Interesting stuff

Interesting meetings. I was talking to a new friend recently. We were remembering Heavy Metal magazine from the 80's. I was just a kid when it was coming out then. I didn't have the cash to see the movie when it came out, but I would occasionally get the magazine. I had a friend who was the most fascinating  person in the world to me in 1983.

His name was Phil. He was your stereotypical antisocial trench coat wearing creepy artist type. Actually, he wore a business suit jacket. He was a year or two older than me but didn't drive. He would walk or take the bus. I thought he was super cool although looking back, he was probably the main guy all the kids picked on. He had a distaste for anything "commercial", or mainstream. No one understood we were looking at the world without a filter. It took me several years before I could see the world he did. Over time it's easy to have the filter on again and it's always a struggle to be aware when it's there.

Phil exposed me to non comic code comics. The stuff parents feared. Heavy Metal, Epic, Comix, and reprints of Zap started shaping me. I always wanted to illustrate these stories. I had my own stories in my head but never knew any writers I could learn from. Phil wrote his own strange stories. They were personal and really tripped out.

So remembering early Heavy Metal. I drew a few Ran Xerox things.