I’ve seen the Heavy Metal movie, and still have a few issues of Heavy Metal magazine that I had bought in college, but what I remember is Marvel’s Epic Illustrated, which they created after Metal Hurlant approached them about publication in the US.
In Japan, the artist and filmmaker Katsuhiro Otomo cited Métal Hurlant as an influence on his classic manga and anime film, Akira, while Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki took inspiration from Moebius’s Arzach when creating his classic Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984). Moebius and Miyazaki became close friends and mutual influences: Moebius named his daughter Nausicaä, and in 2005 the artists’ work appeared together in a joint exhibition in Paris.
I’d heard of Heavy Metal before, but not Metal Hurlant. This is really cool!