Moebius Time.
Last year I participated in an online art project called Moebius Time, created by Bryce Martin. The idea was to combine elements from the cartoon series Adventure Time with the famed French comic artist Jean Giraud, aka Moebius.
I contributed a drawing called Finn Est-Il Bon? based on my favourite Moebius drawing, a cover illustration of his short story L’Homme Est-Il Bon? (I even traced his original hand lettered title and rearranged and changed the letters to make the Finn part.)
I first saw this cover on an 1980s English edition of his work called Moebius 4: The Long Tomorrow, reprinted by Epic/Marvel Comics, and it had an absolutely profound effect on me.
This particular cover got me hooked on Moebius in the early 2000s. I had only been vaguely familiar with his work prior to that, most notably his famous Arzach story. Around that time I was reading a lot of European science fiction comics, and I got addicted to Moebius’ unparalleled work.
I take a lot of inspiration from different artists, most notably Carlos Ezquerra (Judge Dredd), Carl Barks (Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge) and Herge (Tintin), but my main and most apparent influence is Moebius.
Now I’m certainly not claiming I draw anywhere near as well as Moebius, but what I am saying is that he’s the one I steal from the most. Not stealing as in copying or tracing, but more like subscribing to his artistic school of thought.
I have a stack of books by my drawing table to see how artists like Moebius draw things that I simply don’t know how to draw. Sure, drawing a building sounds easy, but what about putting in all the details for a futuristic building? Or how about just drawing fire with smoke so it doesn’t look like an eight year old drew it? Not so easy I tell you.
Drawing influence and studying a master like him has taught me a lot, and while that only goes so far, right now I just want to draw in that style. I believe that Moebius has a become a genre, and it is the genre I want to work in because it appeals to me the most.
-Love Nick.
