'Heavy Metal' magazine, July 1983

'Heavy Metal' magazine, July 1983

 

 

It's July, 1983, and MTV and FM radio are dominated by The Police and the massive success of the Synchronicity album. But there are also some good songs that aren't in heavy rotation, such as Robert Palmer's 'You Are in My System', which mixes New Wave synths with a funk beat.

The latest issue of Heavy Metal is on the stands, with a front cover by Liberatore featuring the 'Ranxerox' character from Italian comics, who was making his US debut in this issue.

In the Dossier, we learn of Dennis Hopper's venture into indie filmaking....

The reviews of horror novels include Peter Straub's 'Floating Dragon', and Stephen King's 'Christine'. Also receiving coverage are Karl Edward Wagner's 'In a Lonely Place' story collection (very hard to find, and very expensive, nowadays) and Michael Shea's 'Nift the Lean'. There's also coverage of sf novels featuring women as their main protagonists.

 Marilyn Chambers, and her new R-rated action film, garner attention....

 ....and there is a spotlight on the new Playboy Channel.

Snicker, if you must, at the idea of 80s people finding titillation in video of young nubiles in 'aerobics' gear, but remember, this was a year or two before the VHS - mediated delivery of porn became commonplace, and eons before anyone ever imagined that personal computers, with the aid of a descendant of ARPANET, would one day channel bountiful smut to everyone's home....

I've posted the Ranxerox comic below. Its garish coloration and 'street sleaze' approach to storytelling were very much in line with Eurocomic sensibilities in the early 80s. I'll post the succeeding installments here at the PorPor blog in the coming months.