HEAVY METAL, a classic print magazine with over thirty years of history and storytelling under its (heavily armed) belt, into the 21st century with a bang. Hal Hefner thinks the answer lies in multimedia. Hefner is the
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creator, writer, and illustrator of GATES—HEAVY METAL’s first webcomic. Many of the magazine’s published stories have involved multimedia tie-ins, but GATES marks the brand’s first foray into a fully internet-realized experience. It is an extensively plotted, futuristic epic, and is decidedly cinematic in its scene-setting— which, says Hefner, is the point. “When I first created GATES I wanted it to be the next HEAVY METAL movie,” he says. “I’m really going after the vibe of the movie. I even went so far as to bring in a soundtrack.” HEAVY METAL the magazine began in 1977 as National Lampoon’s American edition of the French publication MÉTAL HURLANT—which is likely why it still retains a certain European attitude towards sex and nudity. “Europe is ahead of us by leaps and bounds. It’s always been that way,” says Hefner. “As far as what HEAVY METAL really is, it’s got a very European flavor, a very free vibe. It’s not embarrassed to show up and be naked and do its thing.” But while the French original eventually fizzled out in 1987,
HEAVY METAL has never undergone a significant gap in publication. Maybe it was the 1981 feature film that jump-started a new surge of interest in the magazine and continues to hook new readers today. Maybe it’s just that big guns and big ‘uns never go out of style. Or maybe it’s something more subtle—something marked by eclecticism in storytelling and content. Each issue is just as likely to feature a black and white mafia tale as a full-color alien invasion. There are Tarot illustrations, regular artist-for-hire portfolios, and S.C. Ringgenberg’s continuing “Dossier” column—always a reliable source of underground comics history and general weirdness. There are tribal battles (“Arawn”), tentacled aliens (“Records of
the Human Arrival to Planets Aqua and Gris”), disturbingly morbid “fairy tales” (“Tears of Gold”), ape-monsters attacking fortresses (“Biocosmosis”), and pirates riding dinosaurs (“Tao Bang”). Can we dwell on that for just a moment? Pirates riding dinosaurs. (It seems exceedingly appropriate that the current editor of the magazine is Kevin Eastman, co-creator of something as realistic as… TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES.) Many of the featured stories make no literal sense, instead requiring much interpretation from the reader. Only in HEAVY METAL do such cerebral mind-trips run side-by-side with raunchy sex comedies. “You just have to come into it with an open mind,” says Hefner. “What encapsulates HEAVY METAL is the ability to do what you want to do without having to adhere to any restraints— creative restraints that I would say many people at Marvel, DC,
011 is the start of a new decade and a new era for adult comics— one marked by a pressing question… how to gracefully bring
and other comics companies have to.” True, there aren’t many superheroes in the pages of HEAVY
METAL. There are plenty of antiheroes, however, who are happy to replace “Holy rocks, Batman!” with “Holy. . .”—you get the point. Now, having perfected offensiveness, you might say that the magazine is ready to extend its tentacles into newer, digital- friendly mediums. Of course, the logistics of free media are always rough, and Hefner explains that he is just giving the comic away, page by page (
gates.heavymetal.com), and leaving the capitalizing to other future avenues. “There are a lot of possibilities that can happen with GATES,” says Hefner. “Live-action film, animated film, online game… we’re transforming it into other formats.” Hefner emphasizes his belief in storytelling, above all, and it is
clear that this new web comic vision will introduce new methods of sharing narratives without altering the core of what HEAVY METAL has always been about: adventures into the beyond, creative storytelling, and, of course, naked babes. Just like monsters, these are themes that remain explosive in every medium.
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND • SEP/OCT 2011 79
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