beginner question - help

...God created the magazine "Heavy Metal", and it was good. But seriously, both movies draw their inspirations from the many comics which can be found in the monthly magazine "Heavy Metal", available at finer bookstores everywhere or by subscription. Several of these comics feature graphic violence, nudity and sex, which is why it is frowned upon by "Dubya" and his Moral Majority. More likely, he's never read it because it's much more literary than the Sunday funnies or "My Pet Goat". Have I mentioned that I'm a Democrat? Anyhoo, that's the basis for the movies. Happy reading!

[deleted]

[deleted]

Metal Hurlant was started in France by Moebius, Phillipe Druillet, and several others. It featured groundbreaking work from these creators, as well as many others. It was a departure from existing European magazines, like Pilote, L'Eccho De Savanes, and Linus.

The publishers of National Lampoon started an American version, around 1978, called Heavy Metal. Much of the early work was translated stories from Metal Hurlant. In 1981, Heavy Metal and Ivan Reitman put together the movie version, adapting several stories from the magazine. They were unable to secure rights to Moebius' "The Long Tomorrow" and "Arzach", so they created their own versions, "Harry Canyon" and "Tarna".

In the early 90's, Kevin Eastman started a company, called Tundra, and purchased Heavy Metal. Eastman made a fortune off of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles licensing. Tundra was a financial failure, with tons of money blown out the door, with few books to show for it. One book in production was Eastman and Simon Bisley's "Melting Pot", a very mediocre fantasy story, mostly consisting of violence and cheap T & A (although Bisley's art was great).

Eastman bought another company, Kitchen Sink, while sending out press releases stating that Kitchen Sink had bought the assets of Tundra. Kitchen Sink published Melting Pot, to poor reviews, but strong initial sales. Due to lateness and fallout from the speculator boom and bust within comics, the later issues didn't sell as well and were quickly forgotten.

Meanwhile, under Eastman's guidance, Heavy Metal began to increase its emphasis on sex, but decrease the focus on sci-fi and fantasy stories. The end result was closer to porn than the Heavy Metal of the 70's and early 80's.

Eastman backed a new movie, featuring his talentless wife, and the "plot" of Melting Pot. The end result is this movie.

If you are interested in the magazine, I suggest you browse on ebay. There are numerous issues for sale, most at reasonable prices. I suggest concentrating on the era from the mid to late 70's to the mid to late 80's, as this was the golden age of the magazine. The Heavy Metal movie dvd features a cover gallery, with some cover blurbs about contents. The Metal Hurlant material was published mostly within the first 5 years, as well as Captain Sternn and So Beautiful, So Dangerous, and Den. The next 5-7 years feature some great work from Enki Bilal (Immortals), Liberatore (Ranxerox aka Ranx), Francois Schuiten (Cities of the Fantastic), Daniel Torres (Rocco Vargas), Simon Bisey (Slaine) and many others.