Over at Fred's HM Fan Blog, comes word that Heavy Metal magazine has ceased publication.
I haven't bought a copy of the magazine in over a decade. Fred's honest reviews of recent issues didn't give me a powerful reason to run out and spend $15 for the magazine. At the same time, I'm sad to see the magazine fold, as in its heyday it was a touchstone of sci-fi / Baby Boomer / stoner culture, an enterprise that revolutionized the presentation of graphic art and comics-based storytelling when it first appeared in April 1977.
For nostalgia's sake I opened up a copy of the August, 1980 issue and read, with some affection, Lou Stathis' pretentious review of 'Rok Muzick' recorded by the New Wave band The Residents; Steve Brown's scathing dissection of Robert Heinlein's turgid novel 'The Number of the Beast'; and Jay Kinney's overview of the comix scene. There are good pieces from Druillet ('Salammbo'), Bilal ('Progress'), and Ribera and Godard ('The Alchemist Supreme'). There's an interview with Moebius, in which he spouts all manner of bullshit, trying too hard to present himself as the eccentric (but visionary) comics artiste.
