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Moebius
166 pages, Paperback
Published January 17, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 21, 2025
Nicolas Labarre's volume on the life and career of Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) is a valuable contribution to understanding the legacy of the late French creator, especially given that related critical material has only been translated into English in a fairly scattershot manner.
Despite the title, this volume is comprehensive in terms of discussing all of Giraud's work, and not just that portion of his work attributed to the Moebius pseudonym. Much of the non-Moebius content has never been published in English-language markets, so a lot of this information was new to me, even though I've been actively following Giraud's work for decades. So I really appreciate the broad scope of Labarre's scholarship.
The author's closing discussion focuses on the question of whether Giraud was a genius or a master craftsman. I'm not sure the distinction is critical, but it's an interesting discussion given that Giraud was labeled as a genius very early in his career, and his embrace of the term allowed the development of a self-reinforcing feedback loop that remains alive today.
My primary disappointment with this book is the very many typos, not to mention the extensive bad grammar. This doesn't greatly detract from understanding the author's statements, but it does make for an unnecessarily complicated reading experience. It's surprising that a book from an academic press was not copyedited!
On the other hand, the short length of this book is perfect: the main text is less than 150 pages. So even though this slim volume originated from a university press, it keeps the academic jargon to a minimum, and avoids an unnecessary level of depth that could have made for a painful read. if you're looking for a brief overview of Jean Giraud's career with a dash of insightful analysis of the same, Nicolas Labarre's Moebius will do the job perfectly.
Despite the title, this volume is comprehensive in terms of discussing all of Giraud's work, and not just that portion of his work attributed to the Moebius pseudonym. Much of the non-Moebius content has never been published in English-language markets, so a lot of this information was new to me, even though I've been actively following Giraud's work for decades. So I really appreciate the broad scope of Labarre's scholarship.
The author's closing discussion focuses on the question of whether Giraud was a genius or a master craftsman. I'm not sure the distinction is critical, but it's an interesting discussion given that Giraud was labeled as a genius very early in his career, and his embrace of the term allowed the development of a self-reinforcing feedback loop that remains alive today.
My primary disappointment with this book is the very many typos, not to mention the extensive bad grammar. This doesn't greatly detract from understanding the author's statements, but it does make for an unnecessarily complicated reading experience. It's surprising that a book from an academic press was not copyedited!
On the other hand, the short length of this book is perfect: the main text is less than 150 pages. So even though this slim volume originated from a university press, it keeps the academic jargon to a minimum, and avoids an unnecessary level of depth that could have made for a painful read. if you're looking for a brief overview of Jean Giraud's career with a dash of insightful analysis of the same, Nicolas Labarre's Moebius will do the job perfectly.
August 24, 2025
I'm a huge fan of Jean "Moebius" Giraud and I really enjoyed this. The author, Nicolas Labarre, is a comics scholar and focuses more on Giraud the cartoonist, giving the reader a scholarly yet accessible analysis of the French virtuoso's work, as well as the impact Giraud had on comics and popular culture in general, all of which is intertwined with a brief biography of Giraud the man. It isn't all fan boy fawning either as Labarre is on point with his criticisms and presents Giraud as a supremely talented yet flawed master of his art. Loses a star because the editing is a bit wonky and there is no mention of Giraud’s mentorship of the incomparable Geof Darrow.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews