The editorial on the top page is John Workman’s defense of the frequent complaint that the magazine focused too much on European artists to the detriment of Americans. Workman’s basic premise is that “Yes, there are a lot of European artists, but nobody else is publishing them and they deserve exposure. Oh yeah, Richard Corben is American.” He then goes on to point out that yet another American talent – William Michael Kaluta – shows up in this issue with Starstruck. Kaluta had shown up before, but this was his first long-form work.

The page below that is from Starstruck itself. While it’s beautifully illustrated, I wouldn’t call Starstruck the most coherent piece of work I’ve ever read. Individual chapters and scenes make sense, but they don’t congeal into a composite whole very well – it’s more like a series of vignettes of varying quality. 

(Heavy Metal issue #68, November 1982 – Page 4 Above Average American by Workman & Page 13 Starstruck by Lee and Kaluta)