Famed French comic artist Jean Giraud passed away on Saturday morning in Paris, France. Most of the world knows him as his alias Mœbius. He died at the age of 73 after battling cancer. He had a great and influential career spanning more than fifty years.

Usually annoyed, quasi-resentful and weary when people narcissistically find a way to interject themselves into the passing of an icon, I feel as if I must risk the danger of dabbling in hypocrisy to properly express the sentiment that Mœbius had a substantial and indelible influence on me. Personally, he left a permanent mark on me, the avid comic book collector that I was when I was a kid in the 1980s. His posters adorned my bedroom walls, his pin-ups plastered my doors and bulletin boards. As an artist and designer, as I am today, I strive and dream to be just as unique.

Mœbius was truly one-of-a-kind, his work wonderfully straddled fantasy, science fiction and superhero mythology. The work was literally plucked from out of this world. He had no rival when it came to his originality and verve as an illustrator and painter. He brought fantasy, sci-fi and comic book art into the realm of high art. He single-handedly elevated the entire comic genre.

He also worked on design concepts and storyboards for a number of top science fiction films, including Alien, Tron, The Abyss and The Fifth Element.

Mœbius had just recently, as of last year in March, had a wildly successful retrospective of his work in his home-city of Paris; the art was featured at the Foundation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. Designboom covered the event which was titled, Mœbius: Transe-Forme.

The comic and art world has lost an amazing artist, a legend and a master.

Dans la graine, la vie est cachée dans la mort; dans le fruit, la mort est cachée dans la vie.
(In seeds, life is hidden in death; in fruit, death is hidden in life.)
–Louis Claude de Saint-Martin

Les chefs-d’oeuvre ne sont jamais que des tentatives heureuses.
(Masterpieces are never anything but happy attempts.)
–George Sand

L’art est le lieu de la liberté parfaite.
(Art is the place of perfect freedom.)
–André Suarès

–@teemunny

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