Moebius Arzach PB

by Randy Lofficier, Mœbius (Illustrator), Randy Lofficier (Draft Writer)

Presents a bold new fantasy novel featuring Moebius's popular cult hero, Arzach, first introduced in the pages of Heavy Metal, who races against time to stop the evil schemes of Sarukin the Damned before it is too late. Reprint.

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Fiction, Bande Dessinée, Graphic Novels

291 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

About the author

She has co-authored a dozen books about movies and television, several novels, as well as numerous comics and translations, including the Moebius graphic novels. She has also contributed scripts to animated series such as The Real Ghostbusters and Duck Tales, among others. In 1990, in recognition of their distinguished career as comic book writers, translators and editors, Randy and Jean-Marc were presented with the Inkpot Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comic Arts.

Reviews

[Forrest · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very, very disappointed with this. I am a big fan of Moebius and have been since the early '80s heyday of Heavy Metal Magazine. Lofficier's story is tried and trite, banal. Some art is better left un-worded, if I can invent a word (or is that an "unword")? The prose in this book is as bad as Moebius' art is good, which is saying something. I found the storytelling formulaic and just plain unoriginal. Anyone capable of putting one word in front of another could have written this overwrought, yet flat story (stories, really, to be fair). Only Moebius amazing art lifts this from one to two stars. Even then, don't bother. The black-and-white illustrations in this volume are available elsewhere in vivid color. I see that this book is rather expensive on the used book market. Better to save it up and buy a full fledged Moebius graphic novel than this one-picture-per-chapter cheapening of his amazing art.

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This lost classic of graphic style cover with weird story in fantasy style book with twist

[Kasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jean Giraud, known as Moebius is one of the foremost expert talents when it comes to the comic medium, born in France and trained at an art institute but well known all over the globe. Perhaps best known for illustrating an Old West comic, Blueberry, he was also drawing and designing costumes and sets to such movies as Alien, Tron, Willow, The Fifth Element and The Abyss. His imaginary worlds and characters are lush and rich, making my brain and eyes fill with glee, and honestly making me want to get up and draw myself. Arzach is not a comic book, but an actual novel, tangling the real world with Moebius's imaginary land of Morning of Time, where the main hero is Arzach himself, a silent and wise warrior flying on a pteron (a pterodactyl like creature) though golden sun rays, rich blue skies over lush green grasses swaying under the creatures wings, which pull any living pray into its green tentacles and devour it. Nothings is as it seems on the strange world filled with deserts and pyramids, forests and dark crystal towers. There are however portals on this land that can transport any creatures to our modern civilization, as something forlorn is brewing in the Morning of Time land and It wants to get out to our side.

Our hero is on a mission, as the book starts of a little complicated, due to strange names, but it slowly melts all the stories and characters as there are many, to form what looks like bedtime stories with a twist into a full fledged battle between good and some really nasty rotten evil. Arzach the silent warrior tires to save his land from Sarakin, a blood hungry evil creature beyond damnation who is literally killing everyone in sight and who is extremely darkly written in this beautiful book. The story flows from the beginning, of how the land rose form the boiling sea, as creature good and free got pushed over by malevolent spirits who rule the underworld, which seems to roam free as it pleased, attacking innocents with huge eight legged monkeys, flying salamanders, evil wizards, soldiers and gnomes and carnivorous creatures who each other. This is the land of Kinds and evil barons, red eyes hounds with yellow teeth who hunt the forests at night and spirits who live in the tar and who will cast away any sanity its prey possesses. Pretty much anything imaginable is reality there as Arzach somehow has a crash of cultures when an artist from Los Angeles gets through to his side, and who against all odds tries to fight the battle with him against Sarakin who is the master of conniving and lying, spying and above all focused on destroying Arzach and all the humans.

I had a great time reading into Moebius's world of power struggles and relationships between the good creatures and the magical animals, as some of the pteron flights and fighting sequences were movie like in front of my eyes. I felt as if I was there, flying with Arzach wielding a glimmering sword, conquering the dark plague.

Moebius is a great artist, from drawing serene images to lush and violent and sometimes sexually charged topics as his imagination ends where the sun finally sets. The sun will never set anywhere of course, as he will never stop being one of the most influential and amazing artists of our time. This books plunges into his story and makes me crave more. I hope to read continued stories of Arzach, with his tall hat and fuzzy pom poms, slicing through air on his mighty bird.

[Insert name here · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started out well enough. The first few chapters read like fairy tales, with little characterization and plots that resolved more like fairy tales than short story / novel plots, but they were odd and distinctive. However, that's not sustainable for an entire book, and it never quite picked up. Some of the particular chapters were wonderfully strange, but that's the only reason this merits even two stars. There is no characterization at all, the plot is hackneyed and hokey, and worst of all, halfway through it transitions to a modern family living in L.A. consisting of a couple and their tween daughter. Their interactions are among the most facile and cliched I've read. The daughter pouts over not getting a new pair of shoes, which she wants because her friends all have new shoes--and it just gets worse. If you read this at all, stop the moment the story switches to L.A. in the present day. The resolution is pretty bad, too, a reincarnated "chosen one" with powers that are miraculously activated at exactly the right moment . Bah, they should have left Moebius' work as just illustrations.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, I enjoyed the first half but the second fell apart a little for me.

[João Moura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Livro de ficção/fantasia futurista de poucas palavras, apenas baseado no grande poder das imagens de Moebius. Sem grande história, uma parte do livro boa, outra sem sentido...

[Luka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird, psychedelic, fascinating & uneasy