Heavy Metal is a magazine that clearly defined a genre.

It was the ultimate underground magazine of the 70′s and early 80′s, that combined the dreams of every young heterosexual male in the world into an orgy of science fiction/fantasy/horror  and nudity/erotica/ultra violence. Heavy Metal created an amazing aura that followed it into the debut of its 1981 cult classic animated film, Heavy Metal. Powered by a soundtrack that included Ronnie James Dio, Sammy Hagar, DEVO, Stevie Nicks, Journey and Blue Oyster Cult, as well as the  voice talents of Harold Ramis, John Candy and Eugene Levy, the movie blasted off into fame that continues to this day. Based on the magazine’s successful stories by Moebius and Richard Corbin, the movie combined all that was good about the magazine and stormed into theaters with a cartoon for adults.

Purchased in the 90′s by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle co-creator Kevin Eastman, Heavy Metal began a new era into the world of artists like Simon Bisely, Luis Royo  and B-Movie scream queen Julie Strain. Heavy Metal actually produced a direct to DVD movie Heavy Metal 200o in the year 2000 but it was never able to capture the momentum of the first one.

Since then Heavy Metal has been chugging along and has dabbled into working with some exciting new properties, specifically Nathan Fox and MF Wilson’s Fluorescent Black and Dan Luvisi’s LMS.

Now Heay Metal enters a new age. An age of online comics. Enter: Gates, Hal Hefner‘s science fiction/fantasy and horror epic. It looks to be shaping up as a very unique story with some amazing art, intelligent writing and with a sincere homage to the 1981 movie.

HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE’S FIRST WEB COMIC

Heavy Metal magazine and Hal Hefner, proudly announced the debut of their first online comic on January 1st, 2011. The comic will be available for free and a new page will be released each week, with plans for the comic to run through the end of 2011. A digital and printed format will be available for purchase shortly following the run of the first series. On the website Hefner posted Detailed instructions as to 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 on 1.1.11– Gates Theme (Spaced), by ambient rocker LoveKrafty. It a gives readers a moody and atmospheric taste of the negative Utopian world of Gates.

The artist and creator Hal Hefner will be dedicating the soundtrack to late metal God, Ronnie James Dio and the comic itself is dedicated to late fantasy artist Frank Frazetta.

Hefner has created a very warm, personal website that engulfs the reader with character information backstory and personal information about his processes, influences and more. Readers can also post in the site’s forum, comment on the blog posts and mingle and discuss the comic with others and a lot more.

Heavy Metal Presents: Gates centers on a specially-conceived young man, named Gates. He is living a wretched existence in an isolated negative utopian colony, deep within an industrial mountain complex.

When he breaks free from his colony he is thrust onto a strange alien world populated by exotic creatures, and ruled by Soloman—a nightmarish, god-like overlord. With organic plant based technology, Soloman captures the humans and becomes instantly obsessed with the extermination of mankind and all life on the planet. With the help of a tribe of intelligent creatures, Gates must learn to use Soloman’s organic technology  against him and take back a planet which is rightfully his.

Hefner describes Gates as, “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.”

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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Heavy Metal seems to have a winner here and so far the comic has been covered by major news outlets like MTV Geek.

In an interview with Sci Fi Babez, Hal Hefner discussed Gates the online comic and mentioned that he has big plans for the project, “Well, the sky is the limit. I have years and years worth of story to tell and I’d love to turn this into everything from video games, to movies,  to animation, to action figures and a whole lot more.”

Andromeda-1

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Hefner is not only the author of the monumental webcomic for cult classic publication, Heavy Metal, he is also the artist.

Gates, launches on January 1, 2011 and will be a continuing webcomic series and Heavy Metal’s first online comic franchise.

Hefner has recently been covered by MTV Geek, where he discussed some really interesting backstory for his comic, including transhumanism, politics and more.

Hefner shared some of his hot babe drawings with Sci-Fi Babez. He is also the creator of the image of Andromeda 1 (below) used here on SFB.

Here they are, and please check out Gates.

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The sexy Christina Hendricks started her life in Knoxville, TN, but was raised in Twin Falls, Idaho. She started her acting career there with roles in several plays with the Junior Musical Playhouse Company. Her family moved to Virginia for Christina’s high school years where she developed her acting skills in school plays and local theaters.

Christina’s first big role came on the Showtime series, “Beggars and Choosers”, which was a behind the scenes look at a network television station. Her appearance on 2 episodes of “Firefly” garnered her the title of Sci-Fi Babe and a lot of popularity. She has also guest starred on several television shows, including “Life” and “Cold Case.”

Christina is best known for her non sci-fi role on “Mad Men” as Joan Holloway where all her curves are on display, even in the more conservative 1960s. This is the girl that could turn any man onto curvy figures because she wears it well! Although the buxom redhead is best known for her red hair, Christina is actually a blond and has been coloring her hair since she was a teenager.

Although Christina Hendricks has only scratched the surface in her role as a Sci-Fi Babe, we are sure she will continue to the genre in a great way! For now, we’ll take her as a 60’s Babe though, because we couldn’t imagine life without dreaming of her red hair and beautiful curves.

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Jewel was born in British Columbia, Canada, but spent her first three years in Hawaii. Her good looks led to an early modeling career, which transitioned into Jewel beginning her acting career at age 6. She went on to attend the Vancouver Film School and now resides in Vancouver, down the street from her parents, today.

At the age of 10, Jewel had a small role on “The Odyssey,” a Canadian adventure show for kids. She went on to have starring roles on “Flash Forward,” “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show,” and “Higher Ground.” She officially became a Sci-Fi Babe acting on the series “Firefly.”

Jewel’s role on “Firefly was as Kaylee Frye, the ship’s mechanic who always wore her heart on her sleeve and was truly sexy. The Captain discovered Kaylee and the ship’s original mechanic having a tryst, and gave her the job instead. What a hot introduction! Jewel went on to more sci-fi roles including her role on “Stargate Atlantis.”

Sci-fi and Jewel Staite seem to go together naturally. We hope she continues to show her brains and beauty in more sci-fi adventures soon!

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Alice Braga was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1983. She often accompanied her mom and aunt, who are both actresses to sets, so she caught the acting bug early. She began acting in school plays and then after landing some commercials, Alice began auditioning for movie roles. Her first role was in a Portuguese short film, “Trampolim.” This gorgeous Babe is multilingual too—she speaks Spanish, Portuguese and English.

In 2002, Alice landed a part in “City of God” which was her big break. She decided to attend college before landing several roles in other South American movies. Her debut in the U.S.A. was “Journey to the End of Night,” which went straight to video. Since then, she has landed some Sci-Fi Babe roles in “I am Legend” with Will Smith and “Repo Men.”

We look forward to Alice battling aliens in “Predator” and here’s hoping this Brazilian beauty continues her career in North and South America. We hope to see her back as a Babe very soon! But for now, we’ll just get lost in her big brown eyes!

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Born in 1990 and raised in Los Angeles by parents who worked in film and television, Kristen only attended school through the 7th grade. (She has since completed high school.) She was first discovered while performing in an elementary school play and made her film debut in 1999, in a small uncredited role. Kristen’s first major role was as Jodie Foster’s daughter in “Panic Room.”

Kristen Stewart continued to succeed as she got older, with roles in “Catch That Kid,” “Zathura” and “In the Land of Women.” Most critics praised her small role in Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild” and her recent tough but cool portrayal of Joan Jett in “The Runaways.” But in 2007, Kristen landed the lead role in one of the most popular horror/vampire sagas ever—the “Twilight” series.

After “Twilight” was released in November 2008, Kristen was awarded the MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance Award. She also won the BAFTA Rising Star award. Kristen will continue in her role as Bella for the final two parts of “The Twilight Saga,” which will be released in 2011 and 2012.

Kristen Stewart can definitely compete as a hottie against her male co-stars in “Twilight.” She’s still only 20, so we look forward to this Babe being around a while and probably getting sexier with age. Here’s to your vampire fantasies.

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Gillian Anderson was born in Chicago in 1968. She moved around a lot as a child—including a stay in London, where her father attended film school. (To this day, Gillian sometimes speaks with an English accent.) Although she was more interested in science when she was younger, she began acting in high school productions before deciding to pursue a BA in acting in college.

At age 20, Gillian moved to NY and landed several prestigious roles in theater. Four years later, her ambitious nature led her to move across the country to Los Angeles. Her first mainstream role was on a show on the brand new Fox Network called “Class of ’96.” This guest appearance was enough for someone at Fox to take notice, because was sent the script for “X-Files.” The problem was that Fox wanted someone with more acting experience and sex appeal, which is tough to imagine now!

Producer Chris Carter continued to stand by Gillian—thinking she was the perfect woman to play Agent Dana Scully—and she was eventually given the part. At the time, Gillian expected to do 13 episodes, but “The X-Files” became a phenomenon and went on for 9 seasons and 2 feature films. Gillian played a smart skeptic, and we loved seeing her keep Mulder on his toes!

After “The X-Files”, Gillian has continued acting on stage and in films. FHM’s 100 Sexiest Women poll named Gillian Anderson one of the “Sexiest Woman in the World” for 1996 and in their “Sexiest Hall of Fame” list in 2008.

“The X-Files” truly was one of the best sci-fi shows television has given us and Gillian Anderson is one of the most beautiful, brainy FBI agents ever! We hope to see this babe back on the big or small screen soon—we know Gillian has a lot more to show us!

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Sarah Polley was raised in Canada by actor parents and is the youngest of five children. Although she never graduated from high school, Sarah’s credits start at age 4 when she appeared in the Disney film “One Magic Christmas.” At 13, she landed one of the main roles on the Canadian television series, “Road to Avonlea.” She had continued success as a teen, appearing in another Canadian series, “Straight Up.”

At one point as a teenager, sassy Sarah quit school (and never finished) to focus on politics. She is still politically active in Canada’s New Democratic party. Her politics have also kept her focused on taking parts in films with social importance. She’s smart, into politics and gorgeous—our perfect Babe.

Some of Sarah’s most memorable movie roles include: “The Sweet Hereafter,” “eXistenZ” and “Dawn of the Dead.” In “Splice,” she plays a intelligent character—she’s a scientist opposite Adrien Brody. The two decide to splice DNA together from different animals—something way beyond our brain waves. We just want to see her fight off her creation once things go bad—blondes kicking ass are one of our favorite things!

We are ready for a hot summer of fun ahead. The hot train has taken off as Sarah Polley goes head to head with a creature she helped create in “Splice.” And we look forward to seeing what this brainy beauty will do next—hopefully another Sci-Fi Babe role!

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Canadian Alaina Huffman was born in Vancouver in 1980. This blond beauty is sometimes known as Alaina Kalanj, which is her birth name. Alaina went on her first audition at age 13, but then was recruited to be a model. After years of traveling as a model, Alaina moved to the United States when her father was transferred there. She was a teenager and wanted to pursue acting opportunities.

While Alaina was in high school, she landed roles in several independent films. After moving to Los Angeles, she was cast in small roles on “Dawson’s Creek” and “The O.C.” But it was her leading role in the sci-fi/action series “Painkiller Jane” (based on the comic) that officially made Alaina a Sci-Fi Babe.

Alaina Huffman seems to like the Sci-Fi Babe spotlight because in 2008 she began appearing on “Smallville” as the sexy in leather and fishnets, Black Canary, a member of the Justice League. And boy does she look good as a super hero. Alaina also looks amazing in the black suit she wears on “Stargate Universe.” She’s strong willed and savvy on the show—and we’d let her fix us any day.

As summer kicks off we look know there’s always repeats to catch our favorite Sci-Fi Babez. But for now, we’ll just envision Alaina Huffman at the pool…or better yet, the beach with us. We know she’s going to be a sexy Sci-Fi Babe for years to come. Cheers and Happy Memorial Day.

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Born and raised in Alberta, Canada, Erica Durance was always interested in acting. After gradation, she decided to move to Vancouver to try acting professionally. As many actors do, she started out doing background work and then found some success in commercials. In 2004 she was cast in a part opposite another fave Babe, Eliza Dushku, in the supernatural show “Tru Calling.” She also guest starred on “Andromeda” and “Stargate SG-1.”

Erica Durance started guest starring on “Smallville” in 2004. The fans loved Lois Lane so much that during season 5 the following year, Erica became a regular on the show. She remains a cast regular and we hope that she’ll stick around. Clark may have given her mixed signals, but we have faith that this couple that will kiss again!

We aren’t the only ones to proclaim Erica’s hotness since FHM placed her on their World’s Sexiest Woman list, starting in 2006. She reached #14 on the list in 2009. We look forward to sexy Erica playing Lois Lane during the final season of “Smallville” next season. This is one Sci-Fi Babe as cool as the superhero who loves her!

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