This is the table of contents for the 35th anniversary issue of Heavy Metal. There are four things worth noting on this page.

First, every single one of the stories in this issue are reprints. Because of this, I’m only going to publish this single page from this issue and move on to the next issue tomorrow. The fact that they were not able to come up with original material for their 35th anniversary is indicative of how screwed up the production was at the time. To be sure, there were reprint issues for anniversaries in years past, but this is on another level.

Second, as with the previous issue, a lot of the empty space in the magazine is filled with classic covers. It’s almost as if there was a breakdown in production and the only thing they could think to do was highlight how great the magazine used to be.

Third, the masthead is full of brand-new names. The most significant name that is no longer on the masthead is Howard Jurofsky, who had been with the publication in one role or another since the beginning. Sources have confirmed my personal theory – that Jurofsky’s mismanagement was responsible for Heavy Metal’s poor state of affairs at this point. And that theory was largely based on the masthead, which always tells a tale.

Fourth, this is first time that Heavy Metal offered multiple covers for a single issue. It took a while for this to become standard practice with Heavy Metal, but it’s a bad practice that artificially boosts sales by pandering to collectors who have a false idea of how valuable the variant covers are actually going to be in future years. Still, it’s worth noting where it started.

(Heavy Metal #258, May 2012 – Page 4 Table of Contents)

Addendum: I spoke to Jurofsky and he told me that he quit the magazine. The conversation I had with him convinced me that he was not responsible for the financial issues with the magazine at the time.