Thursday, August 5, 2010

'Heavy Metal' magazine: August 1980



 
The August 1980 issue of 'Heavy Metal' featured a cover by Jim Cherry, ‘Fun Turns Into Love’, and a back cover by Michael Gueranger, ‘Not so Heavy Metal’.
Moebius featured part two of his 'Shore Leave' strip, and Bilal provided another chapter in his ‘Progress’ story. The next-to-last episode of ‘The Alchemist Supreme’ appeared, and (unfortunately) new chapters of Howarth’s mediocre ‘Changes’ strip and Stiles and Lupoff’s forgettable ‘Professor Thintwhistle’.
The best entry is far and away a new feature by Philippe Druillet, titled ‘Salommbo’. The name is derived from a famous 1862 novel by Gustave Flaubert, about a young priestess of ancient Carthage.
The strip ‘A Message from the Shadows’  from the July 2010 issue of Heavy Metal is a prologue of sorts (this strip appeared on the July 1, 2010 post at the PorPor Books Blog).
‘Salommbo’ is a great example of Druillet’s innovative use of full-page, ‘cosmic’ art designs in the context of a graphic novel. The plot is a bit thin, but features Druillet’s anti-hero ‘Loane Sloane’, who, in the best Gallic tradition, smokes cigarettes and gazes moodily into space thinking existential thoughts.
I've divided the scans of this first chapter of 'Salommbo' into two parts. Part one is presented below; part two will be posted in a few days.
















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