Excerpt: MÉTAL HURLANT: 1974 – 1987. RÉVOLUTION OF THE HUMANOÏDES. (A.GLASS 2021)

 

(Métal Hurlant issue #34, 1978. Image:  https://www.pulpinternational.com/pulp)

"...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..."

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Full article:  https://chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/05/metal-hurlant-1974-1987-revolution-of.html 

A.Glass 2021