Heavy Metal Franchise

There exists a multiple Heavy Metal Franchise and majority of them do not include Richard Corben. Here are list some of the most rare and ones with Richard Corben artwork on them.

HeavyMetal the Movie (1981) incl. A sequence with “Den [I]”.
- “Den, Triumphant” (poster)
- The “Den [I]” sequence
- The rejected sequence, Gallery, Movie Flashback: Before Den… (“Arabian Nights”), in Heavy Metal Special, Vol. 10, #1: One Step Beyond (1996)
Heavy Metal 2000 (2000): no Richard Corben material

Heavy Metal (1981) press material. At least three (?) differenet sets. In all of material incl. “Den, Triumphant” (B&W)

Heavy Metal (1981) lobby cards. A set of cards. In all of material incl. “Den, Triumphant” (col)

Heavy Metal Binder to save old issues. No Richard Corben artwork

Feb. 1998. Collects back issue to date. It was quickly withdrawn over legal issues about artist royalties. [face]

Incl. all Heavy Metal issues of 20 years, i.e. all the best Richard Corben reprints in Heavy Metal magazines are there.

In late 1997 and early 1998, Heavy Metal advertised a CD-ROM collection that included every issue of the first 20 years. However in February 1998, after only a little over 50 copies had been sold, Heavy Metal stopped the selling of the CD-ROMs, due to controversial copyright reprinting laws.

To understand why this happened, let’s first go back to 1976 when the Copyright Act was created. When this Copyright Act was created, it gave the publisher the right to archive material, as long as the material is shown as it originally was, in full, without editing. The publisher would not have to notify the artist, nor give them any compensation. However, because that law was put into place in 1976, it doesn’t clear up how to deal with today’s technology and the fact that new mediums can be very valuable.

Fast forward to December 1993 when a group of writers under the National Writers Union sued The New York Times, Newsday, Sport Illustrated, Lexis/Nexis, and the UMI Company. This case was called “Tasini Vs. The New York Times”. These companies were using the Copyright Act of 1976 to archive material using new electronic mediums such as on-line databases and CD-ROMs. The writers felt that their rights had been violated and that they should have control over secondary uses of their work and be compensated.

A few years later in August 1997, there was finally a ruling in which the Judge favored the publishers, and the writers lost. This is where Heavy Metal comes in. Around this time, the company CD Technologies suggested to Heavy Metal that they put together a CD-ROM of all the magazines to date. Heavy Metal thought that the CD-ROM would be a great searchable medium to archive the magazine’s material. Heavy Metal lawyers figured there shouldn’t be any legal issues especially considering the recent outcome of the Tasini case.

So, CD Technologies went to work manufacturing the Heavy Metal CD-ROMs. None of the Heavy Metal contributors were contacted. This collection was advertised for sale in late 1997 and early 1998. One such ad was in an issue of Previews, which was seen by Heavy Metal contributor Rick Veitch. Veitch passed the word onto another Heavy Metal contributor Steve Bissette. Bissette then passed the word onto other Heavy Metal contributors, including Jean-Marc Lofficier. Many Heavy Metal contributors were displeased with the situation, because they weren’t contacted or being compensated for their material being sold on the CD-ROMs.

Although many contributors never took any action to stop Heavy Metal, there were a few who tried. Lofficier and Starwatcher Graphics (a company owned by Lofficier and Mœbius) legally went after Heavy Metal to resolve this issue. Veitch and Bissette also contacted Heavy Metal trying to resolve the issue. The artists noted that this issue may be complicated by other legalities, such as many of the artists live outside North America, where copyright laws were different.

Shortly after, in February 1998, the Tasini case was appealed. So with this fact, and with all the complaints, Kevin Eastman and Howard Jurofsky agreed in good faith (and to possibly save them from any future legal problems) to put the CD-ROM on hold. There had only been a little over 50 copies sold through Diamond Distribution. They first wanted to see what would happen with the Tasini appeal case. Then they would either continue to sell them, but change their approach that would be friendlier towards the artists, or Jurofsky thought it wouldn’t be worth the hassle, no matter what the legalities would be. The outcome is that the CD-ROMs haven’t been sold since.

In September 1999, the Second Circuit Court Of Appeals revised the previous courts decision on the Tasini case, and favored the writer’s rights. In June 2001, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling, with a 7-2 majority in favor of the writers. It seemed that’s where the law stood, however in June 2007, in another similar case, Greenberg Vs. National Geographic, the Court took favor on the publisher allowing National Geographic the legal rights to produce and sell their CD-ROM. Since then, many other popular magazines have put out archived CD-ROMs and DVDs.

Heavy Metal Franchise

Heavy Metal

Heavy Metal Franchise

Heavy Metal the Movie (1981) and 2000 (2000)

Heavy Metal the Movie (1981) Press Material

Heavy Metal the Movie (1981) Lobby Cards [SPA]

Heavy Metal Binder

The 20 Years of Heavy Metal CD-ROM collection