Heavy Metal Magazine has been sold for several million dollars to music industry vet David Boxembaum and producer Jeff Krelitz, Variety reports. The duo will relaunch the magazine as a digital quarterly and revive the brand as an umbrella for film,TV and music projects.
Heavy Metal magazine started in the trippy seventies as a US offshoot of the famed French comics magazine Metal Hurlant—it featured mind bending, hazy SF comics by Moebius, Bilal and more and led to the trippy, mind bending animated anthology film. Flush with Turtles money, fan Kevin Eastman brought it in the 90s, and tried to revive a new Heavy Metal movie over the past decade or so, but the trppiy seventies had given way to the aggro crank fueled 21st century, and the project has languished.
Krelitz (l.) and Boxenbaum (r.) aim to change that. Eastman will remain a minority investor in and publisher of the magazine, but the new duo is moving forward with many projects:
Krelitz is overseeing Heavy Metal’s film, TV, IP and global publishing initiatives in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and already has brought in his TV shows “Red Brick Road,” a “Game of Thrones”-style take on “The Wizard of Oz,” that’s set up at Warner Horizon with Roy Lee, Adrian Askarieh and Mark Wolper; the Peter Pan-inspired “Peter Panzerfaust,” an adaptation of the Image comic that BBC Worldwide is developing with Elijah Wood; and a version of another Image book, “Chew,” as a direct-to-video animated film and live action series.
The new owners hope to review the Heavy Metal brand—in ALL its uses—and set it up as a new creative lab.
Krelitz and Boxenbaum said they want to continue to give writers, especially those working in the comicbook biz, voices through the publication, that will be revamped as both a print and online quarterly. But stories they tell could also be developed into projects for other entertainment platforms the way Krelitz has done through his Quality Transmedia banner. Krelitz also founded Contraband Films, which set up TV shows and films at Universal and New Line and published graphic novels. His Double Barrel Motion Labs also has helped studios and publishers re-purpose marketing materials for the mobile biz.
Developing…
I think by “a US offshoot of the famed French comics magazine that featured mind bending, hazy SF comics by Moebius” you meant Métal Hurlant, not Fluide Glacial.
“aggro crank”???
Glad there will still be print editions, I’m a dinosaur.
Is there any reason to hope that they might collect the first 5 or so years?
I am not sure if they actually own those stories anymore.
I doubt that HM *ever* owned much of the material it published in its first five years because a large fraction of it was published in Europe prior to appearing in print in the U.S. magazine.
There was talk at one time of a DVD-ROM collection of the complete HM contents, but rights issues were apparently insurmountable.
i always thought Heavy Metal was cancelled until i saw it once at a subway newsstand when i was going to SVA. only issue i ever bought. it was so-so and kind of dated aesthetically to me.
I doubt that HM *ever* owned much of the material it published in its first five years because…
>>
@George Bush (not that one) & comicsatemybrain:
I’m under the impression that HM never owned any of the stuff they published. Otherwise: From what I remember of Eastman interviews: The aborted CD-rom reprints were scheduled because Eastman/HM’s lawyers decided that their “one time pub right” contract could be claimed to somehow include digital above and beyond print but HM later backed away from the project after they perceived (whatever the legals) they were about to infuriate a lot of former Heavy Metal creators who saw it differently.
I adored HM in the pre-Eastman days. It seemed “phoned in” after that, I kept collecting in hopes it would improve, but for the past 5 years I haven’t bothered except an occasional, for on a plane trip or something.
I look forward to the reboot, hopefully they will rebuild it proudly. Sounds like they have a lot of energy to put into it.
Ive only flipped through the occasional issue as a teenager, but I’m pretty sure Heavy Metal has never been good during my life time.
The reprints I’ve seen of the old stuff were amazing.
Yes, I should have said rented the reprint rights instead of owned. I have been buying it again lately for an Enki Bilal story but if that was the only story you would want, it would be a dollar a page.Hope they can return it to its glory days.
Their editor Dan Berger, and Kevin Eastman are smug, and disgraceful. I sent them 4 completely original, finished stories. All 4 were sexy, funny, beautiful, and wild. They didn’t give a $#!*. They don’t honor the real spirit of the mag.They only want photo-thieving softcore CGI bs. PLEASE DO LOOK AT FLICKR JOEL CLAUNCH (the 4 stories are in albums) Tell me they’re not TRUE Heavy Metal material. I still want to see them printed if you have info. or please leave a comment. THANK YOU TRUE HEAVY METAL FANS!!!
WILD BADASS STORIES! ! ! FLICKR JOEL CLAUNCH. ALBUMS! ! !
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