Posted in: Comics, Conventions, Current News, Events, Pop Culture, san diego comic con | Tagged: Chris Thompson, David Kelly, Frank Forte, heavy metal

San Diego Comic-Con Bar Gossip On The Future Of Heavy Metal Magazine

Last night saw the launch of Preview Night at San Diego Comic-Con. But the gossip was all about Heavy Metal Magazine and its future.

Last night saw the launch of Preview Night at San Diego Comic-Con. I'm not at the show, but I do my best to make it look like I am, and have all sorts of people reporting back on what they see and hear. And last night, it was all about Heavy Metal Magazine and its future.

I previously reported back in May that Frank Forte had been saying that he was the new Editor in Chief of Heavy Metal, and that seems to have been confirmed by multiple conversations held from the Hyatt lobby to the Hilton Bayfront.

But Bleeding Cool can reveal that he will be joined in his editorial team by Chris Thompson, formerly of Orbital Comics in London, Eaglemoss, Opus Publishing. Wild River and Titan Comics where he launched the Statix Press line. As well as Dave Kelly, who self-published his own series Tales Of The Nightwatchman under So What Press, as well as in Savage Dragon, to round out the editorial team.

The three were seen huddled together on Wednesday evening in downtown San Diego, sitting at an outside table, loudly talking about the future of Heavy Metal. So they should make an easy target for anyone trying to pitch their work. Or maybe asking about getting paid from the previous iteration of Heavy Metal.

Previously, Heavy Metal Magazine was revived under a series of obliquely funded figures, with everyone from Grant Morrison, Gerhard, Peach Momoko, to even me getting published there. After hitting issue 300, it was relaunched through Massive/Whatnot but they weren't able to publish a single issue before it fell again, leaving many people unpaid and promises unfulfilled.

Frank Forte is a writer, editor, designer, storyboard and comic book artist, with TV and film credits including Lovecraft Country, Fantasy Island, Bob's Burgers, Lego: Guardians of the Galaxy, Despicable Me 2, Lego Star Wars and more, with comic book work as a writer, artist or editor for Heavy Metal Magazine, Bob's Burgers, Warlash, DTOX, Zombie Terrors, Black Powder, Vampire Verses, Lacunae, Dark Wing, and Chicken Soup For Satan among others. He became Content Editor for Heavy Metal Magazine and wrote about the journey for Bleeding Cool here. Maybe he'll write another one to follow.

Heavy Metal Magazine began as a translated license from the French science-fantasy magazine Métal Hurlant and included work by the likes of Enki Bilal, Philippe Caza, Guido Crepax, Philippe Druillet, Jean-Claude Forest, Moebius, Chantal Montellier, and Milo Manara. before spinning off into its own original publication, animated movie and a success on the magazine stands, helped by its liberal attitude to semi-clad sci-fi women on the cover. It was bought by massive Heavy Metal fan Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in 1992. It was later sold to David Boxenbaum and Jeff Krelitz in 2014, until they were forced out. In 2019, Heavy Metal was taken over by Matthew Medney and David Erwin. With stories of internal coups, challenging comings and goings, non-delivery to customers, callousness and challenges from creators, former employees, their widows and estates, cash flow problems saw the publisher shut down, before a planned relaunch and revamp from Whatnot Publishing/Massive was announced. In the end, they only published a final issue of the previous version of the magazine, a year late, for San Diego Comic-Con and the promised revival was abandoned. Massive/Whatnot had decided not to publish it after all. Hundreds of thousands of copies of back issues were pulped rather than pay for the warehousing.

Since then the publication has been in limbo. The last EIC, Joe Illidge, left giving Bleeding Cool a breakdown of events. What happens now? Depends upon which bigger publication has been given the San Diego Comic-Con PR and calls it an exclusive. Who had the rights, whether Zack Snyder ponied up, maybe it's a Kickstarter, an NFT, a webtoon, who knows? Maybe we will by the end of this week.

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