The Metabarons is a long running French SF epic originally by Alexander Jodorowsky and Juan Gimenez (spinning out of The Incal by Jodorowsky and Moebius) about a race of perfect warriors and their generation spanning advenures. The story wrapped up in 2003 after selling more than a millions copies internationally. Now Humanoids is bringing it back as just Metabaron starting in 2016 in a four book series written by Jerry Frissen from a story by Jodorowsky and drawn by different artists. the story will follow the fate of No Name, the last of the Metabarons. Ecah chapter will be 108 pages long, released in 8 month intervals.
The first chapter features Valentin Sécher (Khaal: Chronicles of a Galactic Emperor) on art, the second Niko Henrichon (Pride of Baghdad, Noah). The new series isn’t due until June 2016. That’s a long time to wait for your mind tripping space fantasy, but according to Humanoids, a new edition of Metabarons is planned for 2015.
Confession: I have never actually read The Metabarons, but it looks like have some time to catch up. Like the recently announced Corto Maltese revival , it’s a continuation of a very successful Euro comics classic, but this time with the cooperation, it seems, of the still living author. HUmanoids, after many stops and starts in the US market has been releasing material at a good clip, so it seems the genera graphic novel boomlet has lifted this boat, at least.
waa the fourth volume drawn by Travis Charest ever collected?
It’s “Alejandro” Jodorowsky in all his credits actually.
And, hey, a word of warning. Metabarons isn’t a book for all those here sensitive to stuff like “gender politics” and gruesome violence drawn like it was sourced from a medical anatomy textbook on history’s most horrific injuries. Definitely not for the faint of heart.
The plotting is also typical Jodorowsky: all over the place often approaching pure stream of consciousness.
However, if anyone stills want to read it the cheapest way is to buy the digital editions off the Humanoids site/app. Little hard to use, but very reasonably priced compared to print editions that are long out-of-print and selling for hundreds of dollars on the aftermarket.
I picked up meta barons when it was new, I just finished rereading it in collected form, and I’ll be getting this for sure. So clever and one of those unique comics that only works as a comic.
@goddard
All the Charest material is collection in “Weapons of the Metabaron”: http://www.humanoids.com/book/241
The hope here is that we’re not looking at another case of ‘Blade Runner 2 syndrome’, where a masterpiece that should be left alone is being whipped back into action again. For anyone interested in the peerless space opera of The Metabarons, I would recommend reading the collected ‘Humanoids 40th Anniversary Edition’, which is probably one of the most beautiful comic books a person can own. It’s the size of an encyclopedia, and even for a non-comic fan, can be enjoyed as a book of high art, in both literary and graphic worlds. Any writer attempting to continue this part of the ‘Jodoverse’ must be brave to say the least, as Jodorowsky’s mastery of the comic medium is similar in scope to writers like Alan Moore, yet, unlike other writers that try to reach these levels, he remains original.
“Any writer attempting to continue this part of the ‘Jodoverse’ must be brave to say the least,”
I have read the new Meta-baron volume 1 and 2: the story is focused, and more realistic, more SF, than the original, the characters are memorable, and much better than the original Metabarons, and the art… Secher and Henrichon made the the Metabaron cooler and more beautiful than the original. It is one of the best graphic novels nowadays.
So where is the next book???
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