Heavy Metal: A magazine in transition

Features

Roy Rhodes | June 9, 2026

The cover date of the first issue of Heavy Metal magazine was April 1977, which means the magazine just celebrated its 49th birthday. Like any publication pushing 50, Heavy Metal has had its fair share of ups and downs, especially in the past decade. Specifically, it weathered the storms of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated global paper shortage, only to have its management team turn over at the end of 2022.

Cover to the first issue of the Heavy Metal reboot.

CEO Matthew Medney was replaced by CEO Marshall Lees, who was originally brought on in 2022 for his involvement in various Heavy Metal NFT drops via his company Myth. According to the Myth website, “Marshall has been involved in creative strategy and brand building for almost 30 years and has launched more than $100m worth of consumer, healthcare and financial services goods across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia through his companies.” In addition to his duties with Heavy Metal and Myth, Lees is also the owner and CEO of an Australian import business, where he earned the money to invest in Heavy Metal.

Shortly after the announcement that he would be taking over as CEO, Lees conducted an interview with ICv2’s Brigid Alverson in January 2023. In April of that year, after multiple delays, Heavy Metal finally released issue 320. In July of 2023, the magazine suffered a near-death experience. The most remarkable part of the whole affair was the fact that Heavy Metal management in general and Lees in particular made no public comment whatsoever on the event or, indeed, any public comment at all for the rest of 2023 and a good portion of 2024. For several months, it looked like issue 320 would be the last issue that Heavy Metal would ever publish.

Then, in May 2024, Bleeding Cool reported on rumors that Heavy Metal was returning. Those rumors were confirmed later that year and led to a Kickstarter campaign that relaunched the magazine, featuring a slew of rewards beyond the first issue. Around the same time, Lees did another interview, this time on the refurbished Heavy Metal website. In that interview, he explained the situation:

It’s probably a good time to explain why I’m even here. I was a minor investor in the company Heavy Metal Entertainment. I was purely a shareholder and was not involved in the operational side of the business. At that time I wasn’t aware of the issues I would eventually discover. When Heavy Metal Entertainment fell apart operationally no one else wanted to step in and try and save this iconic brand. I knew how big of a mountain it would be to overcome but I didn’t want this to die, it meant too much to too many people, myself included. My partners and I acquired the brand from Heavy Metal Entertainment and set out to find a way to not only bring it back to its glory days but provide the foundation for it to grow in all new ways. It’s been a complex task but the future is finally looking bright.

The Kickstarter was most notable for its logistical and fulfillment issues — retailers ended up getting copies of the magazine before Kickstarter backers. In general, Heavy Metal customers have proven themselves to be very passionate and vocal, especially with regard to a notable absence of communication and not getting the things they have paid for in advance in a timely manner. The last update from the management team on the Kickstarter reads, in part:

This update is not an attempt to remove any blame or anger but is just being transparent with you all about the fulfilment process for issue #1.

A little bit of history about this. In the campaign we listed the delivery for the mags as Q2 with a start date for shipping in April. When we created the campaign it was our intention that all orders would be out before stores got their books. There were two lots of store orders, Diamond orders and LUNA orders. Diamond, the smaller group of the two as far as orders go, had a ship window of the 7th-12th May. LUNA a week later. Those dates were locked in many months prior, we couldn’t change those. We had actually anticipated there would be around 2,000 orders for the Kickstarter campaign and our plan was to have those fulfilled before the 7th if possible. Fortunately (?) there turned out to be 11,000 orders which is great but obviously threw a spanner in the works. In addition there were some print delays out of our control and one of the two companies we paid to undertake the fulfillment sacked 70% of their staff two days into our job and informed us they do not have the ability to pay for postage while restructuring. We had to scramble and fix this by reshipping items, hiring additional fulfillment staff, etc. (and several other problems that inevitably tend to arise during these things). We also decided to put extra time and money into the packing process to try and avoid as much damage to books in transit as possible. That decision, across 11,000 orders extended the timeline we initially anticipated. It takes about 10 minutes per order to generate labels, sort items (44,000 different items were sold in the campaign), wrap and pack and then process for shipment. Some orders have more than 20 books and tees, pins, etc. and take much longer. Across 11,000 orders that is a total time of over 1,830 hours, which is 229 working days. We are not a huge business, nor is our wonderful warehouse partner now handling it all. With 8 full time packers on this that is a 28 working days job, resulting in about 400 orders a day getting out on average. ...

Unfortunately I have also had messages from people calling me and the team scam artists because they haven't received their order when others have, I've had personal threats and abuse, I’ve refunded money and tried to go out of my way to make things right for people who felt deeply affected by books being on comic shelves before they got theirs. We are a small team, doing everything we can to rebuild a brand we love.

These logistical and communications challenges have persisted through the remainder of 2025 and into 2026. To date, five issues have been released on a quarterly basis — the latest release was issue 5 in early May 2026. As a subscriber, I can personally confirm that I have yet to receive a single issue before retailers, despite the industry-standard expectation that subscribers would get their issues first.

Cover to issue #5.

Responses from Heavy Metal management are typically delayed, but there have been multiple assurances that the subscriber situation would be resolved and every time a new issue comes out, it hasn’t been. In some cases, these issues have taken months to arrive. Every three months since Spring 2025, Heavy Metal subscribers have complained about the lack of timely subscription delivery and customer credibility in general has taken a major hit.

The second Kickstarter campaign, which was launched in late 2025, focused exclusively on hardbound books from the Heavy Metal library. The originally scheduled ship date for these books was March 2026, but backers were not charged for shipping until early April 2025. The shipping charges were more expensive than anticipated, which led to a lot of grumbling. As of early June, nothing has been shipped. The Heavy Metal team seems baffled that their customer base would be so crass as to hold them to the projected shipping dates that they, the Heavy Metal team have provided.

On May 21, 2026, Community Director Zack Larez said in the official Heavy Metal Discord Server: “Yeah I stopped posting about upcoming updates or date estimates on shipping, etc. People would want an explanation why it was missed but I'm not cleared to say why. We are pretty transparent about a lot of challenges we go through as, basically, a startup. Lots of companies don't give af. It's on the shelf when it's on the shelf with maybe a small update on their website. Like, how many companies, including comic companies or magazine companies can you go into their Discord and yell at their staff to talk to you? Anyway all that said, we're going to keep doing it because we're Heavy Metal and we do things our way.”

It is in this environment that Heavy Metal has announced significant changes.

First, they are moving from a quarterly release schedule to a bi-monthly schedule. Head of Publishing RG Llarena clarified that this will start with issue 7, which will be released on Sept. 30. Issue 6 is currently scheduled to be shipped on July 30, three months after Issue 5 was released.

Second, the cover price of the magazine will be going up as of issue 7, from $14.99 for a softcover to $19.99 and $39.99 for a hardcover edition. Per the email sent to existing subscribers, “the rising costs of printing and production” are cited as the reason for the price increases.

Third, a slew of subscription tiers have been announced:

Digital — $49.99: 6 issues of Heavy Metal Magazine delivered as downloadable PDF files. Also includes digital access to all 5 previous relaunch issues. Read anywhere, on any device. Available worldwide.

Softcover - $99: 6 issues of Heavy Metal Magazine in softcover format. Available in the U.S. and Canada only.

Hardcover — $199: 6 premium hardbound collector's editions of Heavy Metal Magazine. Available in the U.S. and Canada only.

Signature Series - $399: Every softcover variant we produce across 6 issues. Minimum 18 copies, 20+ expected. Includes an exclusive Simon Bisley variant cover the first 500 receive hand-signed. This cover will not be sold separately. Once allocated, it's gone.

• • Limited edition 1000-piece Heavy Metal premium puzzle
  • Premium protective packaging
  • Tracked delivery on every dispatch
  • Digital access to all 6 issues. High-res downloadable PDFs.

Ultimate series - $578: The ultimate Heavy Metal subscription bundle. Combine the Hardcover collector's edition with the Signature Subscription and save $20. Every softcover variant across 6 issues, minimum 18 likely 20+, the Simon Bisley exclusive variant cover with the first 500 hand-signed, a limited edition premium puzzle, premium packaging with tracked delivery, and digital access to all 6 issues.

Some things worth noting:

• Softcover and hardcover subscribers don’t receive tracking numbers. You have to pay for the expensive tiers for that feature.
• Under the original subscription model, subscribers did not get access to a downloadable PDF of the first five issues. It’s not clear if previous subscribers get retroactive access or have to sign up for a new digital subscription.
• The email that was sent out announcing this mentioned that the issues would be “320+ pages.” On the official Heavy Metal Discord Server, Head of Publishing RG Llarena clarified that this was a typo.

As you can imagine, customers are being completely normal in their reactions about such a drastic change in pricing only a year into the relaunch. A now-deleted comment from the second Kickstarter read:

Its interesting that as soon as the outrageous shipping was charged, everyone who was complaining about not receiving issue #5 from their subscriptions suddenly started receiving them. They also started to announce new issues and subscriptions with new art done (and presumably paid for). I really hope they weren't having money issues and we will have to wait until people sign up for the new subscriptions to get any news.

In addition to all of that, there have been recent staff changes. Based on the masthead of Issue 5, Executive Editor Dave Kelly is no longer with the magazine.

Finally, there have been changes in content. Stories that have been serialized to date, including “Bug” by Enki Bilal, “Valentina” by Sergio Gerasi, “Sixella” by Janevsky, and the third iteration of Taarna by John Reppion, Leah Moore and Anna Morozva all left the magazine by issues 4 or 5, despite favorable notices from fans and critics. Additionally, sources indicate that Fernando Dagnino's "Cyber-Noir" shorts will not be returning after issue 5.

New titles have been announced. Based on the list provided, it looks very much like Heavy Metal is moving away from the original content that was in the first few issues of the relaunch and back towards translated French material, similar to what made up their first issues back in the late seventies.

Page from Zora, June 1982

An industry professional familiar with foreign rights and licenses told me: “Translated material from foreign publishers tends to be significantly cheaper to publish than original material. Not just European work, but from all over the world. It would certainly be a cost-saving maneuver to pivot away from original material toward licensed content. It might suggest, too, that there are internal financial struggles at play.”

These stories include (but are not limited to):

• “Dark Horizon,” written by Philippe Pelaez and illustrated by Benjamin Blasco-Martinez. Originally published by French publisher Glénat, this science fiction series started in 2023 and runs to three albums.
• “The Way of the Sword,” written by Mathieu Mariolle and drawn by Federico Ferniani. Originally published by French publisher Glénat, this fantasy series started in 2013 and runs to three albums.
• “The Oath,” written by Mathieu Gabella and Mathieu Mariolle and drawn by Mikaël Bourgoin. Originally published by French publisher Glénat, this fantasy series started in 2026.
• “West Fantasy,” written by Jean-Luc Istin and drawn by Bertrand Benoît. Originally published by French publisher Editions Oxymore, this fantasy series started in 2024 and runs to seven albums.
• “Spheres,” by Alain Brion. Originally published by French Publisher Editions Oxymore, this science fiction series started in 2025.
• “Zora,” by Fernando Fernandez. This was originally serialized in the Spanish magazine Zona 84 in 1980 and later in Heavy Metal in 1982 and 1983.

When asked why Heavy Metal was going against its long-running tradition not to publish material they’d already published outside of “Best of” issues, Llarena said, “We're in a tough spot when it comes to readership. Of course, there are the loyal fans who've been buying Heavy Metal for decades, and we know there are also new readers who have only recently discovered the magazine. As a result, there are a lot of discussions back and forth about Zora and other properties. From a purely creative standpoint, I'd love to bring back many of the old favorites. But there's only so much space in the magazine.”

At least one piece of original material has been announced, an ongoing Loc-Nar series. The Loc-Nar was the macguffin in the 1981 Heavy Metal film and originally came from Richard Corben’s Den series. Dark Horse Comics, which is currently publishing the Richard Corben back catalog, was not aware that this was being published by Heavy Metal.

There was also a fourth interpretation of Taarna by Aaron Guzikowski and Andy Belanger, presented by Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions that launched in issue 5 as a prose feature. It was later clarified that this would turn into a comics feature in later issues.

“I would say that customers have largely been very enthusiastic about the relaunch, and are remaining hopeful as each issue comes out. Many have felt a little let down by HM at different points along the way for different reasons," Alain Park of Chicago’s Howling Pages comic shop said. "Many seem to be chasing a feeling of sorts that they may have had with earlier iterations of the magazine. And while I can't say that there's a consensus on what that might be exactly, the current relaunch definitely has some large expectations to fill regardless. It's a tough nut to crack.”

Given the sheer volume of changes that Heavy Metal is making all at once, it’s fair to say that the magazine is currently in a transition period. It’s not clear what direction the magazine is transitioning towards, exactly. What is clear is that CEO Lees is managing is part and parcel of what he will ultimately be known for within the context of the magazine’s history.

In the interview on the Heavy Metal website, Lees clarified his vision for the anthology as follows: “In essence, I think we should be one of the most interesting companies in the world so that’s what I’m hoping to build here. Watch this space.”