Does or did anyone ever read these comics? :)

I've never been much into comics myself, but from time to time I read my friend's collection of these and I like them. I borrowed and re-read a few a while ago. I love all the sexy work, the fact that they don't just have violence, but will show sexy stuff as well; so you're not getting that bizarre selective self censorship you often get in a lot of works (no sex at all, but any violence being ok), and because they show a variety of styles of work from America and all over Europe etc you aren't bored by the similar and straight jacketed styles of mainstream U.S. or Japanese comics.

(They DO censor the work a bit)

Add to that you have lots of differently themed stories by many artists in short story from or continuing series.

If they focus too much on boobs and bums sometimes, I have to say I don't mind one bit :)

I used to, but it's rather difficult to get it where I live. There was a bookstore that imported some stuff, among them Heavy Metal (but also Wizard, and that Warhammer 40k magazine with all the figures... and some other stuff) but they dropped them one by one.

I'd love to get my hands on the old issues someday. The 70s or 80s stuff, when they printed a lot of Philippe Druillet :D

Yeah, I've read a few issues of Heavy Metal. I'm pretty sure you can still find them in Borders (assuming you have a Borders near you!), stacked somewhere near all the D&D magazines.

I suspect the "adult" tag has been a bit of a mixed blessing, with the focus on T&A drawing in some fans and putting off other potential readers. The artwork is usually excellent and, although the writing isn't always that great, as an anthology comic there's almost always something worth reading.

They also made at least two animated features. The actual animation is fairly basic but the first is worth a look for capturing the surreal horror that characterises many of the magazine's stories. The second (possibly called something like FAKK 2?) is a less imaginative story of a semi-naked sword- and raygun-wielding SciFi babe out to save her planet from evil aliens.

aw heavy metal's great. specialy the old psychadelic type stuff. two of my favorite artists did a lot of work for it. simon bisley and phillipe druillet. phillipe was one of the founders for it actually.

I do remember the first Heavy Metal movie... I need to rent that again, I remember it being cool (when I was 10 and I saw it on Showtime).

And the soundtrack had some good stuff on it, though many of those songs really wouldn't be considered metal today. (Don Felder: FAIL)

(and I DO love "Takin' a Ride"... hell, it's on my iPod)

Heavy Metal is the closest thing we have to "free" comics that still sell on newsstands in america.


Like ozone said, they tend to focus too much on sex from time to time, but they do show more than just the sleaze from time to time, and Ive found a few great artists through them that do work outside of comics.

I've seen both movies (hell, I own the first one) and read several copies... I have a mixed opinion about it.

There's a lot of stories/art in Heavy Metal that really don't appeal to me. Usually the gore and sex is over the top where the fantasy/sci fi seems only a pretense for violent porn. Other times, there's some really well done and creative stuff going on. I respect the magazine, but I find it inconsistent. I think it's more the adult themed fantasy taking place that interests me, largely free of nonsensical restrictions. But when it's just an excuse for for adult material minus any real content, I feel disenchanted.

I read Heavy Metal through most of High School, and I own both movies and both soundtracks. I used to really like it and still have all the issues I bought in High School. I haven't picked up any in about five years tough.

I bought them when I was young with the my dad thinking I was buying a comic book. ;) Um... they were fabulous! The art work was always stunning and the stories were varied and deep, even though there was the T&A, which to me is something rarely seen in any other media.

There has been talk that David Fincher of Fight Club fame has been pursuing to make another Heavy Metal movie with talks of different artists taking one of the other 3 different stories and Fincher directing the last. Should be interesting with Fincher's involvement.

I've only see the first film and I thought it was a little tacky... Maybe I was too harsh? I liked the game they made based on the second film but I've still not see the second film. :)

I hadn't heard about the possibility for the third film. Sounds good. If they could get some quality animation done, or do it live action... the trouble is that you can't really make a "heavy Metal" film like you can make a Hulk film or a Superman film because Heavy Metal is just a collection, not a comic. What they have in common is just sexy and violent stories as well as quirky ones and art styles that are varied and unusual.

Heh, if they've made two films so far with that to work from, I suppose they could make another, but given that it does explain their variable quality.
----
I might try to buy some then.

The website is pretty tacky, but there's a bit of info there:
http://www.metaltv.com

You could also subit your work if you fancy your chances:
http://www.metaltv.com/page.cfm?id=352

I've seen some crappy stuff in Heavy metal as well as the higher quality stuff, so I tend to think the chances would be good for a lot of people here (I even flatter myself that I could do it), but something tells me that they'd take AGES to get around to looking at your work, if ever...

I don't read it, I have taste.

Bad taste. ;)

Ozone, I could definitely see a story by you in Heavy Metal. I think your attention to detail and T&A akins of Heavy Metals classic stories. I say definitely submit and see what results.

ahhh HEAVY METAL !!! that magazine and TAnk Girl are what made me realize that comics could be Badass , i never liked marvel or DC or any of that super hero crap, i think HM TG and random old anime like Venus Wars was pretty much what inspired me to try to make comics

TheMidge28
Ozone, I could definitely see a story by you in Heavy Metal. I think your attention to detail and T&A akins of Heavy Metals classic stories. I say definitely submit and see what results.

i agree, first thing i thought of when i read Pinky was Heavy Metal Mag.

lothar
ahhh HEAVY METAL !!! that magazine and TAnk Girl are what made me realize that comics could be Badass , i never liked marvel or DC or any of that super hero crap, i think HM TG and random old anime like Venus Wars was pretty much what inspired me to try to make comics

dude if you like tank girl they brought her back in 07...IDW published Tank Girl: The Gathering, with the story by the original creator and art by ashley wood. It's collected in TPB or Hardcover at Barnes and Nobles.

I like Heavy Metal all right. Actually, some of my ideas design-wise were ripped right from Heavy Metal. I agree with DAJB that a "nothing is sacred or taboo" mentality is something of mixed blessing. On one hand you can get well thought-out ideas articulated shamelessly and fearlessly. On the other hand Heavy Metal tends to have mostly sex for the sake of sex and violence for the sake of violence. Not to say that there's never any good stories in Heavy Metal, there's a lot of really well-rendered and creative artwork in it too.
Their "Steampunk Special" issue really bothered me though. I mean, if you're going to call it a Steampunk issue it should have steampunk in it!

Thanks Midge and Pitface :)
I really should try and submit a short project to them...
---------------------

I don't think Heavy Metal has too much sex for the sake of sex and violence for the sake of violence. Could you have such a thing? I think that's more the perspective of the viewer. What sex and what violence they do have is probably more notable and striking to those who're used to its absence.

The sex in stories is just another aspect of entertainment like any other, it's refreshing that it's not hidden away or ignored like it is, so strangely, in so many other works. That seems really enlightened to me actually: that instead of hiding these things away under different genre labels and pretending they're all separate, they're all able to be shown together as hey should be.

-------------------
In that way it's even better than Drunk Duck where if we were to have the full range of stuff they have in Heavy Metal in any one of our comics it would have to be labelled as "Adult" ,which means that only people who're logged into this site can view it, and then only for people over age!

-Which is one of the reasons the rating system DID NOT appeal to me when it was introduced, being a restrictive form of censorship...
I have to help enforce it, and I do, but I use my judgement carefully.

Haha! There's only one time when I wanted to rate a comic as Adult but everyone else disagreed with me. :P

Don't get me wrong about sex and violence. When you're using them to tell an interesting story it's great. I just get sort of bothered when the story is put on pause for a random sex scene or splat-gore fight scene.
For the record Ozone, yes you should submit something to them. I'd read it!

yeah Ozone! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!

NickGuy

lothar
ahhh HEAVY METAL !!! that magazine and TAnk Girl are what made me realize that comics could be Badass , i never liked marvel or DC or any of that super hero crap, i think HM TG and random old anime like Venus Wars was pretty much what inspired me to try to make comics

dude if you like tank girl they brought her back in 07...IDW published Tank Girl: The Gathering, with the story by the original creator and art by ashley wood. It's collected in TPB or Hardcover at Barnes and Nobles.

ahhhh ! i didn't know that , i'll have to check that out

Heavy Metal is my fix for European comics. Without it, I would have never heard of Jean Giraud, Giger, and Enki Bilal.

Heavy Metal Magazine is like a box of chocolate... you never know what you are going to get. (where have I heard that?)
One issue can be full of masterpieces, the next be full of crap. Some people find that to be interesting, but personally, not knowing what to expect kinda bothers me. I tend to buy issues only when I already know something about the featured authors. Also, you have to bear in mind that some authors really take the chance to do some pretty experimental stuff in HM, so it is not infrequent at all to have a lot of stories that don't really make sense. Then again, you can find real gems that you would have to import otherwise.

Oh, and please don't watch the second movie. It is one of the worst pieces of crap I've ever seen, with crappy characters, designs, dialogue and plot, and the cheapest CGI. Only some backgrounds are really interesting. The comic adaptation, drawn by Simon Bisley, is infinitely better. Keep the fond memories of the first movie, which was at least based on the work of masters like Richard Corben and Bernie Wrightson.

I agree with you timethief. What Heavy Metal did during its early years in the United States -- which is what I know about -- was to introduce wannabe young artists to radically different art styles and story telling techniques when the Internet was still nothing more than a gleam in scientific eyes.

It was darn difficult to FIND a wide variety of art or cartooning techniques to study. Heavy Metal brought everything a young artist could desire under one cover. Well that plus sex too! I am talking young artists here :)

Now? I dunno really. Anything you can find lurking between the cover pages of Heavy Metal you can find somewhere on the Internet in part if not in whole pieces. While sometimes it may seem that all a young artist can get exposed to is North American or Japanese art styles, really everything is available for examination, even if it requires a bit of searching to find.

Anyway, that's it for the art work. As far as the story telling goes . . . meh . . . I was never a fan of the story telling in Heavy Metal on the whole. It was the art work that rocked my world.

The irony is that I was never a good enough artist to take advantage of what I saw in HM. But then so it goes.

Loved them from the 70's to the mid 80's............after that, the magazine simply lost something. Great covers don't a great mag make.