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Simon

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Simon is Currently Reading

Simon is currently reading

The Collected Fantasies, Vol. 3: The Airtight Garage (The Collected Fantasies of Jean Giraud, #3)

by Mœbius

bookshelves: 1970s, antiheroes, fantasy, magical-realism, postmodernism, science-fiction, action-adventure, reviewed, new-wave-science-fiction, currently-reading

Reading for the 3rd time

read in June 2018

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Simon said: " "The Hermetic Garage" is the 2nd volume in the "Major Grubert" series, which is among Moebius' most famous output but also in my book one of the most inaccessible for a casual reader. One reason is that every volume of "Major Grubert" throws the read "The Hermetic Garage" is the 2nd volume in the "Major Grubert" series, which is among Moebius' most famous output but also in my book one of the most inaccessible for a casual reader. One reason is that every volume of "Major Grubert" throws the reader headfirst into a weird and complicated universe with minimal exposition, with this volume having a complex plot moving at a fast pace with new twists popping up every chapter. Then we have the fact that Moebius expects the audience to be familiar with an extensive list of literature that most readers under a certain age and outside certain countries are unlikely to even have heard of in the first place.

One example: Until when I re-read "The Airtight Garage" in 2018, I did not know that this story is technically part of the British fantasy author Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion cycle. This mythology follows the many different incarnations of a cosmic champion fighting for chaos and freedom against the forces of order and tyranny, through a multitude of parallel universes. One of the Eternal Champion's many incarnations appears as a main character here, Jerry Cornelius: A "No Celebrities Were Harmed" version of David Bowie who moonlights as a time-travelling secret agent. The forces of order are represented by Major Grubert, a mysterious figure introduced in the previous volume "The Horny Goof" who appears as a stereotypical 19th century colonialist complete with pith helmet.

What made "The Airtight Garage" click for me was realising how Moebius has basically written a Gnostic Christian allegory here: Grubert is depicted as a Demiurge figure, that is a malevolent creator of the physical world masquerading as the true god, whom a mystic with the initials "JC" is sent to expose as a deceiver. (it should be pointed out that the first Gnostics were Jewish not Christian and would hence not have any use for such an interpretation - something that often gets lost in translation by pop culture depictions of Gnosticism) The religious themes in "The Airtight Garage" are again full of references to media properties that were popular in the 1970's but have since been forgotten: Moebius uses the plot to illustrate the ideas of Carlos Castañeda, a Peruvian-American anthropologist of the era who claimed to have been initiated into the shamanic traditions of the Yaqui Indians but whose books were later revealed to be fiction. Anyway, the mysterious supernatural powers that Jerry Cornelius displays here, and the liberatory forces he channels, are exactly those (e. g. the Nagual) whom Castañeda claimed to have learned from the probably-fictional Yaqui sorcerer Don Juan Matus.

The blend of Castañeda-inspired mysticism with nuts-and-bolts space opera, as well as the Gnostic themes involving artificially constructed universes, nonetheless allows Moebius to pull out all stops when depicting strange and inventive settings that seamlessly blend elements from epic fantasy, "used future" science fiction, even superhero comics and spy thrillers. The landscapes and cities draw upon his experience from mainstream Western comics, but are a level more creative because he no longer has to stick to real-life societies and cultures. If you want to dig deeper, you will find quite a bit of anti-imperialist political subtext: Parts of the artificial planet Grubert rules over resembling a futuristic version of North Africa under French colonial rule, Grubert himself dressing like an old fashioned colonialist etc. This aspect becomes clearer if you notice the playful treatment of spy novel clichés that appear in the story, with quite a few scenes feeling straight out of what "The Secret Agent" would have been like had Joseph Conrad written it while high on mescaline.

The trippy art might be the main attraction for some readers of "The Airtight Garage". However if you are more familiar with all the literary, political and religious allusions that Moebius drew on while reading it, you might get even more out of the story. The result is one of those few creative works where I discover something new about them every time I read them. ...more "

progress:

(page 1 of 120)
"Giving this another reread, it's fascinating that I consider different things important about "The Airtight Garage" every time I read it - today the Gnostic Christian allegories and anti-colonialist political subtext aren't what I pay most attention to like they were last time I read it" — Aug 04, 2026 01:58AM

Aug 23, 2025 04:51AM · see review

Simon is currently reading

Last and First Men

by Olaf Stapledon

bookshelves: science-fiction, currently-reading, 1930s

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(page 201 of 314)
"the Martians who appear halfways through seem to have been the inspiration for the alien in the recent film "Nope", now that I think of it" — Aug 03, 2026 05:59AM

Jul 29, 2026 10:32AM

Simon is currently reading

Last and First Men

by Olaf Stapledon

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Jul 29, 2026 10:31AM

See all 9 books that Simon is reading…

Simon’s Quotes

“I will surpass myself in waves, ah, Lord, and may everything come and fall upon me, even the incomprehension of myself at certain white moments because all I have to do is comply with myself and then nothing will block my path until death-without-fear, from any struggle or rest I will rise up as strong and beautiful as a young horse.”
― Clarice Lispector, Near to the Wild Heart

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“We all see only that which we are trained to see.”
― Robert Anton Wilson, Masks of the Illuminati

tags: bias, perception

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“Reality's all you've got. But here's the real secret, the real miracle: it's enough.”
― Brad Warner, Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth about Reality

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“Stories are like snapshots, pictures snatched out of time, with clean hard edges. But this was life, and life always begins and ends in a bloody muddle, womb to tomb, just one big mess, a can of worms left to rot in the sun.”
― James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss

tags: life, storytelling

22 likes