Week Nine: Moebius, Stories From Heavy Metal

Moebius is one of my favorite illustrators hands down. I was initially taken by the style of his artwork; I love that so often he depends largely on careful line work to create forms and textures, and in contrast allows his coloring to be relatively simple. This sampling of stories also helped to emphasize how broad his storytelling abilities were, in the sense that they were not limited to a single genre or kind of story. His stories from Heavy Metal include a number of sci-fi pieces (always a favorite genre of mine), historic pieces, and more contemporary pieces like 'Hitman Episode No. 1: The Thousandth Contract.' I love that the artist is able to retain that certain familiarity and nuance of his style while simultaneously being able to change it up; in some pieces the black line work is more thick than in others, working more so as shadow shapes that define form than line. Other times he uses line work that doesn't really vary in line weight, even refraining from using color. I love these approaches to illustration personally because I've always been more interested in line work and inking than relying on color to define forms. I also can't help but admire how the style of each given work fits appropriately with the subject matter of the given story. 'Ballade', for example, is intensely colorful, which feels entirely appropriate given the subject matter-- the story largely takes place in a lush, exotic forest. 'Split the Little Space Pioneer', in contrast, was done completely in black and white, which made sense given that the story took place solely in a spaceship-- a far more mechanical, limited environment.

I'm also interested in talking about the influence Moebius had on the Star Wars franchise. I think the similarities are pretty plain to see; just the intense world-building quality in so much of the work evokes Star Wars-esque imagery. It's difficult to look at much of the sci-fi work Moebius did and not draw parallels between the machinery, characters, set design, and character design we see in the Star Wars films. Commonly we see desert landscapes in Moebius' work, for example, which I can't help but see much of Tatooine in. Even the way the colors are handled often bring to mind palettes found in the Star Wars films. George Lucas has been quoted saying, "Moebius is a master draftsman, a superb artist, and more-- his vision is original and strong."