The Metabarons: Second Cycle Finale

“The Metabarons is truly passion writ large. There are moments in it that are right up there with classics like Gilgamesh and Beowulf…The combined work […] is, to my mind, the greatest work of graphic fiction ever produced.” – —David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight Trilogy, Dark City)

Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean and French avant-garde filmmaker. Best known for his films El Topo (1970), The Holy Mountain (1973) and Santa Sangre (1989), Jodorowsky has been venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts for his work, which is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation.

Born to Jewish-Ukrainian parents in Chile, Jodorowsky experienced an unhappy and alienated childhood, immersing himself in reading and writing poetry. Dropping out of college, he became involved in theater, particularly mime, working as a clown before founding his own theater troupe, the Teatro Mimico, in 1947. Moving to Paris in the early 1950s, Jodorowsky studied traditional mime under Étienne Decroux. He put his miming skills to use in the silent film Les têtes interverties (1957), directed with Saul Gilbert and Ruth Michelly. From 1960 onwards, he divided his time between Mexico City and Paris, where he co-founded the Panic Movement, a surrealist performance art collective that staged violent and shocking theatrical events. In 1966, he created his first comic strip, Anibal 5, and in 1967, he directed his first feature film, the surrealist Fando y Lis, which caused a huge scandal in Mexico and was eventually banned.

His next film, the acid western El Topo (1970), became a hit on the midnight movie circuit in the United States, considered the first-ever midnight cult film. It garnered high praise from John Lennon, who convinced former Beatles manager Allen Klein to finance Jodorowsky’s next film with $1 million. The result was The Holy Mountain (1973), a surrealist exploration of western esotericism. Disagreements with Klein, however, led to both The Holy Mountain and El Topo failing to gain widespread distribution, although both became classics on the underground film circuit. After a cancelled attempt at filming Frank Herbert’s 1965 science fiction novel Dune, Jodorowsky produced five more films: the family film Tusk (1980); the surrealist horror Santa Sangre (1989); the failed blockbuster The Rainbow Thief (1990); and the first two films in a planned five-film autobiographical series, The Dance of Reality (2013) and Endless Poetry (2016).

Jodorowsky is also a comic book writer, most notably penning the science fiction series The Incal throughout the 1980s, which has been described as having a claim to be “the best comic book” ever written. Other comic books he has written include The Technopriests and Metabarons. Jodorowsky has also extensively written and lectured about his own spiritual system, which he calls “psychomagic” and “psychoshamanism,” borrowing from alchemy, the tarot, Zen Buddhism, and shamanism. His son Cristóbal has followed his teachings on psychoshamanism; this work is captured in the feature documentary Quantum Men, directed by Carlos Serrano Azcona.

Pete Woods has spent the past two decades drawing a little bit of everything, from Superman, Deadpool, and Wonder Woman to Terminator, Archie, and MAD Magazine. When he’s not drawing comics, he and his family are exploring the country as full-time RVers.

He is a multi New York Times Bestseller, with work at publishers like Humanoids, Marvel, DC, Archie Comics, Dark Horse, Valiant, and Legendary Entertainment. He has been Harvey nominated.

Jerry Frissen (born Thierry Frissen in Belgium) is an American comic book writer and toy & graphic designer. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the recently relaunched comics anthology magazine Metal Hurlant in France, as well as the author of several best-selling graphic novels, including the anthology comic book series Lucha Libre (Unfabulous Five, The Tikitis), The Fire of Theseus, Exo, Simak, and the new cycle of the internationally acclaimed series The Metabarons, co-written with Alejandro Jodorowsky and illustrated by Valentin Sécher, Niko Henrichon, and Pete Woods.

His book The Zombies That Ate The World, illustrated by Guillermo Del Toro collaborator Guy Davis, was recently adapted by RKSS of Turbo Kid for the silver screen as We Are Zombies.

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