Legendary Artist Jean 'Moebius' Giraud Has Passed Away

Just one week after the loss of the highly influential Ralph McQuarrie, a key figure in creating the look of Star Wars, another luminary figure of visual design and artistry has passed on. French comic book creator and film concept designer Jean Giraud, better known as Moebius, passed away today in Paris, at the age of 73.

Moebius was crucial in creating the looks for such films as Alien, Tron, Masters of the Universe, The Abyss, Willow, and The Fifth Element. As a comics artist in his native France he was held in the highest of artistic circles, co-creating with Belgian writer Jean-Michel Charlier the classic anti-western Blueberry; on his own, the pterodactyl-riding Arzach, and with Alejandro Jodorowsky, the sci-fi series The Incal. In America he worked with Stan Lee on the Silver Surfer series Parable. In 1982, along with Fantastic Planet animator René Laloux, Moebius created one of his most famous and beloved works, the animated film  Les Maîtres du temps aka Time Masters.

As a child growing up in America, my exposure to Moebius was limited to that of a few concept design sketches and storyboards in various film books and magazines -- not to mention the films themselves. During a two month stay in Paris in 2008 I had ample opportunity to wander the city's comic shops where the man's God-like influence over almost all other bandes dessinées artists was undeniably apparent. Though this influence goes well beyond France, and really if one gets down to it, is unfathomably far-reaching and varied. Moebius' bold yet airy, and indeed fanciful visions (conjured with a multitude of artistic styles, tools and approaches) had such breadth and life in them, that they leaped off the page with an almost spiritually charged aura; such a sense of wonderful possibility that even the quickest of glimpses could leave one with the grandest of impressions. This equally contemplative and energetic approach to visual storytelling has made an impact, whether quite obviously or more subtly so, on the styles of such American comic creators as Charles Burns and Frank Miller, as well as, in a reciprocal manner, the manga and anime work of friend Hayao Miyazaki. 

If you're unfamiliar with Moebius' work, please take a few minutes to look at the select sketches, paintings, covers and panels in the gallery below.