Today’s episode is an epic lovefest for two of the greatest science fantasy magazines ever published: Epic Illustrated and Heavy Metal. 

Like an entire generation of readers, Dwight and Swain became huge fans of Epic and ‘Métal Hurlant’ back in the mid 80s. The most revered science fiction, fantasy and comic book storytellers of all time were featured in their hallowed pages: Moebius, Michael Moorcock, Jim Starlin, Wendy Pini, Boris Vallejo, Luis Royo, Jon J. Muth, Richard Corben, Jo Duffy, Enki Bilal, Marie Severin, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, H.R. Giger, Simon Bisley, Pepe Moreno, Harlan Ellison, the Hildebrandt Brothers and many, many more.

In the conversation, Dwight and Swain give their first impressions of the magazines, namecheck their favorite artists from that era, and of course, discuss the 1981 ‘Heavy Metal’ movie as well as a one-time rumored David Fincher/James Cameron produced sequel.

The hosts of Sidebar Forever are of the opinion that Epic Illustrated and Heavy Metal closed the gap between amazing book cover paintings and amazing comic book art. They were tastemakers and showed the world what great fantasy stories could, and should be. 

By the way, four decades later, Heavy Metal magazine is still being published. 

As always, thanks for listening to the podcast. For more episodes of the show, visit us at sidebarforever.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

SIDEBAR FOREVER ©2020 Dwight Clark, Swain Hunt and Adrian Johnson