Prince of comics: Who is Jean Giraud?

Jean Giraud, better known by his pseudonym Mœbius, is an illustrator who left a very lasting impact on the art of illustration, which is not generally considered within the art of painting.

Jean Giraud is an illustrator trained in the long-established bande dessinée tradition of France-Belgium. The roots of this genre, which Americans call comics, actually go back a long way. Illustrations, which found their place as marginal ornaments or explanatory pictures in manuscripts in China and Japan long before Christ, first appeared in texts related to Christianity in the West, but over time they became indispensable elements of all kinds of manuscripts, whether religious or secular.

Jean Henri Gaston Giraud (8 May 1938 – 10 March 2012) was a French artist, cartoonist and writer who worked in the Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées tradition. Giraud garnered worldwide acclaim predominantly under the pseudonym Mœbius for his fantasy/science-fiction work, and to a slightly lesser extent as Gir, which he used for the Blueberry series and his other Western themed work. Esteemed by Federico Fellini, Stan Lee, and Hayao Miyazaki, among others, he has been described as the most influential bande dessinée artist after Hergé.

After the invention of the printing press, the way for illustrations, which were transferred to books via woodcuts and engravings, became clearer in the 18th century, when the first newspapers began to be published in Europe. Before that, illustrations had already become indispensable in exhibitions, concert announcements, and advertising flyers in Europe.

After the French Francois Boucher and Jean-Honore Fragonard and the Englishman William Hogarth created the first examples with their short illustrated stories in the early 1700s, cartoon stories found a place in almost every newspaper. With the emergence of weekly and monthly magazines in the mid-19th century, the golden age of illustration began. Although prototype cameras emerged in this period, they were not yet easy to use; Obtaining a satisfactory quality photo is even more difficult; All magazines are overflowing with illustrations.

[The question of whether illustration is a form of art is often debated, and the answer usually given is that it is not. A painting is a single example, even if copies are subsequently created by the artist; It can be viewed by the public in museums or exhibitions, with the consent of the person, museum, or foundation that owns it. Illustrations, on the other hand, are produced in large numbers and for general consumption; Illustrations, whether for posters or flyers, magazines or newspapers, are designed to convey a certain and simple message to a large number of people in the most direct way, and therefore often lack the depth and multi-layeredness of the picture.

Even though all of this is true, it does not seem appropriate to me to explain whether creation is a work of art or not by how it is "consumed". By this criterion, most works by Gustave Doré or Alfons Mucha should not be considered works of art; even a brief glance at some of their works is enough to convince you otherwise.]

While these are happening in the USA, Europe is of course not left out; Europe already started with Albrecht Dürer, with painters/illustrators such as the British Aubrey Beardsley, William Hogarth, Arthur Rackham, John Tenniel, Walter Crane, and the French Gustave Doré, Jean-Baptiste-Marc-Antoine Borel, Honoré Daumier, J J Grandville, Alfons Mucha. It has a deep-rooted history and culture in this regard.

In Europe, Belgium and France lead the way when it comes to comic books; We see the first examples of bande dessinée especially in Belgium, which has been acquainted with cartoon stories for a long time thanks to the serifs that were used extensively in newspapers starting from the 19th century; The most important of these is Georges Remi, or better known as Hergé's Tintin.

Europe, which lost its dominance as the global dominant power to the USA after World War I, did not produce a superhero; The hero he creates instead is a journalist boy-man: Tintin. The illustrator's series, created in 1929 for the weekly supplement of the Catholic newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle, was followed by popular comics such as Spirou et Fantasio, Blondin et Cirage, Buck Danny, Les Schtroumpfs, Asterix, Lucky Luke, and Corto Maltese.

When Jean Giraud was born in 1938 in Nogent-sur-Marne, a suburb of Paris, comic books were already a popular cultural product.

Jean 'Moebius' Giraud is an artist who made a name for himself with his surrealist style, whose designs were the subject of comics and movies, who created a school of thought with his style, and who became an inspiration to the artists who came after him.

He often combined the Surrealist environments he created in his works with Science fiction. Moebius, which is about civilizations in the distant future that have developed advanced technology and have also reached an advanced spiritual level, also includes surreal extraterrestrial creatures in these worlds.

The technique he uses in his works is a mixed technique, combining oil painting and tile ink techniques. Like other Surrealist masters, Moebius' technique is perfectionist. Even if one comes close to his works, no brush marks can be seen, only the scanning strokes when he uses Indian ink can be seen when very close. He combines his realistic technique with the surreal environments he creates.

Jean 'Moebius' Giraud also shaped the comic book industry and Hollywood films with his works. He designed Silver Surfer's silver skis and made posters for many Marvel and Dark Horse comics in agreement with Marvel and Dark Horse. He designed many elements of the He-Man and The Masters of The Universe comics. Later, in 1987, he redesigned all the science fiction elements used in the movie Masters of The Universe, starring Dolph Lundgren, on the same subject.

He was the lead designer on Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune film, which was later canceled, alongside Dan O'Bannon. In 1979, he was on the sets of Shepperton Studio with HR Giger in Ridley Scott's Alien movie, and designed the Nostromo ship in the movie and designed the storyboards of the movie. He was the lead designer on Disney's Tron movie. In 1981, he produced his own comic book L'Incal, and together with Philippe Druillet he produced the comic book Arzach.

Moebius, who, in addition to fusing surreal and science fiction schools in his works, also created his own unique comic language and left his mark on the 70s and 80s, passed away in 2012.

** It is said that Jean Giraud's nickname was inspired by the "Möbius Strip". A Möbius strip is a surface obtained by bending one end of a geometrically long strip 180 degrees and joining it with the other end.