Heavy Metal Magazine (History)

For those who take pleasure in reading books and turning the words into pictures in their minds, Heavy Metal Magazine offers loads of fictitious tales and short stories. This American magazine features a blend of science, dark fantasy and erotic stories. Leonard Mogel publishes this magazine. It so happened that when he was in France to attend the inaugural ceremony of the French edition of the National Lampoon that he discovered a French magazine called Metal Hurlant, which means ‘Howling Metal’. He was impressed by the magazine, which was dedicated to adolescents and male sexual fantasy, and decided to start an English version of it by the name ‘Heavy Metal’. He successfully published the first edition in 1977 and it was well received. It was a glossy, pictorial magazine with graphics and life like pictures.

What was in Heavy Metal magazine?

To start with, Leonardo included the translations of authors like Jean Giraud, Milo Manara, Enki Bilal Phillippe Druillet and Tanino Liberatore. Thus, he did not have to spend much on these editions.

Heavy Metal is an adult magazine that features text and content for adults. The illustrations include sexy images of boys and girls whose nude pictures serve as the trademark of the magazine. Blood-splattering violence and pictures that ignite sensuous feelings also form a major part of this magazine.

The artists who included their masterpieces and works of art in the magazine were Esteban Maroto and H.R. Giger. There were a couple of others too who contributed their masterpieces to enhance the looks and impact of the stories. They did not just illustrate the stories but also epics and poems in an artistic manner. One of the editions in 1980 carried the pictorial illustrations of Paradise Lost, which was a major hit among American readers.

Editors play an important role in the success of any magazine and true to this fact the founding editors of Heavy metal magazine – Valerie Marchant and Sean Kelly did a great job in promoting and endorsing the magazine for a long time.