When I started getting interested in art I was primarily concerned with the idea of telling stories with highly impactful images – in essence the reason I initially got started making images was because I wanted to make comic books. Two artists were the most responsible for my initial desire to draw; Jack Kirby and Jean Giraud, whom I only knew at the time as “Moebius”.
While Jack Kirby’s drawing and ideas are the archetype of the silver age of American comics, Moebius introduced me to a very different approach to comic images. Kirby’s work – aggressive and dynamic, filled with motion and energy became the perfect foil for me when I first encountered Moebius work. His lines were spare and sinewy, perfectly drawn – seemingly without effort. The approach was cool and controlled. The images were spare and at the same time could probably not hold another element in the frame if they even needed to. In essence they were perfect. This initial introduction to his work was through his epic storyline The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius.
I was too young to know it, but at the time what I was reacting to was that these images were to me outside of the realm of comics, but at the same time firmly inside it (if not at the top of it). It was these pointers to the outside that kept me going back to Moebius. It was an everything quality – high tech gondolas to low tech monuments – a combination of the past working in harmony with the future. In the age where the movie “Blade Runner” showed a dystopian view of the past and the future, this showed us the opposite.
Later I would learn more about Moebius, (his westerns and other stories) but at that point it was almost too late. I was hooked.
