European Comics and Moebius

From the selection of European comics, I decided to read the collection of work by Moebius for Heavy Metal. I took the Graphic Novel class with George Pratt two year ago, and as such I was exposed to a lot of different comic artists particularly through reading the Heavy Metal issues he had. I remember coming across Moebius time and time again and it really sticking out in my mind. In fact, reading through most the comics that Pratt would bring in, I found my tastes both drawing-wise and story-wise leaning much more towards the European artists than the american ones. Though there were some fantastic stories told by some of the american authors, it was very hard to come across stories that held up to the passage of time in terms of relevance and honesty. While there were many comics that dealt with the cruelty of war, such as Alex Toth's "White Devil Yellow Devil", which was cited by Pratt as one of his main inspirations, they were few and far between. The glorification of battle and death through an overly sentimental drawing style and hyperbolic storytelling devices were always far more prevalent in the (older) american comics with a few exceptions. The european comics struck me with how much more subtle they were in their pacing, how much less rigid they stuck to panel layout conventions, and how wide a range of subject matters they covered. What especially was interesting to me was that most of the european comics I read that felt almost contemporary in their styles, were created at the same time as the "classics" of american comics by Joe Kubert, and his contemporaries.

I think for me, as for most artists viewing his work for the first time, Moebius' drawing style immediately grabbed my attention. His use of line seemed something more akin to that of a japanese woodblock than a comic book, and his incredible use of color and lighting have always separated him as unique and one of the most talented individuals in the comic industry. With his recent death bringing his work to the public foreground again, I realized I had not read through many of his works, despite heavily admiring his talent and work for other mediums such as the concept work he did for the Panzer Dragoon video game series. Reading through the short stories he produced for Heavy Metal, I realized what a gifted storyteller he was in addition to his god-like drawing ability. The subject matters he dealt with were definitely things I had not seen in comics of the same era and most certainly fell in line with the exposure to European comics I had.

However, what surprised me was his inventive designs for his characters, environments, and the creatures inhabiting it. It really does seem unavoidable how much he influenced much of what has been used in video games, both American and Japanese. His characters all have incredibly ornate and organic costuming, the content of which is entirely relevant to the type of story he is telling. I think that was the most impressive part for me, was that he relied on almost no previous archetypes of characters or time periods or places or anything in designing the look of his stories; it was wholly unique to his vision of the world he was creating. The story that stood out to me the most was Ballade, with its incredible setting that the characters existed in and the unlikely conclusion that they met. Most of the story was told nearly wordlessly, which seems to be something Moebius always trys to achieve, and he completely communicates the atmosphere of the setting through the environment and seamless transitions in the paneling. Particular to this comic, the set up for the story puts you in this lush thick environment where the character is trying to survive the trials of the surroundings, and he is accompanied by a native of the forest. What completely took me off guard was the ending, in which they are confronted with the coming forces of a human army and completely do not understand what they are or what they're about to do. They are then shot down, and completely left and ignored as the army passes. It was amazing that a story so short, and with seemingly nothing to do with reality or the nature of reality, can say more about the condition of war than any of the war comics I've ever read. It manages to communicate the complete lack of attempt at understanding the culture they are inhabiting the space of during a time of conflict.

While I regret not being exposed Moebius' work earlier, I'm glad I have a chance to explore it now as I can appreciate it much more than I would have been able to several years ago.