Revamped ‘Heavy Metal’ Plans Hardcover Releases of Monthly Issues
Relaunched under the direction of celebrated comics writer Grant Morrison, Heavy Metal, the legendary science-fiction and fantasy comics magazine, plans to release each monthly periodical issue as a limited edition hardcover over the next year.
Beginning in May with a 140-page issue that will feature three variant covers, Heavy Metal will release each monthly periodical issue as limited edition hardcover. The first hardcover edition will be released in the bookstore and the comics shop market in June.
The hardcovers are intended to be collectibles and will not go back to press when the edition sells out. Distribution to the bookstore market will be by Diamond Book Distributors.
Grant Morrison, the acclaimed comics writer known for his work on Batman, All-Star Superman, The Multiversity and many other comics series, was named editor-in-chief of Heavy Metal last summer. He will oversee Heavy Metal’s editorial direction for the next 12 months.
The initial issue of the revamped Heavy Metal will feature “Beachhead”, a story by Morrison, drawn by Benjamin Marra, in addition to six other comics stories. Comics will include "Julia and Roem" by comics master Enki Bilal, and "Lepidoteran" by Emilio Balcarce and Gaston Vivanco.
Heavy Metal publisher Kevin Eastman, who bought the magazine in 1990, said he bought his first issue of Heavy Metal in 1977 and “has been a hardcore fan ever since.” Eastman said with the appointment of Morrison as editor-in-chief and with the new hardcover program, “we are about to go where the magazine has never gone before.”
“We have been expanding and seeing sales increase. Much of this is because Heavy Metal has always been a collectible, prestige publication,” said Heavy Metal Co-CEO Jeff Krelitz. “With the new hardcover program, we're offering both collectors and retailers a format befitting of the content. Our issues are a one time print only. Meaning that the hardcover editions, like the softcover periodical, is an instant collectible,” he said
