I picked up a copy of Heavy Metal Magazine #326 from a comic shop in August of this year, about three months after I got #325. It's the Cover A by Flavio Greco. Looking like androids collecting, or dispersing, some sort of organic life forms, somewhere, it's cool, 7 from me. As it was for #325, the cover artist's name is on the front cover, though this time the four cover artists are named at the Contents pages.
Inside, we are immediately greeted by an Editorial, not by Frank Forte, but by Chris Thompson and R.G. Llarena. For Frank Forte is listed as Senior Contributing Editor, rather than Editor-in-Chief.
In itself not a bad sign, change happens, especially at Heavy Metal Magazine. But it does make me wonder about what's happening, with the recent rearrangement of the content (Bug isn't there, no Artist's Interpretations, no more Dossier) the still very problematic Kickstarter and subscription fulfillment situations (many aren't getting their stuff). And explaining situations doesn't appear to be a strong suit at Heavy Metal Amalgamated Industries. There are many things that don't look good, more on that in another post.
To the magazine.
An article Scrap Metal by Joshua Sky discusses the popular figurine market. If you like this kind of thing, good, but it's not my thing. The figures have impressive detail and flexibility, I'll say that, a big improvement over the GI Joe of my day (before the Lifelike Hair and Kung-fu Grip).
But to me it's more evidence Heavy Metal has been subsumed into a fragment of the Comics Industry, something I avoided admitting for years, since it was always more than that for me. (Was. Heavy Metal Magazine was the Adult Illustrated Magazine. More than comics, more than an adult mag, more than anything that came before, more than anything that's come since. It will always have been that way for me.) Following is an ad for HM hardcover issues (I can't recommend buying from the Heavy Metal shop at this time, given their fulfillment problems).
"Thellus - The Cycle of Eva Samas Book 1 - Part 2 of 3" by Simona Mogavino, Carlos Gomez, Lorenzo Pieri, JAME, with translations by Ivanka T Hahnenberger and Elowyn Castle, and edits by R.G. Llarena - 6 - Following the first installment in #325, the story isn't made much clearer, and several timelines are presented with few hints when they change but the setting and color theme. It's still hard for me to follow, and pieces aren't fitting together in telling me the story yet. The art is solid, polished, and I hope things start to come together soon.
"Space Time" by Chauzy, Jacob Bascle, Julia Skorce, R.G. Llarena - 7 - SpaceTime drones carry war to distant realities. The vibrant colors at the start excited me, the art had a cool style, and the wacky transitions and intrigue made it a fun read.
"Trophy" by David Pamies, Orhan Gökcek - 7 - A fisherman lets his obsession with winning a contest consume him. The art meets the storytelling well, I liked the twist of the narrator at the end.
"Gladiatrix" by John Stanisci, Dan Gordon, David Baron, Tom Napolitano, Chris Thompson - 6 - First with "The Trials of Ta-Neen" then "Versalgia" and including "Special Thanks to Vlas and Charley Parlapanides". So Gladiatrix and her bug accomplice Klak-Ik escaped the underground in a dragon's mouth, into a fierce battle of the Hy'Kthri and the Sistren who left her behind. Hy'Kthri blood, red and splashy, coats a couple ill-advised two-page spreads. The Gladiatrix is able to fight their way to meet Versalgia, a Wielder of the Fire Light, who provides some answers. The meeting with Versalgia offers a welcome respite from the pointless bloodletting, and the Gladiatrix learns more about her doom, if not the answers hoped for. And the "I am not permitted to reveal more" is less mysterious than hackneyed to me.
"Burton and Cyb - The Resurrection Con" by Jose Ortiz and Antonio Segura - 5 - With translation by R.G. Llarena and letters and edits by Frank Forte. The clever petty criminals scheme to sell a Resurrection Machine to some mourners at a funeral. Too bad for them there were some there who saw this as infringing on their own rackets. To me this plot was especially flimsy, even for these two.
"Millstone Part 6" by Michael W Conrad, Ilias Kyriazis, Nikki Spanou, Simon Bowland, Chris Thompson - 8.5 - Jet Black encounters the spawn of the cloistered wizard's carnal slaves, an amazingly abominable monstrosity, that beats the crap out of Jet Black with whatever they feel like pulling from one their orifices, to the wizard's delight. Incredible. But then, when it looks like Jet Black is finally dead, the luminous child emerges and obliterates the wizard's scheme. But, surprise, it's still "to be continued", so there's yet more to come. I'm looking forward to it.
"In Tune" by Lubrio, Nicolás Viñolo - 7 - Wisecracking cops at the scene of another self-mutilation death. But they can't see the truth crying out to them. An ambitious effort to tell a unique story of drugs and consciousness, that did pretty well if you ask me.
"Noir Horizon" by Phillipe Pelaez, Benjamin Blasco-Martinez, Jacob Bascle, Julia Skorcz, R.G. Llarena - 6 - The convicts and the soldiers need to band together to escape the deadly planet. The couple vague clues of backstory. The intense action. The "to be continued".
"Grinding Metal" Interview of Jim Phillips by Olly MacNamee - 5 - Another skateboarding tie-in article. At least I'd seen the screaming hand graphic before. Mr Phillips is still making cool art.
"Taarna" by Aaron Guzikowski, Andy Belanger, Tatto Caballero, Simon Bowland, Ridley Scott and Scott Free Productions - 1 - Chris Thompson and Lia Bozonelis get editor credits. This is awful. Such dreck. The lamest crap ever in Heavy Metal Magazine, and that's saying something. Please stop. It doesn't get a zero only because some real persons worked on this, too bad their efforts are wasted, hopefully they at least got paid.
"Ink - Ashes and Echoes Part 5" by Charley & Vlas Parlapanides, Marco Failla, Riccarda Brusca, Tom Napolitano, Yi Yang, Chris Thompson - 6 - The protagonist vanquishes the foe, only realizing too late the terror that has been unleashed. It's still to be continued.
"2430 d.deC." by Fernando Fernández, JAME, R.G. LLarena - 7 - It says "Based on a story by Isaac Asimov" as it did for "The Callistan Menace" by the same creators in #325. Humanity is aiming for human perfection, and a holdout is compelled to destroy the last non-human creatures on earth. A sad story, told with more old-school style, and unfortunate that some of the translated dialog gets messed up with misplaced word balloons.
"A Chill Guy" by Dario D'Angelo - 5 - An introduction to Spoke and Darrion, Spoke is the dog-guy. Not even really a story, but it's apparently part of one, per the Metal Detector interview with Dario D'Angelo that directly follows.
"All's Well That Ends Well" by Ondrej Neff, Michal Suchánek, Frank Forte, R.G. Llarena - 7 - An award-winning time-traveling photographer is interviewed for television in 2102. He describes choosing time-traveling to Auschwitz concentration camp. And since he needs to choose a living host, he chooses to "be" the commander of the guards. Unsurprisingly, making this choice turns out poorly for him. Good art, though an instance of copying an image across multiple panels annoyed me. And the perhaps interesting premise is undercut by the choices the storytelling makes.
"Second Life" by Valentin Ramón - 7.5 - R.G. Llarena edits. A guy gets smug at his retirement party, then the novelty pen his coworkers gift him makes a mess of things. A harrowing tale of corporate and personal greed, made more horrible by how plausible it makes it seem. I enjoyed "At the End of the Line" also by Valentin Ramón in HM #324, these both show a sardonic sense of humor with a mean streak.
"Screen Society" by Perger, Jacob Bascle, Julia Skorce, R.G. Llarena - 6 - The trials of an online youth in an offline world. Nice premise served adequately by the story, I still would have enjoyed a stronger resolution.
"The Ouroboros War" by R.G. Llarena, Max Bertolini, Carlos Cabrera, JAME - 7 - The endless cycle of wars of retribution, thus the ouroboros metaphor of the snake completing a circle in eating its own tail.
"Forgotten" by Marko Stojanvić, Vassilus Gogtzilas, Marko Serafimović - 8 - A ghost tells a house story. Strikingly illustrated with deeply textured brushed paint strokes. Very nice.
Metal Strips. Yay! "the bus" by Paul Kirchner is back! A couple half-page strips fill the page, 8s for them both!
"The Neuroses' Predator" by Ferran Xalabarder - 6.5 - A guy sees a psychiatrist for his bizarre and puerile dreams. And the ending barely follows what came before. I still like Xalabarder, usually. It may be crass, but it's a fun mindfuck too.
"Titans" by Olivier Peru, Laci, Arif Prianto, JAME, Holly Interlandi, R.G. Llarena - 6 - Spartans battle Athenians at athletic games, rather than on the battlefield. But the enmity and pain of the past is still with them. To be continued.
For as long as it took me to make this post, with delays and doing the It Doesn't Look Good post, HM #327 is sliding back in time, to late November now, so I'm not running behind on reviews, and I'm not taking the six issues per year subscription claim very seriously at all anymore. Here's hoping Heavy Metal Intergalactic Enterprises Inc can smooth things out and keep making the magazine. You can do it guys!
