Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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The kind where I have nothing to write about and, thus, unleash, once more, into the wild, the excitingest feature on the internet, by decreeing the first person to comment below will set the starting point for the day's discussion.
That starting point may involve sport, art, films, music, myth, magic, mystery, sofas, mystery sofas, sausages, Scotch eggs, soda, pancakes, sci-fi, horror or sandcastles.
It may involve something else completely.
It may involve something not else completely.
Only you can decide...
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18 comments:
How about All Things HEAVY METAL? Including the original sources (PILOTE, METAL HURLANT etc) and all the knock-offs (EPIC, ECLIPSE, 1984 / 1994, etc) and that crazy-ass animated movie.
How big was it in the UK? It was incredibly popular in the States, had a huge impact on the comics scene. Still being published today (tho I can’t remember the last time I bought an issue)…
b.t.
Darn! Beat to the punch! Was hoping to talk about preferred choice of meat pies by our UK folks!
Thanks for the topic, bt. Tragically, I know almost nothing of Heavy Metal but I'm sure others will have more to say on the subject than I can.
Don't worry, Charlie, we can discuss meat pies as well. Heavy Metal and meat pies, they go together perfectly.
Given the notoriously poor distribution of any American comics / magazines in the UK, I somehow managed to find a few issues of Heavy Metal around 1979 / 80 / 81. For the teenaged me it was heady and almost dangerous stuff, introducing me to the likes of Moebius, Bilal, Druillet, Corben, Caza etc etc. Here was a whole new world of fantastically-illustrated fantasy, science fiction, graphic violence and, of course, naked women. I obviously thought it was the best thing ever. I even picked up an issue of Metal Hurlant ( God knows where from ) and took it to school to show to the class in a French lesson. Luckily I had a very broad-minded teacher :-)
Anyway, about those meat pies...
There was the British pie championship only last week Simon...
In the olden days they used to sell those French magazines and books at Dark They Were And Golden Eyed and Forbidden Planet, back before the English language - ie American - direct market grew large enough to fill the racks and they could stop bothering with anything weird and foreign (and people were surprised the Brits voted for Brexit).
Maybe thats how you got an issue of Metal Hurlant?
I picked up a few - c'est formidable - and books like Exterminateur 17 and various Blueberrys got me through my French o-level.
Completely agree with you about Heavy Metal.
I tended to prefer it to Hurlant because they didn't bother with the more cartoony stuff. Some of which looked ok, but... French humour - ouf!
I've been buying old HMs here and there for some time now if I see them for a reasonable price, and apart from #s 1 & 2 I've got the first seven years worth (it went off the boil around 83/84 imo). Sure, theres some dated stuff in most issues... but they also generally - almost always actually - feature classic work by Moebius and Richard Corben, and then theres that early 80s period when Kaluta and Wrightson turned up regularly.
And they reprinted the adventures of the greatest comic character ever, Ranxerox.
-sean
Never really got into "Heavy Metal", but I did pick up several issues of Epic and 1984. Kind of odd that I didn't get more, as I'm pretty fond of anthologies. What sticks most to my memory is Jim Starlin's "Metamorphosis Odyssey ".
I had a college buddy who was a big "Heavy Metal " buff; we did go see the movie one night. Unfortunately the film didn't impress my memory any more than the magazines...
Crap, did I say ‘Heavy Metal’? Because I meant to say ‘Meat Pies’. I’ve heard that Mrs. Lovett’s are the WORST…
b.t.
How interesting! Heavy metal (the comic/magazines) was unknown to me. Charlie - Probably the leading meat pie's steak & kidney (although individual preferences vary - steak & ale, steak & onion, etc.) Pork pies are more of a light snack.
Phillip
For Fathers Day, my youngest likes to head for the nearest pound shop and buy me a big stash of chocolate and snacks and stuff. I'm only telling y'all this here because if he finds a Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie in a tin, he'll include one of those. Get the oven to just the right temperature and put the tin in just the right place and you can get a two or three inch tall puff pastry crust.
Dangermash - I think Fray Bentos pies are a genius concept (for an end of the world scenario/ survivalists/panic room) - a pie that keeps for months, without being frozen. However, out of all my tin openers, only one has the chops to cope with a Fray Bentos tin - they are seriously hard core. Also, the pies are swimming in liquid fat!
Phillip
Dangermash - That being said, I must admit that when the pastry 'pops up', it's a very dramatic moment!
Phillip
I wasn't a big fan of Heavy Metal magazine or to be honest any of the so called "adult" material magazines which at the end of the day were pretty much teenage boy mags. Saying that HM did print some nice stuff like Corbens Bloodstar and various Vaughn Bode strips as well the wonderful Bernie Wrightson Captain Sternn strip. Epic looked nice but for me never quite got the mix right. Best pies have to be Melton Mowbery pork pie, Lancaster meat and potato pie or a nice traditional Scotch Pie !
HM definitely leaned into the ‘Tits and Swords and Rayguns For Adolescent Stoner Boys’ thing (which aspect, if I’m 100% honest, I did enjoy) but there was some terrific stuff in there — Moebius, Druillet, Nicollet, Corben, etc. A bit into the run, some beautiful fully painted stories by Howard Chaykin, Fernando Fernandez and Gray Morrow, Steranko’s slick adaptation of OUTLAND etc etc.
I was a 21-year-old Stoner Boy when I saw the HM movie at the Hollywood Cinerama Dome, and even while blazed on some great weed, I thought it was rubbish.
Haven’t had much experience with meat pies. Mexican empanadas are somewhat like mini meat-pies, I reckon, and have had them on occasion. Probably nothing like the ones you lot are talking about.
b.t.
I was in Tesco this morning intending to buy a 'Peter's' steak & kidney pie but the shelf was empty. I'm now starting to notice the gaps on supermarket shelves caused by the shortage of lorry drivers I assume.
Its the will of the people Colin.
The thing about Heavy Metal and those magazines is that they were mainstream newsstand publications, an attempt to reach a broad audience for comics.
So they necessarily had a mix of material, and personally if it meant I could read, say, Druillet's Salammbo in HM I was willing to put up with Zora & The Hibernauts (Fernandez was a skilled artist b.t., but come on...).
Mind you, I used to read Warren's 1984/94 mag, so what do I know?
Well, one thing I know is that there needs to be a book collecting all the 1984 stories drawn by the phenomenal Alex Nino. They really let him loose in that mag, which made up for some of its, shall we say shortcomings?
-sean
Sean - Learning French from Sword & Sorcery comics sounds more interesting than translating dull old 'Whitmarsh', for 'O'-level !
Phillip
Did we all take O-Level French? I did (and A-Level too).
I did O-Level French, Colin. Not that it left me able to speak French.
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