Metal Hurlant Vol.4: Paradise Lost

Metal Hurlant

by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet (Creator), Philippe Druillet (Creator)

Utopia has been chased by sentient beings since the beginning of time. But what is it? Where is it? When? How?

This installment of Humanoids’ celebrated genre anthology explores “heaven on earth” (and beyond), and the systems that have made it impossible, illusory, or brief, warping it into its darker dystopian mirror…

Inside this 272-page tome: Interviews with filmmaker, documentarian, and “cult” expert Jodi Wille (The Source Family, Welcome Space Brothers), and utopian sci-fi master Kim Stanley Robinson (The Mars Trilogy, Ministry for the Future); a brief glimpse of French legend Tardi, and the complete Polonius, his rare, depraved 44-page work with writer Picaret; and 23 visions of utopias lost and found from the talented creators of comics past, present, and future.

272 pages, Paperback

Published March 31, 2026

About the author

Jean Henri Gaston Giraud (pen-name: Mœbius) was a French artist, cartoonist, and writer, who worked in the Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées tradition.
Also published as Jean Giraud.

Reviews

[Bertazzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well curated selection of utopian and dystopian stories. But the best part is the lengthy interview with the documentarian Jodi Welli about utopian communities and cults.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm surprised a couple reviewers wrote that they think this volume is better than the previous two. I thought it was by far the worst volume in the Metal Hurlant reboot -- the new stories were mediocre and packed with clichés, so this volume is really only worth anything to me for the five reprints, which are of starkly higher quality than the new stories selected for this volume. Picaret and Tardi's Polonius (1976) takes the cake as the most important work reprinted here, an incredible, controversial work that had not been printed in English since excerpts appeared in Heavy Metal Magazine in 1977. Having the full Polonius in English in this volume makes it a must have, all the other reprints are sick as well, but some of the new stories are so bad that it ruins the collection as a whole. To be fair, a few of the new stories (like Solar Plant and Isle of the Dead) were kind of cool, but the majority were so preachy and on the nose as to sully the lot, in my view.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recent Reads: Metal Hurlant - Paradise Lost. Another anthology of new and old translated graphic SF and fantasy from the classic French magazine. Great art, great stories, often taking the form of near-wordless pieces that I can only describe as tone poems. A showcase of the best of the Ninth Art.

[Davide Pappalardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this volume is better than the previous two. The quality of the stories, classic and new, is pretty high, and the interviews are top-notch.