Heavy Metal Magazine is one of the most influential comic book publications in the field of science fiction. Film directors such as Ridley Scott, Terry Gilliam, and James Cameron have cited it as a major influence on their work, both as a deeper gateway into science fiction and as a visual bible that continuously inspires the look of their films. It was originally published in France as Metal Hurlant in 1974, which translates to Howling Metal. The publication was created by Europe’s vanguard of comic illustrators, which included the legendary Jean Giraud (Moebius). It wasn’t long after its release that Metal Hurlant was discovered by the publisher of National Lampoon, Leonard Mogel, who bought the license to create an American version of the magazine. Rebranded as Heavy Metal, it published its inaugural issue in April, 1977. Heavy Metal has outlived its predecessor and continues through today.
Initially, the magazine started out as a licensed translation, showcasing the work of Enki Bilal, Philippe Druillet, and other star talents of Europe. North American contributors would soon follow, many of whom were the who’s who of the US comics scene, like Richard Corben, Walt Simonson, Jim Steranko and Bernie Wrightson. Some of the best fiction authors working in the field also contributed, including Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, and Stephen King. Heavy Metal is and continues to be a home to cutting-edge experimental science fiction, comics, artwork, and poetry.
There is a sense of raw imagination glorified across its four decades of eye-popping cover art. The stories within are adult, distinctly different, and often hold an erotic undertone. Over the years, the publication has been overseen by a revolving cast of industry personalities, from publisher and artist Kevin Eastman, who co-created the Ninja Turtles, to comics writer Grant Morrison.
Recently, the previous CEO, film producer Jeff Krelitz, stepped down and has been succeeded by Matthew Medney, a writer and entrepreneur who aspires to take the magazine to greater heights, making a lasting impact on the genre across all media. While DC and Marvel are the comic book companies that have cornered the superhero market, Matt believes that Heavy Metal can become the premiere comic publisher, known for science fiction, fantasy and horror.
We interviewed Matthew to see what he and the team have in store.
Walk me through your introduction to sci-fi and comics, and your career path.
I grew up in Westchester, New York. Started my career in music. I was a production manager for ten years. Like many, growing up I was big into comics, sci-fi, and storytelling. My aunt was a huge Trekkie. She was also very successful in her career and I realized that nerds could be cool. She and my uncle were affluent geeks who had all the memorabilia and they gave me a sense of what comics and stories could be.
My dad was the VP of marketing at Nabisco and he quit that job to start his own toy company. And that business launched the number one kid’s meal toy ever sold at KFC, Slimeamander. This is just a long-winded way of saying that I grew up being taught that you should just do what you want to do. My past successes as an entrepreneur gave me the attitude of Go for it. And I always held the outlook that I’d rather go for it and end up flipping burgers at McDonald’s, than make a marginal living and realize I had never tried.
You’ve mentioned that you are a writer. Talk about that.
Alongside Heavy Metal, I run a company called HERO. We specialize in creating comics for musicians and have worked with rock bands like 3-11, hip hop artists like Shaggy, and EDM artists like Riot. We create original stories that go with their albums, the tour items, and the merch items, and we sell them at a premium. I and my three partners write all the comics together.
I’m also a novelist. I have one sci-fi novel I’ve finished and one that I’m working on. The one finished is called Beyond Kuiper: The Galactic Star Alliance. I wrote it with my best friend, John, who is an astroengineer at Lockheed Martin. There are five satellites in orbit that he personally designed. We are two months from having the book fully edited and are shooting for a summer release.
There’s been speculation on the net circling your writing at HERO. Since you have written on pretty much all the comic titles for the company, fans of Heavy Metal are wondering how much writing you plan to do for the magazine? Not all of it?
Hah, no. That wouldn’t be possible. I’ll have a couple stories a year. Two to three stories that will be serialized — some that will probably tie in to a trade in the end.
Tracking back – when did Heavy Metal come into the picture for you?
Pretty recently. I’ve obviously known about the brand, am very familiar with the movie. I was having dinner with my friend David Erwin, former Creative Director at DC Comics, we ended up at SOHO House, where we met the former CEO of Heavy Metal, Jeff Krelitz.
We got to talking and had a great time. And randomly, not long after, I met the owner of Heavy Metal, whose name I won’t mention because he likes to stay out of the limelight. I randomly had a meeting with him about something completely different.
A year later, I got a call from Jeff who said, “Hey, we’ve been doing some talking. I’m going to be stepping aside. We both know who you are and that you’ve taken HERO to great places. Do you want to have a conversation? See if it makes sense?” That’s how it all unfolded.
Heavy Metal has a lot of history, but for many fans and to the public at large, there’s been a dormant period from its heyday which was back in the 1970’s and 80’s. For you, stepping in, what are the major areas of triage that you need to address, and what are you trying to fix now?
Awareness is what it comes down to: there’s a generation of kids who don’t know what Heavy Metal is, while there is an older generation who remembers it fondly. So, bridging our current fan base with the youth of today along with cultivating new fans is something I’m working on.
Is that the most critical element for the brand to survive?
100%. I don’t think it will be hard to fix, but I think it needs immediate attention. The spirit of Heavy Metal lives deeply in many genre fans, whether they know it or not. It’s just bringing to light how it influenced the many stories they love, that’s something we’re striving for. I don’t think it will be hard to educate people, but to make them care is our challenge. Last year we published a brand-new Stephen King story, issue 293. No one knew and there wasn’t any awareness, that’s the crucible we are dealing with.
For Heavy Metal, what can we expect under your stewardship?
I want to bring the brand to a true place of prominence with the science fiction community that it deserves to be in. More originals. HM has had a long history of finding great licensed content and bringing things over from Europe with Moebius. Under my tenure, strategy-wise, originals will be important. We want a vibe and a voice and not just licensed content, but also curated original content with amazing creators that we bring on. It’s going to be an IP company that survives on great new ideas and stories, that we hope will push the envelope.
Right now, we are trying to target the crème da le crème of science fiction and comics creators who are available. I can’t name names because nothing is fully 100% yet, and I don’t want to create a false expectation. Some of the creatives we want, may be under exclusive contracts at Marvel or DC, and we’re looking into that. But that’s as far as I can say right now.
You call Heavy Metal the greatest science fiction magazine on the market. What do you think is so compelling about it? Are you sure you aren’t being hyperbolic?
It’s always been at the bleeding edge of science fiction, both visually and in terms of story. The material has been a reference to so much across the field and within pop culture: from Alien and Blade Runner, to the animation breakthroughs with the Heavy Metal film in the 1970s and SF anthologies through today. There’s a lot of compelling history, of pushing things to an uncomfortable barrier and then going through it, and I want to continue that tradition. Pick up issues from the past and they’re beautiful and still carry an aura of fresh, fierce creativity. That can’t be faked.
Pushing things to an uncomfortable barrier in this day and age, has the possibility of offending people – does that scare you?
Doesn’t scare me. I want people to feel uncomfortable. Great storytelling pushes audiences to the limit; if people didn’t want to be uncomfortable, they wouldn’t watch horror or look beyond the veil. That’s the point of fantasy – to create something that no one ever imagined before. To make people think. The more people that are out there thinking, the better that I’ve done my job.
What do you have in store? What are you telling us that you haven’t told anyone else, yet?
More comics. More graphic novels. Being a larger publishing entity. We want to be telling stories in all media, whether it’s an Instagram story, a board game, a novel, movie, TV show – you name it. But the magazine is the stronghold. Without the magazine, Heavy Metal is nothing. I have ambitions to take the magazine from being a bimonthly publication to monthly. In my perfect world, in a four-week month, in each of the weeks we will release something new. And we will just have great content coming out all the time.
What I can also share is that we are working on a coffee table book that showcases Heavy Metal’s 40-year history, and we are focused on making it the most beautiful volume possible. That is one of the bigger projects on the slate at the moment, as well as going on the Hollywood merry-go-round of pitching and being pitched to and discerning who is really serious. There are a lot of anthologies on TV out there, and we could likely sell one – but that would be the obvious low-hanging fruit. We want to create franchises. Anthologies are great, and we love them, but we also analyzed TV series like Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt – how many were ever turned into truly great movies or anything beyond a solid episode?
What’s the next big thing slated for release that is in the can?
Issue 300. It’s going to be released this year at San Diego Comic-Con, we call it the All-Star issue. Any big name, writer, director, author – anyone who has worked on the magazine over the decades is up for grabs. We’re finalizing those now, and I’m excited about that issue. Those names are yet to be announced. We’re going to have a lot of fun with it. We are also finishing up our science fiction special, The Farthest Reaches, of which we’ve given you pages to display. There are a number of great stories featured, including one titled Philip K. Dick’s Head, written by Michael David Nelson. It’s inspired by true events. We’ve been doing themed issues, but we will be concluding that motif soon. That hasn’t been announced anywhere else yet online …
Heavy Metal, in terms of quality and popularity has had ebbs and flows over the decades. Why has there been a dormant period? Why hasn’t it been what it once was for so long? What happened?
The magazine was focused on its print business and didn’t spend nearly enough time transitioning into the digital era. Something that to my earlier point has created the awareness issues that we see today. It’s a combination of having a lot of great ideas but an unfocused plan and differing tastes, something we are working to correct now.
Do you plan to tap the science fiction writing community, or just comic creators?
Everyone on the board. I can’t not have comic illustrators do comic books, but I can have non-comic authors – I think when you take different people from different places, exciting things can happen. I want to expand to all types of writers to express themselves in the Heavy Metal vein. Again, for contractual reasons, I can’t name names yet, but we are reaching out to specific talent in the community.
For you, what’s the mark you want HM to make?
To be the Blumhouse of science fiction. That’s my internal goal. Everyone goes to Blumhouse for horror. Everyone goes to Marvel and DC for superheroes. When it comes to science fiction, fantasy, comics – that mantle is up for grabs. I want Heavy Metal to be that place. The Expanse, Dark Matter, Ascension – there’s no reason those types of series couldn’t be Heavy Metal branded shows. In ten years, if there’s a great sci-fi / fantasy series, I want it to be produced by Heavy Metal.
Ultimately, what do you personally want out of your experience in all of this?
I’m acutely aware of how precious and incredible and rare it is to be able to do what you love for a living. If I can write and cultivate great sci-fi, make a living and support my family – figure out a way to change some people’s ways of thinking through producing amazing stories, I’m happy. In other words, I want to make a dent in the pantheon.
