Heavy Metal Editors Talk About The New Iteration

A Lot To Live Up To

After a little time away, Heavy Metal has returned. Under three new editors: Dave Kelly, Chris Thompson and Frank Forte, its first issue hit in April. Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows spoke to them to find out more…

TRIPWIRE: What is the thinking behind the latest iteration of Heavy Metal?

Dave Kelly – That it’s a fresh, bold relaunch for the greatest magazine of all time.

Chris Thompson – We’re trying to return Heavy Metal to its European roots, so we’re bringing back some of the classics (like Enki Bilal, Vicente Segrelles, and Jose Ortiz) while introducing readers to fresh newer voices (like Janevsky, Sergio Gerasi and Ilias Kyriazis).

Frank Forte – I grew up enthralled with Heavy Metal from the 1970s-80s. I felt those were the best issues. And the Specials from that period: Son of Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal’s Even Heavier Metal and Bride of Heavy Metal. I wanted to bring back that vibe and pepper it with new creators from around the globe that haven’t been seen before. I’m also a big fan of the Heavy Metal film, so we’re bringing in stories about Taarna, Grimaldi, Harry Canyon and Zeke & Edsel.

TW: How did you unravel the complicated financial and legal position of the most recent version?

Dave – This isn’t my question to answer. I was brought in to make a killer mag.

Chris – As editors we weren’t involved in that process, but we have an incredible team behind the scenes who have been working tirelessly to lay a solid foundation.

Frank – We came in with some challenges for sure, and we were able to work through them with investor and Kickstarter funds. We have the store and shipping functioning again, we just shipped over 11,000 orders for the recent Kickstarter, we’ve expanded distribution, and we’ve just relaunched subscriptions. As for other financial and legal items, I’m not privy to everything. I’m more on the creative side, but I do co-handle distribution.

TW: So, are you starting with a totally clean slate?

Dave – As best we can, yes.

Chris – Well, it’s a brand new issue #1 – complete with ‘legacy’ numbering for those who want to continue their collection – so we’re viewing it as something new which picks up on the best elements from the past (almost) 50 years.

Frank – As clean as we can be! We wanted to start with relaunching from issue #1 as there was about a 2 year gap between now and the last issue. Launching with a #1 ensures the best possible sales and distribution to comic shops. As long as our consciences and police blotters are clean then we’re good to go!

TW: How did the team of three come together?

Dave – The Supreme Overlord used his eldritch powers to find the best, and he got the best.

Chris – There was definitely some magic involved, but really it was about finding people who shared a deep love for the magazine at its core and who wanted to bring the best possible stories and creators to the table. Each of us has a different focus and area of love when it comes to Heavy Metal, which is hopefully reflected through the stories each of us chooses to edit.

Frank – I think myself, Chris and Dave had all been pitching slightly different relaunches of HM to the CEO, over a period of 6 months.  The team at HM decided a 3-way attack would be the best way to go. I think we all brought in different creators, inspirations, connections and ideas, and that’s what gave us the new HM #1 that we have today.

TW: What is Heavy Metal’s greatest strength as a brand?

Dave – The hard edge. The steps you can take beyond the norm. If it’s something that you can find in a regular comic, it’s not a fit for Heavy Metal.

Chris – Its ability to introduce readers to epic tales and talent that might be new to them but have already earned their place within the canon of the World’s Greatest Illustrated Magazine. There’s an implied seal of quality with the Heavy Metal brand.

Frank – It has a long history and fanbase that goes back to 1977, as well as a track record of delivering mind-bending and shocking stories. Fans always look back to the day they first opened the pages of HM and they were blown away and inspired. Fans come and go over the years, and hopefully we can bring back some of the people that have stepped away–as well as inspire a new generation of fans that have never seen HM.

TW: With the last version, the people who ran it decided to expand Heavy Metal into imprints and other titles. What mistakes that they made have you learnt from this time around?

Dave – It all starts with making a killer mag.  If you lose sight of that, you’re sunk.

Chris – For us it was less about looking at what had been done wrong and more looking at what had been done right. What was Heavy Metal like when its content and sales were at their peak? How could we replicate that without becoming a tribute act to ourselves? That was the question, but the magazine lies at the heart of the answer.

Frank -Every editor and CEO comes into HM with their own vision and ideas, some things work and others don’t. I’ve been contributing since 2008 and editing since about 2014, so I have first-hand knowledge of what worked and what didn’t. A comic line from HM can work, it just has to be the right titles and has to be promoted well to the comic shops. There also has to be a good discount and incentives for comic shops to carry the titles, then you need to ship on time. You can’t just jump into a comics line imprint without a creative plan, and a marketing/sales plan. We have discussed comics and a renewed book line, but we don’t have anything to announce yet. We are concentrating on getting the first 4 issues of the magazine completed and out into the public.

TW: You funded its return through Kickstarter but are also offering it through the direct market. So, what was the reason for using this method of distribution and sales?

Dave – You can’t rely on any single channel to drive your business entirely. Crowdfunders are a great tool.  The cost of printing the mag alone would frighten any sane person, so you have to have an immediate revenue stream to make sure you can take the risk.

Chris – People often think solely of the financial side of Kickstarter, but it’s one of the best marketing and promotional tools available in any publisher’s arsenal these days. By launching on Kickstarter, we had a platform to showcase what we were trying to do and to rebuild a vibrant fan community.

Frank – We knew that Kickstarter would be a way to get the brand into the spotlight, and we were lucky that Metal Hurlant also decided to run their Kickstarter at the same time. It was like a friendly competition, where we kind of fueled each other. We knew we wanted to return to comic shops and newsstands, but we didn’t know if the fanbase would return. Kickstarter was a great way to judge the fanbase’s response and enthusiasm. We’ve also expanded distribution through Lunar (Massive Indies), Southern Hobby, Universal, ACD Distribution and Comics Mainstream. In doing so we’ve expanded our wholesale sales to retail outlets.

TW: Talk us through what we can expect in the first few issues of the new magazine?

Dave – Anna Morozova drawing Taarna, Janevsky drawing Sixella, Marco Failla drawing Ink and John Stanisci drawing Gladiatrix.

Chris – The long-awaited translation (at least by me) of Enki Bilal’s latest magum opus, BUG; the brand new Valentina series by Sergio Gerasi, produced with permission from the Crepax estate; a brand new kickass dark fantasy title called Millstone by Michael W. Conrad, Ilias Kyriazis and Simon Bowland; some incredible cyber-noir inspired shorts by Spanish creator, Fernando Dagnino; and much more to come. We’re saving some exciting new titles and creators for Year 2 as well, in order to pace things out. 😉

Frank – I worked with Keron Grant to bring Austin Grimaldi (from the film) into his first comic appearance. I worked with Joe Linsner to help bring forth a Legends Of Taarna short. I’m a big fan of the 80s-90s shorts and European creators so I found a few Burton & Cyb shorts that had never been in the magazine. Those will be appearing in HM #1, HM #2 and future issues. There were some Mercenary shorts by Vicente Segrelles that never appeared in HM, so we’ll be bringing those in over the next few years. Metal Strips is a new 2-page feature that brings back Paul Kirchner’s The Bus, Caveman by Tayyar Ozkan as well as new strips of Harry Canyon and Zeke & Edsel.

TW: What is its frequency?

Quarterly.

TW: And will you be accepting submissions in the future for Heavy Metal Magazine?

Dave – I don’t accept submissions.  If there’s an artist who I think is a good fit, I’ll reach out to them.

Chris – There will eventually be some sort of submissions process, but at its heart Heavy Metal is a curated magazine, so we’ll be looking for the best talent ourselves. Everyone wants to be a part of the legacy, so there’s really no shortage of talent.

Frank – We will have a submission portal up on the website soon.

TW: And how have you put an infrastructure in place so you can guarantee that issues come out on time?

Dave – I would say it’s more about working with the right people than it is about structure.

Chris – We’re also setting deadlines that allow us to get everything in and ready in advance. We didn’t just start this all of a sudden – it’s been worked on quietly behind the scenes for a long time, so we could avoid these kind of problems.

Frank – We have deadlines, as well as back-up stories should some creators not hit deadlines. It does happen. This is why at least half of HM is licensed pre-existing work that has never seen publication in English. For the new shorts, we try to work ahead as much as possible.

TW: Talk us through the division of labour between the three of you. How does this work?

Dave – There’s a battle pit back on our homeworld that we call the Terrorgon. All divisions end with a clear victor.

Chris – There isn’t really a clear division. We each want to bring in the best material we can, which is then discussed to make sure it lives up to the Heavy Metal name. Naturally we each have things we like more or less, but it means readers can find the editors who do the kind of work they enjoy and then follow them while enjoying the overall package.

Frank – I think we each work on the shorts and serials we bring to the mag. I like working on shorts myself.

TW: Interestingly Metal Hurlant is also prepping a new magazine to launch this summer and it ran a kickstarter campaign at a similar time to yourselves. What are your thoughts on this?

Dave – It’s fine.  It happened before in the early 2000s.  Best of luck to them.  But I do feel we have more freedom to look to the future and respect a legacy without being tied down by it.

Chris – As with Heavy Metal, I treasure my early issues of Metal Hurlant. Those first 100 issues of each title were incredible, and they serve as the blueprint for how I’d like the magazine to be again. If everyone is bringing their A game then we and the readers can enjoy a new generation of storytellers and storytelling. Win-win!

Frank – Yeah, I think it was lucky timing that we both launched around the same time. It made a lot of press on the comic book sites and I think it gave us both a boost. Metal Hurlant is how HM got started, so without them we wouldn’t exist. I always liked looking at the French MH issues, to see what they were up to. I hope they can stick around for a while and do something amazing. It’s good to have a little friendly competition. I think the new MH comes out soon and I can’t wait to check it out. I think the difficult task is to try and capture the look and feel of the 1970s-80s issues of MH and HM, but do it with current creators. That’s the challenge. Who is creating today that is the next Moebius, Caza, Druillet, Liberatore, Wrightson, Corben and the like?

TW: How far ahead have you forward-planned what is going to be in the magazine?

Dave – We’re almost two years ahead at this point, so anything we’re talking about right now probably won’t see print until 2027.

Chris – Since it’s only a quarterly publication at this stage, we need to plan way ahead and get all our ducks in a row. As a reader, I can imagine there’s a lot of suspense and impatience as we slowly roll things out, but for us we’re already reading and creating tomorrow’s stories, so it’s an exciting place to be.

Frank – We have about two years roughly planned, and there’s always room for adding new shorts by up-and-coming or well-known industry veterans.

TW: What would you say is its remit and how much has it changed over the years?

Dave – The remit has always been to bring edgy European genre comics to the English-language market.  We still do that today, but we have a more global outlook.  You have to keep your sword high, though, no matter what.

Chris – The remit was always in the slogan about being The World’s Greatest Illustrated Magazine. The global aspect is captured there in ‘The World’s Greatest’ part and the art is summed up by ‘Illustrated Magazine’, so hopefully we’re bringing you a bit of both.

Frank – Heavy Metal should always be at the forefront of telling great stories and letting creators do their best work. It is also up to us, as editors, to find that work, as some creators are living under a rock and maybe wouldn’t think to submit to HM. We are about bringing together a great anthology of comics featuring tales of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

TW: If you can describe the new version in one pithy sentence, what would it be?

Dave – You can’t top the first ten years, but you can certainly top the last ten.

Chris – It’s not my phrase (it came from one of the interviewers at Hercegnovski Strip Festival in Montenegro) but “we’re making Heavy Metal heavy again!”

Frank – One Step Beyond Science Fiction

TW: Issue 1 is now available in stores and online. When can we expect to see issue 2?

We’ll have early copies at SDCC, then the magazine will be in stores for the last week of July.

Visit Heavy Metal’s home on the web

https://shop.heavymetal.com/