Europe
Moebius
Moebius · Jean Giraud, 1938–2012
- Classification
- Artist and writer. French. Two species in one skin: "Gir" for westerns, Moebius for everything stranger.
- Habitat
- Pilote (1963 onwards), Métal Hurlant (1975 onwards), Les Humanoïdes Associés, Marvel's Epic imprint
- Distinguishing marks
- A clean, airy line; vast pale deserts; tiny figures under enormous skies; flying machines that look grown rather than built. Panels that seem dreamed rather than planned
- Often seen with
- Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jean-Michel Charlier and, once, Stan Lee
- Conservation status
- Stable. Humanoids keeps The Incal in print and Dark Horse's Moebius Library covers the later work, but Arzach and The Airtight Garage are out of print in English.
Field-guide card
Giraud learned his trade on westerns, and by the late 1960s Blueberry, written by Jean-Michel Charlier, was the best-drawn western in Europe. Then, as Moebius, he co-founded Les Humanoïdes Associés and Métal Hurlant in the mid-1970s and started drawing whatever came into his head. That turned out to be roughly half the look of modern science fiction.
You've seen his work without knowing it. His costume designs went into Ridley Scott's Alien, his designs helped shape Tron and The Fifth Element, and his storyboards for Jodorowsky's never-made Dune became a legend in their own right. Hayao Miyazaki has named him as an influence, which is about as high as praise gets in animation.
The gateway drug is The Incal, written by Jodorowsky: cosmic space opera starring a hapless detective called John Difool, and the book that launched a whole shelf of sequels. The deep end is The Airtight Garage, improvised a page at a time with no script, and gloriously unapologetic about it, though English readers will have to hunt for a secondhand copy. The curio is Silver Surfer: Parable, the Marvel oddity in which Moebius draws Galactus.
The Crowsnest verdict: the most imitated artist in science fiction, and still the best reason to stare at a desert. Nobody has drawn the future so lightly, or so well.