Heavy Metal #280 (May 2016) kicks off Grant Morrison’s reign as Editor-in-Chief, and he wastes no time reshaping the magazine into a trippy, cerebral collision of retro sci-fi, myth, and art-house weirdness. Across 140 pages, Morrison signals a return to Heavy Metal’s rebellious roots while pushing it into stranger, more literary territory.
Morrison opens with “Beachhead”, a pulpy, twist-ending sci-fi tale illustrated by Benjamin Marra that lays out his mission: classic Heavy Metal vibes, but filtered through modern surrealism. The issue jumps between future-shocked punishment systems in “Time Served”, dreamlike psychedelia in Frezzato’s “The Key”, and high-altitude strangeness in “Lepidopteran.” Anna Kornum’s “A Mind Bomb” dives inward instead of outward, exploring fractured psychology, while “Goddess” fuses myth and tech with sleek, comic-book flair. Enki Bilal continues his epic “Julia & Roem”, layering dystopia, romance, and operatic style.
A striking gallery curated by Tom Negovan showcases Symbolist painter Gail Potocki, tying Heavy Metal’s visionary comics to fine-art mysticism and forgotten histories via The Century Guild.
The covers match the energy: Ron English’s “Gringod” leads the pack, a warped pop-cult deity staring back at a culture obsessed with consumption and spectacle.
Overall, Issue #280 feels like a manifesto—Morrison grabbing the wheel and steering Heavy Metal back into cosmic chaos, poetic danger, and boundary-breaking imagination.
