Heavy Metal (magazine)
Encyclopedia
Heavy Metal is an American
science fiction
and fantasy comics
magazine
, known primarily for its blend of dark fantasy/science fiction and erotica
. In the mid-1970s, while publisher Leonard Mogel was in Paris
to jump-start the French
edition of National Lampoon, he discovered the French science-fantasy magazine Métal Hurlant
which had debuted December 1974
. The French title translates literally as "Howling Metal."
When Mogel licensed the American version, he chose to rename it, and Heavy Metal began in the U.S. on April, 1977
as a glossy, full-color monthly. Initially, it displayed translations of graphic stories originally published in Métal Hurlant, including work by Enki Bilal
, Jean Giraud
(also known as Moebius), Philippe Druillet
, Milo Manara
and Philippe Caza
. The magazine later ran Stefano Tamburini
and Tanino Liberatore
's ultra-violent RanXerox
. Since the color pages had already been shot in France, the budget to reproduce them in the U.S. version was greatly reduced.
have been featured on the covers of various issues. Terrance Lindall
's illustrated version of Milton
's epic poem Paradise Lost
appeared in the magazine in 1980. Many stories were presented as long-running serial
s, such as those by Richard Corben
, Pepe Moreno
and Matt Howarth
. Illustrator Alex Ebel
contributed artwork over the course of his career.
The magazine is currently owned and published by Kevin Eastman
, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
. Publication of the French magazine ceased in 1987. It resumed in July 2002 under the French name Métal Hurlant, edited by Les Humanoïdes Associés
.
The founding editors of the American edition of Heavy Metal were Sean Kelly
and Valerie Marchant. Art director and designer John Workman
brought to the magazine a background of experience at DC Comics
and other publishers.
After two years, Mogel felt the lack of text material was a drawback, and in 1979, he replaced Kelly and Marchant with Ted White
, highly regarded in the science fiction field for revitalizing Amazing Stories
and Fantastic
between 1968 and 1978. White and Workman immediately set about revamping the look of Heavy Metal, incorporating more stories and strips by American artists, including Arthur Suydam
, Dan Steffan
, Howard Cruse
and Bernie Wrightson
.
White's main solution to the problem of adding substantive text material was a line-up of columns by four authorities in various aspects of popular culture
: Lou Stathis
wrote about rock music
and Jay Kinney
dug into underground comics, while Steve Brown reviewed new science fiction novels and Bhob Stewart
explored visual media from fantasy films to animation and light shows.
In 1980, Julie Simmons-Lynch took over as editor, and her new slant on text material was the showcasing of non-fiction by well-known authors such as Robert Silverberg
, John Shirley
and Harlan Ellison
. Later, a review section labeled Dossier, was created by associate editor Brad Balfour, who came on board to handle text features by authors such as William S. Burroughs
and Stephen King
. Dossier featured short pieces by a variety of writers, and was edited first by Balfour and then by Stathis, who soon replaced Balfour as an editor. Stathis continued the tradition of focusing on pop culture figures to connect the magazine to the larger hip culture context. There were also interview
s with such media figures as Roger Corman
, Federico Fellini
, John Sayles
, and John Waters
. Beginning with the winter of 1986, Heavy Metal dropped back to a quarterly schedule, continuing until March of 1989, where it then switched over to a bi-monthly publication period. Simmons-Lynch remained the editor until 1991 when Kevin Eastman
acquired the magazine and became both publisher and editor.
, an animated feature film was adapted from several of the magazine's serials. Made on a budget of USD
$9,300,000, under production for three years, Heavy Metal
featured animated segments from several different animation houses with each doing a single story segment. Another house animated the frame story
which tied all the disparate stories together. Like the magazine, the movie featured a great deal of nudity and graphic violence, though not to the degree seen in the magazine. For example, in its Den
segment, it did not display the blatant male genitalia of its print counterpart. The film featured such SCTV
talents as John Candy
, Eugene Levy
, Harold Ramis
and Ivan Reitman
. It did reasonably well in its theatrical release and soon gained a cult status
, partially because a problem with music copyrights that resulted in a delay of several years before the film became officially available on home video
. The film was spoofed on an episode of South Park
entitled "Major Boobage
".
Another animated feature film alternatively called Heavy Metal 2000
and Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.², with a budget of $15 million, was released in 2000
. This direct-to-video release was not based on stories from the magazine, but instead was based on The Melting Pot
, a graphic novel written by Kevin Eastman and drawn by artist Simon Bisley
, who based the appearance of the female protagonist after nude model and B-movie actress Julie Strain
, ex-wife of Kevin Eastman. Strain later lent her vocal talents to the movie, portraying the character modelled after her likeness. It spawned a video game in 2000, Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.²
. An independent video game was also spawned in 2001, Heavy Metal: Geomatrix
.
During 2008 and into 2009, reports circulated that David Fincher
and James Cameron
would co-direct a new animated Heavy Metal feature. However, Paramount Pictures
decided to stop funding the film by August of 2009 and no distributor or production company has shown interest in the second sequel since. In 2011, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez
announced at Comic Con that he had purchased the film rights to Heavy Metal and planned to develop a new animated film at the new Quick Draw Studios.
A film entitled War of the Worlds: Goliath, created as a sequel to H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds
and based on a story previously published in the magazine, is scheduled to be released in 2012.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and fantasy comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
, known primarily for its blend of dark fantasy/science fiction and erotica
Erotica
Erotica are works of art, including literature, photography, film, sculpture and painting, that deal substantively with erotically stimulating or sexually arousing descriptions...
. In the mid-1970s, while publisher Leonard Mogel was in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to jump-start the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
edition of National Lampoon, he discovered the French science-fantasy magazine Métal Hurlant
Métal Hurlant
Métal Hurlant is a French comics anthology of science fiction and horror comics stories, created in December 1974 by comics artists Jean Giraud and Philippe Druillet together with journalist-writer Jean-Pierre Dionnet and financial director Bernard Farkas.The four were collectively known as "Les...
which had debuted December 1974
1974 in comics
This is a list of comics-related events in 1974.-Year overall:* From May to September, Marvel debuts their Giant-Size series, mostly double- or triple-length comics featuring their most popular characters...
. The French title translates literally as "Howling Metal."
When Mogel licensed the American version, he chose to rename it, and Heavy Metal began in the U.S. on April, 1977
1977 in comics
- Year overall :* Wendy and Richard Pini establish WaRP Graphics.* Jan and Dean Mullaney establish Eclipse Comics.* The United Kingdom's Eagle Awards are established.* Bob Brown dies at age 62.* Ciao magazine is launched.-January:...
as a glossy, full-color monthly. Initially, it displayed translations of graphic stories originally published in Métal Hurlant, including work by Enki Bilal
Enki Bilal
Enes Bilal is a French comic book creator, comics artist and film director.-Biography:Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, to a Slovak mother and a Bosnian father who had been Josip Broz Tito's tailor, he moved to Paris at the age of 9. At age 14, he met René Goscinny and with his encouragement applied...
, Jean Giraud
Jean Giraud
Jean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...
(also known as Moebius), Philippe Druillet
Philippe Druillet
Philippe Druillet is a French comics artist and creator, and an innovator in visual design.-Biography:Druillet was born in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, France but spent his youth in Spain, returning to France in 1952 after the death of his father...
, Milo Manara
Milo Manara
Maurilio Manara – known professionally as Milo Manara – is an Italian comic book writer and artist, best known for his erotic approach to the medium.-Career:...
and Philippe Caza
Caza
Caza, the pseudonym of Philippe Cazaumayou , is a French comics artist.-Biography:At 18, Cazaumayou started a career in advertising which lasted for ten years, but in 1970 he entered the field of bandes dessinées, releasing his first album, Kris Kool...
. The magazine later ran Stefano Tamburini
Stefano Tamburini
Stefano Tamburini was an Italian graphic artist, author and publisher.Born in Rome, he founded the magazines Combinazioni , Cannibale and Frigidaire...
and Tanino Liberatore
Tanino Liberatore
Gaetano Liberatore , better known as Tanino Liberatore, is an Italian comics author and illustrator. His best known fictional character is RanXerox.- Life and work :...
's ultra-violent RanXerox
RanXerox
Ranxerox is a science fiction graphic novel series by Stefano Tamburini and Tanino Liberatore, two Italian artists who had worked on such magazines as Cannibale and Frigidaire...
. Since the color pages had already been shot in France, the budget to reproduce them in the U.S. version was greatly reduced.
Artists
Heavy Metals high-quality artwork is notable. Work by international fine artists such as H.R. Giger and Esteban MarotoEsteban Maroto
- Career :Born in Madrid, he began his career in the 1960s with series like Cinco por infinito, published in English by Continuity Comics as "Zero Patrol" ....
have been featured on the covers of various issues. Terrance Lindall
Terrance Lindall
Terrance Lindall is an American artist who was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1944. Lindall attended the University of Minnesota and graduated magna cum laude from Hunter College in New York City in 1970, with a double major in Philosophy and English and a double minor in Psychology and Physical...
's illustrated version of Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
's epic poem Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
appeared in the magazine in 1980. Many stories were presented as long-running serial
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
s, such as those by Richard Corben
Richard Corben
Richard Corben is an American illustrator and comic book artist best known for his comics featured in Heavy Metal magazine...
, Pepe Moreno
Pepe Moreno
Pepe Moreno is a Spanish comic book artist, writer and video game developer who has been drawing professionally in Spain, other countries in Europe and in the US since the 1970s. He is best known in the United States for his 1990 digital graphic novel, Batman: Digital Justice, published by DC Comics...
and Matt Howarth
Matt Howarth
Matt Howarth is an American comic book writer/artist known for such series as Those Annoying Post Bros, Savage Henry, Star Crossed, and Bugtown....
. Illustrator Alex Ebel
Alex Ebel
Alex Ebel is a science fiction and fantasy illustrator. A few examples of his illustrations are on the covers for the books Galaxies and The Sun by Isaac Asimov, Evil Earths by Brian Aldiss, Ability Quotient by Mack Reynolds, Homefaring by Robert Silverberg, and one of his most famous - The Left...
contributed artwork over the course of his career.
The magazine is currently owned and published by Kevin Eastman
Kevin Eastman
Kevin Brooks Eastman is an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman is also the current owner, editor and publisher of the magazine Heavy Metal.-Early life:Eastman was born on May 30, 1962 in Springvale, Maine...
, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a fictional team of four teenage anthropomorphic turtles, who were trained by their anthropomorphic rat sensei in the art of ninjutsu and named after four Renaissance artists...
. Publication of the French magazine ceased in 1987. It resumed in July 2002 under the French name Métal Hurlant, edited by Les Humanoïdes Associés
Les Humanoïdes Associés
Les Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
.
Editors
Sean Kelly (writer)
Sean Kelly is a Canadian author, writer, humorist, voice actor and teacher who was originally from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, but who currently lives in the United States. From 1970 to 1984 he was an editor and one of the main writers for National Lampoon...
and Valerie Marchant. Art director and designer John Workman
John Workman
John Workman is an editor, writer, artist, designer, colorist and letterer in the comic book industry...
brought to the magazine a background of experience at DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
and other publishers.
After two years, Mogel felt the lack of text material was a drawback, and in 1979, he replaced Kelly and Marchant with Ted White
Ted White (author)
Ted White is a Hugo Award-winning American writer, known as a science fiction author and editor and fan, as well as a music critic...
, highly regarded in the science fiction field for revitalizing Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
and Fantastic
Fantastic (magazine)
Fantastic was an American digest-size fantasy and science fiction magazine, published from 1952 to 1980. It was founded by Ziff-Davis as a fantasy companion to Amazing Stories. Early sales were good, and Ziff-Davis quickly decided to switch Amazing from pulp format to digest, and to cease...
between 1968 and 1978. White and Workman immediately set about revamping the look of Heavy Metal, incorporating more stories and strips by American artists, including Arthur Suydam
Arthur Suydam
Arthur Suydam is an American comic book artist and musician. He has done artwork for magazines including Heavy Metal, Epic Illustrated and National Lampoon, while his comic book work includes Batman, Conan, Tarzan, Predator, Aliens, Death Dealer, and Marvel Zombies.-Illustration:Suydam has...
, Dan Steffan
Dan Steffan
Dan Steffan is an American cartoonist and writer who has contributed to both mainstream and underground publications for several decades.-1970s:...
, Howard Cruse
Howard Cruse
Howard Cruse is an American alternative cartoonist known for the exploration of gay themes in his comics.Cruse was raised in Springville, Alabama, the son of a preacher and a homemaker. His earliest published cartoons were in The Baptist Student when he was in high school. His work later appeared...
and Bernie Wrightson
Bernie Wrightson
Bernie "Berni" Wrightson is an American artist known for his horror illustrations and comic books.-Biography:...
.
White's main solution to the problem of adding substantive text material was a line-up of columns by four authorities in various aspects of popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
: Lou Stathis
Lou Stathis
Lou Stathis was an American author, critic and editor, mainly in the areas of fantasy and science fiction. During the last three years of his life he was an editor for DC Comics' Vertigo line, including Preacher, Doom Patrol, Industrial Gothic, The System and Dhampire.Stathis was a columnist and...
wrote about rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and Jay Kinney
Jay Kinney
Jay Kinney is an American author, editor, and former underground cartoonist. A member, along with Skip Williamson, Jay Lynch and R. Crumb, of the original Bijou Funnies crew, Kinney also edited Young Lust, a satire of romance comics, in the early 1970s with Bill Griffith...
dug into underground comics, while Steve Brown reviewed new science fiction novels and Bhob Stewart
Bhob Stewart
Bhob Stewart is an American writer, editor, artist and film maker who has written for a variety of publications over a span of five decades. His articles and reviews have appeared in TV Guide, Publishers Weekly and other publications, along with online contributions to Allmovie, the Collecting...
explored visual media from fantasy films to animation and light shows.
In 1980, Julie Simmons-Lynch took over as editor, and her new slant on text material was the showcasing of non-fiction by well-known authors such as Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg is an American author, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple nominee of the Hugo Award and a winner of the Nebula Award.-Early years:...
, John Shirley
John Shirley
John Shirley is an American fantasist, author of noir fiction, and science-fiction writer. Shirley is a prolific writer of novels and short stories, TV scripts and screenplays who has published over 30 books and 10 collections...
and Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
. Later, a review section labeled Dossier, was created by associate editor Brad Balfour, who came on board to handle text features by authors such as William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
and Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
. Dossier featured short pieces by a variety of writers, and was edited first by Balfour and then by Stathis, who soon replaced Balfour as an editor. Stathis continued the tradition of focusing on pop culture figures to connect the magazine to the larger hip culture context. There were also interview
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
s with such media figures as Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
, Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
, John Sayles
John Sayles
John Thomas Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter and author.-Early life:Sayles was born in Schenectady, New York, the son of Mary , a teacher, and Donald John Sayles, a school administrator. He was raised Catholic and took to labeling himself "a Catholic atheist"...
, and John Waters
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
. Beginning with the winter of 1986, Heavy Metal dropped back to a quarterly schedule, continuing until March of 1989, where it then switched over to a bi-monthly publication period. Simmons-Lynch remained the editor until 1991 when Kevin Eastman
Kevin Eastman
Kevin Brooks Eastman is an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman is also the current owner, editor and publisher of the magazine Heavy Metal.-Early life:Eastman was born on May 30, 1962 in Springvale, Maine...
acquired the magazine and became both publisher and editor.
Films
In 19811981 in film
-Events:*January 19 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquires beleaguered concurrent United Artists. UA was humiliated by the astronomical losses on the $40,000,000 movie Heaven's Gate, a major factor in the decision of owner Transamerica to sell it....
, an animated feature film was adapted from several of the magazine's serials. Made on a budget of USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$9,300,000, under production for three years, Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal (film)
Heavy Metal is a 1981 Canadian fantasy-animated film directed by Gerald Potterton and produced by Ivan Reitman and Leonard Mogel, who also was the publisher of Heavy Metal magazine....
featured animated segments from several different animation houses with each doing a single story segment. Another house animated the frame story
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
which tied all the disparate stories together. Like the magazine, the movie featured a great deal of nudity and graphic violence, though not to the degree seen in the magazine. For example, in its Den
Den (comics)
Den is the name of two identical planetary romance fictional characters created by Richard Corben. The first appeared in the 1968 animated short film Neverwhere. The second has been appearing in the medium of comics since 1973, and in short stories that have been collected for the most part in...
segment, it did not display the blatant male genitalia of its print counterpart. The film featured such SCTV
Second City Television
Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...
talents as John Candy
John Candy
John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...
, Eugene Levy
Eugene Levy
Eugene Levy, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, television director, producer, musician, and writer. He is known for his work in Canadian television series, American movies, and television movies. He is the only actor to have appeared in all eight of the American Pie films, as Noah Levenstein...
, Harold Ramis
Harold Ramis
Harold Allen Ramis is an American actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Russell Ziskey in Stripes , both of which he also co-wrote...
and Ivan Reitman
Ivan Reitman
Ivan Reitman, OC is a Canadian film producer and director. He is known for the comedies he has directed and produced, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.He is the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 2000.-Early life:...
. It did reasonably well in its theatrical release and soon gained a cult status
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
, partially because a problem with music copyrights that resulted in a delay of several years before the film became officially available on home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
. The film was spoofed on an episode of South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
entitled "Major Boobage
Major Boobage
"Major Boobage" is the third episode of the twelfth season of the animated television series South Park, and the 170th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on March 26, 2008...
".
Heavy Metal 2000
Heavy Metal 2000 is the 2000 follow-up to the 1981 animated cult film Heavy Metal, based on the fantasy magazine of the same name. The story itself is based on the graphic novel, The Melting Pot, written by Kevin Eastman, Simon Bisley and Eric Talbot...
and Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.², with a budget of $15 million, was released in 2000
2000 in film
The year 2000 in film involved some significant events.The top grosser worldwide was Mission: Impossible II. Domestically in North America, Gladiator won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor ....
. This direct-to-video release was not based on stories from the magazine, but instead was based on The Melting Pot
The Melting Pot (comic)
The Melting Pot is a 1995 graphic novel by Kevin Eastman, Simon Bisley and Eric Talbot. Its story was the basis for the direct-to-video animated film Heavy Metal 2000 in 2000...
, a graphic novel written by Kevin Eastman and drawn by artist Simon Bisley
Simon Bisley
Simon Bisley is a British comics artist best known for his 1990s work on ABC Warriors, Lobo and Sláine. His style, reliant on paints, acrylics, inks and multiple-mediums, is strongly influenced by Frank Frazetta, Bill Sienkiewicz, Gustav Klimt, Salvador Dalí, Egon Schiele, and Richard Corben...
, who based the appearance of the female protagonist after nude model and B-movie actress Julie Strain
Julie Strain
Julie Strain is an American actress and model who was Penthouse Pet of the Month in June 1991 and later chosen as the magazine's Pet of the Year in 1993.-Early life:...
, ex-wife of Kevin Eastman. Strain later lent her vocal talents to the movie, portraying the character modelled after her likeness. It spawned a video game in 2000, Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.²
Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.²
Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.² is a third-person shooter video game made by Ritual Entertainment in 2000. A sequel to the Heavy Metal 2000 animated movie, the game stars Julie in her quest to save her home planet of Eden from GITH, an ancient entity seeking to conquer the universe...
. An independent video game was also spawned in 2001, Heavy Metal: Geomatrix
Heavy Metal: Geomatrix
Heavy Metal: Geomatrix is a fully 3D arena fighting game released in 2001 by both Sega and Capcom for the Sega NAOMI and Dreamcast, based upon the Heavy Metal license....
.
During 2008 and into 2009, reports circulated that David Fincher
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
and James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
would co-direct a new animated Heavy Metal feature. However, Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
decided to stop funding the film by August of 2009 and no distributor or production company has shown interest in the second sequel since. In 2011, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez
Robert Rodriguez
Robert Anthony Rodríguez is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet...
announced at Comic Con that he had purchased the film rights to Heavy Metal and planned to develop a new animated film at the new Quick Draw Studios.
A film entitled War of the Worlds: Goliath, created as a sequel to H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds is an 1898 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells.The War of the Worlds may also refer to:- Radio broadcasts :* The War of the Worlds , the 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles...
and based on a story previously published in the magazine, is scheduled to be released in 2012.