Heavy Metal December 1983

'Heavy Metal' magazine December 1983

December, 1983, and in heavy rotation on MTV is the latest single from Genesis, 'That's All'. As Winter settles in over the dreary landscape of the factory town in upstate New York where I live, the latest issue of Heavy Metal magazine is on the stands.

The front cover  is by Chris Achiellos, and the back cover is by Daniel Horne. The advertising includes the latest offerings from the Science Fiction Book Club, as well as a deluxe paperback edition of Arthur C. Clarke's The Sentinel.

The Dossier starts off with an interview with filmmaker Michael Laughlin about his low-budget release Strange Invaders. This film has since become something of a cult movie, however, I have never seen it, so I can't tell you if it's worthy of accolades or not.

Next, the Dossier turns to reviews of books about George Lucas and Alfred Hitchcock.

 

 Ellen Kushner reviews recent fantasy novels and finds most are of mediocre quality.

The remaining pages of the Dossier are thin gruel, devoted as they are to underwhelming musical efforts, and anecdotes.

The graphical art content of the December issue is improved over that of the previous month. There are more installments of 'Tex Arcana',  'Ranxerox', 'The Fifth Song', and 'Valentina'.

There are some quality standalone stories in this issue, one of them being Schuiten's 'The Rail', which combines some great art deco-style illustration with some wordless action involving horny French train passengers, one of them a man with orange skin..... ?! 

I know, it sounds weird. Maybe because it's a Eurocomic. But I've posted it below.......