Here's something that was always advertised in the pages of
Heavy Metal, and in fact, a lot of the strips here would've fit right in an average issue of
HM, coming as they did from french comic mags like
Pilote and
Fluide Glacial, as a lot of
Metal's early stuff did.
Ralph Reese's cover there is a bit of a bait and switch, as this isn't really a larky good girl book, but something quite a bit stranger.
Some of the pieces here, as I say, might just as well've ran in
HM, some seem like underground pieces, and some just leave you stratching your goatee in befuddlement. Something for everyone, if you're a bit on the weird side.
They're also not joking when they plaster 'For adults only' on the cover, so we'll look at some of the less explicit stuff today.
Here's a selection, starting with a piece by Jean Sola. Like most of the artists here, I know nothing about this guy, but he's great, isn't he?
And here's a nice religious gag from Loup:
A fun piece about the facts of life from Copi:
And here's Jean-Claude Forrest with
Speaking Of Pitchers: Not being an expert in French military history, I have no idea what they're going on about, but this is the guy who did
Barbarella, which means the art is wildly, crazily beautiful and the colouring is magnificent. Sadly, some of the artwork bleeds into the binding on this book. C'est la Vie, as they say.
It's not big, it's not clever, but how much more French could Bridenne's artwork be here? And the answer is none. None more French.
Over to Spain now for
Dracurella by Julio Ribera, who also did
The Alchemist Supreme and
What Is Reality, Papa? for
Heavy Metal. Dracurella apparently had quite a run in France and, even though we're clearly midway through a story here, I'd definitely like to see more of this strip:
And if you think that was weird, try this one on for size:
And to close, some pieces from Claire Bretecher, who also had a
National Lampoon Presents book ( all to herself ) in
HM, and which'll feature here at some point:
