The remarks from the editor indicate that Aull is a Vaughn Bode disciple. It also mentions that this story was not considered appropriate. I am not at all surprised. The woman in the bottom left panel was gang-raped (on panel) and her husband was killed for defending her. The perpetrators went on to get in a gunfight with a random bunch of people. Everyone was killed except the guy in the sleeping bag. He has a rifle because the woman he raped was going to kill him with a rock, except she thought better of it. He was lining up the shot when this surprise ending came around. So yes, the torture in the last panel is graphic, but it should be obvious that he deserved what he got – even if it was administered by sadistic opportunists who had no knowledge of his misdeeds. They’re just having fun.

The story is called Evolution and it’s probably meant to be some kind of parable about man’s inhumanity to man. Oh, and it’s post-apocalyptic (I think Heavy Metal had a quota).

Artistically, there really aren’t a lot of panels on the page, so there’s a lot of decompressed story with lots of space for the images of graphic violence to really spread out. I see that a lot with mini-comics (few panels, not necessarily lots of graphic violence) and I wonder if he was drawing directly onto 8.5 x 11 paper.

(Heavy Metal issue #15, June 1978 – Page 73 Evolution by Aull)