«For me, Gir is a phenomenon. I jokingly call him the Rimbaud of the comic strip.... He was born
He's a draughtsman and doesn't seem to have needed an apprenticeship. Everything comes naturally to him», says Jijé.

It's not every day you get to read a page from a myth. That of METAL
HURLANT which will finally lead Moebius to his destiny, that of his «false universes» and of science.
fiction!
This SF that he had carried deep inside him, like an alien who had fled since his father had given it to him
find out more « by giving him the first issues of Fiction. I was fifteen-sixteen; the great
shock »he confided to Numa Sadoul on 30 March 1974, just a few months before deciding to take up his career.
found Métal Hurlant ...
And it was here that he was able to express this to the full, creating Arzack, the Garage Hermétique and the Incal!
A real curtain-raiser
For this is the first board which, like a foundation stone
of a cathedral, opens the ball of this review which will leave indelible traces in the History of
comics.

If Arzack, using the acrylic colours he learned from Chris Foss, in
will be the most artistic creation, it is within this new magazine that Moebius will finally be able to
implement the vision of «his» own science fiction. One that he would define as « literature that makes you feel just how small a human being really is! »or that
" it's infinity, it's metaphysical vertigo »(interview with N. Sadoul on 6/09/1975)

And in terms of vertigo, this giant square fully expresses it with its dizzying scenery that
seems to lose itself in infinity only by the choice of its giant format on grape paper of 50 par 63
centimetres !
This was a first for Moebius, who at last dared to stop signing Gir (as he did with
his Deviation drawn at the end of 1972) while following in the footsteps of his friend Philippe Druillet, to whom he
will borrow for the very first time the large format of the plates, just long enough for this
story in six pages. For the occasion, Druillet will also be the scriptwriter.
As early as 1977, he dared to return there for some of the pages of his Blueberry Nez Cassé, before moving on to
systematise the process on his next three albums!

In December 2013, Michel-Edouard Leclerc opened his exhibition «1975-1997, la bande
Métal Hurlant / (A Suivre)». This plate 1 could certainly have been
make the opening 🙂 ...

But let’s use the time machine so dear to H.G. Wells to dive back into the seven years that preceded the birth of this Métal Hurlant !

May 68: the first break
Brasserie des Pyramides, rue des Pyramides, Paris
21 May 1968 at 3pm in the back room of the Brasserie La Rotonde des Tuileries on the corner of
the rue St Honoré and the rue des Pyramides, or to be more precise, in the back room.
used for business meals and communions, all the people listed below are welcome.
be there from 3.00 pm / 3.15 pm

Pilote, the breeding ground for a whole new generation, led by the iron fist of a René
Goscinny, at the height of his popularity, was about to experience his first revolution.
A revolution led, among others, by Jean Giraud and a few others who dared to call for a
improve their status from draughtsman to editor-in-chief.

To immerse yourself in the atmosphere of May 68, read :
https://www.bdgest.com/forum/goscinny-mai-68-t61172.html?hilit=goscinny
Goscinny - May 68: Franco-Belgian Comics

The worm is in the fruit ...
But Giraud would introduce his friend Philippe Druillet in 1970, and a certain Jean-Pierre Dionnet would do the same.
its classes the following year in the news section.

May 72, L'Echo des Savanes :
created on the initiative of Brétécher, Gotlib & Mandryka. Its first issue, and the only one published during this
1972. Moebius believes that «the publication of the EdS marked a break with the past and spared us from
to relive it at the time of Métal Hurlant. Was it done? When the first issue arrived in Pilote, the whole
the world was turned upside down. People were watching Goscinny out of the corner of their eyes. How was he going to react?
It was the last straw. After this affair, Goscinny really lost the plot.
pedals.»

At the end of 72, La Déviation ...
and its 7 plates published in January 1973 in Pilote and almost shamefully signed GIR...
Sadoul asked him if this short story could be considered the first manifestation of the
Moebius that we know, he replied, «It's a kind of manifesto. [...] It's thanks to this
the general eighties movement and daily contact with those who dared, (that)
I took a chance and came up with La Déviation .»
«...It's a clear parable: if you follow the well-trodden paths of society, everything's fine,
but if you deviate from it to take a side road, a diversion, then there you are,
strange adventures await you and no one knows where they may lead...». (1991)

The chrysalis is in the process of becoming a butterfly ... even if we still have to wait two years for the butterfly to emerge.
metamorphosis!

March 1974, the final break
The divorce with Goscinny is final, and the rupture is as violent as it is total.
when the latter refused the second illustration, which was to be part of a series of portraits on
the American West. Planned for the second issue of the fledgling Lucky Luke magazine. I
blocked. So was he. It ended in a bloodbath. We called each other names. He
left, slamming the door. It's hard to re-establish a relationship after a scene like that. This final
my break with the world of classic comics and with the world of comic books.
Goscinny» (in Moebius Giraud histoire de mon double, Editions°1, Jean Giraud, 1999).

And so, six months later, Moebius, freed from the Pilote that saw the birth of Gir, became
one of the four founding Humanoïdes Associés of METAL HURLANT, the first issue of which will come out
in January 1975.

This is all the more surprising when you read his interview of 30 March 1974 with Sadoul on the following subject
of what he wanted to do at the time. «A diary of your own? A book?»
«I'm not interested in a newspaper. I'd like to sculpt, to do Moebius in sculpture (...).
I feel like writing my own stories, doing research, I've got a fantastic mind.
need to ejaculate from the drawing. I'm in the middle of a panic! And what I like is the story as much as the design.
the way I tell it. I find that I invariably fall back into a sort of
obsession: the theme of «false universes», which is really my big subject». (Interview with
Numa Sadoul, «Mister Moebius and Doctor Gir», Editions Albin Michel, 1976)

December 74, birth of Les Humanoïdes Associés and their Métal Hurlant :
Mandryka may have come up with the name for the newspaper, but it was Jean-Pierre's energy that made it a success.
Dionnet, who will take it to the baptismal font. « The name suggested the idea of the suffering of the
metal screaming under the thrust of jet engines at full throttle »(dixit Mandryka in «Métal
Hurlant la machine à rêver», Editions Denoël, 1975)
Founding members: Dionnet, Druillet, Moebius, Farkas, plus four shareholders
minority interests belonging to Rock & Folk.
No. 1 had a print run of 50,000 copies.

Who better than Druillet to sum up the state of mind of this creative period?
«Jean had Blueberry. So he had enough to look forward to, a nice house and so on.
pressure. Consciously or unconsciously, Jean had a precise career plan. He was
Blueberry. He knew something else and had proved it in Hara-Kiri by doing a few illustrations.
signed Moebius. He had proved it with La Déviation in Pilote. He wanted Moebius

and gave himself the means to achieve this by working for a newspaper which, when
even belonged to him. As a result, he became Moebius, Arzach, ... I can still see him, in
his house near Paris, talking to me while he drew his boards like a man possessed, all the time.
speed. [...] At the time, we were in absolute utopia. We did everything in threes. The
Jean's wife used to bring me envelopes with a little money to live on. Jean lent me some
money or gave me some, and that's essentially how I was able to live the first year of my life.
year». (idem supra «MH the dream machine»)
And in the same book, François Rivière confirms the spirit of this heroic era by saying
that «Moebius already had a career of his own and this kind of conversion was
impressive. What made it all the more impressive was that it endorsed something new, almost to the point of being a "first".
disregard for what had made him famous».»
From that point on, the legend was born, and the greatest authors gave birth to their most famous works here.
great creations.
The format
The Deviation end 72 was 50 by 39 cm.
Le Bandard Fou drawn during the second quarter of 1973 was on poor paper
45×35 format.
In conclusion, this sheet 1 for Métal Hurlant seems to be its very first at the
grape format of 50×63 cm, undoubtedly produced under the direct influence of the choices Philippe
At the time, Druillet was already producing his own original black & white plates.