Heavy Metal #326

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!

 

It Doesn't Look Good

It doesn't look good for my favorite magazine.

It doesn't look good when they can't seem to get issues to subscribers before the mag is released at stores, compounding the main problem that caused the first Kickstarter to be so disastrous for so many.

It doesn't look good when folks are still waiting on items from the second Kickstarter, which launched last November 2025, with fulfillment starting in mid-2026.  And it doesn't look good that "official" updates ceased in July, with no more than cameo appearances of Zach or Sarah on discord or AM circle since.  (to be fair, Sarah has been more active lately, mostly with "sorry" and "you'll get them", but better than nothing.)

It doesn't look good when I fell for the new subscription offer in May, for when it goes to bimonthly they said, and the price goes up they said, and a then copy of #326 shows up in September, after I bought one in a store in August, and it's apparently not even the first bimonthly issue.

And it doesn't look good when the pdf copies offered with the new subscription are not available, and while I was delighted to actually get a reply to an email I sent asking about it earlier in October (after I asked earlier in June) it did not look good that it was a non-answer response.

It doesn't look good when a recently departed Heavy Metal Executive Editor reached out via email (to me and others) to stoke interest in updating the Heavy Metal Wikipedia page, and it appears he succeeded in getting some folks to talk trash promote rumors and prance on Heavy Metal's figurative grave.

It doesn't look good when Heavy Metal shows how tone-deaf they are, when they decide to offer HM holiday ugly sweaters, now, with untold numbers of still dissatisfied customers, when only fools would trust they could deliver by December.

No, it doesn't look good.  In the absence of actual information, anger and rumor propagate.  The discord and circle social media are full of unhappy customers.  My dissatisfaction with my interactions with Heavy Metal Magazine is small compared to many of the loudest wronged, but it's outweighed by my disappointment in the sorry state of the operation.  It's hard to watch.  It's sad to think that they just couldn't manage to ride the excitement and goodwill of successfully resurrecting Heavy Metal Magazine to become a somewhat stable enterprise with room to grow, that rather excess ambition and hubris combined with missteps and dysfunction might prove to be suffocating the magazine.

It doesn't look good, but they're not dead yet.  The Extreme Futurism Special is out (ordered one not from HM) and #327 is delayed but still coming it seems.  Reports of folks getting their things trickle in.  The mag itself looks mostly ok despite my prejudices.  But the disarray is widely visible, and answers and assurances, and stuff, are hard to come by.  It may be an even greater miracle than Heavy Metal's rebirth, to right the ship and get it sailing more than sinking.  I can only hope.

 

Something Seems Off

Chris Anderson's Something Seems Off was one of the bright spots in the dark times approaching Heavy Metal Magazine's first death.  I very much enjoyed it in issues #314, #317, #318, #319, and #320.  I really liked the cool art and weird action.  It showed much with few words, and it was quite fun.

While I continue to wish Something Seems Off would be continued in Heavy Metal Magazine (or that some more of his other stuff could make it in the mag; there were a few items from him that I also liked prior to when Something Seems Off began), I'm pretty happy to see that Mr Anderson has launched a Kickstarter campaign to publish this story in books:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrisandersoncomics/something-seems-off

I was so happy I jumped right in (the second day, not in time to nab an autographed copy, ah well) and backed it.  Indeed, I like it so much I'll recommend doing so to anyone who likes this kind of thing and its fun weirdness, and is willing to handle a kickstarter and its uncertainties.  The campaign goes into early November, and is projected to ship in March 2027.

Chris Anderson is out there with other stuff too:  www.colormechrisanderson.com/, www.patreon.com/cw/Chrisandersoncomics, substack.com/@chrisandersoncomics

Heavy Metal Library Kickstarter Ranx book

Heavy Metal had a Kickstarter campaign, their second in November 2025 following the first to re-start the magazine in late 2024.  This campaign was for a Heavy Metal Library, with four books offered:  Ranx, Druuna, Segments, and The Covers That Brought Us Here".  The campaign itself was ridiculously successful, at least concerning the interest from thousands of backers and the $1MM+ in pledges it raised.  The fulfillment was less so, so much less that it deserves a post all its own, someday.

I ordered the Ranx book, since I had desired it when it was first marketed several years ago by the previous regime, since Ranxerox by Stefano Tamburini and Tanino Liberatore was one of Heavy Metal Magazine's mainstay stories in the later 1980s.  But thankfully I declined to order it then, since it failed to materialize and many were stiffed by those clowns.

But this time I did, and it took a while, til June 2026, but I did receive a nice book:

It's a big 9.5x12in book, hardcover with solid binding and nice glossy paper and a fancy ribbon bookmark.  It's interesting that there is no barcode, no ISBN number, no typical title page with publisher etc.  A book that won't be sold in stores it seems.  This artwork is supposedly just the Kickstarter cover, and any future books sold will have the cover originally marketed for this book, of anguished Ranx.  This is an intensely weird cover, with another type of extreme for Ranxerox.  No idea why he has metal jaw fangs and is holding a blood-pissing bat.  I bet that's quite a story we're missing.

But we get some great stories.  The book is arranged in chapters.  Chapter 1 is called "Origins" and is dated 1978-1980.  This was not in Heavy Metal Magazine.  It starts with a black and white segment introducing Ranx as a street hustling thug, with a take on his origins as a photocopier.  There are three episodes to this chapter, notable in that the art is by Tamburini.  A small sample:

 

Charming.

Next is Chapter 2, "Ranx in New York" (1980-1981), which is where Heavy Metal came in.  Beginning in the July 1983 issue, "Ranxerox" ran in Heavy Metal Magazine through the December 1983 issue.

Of course I dug out my magazines to compare.  While the larger book size allows the image size to match the sizing of the series on Heavy Metal's pages from back then (increasing to this size in this book was supposedly a KS stretch goal), the translations used are different.  I enjoyed some comparing as I read along in the magazine while I read this new book.

Besides the translations and some variations in color tone, which I expect is as much due to the age of the mags as to differences in the recent print, there's not the censorship in the book as there was in the mags.  But the same wacky depravity and breathtaking violence are forefront in the story, whether book or magazine.  Often I enjoy the earlier magazines' translations more than the recent ones, I found them more descriptive.

Chapter 3 is "Happy Birthday, Lubna!" from 1982, which ran in Heavy Metal as "Ranxerox in New York" in January to May 1984, immediately following the previous series.  More comparisons:

 

 

I quite enjoyed the joke in the February 1984 installment, where Ranx gets called a peasant, which at the time I figured was about Ranx being uncircumcised (amazing what they did with a Xerox machine), and the book translation calling him a hillbilly doesn't carry the same impact.

 

Interestingly, it appears the below full-page image was added as a new page to the story for this book:

It seems to be constructed from the detail on the preceding page, and it fits with this translation, but it's not in the story as printed in Heavy Metal Magazine in 1984.

Then Chapter 4 is called "Be Bop A Lubna" from 1983, which continued in Heavy Metal in the April 1984 issue, where Ranx has to stay home to record TV shows, while Lubna and her pals have a night out.  And what a night out it was.

There's some serious depravity going on here, which is just what we came for, right?  A two-headed mutant wielding a chainsaw, and he's a tragic figure?!  Oh my stars...

Chapter 5 is called "I, Me, Mine Incorporated" from 1984-1985, and Chapter 6 is "Amen!" 1995-1996, These chapters ran in three parts in Heavy Metal Magazine from July 1997 through November 1997 as "Ranx 3:  Amen" (over ten years later, in the Eastman era).

Poor Ranx.

 

Poor Ranx indeed, reduced to a radio once again.

Chapter 7 is called Aïe, Robot! from 1993, and it was not in Heavy Metal Magazine.  Lubna reminisces.

 

That on the right is the last page, it's an ad from 1987.

Overall a nice book, lots of cool stuff and enough difference from the magazine entries to make it a nice addition.

Interestingly, HM advertised Ranxerox books in 1997, this is from the back cover of July 1997:

This ad was also inside the front cover of September 1997.  I didn't really know these books existed but I see copies for sale on the internets.

I took a ridiculous amount of time to post this after a ridiculous wait to get the book, but it was still fun.  Now I need to get a review for #326 going, before #327 appears, but that one is rumored to be delayed.  

 

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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 Chris 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, Andy Belanger, 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.

 

Heavy Metal #3 (Legacy #323)

I picked up my issue of Heavy Metal Magazine #3 at a nearby Barnes and Noble.  It's a few years since I last bought a new Heavy Metal Magazine at a bookstore.  The stores get the cover A; it's by Royo, and it's also been a few years for a Royo on the cover of HM, I think the previous was in 2017 (for #284).  And I wouldn't be surprised if this image was made long ago.  Still nice to have a cover by Royo in this day and age.  I give it an 8:

 

Another Royo, another impossibly gorgeous lady, this time with a demon with a weird bat skeleton cross amulet (and that bat had mighty long legs) but I enjoyed marveling at the detail, the belt, the hair, the torn stockings, it must take forever to do these.  Luis Royo is still out there, so perhaps we'll see more in future HM.  I got it pretty soon after it was released, in late October.  As of mid-December, there are folks on the HM Discord that still haven't received their subscription issue.  I sure hope the HM guys can get it together to straighten the subscription shipping problems.

Again, the magazine is huge.  232 pages, with six covers and 33 features listed on the contents pages.  Mr Forte again launches into the Editorial before the Contents, sharing a brief history of horror literature and comics, and bringing it back to Heavy Metal and expressing a desire to make Horror special issues for spooky times an annual thing.

The Contents page has a nice and creepy illustration by Vince Locke, and something I haven't  noted yet, is that the masthead includes a Proofreader, since the first new issue.  Seems like they're doing an ok job, I've only noticed one typo up to now.  At least there are only six cover variants this time.  The 33 features listed seems daunting, at least when I'm looking to do a review.

Dossier comes in with a mix of articles on old and new horror type work, mirroring Mr Forte's Editorial.  The Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass animated movie sounded cool, but I can't seem to find how to see it.

The Artist's Interpretation theme is Steampunk Horrors, and our first installment is from Mr Forte hisself:  "Dr Frankenstein spent decades creating bastardized life forms from dead tissue.  One day they broke free."  It's very unfortunate, however, that Mr Forte's image, of Dr Frankenstein being attacked by his creation, is spread across two pages, and the poor Doctor disappears into the nothingness of the crease.  Two-page spreads in the perfect-bound magazine are a ridiculous proposition.  It's not possible to view the image without destroying the binding.  I hate it.  It diminishes the art and demeans the reader's experience.  I wish they would stop.  

Why would someone think this is a good look?:

 

(To be clear, I loved the two-page spreads in Heavy Metal Magazine, from the beginning in 1977 to the monthly era through 1985, because it worked.  (except for Issue Number 1, which was perfect-bound and was devoid of two-page spreads, except for a smaller Hildebrandt image in the Sword of Shannara feature, that really didn't need to cross the crease) The magazine then was "saddle-stitched", stapled so that the magazine could be completely opened to lay flat, and two-page spreads could readily be used, even wraparound covers were done.  It was great.  I would love it if Heavy Metal Magazine went back to saddle-stitched binding, to allow proper two-page spreads.  If that means fewer pages per issue, fine, then publish more issues more frequently.)

Following, there's an ad for Heavy Metal Artwear, fancy limited t-shirts by cool artists, Defame, Strange House, Dwiky Ka, with assertively-bored-looking models wearing them.  The photo for Dwiky Ka caught my eye.  It had a flag or something for Ho99o9, which I recognized from HM, it was #295 in 2019, a Music Special, and Ho99o9 was one of the featured music groups, and Dwiky Ka seems to have done some video art for them (it looked cool, but my bronze age computer was creaking and wheezing trying to access the site).

"Bug" by Enki Bilal - 7 - A brutal kidnapping, nightmares and deceit.  And the technoligarchs crumble as their digital houses of cards collapse.  Who'da thunk things could get even worse?

"Taarna - Rebirth" by Leah Moore, John Reppion, Anna Morozova, Tom Napolitano, Chris Thompson, Dave Kelly - 4 - My inability to connect the images in the art to the words in the story persists, my annoyance with little pieces of this entry, my disdain for commodification and for calling Taarna's mount "Avis", conspire to diminish my appreciation of the work presented to us.  It's too bad, the art has a nice style to it.

Interview with Stephen Graham Jones by Cody Goodfellow.  Stephen Graham Jones is apparently another well-known and successful writer, of whom I knew nothing.  I learned a bit here.

"June 2050" by John Workman - 7 - Relationship struggles in bad horror movies.  We've all been there.  I really wonder if John Workman is really making these new June 2050 stories.  The internet couldn't tell me, but I did come across some neat older articles remarking on Mr Workman, one by RM Rhodes, a few by Todd Klein, who I also came across looking up Peter Kleinman a while back (BTW Todd Klein also had a couple pieces in Heavy Metal Magazine, Illostratos in August 1979, and June 2843 in September 1983).

"A Spice of Life" by Fernando Dagnino, Andrew Scott, Chris Thompson - 7.5 - A street prophet tells the story of how the machines had won the war, and the victorious Director Burtov demands the means to experience flavor, vowing "We'll never fully own this planet if we can't taste it".  The Director gets his wish, and much more.  I thought it had good art and great storytelling, and I'd think it was even better but for an unfortunate typo in the climactic scene ("Nori Nori!"  Her name was Nora).

Artist's Interpretation - Steampunk Horrors 2 by Dylan Bryan aka Deco Noir - 6 - The art was dark but effective, reminding me of Bernie Wrightson with the shadows and sinewy appendages.  It references Joseph Merrick, known as the Elephant Man, and the challenges of others' perceptions of appearances.

"Men of Profit" by Santullo-Jok - 6 - Stories of escape and triumph, are merely projections into the minds of people enslaved by profit.  A cool art style that reminds me of other euro comic work I've seen in HM; the story had a strong message but I wished the conclusion had been more telling.

"Ink" by Charley & Vlas Parlapanides, Marco Failla, Riccardo Brusca, Tom Napolitano, Yi Yang, Dave Kelly - 6 - Continued from #322, the newly tattooed protagonist learns he must battle his enemies again.  And his enemies are near.

"Supernatural Farce" by Dwayne Harris, Frank Forte - 6 - Creepy psychic turns out to be the villain after all.  I usually enjoy Dwayne Harris work more, but this one was too simplistic for me.

Artist's Interpretation - Steampunk Horrors 3 by Shane Oakley - 6 - A take on HG Wells' War of the Worlds, with a quote from the book.  Looks nice.

"Cave Man" by Tayyar Ozkan - 5 - Cave man lives in fear of his world, full of scary things.  But it was just a nightmare of modern man.  Whose spouse seems to have horns and hooves??

"Chicken" by Luan Tie, Frank Forte - 6 - Guy is accosted by an odd blob on the way to the market, where someone is disemboweling some bird, which then gets up and dances.  Then it gets scary.  Little story with ok art, with plenty of strangeness.

"Paid in Advance" by - 7 - Diego Agrimbau, Carina Altonaga, R.G. Llarena - 7 - Regular guy has his life upended by tragedy, to the point he's sentenced to space prison.  He takes a mining gig to reduce his sentence.  Then he decides everyone must pay for his misfortune.

Artist's Interpretation - Steampunk Horrors 4 by Priscilla Petraites and Alex Guimarães - 6 - An image of a man paralyzed in a chair, with perhaps a naked angel perched atop him.  The accompanying text reads as a diary entry, of a man it seems besotted with his own hubris.  A brief telling of the old story of the scientist blinded by their own ego, that has its own charm.  (It's unfortunate that the Contents entries for this and the next Artist's Interpretation have the creators switched around.)

"Cold Dead War - The Aftermath" by Craig Wilson, Frank Forte, Adam Wollet - 5 - The American is running from zombies again, and forced into an alliance with a former enemy.  The commodification, and the egregious use of multiple two page spreads, and the splattering of little word blobs all over, put me in a bad mood.  Sorry.

"Obj" by Wayshak - 7.5 - " ... she lives in a world she cannot understand ... " sums it up pretty nicely.  Put another way, this is an indescribable exploration of, something, reality?  consciousness?  perception?  By the same creator of "Sleepy Boy" from Legacy #322, with even more strangeness.  I liked it.

"KillBox" by Lindsey Anderson Beer, Flavio Cortés - 7 - A mostly prose piece, with some illustration, regarding a juiced-up fighter in a Killbox, which sounds like an even more brutal MMA octagon type-thing.  There's some nice description and backstory, the art complements the text, and of course he elects to take the "new" shot.

"Heresy" by Katie-Houghton-Ward, Frank Forte, Adam Wollet, R.G. Llarena - 7 - Abraham van Helsing seeks the last nosferatu on earth.  Finding three women of otherworldly beauty, he thinks he's found them.  Close but not quite.  Pretty drawings of pretty women and it's amazing that van Helsing has lived this long with how easily he's duped and overwhelmed.

"Primeval" by David Quinn, Tim Vigil, Jay Fotos, Adam Wollet, Frank Forte - 6 -  Immortal demoness in ridiculously silly evil villain outfit, rants and incants to bring on the end of the world.

"Millstone" by Michael W Conrad, Ilias Kyriazis, Nikki Spanou, Simon Bowland, Chris Thompson - 8 -  Jet Black dispenses with a clockwork sagittarii, then must face Cavitus, a deathbringer "driven by an otherworldly sentience that has taken a rotten tooth as its home".  Brilliant.  What unholy demons will Jet Black encounter next?

Artist's Interpretation - Steampunk Horrors 4 by  Filipe Cunha - 6 - A witch inveighs against the technological abominations perpetrated by modern man.  That's a mighty big witch's hat ye' got there.

Interview with Matías De Vincenzo by R.G. Llarena -  A short one page interview with Matías De Vincenzo, who does the work following, which takes inspiration from a Hans Christian Andersen story.

"The Ugly Duckling" by Matías De Vincenzo - 7.5 - A clever apocalyptic take on the old tale.  The little one must endure humans displaying their inhumanity through the centuries.

"Deconstructing Manga" by Shintaro Kago -7 - A wild and crazy exploration of the panel comic form, quickly devolving into mayhem.  Pretty fun.

"The Candidate" by Alfonso Font, Frank Forte - 6 - A torturer proves unsuited for the task.

"Beacon from Scorpius 4" by Frank Forte, Edu Menna, Liezl Buenaventura - 5 - A distress beacon brings a reluctant rescuer to a missing starship.  Looked ok but didn't hit it for me.

"Gladiatrix" by John Stanisci, Dan Gordon, David Baron, Tom Napolitano, Dave Kelly - 7 - First with "The Trials of Ta-Neen" then "Part Three Cave" and including "Special Thanks to Vlas and Charley Parlapanides". The Gladiatrix was rescued by Klak-ik, an insect creature, and together they attack The Queen.  Somehow escaping, hallucinations then leave their mark.

A fake ad for Soul-O-Matic, Heavy Metal's soul removal service, was pretty funny.

Artist's Interpretation - Steampunk Horrors 5 by DAF - 6 - A Victorian vampire party.  Illustration by DAF, text is unattributed.

"Sixella - The Last Roots" by Janevsky, Dave Kelly - 7 - This is Part 3.  I think I 'm getting closer.  The robot hooker was an ally, but to where is the escape?  Still very pink.

"Valentina - Part 3" by Sergio Gerasi, Vik Deluca, Tom Williams, Chris Thompson - 7 - Valentina agrees to be digitized, but she's uploaded and released before she knows what happened.  

Metal Strips - "The Bus" by Paul Kirchner, "Gag Reflex" by Shannon Wheeler, "Harry Canyon" by Josh Sky and Frank Forte, "Gunk" by Chris Merlo - 7 - I believe The Bus is showing us new strips, since Mr Kirchner is still going and there have been several The Bus books published since it was last a regular feature in Heavy Metal Magazine.

There's a fake ad for a Heavy Metal Apocalypse cult starter kit.  Complete with goat and scented candles.  And then there's an ad selling the art wear t-shirts and playing cards and even some vinyl albums.

Well, for all the crap the last year brought, at least it brought the return of Heavy Metal Magazine.  Thanks to all at HM Heavy Industries who made it happen, and may the coming years bring us many more.