Jean Giraud (1938–2012)

The description for this book is far too simplistic an explanation for what this book is about; it is far more than just Moebius illustrating himself interacting with his own creations. Inside Moebius is an illustrated journal he kept after he decided that he wanted to stop smoking weed. He was working thru his feelings about his decisions, using his characters as foils to discuss his thoughts. Eventually, he even works a younger version of himself into the story.

As time moves on, real world show more events begin to encroach into Moebius' conscious, most specifically the events of 9/11. This was obviously a remarkable event in his life (as it was for everyone), and to work his way thru this he introduces Osama bin Laden as a character in his journal, discussing bin Laden's motivations behind the 9/11 attacks.

Overall, this is a fascinating look into Moebius' mind as he works his way thru freeing himself from his addiction and dealing with real world events. It's not often that we are given such an intimate look into the thoughts and feelings of an artist, and I found this entire volume enthralling.

I'm loving Dark Horse's new Moebius Library. I've been a longtime fan of his artwork, but with much of his work published in his native France, it's not always been easy to track down his work, especially when some of it was never translated into English. Inside Moebius was originally published in six volumes, and Dark Horse is now releasing it for the first time in English as a three volume set. With the Inside Moebius series, and the two previously released Edena books, Dark Horse is providing us with some fantastic reading from one of the finest cartoonists of his time. show less

The best things I can say about this second volume can be summed up, impossibly, by saying it's HUGE. Skip the build-up. Let's just eat thousands of suns with the black egg, have a revolution, a counter-revolution, and the mixing of the powers of men and women in the great convocation of the Seal of David and the six-sided star in the form of The Incal.

Want a little Hard-SF god-action with great art and a weird story that goes off the deep end? The Incal is all yours. :)

In some ways, this show more goes beyond the strangest bits of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, skips over all dull bits and lets us have a battle royale for the sake of impregnating an alien queen, sets up the destruction of all the high-tech cities to get back to nature, and throws a s***-load of jellyfish at the stars.

Weird? Hell, yes. Worth it? Even just KNOWING it exists? Hell, yes.

My only complaint is the speed. Reasons are lost in the haze of "Oh, hell, let's just do THIS, now." :)

Even so? Worth it. show less

Enormously influential, wildly imaginative ... and utterly chaotic. I have a really hard time caring about any of the characters, nor do I have time to invest in a plotline before some enormous shift happens. They do lampshade this, particularly the protagonist antihero starts complaining a lot about how they never get a break, but that doesn't really remove the issue -- I rarely found myself having the time to enjoy the goings on. There are too many notions, too many underexplained show more character motivations, too many otherworldly cultures and agendas whose feuds we're dumped into the middle of with little to no explanation or backstory.

In spite of all of that, there _is_ a lot to like here. As I said, it's wildly imaginative, with everything from nihilist techno-zealots to psychic emperor-gods, underwater human societies to centre of the earth trips, human mutant subspecies and alien invaders, interplanetary intrigue and critique of the passive television-enslaved public. While my preferences would have been to explore some of these notions more, rather than gleefully hop from one to the next, it can't be denied it paints a rich and interesting world. While the frantic plot drowns a lot of the emotion, it does not drown it all, and there are many lovely moments of character and pathos interspersed in this six-volume collection. I also found the mystery the story was pretending to be at the beginning (before the pace and scale went insane) to be very engrossing, and the later chapters (when the pace is finally a bit slower again, and I'd learned enough of the world to contextualize and appreciate a bit more of the goings on) to be a step back up.

Considering its popularity and influence, this is clearly someone's cup of tea. But, unfortunately -- though I did get some enjoyment from it -- it wasn't quite mine. That said, my issues are mainly with the pacing and lack of contextual exposition, not the ideas and the plot points, and so I'd actually be very interested to see what else has been done in this impressively elaborate universe since. I hear that the next volume is a much more linear story (and a prequel), so that does sound promising. show less

An intellectually self-absorbed, incontinent university professor serves as the protagonist in this mystical adventure with themes of messianic apocalypse, and eventually psychedelic initiation. Supernatural elements are introduced very gradually, and at first it is easy for the reader to join Professor Mangel in dismissing them. There's a lot of sex, as Mangel struggles with the reintegration of his carnal consciousness, and his companions foster the revolutionary cult of the god-goddess show more Jesusa. As in other stories by Jodorowsky, such as his Incal tales, the skeptical ignorance of the protagonist drives much of the plot and its tension.

This collection makes for a good, self-contained read. It should be avoided by those who don't appreciate explicit sex, mystical blasphemy, or controversial politics. show less