžuka, Exequiel Fernández Roel, Camila Jorge, Ezequiel Inverni - 6 - This has a "Special Thanks to Ricardo Llarena" with the credits.  In this story set in a near future of medical technology, where people live long lives thanks to synthetic body part and organs, a man wakes with pain, which is traced to his one remaining original human vertebrae.

"The Surf Men" by Ferran Xalabarder - 7 - A luscious and sexy dream.  Ferran Xalabarder was a frequent HM contributor in the early 2010s, most recently in #267, and I often enjoyed the imaginative and ecstatic visions that were crafted.  Glad to see this here.

"Steel Beat" by Vladimiro Merino - 6 - Japanese cybernetic humanoids are lost and forgotten in the Bronx in '85.  Reactivated, they attempt survival by breakdance battle.  They disappear as quickly as they appeared, with only echoes in the night forty years later.

Ghanem Dragonslayer by Abraham Martínez, Milton Sobreiro, Felipe Sobreiro - 6 - An old fisherman is swallowed by a dragon, so he has time to reminisce as he awaits death.  

At least there is a Metal Strips segment, with The Bus by Paul Kirchner, Gag Reflex by Shannon Wheeler, and Caveman by Tayyar Özkan.  Though I found the jokes tame, even The Bus.

Metal Detector, Flops interview with Chris Thompson.  The creator of the following feature seems grateful for success and eager with advice.

"Face Value"  by Flops, Tom Williams, Chris Thompson - 7 - Pop Star sells her rights, digital and physical, and finds her value is not hers.  Cutest part is the integrated Heavy Metal Magazine ad poster right in the middle of the story.

 

Would ya look at that

I've mentioned before that I'd like to come across a Heavy Metal belt buckle, as advertised in the magazine since the 1981 movie til 1991, but I never have.  In fact even Lostboy, of the incomparable www.heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com/ that has the only image I've seen of one on the internet, has said he's never seen one.  I've looked around for years, and more recently been cruising seller sites like ebay and etsy, but nothing.  They've been remarkably non-existent on the internet, until now:

https://www.auctionohio.com/auctions/12944/lot/332614-heavy-metal-belt-buckle

 

 

Remarkable.  

It sure looks like it was the real thing.  And just a few months ago!  And sold for just a dollar???  How could I have missed it?  (Easy, I live under a rock.)  This may be the closest I ever come to a Heavy Metal belt buckle.  But I'll keep looking.

As the fates continue to mock me and my puny desires, and yet I continue to persevere, I'll hope the sun shines upon us again, on yet another beautiful day.

Heavy Metal Pulp books

Heavy Metal Pulp was a series of books HM put out around 2010.  An apparent attempt to branch out from the magazine format, there are three books of the Netherworld series.  

 

They are written by Christopher Rowley, a well-known writer then and now, with a number of published books over the decades.  (Mr Rowley even has a website, looking untouched since these came out.)

The back covers have some info about the creators and the books:

 

The cover artist Gregory Manchess had an Artist Studio piece in the March 2010 issue.  Interior artist Justin Norman had an Artist Studio in the July 2010 issue.  No mention of them illustrating these books though. 

I did see a couple ads for the books in later 2010 issues, and this one for all three of the series in March 2011:

 

I recall when these were appearing, with some hype on the Heavy Metal website of the time.  And a youtube that's still up.  My guess is that more was planned for these books, since much of the video is not part of these books.  But it's still cool that it's still up to see.

I found a copy of #3 in a used bookstore just a couple years after they came out.  At the time I wasn't too impressed, I suppose I wished there was more to it.  I only a couple years ago procured the other two in the series online, and then just finished reading them in sequence over the past few months.

I found them more enjoyable to read all together.  It's a Heavy Metal story, and I wasn't looking for thoughtful introspection, but I had fun reading them and enjoyed how they were crafted.  The sci-fi militaristic police state and its war machines were implausible and prescient.  Bullet ripping violence abounds and there's a healthy dose of unhealthy - or at least not-for-everyone - sexuality.  The characters and their stories grew (a little) and the action was ever-coming.  There's even some character redemption and maybe even love.

A couple samples:

 

 

 

Big print on small pages can make for a quick read.  The idea of incorporating bits of art in a novel is good, and much of it here is very nice, but I'd prefer a bit more emphasis on the art than what we get.  And the avoidance of nipples is odd for a Heavy Metal product.

So, after these many years, I think these Netherworld books are a fun Heavy Metal digression that actually happened, and I'm glad I finally actually read them.  And if you like this kind of thing too, then I'll recommend it.

Heavy Metal #4 (Legacy #324)

I picked up my copy of Heavy Metal #4 - Legacy #324 in early February this year.  It's especially ridiculous that I'm just getting to a review after two months.  But I'm getting to it now.  Let's see if I finish it before the next issue shows up.  This marks the fourth quarterly issue and a year of Heavy Metal's resurrection.  It's been far from flawless, but I'll admit I'm impressed, and grateful.

I got the Cover A in a comic shop.  It's by Olivia de Berardinis, who's had many covers on Heavy Metal Magazine, 11 covers counting this one, by my count (of entries in the excellent  www.heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com/ ), along with 10 entries in the 1994 Pinup Special issue, and two Galleries and one interview in the mag (in July 1998).  Quite prolific, and quite talented and able.

As one can see:

 

Pretty nice, I say it gets an 8.  A hot pink zebra striped babe with absurd spike heels, with a frisky demon coppin' a couple feels.  Olivia is still out there, making and selling her art, so I hope we get more of her covers.

Again the magazine is its enormous 232 pages, and Mr Forte again comes in immediately with his Cybertorial deeming this the Cyberpunk issue.  He doesn't resist a history lesson on the term, recent though it is.

The Contents page has a nice illustration, "Cybergirl" by Alex Chow.  The usual cast of characters on the Masthead, with an addition of Peter Kleinman getting a "Logo designed by" credit, which I think is appropriate, especially since I had a small email conversation with Mr Kleinman a few years back which I remember with fondness.

"Artist's Interpretation" by Vassilis Gogtzilas - 6 - This issue's theme is Cyberpunk (of course), and this piece by Vassilis Gogtzilas is done with bold and spare brush strokes, a style that clearly requires skill to execute so effectively, but that doesn't do it for me for a piece like this.  Also the "tough cop falls for the seemingly helpless victim" trope is overdone for me (not unlike in the "Harry Canyon" story in #322).

Dossier starts with a two page ad for the Ranx book, which is finally appearing.  Then a two page article remembering Drew Struzan who was just featured in #323.  Then a couple pages of cyberblather.  Two articles by Jason Wilde, with claims so lacking in attribution that they could be real as easily as they could be unhinged online rants from a tinfoil covered skull, and a couple by Josh Sky that actually include some names and numbers, which are more believable for me.  There are some nice illustrations by Katie Houghton Ward

"Bug" Part Four by Enki Bilal - 7 - The one guy in orbit who somehow contains everything in his brain since the digital world collapsed, has returned to the surface to find his kidnapped daughter.  It's become a crime thriller of sorts, I hope we get a bit more post-digital-apocalypse wackiness soon.

Artist's Interpretation by Edu Menna - 6 - With an illustration of a dystopian Future warrior babe, it's most notable for her butt cheeks hangin' out her hotpants.

"Burton and Syb" by José Ortiz and Antonio Segura - 6 - Subtitled "We Must Feed the Grumskis".  The zany duo bait an overconfident Hunter, into hunting the last Grumskis.  But the Grumskis prevails.  This time I was bit more amused by them than I usually am.

"At the End of the Line" by Valentin Ramón - 7.5 - R.G. Llarena edits.   A grim tale of the rise of the Transhumanist Party in a modern city.  A guy watches it happen around him approvingly, "cleaning up the city is long overdue".  His spouse is more skeptical.  Sometimes bewildering flash back/forward storytelling effectively shows the before and after effects, and it doesn't turn out well for the guy.  Though it's many panels with many word balloons, I thought it looked good and told its story well.  And it's a story that needs telling again.

Artist's Interpretation by Nenad Gucunja - 7 - A cool image, with a floating duck, and a description of a low-class maintenance tech, who actually sabotages the quantum relocation device he is tasked with maintaining.  For the Rebellion.  

"Cold Dead War - The Aftermath" by Craig Wilson, Frank Forte, Adam Wollet - 5 - The spider in its web looks more like a scorpion, but it's really a demon.  Which the guy somehow slays with a sword.  This one ends with a "To be concluded..."

"The Ferryman" by Milan Isakov - 7 - The Ferryman's encounter with a mermaid doesn't go as he may have hoped.  Cool black and white art with nice use of shadow.

"Million Dollar Idea" by Ondrej Neff, Michal Suchánek, Frank Forte - 6 - Clumsy thugs try to steal scrap technology from a space dump, and argue about it until it nearly kills them all.

"The Elevator" by Pepe Moreno - 7 - An old man in the city gets bamboozled by a newspaper ad for a job, which leads to what seems a costly method of social engineering.  Pepe Moreno has done some fine HM stories, including Rebel in the 80s, Gene Kong in the 2010s, and now this, which seems to be dated "81".

Artist's Interpretation by Pepe Valencia - 6 - A cyberwarrior seems to be calibrating her new war implant.

"Taarna - Rebirth" by Leah Moore, John Reppion, Anna Morozova, Tom Napolitano, Chris Thompson, Dave Kelly - 5 - In this one the art has a chance to shine, Taarna fights a snow-demon in a storm, and  the swirling winds and hairs energize the pages.  The story is summarized by Taarna:  "I felt the call of the Stones which you sought, though I did not understand why."  Yeah, me neither.  But the sky parts, the sun shines, maybe she even finds love.

"Big Germs" by Rudy Rucker - 7.5 - With illustrations by Stefano Cardoselli, who was prolific in HM in the 2000s, and which look different from most of what he did then.  And Cody Goodfellow provides some edits.  A prose piece describing a neat future dystopia art scene.  Where a couple artists create art called a tangle, that is observed via a uvvy, a tweaked critter one wears.  The art takes on a big germ form in reality and they get to engineer social change.  Cool.  

"Phase 4 Completed" by Željko Pahek - 7 - Tiny robots are enslaved in a mine.  They earn their escape by clever use of the weapons held against them, and a fun use of the bunch-of-kids-in-an-overcoat trick.  I like the scratchy-detailed black and white art, and I thought this was a pretty good story.  Pahek has been appearing in HM since the late 80s, I believe this is the first since 2019 in #293.

"Gladiatrix" by John Stanisci, Dan Gordon, David Baron, Tom Napolitano, Dave Kelly - 7 - First with "The Trials of Ta-Neen" then "Part Four Pit" and including "Special Thanks to Vlas and Charley Parlapanides".  The Gladiatrix is betrayed, bound and suspended.  The thorny-dicked foe is vanquished, but the way out is yet unclear.

"Sixella - The Last Roots" by Janevsky, Dave Kelly - 7 - This is Part 4.  Rescued from their escape, the protagonist survives a space battle to land at a green oasis.  Losing their robot but gaining an ally, is this The End?

"Ink" by Charley & Vlas Parlapanides, Marco Failla, Riccardo Brusca, Tom Napolitano, Yi Yang, Dave Kelly - 6 - Part 3.  Formerly dead guy returns to find his Zöe and close in on those "who didn't deserve mercy."

"Millstone" by Michael W Conrad, Ilias Kyriazis, Nikki Spanou, Simon Bowland, Chris Thompson - 8 -  Jet Black presses onward, now meaning to cross a bridge.  First opposed by the Knights of the Fourth Chapter (funny), then by the wildly imaginative river beast the Knights deified.  Dismayed by the locals' displeasure at his vanquishing the river beast, Jet must defend himself and Linus the luminous child, and yet another bloodbath ensues.  This one ends with "Millstone will return", I hope it will be merely in the next issue, and not after an extended hiatus.

"Baby Trigger" by Mark McCann, Luis Guaragna, Michael Woods, Jacob Bascle, R.G. Llarena - 6 - I kinda get the story, I think.  A big shot's wife, with license to fuck around, consequently becomes pregnant, with a child that tests as the big shot's.  But it can't be!!!.  But it's really a long-game corporate assassination!!!  There are many gaps in the storytelling, and the passage of time is unclear, so needing to infer the story from the storytelling leaves me open to missing the point, as I may have.

"Ink Blot" by Alfonso Font - 7 - A fun treatment of an artist falling through dimensions of time and space and imagination at the drawing table.

Artist's Interpretation by Gonzalo Ruggieri - 7 - I quite liked the image, the colors and bold strokes work well for me here.

"Metal Optimism:  The Future According to Syd Mead"  A posthumous retrospective of Syd Mead, an artist and designer so well known, that even I had heard of him from the rock I live under.  Told as an interview with his spouse Roger Servick, by Joshua Sky, it shares many examples of Mr Mead's work and background.  Very unfortunately, Joshua Sky's name is misspelled on the Contents page.  Maybe that Proofreader needs more help.

"June 2050" by Pepe Moreno - 7 - Finding an ancient crumbled Statue of Liberty is not a new idea, but I liked the drawing.  QR code?  Seems to provide links to go to some sites, including pepemorenostudio.com/

Interview with DAF by R.G. Llarena - A one page interview with DAF, who provides the art for the following entry.  Interesting that DAF came to know HM very recently, by working on the Megadeth project.

"Steampunk Samurai" by Mattia Bassani, DAF - 7 - A samurai movie setting with steampunk layered upon it (with gasmasked minions and a blind challenger with apparently a magnetic compass for a monocle).  Where metal is saved for swords.  The challenger endeavours to release a hostage from a lord's grasp, and succeeds, to only capture the hostage for their own ends.  Lively art, though dark, and the storytelling is obtuse in a way that I get to fill in the blanks in my own imagination.

"Valentina - Part Four" by Sergio Gerasi, Vik Deluca, Tom Williams, Chris Thompson - 7 - Includes the note "Inspired by the Work of Guido Crepax" again.  Valentina enters the virtual world holding the images that were taken from her.  Confronted by the perpetrator, "AI glitches", and images of past loves, she's then attacked by the madman who made the virtual world.  The support of her sisterhood summons Valentina the Pirate, and she slays the perp, in inadequately gruesome (in my opinion) fashion.  It ends with Valentina confronted by Valentina as by Crepax.  I didn't see these particular renditions were in Heavy Metal Magazine, but they look like the original to me:

 

 

Metal Strips - "The Bus" by Paul Kirchner, Caveman by Tayyar Özkan, "Gag Reflex" by Shannon Wheeler - 7 -  I like The Bus, we need bendy buses for the big city.  Caveman is usually ok and sometimes good.  The gag in Gag Reflex is meh, but I like the nod to the Heavy Metal movie/So Beautiful So Dangerous.

The mag ends with ads for shirts and the Druuna book and subscriptions.  Well done HM folks getting through a year and I hope to see #5/#325 soon.