Heavy Metal, November 1980

The November 1980 issue of ‘Heavy Metal’ featured a cover ('Warmth') by Hajime Sorayama and a back cover ('Number 13 at Hialeah') by Chris Achiellos. This issue contained the usual dross (‘Changes’ by Howarth and ‘Professor Thintwhistle’ by Stiles and Lupoff), lengthier pretentious rock criticism by Lou Stathis, but also some very good pieces by Giraud (‘Blind Citadel’), Poirier (‘The Prophet and the Dictator’), and Caza (‘Metropolitan Opera’). The outstanding strip for this issue was ‘Awaken’, by the British artist Martin Springett, a strip that features some of the most intricate artwork to ever appear in the early years of Heavy Metal. These were the days before user-friendly drawing and graphics software was available for PCs, so painstakingly drawing the motifs, stippling, and designs intagliated in profusion on every image in every panel must have been a herculean labor on the part of the artist.