Metal Hurlant, Heavy Metal Launch Kickstarters At The Same Time

Well, this is sure confusing.

In 1974, a new anthology magazine launched in France devoted to science fiction comics and stories. Called Metal Hurlant, it attracted submissions from the biggest artistic talents around at the time, like Frank Frazetta and HR Giger. In America it was localized as Heavy Metal, which is what “Metal Hurlant” means in English. For decades, wherever it was and whatever it was called, Metal Hurlant / Heavy Metal reveled in its title of World’s Coolest Magazine, but as the state of the magazine industry grew more dire, not even this was immune. The “final” issue of Heavy Metal was published in June of 2023, which wasn’t that long ago.

But wait…what’s that? Rising from the ashes is Metal Hurlant! The original publishers, Humanoids in France, want to resurrect the magazine with both new and classic content. It will be a quarterly publication with stories by Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Miran Kim, Karla Pacheco, Simon Roy, Matthew Sheean, Mark Waid and many others, plus unforgettable classics by Moebius, R. Crumb, Trina Robbins and much more! The Kickstarter has 16 more days on it and has already earned way over its initial goal.

So I guess the publication is revering to its original name……oh wait, maybe not. A few days later, another Kickstarter appeared, this one touting the relaunch of Heavy Metal. Wait, what? Isn’t that what Metal Hurlant is? How can they both be appearing separately? What’s going on?

There’s a notice on the Metal Hurlant page that states “During its original 70s/80s runs, the contents of Metal Hurlant were translated into multiple languages by publishing partners around the globe, including in the US (i.e. Heavy Metal). However, the essence of Metal Hurlant eventually became lost in translation.” I think this implies we’re looking at a Harvest Moon / Story Of Seasons sort of situation. At some point one became divorced from the other. One party owns the name, the other owns the content.

While the Metal Hurlant Kickstarter focuses on its top-drawer talent, the Heavy Metal one puts the spotlight on Taarna, the scantily-clad dragon-riding heroine who starred in the Heavy Metal movie (which means they must own her). There are also pins, statues, and lots of variant covers on offer. There are talented contributors listed on the Heavy Metal page, but you get the sense they’re selling more of a brand.

Which side is winning this fight? Admittedly Metal Hurlant got a head start, but they’re in a far lead with almost $400,000 raised as of this writing (from a $5000 goal). Heavy Metal lags behind at $266,725, but they have 33 days left on their campaign while Metal Hurlant has 16. If HM sells enough Taarna statuettes they could catch up.

The Metal Hurlant campaign will be open until December 12, and Heavy Metal closes December 29. We’ll have more updates later. This will be an interesting battle to watch.