Enki Bilal in Paris on June 3, 2013. – V. WARTNER / 20 MINUTES
Good news for comics and science fiction fans. The mythical magazine Métal Hurlant, which disappeared fifteen years ago, will return to newsstands and bookstores in September in quarterly format.
Created in 1975 by the Humanoïdes associés (Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Vincent Bernière), this legendary magazine has influenced even Ridley Scott (Alien) and George Lucas, the father of Star Wars, and helped science fiction come out of the underground to become the major genre it is today, especially in film and television.
In its first issue, the new quarterly format revived by Vincent Bernière – already at the origin of the rebirth of Comic books in 2017 – will offer 225 pages of short comic books and 60 pages of articles and interviews, around the theme of “near future”, the coming anticipation. Many contributors participated in the project such as comic book author Enki Bilal.
Attract a new audience
To mark the launch of the project, Métal Hurlant will change the theme for each issue and will alternate between two formulas. One dedicated to new stories and new talents, and the other in “vintage” mode, which will reissue rarities and treasures from the old magazine, Vincent Bernière told AFP.
A strategy to attract new curious readers but also the most loyal, attached to the old version of the title which is proving effective: the new magazine is already arousing enthusiasm on the web. A campaign launched on the Kisskissbankbank platform to finance the project, collected more than 5,500 presales in less than 10 days.