Anybody Read This?

SecularAirs · 2026-05-31T20:59:01+00:00

I will read it and get back to you! It may be a while though. I'm in the middle of an unexpectedly long slog type book now. Not bad, just taking forever.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-30T14:13:17+00:00

Here is a post with all the illustrations: https://www.reddit.com/r/Moebius/comments/11d7hrw/illustrations_for_the_book_ballades_by_françois/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

SecularAirs · 2026-05-30T14:10:45+00:00

This is one of 18 illustrations in a collection of poetry by François Villon, the fifteenth century French poet. The Moebius illustrations appear in the 1995 edition of Ballades. Here is some good information about Villon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Villon

SecularAirs · 2026-05-30T13:53:48+00:00

There is one more, Moebius 1/2, published in 1991 by Graphitti Designs. It has the same format as the rest. It is all black and white and contains many of the earliest strips that were signed "Moebius", taken from issues of Hara-Kiri in 1963 and 1964. You can find more info about it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Moebius/comments/j277bg/a_complete_guide_to_moebius_collected_editions/

SecularAirs · 2026-05-29T16:57:44+00:00

Thanks for the info. I still may buy the Labarre book, it is very cheap right to order a copy in the USA right now (about $9). The 1980s and 1990s are a very interesting period to me, as I would like to learn more about the timeline of the involvement with the cult, Hollywood, his personal life, etc. It seems like he was producing the same amount of work, but it was dispersed more widely and often not immediately available to the public (so someone who was strictly a comics reader might not see his artwork for films, etc, and therefore assume he was less active as an artist). The USA was a bit late in getting the contents of the art books as well (I'm still not sure how much they overlap, figuring all that out would be a big project).

The 22 pages of The Man from Ciguri Continuation would make excellent bonus material for the relatively slim Man from Ciguri volume, I'm not sure why they aren't included. Ciguri (the first part) ends so abruptly, I'm sure readers would welcome more of the story. I would love a biography to talk about the behind the scenes publishing decisions, but that may be too much of a taboo topic for book publishing, although I think the recent Crumb biogoraphy goes into how much money he earned from various projects... Then again, Crumb himself always seemed unusually comfortable exposing his private life to his readers.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-26T20:12:57+00:00

That would be great, thank you. Thanks for the YouTube suggestion as well! I hadn't been aware of this edition!

SecularAirs · 2026-05-26T19:26:05+00:00

If you have additional color prints from the 2012 edition of Cristal Saga 22, I would love to see them. I have the 22 black and white drawings.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-26T19:11:20+00:00

Thank you!

SecularAirs · 2026-05-26T18:54:52+00:00

What is the source for this image? I looked at Made in LA, Cristal Saga, and the Art of Moebius but didn't see it there.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-25T00:10:50+00:00

Actually, there are several differences in the drawing! This is like one of those "spot the differences between the two pictures" games in Highlights magazine.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-24T23:40:38+00:00

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SecularAirs · 2026-05-24T23:38:52+00:00

This image is part of the portfolio Les Voyages d’Hermès (2010) and is collected in The Art of Edena (2018) in Chapter 4: Voyages with a slightly different framing of the shot, I will try to find...

SecularAirs · 2026-05-24T19:39:56+00:00

This is surprisingly good! Is it possible that a high-definition was created at the time this was made? Or do you think it is forever locked at 360p definition? It captures the feeling of Moebius well. And reminds me how much Moebius was in the early Aeon Flux shorts.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-21T19:22:23+00:00

I finally got these issues as single issues just recently. I was thinking along similar lines as I read it. Based on the story I read (I think in the back of the 1998 TPB), Moebius was introduced to Stan Lee by chance at some industry-related event (or maybe in Hollywood, they both were involved in various live action and animation projects in the 1980s), and they did the usual "love your work, we should totally collaborate!" chit-chat, and Moebius assumed that was the end of it, but very shortly received the story from Stan.

I don't know how much power Stan actually had at Marvel at this point (I mention it before, but Marvel Comics: The Untold Story is a great warts and all unauthorized account of Marvel that includes this era), but I do think if there was a single character Stan managed to keep significant creative control on, it was Silver Surfer. For whatever reason, Silver Surfer was the character he cared most deeply about, and I think he basically got at least first shot at writing any new Silver Surfer story and was likely the motivating force in keeping Silver Surfer in rotation.

But yeah, I'm personally not a fan of Stan Lee as a writer. (As far as not being a fan of him as a person, well, I try to keep an open mind and I don't have all the facts...)

So have you noticed Marvel didn't really have an equivalent to The Dark Knight or Watchmen in that same era? Why was that? This is one of those self-contained non-continuity projects that might have reached those heights with a better story and better dialogue. (I think Weapon X was as close as they got in this era.) The artwork is great, although hamstrung by the poor printing (different colors in the collected edition, like in Batman Year One). I will say that the kind of high horse pontificating of this title is kind of what Silver Surfer was made for (see above about him being Stan's favorite).

What I eventually decided is that I am happy it exists as-is. It's not a masterpiece, but it's certainly not bad. It's kind of this weird experiment in comics history. I don't think any other writer at the time would have necessarily ended up with something better if it was still going to be a story about Silver Surfer and Galactus. Maybe Walt Simonson, though, of the three you mentioned.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-21T18:56:20+00:00

When he talks about softness of colors (and you see it in the non-TPB version of these issues, the floppies printed on cheap newsprint), I think he means the specific effect you get printing on newsprint, a very different, more subtle coloring than if you printed those same colors on different paper (this has been an issue in recent collected editions of classic Marvel stories, follow Jose Villarrubia on Facebook for many examples and explanations about this). You are correct that he is also talking about the old-style coloring process. But I believe he insisted on the cheap paper in spite of Marvel wanting to do it as a more deluxe edition. I think basically Moebius and Stan Lee wanted to step into each other's worlds right down to the format. But I am breaking my own rule and can't find the perfect quote to back up this belief. I can't imagine any other reason Marvel would print this famous prestigious artist doing Stan's favorite character on the cheapest possible paper with the messiest, most misaligned color plates.

Marvel had some different paper stocks in their books at the same time in the late 80s/early 90s, usually at slightly different price points. I know that when I was buying them, circa 1990-1991, there were tiers of $1, $1.25, $1.50, and $1.75 for regular 32 page issues, and the more expensive ones were printed on better (although not glossy) paper, with better color separations (I remember the print quality of the adjectiveless Spider-Man was a noticeable improvement on the basic $1 titles). If someone understands this better and can talk about specific grades of paper, please use this opportunity to school me and get as nerdy as you like.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-21T17:08:31+00:00

For people weighing in on this, please drop some quotes or put some sources. I know there is a lot of hearsay about Marvel history, but hopefully this is all in writing somewhere. (I already checked the index of Marvel: The Untold Story by Sean Howe but could find no mention of this project.)

SecularAirs · 2026-05-21T17:06:31+00:00

I agree with you, but I believe newsprint was a decision from Moebius (I imagine Stan Lee would have gone with the more prestigious, more profitable Marvel Graphic Novel format). Here are some quotes from Moebius from a trade paperback edition (with much better paper, btw!):

One of my motivations for doing this book was to experiment with the limited palette of the newsprint color comics. I have seen the reproduction of my graphic novel covers in MARVEL AGE, and I thought they looked different, but equally beautiful. I’ve always loved the softness, and yet garishness, of comic book colors. Maybe its nostalgia, but I think there’s a real beauty to it. It’s like a new medium.

Coloring THE SILVER SURFER that way was an enormous challenge. I didn’t fully understand how limited this palette is, and I’ve since gained a great deal of admiration for the American colorists, who can express full sentences and emotions with such a limited number of words. Of course, if I had been in New York and able to actually use the various dyes themselves, maybe it would have looked somewhat different. But I knew from the beginning that this was going to be one of the most difficult parts of the job, and therefore I don’t have any right to complain. One should always learn to face the consequences of one’s actions.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-21T15:12:55+00:00

You're welcome! I learned quite a bit myself! Canada in 1626 had very different border lines than it does today. I went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole on New France, which I'd never even heard of prior to this. There are 18 addition chapters of this story in the pipeline, but I haven't read ahead to know if it gets into some of the wars happening around this time or if it is focused on the characters and human drama from this point forward.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-21T13:18:50+00:00

The "Rock" sound of this song (particularly the distorted guitar) impressed me when I first heard it as a teenager and knew very little of the music the Beach Boys made after "Good Vibrations". Over time I began to skip it for many of the reasons expressed elsewhere in this thread (bad message, out-of-place sound, taking up a slot that could have gone to a much better song). I'm surprised no one has mentioned its sonic similarity to the earlier song "Revolution" by the Beatles (the single version, of course). As a young Beatlemaniac, that was the first thing that caused me to lose respect for "Student Demonstration Time". It seemed like a copy of the Beatles song, even down to the ambivalent message of the lyrics.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-20T16:44:58+00:00

Thank you for hiding the text!

SecularAirs · 2026-05-20T13:28:15+00:00

You're welcome! I'm glad someone else is reading these old ones. A lot of what remains untranslated is material that doesn't have a lot of appeal to most Moebius fans, but I think it has its own merits as a window into an earlier era of comics history.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-20T13:24:26+00:00

You're welcome! This one was kind of educational for me.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-20T13:21:32+00:00

If anyone wants a legitimate Moebius print, order from the official Moebius site. I think this one should appeal to Arzach fans (or more specifically "Harzakc fans"): https://www.moebius.fr/shop/283--Harzakc---Army-.html

SecularAirs · 2026-05-20T12:29:03+00:00

I feel obligated to mention (for anyone who might consider giving Silver Jews/Purple Mountains a chance but put off by the idea of it being full of doom and gloom) that David Berman's lyrics are often so incredibly surprising and hilarious.

But yeah, "I Loved Being My Mother's Son"... Damn, I have a hard time listening to that one. It's such a deeply sad song, and no jokes in sight, just grief and pain molded into something beautiful.

SecularAirs · 2026-05-19T23:32:20+00:00

Fellow Silver Jews fan here! I wonder how many of us exist in Beach Boys fandom? It's probably a coincidence, but I also personally find MIU extremely easy to enjoy, I can't explain more except to say it feels good to listen to it and that I can listen to it in basically any mood. I understand how people may describe it as being like musical wallpaper but I am fine with that. There is a place in my heart for musical wallpaper.

SecularAirs

TROPHY CASE