Moebius Library: The Major

A psychedelic, sequential romp created by legendary comics master Moebius between 1997 and 2009, following a production principle that embraced graphic spontaneity and improvisation.

The lead character of this pseudo-story, Major Grubert, evolves in a humorous yet philosophical manner, echoing how Moebius’s creations are treated in the Inside Moebius series. Join the Major on his last trip to the nebula of The Airtight Garage, where Moebius rules as the playful Trickster of legend. What begins as a comical jaunt into unusually profound philosophical questions regarding the nature of existence, eventually winds up as a penetrating examination of the relationship between the author and his creation, the latter of whom must necessarily suffer at the heartless whim of his creator, despite the Major’s passionate desire for real life--and even freedom--beyond these comics!

Translated by Diana Schutz, with lettering by Adam Pruett, Moebius’s playfully-drawn, main black and white story is augmented with nine color pages.

While French artist Jean ＂Moebius＂ Giraud was already a well-known comic artist with his hard-boiled western series Blueberry, he built an entire second career under the pen name Moebius beginning in 1963 with a series of short stories. In later years, Moebius would become world famous for his science-fiction, artistic, and erotic art. He is admired for his many collaborations with Alejandro Jodorowsky such as the wordless comics fantasy, Arzach.

In 1983 he co-founded the Aedena company and settled in Los Angeles. During his stay in the USA, he saw his most important works published by Marvel Comics. He also illustrated an episode of Silver Surfer by Stan Lee.

In addition to his large comics and illustration output, Moebius remained active in the film industry as well. In addition to providing preliminary designs for such films as Alien, Tron, The Abyss, Masters of the Universe, and The Fifth Element, Moebius provided concept art for El Topo director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s never-realized adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune.

Moebius passed away in Paris on March 10, 2012, at the age of 73.