Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Bart Sears, christopher priest, heavy metal, Heavy Metal Magazine, starward, steve orlando

Heavy Metal Cancels Comics From Bart Sears, Christopher Priest & More

Heavy Metal Magazine has been cancelling a number of comic book titles such as Entropy, Sun Eater, Maiden, Dark Wing and Adrienne James.

Matthew Medney either jumped or was pushed as CEO of Heavy Metal Magazine and it seems that Heavy Metal is wiping out all traces of the man. In December 2019, Heavy Metal Magazine published Adventures Of Adrienne James #0 by Matthew Medney, Bruce Edwards and Geraldo Borges. However subsequent solicited issues(listed below) have been cancelled and the planned hardcover collection is currently suspended on the schedule. Also written by Matthew Medney and drawn by German Ponce, Dark Wing had issues 1-5 published, but 6 and 7 have now been cancelled. Listing below as well and, again, the collection is in limbo.

But it's not just books by Matthew Medney that have gone, others commissioned on his watch are also out of the door, especially from the Heavy Metal Elements line that he championed. Entropy #1 by Christopher Priest and Montos was published but #2, #3 and #4 have been canned. Maiden by Michelle Sears and Bart Sears saw one issue published but #2 was cancelled. Sun Eater Volume 2 was meant to take over from the original Sun Eater Vol 1, which had been cancelled 3 issues into a 9-issue series. By Dylan Sprouse and Diego Yapur the two solicited issues were totally cancelled, issues 1 and 2, gone.

But the big one was Starward by Steve Orlando and Ivan Shavrin, an eight-issue series that saw six issues solicited but none of them published and all of them cancelled. The lot. Issues 1-4 were made available digitally but are currently unavailable on Kindle though #1 and #2 are on GlobalComix – maybe because issue 1 is being resolicited for publication in May 2023 by Heavy Metal… better luck this time?

Bleeding Cool has been covering some of Heavy Metal's woes of late, even as publication of the magazine has been handed to Whatnot Publishing. That included Claudio Alvarez and Geraldo Borges complaining that Heavy Metal Italy had published their comic without their permission and the recent appointment of Joseph S. Durko as Chief Restructuring Officer & Corporate Secretary with issues expressed with payment to creditors. At the time Medney told us that "Due to a sum of receivables not being collected on time, our payments to creators have slipped further than what's acceptable. Luckily we have a dedicated and committed investor group whose support is allowing us to pay all creators before Christmas, while we catch up on our invoicing." People are still waiting.

UPDATE: I have been asked about the Segmets graphic novel by Richard Malka and Juan Gimenez planned for November and, yes, I'm afraid that's been sent to the corn field as well.

ADVENTURES OF ADRIENNE JAMES #1 (OF 12)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Matthew Medney, Bruce Edwards (A/CA) Geraldo Borges
High adventure among the stars! In a far-off galaxy obsessed with rarity and the exotic treasures of a million worlds, thousands of treasure hunting factions vie for the rarest treasure of them all – the fabulous and mysterious E-Ra-Du! Long rumored to be the source of ultimate power and hidden somewhere in the galaxy by the long-lost Elders, the E-Ra-Du holds the key to dominance over the cosmos. The star-scattered secrets leading to it and the spoils it promises have long been lost over eons. And now AeroJ, capital of the galaxy, is rocked by the death of the leader of the virtuous Lumans, Waldun Li, while he and his partner, the intrepid and infamous Adrienne James, were hot on the trail of the E-Ra-Du! Still reeling from his shocking death, Adrienne, who must now take on the mantle of High Luman is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime – which begins, of course, at her own funeral.

ADVENTURES OF ADRIENNE JAMES #2 (OF 12)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Matthew Medney, Bruce Edwards (A/CA) Geraldo Borges
Long rumored to be the source of ultimate power and hidden somewhere in the galaxy by the long-lost Elders, the E-Ra-Du holds the key to dominance over the cosmos. The star-scattered secrets leading to it and the spoils it promises have long been lost over eons. And now AeroJ, capital of the galaxy, is rocked by the death of the leader of the virtuous Lumans, Waldun Li, while he and his partner, the intrepid and infamous Adrienne James, were hot on the trail of the E-Ra-Du! Still reeling from his shocking death, Adrienne, who must now take on the mantle of High Luman is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime – which begins, of course, at her own funeral.

DARK WING #6 (OF 10)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Matthew Medney (A/CA) German Ponce
As a mysterious threat looms in the horizon while the Dark Wing sails through space towards an uncertain future  Benedict Gunn discovers that desperate times call for desperate measures. Uneasy, and once unthinkable, alliances are forged.

DARK WING #7 (OF 10)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Matthew Medney (A/CA) German Ponce
As Bennedict Gunn and Coumcilman Burkk are focused on dealing with the now-inevitable encounter between the Quails and the Gillirod civilization they discover than a once loyal ally who pledge allegiance to the Dark Wing will betray their principles. The question is: Who?

DARK WING TP
HEAVY METAL ENTERTAINMENT
MAR221665
(W) Matthew Medney (A) German Ponce
Millennia ago, a doomed civilization did the impossible: saving their planet from an encroaching black hole by converting it into a giant spacecraft. Now, the Dark Wing-piloted by Captain Benedict Gunn-shepherds the planet and its entire race of Quails through space, searching for a new sun. A product of intense research and wild imagination, Dark Wing is operatic in every sense of the word: vast, intellectual, and spanning generations. It offers a prescient glimpse at the engineering, culture, and emotionality of an interstellar society, much like the one we're becoming.In Shops: TBD
SRP: $26.99

ENTROPY #2 (OF 6) CVR A (MR)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Christopher Priest (A) Montos
Breaking Bad meets Green Lantern in the origin story of Heavy Metal's ultimate supervillain! Henry Hanks was killed and reborn as the newest Crusader of Kako, with the power to destroy entire worlds in his master's name. His first mission: Kill the previous herald, Crusader X. Problem is, Crusader X is better at using her powers, and she already knows her murderer is on his way.

ENTROPY #3 (OF 6) CVR A (MR)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Christopher Priest (A) Montos
Breaking Bad meets Green Lantern in Heavy Metal's event series Entropy from Black Panther and Justice League writer Christopher Priest and rising star artist Montos with covers by Bjorn Barends (King Spawn)! Henry Hanks was killed and reborn as the newest Crusader of Kako, with the power to destroy entire worlds! His mentor is his predecessor, Crusader X, and she is going to teach Kako's newest herald how to use his powers, even if it kills the both of them. Every issues will have a special Breaking Bad homage incentive cover by artist Antonio Fuso!

ENTROPY #4 (OF 6) CVR A BARENDS (MR)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Christopher Priest (A) Montos (CA) Bjorn Barends
Breaking Bad meets Green Lantern in Heavy Metal's event series Entropy from Black Adam writer Christopher Priest and rising star artist Montos with covers by Bjorn Barends! Henry Hanks was killed and reborn as the newest Crusader of Kako, with the power to destroy entire worlds! When a starship's captain finds an opportunity to kill the herald of Kako, will he do what's necessary to eliminate the greatest threat to the universe? All issues of Entropy will have a special Breaking Bad homage incentive cover by artist Antonio Fuso!

MAIDEN #2 (OF 8) (MR)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Michelle Sears, Bart Sears (A/CA) Bart Sears
A young woman has forfeited her soul to a supernatural force of vengeance, never to be redeemed, devoted to annihilation as completely as her servant, the inscrutable and frightening Hag, is devoted to her. Haunting tales of unrelenting, unrepentant revenge. An epic mythos that spans time, worlds and genre, the horrifyingly tragic curse of the Maiden is written in the blood of many. Maiden is the boogeyman of a new generation.

STARWARD #1 (OF 8) CVR B SHARVIN
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Steve Orlando (A) Ivan Shavrin (CA) Ivan Sharvin
From Heavy Metal Magazine. Stephanie Cohen's life is all going according to plan. The only problem is…the plan isn't hers! She's crushing it at college, but her fast track to a medical degree is something her parents decided for her, seemingly at birth. Stephanie was never consulted on her own life. So, now she's drowning in pre-med when she'd rather be studying classics, folklore, and mythology. But on the eve of her twentieth birthday, as Stephanie prepares to stare into her own personal summer abyss for yet another day…she gets a gift unlike any she could possibly expect.

STARWARD #2 (OF 8) (MR)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Steve Orlando (A) Ivan Shavrin (CA) Ivan Sharvin
With one foot in the present and one foot in the cosmic past, Stephanie Cohen's just trying to stay above water. The clock's just struck on her twenty-first birthday, and for gift? Cataclysmic power, and a thirst for vengeance that stretches back before the Big Bang! Stephanie is Starward Purple, one of seven sisters who stood against Kaos before the dawn of time! Too bad it's taken her all of human history to be reborn and remember. Now, Kaos has thousands of years for a head start. His creep is everywhere, lurking in every corner! Can Stephanie survive long enough to track down her sisters and take up arms against the evil holding the invisible chains holding all of us down?

STARWARD #3 (OF 8) (MR)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Steve Orlando (A) Ivan Shavrin (CA) Ivan Sharvin
From the mouth of babes… come threats of violence! Stephanie Cohen is Starward Purple, once one of the seven sensational sisters who defended reality. Reborn in the present, she's only just woken to her godhood to find out Kaos has had a head start on conquering reality by a few thousand years. And Kaos is everywhere. Just as Stephanie sets out to locate her six sisters, Kaos possesses Earth's youngest and attacks. How can Stephanie win without harming the innocent?

STARWARD #4 (OF 8) CVR B SHAVRIN (MR)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Steve Orlando (A/CA) Ivan Shavrin
From Heavy Metal Magazine. Collecting Starward Chapters 6 and 7 in one exciting volume! From the leaf peeping wastelands of New England comes Starward Gold! And while Starward Purple and Red might've tracked her down as part of quest hunt to rebuild their fighting family, the last thing Gold wants is sisters. Or anyone, for that matter. The fight against Kaos is one she's sure she can win herself! Or so Gold thinks. For all her bluster, Gold has no choice but to accept that it'll take every Starward Sister to attack and dethrone Kaos, a conqueror hiding in the space between every atom, in every shadow. The Seven Sisters stand united, but just as they do, Kaos launches an attack from within, turning them against themselves! And in Celestia, just who's watching the mayhem side by side with Kaos to meet the sisters on the field of battle?

STARWARD #5 (OF 8) CVR B SHAVRIN (MR)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Steve Orlando (A/CA) Ivan Shavrin
From Heavy Metal Magazine. Collecting Starward Chapters 8 and 9 in one bombastic book! It's sister against celestial sister! Kaos has infected all of Starward Silver's kin and turned them against her. Can the most analytical and driven of the Starward sisters free her family in time to storm Kaos's realm? But first things first, if they survive Kaos, they'll each have to deal with their human parents. Each Starward Sister might've been born before time began, but they also each were reborn to a human life. And if they're going to ship off outside reality to unseat Kaos, they're each due for a painful goodbye to the human families that raised them. But could those calls be just the motivation they need to face down the primordial force that murdered Atlas, their original, celestial father? Just what horrors wait for them when they make purchase in Celestia, the place they first fell, and the beachhead from which Kaos overtook reality?

STARWARD #6 (OF 8) CVR A SHAVRIN (MR)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Steve Orlando (A/CA) Ivan Shavrin
The Seven Starward Sisters have come home at last. Hail Celestia! To us tiny mortals, the great cosmic periphery! But to Kaos, the original corruptor, Celestial is a beachhead, a stronghold. It's the place Kaos first broke into our world and started to infect. It's also where the Starward Sisters were first defeat, long before time began. Can their return be any different? What hope do Seven Sisters have against Kaos, when the demonic dominion has had thousands of years to corrupt humanity as a head start?

STARWARD TP VOL 01 (C: 0-1-2)
HEAVY METAL ENTERTAINMENT
(W) Steve Orlando (A) Ivan Shavrin
Starting college at the end of the summer is stressful enough for Stephanie Cohen, since she's giving up her love of classics to please her parents in Pre-Med. But classics crashes into her life when she realizes she's the reincarnation of a stellar warrior tasked with guarding the cosmic door to chaos! Is Stephanie strong enough to follow her heart, accept her secret history, and look starward in time to save humanity… when she realizes chaos has already won?

SUN EATER VOL 2 #1 (OF 5) (MR)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Dylan Sprouse (A/CA) Diego Yapur
Heavy Metal's popular fantasy adventure series, Sun Eater, returns for an epic second volume! In a desperate quest to take his son back from King Harald of Norway, the warrior Kveldulf fully embraces his addiction to the parasite wolf Garm, with terrifying results.

SUN EATER VOL 2 #2 (OF 5) (MR)
HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE
(W) Dylan Sprouse (A/CA) Diego Yapur
The next volume of superstar Dylan Sprouse's historical horror fantasy trilogy continues as The Suneater meets a superior foe: a parasite in the form of a mystical were-bear! Supernatural beings go to bloody war in ninth century Norway, as the lives of a young boy and King Harald hang in the balance.

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