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161-655: The series draws plot elements from Moorcock's Elric series, as well as the Commedia dell'Arte . Moorcock hints in many places that Cornelius may be an aspect of the Eternal Champion . Characters from the Cornelius novels show up in much of Moorcock's other fiction: The Dancers at the End of Time series has a character called Jherek Carnelian who is the son of Lord Jagged of Canaria, and there are several hints in

322-463: A one-shot , Giraud took on scripting the revitalized series after Charlier had died, while leaving the artwork to Christian Rossi  [ fr ] . When Charlier, Giraud's collaborator on Blueberry , died in 1989, Giraud assumed responsibility for the scripting of the main series, the last outing of which, "Apaches", released in 2007, became the last title Giraud created for the parent publisher. Blueberry has been translated into 19 languages,

483-496: A 'secret agent'. There are almost no elements of the spy genre in the Cornelius stories. In 2008, The Entropy Tango & Gloriana Demo Sessions by Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix was released. These were sessions for planned albums based on two Moorcock novels: Glorianna and The Entropy Tango . Two of the Jerry Cornelius/Entropy Tango tracks were reworked with additional musicians and appeared on

644-475: A 1980s cyberpunk novel by Jonathan Littell that also dealt with themes of bisexuality and violence, features guest appearances by a has-been Jerry Cornelius and a substance-abusing 'Shaky' Mo Collier. The independent comic Elf-Thing featured not only Cornelius but members of his supporting cast in an homage. Cornelius is also seen in Alan Moore 's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier as

805-687: A Mexican in Mexico , and stayed there for nine months. The experience of the Mexican desert, in particular its endless blue skies and unending flat plains, now seeing and experiencing for himself the vistas that had enthralled him so much when watching Westerns on the silver screen only a few years earlier, left an everlasting, " quelque chose qui m'a littéralement craqué l'âme " ("something which literally cracked open my soul"), enduring impression on him, easily recognizable in almost all of his later seminal works. After his return to France, he started to work as

966-478: A brainstorming session Alejandro Jodorowsky had with his fellows of the Académie Panique , a group concentrated on chaotic and surreal performance art , as a response to surrealism becoming mainstream. Jodorowsky worked out the story premise as a therapy to alleviate the depression he was in after the failure of his Dune project and presented the script to Giraud in 1977 during a visit to Paris. Deeming

1127-508: A callous nature. They are bound by many ancient customs. Melniboné's capital and only surviving city is Imrryr, known as "The Dreaming City". Most of the rest of the island has been allowed to revert to wilderness. Caverns exist below the island, in which dragons sleep, awaiting the Melnibonéans' summons to war. Moorcock acknowledges the work of Bertolt Brecht , particularly Threepenny Novel and The Threepenny Opera , as "one of

1288-450: A career as a graphics artist in the animation industry, earning her a 2014 French civilian knighthood , the same her father had already received in 1985. Besides raising their children, wife Claudine not only took care of the business aspects of her husband's art work, but has on occasion also contributed to it as colorist. The 1976 feminist fantasy short story, "La tarte aux pommes", was written by her under her maiden name. Additionally,

1449-673: A child. Cornelius appears in the second part of Alan Moore 's three-part comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century . The character also appears in Neurotwistin' , a French novel by Laurent Queyssi (an appearance sanctioned by Moorcock). The 1996 White Wolf anthology Pawn of CHAOS features new Cornelius stories by John Shirley, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Nancy Collins. A version of Jerry Cornelius also appears in Michael Moorcock's 1999 graphic novel Multiverse . An ongoing presentation of new Cornelius stories

1610-539: A conscious attempt to breathe new life into the comic genre which at the time was dominated by American superhero comics in the United States, and by the traditional, adolescent oriented bandes dessinée in Europe. It tracks the journey of the title character flying on the back of his pterodactyl through a fantastic world mixing medieval fantasy with futurism . Unlike most science fiction comics, it is, save for

1771-399: A cost. He had left Pilote to escape the pressure and stifling conditions he was forced to work under, seeking complete creative freedom, but now it was increasingly becoming "as stifling as it had been before with Blueberry ", as he conceded in 1982, adding philosophically, "The more you free yourself, the more powerless you become!". How deeply ingrained this sentiment was, was evidenced in

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1932-602: A couple of Hara-Kiri esque satirical comic shorts for Pilote in the early 1970s, but under the pseudonym "Gir", most of which reprinted in the comic book Gir œuvres : "Tome 1, Le lac des émeraudes", also collecting shorts he had created for the Fleurus magazines, Bonux-Boy , and the late-1960s TOTAL Journal magazine. In 1974 he truly revived the Mœbius pseudonym for comics, and the very first, 12-page, story he created as such – while on one of his stopovers from America when

2093-502: A decade, that is for comics at least, as Giraud continued its use for side-projects as illustrator. In the late 1960s-early 1970s, Giraud provided interior front, and back flyleaf illustrations as Mœbius for several outings in the science fiction book club series Club du livre d'anticipation  [ fr ] , a limited edition hardcover series, collecting work from seminal science fiction writers, from French publisher Éditions OPTA  [ fr ] , continuing to do so throughout

2254-577: A free-lancer, explaining the Jim Cutlass exception. While Giraud has garnered universal praise and acclaim for his work as "Mœbius" (especially in the US, the UK and Japan), as "Gir", Blueberry has always remained his most successful and most recognized work in native France itself and in mainland Europe, despite its artist developing somewhat of a love/hate relationship with his co-creation in later life, which

2415-525: A full-time tenured artist for Catholic publisher Fleurus presse  [ fr ] , to whom he was introduced by Mézières, who had shortly before found employment at the publisher. In 1959–1960, he was slated for military service in, firstly the French occupation zone of Germany, and subsequently Algeria , in the throes of the vicious Algerian War at the time. Fortunately for him, however, he somehow managed to escape frontline duty as he – being

2576-723: A later stage with the way Appel-Guéry ran his commune on Tahiti, in the process dispensing with his short-lived third pseudonym. His stay at the commune though, had practical implications on his personal life; Giraud gave up eating meat, smoking, coffee, alcohol and, for the time being, the use of mind-expanding substances, adhering to his newfound abstinence for the most part for the remainder of his life. During his stay on Tahiti, Giraud had co-founded his second publishing house under two concurrent imprints, Éditions Gentiane (predominantly for his work as Gir, most notably Blueberry ) and Aedena  [ fr ] (predominantly for his work as Mœbius, and not entirely by coincidence named after

2737-417: A law-abiding citizen of the planet Souldaï, who awakens one day, only to find himself with a permanent erection. Pursued through space and time by his own puritanical authorities, who frown upon the condition, and other parties, who have their own intentions with the hapless bandard , he eventually finds a safe haven on the asteroid Fleur of Madame Kowalsky, after several hilarious adventures. When discounting

2898-425: A miracle, I was provided with one, a[n] [comic] artist no less!". After his stint at Jijé's, Giraud was again approached by friend Mézières to see if he was interested to work alongside him as an illustrator on Hachette 's ambitious multivolume L'histoire des civilisations history reference work. Spurred on by Jijé, who considered the opportunity a wonderful one for his pupil, Giraud accepted. Though he considered

3059-712: A movie about submarines!" As a result, from his cooperation with Marvel, Giraud delved deeper into the American superhero mythology and created superhero art stemming from both Marvel and DC Comics , which were sold as art prints, posters or included in calendars, besides becoming featured as comic book covers from both publishers. Even as late as 1997, Giraud had created cover art for two DC comic book outings, Hardware (Vol. 1, issue 49, March 1997) and Static (Vol. 1, issue 45, March 1997), after an earlier cover for Marvel Tales (Vol. 2, issue 253, September 1991). Another project Giraud embarked upon in his "American period",

3220-431: A nervous breakdown, with Jijé taking on plates 28–36. The second time occurred one year later, during the production of "Mission to Mexico (The Lost Rider)", when Giraud unexpectedly packed up and left to travel the United States, and, again, Mexico; yet again former mentor Jijé came to the rescue by penciling plates 17–38. While the art style of both artists had been nearly indistinguishable from each other in "Thunder in

3381-596: A new artist. This insight had repercussions though, as Giraud, after he had finished the "OK Corral" cycle in 2005, no longer continued to produce comics and/or art on a commercial base, but rather on a project and/or personal base, usually under the aegis of his own publishing house Mœbius Production. As Mœbius Production, Giraud published from 2000 to 2010 Inside Mœbius (French text despite English title), an illustrated autobiographical fantasy in six hardcover volumes totaling 700 pages. Pirandello -like, he appears in cartoon form as both creator and protagonist trapped within

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3542-468: A one-shot in Giraud's body of work in its utilization of such a high level of detail. The story, printed on yellow paper to accentuate the black & white art, was originally published directly as a, to 5000 copies limited book edition, gift item for relations of the publisher. It was only after expensive pirate editions started to appear that the publisher decided to make the work available commercially on

3703-447: A personal reason as well for Giraud to suspend his career as Mœbius comic artist; after he had returned from his second trip from Mexico, he found himself confronted with the artist's version of a writer's block as far as Mœbius comics were concerned, partly because Blueberry consumed all his energy. "For eight months I tried, but I could not do it, so I quit", stated Giraud additionally. Giraud's statement notwithstanding though, he did

3864-438: A plate, and aside from being soaked with my sweat, it was a complete disaster. So Joseph went on to do the penciling, whereas I did the inks." Even though Giraud did lose touch with his mentor eventually, he never forgot what "his master" had provided him with, both "aesthetically and professionally", the fatherless Giraud gratefully stating in later life, "It was as if he had asked me «Do you want me to be your father?», and if by

4025-588: A purely self-serving commercial basis, never on a voluntarily one. For Jijé, Giraud created several other shorts and illustrations for the short-lived magazine Bonux-Boy (1960/61), his first comic work after military service, and his penultimate one before embarking on Blueberry . In this period, Jijé used his apprentice for the inks on an outing of his Western series Jerry Spring – after whom Giraud had, unsurprisingly, modeled his Art Howell character previously – "The Road to Coronado", which Giraud inked. Actually, Jijé had intended his promising pupil for

4186-416: A regular contributor as colorist on Giraud's latter-day work. The changes in his personal life were also accompanied with changes in his business holdings during 1988–1990. His co-founded publishing house Gentiane/Aedena went into receivership in 1988, going bankrupt a short time thereafter. The American subsidiary Starwatcher Graphics followed in its wake around the turn of the millennium, partly because it

4347-686: A second language as a result from his various trips to Mexico and his dealings with Jodorowsky and his retinue, also picked up sufficient language skills to communicate in English. In late summer 1989, Giraud returned to France, definitively as it turned out, though that was initially not his intent. His family had already returned to France earlier, as his children wanted to start their college education in their native county and wife Claudine had accompanied them to set up home in Paris. However, it also turned out that his transient lifestyle had taken its toll on

4508-730: A short interview in Métal Hurlant , issue 82, later that year, where an overworked Giraud stated, "I will finish the Blueberry series, I will finish the John Difool [ Incal ] series and then I'm done. Then I will quit comics!" At the time he had just finished working as storyboard, and production design artist on the Movie Tron , something he had enjoyed immensely. Fortunately for his fans, Giraud did not act upon his impulse as history has shown, though he did take action to escape

4669-493: A simple line drawing style similar to that of Jijé, and standard Western themes and imagery (specifically, those of John Ford 's US Cavalry Western trilogy, with Howard Hawk 's 1959 Rio Bravo thrown in for good measure for the sixth, one-shot title "The Man with the Silver Star"), but gradually Giraud developed a darker and grittier style inspired by, firstly the 1970 Westerns Soldier Blue and Little Big Man (for

4830-461: A single planche (page or picture). The series tells of Major Grubert, who is constructing his own multi-level universe on an asteroid named Fleur (from the "Bandard fou" universe incidentally, and the first known instance of the artist's attempts of tying all his "Mœbius" creations into one coherent Airtight Garage universe), where he encounters a wealth of fantastic characters including Michael Moorcock 's creation Jerry Cornelius . 1978 marked

4991-486: A small theater, located on a corner in the street where his mother lived, which concurrently provided an escape from the dreary atmosphere in postwar reconstruction-era France. Playing an abundance of American B-movie Westerns , Giraud, frequenting the theater there as often as he was able to, developed a passion for the genre, as did so many other European boys his age in those times. At age 9–10, Giraud started to draw Western comics while enrolled by his single mother as

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5152-515: A specialized graphic computer tablet, as its enlargement features had become an indispensable aid, because of his failing eyesight. Creating comics became increasingly difficult for Giraud, as his eyesight started to fail him in his last years, having undergone severe surgery in 2010 to stave off blindness in his left eye, and it was mainly for this reason that Giraud increasingly concentrated on creating single-piece art, both as "Gir" and as "Mœbius", on larger canvases on either commission basis or under

5313-590: A stop-gap measure in the Saint-Nicolas boarding school in Issy-les-Moulineaux for two years (and where he became acquainted with Belgian comic magazines such as Spirou and Tintin ), much to the amusement of his schoolmates. In 1954, at age 16, he began his only technical training at the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré , where he started producing Western comics, though these did not sit well with his conventional teachers. At

5474-432: A story à la Charlier. So I wrote this scenario, not too bad, but quite traditional, quite classic." In similar vein, Giraud took up the writing for the other Charlier/Giraud western creation, Jim Cutlass , that Charlier had actually been in the process of revitalizing in the year before his death, and for which he had already contracted Christian Rossi  [ fr ] for the artwork, besides having already started on

5635-525: A strong, edifying nature aimed at France's adolescent youth – up to a point that his realistically drawn comics had become his mainstay. Among his realistic Westerns was a comic called " Le roi des bisons " ("King of the Buffalo" – has had an English publication ), and another called " Un géant chez lez Hurons " ("A Giant among the Hurons"). Actually, several of his Western comics, including "King of

5796-519: A talking magic sword and fatal alienation of the hero from his family. Besides Elric, Kullervo has been proposed as having influence on Poul Anderson's 1954 novel The Broken Sword , and J.R.R. Tolkien 's Túrin Turambar . Moorcock has stated that "Anderson's a definite influence [on Elric], as stated. But oddly, the Kalevala was read to us at my boarding school when I was about seven", and "from

5957-597: A temporary residence (the O-1 "Extraordinary Ability" category, including the "International Artist" status ) visa – he maintained a transient lifestyle, as his work had him frequently travel to Belgium and native France (maintaining a home in Paris), as well as to Japan, for extended periods of time. His stay in the United States was an inspiration for his aptly called Made in L.A. art book, and much of his art he had produced in this period of time, including his super hero art,

6118-564: A third pseudonym, Jean Gir – formally introduced to the public as "Jean Gir, Le Nouveau Mœbius" in "Venise celeste" (p. 33), though Giraud had by the time of publication already dispensed with the pseudonym himself – which appeared on the art he created while on Tahiti, though not using it for his Aedena Cycle . Another member of the commune was Paula Salomon, for whom Giraud had already illustrated her 1980 book "La parapsychologie et vous". Having to move stateside for work served Giraud well, as he became increasingly disenchanted at

6279-555: A very early age I was reading Norse legends and any books I could find about Norse stories". Moorcock in the same posting stated that "one thing I'm pretty sure of, I was not in any way directly influenced by Prof. T[olkien]". Elric's albinism appears influenced by Monsieur Zenith , an albino Sexton Blake villain whom Moorcock appreciated enough to write into later multiverse stories. Moorcock read Zenith stories in his youth and has contributed to their later reprinting, remarking that it "took me forty years to find another copy of Zenith

6440-595: A wide range of science-fiction and fantasy comics in a highly imaginative, surreal , almost abstract style. These works include Arzach and the Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius . He also collaborated with avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky for an unproduced adaptation of Dune and the comic book series The Incal . Mœbius also contributed storyboards and concept designs to numerous science-fiction and fantasy films, such as Alien , Tron , The Fifth Element , and The Abyss . Blueberry

6601-411: A wider scale, starting in 1981. Jodorowsky had intended the work to be the first of a trilogy, but that never came to fruition. In a certain way "Les yeux du chat" concluded a phase that had started with "La Déviation", and this viewpoint was adhered to by the publisher who had coined the era "Les années Métal Hurlant" on one of its latter-day anthologies. The very first "Mœbius" anthology collection

Jerry Cornelius - Misplaced Pages Continue

6762-469: Is an imaginary country, an island among the Young Kingdoms . Centuries before Elric's birth, Melniboné ruled its world through sorcerous might and sheer power. By the time of Elric's birth, it has slipped from its preeminent place, being one of many nations. The Melnibonéans themselves are not wholly human. They are skilled with magic and beautiful, though psychologically similar to cats , with

6923-642: Is in some ways the 'sponsor' of Moebius, for years now." The "Mœbius" pseudonym, which Giraud came to use for his science fiction and fantasy work, was born in 1963, while he was working on the Hachette project, as he did not like "to work on paintings alone all day", and "like an alcoholic needing his alcohol" had to create comics. In a satire magazine called Hara-Kiri , Giraud used the name for 21 strips in 1963–64 (much of which collected in Epic's "Mœbius 1 ⁄ 2 " – see below ). Though Giraud enjoyed

7084-465: Is on Moorcock's Jeremiah Cornelius Facebook page. Carter Kaplan plays a variation on Jerry Cornelius in his novel Tally-Ho, Cornelius! . Author Bruce Sterling has described his recurring character Leggy Starlitz, star of a series of short stories and the novel Zeitgeist , as "a nonlinear descendant of Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius". Elric Elric of Melniboné is a fictional character created by English writer Michael Moorcock and

7245-401: Is one of the better known characters in fantasy literature, having crossed over into a wide variety of media, such as role-playing games , comics, music, and film. The stories have been continuously in print since the 1970s. Elric is described in 1972's Elric of Melniboné : It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From

7406-655: The Titus Groan trilogy, Poul Anderson's Scafloc in The Broken Sword , T. H. White's Lancelot in The Once and Future King , J. R. R. Tolkien's cursed hero Túrin Turambar , and Jane Gaskell's Zerd in The Serpent . John Clute considers Elric to be a deliberate parody of Robert E. Howard 's Conan . The story of Kullervo from Finnish mythology contains elements similar to Elric's story, such as

7567-518: The Dune production was in a lull – was " Cauchemar Blanc " ("White Nightmare"), published in the magazine L'Écho des savanes , issue 8, 1974. The black & white story dealt with the racist murder of an immigrant of North-African descent, and stands out as one of the very few emphatic socially engaged works of Giraud. Bearing in mind Giraud's fascination with the Western genre in general and

7728-549: The Eisner Award for best finite/limited series in 1989. Mœbius' version was discussed in the 1995 submarine thriller Crimson Tide by two sailors pitting his version against those of Jack Kirby , with the main character played by Denzel Washington , emphasizing the Kirby one being the better of the two. Becoming aware of the reference around 1997, Giraud was later told around 2005 by the movie's director Tony Scott , that it

7889-566: The Heavy Metal niche market releases by HM Communications in the late 1970s—in graphic novel format trade editions, under its Epic imprint from 1987 to 1994. These incidentally, included three of Mœbius' latter-day art books, as well as the majority of his Blueberry Western comic. It was for the Marvel/Epic publication effort that it was decided to dispense with the "Jean [Gir]aud"/"Mœbius" dichotomy—until then strictly adhered-to by

8050-601: The Madwoman of the Sacred Heart trilogy, both of which started in the US and completed in 2001 and 1998 respectively, after which he concentrated on Blueberry ' s "OK Corral" cycle, started in 1994 upon his return to France. While Giraud was in the midst of "OK Corral" cycle, he also embarked on a new sequel cycle of his acclaimed Incal main series, called Après l'Incal ( After the Incal ). Yet, after he had penciled

8211-469: The Métal hurlant , issues 7–8, publication of " The Long Tomorrow ", written by Dan O'Bannon in 1974 during lulls in the pre-production of Jodorowsky's Dune . His series The Airtight Garage , starting its magazine run in issue 6, 1976, is particularly notable for its non-linear plot, where movement and temporality can be traced in multiple directions depending on the readers' own interpretation even within

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8372-782: The Spirits Burning CD Alien Injection , also released in 2008. Moorcock encouraged other authors and artists to create works about Jerry Cornelius, in an early open source shared world attempt at open brand sharing. One example is Norman Spinrad 's The Last Hurrah of the Golden Horde . Another is Mœbius 's The Airtight Garage . The Nature of the Catastrophe , a collection of Jerry Cornelius stories and comic strips which had appeared in New Worlds (with art by Mal Dean) by various hands,

8533-474: The protagonist of a series of sword and sorcery stories taking place on an alternative Earth. The proper name and title of the character are Elric VIII, 428th Emperor of Melniboné. Later stories by Moorcock marked Elric as a facet of the Eternal Champion . Elric first appeared in print in Moorcock's novella " The Dreaming City " ( Science Fantasy No. 47, June 1961). Moorcock's doomed albino antihero

8694-767: The " Paradiso " volume, while the two others, " Inferno " and " Purgatorio ", were illustrated by Lorenzo Mattotti and Milton Glaser respectively. The edition was published under the Mœbius name. Giraud's illustrations for "Paradiso" take heavy inspiration from the engravings of the Divine Comedy by Gustave Doré, whose work he had discovered in his grandparents' library and learned to appreciate in his early formative years, with compositions often approaching an exact match. Giraud acknowledged this influence directly, praising Doré's work and remarking how he sometimes literally used tracing paper to sketch compositions. Though another prominent example of Giraud's non-comic book work,

8855-633: The "Iron Horse" story-arc), and subsequently by the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone and the dark realism of Sam Peckinpah in particular (for the "Lost Goldmine" story-arc and beyond). With the fifth album, "The Trail of the Navajos", Giraud established his own style, and after both editorial control and censorship laws were loosened in the wake of the May 1968 social upheaval in France –

9016-489: The "unbearable realization" that he was "enriching" the publisher with his Mœbius work, thereby expediting his departure. ), "Ballade" ("The Ballade", 1977 and inspired by the poem "Fleur" by French poet Arthur Rimbaud ), "Ktulu" (issue 33bis, 1978, an H. P. Lovecraft -inspired story) and "Citadelle aveugle" ("The White Castle", in issue 51, 1980 and oddly enough signed as "Gir") were examples of additional stories Giraud created directly in color, shortly after "Arzach". 1976 saw

9177-505: The 1970s with several additional covers for the publisher's Fiction (the magazine that introduced Giraud to science fiction at age 16) and Galaxie-bis  [ fr ] science fiction magazine and pocket book series. Additionally, this period in time also saw four vinyl record music productions endowed with Mœbius sleeve art. Much of this illustration art has been reproduced in Giraud's first art book as Mœbius, aptly entitled "Mœbius", released in 1980. There actually had also been

9338-521: The Albino! In fact it was a friend who found it under lock and key and got a copy of it to Savoy who are, at last, about to reprint it! Why I have spent so much energy making public the evidence of my vast theft from Anthony Skene, I'm not entirely sure... ". Moorcock later said: "As I've said in my introduction to Monsieur Zenith: The Albino , the Anthony Skene's character was a huge influence. For

9499-470: The Buffalo", featured the same protagonist Art Howell, and these can be considered as Giraud's de facto first realistic Western series, as he himself did in effect, since he, save the first one, endowed these stories with the subtitle " Un aventure d'Art Howell ". For Fleurus, Giraud also illustrated his first three books. Already in this period, his style was heavily influenced by his later mentor, Belgian comic artist Joseph "Jijé" Gillain , who at that time

9660-578: The Cornelius clan with uncertain parentage. In comics , various writers have used elements of the character, including Bryan Talbot 's character Luther Arkwright . Image publishes Matt Fraction 's Casanova series which also pays homage to Cornelius. Tony Lee 's Midnight Kiss features Cornelius with Michael Moorcock's blessing. (Moorcock wrote the introduction for the collected trade paperback). Grant Morrison created an Oscar Wilde -inspired steampunk version of Jerry Cornelius in Sebastian O ,

9821-547: The End of Time , and the anagrammatic Corum Jhaelen Irsei ). A space pirate named Captain Cornelius (who like Jerry is associated with the commedia dell'arte character Pierrot ) appears in Moorcock's Doctor Who novel, The Coming of the Terraphiles . In these four novels Jerry undergoes transformations, dies, is reborn, spends one entire novel as a shivering wreck, and eventually discovers his true natures. Moorcock strenuously objects to his character being depicted as

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9982-497: The West", after Giraud resumed work on plate 39 of "Mission to Mexico", a clearly noticeable style breach was now observable, indicating that Giraud was now well on his way to develop his own signature style, eventually surpassing that of his former teacher Jijé, who, impressed by his former pupil's achievements, has later coined him the " Rimbaud de la BD". The Lieutenant Blueberry character, whose facial features were based on those of

10143-563: The actor Jean-Paul Belmondo , was created in 1963 by Charlier (scenario) and Giraud (drawings) for Pilote. While the Fort Navajo series had originally been intended as an ensemble narrative, it quickly gravitated towards having Blueberry as its central figure. His featured adventures, in what was later called the Blueberry series, may be Giraud's best known work in native France and the rest of Europe, before later collaborations with Alejandro Jodorowsky . The early Blueberry comics used

10304-452: The aegis of Mœbius Production. Much of the latter artwork was from 2005 onward, alongside older original art Giraud still had in his possession, sold by the company for considerable prices in specialized comic auctions at such auction houses like Artcurial , Hôtel Drouot and Millon & Associés. As already indicated above, Giraud had throughout his entire career made illustrations for books, magazines, music productions (though playing

10465-405: The appearance of a later, major character in Giraud's Blueberry series, Chihuahua Pearl, was in part based on Claudine's looks. The Mœbiusienne 1973 fantasy road trip short story "La déviation", created as "Gir" before the artist fully embarked on his Mœbius career, featured the Giraud family as the protagonists, save Julien. In October 1963, Giraud and writer Jean-Michel Charlier started

10626-410: The artbook "Made in L.A." ("The Words of Chief Seattle ", in Epic's "Ballad for a Coffin" ). Giraud suddenly bursting out onto the comic scene as "Mœbius", caught European readership by surprise, and it took many of them, especially outside France, a couple of years before the realization had sunk in that "Jean Gir[raud]" and "Mœbius" were, physically at least, one and the same artist. It was when he

10787-486: The artfully executed story titles, entirely devoid of captions, speech balloons and written sound effects. It has been argued that the wordlessness provides the strip with a sense of timelessness, setting up Arzach's journey as a quest for eternal, universal truths. The short stories "L'Homme est-il bon?" ("Is Man Good?", in issue 10, 1976, after the first publication in Pilote , issue 744, 1974, which however woke Giraud up to

10948-413: The artistic freedom and atmosphere at the magazine greatly, he eventually gave up his work there as Blueberry , on which he had embarked in the meantime, demanded too much of his energy, aside from being a better paid job. Magazine editor-in-chief Cavanna was loath to let Giraud go, not understanding why Giraud would want to waste his talents on a "kiddy comic". Subsequently, the pseudonym went unused for

11109-512: The artist—as both the artist's given name and his Blueberry creation were all but unknown in the English speaking world. This was contrary to his reputation as "Mœbius", already acquired in the Heavy Metal days, and from then on used for all his work in the English speaking world (and Japan), though the dichotomy remained elsewhere, including native France. A two-issue Silver Surfer miniseries (later collected as Silver Surfer: Parable ), written by Stan Lee and drawn by Giraud (as Mœbius),

11270-531: The as "Gir" signed "La déviation", it is in this story that Giraud's signature, minute "Mœbius" art style, for which he became famed not that much later, truly comes into its own. Another novelty introduced in the book, is that the narrative is only related on the right-hand pages; the left-hand pages are taken up by one-page panels depicting an entirely unrelated cinematographic sequence of a man transforming after he has snapped his fingers. The story did raise some eyebrows with critics accusing Giraud of pornography at

11431-550: The assignment a daunting one, having to create in oil paints from historical objects and imagery, it was, besides being the best-paying job he had ever had, a seminal appointment. At Hachette, Giraud discovered that he had a knack for creating art in gouaches , something that served him well not that much later when creating Blueberry magazine/ album cover art, as well as for his 1968 side project " Buffalo Bill : le roi des éclaireurs" history book written by George Fronval  [ fr ] , for whom Giraud provided two-thirds of

11592-458: The birth of second son Raphaël in 1989. Giraud's marriage with Claudine was legally ended in December 1994, without much drama according to Giraud, as both spouses had realized that "each wanted something different out of life". Exemplary of the marriage ending without any ill will was, that Claudine was still emphatically acknowledged for her contributions in the 1997 artbook "Blueberry's", and

11753-592: The books Giraud illustrated for Fleurus, were co-illustrated with Guy Mouminoux , another name of some future renown in the Franco-Belgian comic world, and Giraud's work can only be identified, because he signed his work, whereas Mouminoux did not sign his. While not ample, Giraud's earnings at Fleurus were just enough to allow him – disenchanted as he was with the courses, prevalent atmosphere, and academic discipline – to quit his art academy education after only two years, though he came to somewhat regret

11914-500: The chief influences" on the initial Elric sequence; he dedicated 1972's Elric of Melniboné to Brecht. In the same dedication, he cited Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions and Fletcher Pratt 's The Well of the Unicorn as similarly influential texts. Moorcock has referred to Elric as a type of the "doomed hero", one of the oldest character-types in literature, akin to such hero-villains as Mervyn Peake's Steerpike in

12075-485: The college, he befriended other future comic artists Jean-Claude Mézières and Pat Mallet  [ fr ] . With Mézières in particular, in no small part due to their shared passion for science fiction, Westerns and the Far West , Giraud developed a close, lifelong friendship, calling him "life's continuing adventure" in later life. In 1956, he left art school without graduating to visit his mother, who had married

12236-541: The comic strip Fort Navajo for the Charlier-co-founded Pilote magazine, issue 210. At this time the affinity between the styles of Giraud and Jijé (who in effect had been Charlier's first choice for the series, but who was reverted to Giraud by Jijé) was so close that Jijé penciled several pages for the series when Giraud went AWOL . In effect, when "Fort Navajo" started its run, Pilote received angry letters, accusing Giraud of plagiarism , which

12397-642: The covers for the first seven outings in the French-language edition of the Morgan Kane Western novel series written by Louis Masterson . Much of his Western-themed gouache artwork of this era, including that of Blueberry , has been collected in the 1983 artbook "Le tireur solitaire". Aside from its professional importance, Giraud's stint at Hachette was also of personal importance, as he met Claudine Conin, an editorial researcher at Hachette, and who described her future husband as being at

12558-424: The cultural aspects of Native Americans in particular – and whose plight Giraud had always been sympathetic to – it is hardly a surprise that two later examples of such rare works were Native-American themed. These concerned the 2-page short story "Wounded Knee", inspired by the eponymous 1973 incident staged by Oglala Lakota , and the 3-page short story "Discours du Chef Seattle", first published in

12719-463: The death of his father. Giraud returned to the Blueberry series in 1979 with "Nez Cassé" as a free-lancer . Later that year however, the long-running disagreement Charlier and Giraud had with their publishing house Dargaud , the publisher of Pilote , over the residuals from Blueberry came to a head. They began the Western comic Jim Cutlass as a means to put the pressure on Dargaud. It did not work, and Charlier and Giraud turned their back on

12880-581: The decision in later life. Shortly before he entered military service, Giraud visited his idol at his home for the first time with Mézières and Mallet, followed by a few visits on his own to see the master at work for himself. In 1961, returning from military service and his stint on 5/5 Forces Françaises , Giraud, not wanting to return to Fleurus, as he felt that he "had to do something else, if he ever wanted to evolve", became an apprentice of Jijé on his invitation, after he saw that Giraud had made artistic progress during his stay at 5/5 Forces Françaises . Jijé

13041-479: The documentary made for the occasion of its release. Giraud and Isabelle were married on 13 May 1995, and the union resulted in their second child, daughter Nausicaa, the same year. For Giraud his second marriage was of such great personal importance, that he henceforth considered his life divided in a pre-Isabelle part and a post-Isabelle part, having coined his second wife "the key to the whole grand design". Isabelle's sister and Giraud's sister-in-law, Claire, became

13202-405: The entirety of the story art, but the still-inexperienced Giraud, who was used to working under the relaxed conditions at Fleurus, found himself overwhelmed by the strict time schedules that production for a periodical ( Spirou in this case) demanded. Conceding that he had been a bit too cocky and ambitious, Giraud stated, "I started the story all by myself, but after a week, I had only finished half

13363-414: The example set by the L'Écho des savanes founding editors, it was therefore as such also an indirect result of the revolt these artists had previously staged at Pilote , and whose employ they had left for the undertaking. Together they started the monthly magazine Métal hurlant ("Screaming metal") in December 1974, and for which he had temporarily abandoned his Blueberry series. The translated version

13524-490: The first (and last in hindsight) volume of a planned trilogy, Arzak l'arpenteur , appeared in 2010. He also added to the Airtight Garage series with two volumes entitled "Le chasseur déprime" (2008 ) and "Major" (2011 ), as well as the art book "La faune de Mars" (2011 ), the latter two initially released in a limited, 1000 copy French only, print run by Mœbius Production. By this time, Giraud created his comic art on

13685-479: The first English book translations being published in 1977/78 by UK publisher Egmont / Methuen , though its publication was cut short after only four volumes. The original Blueberry series has spun off a prequel series called Young Blueberry in the Pilote -era (1968–1970), but the artwork was in 1984, when that series was resurrected, left to Colin Wilson and later Michel Blanc-Dumont  [ fr ] after

13846-488: The first Jodorowsky/Mœbius collaboration. Giraud was so eager to return to the project during a stopover from the United States while the project was in hiatus, that he greatly accelerated the work on the "Angel Face" outing of Blueberry he was working on at the time, shearing off weeks from its originally intended completion. The project fell through though, and after he had returned definitely to France later that year, he started to produce comic work under this pseudonym that

14007-411: The first outing in the series, "Le nouveau rêve", he found himself confronted with "too many things that attract me, too many desires in all the senses", causing him to be no longer able to "devote myself to the bande dessinée as befitting a professional in the traditional sense". Despite repeated pleas to convince Giraud otherwise, it left writer Jodorowsky with no other recourse than to start anew with

14168-432: The first person, related his experiences under the tutelage of a Yaqui "Man of Knowledge" named Don Juan Matus. Castaneda's writings made a deep and everlasting impression on Giraud, already open to Native-Mexican folk culture due to his three previous extended trips to the country (he had visited the country a third time in 1972 ), and it did influence his art as "Mœbius", particularly in regard to dream sequences, though he

14329-476: The first three original volumes in that series, as well as the Giraud-written, but William Vance -penciled, 1991-2000 intermezzo series called Marshal Blueberry . All these series, except Jim Cutlass , had returned to the parent publisher Dargaud in late 1993, though Giraud himself – having already left the employ of the publisher in 1974 (see below ) – had not, instead plying his trade as

14490-414: The first time. Considered a key and seminal work, both for its art and storytelling, setting Jodorowsky off on his career as comic writer, the art evoked memories of the wood engravings from the 19th century, including those of Gustave Doré , that Giraud discovered and admired in the books of his grandparents when he was living there in his childhood. However, it—like "La déviation"—has remained somewhat of

14651-509: The former in no small part due to the revolt key comic artists, Giraud chief among them, staged a short time thereafter in the editorial offices of Dargaud , the publisher of Pilote , demanding and ultimately receiving more creative freedom from editor-in-chief René Goscinny – the strip became more explicitly adult, and also adopted a thematically wider range. The first Blueberry album penciled by Giraud after he had begun publishing science fiction as Mœbius, "Nez Cassé" ("Broken Nose"),

14812-460: The function of publishing editor and co-ownership from Claudine (explaining the renaming of the company), after the latter's marriage with Giraud was dissolved in 1994, and her sister Claire. The first thing Giraud did creatively upon his return was to finish up on the Blueberry album "Arizona Love" on his own after his longtime writing partner Jean-Michel Charlier had died on 10 July 1989. Due to his intimate twenty-five year familiarity with both

14973-451: The graphic innovations Giraud ported over from his work as "Mœbius" into the mainstream Blueberry series, most specifically "Nez Cassé", making him "one of the all-time greatest artists in the comic medium," as Charlier himself put it in 1982. Artist Michel Rouge  [ fr ] , who was taken on by Giraud in 1980 for the inks of "La longue marche" ("The Long March") painted a slightly different picture though. Already recognizing that

15134-676: The hectic Parisian comic scene in 1980 by moving himself and his family as far away from Paris as possible in France, and relocated to the small city of Pau at the foothills of the Pyrenees . It was while he was residing in Pau that Giraud started to take an interest in the teachings of Jean-Paul Appel-Guéry, becoming an active member of his group and partaking in their gatherings. From 1985 to 2001 he also created his six-volume fantasy series Le Monde d'Edena , which has appeared in English as The Aedena Cycle . The stories were strongly influenced by

15295-467: The illustrations in gouache, including the cover. The assignment at Hachette being cut short because of his invitation to embark on Fort Navajo , meant he only participated on the first three to four volumes of the book series, leaving the completion to Mézières. In the Pilote era, Giraud additionally provided art in gouache for two Western-themed vinyl record music productions as sleeve art, as well as

15456-521: The influences from his science fiction and fantasy comics shine through. The illustrations, with vivid colors and space-age headresses, are distinctly rendered in the Mœbius mode. An out-of-the-ordinary latter-day contribution as such, constituted his illustrations as "Mœbius" for the Thursday 6 March 2008 issue of the Belgian newspaper Le Soir . His illustrations accompanied news articles throughout

15617-425: The line of succession, as Elric has no heirs) interprets this behaviour as weakness and plots Elric's death. Complicating matters is Yyrkoon's sister Cymoril, who is deeply in love with Elric; Yyrkoon covets her, and part of his plan for usurpation is to marry Cymoril himself. In addition to his skill with herbs, Elric is an accomplished sorcerer and summoner. As emperor of Melniboné, Elric is able to call for aid upon

15778-554: The marriage, causing the couple to drift apart, and it was decided upon his return to enter into a " living apart together " relationship, which allowed for an "enormous freedom and sincerity" without "demands and frustrations" for both spouses, according to the artist. Additionally, Giraud had met Isabelle Champeval during a book signing in Venice, Italy in February 1984, and entered into a relationship with her in 1987, which resulted in

15939-447: The medium. Even Giraud was in later life led to believe that Charlier apparently "detested" his other work, looking upon it as something akin to "treason", though his personal experiences with the author was that he had kept an "open mind" in this regard, at least in his case. According to Giraud, Charlier's purported stance negatively influenced his son Philippe, causing their relationship to rapidly deteriorate into open animosity, after

16100-578: The most influential bande dessinée artist after Hergé . His most famous body of work as Gir concerns the Blueberry series, created with writer Jean-Michel Charlier , featuring one of the first antiheroes in Western comics , and which is particularly valued in continental Europe. As Mœbius he achieved worldwide renown (in this case in the English-speaking nations and Japan as well – where his work as Gir had not done well), by creating

16261-431: The most visible manifestation of Giraud's stay on Tahiti, aside from the artbooks "La memoire du futur" and "Venise celeste". Concurrently collaborating on "La nuit de l'étoile" was young artist Marc Bati , also residing at the commune at the time, and for whom Giraud afterwards wrote the comic series Altor ( The Magic Crystal ), while in the US. It was under the influence of Appel-Guéry's teachings that Giraud conceived

16422-462: The name Jean Giraud did not cause any of the present pencillers, colorists or storyboard artists to even bat an eye. Yet, whenever I introduced myself as "Mœbius", all of them jumped up to shake my hand. It was incredible! After having arrived in California, Giraud's wife Claudine set up Giraud's third publishing house Starwatcher Graphics in 1985, essentially the US branch of Gentiane/Aedena with

16583-455: The neighboring municipality of Fontenay-sous-Bois (much later, when he was an acclaimed artist, Giraud returned to live in the municipality in the mid-1970s, but was unable to buy his grandparents' erstwhile house ). The rupture between mother and father created a lasting trauma that he explained lay at the heart of his choice of separate pen names. A somewhat sickly and introverted child at first, young Giraud found solace after World War II in

16744-462: The only service man available at the time with a graphics background – served out his military obligations being set to work as illustrator on the army magazine 5/5 Forces Françaises , besides being assigned to logistic duties. Algeria was Giraud's second acquaintance with other, more exotic cultures, and like he did in Mexico, he soaked in the experience, which made another indelible impression on

16905-475: The original Vertigo mini-series. Another Morrison character, Gideon Stargrave of The Invisibles , is one of the few interpretations of the character that Moorcock has issues with, as he considers the character little more than a straight lift of Cornelius. The name of the protagonist of Mœbius 's The Airtight Garage was changed in later editions to "Lewis Carnelian". In 2006, on his website, Moorcock wrote: I didn't retroactively withdraw permission. Moebius

17066-481: The parent publisher definitively, leaving for greener pastures elsewhere, and in the process taking all of Charlier's other co-creations with them. It would be nearly fifteen years before the Blueberry series (and the others) returned to Dargaud after Charlier died. (For further particulars, including the royalties conflict, see: Blueberry publication history .) After the first album, "Mississippi River", first serialized in Métal Hurlant and for two decades remaining

17227-562: The piano and electric guitar, Giraud was, unlike his second son Raphaël, regrettably not a creative musician himself by his own admission, but did have a lifelong fascination with jazz ), but also promotional art for commercial institutions such as banks and corporations. A notable early example of the latter, concerned the Blueberry art he created in 1978 for the Spanish jeans manufacturer Lois Jeans & Jackets; Aside from being traditionally run as an advertisement in numerous magazines, it

17388-453: The publication of the 54-page "Les yeux du chat" ("Eyes of the Cat"). The dark, disturbing and surreal tale dealt with a blind boy in a non-descript empty cityscape, who has his pet eagle scout for eyes, which it finds by taking these from a street cat and offering them to his awaiting companion who, while grateful, expresses his preference for the eyes of a child. The story premise originated from

17549-413: The publisher released as such, was the 1980–1985 Moebius œuvres complètes six-volume collection of which two, volumes 4, "La Complainte de l'Homme Programme" and 5, "Le Désintégré Réintégré" (the two of them in essence comprising an expanded version of the 1980 original ), were Mœbius art books. It also concluded a phase in which Giraud was preoccupied in a "characteristic period in his life" in which he

17710-555: The regular team Jean Van Hamme–William Vance, "Le dernier round" ("The Last Round"). Both parts were published on the same date (13 November 2007) and were the last ones written by Van Hamme before Yves Sente took over the series. The contribution was also a professional courtesy to the series' artist, Vance, who had previously provided the artwork for the first two titles in the by Giraud written Marshall Blueberry spin-off series. Late in life, Giraud also decided to revive his seminal Arzak character in an elaborate new adventure series;

17871-521: The rest of the character, his ambiguities in particular, I based him on myself at the age I was when I created Elric, which was 20". The influence of Zenith on Elric is often cited in discussions of Zenith. Elric has appeared in many stories since 1962, which have been republished in several collections. Two anthologies of works by other authors set in the Moorcock multiverse have been published: The Elric saga has also been adapted for comics and graphic novels several times: A video game based on Elric

18032-496: The same goals, resulting in the release of, among others, the extremely limited art portfolio La Cité de Feu , a collaborative art project of Giraud with Geoff Darrow (see below ). However, due to their unfamiliarity with the American publishing world, the company did not do well, and in an effort to remedy the situation Claudine hired the French/American editor couple Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier , whom she had met at

18193-513: The same vein as the Coelho novel, with his cover and interior illustrations for a French 1995 reprint of "Ballades" from the French medieval poet François Villon , itself followed by similar work for Jean-Jacques Launier  [ fr ] 's 2001 new-age novel "La mémoire de l'âme". Much of this non-comic art, including the one for Lois has been reproduced in the artbooks that were released over

18354-422: The scenario. After having added six more volumes to the once one-shot series, the series – which he, as explained above , had published at publisher Casterman instead of (western) house-publisher Dargud – folded in 1999 due to the fact that it was not nearly as commercially successful as Blueberry had been. Under his "Mœbius" pseudonym, Giraud concurrently continued to work on The Aedena Cycle and

18515-470: The sequel to The Airtight Garage , "L'Homme du Ciguri" in 1995. Together with Claudine he founded Stardom in 1990, his first true family operated business without any other third-party participation according to Giraud, with the 1525-copy limited mini art portfolio "Mockba - carnet de bord" becoming the company's first recorded publication in September the same year. Apart from being a publishing house, it

18676-511: The series and its writer, it was a foregone conclusion that Giraud would from then on take on the scripting of the main Blueberry series as well, especially since it was already agreed upon in the "contracts signed with Jean-Michel" that "the survivor would take over the series". Stunned by the sudden death of his longtime co-worker though, he could not bring himself to work on the art for Blueberry afterwards for nearly five years before he embarked on Blueberry again as artist. Giraud stated that

18837-535: The series had lost its "father", and that the "mother needed time to mourn". Nonetheless, he did embark on the Marshal Blueberry spin-off series in 1990 as writer (leaving the artwork firstly to William Vance and subsequently to Michel Rouge  [ fr ] ), wanting to pay homage to the legacy of his late writing partner by creating a story in his spirit, or as Giraud had put it, "{A]nd [I] said to myself: Well, I'm going to see if I'm able to write

18998-475: The series he was working on at the time), together with friend and former editor at Les Humanoïdes Associés, Jean Annestay  [ fr ] , for the express purpose to release his work in a more artful manner, such as limited edition art prints, art books ("La memoire du futur" was first released under the Gentiane imprint, and reprinted under that of Aedena) and art portfolios. Both men had already released

19159-665: The series that Lord Jagged may be a guise of Jerry Cornelius; the Cornelius-series character Una Persson also appears in the "Dancers" series and the Oswald Bastable books, and may also be the character Oona in the later Elric books; Colonel Pyat has his own non-SF series of books by Moorcock, beginning with Byzantium Endures . At least five other variants of the name occur in other Moorcock works ( Jerry Cornell , Jehamiah Cohnalias , Jhary-a-Conel (Corum, Runestaff), Lord Jagged of Canaria from The Dancers at

19320-468: The souls of intelligent beings. In the end, the blade takes everyone close to Elric and eventually Elric's own soul as well. Most of Moorcock's stories about Elric feature this relationship with Stormbringer, and how it—despite Elric's best intentions—brings doom to everything he holds dear. Melniboné ( / ˌ m ɛ l ˈ n ɪ b oʊ n eɪ / mel- NIB -o-nay ), also known as the Dragon Isle ,

19481-504: The story alongside his younger self and several longtime characters such as Blueberry, Arzak (the latest re-spelling of the Arzach character's name), Major Grubert (from The Airtight Garage ) and others. Jean Giraud drew the first of the two-part volume of the XIII series titled "La Version Irlandaise" ("The Irish Version") from a script by Jean Van Hamme , to accompany the second part by

19642-518: The story too short for a regular, traditional comic, it was Giraud who suggested the story to be told on the format he had already introduced in "Le bandard fou", to wit, as single panel pages. On recommendation of Jodorowsky, he refined the format by relating the eagle's quest on the right-hand pages, while depicting the awaiting boy in smaller single panel left-hand pages from a contra point-of-view. Giraud furthermore greatly increased his already high level of detail by making extensive use of zipatone for

19803-505: The summer 1985 San Diego ComicCon , as translators and editors-in-chief for Starwatcher, also becoming shareholders in the company. Already veterans of the US publishing world ( and Mœbius fans), it was the Lofficier couple that managed to convince editor-in-chief Archie Goodwin of Marvel Comics to publish most of Moebius' hitherto produced work on a wider scale in the US—in contrast with

19964-426: The tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody, and from the loose sleeves of his yellow gown emerge two slender hands, also the colour of bone. Elric is the last emperor of the stagnating island civilization of Melniboné. Physically weak, the anemic Elric must use drugs (special herbs) to maintain his health and vitality. From childhood, he read freely in the immense royal library and learned of

20125-555: The teachings of Jean-Paul Appel-Guéry, and Guy-Claude Burger 's instinctotherapy. In effect, Giraud and his family did join Appel-Guéry's commune on Tahiti in 1983, until late 1984, when the family moved to the United States, where Giraud set up shop first in Santa Monica, and subsequently in Venice and Woodland Hills, California. Giraud's one-shot comic book "La nuit de l'étoile" was co-written by Appel-Guéry, and has been

20286-451: The time "funny, uncomplicated, friendly, a nice boy next-door", but on the other hand, "mysterious, dark, intellectual", already recognizing that he had all the makings of a "visionary", long before others did. Married in 1967, after Giraud had become the recognized Blueberry artist, the couple had two children, Hélène (b:1970) and Julien (b:1972). Daughter Hélène in particular has inherited her father's graphics talents and has carved out

20447-469: The time, but one reviewer put it in perspective when stating, "Peut-être Porno, mais Graphique!", which loosely translates as "Porn maybe, but Graphic Art for sure!". In the editorial of the 1990 American edition , Giraud has conceded that he was envious of what his former Pilote colleagues had achieved with L'Écho des savanes in regard to creating a free, creative environment for their artists, he had already enjoyed so much back at Hara-Kiri , and that it

20608-558: The traditional patron of the Melniboné emperors, Arioch, a Lord of Chaos and Duke of Hell. From the first story, Elric uses ancient pacts and agreements with not only Arioch, but various other beings—some gods, some demons—to help him accomplish his tasks. Elric's discovery of the sword Stormbringer serves as both his greatest asset and disadvantage. The sword confers upon Elric strength, health, and fighting prowess, allowing him to do away with his dependence on drugs, but it must be fed by

20769-504: The two men were living in different worlds, he noted that Charlier was not pleased with Giraud taking on an assistant, afraid that it might have been a prelude to his leaving the series in order to pursue his "experimentations" as Mœbius further. While Charlier was willing to overlook Giraud's "philandering" in his case only, he was otherwise of the firm conviction that artists, especially his own, should totally and wholeheartedly devote themselves to their craft, as Charlier had always considered

20930-437: The vein of "Frank et Jeremie". Tenured at publisher Fleurus from 1956 to 1958 after his first sales, Giraud did so, but concurrently continued to steadfastly create realistically drawn Western comics (alongside several others of a French historical nature) and illustrations for magazine editorials in their magazines Fripounet et Marisette , Cœurs Vaillants , and Âmes vaillantes  [ fr ] – all of them of

21091-546: The very first such art book in the Humanoïdes days, and the format then conceived – to wit, a large 30x30cm book format at first, with art organized around themes, introduced by philosophical poetry by Mœbius – was adhered to for later such releases, including "La memoire du futur". There were thousands of professionals who knew my work. That has always amazed me every time I entered some graphics, or animation studio, at Marvel or even at George Lucas '. Mentioning

21252-550: The well established Mœbius artist in both countries, he was only asked to contribute the box cover art for the two video game releases, and nothing beyond. A few years later though, he was also asked to contribute to later games as a concept artist. In 1999, Giraud's illustrations appeared in a soft cover edition of Dante Alighieri 's La Divina Commedia , published by the Nuages Gallery in Milan . As "Mœbius" he illustrated

21413-730: The world outside the Dreaming Isle. Perhaps due to this in-depth study, unlike other members of his race, Elric has a conscience. He witnesses the decadence of his culture, which once ruled the known world, and worries about the rise of the Young Kingdoms populated by humans (Melnibonéans consider themselves separate from humanity), along with the threat they pose to his empire. Because of Elric's introspective self-loathing and hatred of Melnibonéan traditions, his subjects find him odd and unfathomable. However, his cousin Yyrkoon (next in

21574-407: The writings of Castaneda, Charlier, being of a previous generation, conservative in nature and wary of science fiction in general, never understood what his younger colleague tried to achieve as "Mœbius". Nonetheless, he never tried to hinder Giraud in the least, as he understood that an artist of Giraud's caliber needed a "mental shower" from time to time. Furthermore, Charlier was very appreciative of

21735-623: The years. Giraud was in mid-1990s approached by two video game developers to provide the box cover art for the video games that were released in 1995; the first one concerned the Fade to Black video game developed by the US Delphine Software International , whereas the second one concerned Panzer Dragoon video game developed by the Japanese Sega Corporation . And while Giraud was by now

21896-484: The young man born as a suburban city boy, leaving its traces in his later comics, especially those created as "Mœbius". At 18, Giraud was drawing his own humorous, Morris - inspired , Western comic two-page shorts, Frank et Jeremie , for the magazine Far West , his first freelance commercial sales. Magazine editor Marijac thought young Giraud was gifted with a knack for humorous comics, but none whatsoever for realistically drawn comics, and advised him to continue in

22057-409: Was Métal hurlant in particular that revolutionized the world of Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées , whereas its American cousin left an indelible impression on a generation of not only American comic artists, but on film makers as well, as evidenced below . Starting its publication in the first issue of Métal hurlant , "Arzach" is a wordless 1974–1975 comic, executed directly in color and created as

22218-474: Was adapted for the screen in 2004 by French director Jan Kounen . Jean Giraud was born in Nogent-sur-Marne , Val-de-Marne, in the suburbs of Paris, on 8 May 1938, as the only child to Raymond Giraud, an insurance agent, and Pauline Vinchon, who had worked at the agency. When he was three years old, his parents divorced and he was subsequently raised by mainly his grandparents, who were living in

22379-401: Was the major source of inspiration for an entire generation of young, aspiring French comic artists, including Giraud's friend Mézières, interested in doing realistically drawn comics. How major Jijé's influence was on these young artists, was amply demonstrated by the Fleurus publications these youngsters submitted their work to, as their work strongly resembled each other. For example, two of

22540-509: Was "very somber and pessimistic about my life", resulting in several of his "Mœbius" stories of that period ending in death and destruction. These included the poetic "Ballade", in which Giraud killed off the two protagonists, something he came to regret a decade later in this particular case. In the magazine's issue 58 of 1980 Giraud started his famous L'Incal series in his third collaboration with Jodorowsky. However, by this time Giraud felt that his break-out success as "Mœbius" had come at

22701-675: Was a French artist, cartoonist and writer who worked in the Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées (BD) tradition. Giraud garnered worldwide acclaim predominantly under the pseudonym Mœbius ( / ˈ m oʊ b i ə s / ; French: [møbjys] ) for his fantasy/science-fiction work, and to a slightly lesser extent as Gir ( French: [ʒiʁ] ), which he used for the Blueberry series and his other Western themed work. Esteemed by Federico Fellini , Stan Lee , and Hayao Miyazaki , among others, he has been described as

22862-476: Was a friend of friends of mine when he started and someone (I don't know who) told him I didn't like the strip. I loved the strip, though I'd said it wasn't really Jerry Cornelius. This got taken to mean by someone that I didn't like it and Moebius, whom I came to know later and explain that I hadn't withdrawn permission, took the JC out of the title. He knows now that I liked it and had no problems with it. Bad Voltage ,

23023-542: Was a shared marital possession of the original Giraud couple and partly because the publication efforts of his work in the United States had run its course. Also in 1988, Giraud sold his shares in Les Humanoïdes Associés to Fabrice Giger , thereby severing his formal ownership ties with that publishing house as well, though it remained the regular publisher of his Mœbius work from the Métal hurlant era, including L'Incal and some other later titles such as

23184-406: Was also blown up to gigantic, mural-like dimensions and as posters plastered on walls and billboards in several places all around Paris. As book illustrator, Giraud illustrated for example the 1987 first edition of the science fiction novel "Project Pendulum" by Robert Silverberg , and the 1994 French edition of the novel " The Alchemist " by Paulo Coelho . The subsequent year Giraud followed up in

23345-454: Was an inspiration for the endeavor, Giraud embarked upon next. Later that year, after Dune was permanently canceled with him definitively returning to France, Giraud became one of the founding members of the comics art group and publishing house " Les Humanoïdes Associés ", together with fellow comic artists Jean-Pierre Dionnet , Philippe Druillet (likewise Pilote colleagues) and (outsider) financial director Bernard Farkas. In imitation of

23506-442: Was brainstorming with the founding editors of the magazine (founded by former Pilote friends and co-artists in the wake of the revolt at the publisher, when they decided to strike out on their own), that Giraud came up with his first major Mœbius work, "Le bandard fou" ("The Horny Goof"). Released directly as album (a first for Mœbius comics) in black & white by the magazine's publisher, the humorous and satirical story dealt with

23667-409: Was concurrently an art gallery, located on 27 Rue Falguière, 75015 Paris, organizing themed exhibitions on a regular basis. In 1997, the company was renamed Moebius Production – singular, despite the occasional and erroneous use of the plural, even by the company itself. The company, in both publishing and art gallery iterations, is as of 2023 still being run by Isabelle Giraud who had taken over

23828-483: Was exemplified by his regularly taking extended leaves of absence from it. That Blueberry has always remained his primary source of income, allowing him to fully indulge in his artistic endeavors as Mœbius, was admitted as such by Giraud as early as 1979: "If an album of Moebius is released, about 10,000 people are interested. A Blueberry album sells at least 100,000 copies [in France]," and as late as 2005, " Blueberry

23989-475: Was for a venture into that other staple of American pop culture, trading cards . Trading card company Comic Images released a "Mœbius Collector Cards" set in 1993, featuring characters and imagery from all over his Mœbius universe, though his Western work was excluded. None of the images were lifted from already existing work, but were especially created by Giraud the year previously. Although Giraud had taken up residence in California for five years – holding

24150-468: Was he who had written in the dialog as an homage to the artist on behalf of his brother Ridley , a Mœbius admirer, and not (uncredited) script doctor Quentin Tarentino (known for infusing his works with pop culture references) as he was previously led to believe. An amused Giraud quipped, "It's better than a big stature, because in a way, I can not dream of anything better to be immortal [than] being in

24311-433: Was however foreseen by Jijé and Giraud. Shirking off the accusations, Jijé encouraged his former pupil to stay the course instead, thereby propping up his self-confidence. The first time Jijé had to fill in for Giraud, was during the production of the second story, "Thunder in the West" (1964), when the still inexperienced Giraud, buckling under the stress of having to produce a strictly scheduled magazine serial, suffered from

24472-591: Was in development by Haiku Studios and to be published by Psygnosis for the PlayStation during the late 1990s. There have also been several references in popular culture to Elric's sword Stormbringer . Writing for NPR , Jason Sheehan calls Elric "far and away the coolest, grimmest, moodiest, most elegant, degenerate, drug-addicted, cursed, twisted and emotionally weird mass murderer of them all". Jean Giraud Jean Henri Gaston Giraud ( French: [ʒiʁo] ; 8 May 1938 – 10 March 2012)

24633-496: Was known in the English-speaking world as Heavy Metal , and started its release in April 1977, actually introducing Giraud's work to North-American readership. Mœbius' famous serial " The Airtight Garage " and his groundbreaking " Arzach " both began in Métal hurlant . Unlike Hara-Kiri and L'Écho des savanes though, whose appeal has always remained somewhat limited to the socially engaged satire and underground comic scenes, it

24794-402: Was much more experimental than his previous Western work. While the editorial revolt at Dargaud had effectively become the starting point of the emancipation of the French comic world, Giraud admitted that it also had caused a severe breach in his hitherto warm relationship with the conservative Goscinny, which never fully mended. Giraud left the series and publisher in 1974, partly because he

24955-594: Was not quite able to work in such influences in his mainstream Blueberry comic. Yet, unbeknownst to writer Charlier, he did already sneak in some Castaneda elements in "Nez Cassé". Castaneda's influence reasserted itself in full in Giraud's later life, having worked in elements more openly after Charlier's death in his 1999 Blueberry outing "Geronimo l'Apache", and was to become a major element for his Blueberry 1900 -project, which however, had refused to come to fruition for extraneous reasons. Even though Giraud had vainly tried to introduce his Blueberry co-worker to

25116-462: Was published in 1971. It includes works by Moorcock himself, James Sallis , Brian Aldiss , Langdon Jones , M. John Harrison , Richard Glyn Jones, Alex Krislov, and Maxim Jakubowski. The story "...the price is worth it" by Graeme K Talboys and the subsequent novels in the Stormlight quartet (along with the short story collection Stormwrack ) are centred on Charlie Cornelius, a daughter of

25277-473: Was published in the magazine he co-founded, Métal Hurlant , which started its run in December 1974 and revolutionized the Franco-Belgian comic world in the process. It was Jodorowsky who introduced Giraud to the writings of Carlos Castaneda , who had written a series of books that describe his training in shamanism , particularly with a group whose lineage descended from the Toltecs . The books, narrated in

25438-494: Was published through Marvel's Epic Comics imprint in 1988 and 1989. According to Giraud, this was his first time working under the Marvel method instead of from a full script, and he has admitted to being baffled by the fact that he already had a complete story synopsis on his desk only two days after he had met Stan Lee for the first time, having discussed what Giraud had assumed was a mere proposition over lunch. This miniseries won

25599-412: Was reproduced in this, and the follow-up art book Fusions , the latter of which having seen a translation in English by Epic. Giraud's extended stay in the US, garnered him a 1986 Inkpot Award , an additional 1991 Eisner Award, as well as three Harvey Awards in the period 1988–1991 for the various graphic novel releases by Marvel. It was in this period that Giraud, who had already picked up Spanish as

25760-467: Was then one of the leading comic artists in Europe and known for his gracious tendency to voluntarily act as a mentor for young, aspiring comic artists, of whom Giraud was but one, going even as far as opening up his family home in Champrosay for days on end for these youngsters which, again, included Giraud. In this, Jijé resembled Belgian comic grandmaster Hergé, but unlike Jijé, Hergé only did so on

25921-427: Was tired of the publication pressure he was under in order to produce the series, partly because of an emerging royalties conflict, but mostly because he wanted further explore and develop his "Mœbius" alter ego, in particular because Jodorowsky, who was impressed by the graphic qualities of Blueberry , had already invited him to Los Angeles to start production design on his Dune movie project, and which constituted

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