May 2012

Man, it took forever to get this issue.  The local bookstore never got it.  I never found it in a mainstream bookstore.  I went to a comic store I’d never been to for it.  They only had one of the covers.  Fortunately, it was the Tariq Raheem, which is the one I’d decided to get, if I didn’t get the original Nicollet.  Then, it took me forever to write this.

The four covers idea might have been a good one, but I didn’t like the result.  The new ones didn’t approach the energy of the original, and reprinting the original seemed to lessen the impact that is its legacy. 

The original cover set the tone for what HM meant to me.  “wow, it’s two robots, fighting … man, that’s one’s beatin’ the crap out of the other one … and it’s a girl!  whoa.”  (C’mon, I was a teenager.)  It promised wild action-packed fantasy and in the early days the mag kept that promise.  Using this cover reprint for a 35^th anniversary cover version, while using it as a template (sort of) for the other versions, hinted at not having many new ideas to choose from.

I suppose printing the original cover gives more people the opportunity to have this one in print.

The other three new covers disappointed me.  The Sperlonga, the outfits, the posing, the composition, none of it worked for me.  He’s a really good artist, but I don’t care for this.  The Stanley at least was slick, and the obvious stiff posing and gazing at the viewer gave me some intrigue as well as boredom.  The Raheem shows the most imagination and mystery of the bunch, she might be getting put back together instead of taken apart, and is the robot head going on or off?  The giant monkeywrench and falling sparks were just goofy.

Moving on, the content has much to recommend it.  Excellent use of the early editorial.

Burton and Cyb, and Sataka, were unique as these were not reprints, though some of the Sataka looked familiar (interesting that Sataka appeared first in the mag in the late 00s though these are from the mid 80s ( some of these pages are even on http://www.royo-royo.com/luis-royo/bio/ ).  I like them, though they are dated.  7s for them both.

H – 8, just cause it’s nuts.  I like a good descent to madness.

Daymares/Nightdreams – 8 - because it’s old and tells a story I like.

Fragments – 7 – A strong story about fear of the unknown, from the early days, and it looks nice.  Things may not be what they seem.

Little Ego – 7 – yeah, well, good thing for that Green Sheik anyway…. These were always nice to see if not at all deep.

Willy’s Garage – 7 – nice looking and some drama.  And that was that…

The Last Century – 7 – nothing surprising but still compelling.  A very different future view than the later Children of the Future.

Sax Blues – 8 – A classic, not because of the fantasy (tho this would be a fantasy for my life) but for the telling.  Of course now he’d be checking his farcebook page instead of looking at a paper letter…

Pilatoriam – 7 – Ooops, that rebellion against society didn’t work out too well for you.  Better luck next life.

Children of the Future – 8 – Love this story, with some nice characterizations, and a real range of emotion, and a quick telling of a good story.  I’m sure I reviewed it once (but didn’t find it) and said something about a mixture of tenderness and disgust that you don’t see often, unless it’s Serpieri.

Dear Enemy – 7 – There’s a lot to like about this, all the futuristic gizmos and wearable technology, pretty cool for ’88.  There’s a nice story too, if you look for it, it took me a few times through.  I didn’t recognize this as a Frezzato right away either.

The Warrior’s Repose – 7 – An interesting story, all the trouble he goes through to cheat on his wife, cunning and cruel, even evil.  There are some inconsistencies but the storytelling and the art are busy enough to keep my interest.

A smattering of ads and a few old cover reprints fill in some space.  The Snail Factory ad was intriguing enough for me to look it up, but a quick view didn’t show me much.  While I’ve liked how the mag has looked for the past months, clean and concise, there’s some uncertainty of what the future holds for the print magazine.  I remain hopeful for its continued existence.

Kranburn #2

Getting this was just as expensive and challenging as last time, I'm happy I did just the same.  The cover shows BMB's ability for close detail.  It's interesting that the guy's body tattoo is some sort of comic background art, pasted in.  He's got a nice approach to using digital image copying in the comic, sometimes making small changes between sequential panels, or more separate panels, or like this.  I think it works well.

The plot thickens.  A love interest, family / social conflict, a bit of reminiscing, a forage run turns bad.  Told with the words and thoughts of the characters, and with some real ranges of emotion.  And with the same raw style and gleeful depictions of nasty violence that we love about this comic.  I realize I have the benefit of seeing the online version first with BMB's slang interpretations, and some of the comments, and it really helps me see farther into this comic.  It's still there, you should go look.  I knew what a dinger was before we saw it. 

Did I mention the violence?  Man, it's nasty.  Looks like he likes to draw this type of thing, and I like it too.  If a story of the vicious struggle for post apocalyptic survival drawn with raw black and white emotion appeals to you, it's worth it to look at this online, and maybe even buy it like I did.

Tex Arcana

John Findley was kind enough to reply.  He said he's too busy doing other work that actually pays, and won't get back to Tex Arcana until later this year, if at all.  As much as I'd love to see more, I can only wish him the best.  He's already given us plenty and doesn't owe me anything.  I think I'll buy the book with the first three stories collected.  Maybe you should too.

(crickets chirping)

it's been pretty quiet in my corner of the HM universe.  the new issue hasn't shown up at my local bookstore yet.  I'm looking forward to whining about it, the four cover versions is an idea that might have been good but didn't turn out that way.

Lostboy's HM fan page hasn't shown an update for months, not that I really expect one.  Gates has stopped, Rod Kierkegaard has been quiet, though I got his Mirrorland and I'm reading that slowly, xtin has fallen off the page but might be somewhere else, he was complaining of needing to do something else, but I hope it gets done.  Kranburn continues, and I did get the second issue so I suppose I could put up a review.

I did email John Findley to ask if Tex Arcana might continue.

RIP

Moebius, pax vobiscum

It wouldn't have been Heavy Metal without you.

thanks

March 2012

Cover - 6 - The more I look at it, the less I like it.  I like Bisely, the new logo treatment is kinda cool (flat head screws are practically archaic), it's plenty gruesome for a cover, but it seems such a mishmash even for a promo cover.  I can imagine someone saying "I dunno, let's put an explosion... here."  It doesn't help that I'm confused by the print mag touting Requiem #10, while the website image announces "World Premier of Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" and, there's only 3 horses...but I'm easily confused.

Gallery - 8 - To me a curious move to publish old Classic covers for the Gallery (and Artist Studio), but I really like the old covers, so I'm good for now.

The Bogey's Dictionary - 6 - Pretty funny and sometimes clever

Metal Media - 7 - I'm not into movies as much as this guy, Drive doesn't look as interesting to me as it does to him, and it's pretty New York - centric, but it's still a fun read.

Requiem - 8 - Spectacularly rendered as usual.  The selection of Hiroshima as the scene of the earthly atrocity is admirable.  Reading multiple two page panels across the crease was challenging for me, the storytelling was ok but there were some good lines, and the censorship was lamentable and clumsy.  I still enjoyed it.

Animal'z - 8 - It's obtuse and absurd, I think that's why I like it.  It might be trying to say something, that I don't get.  The art is sketchy, but it's still sharp, and maybe it adds to the mood.  I think I'm lucky to see it.

In the Trenches of Oniria - 7 -This isn't my favorite Xalabarder, still like it, but less enchanted.  There is a lot to look at, and indeed, "what a lugubriously furnished mind the poor devil has."

Fiendy - 7 - Though the story is light the telling is fun.  DP's lettering adds to it.  I do like the art and its energy.  I'm totally diggin' the recumbent machine gun cycle.

Kranburn #1

Kranburn is a webcomic (link on my Links page) that I first saw on the departed HM forums.  The author and artist BMB is rather prolific and pretty talented.  I recall he said he was trying to produce this ridiculously quickly, he puts out a page a week and for a while it was two pages.  The style is raw, and the story is of a vicious post apocalyptic near future set in suburban Australia.  Yes, Mad Max does come to mind, which is fitting as I think HM and Mad Max / Road Warrior influenced each other at their times.

He successfully got #1 published, so I bought a copy.  It was a bit challenging and expensive getting this from AU, but the company (fec comics) was responsive.  The book itself is rather small, less than 7" x 11" but it's very good quality with nice shiny pages, and I really enjoy a physical magazine like this, holding it and being able to flip back and forth between pages easily, so taking the trouble to get it is worth it to me.

I think this first installment of the story does the best of all I've seen so far.  It sets up the environment, only shows a bit of the background story, and grabs your attention with a car chase, brutally violent action, and wild swings of emotion.  This kind of gripping presentation is exciting.  The art is spare but with enough detail and range of perspectives to keep me interested.  Knowing how it progresses from watching the webcomic, I see that it's well thought out and appreciate how he tells the story.  Following chapters have more foreshadowing and exposition than this first one, which works to this one's advantage as a visual thrill ride and horror show.

Future installments are planned, and I will buy them for the sake of having the paper copies, and giving a bit of support to a comics creator that I like.  You should too.

January 2012

happy holidays, every damn one of them...

January 2012

Cover - 6 (The disdainful sneer is the best part.  The rest is flat and pointless.)

Gallery - 6 (This looks good enough to enjoy if it was in HM magazine, but I don't think I'll go buy it.)

Dossier - 7 (Don't know Chris Rush, but the article was a good read.)

Animal'z - 7 (wow, Enki Bilal.  Looks more like a sketchbook, but still shows a mysterious story.  And it's "to be continued next issue", an actual serial?)

Wisher #2 - The Fabled Ones - 6 (It was ok, some of it looked good, and some of it was funny.)

Dreamz - 7 (I admire Llarena for the effort to find humanity, and the art is a step up for his stories.)

Metal Media - The Zodiac Button - 8 (I had interest having grown up in that time, and this story is told in such a personal perspective.  And yes, "Ray, that's just weird")

The Tants - 7 (It's not great, but it helped me as I've thought about the current zombie cultural popularity.  I think it's a processing of collective fear of "the other", those who are different from you and your tribe and are threatening just because.  This fear is commonly exploited in our cultural and political lives.  This story helped me see that "the other" can also be seen as similar to you, as well as different.)

Will o' the Wisp - 6 (The color and backgrounds and composition were really nice, the rest of the line art looked blunt and hurried on top of it in comparision.  The story did show some real emotion.)

the Age - 6

Artist Studio - 7 (the guy's got some ability, and shows some range in the little bitty images on the last page.)

November 2011

Cover - 7 (the style and subject don't thrill me, but Bisely's execution does)

Gallery - 6 (I appreciate the energy and presentation, I know I'm missing out not chasing the QRs, but I'm not as impressed by Mr. Bite's work as he is.)

Dossier - 6 (Nice use of views of old and new work.  I've only looked at darkbrain a couple times, maybe I'll look again.)

Malevolence - 3 (I was sort of following where it was going, until it got there.  Actual willful torture offends me.)

I, Dragon:  the End of Genesis - 7 (Though I sometimes wished the art was less sketchy, Gimenez is still really good.  The story was wordy, but I liked it.)

The Only God - 7 (nice shift in a story I've seen before, to a better (?) ending.)

Darwin's Defeat - 8 (The best story in the issue by far, well told with better art execution than I usually see Llarena get.)

Metal Media - 6 (I can see that Buscema's ability deserves praise, but this article is light.)

Artist Studio - 7 (I admire the artist's ability in several media, and I do like looking for detail in line drawing...)

back cover - 7

not a bad issue, some good stuff and there have been worse.

Thanks Lostboy

Lostboy recently announced that he will no longer update his site beyond a few movie items and others:

heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com

Personally I am quite disappointed.  Lostboy's site is a tremendous resource for HM fans, and his perspective has been affectionate but not blindly accepting.  However, he doesn't owe me anything, and I respect his decisions.

I found his site when I was just getting back into HM, and I was searching for references to the Timothy Leary interview in the October 1983 issue.  Back then it came right up and I was amazed at the depth of information he had compiled.  (now it's back about 5 pages in search results)

I and other HM fans owe Lostboy a debt of gratitude for his efforts and the wealth of information his site offers.  I can only wish him the best and hope he keeps in touch.