Métal Hurlant: 1974 – 1987. Révolution of the Humanoïdes. (Part 5). The ‘Heavy Metal’ Years
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The, as mentioned, risqué and at times sexually explicit nature of Métal Hurlant may have been a hard sell across the Atlantic, with America still bogged down with the Comics Code Authority, left over from the McCarthyism years. Métal Hurlant was, almost exclusively, an underground French comic and by the late 1977 it had barely survived passed its first issue, the three creatives, although talented within their chosen lore, had very little understanding and knowledge of the financial side of creating a magazine publication. A lesson seldom learned by the many artists who venture into starting up publication, with grand ideas and talent will take you only so far and in most cases it fails more than it succeeds in light of distribution issues, rising costs and falling sales. While Jean Giraud, although a very talented artist was, by his personal disposition, like most creatives, naive to the business world and its dealings, although in his own fortunate circumstances Giraud had astute wife/s that guided his career moves, particularly into Hollywood. His association with Les Humanoïdes Associés as discussed in this series, was for the most part a strained relationship – more so with fellow Métal Hurlant artist Philippe Druillet, who by his own artistic direction represented the underground aspect of Métal Hurlant with his grandiose “Space Architecture” style pieces, with a gritter and rawness to their overall dynamics. Regardless of the nature of the adult comic magazine with its many contributing artists and writers, at the end of the day it all came down to the survivability of Métal Hurlant, which became more apparent in the lead up to Métal Hurlant demise in 1987. An important factor in the history of the magazine, particularly when Jean Dionnet took the reigns of the financial dealings for the Métal Hurlant after they sacked their financial backer Bernard Farkas. But, Hollywood had already tapped the underground magazine for ideas. So how could Dionnet equalize the deal? Without an attempt at issuing plagiarism lawsuits, all the while Jean Giraud had his hands in both pies, the three person collective Les Humanoïdes Associés would have lost any legal battle against the might of the Hollywood studios.
Dionnet from his earlier days, prior to Métal Hurlant’s debut in the mid 1970s, as an aspiring writer and journalist criss crossed back and forth to America, more so New York City from Paris, was aware of the corporate structure beneath the creative publishing comic book companies such as Marvel and DC. However incorporations and markets are something that can derail an artist and writer very quickly by the sheer nature of compromising their drive to create an individual impression. And it was Métal Hurlant, that for the Druillet, Dionnet and Giraud that did indeed free them of any restriction under a corporate banner. However, this underground romanticism that Métal Hurlant portrayed, despite the credit owned to it by Hollywood’s production companies researching a new project, was in fact compromised when Giraud was offered set and production jobs after Alejandro Jodorowsky’s failed 1976 DUNE project and Giraud’s work on Métal Hurlant. With the underground comic been tapped for mainstream ideas, the sell out was all but inevitable – to which Giraud’s rise to stardom was testament, but this meteoric ascent of Giraud was, as one would expect, not shared amongst the other two members of Les Humanoïdes Associés.
By 1976 with Farkas gone, Dionnet was desperate to attain additional funds for the Métal Hurlant, already the magazine had required large amounts of credit from banks just to create its following up issues, with advertising revenue for the magazine equating to almost zero, the amount of money to sustain the longevity for Métal Hurlant was becoming more and more limited. Although, Métal Hurlant’s popularity was seen in Spain and Germany, Dionnet was steadfast that he could claim the world’s largest economy, but the hard sell of a French Adult orientated magazine comic was tough a play, even though Hollywood had been pinching ideas from the publication, Dionnet’s pitch started with Stan Lee of Marvel comic’s fame – to which Lee believed the comic itself would not work in America. Yet, in 1982 Marvel, under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter did indeed create a ‘mature’ comic magazine influenced by Métal Hurlant called Epic, which lasted until 1997. So, the writing was on the wall that a crossover with an American publication was inevitable Dionnet meet with Penthouse Magazine mogul Bob Guccione, where he was introduced to publisher of the satirical magazine ‘National Lampoon’, Len Mogel. Upon reading an issue of Métal Hurlant, a deal was struck, Mogel agreeing to set up a licensing deal with Les Humanoïdes Associés, changing the name of the magazine to Heavy Metal from Métal Hurlant which in English means Howling Metal and the first issue of Heavy Metal appeared on American magazine stand in 1977, which for its debut issues was a page-by-page version of the equivalent 1977 Métal Hurlant issue, except it was all in English.
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A.Glass 2021
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