Metal Hurlant 12 Nueva Frontera Edition 1983 – Moebius and Druillet Cover

Today we are looking at the Nueva Frontera Spanish Issue of Metal Hurlant #12 (1983) with the only known cover collaboration by Philippe Druillet and Jean Giraud “Moebius.” This cover first appeared in the 1980 edition of the original French Metal Hurlant #57 (special edition).
Other artists in this issue include Voss, the incredible Bihannic, and an episode of THE INCAL by Moebius and Jodorowsky.
Watch the original video here.

History of Metal Hurlant Spanish Edition

Originally published in 1980 in the original French edition Metal Hurlant number 57, this cover by Druillet and Moebius is the only known cover of Metal Hurlant or Heavy Metal by both of these artists.

Issue number 12 of the Spanish edition of Metal Hurlant which would not surface until 1982, two years after the original French edition was published. There was also a publication at this time called Totem which was really the Spanish language precursor to the Nueva Frontera “Metal Hurlant.”

Metal Hurlant Cover and Interior Art

On the cover you can see Druillet style helmets and so forth while the creatures themselves look like the work of Moebius. I think what Mobius is doing here is finishing Druillet’s work. Inside the magazine we have Jodorowsky and Moebius with another episode of The Incal starring the often hilarious John Difool and his bird. Terror Bajo el Mar or “Terror below the sea” which is interesting although I’m not a big fan of this art.
In the music section of the magazine we see Grace Jones, Albert Collins “Frozen alive” and there’s an Andy Warhol Expo in Madrid at this time.
The next illustrated story is by the amazing Bihannic with his astounding detail in the line art. You can just keep going and going deeper into his drawings and there are things happening on almost a microscopic level.
Margerin does the next story with his great cartooning style. I love the way this guy draws this stuff. It has a classic underground comix look to it.

The Soul of Objects

In another interesting article titled “El Alma de los Avatos” aka “The soul of the objects.” We see various objects from the past like a flattened out pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes from 1942 and a Bell Telephone from 1937. Here is a Zippo lighter from 1937 and a Minox camera from 1937. The last image is of a Vespa Scooter from 1946.

Future issues of Metal Hurlant Spanish Edition

The next story features classic Vos art followed by the continuation of Moebius and Jodorowski’s the Incal.
We will definitely look at more issues of the Spanish version because it is great it is totally Worth of looking at because they do an excellent job of reproduction and of adding certain Spanish and Italian artists to this Metal Hurlant Spanish edition.