by RM Rhodes
If Heavy Metal had an FAQ, the top question would be “how can I submit my work?”, followed closely by “what’s the relationship between Heavy Metal and Métal Hurlant?” I’m here to tell you that the answer to the second question can only be “it’s complicated.”
Métal Hurlant started as a French magazine published by a company called Les Humanoids Associees. The four founders were artists Jean Giraud (better known as Moebius), Philippe Druillet, writer Jean-Pierre Dionnet and moneyman Bernard Farkas. At the time, Moebius was wrapping up a decade plus run as a young superstar artist on the western Blueberry with writer Jean-Michel Charlier for Pilote magazine. Any project he showed up in was going to attract attention and that’s exactly what happened with Metal Hurlant.
Within a few years, the magazine was getting attention from international publishers. The most famous of these deals became Heavy Metal. By my count, there are seven different versions of exactly how the magazine got into the hands of the publisher of National Lampoon magazine, who eventually published the material as Heavy Metal.
What made the initial deal attractive to National Lampoon was that the artwork had already been made “print ready” and the only work that had to be done was to translate and reletter the text. Accordingly, the first several issues of Heavy Metal were more or less copies of Métal Hurlant – the biggest differences were the ads and interstitial material.
The actual amount of Metal Hurlant material shrank steadily following the first issue, to the point where there were serious disagreements about exactly how much translated material was obligated to appear in Heavy Metal. This reached a crisis point by 1979. Despite the fact that they were two completely different companies, Dionnet very clearly saw Heavy Metal as an offshoot of Métal Hurlant and thus, to a certain extent, his magazine.
The contractual arrangement stipulated that Heavy Metal had to print a certain number of pages from Métal Hurlant every issue. However, the promised pages sometimes never arrived or were out of order, which made it difficult to meet the terms of the contract. This led to a crisis and the January 1980 issue of Heavy Metal was the first issue printed without any translated material whatsoever.
The divide was resolved by the next issue, but the two companies went back and forth for the rest of 1980. In August of that year, Métal Hurlant declared bankruptcy but managed to continue publishing. The next editorial in the September 1980 issue of Heavy Metal laid out the American understanding of the new relationship in great detail.
When Heavy Metal was launched in 1977 the magazine was basically, if not exclusively, the American edition of the French Métal Hurlant. But even in those earliest issues, HM asserted for itself a separate identity and an independence from the French magazine that inspired it, while continuing to draw upon Métal Hurlant for most of its material: stories by Moebius, Druillet, Claveloux, Clerc, Voss, Macedo – stories that helped us establish and build HM to its present position.
From the beginning, we’ve received letters beseeching us to include material by certain Americans, or just to open up our pages to more American contributors – which, in fact, is something that we’ve done – although Americans like Richard Corben have been with us since our first issue.
We’ve also gone beyond Métal Hurlant to other French magazines, like Pilote, for artists like Caza, Bilal and Ribera – and we’ve thus far only scratched the surface; there are a number of other European publications devoted to quality comics for adults.
As we’ve broadened our reach to make HM a more solidly-based international magazine, bringing in artists from Holland, Italy, and Japan, as well as Great Britain and Canada, we’ve moved further away from being the “American edition” of Métal Hurlant. We’ve stopped being the tail of Metal Hurlant’s dog.
Recently, Métal Hurlant has undergone a variety of problems, resulting in the bankruptcy of that magazine’s parent company, and rumors have been rife concerning the magazine’s future – and the possible effects on us.
To the best of my knowledge, Métal Hurlant will continue publication, although its associated book-publication program may be cut back, but we’ve decided that it is time to cut ourselves loose and assert our own independence. Although you’ll continue to see material here that we’ve picked up from Métal Hurlant, we will no longer be jointly affiliated as publications. We will no longer be “the American Métal Hurlant.”
Instead, we will be what, in fact, we’ve already become: Heavy Metal, the American magazine of international adult illustrated fantasy. It feels a little like a divorce, but at least it’s an amicable one.
From that point on, the Métal Hurlant material that Heavy Metal was mostly interested in was the work by Moebius, who had completed his “Airtight Garage” and had started working with Alejandro Jodorowsky on their seminal title “The Incal.” The majority of the other European material came from other sources – Pilote or Spanish language anthology magazines.
By the mid-80s, there was no longer any official relationship between the two magazines. But if you thought that meant that the two companies stopped paying attention to each other, you’d be wrong.
During a conversation between Kim Thompson, Moebius and Jean-Marc Lofficier published in the December 1987 issue of The Comics Journal, Moebius and Lofficier engaged in the perennial game of trying to enunciate the difference between Heavy Metal and Métal Hurlant.
Giraud: Listen, as an artist and a critic, I find Heavy Metal idiotic. It’s a hodgepodge. There are no lines in the magazine. It’s really an absurd catalog, with no coherence whatsoever, of all sorts of tendencies. One can criticize them for that.
Lofficier: That’s the big difference between Heavy Metal and Métal Hurlant. Métal Hurlant had a style, a political stance, a selection of artists who were at the same stage of their personal development. While Heavy Metal tried to transplant into the United States an evolution that hadn’t been made, but perhaps will be in several years. They tried to impose on the public an artificial evolution.
More than any other commentary about the compare-and-contrast relationship, I think that Giraud and Lofficier are actually on to something. Métal Hurlant was a stage in the personal artistic journey of these creators. Heavy Metal, on the contrary, was a commercial enterprise, published by a commercial publisher that did not necessarily have the same kind of personal relationship to the material.
Ted White, the editor of Heavy Metal who wrote the September 1980 editorial, agreed. In an interview with The Comics Journal in 1980, he said, “I don’t believe that management has any real idea of what Heavy Metal is, could be, or should be. They lucked into a magazine through essentially doing the American edition of a French magazine. The French magazine had a definite point of view, and they picked that point of view up to an extent, but they weren’t willing to go all the way with it, quite rightly.”
In that same interview, he also said, “The most common criticism I heard of Heavy Metal before I even knew I was going to be asked to be the editor of the magazine is that it looked like it was thrown together by people who didn’t know what they were doing.” Twenty years later, in another article for The Comics Journal, he said, “(E)very issue had a scrapbook quality. Heavy Metal was being thrown together, rather than edited.”
In 2002, Humanoids Publishing began publishing a new version of Métal Hurlant simultaneously in French, English, Spanish and Portuguese. In the third issue of the revived Métal Hurlant, Dionnet was brought in as a columnist. He began his first column with a discussion of his bona fides and continued on to discuss Heavy Metal. These latter comments are fascinating in light of the September 1980 editorial and White’s assessment of the situation from his 2000 article.
Later I decided to make a living from comic books, first as a writer and then… by launching with Druillet and Moebius my own magazine, Métal Hurlant. Métal Hurlant spawned the American Heavy Metal magazine, which quickly (and to my profound horror) plummeted towards a drooling esthetic, falsely poetic and truly cheesy in a way that reminded me of black velvet paintings, with flying horses and sterile images of bimbos with perfect hairdos.
In addition to the fact that he’s not wrong, Dionnet also seems to be adding his own spin to the long-standing “it used to be good” rhetoric by implying that Heavy Metal was better when it was called Métal Hurlant. But it’s also interesting to note that Dionnet felt compelled to define Métal Hurlant in relation to Heavy Metal, despite the fact that the reader was holding a copy of a magazine with that same name on the cover. The fact remains that Heavy Metal is a much bigger brand than Métal Hurlant ever was and Dionnet’s sour grapes are almost palpable.
This editorial got Kevin Eastman, who owned and published Heavy Metal at the time, so hot and bothered that he felt the need to respond in the May 2003 issue of Heavy Metal:
Lastly, I just want to say my heart goes out to Jean-Pierre Dionnet, the creator of Métal Hurlant (the inspiration for Heavy Metal Magazine) for disappointing so many of his countrymen and the rest of the extremely talented European talents we publish in each issue. It seems he felt compelled to make some really unpleasant comments about the work we publish in the most recent issue of Métal Hurlant.
His original creation, based on many, many magazines of its type in existence at that time started in the mid seventies and was out of business before the start of the eighties. It, like the others published there, and Heavy Metal which followed, featured mostly the best talents from Europe and top talents from America – 25 years later, we still do. I’m proud to have been a reader for all those years and a publisher for the last twelve. I thank you all for your support. My only hope is that Mr. Dionnet continues on the same successful path he’s journeyed through the past 20 years.
In 2013, The Comics Journal published a conversation with Dionnet that was mostly a rambling monologue with occasional interjections from Joe McCullough. In that conversation, Dionnet was more forthcoming about his feelings on Heavy Metal. His frustration with the fact that the Heavy Metal editorial group wouldn’t do what he thought they should do comes through.
I made a big mistake, because I said I don’t want to colonize America, so let’s say that it would be good if you can put some American stuff in also, maybe 10 or 20 percent. What I didn’t know is that all the editors – Julie Simmons was the daughter of (National Lampoon co-publisher) Matty Simmons, and Ted White – were great with science fiction, but had very bad taste in art, like a lot of science fiction people. They began to have stories by people I don’t like. Aside from (Richard) Corben, who I published first. Aside from Kaluta. I was very naïve, I’d say maybe you could give stories to Spiegelman, to Crumb, to Moscoso. And they didn’t want to work with those people. Art was starting RAW at the time, and didn’t need to, but I think that most of them would have accepted to have, let’s say, a comics section in Metal at the time.
…
And for me, it’s very, very, very important that the company still goes on. I was very sad at what began when the Ninja Turtle guy (Kevin Eastman) bought it (Heavy Metal, in 1991), because it was really becoming something I don’t like at all. In terms of Humanoïdes, some stories are better than others, but some I like. So, well, that’s ok. But it’s – it’s terrible you know – we were avant-garde, and I think you must not be avant-garde for too long. Because after, it becomes tricks. We had the usual span of life of an avant-garde thing.
It’s not entirely clear if Joshua Sky, the person conducting the interview with Dionnet in Heavy Metal’s issue 300 (published in 2020), was aware of the comments from 2003 or 2013. The last question in that interview asks Dionnet why he thinks the American version outlasted the European version.
I don’t know. Métal Hurlant was a short venture, started in 1974 and died about ten years later. And it was very good this way. I don’t think it was meant to become a regular magazine. It was more of a big concept, like a massive bomb that exploded, but after a while, the chain reaction burnt out. When there was a revival in the 2000s, I did not like it because it was not a magazine like Heavy Metal. Some of the great artists of Métal Hurlant disappeared. A lot of artists were repeating what we were doing at the time. It wasn’t new. What I like about Heavy Metal is that it has changed many times over the years.
Since it changed, it could go on.
Again, he’s not wrong. Again, the faint odor of sour grapes.
In 2017, the same Joshua Sky conducted an interview with Fabrice Giger, the CEO of Humanoids, the company that currently publishes Métal Hurlant.
JS: Can you talk about the difference between Métal Hurlant and Heavy Metal? Many confuse the two for each other.
FG: People often confuse both brands Heavy Metal and Métal Hurlant which is normal, since Heavy Metal was adapted from Métal Hurlant and published our content for a few years in the mid to late 70’s. Métal Hurlant and its numerous foreign versions have been a major influence in pop culture since then, and one can see its mark everywhere. Many talented people all around the world have been influenced by its content and our books. Recently, I read in interviews that Métal was an important influence for Alex Garland (Ex Machina), and even Hans Zimmer, the composer.
JS: What is your relationship now, if any, with Heavy Metal? I know they’re in Hollywood trying to exploit the magazine. Do you still have a relationship with them?
FG: We have met the new owners who seem nice, but we don’t really know them. To some degree, I still believe that the real spirit of Heavy Metal is that of Métal Hurlant. They have, for the most part, lived on a wave which started in the 70’s. Those content licensing deals, and creative agreements happened before me. Back then, they decided, probably because it was cheaper, not to publish the Humanoids content and to go with material whose quality was not at the same level. Clearly, in a spiritual sense, there was a split between both brands back then. They went into a different direction, with the big tits and stuff like that, while Humanoids has been investing heavily in creating new content and building a strong catalog of IPs.
The perspective of Métal Hurlant was clarified in their 2024 Kickstarter campaign.
Is Métal Hurlant the same thing as Heavy Metal?
In a word: no.
During its original 70s/80s runs, the contents of Métal Hurlant were translated into multiple languages by publishing partners around the globe, including in the US (i.e. Heavy Metal). However, the essence of Métal Hurlant eventually became lost in translation. For years, many have anticipated the relaunch of this legendary cult publication in its true form.
They clarified with an update in December 2024.
With both Métal Hurlant and Heavy Metal having parallel-running Kickstarters to relaunch their titles with new and classic material, we know there’s been some confusion, so let’s set the record straight: Métal Hurlant and Heavy Metal are two distinct entities with very different legacies.
In 1974, Druillet, Dionnet, and Mœbius founded Métal Hurlant and what would become Humanoids. In 1977, National Lampoon launched Heavy Metal by translating material originally published in Métal Hurlant. This collaboration lasted for a few years before the American magazine sought other material, diverging both culturally and creatively from its original model.
However, it seems those initial years are what many people associate most with Heavy Metal today. Fair enough—but let’s not lose sight of the origins and give credit where credit’s due: Render unto Métal Hurlant that which is Métal Hurlant’s.
Amongst the many titans of those early Métal Hurlant years was French artist Jean-Michel Nicollet. Personally selected by Métal founder Jean-Pierre Dionnet to provide covers for Métal, Nicollet’s work became so iconic that National Lampoon chose his cover for Métal Hurlant n°8 to be the cover of the very first issue of Heavy Metal.
But make no mistake, Jean-Michel Nicollet is pure Métal Hurlant.
In the October 1984 issue of The Comics Journal, American critic Bhob Stewart made the apposite observation that “Of course, Heavy Metal was never a legitimate “American Edition” of Métal Hurlant but regarded itself as creaming the “best of” Métal.” In that same article, Stewart also wrote that “Part of Heavy Metal’s magnetism is the wide diversity of artists and styles it has presented over the years.” So yes, it’s not Métal Hurlant. But then again, it was never meant to be. And that’s the point.
The first issue of the Kickstarted Metal Hurlant contained an essay on the history of Métal Hurlant by Tom Lennon entitled “The French Comic that Changed the World,” which alleges that Métal Hurlant has been widely influential across a wide variety of artistic industries and creators. Heavy Metal is barely mentioned and, when it is, the tone is desultory at best.
Another point of divergence between Métal Hurlant and Heavy Metal is that US editors didn’t always share Dionnet’s passion for weird, experimental, avant-garde comic art. Their tastes leaned more towards a chrome-coated cheesecake aesthetic, which became more noticeable as time passed. Despite that, Heavy Metal deserves credit for having introduced many English-speaking comics fans to Métal Hurlant comic strips and possibly blowing their minds in the process.
From the perspective of Métal Hurlant, it didn’t matter that the majority of the people who knew about their magazine knew it from the perspective of Heavy Metal. The important part was that the content had been widely influential and that content was originally produced in Métal Hurlant. Therefore, Métal Hurlant was the influential magazine, even if it had been filtered through the imperfect medium of Heavy Metal.
Which brings us to the recent news that Metal Hurlant’s parent company, Humanoids Publishing, has declared bankruptcy. The article where I first read the news was originally published on The Street, written by Daniel Kline. It’s not clear if Kline has any previous relationship with Métal Hurlant, but the tone of his article mirrors the longstanding disdain that Métal Hurlant has exhibited towards Heavy Metal over the years, specifically the following line:
“Métal Hurlant,” which was adapted into the 1981 movie “Heavy Metal,” remains the company’s best-known comic.
Taken on its own, the line is objectively hilarious. In context with the decades of snide remarks from the likes of Dionnet and Giger, Kline’s article managed to sum up the contentious relationship between the two publications perfectly. Heavy Metal is reduced to nothing but a movie and the fact that it was released by a completely different company is not even important enough to mention. It’s both petty and petulant, not unlike the convoluted phrasing that one uses when referring to an ex that has gone on to be more successful after the breakup.
I told you it was complicated.
RM Rhodes is a critic, comics historian and Six Sigma Green Belt who has written extensively about Heavy Metal for a variety of outlets. He lives in the DC area and is often found wandering SPX in a purple suit. He has faith that one day the book he wrote about Heavy Metal will be published.
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