Matena has been doing these little fables based on celebrities for a while. They’re very referential and often absurdist. This is probably one of the worst I’ve seen in a while. The subject here is James Dean. He starts as a nerdy do-gooder and converts to being a bad boy. Simple, straightforward plot.

The problem is how he gets from point to point during that character arc. In this scene, he rescues a woman who is being raped on the street by a gang of toughs. When he chases them off, she explains that she likes being raped (!) because she’s a nymphomaniac. Oof.

Later on in the story, the hero shows off how much of a bad boy he is by raping a teenage boy that turns out to be a girl in drag. Yikes.

Heavy Metal has never shied away from depicting rape in the past, but this one-two shot was particularly egregious.

(Heavy Metal issue #82, January 1984 – Page 35 Rebel With a Cause by Matena)