Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: diamond, heavy metal, lunar, Massive Indies

Heavy Metal Magazine Joins Lunar Distribution Through Massive Indies

Heavy Metal Magazine relaunch joins Lunar Distribution through the Massive Indies programme, even though Massive failed to publish it before.

Published Thu, 06 Mar 2025 06:57:08 -0600

by Rich Johnston

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The Heavy Metal Magazine relaunch is to be included in the first wave of the Massive Indies distribution partnership with Lunar Distribution. Earlier this month, Massive Publishing, announced a distribution program called Massive Indies, in which Massive will act as a sub-distributor between smaller publishers and Lunar Distribution, the exclusive distributor of DC Comics and Image Comics titles to the direct market of comic book stores. Now Massive is announcing the first wave of independent publishing partners, which is to include the new launch of Heavy Metal Magazine. Ironically, Massive previously arranged to publish the relaunch of Heavy Metal Magazine but the effort failed at the launch pad, and the project was abandoned after much publicity. Not that they are mentioning this now… and the comic is still listed by Diamond Comic Distributors.

But it has encouraged Massive Select, the collectibles arm of Massive Publishing, to releasing a special variant featuring the art of Walking Dead co-creator Tony Moore as a homage to the original 1977 debut issue of Heavy Metal Magazine.

"A few years back, Heavy Metal partnered with Massive to release the historic final issue of Volume One of the magazine. Now, It's thrilling to be a part of the magazine's rebirth, working with both Heavy Metal and Lunar to get these books onto comic shop shelves and ultimately into the hands of excited fans." – Michael Calero, CEO, Massive Publishing.

HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE #1 CVR A GREG HILDEBRANDT (MR)
(W) Various (A) Various (CA) Greg Hildebrandt
Heavy Metal magazine is back! Heavier than ever! This relaunch brings the world's greatest illustrated magazine back to the forefront of comics. One of the magazine's original line-up of legends, Enki Bilal – returns with the English language adaptation of his acclaimed BUG series. Michael Conrad (Hello Darkness, In Bloom) will be teaming up with Greek comics legend, Ilias Kyriazis (Collapser, What We Wished For), for an all-new series entitled Millstone. The outrageous Burton & Cyb returns with "Poor Monsters" by Antonio Segura and Jose Ortiz, as well as Vicente Segrelles' classic, The Mercenary. The English language debut of Janevsky's cult sci-fi heroine, Sixella. Guido Crepax' classic character Valentina returns by the hands of writer/artist Sergio Gerasi. Heavy Metal will harness the power of its own rich stable of characters, starting with the ultimate Taarakian warrior, Taarna! Writing duo Leah Moore and John Reppion will pen Taarna's ongoing adventures, accompanied by art from Anna Morozova. Also featuring one-shots of: Cold Dead War (B-17) by Craig Wilson, Grimaldi by Keron Grant, and Legends of Taarna by Joseph Michael Linsner. Fernando Dagnino brings a new cyberpunk short: Lester, That Old Feeling. The return of classic strips The Bus by Paul Kirchner and June 2050 by John Workman. Visionary creators David Quinn and Tim Vigil deliver Transcendestiny. Writer/artist Dwayne Harris gives us the fantasy tale They Dug Too Deep. Jim Rugg exposes Kecksburg UFO and Jon Wayshak writes and draws a horror short entitled Cobot. Plus Interviews, The Dossier, prose fiction and more! Retail: $14.99 In-Store Date: 4/30/2025

The iconic sci-fi and fantasy publisher's relaunch of their emblematic Magazine had one of the most successful comic book Kickstarters of all time this past winter, raising nearly $800,000 during the month-long campaign. Now Massive Indies is bringing it to local comic book shops with a spread of gorgeous covers from legendary artists such as Greg Hildebrandt and Frank Frazetta (pictured below), as well as modern talents Tula Lotay, Keron Grant, Janevsky, and David Palumbo. This new volume of The World's Greatest Illustrated Magazine will debut with a 240-page Giant-Sized issue filled with a stacked lineup of creators including Enki Bilal, Craig Wilson, Sergio Gerasi, Michael Conrad, Leah Moore, John Reppion, Anna Morozova, Antonio Segura, David Quinn, Joseph Michael Linsner, Keron Grant, Jose Ortiz, Fernando Dagnino, Tim Vigil, Paul Kirchner, John Workman, and Jim Rugg. Issue 1 is currently available to pre-order through Lunar Distribution.

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