There are many, many tributes to the late, great Jean "Moebius" Giraud doing the rounds today, mostly from people who knew the artist's work far better than I ever did. I'd just like to say that Moebius was one of the first European comic artists I ever came across ( outside of the mostly uncredited Euro-artists working on British comics of the '70s ) and his surreal, beautiful artwork really blew my mind. Moebius was one of the very few comic creators who could reasonably be called a genius...
The above spread from Arzach/Harzak is not only my favourite piece of Moebius art but also one of my most favourite examples of comics artwork, full stop. I first discovered it in the wonderful Masters Of Comic Book Art by PR Garriock and it just seemed to symbolise the potential of the unfettered imagination, soaring off the page...
There are a few more examples of the great man's work below, including the cover of my first issue of Metal Hurlant and a very European take on a Marvel hero. Oh, and the... er, bottom image is what's known as NSFW. Handle with care...
For some far more informed pieces on Moebius, check out posts by Kid Robson, Booksteve, Jimmy Palmiotti and Sean Witzke...
Update: and more from Sean Witzke ( a wonderful post! )
RIP Moebius ( 8th May 1938 - 10th March 2012 )
There's something distinctly Frank Bellamy about the woman's posterior in that last pic, don't you think? I wonder if either influenced the other.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder if that Garriock book doesn't get enough credit for exposing various artists to an awful lot of people
ReplyDelete@Kid
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they were aware of each other, both being giants of the field at a similar time. Bellamy was more popular in Europe than he was at home in his later years, wasn't he? I'd bet you were right on his influencing Moebius...
@B Smith
It is a fantastic book, isn't it? I didn't know anyone else had ever read it :-(
And you're right, it introduced me to Will Eisner, Richard Corben, Harvey Kurtzman, Phillippe Druilett and, of course, Jean Giraud.
And Frank Bellamy was in there, too :-)