Heavy Metal is a legendary comics magazine, first published in the US in 1977, known for its blend of dark fantasy, science fiction, erotica, horror, and steampunk. Unlike the traditional American comic books, its format and newsstand distribution allowed it to feature graphic sex, nudity, and violence not otherwise seen in visual media, giving it a notable allure.
The magazine started out primarily as an analog of the French magazine Métal hurlant, marking for many in the Anglophone world their first introduction to the work of European cartoonists like Enki Bilal, Philippe Caza, Guido Crepax, Philippe Druillet, Jean-Claude Forest, Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Moebius), Chantal Montellier, and Milo Manara.
Following a long period of tumult, it was canceled in 2023 but relaunched in 2025 under new owners, purportedly, with a new editorial team consisting of Dave Kelly, Frank Forte, and Chris Thompson.
Unfortunately, by 2026, Kelly had outright quit and Forte had taken on a drastically reduced role. The result of questionable and opaque practices by upper management, the company was once again plagued with issues of nonpayment to employees and creatives, fulfillment problems to retailers, subscribers, and kickstarter backers, and inconsistent content in the magazine, which lead to questions being raised over how new the players behind it all actually were.
Publication History National Lampoon (1977-1988) After a 1975 European trip by National Lampoon contributor Tony Hendra expressing interest in European comics, the magazine's New York offices attracted significant European comic material. On 2 September 1976, editor Sean Kelly singled out the relatively new French comics anthology Métal hurlant (, though Kelly translated it as "Screaming Metal") and brought it to the attention of company president Leonard Mogel on 3 September, as Mogel was departing for Germany and France to jump-start the French edition of National Lampoon. (Métal hurlant had debuted in early 1975 from Les Humanoïdes Associés (), an association of Philippe Druillet, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Jean Giraud (Mœbius), and financial director Bernard Farkas formed on 19 December 1974.) Upon Mogel's return from Paris on 27 September, he reported that the French publishers had agreed to an English language version, and he suggested the title Heavy Metal for an April issue to be released in March 1977.
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 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.
Other HM Communications Publications In 1977–1978, HM Communications published a number of trade paperbacks featuring "Heavy Metal Presents" on their covers, collecting translated material it had previously serialized in the pages of Heavy Metal:
Arzach (1977) by Jean Giraud; originally published in Métal hurlant Candice at Sea (1977) by Jacques Lob and Georges Pichard (trans. by Sean Kelly and Valerie Marchant); originally published in Blanche Épiphanie #3—La Croisière infernale by Les Humanoïdes Associés in 1977 Psychorock (1977) by Sergio Macedo (trans. by Kelly and Marchant); originally published by Les Humanoïdes Associés in 1976 Barbarella: The Moon Child (1978) by Jean-Claude Forest (trans. by Richard Seaver); originally published in Barbarella #3 - Le Semble-Lune, published by Pierre Horay in 1977 Ulysses (1978) adaptation of Homer's Odyssey by Jacques Lob and Georges Pichard; originally published by Dargaud in 1974–1975 Is Man Good? (1978) by Jean Giraud (trans. by Sean Kelly and Valerie Marchant); originally published in Pilote and Métal hurlant Conquering Armies (1978) by Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Jean-Claude Gal (trans. by Sean Kelly and Valerie Marchant); originally published in Métal hurlant
In 1978–1979, HM Communications released a number of trade paperbacks of original content that had been serialized in the pages of Heavy Metal. These projects also featured "Heavy Metal Presents" on their covers:
More Than Human (1979, in association with Simon & Schuster)—adaptation of the Theodore Sturgeon novel of the same name, by Doug Moench and Alex Niño; packaged by Byron Preiss Visual Publications 1941: The Illustrated Story (1979, in association with Arrow Books)—loose adaptation of the Steven Spielberg film of the same name, by Allen Asherman, Stephen R. Bissette, and Rick Veitch, with in introduction by Spielberg; varies wildly and humorously from the film. Alien: The Illustrated Story (1979, with distribution by Simon & Schuster)—adaptation of the Ridley Scott film of the same name, by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson Michael Moorcock's The Swords of Heaven, The Flowers of Hell (1979) by Michael Moorcock and Howard Chaykin So Beautiful and So Dangerous (1979, in association with Simon & Schuster) by Angus McKie New Tales of the Arabian Nights (1979) by Richard Corben and Jan Strnad, introduction by Harlan Ellison
In 1981, the company launched a new series, Heavy Metal Special Editions, which consisted of fifty seasonal Heavy Metal specials published until 2008. These began with Heavy Metal Presents Moebius (1981), followed by The Best of Heavy Metal (1982), Even Heavier Metal (1983), Son of Heavy Metal (1984), Bride of Heavy Metal (1985), and The Best of Heavy Metal 2 (1986). Beginning with The Venus Interface (1989, v5 no. 4), the indicia began to feature volume and issue numbers, as well as the phrase "a series of special editions published four times a year by Heavy Metal magazine." After the fiftieth issue, "Overload Special" (Summer 2008, v22 no. 2), the numbering of the seasonal specials was merged into the main series, and continued for another nine issues until the "War of the Worlds Special" (2011).
Grodnik, Matheson, and J2 Communications (1988-1992) 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 and Metal Mammoth, Inc. (1992-2014) Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who had grown up reading Heavy Metal, bought the magazine for $500,000 in May 1992. (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 Metals editor-in-chief for the bulk of this time (even into 2016, after he was no longer the owner).
Post-Eastman Corporate Chaos (2014-2022) In January 2014, Eastman sold the magazine to digital and music veteran David Boxenbaum and film producer Jeff Krelitz. Eastman continued to serve as publisher of the magazine (until early 2020) and was a minority investor in the new Heavy Metal, which became at that point published by Heavy Metal Media, LLC.
In late 2019, Krelitz was no longer with the magazine, which was undergoing leadership churn. In early 2020, Heavy Metal saw a regime change to CEO Matthew Medney and "Creative Overlord" David Erwin (formerly of DC Entertainment). Medney and Erwin announced two new comics publishing ventures, Virus and Magma Comix, though neither line produced much material.
Heavy Metals 300th issue, published in 2021, featured work by Tanino Liberatore, Mark Bodé, and Kent Williams, among others; and posthumous work by Richard Corben, Moebius, and Vaughn Bodē. It had interviews and testimonials from writers discussing the impact the magazine had on them as teenagers.
In the fall of 2022, the magazine entered into an agreement with online marketplace Whatnot to publish the following 12 issues of the magazine. Soon afterward, the magazine announced it was "ceasing publication of what they described as the first volume of the magazine, which had been published continuously since 1977. The last issue of the first volume, number 320, was scheduled for publication in late October 2022 and the successor, Volume 2, would be published by WhatNot Publishing starting with issue 1 in February 2023."
Amid cash flow problems, however, Heavy Metal shut down in December 2022. Initially intended to be a temporary suspension, the magazine worked to rectify subscription non-fulfillments and non-payments to artists and vendors. Medney stepped down as CEO, replaced by Marshall Lees and Jamie Penrose.
Cancellation (2023)
In July 2023, with Whatnot's publishing division, Massive Publishing, only having produced one issue of Heavy Metal—#320, released in April of that year and still listing Heavy Metal Entertainment LLC in the indicia—it was announced that the publisher had decided to cancel the magazine and that #320 had been the final issue.
The Relaunch Era (2024-present) On October 15, 2024, Heavy Metal International, LLC announced that they would be relaunching the magazine in 2025 and began a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for the first issue on November 25, 2024. By 2026, two Kickstarter campaigns had been completed, raising nearly $2 million in capital, but were fraught with fulfillment problems that angered backers and lead to a vocal outcry on Heavy Metal’s official Discord and Circle servers as well as in the comment sections on both campaigns (totaling nearly 5,000 comments as of August 2026). Many of these problems remain unresolved.
The First Kickstarter (2024)