Boy, do we have some great news for you today. Fans of the Jodoverse, prepare to get stoked as June 2016 brings a brand new book from Humanoids starring the Metabaron.

Published over four books that will debut in 2016 and then come out one every eight months, this will be a major return to the series in which Jerry Frissen adapts a story by Jodorowsky in 108-page volumes. And to sweeten the pot, each book will be illustrated by a different artist, starting with the amazing Valentin Sécher before Niko Henrichon takes up the second book.

Originally created for Mœbius and Jodorowsky’s “The Incal,” the Metabaron was a bounty hunter who was the adoptive father of Solune, John DiFool’s biological child. While the Metabaron originally began the series as a villain, his role was turned around some when he became more of a persistent anti-hero figure. This also isn’t the first time that the Metabaron has had his own series, having been the star of “The Metabarons”, a series by Jodorowsky illustrated by Juan Gimenez that went through the Metabaron’s family and history, of which the new series serves as a direct sequel to. Together, “The Incal” and “The Metabarons” became some of the biggest and most influential European space opera comics of the 90’s, and are definitely books that belong in every comics collection.

It’s a pretty promising announcement for a new Humanoids book. Sécher does beautiful, hyper-realistic painted artwork (like the barbaric “Khaal”), and Henrichon is one of the finest European comics currently working today (see: “Pride of Baghdad”, “Noah”, the stuff your dreams are made of). Meanwhile, Jerry Frissen is a Humanoids staple, not only as the writer of the incredible “Unfabulous Five” but also as a regular book designed for Humanoids collections. While none have worked in the Jodoverse before (to my knowledge), I can only imagine that the work they’re doing for “The Metabaron” has to be quite a follow-up to get the sign off from Jodo himself.

Humanoids also confirms a re-release of the original “Metabarons” comics for ‘early 2015,’ for those who have not yet picked up the book (which comes with an introduction by Matt Fraction). And with a new edition of “The Final Incal” on the way as well as new editions of “Before the Incal” and “The Incal” in stores now, now is the perfect time to get your Jodoverse on.

The countdown to 2016 begins now. For the full press release from Humanoids, please see below.

Humanoids Press Release

The Metabaron was introduced to the world in the international bestseller The Incal, first created by Jodorowsky and Mœbius in the pages of the seminal magazine Métal Hurlant (whose American counterpart was then Heavy Metal). Following that, he became the subject of his own series, The Metabarons, a Sci-Fi saga with art by Juan Gimenez and dedicated to the ultimate warrior’s genealogy. It rapidly came to be THE “space opera” series of the 1990s, with more than one million copies sold, and translated throughout the world to this day.

In the final pages of the first season, the question of what became of the last of the Metabarons went unresolved. No Name, as he is known, chose to leave behind no descendants to prevent the bloody ritual of the Caste of the Metabarons from being perpetuated –that in order to become the new Metabaron, the son must kill his father.

In June 2016, Humanoids will unveil part of the mystery, publishing the first volume of Metabaron, a four-book series that will be released at the rate of one every eight months.

This new season, based on a story by Jodorowsky and written by Jerry Frissen, will be composed of four cycles of 108 pages each. Each cycle will be drawn by a different artist, recognized by the publisher for his unique talent and his ability to speak to an international audience.

26-year-old French prodigy Valentin Sécher, will be the first to take up the mantle, more than ten years after Gimenez last drew the iconic character. Sécher burst onto the scene with the series Khaal: Chronicles of a Galactic Emperor, and is today considered one of the rising stars of European comics.

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Following the first book, Canadian artist Niko Henrichon will grab the reins. An internationally-recognized creator, he is best known for the 2006 graphic novel The Pride of Baghdad, written by Brian K. Vaughan. He recently drew the graphic novel Noah, directly linked to the eponymous film by Darren Aronofsky.

In the afterword of a new edition of The Metabarons to be published in early 2015, David S. Goyer, emblematic figure of the crossroads of Hollywood and the world of comics, and screenwriter of the Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel, and the eagerly-anticipated Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, writes: “to my mind, The Metabarons is the greatest work of graphic fiction ever produced.”