Jean Giraud

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Jean Henri Gaston Giraud (French) was a French artiste, cartoonist, and writer who worked in the Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées (BD) style from 1938 to 2012; he died on May 8, 1938. Giraud's pseudonym Mbjys (French: [m.bjys) and his Western-themed paintings earned worldwide fame under his pseudonym Mbius (English: [m.bjys]), as well as Gir (French: [I]) outside the English-speaking world. Federico Fellini, Stan Lee, and Hayao Miyazaki, among others, have praised him as the most influential bande dessinée artist after Hergé.

The series Blueberry, co-written by writer Jean-Michel Charlier and starring one of the first Western comics' first antiheroes, includes one of his most popular works. He produced a variety of science-fiction and fantasy comics as Mbius, in a highly imaginative, surreal, almost abstract style. Arzach and Jerry Cornelius's Airtight Garage are among his works included in this series. Alejandro Jodorowsky, a avant-garde filmmaker, has also worked on an unproduced version of Dune and the comic book series The Incal.

Mbius has also contributed storyboards and concept sketches to a number of science-fiction and fantasy films, including Alien, Tron, The Fifth Element, and The Abyss. In 2004, French director Jan Kounen adapted Blueberry for the screen.

Early life

Jean Giraud was born in Nogent-sur-Marne, Val-de-Marne, on May 8, 1938, as the sole child to Raymond Giraud, an insurance consultant, and Pauline Vinchon, who had worked at the department. When he was three years old, his parents divorced, and he was raised mainly by his grandparents, who were living in Fontenay-sous-Bois (much later, when he was a celebrated artist, but he was unable to buy his grandparents' house). The separation between mother and father caused a long-term illness, which he explained lay at the root of his choice of separate pen names. Young Giraud, an introverted child at first, found solace after World War II in a tiny theater on a corner in the street where his mother grew up in postwar reconstruction-era France. Giraud, a slew of American B-movie Westerns, is a child who attended the theatre as often as he did. He, as did so many other European boys his age, developed a fascination with the subject.

Giraud, a boy at the age of 9-10, began drawing Western comics when his single mother was enrolled as a stop-gap scheme in the Saint-Nicolas boarding school in Issy-les-Moulineaux for two years (and where he became familiar with Belgian comic books, such as Spirou and Tintin), much to his schoolmates' amusement. He began his only vocational education at École Supérieur des Arts Appliqués Duperré in 1954, where he began producing Western comics, but his conventional teachers did not agree. He befriended Jean-Claude Mézières and Pat Mallet, two future comic artists at the university. Giraud's close, lifelong friendship began in later life, with Mézières, particularly because of their shared love for science fiction, Westerns, and the Far West. In 1956, he left art school without graduating to visit his mother, who had married a Mexican in Mexico, and stayed there for nine months.

The experience of the Mexican desert, particularly the endless blue skies and sprawling flat plains, has left him enthralled as he watched Westerns on television a few years ago, giving him an everlasting, "queltre craquel l'âme" (something that actually cracked my heart), a lasting picture of him that is readily recognising in almost every one of his later seminal works. He began working for Catholic publisher Fleurus presses as a full-time tenured artist, to whom he was introduced by Mézières, who had just recently returned to France shortly after he found employment at the magazine. He was slated for military service in 1959-1960, firstly the French occupation zone of Germany, and later Algeria, in the throes of the deadly Algerian war at the time. Fortunately for him, he managed to escape frontline service as he was the only service man with a graphic design background and volunteered to serve as illustrator on the army magazine 5/5 Forces Françaises rather than being assigned to logistic duties. Algeria was Giraud's second encounter with other, more exotic cultures, and he soaked in the experience, leaving traces in his later comics, particularly those titled "M" in the case.

Source

Career

Frank et Jeremie, one of his first freelance commercial sales at 18, was drawing his own amusing, Morris-inspired Western comic two-page shorts for the magazine Far West. Young Giraud was born with a knack for comedic books, but not so much for realistically drawn comics, and she recommended he continue in the vein of "Frank et Jeremie."

Giraud retired at publisher Fleurus from 1956 to 1958, but his magazines Fripounet et Marisette, Cér Vaillants, and me vaillantes are among those of a prolific, edifying style aimed at France's adolescent youth, with many others of a French historical origins) and illustrations for magazine editorials. "Le roi des bisons" ("King of the Buffalo") a comic book, as well as another titled "Un roi des Hurons" ("A Giant with the Hurons") were among his realistic Westerns. Many of his Western comics, including "King of the Buffalo," debuted Art Howell, and this could be regarded as Giraud's de facto first realistic Western story, as he himself did in effect, since he, save the first one, endedowed these stories with the title "Un aventure d'Art Howell." Giraud's first three books were also illustrated for Fleurus. His style was heavily influenced by Belgian comic artist Joseph "Jijé" Gillain, who at that time was the primary source of inspiration for a whole generation of young, aspiring French comic artists, including Giraud's friend Mézières, who was interested in doing realistically drawn comics. How major Jijé's influence was demonstrated by the Fleurus journals, as their work closely resembled each other. For example, two of Giraud's books illustrated for Fleurus were co-illustrated with Guy Mouminoux, another name for some future renown in the Franco-Belgian comic world, and Giraud's work can only be identified, while Mouminoux did not sign his illustration, while Mouminoux did not sign his. Giraud's earnings at Fleurus were just enough to convince him, disenchanted with the courses, prevailing culture, and academic discipline, to abandon his art academy education after only two years, though he did not regret it later in life.

Giraud visited his idol at his home for the first time with Mézières and Mallet, followed by a few visits on his own to see the master at work for himself. Giraud, a soldier returning from military service and his time on 5/5 Forces Françaises, decided not to return to Fleurus because he "had to do something else" if he ever wanted to improve," became an apprentice of Jijé on his invitation, after finding that Giraud had made artistic progress during his stay at 5/5 Forces Françaises. Jijé, who was then one of Europe's best-known comedians, was known for his generous offer to young, aspiring comic artists, of whom Giraud was just one, going even further than opening up his family's home in Champrosay for days on end, which included Giraud. In this, Jijé resembled Belgian comic grandmaster Hergé, but unlike Jijé, Hergé did not do so on a purely commercial basis, never on a voluntary basis. Giraud's first comic book after military service and his penultimate one before embarking on Blueberry were among his many other shorts and illustrations for Jijé. Jijé used his apprentice for the inks on a blackout of his Western film Jerry Spring, after whom Giraud had modeled his Art Howell character "The Road to Coronado," which Giraud inked. In the end, Jijé intended his promising pupil for the entirety of the story art, but the still-inexperienced Giraud, who had been used to working under the tighter conditions at Fleurus, was overwhelmed by the strict time constraints that had been demanded for a periodical (Spirou in this situation), was overwhelmed. Giraud suggested that he had been a bit too cocky and optimistic, but after a week, I had only finished half a plate, and outside of being soaked with my sweat, it was a complete disaster." Joseph continued to pencilize, while I did the inks." Even though Giraud lost touch with his mentor later, the fatherless Giraud expressed a "It was as if he asked me to be my father" in later life, no less! "It's been a long time since I first heard of it."

Giraud was contacted by friend Mézières again to see if he'd be interested in contributing as an illustrator on Hachette's groundbreaking multivolume L'histoire des civilisations history reference book after his stint at Jijé's. Giraud accepted, despite Jijé's encouragement, who considered the opportunity a good one for his student. Despite the fact that he found the position challenging, with the ability to make oil paints from historical objects and images, it was also the best-paying job he had ever had, a seminal appointment. Giraud discovered a knack for making art in gouaches, something he developed well not long after designing Blueberry magazine/album cover art, as well as his 1968 side project "Buffalo Bill: le roi des éclaireurs" history book for which Giraud provided two-thirds of the illustrations in gouache, including the front. Hachette's assignment was short due to his invitation to Fort Navajo. He only appeared on the first three to four volumes of the book series, leaving Mézières with the finalisation. Giraud also provided art in gouache for two Western-themed vinyl record music performances as sleeve art, as well as the covers for the first seven outings in the Morgan Kane Western novel collection by Louis Masterson's French-language version. In the 1983 artbook "Le tireur solitaire," a significant portion of his Western-themed gouache artwork of this period, including that of Blueberry.

Giraud's stay in Hachette was also of personal significance, as he met Claudine Conin, a Hachette journalist, who described her future husband as "funny, uncomplicated, a nice boy next door," but the other hand, "mysterious, mysterious, intellectual," long before others did, acknowledgement that he had all the makings of a "visionary." Married in 1967, the couple's second child, Hélène (b.1970) and Julien (b.1972). Daughter Hélène, in particular, has inherited her father's graphics skills and has pursued a career as a graphics designer in animation, receiving her a 2014 French civilian knighthood, the same her father received in 1985. Claudine, wife, not only took care of her husband's art career, but also participated in it as a colorist. "La tarte aux pommes," a 1976 feminist fantasy short story, was written by her under her maiden name. In addition, the appearance of a later, key character in Giraud's Blueberry series Chihua Pearl was partly based on Claudine's appearance. Save Julien, the Mbiusienne 1973 fantasy road trip short story "La déviation," created as "Gir" before the artist fully embarked on his Mbius journey.

Giraud and writer Jean-Michel Charlier created Fort Navajo, a Charlier-co-founded Pilote magazine in October 1963. The similarity between Giraud and Jijé (who in effect had been Charlier's first choice for the series, but when Giraud went AWOL, Jijé was so close. Pilotes got angry letters accusing Giraud of plagiarism, which was not yet acknowledged by Jijé and Giraud as "Fort Navajo" began its life. Jijé, who denied the charges, pleaded with his former pupil to stick to the course rather than boosting his self-confidence. The first time Jijé had to fill in for Giraud was during the production of the second story "Thunder in the West" (1964), when the young Giraud, who was still inexperienced, was suffering from the strain of having to produce a strictly scheduled magazine serial, suffered from a nervous breakdown, with Jijé taking on plates 28–36. Giraud's second trip was one year later, "Mission to Mexico (The Lost Rider)), when he departed to travel the United States and, then Mexico; and, eventually, Mexico; and, finally, Mijé, a former mentor, came to the rescue, penciling plates 17–38. Although both artists' art style was almost identical in "Thunder in the West," Giraud's reprisal of work on plate 39 of "Mission to Mexico" was evidently different, hinting at Giraud's ability to produce his own personal style, eventually surpassing that of his former student Jijé, who, impressed by his former pupil's success, has later designated him as "Rimbaud de la BD."

Colonel Blueberry, whose facial features were based on those of actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, was created in 1963 by Charlier (scenario) and Giraud (drawings) for Pilote. Although the Fort Navajo series had been intended as a group story, it quickly shifted to have Blueberry as the central figure. Giraud's best known work in native France and the remainder of Europe may have been his in collaborations with Alejandro Jodorowsky, who later became a member of the Blueberry series. Early Blueberry comics featured a simple line drawing style similar to Jijé's and common Western themes and images (in particular, those of John Ford's "Iron Horse" storyline), but Giraud's 1959 Rio Bravo debut was used as a guide to Sergio Leone's 1960 Westerns Soldier Blue and Little Big Man) before he influenced both the 1970 Westerns Soldier Blue and Little Big Man (for the "Man with the Silver Star"), but later, Giraud's fifth album, "The Trail of the Navajos," a French riot, became more popular in the aftermath of the May 1968 social upheaval, with the former in no small part due to the absence of editorial control and censorship laws loosened. Giraud's first Blueberry album after he had begun publishing science fiction as Mbius ("Broken Nose") was much more experimental than his previous Western fiction. Although the editorial revolt at Dargaud had effectively spawned the French comic world's emancipation, Giraud admitted that it had caused a significant break in his hitherto warm friendship with the conservative Goscinny, which never completely ended.

Giraud left the series and publisher in 1974, partly because of the increasing royalties war that he was under pressure to produce the book, but mostly because he wanted to explore and expand his "Mobius" alter ego, but mostly because of Jodorowsky's graphical inspirations, which led to his first Jodorowsky/Mbius collaboration in Los Angeles. Giraud was so keen to return to the project after a stopover from the United States, that he greatly expedited the work on the "Angel Face" out of Blueberry's, despite the fact that it was not expected to complete until weeks later. Despite the failure, he continued to France later this year, and he started to produce comedic work under this pseudonym that appeared in the magazine he co-founded, Métal Hurlant, which launched in December 1974 and revolutionized the Franco-Belgian comic world.

It was Jodorowsky who introduced Giraud to Carlos Castaneda's writings, particularly one whose lineage descended from the Toltecs. The books, which were narrated in the first person, related to Don Juan Matus' experience under the tutelage of a Yaqui "Man of Knowledge" mentor. Castaneda's writings left a lasting impression on Giraud, who had visited the country for the third time in 1972), and it did influence his art as "Mobius," specifically in terms of dream sequences, although he wasn't quite able to function in such influences in his mainstream Blueberry comic. However, Charlier's unintentionally sneaked in some Castaneda characters in "Nez Cassé." Castaneda's influence reasserted itself in Giraud's later life, having worked in elements more explicitly after Charlier's death in his 1999 Blueberry outing "Geronimo l'Apache" that would have been a main part of his Blueberry 1900-project, but it was unable to come to fruition due to extraneous causes.

Even though Giraud had vainly attempted to introduce his Blueberry co-worker to the literature of Castaneda, Charlier, being from a previous generation, skeptic in style, and skeptical of science fiction in general, he never knew what his younger colleague hoped to achieve as "M" even though he was a novice. Nonetheless, he never tried to discourage Giraud in the least, knowing that an artist of Giraud's caliber needed a "mental shower" from time to time. In addition, Charlier was keen on Giraud's graphic innovations, most notably "Nez Cassé," making him "one of the all-time greatest artists in the comic book" as Charlier said in 1982. Michel Rouge, an artist who was taken on by Giraud in 1980 for the inks of "La longue marche" ("The Long March") painted a slightly different picture. Charlier was not happy with Giraud's hiring an assistant, afraid that it might have been a precursor to him leaving the series in order to explore his "experiments" as Mbius's more familiarized. Although Charlier was willing to ignore Giraud's "philandering" in his case, he was nonetheless convinced that artists, particularly his own, should fully devote themselves to their art, as Charlier had always understood the subject. Even Giraud's later life led to the belief that Charlier actually "detested" his other work, referring to "treason" as something akin to "treason," although Charlier's personal experiences with him indicated that he had remained "openminded" in this regard, at least in his case. According to Giraud, Charlier's ostensible behavior influenced his son Philippe, causing their friendship to quickly deteriorat into open animosity following his father's death.

Giraud resurfaced in 1979 with "Nez Cassé" as a free-lancer. Charlier and Giraud's long-running rivalry over the remainings from Blueberry came to a close later this year. They started Jim Cutlass as a way to put pressure on Dargaud. It didn't work, and Charlier and Giraud decided against the parent company openly, heading for greener pastures elsewhere and taking all of Charlier's co-creations with them. After Charlier died, it would be nearly fifteen years before the Blueberry series (and some others) returned to Dargaud. (See: Blueberry magazine history for more information, including the royalties controversy.) Giraud took on scripting the revived series after Charlier died on the first album, "Mississi River," first serialized in Métal Hurlant and then as a one-shot for two decades, after he passed away, while leaving the painting to Christian Rossi.

When Charlier, Giraud's colleague on Blueberry, died in 1989, Giraud assumed responsibility for the scripting of the main series, which, after the publication of "Apaches," became Giraud's last title. Blueberry has been translated into 19 languages, the first English book translations to be published in 1977/78 by UK publisher Egmont/Methuen, but its publication was cut short after only four volumes. In the 1980-1970s, the original Blueberry series spun off a Young Blueberry prequel series called Young Blueberry, but the artwork was not completed, left to Colin Wilson and later Michel Blanc-Dumont, as well as the Giraud-written version, but William Vance-penciled, 1991-2000 intermezzo series Marshal Blueberry appeared in the pilote-era. Except Jim Cutlass, the entire series had returned to Dargaud in late 1993, but Giraud himself, who had already left the company in 1974, did not pursue his work as a freelancer, despite the Jim Cutlass exception.

Despite Giraud's continued success and fame as "Mobius" (especially in the United States, the United States, and Japan), Blueberry's "Gir") has always been his most popular and well-known work in native France and mainland Europe, despite the artist's continued absence from it was exemplified by his regularly taking extended leaves of absence from it. "If an album of Moebius is released, about 10,000 people are interested," Giraud said, "allowing him to fully participate in his artistic pursuits as Mbius." "Blueberry is in some ways the'sponsor' of Moebius,' for years now, with at least 100,000 copies [in France]" and as late as 2005.

Giraud's "Mbius" pseudonym, which he used for his science fiction and fantasy work, was born in 1963, when he didn't like "to work alone all day" and "like an alcoholic needing his alcohol" to make comics. Giraud used the name for 21 strips in 1963–64 (much of which was collected in Epic's "Mbius 12" – see below). Though Giraud loved the magazine's artistic freedom and atmosphere, he eventually resigned as Blueberry, on which he had taken up too much of his time. Cavanna, the magazine's editor-in-chief, was reluctant to allow Giraud to leave because he was unclear why Giraud wanted to waste his talents on a "kiddy comet." The pseudonym went unnoticed for a decade, at least for comics, as Giraud's use for side-projects as illustrators continued. Giraud's interior front and back flyleaf illustrations as Mbius for several outings in the science fiction book club series Club du livre d'anticipation, a limited edition hardcover book collection of seminal science fiction writers, from French publisher Éditions OPTA), and the Galaxie-bis science fiction magazine and pocket book collection were included in the late 1960s to present day (the magazine that introduced Giraud to science fiction in the early 1970s In addition, four vinyl record music albums were endowed with Mbius sleeve art during this period in time. In Giraud's first art book as Mbius, aptly named "Mbius," which was published in 1980, much of this illustration art has been reproduced. Giraud had to stop his career as Mbius comic artist after returning from his second trip from Mexico, partially because Blueberry consumed all of his energy. "I tried for eight months, but I couldn't do it," Giraud explained. Giraud's statement was unashamed, but he did a few Hara-Kiriesque comedic shorts for Pilote in the early 1970s, but under the pseudonym "Gir," he had created for the Fleurus magazines, Bonux-Boy, and the late-60s TOTAL Journal magazine, making him a tidied.

He revived the Mbius pseudonym for comics in 1974, and the very first, 12-page story he created as such in the magazine L'Écho des savanes was published as such, when the Dune production was at a lull. The black & white story dealt with the assassination of an immigrant of North-African descent, and it stands out as one of Giraud's very few empathetic socially engaged works. Given Giraud's fascination with the Western genre and the cultural nuances of Native-Americans in particular – and whose plight Giraud had always been sympathetic to – it's not surprising that two recent examples of such rare works were Native-American themed. These concerns were prompted by Oglala Lakota's eponymous 1973 case and the 3-page short story "Discours du Chef Seattle," first published in Epic's "Ballad for a Coffin" ("The Words of Chief Seattle"). Giraud burst out onto the comedy scene as "Mbius" captured European readers by surprise, and many of them, especially outside of France, were taken a few years before it was revealed that "Jean Gir[raud]" and "Mbius" were actually one and the same artist.

Giraud's first major Mbius creation, "The Horny Goof," was while he was brainstorming with the founding editors of the magazine (founded by former Pilote friends and co-artists in the aftermath of the company's backlash), that it was when he began brainstorming with the magazine's founders and co-artists. The humorous and satirical tale about a law-abiding citizen of the planet Soulda, who awakened one day only to find himself with a permanent erection in black & white by the magazine's publisher, was published first for Mbius comics. Pursued through space and time by his own puritanical authorities, as well as other groups, who have their own intentions with the hapless bandard, find a safe haven on Madame Kowalsky's asteroid Fleur. When discounting the spelling "Gir" as the author's signed "La déviation," it is evident that Giraud's signature, minute "M" art style, for which he emerged not so long after, comes into its own. Another unusual feature of the book is that the narrative is only connected on the right-hand pages; the left-hand pages are taken up by one-page panels depicting a completely unrelated cinematic sequence of a man changing after he has snapped his fingers. At the time, some commentators accused Giraud of pornography, but one reviewer put it into perspective by saying, "Peut-être Porno, but graphique!" "Porn? Maybe, but Graphic Art for sure," says the author. Giraud has confessed to being jealous of what his former Pilote colleagues had achieved with L'Écho des savanes in the United States' editorial, he's already enjoyed so much back at Hara-Kiri that it inspired, which Giraud embarked on next.

Giraud became one of the founding members of the comics art group and publishing house "Les Humanos Associés" later this year, alongside fellow comic artists Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet (also Pilote colleagues) and (outsider) financial director Bernard Farkas. It was then a direct result of the uprising by the L'Écho des savanes founding editors and the fact that their employees had left for the venture as a result of the crisis. They launched Métal hurlant ("Screaming metal") in December 1974, and for which he had partially abandoned his Blueberry collection, a brother and Irma began. The translated version was released in the English-speaking world as Heavy Metal, and it was scheduled for publication in April 1977, but Giraud's work was also introduced to North-American readers. Both Mbius' most popular serial "The Airtight Garage" and his pioneering "Arzach" were born in Métal hurlant. Unlike Hara-Kiri and L'Écho des savanes, whose fame has always been limited to the socially engaged satire and underground comic scenes, it was Métal hurlant, in particular, although its American cousin left an indelible impression on a generation of not only American comic artists, but also film designers, as shown below.

"Arzach," a wordless 1974–1975 comic that was produced in color and marketed as a conscious effort to bring new life to the comic field that was dominated by American superhero comics in the United States, and by Europe's first, adolescent oriented bandes dessinée. It follows the flight of the title character from the back of his pterodactyl to a fantastic world that blends medieval fantasy with futurism. It's better than most science fiction comics because it's artistically produced story titles, completely devoid of captions, speech balloons, and written sound effects. According to Arzach's journey as a quest for timeless, universal truths, the wordlessness gives the strip a sense of timelessness.

The short stories "L'Homme est-il bon?"

("Is Man Good?

"," "enriching" the publisher with his Mbius work in issue 10, 1976, a first publication in Pilote, issue 744, 1974, but Giraud was wokened by his "unbearable realization" that he was "enriching" the magazine, thus expediting his departure. ), "The Ballade," 1977, "Inception" by French poet Arthur Rimbaud) and "The White Castle" ("The White Castle") were examples of additional stories written in color shortly after "Arzach." The Métal hurlant appeared in issues 7–8, and "The Long Tomorrow," written by Dan O'Bannon in 1974, during lulls in Jodorowsky's Dune pre-production.

His book The Airtight Garage, which launched in issue 6 in 1976, is particularly notable for its non-linear structure, in which movement and temporality can be traced in a variety of directions, according to the readers' own interpretation even within a single planche (page or image). Major Grubert, who is building his own multi-level universe on an asteroid named Fleur (from the "Bandard fou" universe, and the first known example of the artist's attempts to tie all his "M" creations into a cohesive Airtight Garage universe), is included in the series. Jerry Cornelius, Michael Moorcock's creation, is included.

The publication of "Les yeux du chat," the cat's caption, was published in 1978. The dark, scary, and surreal story about a blind boy in a non-descript empty cityscape who has his pet eagle scout for eyes, which it finds by taking them from a street cat and giving them to his eager companion, who is grateful for a child's eyes. As a reaction to surrealistic performance art becoming mainstream, Alejandro Jodorowsky and his colleagues of the Académie Panique, a group specialized on chaotic and surreal performance art, generated the story premise. On a visit to Paris in 1977, Jodorowsky developed the story as a therapy to avoid the sadness he suffered from after the failure of his Dune project and delivered the script to Giraud. Giraud was the author who suggested the tale be told on the style he had already introduced in "Le bandard fou," to wit, as single panel pages. Jodorowsky's suggestion aided in the eagle's discovery on the right-hand pages, while depicting the waiting boy on smaller single panel left-hand pages from a contrarian point of view. Giraud's already high level of detail was further enhanced by using zipatone for the first time. Considered a significant and seminal work both for its art and storytelling, Jodorowsky started his career as a comic writer, and the work brought memories of Giraud's discovery and admiration in the books of his grandparents when he was living there in his youth. However, it has been somewhat of a one-shot in Giraud's body of work, considering the fact that such a high degree of detail is used. The tale, which was printed on yellow paper to emphasize the black and white art, was originally published as a limited book edition, a gift item for the publisher's relatives. It was only after expensive pirate editions first appeared that the publisher decided to make the work available commercially on a larger scale, which began in 1981. Jodorowsky had intended that the work to be the first of a trilogy, but it never came to fruition.

"Les yeux du chat" brought an end to a period that had begun with "La Déviation," and the publisher had coined the term "Les années Métal Hurlant" on one of its latter-day anthologies. The Mbius" anthology series, which as such, was the first "Moebius" complete six-volume set, of which two, "La Complainte de l'Homme Programme" and five, were Mbius art books, with volume 4 and 5 being identical versions of the 1980 original's). It also ended a phase in which Giraud was preoccupied in a "characteristic period in his life" in which he was "very somber and skepticism about his life," resulting in several of his "Mobius" stories of the period that ended in death and disaster. They included the poetic "Ballade" in which Giraud killed the two protagonists, something he later regretted a decade later in this particular case.

Giraud's most popular L'Independance series began in 1980 in the magazine's issue 58 of 1980. However, Giraud's break-out triumph as "Mbius" had come at a price by this time. He had to handover Pilote to flee the pressures and stifling conditions under which he was forced to work in 1981, but now it was increasingly "as stifling as it had been before with Blueberry," as he said philosophically. In a short interview in Métal Hurlant, issue 82, where an overworked Giraud said, "I will finish the Blueberry series, I will finish the John Difool [Incal] series, and then I'm done."

Then I will quit comics!"

He had just finished working as storyboard and film design artist on the Movie Tron, something he had adored greatly. Giraud did not act on his passion as much as history has revealed in 1980, when he and his family moved away from Paris as far away as possible in France and into the tiny city of Pau in the Pyrenees' foothills. Giraud started to take an interest in Jean-Paul Appel-Guéry's teachings while living in Pau, becoming an active member of his group and participating in their gatherings.

Le Monde d'Edena, his six-volume fantasy series that has appeared in English as The Aedena Cycle, was released in English from 1985 to 2001. The stories were heavily influenced by Jean-Paul Appel-Guéry's teachings as well as Guy-Claude Burger's instinctotherapy. Giraud and his family were enrolled in Appel-Guéry's Tahiti commune in 1983, and later in Venice and Woodland Hills, California, where Giraud and his family joined the family in the United States, where Giraud opened a shop in Santa Monica, and later in Venice and Woodland Hills, California. Giraud's one-shot comic book "La nuit de l'étoile" was co-written by Appel-Guéry, and it was the most tangible representation of Giraud's stay on Tahiti, aside from the art books "La memoire du futur" and "Venise celeste." Marc Bati, a young artist who was also living at the commune at the time and for whom Giraud later wrote the comic book Altor (The Magic Crystal) while in the United States, was currently working on "La nuit de l'étoile." Giraud conceived a third pseudonym, Jean Gir, Le Nouveau Mbius" in "Venise celeste," despite Giraud's (p. 33), but not using it for his Aedena Cycle, which was under Appel-Guéry's influence. Paula Salomon, another member of the commune, for whom Giraud had already illustrated her 1980 book "La psychologie et vous." Giraud was able to move stateside for work as he became dissatisfied with the way Appel-Guéry operated his commune in Tahiti, disenchanting with his short-lived third pseudonym. Giraud stopped smoking, coffee, margarine, and, eventually, the use of mind-expanding medications, adhering to his newfound abstinence for the remainder of his life.

Giraud co-founded his second publishing house under two concurrent imprints, Éditions Gentiane (mostly for his work as Gir) and Aedena (predominantly for his career as Mbius, not entirely by chance), with the intention to debut his work in a more artistic manner, such as limited edition art prints, art books, and art portfolios ("La memoire du futur" was first published under Gentiane's imprint and re Both men had already published the first real art book in the Humanodes period, and the style, which was a large 30x30cm book format at first, was adhered to for later such publications, including "La memoire du futur."

Claudine Barnaud's wife Claudine founded Giraud's third publishing house Starwatcher Graphics in 1985, essentially the US branch of Gentiane/Aedena with the same aspirations, resulting in the publication of, among other things, the extremely limited art work La Cité de Feu, a joint art work by Giraud with Geoff Darrow, seen below. However, the company did not do well in the case, and Claudine brought Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, who had attended the San Diego ComicCon in 1985, as editors-in-chief for Starwatcher, although also becoming shareholders. It was the Lofficier pair who managed to convince editor-in-chief Archie Goodwin of Marvel Comics to publish most of Moebius' hitherto's work in the United States, in comparison to the Epic imprint from 1987 to 1994, who were both veterans of the American publishing industry (and Mbius fans). These included three of Mbius' later-day art books, as well as the bulk of his Blueberry Western comic.

It was for the Marvel/Epic publication campaign that it was decided to discard the "Jean [Gir]aud]/"M" dichotomy, which was then strictly adhered to by the artist—as both the artist's name and his Blueberry creation were almost unknown in the English speaking world. This was contrary to his image as "Mobius," who was still acquired in the Heavy Metals and used for all of his English-speaking jobs (and Japan), although the dialectotomy remained elsewhere, including native France.

In 1988 and 1989, a two-issue Silver Surfer miniseries (later collected as Silver Surfer: Parable) was published by Stan Lee and drawn by Giraud (as Mbius). This was his first time working under the Marvel method rather than a complete script, and he's confessed to being perplexed by the fact that he had only had a complete story synopsis on his desk only two days after Giraud had wondered if this was really a joke over lunch. In 1989, this miniseries received the Eisner Award for the best finite/limited series. Two sailors pitting his version against those of Jack Kirby in 1995 submarine thriller Crimson Tide, with Denzel Washington's main character emphasizing the Kirby one being the better of the two versions. Giraud became aware of the reference around 1997, but not (uncredited) script doctor Quentin Tarentino (known for infusing his creations with pop culture references) as he was later told. "It's better than a big stature," an amused Giraud said, "I can not imagine anything better than being immortal [than] being in a film about submarines."

Giraud delves into American superhero mythology and created superhero artwork originating from both Marvel and DC Comics, which were also available as art prints, posters, or included in calendars. Giraud had produced cover art for two DC comic book outings as early as 1997, according to Hardware (Vol. March 1999 and Static (Vol. 1) were issue 49, issue 49, March 1997) and Static (Vol. 1). Marvel Tales, issue 45, March 1997), after a previous cover. (Vol. 104, 1997). Issue 253, September 1991, number 253. Giraud's other project in his "American period" was for a look at the trading cards, which was once a staple of American pop culture. In 1993, trading card firm Comic Images introduced a "Mobius Collector Cards" set with characters and pictures from all around his M.bius universe, though his Western work was not included. None of the photographs were taken from already existing work, but they were notably created by Giraud the year before.

Despite Giraud's stay in California for five years – including the "Intuitive Artist" category – for the short durations of time – his career had him frequently fly to Belgium and native France (maintaining a home in Paris) as well as Japan for extended stretches of time. His stay in the United States inspired his aptly named Made in Los Angeles art book, and much of his art, including his super hero artwork, was reproduced in this and the follow-up art book Fusions, the latter of which had never seen a translation in English by Epic.

Giraud's extended stay in the United States earned him the Inkpot Award in 1986, the fourth Eisner Award in 1991, as well as three Harvey Awards in the period 1988-1991 for Marvel's various graphic novel releases. Giraud, who had already picked up Spanish as a second language as a result of his numerous trips to Mexico and his encounters with Jodorowsky and his retirement, had developed enough language skills to communicate in English in this period.

Giraud returned to France in late summer 1989, as it turned out, but not with intent. His family had already returned to France earlier than their children's inability to begin college education in their home country, and wife Claudine came with them to set up a home in Paris. However, it also turned out that his transient lifestyle had put the marriage to a halt, causing the couple to split apart, and that a "living apart" relationship allowed for a "enormous freedom and sincerity" without "demands and annoyances between the two spouses. In addition, Giraud had met Isabelle Champeval at a book signing in Venice, Italy, in February 1984, and started a friendship with her that culminated in the birth of second son Raphal in 1989. Giraud's marriage with Claudine came to an end in December 1994, without much drama, according to Giraud, as both spouses had understood that "each wanted something different out of life." Claudine was even acknowledged for her contributions in the 1997 art book "Blueberry's," which was a harbinger of the marriage's ending without a ill will, and the documentary made for the occasion of its release. Giraud and Isabelle married on May 13, 1995, and their union, daughter Nausicaa, was born the same year. Giraud's second marriage was of such personal importance that he considered his life divided in a pre-Isabelle portion and a post-Isabelle portion, having coined his second wife "the key to the whole grand scheme" in his pre-Isabelle style. Claire Leopold, Isabelle's sister and Giraud's sister-in-law, became a regular contributor as a colorist on Giraud's second-day duties.

During 1988-1990, the changes in his personal life were also accompanied by shifts in his company's interests. Gentiane/Aedena, his co-founded publishing company, went bankrupt in 1988 and went bankrupt a short time later. Starwatcher Graphics, an American affiliate, resurfaced at the turn of the millennium, partially because it was a joint marital estate of the original Giraud couple and partially because the publication of his work in the United States had stalled. Giraud sold his stakes in Les Humanodes Associés to Fabrice Giger, effectively ending his ownership relationship with the magazine, but the regular publisher of his Métal hurlant era's Métal hurlant style, including L'Incal, was still a regular publisher of his Mbius works. According to Giraud, he founded Stardom in 1990 without outside involvement, with the 1525-copy limited mini art collection "Mockba - carnet de bord" becoming the company's first recorded publication in September the same year. It was also an art gallery, located on 27 Rue Fale, 75015 Paris, staging themed exhibitions on a regular basis, rather than being a publishing house. Despite the occasional and erroneous use of the plural even by the company's headquarters, Moebius Production was renamed singular in 1997. Isabelle Giraud, who had taken over Claudine's publishing editor and co-ownership, was still operating in both publishing and art gallery iterations, as of 2023.

Giraud's first act on his return was to finish up on Blueberry's "Arizona Love" on his own after his longtime writing buddy Jean-Michel Charlier died on July 10, 1989. Giraud was expected to take over the scripting of the main Blueberry series from then on, given that it had been clearly stated in Jean-Michel's "contracts signed by the survivor." Nonetheless, Stunned by the sudden death of his longtime coworker, but he couldn't bring himself to work on Blueberry again as an artist. Giraud said that the series had lost its "father" and that the "mother" needed time to mourn." Nevertheless, he did embark on a Marshal Blueberry spin-off series in 1990 as writer (leaving the artwork first to William Vance and later to Michel Rouge), aiming to honor his late writing partner's legacy by writing a tale à la Charlier. So, I wrote this scenario, not too bad, but it's more traditional, very classic." Giraud continued to write in a similar vein as Charlier/Giraud western creation Jim Cutlass's that Charlier had actually been recovering in the year before his death, and for which he had already contracted Christian Rossi for the work rather than starting the investigation. The series, which he, rather than (western) house-publisher Darby, was discontinued in 1999 due to the fact that it was not as commercially profitable as Blueberry had been, despite having six more volumes to the once-shot series.

Giraud also continued to work on The Aedena Cycle and the Madwoman of the Sacred Heart trilogy, both of which began in the United States and ended in 1998, when he concentrated on Blueberry's "OK Corral" cycle. Although Giraud was in the middle of his "OK Corral" period, he also started a new sequel cycle of his adored Incal main series, "After the Incal." However, after penciling in the first outing of "Le nouveau rêve," he was confronted with "too many things that attract me, too many aspirations in all senses," causing him to be unable to "devote myself to the bande dessinée as befitting a professional in the traditional sense." Given repeated attempts to convince Giraud otherwise, writer Jodorowsky had no other choice but to start anew with a new artist. This information had ramifications, but Giraud's retirement from the "OK Corral" cycle in 2005, he no longer produced comics and/or art on a commercial basis, but rather on a project and/or personal base, largely under the Mbius Production brand's banner.

Giraud, 2010, Mbius Production, Giraud, An illustrated autobiographical story in six hardcover volumes totaling 700 pages, an illustrated autobiographical fantasy. He appears in cartoon form as both a creator and protagonist trapped within the story alongside his younger self and several longtime characters such as Blueberry, Arzak (the new re-spelling of the Arzach character's name), Major Grubert (from The Airtight Garage) and others.

Jean Giraud starred in the first part of the XIII series "La Version Irlandaise" ("The Irish Version") by Jean Van Hamme, a script for Jean Van Hamme, to accompany Jean Van Hamme's second part ("The Last Round"). Both parts were published on the same date (13 November 2007) and were the last ones published by Van Hamme before Yves Sentes took over the series. Vance, the series's creator, had previously provided the artwork for the first two titles in the By Giraud-written Marshall Blueberry spin-off series.

Giraud also decided to revisit his seminal Arzak character in a sprawling new adventure story; the first (and last in hindsight) volume of a proposed trilogy, Arzak l'arpenteur, appeared in 2010. He also contributed to the Airtight Garage series with two volumes titled "Le chasseur desprime" (2008) and "Major" (2011), as well as the art book "La faune de Mars" (2011), which were the first two versions of Mbius Production in a limited, 1000 copy French only print run. Giraud's comic art on a specialized graphic computer tablet was a must have tool by this point, due to his poor vision.

Giraud's comics became more difficult in his last years, after undergoing extensive surgery in 2010 to prevent blindness in his left eye, and it was mainly for this reason that Giraud began to produce single-piece artwork, either as "Gir" and "Mbius" on larger canvases on either commission basis or under Mbius Production's banner. Much of the artwork was created from 2005 to 2010, as well as older original art Giraud's sale in auction houses like Artcurial, Hôtel Drouot, and Millon & Associés.

Giraud produced illustrations for books, magazines, music recordings, and film projects (although not strictly a musician by his own admission, but did have a lifelong fascination with jazz), as well as corporate and corporate offices, as previously stated. A striking early example of the latter, worried about the Blueberry art he created in 1978 for the Spanish jeans manufacturer Lois Jeans & Jackets, was also blown up to soaring, mural-like heights and billboards in many locations around Paris; Giraud, a book illustrator, accompanied the first edition of Robert Silverberg's science fiction book Project Pendulum as book illustrator, as well as Paulo Coelho's 1994 French translation of the novel The Alchemist. Giraud continued his work in the same vein as the Coelho book, with his cover and interior illustrations for a French 1995 reprint of "Ballades" by French medieval poet François Villon. In the artbooks that were published over the years, a large portion of this non-comic art, including the one for Lois, has been reproduced.

Giraud was approached by two video game designers in the mid-1990s to produce the box cover art for the 1995 video games; the first one concerned the Fade to Black video game produced by the US Delphine Software International, while the second one concerned Panzer Dragoon, a Japanese Sega Corporation. And although Giraud was by now the most popular Mbius artist in both countries, he was only asked to write the box cover art for the two video game collections and nothing more. He was also invited to participate in later games as a concept artist a few years ago.

Giraud's drawings appeared in a soft cover edition of Dante Alighieri's La Divina Commedia, which was published in Milan by the Nuages Gallery in 1999. He illustrated the Paradiso volume as "Mobius," while Lorenzo Mattotti and Milton Glaser illustrated Inferno and Purgatorio respectively. The Mbius name appeared in the edition. Giraud's Paradiso illustrations are heavily inspired by Gustave Doré's engravings, with compositions often approaching an exact match. Giraud acknowledged this influence explicitly, praiseing Doré's work and remarking how he sometimes used tracing paper to sketch compositions. While Giraud's non-comic book creations stand out, his science fiction and fantasy comics influence shine through. The illustrations, which are full of vibrant shades and space-age headresses, are very realistic in the Mbius style.

For the Belgian newspaper Le Soir's Thursday 6 March 2008 issue, an out-of-the-ordinary latter-day contribution as such, his illustrations were called "Mobius." His illustrations supplemented news articles throughout the paper, giving a Mbiusienne perspective on events. The newspaper, "Le Soir par (by) Mbius," featured two half-page editorials on the artist in honor of the occasion (pp. (20 & 37).

Giraud, Gir, and Mbius were among the early ones to write many comics for other comic artists, including Jacques Tardi and Claude Auclair. In addition to writing for other comic artists, he also wrote story outlines for Les Maîtres du temps, Internal Transfer, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland and Thru the Moebius Strip, which was discussed further down the line.

Giraud has written philosophical poetry that accompanied his art in his Mbius artbooks of the 1980s and 1990s, apart from his own bande dessinée scripts. He also edited "Story Notes" for the American Epic publications, providing background information on his work contained therein. In 1998, he took time to write Moebius-Giraud: Histoire de mon double.

Jean-Claude Mézières, Giraud's uncle, confessed in the 1970s that they were the first outings of a 1957 animated Western, with his newfound fame as a result of his visit to Mexico, but first we embarked on a much more ambitious endeavour: a cartoon western for which Giraud drew the sets and the main characters. We had to stop after just 45 seconds, which was sad." Any further film aspirations Giraud, who himself called the effort "too labourious," may have been tempted to participate in this preliminary version of Frank Herbert's Dune's 1974 invitation to work on his proposed adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, which was unfortunately postponed in pre-production. Dune, a 2013 American-French documentary directed by Frank Pavich, delves into Jodorowsky's flopful attempt. Giraud, a non-English speaker at the time, later admitted that the prospect of heading over to Los Angeles filled him with trepidation, prompting him to procrastinate. Philippe Druillet (with whom he would co-found Les Humanodes Associés later this year) was the one who pushed him to retire and go, as he did by going AWOL from his Pilote job. When Giraud discovered that he reveled in his first Hollywood experience, he was grateful for Druillet's pushing him. Giraud's participation was not required in the end, but it did mean he returned to France on several occasions to resume his other projects, including his stint on Blueberry's "Angel Face," which he eventually completed in a record time.

Despite Jodowowsky's project's cancellation, it had piqued the attention of other film makers. Ridley Scott, one of Jodorowsky's original creative team, including Giraud, was able to reassemble a substantial portion of Jodorowsky's original creative team, including Giraud, for his 1979 science fiction thriller Alien. Giraud, who was hired as a concept artist, was only on the film for a few days because he had commitments elsewhere. Despite this, his designs for the Nostromo crew clothing, as well as their spacesuits, were almost one-on-one adopted by Scott and made on screen as planned, resulting in "two weeks of work and ten years of fallout in media and advertising." Scott did not explicitly mention "M" for his role in the Alien Quadrilogy home media collection's special features. Scott was taken with Giraud's art, having cited "The Long Tomorrow" as an influence on his second major movie Blade Runner of 1982 (see below), and he was invited back for both this and his subsequent third major film Legend of 1985, which Giraud had to abandon in both cases due to, again, obligations elsewhere. He particularly regrets not being able to work on the latest film, saying it was "great" and that he was still on his mind as late as 2010, when he made his "unicorn" remark on his legacy.

The animated film Heavy Metal, directed by Ivan Reitman, was released in 1981. Giraud did have characters and situations for the segment, despite being uncredited, in the film's heavily "Arzach"-inspired last, "Taarna" section. Giraud, on the other hand, had already dismissed this particular myth on an early stage, "I had absolutely nothing to do with it" and that, although the artist's book was released in 1982, "I had no intention to use the artist's words from the eponymous magazine because the latter had financial difficulties in Laloux, which Giraud was heavily involved." The American producers went forward, despite the deals that were signed between them and Métal hurlant. Giraud was amused when third parties threatened to sue the Americans on his behalf, although he was not entirely happy with the fact. Giraud, on the contrary, managed to persuade Jean-Pierre Dionnet (one of his co-founding relatives of Métal hurlant) to ignore the matter as "all the fuss with lawyers" was not worth his time, aside from the fact that the French magazine was running advertisements for the American movie.

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