Picking up the pieces
Picking up the pieces |
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Page 37 of 38  Cover from Epic (Marvel Comics), the main rival to Heavy Metal. Since the film, Heavy Metal itself has never reached the same level of public awareness, but has continued to thrive thanks to a progressive policy of trying out new talent. In the 1980s and 1990s, it showcased work that would usually be considered 'avant garde', by creators such as the Dutchman Joost Swarte, the Spaniard Daniel Torres, and the Americans Drew Friedman and Charles Burns. But even if the comic is leaving the legacy of the underground behind, it still regularly features 'cheesecake' depictions of women: this obviously serves to retain its traditional readership, but also has the twin disadvantages of attracting criticism from feminists, and of encouraging newspaper vendors to rack the comic on the top shelf, next to the soft porn. The success of Heavy Metal led to a variety of imitations, none of which were of the same quality. Marvel got in on the act with Epic Illustrated (1980), which privileged American creators over foreign ones, and which tried to tone down the sexual content in order to appeal to a wider readership. The glossy production values, coupled with a creative brief to 'express yourself, led to some startling work by Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin and Jon Muth, as well as some memorable sword and sorcery covers from Frank Frazetta and Richard Corben, but also a fair share of self-indulgent tosh. If anything, the storytelling was better than in Heavy Metal, drawing from contemporary American science fiction prose fiction (for example, Samuel Delany stories were adapted), but the comic never developed the same kind of'personality', and was eventually cancelled in 1986.  Cover from 1994 (Warren, 1981), one of the less illustrious Heavy metal competitors. Cover art: Nestor Redondo. |