"Gates" by Hal Hefner is the first digital comic being presented by the legendary Heavy Metal Magazine. The comic will also feature a music soundtrack -- just like the Heavy Metal film released in 1981. Hefner chatted with MTV Geek about Gates, the influence of Heavy Metal (the magazine and the movie) on his work, and working in digital.

MTV Geek: Could you give our readers a brief synopsis of Gates?

Hal Hefner: The story centers on a specially-conceived young man, named Gates, who is living a wretched existence in an isolated negative utopian society, deep within the caverns of an industrial mountain complex. When Gates breaks free from this colony he is thrust onto a lush alien world filled with strange creatures, and ruled by Soloman—a nightmarish, god-like overlord, whose malevolence reigns supreme. With organic plant-based technology, Soloman captures Gates and his two human companions Adria and Kano. With the arrival of the humans, Soloman is instantly obsessed with the extermination of mankind and all life on the world. With the help of a tribe of intelligent indigenous creatures, Gates must learn to use Soloman's organic technology to defeat him and take back a planet which is rightfully his.

Geek: You’ve noted that you were a big fan of the Heavy Metal movie and comic. Could you tell us a little about how they might have influenced this project?

Hefner: I always loved artists like Moebius and Richard Corben when I was a kid and would grab Heavy Metal magazine off the newsstand anytime I could. As a young punk growing up in upstate NY, Heavy Metal actually introduced me to some very cool non-commercial art that you couldn’t normally find in a small town, like HR Giger. In the 80’s-early 90’s Heavy Metal was a great source of exciting new sci-fi in a boring and over-inflated commercial comic market I had grown tired of. I loved how Heavy Metal was raw, and real and didn’t apologize for it—ever. Read more...

Tags Digital Comics, Hal Hefner, Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal Presents

According to artist, Nathan Fox, which he worked on with writer M.F. Wilson and colorist Jeromy Cox, Fluorescent Black is a "bio-punk, sci-fi epic" that's set in the not-too-distant future. It tells the story of genetic modification gone berserk on the dirty, dystopian streets of Singapore. "This one is based on all genetics and science that exists today," Fox said in an interview from the MTV Geek skybox at the 2010 New York Comic Con. "You can alter anything. You have any aliment, you have any disease, anything terminal, it can be fixed on a biological, genetic level."

The main characters, who slum it in the er...slums, across the causeway from the city, are caught in a battle between two Read more...

Tags Fluorescent Black, Jeromy Cox, M.F. Wilson, Nathan Fox, New York Comic Con, NYCC