The Official Website of Hal Hefner

1.1.11 – HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE’S FIRST WEB COMIC: GATES DEBUTS

January 1, 2011 (Los Angeles, CA) – Heavy Metal magazine and Hal Hefner, proudly announce today the debut of its very first digital comic franchise, Heavy Metal Presents: Gates, available for free.

To view the comic go to http://gates.heavymetal.com

The first five pages of the digitally painted comic are available today, and a new page will be released on Tuesday of each week, with plans for the comic to run through the end of 2011, with a digital and printed format available for purchase shortly following the run of the first series. Detailed instructions are posted on the site what to expect in terms of a publication schedule, how to use the interface, the soundtrack and  more.

The first song on the official soundtrack to Gates was also released today. Gates Theme (Spaced), by ambient rocker LoveKrafty, accompanies the first five comic pages and gives readers a moody and atmospheric taste of what is, the negative Utopian world of Gates. Also in the same article, announced earlier today, is that Hefner will be dedicating the soundtrack to late metal God, Ronnie James Dio.

The song by LoveKrafty has been described as Pink Floyd/Vangelis like and I couldn’t be happier with it.

Readers can also post in the site’s forum, comment on the blog, discuss the comic with others, download free content, watch videos relating to the franchise and more. It’s

THE WEBCOMIC:
Heavy Metal Presents: Gates centers on a specially-conceived young man, named Gates, living a wretched existence in an isolated negative utopian society, deep within the caverns of an industrial mountain complex. When he breaks free from his colony he is thrust onto a lush alien world filled with strange creatures, and ruled by Soloman—a nightmarish, god-like overlord. With his organic plant based technology, Soloman captures the humans and is instantly obsessed with the extermination of mankind and all life on the world. With the help of a tribe of intelligent creatures, Gates must learn to use Soloman’s organic technology to defeat him and take back a planet which is rightfully his. Gates is an epic tale of discovery and adventure addressing ideas of identity, society, politics, and philosophy, as well as modern concerns, including environmentalism, evolution, and the unintended consequences of scientific and technological experimentation.

It is digitally painted, written and illustrated by Hal Hefner.

On the official website, fans can get some great information about what is to come with the franchise including character bios, a detailed synopsis, how Hefner’s creative process works, soundtrack information and a lot more.

GATES IS ALIVE! AND HEAVY METAL MARCHES INTO THE 21st CENTURY! -  BALLS TO THE WALL!!!!

In just a few hours I will finally be releasing my digital comic with Heavy Metal Magazine. Gates, Heavy Metal Magazine’s first digital comic will be live on the internet.

I have been working on this idea for twelve years and to see it finally come to fruition has been amazing.  In the time I first conceived this idea for Gates, while living in Rochester, NY, I lost my father to brain and lung cancer. Like many young men, I had struggled to maintain a good relationship with my dad but things were getting better shortly before he passed. Needless to say, his death affected me greatly for many reasons. Cancer is a horrible disease and it is taking people away from this world at an alarming rate.

In May of 2010, we lost a great one to cancer. Ronnie James Dio. The man who took the Italian evil eye and made it a symbol of devil horns and Heavy Metal.

The man whom I shared many things in common with including our height, Italian heritage, fiery temper, balls to the wall attitude and the fact that we both originated from upstate New York. Ronnie’s music has always been an inspiration to me. As I would sit at home late at night drawing creatures, I would listen to Dio over and over again. To Rainbow, Elf, Black Sabbath and more. It was always a good time for Dio in my house.

The Mob Rules was a song I always loved, and it just so happened to be on the soundtrack to the original Heavy Metal movie. It was an awesome song, for an awesome scene, as the evil clan of Loc-Nar mutated warriors stormed the castle and crushed everyone in site. Dio/Sabbath really captured the scene completely and to me it’s the best song and animation pairing in the movie.

When Ronnie passed away, I felt empty. I was actually working on my pitch to Heavy Metal Magazine at the time for Gates the webcomic and I had the idea to unite Ronnie with the comic, somehow in someway. I put the thought out of my head for a minute and continued on to secure the deal and then begin production.  But as it started to take shape and I began to concoct an idea for a soundtrack, I knew this is how I could bring Ronnie’s memory into the fold.

So without further delay, I wanted to spill the beans here (on Hal Hefner dot com) first, because this is personal to me.

In combination with the release of the first song to the Gates soundtrack for Heavy Metal’s first online comic Hal Hefner and Heavy Metal, would like to announce the dedication of that soundtrack to the late, great Ronnie James Dio.  As one of the pioneers of Heavy Metal, Ronnie really brought in the element of Fantasy to the music genre and helped lay down the foundation for tying fantasy art in with music. As a member of Black Sabbath, he participated in the original Heavy Metal Movie Soundtrack and we believe that as Heavy metal embarks on a new trasnmedia journey and marries music and art once again, that Dio must be here too. It was only fitting to claim this soundtrack in his honor.

In addition to this I am in the process of trying to work with Dio’s cancer foundation, run by Wendy Dio, Ronnie’s beloved wife. My intentions are personal as a man who lost a father to cancer and as someone who found a huge musical inspiration in Ronnie. I would like to find a way to work with the foundation and bring awareness to cancer as well as financial help.

As these details unfold I will keep everyone posted. In the meantime, please check out the comic, it will launch at midnight tonight. http://gates.heavymetal.com

Thanks for your time and here are few of my favorite DIO moments to end the post.

Peace, Happy New Year and be well: Hef

/nn\

ROCK-n-ROLL!!!! HEAVY METAL and GATES = INSIDE THE BLACK!

My buddies…AND Hard rock band Inside The Black, who will be featured on the upcoming soundtrack for my comic, Heavy Metal magazine’s GATES, will be performing on December 31, 2010, New Year’s Eve, at the world-famous Whisky A Go Go.

Discount tickets for the New Year’s Eve party are available at http://insidetheblack.com/tickets.html.

Inside The Black, who will have a brand new song on the upcoming soundtrack for Heavy Metal magazine’s first digital comic, GATES, will perform that song live as part of their New Year’s Eve set. Also performing that night will be Vains of Jenna.

The world-famous Whisky A Go Go stage has seen performances by Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Cream, Van Halen and more. It is located at 8901 W. Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069. It is an all ages venue, featuring a full bar.

In true Heavy Metal fashion, this will be a balls to the wall rock show not to be missed. Inside The Black will also hand out free, limited edition copies of their recently recorded EP. Don’t miss it! It’s gonna ROCK!!!!

/nn\

Purchase your discount tickets at http://insidetheblack.com/tickets.html.

SOLOMAN is the  villain in the comic I am creating with Heavy Metal Magazine–GATES.

It launches in just a few days on 1.1.11. Gates is Heavy metal’s first web comic and I am extremely excited about it.

Here is a sneak peek at a backstory image I created for SOLOMAN…a creature that is a marriage of technology and organics, that is purely evil–or is it?

Gates the comic by Hal Hefner and presented by Heavy Metal: In the News

It’s been a wonderful ride so far. All the support from friends, family and new fans has been incredible. Several media outlets have given GATES some coverage. WIRED Magazine’s cool little subsection called Unwired, wrote a really nice article about my upcoming comic with Heavy Metal, GATES. They really captured the soul of what it’s all about–the story.

Since the announcement of Heavy Metal’s first online Comic GATES on 10.31.10 and the subsequent launch of this website, some very interesting coverage has occurred.

Geek Chic Daily officially broke the story on Friday 10/30/10 and used a great quote to describe GATES…
Heavy Hottie: “Be first to see Heavy Metal’s online comic Gates! Dr. Moreau meets 1984. On acid. “

In my opinion and of course anyone who knows me personally, knows this was a brilliant description! Thanks Geek Chic Daily for the kind words! Great references!

The New York Daily News Bleeding Cool and comicrelated.com also gave GATES some nice coverage.

The anticipation for the 1.1.11 launch is building and it’s very exciting. Thanks for stopping by!