Monday 12 March 2012

Jean "Moebius" Giraud.













8 May 1938 – 10 March 2012

Jean Henri Gaston Giraud was a French comics artist, working in the French tradition of bandes dessinées. Giraud earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Mœbius, and to a lesser extent Gir (used for the "Blueberry" series), the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings. Esteemed by Federico Fellini, Stan Lee and French politician Jack Lang among other notables, he was one of the few francophone comic strip artists to receive international acclaim.

Among his most famous works are the Western comic series "Blueberry" he co-created with writer Jean-Michel Charlier, one of the first Western anti-heroes to appear in comics. Under the pseudonym Moebius he created a wide range of science fiction and and fantasy comics in a highly imaginative and surreal almost abstract style, the most famous of which are Arzach and the Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius, and the The Incal. Blueberry was adapted for the screen in 2004, and in 1997 Moebius and cocreator Alejandro Jodorowsky sued Luc Besson for using the Incal as inspiration for his movie The Fifth Element, a lawsuit which they lost.

Moebius contributed storyboards and concept designs to numerous science fiction and fantasy films, including Alien, Willow, and Tron. Giraud's artwork for the Dan O'Bannon short story comic "The Long Tomorrow" was a key visual reference for Blade Runner. George Lucas used one of Giraud's designs for the Imperial Probe Droid in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Lucas's later Star Wars films also share many visual characteristics with Giraud's work, particularly the depiction of the city-planet Coruscant.

source : wiki.
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Perhaps one of the, if not the only, most influential comics artist of all time. First got aquainted with his works in the fantasy/sci-fi/erotica Heavy Metal magazine of which is the US version of Métal Hurlant, the French comics anthology of science fiction and horror comics stories, co-created in December 1974 by Jean Giraud.

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