So, I finally picked up the relaunched Heavy Metal magazine, I felt compelled too, as this magazine was part of my youth.

The third (or is that fourth) relaunch of Heavy Metal this time powered by Kickstarter, and was on the store shelves long before the book was in the hands of the Kickstarter backers. Which to my mind is a huge disrespect to the Backers, who have helped you fund a project, that in Heavy Metal’s case, should have really stayed dead.

Yep, those ending words of the above paragraph sum up my thoughts on this magazine, that really is throwback to the 80’s and suffers because it utterly fails to move on.

It just isn’t good, the storytelling is inconsistent, with one entire story that looks like it was drawn by tracing porn actresses and static dolls, and is utterly terrible. The lettering goes from really good, to distracting, to looking like it was put together using a free version of a comic book creator program.

I found nothing compelling about the magazine, while Heavy Metal was once consider a bastion of expressive illustration, and a showcase of talents like Moebius, this new evolution of Heavy Metal all felt a little boring, like it was all taking itself too seriously and forgot to have fun with itself.

The T&A was really off the charts, and I am far from a prude,in a way the magazine reminded me, why back in the day, Heavy Metal was considered more of an acceptable spank mag to carry around school. Especially if you couldn’t find your porn in the woods – which was also back in the day a fairly common thing (ask any Gen X). If you got caught with Heavy Metal by a teacher, you could at least say, I buy the magazine for the art, like buying Playboy for the articles.

That being said, there are some nice pieces in this book and a few of the stories were intriguing, and put together by storytellers who were doing their upmost to tell a story and not just hang a pair of boobs in every other panel.

There is an audience for this type of book, I just don’t know if there is enough of one to keep it going. The Kickstarter lent heavily on nostalgia and the legend of the Heavy Metal name, so gained success. But now it is out in the wild as it stands I don’t know if it will be a success, there is just nothing about it that makes me want to pick up the next Heavy Metal magazine. Although I will happily be proved wrong.

Have I got to old for this type of book? I really don’t know the answer to that. The magazine that I remember was a fun ride, not a slog to read. If Heavy Metal intends to cruise of nostalgia, then I should be the core audience for it. But… I just found it irritating, poorly laid out and halfway through I just wished the magazine was just left in its crypt.

That is it, that is my Ted Talk.

Remember this is just my opinion and your mileage may vary.