"belongs in all adult collections...." Artist Bob Fingerman writes that, "Neverwhere is a timeless adult fantasy epic". According to the Lambiek online comiclopedia, "With 'Den', Corben had found his ideal fantasy world. Corben returned again and again to it, and an end of 'Den' is not to be foreseen". Antonio Sánchez Rodríguez pondered Corben's comments of the character Den being his imagined alter ego, interpreting him as being conceived to oppose sexual repression through desinhibition and deliberate hypersexualization. He also commented on women's portrayal in Den, noting that although they weren't classical, strong heroines or warrior women, they are independent and capable of employing their intelligence and sexuality to triumph. They act to fulfill their own sexual desire, just like Den. Film adaptation The film Heavy Metal features a segment titled "Den" that adapts the first Den collection, Den 1: Neverwhere (not to be confused with the animated short of the same title). The film eliminates the Uncle Dan part of the story and incorporates a green meteorite as a portal to Neverwhere. Small details are changed (Kath is now from Gibraltar), some concessions to appease the MPAA from giving the film an "X" rating such as the main characters wearing small loin garments (Which playfully disappear for the female leads in long shots and when they are not depicted frontally, leaving them fully nude), some characters and subplots are eliminated, but the segment follows the plot of the comic story fairly closely. The biggest difference is the tone: the animated segment is told in a self-referential, humorous style, with Den as an innocent teenage science enthusiast reveling in living a wild sexual fantasy with an idealized body, different from the straight forward adventure tone of the comic. In fact, the segment is similar in tone to "Denz", which makes fun of many of the absurdities of the Neverwhere premise. Den is voiced by comedic actor John Candy. To highlight the segment's humorous tone, the script has Den speaking directly to both characters and also in contrasting voice-overs. In one, he is dead serious and strong willed, matching his epic existence on Neverwhere; in the other he sounds adolescent, reflecting on his life on Earth. The rest of the voice cast consists of Jackie Burroughs as Katherine Wells, Martin Lavut as Ard, Marilyn Lightstone as the Queen, and August Schellenberg as Norl. This adaptation has been compared in its idea