the essential
On television and in his legendary magazine “Métal Hurlant”, Jean-Pierre Dionnet has never ceased to give us the keys to a fantastic, pop, turbulent and colorful world. A unique journey that he recounts in “My Moire – a bridge on the stars” (Au Diable Vauvert editions) and which he will present this Thursday at the Fabre library. Encounter.
Music, comics, books… For a long time, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, surrounded by pop culture enthusiasts like Philippe Manoeuvre, Philippe Druillet and many others, showed us where the cultural wind was blowing, opened horizons for us and shook our imaginations . He recounts with verve and humor the incredible adventure of “Métal Hurlant” in memories to be tasted, savored, cherished.
“My Fates” is the new edition of the autobiography of a 77-year-old man who refuses to leave the world of childhood?
That’s exactly it! I spend my time rereading and rediscovering things, like “Flash Gordon” recently. I have a huge mental attic, a gigantic stock of books and records – 200 meters of record racks! It was the right time to tell “Métal Hurlant”, but also “Les Enfants du rock”, “Cinéma de quartier”… It’s easy to return to childhood when you’ve never really left it…
Editions Au Diable Vauvert
You created “Métal Hurlant” in 1975. What was there before?
I loved “Pilote” and I was a big fan of Tintin, Spirou and obviously René Goscinny. It was he, this absolute genius, who taught me not to look at authors for political, social or other affiliations: he welcomed guys in suits and filthy hippies! Mandryka found the title “Métal Hurlant” and that’s good, we wanted to call it “Banane Mécanique”!
We launched ourselves, with all these influences, like Will Eisner and so many others. “Le Bandard Fou” by Moebius was very important. Philippe Druillet (brilliant creator, born in Toulouse in 1944, of the famous Lone Sloane, editor’s note) did what he wanted to “Pilote”, then he arrived with us and everything came together. We made an extraordinary newspaper, I really think so.
Do you feel like you’ve brought comics into adulthood?
We invented the new comic strip. We were very into science fiction and fantasy and we were not allowed under 18s, thanks to Aunt Yvonne! There was everything in “Métal Hurlant”: it was sexy, provocative, sometimes disturbed. I’m thinking of JoKo, for example, of Moebius’ “Garage Hermétique”… Someone like Margerin, it’s with us that he made his first successes – he thought he was worthless before creating “Lucien”! Be careful, in comics, there are many called, but few chosen. To designers, I always say: “Don’t look at your work on a computer, ever!” For the public, I am a transmitter of ideas. Others have played this role on me and others are doing it and will do it after me.
Precisely, who plays today this role of “passenger”, which you held for so long?
Today, films “cultize themselves”: we are told the new cult film of Machin or Machin, but a cult film is a film that did not work when it was released, that few have seen and which over the years has become essential. Cult when it came out, that doesn’t mean anything! Argento and Carpenter’s films have become cult thanks to us and others who spread word of mouth. The only one who has changed the situation recently is Tony Scott. When I see “Man on Fire,” I take a styling lesson and say to myself, “Either he’s stupid or he’s great!”
To come back to your question, the Internet can be used to pull threads, to discover forgotten things, because it’s true that there are no longer any TV shows about rock – we did “Les Enfants du rock” and ” Sex Machine” with Maneuver, which worked very well. When we play “Billie Jean”, Michael Jackson has sold 50,000 albums in France, the next day, we record two million orders!
