Métal hurlant at the CBBD : 50 years of explosive creativity
Avec l'exposition Embarquement immédiat, le Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée explore cinquante ans de bouillonnement culturel, bien au-delà de la science-fiction.
It was a UFO that appeared in the French publishing world on that day in 1975: Métal Hurlant, a comic book and pop culture magazine produced by Les Humanoïdes Associés, which had been created a year earlier.
It took the founders a year to produce this first issue, a collector’s item of unquestionable quality. But the team was not prepared for the quarterly pace. Issue 2 was vastly inferior and came close to being a disaster.
A cultural revolution on all fronts
But Métal Hurlant wasn’t just about comics, even though three of its founders were authors for Pilote magazine: Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Roland Giraud. The latter, who published the comic book Blueberry under his real name, adopted the pseudonym Moebius and became one of the great names in science fiction and fiction in general. The fourth Dalton in this band of miscreants was Bernard Farkas, a businessman who made his fortune not with Metal Hurlant, where he was financial director, marketing expert, accountant and legal advisor, but by launching the Rubik’s Cube!
By 1975, the magazine, then a quarterly publication, had a circulation of 60,000 copies, reaching 90,000 by 1983. It was as much a publishing phenomenon as it was a cultural phenomenon.
Although the first issues focused mainly on comics and science fiction, the magazine quickly expanded its scope to other cultural areas. Music was one of these, with the arrival of Philippe Manoeuvre, who gave the magazine a rock ‘n’ roll vibe, notably with special issues on music and rock. This opening up to the world of popular music gave Frank Margerin, who did not feel very comfortable with science fiction, a space to fully express his universe with Lucien, the rocker with the slicked-back quiff.
The magazine’s success was such that it went international. Leonard Mogel, publisher of the American humour magazine National Lampoon, bought the rights to publish Heavy Metal in the United States. Other European publishers followed suit with Danish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and German editions.
Between October 1978 and September 1976, Les Humanoïdes Associés published Ah ! Nana, a feminist comic book magazine edited by Janic Guillerez. Although the magazine had a print run of 30,000 copies, average sales never exceeded 15,000 copies. Censorship sounded the death knell for this publication, which was well ahead of its time, by banning it from minors.
Decline and renewal
In the 1980s, new stars of the ninth art joined the publication: Hugo Pratt and his fabulous Corto Maltese, Alejandro Jorodowski and his MétaBarons, François Schuiten and his hallucinatory cities, etc.
But the beautiful unity of the early days began to crumble. Jean-Pierre Dionnet left Métal Hurlant to co-host television programmes with Philippe Manoeuvre. Later, Philippe Druillet and François Schuiten also abandoned ship as disputes and factions multiplied.
The takeover by the Hachette group did not change anything, and the magazine published its last issue, number 133, in July 1987.
The phoenix rose from the ashes for a time in 2002 with issue 134, still published by Les Humanoïdes Associés under the direction of Fabrice Giger. However, the bird failed to take flight and crashed to the ground in 2004.
However, fans of this multifaceted monster, including the author of this article, are not resigned to the death of their icon: in 2006, the publisher of Heavy Metal, the American version, relaunched the magazine as a quarterly MOOK. A long-format volume every quarter with new names and reprints. But the rebellious spirit and boundless exploration of the original had disappeared.
An exhibition of exceptional quality for an exceptional magazine
This CBBD exhibition lives up to its subject matter. The particularly clever scenography is by Pauline Hutin. The choices made by Gilles Francescano, the exhibition curator, are judicious.
Firstly, the exhibition is housed in a kind of capsule – the same as for the Edgar-Pierre Jacobs exhibition – which evokes a spaceship, a particularly appropriate setting for this gem.
First, Atif Khaled’s poster, featuring his spaceship flying over Brussels, welcomes you at the entrance to the module. Next, a few black and white panels provide some basic information about the history of the magazine, its authors and its founders.
After that, you can admire a unique collection of 140 magazine covers. Before immersing yourself in a labyrinth perfectly designed to make the most of the limited space available while offering you a clear view of each author.
The exhibition also highlights the authors who made Métal Hurlant a success: Moebius and his mad Bandard, Philippe Druillet’s creative frenzy around Gustave Flaubert’s Salambo, Cava’s extraterrestrial creatures, sexier than Hollywood bombshells, and Hans Ruedi Giger’s nightmares around Alien and Beelzebub. Alongside these big names are lesser-known authors and visual artists, such as Belgian sculptor Thierry Feron, creator of Mordu, a sculpture inspired by the magazine.
A transitional exhibition offering both a retrospective of a magazine that was also an alternative cultural and artistic movement, and a forward-looking perspective on a publication that we hope will achieve success commensurate with its ambitions.
Immediate boarding, Exhibition for the 50th anniversary of Métal Hurlant, Belgian Comic Strip Centre, Rue des Sables, 20, 1000, Brussels. Website: CBBD. Until 17 May 2026.It was a UFO that appeared in the French publishing world on that day in 1975: Métal Hurlant, a comic book and pop culture magazine produced by Les Humanoïdes Associés, which had been created a year earlier.
It took the founders a year to produce this first issue, a collector’s item of unquestionable quality. But the team was not prepared for the quarterly pace. Issue 2 was vastly inferior and came close to being a disaster.
A cultural revolution on all fronts
But Métal Hurlant wasn't just about comics, even though three of its founders were authors for Pilote magazine: Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Roland Giraud. The latter, who published the comic book Blueberry under his real name, adopted the pseudonym Moebius and became one of the great names in science fiction and fiction in general. The fourth Dalton in this band of miscreants was Bernard Farkas, a businessman who made his fortune not with Metal Hurlant, where he was financial director, marketing expert, accountant and legal advisor, but by launching the Rubik's Cube!
By 1975, the magazine, then a quarterly publication, had a circulation of 60,000 copies, reaching 90,000 by 1983. It was as much a publishing phenomenon as it was a cultural magazine.
Although the first issues focused mainly on comics and science fiction, the magazine quickly expanded its scope to other cultural areas. Music was one of these, with the arrival of Philippe Manoeuvre, who gave the magazine a rock 'n' roll vibe, notably with special issues on music and rock. This opening up to the world of popular music gave Frank Margerin, who did not feel very comfortable with science fiction, a space to fully express his universe with Lucien, the rocker with the slicked-back quiff.
The magazine's success was such that it went international. Leonard Mogel, publisher of the American humour magazine National Lampoon, bought the rights to publish Heavy Metal in the United States. Other European publishers followed suit with Danish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and German editions.
Between October 1978 and September 1976, Les Humanoïdes Associés published Ah ! Nana, a feminist comic book magazine edited by Janic Guillerez. Although the magazine had a print run of 30,000 copies, average sales never exceeded 15,000 copies. Censorship sounded the death knell for this publication, which was well ahead of its time, by banning it from minors.
Decline and renewal
In the 1980s, new stars of the ninth art joined the publication: Hugo Pratt and his fabulous Corto Maltese, Alejandro Jorodowski and his MétaBarons, François Schuiten and his hallucinatory cities, etc.
But the beautiful unity of the early days began to crumble. Jean-Pierre Dionnet left Métal Hurlant to co-host television programmes with Philippe Manoeuvre. Later, Philippe Druillet and François Schuiten also abandoned ship as disputes and factions multiplied.
The takeover by the Hachette group did not change anything, and the magazine published its last issue, number 133, in July 1987.
The phoenix rose from the ashes for a time in 2002 with issue 134, still published by Les Humanoïdes Associés under the direction of Fabrice Giger. However, the bird failed to take flight and crashed to the ground in 2004.
However, fans of this multifaceted monster, including the author of this article, are not resigned to the death of their icon: in 2006, the publisher of Heavy Metal, the American version, relaunched the magazine as a quarterly MOOK. A long-format volume every quarter with new names and reprints. But the rebellious spirit and boundless exploration of the original had disappeared.
An exhibition of exceptional quality for an exceptional magazine
This CBBD exhibition lives up to its subject matter. The particularly clever scenography is by Pauline Hutin. The choices made by Gilles Francescano, the exhibition curator, are judicious.
Firstly, the exhibition is housed in a kind of capsule – the same as for the Edgar-Pierre Jacobs exhibition – which evokes a spaceship, a particularly appropriate setting for this gem.
First, Atif Khaled's poster, featuring his spaceship flying over Brussels, welcomes you at the entrance to the module. Next, a few black and white panels provide some basic information about the history of the magazine, its authors and its founders.
After that, you can admire a unique collection of 140 magazine covers. Before immersing yourself in a labyrinth perfectly designed to make the most of the limited space available while offering you a clear view of each author.
The exhibition also highlights the authors who made Métal Hurlant a success: Moebius and his mad Bandard, Philippe Druillet's creative frenzy around Gustave Flaubert's Salambo, Cava's extraterrestrial creatures, sexier than Hollywood bombshells, and Hans Ruedi Giger's nightmares around Alien and Beelzebub. Alongside these big names are lesser-known authors and visual artists, such as Belgian sculptor Thierry Feron, creator of Mordu, a sculpture inspired by the magazine.
A transitional exhibition offering both a retrospective of a magazine that was also an alternative cultural and artistic movement, and a forward-looking perspective on a publication that we hope will achieve success commensurate with its ambitions.
Immediate boarding, Exhibition for the 50th anniversary of Métal Hurlant, Belgian Comic Strip Centre, Rue des Sables, 20, 1000, Brussels. Website: CBBD. Until 17 May 2026.