Heavy Metal #307

Heavy Metal #307 came to me in the end of June of this year, with the usual 144 pages and $13.99 cover price.  The issue has the pretty cool wraparound Cover A by Thumbs, which unfortunately can only be viewed in its entirety digitally (without wrecking the binding completely) so I lifted the image from HM's shop site:

This image lacks the issue number and other info usually printed on the bound edge, and also the little box with the UPC and a reference to"Beyond Kuiper" which appears to be a sci-fi novel, which perhaps this image relates to.  I am not seeking that out and don't plan to, but the image is alright and gets a 6 from me.

Welp, now it's editorials by the two big shots.  Tim Seeley is still listed as Senior Contrbuting Editor, and there's a Tommy Coriale noted as President & Head of Studio, and no more Frank Forte.  As usual, we have no idea what they're doing. The editorials are dumb stuff about sci-fi and UFOs.

"Black Beacon - Chapter 2" by Ryan K Lindsay, Sebastian Piriz, Jame, R.G. Llarena - 7 - Niko the protagonist continues exploring, trying to gather info for a story.  I like this, it's pretty and thoughtful, though there's a confusing sequence where Niko is bound to an examination table, that I can't tell where where it is in a timeline.

"Maiden - Neoma:  The Bride - Chapter Five:  The Reckoning" by Michelle Sears, Bart Sears, Ilaria Fella - 5 - y'know, the art is pretty good, fierce action and demons haunted by demons, but it's mostly piles of body parts and puddles of blood, told with a rote progression of vengeance.

"The Adventures of Adrienne James" by Matthew Medney, Bruce Edwards, Geraldo Borges, Felipe Sobreiro, Saida Temofonte, R.G. Llarena - 6 - A 24 page first chapter, with lots of colorful comic action with plenty of comic sound effects.  Where a funeral on an obscure planetoid turns out to be a setup by the rebels.  Or something like that.  Best of luck with this one.

"Bertold's Bubble" by Diego Agrimbau, Gabriel Ippoliti - 8 - In a society where transgressions can be penalized with amputation, a man who's lost all his limbs is taken in by a man who writes plays and has amputees play the parts, in marionettatronic harnesses.  Moodily dark, I found this a fascinating premise well executed by the art and even more by the writing.  It's long, 45 pages in two parts, good thing I liked it.

"Vasator and Crunch" by David Erwin, Raymund Bermudez, DC Alonso, David Sharpe, Morgan Rosenblum - 5 - Continuing adventures of the erstwhile pair seen in HM #305, different artist this time.  There's plenty of talent on display in the art, but the writing doesn't excite me.

"Outer Demons" by Camille Willaford - 7 - City dwelling adventurers that need to fend off contagious demons.  A rough art style complements the sparse dialog of this two-pager that I found quite amusing.

"Beyond Kuiper Prose" by Matthew Medney - 4 - Well, I didn't need to seek out Beyond Kuiper, it came to me, as an entry in this issue.  Presumably an excerpt from a book, I found this to be terrible.  Lines like "...felt as if his sanity had reached the event horizon of a black hole." abound, with the subtlety of a portrait painted with a broom.  With any luck this is just a promo and it won't cross my path again.

"The Eye Collector" by Jonathan Ball, GMB Chomichuk, Lyndon Radchenka - 6 - Subtitled at the end as "the crow and the traveler in the desert".  A parable told as a child's bedtime story.  I found the art cool and interesting, like a monochrome digital collage, and the story is obtuse enough to be thought-provoking.

"An Interview with John Connelly" by Joshua Sky - 5 - Subtitled "It's Been a Privilege"  Welp, I was wrong, more "Beyond Kuiper" came and found me.  Mr Connelly is an AeroSpace Engineer, a sci-fi writer, and apparently Mr Medney's buddy.  I knew a John Connelly in the 80s, but it's probably not the same guy.  He describes their lofty goals for the franchise.  Good luck with that.  I will say that the formatting on this entry, with upside-down Vs being used for As on the title page, and the text reaching down into the crease of the binding, is really annoying.

"Swamp God - Chapter 3" by Ron Marz, Armitano, Werner Sanchez, ALW Studios' Troy Peteri - 6 - And with Tim Seeley and Joseph Illidge getting their respective Editor and Co-Editor credits.  The rebels encounter the Union soldiers, as they flee the witch.  But they then encounter the Swamp God, so they're all gonna die.  Well, maybe not all right away, there might be some more story before the end.

RM Rhodes on The Bus

RM Rhodes, of https://heavymetalmagazine.wordpress.com/ fame, wrote an article about The Bus by Paul Kirchner in Heavy Metal.  I thought it was really good.

Heavy Metal #306

Heavy Metal #306 is 144 pages with the $13.99 cover price.  I got mine from mycomicshop.com in May 2021, with the cover A by Lurk.  Colorful and roughly imaginative, a being with a shaman-ish appearance.  I give it a 7 since I like the color and room for interpretation.  Photo of my copy:

The three big shots take their shots at editorials again.  Some of what they say, about their discovery of HM, and its place in their culture, has a familiar sound to it, but I'm getting the feeling that the mag is less and less for oldsters from the times when HM was new, like me.  These guys' experiences are not like mine, and I can't expect them to view things like me, or have the same memories of the mag.  Likewise I can't expect the mag to have the same impact on me now as it did then.  I won't get the same mind-blowing sense of discovery, seeing a door open to a new world I was just becoming able to comprehend, as I did 40+ years ago, or even as 15+ years ago when I started gathering and reading them all, getting a whiff of that memory in the process.  That memory of memories is what keeps me reading the mag, and I'm still having some fun with it.  But the Heavy Metal media empire juggernaut is rumbling along, becoming more obscure to me in the noise and dust of their machinations.  I hope it remains visible as I cling to my faint impressions of what it should be.

And that's enough wallowing.  I'll save some whining for the stories in this issue of the mag.

"Black Beacon - Chapter 1" by Ryan K Lindsay, Sebastian Piriz, Jame, R.G. Llarena - 7 - The story  begins with a refugee arriving, unwelcome, to a crowded outpost.  Art with bright colors and imaginative characterizations, complements writing that gives incidental exposition.  Some worn bits, the jaded cop figure, the not-yet-jaded youth, fortuitous titular object appearance, etc, but this starts with some promise.

"Euclid" by Omar Spahi, Dillon Gemmill, Peejay Catacutan - 7 - Interstellar explorer crashes into an (almost) infinite staircase, needing to decide if he goes up or down.  Well-done exploration of life and reality, that I enjoyed even though none of it was surprising.  Except for the letterer spelling it "letterrer".

"Star 69" by Michael J. Ruiz-Unger, Maxi Dall'O, Steve Canon, Micah Myers - 6 - Some guy finds someone's phone.  But it's an alien phone.  Misdialed hijinks ensue.  Pretty humorous space tourist loses their phone story.

"Swamp God - Chapter 2" by Ron Marz, Armitano, Werner Sanchez, ALW Studios' Troy Peteri - 6 - With Tim Seeley and Joseph Illidge getting their respective Editor and Co-Editor credits. Well, the swamp witch gets her piece, but the Reb boys ain't much for cuddling after.  But she manages to birth her creature, which bears a remarkable resemblence to the wendigo in "Blizzard" in HM #297.

"Nuclear Romance" by Stefano Cardoselli, Panta Rea, Andrea Lorenzo Molinari, Bram Meehan - 7 - A lonely orphan robot searches the wasteland, for hope?  It's been since 2014 that we've seen Cardoselli in Heavy Metal's pages, and I'm glad to see his ability to display actual emotion comes through in this one.  His ability to depict raw ultraviolence is not present here.  But there is some violence implied.

"Barracuda - (chapter one) by Keith Champagne, A. Christopher Smith, Rich Stahnke, Steve Dutro, Tim Seeley - 5 - A cop wants to find her vanished crooked cop father.  The art isn't terrible but the story starts that way.  So far this is most noticable for a flashback including obvious gay sex, which is not unheard of in HM, but pretty rare.

"Dark Wing - Chapter Six" by Matthew Medney, German Ponce, Protobunker Studios, Saida Temofonte, R.G. Llarena, Bruce Edwards, Pete "Voodoo Bownz" Russo - 5 -This gets an extra point from me by avoiding two-page spreads, so the art can better speak for itself.  Story not as much, alliances are formed etc, but it's trying to go somewhere.

"Au Naturale" by Perry Crowe, Chris Anderson - 7.5 - Mother Earth has her revenge, with some help.  Some pretty fun art with some neat writing, and the last chapter of humanity on her Earth.  

Interview with Kevin Smith, by Joshua Sky - 6 - So Mr Smith has played his pop culture success into an influential media career, so he gets to be listened to.  Good for him.  It's disconcerting to see this go towards promoting NFTokens in Heavy Metal Magazine, and not just because it stinks to high heaven.  But because of how, like Mr Medney's big shot editorial in this issue, they both refer to Beeple's 69 bajillions for a bunch of (digital) art, and the issue HM #293 Mr Beeple did the cover B for, as a measure of HM's NonFT cred, when Mr Beeple was actually featured in an Artist Spotlight in the HM #289 issue, which does actually discuss the art project he eventually sold.  This barely superficial awareness of HM's past, even so recent, for such a cause, is causing me concern.

"Savage Circus" Chapter Six by Brendan Columbus, Al Barrionuevo, Candice Han, Dave Sharpe, Joseph Illidge - 3 - Goodness gracious me I don't like this.

"The Dream of the Human God" by Homero Rios, Mark Lorenzana, Juan F. Contreras, Jame - 7 - In a MegaBabylon space station, The Human God Nebucchadnezzar decides between prosperity for his people, or for his name to live forever.  The decision is not surprising for one that calls themselves the Human God.  I really liked the premise and the art, though I wished the storytelling had a clearer finish.

"Starward:  Chapter Two" by Steve Orlando, Ivan Shavrin, Saida Temofonte - 6 - With Tim Seeley and Joseph Illidge credited as Editors. The main character is perplexed by her sudden transformation into a superheroine.  The art is showing some pretty cool promise, though the story's just-out-of-high-school setting doesn't resonate with me.