Heavy Metal: Does anyone still read this?

Cafe Society
1

I used to when I was much younger (about 20 years ago). I know that back then it was an American version of the French “Metal Hurlant”. When I was reading it the content seemd to be about 60 percent translated from the French (some of it losing a bit in the translation ). Some of the stories were very good, others were basicly an excuse to put soft core porn in comic form (not that I minded at the time, I was young, male and alone on Saturday night) I also remember the movie, which was fun.

 Then, sometime in the 80's they started taking themselves a wee bit too seriously. This was most evident in the letter column where people would write in, some liking the stories, some not. Usual for any comic letter column. 

  What turned me off was the attitude of the editors. Any criticism was met with basicly "we are professionals, we know what's good, if you don't like what we think is good, you are an ignorant idiot." This is not a direct quote, it has been far to long since I read the magazine to remember that well, but the tone conveyed is intact.

 I decided that, yes, I am ignorant, and I don't deserve to read a magazine of such high caliber.  :rolleyes: I never bought another issue.

  Just recently I saw the magazine on the rack at the local Waldens. So, is it still popular, or is it just hanging on? Is it any good nowdays, or just "Tits and Entrails", as one wag refered to it.
2

It’s been almost a year since I’ve read it (no $$), but it’s generally pretty good.

I’ve not noticed any really bad reactions to criticism. But there is, perhaps, a slight touch of ‘but we’re HEAVY METAL!’ in some of the editorial commentary (more in Eastman’s blurbs than in responses to readers).

My major complaint, personally, is that occasionally Eastman gives over great swaths of the magazine to himself or Simon Bisley. Not that I particularly mind Eastman or Bisley’s stuff (It’s generally pretty good, although they’ve had some misses), but it tends to cut into the variety, which is the mag’s strength, sometimes.

3

Dude, all the cool kids read 2000AD.

4

I used to read it back in the eighties, when it had a lot of Moebius stuff. Later it seemed to become formulaic and stuck in a violent dystopia, so I moved on to other things.