This issue came to me in the same purchase that gave me most of my Heavy Metal collection, as well as some Eeries, Creepys, Epic Illustrate's, and various other "adult" fantasy magazines. This one's one of the more blunt ones, and one of the least impressive. There's a Richard Corben (spelled "Korben" up there on the cover) story, a neat little science fiction piece featuring his trademark gravity defying boobs and body horror, but aside from that the magazine's pretty mediocre. There's some very questionable sexual politics going on in it, most especially in the story "Time Rape," in which the violation of a female time traveller is used as narrative, rather than as focus. It's not unique in doing this, but it is off-putting to see it presented so blatantly.
There are some bright moments. John Workman's inside cover story "b.j. butterfly" is gorgeous, as is the story "How I Created the Universe." Indeed, the artwork throughout is quite well done. It's just that the stories don't live up to the art. They're derivative and simple, and aren't trying to do what it is that good science fiction does: comment on the current state of things and offer possible, hopefully positive, solutions.
Instead, there's lots of boobs that are treated like the sole possession of male characters. In space.
More next week!
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