Heavy Metal: История американского научно-фантастического журнала

American science fiction and fantasy comics magazine

Heavy Metal debuted in the US as a glossy, full color monthly published by HM Communications, Inc., a subsidiary of Matty Simmons' Twenty First Century Communications, Inc. The cover of the initial April 1977 issue declared itself to be "From the people who bring you the National Lampoon", and the issue primarily featured reprints from Métal hurlant, as well as material from National Lampoon, a colorized portion of Vaughn Bodē's Sunpot (1971), and an excerpt from Terry Brooks' The Sword of Shannara (1977). Since the color pages from Métal hurlant had already been shot in France, the budget to reproduce them in the US version was greatly reduced. In 1979, HM Communications published a couple of comics format movie adaptations collected from the pages of Heavy Metal. The first was Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson's Alien: The Illustrated Story, distributed by Simon & Schuster. The second movie tie in was 1941: The Illustrated Story by Allen Asherman, Stephen R. Bissette, Rick Veitch; which rather than being a straight adaptation, varies wildly and humorously from the film. 1941 director Steven Spielberg wrote the book's introduction. In the late spring of 1980, Métal hurlant went bankrupt and Heavy Metal severed its ties with its content partner. Métal hurlant managed to keep publishing, however, and the two magazines reconciled in the summer of 1981. After running as a monthly for its first nine years up to the December 1985 issue, the magazine dropped to a quarterly schedule (winter, spring, summer, and fall) beginning in 1986, promising an increase in length and to feature only complete (rather than serialized) stories. Métal hurlant folded in the summer of 1987,
forcing Heavy Metal to expand its reach for new content.

In late 1988/early 1989, film producer Daniel Grodnik and actor/producer Tim Matheson acquired voting control of 21.3 percent of National Lampoon Inc. stock, were named to the company's board, and eventually took control of the company (by purchasing the ten percent share — worth $760,000
— of Matty Simmons, who departed the company). During this period, publication of Heavy Metal increased from a quarterly to a bi monthly schedule, citing a thirty percent increase in circulation. A year later, Grodnik/Matheson Co. sold the properties to J2 Communications, a home video producer and distributor founded by James P. Jimirro, with Grodnik and Matheson staying on for a period to run the new division.

Kevin Eastman, co creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who had grown up reading Heavy Metal, bought the magazine for $500,000 (In total, HM Communications published 137 issues in 15 volumes from April 1977 to March 1992.) Eastman's publishing entity Metal Mammoth, Inc. published the magazine from 1992 to 2014. Eastman also served as Heavy Metal's editor in chief for the bulk of this time (even into 2016, after he was no longer the owner).

The founding editors of the American edition of Heavy Metal were Sean Kelly and Valerie Marchant. Over the life of the magazine, the two editors with the longest tenures were Julie Simmons Lynch (who was publisher Matty Simmons' daughter) and Kevin Eastman, who was also the magazine's owner/publisher for more than 20 years. The founding design director was Peter Kleinman (who served in the same capacity for National Lampoon). He created the original Heavy Metal logo design, at the request of Mogel, and was responsible for the launch and art direction of the first issue. Kleinman later hired designer and letterer John Workman, who brought to the magazine a background of experience at DC Comics and other publishers. Workman served as the magazine's art director from 1977 to 1984. (His comics art, writing, lettering, coloring, and design work are evident throughout issues from that period.) Founding editors Kelly and Marchant were replaced in August of 1979 by Ted White, who was hired to introduce non fiction and prose fiction into the magazine. White was fired in August 1980, replaced as editor by magazine founder Leonard Mogel. Julie Simmons Lynch took over from Mogel in late 1981, serving as Heavy Metal's editor in chief for more than eleven years, stepping down when Kevin Eastman bought the magazine. With a few breaks, Eastman was chief editor for Heavy Metal from early 1993 until mid 2016. Comics writer Grant Morrison became the magazine's editor in chief beginning with the April 2016 issue, serving through 2018. They later served as creative advisor. By issue #298 (2020), Tim Seeley had become editor in chief. In 2021, Joseph Illidge took over as Executive Editor (leaving in late 2022).

Heavy Metal was widely credited for exposing many Americans/English speakers to European comics and the continent's top cartoonists. As cartoonist and publisher Kevin Eastman said of the magazine, "Heavy Metal published European art that had not been previously seen in the United States, as well as demonstrating an underground comix sensibility that nonetheless wasn't as harsh or extreme as some of the underground comix – but definitely intended for an older readership". Creators like George Lucas, Neil Gaiman, and Steven Lisberger have all discussed the influence of Heavy Metal on their later work. The magazine was taken to task, however, for its juvenile stories, violence, and misogynist portrayals of women. Entertainment Weekly described the magazine as, "a legendary sci fi and fantasy comic magazine for adults and perhaps precocious teens interested in more daring material, or who consider Wonder Woman a tad underdressed." Critic R. M. Rhodes pointed out "the abundance of breasts in the magazine [was] somewhat of a running joke over the years." Writing about the magazine's early years, Rhodes discussed the voluminous number of pieces in which "the amount of rape (and stories where attempted rape drives the action) I really didn’t keep track of how often it happens, but any number more than 'none' is usually a bad sign. Tragically, it’s mostly used as just another plot point, with no mention or indication of the consequences." Upon the magazine's demise, however, Rhodes wrote that it "was vital at a time and place when comics readers needed to be reminded that comics were more than just four color corporate American superhero comics published on a monthly basis. Ultimately, the revolution in French comics that led to Metal Hurlant had a bigger cultural impact than anyone would have thought possible." and into 2009, reports circulated that David Fincher and James Cameron would executive produce and, each, direct two of the eight to nine segments of a new animated Heavy Metal feature. Kevin Eastman was to also direct a segment, as well as animator Tim Miller, Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski and Guillermo del Toro. Paramount Pictures decided to stop funding the film by August 2009 and no distributor or production company has shown interest in the second sequel, since. In 2011, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez purchased the film rights to Heavy Metal and planned to develop a new animated film at the new Quick Draw Studios. An animated 3D film entitled War of the Worlds: Goliath, created as a sequel to H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and based on a story previously published in the magazine, was produced by The Tripod Group and released in Malaysia in 2012. The series "Interceptor" is being adapted into a film. In March 2019, the Fincher project was released as a reimagining television series, titled Love, Death & Robots. In March 2021, Heavy Metal announced its first move into television with an adaptation of Blake Northcott's trilogy of novels, the Arena Mode Saga. The first book was in active development after optioning the rights to the sci fi thriller.

Heavy Metal 2000 inspired a video game sequel released in 2000, the PC action adventure Heavy Metal: F. A. K. K.². It was developed by Ritual Entertainment. In 2001, Capcom released Heavy Metal: Geomatrix, an arcade fighting game that later made its way to Sega's Dreamcast console. Though not based on any specific material from Heavy Metal, it featured character designs by frequent contributor Simon Bisley and a style generally inspired by the magazine. In 2020, Stern Pinball and the production company Incendium released a pinball machine commemorating the 300th issue of Heavy Metal, featuring Taarna and Cold Dead War (2021). The made to order machine, with a playfield based on the Stern Star Wars release, sold for eight thousand dollars and shipped in late 2020 along with an exclusive variant cover edition of Heavy Metal issue #300.

In 2021, Heavy Metal launched a podcast network featuring scripted and unscripted shows that focused on horror, fantasy, sci fi, comedy, and pop culture.