Moebius and the Silver Surfer

[causticlad]

In American comics you've got your Jack Kirby and you've got your Steve Ditko. The number of artists who aren't influenced by them is infinitesimally small. But there has been, over the last thirty years, a slowly growing contingent of superhero artists who use another guy as their touchstone -- hero of FreedomFrench comics Jean Giraud or, to be more precise, Moebius, as he prefers to be known when talking about his SF and fantasy work. He only really came to prominence on this side of the Atlantic around 1978-9, when the English translations of Métal Hurlant began to take off in the States, but within a few years you could see his influence on the likes of Walt Simonson and Art Adams, an influence that has spread down to 2011 in the drawings of Frank Quitely, Geof Darrow, and others -- not least because his style seems to be a natural starting point for, bitte Gott hilf uns, imitators of Rob Liefeld to up their game. And let us not forget his international influence: Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga is noticeably Moebius-like, though mixed with Miyazaki's own genius it's one of the few pieces of such work that can stand toe-to-toe with the Frenchman's best and not be knocked flat to the canvas.

But as much as I love his art, what drives me absolutely mental about Moebius is his taste in stories. While acknowledging that it is just a matter of taste, I can't stand the preciousness of, say, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and that's the sort of thing Moebius returns to again and again with all of his collaborators and in his own writing. It's maybe tilting at windmills in a genre that co-opts everything fantastic and turns it into stew, but I do prefer straightforward story-telling.

This brings me to Silver Surfer: Parable, for which Moebius supplies the art and Stan Lee provided the story. I don't think I'm going against the critical grain to say that Lee's muse had long since wandered away when this was printed in 1989. I can see that you'd have something interesting if this had been made twenty years prior to that (and preferably twenty-five), but Lee's writing had collapsed in a thick dust cloud of ponderousness and self-seriousness by the time this made it to print.

So I'm not going to try very hard to sum up the story here, particularly the second plot arc. It soberly informs us that religious leaders are often interested in their own power and people rely on religion to avoid thinking, which is bad, m'kay? And it does so with a singular lack of finesse. Instead I'll focus on the Surfer and Galactus and the A-Plot, which...





Across the world a star is seen to proceed across the sky, but frantic work by astronomers cloistered in a mountain-top observatory show it to be a spaceship of immense proportions. When it lands, it's revealed to be Galactus, who announces himself but otherwise does nothing. Civilization frays, and around the edges of it riots leave sections of many cities deserted.

The scene opens on our narrator, who is squatting in the burned out remnants of one of these riots:



Whoever could it be? Meanwhile Galactus speaks, declaring himself a god and laying down one law. Having apparently read Aleister Crowley it boils down to "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law", only with more words. What, you expected Stan Lee to use fewer words for anything? Earth explodes into an orgy of violence and looting:



Our bundled-up narrator reveals himself, and pledges to oppose Galactus' coming theocratic regime:



Moebius' Surfer is a slight, graceful figure -- an image that's generally held despite Kirby's original rather more heavyset and distorted look. Others did draw him this way first, but Moebius does give him a series of almost dance-like postures when he flies, as you'll see. He also makes a point of drawing the Surfer quite small against his backgrounds, and especially in contrast with Galactus:



Has there ever been a greater size differential between the two from any other artist? Contrast it with the same "Surfer in front of Galactus' face" from Marshall Rogers that I posted previously. It's a nice take.

Galactus, being a vastly powerful alien intelligence, is above emotion -- as he proceeds to tell us while angrily blasting at the Surfer. Here's the grace in flight I was talking about:



I love how the first panel has him all "Noo nee noo, noo nee noo" gazing behind himself while casually swooping sideways on his board with the interested but disconnected look of a weary tourist at Niagara Falls.

Moebius' work in this is, as is usually the case, quite brightly coloured. I wonder why he goes that way more often than not -- I mean, check out the shadows on this page:



That sound you hear is Mike Mignola gnawing on his pencils with envy.

Anyway, the Surfer decides to beat a retreat to stop Galactus from ZORCH!-ing up the city, which brings us to the end of the first issue in this two-issue miniseries (barring some more B-plot blather from the preacher that I won't dignify). The rest will follow in the next day or two; while you wait, please enjoy this Moebius-drawn Iron Man I ran across while researching him.

Comments

[sir_mikael]

I have this in Swedish. It's absolutely beautiful and one of my favorite comics. There was talk of making a Silver Surfer movie roughly based on this story too I think, which I think could have worked rather well. Of course Hollywood would have to go without a purely origin based movie, which is pretty darn unlikely.

[drmcninja]

Cosmic needs to get onto the movie scene. Annihilation, Imperative, Conquest, there are just so many story events that would work great in a blockbuster. Hopefully GotG will get in on one of those.

[citygod]

and this inspired a scene in one of my favourite movies:

http://youtu.be/iS4I2Z1RBIw


"Everybody who reads comic books knows that the Kirby Silver Surfer is the only true Silver Surfer. Now am I right or wrong? "

[eyz]

I LOVE IT!!
Great find :D