Heavy Metal Vol 2

[Pat Lindsey]

Your Heavy Metal numbers are off by about 2 years worth of issues

[Gregory Hecht]

I'm not clear on what you are trying to say here.  The issue numbering in Heavy Metal (2nd series) matches the issue numbers on the cover of the magazine.  (Although I'm not sure I can vouch for all of the cover dates being correct)

For folks who aren't familiar with why the database has a 2nd series for HM, you can make a quick visit to the old CB msg boards here, here and here. 

  

 

[Lance Fittro]

Having read through the old message board posts regarding Heavy Metal, and their shift to a sequential issue numbering rather than the previous annual volume/issue number method, I am understanding that their records and those of CB apparently differ by about 10 issues. Currently, the first series numbering stops at #258 in ComicBase and on AA, with those last few issues before the shift being absent from both Series 1 and Series 2. Presumably this was done to avoid confusion, but with the side effect being that those 10 issues or so are no longer indexed or available on AA in either series.

Coincidentally, this shift in numbering happened at a time when I was winding down my new comics purchases and not frequenting my LCS as often, which resulted in some gaps in my long run right before the shift in numbering. I'm trying to figure out which issues I am missing, and create a usable want list, but in addition to the missing 10 issues, am having some difficulties reconciling the old volume/issue numbering Heavy Metal used with the sequential numbering shown for Series 1 in the database. With magazines now having their own category in the database and volume/issue numbering being more common, is there a possibility of seeing this applied to the Series 1 Heavy Metal issues? Or will I just need to rely on that information being in the "Notes" column and do the best I can with visual references of the covers when shopping off-AA to fill in those gaps?

[Chris Prasol]

This may have been solved (since 2021) but I don't see any other mention of it on the site.

Lance is correct. There are issues of Heavy Metal that were published that are not in the CB or AA databases.

Heavy Metal(Series 1) ends with issue 258 (November 2010)

Heavy Metal (Series 2) continues with issue 259 (October 2012)!

The missing issues are:

Jan. 2011 - Volume 34 #9

March 2011 - Volume 35 #1

Spring 2011 - Volume 35 #2

May 2011 - Volume 35 #2 (listed as #2 in contents page - should be 3)

July 2011 - Volume 35 #4

Summer 2011 - Volume 35 #5

September 2011 - Volume 35 #6

November 2011 - Volume 35 #7

Jan 2012 - Volume 35 #8

March 2012 - Volume 36 #1

May 2012 - Volume 36 #2

If you follow the pattern (May 2012-October. 2012), there might be an issue or two missing, (July? Sept?) but I'm pretty sure I picked up all issues as they came out.

I have the issues listed above. I can scan and submit entries for them but I need to know what to do regarding the issue numbers. (because these all exist between issues 258 and 259)

Please let me know what to do/submit.

I'm also sending this message to Support.

Thanks

 

 

[Gregory Hecht]

Without checking specific issues, I will verify that there is approximately one year of issues missing from the first Heavy Metal series in the database. I recently picked them up but had not gotten around to inputting the data. 
 

I will post here later today to compare what issues I have that are missing from the database and what you have noted above. 

[Gregory Hecht]

OK, I can confirm that my collection and information searches match your findings up above.  There are a total of 11 issues of Heavy Metal missing from the database.  I have copied and pasted your info and added a couple of notes in red along with the issue numbers that should be used when you submit these to HC.  

Also, AFAIK there are no cover variants for these missing issues.  

I can also confirm that, based on editorial content printed in issue #259 (the first issue of what is ComicBase's Heavy Metal (2nd series) title), there were no issues published between the 35th Anniversary issue (#269 below) and the HM (2nd series) #259 issue (which is already in the database).  So these should be the only missing issues.    

*************************************************

The missing issues are:

#259  Jan. 2011 - Volume 34 #9

#260  March 2011 - Volume 35 #1

#261  Spring 2011 - Volume 35 #2 "Living Dead Special"

#262  May 2011 - Volume 35 #2 (listed as #2 in contents page - should be 3)

#263  July 2011 - Volume 35 #4

#264  Summer 2011 - Volume 35 #5  "War of the Worlds Special"

#265  September 2011 - Volume 35 #6  

#266  November 2011 - Volume 35 #7

#267  Jan 2012 - Volume 35 #8

#268  March 2012 - Volume 36 #1

#269  May 2012 - Volume 36 #2  "35th Anniversary Issue"

[Chris Prasol]

Update: I have submitted the updated data for the issues listed above.

There are variants in the group:

Issue 265 Sept. 2011 - There was a 2011 SDCC variant with a cover by Imaginary Friends Studios

and Issue 269 May 2012 (The last Issue in Heavy Metal Series 1) - There are 4 versions.

With covers by: Nicolett, Stanley, Lorenzo Sperlonga and Tariq Raheem.

This metadata is included in the submissions.

[Chris Prasol]

Oh, while I have your attention, one other Heavy Metal discrepancy I noticed: (please check to see if it's the same for you)

Also in HM Series 1. there is an issue 215.5 listed. This is a duplicate. It has its own entry as a standalone book. "Heavy Metal: Sirens Special"

The 215.5 issue should be deleted?

Thanks for listening. 🙂 

[Gregory Hecht]

Yes, I agree.  Heavy Metal #215.5 and Heavy Metal: Sirens Special are duplicate entries.  

@Mark J. Castaneda I suppose that it doesn't matter too much which one gets deleted, but my vote would be to get rid of HM #215.5 just b/c it helps simplify the numbering for the main HM series.  YMMV

[Mark J. Castaneda]

22 hours ago, Gregory Hecht said:

Yes, I agree.  Heavy Metal #215.5 and Heavy Metal: Sirens Special are duplicate entries.  

@Mark J. Castaneda I suppose that it doesn't matter too much which one gets deleted, but my vote would be to get rid of HM #215.5 just b/c it helps simplify the numbering for the main HM series.  YMMV

@Gregory Hecht done

@Chris Prasol your submissions will be processed by our editorial team and be included in our next weekly content update. Thanks for your contributions

[Chris Prasol]

Sorry to chime in again. There is one last "discrepency" in the Heavy Metal (Series 1) index. I swear this is the last one. It looks like everything else is correct.

Issue 122 should not be a numbered issue. It is titled: A Heavy Metal Graphic Novel: The Venus Interface

The Table of Contents page in the book lists it as Vol.5 #4 (At time of publication regular issues were in Vol.13)

There is a stand alone entry The Venus Interface (Heavy Metal's...) in CB which lists two versions. A $3.95 and $4.50 edition, which is correct.

They should be the ones that stay.

....That being said it puts a hole in the numbering continuity. Then again, we have thrown a grenade in the numbers by adding 11 issues between 258 and 259 across Volumes 1 and 2. 🙂 

To not create waves you could keep both entries in the database. (making sure to only add quantity to one of them) The valuation of the books is different in the two locations.

[Gregory Hecht]

On 3/21/2025 at 5:31 PM, Chris Prasol said:

Sorry to chime in again. There is one last "discrepency" in the Heavy Metal (Series 1) index. I swear this is the last one. It looks like everything else is correct.

Issue 122 should not be a numbered issue. It is titled: A Heavy Metal Graphic Novel: The Venus Interface

The Table of Contents page in the book lists it as Vol.5 #4 (At time of publication regular issues were in Vol.13)

There is a stand alone entry The Venus Interface (Heavy Metal's...) in CB which lists two versions. A $3.95 and $4.50 edition, which is correct.

They should be the ones that stay.

This doesn't seem to have been addressed in today's content update.  

It may be simplest to keep the standalone title The Venus Interface (Heavy Metal’s…) .  There is a precedent of a skipped issue in the Heavy Metal title in that issue #56 is listed but noted as "Not published."  Issue #122 might be handled the same way.  [I don't know the history behind CB's listing of HM #56, but my guess is that it was a similar situation where a special issue got double-listed in the database for a time before it was noticed and dealt with.]

Regardless, the duplication really shouldn't be left unaddressed.  

[Chris Prasol]

Hi @Mark J. Castaneda and @Gregory Hecht

I just submitted updates/corrections for the entire Heavy Metal (2nd Series) run. I have rescanned almost all the covers or found better quality covers (non-watermarked) elsewhere on the ether-webs. I scanned my covers at 600dpi and scaled them down to 300. (It makes for a cleaner image) Greg, you mentioned that 300dpi is the max resolution accepted. There are a handful of covers that are higher resolution in the CB database but they are not as clean as what I've scanned. When I "submit update" does CB export my images to you for those issues even though they are not as high Rez? Let me know. If needed I can send via a dropbox link. I have also added additional variants that are not listed in CB. 

There is one issue that I suggest a labelling change. #280. The TOC doesn't list them as Cover A, B, C etc. It seems that this issue is the transition from a numbered issue followed by A,B,C variants to all the issues just labeled starting with Variant A, B, C etc. 

Hope this is helpful. Feel free to email if you want to take this discussion offline. 

-Chris

I'm writing this right as Pete is talking on the Livestream about submissions being labelled as "Satanized!" LOL 

 

 

[Gregory Hecht]

12 minutes ago, Chris Prasol said:

There is one issue that I suggest a labelling change. #280. The TOC doesn't list them as Cover A, B, C etc. It seems that this issue is the transition from a numbered issue followed by A,B,C variants to all the issues just labeled starting with Variant A, B, C etc. 

Can you explain which issues you are proposing to change, i.e., current designation for the issue and the proposed new designations?  It isn't clear from your post.  

[Chris Prasol]

Just issue #280. The Ron English Cover should be designated "280" The other designations should be "280-HC" for the hard cover edition. "280-A" for the Gail Potocki cover. "280-B" for the Mozchops cover.   (The dashes are the image file name. CB displays the dash as a slash. ...as you know. 🙂 )

[Gregory Hecht]

If I understand you correctly, you are asking for the following changes:

•  Create a new issue #280, move all existing info including cover scan from #280/A to #280
•  Move all existing info including cover scan from #280/B to #280/A
•  Move all existing info including cover scan from #280/C to #280/B
•  Remove #280/C

The problem with that is that somebody who has (for example) the Potocki cover in their inventory will end up having a database that says that they have the Mozchops cover in their inventory.  Similarly, somebody who owns the English cover will end up with a database that says they have the Potocki cover in their inventory.  

It might be one thing if the contents page of #280 assigned A, B, and C variants to these covers and CB has them mixed up.  But they simply list the covers without letters, so what CB has isn't contradictory.  And, for what it's worth, CB lists the three variant covers in the same order as the contents page of #280.  

[Chris Prasol]

CB does not list the three covers in the same order as the TOC page (above).

but as you say they are not labeled A,B,C in the TOC so it's not "wrong".

I've attached an excel file that lists what the table of contents "says" for each multi-version issue and add what was actually published.

I hope this is helpful.Heavy Metal Series2 Index.xlsx

 

 

 

 

Heavy Metal Series2 Index.xlsx