Heavy Metal #311

Heavy Metal #311 comes in at 136 pages for the $13.99 cover price.  I got the Cover A by Dan Quintana, via ebay.  The art is effective and over the translucent logo is splashed "The Boulet Brothers Halloween Takeover" in oozing letters, it's cool and I'll give it a 6.  Photo of my copy:

 

The Boulet Brothers are apparently established and popular entertainers and creators, according to their apparently well-maintained wikipedia, and of course, clueless me, I have never heard of them before now.  I got a pretty good impression of their creative determination, and I thought this issue had a lot to offer; despite my relative lack of interest in dyna-gendered horny horror, it seems to be a pretty good HM fit.

Speeding past the the big shots' babbling, at least I noticed they gave credit to the Boulet Brothers and Special Guest Editor Steve Orlando for this Takeover issue.  On the masthead there's also Morgan Rosenblum as Special Edition Lead Editor.

"Happy Halloween, Uglies" by The Boulet Brothers, Anderson Cabral, Lucas Gattoni, Morgan Rosenblum, Steve Orlando - 6 - An introductory piece with the Brothers in their lair, that connects with a couple more features that come later in this issue.  The fabulous outfits and shirtless tattooed manservants appear to be part of their thing.

"Adventures In Babysitting" by Katya Zamolodchikova, Rui Wobeto, Danielle Caraman, Lucas Gattoni, Morgan Rosenblum - 6 - Naughty babysitter and escaped slasher tropes, together again in suburban "Joisy".  This one didn't excite me so much, but there was some humor and pretty explicit naughtiness to be had.

"Death Must Be So Beautiful" by The Boulet Brothers, Anderson Cabral, Lucas Gattoni, Morgan Rosenblum, Steve Orlando - 5 - A waitress's enchanted wig propels her to stardom, but at what cost?  I thought the premise had more promise than the execution delivered.

"The Vault of Saumagotha - Part One" by The Boulet Brothers, Anderson Cabral, Lucas Gattoni, Morgan Rosenblum, Steve Orlando - 6 - The Brothers depart their lair, on a mission to Save Halloween.  Bless their hearts, it looks like they have such fun doing so.

"The Rise - Part Five" by George C. Romero, Diego Yapur, DC Alonso, Saida Temofonte, Joseph Illidge - 6 - It appears the scientist commandeers a prison to expand his experiments.  I like how the art looks, and it's trying to tell a cool story, but I get bogged down with glitches in the telling, narratively and visually (The warden's meeting is more confusing than informative.  Flying fired rifle shells would have an indentation in the primer where the firing pin hit, no?  The agent pulling out a gun with her left hand then firing it with her right?).

"Good Moon and Good Night" by Danhausen, Steve Orlando, Federico Tardino, Niccolo Laporini, Micah Myers, Morgan Rosenblum - 4 - Has-been fails to resuscitate his career following scandal.  I didn't like this one, the beginning didn't set up the finish, and the art wasn't enough to improve my viewpoint.

"Mirror Mirror" by Axelle Carolyn, EgoDuo, Daniele Caraman, Robin Jones, Morgan Rosenblum, Steve Orlando - 7 - Young women having a Halloween sleepover, late-1800's style.  Polished prose and ambitious art that worked hard with shading and framing, helped elevate this one for me.  

"The Vault of Saumagotha - Part Two" by The Boulet Brothers, Anderson Cabral, Lucas Gattoni, Morgan Rosenblum, Steve Orlando - 6 - The Brothers gleefully dispatch the unstable beast.  Something I think I'm noticing in what's in HM these days, is when the the art has the foreground action so emphasized, that the background is left as a second thought, if that.  Part of the fun I get in HM reading is when the art has detail that rewards scrutiny, and there's not so much of that to be had here.  Perhaps an effect of modern digital graphic art tools, and how they're used.  Sometimes it seems that's all we get in the mag.  This may be a clue to what I feel can be missing from the mag in its present form, in my conception of what Heavy Metal Magazine should be.

"Starward:  Chapter Six" by Steve Orlando, Ivan Shavrin, Saida Temofonte - 6 - With Joseph Illidge credited as Editor.  The Starward Sisters are Seven again.  Their meeting with their doom awaits.  Again it's pretty formulaic, but this comes with great use of action and dynamic pacing and coloring, and the writing is keeping up, so I'm finding something to like.

"Boulet Brothers Pinup" by Luke Marsh - 5 - A poster style image, unfortunately diminished by being spread across two pages.  With a fantasy description of the Brothers' origins and powers.

"Popping Off" by Yvie Oddly, Arabson Assis, Letícia Pusti, Lucas Gattoni, Morgan Rosenblum, Steve Orlando - 7 - Party night at the club turns into wild hookup turns into unnatural horror.  Notable for its obvious gay sex, unusual perhaps for Heavy Metal, but not unheard of.  The most prominent earlier examples I recall are "The God's Brilliant Idea" by Monti from HM September 1999, and also a farcical stereotyped crossdresser in "Bodyssey" by Simon Revelstoke and Richard Corben in May 1985, but most other instances were more implied than explicit.  And the orange menace is pretty scary.

"Dark Wing - Chapter Seven" by Matthew Medney, German Ponce, Andrew Dalhouse, Saida Temofonte, Joseph Illidge, Bruce Edwards, Pete "Voodoo Bownz" Russo - 5 - Returning since its last appearance in HM #306.  The story is still not hitting the mark for me, but I'll give the art credit for its effort to show expansive perspectives and some enriching detail.  It's use of two-page spreads is pretty egregious though.

"She Makes Monsters" by Steve Foxe, Isaac Goodhart, Letícia Pusti, Robin Jones, Morgan Rosenblum, Steve Orlando - 5 - A nice premise, an aged actress dispenses career advice at a signing, but this misses opportunities to expand the storytelling; e.g. the poster behind the signing table appears to say "The Woman Behind the Mask", which would forward the narrative, but for its being obscured and minimized in the background.

Interview with the Boulet Brothers by George C. Romero - 6 - A lengthy interview with multiple questions and answers, and a multitude of photos of the Brothers in various costumes.  Even though I'm not really interested in the "content" they produce, it's clear they are motivated and driven to achieve their place and personas, and with all the effort they put into their looks and "content", I can't help but admire their achievements, such as I have learned about in this mag.

"The Adventures of Adrienne James" by Matthew Medney, Bruce Edwards, Geraldo Borges - 5 - Noted as a "Special Preview", the title character apparently rides dinosaurs to meet lizard people to trade for an amulet.  It's maybe not as cool as that sounds, and it was odd to me that this is a "Preview" when there was a fuller installment in #307.

"Savage Circus" Chapter Nine" by Brendan Columbus, Al Barrionuevo, Candice Han, Dave Sharpe, Joseph Illidge - 3 - Apologies to the creators, but I really don't like this.  I read once that "comics are not storyboards", so the corrolary may be "storyboards don't make good Heavy Metal Stories".  If anything I'm disliking this one more than I did "The 49th Key", which ran from issue #273 to #281, which was similarly afflicted with clumsy formulaic storytelling and less-inspiring art.

"What's Hers" by Alaska Thunderfuck 5000, Przemyslaw Klosin, Morgan Rosenblum, Steve Orlando - 7 - Sex worker is possessed by a bloodthirsty alien.  While I wonder where she got the sword, I thought the storytelling was terrific with the badass ending, and the art supported the story well.

Taglines

In recent issue reviews, I've had a problem with one of the big shots taking liberties with what I call the Tagline, the "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine" that appeared on the very first issue in April 1977.  While I don't care for the big shot perspective, I realized I was being whiny about it for no good reason.  A post over at the PorPor Books blog induced me to look at the January 1996 issue, and then further, to see that the tagline has varied much more than I recalled over the years of HM's existence.  I'm not helping by acting like some know-it-all, some unassailable authority, when there's always more to learn.  So sorry about that.  Yet another reminder for me to keep some humility in my fanboyhood, as in my personhood.

Flipping through my issues, I was interested by the variety and timing of the permutations of the tagline, so I made some notes and will list a chronology of how and when it's changed over time.  As all of my blog, it's for my own amusement, but join in if you wish:

April 1977 - the first issue that certainly set the tone, had what I consider the classic "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine".  It also had a little banner in the corner saying:  "From the People Who Bring You the National Lampoon".

The next two issues, May and June 1977, had "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine From the People Who Bring You the National Lampoon" for the tagline, all together.  After these, it was the classic tagline on every regular issue for years to come, through the monthly issues and into the period of quarterly publication that started in 1986.  

Most of the early Special issues had no such tagline, but a few had something.

"The Best of Heavy Metal" from 1982 had "From the World's Premier Illustrated Magazine".

The next early specials, "Even Heavier Metal" from 1983, "Son of Heavy Metal" from 1984, "Bride of Heavy Metal" from 1985, had no tagline, but "The Best of #2" from 1986, had the classic "The Adult Illustrated Magazine".  

In the Fall 1987 issue, the tagline became "The Illustrated Fantasy Magazine", and the regular issues carried that for several years.

The 1989 "Venus Interface" had no tagline, but the 1992 "15 Years Of" issue had "The World's Foremost Illustrated Fantasy Magazine".

The November 1992 issue had "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine" again, but it immediately went back to "The Illustrated Fantasy Magazine" on January 1993.  The regular issues had this for several years.

Most of the next early specials, "War Machine" and "Software" from 1993, "Pin-Up" and "Greatest Hits", "Overdrive" and "Havoc" from 1995, had no tagline, some had phrases that were more like promotional stickers.  "One Step Beyond" from 1996 had "Original Stories from the Film".  The Fall 1996 "Special Edition" had "Featuring the Multimedia Novel Sinkha".  

The 1997 "Horror Special" had no tagline.  The Fall 1997 "20 Years Special" had "All New Material".  "The Best of Richard Corben Special" from Fall 1998 had "Richard Corben from Creepy and Eerie" which is kind of funny since Mr Corben had been a fixture at Heavy Metal from the very first issue, 20 years earlier.

The Spring 1999 "Crossroads" special carried "The Illustrated Fantasy Magazine", and while the Summer 1999 "F.A.K.K.2 Movie Special" had no tagline, the regular mag tagline began varying a little more around this time.

The July 1999 issue and the Fall 1999 "Techno" special had "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine" again.  But the September 1999 issue went with "The Mature Illustrated Fantasy Magazine".

The January 2000 issue had no tagline, but March 2000 came right back with "The Mature Illustrated Fantasy Magazine".

The Summer 2001 "Taboo Special" had "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine", July 2001 had "The Mature Illustrated Fantasy Magazine", and Fall 2001 "Mind Melt Special" had "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine".

From then on, there was a period of several years with the regular issues and 3-a-year "themed" Specials all carrying the classic "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine".  Good Times.

The Fall 2006 "Halloween Special" had "World's Foremost Adult Illustrated Magazine".

The November 2006 issue had "The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine", then January 2007 had "The World's Foremost Adult Illustrated Magazine" again.

That lasted until January and March 2007 said "The World's Formost Adult Illustrated Magazine", a typo for the HM ages.  But the Spring 2007 "Chaos Special" came back with "The World's Foremost Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine".  This stayed the tagline for a few years.

With the March 2011 issue, the tagline read "World's Foremost Adult Illustrated Magazine" for just over a year, through to the beginning of the numbered issue era, with #259.  

But for #260, it went with "The World's Greatest Illustrated Magazine".  This was the tagline for the succeeding issues, with some exceptions (the issue #298 in 2018 said "Sci-Fi Special", and the issue #292 also in 2018, had "Psychedelic Special", the singular "Soft Wood" issue in 2019 said "America's New Comedy and Parody Magazine", and also said "From The People That Bring You Heavy Metal Magazine" in a little note under the "Issue #1".  #300 in 2020 said "All Star Special" for some reason, but none of these otherwise had a version of the tagline).

Issue #301 from 2020, had "The World's Greatest Illustrated Magazine" again, but after #303 from 2021, there has not been anything resembling a tagline for the nine issues I've gotten since.  Perhaps it's finished.  

If so, I'll miss it, but I figure it's another one of those things that change, and it's up to me to decide how I feel about it.  At this point I feel amused with myself, that I noticed and thought about it, and went through my copies for this and put it together, and learned a couple things doing it.  And I'm glad I decided to ignore more subtle variations, like typefaces and placement and wordcounts and how obscured the text can be.  That would've been nuts.

Decades

I've noticed that I've been at this for over 10 years.  My first post was in October 2011.  By then I had been back into Heavy Metal Magazine for a few years, my collection was just about complete, and I'd been on the HM website forum for a couple years.  When the forum was shut down when they could not control the spam onslaught, I was annoyed enough to start this little blog (I accused them of destroying the village in order to save it, a throwback to a Vietnam War statement).  

Much has happened to the mag, and to my life, in this past decade.  Well into my seventh decade, with the mag into its fifth, it's been eventful, both good and bad, for us both, and with most of my life behind me instead of ahead of me now, I've been reflective.  Despite pain and annoyance, I am aware enough to be grateful for the good fortune I do have.  Despite the overwhelming greed and stupidity displayed by humanity's worst, I still try to emphasize to myself what good there is in this world of ours, and I hope for myself and others (including the few who actually read this) that the good will overcome the worst.  Take care all.

To celebrate, I made a copy of Lostboy's HM Checklist (it's a word doc near the bottom of the page) and modified it to reflect my collection:

Hey kids!  Try it at home!

Looking at it this way, it's pretty apparent to me how they landed on #259 when they went to numbered issues in 2012.  Not that I understand why Mr Eastman decided to not count the "Special" issues, as he was responsible for most of them.  With the last few years' issues checked off on the month I actually got my copy, it's also apparent that there have been problems publishing consistently in the recent years.  It concerns me about the mag's future, especially considering my opinions about the current big shots.

Anyway, I also recently decided to include the early "Heavy Metal Presents" special books on my list, per this list on Lostboy's fan page, since I already had some, and I can work to gather the others.  They can be pretty pricey these days, so I'll take my time.  One thing is that they're not the same size as the mag, so my bags don't fit.  Good thing the copy of Conquering Armies I recently got came with a bag, since it's an enormous 10" x 13.25":

This is a good time to point out that the richly detailed black and white art in Conquering Armies, and several other stories in the mag's early days, is something that is missing in today's HM.  I don't expect to see it like this again:

("Conquering Armies" by Gal and Dionnet, appeared in the first 4 issues of Heavy Metal, April - July 1977, and in January 1978.  It's excellent, beautiful and horrifying.)

So this was a fun diversion to start this new year with.  Best wishes to all, especially the few of you actually reading this.