Heavy Metal Magazine

I recently picked up an issue of Heavy Metal and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  The variety of stories, subject matter of the stories, and art styles were all a nice change of pace from what most other mainstream publishers are currently offering.  There were a couple of gallery pieces featuring different artists that really looked more like multi-page ads for the artist rather than anything else.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy looking at art, but the presentation would have been more interesting to me if maybe an interview with each artist accompanied it rather than the bi optic overviews that were provided.  Anyway, it's been a long time since I've read HM and I remember not being too impressed a few years back when I gave it a chance.  Back in the '70s and '80s I recall HM being a mind-blowing mag that didn't hesitate to print experimental stories and art.  Then sometime in the late '80s or early '90s HM seemed to become watered down and lost its edge.  Well now it appears HM is under new ownership (with Kevin Eastman staying on as publisher) and plans to not only return to more cutting edge comics in the magazine, but also expand the brand into movies. 

On the comics side Eastman says he wants to get  back to featuring indie artists and doing more one-shot stories that don't extend over multiple issues.  That sounds good for artists looking to get published and comics fans looking for something other than the deluge of PG rated comics.

On the movie side there is enormous potential!  HM has delivered some great characters over the years and I for one think it would be really cool to see some of them follow the recent success of the superhero movies and make their way onto the big screen.  I mean, can you imagine a live action Ranxerox, or Den, or Druuna!