Comicon Exclusive: First Excerpt From Melissa Meszaros’ ‘Heavy Metal Headbang,’ In Bookstores This Week

Today is the first day of Brain Injury Awareness month. Newly-launched Oil On Water Press, the all-new imprint of Headpress, is proud to announce Heavy Metal Headbang by Melissa Meszaros.

Comics, metal and a pizza week gone awry- it’s not every day a Hollywood publicist gets hit by a car.

On her way to a Judas Priest concert, the accident happens. The traumatic brain injury Melissa Meszaros sustains changes everything; her life is turned upside down. Her steady job as a Hollywood publicist and her trusted friends and colleagues are called into question. Even her own reflection staring back at her is a stranger. As she navigates the legal and medical battles, Melissa also begins to challenge her own fractured self. 

For a publicist, identity is everything. What begins as a series of snapshot memories soon becomes an inspiring personal tale of recovery, as Melissa questions both her own identity—and her career. What does it mean to suddenly disappear from a rock’n’roll lifestyle when your whole professional life has been dedicated to making others famous? 

Ahead of release, there are talks of film options and a comic book adaptation. In a Comicon exclusive, Oil on Water Press has provided an excerpt from the upcoming book:

A COWORKER HAD brought my laptop to the Intensive Care Unit, knowing my obsession with my job. Hazed and dazed, each time I turned to lay on my side, a wrenching pain and nausea made me puke.  

“Look away,” I pleaded, reaching for the long plastic bag. The vomit was a shade of red. Internal bleeding or a hemorrhage leaking, I  didn’t know. 

When the trauma surgeon came in equipped with a needle and  sutures, that was the moment I realized my scalp had split open at  the crown. 

“Are you gonna shave my head?” 

Not my first rodeo. The Chelsea haircut was my thing junior year  of high school.  

The surgeon combed through my blood-matted hair with his  fingers. “I don’t think so,” he said. “Looks like you’ll need only one or  two stitches.” 

I really felt like a wuss now.  

As he prepped to sew my scalp back together, I thought of the  movie Hannibal. The scene where Anthony Hopkins sawed off the  top of Ray Liotta’s head and was serving him cooked parts of his own  brain. I most likely voiced that same comparison to the surgeon as he stitched my head.  

My coworker walked back through the curtain. He was also a close  friend who worked comics, and we would often commiserate over bad life choices. When he looked down at me, his eyes were clenched  and despairing. In fact, for as many times as I’d seen him sad, he had  never looked that sad. 

“Why did this happen?” I asked him, catching my breath. He reached for me, fighting tears. Sitting down next to the bed, he began stroking my hand with his thumb.

Heavy Metal Headbang hits the shelves on March 3, 2022.