I am aware of some of the influences. Judge Dredd and Anthrax come to mind. There is definitely a fan base cross-over, with many fans equally passionate about both styles of moden day storytelling.
I was watching The Dark Knight Returns on YouTube this morning. Seeing the dark imagery, I was reminded how much the two genres have in common. Much like the Batman feature films of late, the cartoon movie was gloomy and featured mass amounts of death mixed with "against all odds" heroism. Both ideas are rampid in the metal genre as well. The phrase "Rise," being a staple in Metal due to its use being related to the idea of "rise up" or "persevere."
That's what superheroes do also. They persevere and never give up.
I am not a comic book geek. My education consists or Marvel, DC, and authors like Gaiman and Miller. I know a little more than just X-Men and Superman however. I have read Sandman, Watchmen, the Killing Joke and Lucifer, but being a layman I find the massive amount of material available a bit overwhelming.
When I was a boy in the early 80's, I flirted with comics as a form of escapism. I had the Secret Wars collection, an Iron Fist comic, a few Cloak and Dagger books, mixed with the standards of the day like X-Men, Transformers and GI Joe. It was normal to obsess over these books, re-reading each page looking for something missed the first time.
Metal came a few years later, and comics were immediately replaced by the imagery and power of the music of my obsession. The result was pattern behavior, pining over every song and looking for something I missed. A large part of that OCD behavior was studying album art and liner notes.
What I came to realize is that even in Metal, comic book characters had a role. Eddie, Vic Rattlehead, Allister Fiend and others graced posters and album covers. Kiss was an obvious nod to comic book art. Manowar portrayed themselves as graphic novel barbarians and comic-like mascots became pretty normal for a few years.
Into the 90's, the comic characters became more menacing. The heroes of that day adjusted as well. Death was no longer taboo. Darker times led to darker story lines. Torture porn and slasher movies expanded our pallets and our collective stomachs became a little stronger.
Music followed suite. It can be said that shock rock took the ideas of graphic novels, movies and art to a new level. In extreme cases, bands led the charge and books took the backseat.
Slipknot is an example of a band that could easily be featured in graphic novel form, just like Mushroomhead before them. Playing hero may not necessarily be the correct way to treat bands of this stature, but as villains they could easily ruin many a good day.
Black metal characters are very "comic book" as well. It's a little more campy, but it's ready made for the villain role in short story format.
In this day we see a new movie based on a graphic novel or classic comic book every week. Some of which the masses don't even realize are story lines from a graphic novel, while others are pretty blatant. Marvel, and it's classic characters rule today's cinema, which took so long to happen because technology needed to be advanced enough to make this shit somewhat believable. Other films like 300, From Hell, Road to Perdition, and Red don't always come across as great comic book writing before they became great movies. If you didn't research, you didn't necessarily know their background in graphic novels.
Metal is underground, but it pulses. A select few of the biggest bands in the world are of the Metal ilk and the remaining Metal bands keep chugging away. We metal heads like our music underground though. Just like in the comics, we root for the underdog and sometimes the bad guys.
I am sure there are many examples of crossover way beyond anything mentioned here. There has to be thousands of examples. The idea of swords and blood are no stranger to either taste, and evil has no boundaries.
Nago
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