Oh man. This is just too good – definitely one of my best book purchases as of late.
“Le Monde d’Edena” (The World of Edena) is a series of graphic novels by legendary French artist Moebius. It was inspired by a portfolio Moebius made for the French car manufacturer Citroën, called “The Star”.
This Japanese edition has conveniently compiled six of the Le Monde novel series in a handsome hard cover collection. I am unaware if there are any French / English version compilation out there – perhaps any Moebius expert can let me and the readers here know.
Every time when I look at Moebius’s art work I see the influence of his illustration style in so many other great artists out there – Otomo Katsuhiro ( Akira ), Katsuya Terada ( Monkey King ), Miyazaki Hayao, and Yukito Kishiro ( Battle Angel Alita ), just to name a few.
(above) Most of the content in this book features Moebius’s simpler, cleaner style of illustration, but as we move nearer to the end we are treated to some of his more painterly and detailed panels of art work, (below) which I absolutely love. What a treat ! Also be sure to check out his black and white collection of art work in the book 40 Days Dans Le Desert.
(above and below) How a combination of such simple composition and subject matter can achieve so much aesthetic beauty is really baffling and astounding to me – a real testament to the creative prowess of Moebius.
Almost 400 pages of gorgeous Moebius art work in a sturdy hardback volume, a real bang for your buck. Very, very highly recommended.
“Le Monde d’Edena – Moebius Graphic Novel″ details :
– Dimensions – 10.3 x 7.8 x 1.3 inches
– Hardcover, 392 pages
– Full color, In Japanese
Buy From Amazon.com | Buy From Amazon CA | Buy From Amazon UK
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The Art Of Edena – Moebius Book Review
Moebius Library : Inside Moebius Part 3 Art Book Review
Moebius’s Blueberry – Japanese Hardcover Edition Review
Moebius Oeuvres Art Book Review
L’Incal – Jodorowsky + Moebius Comic Book Review
December 12th, 2011 at 11:03 am
that looks pretty cool. though i am probably not quite a Moebius expert, maybe i can help shed some light on some of this stuff. i believe the original story was called Upon A Star, that he did for Citroën, and it’s sequel, the Gardens of Aedena. though i have not seen the full book, i think i have most of the original stories that it has that were also fleshed out in his stories Stel, The Goddess, The Aedena Cycle, and even has connections to The Airtight Garage and quite a few other short stories of his. he fleshed out much of his universe with those stories, and it seems very cool from what i’ve seen of this, that they have included them all into one volume. i would very much suggest, even if you can’t read Japanese, that if you don’t aleady own these stories in some other capacity that you do try to acquire this book. i have commented several times on my love of both Moebius and Manara, and it seems that both of them recently are receiving reprints in the form of hardcover volumes. i cannot recommend these books enough, especially if you are in any capacity familiar with or show any interest in European comic books.
December 14th, 2011 at 11:22 pm
I think in these Le monde d’edena series really show moebius mastery of drawing, though simpler than the john difool (l’incal)series they are somewhat felt more sophisticated/advanced.I remember blown away seeing spread cover( it’s almost 4 pages spread)of sur L’etoile that features whale-like stel & atan spaceship and then seeing wordless comic inside it, beautiful.
December 16th, 2011 at 2:21 am
Fwah. You got this from japan? Nice~ Wonder if there is a english version for this.
December 18th, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Zack/racky – Wow, thanks for the great information guys !
Ray – Nope, far as I know there’s no English version…yet.
December 24th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
I’ve always loved Moebius’ worlds, this is amazing. Wish there would be an English version as I わかりません。
January 24th, 2012 at 10:59 pm
Hey, that’s a friend of mine who translated “Le monde d’Edena” into Japanese (I’m living in Japan, but I’m French and a long time fan of Moebius) ! He did a great job. In France, there’s no equivalent of this compilation. The separate volumes are now hard to find. The series was not a success. Moebius interrupted it before its end also because he didn’t know how to finish it.
By the way, I spoke to Moebius a long time ago at the time he just finished the volume 4 of “Le monde d’Edena” about the influence of Otomo Katsuhiro on his work. It’s Otomo who influenced him on this volume.
Usually, the Japanese editions of French books are ever better quality than the originals! Same with 40 days in the desert B.
January 26th, 2012 at 12:05 am
Cobalt 60 – Wow, you’ve spoken to Moebius in person before ? I’m so envious ! Thanks for the information ! :]
January 31st, 2012 at 1:37 pm
I spoke and interviewed Jean Giraud for a book I wrote about his western “Lt Blueberry” (available only in French and German). Since then I met him many times in his gallery and in festivals. I am now writing something about his art as Mœbius. The subject will be his black and white inking and drawing technics.
By the way, I love your site. I have almost all the books you recommand, because I love the same artists. 🙂
If you can, take a glance at Matsumoto Taiyo’s artbooks “100” and “1O1” and James Jean’s sketchbooks “Process Recess”, they are great too, I’m sure you will love them. 🙂
February 1st, 2012 at 12:01 am
Cobalt 60 – That is so exciting. It must be super inspiring to listen to Moebius’s thoughts and ideas. :]
Thanks for the compliments ! I have only seen Matsumoto’s Tekkon Kinkreet, and yes I’m a big fan of James Jean as well.
Are you on twitter ? Would be great to follow your stream.
February 8th, 2012 at 1:39 am
Well, one time Moebius CALLED me 🙂 I did not knew about these Japan versions. They look pretty well printed.
There is no book with all the Edena stuff in France but you can find easily the differents books (http://www.amazon.fr/s?ie=UTF8&tag=firefox-fr-21&index=blended&link_code=qs&field-keywords=edena&sourceid=Mozilla-search).
June 6th, 2014 at 10:10 pm
Thanks!! Just bought it from japanese amazon
June 7th, 2014 at 12:03 pm
Thanks Kanwar ! I hope you enjoy the book as I have. :]
August 27th, 2014 at 4:42 am
This looks great and they have been published in german so I can actually read them!
Thanks for that tip!
October 14th, 2015 at 7:28 am
Hello, do not know how old this website is and if it is truly outdated, BUT, FYI-:
1) I just bought the same compilation in French, which was published in 2015, in a larger format (same as large format Incal from Humanoids (about 13 inch high);
2) Blueberry WAS published in English (unlike what someone’s post here stated) – not all of it, but the best story.
I personally do like the Blueberry cycle 1-5 (i.e. not the “Young Blueberry”), as the line work is just great – very relaxed and loose, but also, the drawings are still very descriptive and characterful without being too precious. In terms of Edena cycle – Marvel published four of the installments in English in the late 1980’s, but I personally did not like the translations, starting with the weird “Aedena” instead of correct and more meaningful Edena… Anyways, if you do wish to purchase the very same book that you profiled here in Japanese, but in French, and published in even larger format, well – now you can.
Here’s the info:
ISBN-10: 2203096268
ISBN-13: 978-2203096264
Product Dimensions: 13.9 x 1.7 x 8.9 inches
You can just plug in ISBN into Amazon.
Regards.
April 29th, 2016 at 6:30 am
Just a note really. Dark Horse are publishing the entire Edena cycle in English though the last book ‘The Repairers’ will belong to a following book which collects all the related stories of Stel and Atan. Preorder is already available. The only thing is these initial books are fairly small – closer to usual comics than BDs.
See more about what else they’re publishing here:
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/tag/Moebius
Trying to earmark funds for this already – really exciting. Hoping this will help my draw a line under my Moebius collection at last.