This year marks the 50th anniversary since Métal Hurlant was first published in France. Co-founded by Philippe Druillet, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, and the late Jean “Mœbius” Giraud, Métal Hurlant (“Screaming Metal” in English) electrified the European comics scene and ushered forth a generation of comics talent whose influence and artistry are felt throughout our popular culture to this day. Published from 1975 to 1987, the magazine catapulted Mœbius’ profile, garnered the admiration of artists as far afield as Katsuhiro Otomo and Geof Darrow, and has inspired such lauded directors as Ridley Scott, Hayao Miyazaki, Denis Villeneuve, and more.
This month, more than 38 years after the magazine’s initial closure and nearly 21 years after its brief revival as a limited anthology, Métal Hurlant returns to store shelves in an all-new, quarterly magazine for English audiences. Crowdfunded via Kickstarter late last year, the first of the initial four-issue run includes classic stories from the likes of such lauded Métal Hurlant alumni as Druillet, Dionnet, and Mœbius—including some stories never before published in English—alongside new stories penned by some of the best and brightest artists and writers working in the medium of comics today.
“It started in France a few years ago,” Fabrice Giger, the CEO of Métal Hurlant publisher Humanoids, tells The A.V. Club. “We tested a [crowdfunded version of Métal Hurlant] in France in 2021, and for a few years, it worked. It worked so well, in fact, that we now have a Polish version, along with some others in discussion at the moment, but of course; the next step for us was always to bring it to the U.S.” Giger emphasized that the evolution of the comic book market in Europe in ’80s led to the initial shuttering of not just Métal Hurlant, but many of its contemporaries as well. “The readers realized that what they would read in the magazine would be released as an album, as a book later. So people just decided to wait until the book was released. And that was something that actually killed not only material alone, but killed all the comic book magazines in Europe.”
Metal Hurlant Issue 1 (June 2025). Illustration by Mœbius.
Excerpt from “Blind Box” by Yang Weilin.
Excerpt from “Convoy” by Peter Snejbjerg.
Fast-forward to 2025. Humanoids had remained adamant in relaunching Métal Hurlant, but the decision about when and how to do so largely hinged on identifying and responding to the ways the comic book industry has shifted over the years and how modern audiences opt to engage with creators. “The comic book market in the U.S. has evolved over the past years into something complicated,” Giger says. “I know that publishers usually don’t say that, but that’s the case, and a bit like what we have observed in the tabletop game space, crowdfunding has become something that is important. It has become part of the distribution, and for us, it gives us something that we didn’t have before, which is a means to be in touch directly with the readers.”
Following a successful Kickstarter campaign last December, which amassed over 150 times its initial funding goal of $5,000, Giger says that the decision to crowdfund this new English edition of Métal Hurlant has been a boon both financially and to the overall morale of the creators involved. “To kind of experiment with this relationship, and to be able to kind of get feedback, it’s been fantastic,” Giger says. “First, because we get very nice comments every day, but it also gives us a better reason to do what we do, because it’s not easy. You have to deal with many, many things in a complicated market, and this link that we’ve been able to create through crowdfunding with the readership is very important […] They started receiving their copies a few weeks ago and they love it, so much so they’ve started asking us what the second issue is about, when we will release it, and that’s something we wouldn’t experience if we had just released the book through bookstores and comic book stores.”
Excerpt from “Epiphany” by Fred Blanchard.
Excerpt from “Retrograde” by writer Karla Pacheco and artist Sagar.
Excerpt from “You Will Remember Me” by writer Kevin Sullivan and artist Simon Leclerc.
The first issue of the English language edition of Métal Hurlant, titled “Old Dreams, Young Visions,” took close to two years to complete. Many factors contributed to the length of that production process, not the least of which included deciding how to distribute the book, as well as curating the right selection of new and old stories to celebrate the anthology’s anniversary. “For the old stories, we just tapped into our vault, and when, for example, we had lost over the 50 years some rights to some stories, we just decided to go and get them from the current publishing companies,” Giger says. “But for the new material, we’re in a process now where we are working with literally hundreds of creators from all around the world. Over the past three or four years, we have built enough advanced material that we can use in order to compose the issues. Some of that material we just received, y’know, like a month ago, while others are almost two years old.”
Giger adds, “It’s really thrilling, because you can really play it as an instrument, and you just tap into this folder where you have these amazing stories. It’s like composing a flower arrangement. ‘Okay, what would I put next to Mœbius?’ It has to be very good, because if it’s not good next to Mœbius, it’s difficult. And sometimes it’s not as good in terms of art, but it’s fantastic in writing, so that’s the actual pleasure in composing these issues, and I think that people have felt that joy that we had to do that. We’re just finishing issue two, like, literally today. We commissioned a cover from an artist named Atif Khaled, and he did it right on the spot, exactly what we wanted. It’s really a pleasure when you can just say that you’re done with an issue and it’s exactly what you want it to be.”
Excerpt from “The Nightmare Motel” by Elen Usdin.
Excerpt part 1 from “New Species” by Nikola Pisarev.
Excerpt part 2 from “New Species” by Nikola Pisarev.
For the writers and artists who have contributed stories to this latest run of Métal Hurlant, the feeling is entirely mutual. “Contributing to Métal Hurlant and having my work stand alongside both enduring classics and the very best contemporary voices of the medium has been an honor,” Kingdom Come writer Mark Waid says. “To see this iconic anthology finally becoming available to American readers—knowing it was the original model for Heavy Metal magazine in the 1970s—is something that will excite a whole new generation of readers.”
The revival of Métal Hurlant is much more than simply relaunching a comics magazine, but nothing short of an attempt to rekindle the fire of avant-garde experimentation and storytelling that blazed so brightly in the pages of the original anthology for a new generation. “The Métal Hurlant that we created in 1975 with Dionnet, Mœbius, and all those who joined us was a cultural manifesto,” Philippe Druillet says. “Just like the Surrealists, the Dadaists, the 19th-century Symbolists, the Impressionists, and others. It became a cultural movement that has continued to grow over the years, and today, with this English edition publishing work by creators from around the world, it lives on more vibrantly than ever.”
The founders of Métal Hurlant (L-R): Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Jean Giraud a.k.a. Mœbius, and Philippe Druillet in Paris, 1975. Photograph by Claude Gassian.
Métal Hurlant #1: Old Dreams, New Visions is available to purchase on June 17.
