Posts Tagged heavy metal

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Gates The Comic – Creature Concept Art By Creator Hal Hefner

by on January 27, 2011 at 1:56 am
Posted In: Art

Gates the comic is about to get crazier in the coming months… If you haven’t read the synopsis yet, I suggest you check it out because it gives you the “big picture” idea of Gates.  Also if you look in the characters section, it continues to give you an idea of the story to prepare you for what is to come.

So far in the pages of Hal Hefner’s Gates the comic, we have been engulfed by a crusty, industrial negative Utopian world–Filled with close circuit monitors blaring propaganda and watching the inhabitants of ConGenement City’s every move.

So I ask all of you readers, casual viewers and faithful subscribers to remember the classic movie the Wizard of Oz.  Remember when Dorothy started off in Kansas and it was a black and white movie? Remember how when she went to Oz suddenly everything was in Technicolor? Well Gates the comic is kind of like that too in the sense that once outside of ConGenement City, you enter a lush alien world filled with all sorts of strange creatures.

Below you will find a series of conceptual sketches of some of the strange lifeforms that will manifest in the upcoming pages. Now I don’t want to give away too many details about these characters because it will spoil all the fun when they make an appearance in the comic.

So check them out and try and guess which animals I chose as an artistic influence for these creatures. They all started off in pencil and the first three are actually colored with marker and colored pencil.

Hef

 

 

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Moebius: One of My Favorite Heavy Metal Artists

by on February 5, 2011 at 1:07 am
Posted In: News

As an artist, writer and creative genius–I love MOEBIUS = Jean Henri Gaston Giraud. Moebius is a huge inspiration to me and my work and I am so honored to be part of a tradition that he started back in the seventies. If not for Moebius, it is safe to say that Heavy Metal Magazine would not exist.

I found out about Moebius in the late eighties. I was at my favorite comic book shop in Utica, NY called the Ravenswood. It was there that I picked up an old, beat up version of Metal Hurlant for like ten cents or something crazy. Arzack was in the book and I was immediately blown away and captivated by the art. As a thirteen year kid I was clearly on a heavy dose of Marvel and DC and this was new and the art was kind of strange but I liked it. Plus there were naked girls, monsters and more. From then on I was a huge fan of Moebius and tried to follow him when I could. It is safe to say that Moebius has had a profound affect on my work.

Europe is always ahead of us…and in the early seventies in France the rise of fanzines took the country by storm, just as it did in the U.S.in the late seventies. These magazines, assembled and published by the people who collected the comics were often showcases for new artists. It is here that Moebius rose to stardom. He had been a very successful “western” comic strip artist under his real name but it was under the name MOEBIUS, that he became so inspirational to me.

In early 1975, as one of the founding members of Les Humanoides Associes (the others were Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet, and Farkas). Their first publication, Metal Hurlant, would change comics forever. In the United States Metal Hurlant became Heavy Metal.

The first issue of Metal Hurlant featured a cover by Moebius and Philippe Druillet, as well as the first installment of Arzach and of Major Grubert. Throughout the Seventies, Moebius appeared in every issue of Metal Hurlant and was the face of comics in France.

America was paying attention as Moebius created costume designs for Ridley Scott’s film, Alien and storyboards and design for Jodorowsky’s version of Dune that was never published as well as Disney’s Tron. Moebius also saw the launch of a new western strip with Charlier, Jim Cutlass, and collaborations with both Jodorowsky and Dan O’Bannon.

Here is a video, version of the Long Tomorrow, a short story by Dan O’Bannanon and Moebius. Pay close attention to Moebius unique line work and skill. Any artist looking to become better, should look no further than Moebius.

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The 1981 Heavy Metal film bares the mark of Moebius all over it. Taarna the last segment in the film is heavily influenced by Moebius’ Arzack. Originally there were supposed to be 12 short stories in the Heavy Metal screenplay, and Arzak was to be the narrative linkup between the segments. Due to legal and financial complications in Europe, the negotiations to the rights to Arzak fell through and Heavy Metal was unable to utlize the story. “The Legend of Taarna” sequence in the film began as a story drafted by Leonard Blum and Daniel Goldberg, writers retained by Ivan Reitman to develop a strong, conceptual screenplay for the movie. Without Moebius story they were bummed but decided to use his artistic influence regardless–because he was “Heavy Metal”.

I actually met Moebius in 2002 at a personal screaning of his animated film with Rene Laloux, the Time Masters. He was amazing, extremely positive and full of life. I asked him about the Hevay Metal movie and he said to this day he wishes things would have worked out differently.

Arzak is an amazing work of pure comic genius, originally adapted from the 1970’s comic created by Moebius for sci-fi/fantasy comics magazine Metal Hurlant

Arzak is a fantastic tale of surreal weirdness with a sci-fi meets spaghetti western kind of feel to it that captivates you from the first scene. The art is stunning and you can clearly see the influence on Taarna.

Below you will find the entire collection of Rhapsody videos that were posted on YouTube. They are in Spanish, which actually gives it a very cool feel adding to the allure of this timeless classic. If you are an artist, writer, animation fan or just bored–watch this. It’s trippy, cool and very French! Enjoy!

Chapter 1

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Chapter 2

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Chapter 3

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Chapter 4

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Chapter 5

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Chapter 6

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Chapter 7

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Chapter 8

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Chapter 9

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Chapter 10

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Chapter 11

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Chapter 12

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Chapter 13

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Chapter 14

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More Concept Sketches For Gates: Heavy Metal’s First Online Comic

by on February 18, 2011 at 10:56 pm
Posted In: Art

I love concept art. I actually even love to look at my own concept art for Gates the comic. To me when I look at the original ideas, it’s a time trip on how far things have progressed since I first began working on Gates the comic many years ago.

It’s one of my favorite things to see when I delve into something I’m “into”. I love a glimpse of the thought process of designing characters, worlds and other items important to a story. I remember as a kid, my mother and I would o to our local library and get books out. I’ll never forget the day I stumbled upon an art book of Ralph McQuarrie’s for Star Wars. At first I was kind of weirded out by the images because they were odd, almost elongated and were not measuring up to the ideals of what I thought Han Solo as Harrison Ford, or even Chewbacca, C-3PO or Yoda actually looked like. But the more I flipped through the book the more amazed I was at the evolution of the drawings and paintings and how they started off as just a sloppy sketch of Yoda looking more like a green Hobbit, to what Frank Oz actually created for The Empire Strikes back.

I was hooked and I couldn’t put the book down. And that was my first love of concept art.

I have been working on the idea for Gates the comic, since the late 1990’s and the story has evolved greatly since it first came into a thought form my brain to actual pieces of artwork.  Below you will see a number of sketches from the very beginning of my conceptualization for Gates. These were all created long before I had started working with Heavy Metal magazine.

This is an image of Kano, originally created in pencil then ink. I think this may be my oldest sketch from the series circa 1997

 

Here is another sketch of Kano, circa 2005, almost 1o years later. I lost the goofy Goatee and futuristic Egyptian attire. This is pretty much what he looks like to this day. hell, I may even use this as a panel in the comic!

This is a sketch done in blue pencil of Adria, done in 2009.  This eventually turned into a pose for this image below.

As you can see, Adria changed a little from the initial sketch, but that is pretty common because the idea is to improve upon the original idea so that when it is rendered it is the best it can be.


Here is a sketch of a creature I originally had in mind as a type of steed used by the Animoids. Things have changed since but this creature still makes an appearance.

 

This is a sketch of a reptile like creature, I envisioned as a hunter.

 

Well, that’s it for this post. Trust me, I have TONS and TONS of images that I will be sharing with you through this journey I call Gates. If you have any questions about my process, leave them below and I will be sure to answer them!

Thanks – Hef


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Character Designs for some “Hybrid Freaks”

by on March 12, 2011 at 12:17 am
Posted In: Art

“Heavy Metal Unleashes Hybrid Freaks in Sci-Fi Digicomic Gates” – Scot Thill Underwire (Wired Magazine)

A few months ago, Scot Thill, writer for Underwired, did an article on me and Gates, Heavy Metal’s first webcomic. It was pretty cool in the fact that he really focused on one of my favorite parts of the story…The HYBRIDS.

As it stands now we are at page 15 and still quite a few pages off from really getting into the “good stuff'”. It’s what I like to call the Land of Oz on LSD. In this crazy world there are definitely some hybrid creatures that become integral characters in the story.  My inspiration for these characters comes from many avenues, from Richard Corben to Ralph McQuarrie, to Planet of the Apes and HG Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau. The fact of the matter is that I love playing mad scientist creatively and artistically splicing various kinds of creatures together.

So here is a sneak peek at some character design concepts of some “Hybrid Freaks” as Scott Thill of Underwired aptly labeled my artistic craziness.

 

 

 

 

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Gates-Heavy Metal’s First Webcomic: Rene Laloux’s Fantastic Planet

by on March 16, 2011 at 11:24 pm
Posted In: News

If you are  a  fan of the 1981 animated Heavy Metal movie, then you have either seen Fantastic Planet, know of it–or then you just need to see it.

For those of you who don’t know about the film french animated film, Fantastic Planet–you are missing out. Fantastic Planet is my favorite movie–ever. When I was a child at about age 11, I caught the tail end of it on USA Network. I had no idea what it was and did not see it again until I was eighteen. I found it at a video store and just decided to rent it because my parents were out of town and my friends were coming over with some beers and a bag of pot—so I needed something trippy to watch. Well little did I know that no drugs were required for this movie. It blew my little mind. I was a dumb kid in a small town just reaching the cusp of manhood but this bizarre animated film ended up becoming the launching pad for my career. When I saw Fantsatsic Planet, I knew that my destiny was to make intelligent science fiction with trippy music, a deep well researched and carefully planned message with lots of stunning visuals.

And so I got two tattoos with the theme of Fantastic Planet and the rest is history…

Fantastic Planet is a French film  (La Planète Sauvage, lit. The Savage Planet). It is a 1973 animated science fiction film directed by René Laloux a master of French animation, production designed by Roland Topor, written by both of them and based on the novel Oms en série, by the French writer Stefan Wul and animated at Jiří Trnka Studio. The film was an international production between France and Czechoslovakia and was distributed in the United States by Roger Corman voiced by many of Hanna Barbera’s voice talents from their 70’s cartoons.  It won the special jury prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival and like Heavy Metal is a cult classic, filled with ultra violence, nudity and ass kicking science fiction and a hell of a soundtrack.

The movie immediately drew comparisons to Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Planet of the Apes (both the 1968 film and Boule’s 1963 novel). Today, the film can be seen to prefigure much of the work of Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) due to its palpable political and social concerns, cultivated imagination, and memorable animation techniques that some say are reminiscent of Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python shorts. It was the precursor to Heavy Metal and was a groundbreaking film that is timeless.

Fantastic Planet tells the story of “Oms”, human-like creatures, kept as domesticated pets by an alien race of blue giants called the  “Draags”. The story takes place on the Draags’ planet Ygam, where we follow our narrator, an Om called Terr, from infancy to adulthood. It starts out with the death of his mother in a way that can be compared to the way a human child would accidentally kill a frog or insect. Terr manages to escape enslavement  taking with him a Draag learning device used to educate the savage Oms — and begins to organize an Om revolt with a clan of savage humans. The Hieronymus Bosch like visuals and the imagination invested in the surreal creatures, landscape music and sound design,  is intense and unforgettable.

Those in film history, widely regard the animated film as an allegorical statement on the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia under the direction of René Laloux, the incredible art of Roland Topor, and Alain Goraguer’s brilliantly complementary score. Fantastic Planet is an incredible tale of the survival of mankind, the power of the human spirit and the innovation of mankind to overcome even the worst of circumstances. Though in theory and philosophy, the intellectual capacity of Fantastic Planet, crushes the Heavy Metal movie, it was truly groundbreaking in the same light. It is well known by movie lovers and sci-fi geeks but the average man/woman may have never heard of this film simply because of its not your garden variety movie.

THE INFLUENCE ON GATES:
The influence  Fantastic Planet had on me artistically and philosophically is immeasurable. Fantastic Planet, laid out my future right in front of me and I am so grateful for this film I cannot even express it into words. If you are a fan of Heavy Metal or psychedelic films then you need to see this movie. It is a combination of artistic brilliance presented in a unique way. What I mean by this is that it clearly pushed the boundaries of the conscious mind with the characters and the concept of the world in general. Just imagine if the human race were literally the equivalent of rats, and there was a more dominant being on the planet, that viewed us as we really were, animals who fear what they don’t understand and go to war with our brother’s tribe for trivial and often misconstrued ideological reasons that have no actual validation scientifically or factually.  So influentially, this movie opened up the door for me to explore my philosophy of human existence and examine the deep underlying structure of our society, science, religion, technology, our history both theoretic and what is said to be proven fact.

I saw the Heavy Metal movie before I saw Fantastic Planet in its’ entirety. When I compare them I see a lot of similarities yet many differences. I guess the easiest way to describe Fantastic Planet in context is this: If Arthur C. Clarke and H.G. Wells got together and made a movie for Heavy Metal, it would be Fantastic Planet. It is loaded with deep intellectual undertones yet so visually stunning and such a trip in terms of music that the depth of the story is secondary.

Everyone I have shared this movie with has been blown away. Now I share it with you and I hope that you have the same reaction.

Enjoy the trip. I did.

Trailer:

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A small sample of the movie…

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Famous Monsters Film Festival – Hal Hefner Creator of Gates Will Be There! Will You?

by on April 7, 2011 at 1:05 am
Posted In: Conventions, News

Are you a fan of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman and the Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Are you a fan of Vincent Price, Bela Lugosi and Roger Corman?

Well I am…and it’s an honor to be a guest at a film festival honoring them.

April 8 – 10th at the famous Laemmele Theater in Beverly Hills, Famous Monsters of Film Land Magazine presents the Imagi-Movies Film Festival!

I have been invited as a special guest of Phil Kim, owner and editor of Famous Monsters, the classic magazine dedicated to monsters, aliens and other creepy and disgusting monsters of the world of entertainment. I am working on a top secret project with Phil and it’s been a pleasure to get to know him and be associated with such a stellar and historical magazine. I will also be there representing Gates and Heavy Metal.

I love old monster movies, aliens and other crazy movies from my childhood. I think Vincent Price gave me first nightmare! Well all of that and more is represented here! Check out the trailer for the event below.

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Here is the SCHEDULE:

Friday

 

Main Screen

11:45 AM – Boneyard Collection ($6.00)

1:50 PM – Wanderlost

4:00PM – Independent Film Panel (Free)

5:15 PM – Horror! ($10.00)

7:20 PM – Dollar Babies B & Dollar Babies Panel($10.00)

10:30 PM – Downstream With Intro from Cast and Crew($10.00)

 

Screen 1

11:45 AM – Crustacean($6.00)

1:20 PM – Serials!($6.00)

3:00 PM – The Feed With Derailed($6.00)

 

Screen 2

11:45 AM – Dollar Babies A($6.00)

2:00 PM – The Inheritance($6.00)

4:00 PM – My Cousin’s Keeper With Tom Woodruff Q&A(Free)

 

Saturday

 

Main Screen

11:45 AM – Monsters!($10.00)

1:35 PM – Closed For The Season($10.00)

3:45 PM – The Reel!($10.00)

6:00 PM – Masque Of The Red Death & Masque of the Red Death Panel ($15.00)

9:15 PM – Dracula 80th Anniversary Panel & Dracula ($15.00)

 

Screen 2

10:00 PM – Repo! Featuring Shadowcast group “Addicted to the Knife” to perform.($10.00)

 

Sunday

 

Main Screen

11:45 AM – Castle Freak With Richard Band Q&A($10.00)

1:40 PM – The Abominable Dr. Phibes & Vincent Price Centennial Panel($10.00)

4:50 PM – Call Of Cthulhu With AM 1200, Late Bloomer & Lovecraft Panel 1($10.00)

7:30 PM – Awards Ceremony (Free)

8:00 PM – The Last Lovecraft With Frank Dancoolo & Lovecraft Panel 2($10.00)

 

Horror! A phantasmagoria of gory, haunting tales

Seratonin

The Curse of Micah Rood

Peekers

Enter the Dark

The Devil’s Toy

An Evening with My Comatose Mother

The Key to Annabel Lee

 

Serials! Comic books and sci-superheros! 80min

Billy Baxter and The Mystery of Dr. Amazo

Street Angel

Max Neptune and the Menacing Squid

 

Monsters! From classic to unexpected, the creatures of cinema! 80 min

Zombiefication

Earwigs

O Solitario Ataque de Vorgon

The Sleuth Incident

A Tragic Tale of Flies and Men

Bedtime For Timmy

Broccoli Monster

April

The Urge

 

The Reel! Twisted and fantastic visions of life, death, and the world around us! 105 min

DemiUrge Emesis

Unearthed

Between Heaven and Hell

Deriva

Solatrium

 

Dollar Babies A- 100 min

Strawberry Spring

Home Delivery

Autopsy Room Four

Flowers for Norma

Umney’s Last Case

Popsey

 

Dollar Babies B- 100 min

Paranoid

The Road Virus Heads North

Disciples of the Crow

The Man Who Loved Flowers

Rainy Season

Night Surf

 

 

WHEN WILL I BE THERE?

Saturday! So please come by and see me! There will be TONS of special guests. Roger Corman will be there, as well as Victoria Price and Bela Lugosi Jr.

 

INFO ABOUT THE EVENT:

Go to the Imagi-Movies Website for tickets and more info!

It’s going to be awesome! I hope to see you there!

 

 

 

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MORE Creature Concept Art for Gates: Heavy Metal’s 1st Webcomic

by on April 14, 2011 at 1:01 am
Posted In: Art, News

I love concept art and today I saw some AWESOME concept art from the new Planet of the Apes film. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a remake or should I say re-imagining of the movie the Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. This was the film that told the story of Caesar, the first talking chimp, the son of Cornelius and Zira, two apes from the future that foretold of a bleak ending for man—as slaves of the APES!

So it reminded me today of some of my old concept art…when I had one character in particular that was VERY monkey-like. Nektu is the character’s name and he will be vital to the story in the upcoming pages. However due to the failure of Marky Mark and Tim Burton’s take on Planet of the Apes, one studio in particular suggested I make this character less “ape-like” . Nektu was my nod of respect to Planet of the Apes, and I really fought the idea to first but then I realized he was right. And so I made him slightly more reptilian and canine rather than cat and monkey. And it worked out well.

So in honoring the new Planet of the Apes teasers here are several characters I had drawn over the year that ended up on the cutting room floor. These folks, were either altered or eliminated altogether.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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HR Giger – Master of “Heavy Metal” Macabre

by on April 23, 2011 at 1:40 am
Posted In: Art, News

Hans Rudolf “Ruedi” Giger is a master painter and one of the most influential fine artists of our time. The Swiss born Giger, has been called by many a surrealist painter but he is SO much more than that. I think Giger actually created his own category for art. It is beyond surreal more or less bio-mechanical evil.

Giger is also a sculptor and set designer that won an Academy Award for Best Achievement for Visual Effects for his design work on the film Alien. Brilliant, genius, reclusive—sure he is all of that but to me, (Hal Hefner – creator of Heavy Metal’s 1st online comic–he is the epitome of raw futurism, harnessed by the third eye of creativity.

EVeryone knows Giger’s books and the movie Alien, but it’s what never happened that I am most interested in. In the late 70’s, Giger created furniture designs for the Harkonnen Capo Chair for a movie version of the novel Dune (by Frank Herbert) that was to be directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Mobius was also working on art for thsi movie but it never ended up getting made. Jodorowsky now writes for Heavy Metal ironically.

Then many years later, David Lynch directed the film, using only rough concepts by Giger. It is said that Giger had wished to work with Lynch as well he states in one of his books that Lynch’s film Eraserhead was closer to realizing his vision in film even than his own films.

Giger’s work embodies the lifestyle that is Heavy Metal. Somewhere betwen evil, fetish, uncomfortable, mechanical, painful, bizare, horror, sensuality and extra terrestrial—is Giger. He is the ultimate artist for a counterculture of deep thinking humans. And to serve these people Giger has applied his biomechanical style to interior design. One “Giger Bar” sprang up in Tokyo, but the realization of his designs were a great disappointment to the artist, since the Japanese organization behind the venture did not wait for his final designs, instead rushing ahead with rough preliminary sketches.Giger was not happy and detatched himself from the bar. And soon after that, there were two Giger Bars in his native Switzerland (in Gruyères and Chur), built under Giger’s close personal supervision. They still remain to this day.

Ironically it was in 1966 Giger began work as an interior designer and that is obviously a passion of his reflective of his bars etc. And at that same time in 66 he completed some early paintings. In 1968 Giger began working exclusively as an artist, as well as filmmaker and had his first posters published in 1969 and also has some of his first exhibitions outside of Zurich.

And in 1978, Giger began working on what would come to define his career–the movie ALIEN. Giger ended up sculpting much of the creatures and sets of Alien and in 1980 he was awarded an Oscar for his stunning work on the film.

 

One of my favorite philosophers, who I quote quite often has a great quote about Giger. “Giger, you are an alien lurking inside my body, laying you futique eggs of wonder.” – Timothy Leary

“Like Hieronymous Bosch, like Peter Brueghel, Giger mercilessly shows us the anabolism and catabolism of our realities.” Timothy Leary from a forward to the book H.R.GIGER/N.Y CITY

Giger is a HUGE influence on me and his art has been a staple in my collection of references and nightmares since I first stumbled upon it as a young boy in my local comic book store in upstate NY. I can only hope that I may have the chance to work with him one day on a project. It would be amazing and of course an honor.

 

 

 

 

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