Wednesday, May 19, 2010

By Any Other Name

I read some time ago (I can't vouch for the accuracy of my memory—but it's all I've got to go on for this) that Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, attempted to reinvent himself for a new series. I think I read that he felt that many people perceived Moebius' work to be dark and intimidating. So with his new production of lighter, spiritually uplifting work, he also used a new signature, a pseudonym of sorts: Jean Gir.

A rose by any other name . . .

Okay, I'm back. I just did some research, which of course is what I should done the first time around. Check down below at the end of this post.



I'm going to quote directly from Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier:

In 1980, Moebius met French philosopher and spiritualist Jean-Paul Appel-Guery, who had a powerful influence on him and his work during the 1980s. Through Appel-Guery, Moebius also met writer-journalist Paula Salomon, and later young artist Marc Bati. Salomon, with fellow writer Charlie Cooper, wrote a remarkable book on parapsychology, La parapsychologie et Vous, which Moebius illustrated. These illustrations were reprinted in Chaos (Marvel, 1991). For Bati, Moebius eventually co-created and wrote the Altor series, aka The Magic Crystal.

Appel-Guery encouraged Moebius to tap into the more positive zones of his subconscious. "Most of the people that were studying spirituality with Appel-Guery did not know much about comics, but they immediately picked on the morbid, and overall negative feelings that permeated my work," said Moebius. "So I began feeling ashamed, and I decided to do something really different, just to show them that I could do it." And Moebius did just that in stories such as The White Citadel and Double Escape (in Pharagonesia, Marvel, 1988) even creating the new sigature of "Jean Gir."
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7 comments:

  1. Li-AnMay 19, 2010 at 10:36 AM

    These illustrations come from end 80's I think. Jean Gir is the name he choose when he published his first comics album (Blueberry)) but the printer made a mistake or the editor and they wrote his real name: Jean Giraud.
    He signed Moebius for SF drawings and after for experimental drawings. Althought he had more success as author of Blueberry in France, his Moebius signature is now a legend. And he recently draws a not so good one shot story for the XIII serie (sort of Jason Bourne concept) signing Moebius and not Giraud.
    Actually, he paint and draws a lot for private commands so it's very hard to see his work. I saw an exhibition last year and the paintings were not bad but simple for him to do.
    In september or october a new comics around the Arzack character will be published by Glénat editor (there is a strange greyscale version already published. I say strange because "they" (the people working around him) choose to take his colored pages and to put them in grey.
    It's very strange to see his Gir signature here as it's typically Moebius work. He used Jean Gir signature for some realistic/western. illustration

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  2. Thomas Haller BuchananMay 19, 2010 at 3:18 PM

    Hi Li-An--

    So I went back and checked my original source, and for what it's worth, I've attached a bit more information about the subject at the end of this post.

    : )

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  3. Li-AnMay 20, 2010 at 12:19 AM

    With Guery, Moebius and his family went to Tahiti and a little island in that must be named a sect (Moebius wife has a very bad feeling about this period) waiting for eventual ET to come and say hello, having sexual exercices and other things like this (read the Sadoul's book). Maybe his worst creative period. After French Polynesia, he went to Los Angeles, LA, working on the Internal Transfer project (based on a story from Guery and Salomon).
    I'm not a great specialist of Moebius work but it seems there is not a lot of Moebius illustrations signed Jean Gir ("Venise Celeste" 83 is signed Jean Gir). Internel Transfert is signed Moebius and Starwatcher Graphics turned around his Moebius signature.
    Well, I am more fan of this pre Guery work, so...

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  4. olivierMay 26, 2010 at 9:25 AM

    Hello,
    So good to see this old illustrations :)

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  5. AnonymousMarch 10, 2012 at 7:01 PM

    Do you know where the image from the fair with the star comes from? I have drown a life-size, ampliated version of that beautiful work on my wall in 1996, but I can´t remember what publication it comes from.

    Thanks !! Congratulations for the blog

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  6. Thomas Haller BuchananMarch 10, 2012 at 9:33 PM

    These are from a collected edition of his work printed in France. I no longer have that book.

    Thank you for asking and I hope you find it.

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  7. Li-AnMarch 11, 2012 at 1:29 AM

    Moebius is dead. RIP.
    The images come from a a little box published by Aedena (individual cards - un après midi à Pharagonescia) but where republised in Starwatcher compilaton (Aedena). I suppose they are republished in more recent books.

    ReplyDelete