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. Zahek 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.
