Dreaming of Heavy Metal magazine - Part 1

My teen heart raced when I first saw Heavy Metal on the magazine rack at my local Pharmacy. It was a revelation and a wonderful eye opener. I had been a comic reader for some years, but most of what I could get my hands on was of the superhero variety - sure, fun stuff, but definately not of the adult calibre of Metal Hurlant (as the original magazine was first published in France as a quarterly in 1974)! Heavy Metal came to North America in April of 1977 and republished stores from the parent magazine, including work by Enki Bilal, Philippe Caza, Guido Crepax, Philippe Druillet, Jean-Claude Forest, Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) and Milo Manara to name a few.

I collected issues from 1977 to the early 1980's, as I finally saw a drop off in quality stories and felt it was no longer worth my hard earned dollars. But, what a ride, I read and re-read issue after issue finding inspiration from the wild illustrators and painters.

I've collected just a small sampling from my well thumbed pile and hope you enjoy gazing at these images as much as I still do.

(Photographs by Richard Palberg, PalbergWERX Creative Direction)