How many great projects are born on Saturday evenings, seated around one, two or three glasses while remaking the world until dawn? Sometimes these childhood dreams are shattered in the early morning by harsh reality, sometimes they come true and go down in history. This is exactly how Métal Hurlant, the cult comic book magazine, was born. Druillet brings together artists, illustrators, writers and thinkers from all horizons at his home every Saturday evening to discuss utopia and science fiction. It is in his living room that Jean-Pierre Dionnet, then bookseller at Futuropolis, scriptwriter in love with comics in his spare time, and Jean Giraud, designer of the hit series Blueberry who has just taken the pseudonym of Moebius to embark on SF. See also on Konbini Instantly, our three thieves become inseparable and work together in the queen magazine of French comics, Pilote. However, they never stop questioning the models of French creation, they even go to New York to meet the kings of American comics Lee Falk and Stan Lee. They grope their way. When and how to take action? A great schism in the ranks of the ninth art will then provide them with a golden opportunity. In 1972, a putsch broke out in Pilote led by Gotlib, Claire Bretécher and Nikita Mandryka. The three cartoonists freed themselves from the crushing bosom of the all-powerful Goscinny and created a competing magazine, more modern and impertinent, L’Écho des savanes. The father must be killed. Druillet, Moebius and Dionnet then left Pilote in turn to carry out their lifelong dream: to found a comic book magazine devoted to science fiction, wanting to explore sexier, less conventional, emancipated universes. of morality and aesthetic codes. In 1974, the trio teamed up with businessman Bernard Farkas and created Les Humanoïde Associés, a publishing house that would publish this quarterly science fiction magazine. told about our project in Mandryka. It was he who inspired us with Métal Hurlant. We were decided, we wanted to call it Mechanical Banana, what bullshit!” explained JP Dionnet. The Bible of a Generation The first issue came out in January 1975 and hit the headlines. Nudity, violence, outrageous, delirious, hallucinating and hallucinated drawings, the magazine was immediately banned for at least eighteen years of age and had to wait until 1978 to have state censorship ceded. that it appeals to the younger generation. In addition to welcoming the most promising designers of the time such as Jacques Tardi (who has just created Adèle Blanc-Sec), the great Enki Bilal, René Pétillon or Caza, it offers comments on works of science -fiction which make the news and introduces in its pages rock criticisms signed by Philippe Manoeuvre. It is a deflagration. Carried by the young generation who finally hold their punk and protest bible and by the incredible rise of comics in French cultural mores, the magazine becomes bimonthly from number 7, then monthly from number 9. In 1977, Métal Hurlant even offers an American alter ego, Heavy Metal, and exports its aura across the Atlantic. A parallel publication that will play a key role in the magazine’s immortal legacy. Métal Hurlant becomes international and welcomes in its pages the future stars of the world comic strip: the Italian Hugo Pratt produces many drawings there which denote with his hero Corto Maltese, Jodorowsky lays the foundations of the Incal with Moebius, Charles Burns sharpens his pencils before El Borbah, Richard Corben prepares to become the king of comics. Incoherence, unconsciousness and pleasure dictate the editorial choices and it works. The merry Parisian brothel becomes a planetary phenomenon. Geniuses of design, not mathematics Behind the galloping influence of Métal Hurlant, however, hides a disastrous economic reality and the 1980s will sound the death knell for the creative madness of Dionnet and his associates, as the latter tells us: “To set up the project and seduce the few investors, Bernard Farkas had drawn us beautiful but false growth curves. From number 10, we realized that a hole was being dug and that it would only get bigger. . Worse, the ras-le-bol seizes the designers. Poorly paid, sometimes not at all, while Dionnet leads the high life on credit, they jump ship. In 1981, Druillet himself decided to bow out. From issue 80, the situation disintegrated and if the creative effervescence was still there, the economic sinking was confirmed. In 1984, for issue 106, Métal Hurlant was bought by Hachette. A welcome respiratory assistance but a betrayal of the Humanos spirit for Dionnet: “We had this free, impertinent, trashy identity and Hachette came with damn, crap, it looked like Les Inconnus: Auteuil, Neuilly, Passy, that’s our ghetto.”After a fierce struggle, Métal Hurlant died out at number 133, a bitter end that would never tarnish the unshakeable reputation of this geek dream come true.Le Retour du RoiIndeed, since the disappearance of Metal Hurlant in 1985, not a year passed without a rumor of a new formula or a second life. The magazine deeply marked a whole generation of cartoonists, writers and journalists who dream of directing their Métal Hurlant. In July 2002, a first concrete attempt was launched. A number 134 is published by Les Humanoïde associates under the leadership of Fabrice Giger, an editor at the head of the American branch of Humanos. It comes in comic book format, is distributed only in bookstores and seeks to put young authors first. If we find prestigious names like François Boucq, Bastien Vivès or Blutch, this new formula, too hesitant, too polite, does not take not and stops in September 2004. Like a cruel symbol, his only success will be the special issue published in 2006, a special issue which proclaims the death of Métal Hurlant. But the monster is immortal. Despite the funeral oration, Métal Hurlant is now entitled to a third life. Under the leadership of the great comic book lover Vincent Bernière and the designer Ugo Bienvenu and thanks to crowdfunding, a first volume will be published in September 2021. It includes 20 stories by promising designers such as Merwan Chabane and Mathieu Bablet. But the result is disappointing and burns the spirits of old Humanos veterans, like Dionnet: “There was a side that was a little too Télérama and graphic universes that were far too wise and similar, as if Ugo Bienvenu had called all his friends without thinking about the diversity inherent in Metal Howling.”The editorial team is dismissed after only one volume and the role of editor-in-chief is entrusted to a former member of the house, screenwriter and artistic director Jerry Frissen. The latter explains: “At 13, I already knew that school was not for me, I dreamed of being a criminal and then I discovered Métal Hurlant. After a few pages, I knew I wanted to do this. Metal Hurlant kind of saved my life so I could see myself returning the favor.” After this false start, the real new formula is taking shape. Return to a quarterly rhythm, alternation between a vintage issue paying homage to the sacred monsters of the magazine and an issue dedicated to the younger generation, appointment of an exceptional “tutelary angel” in the person of Jean-Pierre Dionnet: the machine is running in , asserts itself and appeals to the public. Métal Hurlant is timely. Science fiction is on everyone’s lips and we are far from the underground genre of the time. The future has become a central element of public debate and the magazine takes hold of it in its own way. An issue on space exploration to Mars, another on the Metaverse and many others to follow, the moment seems perfectly chosen to succeed in your new life. The American dream With the return of Métal Hurlant to the front of the stage and in particular with the even-numbered “Vintage” issues paying homage to the designers who made this magazine so genius, we measure the monumental influence that these déglingos could have had on today’s pop culture and more particularly on Hollywood. American alter ego Heavy Metal, through its original creations but above all through its translations of stories made in France, seems to have cradled a whole generation of sacred monsters of American science fiction cinema. The best-known anecdote is also the funniest. It is representative both of the power of the imagination that Métal Hurlant gave birth to in the minds of the artists but also of the terrible business sense of its leaders. At the end of the 1970s, one Monday at an editorial conference, a Australian dressed as Crocodile Dundee who announces that he wants to make a film called Métal Hurlant in homage to the magazine he devours every month. Not impressed by this visionary, Jean-Pierre Dionnet kindly dismissed him. “I thought he was the madman of the day, but it was George Miller and his film is now called Mad Max.” direct and assumed, the short stories published by our Frenchies in Métal Hurlant have inspired the greatest. A flamboyant example, Philippe Druillet is one of the rare artists whose influence George Lucas openly acknowledges for the Star Wars saga. Legend even wants him to be indirectly, thanks to his drawings, at the origin of Darth Vader’s outfit and mask. Ridley Scott in Blade Runner also admits to having stolen many plans from the designer to compose his Los Angeles in 1982 of 2019. As a symbol, during the Parisian preview of Dune in September 2021, Denis Villeneuve even knelt down in front of Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Philippe Druillet to express his admiration and his debt to them. The Canadian director had insisted heavily with Warner that the two men be his guests. Glorious ghost, Métal Hurlant and his inexhaustible factory of imagination continue and always to haunt Hollywood studios. Lately, Moebius and his hero John Difool have made the news. After many projects fell through, it seems that the Incal is in the hands of director Taika Waititi, to whom we owe the latest adaptations of the Marvel hero Thor and who will direct the next Star Wars film. Case to follow then… Unfortunately for our geniuses, it will be necessary to be satisfied with honors. Because if the influence was decisive, the financial rewards are still missing. Hard to take even though Star Wars, Blade Runner or Dune are blockbusters with pharaonic scores. However, there is no bitterness on the side of the Metal Hurlant team, as Dionnet explains to us: “Philippe Druillet has always kept things in perspective. He said to me: ‘he didn’t copy me, he copied a guy who copied me’, we have entered the common culture now.”Like a Balzac or a Dumas, their work now goes beyond generations and has won something other than money, the status of a classic that knows no test of time.
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