Heavy Metal magazine 2025

Heavy Metal magazine 2025

So here in 2025, Heavy Metal magazine has undergone another reboot, this time with Marshall Lees as CEO and publisher, and Frank Forte as editor. The initial issue was Kickstarted back in October 2024, and on sale in April. Now the second issue is available.

 

I held back from purchasing issue 1 until I could see what Fred's Heavy Metal Fan Page blog had to say. Fred liked issue 1, so I've gone ahead and added the magazine to my Pulls; not a trivial thing, as each issue costs $15. The magazine currently is scheduled for quarterly publication and each issue certainly is fat, over 230 pages (with essentially no advertising).

 

 

I just picked up issue 2 and it seems to be adhering to the course of issue 1, which is good. 

 

In issue 2 Forte provides an editorial in which he lays out his vision for the magazine. Although I have to roll my eyes at the use of the noun 'erotica' (let's face it, 'tits and ass' would be much much more accurate) I think Forte is heading in the right direction:

 

Those who want to get an idea of what's being published in Heavy Metal 2025 are directed to the post at Fred's blog. If you were disappointed with the much-ballyhooed Grant Morrison incarnation of the magazine, this newest edition of the franchise looks to be more promising, and I'm putting down my money for it.

 

 

At Beaver Creek Antiques

At Beaver Creek Antiques

Hagerstown, MD

Those fans of vintage science fiction and fantasy print media know that the MPorcius Blog (aka H.B.) routinely reports on the inventory available at antique stores located in the northern Maryland, and southern Pennsylvania, regions of the Mason-Dixon line.

Last week, on an unusually mild, crisp, beautiful late August day, I decided to visit one of the MPorcius haunts: Beaver Creek Antiques, located just south of Hagerstown at 20202 National Pike (aka route 40).

 

Of the antique stores I've been to in the last decade, Beaver Creek offered the most interesting assemblage of vendors of vintage comics, cards, and books. 

 

I'm not a hardcore comics collector, but the prices I saw on offer from these vendors were about par for the course as compared to those you'll find on eBay, Etsy, MyComicShop, Mile High Comics, and other major online vendors. 

 

 

 

You also had stalls offering vintage vinyl, model train gear, and Olde Tyme Christmas cards:

 

 

 

For my part, I found quite a few good deals on vintage print stuff, including Doc Savage novels, and some pulp-related hardcover books. I also grabbed some Hard Case Crime paperbacks, mainly on the strength of the cover art !

 

All in all, while traveling north on I-81 has only gotten more stressful over the past 13 years or so (too many people driving crazy in heavy traffic, and that's in ideal weather) I think I'll undertake some more trips to the 'MPorcius antique store circuit' and see what's waiting there for me to find.........!