Moebius Oeuvres is a stately collection of the late artist’s wonderful work which appeared in the Sci-Fi magazine Métal Hurlant ( called Heavy Metal in the USA ) from the period 1975 to 1987. This is the first time such a complete collection of the material has been published in chronological order and includes artwork such as the legendary Azrach, Le Major Grubert, The Long Tomorrow, Ktulu, and many more.
Content wise I’ll guesstimate about 80% of the artwork in the book is B&W, and 20% color. Most, if not all of the Azrach pieces are in color.
I found my copy in a comics store in Montparnasse during my Paris trip last year and am ashamed to say I contemplated for about 15 minutes before making the purchase because the book came at a heft price tag of 99 Euros. ( about 160 USD, I think ) Now in hindsight the book has become superbly precious.
Moebius Oeuvres Art Book Details :
Dimensions – 24 x 32 cm ( the image above shows the book size in comparison to my wacom pen )
Hard Cover, 420 pages
Full color/Black & White, in French language
Buy From Amazon.com | Buy From Amazon CA | Buy From Amazon UK | Buy From Amazon JP
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April 15th, 2012 at 7:48 pm
Here for example. It’s a French sites specialised in bandes dessinees (French word for comics). It’s reputation is very good and the parcels are strong (not like Amazon).
http://www.bdfugue.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Les+ann%C3%A9es+M%C3%A9tal+Hurlant
This big book was cut in a collection of shorter ones by the publisher with different titles.
The same publisher started to publish also the American version of Moebius comics which were made specially for Caliber Comics. It’s the same stories but sometimes in colors, alternate beautiful covers or never published material in France or with some modifications.
April 15th, 2012 at 7:54 pm
Many artworks in this book are in black and white because it’s like this they were originally published in Metal Hurlant, Pilote and L’Echo des Savanes (three revues which published the material shown). The color versions were made for the American market later. But Arzach was originally published in color in 1975 because it was drawn directly like this.
April 16th, 2012 at 12:49 am
i have most of these stories in other books that i have acquired over the years from different publishers. i will say that this book is firmly worth the price of the book, as trying to find them individually would cost you maybe three times that price. owning any of Moebius’ work is a real treat, and is never a regretful purchase.
and i know i’ve said it a hundred times, but those interested in this work should also look into the work of Milo Manara. his work is also incredible and is now, very luckily, finding new audiences in America with Dark Horse publishing a library of his work.
April 16th, 2012 at 1:37 am
Cobalt 60 / Zack – Wow you guys are real experts ! Thanks !
I heard about that Dark Horse’s Manara library collection book too and its in my wishlist now. :]
April 16th, 2012 at 10:21 am
What does Dark Horse publish? Is it the old HP Giuseppe Bergman series (hommage to Hugo Pratt and Alain Delon)? If so is it the original black and white version or the colored one? Or does DH publish Manara’s erotic “Declic” or later erotic stories?
In France, he finished “Borgia” last year. A four volume series with Jodorowsky. Probably his best recent work, full painted in watercolor. I wonder if American publisher can publish that since it’s very violent and erotic.
I recommand also the work of Georges Bess who worked with Jodo on a beautiful series “The white lama” and “Juan Solo”. His best works in black and white are probably “Leela and Krishna” and “Chroniques aleatoires” (take a glance on Google.
April 16th, 2012 at 12:29 pm
Dark Horse just started what they said would be a 9 volume set of Manara’s work, and they also just started another set of his erotic works as well. they have two books out so far with the first volume in the erotic series coming out in May and the third volume of the other set coming out in August. so far they have released in the first volume The Paper Man and Indian Summer; the second volume includes El Gaucho and Trial By Jury, which is the first time it has been released in English. the third volume is going to be The Ape, and two stories i have never read but am excited about, called the Trip to Tulum and The Voyage of G. Mastorna. the first erotic volume will be the entire four volumes of Click.
all of them seem to be represented as they were originally published in both black and white and color, respectively. i can only imagine they will dedicate an entire volume to the great HP and Giuseppe Bergman series, and i’m sure it will be presented in it’s original fashion as well. so far they have done a beautiful job with what they have released, and i trust that they will do a good job in the future as well. they certainly aren’t dragging their feet with this project, releasing a new volume every couple months, making good so far on their promise to release so much of his work. be on the lookout for all these.
April 16th, 2012 at 12:33 pm
also, Borgia has been released here in America as well. i have the first couple volumes, and i like it a lot. say what you want about his subject matter, it is impossible to deny Manara’s talent, and publishers know that, even in America. he will always have an audience, and again, publishers know that.
April 16th, 2012 at 7:52 pm
Good news! Thank you Zack.
It seems Dark Horse makes a good job. I saw on the site they publish Manara’s work in hard cover books, that really nice. The price is a little bit expensive. 🙁
April 16th, 2012 at 11:59 pm
i just have been getting them off of Amazon, where they are about forty percent off the price tag on the book. either way, trying to find older copies of his work in English can get pricey anyway, especially if they release the HP and Giuseppe books, which can each go for about half the price of one Dark Horse collect volume, which would, i imagine, carry all of them.
April 19th, 2012 at 2:38 am
I was raised with authors such as Jean Giraud/Moebius. My mother read his comics in Metal Hurlant, Pilote, and other journals in her youth.
Sad to learn his death last month. It was the artist i admire the most.
This book are really attractive. I never bought it because of his price 😉 pitty…
February 18th, 2013 at 6:09 am
Maybe you’ve figured this out already, but I’ve found the Amazon in the country of origin for a book, Amazon.fr for instance often has a better price even after international shipping and sometimes will have one available when sold out elsewhere. Really the only down side is many 3rd party sellers won’t ship worldwide.
May 14th, 2013 at 6:26 pm
Does this volume also include the early MAD magazine style strips that ran in Hara Kiri in the 60’s or only the more Metal Hurlant style stuff?
It does seem to contain Strips that originally ran in magazines other than Metal Hurlant (“Is Man Good” was published in Pilote for instance)
June 9th, 2013 at 10:16 am
Hi, this looks like an amazing book! You are very fortunate to have a copy 🙂 Couple of questions: (1) is The Long Tomorrow included in this volume? and (2) Humanoides currently has 7 “classique” books listed. Are they all included in the Ouevres Book? They are: arzach, les vacances de major, le garage hermetique, le bandard fou, chaos, chronicles metalliques, & homme de ciguri. the total page count for these 7 individual books is 536 pages, while the total page count for Ouevres is 417 apparently. [note, Humanoides has a second series of Moebius books, there are 8 volumes in the USA series, these are all in color, and all are collected in a single vol, Coffret USA apparently. similarly, individually all 8 volumes comprise a total of 512 pgs, but the collected edition is also 420 pgs). Thanks 🙂 !!!!!
July 30th, 2013 at 3:07 am
@majorette
“Chaos” and “Chroniques Metaliques” are artbooks so I doubt they are included in this collection.
The “Moebius USA” books are largely identical to the “Classique” books. The main difference is that the “USA” books use the colouring done for the late 80’s/early 90’s American volumes which coloured all the stories that were originally done in B&W (such as “Le Garage Hermetique”).
November 29th, 2013 at 10:23 am
@aaltomuoto
Thanks! I think Les Humanoides Associes have published a new book now, “Moebius Oeuvres – Coffret : Chaos et Chroniques métalliques”, which includes the artbooks.