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Jean Giraud aka Moebius (1938-2012)
Massively influential French comic book artist and designer Jean Giraud, who often worked under the name Mœbius, died March 10, 2012 at the age of 73 from cancer.
His work gained him an international audience, from his Western anti-hero series in France, Les Aventures de Blueberry, which ran from 1963 to 2005, to the visually stunning European sci-fi comics Arzach and The Incal, to his storyboard and design work on American films such as Alien and Dune. He also co-founded the French sci-fi and horror comics anthology Métal Hurlant, which was imported in the US as Heavy Metal, co-wrote and designed the 1989 animated Japanese film adaptation of Winsor McKay’s Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, and illustrated a special Marvel Comics graphic novel written by Stan Lee, Silver Surfer: Parable.
Born within a month after the American comic book industry took off in April 1938 with the release of Action Comics #1 and the first appearance of Superman, Giraud grew to be a stylistic chameleon and an innovator in taking the lite science fiction of American superhero comics into the realm of surreal sci-fi. His bizarre imagery could be serene and dream-like, epic and looming, eerie and atmospheric, detailed and expressive. Still active until very recently, the absence of such a visionary will be felt for some time.
