Heavy Metal magazine February 1982

'Heavy Metal' magazine February 1982

 

It’s February 1982 and the number one single in the US is ‘Centerfold’ by the J. Geils Band; a song I could’ve care less about at the time. 

The college radio stations were playing a UK Number One hit hit by a New Wave group called 'The Jam':  ‘Town Called Malice’,  which was an infinitely better song.

The February issue of Heavy Metal magazine is on the stands, with a saccharine front cover by Greg Hildebrandt titled ‘Angel of the Gods’, and a back cover by Berni Wrightson titled ‘Cadillax’.

Along with new installments of the ongoing series ‘Den II’, ‘The Mercenary’, and ‘Rock Opera’, a new series by Jodorowsky and Moebius starts up: ‘The Incal Light’.  Also debuting is ‘Zora’ by Fernando Fernandez.

The ‘Dossier’ section features the most pretentious column yet written by ‘rok’ music critic Lou Stathis. Check out this sentence:

“Hassell collects skeletal components of indigenous, Far Eastern tropical musics  (the hypnotic, bell-like Javanese gamelan core of ‘Gift of Fire’), arranges them according to intuitive / primitive structures (minimalist repetition), and binds the elements with his trumpet’s fibrous texture and uncannily alive sound.”

There are a number of memorable singleton pieces in this issue, one of which is a 'Gideon Faust: Warlock At Large' adventure from Howard Chaykin, titled 'Urchin'; I've posted it below.

Heavy Metal ran another Gideon Faust adventure, which is a little too...risque...to post at the PorPor Blog. That episode, and another Faust tale from the 1976 comic 'Star Reach No. 5', are available at the Grantbridge Street blog here  and here, and at the Raggedclaws Network here.