Moebius 7

Moebius 7 (1990)
Graphitti Designs

22 x 28.5cm, 219 pages

Moebius 7 is the seventh volume of a limited edition of 1500, signed & numbered hardback collection of beautiful, bound, books published by Graphitti Designs that collects and reprints the acclaimed trade paperbacks that were originally published by Marvel/Epic Comics, Graphitti Designs and Dark Horse. Graphitti Designs’ Moebius 4, 5, 6, 8 & 9 books contain the Western comics of Blueberry that were drawn under Jean Giraud’s other alias “GIR” and not by Moebius so therefore are omitted from inclusion.

The book jacket of Moebius 7 features an image of spacefaring repairmen Atan and Stel (the central characters of Moebius’ galactic saga The World of Edena). Once the book jacket is taken off, it reveals underneath a sharp black faux leather hardcover with embossed gold foil stamped “Moebius 7” signature styled title and in the bottom-right hand a unique Starwatcher hand drawn styled circular icon.

Moebius 7, jacket
Moebius 7, book
Moebius 7, signed & numbered page

This volume collects Marvel/Epic Comics’ Moebius 7: The Goddess, Graphitti Designs’ Moebius ½: The Early Moebius & Other Humorous Stories and Dark Horse’s Moebius 0: The Horny Goof & Other Underground Stories paperbacks which contains the following Moebius works:

The Goddess,
Black Thursday,
Jeopardized!,
The Danger of Having a Speck In Your Eye,
Happy Holidays!,
The Computer,
There Were Some Scrumbles in the Big Crate,
2R/R2+R1,
Season’s Greetings…,
Fin (The End),
Good News,
Thief!,
We Should Be More Careful About The Neighbors!…,
The Grand Hotel B,
The Mysteries of the Erotic Arts,
Moebius Circa ‘74,
Carnet 3,
In the Heart of the Impregnable Meta-Bunker,
The Gold Digger,
The Horny Goof,
Deima,
You’re The Object Of This And That,
Harzack,
The Invaders.

Moebius 7, The Goddess
Moebius 7, Black Thursday
Moebius 7, Jeopardized!
Moebius 7, The Grand Hotel B
Moebius 7, Moebius Circa ‘74
Moebius 7, Carnet 3
Moebius 7, The Horny Goof

Both the Marvel/Epic Comics paperbacks and the Graphitti Designs hardback books are sadly now long out of print, rare editions that are much sought after today. Amazingly, Graphitti Designs still has copies in stock of Moebius 4-9 (at the time of writing) and is available online through their website here.

Le Bandard Fou

Le Bandard Fou (1974) / The Horny Goof (1990)
Les Éditions du Fromage/Les Humanoïdes Associés
24 x 31.8cm, 48 pages

Emboldened by the creative direction of La Déviation drawn a year earlier, Jean Giraud then embarked on making a longer story in that style that would also be the first official “Moebius” full length comic book.

Le Bandard Fou begins with the titular horny character waking up with a sizeable morning erection only to soon discover of his male member’s refusal to subside and thus hilarity ensues as we follow the protagonist’s various misadventures to avoid being captured by the ruthless Syldanian authorities who have outlawed any erections out of the breeding season.

The format of Le Bandard Fou is split into 2 separate sections:
On the pages on the left side of the book there is a series of surreal full page drawings and on the right is the main story of Le Bandard Fou. The drawings on the left show a seated figure looking out at the audience who suddenly and without reason becomes engulfed by some unknown liquid that grows and quickly overwhelms the figure completely but with a surprise twist at the end. The drawings serve as a sort of flip book animation but in an unusual portrait format for the reader to explore.

Moebius lays down line after copious line across each page that flow freely and coupled with generously detailed hatching/crosshatching & stippling, create a vast, expansive world for the reader to get lost in. This Moebius story has a clearly more adult tone to it reminiscent of the underground comix of American artist R. Crumb, mixed with science fiction elements and unique witty humour. Le Bandard Fou would also go on to establish the comic book universe that would be visited again in Moebius’ later work Le Garage hermétique (The Airtight Garage).

First published by Les Éditions du Fromage in September 1974 (a French comic book publisher set up by former Pilote artists Claire Bretécher, Marcel Gotlib and Nikita Mandryka) and as the exodus of artists from Pilote continued, published again a few months later in December 1974 under Les Humanoïdes Associés (newly founded by Moebius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas) and the future home of Métal hurlant.

Les Éditions du Fromage & Les Humanoïdes Associés

The Horny Goof