Warning: Heavy Metal is for mature readers
Issue: September 2001 (Heavy Metal doesn't go by numbers.)

Cover: A great painting (as always) of a biomechanical angel (as modeled by Stacy E. Walker), and drawn by Alex Horley.

Contents: Before the book gets rolling is the traditional editor's page by Kevin Eastman (yes, the Ninja Turtle guy), and it's full of his usual, but straight forward, guy sitting next to you at a bar kind of dialogue.
The next feature as always is the gallery page. While traditionally it's a place to show off the talents of artists, this one featured one of the most popular artists models, Stacy E. Walker (yes the cover girl). It is full of art by such well known artists as The Hildebrandts (Star Wars), and Boris Vallejo (Heavy Metal, and many fantasy books, mags, cards, and such). It also has several photos, and interviews with artists.

The Gallery is followed by Dossier, which is part interview/part retrospective of the works of Michael Kaluta. It's interesting but unless you are a big fan it's too long.

Following Dossier is Galactic Geographic, one of my favorite features. It actually looks like a section of National Geographic. This feature deals with humans interacting with aliens. It is all text, but for one main picture. It is written by Karl Kofoed.

Next up is Dusk. This story is about a drunk at a party. Actually the reactions of others to him is nothing spectacular, but it's fun none the less. The art is very dark and it's excellent for this story by Andreas and Bezian, but the word balloons are hard to follow.

A pair of one page gags called "How do men choose a partner" and "How do women choose a partner" by Goupil and Walter. It is all sexist humor (stereo typical man in How do men, and stereotypical woman in How do women...). Even as basic as it is it still gets some good belly laughs. The art is very cartoonish, and works perfectly.

Now we come to the big one. Every Heavy Metal issue has a longer story split up in two parts (kind of like a movie that has an intermission, it picks up again at the the end of the book). This one brings back one of my favorite characters to the pages of Heavy Metal in "Gypsy: Black Eyes". Gypsy (who was a gypsy as a child... hence the name) is a futuristic trucker (his rig and other rigs in this time are like a house, with the trailers being ungodly huge, it's actually like a thirty-six wheeler), who travels the world picking up loads and tries to sell them off else where. All the continents are connected by giant highway systems. In this issue, he picks up his cousin who's car has broken down. He decides to help him deliver the refrigerator he was carrying in his trunk to Berlin. Along the way they pick up a girl who was paralyzed at a rock concert, and collide with rabid soccer fans and the Russian Mafia. All in all another unbelievable job by Marini and Smolderen.

The "intermission" kicks off with "Fistful of Blood" written by Kevin Eastman (yes the TMNT guy again), and drawn by the one, the only... Simon Bisley (Lobo, TMNT, Judge Dredd, $h!t the Dog, Verotica, and story board art for movies). This is the first part of a serial done entirely in Simon's pencils about supernatural gunfights in the old west. It looks good as long as they take a good direction with it.

Fistful leads into "Pissy Little Bitch" by G. Borile and Baurlot. This is a confusing little story that I don't think translated well from the original language (probably French). It is about a woman who as a young girl vowed revenge on her sister's abusive ex, but now seems to be a "black widow". I didn't get it. The art is very "film noir" and the artist has a strange way of shading.

Now we come to the Silent Strip that is Ballerina. I don't know how to put it, but each time I read this b&w marvel I put a new story to it, and it's still entertaining. Carlos Trillo and Domingo Mandrafina have really put something fun out there.

Intermission closes with the serial "Choose Your Game" by Juan Gimenez. First off Juan's art is phenominal every time I see it and I always love reading the "Game" stories. There is too much back story, and while most are self contained, this is part one of two. The story is set in the desert in a quest to find answers in a tomb.
Then we return to Gypsy for the conclusion.

Overall: A great issue! Just the perfect blend of everything that makes Heavy Metal Heavy Metal. With a price tag of $5.95 US ($6.95 Can) and 128 pages you really can't go wrong.

Rating: A solid 8 out of ten, maybe slightly higher (8.435678943312687899....)