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Article Dans Une Revue Journal of Comics and Culture Année : 2020

“The Illustrated Fantasy Magazine from France.” From Métal Hurlant to Heavy Metal

Résumé

Heavy Metal was first published in March 1977, and offered a crucial gateway for European bande dessinée in the United States. Advertised as “The Illustrated Fantasy Magazine from France”, it presented creators such as Moebius, Bilal and Tardi to a wide American readership for the first time. This article investigates the circumstances and origins of the industrial project. It first seeks to revisit and reconcile conflicting narratives regarding the origin of the agreement between Les Humanoïdes Associés, Métal Hurlant’s publisher, and 21st Century Communication, the National Lampoon’s parent company, by suggesting that the dominant account of a happy coincidence need be nuanced. The article then focuses on the genealogy of this agreement and on the systemic elements which made it imaginable in the first place. It argues that Heavy Metal should be understood as the result of a decades-long process of international exchanges in the comics world, at the personal but also the industrial level; Harvey Kurtzman, René Goscinny and Mad magazine feature prominently in this history. Though singular, Heavy Metal should also be understood as a product of these accelerating reciprocal exchanges in the 1970s.
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Dates et versions

hal-03132157 , version 1 (04-02-2021)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-03132157 , version 1

Citer

Nicolas Labarre. “The Illustrated Fantasy Magazine from France.” From Métal Hurlant to Heavy Metal. Journal of Comics and Culture, 2020, 5, pp.111-130. ⟨hal-03132157⟩
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