DO ENGLISH TEACHERS READ "HEAVY METAL"?

Recently I was talking to someone (young, bicoastal, male) and told him that for a while, maybe fifteen years ago, I was a regular reader of “Heavy Metal” graphic adult illustrated magazine. He, being convinced that English teachers are enforcers of good grammar and manners, hopelessly prissy and rigid, was vastly amused.

I had a former student serving time for murder one. I thought of him as a good writer, so I sent him books. He asked for “Heavy Metal,” so I got it, but I never send any print to anyone without reading it first. It was much like “The Crow,” one of his favorite movies and also “Near Dark.” a cult vampire movie, which he packed around in hopes of finding a VCR so he could see his fav scene (the blood-spattered small town redneck bar). Any idiot would say I was enabling, including me, but I hoped I could somehow turn the tide. I’d let him watch it if I could sit alongside and comment.

For instance, I would watch “Near Dark” and point out that it’s about the marginal powerless person who has finally found a group to belong to that is as hated as himself and they are able to take revenge on the bully oppressors. “The Crow” was about the same, except in the deteriorated city where the hero is a kind of Batman who can swoop in to save the small, victimized child from gobbling exploiters. It’s a mix of Gothic thriller and romance. I’d point this out and he’d snort, “Oh, Mrs. Scriver, you just KILLED IT!” which was both ironic and true. But my fangs were not long enough or sharp enough or something. The dynamics of the tale were undead.

The one Heavy Metal story that has really stayed with me was about a bored octopus, beautifully drawn. The octopus divided into two humans, heterosexual, and made love between the two halves of itself -- that WAS graphic and beautiful. All underwater, an erotic ballet. Then, exhausted, the octopus mutated back into itself. It was an ingenious concept, beautifully drawn. Not a printed WORD in the whole thing.

So when I was in Great Falls this week, I picked up the latest issue. I was a little surprised at how different the stories have become. These are almost like Prince Valiant, or maybe Prince Valiant has become more like these stories. The drawing continues to be elegant but now the hero seems more like a “normal” guy, except that like all genre heroes someone is after him and he has an amazing ability to survive grave damage. The plots and supporting cast are a dense mix of James Bond, Lord of the Rings, classic children’s fairy tales and fantasy, and plenty more along those lines. Harry Potter shows up as a little old man. Christian and Islamic ideas, Masons, Knights Templar -- much of the stuff is in “The Novel: an Alternative History” by Kevin Moore. It’s enough to make you believe in Jung’s shared unconscious.

There are no children. I wonder why: pedophiliaphobia? There is violence, more subtle than “blam, splat.” Sex is implied but not pictured. There are careful drawings of beautiful interiors and fantastic underground passages, peopled by Star Wars. No blacks. (Some greens and blues.)

The first story is the one I like best: “Animal’s” -- told by a dolphin. The drawing was like the octopus story I remember. The creator is listed as E. Bilal. http://wn.com/Enki_Bilal_working_in_his_Studio He’s in Paris and the vids are great. The story itself seems to be part of a series about two men, a woman, little bionic seahorses and lobsters who are servants, all on a boat.

“Wisher” is a little more conventional -- well, given fairies and djinns. Familiar elements to this reader, who went down every fairy tale and myth shelf in the local library by the end of the fourth grade and went on to sci-fi just as it was beginning. This is what English teachers think about besides grammar: “The Red Planet Mars” and how it is reincarnated in “Star Wars,” which goes back to Norse myth and English fantasy writers like Tolkien and George MacDonald (my fav), Inklings. Arthur Rackham illustrations. If YOUR English teacher wasn’t up to it, I’m sorry. But I must admit that I only now realized that “The Dark Crystal” is considered a vampire movie. (It was on a list.)

I see that Heavy Metal magazine in the States was originally the French Métal Hurlant which translates literally as "Howling Metal" or “Screaming Metal.” You could look all that up. See if you can get a research paper out of it.

It seems to me that the graphic genre is bending back into the past to pick up North African exotica/erotica while expressing a surreal but glamourous aesthetic and an athletic potency more Australian than Austrian. Very “Black Swan.” There’s a sense of despairing post-war existentialism (the last best planet) along with a defiant explosion of other emotions: regret, resistance, determination, maybe even alliance. Many contemporary movies seem to have the same vision. Technology is magic; old men are untrustworthy; women are replaceable, but . . . The only animals I see are the horses of the Four Riders of the Apocalypse -- skulls for heads. (Sumptuous illustrations.) Is anyone surprised? The current “real” reality is not a young man’s world, unless they want to be soldiers, but young men can come alive in these pages.

When I reflect on how this old lady former English teacher developed an affinity for Heavy Metal, I think at first about my years as an undergrad when I babysat for an editor of “Rogue” magazine who kept piles of the mags everywhere. But it goes back even earlier to our childhood box of Classic comics. My brothers and I had them all and kept them obsessively in order (they were numbered) even as we read them again and again. You could put a section of “Lorna Doone” into Heavy Metal and it would fit.

I had a serious break with a good friend because her son married a Japanese girl who loves Manga and my friend thinks that Manga is indecent, sinful and should be eliminated. I don’t read Manga, barely recognize it, but I defended it. She couldn’t handle that. To her, the world will end unless it obeys the Catholic Church. The irony is that she renewed contact with me in the first place because she wanted reassurance that she was educated and “with it.” I guess she thought that would be like an English teacher -- all prissy and corrective. At least the young men in the world have moved past that.