HM287MusicLetter

Cum on Feel the Joys, Boys, its Heavy Metal Magazine’s Music Special!

Mega Concert featuring DJGrantMorrison and stadium liners Motley Crue, Nine Inch Nails, Rob Zombie, et al, and our man Morrison, his own mojo, dishing art and story and lyric and we drink it like mead. Kaboom! Sure it’s an easy sell! Sure you hit it on the head.

I got the concert cover and thought Engs mass ritual was pretty great (you guys watched Metalocalypse? Sure ya have), and the freind of Eddy in Riggs’ “Robot Death” seemed de riguer, like a kick ass tee! Robb Jones’ “Delilah” felt really fresh and new! Funny and musical over in a Marilyn Manson, NIN kinda way!

In each of this months offerings, excepting the excellent and continuing Inki Bilal, offered and individual interpretation of how to represent lyric narrative and Morrison obviously knows what he is doing as we could not have easily gotten such a broad range of expression without some kind of talent and resource.  I felt the furry threat and loss of identity of In Flames’ magickal apocalypse, “When the World Explodes”, smashed the Christmas Tree Ornament 80’s into splinters with Motley Crue’s “Wild Side”, thrilled to the epic savagery of Ozzy Osborne’s comic book destruction, shivered in existential angst through Vamps’ “Calling”, rolled with the post-punk brutality of Hollywood Undead’s “Origins”, lost myself in Boneface’s Gallery, tortured my own muse over Marilyn Manson’s rarified and erudite “Coma White”, revelled in Zombie’s “Living Dead Girl”, became subsumed by grudging determination in “The Way Out is Through/ In the Hills, the Cities”and indignant rage through Gojira’s “Shooting Star”!

I had a great time!

Thanks Gents! BadAss Show!

Griffin, like the monster.

HM288WeirdLetter

Hot Damn so F’n HM!

Uh. mm.

Weirdos:

288 the best expression of themes so far! Make it a regular! I mean, come on, wierd is our little sister around here and already describes half the metal fare, but, standouting! Made me shiver!

Ya see, at first i was confused cause my cover was a reprint of Death Dealer; i was delighted immediately, but it wasn’t weird. Shark Toofs sharks over a forest fire qualifies and who doesn’t love to see a Shark Toof? Well, not me.  Juxtaposed with HM, ya get a sense of each. But its Natalie Shau issue Queen Wierd: Choice gallery! Teasing innocent and darkly unreal indefinable threat. Its a “bondage cover” and utterly unique.

“House of Hearts Desire”--weird magicky--appreciate the brutal and splintered affect that zip-tone itch. About as weird, “The Bleeding” Bisley’s agonized anatomies, saturated color, and texture make everything he does intriguing. Feed him good stories!

“HELLRAISER: The Test” is standard weird; and PinHead gets all the good lines.  Enjoyed Torres’ realism and detail; its clinicality makes HELLRAISER’s creepy, eerie, weird.

Corben almost always creeps me out, so weird is just a happy accident for you guys on  Murky World (remember Bowzer and Hard John Apple’s Nuclear Hit Parade?)

Weird recipe: start with Peach Momoko! Bring on some psychedelia, asian compositions, concepts, contexts in HM like a hypo in the eye and then let us swim in the graceful narrative “Shaman Himiko”. Creepy Weird--Strangely Compelling.

“Mouth Baby”

Damn, that hurt my belly; King Crown Weird! Repulsed, Engrossed, Overwhelmed, by stark spare pallet and image wielded like brass knuckles over every expectation, dizzying braiding gender-tropes, trippy humor, contained chaos of ideas and deeply cynical, though practically realistic, conclusions. That Shit is Weird.

That’s the way to edit Heavy Metal, Mr. Morrison! These are the issues I wait for!

Griffin like the monster, Mauser like the gun

HM286 Magick Letter

Oh Hi Priests Hurlant:

Yahoo! Frank Frazetta! Though I most liked the Atomahawk cover, who can complain about Frazetta, especially with the little tidbit regarding this painting inside!

Overall, the Magick Special is a solid issue, though starkly divided between thematic works and the ongoing elements.  I like the rough and brutal stylizings of Lighting the Way and The 1000 Deaths of Harry Houdini. While I thoroughly  enjoyed both tales, Oeming and Soma take this issues prize for most interesting plot. A Magician and a Wooden Box’ blend of killer creation tropes and Eastern European marionette tradition was a welcome return to familiar horror while managing to twist one more variation on a theme.

Herald, one of the less magick tales, still fit well within the Heavy Metal fare we are used to with its own brand of weirdness. Diego Agrimbau and Martin Tunica produce the best short piece in 286, Air. A spare pallette, minimal line work, and a tight plot create a punchy bit of progressive HM scifi; keep these guys around for more.

Didn’t really care about Clive Barker’s works, but I did like the Ars Goetia with its attenuated narrative, and I continue to enjoy Atomahawk, Zentropa, Lil’ Charlie and The Smile of the Absent Cat, especially Gerhard's homage to all the toon cats in pop culture. This work really has a different feel than most of HM and I am glad you included it, if only as evidence that HM is about more than titties.

The Sword of God is what really turned me on! Like some gorgeous Corben and painting in smoke, Edgar Clement has gotten my attention and I can’t wait to see what new imagery comes in the next installment.  With any luck, this interesting introduction will pay off in more gorgeous images and a fine tale.

Acolyte Griffin, like the monster

            Mauser, like the gun

HM285LoveLetter

Beloved Hurlers:

The Love Issue: oolala!

My darlings since 1979, with me so rockily, here and gone, but always subscribed together, you offer me formally your love. Yes, Heavy Metal, I love you right back.  Kinda like Grant Morrison, too. Anyway, I got the Florian Bertmer andman, it was the sweetest of frosting on my Valentines cupcake. Amazing texture, line control, all that fine detail regimented into negative space. Absolutely beautiful; and then i go inside the content page and almost cry ‘cause i couldn’t have James Jean as well. So Suhweet!

Let the grand romance guignol, the love slaughter, begin with the torturer, Liberatore! Thank you, thank you, thank you, what a treat. “The Lure” renews an springboard from monster comics and still manages to twist the ending in unexpected and empowering trajectories. Dean Haspiel plays Berni Wrightson for “Frankenstein Unrequited” and spanks it into topical modernity (He can do anything). Baldo’s “Happily Ever After” really wasn’t so much, eh. Makes me think of Wally Wood. Human love sucks. Heavy Metal love rumbles. Ooooo, rumbles.

Ok, Gutt Ghost is funny. He’s Everyman, only dead, and a ghost, with guts hanging out.

Both galleries seemed to seek out unusual artists and succeeded.  Ruben’s LP made me want to paint the walls of my house; Brandon Chiesa’s work evoked victorian storytelling, Asian pop, and cyberpunk with a woody charm with bubblegum overtones. And James Jean is the single most sensual painter I see; his figures seem fluffily soft and increasingly difficult to resolve with the apparent eroticism, alienation, and incongruity of the contents. I could look at this all day.

“Sword of God” and “Herald” don’t fit theme so well as they present worthy objects for attention. Clements smoky gold, silver and ash images caress my mythbone (stop it) and make my imagination sing.  Grebol and Piriz offer a welcome tale of “future-noia” and I expect to see more of them.

I see you being all meta in “Mythopia”, and, while that was pretty easy Mr. Morrison, don’t let me stop you from plugging in these smaller bits. Belanger and Estevez create a very retro feel, like Bashki’s Wizards. Got any more?

Gerhard! In Heavy Metal? Whodathunkit? Morrison, that’s who.  I am so pleased with The Smile of the Absent Cat! Gerhard needs to have pages out there; this work is so textured and tonal its interactive.  It feels like its drawn on papyrus in my eyes. And what a match for the story! Nice choice; which came first? Story or artist? Can’t wait to see more!

Still riding that Salsa Invertebrata-, Atomahawk-, Inki-Bilal-triple-threader-train; well balanced issue, and i felt the love.  

Griffin, like the monster

Mauser, like the gun

HM284MythicLetter

Great Hurling Metal!

Thanks Grant Morrison and Heavy Metal for kickin’ energy into good ole HM! I am loving the multiple covers, though wanna see em all in the mag so i can compare immediately! I’m a stubborn subscriber! I got Taarna! And lovin the new swag at the website; that huge Kirby all-over and the cover contest entries! Finally, lots of great tees at HM.

Yessir, Savage Sword of Jesus Christ! Yahoo! Man, that was some hard work; taboo obliteration in the tradition of “stradivarius” HM. Guess I will have to buy it. Peter Mohrbacher’s “Binah” departed from plain ole tattooed and pierced babes into wierd and evocative images.

I didn’t want to like Atomahawk, but I was wrong. I forgot how Heavy Metal this is. Everytime I see it I am reminded, wait, this is really heavy metal. Ready for act 3.

I loved Taarna in the first film; and her Arzach-like world in a few HM by Moebius. I am eager to see where De Campi, Parker, and O’grady go. I always enjoy the decadence of worlds Taarna visits; filled will disgusting villains who can be destroyed in good conscience. That’s fantasy.
Well, you guys hit all the nails. Drive em in.

Zentropa. You pissed me off, ‘cause I really like the atmosphere, the movement, the metallic glowing pallet, layers of image, illusion, and page breaking in sparse yet generous detail. Its like candy. But dey ain’t no narrative to speak of. When I went back and read the authors intro, I figgered, ok, I will wait it out; I was just being stubborn. Eventually, there will be an end. Its like waiting for Inki Bilal stories to materialize; worth waiting for. Besides, its classic HM to make such an offering. Keep up the strategy.

Salsa Invertebrata is another slow burn; I am intrigued, the poetry in simple elegant verse, softly informational, but it romances the creatures here into knights, warriors, acrobats, strongmen, and we are listening to our bard-guide through the small underworld of Salsa Invertebrata.  I can tell it’s going somewhere, so gimme, gimme!

Maybe not so much mythic as terrific horror considering these three stories! Dean Haspiel’s kind of a Lon Chaney of graphic narrative, his work adjusts to lend tone and texture while remaining uniquely Haspiel; Bruce Timm does it, Michael Oeming. I like the spare pallets and dry brush that energizes and animates Hall’s tale of despair that could just have easily ended up in Creepy or Eerie.  “Snow Blind” sounds like it came straight out of Bill-Gaines-style springboards; great textures, classic story setup! Finally, Jok’s “The Rabbi” coarse stylization and almost Moebian line deliver with a minimalist pallet.

So, spectacular taboo-breaking, short vs long, really Heavy Metal, compelling wierdness and EC comics! Lovely! See you in HM285!

Griffin, like the monster

Mauser, like the gun

HM289ScifiLetter

Mr. Morrison et al;

Re: HM 289

Oh I love seeing a magazine in the mailbox; that’s HM! And I was giddy about and greedy to read this scifi special. I like the themes you’ve been using; seems to add a bit of energy to the work that you select.  I got the “The Artist” cover (keep including alternate cover images in the TOC!) and was pleased to see the regulation science-fiction-fantasy pinup girl, though my favorite was the Rob Shields, like Patrick Nagel and Jamie Hewlett had a baby. The “Same Old Fears” cover, with its great blank robot head makes a uniquely powerful impact as well.

My three favorites this ish are Escorza and Moreci’s “The Door”, Goodenough’s and Oliver’s “Chimeran”, and Tony Leonard’s “The Womb”.  Classic Hurling Metal fare!

Pure paranoia reigns in “The Door” made claustrophobic by industrial detail and surreal draftsmanship. Eager to see more! “Chimeran”, with its soft-edged forms, felt warm and human, and all the more poignant. But the energy, power, and fire of “The Womb” top out this offering! Tony Leonard brings a Romita-esque texture to a story with the same mythic impulse as Druillet’s “Lone Sloane”! Big, like Kirby! Gigantic full-bleed pages of saturated color, intense, electric linework creates overwhelming chaos, power, and violence in Leanord’s legend.  Let’s see some more of that!

After going back to “Animalz” and “Julia and Roem” over and over to figure out what the hell is Enki Bilal doing, I was glad to see the stories begin to converge with “The Color of Air”.  Reading Bilal is like reading manga, sometimes you feel you have no idea what’s going on, so you go back, you research the web, and sure enough, it’s exactly what it seemed like. So, alright, this is really heating up now, been a slow burn so far, but I am bated for next installment.

Keep Richard Corben working, especially horror.  He is always welcome to my tastes! “Murky World” is pretty typical output, but it’s still funny.  

Beeple’s moody, dark, subtly-referential work seems solidly within any scifi tradition with a refined sense of content that seems new and fresh but still connected to pulp scifi covers from forever.

Keep up the mix of one-shot, single-page, and installment stories; as long as there’s a balance the long stories are worth waiting for and the short peices are very satisfying and will hold me during that long dark teat time of the soul between issues.

I have two requests: first, can you publish or post an accurate listing of cover images and numbers? I’m one of us, and have been trying to catalog a complete run of HM. Can’t find a listing that matches my own books. Second, please put a lettercol back in the book. On the web, HM has no obvious social media sight for readers and editorial staff, and, of course, neither does the magazine.  Nothing like seeing your name in a message from Heavy Metal.

Griffin, like the Monster.

PS Could somebody look at reprinting Kirchner’s “The Bus”?