International influences
International influences |
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Page 6 of 17  Page from 'Approaching Centauri', Heavy Metal (Heavy Metal Publishing, 1977). Art: Moebius. Script: Philippe Druillet. A terrifying SF yarn, with a level of violence and visual sophistication that was unusual to British and American eyes. The magazine Heavy Metal was instrumental in introducing readers to the 1970s French comics renaissance. This radical spark led to a boom in 'BDs pour adultes' in the 1970s. Initially, this took the form of anthology magazines - the main ones being Metal Hurlant, Fluide Glacial, Circus, (A Suivre) and L'Echo des savanes - all of which featured adult story lines, gags and images (especially in terms of depictions of sex). Though these were based in France, they tended to feature creators from all over Europe, especially from Italy. They were followed by the inevitable albums, which instead of acquiring the reputation of an 'underground' movement as had happened in America, instead went straight into mainstream bookshops. This assured their wide distribution, and at the height of the craze for adult comics, it was common for individual albums to sell in the region of 60,000. This boom was accompanied by a solidifying of 'comics culture'. Albums came to be sold on the basis of creators' reputations, and thus an 'auteur' system developed whereby creators became as esteemed as film directors or novelists. Criticism of comics became every bit as intellectualized as that of film, with critical magazines appearing in every European country (especially in France, where the 'Cahiers de la bande dessinee' were intended to do the same job as the famous 'Cahiers du cinema' in raising standards). Finally, establishment institutions became involved, with universities setting up courses on comics, and governments funding huge comics museums and study centres, such as the 8 million-pounds 'CNBDI' in France. When President Mitterand declared himself to be an avid fan of comics in 1986, nobody was in the least taken aback.  Approaching Centauri |