Heavy Metal (magazine)

Publication history

Mogel published Heavy Metal under the name HM Communications, Inc. After starting as a monthly, beginning with the winter of 1986, Heavy Metal dropped back to a quarterly schedule, continuing until March 1989, where it then switched over to a bi-monthly publication period. HM Communications published 136 issues in 16 volumes from April 1977 – March 1992.

Meanwhile, the original Métal Hurlant had ceased publication in France in 1987. It resumed in July 2002, published by Les Humanoïdes Associés.

Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, had grown up reading Heavy Metal, seeing in its pages European art which had not been previously seen in the United States, as well as an underground comix sensibility that nonetheless "wasn't as harsh or extreme as some of the underground comix – but . . . definitely intended for an older readership." Eastman took over publication of Heavy Metal with volume 16 in May 1992, under the name Metal Mammoth, Inc.

Eastman sold the magazine to digital and music veteran David Boxenbaum and film producer Jeff Krelitz in January 2014. Eastman continued to serve as publisher of the magazine and is a minority investor in the new Heavy Metal.

Artists

Heavy Metal's high-quality artwork is notable. Work by international fine artists such as H. R. Giger and Esteban Maroto have been featured on the covers of various issues. Terrance Lindall's illustrated version of Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost appeared in the magazine in 1980. Many stories were presented as long-running serials, such as those by Richard Corben, Pepe Moreno and Matt Howarth. Illustrator Alex Ebel contributed artwork over the course of his career. An adaptation of the film Alien, written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by Walter Simonson, was published in the magazine in 1979.

Editors

The founding editors of the American edition of Heavy Metal were Sean Kelly and Valerie Marchant. The founding Design Director was Peter Kleinman. Kleinman was the Design Director of National Lampoon at the time, and he was asked to provide direction for the fledgling project in addition to his Lampoon duties. He created the original Heavy Metal logo design at the request of Len Mogel and Matty Simmons and was responsible for the launch and art direction from the first issue. The Heavy Metal Logo was Kleinman's homage to Kabel Black, one of his favorite fonts. He was experimenting with a visual pun—pushing down the characters in the word "Heavy" to emphasize the visual parody of the letters' 'weighty quality"—and in the middle of his design efforts, Simmons saw it, scooped it off of Kleinman's drafting table, and presented it to Mogel and the rest of the board. It was an instant hit and has been used as the basic logo ever since. Peter Kleinman continued to oversee the publication design and work on cover designs for the first two years, and hired Art Director and Designer John Workman, who brought to the magazine a background of experience at DC Comics and other publishers.

After two years, Mogel felt the lack of text material was a drawback, and in 1979, he replaced Kelly and Marchant with Ted White, highly regarded in the science fiction field for revitalizing Amazing Stories and Fantastic between 1968 and 1978. White and Workman immediately set about revamping the look of Heavy Metal, incorporating more stories and strips by American artists, including Arthur Suydam, Dan Steffan, Howard Cruse and Bernie Wrightson.

White's main solution to the problem of adding substantive text material was a line-up of columns by four authorities in various aspects of popular culture: Lou Stathis wrote about rock music and Jay Kinney dug into underground comics, while Steve Brown reviewed new science fiction novels and Bhob Stewart explored visual media from fantasy films to animation and light shows.

In 1980, Julie Simmons-Lynch took over as editor, and her new slant on text material was the showcasing of science fiction by well-known authors such as Robert Silverberg, John Shirley and Harlan Ellison. Later, a review section labeled Dossier, was created by associate editor Brad Balfour, who came on board to handle text features by authors such as William S. Burroughs and Stephen King. Dossier featured short pieces by a variety of writers, and was edited first by Balfour and then by Stathis, who soon replaced Balfour as an editor. Stathis continued the tradition of focusing on pop culture figures to connect the magazine to the larger hip culture context. There were also interviews with such media figures as Roger Corman, Federico Fellini, John Sayles and John Waters. In the Winter of 1986 original Design Director Peter Kleinman was brought back on staff and Simmons-Lynch remained the editor until 1993. Kevin Eastman had acquired the magazine the year before and became both publisher and editor after that date.

Comics writer Grant Morrison became editor in chief beginning with the April 2016 issue of the magazine.

Films

In 1981, an animated feature film was adapted from several of the magazine's serials. Made on a budget of U.S. $9.3 million and under production for three years, Heavy Metal featured animated segments from several different animation houses with each doing a single story segment. Another house animated the frame story which tied all the disparate stories together. Like the magazine, the movie featured a great deal of nudity and graphic violence, though not to the degree seen in the magazine; for example, its Den segment did not display the blatant male genitalia of its print counterpart. The film featured such SCTV talents as John Candy, Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman. It did reasonably well in its theatrical release and soon gained a cult status, partially because of a problem with music copyrights that resulted in a delay of several years before the film became officially available on home video. The home video release featured different music in the opening segment (the cause of the initial home video release delay) and included a segment that was not included in the theatrical release.

Another animated feature film called Heavy Metal 2000, with a budget of $15 million, was released in 2000. This direct-to-video release was not based on stories from the magazine but was instead based on The Melting Pot, a graphic novel written by Kevin Eastman and drawn by artist Simon Bisley, who based the appearance of the female protagonist after nude model and B-movie actress Julie Strain, then-wife of Kevin Eastman. Strain later lent her vocal talents to the movie, portraying the character modeled after her likeness.

During 2008 and into 2009, reports circulated that David Fincher and James Cameron would executive produce and, each, direct two of the eight to nine segments of a new animated Heavy Metal feature. Kevin Eastman would also direct a segment, as well as animator Tim Miller, Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski and Guillermo del Toro. Paramount Pictures decided to stop funding the film by August 2009 and no distributor or production company has shown interest in the second sequel, since. In 2011, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez announced at Comic-Con that he had purchased the film rights to Heavy Metal and planned to develop a new animated film at the new Quick Draw Studios.

An animated 3D film entitled War of the Worlds: Goliath, created as a sequel to H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and based on a story previously published in the magazine, was produced by The Tripod Group and released in Malaysia in 2012.

The series "Interceptor" is being adapted into a film.

Video games

Heavy Metal 2000 inspired a video game sequel released in 2000, the PC action-adventure Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.². It was developed by Ritual Entertainment.

In 2001, Capcom released Heavy Metal: Geomatrix, an arcade fighting game that later made its way to Sega's Dreamcast console. Though not based on any specific material from Heavy Metal, it featured character designs by frequent contributor Simon Bisley and a style generally inspired by the magazine.