GIRAUD, Jean

(1938-)

   French artist (now resident in the USA); staggeringly prolific, remarkably inventive and influential, he is better known in the sf field as Moebius. With his loose, eloquent line style, JG is considered one of Europe's major talents, and his work has influenced an entire generationof fantasy and sf artists. Born in Fontenoy-sous-Bois, near Paris, he displayed from childhood a love of illustration. His early influences were classic US COMIC strips and the engravings of Gustave Dore (1833-1883). He attended the Ecole des Arts Appliques 1954-6, and then wrote and drew a Western comic strip before being drafted into the French army. Ondischarge in 1960 he worked as an assistant to the Belgian comics artist Joseph Gillain (1914-1980) and later illustrated a series ofencyclopedia-like books. It was at this time that he created the sobriquet Moebius, which he first attached to a series of dark-humoured comicstrips. In 1963 he met writer Jean-Michel Charlier (1924-1989), and together they created the Western series Lieutenant Blueberry for the magazine Pilote; this work was collected in 29 vols (1965-90; 1977-9 UK), of which 26 were drawn by JG as "Gir".In the late 1960s he began illustrating, as Moebius, a line of French sf books and magazines and created a number of groundbreaking sf strips. In 1975 he cofounded the magazine METAL HURLANT ("Screaming Metal") with fellow-artist Philippe DRUILLET and writer Jean-Pierre Dionnet (1947-). For this magazine hecreated Le bandard fou ("The Horny Goof") (1975), Le garage hermetique de Jerry Cornelius ("The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius") (from 1975),Arzach (1976), The Long Tomorrow (1976), scripted by Dan O'Bannon, and Les aventures de John Difool ("The Adventures of John Difool") (1982-9), a multi-part epic written by film-maker Alejandro Jodorowski: L'Incal noir("The Dark Incal") (graph 1982), L'Incal lumiere ("The Bright Incal") (coll 1983), Ce qui est en bas ("What's Below") (graph 1984), Ce qui esten haut ("What's Above") (graph 1985), Le cinquieme essence I ("The Fifth Essence: I") (graph 1987), Le cinquieme essence II (graph 1988) and Lesmysteres de l'Incal ("The Mysteries of the Incal") (graph 1989). The Incal stories have been translated into English as Incal \#1 (1988 UK/US), \#2 (1988 UK/US) and \#3 (1988 UK/US).Keeping track of JG's Moebius material isa bibliographer's nightmare. Books in French include Gir 30 x 40 (graph 1974), Le bandard fou ("The Horny Goof") (graph 1975), Arzach (graph1976), John Watercolor et sa redingote qui tue ("John Watercolor and his Killer Overcoat") (graph 1976), L'homme, est il bon? ("Is Man Good?") (graph 1977), Cauchemar blanc ("White Nightmare") (graph 1978), Le garage hermetique ("The Airtight Garage") (graph 1979), Tueur des mondes ("World Killer") (graph 1979), Moebius 30 x 30 (graph 1979), Double evasion (graph1981), L'Homme programme ("The Programmed Man") (graph 1981), Le disintegre reintegre ("The Disintegrated Reintegrated") (graph 1982), Memoire du futur ("Memory of the Future") (graph 1983), Sur l'etoile("Upon a Star") (graph 1983), Venise celeste ("Heavenly Venice") (graph1984), L'Univers de Gir ("Gir's Universe") (graph 1985), Starwatcher (graph 1986), Le saga du crystal ("Crystal Saga") (graph 1987), Les jardins d'Aedena ("The Gardens of Aedena") (graph 1987), Made in LA (graph 1988), La citadel aveugle ("The Blind Citadel") (graph 1989), NineteenEighty-eight (graph 1990), Les vacances du Major ("Major's Holiday") (graph 1990) and La deesse ("The Goddess") (graph 1990). Collected works in English include Moebius 1: Upon a Star (graph coll 1986 US), \#2: Arzach and Other Fantasy Stories (graph coll 1986 US), \#3: The Airtight Garage (graph coll 1987 US), \#4: The Long Tomorrow and Other Science FictionStories (graph coll 1988 US), \#5: The Gardens of Aedena (graph coll 1988 US), 6: Pharagonesia and Other Strange Stories (graph coll 1988 US), \#7: The Goddess (graph coll 1989 US) and a collection of graphics, illustrations and sketches under the title The Art of Moebius (graph coll 1989 US).In 1985 JG relocated to Santa Monica, California, and set upStarwatcher Graphics to publish his posters, graphics and other fine-art pieces, and to promote himself as a conceptual designer. He illustrated one two-episode Silver Surfer story, in a surprise team-up with Stan LEE: Parable (1988-9 US). He also illustrated an ecological story for a special"Earth Day" issue of Concrete (1991 US). Meanwhile spin-off series in comic-strip form from his creations such as The Airtight Garage and Incal have been published as collaborative ventures with other artists and writers; these contribute, from a fabric of interlocking themes, to the creation of a Moebius universe. They include The Elsewhere Prince (1990 US), The Man from Ciguri (1990-91 US), The Onyx Overlord (4-issuecomic-book series beginning 1992 US) and Legends of Arzach (6-issue series of short stories accompanied by colour artwork commissioned from leading artists in the comics medium, beginning 1992 US).JG has also been influential in designing for and storyboarding films. Alejandro Jodorowski hired him in 1976 to storyboard his projected film adaptation of Frank HERBERT's novel DUNE (fixup 1965), a venture eventually abandoned throughlack of funding. JG designed spacesuits and uniforms for Ridley SCOTT's ALIEN (1979). He designed the animated feature Les maitres du temps ("TheTime Masters") (1982) dir Rene Laloux, based on L'orphelin de Perdide("The Orphan from Perdide") (1958), the novel by Stefan WUL, and worked on Disney's TRON (1982) and on Nemo, a Japanese animated film (based on Winsor MCCAY's Little Nemo in Slumberland), in production in 1992. He designed the creature for James CAMERON's 1989 film The ABYSS .A French postage stamp designed by and in honour of JG was issued in 1988.

   RT/MJ

   See also: HEAVY METAL.