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As it rounds the corner toward next months milestone 300th issue, Heavy Metal magazine for decades the go-to destination for some of fans edgiest and wildest comic book rides closed ranks at Comic-Con@Home to take a look at how the seminal magazine will carry the torch in the years to come.

Coming together for a birds-eye view of the magazines place in a changing world, CEO Matthew Medney emceed an online chat with partner, publisher, and creative chief David Erwin, along with Dylan Sprouse (Sun Eater), George C. Romero (The Rise, Cold Dead War), Brendan Columbus (Savage Circus), and Dan Fogler (Fishkill, Brooklyn Gladiator, Moon Lake) all for a deep talk that veered hilariously between big-picture issues like censorship and the magazines punk-rock soul; and silly diversions (like Columbus fascination with man-eating giraffes).

First things first: everyone in the Heavy Metal family planted their flag as die-hard lovers of artistic freedom and following their creative impulses to the ends of the Earth even as the larger creative world, in Erwins word, grows more vanilla and risk-averse. Were the Ben & Jerrys, he joked, noting that his background with big-budget DC productions like Christopher Nolans Batman movies taught him the value of system-bucking artists, toiling away on far less bankable comic book ideas.

This is what I think makes Heavy Metal exciting, he explained bringing in these different personalities and taking risks and taking chances.

Not everything needs to be for everyone, Medney agreed. That idea thats kind of infected our society, that everything should be palatable for everyone, is kind of as dangerous as misinformation.

Heavy Metal was born in an era of immense social and artistic ferment, and thats exactly what Romero who said he tried for years to get his famous, zombie film-pioneering father to work with the magazine back when horror and sci-fi didnt often cross paths said he values about being a part of it.

Growing up, Romerosaid, the magazine inspired him with its willingness to go against the cultural grain and engage all kinds of artistic visions. It was an opportunity for writers to put characters into world views that everybody, kids and grown ups, could identify with, he said. By putting messaging into characters that I think we looked to almost as role models growing up, one way or another, it formed our ability as a generation to have what our parents mightve called'dangerous' thoughts

What could be more dangerous than ravenous giraffes? Everyone roasted Columbus for the insane sights that await readers of Savage Circus when HM Issue #300 arrives next month. But Columbus confessed he wasnt trying to challenge prevailing values when he came up with the idea nope; he simply wanted to have a comic where crazy, zany stuff would be the rule, rather than the exception.

I wanted to see people get torn apart by animals, he joked. Thats the why. When I opened a comic book as a kid, it was to see the things [adults didnt want you to see] so I made Savage Circus a throwback to sort of the emotional stories of the 80s for fans of all the hard-edged violence and pulpy humor the eras creators playfully engaged.

Fogler said thats the idea he was going for with Moon Lake, the Hitchcock on acid 2010 graphic novel anthology that put the current Walking Dead star on comic book fans radar. Moon Lake is an homage to everything I was not supposed to see as a kid; everything I stayed up late to watch, he said, adding that Heavy Metals 300th issue marks an important testimony to the unfettered artistic spirit.

History is repeating itself man; it feels like the 60s all over again, and Heavy Metal was birthed out of that, he reflected. What a perfect voice. [The magazine] is not going to censor us and theres so much censoring going on right now.

Featuring an English-language debut of a Moebius short story, with work from Medney, Erwin, Sprouse, Columbus, Richard Corben, Liberatore, Vaughan Bode, Stephanie Phillips, Justin Jordan, Blake Northcott, and more, Issue #300 of Heavy Metal is set to arrive on Aug. 19.

Click here for SYFY WIRE's full coverage of Comic-Con@Home 2020.

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Zombies, censorship, & killer giraffes: Heavy Metal reflects on making it to issue #300 - SYFY WIRE