Jump to content

Fabrice Giger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by KConWiki (talk | contribs) at 15:34, 25 March 2020. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Fabrice A Giger (born 7 January 1965 in Geneva, Switzerland) is a literary publisher and film & TV producer.[1] The son of Swiss painter José Giger, he is well known for publishing thousands of comic books / graphic novels from such acclaimed authors as Alejandro Jodorowsky, Mœbius, Enki Bilal and John Cassaday.

In 1988, at the age of 23, convinced that comic book artists and writers have an artistic and commercial potential far beyond that of the traditional comic book industry, Giger took over the iconic Paris-based publishing house Les Humanoïdes Associés (also known as Humanoids), its prestigious catalog, and brands such as Métal Hurlant (from which the American magazine Heavy Metal was adapted). In less than a decade, he turned it into a multimedia group, involved not only in comic book publishing, but also in CGI animation, digital effects, internet content and software development.[2]

In 1995, he co-founded the CGI animation studio, Sparx*, with branches in France and Vietnam, and the production company Sparkling which went on to produce many critically acclaimed and awarded shows, such as Rolie Polie Olie for which Giger won an Emmy Award in 2000 as executive producer.[3]

In 1998, in Los Angeles, he founded Humanoids, Inc., the American counterpart of Les Humanoïdes Associés.[4]

Giger has always been at the forefront of media innovation, challenging conventional uses of the comic book medium to create projects that are multi-dimensional and interactive, and which target a much more expansive audience. In the years 1999-2000, he partnered with directors Ridley Scott, Tony Scott and Renny Harlin to launch a website featuring original content based on Humanoids titles. The catalog has been a constant source of inspiration for filmmakers and the movie industry in general since the seventies[5] and thus Giger sought to create a digital content platform to combine the talents from these different mediums. Despite producing hours of material, the site never took off due to the unfortunate timing of the bursting of the Internet bubble.[6]

While having developed and published dozens of new titles every year in various genres since his inception of the company, with most of them having been translated into numerous languages, Giger re-launched the anthology Métal Hurlant for a 14-issue run between 2002 and 2004, that was published around the world.[7] Major talents emerged from it and a good portion of the original content they created for the occasion was later adapted for television with the TV series Métal Hurlant Chronicles, that Giger exec-produced and which aired in October 2012.[8][9]

At the end of 2004, Giger stepped down from all his duties and took a sabbatical of several years, including one spent in Pondicherry, India, near the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

In 2008, he was called back to France for the restructuring of Les Humanoïdes Associés, and resumed his career as the group's CEO and publisher, which subsequently, in 2010, included a successful reboot of the publishing activities in the English language.[10][11][12]

Considering that his job had evolved into content development and management of Intellectual Properties, Giger, along with a team of skilled professionals out of the Los Angeles and Paris offices, have since strived to bring in titles with audiovisual potential to the catalog, and to position Humanoids as a major content provider for the growing worldwide entertainment industry.

Following the increasing presence of Humanoids titles in Asia (the best-selling Sci-Fi graphic novel ever, The Incal, is still the record holder for having the highest sales of a non-Japanese graphic novel in Japan),[13] including China,[14] and in the European markets, Giger announced at the New York Comic Con on 5 October 2018 a major foray into the American comic book industry with the creation of a new line of content and a shared universe under the name of H1.[15] In the same move, the company announced the hiring of two top, Eisner Award-winning US creators: John Cassaday, as Humanoids’ Chief Creative Officer;[16] and Mark Waid as its Director of Creative Development.[17]

References

  1. ^ Imdb
  2. ^ Libération 01.22.1998 (French)
  3. ^ Wikipedia's list of Emmy winners
  4. ^ Publishers Weekly 11.16.2010
  5. ^ "Shadowlocked, How Dan O'Bannon's Métal Hurlant story influenced Blade Runner". Archived from the original on 2012-04-20. Retrieved 2013-03-14.
  6. ^ Humanoids' press release 12.19.2001, Comic Book Resources
  7. ^ Comicbookdb.com
  8. ^ Imdb
  9. ^ Rutger Hauer's website
  10. ^ Newsarama 08.01.2008
  11. ^ Livres Hebdo 10.23.2007 (French)
  12. ^ Publishing Perspectives 11.22.2010
  13. ^ Shopro (Japanese) Archived 2013-03-08 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ http://www.hinabook.com/product/2367.html
  15. ^ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/humanoids-announces-h1-imprint-shared-universe-1148860
  16. ^ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/humanoids-signs-john-cassaday-as-chief-creative-officer-1147325
  17. ^ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/humanoids-adds-mark-waid-as-director-creative-development-1148349
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fabrice_Giger&oldid=947312017"