Excerpt: "MÉTAL HURLANT: 1974 – 1987. RÉVOLUTION OF THE HUMANOÏDES. (PART 5). THE ‘HEAVY METAL’ YEARS"

 

"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..."

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Full article: https://chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/05/metal-hurlant-1974-1987-revolution-of_71.html  

(A.Glass 2021)