Métal Hurlant: 1974 – 1987. Révolution of the Humanoïdes. (A.Glass 2021)

(Images: Métal Hurlant 1st issue (1974). From left to right: Bernard Farkas, Jean Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet Jean “Moiebus” Giraud)

On the 19th December 1974 three participants of the French comic book industry met to discuss a future project, they were the artists Jean “Moiebus” Giraud, Philippe Druillet and journalist/writer Jean Pierre Dionnet, along with financier Bernard Farkas.  At the conclusion of this meeting, it was decided that they put together a science fiction graphic novel in a comic book format, aimed exclusively at an adult market.  The comic was called Métal Hurlant.  Born out of the ideas from Dionnet, the cult appeal of this publication, within its French foundation of the late 1960s and early 1970s avant-garde graphic novels, has also been a lost-in-obscurity of understanding its early incarnations.  Yet the impact the publication had, with its genre defying and risqué nature has been astounding – particularly on Hollywood in the decades that followed, with its fusion of two extraordinary talented comic book artists such as Giraud and Druillet interwoven with Dionnet’s satirical writings and observations of popular culture references, with bizarre depictions and at times psychedelic inspired elements of story telling.  They were, as a collective, truly of a different caliber at a time, not just from the French comic book industry, but also to this day, the publication remains persistent in its abstruseness as a global phenomenon of science fiction story telling.  However, it was Dionnet in showcasing his own vague recollections years later after the beginning of Métal Hurlant, that of his history, prior to the creation of ground breaking comic book, he had worked as a diarist and script writer, interacting with and been in the company of some of the great American comic writers and artists of the 1950s and 1960s. 

The group of three creatives named themselves as “Les Humanoïdes Associés” on a word play by Dionnet in defining a company that would later be the staging point for Métal Hurlant’s later publications, although ironically it would be the a lessor known artist Nikita Mandryka that also contributed to this new publication, who was the one that actually titled the comic Métal Hurlant, with the more prominent artists Giraud and Druillet remaining as the two main draw cards.   But, it was Dionnet that not only configured the concept of an adult SciFi comic book, he had also began to set the whole publication in motion, as a collective effort to issue the first template of the ground breaking comic book magazine in 1974.   And this is where one should note the impact that Métal Hurlant had on Hollywood of the late 1970’s and early 1980s, when George Lucas began production for Star Wars in the mid 70’s, utilizing significant aspects of Métal Hurlant’s art for his iconic space opera, it was the UK director Ridley Scott who constructed the storyboard for Alien (1979) and later the cult classic Blade Runner (1983) – who had also drawn heavily from the Métal Hurlant as an artistic  inspiration.  However, to see this French comic book as a distantly original concept in its influence on the movie industry, would not be entirely correct. 

Dionnet being a shrewed writer and observer prior to laying down the groundwork for Métal Hurlant, visited America in 1969 to write articles and interview the many comic book writers and artists for a French publication called Phenex, to cover the American comic book industry of the late 1960s, in that period he spent he was able to meet and become friends with some of the comic book greats at the time such as Stan Lee, Lee Falk, Joe Kubert, Harvey Kurtzman and Art Spiegelman.   But, it was Dionnet’s timing whether conscious or not was, in his visiting of the industry, in its renewed beginning moving towards the new decade at the start of the 1970s.  Being aware that the key differences of the French comic book industry and the American counterpart, was the comic books produced in America did not entirely classify themselves as underground nor offered any creative dissension, apart from the remnants of the early and mid 60’s smaller publications.  To which Dionnet, arriving from France, could be considered an underground comic aficionado, tentatively balanced within his associations of the mainstream comic book market, yet leaning towards the more adult orientated graphic novels.  Thus, the ambiguousness of Dionnet’s influence remains, that as a young French writer immersed in the mainstream American comic industry, offered a paradoxical inclination to his mingling with American comic book artists and writers which could have been seen as an attempt at opportunistic networking, whilst trying to gain entry into a very American-centric comic book industry.   To the point he was, apparently, offered to write an issue of late 60’s Spiderman comic with the great comic book artist Jack Kirby.  That Dionnet, whilst in America at the time, claims he turned down.

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A.Glass 2021.