Starting in January of 2006, the pagination of Heavy Metal changed in a subtle but significant way. From the first issue in 1977 through 2005, Heavy Metal had always counted their pages from the first page opposite the inside front cover. However, as of the table of contents in the January 2006 issue, the magazine started counting their pages from the cover.

If you want a stark demonstration of this, pick up the November 2005 issue and the January 2006 issue and compare the respective tables of contents. The very first feature in both issues is Galactic Geographic by Karl Kofoed and both appear on exactly the same page relative to the table of contents. However, the November 2005 issue shows that feature on page 6 and the January 2006 issue shows that feature on page 8.

To be honest, this is really only the kind of thing that a long-time dedicated archivist would notice or pay attention to. In fact, I didn’t even notice the change until the September 2006 issue, when it caused me some significant confusion.

This approach to pagination persists until the May 2012 issue – the last issue that bears the month/year schema. It’s interesting to note that when Heavy Metal reboots to a strict issue numbering schema later in 2012, it reverts to its original pagination methodology.

It would be easy to speculate as to why the pagination methodology changed in 2006 and why it changed back in 2012, but there are no clear answers. Was this an attempt to increase the page count? Was this just a case of a new layout application that counted from the wrong point and wasn’t discovered until 2012? Who can say?