Benjamin Snyder 11/1/17 Benjamin Snyder 11/1/17

Review: 1985: Black Hole Repo #1

By Ben Snyder

Gory and gruesome, 1985 Black Hole Repo #1 delivers on its publisher, Heavy Metal, Inc.’s namesake. However, behind the artwork, which seems ripped straight from a Metal album’s cover, it misses the mark on the social and political statements it attempts to make. Often, the criticisms are unceremoniously blunt, lacking any subtlety at all. But I guess in this regard the story encapsulates the essence of its heavy metal inspiration as well.

Daniel Vlasaty 10/11/17 Daniel Vlasaty 10/11/17

Review: Atomahawk #0

By Daniel Vlasaty

I've never really been a fan of marauding barbarians as characters. That whole genre has never really done anything for me. I think it's because it's a genre where a lot of the stories are essentially the same. There's only so much that can be done with the genre, in my opinion. Like, I get it – there's a group of totally ripped and brutal barbarians, and they're also totally fucking badass. Or whatever. I don’t know. There's probably a little more to the genre than this. Usually, when one of these books ends up on the review list, I just scroll on past. So, why am I talking about this here? Two reasons, really. The first is because Atomahawk is – in a way – one of these stories, and the second reason is that I didn’t know how else to start this review.

Dustin Cabeal 4/13/17 Dustin Cabeal 4/13/17

Diamond Becomes Exclusive Worldwide Distributor of Heavy Metal

Effective April 2017, Diamond Comic Distributors has assumed exclusive worldwide sales and distribution for Heavy Metal Media, LLC in comic shop and book markets for graphic novels, trade paperback, and hardcover book publications. Diamond will continue to distribute Heavy Metal Magazine’s bimonthly issues to comic shop and specialty stores as well.

Dustin Cabeal 12/27/16 Dustin Cabeal 12/27/16

Best of 2016: Interceptor

Find out why Heavy Metal’s Interceptor made our “Best of 2016” list!

Allen Wiggs 9/1/16 Allen Wiggs 9/1/16

Review: ReincarNATE #1

Austin Lanari 8/17/16 Austin Lanari 8/17/16

Review: The Paybacks Vol. 2 #2

By Austin Lanari

The Paybacks continues to be a surprisingly thoughtful book underneath all of its gags, driven by Shaw's all-around excellent art. Bloodpouch has always sort of been the de facto main character, and I'm happy to see him rise to take up the mantle in this issue. A series like this deserves nothing short of a goofy, incompetent hero with a silly power, nothing to lose, and a lot to avenge. The sequence in which the faux-Miss Adventure reveals her sexuality is yet another case where this creative team demonstrates its penchant for well-timed humor. Even in a series this absurd, Rahal, Cates, and Shaw demonstrate that timing is everything and there's plenty of humor to be mined from normal moments to which many of us can relate.

Austin Lanari 7/13/16 Austin Lanari 7/13/16

Review: The Paybacks Vol. 2 #1

By Austin Lanari

The Paybacks now in its second volume moves from Dark Horse to Heavy Metal and continues to be the most fun you'll have with superheroes in the Western hemisphere. I don't read as many superhero books as I used to. I'll leave it to the reader to figure out whether that's because something has changed with me as a reader or the number of good superhero books being published has declined. (For what it's worth, I wager it's quite a bit of both). In any case, there are still some great superhero books out there, just not in the places you'd expect. One-Punch Man is probably the most popular, or at least the one with the most meteoric rise in the last year. My favorite on the manga side of things is actually My Hero Academia. That's for a lot of reasons, including the fact that it's sort of carrying a torch that Naruto used to carry, it's smart without being annoyingly cerebral, character designs are original and interesting, and it takes seriously the relationship heroes have to their society.