The first significant casualty of the Diamond bankruptcy has been revealed. Humanoid, the Los Angeles-based company of the famous French publisher, has just filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, or irrevocable bankruptcy. Chapter 7 means that the company’s assets are liquidated and used to pay creditors.
However, it doesn’t seem like there are that many assets. The company has less than $50,000 in assets and between $10 million and $50 million in debt, according to court filings.
The bankruptcy was filed in Maryland Bankruptcy Court (where did you hear that?) and lists HC Wind Down Corporation as the parent company, with 79.5% owned by Luxembourg-based Humanoids Holding Sarl and 20.5% owned by LA-based entertainment company Primer Entertainment, LLC. Humanoids and Primer partnered in 2018, and at one point had a film adaptation of The Incal directed by Taika Waititi in the pipeline. Since then, the project has remained silent.
Humanoids was last heard from last year on Kickstarter to raise funds for a new edition of Metal Hurlant. As we reported, it was a rival to the heavy metal-driven, crowd-funded relaunch of Heavy Metal Magazine. In something like Space (Fantasy Comics) Race, the Heavy Metal Campaign raised $782,989 and the Humanoid Project raised $759,111.
The first issue was published in June, featuring work by Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, James Stokoe, Peach Momoko, Mark Waid, and others, followed by the second issue. But if more work is requested or completed, it will be lost to the whims of the bankruptcy court.
Humanoids began as a French publishing company founded by Mœbius and Philippe Druillet, with the fantasy anthology magazine Metal Hurlant as its flagship. Metal Harland ran in France until 1987, had a brief revival in the United States in 2002, and had a successful revival in France in 2021.
Humanoids was acquired by then 23-year-old publisher Fabrice Giger in 1988 and re-entered the US market in 1999. Since then, the company has become a semi-regular in the comics industry, as it manages a number of cold comic classics and related titles like Jodorowsky and Mobius’ The Incal. Its history of agreements and initiatives includes deals with DC, Image, Devil’s Due, and H1 Line, a further attempt to launch a regular comic book series led by Mark Waid.
Humanoid’s French arm, Les Humanoids Associés, went into receivership in July, a kind of French bankruptcy, and Giger told Livre Hebdo at the time that the company was considering restructuring. The subsidiary publisher, La Boite à Bulles, is said to be separate from the receivership, but the whole situation seems pretty dire. Comic book sales in France have been greatly affected by the rise of manga and other market forces, and some are struggling.
As for humanoids in the United States, they were severely affected by the Diamond Corporation bankruptcy. However, problems were already starting to arise as they attempted to file for Chapter 11 in January, according to Yahoo Finance. Humanoid filed a challenge to Diamond’s consignment plans in July, but was not part of either group of publishers seeking a halt to the issue. (But see the next story for more on that.)
A complete list of creditors will be submitted in the coming weeks, and a meeting of creditors will be held on November 7th.
Just before New York Comic Con, I was having dinner with a comic colleague, and the topic of humanoids came up… neither of us had heard anything from them in a while. Apparently my Heidi senses were tingling…and now I know why. In both French and English, Humanoids has quite a prestigious backlist, but as its publishing history shows, when bankruptcy rears its ugly head, years of legal wrangling ensue. Keep your old copy of The Incal.
Something like this:
Like loading…
