Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Grant Morrison has been named Editor-In-Chief of the long-running comics magazine Heavy Metal. Morrison's tenure on the book begins with Heavy Metal's February 2016 issue, with the acclaimed writer aiming to "revamp" some of the magazine's properties and "curate" the stories appearing in the bi-monthly magazine.

“We’re trying to bring back some of that ’70s punk energy of Heavy Metal, but update it and make it new again,” said Morrison. “One of the things I like to do in my job is revamp properties and really get into the aesthetic of something, dig into the roots of what makes it work, then tinker with the engine and play around with it. So for me, it’s an aesthetic thing first and foremost. The idea of immersing myself in the aesthetic of Heavy Metal is exciting. It’s going to change the clothes I wear, the way I create; it’s like a performance for me. Beyond that, just the idea of being able to curate stories, decide the direction of the magazine, and work with great talent and develop new talent is an exciting opportunity.”

Heavy Metal is a long-running comics magazine dating back to 1977, where it was created as a companion to Europe's popular Metal Hurlant comics magazine. For a time, the company was owned by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman, although he sold his interest in 2014 but remained on-board as Publisher. In addition to editing, Morrison will also be contributing prose material and comics, although the artists are not named.

EW states that Heavy Metal will be Morrison's "primary focus" for "at least a year or two," with Morrison himself stating that he wants "to give my attention over to making something that's unique and provactive, a bit more scary for people and challenging."

...... it seemed like a lot of dense stories built around gratuitous nudity for no other purpose.

This was what I liked about it.

Yeah, the big ol' dong he gave Den was absolutely ridiculous, swinging around during fight scenes.

It looks relatively tame there, but sometimes he drew it as if it was a foot long.

And it’s wrong to say I was even a fan really…we saw them as rivals. And there was no way they were really rivals, they had these fantastic artists from all over Europe, as we were little kids starting out, so of course we weren’t rivals, but they were kind of to us. But I was very aware of Heavy Metal, I loved the artwork, I loved Moebius, but I was never into the stories as much. And I got into Heavy Metal when Richard Corben started doing it and Neverwhere, and I loved his work, so I started buying the magazine for that. But somewhere in the ’80s I kind of dropped out, because it seemed all a little too much Sunset Strip/porno/Motley Crue for me at that point, and I was a punk kid, and that was just not my thing. So I kind of faded away from it around that time, and I was writing my own comics at that point too.

It’s finished now and it’ll be coming out soon. I sat down and I thought, “I don’t want to do this warrior woman thing.” I can understand why they’re doing it, I get all that, but that’s not what [Wonder Woman creator] William Marston wanted, that’s not what he wanted at all! His original concept for Wonder Woman was an answer to comics that he thought were filled with images of blood-curdling masculinity, and you see the latest shots of Gal Gadot in the costume, and it’s all sword and shield and her snarling at the camera. Marston’s Diana was a doctor, a healer, a scientist. So I went back to those roots and just built it up again.

What would a society of immortal women that’s been around for 7,000 years have done? They wouldn’t still be chopping men’s head’s off; they’ve got art and architecture and philosophy and poetry and it’s got nothing to do with men. So Yanick Paquette did this amazing design job, where there are no phallic objects. The only phallic objects are like these Greek towers that are almost like this haunting echo of the culture they came from.

Wonder Woman’s Invisible Plane is now shaped like a vagina, it’s the most incredible thing. It opens up in the back and it has a little clitoris hood, everything is a female-based design. It’s all based on shells and natural stuff. He’s created this entire newly designed world for the Amazons. And for the first 48 pages, there are no men — it’s just women talking to each other. And then halfway through the book, we’re building up to this big fight, and then I thought, “No, I’m not.” This book isn’t about fights, there’s not going to be any fights. So we threw out the rules of traditional boy’s adventure fiction. It’s the most exciting book I’ve done in years, it changed everything I’m thinking about the future.

I don’t want to do this warrior woman thing.” I can understand why they’re doing it, I get all that, but that’s not what [Wonder Woman creator] William Marston wanted, that’s not what he wanted at all! His original concept for Wonder Woman was an answer to comics that he thought were filled with images of blood-curdling masculinity, and you see the latest shots of Gal Gadot in the costume, and it’s all sword and shield and her snarling at the camera. Marston’s Diana was a doctor, a healer, a scientist.

Métal Hurlant: the French comic that changed the world

Between 1975 and 1987, the French science fiction anthology magazine Métal Hurlant (‘Screaming Metal’ in English) published the maddest, weirdest and most breathtakingly gorgeous comics the world had ever seen. A list of its contributors reads like a roll call of the industry’s finest talent: Jean (Moebius) Giraud, Philippe Druillet, Jacques Tardi, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Enki Bilal, Hugo Pratt, Jean-Claude Gal, Richard Corben and Milo Manara either made their name, consolidated their reputation or completely reinvented themselves within its pages. More than any other publication, it transformed a lowly, juvenile medium into a vibrant ‘ninth art’ and – to this day – continues to exert a powerful influence on the world of comics and beyond.

The magazine was launched in January 1975 as the flagship title of Les Humanoïdes Associés, a French publishing venture set up by Euro comic veterans Moebius, Druillet and Jean-Pierre Dionnet, together with their finance director Bernard Farkas. Influenced by both the American underground comix scene of the 1960s and the political and cultural upheavals of that decade, their goal was bold and grandiose: they were going to kick ass, take names, and make people take comics seriously.



The original Moebius-designed Humanoids logo; The Humanoids founding fathers (l-r), Farkas, Dionnet, Druillet, Moebius


With an emphasis on avant-garde storytelling and Gallic satire, Métal Hurlant was characterized by artistic innovation at every level. In the beige comics world of the 1970s – where cheap, pulpy newsprint was still the industry standard – Métal Hurlant arrived printed on ‘bedsheet’ sized, high grade paper stock, giving its illustrators the freedom to create visually stunning, often lavishly painted artwork that seemed to almost explode from the page. Robert Crumb and his underground cohorts might have influenced them, but these Humanoids were clearly not content with making do with underground production values.

It wasn’t just the look of the magazine that was different. The creators, freed from the editorial constraints of traditional comic publishers, were encouraged by editor Dionnet to take risks and push their art into new and unchartered territories. Like the underground titles before them, they didn’t shy away from adult themes, but – more often than not – these elements were shot through with a rich vein of humour and delivered with a narrative sophistication previously unseen in the medium.

This approach was typified by an artist who, more than any other, has become synonymous with Métal Hurlant. Jean Giraud (1938-2012) was a successful comic artist who, under the pen name ‘Gir’, was best known as the co-creator of the popular Western series, Blueberry. By the mid-1970s, Giraud was feeling increasingly constrained by the conventions of the western genre, so decided to revive a long-dormant pseudonym to embark on more experimental work. As ‘Moebius’, Giraud not only worked in a different genre to ‘Gir’ – a deeply personal, highly idiosyncratic form of science fiction and fantasy – but his art looked like it was drawn by a completely different person. Where Gir’s brushwork evoked the mythical Old West of John Ford movies, Moebius’s preferred tool was the pen, and with it he created entire universes that were quite unlike anything that had been seen in comics – or, for that matter, in any other medium.

Two of Moebius’s most famous and enduring characters made their debut in early issues of Métal Hurlant. Arzach was a grumpy-looking warrior who explored a strange, desolate landscape on the back of a pterodactyl-like creature in a series of ‘silent’ vignettes. Major Grubert, by contrast, was a pith-helmeted space adventurer – a sort of interstellar Allan Quatermain – whose increasingly unpredictable escapades within the asteroid-encased pocket universes he protected would collectively become known as The Airtight Garage.

Grant Morrison Talks About Running Heavy Metal, the Classic Scifi Magazine That Used to Let Him Down

Months ago, DC Comics killed the version of Superman that comics legend Grant Morrison re-introduced as a jeans-wearing, fatcat-stomping crusader. But Morrison isn’t bitter. He’s got more cool shit to make. Like a toilet that travels through time picking up cool bands before they lost their mojo.

Grant Morrison’s best known as a psychedelically creative writer, the guy behind modern-day classic runs on Superman, Batman, the X-Men, and Justice League. His original creations like We3, The Invisibles, and Nameless also just happen to be some of the most memorable comics reading for millions of comics fans. But lately he’s been steering one of the most venerable anthologies in the science-fiction/fantasy world, serving as editor-in-chief of Heavy Metal.

Next week sees the release of Heavy Metal #282, a science-fiction themed issue with contributions from Donny Cates, Enki Bilal, Morrison himself, and others. (Exclusive previews from the issue can be seen throughout this post.) I spoke to the Scottish writer this morning to talk about the next issue of Heavy Metal and he told how he does the whole editor-in-chief thing, his feelings on the death of the New 52 Superman, and why we’ll all look like Dr. Strange in the near-future.

io9: What was your interaction with Heavy Metal as a younger man?

Grant Morrison: As I’ve had to admit before, to my shame, I wasn’t a big fan of Heavy Metal at all when I was younger. I remember when it came out I was really impressed with the artwork, the Moebius stuff and [Phillip] Druillet and those guys. Although I loved the artwork, I just hated the stories. I was a real snob about stories; I kind of grew up on American comics and expected certain things to happen. So, for me, I was always kinda let down by the stories.

At the same time, I was also working on [2000 A.D.,] a kind of British version of Heavy Metal which was a lot more amateurish but still had some good stuff in there. And that was my first job in comics. So we almost felt that Heavy Metal was some kind of competition to us.

I was a little punk kid at the time and I kind of felt that Heavy metal was too hippy for me. My first interactions with it were slightly negative even though I loved the artwork. I did get into it once Richard Corben started doing his stuff in the American version. So, a slight love/hate relationship. That’s what I’m trying to tap into. And also a lot of those influences from the ‘70s, whether it’s Marvel black-and-white magazines, Warren comics, and a bunch of European books. There’s a lot of stuff that I’m trying to reach back to in order to get an aesthetic or a flavor.

You’ve been editing Heavy Metal for a few months now. What are the differences between putting your own vision on the page and helping others execute it? What’s the process of Grant Morrison being an editor of something?

Morrison: Basically we get a lot of submissions and my wife Kristan and I go through them. She’s been pretty intrinsic to all this as well, because I wanted to have a woman’s voice in the magazine that was strong and bold and exciting. We split a bottle of champagne, look through the submissions, and decide which ones we like. At the same time, I’m also bringing in artists like Benjamin Marra and people I’ve wanted to work with, along with discovering new people from the submissions pile. The whole thing’s all actually quite fun and usually just an afternoon’s drinking.

Many fans have experienced your creativity in mainstream superhero universes, which allowed you to experiment with what you characterized as living, evolving histories, and continuities. Is the soil rich enough with Heavy Metal for you to do the same?

Morrison: It’s very different, in the sense that Heavy Metal’s not really a universe in the same way that Marvel and DC are universes, y’know? With certain rules and certain characters that recur. Unlike the Marvel or DC Universe where the company controls the characters, at Heavy Metal, the artists control the characters. And it’s not one overarching umbrella of a universe so, no, it doesn’t have the same sensation of “you’re actually interacting with a syncretic entity” like Marvel or DC does.

But what I love about Heavy Metal is the showcase quality of it, that you can only get in anthologies. It has its own aesthetic and its own distinct feel but, at the same time, you can get a lot of different appeal in there. I’m loving being able to write different kinds of stories—science fiction one, funny ones, horror ones—which has been quite a peak of creativity for me after dealing with specific cultural icons like Superman and Batman.

The Industria story you wrote for issue #282, drawn by Rian Hughes, feels particularly unfettered. You’re known for throwing ideas out there fast and hard but this felt like triple the speed and triple the density. Where did that come from?

I’ve been trying to do different types of stories in each issue and this was the scifi issue and I wanted to do something a little different. The notion I had was that it’d be really fun to do a science fiction comic book version of the Kardashians, like those reality shows on E!. Because my own life just involves string behind a desk and writing, there’s not much going on. But my wife Kristan has been involved in a bunch of music festivals and having a busy time. I thought wouldn’t it be fun if I took her life and then used as the basis for a super-reality show?

I took everything about her life and dialed it all up—the cats, the friends, and the festivals she was involved in—and threw in these scifi touches and elements. It’s quite an interesting story in that it’s based on somebody’s real life but really distorted through a bizarre, pop bubblegum science fiction lens. It’s also about the Discordian goddess of chaos Eris; that’s why Industria’s got red hair and the apple with the key on it. There’s a lot of subtext in there about Batavian mythology and Discordianism and the stuff I’m usually interested in. Rian and I tried to pack all this material into a fast, pop, cartoonish story which at the same time has depth because it’s based on someone’s real life.

How do the artist galleries come about in each issue?

Morrison: Well, for the first issue that I did, we had material from my friend Tom McElvain’s gallery, The Century Guild. There were a lot of paintings there from Gail Potocki, who’s this brilliant modern symbolist painter. She did the painting of me that was in [Heavy Metal #280].

So, in the case, it was a friend who’s sort of the king of the Los Angeles alternative art scene. Otherwise, it’s contacts from the different editors or [company co-CEO] Jeff Krelitz himself. He checks out a bunch of galleries all around the country, finds things and we feature them. We’re also reaching out to artists to provide their own personal galleries of whatever they want us to showcase.

I haven’t read Heavy Metal in a long time but I was struck by how intellectually chewy some of the stories in this issue were. “Gavrilo C-914” by Pahek was really fun and great in how it looked at how socioeconomic class conflict gets turned into a perverse sort of entertainment…

Morrison: And along with that it hits on Eastern European politics and the violence in the Balkans. I love that art style because it’s kind of every great 2000 A.D. artist mashed into one, like Kevin O’Neill meets Mick McMahon. I thought it was a great piece of work.

You’ve done great work yourself, including the relaunch of Superman and Action Comics for the New 52 five years ago. DC Comics just killed your Superman, though, and I wanted to see if you had any reaction to that whatsoever.

Morrison: It’s sad to see him go, y’know? I liked that version of the character but this happens all the time; you just have to expect it. Someone who will come along—in 20, 10, five years time or however long it takes—who grew up on that and will bring that [Superman] back and that will be part of the next big event. “The New 52 Returns to Fight the Old 52” or whatever. Once you’ve created things and put them out there, they have a life of their own anyway. It’s part of the inevitable way the comics run. Particularly now with all the event-driven storylines and constant renewals of universes every couple of years, it’s only to be expected. I thought he was pretty cool. I liked that version of the character. I enjoyed writing him.

The thing that I’ll always love about that version of the character is the singing spaceship. Something about that is so emotional and true… I love it.

Morrison: Well, thank you.

I know Gerard Way is sort of a disciple/acolyte/friend of yours. How does it feel to see DC giving him his own room to play in with his Young Animal pop-up imprint, including some of the comics series you used to work on?

Morrison: I think it’s great. He’s a fountain of ideas, Gerard is. He’s got so, so much going on. We did speak about it. He actually came to me and asked for my blessing to do Doom Patrol. [laughs] I said you don’t need my blessing. Doom Patrol’s out there; it’s open to anyone. I know he loves the characters and it’s great to see someone who cares about it coming in to do it. And also, because he brings a ready-made audience, it means that he can take a few more chances and do things that are a bit more experimental. I think it’s great and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all works out.

You’re working on Brave New World for SyFy. So much of what’s in that novel has faded into the background as stuff we take for granted insofar as how we imagine science fiction or fiction that comments on the world. How can you make that feel fresh again?

Morrison: I have to invoke NDA [laughs] because at this point, if I told you how we were making it fresh, it wouldn’t be good for me. But, for Bryan Taylor and I, that was the problem we had to solve. Now we actually live in a world where people use narcotics freely to change their states. We’re caught up by all kinds of entertainment media almost like the Feelies in the book. We’re ruled by a benevolent dictatorship that’s gently guiding us by conditioning and adverts and programming to be the way they want us to be, which is pretty docile.

So it’s close. The fact that we’re moving into the era of virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality moves us even closer to [the reality of Brave New World]. Those are the things had to think about. We came up with a peg that everyone liked because we actually did find a new way to present all that material and to re-think it and to keep it as contemporary. [Aldous Huxley] wrote the book in 1932 but he was talking about the now where we live. We’re using that as satirical mileage, the fact that we practically live in the Brave New World.

You mentioned VR. Have you messed with any VR at all? For a guy with your proclivities, I imagine it must be pretty interesting. Have you touched anything cool?

Morrison: Yeah, I’ve been a consultant with Magic Leap. They’re way ahead of the curve with the augmented reality stuff. They’re working with Disney and Industrial Light & Magic. I’ve actually been sort of friendly with them and the boss Rony Abovitz for a good two years now. I knew what was coming and I knew it was gonna be cool. We’re working on material for them and they’re still in development but the take they’ve got on this is so far in advance of everyone. Their technology is completely new; it doesn’t rely on stereoscopic projection. It’s quite mind-boggling. To me, it’s not just the next big thing. It’s an advancement for human/machine fusion. It’s going to be very unusual.

As someone who’s covered video games and technology before, the stuff that they’re showing, it’s so hard to believe it’s real. It looks insane.

Morrison: It is. It’s quite astonishing. But it’s the way that it affects the mind that I find very interesting. You see virtual objects but, if you put your hand out, your hand goes behind the object. Your brain is fooled.

Beyond that, it’s going to be how everyone will interact. Everyone with an endless amount of information projected onto their world. We’ll be playing games, have sprites who can send e-mails and little dragons on our shoulders. Everyone will be walking down the street tapping at haptic keyboards in five years time; we’ll all look like Dr. Strange! It’s going to be quite fascinating. I think it’ll be a real revolution in the way people think and behave. Socially, I’m very excited about it.