This is one of the most interesting issues that Heavy Metal has put out since I started reading. From the credits, it looks like a pair of guest editors took a deep dive into Deviant Art and pulled out an entire issue’s worth of material. Every one of the stories printed here has a vague ending that could absolutely be turned into an ongoing series, but very few of them are very good. There are a LOT of pin ups throughout the issue.

One of the things that Eastman was very good at during this period was providing a platform for promoting up-and-coming artists and this issue is pretty much the purest expression of that impulse.

It’s also interesting that this kind of thing showed up just as Heavy Metal was starting to have production issues. There was no Fall 2011 issue – in fact, Summer 2011 was the last seasonal special ever – but this table of contents looks like it would have fit perfectly as the Fall special issue.

(Heavy Metal #255, September 2011 – Page 5 Table of Contents)