Welcome to fred's HM mag fan blog. The intent is to post reviews, past and present, of Heavy Metal magazine issues and related items.
Opinions are my own, except when they're not.
Disclaimer: I'm just a fan of HM magazine, I'm trying to find something to like. Sometimes I need to try harder than other times. I'm not a big comics fan, I'm not very well read, and this is barely a hobby. However, thanks to the awesome power of the internet, I can post my little rantings. What fun.
R. M. Rhodes has a great little article on his heavymetalmagazine.wordpress.com about the history of Heavy Metal Magazine cover prices, which includes history of the tagline, which was "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine" for a good while, with some discussion of the issue format going from monthly to quarterly to bimonthly to whatever it is now, including just numbering issues rather than noting the month or period and year. For fun I lifted the chart from the article:
The article nicely gathers these bits of info and helped my understanding of these trivial but interesting details of the history of Heavy Metal Magazine. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Ben Michael Byrne revived Kranburn last year, after dropping it in favor of other stuff, and there was a link to "Printed Kranburn" that never materialized. I had seen some references to new issues coming but I never found where to buy them, since he seems to be most active on Fbook, but I ain't on that so I don't get very far, until Mr Byrne recently put up a link on his Twtr, to his updated Ownaindi listing. Ownaindi is a site for Australian comics, where he was selling his NSEW (also pretty cool) before, and though it could be problematic, it worked for me to get them. He's gone and printed all the old Kranburns, and the new ones, and the NSEW, as well as something called Ektype (I have no idea what this is, but I want it anyway). I went and ordered everything I didn't already have. So this is great news for people like me, who really liked Kranburn and Mr Byrne's work, and are fortunate enough to afford to buy printed comics shipped halfway around the world.
Just got this issue in a bookstore on the last day of 2018. That made five issues in the year, based on when I actually bought them. Same for the year before. Falling short of the stated six issues per year, and the internet presence hanging by a thread, concerns me about the health of the operation.
But the mag itself is still pretty good. I got the Cover A, "Elefanka" by Ron English.
Pretty cool, I like it so I'll give it an 8, and especially the background elephant images reminded me of the Roger Dean Osibisa album cover art.
Yeah, not quite the same, but still kinda neat. The mag is labeled the "Psychedelic Special", and there is some attempted mind-bending going on, so the Special name has some actual meaning this time.
The Contents page illustration is by Adrian Cox, "Spectral Witness with Gathering Storm", which looks like just that, and Mr Cox has a Gallery entry in this issue.
The staff listing has some changes, no more Jett Lucas (and no sign of that weed "edutainment" magazine he was said to be working on almost two years ago), and there's a Paul Reder noted as COO/CFO, with Brian Witten going to Creative Advisor. Jeff Krelitz is still listed as President. I certainly don't know what's really going on, but I'll guess that an executive-level reorganization indicates a change in operational structure, which I will hope is to stabilize the organization to ensure its continued existence.
Mr Morrison is still around too, and his editorial for this issue is written as a story of illicit drug trials that produced "HM292" and its psychoactive effects on those subjected to it. Rather clever and it fits the theme. I'll give Mr Morrison credit for continuing to produce these editorials in such an entertainingly loquacious fashion.
"She Comes at Midnight" by Rob Sheridan - 8 - Musings of desire for late night tv images. Evocative and cool to look at. This very much makes me think of the time long ago, before cable, where a subscription for early pay-tv for sports and adult content, involved using a set-top box to unscramble the subscription channel signal. And it was rumored that if you didn't have a subscription box, but fiddled with the antenna enough, you could just make out a boob or something. Never worked for me, but this makes me think Mr Sheridan may have been a young teen boy in the mid 70s too.
"The Smile of the Absent Cat" Chapter Three by Grant Morrison and Gerhard - 6 - Noted as "the never condition". A cat lunatic asylum resident, tormented by the Great War, trying to get his life back in order, is approached by another resident, and pulled into some devious plan. Some nice storytelling going on, but even with the three chapters being mostly separate stories, the year and a half since the last chapter made it hard for me to get excited about it. I wonder when the next chapter might appear, or even if there's a whole story to even get through.
Gallery with Miles Johnston - 7 - with an interview by (surprise!) Rantz Hoseley. The artist tells us a great deal about himself with Mr Hoseley's help, and I thought what I learned helped my appreciation of his work. There's a lot to like, though I have to get over being picky about proportion in what looks like it should be photorealistic. Because it's not, it's supposed to evoke things like infinite regression and emptiness inside, not look exactly like them, because it won't.
"The Door" Chapter 4 by Michael Moreci, Esau Escorza, & Adam Wollet - 7 - The story continues for our young protagonist and her misadventures in worlds she does not know. Reappearing in a city scene familiar from the beginning, but where the residents have pig heads, she and her companion "Monster" are rescued from the crowd by a pig with manners, introducing himself with a "these swine know little when it comes to civil society" as Francois Bacon. Monsieur Bacon not only deduces that her paper crown indicates the Garbage King sent her for a reason, but expounds on the nature of the worlds they are in, helping us understand what's going on. Similar to the Matrix, they are in a series of software constructs of realities, the product of humanity retreating into their inner digital worlds, and her ability to step between them makes her unique, but also able to escape. He directs her down a darkened staircase, and this chapter ends with "to be concluded." The art continues to be enjoyably lovely, and the story exposition takes some shots at some of humanity's more selfish aspects, including the current aberrant administration and abdication of individuals' parts in society. I'm looking forward to how this concludes.
"The Oneiroverse" by R.G. Llarena, Garrie Gastonny, Omar Estévez, Jame - 8 - An aspiring writer pays for a dream journey into the Oneiroverse to search for the IDEA to write his first book. It starts with a joke (I've not read Hitchhiker's Guide, but even I know "why forty-two") and sends him to dozens of worlds with fairy princesses, mystical warriors, and bitchin' babe bands. He returns dissatisfied, still not realizing where the IDEA needs to come from. Nicely done art and I again enjoyed Mr Llarena's storytelling abilities, and I was impressed by how well the translation worked.
"The Rise and Fall of Empires" by Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes - 5 - A somewhat interesting execution of representing change with an area graph. Here it's apparently it's about distribution and reach of presumably societal factions shown with different colors and geometric patterns. It's pretty abstract and without context on the factions, so it doesn't really tell me a lot.
Gallery with Ron English - 8 - Titled The Art of POPaganda, with a short text introduction of Mr English (Not by Mr Hoseley!?) and a series of images that rather assertively demand your scrutiny. Some really wacky stuff going on there, not to say I don't enjoy it. Mr English did the first cover of the Morrison Era:
and the skully Mr Smiley is seen again here, as well as other recognizable and perhaps not-so familiar characters. I enjoyed looking at the images and imagining what it would look like generating this stuff, and considering the filthy mess of society I inferred from the compositions. And good thing I liked it, since there's more of Mr English later this issue.
"Influencer" by Michael Kupperman - 7 - In three pages and nine panels, a story of ergot-induced madness, prophecy, and immortality. The art is perhaps not refined, but so effectively plays its part in the storytelling, which I found fantastic, literally, including the unbelievability of the ending. And of course, it's on topic with the Psychedelic theme.
Another ad for the Dark Matter Heavy Metal coffee, which seems to exist only in the pages of the magazine. I've never seen it actually for sale.
"Hydroglyphs to Mania" by Miranda Smart - 7.5 - Heavens, a trip through the caverns of your brain doesn't have to be so scary, but it can be. A wordless depiction of a peer-pressured hallucinogen ingestion, looking every bit like it's describing a personal experience. And the story's success in telling me with the art alone is what impresses me. A similar trippy art style was more common in the mag's early days.
Gallery with Amélie Barnathan - 6 - Mr Hoseley makes up for lost time with a long-ish interview. Ms Barnathan shows a number of works with some thought-provoking images, and talks about her training, and a new Tarot she worked on, apparently Instant Archetypes, "an analog toolkit" for our digital age. I guess Tarot is a thing.
"Citied" by Rantz Hoseley & Andrew Brandou - 7 - Cute little art student critters dress up for the funnest Halloween party ever. Chemical assistance was applied. It was worth the challenge to discern the text and details in the colorful jumbled miasma of the art.
"The Color of Air" Part Nine: The Conclusion by Enki Bilal, translation by Jessica Berger - 8 - Still beautiful, even moreso with more color at this ending and epilogue of the old story, pointing to the beginning of the next. The Planet finishes its Bloody Coup and the inhabitants are re-invigorated and re-associated. Like life I suppose, it's only supposed to make as much sense as you can make of it. Thanks for everything Mr Bilal.
"Beatle" by Diego Agrimbau & Gabriel Ippóliti - 6 - Ringo impersonators are turning up dead in the city. A Beatles-loving cop goes undercover at a well-known impersonator agency, and uncovers the Beatles' final secret.
"Combrats" by Ron English - 9 - Mr English brings us to the Combrat Zone, where "feral clown kid soldiers" patrol the no man's land between Delusionville and hell. An inhabitant of Delusionville, a Rabbbit, wants to visit hell, but is detained by Combrats. It's just as wacky as it sounds, and it looks even more. The Combrats are like clown faced dolls with tie-dyed clown suit uniforms and helmets, and guns, and the rabbbits have three ears and three eyes (as also seen in some of the previous Gallery). There's a lot of 3D modeled background with fantastic imagery, some so clearly rendered as to make me wish he had constructed it all with modeling clay and popsicle sticks, some of hideously mutated creatures so Bosch-ian that I thought of the Bruce Bickford animation in Baby Snakes. Much of it had me thinking of the beloved (by me) Rock Opera by Rod Kierkegaard Jr from Heavy Metal in the later 80s. So much to see, so much weird as hell and so much creepy as shit. There's even some "regular" comic drawing and a "painted" image or two. The story gets right into the nature of belief and reality (Delusionville and hell) and God and Satan, and I enjoyed some of the banter, though I admit I didn't follow it all the way it was going, and there were parts in quotes I didn't know, so I missed out on some of it. But I got much of it, and I caught a joke or two in there, and the whole story was bunches of Heavy Metal magazine fun, so thanks for that.
Gallery with Adrian Cox - 7 - With more great interview work by Rantz Hoseley, and Jeff Krelitz is credited as being in the interview, at a gallery opening of Mr Cox's work at the Corey Helford Gallery in LA, but I guess he didn't make the edit (though he got in a couple photos). The work shows fantastical images of humanoids made of flowers, or iridescent energy, or ... something, and apparently it tells a story. The text was informative, and I was able to get a feeling of the story from the descriptions and images here. Cool.
"Cultscape" by Hector Lima, Patricio Delpeche, Martin Túníca - 6 - A couple makes their escape from a White Light cult based on a space station. It makes the most of the facets of insight and brilliance that shine through a rather opaque story and its serviceable art, as it tries to convey the mind control pressure inherent in a cult environment.
"Murky World" Part 5 by Richard Corben - 7.5 - A small chapter in the story, Tugat and Moja are to die in the arena, but the ferocious killer beast won't cooperate. Simply lovely to see, enticing and mind-boggling, and I'm having too much fun to be bored by the story's meandering. What can possibly happen next?
John Findley's Tex Arcana has not indicated an update for over three years. I thought to email to the link a few days ago, to ask about it. I'd done it before. The email generates an auto-reply, advising that there's a registration process to allow the message to get past spam blockage. I've been actually lucky enough to get a response a few times over the years, and he was quite gracious about it (actually corresponding with actual HM creators is an actual thrill for me), but the last time was over three years ago.
While I wait, I thought to look on the internet, and was disappointed to learn that the Tex Arcana comic was no longer available on the site, but for one short story, and it's been like that for almost 2 years! I felt really bad, not really checking for so long that the great story I've been pointing to wasn't there anymore. The Book looks like it's still available, which is good, and I recommend to anyone reading this you should go buy it. I did earlier and I'm glad I did.
So I certainly hope things are going well for Mr Findley, and that this might just mean he wants to encourage people to buy his book (do it) or something else constructive. In any case I remain grateful for what he did and what he shared freely, and for the kindness he showed me in previous correspondence, and I wish only the best of what his life has to offer for him.
But I remembered double checking on a link on an earlier post before, and it worked. And it does. For some reason, the work on the fourth as-yet-unpublished book, is still out there. Starting here, after the end of the still-up story, are over eighty pages of some really cool expansion of the Tex Arcana saga. If you're still reading this, you should go take a look at it, while it's still there. As we see, nothing lasts forever.
I read it before, and I should have posted it then, but HM fbook linked to it, so I get another chance. It has interesting perspectives, some of which I share, but it's informative to anyone who wants to know more about why Heavy Metal Magazine still exists.
Just announced on Variety via a post on HM Fbook, a Heavy Metal Magazine documentary is planned. It may be interesting, and I'll look forward to hearing more. But the article erroneously says HM led to the phrase Heavy Metal being used for Metal music. And it mentions the 1981 movie, and the abortive effort for another movie in 2008, but ignores the Heavy Metal 2000 F.A.K.K. 2 movie.
I kind of understand why no one wants to remember the second Heavy Metal movie, it was plenty bad. But it had its moments, and Mr Eastman did manage to actually produce it. I hope the documentary does happen, and they give Mr Eastman his due for keeping the mag alive, and making it his own for so many years, including the story of the 2nd HM movie.
Honestly my favorite part of HM2000 was having Billy Idol in a lead voice role, because of this from Dossier in the mag in December 1982:
Which is something I've wanted an excuse to post for a while. The recent meme joke on the HM Fbook recently almost did it, but my bringing up the HM2000 movie here gave me my opening. I've thought it was funny that Mr Idol was in the HM2000 movie, remembering this snarky takedown, and how much I agreed with the sentiment at the time. With his sneery poser-punk act all over the MTV cable-waves taunting me, I spent a whole year actively changing the station or shutting off the radio whenever he came on. Now, as I approach senior-hood, I am much less offended than amused, I probably wouldn't want to punch his face anymore, and I understand Mr Idol is an ok guy with a sense of humor about it all.
So best of luck with the documentary guys. I hope it actually gets done and it doesn't suck.
A very nice article about Jim Steranko's Outland, from Heavy Metal Magazine in '81 and '82, Inventing Sci-Fi Noir, is featured on We Are the Mutants. I liked the direct HM reference, and I enjoyed the informative background of the context of the times, and how Mr Steranko took the gig.
I'll note that the presentation by Mr Steranko of this adaptation as mostly double-page splashes, as the article notes, would be next to impossible these days, since the mag has been edge-glued ("perfect" binding) for years, rather than stapled ("saddle stitched") as it was in its first years. My opinion is that the ability to really use double-page presentation, was one of the strengths of Heavy Metal Magazine's first era. That and the monthly publication, and the large amount of work that made it able to present.
I also liked the rather bold choice of the article, to include an image from the story from the mag, which anticipates and depicts not only future widescreen tv but also widespread pornography. Such transgressive content surely excited very young adult me, and this image of the future was also anticipated by a similar scene in the October 1980 "Special Rock Issue", in "Rock City" by Moebius. Seeing these images then, and knowing that they now reflect our amazing sci-fi reality, is another example of how I'm actually living in the future.
Heavy Metal #291, the Fetish Special. I got the Cover A at a bookstore.
The Cover A art is a photograph "Pray for Me" by Nikki Sixx. On the HM I-Gram, they say this is only the 4th photo cover, and asks if we can name the other 3. One commentor said February 1986, with Darryl Hannah.
(it says Winter 1986, but whatever)
This was the first issue after HM stopped monthly publication. Conveniently, the previous issue, December 1985, was the last monthly (and was also the first review I posted here on this blog, from something I wrote for Lostboy's Heavy Metal Magazine Fan Page forum, so many years ago. Thanks again Lostboy for sending it back to me, and for the images I lifted from your site, which is where people can go to get a closer look at them), and appeared to be also a photograph, of some cut paper sculpture art.
There was also December 1981, with the lovely Debbie Harry in an H. R. Giger bodysuit. One of the Great covers.
And then there was January 1979, with a photo of some fantasy rockinghorse sculpture.
You could consider October 1979, with a photographic image of H. P. Lovecraft inserted into the cover art (before photoshop of course) of a photograph.
So if you wanted to, you could argue Nikki Sixx's cover photo was the 6th HM cover with a photo (unless there are more I missed...).
So that was a fun digression, back to #291. I'll give Mr Sixx's cover a 6, just because.
It's not surprising that a Fetish issue would contain sex. And I'm ok with that.
The contents page illustration by Gabriele Pennacchioli is restrained but not subtle, and nice looking. This artist has a Gallery entry later in this issue.
Mr Morrison seems to have fun phrasing his editorial as #291 as the target of a "seduction" by a wealthy perv. It's more funny than disturbing, and one of the jokes is rather "clunky".
"Dark Dancefloor" by Hector Lima and Abel, and Pablo Casado and Bruna Dantas - 7 - A woman gets unjustly fired by her conniving boss from her marketing job and goes to the club to dance her anger away. There she is confronted by a demon in disguise. Warding him off with sorcery, her night ends with her job back and the conniver neutralized. It reads better than I describe it. The art is straightforward and supports the story well.
"The Door" Chapter 3 by Esau Escorza and Michael Moreci - 7 - The story takes another lap of a seemingly endless circle, spiraling through fantastic realities with our unlucky young protagonist. The art is lovely to look at, with beauty inside and out, the pervy smell seems to be dissipating, and the story has some good things to say about truth and morality. I wonder if it will ever wander from its circular track.
"Murky World" by Richard Corben - 7.5 - Having Corben back in HM is still a thrill. This story is intriguing and perplexing, richly descriptive but I'm not always sure what it's describing. The obtuse storytelling and dynamic artistic renderings add mystery to the already convoluted tale. Our simpleminded protagonist Tugat, chained and dragged to the city, goes from being a slave for sale to being fodder for death in the arena. What's next will surely be a surprise.
"Space Fuzz" by Ed Luce - 7 - From the same creator who brought us "Space Jizz" in HM #281 (review), a space explorer has a close encounter of the intimate kind. This one is a bit more sophisticated than the previous, but still a sex joke. But it's a joke I like, so I would be happy to see more of this character, hopefully more frequently than twice in a couple years.
"The Clairvoyant" by Leonie O'Moore - 5 - A woman goes to a vacation resort in space. The activities are unexciting, but she's taken in by the fantasy world of passion provided in the "dream pods". She leaves frustrated when her pod time runs out. On the flight back, another passenger shows clues from her dream fantasy, but the story ends. While the art is on the simplistic side, the story works so hard to show rather than tell that it left me wanting to know more.
Gallery with Johanna Stickland - 7 - An handful of stylized sexualized paint work. An interview by the ever-present Rantz Hoseley. I found it evocative. The artist has more paintings and photos on the website johannastickland.com which links to an IGram and Tmblr, but oddly doesn't appear to link to the sales site at johannastickland.bigcartel.com (though the Tmblr does...).
"Her Collection" by Coey Kuhn - 7 - A girls' night in, if you will... Three women are able to conjur a demon sex partner from a stuffed animal toy. I was impressed by the nearly explicit depictions, and the pointed display of what could be called body-positivity. Yep, I'm ok with that.
"A Life Without Ennui..." by Rodrigo Lucio, Carlos Dearmas, Omar Estévez - 6 - What appears to be an aimless wealthy woman, contemplates her humanity, and boredom, as the outside world crumbles, with her butler and her harem of mindless servant androids. Moderately philosophical, and even less sexy, with a slightly ironic joke at the end. It actually captures feelings of boredom pretty well.
"Dotty's Inferno: Vegas" by Bob Fingerman - 7 - Delightful Dotty's dreary day in Hell, where we learn her name is Dot Dasche, and the story of her demise, and where her living life intersects with her death life. I enjoy these, with various characters with various states of nudity and humanity, and clever storytelling. I'll be happy to see more, I hope.
Gallery with Gabriele Pennacchioli - 7 - Again with Mr Hosely doing the interview, which describes the artist's background in animation, which shows in the art here if you ask me. But what it may lack in intricacy, it exceeds in expression. While it's not a huge range, different body types, and boob types, are seen, and it's intentional if you ask me. And the surroundings of the central figures can be simple or worth a second look, but they're certainly complementary.
"The Color of Air" Part 8 by Enki Bilal - 8 - Characters stir from their stupor. The garbage zeppelin approaches the floating city. The airwhales arrive. A familiar feeling of a story coalescing to an unknowable end. An end I anticipate and fear. Love it.
"Nihilophilia" by Grant Morrison and Tula Lotay - 6 - An immortal has tried and has tired of all life and lust has to offer. Beautiful imagery and obtuse storytelling. You'd think this would remind me of early classic Heavy Metal. Instead I only find bits of cleverness. My loss I suppose.
An ad for the Taarna #3 comic book. Maybe if I actually went to a comic shop I might see one of these.
"Awake Walker" by Hector Lima, Rodrigo Urbano, Camila Torrano, Pablo Casado, Alberto Calvo - 6.5 - A near-future tale of emotional infidelity. Interesting ideas of visophone viruses and virtual reality self-hypnotism. Some more bits of cleverness, but I had a hard time putting a cohesive story together, unfortunately not in the thought-provoking mysterious way I like.
"Need" by Rantz Hoseley & Menton3 - 6.5 - Existential anguish in suburbia. The art presents the contrasts nicely. Reads like a guy's fantasy of a woman's fantasy, but the pain of feeling trapped in your life despite comfort and ease, can really mess you up.
An ad for the Heavy Metal coffee from Dark Matter Coffee again. They haven't had this available for many months, even before this issue came out. And I never got one.
Gallery with Ulorin Vex - 7 - Of course with an interview by Mr Hoseley. Not the usual pinup fare. This may have less technical sophistication than other Gallery entries, but I saw some compelling and intriguing imagery. One was a particularly sharp line drawing, notably including skin folds and stretch marks. I can admire that kind of radical approach to a sexist art style.
"Frills and Folds" by Jennie Gyllblad - 7 - With a subtitle "Jenitales" in a script that could have the "J" a "G" so it could be a moderately successful pun. A young woman enjoys a fantasy in pearly and frilly finery. But then she realizes she's in a checkout lane. A rather silly story, colorfully depicted, with more explicit digital penetration than I think I've ever seen in the mag. I'm ok with that.
Gallery with COOP! - 6 - Mr Hoseley's interview is brief but informative. To me it's notable that HM gets artists for these galleries with a wide range of experience, from formal art school education to picking up crayons as a child to experience in other art forms, in any combination. Results may vary. Here, COOP shows an affection for a 50s-ish retro Devil Girl styling, with the naughty dialed up to raunchy. Perhaps I don't share the same affection, but it can be fun.
"A Tribute to Harlan Ellison" by Patton Oswalt, Peter David, Kevin J Anderson, Mark Waid, Colleen Doran, & Bill Sienkiewicz - 7.5 - Starting with "From A to Z in the Harlan Ellison Alphabet" by Patton Oswalt, and with illustrations by Mr Sienkiewicz. An interesting approach to a tribute piece in HM. The alphabet list of factoids isn't a new way to do it, but it's effective. Followed by some testimonials of how Mr Ellison affected the contributors' lives, likewise not a unique method. I did learn some things, but that's not hard since I didn't know so much to start with. But I'm a bit curious about why this Tribute is in HM. But for Mr Sienkiewicz I'm not sure that the contributors have been in HM before. Harlan Ellison has, seven times in the mag's first five years that I could see (notably for one of my favorite stories, Shattered Like a Glass Goblin in October 1978, reviewed here). And Patton Oswalt is in Mr Morrison's TV show Happy! so there's some connection there. It's a nice piece so I won't complain too much.
An ad with the four covers for this issue follows, which is nice. The inside back cover has an ad for the Iron Maiden Legacy of the Beast game, that's getting a lot of promotion, and the back cover is another ad for The Heroin Diaries 10th Anniversary Edition, likewise thoroughly promoted. There's a lot good going on with the mag now, and I hope that keeps up. But there are some reasons for concern, like how this is only the third issue this year. Maybe a 4th will appear before the end of the year, but it's good I don't have a subscription, since I'd be pretty annoyed if I did.
Thanks to Mr Bryne from me, and all the others who really liked this, for making this available again.
I haven't seen anything about new work, but I'll hope the alarmingly prolific Mr Byrne will find the time to do the work, and that somehow Brand survives the leap off the burning building at the end of #10. There was so much going on in this story that could be explored, and I hope we get to see some of it.
I also hope he finds a way to sell those reprints, and with luck some new ones, in a way that I can find and get sent halfway across this modern world. When you find out how, go buy his stuff.
The Heart is a story by Attila Kiss, and Marie Philippova, and Greg Woronchak (with "German Assistance" by The4thPip), published by Scattered Comics in Movie Massacre #2. Link: http://scatteredcomics.com/?page_id=5184
I saved The Heart for a review until now. Not only because it takes me forever to do anything, but also because it was the one that felt more like a Heavy Metal magazine story, with compelling, sometimes gruesome art, and a dark and murky fantastical story, more on the adult side of the comic spectrum.
The Heart is a story of two stories, one of medieval-times bandits and one of twentieth century nazi occultism. They are tied together loosely by the narrative, and they also use two different artists, so there is contrast as well as continuity. A cave serves as hideout for murderous highwaymen in the first part, and later as the site of Moloch-worshipping ritual sacrifice, which (spoiler) is undone by the frail strength of its victims' humanity.
Greg Woronchak, who also did the art for Blues Ratz, shows a different style for the first portion of The Heart, and it suits the story well, straightforward but dynamic. The "vignette" page layout (I think that's the right word) frames the images and adds to the storytelling. Marie Philippova did colors for this first part, and also does the second part, in a different but complementary style, likewise engaging and enhancing the storytelling, showing the terrible attraction of arcane ritual in the service of evil. The art is the most enjoyable part of this work to me.
Followed closely by the story. Attila Kiss' style comes through, rich and descriptive, sometimes florid, sometimes clever, keeping the reader on their toes by making them work to keep up. The leap between the parts is broad, with little apparent to connect them, but enough to make this a whole story. The story of evil across generations and a brief triumph of compassion, finds disparate points in humans' broad capacity for experience.
If you're like me, with a fondness for exploration of humanity's extremes, with exciting and stomach-turning (and sexy! even) graphic art depictions, The Heart is for you. Go do yourself and Attila Kiss and his cronies a favor and check this out.
