HEAVY METAL IS BACK!

Just published is the first issue of the new incarnation of HEAVY METAL magazine. Weighing in at a massive 232 pages of art, stories, special features and more. This relaunch brings the world’s greatest illustrated magazine back to the forefront of comics. One of the magazine’s original line-up of legends, Enki Bilal  returns with the English language adaptation of his acclaimed BUG series. Michael Conrad (Hello Darkness, In Bloom) teams Greek comics legend, Ilias Kyriazis (Collapser, What We Wished For), for an all-new series entitled Millstone. The outrageous Burton & Cyb returns with “Poor Monsters” by Antonio Segura and Jose Ortiz, as well as Vicente Segrelles’ classic, The Mercenary. The English language debut of Janevsky’s cult sci-fi heroine, Sixella. Guido Crepax’ classic character Valentina returns by the hands of writer/artist Sergio Gerasi. Artist profile on Greg Hildebrandt. Plus, you get your choice of the ridiculous amount of variant covers. I'm going for Frazetta myself.

Order your copy HERE.

THE HALLUNCINATORY ART OF J.K. POTTER

"I've spent far too many years spending time taking pictures in graveyards to pass for normal. For me, there is no turning back."

-J.K. Potter

Admittedly a "sick and twisted human being", photographer Jeff Potter got himself immersed in horror, fantasy and other unsavory and outré subjects as a teenager, citing Ray Bradbury's The October Country as a life-changer.

Fresh out of high school he worked for Warren's CREEPY and EERIE doing paste-ups and color separations. It wasn't long before he realized that New York "proved to be more frightening even for me" and he moved back to his native Louisiana, the land of murky swamps and folklore.

After a friend gifted him a camera and showed him how to use it, he quickly adapted it to his own weird artistic expression. While working for a photo retouching company, he learned many tricks and techniques that would assist him in realizing his vision.

Heavy Metal (October 1979). Art by J.K. Potter.

His first professional cover illustration was sold to HEAVY METAL for their "Special H.P. Lovecraft Issue" (October 1979). Over the years, he has provided hundreds of his unique photo illustrations for numerous publishers, including Arkham House.

This feature from ART? ALTERNATIVES #4 (February 1994) showcases his weird work.

HEAVY METAL RETURNS!

Well, it looks my recent posts about HEAVY METAL came from some sort of bizarre intuition as it has just been announced that HM will begin publishing again. The new team will offer a "Giant-Size" issue #1 with a cover by Greg Hildebrandt following a Kickstarter campaign. A continuing series is implied, but we'll have to wait and see how fans respond. Best of luck to 'em, as I'd like to see this magazine back on the stands.

Over a year after its unofficial demise, Heavy Metal Entertainment have announced their legendary, namesake magazine is returning with a brand new issue #1 in 2025. Cartoonist, filmmaker, and former content editor Frank Forte is returning to the magazine as its editor-in-chief, while Dave Kelly will serve as executive editor, and Chris Thompson will be its editorial manager. A pre-order campaign for the first issue will launch on Kickstarter sometime next month in November, offering fans limited edition covers and collectibles.

In 1977, four art-house visionaries decided to make science fiction, fantasy and horror the home of pop culture… It has taken over 45 years, but while Heavy Metal has always been here, in the zeitgeist, other brands have attempted to claim our birthright. And now, we’ve come to reclaim our rightful throne of genre. Come dive into the worlds of Heavy Metal – past, present, and future – as we boldly chart a course for expanding the minds and pushing the boundaries of pop culture.

Launched in 1977 as an English-language edition of the French sci-fi magazine Métal hurlant, Heavy Metal ceased publication with its 320th issue in April 2023, after a deal to relaunch the magazine with Massive Publishing fell through following several delays. The hiatus occurred after current CEO Marshall Lees took over from Matthew Medney in January 2023. Madney left the company amid reports of failing to pay freelancers, and allegations of selling the publication rights to stories in other countries without their creators’ permission.

Lees, who is presumably hoping for a true fresh start, says in the press release, “The new team and I stepped in after quite a tumultuous period, so we’ve been working quietly behind the scenes to make things right and pave a way for the magazine’s return to its original boundary-pushing roots. Following that we have a host of exciting new plans for the brand that we hope fans will be really interested in.” He continues, “We wanted to assemble a team of passionate professionals who had complementary skills and shared our vision for the brand, [and] we believe we’ve found that in Frank, Dave, and Chris, as well as the other team members across all facets of the business.”

Since the announcement began circulating, there have already been rumblings on social media from freelancers with unpaid bills from the last editions of Heavy Metal.  Hopefully, the team can begin to make things right. 

[SOURCE: TheBeat.com.]

HEAVY METAL: THE MOVIE

HEAVY METAL, the English version of the illustrated French science-fiction/fantasy/horror magazine, METAL HURLANT, had been published for about five years when an animated version began development. The producers were Ivan Reitman and the publisher of HM, Leonard Mogel. Gerald Potterton, who had assisted over a decade earlier with the animation for The Beatles' YELLOW SUBMARINE, was hired as director.

The premise was for the film to be an anthology of different tales from the magazine, all tied together by an overarching threat of an overwhelming evil force. Included were sequences based on Moebius' "Arzach" and "The Long Tomorrow", Richard Corben's "Den", and Bernie Wrightson's "Captain Sternn", among others.

One sheet poster Style A by Chris Achilleos.

A huge cast and crew were hired to make it all happen. Notable artists participating in the production of the Canadian-made film included Chris Achilleos, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, Richard Corben, Mike Ploog, Bernie Wrightson and many others. Voice actors included John Candy, Harold Ramis, Jack Flaherty and Richard Romanus.

One sheet poster Style B by Richard Corben.

Possibly inspired by Ralph Bakshi's feature-length animated films HEAVY TRAFFIC, WIZARDS, THE LORD OF THE RINGS and FIRE AND ICE, animation for HM consisted primarily of a combination of stop-motion cel animation and rotoscoping. The most recent advancements in Computer Generated Imagery (aka CGI) were also used. Invented by Max Fleischer (Betty Boop, Koko the Clown) in 1915, rotoscoping is a painstaking process in which live actors are filmed and their figures traced off of each frame onto paper where the image would then be inked on an acetate cell to be colored and filmed again, one frame at a time; the idea was to enable more accurate movement and action.

The score was written and conducted by Elmer Bernstein, but it was the rest of the music that is best remembered: tracks from Black Sabbath,  Blue Öyster Cult, Nazareth, Grand Funk Railroad and other popular rock groups of the period.

This informative article, a special section devoted to the making of the film, was published in the August 1981 issue of HEAVY METAL magazine:

Distributed by Columbia Pictures HEAVY METAL was released on 7 August 1981. Made for the modest amount of just over $9 million ($67 million in 2023 dollars), it grossed $20 million and was considered a success despite mixed reviews.

I saw this during its initial run and was amazed at the visuals. The story? Not so much, but it's well worth a watch if you've never seen it.

Lobby Cards:

Production cels:

Image showing transition from live action to animation cel.

Animation cel portfolio:

Pencil art portfolio: