A few months ago, I saw an ad about the 300th issue of Heavy Metal coming out in 2020 and I realized I wanted to read it. It has been decades since I regularly read the magazine but in my younger days I loved pouring over each story and soaking in the strange worlds on those pages. The art was incredible and so different from tale to tale that it was like getting a new horror/science fiction anthology book to read every issue. Ideas seemed to bubble up from the pages and linger in the air for days afterward changing my sense of the world around me. Superhero comic books didn’t do this kind of thing to me. Comics as mind altering drug? Interesting.
I’m happy to say that Heavy Metal #300 more than met my expectations and has encouraged me to continue reading future issues and perhaps even subscribe. I went slowly through the 80 or so pages over a couple of days to give each story a chance to stand on its own. Of course, I liked some more than others but that it one of the joys of such a magazine – nothing is too long and there is always something new a few pages away. I was glad to see both a text short story and a new graphic tale of Taarna who I first encountered in the legendary Heavy Metal animated film from 1981. Nice! And having a newly translated Moebius tale and a continuing Richard Corben serial in the issue made it seem like a perfect welcoming home party in graphic art form.
If like me you haven’t flipped through Heavy Metal in a long time, I suggest giving the venerable publication a chance again. It might not have the same hallucinatory effect as it did when you were younger but it is still a great read!
1 comment:
Cool. I've had similar experiences with you. I'll have to check this out -- maybe for Kindle. :)
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