The second invasion of
the Europeans

Man, those wacky European artists that popped up in the 1970s -- at least to American eyes -- in the pages of Metal Hurlant magazine, like Biro, Liberatore, Serpieri, Gimenez, Royo and particularly Jean "Mobius" Gerard, whose flowing, weightless lines, impeccable detail and composition and dreamy storytelling pretty much defined the state-of-the-art in graphic storytelling in the late '70s. The American edition was called Heavy Metal, and when that month's edition came out, your evening was pretty well shot.

Heavy Metal appealed to older comix readers. Not only were the storylines and art more adult, so was the sensibility. These guys were pushing the edge of the envelope.

A decade later, with a profusion of independent publishers blurring the line between kiddie fare and adult demands, Heavy Metal's influence waned. It's still published -- it's the longest-lived illustrated fantasy magazine in U.S. history -- but it lives in a violence-and-boobs storytelling ghetto of its own design. Heavy Metal is no longer necessary.

The Europeans who provided the original goose for Heavy Metal kept creating, however, and their work is as eye-popping as ever. They take comics seriously in Europe and the artists and writers are treated like pop stars. Many of the older Hurlanters formed a loose confederation, based in Switzerland and called Les Humanoides Associes, as a medium to control their own work, to their own standards. It was sort of like when Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D. W. Griffith formed United Artists in 1919. Les Humanoides also began recruiting American artists for THEIR projects.

All of this ancient history is prep for the upcoming second invasion of adult comix with a European twist. DC Comics, which has been getting serious about their adult line, has partnered up with Les Humanoides -- now called Humanoids -- for a new line of graphic novels called (get this!) "Humanoids/DC Comics." The first titles are now entering the shelves, and there is an impressive batch waiting in the wings.

Here's the twist: Many of the works are created by Americans for European audiences, then are being recycled for American audiences. Some, such as Baranko, an ex-Soviet soldier now settled in the U.S, are citizens of the world. Everything looks rather impressive. Artists include George Bess, Zoran Janjetiv, Das Pastoras, John Cassaday, Milo Manara and Juan Gimenez. The big dogs are writer/visionary lunatic Alexandro Jodorowsky and writer/artist Enki Bilal, whose comix are bestsellers in French bookstores. Yes, his stuff outsells French books, not just comix.

And here's where we compare the new line to Heavy Metal, our point of departure, after all.

Technically, DC's Humanoids line is top-drawer. There have been tremendous advances in color-printing technology and separations over the last 30 years, and color comix have never looked better. (The line is printed in Canada, BTW.) The paper stock is rich and smooth, and the cover price is reasonable.

As for story and art, the European preference for horrifying violence, spattering body fluids and vaguely creepy, obsessive sex passages are all in evidence. Jodrowsky seems to be writing more than his share of titles, and his predilection for stigmatic bloodshedding, religioso imagery and shifting preceptions is well in evidence -- as well as his somewhat cruel sense of fumor. Milo Manara's girly stories are self-aware in their voyeauristic eroticisms (every panel ought to be in the shape of a keyhole) and Enki Bilal's visions are unsettling, but also classically constructed stories.

Of the new titles, I'm quite taken with Igor Baranko's "The Hoarde," a tale about the Soviet Union trying to revive the corpse of Genghis Khan. It has a unique, Red Star flavor to the art and storytelling, even if it seems Baranko is channeling Joe Kubert on occasion. I guess. even in the former Soviet Union, kids grew up reading Sgt. Rock of Easy Company.