Inside Moebius, Part 2

May 21, 2018
The Moebius Library, reprinting graphic novels by the legendary European cartoonist Jean “Moebius” Giraud, continues with the wandering second volume of one of the artist’s last and most personal works. The free-associating, metafictional saga follows Moebius as he travels his arid inner landscape, Desert “B,” a setting populated with characters from his comics, his past and future selves, and other oddball types who cross his mind and therefore the landscape. This installment finds the hordes setting out across the desert in search of their author, who retreats into a bunker filled with his memories and conjures up increasingly self-indulgent fantasies. Moebius began the comic to cope with his late-in-life decision to quit smoking marijuana—the psychedelic desert he draws was created as a space for the artist to contemplate the shift (to, as the introduction states, “weed himself out”). But the book shifts into a rambling meditation on his life and work, drawn in loose but assured lines that depart from the precision of his usual art style. The characters comment on their creator’s directionless plotting and undisciplined art: “I wonder if the lack of preliminary pencils mightn’t be the problem,” one suggests as his face sprouts extra eyes. The search for inspiration will continue into a third volume, a length that may test all but the most devoted fan’s patience. Moebius’s quest is gorgeous to look at, but it’s an awfully languorous effort to cross his creative desert.

September 1, 2018

In the year 2000, internationally acclaimed French cartoonist Jean Giraud, better known as Moebius (The World of Edena), started illustrating a diary about his decision to stop smoking marijuana. Within a few pages, this record of his impressions of sobriety quickly gave way to a narrative of the artist drawing his wanderings through a vast desert, interacting with various figures from his past, modern culture (Osama bin Laden features in a memorable and extremely bizarre cameo), and, most important, his own creations, who view him as both godlike and a total nuisance. The result is an intriguing meditation on aging, death, sex, religion, and the creative process, as Moebius crafts a sometimes uncomfortably intimate and self-reflective portrait. These two volumes are rounded out with interviews with the artist and commentary from friends and editors, with the promise of a third and final volume completing the story later this year. VERDICT While some knowledge of Moebius's oeuvre is required to grasp fully what's going on here, even those previously unfamiliar with the author will be quickly drawn in by his gorgeous illustrations and probing exploration of universal themes.--TB

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