Written by RM Rose
The latest news from Heavy Metal is that they will be launching a Kickstarter on November 18, 2025. Now, those of you with a decent memory may remember that the last Kickstarter associated with the magazine’s triumphant return ended at the end of 2024. Don’t worry, this is completely different.
One of the challenges that new heavy metal has yet to overcome is its tendency to flood the communication zone with hype but not really touch on the finer points of the original announcement. As a result, you may have to go back and answer questions that should have been addressed in the original announcement or FAQ. This happens many times because not everyone is avidly reading comments. It’s just me and superfan Tommy Redd.
A commenter on the Heavy Metal Discord server called the official communication approach a “drip feed of strange information here and there, everywhere.” This article aims to gather all the information and provide context about the works being offered, but the whole thing is very confusing and more confusing than it needs to be.
The core of this Kickstarter is four hardcover books branded as the launch of the Heavy Metal Library. These books are “The Covers that Led Us Here”, “Druuna – Sensual Apocalypse”, “Segments” and “Ranxerox”. These books come in special limited editions and more standard versions. There are reports that these versions will eventually hit retail stores, but this will likely be a non-exclusive version. Additionally, there are a variety of optional benefits, some of which are only available if you support a project within the first 72 hours.
The exclusive edition will be limited to 500 copies (although we are considering increasing this to 1000 copies) and will have a different cover from the regular edition. These limited versions are only available for the first 72 hours and have a higher price and page count than the standard version.
This collection of covers includes over 300 covers from the history of heavy metal. Historically, Heavy Metal has only published one cover per issue, but that changed in 2011 with the publication of the first variant cover. Over time, this number increased, and the reissued first issue that was the subject of a Kickstarter in 2024 had over 35 cover variations. The fact that the main selling point of the Kickstarter exclusive version is the variant cover shows how heavily the company has invested in the variant cover concept.
It is not clear from the solicitation how many of these variant covers will appear in the book. However, considering that Heavy Metal has approximately 400 issues in print, it is reasonable to assume that not every cover of every issue of Heavy Metal will be featured here. That being said, they don’t have a choice. Heavy metal cover art got off to a strong start and has continued that way for decades. I fully expect the collector’s edition of this book to sell out quickly.
Doruna’s book reprints “the most complete and uncensored form of the legendary erotic fantasy epic” by Italian artist Paolo Serpieri. This huge 688-page book includes everything previously published in Heavy Metal, as well as two stories not published in Heavy Metal.
Druuna was hugely popular and Serpieri became one of heavy metal’s defining artists. Reprints of his books were advertised in Heavy Metal House for more than a decade and were, by all accounts, an important source of income for the magazine. This book is the culmination of that trend.
It is also important to note the “uncensored” part of the product description. Explicit sexual assault in an early Druuna article published in the Spring 1988 issue led to the issue’s seizure by Canadian Customs. The magazine was found to be in violation of Regulation 9956, which prohibits the import of content that depicts sex involving violence or bondage. The first response was to recall and edit the issue’s 35,000 copies and remove the article in question entirely. An intact copy of this issue has become a collector’s item. Specifically, subscribers got the unedited version.
After this, heavy metal went out of their way to self-censor the bondage and sexual violence in the stories they printed in the years that followed in order to prevent future fits. Ironically, the artist most often censored was Serpieri himself. Panels were edited or hidden, and in one notable case, several pages were simply not printed. Of course, the complete edition included the entire story.
There are conflicting reports that the non-exclusive version of this collection may not be uncensored, but again, pre-release information is not clear. For obvious reasons, the censored version of Druuna won’t be as appealing, but it will be completely on-brand. Heavy Metal did not respond to requests for clarification.
Segments has reprinted a lost sci-fi masterpiece by Richard Malka and Juan Jimenez, the iconic heavy metal artist who passed away from the coronavirus in 2020. Segments was his last work published in Heavy Metal magazine, and was originally serialized in issues 309 and 310. Jimenez is an iconic heavy metal creator who credits the magazine with bringing him international recognition. This book would be a great companion to the Juan Jimenez slipcase that Humanoid successfully kickstarted in the summer of 2025.
An interesting point when comparing Heavy Metal and Humanoids is the scope of their Kickstarter projects. Humanoids has had several successful projects centered around a single book by a single creator. The recent Caza and Gimenez Kickstarters are great examples. In contrast, previous Heavy Metal Kickstarters have been packed with a variety of items from different creators and different vendors. Very simply, one approach involves a lot of coordination between different vendors, while the other does not.
The Rank Xerox book reprints numerous stories about the character of this title by Italian creators Stefano Tamburini and Tanino Liberatore. The entire series is beautifully drawn and filled with extreme violence, sexuality, and unusual themes. One of the highlights of the series is “Ranks in New York.” Ranks joins the Death Race in the taxi of a friend who is a little too into JG Ballard’s Crash.
This is a highly anticipated collection, especially since it was solicited in 2020 but never materialized. Heavy Metal publisher Marshall Leeds said the company has a list of approximately 400 customers who did not receive their pre-ordered copies of the collection and intends to use this print run to fill their backlog of orders.
Of course, this information was not included in the announcement. It gets in the way of the hype. There’s a good chance the customer thought this would just be handled on the backend, but they went ahead of them and asked pointed questions that needed answers.
Before its demise in 2023, Heavy Metal received a lot of flak for this lack of fulfillment and the general lack of fulfillment of purchasing products from its webstore. Reliability is both a measure of trust and a measure of effort. It’s very hard to get it and very easy to lose it. Heavy Metal was operating with negative credibility when it launched its 2024 Kickstarter.
Unfortunately, the 2024 Kickstarter didn’t go as planned. The most obvious problem is that retailers got copies of the re-released first issue before Kickstarter backers did. The stated reason for this is that Heavy Metal offered amazing variety in the project, gaining over 11,000 backers, each with slightly different orders and add-ins.
As you can imagine, this posed a very complex logistical challenge. After months of discussion, nearly all rewards from this Kickstarter have been delivered. The only notable exception is resin models, which are still delivered directly from manufacturing vendors in a very piecemeal manner.
This situation caused a lot of bad feelings among the Kickstarter backers, leading Heavy Metal staff to dub them The Angry Mob. They immediately took note of the name and saw the potential for a ready-made community of self-proclaimed superfans. They also created exclusive merchandise and a private online space for The Angry Mob. Of course, some of those promised goods are still outstanding. Some of them will be distributed as this Kickstarter project is completed.
Issue #2 arrived at retailers before subscribers could get their copies. As of this writing, six weeks after retailers made copies of Issue 3 available, subscribers (including myself) are still receiving it. Substandard service could have a variety of reasons, including delivery disruptions due to warehouse moves or a general lack of communication from the vendor.
There were other challenges with shipping, but most of them have since been resolved. Heavy Metal’s subscribers were collectors, and the fulfillment vendor had no experience shipping comics, so they didn’t react well to expensive items arriving in damaged condition. The good news is that Heavy Metal listened to their audience and got their vendors to change their practices.
I say all this to give you an idea of how hardcore heavy metal fans will be feeling when the 2025 Kickstarter is announced. I have a lot of questions, but that’s what I want to say. There were a lot of answers, but they weren’t as clear as everyone had hoped.
Heavy metal attracts enthusiasts with a collector’s mentality. Heavy metal has done a very good job of producing a steady stream of products targeted at this core audience. No matter how you look at it, resolving fulfillment issues is the next highest priority. After that, perhaps your next priority might be to make announcements that don’t require updates or explanations.
RM Rose is a critic, comics historian, and Six Sigma Green Belt who has written extensively about heavy metal in a variety of mediums. He lives in the DC area and can often be found wandering around SPX in a purple suit. He believes that a book about heavy metal will one day be published.
Something like this:
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