I don't think it can be stressed enough that his time in Mexico was the catalyst for almost all that is the widely known Moebius characterization. Where in so much of his work, the environment plays such a huge role, those wide open spaces and earthy colors echo through all of his art.
If anyone here ever visits Montreal, Quebec, you'll find tons of Moebius in secondhand bookstores and thrift stores. They'll be in French, but with high-end European production. Literally your best bet in North America...
About a new type of reader emerging, the tone of French/Belgian comics managed to shift after the 1968 upheavals. From 1949 til around that time France had its own version of the comics code which pretty much relegated comics to humor, adventure, or humor-adventure strips, mostly for young readers, and which Tintin and Spirou magazines had to adhere to in order to sell copies in France, despite being Belgian. By the early 70s you started getting different types of stories and more literary and adult oriented material. Metal Hurlant was of course a big part of that and also a magazine called A Suivre which I don't think is as known to English readers but is just as important. Manga starts pushing for more sophisticated stories in the 60s and 70s, which is when gekiga emerges, so I do think there is something global to it, and might have to do with enough people having grown up reading comic books that publishers realized there's still a reading public even when those readers grow up to be adults.
The recent book of interviews, "Doctor Moebius and Mister Gir", has conversations with him spanning his entire career in chronological order. A great read for anyone wanting a deep dive into his life and thoughts.
Absolutely. Numa Sadoul's interview books in general are worth a look- possibly even a purchase? Highlights are- in addition to Moebius- his talks with Hergé, Franquin & Tardi.
The nice thing about Moebius is that he was both a classic and modern/visionary artist. Classic, because when he was learning comics he was into classic style comics, italian and american like Alex Raymond stuff, and then, because he was trained by Jijè (joseph Gillain) which had Milton Caniff and other american comics influence, done in his way. Jijè drew a BD called Jerry Spring which was a cowboy and we can see its lile a predecessor of Blueberry. Also, Moebius liked alot artists like Jack Davis and Elder, by MAD magazine. So when he started drawing Blueberry he was like a sort of heir of Jijè Style in classic french BD. But, just before Blueberry, he was drawing some sci fi little stories very surreal, and basically influenced a bit by what he saw in MAD. Then he stopped and in 1963 started with Blueberry in that Jijè "conventional" style mainly because that was serious work to make a living with and western were comics he liked and drew when he was young. When he went to mexico that influenced him very much so, at first he incorporated this into Blueberry and his art started to grow and grow in quality, detail backgrounds and realism. He basically started from Jijè style and developed it alot. In the late 60s Moebius style was developing as well, but only with illustration for sci fi books. So, around 68-70 he was at the top of his skills, and artists like Druillet, Gotlib and others came in the field. They were doing things Moebius couldn't do because of Blueberry and so there was a sort of problem for him still doing "old" classic stuff. In Pilote they offered the possibility to draw new stories, more sci fi and surreal, but there were huge limits anyway. Moebius talks about this in The detour story, which was published on Pilote, and shows yet his new Moebius style. So after this he founded Metal Hurlant with his friends Druillet, Dionnet, Farkas etc so here he was finally free, and could use all his knowledge as a comic artist and his new style to draw new comics, finally with a new storitelling approach too, huge cases to give drawings more space and freedom, abd btw also his visions. But the main thing is: Since he was also a classic artist he knew how to draw very very well, perspective, light and shadow, human figures etc and then on top of that he put his differrent inking style, looked more into classic art of painters and alot of imagination. Many artists have imagination and maybe a cool style, but not the classic training that's why Moebius was a more accomplished artis than many others.
Re: Crumb and Moebius - this from Crumb - " I like his early comic strips. They're very imaginative and very beautifully rendered. He's considered a very important cartoonist here in France. He did these very powerful, imaginative strips that are science fiction kind of stuff. Most of them take place in these fantastic alien environments, with rocket ships and strange creatures, 'n stuff like that, but all beautifully drawn. You know, I finally met the guy, I donno, about five or six years ago. He's dead now. He died of cancer. But we had dinner together and talked and he told me he was inspired by my work. Jesus, I was flattered.'
16:14 Charlier was one of the staff writers/editors at Pilote, and wrote Blueberry, along with a huge amount of the other weekly series. A lot of the Pilote (the magazine that ran Blueberry, Asterix, Lucky Luke and Valerian to name a few) staff originated at Spirou magazine, which Pilote was philosophically closer in line with. Pilote had a more chaotic and satiric edge which I think it drew from MAD magazine. Metal Hurlant starts off as a spinoff of Pilote. Spirou & Fantasio (the feature comic of Spirou magazine) went through a number of different artists, writers, and artist-writer collaborations, Charlier didn't work on the Spirou comic itself but on a lot of the comics in the magazine, the most famous probably being Buck Danny.
Love Charlier's adventure comics like Blueberry, Redbeard and Buck Danny. Have recently been rereading a couple of his Buck Danny stories. Master of adventure stories. And that Giraud Blueberry art is amazing!
In 1975, when Moebius, Druillet, and Jean-Pierre Dionnet started publishing Métal Hurlant in France, Richard Corben submitted some of his stories to them. He continued his work for the franchise in America in Heavy Metal.
11:00 he was very open about being influenced by psychedelic drugs when he started working under the pseudonym Moebius. I don't know if he continued consuming drugs after that period, but the influence was clearly permanent.
In one of his art books there's a page with a piece that depicted his emotions on when he quit using psychedelics and his other "vices." But it's the nature of psychedelics to change a user's personality and outlook on a very deep and permanent level as some studies have shown, so yes it seems the influence is permanent. I think R. Crumb also had an episode after a foray into psychedelics that he claimed lasted for weeks.
It's actually not a BBC documentary (that TH-cam video was just recorded from the BBC broadcast). It's actually by German/French TV channel Arte and German TV channel ZDF.
17:20 My favorite Blueberry work that's trying to come close to the the Giraud look is by Colin Wilson. I actually like that stuff a lot. Recently Christophe Blain did a really interesting take on the series, doing his own thing while still being influenced by Giraud. Well worth a look.
I think metal hurlant was hugely influenced by american underground comix... sf/fantasy stuff like monolith by the three larrys, corben, moondog by george metzger etc had the same effect as john ford's westerns did 20 years earlier.
EC and Crumb were the beginnings of the shift for comics to becoming legitimate, or at least something with broader conceptual horizons than just superheroes and formula genre shorts. I remember reading about the phenomenon that circled around Moebius when Arzach was published. It was like turning on a light for many aspiring creative people in all sorts of mediums, but I also think Arzach, for comics specifically, had a synergy that fit perfectly with what hip cats really wanted out of comics at that time. Moebius's visual sensibility fit perfectly in the broader spectrum of fantastic illustration that was everywhere in 1975. 70s album cover work of Roger Dean, Hipgnosis Studio, and the general themes and styles of the new wave SF writers like Ballard and Moorcock, Moebius fit right in. From that point, I think the work of Pilote, Metal Hurlant and the European comic book artists in general, led to Art Spiegelman's and Francois Mouly's RAW as the next big step in establishing comics as a true artistic medium of broad cultural relevance.
I don't think it can be stressed enough that his time in Mexico was the catalyst for almost all that is the widely known Moebius characterization. Where in so much of his work, the environment plays such a huge role, those wide open spaces and earthy colors echo through all of his art.
dont forget the that in mexico is where he took hikuri "peyote"
If anyone here ever visits Montreal, Quebec, you'll find tons of Moebius in secondhand bookstores and thrift stores. They'll be in French, but with high-end European production. Literally your best bet in North America...
About a new type of reader emerging, the tone of French/Belgian comics managed to shift after the 1968 upheavals. From 1949 til around that time France had its own version of the comics code which pretty much relegated comics to humor, adventure, or humor-adventure strips, mostly for young readers, and which Tintin and Spirou magazines had to adhere to in order to sell copies in France, despite being Belgian. By the early 70s you started getting different types of stories and more literary and adult oriented material. Metal Hurlant was of course a big part of that and also a magazine called A Suivre which I don't think is as known to English readers but is just as important. Manga starts pushing for more sophisticated stories in the 60s and 70s, which is when gekiga emerges, so I do think there is something global to it, and might have to do with enough people having grown up reading comic books that publishers realized there's still a reading public even when those readers grow up to be adults.
The recent book of interviews, "Doctor Moebius and Mister Gir", has conversations with him spanning his entire career in chronological order. A great read for anyone wanting a deep dive into his life and thoughts.
Absolutely. Numa Sadoul's interview books in general are worth a look- possibly even a purchase?
Highlights are- in addition to Moebius- his talks with Hergé, Franquin & Tardi.
@@navelpicker if only more were in English for my monolingual brain
This was an excellent conversation, love the idea that ideas can happen in multiple places without types of communication that we understand
Karl Bartos from Kraftwerk did the music for this documentry, thought is really added to the whole feel of it.
The nice thing about Moebius is that he was both a classic and modern/visionary artist.
Classic, because when he was learning comics he was into classic style comics, italian and american like Alex Raymond stuff, and then, because he was trained by Jijè (joseph Gillain) which had Milton Caniff and other american comics influence, done in his way.
Jijè drew a BD called Jerry Spring which was a cowboy and we can see its lile a predecessor of Blueberry.
Also, Moebius liked alot artists like Jack Davis and Elder, by MAD magazine. So when he started drawing Blueberry he was like a sort of heir of Jijè Style in classic french BD.
But, just before Blueberry, he was drawing some sci fi little stories very surreal, and basically influenced a bit by what he saw in MAD. Then he stopped and in 1963 started with Blueberry in that Jijè "conventional" style mainly because that was serious work to make a living with and western were comics he liked and drew when he was young.
When he went to mexico that influenced him very much so, at first he incorporated this into Blueberry and his art started to grow and grow in quality, detail backgrounds and realism.
He basically started from Jijè style and developed it alot.
In the late 60s Moebius style was developing as well, but only with illustration for sci fi books.
So, around 68-70 he was at the top of his skills, and artists like Druillet, Gotlib and others came in the field. They were doing things Moebius couldn't do because of Blueberry and so there was a sort of problem for him still doing "old" classic stuff.
In Pilote they offered the possibility to draw new stories, more sci fi and surreal, but there were huge limits anyway. Moebius talks about this in The detour story, which was published on Pilote, and shows yet his new Moebius style.
So after this he founded Metal Hurlant with his friends Druillet, Dionnet, Farkas etc so here he was finally free, and could use all his knowledge as a comic artist and his new style to draw new comics, finally with a new storitelling approach too, huge cases to give drawings more space and freedom, abd btw also his visions.
But the main thing is: Since he was also a classic artist he knew how to draw very very well, perspective, light and shadow, human figures etc and then on top of that he put his differrent inking style, looked more into classic art of painters and alot of imagination.
Many artists have imagination and maybe a cool style, but not the classic training that's why Moebius was a more accomplished artis than many others.
He was also very much into classic illustration, particularly 19th Century artists. This really sank into his Moebius style as opposed to Gir.
Re: Crumb and Moebius - this from Crumb -
" I like his early comic strips. They're very imaginative and very beautifully rendered. He's considered a very important cartoonist here in France. He did these very powerful, imaginative strips that are science fiction kind of stuff. Most of them take place in these fantastic alien environments, with rocket ships and strange creatures, 'n stuff like that, but all beautifully drawn. You know, I finally met the guy, I donno, about five or six years ago. He's dead now. He died of cancer. But we had dinner together and talked and he told me he was inspired by my work. Jesus, I was flattered.'
16:14 Charlier was one of the staff writers/editors at Pilote, and wrote Blueberry, along with a huge amount of the other weekly series. A lot of the Pilote (the magazine that ran Blueberry, Asterix, Lucky Luke and Valerian to name a few) staff originated at Spirou magazine, which Pilote was philosophically closer in line with. Pilote had a more chaotic and satiric edge which I think it drew from MAD magazine. Metal Hurlant starts off as a spinoff of Pilote. Spirou & Fantasio (the feature comic of Spirou magazine) went through a number of different artists, writers, and artist-writer collaborations, Charlier didn't work on the Spirou comic itself but on a lot of the comics in the magazine, the most famous probably being Buck Danny.
Love Charlier's adventure comics like Blueberry, Redbeard and Buck Danny. Have recently been rereading a couple of his Buck Danny stories. Master of adventure stories.
And that Giraud Blueberry art is amazing!
In 1975, when Moebius, Druillet, and Jean-Pierre Dionnet started publishing Métal Hurlant in France, Richard Corben submitted some of his stories to them. He continued his work for the franchise in America in Heavy Metal.
11:00 he was very open about being influenced by psychedelic drugs when he started working under the pseudonym Moebius. I don't know if he continued consuming drugs after that period, but the influence was clearly permanent.
the doors of perception were opened onece and kept open 4 ever
In one of his art books there's a page with a piece that depicted his emotions on when he quit using psychedelics and his other "vices." But it's the nature of psychedelics to change a user's personality and outlook on a very deep and permanent level as some studies have shown, so yes it seems the influence is permanent. I think R. Crumb also had an episode after a foray into psychedelics that he claimed lasted for weeks.
Great commentary on the documentary, guys! Also, a Jodorowsky Cartoonist Kayfabe shoot interview would be fantastic on so many strange levels xD.
It's actually not a BBC documentary (that TH-cam video was just recorded from the BBC broadcast). It's actually by German/French TV channel Arte and German TV channel ZDF.
17:20 My favorite Blueberry work that's trying to come close to the the Giraud look is by Colin Wilson. I actually like that stuff a lot. Recently Christophe Blain did a really interesting take on the series, doing his own thing while still being influenced by Giraud. Well worth a look.
I think metal hurlant was hugely influenced by american underground comix... sf/fantasy stuff like monolith by the three larrys, corben, moondog by george metzger etc had the same effect as john ford's westerns did 20 years earlier.
In the Sadoul book Moebius cites Corben as someone he admired in the early days.
Cool to know that Ed also watches SteveM on youtube
"Cult leader rizz" Never thought that would be said
Such a good convo about this film. Thanks!
Now I want to reach for my copy of Incal again.
Very nice exploration of the documentary... Thanks 👍
Have y'all ever seen any comics by Quimo?
Randall Quimo?
EC and Crumb were the beginnings of the shift for comics to becoming legitimate, or at least something with broader conceptual horizons than just superheroes and formula genre shorts. I remember reading about the phenomenon that circled around Moebius when Arzach was published. It was like turning on a light for many aspiring creative people in all sorts of mediums, but I also think Arzach, for comics specifically, had a synergy that fit perfectly with what hip cats really wanted out of comics at that time. Moebius's visual sensibility fit perfectly in the broader spectrum of fantastic illustration that was everywhere in 1975. 70s album cover work of Roger Dean, Hipgnosis Studio, and the general themes and styles of the new wave SF writers like Ballard and Moorcock, Moebius fit right in.
From that point, I think the work of Pilote, Metal Hurlant and the European comic book artists in general, led to Art Spiegelman's and Francois Mouly's RAW as the next big step in establishing comics as a true artistic medium of broad cultural relevance.
I was lucky enough to have lunch with him once when he was promoting the silver surfer back in the 90s??
Thanks for the heads up! Never heard of the doc before. Reminds me of Painting With Fire’s look at Frazetta
I've seen that doc. Very interesting look at a master.
Moebius also got some of his hatching ideas from Gustave Doré, a 19th Century French artist.
Such a great documentary, watched it a few times years ago
even jodorowsky embracingvthe american wenstern in his movie El topo
Check out "Signal to Noise" by Gaiman and McKean! So good!
There will never be an artist like Moebius again. Digital art makes artists too lazy.
Man, If they would press copies of that epic art bible from the Jodorowsky's Dune doc, I would pay whatever they asked for.
...endlich.
Bilingual here, happy to be.
No Mobius pictures.
This kinda programming is why we Brits must protect the BBC from the venal capitalists.
Talk only talk