'Heavy Metal' magazine September 1981
The front cover of the September 1981 issue of 'Heavy Metal' is by Chris Achilleos. Titled 'Taarna'; it's also the poster for the movie, which was released in early August. The back cover is by Angus McKie, and is titled 'So Beautiful and So Dangerous'.
This issue is heavy on series installments. Richard Corben kicks off another series, 'Den II', and there are installments in the ongoing 'The Immortal's Fete' by Bilal, 'Cody Starbuck' by Chaykin, 'Tex Arcana' by Findley, and 'Outland' by Steranko.
'The Eye of the Goddess Isliah' by Brocol Remohi, and Juan Gimenez's 'Infantrymen ! Infantrymen !' stand out as the best of the one-shot pieces.
The various text columns that previously were given primacy by former editor Ted White have been shortened to two pages, retitled 'Dossier', and relegated to the back pages of the magazine. I've posted the Dossier below.
Needless to say, Lou Stathis continues to write pretentious 'Rok' criticism, this time fawning over David Eno and Robert Fripp (those two artists were the objects of veneration for every early 80s rock critic).
But even Stathis's writing stands out as readable and coherent, compared to the two brief columns appearing alongside his.
A review of the novels of Robert Anton Wilson by Philip Jose Farmer, and a 'Quick Takes' review of 'The Raiders of the Lost Ark' by one Daphne Davis (?), both engage in such slavish imitation of William Burroughs's prose style that they unintentionally sink into parody.....
Posted below is the latest episode in Steranko's 'Outland'.