Jean Giraud

Jean Giraud (Nogent-sur-Marne, Val-de-Marne, May 8, 1938-Paris, March 10, 2012) was a French cartoonist, illustrator and writer who he worked in the tradition of Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées (BD). Giraud gained worldwide recognition under the pseudonym Mœbius , as well as Gir , which he used for the western series Lieutenant Blueberry (1964). and for his western-themed paintings. Admired by Federico Fellini, Stan Lee and Hayao Miyazaki, among others, he has been described as the most influential bande dessinée artist after Hergé.

His most famous works include the Lieutenant Blueberry series, created with writer Jean-Michel Charlier, which featured one of the first anti-heroes in western comics. Like Mœbius, he created a wide range of science fiction and fantasy comics in a highly imaginative, surreal and almost abstract style. These works include Arzach and The Hermetic Garage (1976-1979). He also collaborated with avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky on an unfinished adaptation of Dune and the comic book series El Incal (1980). Such was his fame that the media in his country came to classify him as a companion of the so-called new French philosophers ( nouveaux philosophes ).

Mœbius also contributed storyboards and concept art to numerous science fiction and fantasy films, such as Alien, Tron, The Fifth Element and The Abyss. Lieutenant Blueberry had a film adaptation in 2004, directed by Jan Kounen.

Biography

Childhood and youth

Jean Giraud was born in Nogent-sur-Marne, a suburb of Paris, in 1938. At his grandparents' house, when he is ill, he contemplates his first illustrations, those of a nineteenth-century series entitled Around the World . He became fond of comics, already at school, and studied at the École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d'art in Paris, where he became friends with Jean-Claude Mézières and Pat Mallet, and in his second year he managed to see his first comic published in the magazine Coeurs Vaillants.

In 1955, when she was 16, her mother married a Mexican and the three of them left for Mexico. The young Jean discovered painting, modern jazz, sex and marijuana there. Two years later, he returned to Paris to do his military service, during which he would work as a receptionist and warehouse guard., first in Germany (16 months) and then in Algeria (11).

Professional beginnings

After drawing the series "Frank et Jeremie" For the magazine Far West , he has worked since 1961 as an apprentice to Jijé, one of the great masters of Franco-Belgian comics, collaborating in the making of an album by Jerry Spring . However, he achieved celebrity as a cartoonist for the western Lieutenant Blueberry, which was scripted by Jean-Michel Charlier and whose first installment was published in 1964 in the magazine Pilote, which since the previous year it was directed by René Goscinny who opened it up to new content and graphic experimentation.

For a few years he read exclusively science fiction and when he began working for Hara-Kiri magazine he adopted the pen name "Moebius", which he took from the German astronomer and mathematician, although, as he himself explains

not so much to hide myself as to invent something about myself that was beyond myself. Moebius is not behind, he follows an existence parallel to mine.

While continuing to draw Blueberry for Pilote he used the pen name "Moebius" in the magazine Charlie Mensuel (1969-1970), in illustrations for Opta publishing house and in the cartoon White Nightmare published in L'echo des savannes (1974). In 1973 he signed with his name, Jean Giraud, La deviance, and in 1974 L'homme est-il bon, published in Pilote but in the experimental line of the works signed as Moebius in other magazines.

Maturity

In 1974 he formed the group of Associated Humanoids with other authors such as Philippe Druillet, Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Bernard Farkas. Together they would edit the magazine Métal Hurlant, where Jean Giraud would publish in 1975 fantasy and science fiction works as influential as the story in 5 versions Arzach (Arzach, Harzak, Harzack, Arzak and Harzakc) or The long tomorrow (the latter with a script by Dan O 'Bannon). Moebius experiments with graphics, representation, narrative and colour.

Giraud also worked on the film adaptation of Dune, begun by the Chilean Jodorowsky and never completed. Reading Carlos Castaneda, which he met through the multifaceted Chilean author, prompted him to embark on a new course, manifested in works such as The Hermetic Garage (1976-1979), which he published in installments in & #34;Metal Hurlant". The story starts from the character Jerry Cornelius (created by Michael Moorcock and whose stories were developed by other authors) and takes place in an imaginary world developed on an asteroid by another key character, Major Grubert. Moebius developed the story as he drew it, which transmits a playful and experimental tone with the complicity of the reader.

On a personal level, Jean Giraud, who was married, was the father of two children in 1977, and lived in the countryside, where he followed a strictly vegetarian diet, being fond of karate and music.

In 1978 the first exhibition of his drawings was held in Italy, specifically in "Macondo", a Milanese venue. That same year he began with Los ojos del gato his fruitful collaboration with Alejandro Jodorowsky, with whom between 1980 and 2001 he would make the saga of El Incal (The Adventures of John Difool) of which they would publish 7 titles (El Incal Black, The Incal Light, What's Below, What's Above, Planet Difool and After Incal: the new dream). Jodorowsky as a scriptwriter would continue with the narration with other cartoonists in Antes del Incal (with Zoran Janjetou) and La casta de los Metabarones (with Juan Giménez López).

Parallel to his work as a cartoonist and illustrator, Jean Giraud has participated in the designs of many films, such as Alien (1979), Tron (1982), Masters of the Universe (1986), Willow (1987) or Abyss (1989), where he has inspired the development of the scenery with his drawings, being awarded several times for this activity. George Lucas also used one of Giraud's designs for the Imperial Probe Droid in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. Giraud designed the entire feature film Les maîtres du temps by René Laloux (1982) and the American-Japanese adaptation of Little Nemo by Masami Hata and Bill Hurtz (1990).

In those years he joined the Iso-zen organization of a new age character and founded by Jean-Paul Appel-Guery. His conception of the cosmic consciousness of the soul Human nature pushes him to try to reflect what is invisible and pure in his narrations and also to refine his graphics. Based on this idea, in 1982 he created The Blind Citadel and Aedena, as well as the albums of illustrations Venecia Celeste (1984), Starwatcher (1986) and Made in LA (1988). Based on a commercial order from Citroën, in 1984 he created the comic About the star, the first in the Edena series that he completed with another 5 comics (The Gardens of Edena , in 1988, The Goddess, in 1990, Stel in 1994, The Repairmen in 2001, and Ms. in 2003).

In 1984 he created in the USA with his wife, Claudine Giraud, and his agent, Jean-Marc Lofficier, the company Starwatcher Graphics Inc to commercialize his work. Marvel Comics publishes all of his albums and Stan Lee writes the script for the superhero comic Silver Surfer: Parable to be drawn by Moebius.

In the eighties he made a trip to Tokyo to meet Osamu Tezuka, and declared himself a fan of some Japanese authors, such as Tezuka himself, Katsuhiro Otomo, Yukito Kishiro or Jirō Taniguchi; Giraud helped, in his own words, to get the manga to Europe, however, he later repented and declared on numerous occasions his rejection of the manga and its production methods, and the spread it was reaching in the West.

Last years

In his last stage, Jean Giraud strengthened his work as a screenwriter, taking charge of the Blueberry series after the death of Jean-Michel Charlier in 1989. He commissioned the script for the parallel series Blueberry's Youth Fraçois Corteggiani (to be drawn by various illustrators) while writing the main series drawn by William Vance and Michael Rouge. He also wrote Cristal Moteur for Marc Bati, a remake of Little Nemo for Bruno Marchand and Icaro with drawings by Jirō Taniguchi. Between 1990 and 1992 he wrote with Jean-Marc Lofficier the two-album comic The Elsewhere prince, drawn by Eric Shanower, as well as The Onyx Overlord drawn by Jerry Ginham, with the characters from The Hermetic Garage.

In 1992 he collaborated again with Jodorowsky drawing the trilogy The crowned heart (The madwoman of the Sacré-Cour, The trap of the irrational, The Madman of the Sorbonne). Following the development of the world of Hermetic Garage in 1995 he drew Ciguri Man .

He participated as a designer in The fifth element (1997) and deals with the field of videogames. He collaborated in this way on Pilgrim (with a script by Paulo Coelho), Panzer Dragoon (1995) and Seven Samurai 20XX (2004), designing to all the characters.

When he turned 65, he decided to give up marijuana and start a diary to reflect on the experience, which would end up giving rise to Inside Moebius, a metanarrative in which his characters (Arzah, Blueberry, etc.) face their creator. His last work was Arzak the Watcher.

Death

Giraud died in Paris on March 10, 2012, aged 73, after a long battle with cancer. The immediate cause of death was a pulmonary embolism caused by lymphoma. His colleague François Boucq (who was the artist chosen by Giraud himself for the art of the canceled Blueberry 1900 project) declared that Mœbius was a "master of realistic drawing with a real talent for humor., which he was still demonstrating with the nurses when I saw him in his hospital bed a fortnight ago." Giraud was buried on March 15, in the Montparnasse cemetery, after a funeral service held in the Basilica of Santa Clotilde. Many friends and representatives from the Franco-Belgian comics world and from other countries attended the funerals, reflecting Giraud's entire career in the industry. The French government was represented by its Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, the nephew of former French President François Mitterrand, who had personally awarded Giraud his first civil knighthood twenty-seven years earlier. Giraud left his estate to his second wife, Isabelle, and their four children.

Style

He was an author with a great capacity for drawing and with a wide range of styles that he was able to combine coherently. His work The Hermetic Garage , one of the most relevant and experimental, served as a means to explore the diversity of graphic possibilities, prompting the reinterpretation of various styles:

• More naturalistic and academic style in which you use black stains to separate planes and generate volume.
• Synthetic drawing style where a pure line defines the figures, with a representation close to the caricature.
• Style close to calcographic engraving, where the manual plot defines the volumes and shadows, replacing the stain, with a recharged and detailed grafism.

Legacy and influence

At the height of his fame in the late 80s, Ricardo Aguilera and Lorenzo Díaz could affirm that Moebius displays such an overwhelming talent that it has opened a gap in the history of comics: Before and after Moebius,

opening the way between expressive forms and aesthetic universes never soaked by the human brush. The motorway opened by the Moebius visual machine has been frequented by multiple authors, producing continuous stylistic bottlenecks that last to date.

Among the authors strongly influenced by the style of Moebius we can mention the Frenchman of Serbian origin Enki Bilal, the Italian Milo Manara or the Spaniards Rafa Negrete and Juanjo RyP.

His influence in the cinema is not only specified in his work done for this medium, but also manifests itself indirectly. His drawings for the short comic The Long Tomorrow, scripted by Dan O'Bannon, were a key visual reference for Blade Runner (1982), and the films of George Lucas's Star Wars saga also share many visual characteristics of Giraud's work, particularly the painting that inspired the design of the planet-city Coruscant.

Awards and recognitions

List of works

Spanish edition

In Spain, his first fantastic works, such as Arzach, could be seen in the magazine Totem since 1977. Eurocómic and Norma Editorial have subsequently published many of his works:

As Jean Giraud:

• Series Blueberry
• Jim Cutlass Mississippi River

As Moebius:

• Arzach Eurocomic
• The long tomorrow Eurocomic
• The long tomorrow Moebius vol. 1, Editions B
• The blind citadel Moebius vol. 2, Editions B
• Scale in Faragonescia Moebius vol. 3, Editions B
• The holidays of the Major Moebius vol. 4, Editions B
• Parable. Silver Surfer Comics Forum
• X Stories Editorial New Comic
• The Incal Eurocomic
  • The Black Incal
  • The incal light
  • What's down
  • What's up
  • The fifth essence
  • The planet Difoll
  • The Black Incal (Dragon pocket collection) Editions B
  • The incal light (Dragon pocket collection) Editions B
  • What's underneath (Dragon pocket collection) Editions B
    • L'Incal (integral in Catalan Editions Glénat)
    • The Incal (integral with original color) Norma Editorial
    • The Incal (integral with new color) Norma Editorial
      • After Incal 1. The new dream
    • The Incal (integral) Reservoir Books
    • Final Incal (integral; including After the IncalReservoir Books
• The crowned heart Norma Editorial
  • The crazy Sacre-Coeur
  • The trap of the irrational
  • The sorbonne madman
    • The crowned heart (integral)
    • The crowned heart (integral) (new format edition)
• The World of Edena Norma Editorial
  • The World of Edena 1. About the star
  • The World of Edena 2. The Gardens of Eden
  • The World of Edena 3. The goddess
  • The World of Edena 4. Stel
  • The World of Edena 5. Ms.
  • The World of Edena 6. The repairers
  • About the star Toutain Editor
    • The World of Edena (integral)
• Fatal
  • Major fatal 1:
    • Major Fatal Eurocomic
    • Hermetic Garage Eurocomic
    • Major fatal 1. The hermetic garage Norma Editorial
    • Hermetic garage, first part (choice comic El País)
    • Hermetic garage, second part (choice comic El País)
  • Major fatal 2. The man of Ciguri Norma Editorial
• Is the man good? Norma Editorial
• The diversion Eurocomic
• Crazy, white nightmare and other short stories Norma Editorial
• The chronic lubric Eurocomic
• XIII 18, The Irish Version Norma Editorial
• Inside Moebius (Three tomos) Norma Editorial along with Moebius Productions
• The eyes of the cat (size reduced 23'5x17) Norma Editorial
• The eyes of the cat (Deluxe Edition 40x30) Norma Editorial
• Arzak. The vigilante Norma Editorial along with Moebius Productions
• Parable. Silver Surfer Editorial Panini
• The hunter hunted Norma Editorial along with Moebius Productions.
• The Major Norma Editorial along with Moebius Productions.
• Collection Métal Hurlant MOEBIUS
  • The Long Tomorrow
  • The Man of Ciguri
  • The blind citadel
  • Scale in Pharanogescia
  • The holidays of the Major
  • The Hermetic Garage
  • Arzach
  • The mad empalmado
  • Metal Chaos/Chronicles
• Angel claws Norma Editorial

Art books (all published by Norma Editorial)

• Starwatcher
• Metalic Chronicles
• Venice Celeste
• Made in LA
• Caos
• Fusions

Illustrations book

• Crystal saga 22 (stranger Do.)

Study

• Gir/Moebius, the double in the mirror of Lorenzo Díaz (study and life of the drawer), within the collection without words of Sinsentful Editions