Hulk #[1 cartonné]
This hardcover album (cartonné) represents Arédit-Artima's ambitious January–April 1979 push to bring Marvel's full-color superhero publishing to French newsstands in a prestige format, at a moment when the French comics market had no equivalent large-format color Marvel product. By packaging the French debut of Doug Moench's Rampaging Hulk stories — in which Bruce Banner's alter ego is placed in a sprawling retroactive continuity alongside Thor, Namor, Hercules, Captain America, and the Executioner — alongside a color photo dossier on the concurrent Incredible Hulk television series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, this cartonné connected Marvel's print mythology to the pop-cultural phenomenon of the TV adaptation for an entirely new audience. The hardcover binding variant was itself a statement: Arédit was pitching superhero comics not just as disposable kiosk fare but as collectible library objects, a format philosophy that presaged the later album tradition in Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées. The breadth of indexed characters — Hulk, Thor, Namor, Hercule, Captain America, Conan, Red Sonja, Kamandi, Leader, Skurge — reflects how Arédit's 1979 cartonné line deliberately showcased the width of their newly acquired Marvel (and possibly DC) licensing portfolio in a single prestige object.
"L'incroyable Hulk" (1979) delivers a poignant and powerful tale from writer Doug Moench and artist Ron Wilson, with inks by Ricardo Villamonte and colors by Janice Cohen. When Bruce Banner meets Dawn Michaels, a journalist embedded in a local mine, their connection deepens amid a growing threat—its owner is secretly trafficking radioactive materials to terrorists. After Dawn’s tragic death, Hulk’s rage turns to grief, culminating in a solemn vow to honor her memory. The cover, a striking piece by Val Mayerik, captures the emotional weight of the story.
ComicBooks.com Value
Find on ebay
Where to buy
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Arédit-Artima, headquartered in Tourcoing, launched its Artima Color Marvel Géant and Artima Color Marvel SuperStar collections simultaneously in the first quarter of 1979, marking a decisive upgrade from the publisher's earlier black-and-white pocket-format reprints. The albums were produced in large format (approximately 21 × 29 cm) with full French-language color translation, drawing on US source material from the Rampaging Hulk/Hulk! magazine series written principally by Doug Moench, with art by contributors including Ron Wilson and Ricardo Villamonte. Each title in the line was issued in both a standard brochure (soft-cover) edition and a version cartonnée (hardcover), with the cartonné typically sharing the same ISBN as its soft counterpart; the Hulk Géant #1 cartonné carries ISBN 2-7311-0158-X. The irregular quarterly release rhythm and the simultaneous launch of companion cartonnés for Thor, Captain America, Namor, and Conan le Barbare show that Arédit conceived the 1979 hardcover program as a coordinated line rather than a series of isolated experiments.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published April 1979 (dépôt légal 04/1979) by Arédit-Artima, Tourcoing, under the Artima Color Marvel Géant collection; ISBN 2-7311-0158-X.
- Hardcover (cartonné) variant of Hulk Géant #1 — the same content as the soft-cover edition but issued in a library-binding format, consistent with Arédit's practice of dual-format releases across its 1979 Marvel line.
- Primary source material drawn from the US Rampaging Hulk magazine (Curtis Magazines/Marvel, 1977–1978), a black-and-white mature-readers magazine that set Hulk stories in a retroactive pre-Avengers continuity alongside Thor, Namor, Hercules, and Captain America.
- Scenario credited to Doug Moench; interior art by Ron Wilson and Ricardo Villamonte, with quadrichrome (four-color) printing applied to material originally published in black-and-white in the US.
- The album included a color photo dossier on the Incredible Hulk TV series (CBS, 1977–1982), starring Bill Bixby as David Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk — directly linking the print publication to the show's French-market popularity.
- Launched as part of Arédit's coordinated 1979 cartonné program that simultaneously issued hardcover #1 albums for Thor le Fils d'Odin (January 1979), Captain America (January 1979), Gamma/La Naissance de Hulk (January 1979), and Namor (April 1979).
- The Hulk Géant series ran for 14 issues from April 1979 to October 1983, with the Hulk Géant Artima Color Géant format standardized at 68 pages and 21 × 29 cm.
- Characters indexed for this issue span multiple Marvel (and DC) franchises — Hulk/Bruce Banner, Thor, Captain America/Steve Rogers, Namor, Hercule, Skurge/Exécuteur, Leader/Samuel Sterns, Conan, Conan le Barbare, Red Sonja, and Kamandi — suggesting the cartonné may bundle content from more than one Arédit series or include gallery/pin-up material beyond the core Rampaging Hulk adaptation.
Cast · 15 characters
Full credits
Reprints
↩ Reprints Hulk #10 (1978), Hulk #1 (1979), Hulk #15 (1979)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.