Heavy Metal Magazine - Back Issues 1997-2003 (Illustrated Fantasy Magazine)

Product Overview

• Publication: Heavy Metal, The Adult Illustrated Fantasy Magazine
• Publisher: Metal Mammoth, Inc., Rockville Centre, New York
• Format: Softcover magazine, glossy stock
• Years Represented: 1997-2003
• Language: English
• Audience: Adults only - 18+
• Sold As: Single issues - select your issue from the dropdown

Issues Available

• July 1997 - Gullivera by Milo Manara; Ranx returns
• September 1997 - Druuna returns; F.A.K.K.² film update
• Horror Special 1997
• Spring 2000 Special - Horacio Altuna
• May 2001 - Druuna in 'The Forgotten Planet'
• Summer 2002 - Erotic Special #2; Horacio Altuna
• Spring 2003 - Samurai Special

Description

Heavy Metal began in 1977 as the American edition of the French magazine Metal Hurlant, and its arrival changed what English-language readers understood comics to be capable of. Where the domestic industry ran on superheroes and newsprint, Heavy Metal imported the European tradition wholesale: painted colour, adult themes, science fiction and fantasy treated as serious visual art, and above all the work of Moebius, whose draughtsmanship reshaped the aesthetic vocabulary of everything from Alien to Blade Runner to a generation of concept design.

The issues in this listing come from the magazine's late-nineties and early-two-thousands run, a period defined by the European masters. Milo Manara, whose line work is among the most recognisable in the medium. Luis Royo, whose airbrushed fantasy painting defined an entire visual register. Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri, whose Druuna serial ran across years of issues. Horacio Altuna, the Argentine cartoonist and satirist. These were artists working at the top of an international tradition, published monthly for an American readership that had few other routes to it.

This was also the period around Heavy Metal F.A.K.K.², the 2000 animated feature, and the magazine's associated calendar and paperback publishing programme - Ranx collections, Royo and Manara calendars, the specials line. The advertising pages of these issues are themselves a record of a small publisher operating across comics, film, and licensed merchandise simultaneously.

Collectible Value

Magazines are the format collectors most consistently fail to preserve. They were periodicals - read, stacked, and eventually discarded - and they lack the bagged-and-boarded culture that protected comic books of the same era. Surviving copies in presentable condition are correspondingly less common than the original print runs would suggest.

Artist-driven demand does most of the work in this market. Issues carrying Manara, Royo, or Serpieri covers and serials are sought by collectors following those artists specifically, often outside comics collecting altogether, and the special editions were produced in smaller numbers than the standard monthly run. Complete-run collectors working through the late-nineties and early-two-thousands period compete for the same copies.

The magazine's cultural position also keeps interest steady: Heavy Metal is the primary English-language document of how European comics reached American readers, and back issues function as the archive of that transmission.

Order Now

Select your issue from the dropdown above. Each is sold individually. Please review the listing photographs for the condition of the specific issue you are ordering. Buyers must be 18 or older. Shipped promptly and packed flat with board protection from Hammer of War in Tacoma, Washington - message us about combined shipping if you are taking more than one.