The Pacific Northwest may be known for its rain, but Heavy Metal is bringing the thunder when it sets up shop for its new comics line in Portland.
As announced in an article from Monday’s The Oregonian, the science-fiction magazine publisher will be basing its comics operations in Portland due to that city’s large concentration of comic creators and the company’s desire to build their line on the strength of close interaction with that community. While they are not limiting themselves to only publishing Portland-based creators, and while the magazine itself will not be moving to the city, this is another indication that Heavy Metal is taking its first stab at publishing a line of comics very seriously.
When asked how many titles they were planning on publishing, Heavy Metal co-owner Jeff Krelitz is quoted as saying:
“This year alone, eight original series. Next year, we’ll add another 12. Upwards of 50 over the next five years. We’re positioning to be a premiere publisher.”
For some context, Image (a close equivalent to Heavy Metal’s publishing strategy) has 68 separate single issues listed as shipping in April 2015 (not including collections and counting all variations of a comic’s cover as just one issue). Fifty comics a year would definitely make Heavy Metal a front-of-the-Previews-catalog premiere publisher. But what about content?
Heavy Metal made its reputation in the 1970’s and 1980’s as a magazine reprinting groundbreaking European science-fiction comics here in the US alongside American artists of a similar aesthetic or disregard for convention. Names like Moebius, Enki Bilal, Phillippe Druillet, Guido Crepax, and Milo Manara (yes, THAT Manara) are known here in the US primarily because the publisher of the National Lampoon saw a copy of the French magazine “Metal Hurlant” with their comics in it during a business trip to Paris and thought there would be a market in this country for comics of that caliber and irreverence. Add to that such home-grown talent as Richard Corben, Berni Wrightson, Steranko, Walt Simonson, Howard Chaykin, and tons of others, and you can see why Krelitz described buying your first “Heavy Metal” as “…like seeing your first R-rated movie. You weren’t a kid anymore. There was no turning back.”
But one of the criticisms laid against the magazine over its publishing history is its reliance on T&A, something that has both helped its sales over the years and probably kept it from being a breakout mainstream hit. In comics’ bid to become more inclusive and reach new audiences, those types of books are becoming harder and harder to take seriously as sales contenders. A quick Googling of “manara spider-woman” should give someone an idea of what can happen when the “Heavy Metal” aesthetic just drops in unannounced on mainstream comics. Thankfully, Krelitz and co-owner David Boxenbaum seem to be aware of this, and are concentrating on going with science fiction’s big ideas rather than big…other things. Case in point? Their first acquisition: Steve Seeley & Michael Moreci’s “Hoax Hunters”.
A mashup of Mythbusters and The X-Files, “Hoax Hunters” seems like exactly the type of series you would want on your publishing schedule if you were serious about science fiction. Currently making the transition over to Heavy Metal from Image Comics, you can check out more about the book and its creators at Hoax Hunter Backstage Pass, our own series of “Hoax Hunters” interviews and annotations.
There are a few unanswered questions about all this, including the role of current “Heavy Metal” publisher Kevin Eastman in all this. Eastman has had his hand in comics for too long to have him as an available resource and NOT put him to use (either from being one-half of the TMNT Eastman & Laird duo, or from his days at Tundra. Although considering how that went…). We’ll keep an eye on Heavy Metal and their moves into full-on comic publishing, because it’s getting clearer and clearer they’re making moves that warrant our, and your, attention.
