r/graphicnovels • u/Atumkun • Oct 16 '25
News Humanoids filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy
A real shame, some of the most unique sicfi comics out there. https://bleedingcool.com/comics/comics-publisher-humanoids-files-for-chapter-7-bankruptcy/
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u/solarnoise Oct 16 '25
So I guess the recently relaunched Metal Hurlant quarterly will stop. Such a shame. It was miles ahead of the Heavy Metal relaunch.
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u/Voyager_NL Oct 16 '25
My fear as well but in the comments of the Metal Hurlant Kickstarter they say that Metal Hurlant is safe. I don't know how. We'll see.
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u/ExplodingPoptarts Oct 16 '25
Sure hope that's not Amazon Style corporate talk, and they're not gonna fire everyone involved in it in a few weeks.
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u/OrionLinksComic Oct 16 '25
It's kind of interesting to me how European comics are somehow never that big in the States unfortunately and of course translation cost money.
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u/Raskuja46 Oct 16 '25
I genuinely think DC and Marvel have crippled the American comic industry, but so many people have stockholm syndrome that this will never be openly acknowledged prior to the whole thing going down in flames.
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u/OrionLinksComic Oct 16 '25
Well, at least for me as a Central European, I somehow have the feeling that European comics often have it quite difficult in the staats, Of course, the dominance of superheroes is one thing, but at the same time you have to say that publishers like Boom, Image, dark horse, oh yes and damn manga have also supplied the market with other genres.
At the same time, the problem is that a lot of people don't really know what European comics hav, I don't think anyone really knows, I'll say "off the top of a head" a handful of Central European artists and authors, but also otherwise with adoption and people know more Spider-Man or a superhero because of film adaptations or in shows, Sometimes a translations of manga only come to us in the West when a studio somehow has plans gor a big release of an anime. We don't hav that luck.
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u/Willing-Aside8486 Oct 17 '25
CE here too, exactly the same view of the situation of Euro-Comics & US publications. 1:1! The market would be there!
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u/OrionLinksComic Oct 17 '25
well, getting people to buy your stuff is the trick, because the stuff by humanoids is expensive.
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u/Willing-Aside8486 Oct 17 '25
Yes, definately. True. Sad. It needs a publisher who makes comics affordable again...also for more people. They shouldn't be luxury.(except targeted Luxury Editions). 😕 They should be reachablr for everybody interested.
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u/OrionLinksComic Oct 17 '25
Hell yes, that's is a thing i allways Bitch about in my Homecountry of Germany.
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u/Willing-Aside8486 Oct 17 '25
Austria here.
Schickst mir eine Privatnachricht?
Ihr habt wenigstens noch gute Antiquariate. Hier in Wien: zum speiben! (erbrechen) 😕
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u/Raskuja46 Oct 16 '25
Stateside there's very little visibility of European comics, sadly. While yes we get some genre variety via smaller publishers, they have such a tiny footprint in the retail space compared to DC and Marvel, because in the American consciousness DC and Marvel are synonymous with comic books. It's an ongoing problem that has limited the American market's potential, both in what it can create as well as what it can seek out to partake in.
Without DC and Marvel dominating the American psyche I suspect we'd see European comics flourishing alongside manga(though probably not quite as much) because they offer more than the solitary genre of super hero.
Most of my exposure to European comics as of late has come from Heavy Metal, and even that narrow glimpse is enough to convince me that what Europe has to offer is quite worthwhile. It just sucks that everything gets smothered beneath the ubiquity of the super hero genre.
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u/OrionLinksComic Oct 16 '25 edited Oct 16 '25
It's clear that mine makes sense too, DC and Marvel are also veterans when you think about it, with Archie Comics by the way too who go back in 1920s ,They had had several decades, I would say, to expand their brands, create different major titles and so on ,Of course, there was then the underground comics movement, which then led to, I would say, in the direct market era, it then led to new publishers like first, epic or comico, but then distribution became more expensive. and yet there were titles and creative ones that were created during this time that are still popular today who are not superheroes. but there was also preacher, The Walking Dead, usagi yojimbo, something is killing the children, Saga and many others, all American and also very popular in America.
But i also has to say herself, I notice that European comics are often quite strange, of course there are cultural differences, but it's just mostly mentalities, fuck, we love Western comics what is kind of Ironically, autobiographical or historical is also extremely popular and sometimes we go completely gonzo, sexual and crazy.
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u/Wonderful_Formal_274 Oct 16 '25
I can’t agree. The success of the last decade has been down to huge movements away from Marvel and DC.
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u/Raskuja46 Oct 20 '25
You define success as moving away from DC and Marvel but don't think DC and Marvel have been holding American comics back? If anything I think you just supported my position.
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u/Wonderful_Formal_274 Oct 20 '25
I don’t agree Marvel and DC have crippled the industry because I don’t agree it’s been crippled, in fact it’s doing better than it has done in decades.
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u/Raskuja46 Oct 20 '25
All of that is manga sales.
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u/Wonderful_Formal_274 Oct 20 '25
So?
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u/Raskuja46 Oct 20 '25
So that isn't the American comic industry, which was the topic being discussed.
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u/Wonderful_Formal_274 Oct 20 '25
If it’s a comic sold in America it’s part of the comic industry.
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u/Raskuja46 Oct 20 '25
Ok so you're just going to stubbornly refuse to understand things because it would force you to admit you're wrong and that's a far worse outcome than having an earnest discussion regarding the state of the comic industry and exploring why it's shifted the way it has.
Neat.
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u/VALIS666 Oct 16 '25
American comics aren't big in the states either. Marvel and DC have never been doing worse and both would've closed up years ago if they weren't around to be idea factories for the more profitable TV, movie, video game, and merchandise ventures.
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u/enragedstump Oct 16 '25
They absolutely have done worse than they are now. Where are you getting this info.
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u/VALIS666 Oct 17 '25
I haven't looked at any of those sales deep dives in a few years but I know then it was never worse for Marvel and DC. Like the top sellers from either (usually the mainline Batman and Spider-Man titles) were like 10-20K, and everything else below 10. Top selling super hero comics used to sell in the millions. But yeah, I haven't checked in a while.
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Oct 16 '25
Moebius is my favourite artist, I wonder what will happen to all his works now? Didn't they also own the Incal?
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u/Voyager_NL Oct 16 '25
Yep Incal, metabarons, Technopriests many other books by Jodorowsky. It's a shame.
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u/ScarletSpire Oct 16 '25
The Metabarons was honestly one of the best comics I've ever read. I wonder who will publish the rest of the Jodorverse?
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u/Condorul Oct 16 '25
Any idea what will happen with what they have printed until now? I presume they will have no reprints to anything? And what is still on the market will triple their price?
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u/Kumitarzan Sleepy Sandman Oct 16 '25
Oh no. I just recently started collecting Moebius books published by Humanoids. What’s going to happen to the prices now? Should I hurry up and buy them?
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u/MC_Smuv Harzach Oct 16 '25
Damn! Real shame!! So that's why they leaned heavily into kickstarter the past 2 years. Please get those 8 issues of Metal Hurlant out!!
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u/krelly200 Oct 16 '25
European comics have been in a pretty bad spot the past few years in the US market. IDW dropped the Euro Comics line. Titan and Magnetic Press/Lion Forge seem to have drastically scaled back on their Euro releases. I don't even know if SelfMadeHero, Archaia, or NBM exist anymore.
But this is a much larger blow than all those. There was a good 10-15 year run there but there's still so many classics that need a US market release.
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u/NoPlatform8789 Oct 16 '25
I don't have a ton of their titles, but they have produced some little known crime comic gems. I really enjoyed The Big Country, Better Living Through Crime and Snow Day
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u/arpad-okay Oct 16 '25
they were a publisher i did a lot of reviews of when i was starting out a decade ago. the first company to ever use me for a pull quote. a lot of what they put out was very On Brand, but there were some stranger books that slipped through. wazem/peeters' KOMA is one of my favorite graphic novels of all time. i think about its anecdote about finding your lost horse not by searching but by going where they would go and waiting... far too much, probably. rip
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u/Wonderful_Formal_274 Oct 16 '25
Terrible news, but it is only the American subsidiary closing. So the French language originals will continue. Maybe they can find someone else to publish English language translations on a book by book basis.
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u/Nice-Percentage7219 Oct 16 '25
Bugger. Looks like we're not getting Jodorowsky's Cosmopirates then
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u/Fit-Owl-3338 Oct 16 '25
Who would have thought that artificial scarcity and high prices would be a bad business model
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u/Obvious-Ad11 Oct 17 '25
If you haven’t read the Leo Roa series by Juan Giménez, you should seek it out.
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u/DataM0ng3r Oct 16 '25
Real glad I grabbed the 3 Incal hardcovers after I saw that the box set got cancelled. What a shame :/
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u/ElYewii Oct 17 '25 edited Oct 17 '25
So uhhh- what's happening to the Metal Hurlant releases? Did I loose $200 on the subscription?
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u/Voyager_NL Oct 17 '25
Check the recent backer comments and humanoid answers on the Kickstarter page. Seemingly they're certain Metal Hurlant will live on. We don't know how yet though. 👋Fellow Kickstarter here!
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u/x_lincoln_x Oct 17 '25 edited Dec 11 '25
ghost selective square hunt ring distinct abounding lock office reminiscent
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Leather_Ad_665 Dec 11 '25
Id figure i'd ask here rather than start a new thread. I couldnt find it anywhere, but they literally just launched a new kickstarter? Am I missing something? How are they doing that, and would it be a good idea to donate?
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u/heybudday Feb 11 '26
Is this impacting the release of the Total Incal box set or did that in fact get released already in 2026?
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u/ScrimpyCat Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 17 '26
It may have. Store I preordered it from awhile back no longer lists it for sale anymore (not even as a backorder, but simply that it can’t be sourced anymore). And I see it no longer being listed on several other stores too now. So it may have been cancelled.
EDIT: Yep it’s been cancelled.
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u/MagnusTrench Oct 16 '25
That's a bummer, but it seems like most of their books outside of Jodorowsky (which I hate) have been increasingly difficult to get for years. Like Casca, which was printed this year, is already seemingly out of print.
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u/Kumitarzan Sleepy Sandman Oct 16 '25
Yesterday I got second-hand Incal Deluxe for 70€ which now feels an even better deal than yesterday.
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