Editing Jean Giraud (section)

==Career==

===Western comics===
At 18, Giraud was drawing his own humorous, [[Morris (cartoonist)|Morris]]-[[Lucky Luke|inspired]], Western comic two-page shorts, ''Frank et Jeremie'', for the magazine ''Far West'', his first [[freelance]] commercial sales.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/giraud.htm |title=Jean Giraud makes own drawing strip |website=bpib.com |access-date=11 January 2017 |archive-date=28 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228232344/http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/giraud.htm |url-status=usurped }}; The four two-page short stories were published in ''Far West'', issues 10, 14, 16, and 17, in 1956. While each of these stories has seen several reprints in side publications over the years, only one book publication is known to exist collecting all four at the same time in edited format, alongside several other humorous Western comic shorts Giraud had created for'' Fleurus'', the German-language, digest-sized comic book "Frank und Jeremie" (32 pages, Comic Verlagsgesellschaft, 1986, {{ISBN|3900390231}}).</ref> Magazine editor [[Marijac]] thought young Giraud was gifted with a knack for humorous comics, but none whatsoever for realistically drawn comics, and advised him to continue in the vein of "Frank et Jeremie".<ref name = "Moliterni"/>

====Fleurus (1956–1958)====
Tenured at publisher Fleurus from 1956 to 1958 after his first sales, Giraud did so, but concurrently continued to steadfastly create realistically drawn Western comics (alongside several others of a French historical nature) and illustrations for magazine editorials in their magazines ''Fripounet et Marisette'', ''[[Cœurs Vaillants]]'', and ''{{ill|Âmes vaillantes|fr}}'' &ndash; all of them of a strong, edifying nature aimed at France's adolescent youth &ndash; up to a point that his realistically drawn comics had become his mainstay. Among his realistic Westerns was a comic called "''Le roi des bisons''" ("King of the Buffalo" &ndash; has had an English publication<ref name="IntroKing">Giraud, Jean. "Introduction to King of the Buffalo by Jean Giraud". 1989. Moebius 9: Blueberry. Graphitti designs.</ref>), and another called "''Un géant chez lez Hurons''" ("A Giant among the Hurons").<ref>''SCHTROUMPf, Les cahier de la bande dessinee'', issue 25, [[Grenoble]]:[[Glénat Editions]], 1974, pp. 38–39; These two stories were the only serialized ones in any of the Fleurus magazines, running far longer than the 2- to 4-page shorts Giraud usually produced for the magazines. "''Un géant chez lez Hurons''" ran for 19 pages in ''Cœurs Valiants'', issues 30-48, 1957, whereas "''Le roi des bisons''" ran for 10 pages in issues 29-38, 1958.</ref> Actually, several of his Western comics, including "King of the Buffalo", featured the same protagonist Art Howell, and these can be considered as Giraud's ''de facto'' first realistic Western series, as he himself did in effect, since he, save the first one, endowed these stories with the subtitle "''Un aventure d'Art Howell''".<ref>Being all published in ''Cœurs Valiants'', the by Guy Hempay written Art Howell stories included &ndash; besides the by Noël Carré written "''Le roi des bisons''" &ndash; "''Le retour de Spider Web''" (3 pages, issue 49, 1957), "''Stop à la caravane''" (3 pages, issue 4, 1958), "''Pas de dynamite pour le railway''" (3 pages, issue 12, 1958), and "''Le train fou''" (3 pages, issue 38, 1959, also written by Giraud).</ref> For Fleurus, Giraud also illustrated his first three books.<ref name="fleurbooks">Two educational books, "Hommes et cavernes" (1957, {{oclc|300051389}}), "Amérique an mille" (1959, {{oclc|936885225}}, these two co-illustrated with Guy Mouminoux), and one novel for girls, "Sept filles dans la brousse" (1958, {{oclc|759796722}}, sole artist)</ref> Already in this period, his style was heavily influenced by his later mentor, Belgian comic artist [[Jijé|Joseph "Jijé" Gillain]], who at that time was ''the'' major source of inspiration for an entire generation of young, aspiring French comic artists, including Giraud's friend Mézières, interested in doing realistically drawn comics.<ref name="IntroKing"/> How major Jijé's influence was on these young artists, was amply demonstrated by the Fleurus publications these youngsters submitted their work to, as their work strongly resembled each other. For example, two of the books Giraud illustrated for Fleurus, were co-illustrated with [[Guy Mouminoux]], another name of some future renown in the Franco-Belgian comic world, and Giraud's work can only be identified, because he signed his work, whereas Mouminoux did not sign his. While not ample, Giraud's earnings at Fleurus were just enough to allow him &ndash; disenchanted as he was with the courses, prevalent atmosphere, and academic discipline &ndash; to quit his art academy education after only two years, though he came to somewhat regret the decision in later life.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 29-30]]</ref>

====Jijé apprenticeship (1961–1962)====
Shortly before he entered military service, Giraud visited his idol at his home for the first time with Mézières and Mallet, followed by a few visits on his own to see the master at work for himself. In 1961, returning from military service and his stint on ''5/5 Forces Françaises'', Giraud, not wanting to return to Fleurus, as he felt that he "had to do something else, if he ever wanted to evolve", became an apprentice of Jijé on his invitation, after he saw that Giraud had made artistic progress during his stay at ''5/5 Forces Françaises''.<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, p. 11]]; While Jijé recognized the potential of Giraud, when the young men showed him their work, he was not impressed by that of Mézières, who had suggested the visit in the first place on behalf of his friend. Mézières, however, had already been taken under the wing of another Belgian comic grandmaster, [[André F''ranking'']], who, ironically, had been an earlier apprentice of Jijé's.</ref> Jijé was then one of the leading comic artists in Europe and known for his gracious tendency to voluntarily act as a mentor for young, aspiring comic artists, of whom Giraud was but one, going even as far as opening up his family home in [[Champrosay]] for days on end for these youngsters which, again, included Giraud.<ref name="Jije">[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 31-33, 136-137]]</ref> In this, Jijé resembled Belgian comic grandmaster Hergé, but unlike Jijé, Hergé only did so on a purely self-serving commercial basis, never on a voluntarily one. For Jijé, Giraud created several other shorts and illustrations for the short-lived magazine ''Bonux-Boy'' (1960/61), his first comic work after military service, and his penultimate one before embarking on ''Blueberry''.<ref name="sapristi">[[#Sources|Ledoux]], 1993, p. 77; Invariably overlooked by Giraud scholars (even by the otherwise thorough Sadoul &ndash; 2015, p. 23 &ndash; who mistook a comment of the artist as referring to the later published ''{{cite web|title=Total Journal|url=http://www.dlgdl.com/GENPAGES/DSE_CT2J.HTM}}'' magazine), ''{{cite web|title=Bonux-Boy|url=http://www.bedetheque.com/serie-54015-BD-Bonux-Boy-Les-histoires-de.html}}'' was a digest-sized marketing enticer for a French detergent of the same name, conceived by its marketing manager, Jijé's son Benoit Gillain. For Giraud, however, it was nevertheless of seminal importance as his work therein showed a marked progression over the work he had provided previously for Fleurus, indicating he had continued to work on his style during his military service, and which had been the main reason for Jijé to take on Giraud as an apprentice in the first place.</ref> In this period, Jijé used his apprentice for the inks on an outing of his Western series ''[[Jerry Spring]]'' &ndash; after whom Giraud had, unsurprisingly, modeled his Art Howell character previously &ndash; "The Road to Coronado", which Giraud inked.<ref name="Lambiek"/> Actually, Jijé had intended his promising pupil for the entirety of the story art, but the still-inexperienced Giraud, who was used to working under the relaxed conditions at Fleurus, found himself overwhelmed by the strict time schedules that production for a periodical (''Spirou'' in this case) demanded. Conceding that he had been a bit too cocky and ambitious, Giraud stated, "I started the story all by myself, but after a week, I had only finished half a plate, and aside from being soaked with my sweat, it was a complete disaster. So Joseph went on to do the penciling, whereas I did the inks."<ref name = "Moliterni"/> Even though Giraud did lose touch with his mentor eventually, he never forgot what "his master" had provided him with, both "aesthetically and professionally",<ref>[[#Sources|Bosser, 2005, pp. 79-80]]</ref> the fatherless Giraud gratefully stating in later life, "It was as if he had asked me «Do you want me to be your father?», and if by a miracle, I was provided with one, a[n] [comic] artist no less!".<ref name="Jije"/>

====Hachette (1962–1963)====
After his stint at Jijé's, Giraud was again approached by friend Mézières to see if he was interested to work alongside him as an illustrator on [[Hachette (publisher)|Hachette]]'s ambitious multivolume ''L'histoire des civilisations'' history reference work.<ref name="civil">''L'histoire des civilisations'', Paris:[[Hachette (publisher)|Hachette]], six volumes, 1961–1966, {{OCLC|796959351}}; Due to the fact that the featured pieces of art are not signed, it is very hard to ascertain which piece is from the hand of Giraud, and which is from Mézières' hand. In 1966 incidentally, Giraud returned the favor his friend had accorded him at Hachette, by making the introductions at ''Pilote'' on behalf of Mézières, eventually setting him off on his career as the artist of his own acclaimed ''[[Valerian (comics)|Valérian]]'' comics series. ({{cite book |last=Quillien |first=Christophe |title=L'art de Mézières. |date=September 2021 |publisher=[[Dargaud]]|location=[[Paris]] |pages=8–19 |isbn=9782205078008 |language=fr}})</ref> Spurred on by Jijé, who considered the opportunity a wonderful one for his pupil, Giraud accepted. Though he considered the assignment a daunting one, having to create in oil paints from historical objects and imagery, it was, besides being the best-paying job he had ever had, a seminal appointment.<ref name="Jije"/> At Hachette, Giraud discovered that he had a knack for creating art in [[gouache]]s, something that served him well not that much later when creating ''Blueberry'' magazine/[[Comics album|album]] cover art,<ref>[[#Sources|Bosser, 2005, p. 76]]</ref> as well as for his 1968 side project "[[Buffalo Bill]]: le roi des éclaireurs" history book written by {{ill|George Fronval|fr}}, for whom Giraud provided two-thirds of the illustrations in gouache, including the cover.<ref name="buffalo">[http://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Grands-hommes-de-l-Ouest-Buffalo-Bill-Le-roi-des-eclaireurs-69887.html "Buffalo Bill: Le roi des éclaireurs"], (68 pages, Paris:Fernand Nathan, January 1968, {{OCLC|460432103}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}; The book has seen several translations in other languages, including [[#Various|English]].</ref> The assignment at Hachette being cut short because of his invitation to embark on ''Fort Navajo'', meant he only participated on the first three to four volumes of the book series, leaving the completion to Mézières. In the ''[[Pilote]]'' era, Giraud additionally provided art in gouache for two Western-themed [[gramophone record|vinyl record]] music productions as sleeve art,<ref name ="Bouster">Bouster, Patrick (3 July 2012). "[http://bdzoom.com/51082/patrimoine/giraud-moebius-pour-le-disque-33-tours-et-plus-dans-les-etoiles/ Giraud-Moebius pour le disque: 33 tours et plus dans les étoiles]", BDzoom.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> as well as the covers for the first seven outings in the French-language edition of the ''[[Morgan Kane]]'' Western novel series written by [[Louis Masterson]].<ref name="kane">All published as pocket books in January 1979 by Librairie des Champs-Élysées, Paris, the titles are, #1:''Sans pitié!'' ({{ISBN|2702408354}}), #2:''Dans les griffes du dragon'' ({{ISBN|2702408362}}), #3:''Le colt et l'étoile'' ({{ISBN|2702408370}}), #4:''[[Ku-Klux-Klan]]'' ({{ISBN|2702408389}}), #5:''Pour l'honneur d'un copain'' ({{ISBN|2702408672}}), #6:''Le convoi infernal'' ({{ISBN|2702408664}}), and #7:''La piste des [[Kiowa]]s'' ({{ISBN|2702408656}}).</ref> Much of his Western-themed gouache artwork of this era, including that of ''Blueberry'', has been collected in the 1983 artbook "Le tireur solitaire".<ref name="tireur">"[https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Gir-oeuvres-Tome-2-Le-tireur-solitaire-18949.html ''Gir œuvres'', "Tome 2: Le tireur solitaire"]" (110 pages, Paris:Les Humanoïdes Associés, May 1983, {{ISBN|2731602317}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

Aside from its professional importance, Giraud's stint at Hachette was also of personal importance, as he met Claudine Conin, an editorial researcher at Hachette, and who described her future husband as being at the time "funny, uncomplicated, friendly, a nice boy next-door", but on the other hand, "mysterious, dark, intellectual", already recognizing that he had all the makings of a "visionary", long before others did.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, p. 86]]</ref> Married in 1967, ''after'' Giraud had become the recognized ''Blueberry'' artist, the couple had two children, {{ill|Hélène Giraud|fr|Hélène Giraud|lt=Hélène}} (b:1970) and Julien (b:1972). Daughter Hélène in particular has inherited her father's graphics talents and has carved out a career as a graphics artist in the animation industry,<ref>{{cite web|title=Hélène Giraud|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0320784|work=IMDb.com}}</ref> earning her a [[List of members of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres#Chevalier|2014 French civilian knighthood]], the [[#Awards and honors|same]] her father had already received in 1985. Besides raising their children, wife Claudine not only took care of the business aspects of her husband's art work, but has on occasion also contributed to it as colorist.<ref>"[https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?auteur=572&sort=strip Claudine Giraud]", stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}</ref> The 1976 feminist fantasy short story, "La tarte aux pommes",<ref>"The Apple Pie", ''Pharagonesia & Other Strange Stories'' & story notes; Claudine Giraud wrote the story for the feminist comic magazine ''{{ill|Ah ! Nana|fr}}'', a sister publication of ''Métal hurlant'' and where she worked as a magazine editor at the time. Originally published in black & white in issue 2, 1977, she colored the story herself for the 1987 American publication.</ref> was written by her under her maiden name. Additionally, the appearance of a later, major character in Giraud's ''Blueberry'' series, Chihuahua Pearl, was in part based on Claudine's looks.<ref>[[#Sadoul|Sadoul, 1991, p. 130]]</ref> The ''Mœbiusienne'' 1973 fantasy [[road trip]] short story "La déviation",<ref name="detour">"The Detour", ''Arzach & Other Fantasy Stories'' & editorial notes; First published in the ''[http://www.bedetheque.com/revue-Pilote-Annuel.html Pilote Annuel 74]'' of November 1973, the only originally black & white short story not colored for the 1987 American publication.</ref> created as "Gir"<ref name ="Gir">[http://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Gir-28018.html "Gir"] (30 pages, Paris:Futuropolis, January 1974, {{OCLC|40720672}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}; black & white, also containing, besides the 7-page "La Déviation", a selection of science fiction illustrations made for OPTA.</ref> before the artist fully embarked on his Mœbius career, featured the Giraud family as the protagonists, save Julien.

====''Pilote'' (1963–1974)====
In October 1963, Giraud and writer [[Jean-Michel Charlier]] started the comic strip ''Fort Navajo'' for the Charlier-co-founded ''Pilote'' magazine, issue 210.<ref>It was the first outing of the series that has seen the very first known English-language publication of Giraud art as the similarly named "Fort Navajo" in the British weekly comic magazine ''[[Valiant (comics)|Valiant]]'' ([https://comicvine.gamespot.com/valiant/4050-33913/object-appearances/4005-28524/ ComicVine]; [[IPC Magazines]]), starting its edited and truncated black & white run in issue 15 May 1965 through issue 21 August 1965, fifteen issues in total. Still, excepting the 1968 history book ''[[#Various|Buffalo Bill, Scout and Frontiersman]]'', it would take until 1977 with the advent of ''[[Heavy Metal (magazine)|Heavy Metal]]'' and the first four British ''Blueberry'' books by Methuen, for additional work to see English publication.</ref> At this time the affinity between the styles of Giraud and Jijé (who in effect had been Charlier's first choice for the series, but who was reverted to Giraud by Jijé) was so close that Jijé penciled several pages for the series when Giraud went [[AWOL]]. In effect, when "Fort Navajo" started its run, ''Pilote'' received angry letters, accusing Giraud of [[plagiarism]], which was however foreseen by Jijé and Giraud. Shirking off the accusations, Jijé encouraged his former pupil to stay the course instead, thereby propping up his self-confidence.<ref name="Jije"/> The first time Jijé had to fill in for Giraud, was during the production of the second story, "Thunder in the West" (1964), when the still inexperienced Giraud, buckling under the stress of having to produce a strictly scheduled magazine serial, suffered from a nervous breakdown, with Jijé taking on plates 28–36.<ref>Brouard, Jean-Yves (2004). [http://www.jmcharlier.com/blueberry1.php#1 "Blueberry"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519205013/http://www.jmcharlier.com/blueberry1.php#1 |date=19 May 2016 }}, jmcharlier.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> The second time occurred one year later, during the production of "Mission to Mexico (The Lost Rider)", when Giraud unexpectedly packed up and left to travel the United States,<ref>Close friend Mézières, like Giraud passionate about Westerns and the Far West, took it up a notch, when he too left at about the same time for the United States, actually working as a [[cowboy]] for two years, albeit not in the South-West, but rather in the North-West.</ref> and, again, Mexico; yet again former mentor Jijé came to the rescue by penciling plates 17–38.<ref>[[:fr:Gilles Ratier|Ratier, Gilles]] (27 March 2012). [http://bdzoom.com/47677/patrimoine/pour-se-souvenir-de-jean-giraud%E2%80%A6/ "Pour se souvenir de Jean Giraud (alias Gir ou Moebius)..."], BDzoom.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref><ref name="LofficierPast">Jean-Marc Lofficier. 1989. "The Past Master", in Moebius 5: Blueberry. Graphitti designs.</ref> While the art style of both artists had been nearly indistinguishable from each other in "Thunder in the West", after Giraud resumed work on plate 39 of "Mission to Mexico", a clearly noticeable style breach was now observable, indicating that Giraud was now well on his way to develop his own signature style, eventually surpassing that of his former teacher Jijé, who, impressed by his former pupil's achievements, has later coined him the "[[Rimbaud]] de la BD".<ref name="Jije"/>

[[File:Blueberry Giraud.png|right|thumb|{{center|[[Blueberry (comics)|Blueberry]], created by Giraud and writer Jean-Michel Charlier. Within the series, he turned from the classic Western comic to a grittier realism}}<!-- the specific image should be placed in time and transformation -->]]
The Lieutenant Blueberry character, whose facial features were based on those of the actor [[Jean-Paul Belmondo]], was created in 1963 by Charlier (scenario) and Giraud (drawings) for ''Pilote.''<ref name="Booker69"/><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101208193542/http://www.dargaud.com/blueberry,209/ Dargaud archive: "C'est en 1963 qu'est créé ce {{Not a typo|personnage}} pour PILOTE par Charlier et Giraud."]</ref> While the ''Fort Navajo'' series had originally been intended as an ensemble narrative, it quickly gravitated towards having Blueberry as its central figure. His featured adventures, in what was later called the ''Blueberry'' series, may be Giraud's best known work in native France and the rest of Europe, before later collaborations with [[Alejandro Jodorowsky]]. The early Blueberry comics used a simple line drawing style similar to that of Jijé, and standard Western themes and imagery (specifically, those of [[John Ford]]'s [[US Cavalry]] Western trilogy, with [[Howard Hawk]]'s 1959 ''[[Rio Bravo (film)|Rio Bravo]]'' thrown in for good measure for the sixth, one-shot title "The Man with the Silver Star"), but gradually Giraud developed a darker and grittier style inspired by, firstly the 1970 Westerns ''[[Soldier Blue]]'' and ''[[Little Big Man (film)|Little Big Man]]'' (for the "Iron Horse" story-arc), and subsequently by the [[Spaghetti Western]]s of [[Sergio Leone]] and the dark realism of [[Sam Peckinpah]] in particular (for the "Lost Goldmine" story-arc and beyond).<ref>Booker Keith M. 201. "Western Comics" in Encyclopedia of comic books and graphic novels, Volume 2. ABC-CLIO. p. 691</ref> With the fifth album, "The Trail of the Navajos", Giraud established his own style, and after both editorial control and censorship laws were loosened in the wake of the [[May 1968 events in France|May 1968 social upheaval]] in France &ndash; the former in no small part due to the revolt key comic artists, Giraud chief among them, staged a short time thereafter in the editorial offices of [[Dargaud]], the publisher of ''Pilote'', demanding and ultimately receiving more creative freedom from editor-in-chief [[René Goscinny]]{{efn|name="pilote"|"On his part in the uprising at ''Pilote'' Giraud said in 1974, 'It was shit, absolute shit ... ! I got ulcers at the publisher, they behaved horribly. They are all &ndash; and I weigh my words carefully &ndash; pigs and assholes. The way they treated their artists &ndash; who provided them with their bread and butter in the first place &ndash; was despicable, inexcusable. There was no social insurance, no retirement plans, etc. I know people who wound up in unbearable circumstances, who were fired and ended up in dire straits ... It was not a particularly bright thing to do on the publisher's part, they should have nurtured their stable of artists instead, if only for strategic reasons. In May '68 we, together with the union, convened a meeting to which we invited the responsible editors. But it was only Goscinny who showed up. There he stood, entirely alone, before an agitated mob who went after him, instead of conducting a dialog, discussing the problems. I was one of them, and ripped into him mercilessly. He was previously led to believe in private, that we all could come to some sort of arrangement together, and now he had to take all this abuse. There were even some guys who called him names and threatened him. Goscinny really found himself in an awful situation. He took it very hard, and I can not blame him, it was simply unjustified. I believe that he has never been able to put it behind him ... We demanded answers, proposals, improvements from him. But you cannot expect that from a man like Goscinny: Every attack hurt him deeply, had him choking on it, had him freeze ... Ever since, Goscinny distrusted his co-workers, especially me, because I was the only representative of the ''Pilote'' team, whose interests I represented.'"<ref name="charlier"/>}} &ndash; the strip became more explicitly adult, and also adopted a thematically wider range.<ref name="Screech2005">Screech, Matthew. 2005. "A challenge to Convention: Jean Giraud/Gir/Moebius" Chapter 4 in ''Masters of the ninth art: bandes dessinées and Franco-Belgian identity''. Liverpool University Press. pp 95 – 128</ref><ref name="LofficierPast"/> The first ''Blueberry'' album penciled by Giraud after he had begun publishing science fiction as Mœbius, "Nez Cassé" ("Broken Nose"), was much more experimental than his previous Western work.<ref name="LofficierPast"/> While the editorial revolt at Dargaud had effectively become the starting point of the emancipation of the French comic world,<ref name="morales">{{cite news | url= http://www.causeur.fr/pilote-goscinny-mai-68-31599.html | title= La BD fait sa révolution / Comics make their revolution | work= Causeur.fr | first= Thomas | last= Morales | date= 22 February 2015 | access-date= 27 May 2017 | language= fr | archive-date= 9 May 2017 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170509090656/http://www.causeur.fr/pilote-goscinny-mai-68-31599.html | url-status= live | df= dmy-all }}</ref> Giraud admitted that it also had caused a severe breach in his hitherto warm relationship with the conservative Goscinny, which never fully mended.<ref>[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p. 43]]</ref>

Giraud left the series and publisher in 1974, partly because he was tired of the publication pressure he was under in order to produce the series, partly because of an emerging royalties conflict, but ''mostly'' because he wanted further explore and develop his "Mœbius" alter ego, in particular because Jodorowsky, who was impressed by the graphic qualities of ''Blueberry'', had already invited him to Los Angeles to start production design on his ''[[Dune (novel)#Early stalled attempts|Dune]]'' movie project, and which constituted the first Jodorowsky/Mœbius collaboration. Giraud was so eager to return to the project during a stopover from the United States while the project was in hiatus, that he greatly accelerated the work on the "Angel Face" outing of ''Blueberry'' he was working on at the time, shearing off weeks from its originally intended completion.<ref name ="bree24">[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, p. 24]]</ref> The project fell through though, and after he had returned definitely to France later that year, he started to produce comic work under this pseudonym that was published in the magazine he co-founded, ''[[Métal Hurlant]]'', which started its run in December 1974 and revolutionized the Franco-Belgian comic world in the process.

It was Jodorowsky who introduced Giraud to the writings of [[Carlos Castaneda]], who had written a series of books that describe his training in [[shamanism]], particularly with a group whose lineage descended from the [[Toltecs]]. The books, narrated in the first person, related his experiences under the tutelage of a [[Yaqui]] "Man of Knowledge" named Don Juan Matus. Castaneda's writings made a deep and everlasting impression on Giraud, already open to Native-Mexican folk culture due to his three previous extended trips to the country (he had visited the country a third time in 1972<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, pp. 22-24]]</ref>), and it did influence his art as "Mœbius", particularly in regard to dream sequences, though he was not quite able to work in such influences in his mainstream ''Blueberry'' comic.{{efn|name="castaneda"|"On the impression Castaneda had left on him Giraud stated in 1975, "Alejandro gave me these books, and the reading was a great shock, a monumental shock. I was captivated, I discovered another life, a new way of thinking. It of course already landed in fertile ground, but because of Jodorowsky, all the more so. It was his way, by giving me these books, to influence me. One influences each other in daily work, one disagrees with each other. But with these books, he hit the nail on the head, these texts moved me to the core! And I let myself be affected. I find myself in a curious phase ... I believe I'm on a turning point in my life. I experienced something similar when I read "[[Steppenwolf (novel)|Steppenwolf]]" by [[Hermann Hesse]]: I could then accept much of what I suppressed until then, or did not even acknowledge, even if they were fundamental truths in reality. In Castaneda's books, reality is constantly questioned &ndash; and that's shocking, earth-shattering. The same experience is possibly experienced when one reads the early Christian texts, or some other mystic text: Enlightenment can be found through anything, through [[Zen]], [[Nazism]] even. I found it through Castaneda.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 39-40]]</ref>}}<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 39-45]]</ref> Yet, unbeknownst to writer Charlier, he did already sneak in some Castaneda elements in "Nez Cassé".<ref name="burns">{{cite news |last1=Burns |first1=Mal |last2=Friedrich |first2=Mike |title=Gir/Mœbius: Interview met Jean Giraud |date=Winter 1978–1979 |publisher=Uitgeverij De Meulder|location=[[Assen]] |work=Striprofiel |issue=36 |pages=19–21 |language=nl}}; Interviewer Friedrich double-checked with Les Humanoïdes Associés publishing editor [[Jean-Pierre Dionnet]], and was told that a Mœbius album did 40,000-50,000 copies per title at the time, contrary to the 10,000 Giraud claimed.</ref> Castaneda's influence reasserted itself in full in Giraud's later life, having worked in elements more openly after Charlier's death in his 1999 ''Blueberry'' outing "Geronimo l'Apache", and was to become a major element for his ''[[Blueberry (comics)#Sequel: Blueberry 1900|Blueberry 1900]]''-project, which however, had refused to come to fruition for extraneous reasons.<ref name="fueri">{{cite news |last=Fuéri |first=Jean-Pierre |title=Au nom du père, du fils et de St Blueberry |date=November 1999 |publisher=LZ Publications|location=Paris |work=BoDoï |issue=24 |pages=35–36, 38 |language=fr}}</ref><ref>[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p 35]]; [[#Sources|Sadoul, 2015, p. 220]]</ref>

Even though Giraud had vainly tried to introduce his ''Blueberry'' co-worker to the writings of Castaneda, Charlier, being of a previous generation, conservative in nature and wary of science fiction in general, never understood what his younger colleague tried to achieve as "Mœbius". Nonetheless, he never tried to hinder Giraud in the least, as he understood that an artist of Giraud's caliber needed a "mental shower" from time to time. Furthermore, Charlier was very appreciative of the graphic innovations Giraud ported over from his work as "Mœbius" into the mainstream ''Blueberry'' series, most specifically "Nez Cassé", making him "one of the all-time greatest artists in the comic medium," as Charlier himself put it in 1982.<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, pp. 23, 41-43]]</ref> Artist {{ill|Michel Rouge|fr}}, who was taken on by Giraud in 1980 for the inks of "La longue marche" ("The Long March") painted a slightly different picture though. Already recognizing that the two men were living in different worlds, he noted that Charlier was not pleased with Giraud taking on an assistant, afraid that it might have been a prelude to his leaving the series in order to pursue his "experimentations" as Mœbius further. While Charlier was willing to overlook Giraud's "philandering" in his case only, he was otherwise of the firm conviction that artists, especially his own, should totally and wholeheartedly devote themselves to their craft, as Charlier had always considered the medium.<ref>[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p. 69]]</ref> Even Giraud was in later life led to believe that Charlier apparently "detested" his other work, looking upon it as something akin to "treason", though his personal experiences with the author was that he had kept an "open mind" in this regard, at least in his case. According to Giraud, Charlier's purported stance negatively influenced his son Philippe, causing ''their'' relationship to rapidly deteriorate into open animosity, after the death of his father.<ref name="fueri"/><ref name="Sadoul 2015, pp. 220-226">[[#Sources|Sadoul, 2015, pp. 220-226]]</ref>

====Post-''Pilote'' (1979–2007)====
Giraud returned to the ''Blueberry'' series in 1979 with "Nez Cassé" as a [[free-lance]]r. Later that year however, the long-running disagreement Charlier and Giraud had with their publishing house [[Dargaud]], the publisher of ''Pilote'', over the residuals from ''Blueberry'' came to a head. They began the Western comic ''[[Blueberry (comics)#Jim Cutlass|Jim Cutlass]]'' as a means to put the pressure on Dargaud.<ref name="fueri"/> It did not work, and Charlier and Giraud turned their back on the parent publisher definitively,<ref name="charlier">[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 33-34]]; The revolt at ''Pilote'' had an indirect and unintended side-effect, after the publisher had started to initiate changes on the editorial level. Like Goscinny, Jean-Michel Charlier was conservative in nature and felt ill at ease with the modernization, causing him to leave Dargaud as early as 1972 to pursue a career as documentary maker for French television, though he continued to provide scenarios for the artist of his ''Blueberry'' comic. ([[Blueberry (comics)#Sources|Ratier, 2013, pp. 226-227]]).</ref> leaving for greener pastures elsewhere, and in the process taking all of Charlier's other co-creations with them. It would be nearly fifteen years before the ''Blueberry'' series (and the others) returned to Dargaud after Charlier died. (For further particulars, including the royalties conflict, see: [[Blueberry (comics)#Original publications in French|''Blueberry'' publication history]].) After the first album, "Mississippi River", first serialized in ''Métal Hurlant'' and for two decades remaining a [[One-shot (comics)|one-shot]], Giraud took on scripting the revitalized series after Charlier had died, while leaving the artwork to {{ill|Christian Rossi|fr}}.<ref name="LofficierCutlass">Jean-Marc Lofficier. 1989. "Gone with the Wind Revisited", in Moebius 9: Blueberry. Graphitti designs.</ref>

When Charlier, Giraud's collaborator on ''Blueberry'', died in 1989, Giraud assumed responsibility for the scripting of the main series, the last outing of which, "Apaches", released in 2007, became the last title Giraud created for the parent publisher. ''Blueberry'' has been translated into 19 languages, the first English book translations being published in 1977/78 by UK publisher [[Egmont (media group)|Egmont]]/[[Methuen & Co. Ltd.|Methuen]], though its publication was cut short after only four volumes. The original ''Blueberry'' series has spun off a prequel series called ''Young Blueberry'' in the ''Pilote''-era (1968–1970), but the artwork was in 1984, when that series was resurrected, left to [[Colin Wilson (comics)|Colin Wilson]] and later {{ill|Michel Blanc-Dumont|fr}} after the first three original volumes in that series, as well as the Giraud-written, but [[William Vance]]-penciled, 1991-2000 intermezzo series called ''Marshal Blueberry''.<ref name="Booker69">Booker Keith M. 201. "Blueberry" in Encyclopedia of comic books and graphic novels, Volume 2. ABC-CLIO. p. 69</ref> All these series, except ''Jim Cutlass'', had returned to the parent publisher Dargaud in late 1993, though Giraud himself &ndash; having already left the employ of the publisher in 1974 (see ''[[#Films|below]]'') &ndash; had not, instead plying his trade as a free-lancer, explaining the ''Jim Cutlass'' exception.

While Giraud has garnered universal praise and acclaim for his work as "Mœbius" (especially in the US, the UK and Japan), as "Gir", ''Blueberry'' has always remained his most successful and most recognized work in native France itself and in mainland Europe, despite its artist developing somewhat of a love/hate relationship with his co-creation in later life, which was exemplified by his regularly taking extended leaves of absence from it. That ''Blueberry'' has always remained his primary source of income, allowing him to fully indulge in his artistic endeavors as Mœbius, was admitted as such by Giraud as early as 1979: "If an album of Moebius is released, about 10,000 people are interested. A ''Blueberry'' album sells at least 100,000 copies [in France],"<ref>Frederiks, Hans. "Een gespleten tekenaar ...", ''Stripschrift'', issue 135/136, Zeist: Vonk, June 1980, pp. 33-34 {{in lang|nl}}; Giraud made this remark shortly before the spectacular upsurge in popularity of ''Blueberry'', additionally having stated that he only re-embarked on ''Blueberry'' because he needed the money to buy a house in Paris. In later life, Giraud has watered down the prosaic statement, claiming he only made this comment because he tired of having to explain himself over and over again at the time.</ref><ref name="burns"/> and as late as 2005, "''Blueberry'' is in some ways the 'sponsor' of Moebius, for years now."<ref>Pasamonik, Didier (16 March 2005). [http://www.actuabd.com/Avec-Dust-Moebius-s-empare-de-Blueberry "Avec «Dust», Moebius s’empare de Blueberry"], Actuabd.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

===Science fiction and fantasy comics===
The "Mœbius" pseudonym, which Giraud came to use for his science fiction and [[fantasy]] work, was born in 1963,<ref name="Lambiek"/> while he was working on the Hachette project, as he did not like "to work on paintings alone all day", and "like an alcoholic needing his alcohol" had to create comics.<ref name ="hara">[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, pp. 12–13]]</ref> In a satire magazine called ''[[Hara-Kiri (magazine)|Hara-Kiri]]'', Giraud used the name for 21 strips in 1963–64 (much of which collected in Epic's "Mœbius {{Frac|1|2}}" &ndash; see [[#Marvel/Epic|below]]). Though Giraud enjoyed the artistic freedom and atmosphere at the magazine greatly, he eventually gave up his work there as ''Blueberry'', on which he had embarked in the meantime, demanded too much of his energy, aside from being a better paid job. Magazine editor-in-chief [[François Cavanna|Cavanna]] was loath to let Giraud go, not understanding why Giraud would want to waste his talents on a "kiddy comic".<ref name ="hara"/> Subsequently, the pseudonym went unused for a decade, that is for comics at least, as Giraud continued its use for side-projects as illustrator. In the late 1960s-early 1970s, Giraud provided interior front, and back flyleaf illustrations as Mœbius for several outings in the science fiction book club series ''{{ill|Club du livre d'anticipation|fr}}'', a limited edition hardcover series, collecting work from seminal science fiction writers, from French publisher {{ill|Éditions OPTA|fr}}, continuing to do so throughout the 1970s with several additional covers for the publisher's ''[[Fiction (French magazine)|Fiction]]'' (the magazine that introduced Giraud to science fiction at age 16)<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, p. 26]]</ref> and ''{{ill|Galaxie-bis|fr}}'' science fiction magazine and pocket book series. Additionally, this period in time also saw four vinyl record music productions endowed with Mœbius sleeve art.<ref name ="Bouster"/> Much of this illustration art has been reproduced in Giraud's first art book as Mœbius, aptly entitled "Mœbius", released in 1980.<ref name ="Gir"/><ref name="moebius1980">[http://www.bedetheque.com/BD-AUT-Giraud-Moebius-Tome-2-Folles-Images-30x30-32435.html "Moebius"] (146 pages, Paris:Les Humanoïdes Associés, January 1980, {{ISBN|2731600004}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> There actually had also been a personal reason as well for Giraud to suspend his career as Mœbius comic artist; after he had returned from his second trip from Mexico, he found himself confronted with the artist's version of a [[writer's block]] as far as Mœbius comics were concerned, partly because ''Blueberry'' consumed all his energy. "For eight months I tried, but I could not do it, so I quit", stated Giraud additionally.<ref name ="hara"/> Giraud's statement notwithstanding though, he did a couple of ''Hara-Kiri''esque satirical comic shorts for ''Pilote'' in the early 1970s, but under the pseudonym "Gir", most of which reprinted in the comic book ''Gir œuvres'': "Tome 1, Le lac des émeraudes",<ref name="lac">[https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/65406_Blueberry_SPA1__Le_lac_des_emeraudes ''Gir œuvres'': "Tome 1, Le lac des émeraudes"], (132 pages, Paris:Les Humanoïdes Associés, January 1981, {{ISBN|2731600977}}), stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}; includes other language editions. Several of the short stories have seen English translations in various outings of Epic's 1980s publication effort.</ref> also collecting shorts he had created for the Fleurus magazines, ''Bonux-Boy'', and the late-1960s ''TOTAL Journal'' magazine.<ref name="sapristi"/>

====''L'Écho des savanes'' (1974)====
In 1974 he truly revived the Mœbius pseudonym for comics, and the very first, 12-page, story he created as such &ndash; while on one of his stopovers from America when the ''Dune'' production was in a lull &ndash; was "[[Cauchemar Blanc]]" ("White Nightmare"), published in the magazine ''[[L'Écho des savanes]]'', issue 8, 1974. The black & white story dealt with the [[racist]] murder of an immigrant of North-African descent, and stands out as one of the very few emphatic [[Social engagement|socially engaged]] works of Giraud.<ref name="cauch">[[#Sources|Frederiks, 1982, p. 79]]</ref> Bearing in mind Giraud's fascination with the Western genre in general and the cultural aspects of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] in particular &ndash; and whose plight Giraud had always been sympathetic to{{efn|name="apaches"|While the ''Blueberry'' authors have always treated Native-Americans with sympathy in their series, it was in the last series outing of 2007, "Apaches", that Giraud took his most outspoken stance in regard to the plight of Native-Americans. In the album &ndash; composed from Blueberry's [[Geronimo]] recollection segments as featured in the five-volume ''OK Corral'' story-arc &ndash; Geronimo's son Dust is captive of the whites and imprisoned in a [[Native American boarding schools|Native-American boarding school]], headed by a misguided and puritanical parson, who ruthlessly tries to "civilize" his wards. Blueberry manages to free Dust and return him to his father, whereas the parson's sympathetic daughter is killed in the process, presented as a thinly veiled moral punishment for her father's wrongdoings. Though an anachronism in the comic, the boarding school is clearly patterned after the historical [[Carlisle Indian Industrial School]], where [[cultural assimilation of Native Americans]] into white society was attempted, also referred to by outspoken activists as "[[cultural genocide]]", and the story stands out as Giraud's most outspoken condemnation in his main body of work of the white American's attempts to snuff out Native-American culture.}} &ndash; it is hardly a surprise that two later examples of such rare works were Native-American themed.{{efn|name="seattle"|On the inspiration for "The Word of Chief Seattle" Giraud has stated in 1989, "Through a book from a young woman, Jeanine Fontaine, who had lived with Pilipino warriors. She cited [[s:Chief Seattle's Speech|the speech]], as she was very touched by it. When I read it, it awoke an ancient anger within me, [the same anger as "Cauchemar Blanc" twenty years earlier], absolutely the same anger, the same outrage. And this is the extent of my political engagement. I take an emotional stance, when I'm deeply moved. Then I am unable to suppress the impulse to create a pamphlet!"<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 77-78]]</ref>}} These concerned the 2-page short story "Wounded Knee",<ref>First published in [https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Recueil-Tintin-Super-Tome-5-Special-western-44336.html ''Tintin Super 5'': "Spécial western"] (80 pages, Brussels:Le Lombard, April 1979), published in English in the [[#HM Communications|1981 "Mœbius" book]] from HM Communications, but '''not''' in any of the 1980s Epic publications.</ref> inspired by the [[Wounded Knee incident|eponymous 1973 incident]] staged by [[Oglala Lakota]], and the 3-page short story "Discours du Chef Seattle", first published in the artbook "Made in L.A."<ref name="madela">[https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/20849_Made_in_LA_1_Made_in_LA "Made in L.A."] (136 pages, Tournai:Casterman, September 1988, {{ISBN|2203346019}}), stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}; includes other language editions.</ref> ("The Words of [[Chief Seattle]]", in Epic's [[Blueberry (comics)#English translations|"Ballad for a Coffin"]]). Giraud suddenly bursting out onto the comic scene as "Mœbius", caught European readership by surprise, and it took many of them, especially outside France, a couple of years before the realization had sunk in that "Jean Gir[raud]" and "Mœbius" were, physically at least, one and the same artist.<ref name="cauch"/>

It was when he was brainstorming with the founding editors of the magazine (founded by former ''Pilote'' friends and co-artists in the wake of the revolt at the publisher, when they decided to strike out on their own), that Giraud came up with his first major Mœbius work, "Le bandard fou" ("The Horny Goof"). Released directly as album (a first for Mœbius comics) in black & white by the magazine's publisher,<ref name="bandard">[https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/17029_De_erectomaan_1_De_Erectomaan/showall "Le bandard fou"] (54 pages, Paris:Les Éditions du Fromage, 1974, no ISBN), stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}; includes other language editions</ref> the humorous and satirical story dealt with a law-abiding citizen of the planet Souldaï, who awakens one day, only to find himself with a permanent erection. Pursued through space and time by his own puritanical authorities, who frown upon the condition, and other parties, who have their own intentions with the hapless ''bandard'', he eventually finds a safe haven on the asteroid ''Fleur'' of Madame Kowalsky, after several hilarious adventures. When discounting the as "Gir" signed "La déviation", it is in this story that Giraud's signature, minute "Mœbius" art style, for which he became famed not that much later, truly comes into its own. Another novelty introduced in the book, is that the narrative is only related on the right-hand pages; the left-hand pages are taken up by one-page panels depicting an entirely unrelated cinematographic sequence of a man transforming after he has snapped his fingers. The story did raise some eyebrows with critics accusing Giraud of [[pornography]] at the time, but one reviewer put it in perspective when stating, "Peut-être Porno, mais Graphique!", which loosely translates as "Porn maybe, but Graphic Art for sure!".<ref>[[#Sources|Frederiks, 1982, pp. 82-84]]</ref> In the editorial of the [[#Marvel/Epic|1990 American edition]], Giraud has conceded that he was envious of what his former ''Pilote'' colleagues had achieved with ''L'Écho des savanes'' in regard to creating a free, creative environment for their artists, he had already enjoyed so much back at ''Hara-Kiri'', and that it was an inspiration for the endeavor, Giraud embarked upon next.

====''Métal Hurlant'' (1974–1982)====
{{multiple image | align = right | direction = horizontal | total_width = 440
| image1 = Metal Hurlant 1.jpg | alt1 = | width1 = | caption1 =
| image2 = Arzach.jpg | alt2 = | width2 = | caption2 =
| footer_align = center
| footer = Mœbius cover art for the first ''Métal Hurlant'' issue and the second ''Heavy Metal'' issue (l), and the opening panel of ''Arzach'' (r).}}
Later that year, after ''Dune'' was permanently canceled with him definitively returning to France, Giraud became one of the founding members of the comics art group and publishing house "[[Les Humanoïdes Associés]]", together with fellow comic artists [[Jean-Pierre Dionnet]], [[Philippe Druillet]] (likewise ''Pilote'' colleagues) and (outsider) financial director Bernard Farkas. In imitation of the example set by the ''L'Écho des savanes'' founding editors, it was therefore as such also an indirect result of the revolt these artists had previously staged at ''Pilote'', and whose employ they had left for the undertaking.<ref name="Humano">[http://www.humano.com/blog/le-blog-des-humanos/id/3318 Le Blog des Humanoïdes Associés: Adieu Mœbius, merci Mœbius]</ref> Together they started the monthly magazine ''Métal hurlant'' ("Screaming metal") in December 1974,<ref name="DAK64"/> and for which he had temporarily abandoned his ''Blueberry'' series. The translated version was known in the English-speaking world as ''[[Heavy Metal (magazine)|Heavy Metal]]'', and started its release in April 1977, actually introducing Giraud's work to North-American readership.<ref name="taboo4">[[#Various|''Taboo 4'', 1990, p. 32]]</ref> Mœbius' famous serial "[[Airtight Garage|The Airtight Garage]]" and his groundbreaking "[[Arzach]]" both began in ''Métal hurlant''.<ref>[https://archive.today/20130101004435/http://ocs.library.dal.ca/ojs/index.php/YAHS/article/viewFile/413/398 "Breasts and Beasts: Some Prominent Figures in the History of Fantasy Art."] 2006. [[Dalhousie University]]</ref> Unlike ''Hara-Kiri'' and ''L'Écho des savanes'' though, whose appeal has always remained somewhat limited to the socially engaged satire and [[underground comic]] scenes, it was ''Métal hurlant'' in particular that revolutionized the world of Franco-Belgian ''bandes dessinées'',<ref name="morales"/> whereas its American cousin left an indelible impression on a generation of not only American comic artists, but on film makers as well, as evidenced [[#Influence and legacy|below]].

Starting its publication in the first issue of ''Métal hurlant'', "Arzach" is a wordless 1974–1975 comic, executed directly in color and created as a conscious attempt to breathe new life into the comic genre which at the time was dominated by American [[superhero comics]] in the United States, and by the traditional, adolescent oriented ''bandes dessinée'' in Europe.<ref name="arzach">[https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/2578_Arzach ''Arzach''], stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}; includes other language editions.</ref> It tracks the journey of the title character flying on the back of his [[pterodactyl]] through a fantastic world mixing medieval fantasy with [[futurism]]. Unlike most science fiction comics, it is, save for the artfully executed story titles, entirely devoid of captions, speech balloons and written sound effects. It has been argued that the wordlessness provides the strip with a sense of timelessness, setting up Arzach's journey as a quest for eternal, universal truths.<ref name="Screech"/> The short stories "L'Homme est-il bon?" ("Is Man Good?", in issue 10, 1976, after the first publication in ''Pilote'', issue 744, 1974, which however woke Giraud up to the "unbearable realization" that he was "enriching" the publisher with his Mœbius work, thereby expediting his departure.<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, p. 20]]; Giraud mellowed somewhat at a later point in time, and some Mœbius work from his Tahiti period did appear in ''Pilote'' issues m120, 1984 and m133, 1985.</ref>), "Ballade" ("The Ballade", 1977 and inspired by the poem "Fleur" by French poet [[Arthur Rimbaud]]<ref name="fleur">[[#Marvel/Epic|"Arzach & Other Fantasy Stories"]], 1987, story notes</ref>), "Ktulu" (issue 33bis, 1978, an [[H. P. Lovecraft]]-inspired story) and "Citadelle aveugle" ("The White Castle", in issue 51, 1980 and oddly enough signed as "Gir") were examples of additional stories Giraud created directly in color, shortly after "Arzach". 1976 saw the ''Métal hurlant'', issues 7–8, publication of "[[The Long Tomorrow (comics)|The Long Tomorrow]]", written by [[Dan O'Bannon]] in 1974 during lulls in the pre-production of Jodorowsky's ''Dune''.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, p. 100]]</ref>

His series ''The Airtight Garage'', starting its magazine run in issue 6, 1976, is particularly notable for its non-linear plot, where movement and temporality can be traced in multiple directions depending on the readers' own interpretation even within a single ''planche'' (page or picture). The series tells of Major Grubert, who is constructing his own multi-level universe on an asteroid named ''Fleur'' (from the "Bandard fou" universe incidentally, and the first known instance of the artist's attempts of tying all his "Mœbius" creations into one coherent ''Airtight Garage'' universe), where he encounters a wealth of fantastic characters including [[Michael Moorcock]]'s creation [[Jerry Cornelius]].<ref>Grove, Laurence. 2010. Comics in French: the European bande dessinée in context Berghahn Books p. 46</ref>

1978 marked the publication of the 54-page "Les yeux du chat" ("Eyes of the Cat"). The dark, disturbing and [[surrealism|surreal]] tale dealt with a blind boy in a non-descript empty cityscape, who has his pet eagle scout for eyes, which it finds by taking these from a street cat and offering them to his awaiting companion who, while grateful, expresses his preference for the eyes of a child. The story premise originated from a brainstorming session Alejandro Jodorowsky had with his fellows of the [[Panic Movement|Académie Panique]], a group concentrated on chaotic and surreal [[performance art]], as a response to surrealism becoming mainstream.<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, p. 87]]</ref> Jodorowsky worked out the story premise as a therapy to alleviate the depression he was in after the failure of his ''Dune'' project and presented the script to Giraud in 1977 during a visit to Paris. Deeming the story too short for a regular, traditional comic, it was Giraud who suggested the story to be told on the format he had already introduced in "Le bandard fou", to wit, as single panel pages. On recommendation of Jodorowsky, he refined the format by relating the eagle's quest on the right-hand pages, while depicting the awaiting boy in smaller single panel left-hand pages from a contra point-of-view. Giraud furthermore greatly increased his already high level of detail by making extensive use of [[zipatone]] for the first time.<ref>[[#Various|''Taboo 4'', 1990, pp. 86-87]]</ref> Considered a key and seminal work, both for its art and storytelling, setting Jodorowsky off on his career as comic writer,<ref name="taboo">[[#Various|''Taboo 4'', 1990, pp. 84]]</ref> the art evoked memories of the wood engravings from the 19th century, including those of [[Gustave Doré]], that Giraud discovered and admired in the books of his grandparents when he was living there in his childhood. However, it—like "La déviation"—has remained somewhat of a one-shot in Giraud's body of work in its utilization of such a high level of detail.<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, pp. 9, 88]]</ref> The story, printed on yellow paper to accentuate the black & white art, was originally published directly as a, to 5000 copies limited book edition, gift item for relations of the publisher.<ref>[http://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Yeux-du-chat-20693.html#reed "Les yeux du chat"] (54 pages, Paris:Les Humanoïdes Associés, March 1978, {{ISBN|2902123531}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> It was only after expensive pirate editions started to appear that the publisher decided to make the work available commercially on a wider scale, starting in 1981.<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, p. 88]]</ref><ref name="yeux">[https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/3494_De_verzamelde_werken_van_Moebius_8_De_ogen_van_de_kat/showall "Les yeux du chat"], stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}, includes other language editions.</ref> Jodorowsky had intended the work to be the first of a trilogy, but that never came to fruition.<ref>[[#Various|''Taboo 4'', 1990, pp. 88]]</ref>

In a certain way "Les yeux du chat" concluded a phase that had started with "La Déviation",<ref name="taboo"/> and this viewpoint was adhered to by the publisher who had coined the era "Les années Métal Hurlant" on one of its latter-day anthologies.<ref>[http://www.bedetheque.com/BD-AUT-Giraud-Moebius-Tome-22-Les-annees-Metal-Hurlant-Moebius-oeuvres-119592.html "Les années Métal Hurlant"] (420 pages, Paris:Les Humanoïdes Associés, October 2010, {{ISBN|9782731623055}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> The very first "Mœbius" anthology collection the publisher released as such, was the 1980–1985 ''Moebius œuvres complètes'' six-volume collection of which two, volumes 4, "La Complainte de l'Homme Programme"<ref name="complaint">"[https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Moebius-oeuvres-completes-Tome-4-La-Complainte-de-l-Homme-Programme-6558.html ''Moebius œuvres complètes'', Tome 4: La Complainte de l'Homme Programme]" (102 pages, Paris:Les Humanoïdes Associés, April 1982, {{ISBN|2731601558}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> and 5, "Le Désintégré Réintégré"<ref name="desintegre">"[https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Moebius-oeuvres-completes-Tome-5-Le-Desintegre-Reintegre-6559.html ''Moebius œuvres complètes'', Tome 5: Le Désintégré Réintégré]" (106 pages, Paris:Les Humanoïdes Associés, January 1984, {{ISBN|2731602740}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> (the two of them in essence comprising an expanded version of the 1980 original<ref name="moebius1980"/>), were Mœbius art books.<ref>[http://www.bedetheque.com/serie-1524-BD-Moebius-oeuvres-completes.html ''Moebius œuvres complètes''], Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> It also concluded a phase in which Giraud was preoccupied in a "characteristic period in his life" in which he was "very somber and pessimistic about my life", resulting in several of his "Mœbius" stories of that period ending in death and destruction.<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, pp. 21-22]]</ref> These included the poetic "Ballade", in which Giraud killed off the two protagonists, something he came to regret a decade later in this particular case.<ref name="fleur"/>

[[File:The Incal 2014 hardcover trade collection.jpg|thumb|upright|Mœbius cover art for [[Humanoids Publishing]]'s 2014 US hardcover trade collection of ''The Incal''.]]
In the magazine's issue 58 of 1980 Giraud started his famous ''[[L'Incal]]'' series in his third collaboration with Jodorowsky.<ref name="difool">[https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/678_John_Difool ''De avonturen van John Difool''], stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}; includes other language editions.</ref> However, by this time Giraud felt that his break-out success as "Mœbius" had come at a cost. He had left ''Pilote'' to escape the pressure and stifling conditions he was forced to work under, seeking complete creative freedom, but now it was increasingly becoming "as stifling as it had been before with ''Blueberry''", as he conceded in 1982, adding philosophically, "The more you free yourself, the more powerless you become!".<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, p. 19]]</ref> How deeply ingrained this sentiment was, was evidenced in a short interview in ''Métal Hurlant'', issue 82, later that year, where an overworked Giraud stated, "I will finish the ''Blueberry'' series, I will finish the ''John Difool'' [''Incal''] series and then I'm done. Then I will quit comics!" At the time he had just finished working as storyboard, and production design artist on the Movie ''Tron'', something he had enjoyed immensely. Fortunately for his fans, Giraud did not act upon his impulse as history has shown, though he did take action to escape the hectic Parisian comic scene in 1980 by moving himself and his family as far away from Paris as possible in France, and relocated to the small city of [[Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques|Pau]] at the foothills of the [[Pyrenees]].<ref name="burns"/> It was while he was residing in Pau that Giraud started to take an interest in the teachings of Jean-Paul Appel-Guéry, becoming an active member of his group and partaking in their gatherings.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 52-59]]</ref>

====Tahiti (1983–1984)====
From 1985 to 2001 he also created his six-volume fantasy series ''[[Le Monde d'Edena]]'', which has appeared in English as ''The Aedena Cycle''.<ref name="edena">[https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/332_De_wereld_van_Edena ''De wereld van Edena''], stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}; includes other language editions.</ref> The stories were strongly influenced by the teachings of Jean-Paul Appel-Guéry,{{efn|name="appel"|"Appel-Guéry encouraged Mœbius to tap into the more positive zones of his subconscious. 'Most of the people that were studying spirituality with Appel-Guéry did not know much about comics, but they immediately picked on the morbid, and overall negative feelings that permeated my work,' said Moebius. 'So I began to feel ashamed, and I decided to do something really different, just to show them that I could do it.'"<ref>Randy Lofficier and [[Jean-Marc Lofficier]], ''Moebius Comics'' No. 1, Caliber Comics, 1996.</ref>}} and [[Guy-Claude Burger]]'s instinctotherapy. In effect, Giraud and his family did join Appel-Guéry's [[Intentional community|commune]] on Tahiti in 1983, until late 1984, when the family moved to the United States, where Giraud set up shop first in Santa Monica, and subsequently in Venice and Woodland Hills, California.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 59–69]]</ref> Giraud's one-shot comic book "La nuit de l'étoile"<ref name="etoile">[http://www.bedetheque.com/serie-2025-BD-Nuit-de-l-etoile.html "La nuit de l'étoile"] (48 pages, Paris:Aedena, May 1986, {{ISBN|2905035250}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> was co-written by Appel-Guéry, and has been the most visible manifestation of Giraud's stay on Tahiti, aside from the artbooks "La memoire du futur"<ref name="memoire">[https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/67237_La_memoire_du_futurStarwatcher_1_La_memoire_du_futur/showall "La memoire du futur"] (96 pages, Paris:Gentiane, November 1983, {{ISBN|2904300031}}, later retitled "Starwatcher", Paris:Aedena, February 1986, {{ISBN|290503520X}}), stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}; includes other language editions.</ref> and "Venise celeste".<ref name="venise">[https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/67242_Venise_celeste_1_Venise_celeste "Venise celeste"], (102 pages, Paris:Aedena, September 1988, {{ISBN|2905035013}}), stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}; includes other language editions.</ref> Concurrently collaborating on "La nuit de l'étoile" was young artist [[Marc Bati]], also residing at the commune at the time, and for whom Giraud afterwards wrote the comic series ''Altor'' (''The Magic Crystal''), while in the US.<ref name="altor">[https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/36_Altor "''Altor''"], stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}; includes other language editions.</ref> It was under the influence of Appel-Guéry's teachings that Giraud conceived a third pseudonym, '''Jean Gir''' &ndash; formally introduced to the public as "Jean Gir, Le Nouveau Mœbius" in "Venise celeste" (p.&nbsp;33), though Giraud had by the time of publication already dispensed with the pseudonym himself &ndash; which appeared on the art he created while on Tahiti, though not using it for his ''Aedena Cycle''. Another member of the commune was Paula Salomon, for whom Giraud had already illustrated her 1980 book "La parapsychologie et vous".<ref name="para">[http://www.bedetheque.com/BD-AUT-Giraud-Moebius-La-parapsychologie-et-vous-277088.html "La parapsychologie et vous"] (154 pages, Paris:[[Éditions Albin Michel]], February 1980, {{ISBN|2226009272}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> Having to move stateside for work served Giraud well, as he became increasingly disenchanted at a later stage with the way Appel-Guéry ran his commune on Tahiti, in the process dispensing with his short-lived third pseudonym.<ref name=redux/> His stay at the commune though, had practical implications on his personal life; Giraud gave up eating meat, smoking, coffee, alcohol and, for the time being, the use of mind-expanding substances, adhering to his newfound abstinence for the most part for the remainder of his life.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 53-55]]</ref>

During his stay on Tahiti, Giraud had co-founded his second publishing house under two concurrent imprints, Éditions Gentiane<ref>[https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?uitgever=1222&sort=jaar "Gentiane"], stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}</ref> (predominantly for his work as Gir, most notably ''Blueberry'') and {{ill|Aedena|fr}}<ref>[https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?uitgever=1298&sort=jaar "Aedena"], stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}</ref> (predominantly for his work as Mœbius, and not entirely by coincidence named after the series he was working on at the time), together with friend and former editor at Les Humanoïdes Associés, {{ill|Jean Annestay|fr}}, for the express purpose to release his work in a more artful manner, such as limited edition art prints, art books ("La memoire du futur" was first released under the Gentiane imprint, and reprinted under that of Aedena) and art portfolios. Both men had already released the very first such art book in the Humanoïdes days,<ref name="moebius1980"/> and the format then conceived &ndash; to wit, a large 30x30cm book format at first, with art organized around themes, introduced by philosophical poetry by Mœbius &ndash; was adhered to for later such releases, including "La memoire du futur".

====Marvel Comics (1984–1989)====
{{blockquote|quote=There were thousands of professionals who knew my work. That has always amazed me every time I entered some graphics, or animation studio, at Marvel or even at [[George Lucas]]'. Mentioning the name Jean Giraud did not cause any of the present pencillers, colorists or storyboard artists to even bat an eye. Yet, whenever I introduced myself as "Mœbius", all of them jumped up to shake my hand. It was incredible!|source=Giraud, Cagnes-sur-Mer 1988, on his notoriety as "Mœbius" in the United States.<ref name="Sad69-71">[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 69–71]]</ref>}}

{{
multiple image | align = right | direction = horizontal | total_width = 440
| image1 = Sspara.png | alt1 = | width1 = | caption1 =
| image2 = Cover image of 1987 U.S. edition of Moebius - The Airtight Garage, published by Epic.jpg | alt2 = | width2 = | caption2 =
| footer_align = center
| footer = Mœbius cover for the 1998 edition of ''[[Silver Surfer]]: Parable'' on the left, and the Mœbius cover of the 1987 US Epic edition of ''The Airtight Garage'' on the right.
}}
After having arrived in California, Giraud's wife Claudine set up Giraud's third publishing house Starwatcher Graphics in 1985,<ref name="corporation">{{cite web|url=https://bestbusinessca.com/company/C1292766/starwatcher-graphics-inc.html|title=Starwatcher Graphics, Inc.|website=Bestbusinessca.com}}</ref> essentially the US branch of Gentiane/Aedena with the same goals, resulting in the release of, among others, the extremely limited art portfolio ''La Cité de Feu'', a collaborative art project of Giraud with [[Geoff Darrow]] (see ''[[#Dark Horse|below]]''). However, due to their unfamiliarity with the American publishing world, the company did not do well, and in an effort to remedy the situation Claudine hired the French/American editor couple [[Jean-Marc Lofficier|Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier]], whom she had met at the summer 1985 [[San Diego ComicCon]],<ref>[[#Sources|Ledoux, 1993, p. 59]]</ref> as translators and editors-in-chief for Starwatcher, also becoming shareholders in the company.<ref name="Sad69-71"/> Already veterans of the US publishing world (''and'' Mœbius fans), it was the Lofficier couple that managed to convince editor-in-chief [[Archie Goodwin (comics)|Archie Goodwin]] of [[Marvel Comics]] to publish most of Moebius' hitherto produced work on a wider scale in the US—in contrast with the ''Heavy Metal'' niche market releases by HM Communications in the late 1970s—in graphic novel format trade editions, under its [[Epic Comics|Epic]] imprint from 1987 to 1994. These incidentally, included three of Mœbius' latter-day art books, as well as the majority of his ''Blueberry'' Western comic.<ref>{{cite journal|last=O'Neill|first=Patrick Daniel|title=The Wild [French] West|journal=[[Comics Scene]]|issue=9|pages= 8–12, 68|location=Mt. Morris|publisher=Starlog Group, Inc.|date=1989}}</ref>

It was for the Marvel/Epic publication effort that it was decided to dispense with the "Jean [Gir]aud"/"Mœbius" dichotomy—until then strictly adhered-to by the artist—as both the artist's given name and his ''Blueberry'' creation were all but unknown in the English speaking world. This was contrary to his reputation as "Mœbius", already acquired in the ''Heavy Metal'' days, and from then on used for ''all'' his work in the English speaking world (and Japan), though the dichotomy remained elsewhere, including native France.<ref name="marvelage">{{cite journal|last=Lofficier|first=R.J.M.|author-link=Jean-Marc Lofficier|title=Before Nick Fury, There was ... Lieutenant Blueberry|journal=[[Marvel Age]]|issue=79|location=New York City|publisher=[[Marvel Comics]]|date=October 1989}}</ref>

A two-issue ''[[Silver Surfer]]'' miniseries (later collected as ''Silver Surfer: Parable''), written by [[Stan Lee]] and drawn by Giraud (as Mœbius), was published through Marvel's Epic Comics imprint in 1988 and 1989. According to Giraud, this was his first time working under the [[Marvel method]] instead of from a full script, and he has admitted to being baffled by the fact that he already had a complete story synopsis on his desk only two days after he had met Stan Lee for the first time, having discussed what Giraud had assumed was a mere proposition over lunch.<ref name="DAK64">{{cite journal | last = Lofficier | first = Jean-Marc | author-link = Jean-Marc Lofficier | date = December 1988 | title = Moebius | journal = [[Comics Interview]] | issue = 64 | pages = 24–37 | publisher = [[Fictioneer Books]]}}</ref> This miniseries won the [[Eisner Award]] for best finite/limited series in 1989. Mœbius' version was discussed in the 1995 submarine thriller ''[[Crimson Tide (film)|Crimson Tide]]'' by two sailors pitting his version against those of [[Jack Kirby]], with the main character played by [[Denzel Washington]], emphasizing the Kirby one being the better of the two. Becoming aware of the reference around 1997, Giraud was later told around 2005 by the movie's director [[Tony Scott]], that it was he who had written in the dialog as an homage to the artist on behalf of his brother [[Ridley Scott|Ridley]], a Mœbius admirer, and not (uncredited) script doctor [[Quentin Tarentino]] (known for infusing his works with pop culture references) as he was previously led to believe.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Svane |first=Erik | date=May 1997 |title=Gir/Mœbius |journal={{ill|Swof|fr}} |volume= |issue=24 | location=[[Genève]] |pages=42 | language=fr}}</ref> An amused Giraud quipped, "It's better than a big stature, because in a way, I can not dream of anything better to be immortal [than] being in a movie about submarines!"<ref name="CTN"/><!--at 1:21-->

As a result, from his cooperation with Marvel, Giraud delved deeper into the American superhero mythology and created superhero art stemming from both Marvel and [[DC Comics]], which were sold as art prints, posters or included in calendars, besides becoming featured as comic book covers from both publishers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://comicsalliance.com/moebius-american-comics-art-gallery|title=Moebius Visions of American Superheroes and Comic Book Icons [Art]|website=ComicsAlliance.com|date=28 June 2011 }}</ref> Even as late as 1997, Giraud had created cover art for two DC comic book outings, ''[[Hardware (comics)|Hardware]]'' (Vol. 1, issue 49, March 1997) and ''[[Static (DC Comics)|Static]]'' (Vol. 1, issue 45, March 1997), after an earlier cover for ''[[Marvel Tales (comics)|Marvel Tales]]'' (Vol. 2, issue 253, September 1991). Another project Giraud embarked upon in his "American period", was for a venture into that other staple of American pop culture, [[trading cards]]. Trading card company Comic Images released a "Mœbius Collector Cards" set in 1993, featuring characters and imagery from all over his Mœbius universe, though his Western work was excluded. None of the images were lifted from already existing work, but were especially created by Giraud the year previously.

Although Giraud had taken up residence in California for five years &ndash; holding a temporary residence (the O-1 "Extraordinary Ability" category,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pwc.com/ca/en/law/immigration-law/us-immigration/temporary.html|title=Temporary Residence|website=pwc.com}}</ref> including the "International Artist" status<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 2015, p. 62]]</ref>) visa &ndash; he maintained a transient lifestyle, as his work had him frequently travel to Belgium and native France (maintaining a home in Paris), as well as to Japan, for extended periods of time. His stay in the United States was an inspiration for his aptly called ''Made in L.A.'' art book,<ref name="madela"/> and much of his art he had produced in this period of time, including his super hero art, was reproduced in this, and the follow-up art book ''Fusions'',<ref name="fusion">[https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/20909_Fusions_1_Fusions "Fusions"] (126 pages, Tournai: Casterman, April 1995, {{ISBN|2203346051}}), stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}; includes other language editions.</ref> the latter of which having seen a translation in English by Epic.

Giraud's extended stay in the US, garnered him a 1986 [[Inkpot Award]], an additional 1991 Eisner Award, as well as three [[Harvey Award]]s in the period 1988–1991 for the various graphic novel releases by Marvel. It was in this period that Giraud, who had already picked up Spanish as a second language as a result from his various trips to Mexico and his dealings with Jodorowsky and his retinue, also picked up sufficient language skills to communicate in English.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 67-68]]</ref><ref name="CTN"/>

===Later work (1990–2012)===
In late summer 1989, Giraud returned to France, definitively as it turned out, though that was initially not his intent. His family had already returned to France earlier, as his children wanted to start their college education in their native county and wife Claudine had accompanied them to set up home in Paris. However, it also turned out that his transient lifestyle had taken its toll on the marriage, causing the couple to drift apart, and it was decided upon his return to enter into a "[[living apart together]]" relationship, which allowed for an "enormous freedom and sincerity" without "demands and frustrations" for both spouses, according to the artist.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 75-76, 85]]</ref> Additionally, Giraud had met Isabelle Champeval during a book signing in Venice, Italy in February 1984, and entered into a relationship with her in 1987, which resulted in the birth of second son Raphaël in 1989. Giraud's marriage with Claudine was legally ended in December 1994, without much drama according to Giraud, as both spouses had realized that "each wanted something different out of life".<ref name="redux"/> Exemplary of the marriage ending without any ill will was, that Claudine was still emphatically acknowledged for her contributions in the 1997 artbook "Blueberry's",<ref name="blueberrys">{{cite book|last=Giraud|first=Jean|url=https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Blueberry-HS-Blueberry-s-6818.html|title=Blueberry's|date=March 1997|publisher=Stardom|location=Paris, France|pages=76|isbn=2908706024|language=fr}}</ref> ''and'' [[#Documentaries|the documentary]] made for the occasion of its release. Giraud and Isabelle were married on 13 May 1995, and the union resulted in their second child, daughter Nausicaa, the same year.<ref name="whoswho"/> For Giraud his second marriage was of such great personal importance, that he henceforth considered his life divided in a pre-Isabelle part and a post-Isabelle part, having coined his second wife "the key to the whole grand design".<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 2015, introduction, pp. 52, 207, 244-246]]</ref> Isabelle's sister and Giraud's sister-in-law, Claire, became a regular contributor as colorist on Giraud's latter-day work.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?auteur=1219|title=Claire Champeval|website=stripINFO.be|language=nl}}</ref>

The changes in his personal life were also accompanied with changes in his business holdings during 1988–1990. His co-founded publishing house Gentiane/Aedena went into receivership in 1988, going bankrupt a short time thereafter. The American subsidiary Starwatcher Graphics followed in its wake around the turn of the millennium,<ref name="corporation"/> partly because it was a shared marital possession of the original Giraud couple and partly because the publication efforts of his work in the United States had run its course. Also in 1988, Giraud sold his shares in Les Humanoïdes Associés to [[Fabrice Giger]], thereby severing his formal ownership ties with that publishing house as well, though it remained the regular publisher of his Mœbius work from the ''Métal hurlant'' era, including ''L'Incal'' and some other later titles such as the sequel to ''The Airtight Garage'', "L'Homme du Ciguri" in 1995. Together with Claudine he founded Stardom in 1990, his first true family operated business without any other third-party participation according to Giraud,<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 2015, p. 212]]</ref> with the 1525-copy limited mini art portfolio "Mockba - carnet de bord" becoming the company's first recorded publication in September the same year.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mœbius|url=https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Mockba-TL-Mockba-carnet-de-bord-28403.html|title=Mockba - carnet de bord|date=September 1990|publisher=Stardom|location=Paris, France|pages=53|isbn=2908766000|language=fr}}</ref> Apart from being a publishing house, it was concurrently an art gallery, located on 27 Rue Falguière, 75015 Paris, organizing themed [[#Exhibitions|exhibitions]] on a regular basis. In 1997, the company was renamed Moebius Production &ndash; singular, despite the occasional and erroneous use of the plural, even by the company itself.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?uitgever=467&sort=jaar|title=Stardom}} & {{Cite web|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/lijst.php?uitgever=2292&sort=jaar|title=Moebius Production|website=stripINFO.be|language=nl}}</ref> The company, in both publishing and art gallery iterations, is as of 2023 still being run by Isabelle Giraud who had taken over the function of publishing editor ''and'' co-ownership from Claudine (explaining the renaming of the company), after the latter's marriage with Giraud was dissolved in 1994, and her sister Claire.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.moebius.fr/moebius-productions|title=Moebius Productions|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170817120941/https://www.moebius.fr/moebius-productions|archive-date=17 August 2017|website=Moebius.fr|language=fr}}; official site</ref>

The first thing Giraud did creatively upon his return was to finish up on the ''Blueberry'' album "Arizona Love" on his own after his longtime writing partner Jean-Michel Charlier had died on 10 July 1989. Due to his intimate twenty-five year familiarity with both the series and its writer, it was a foregone conclusion that Giraud would from then on take on the scripting of the main ''Blueberry'' series as well, especially since it was already agreed upon in the "contracts signed with Jean-Michel" that "the survivor would take over the series".<ref name="Sadoul 2015, pp. 220-226"/> Stunned by the sudden death of his longtime co-worker though, he could not bring himself to work on the art for ''Blueberry'' afterwards for nearly five years before he embarked on ''Blueberry'' again as artist. Giraud stated that the series had lost its "father", and that the "mother needed time to mourn".<ref>[[#Sources|Bosser, 2005, p. 68]]</ref> Nonetheless, he did embark on the ''Marshal Blueberry'' spin-off series in 1990 as writer (leaving the artwork firstly to [[William Vance]] and subsequently to {{ill|Michel Rouge|fr}}), wanting to pay homage to the legacy of his late writing partner by creating a story in his spirit, or as Giraud had put it, "{A]nd [I] said to myself: Well, I'm going to see if I'm able to write a story à la Charlier. So I wrote this scenario, not too bad, but quite traditional, quite classic."<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 2015, p. 221]]</ref> In similar vein, Giraud took up the writing for the other Charlier/Giraud western creation, ''Jim Cutlass'', that Charlier had actually been in the process of revitalizing in the year before his death, and for which he had already contracted {{ill|Christian Rossi|fr}} for the artwork, besides having already started on the scenario. After having added six more volumes to the once one-shot series, the series &ndash; which he, as explained [[#Post-Pilote (1979–2007)|above]], had published at publisher [[Casterman]] instead of (western) house-publisher Dargud &ndash; folded in 1999 due to the fact that it was not nearly as commercially successful as ''Blueberry'' had been.

Under his "Mœbius" pseudonym, Giraud concurrently continued to work on ''The Aedena Cycle'' and the ''Madwoman of the Sacred Heart'' trilogy, both of which started in the US and completed in 2001 and 1998 respectively, after which he concentrated on ''Blueberry''{{'}}s "OK Corral" cycle, started in 1994 upon his return to France. While Giraud was in the midst of "OK Corral" cycle, he also embarked on a new sequel cycle of his acclaimed ''Incal'' main series, called ''Après l'Incal'' (''After the Incal''). Yet, after he had penciled the first outing in the series, "Le nouveau rêve",<ref name="rêve">{{cite book|last1=Jodorowsky|first1=Alejandro|last2=Mœbius|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/2728_Na_de_Incal_1_De_nieuwe_droom/showall|title=Après l'Incal: ''Tome 1, Le nouveau rêve''|page=56|location=Paris|publisher=Les Humanoides Associés|date=November 2000|isbn=2731614250|language=fr}}); link includes other language editions.</ref> he found himself confronted with "too many things that attract me, too many desires in all the senses", causing him to be no longer able to "devote myself to the ''bande dessinée'' as befitting a professional in the traditional sense". Despite repeated pleas to convince Giraud otherwise, it left writer Jodorowsky with no other recourse than to start anew with a new artist.<ref>[[#Sadoul|Sadoul, 2015, p. 227]]</ref> This insight had repercussions though, as Giraud, after he had finished the "OK Corral" cycle in 2005, no longer continued to produce comics and/or art on a commercial base, but rather on a project and/or personal base, usually under the aegis of his own publishing house Mœbius Production.

As Mœbius Production, Giraud published from 2000 to 2010'' Inside Mœbius'' (French text despite English title), an illustrated autobiographical fantasy in six hardcover volumes totaling 700 pages.<ref name="Booker">Booker, Keith M. 2010. "Giraud, Jean" in ''Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels'', Volume 1ABC-CLIO pp. 259–60</ref> [[Luigi Pirandello|Pirandello]]-like, he appears in cartoon form as both creator and protagonist trapped within the story alongside his younger self and several longtime characters such as Blueberry, Arzak (the latest re-spelling of the ''Arzach'' character's name), Major Grubert (from ''The Airtight Garage'') and others.

Jean Giraud drew the first of the two-part volume of the ''[[XIII (comics)|XIII]]'' series titled "La Version Irlandaise" ("The Irish Version") from a script by [[Jean Van Hamme]],<ref name="XIII">{{cite book|last1=Van Hamme|first1=Jean|last2=Giraud|first2=Jean|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/26203_XIII_18_De_Ierse_versie/showall|title=XIII: ''Tome 18, La version Irlandaise''|pages=48|location=Paris|publisher=Dargaud|date= November 2007|isbn=9782505001317|language=fr}}; link includes other language editions.</ref> to accompany the second part by the regular team Jean Van Hamme–William Vance, "Le dernier round" ("The Last Round"). Both parts were published on the same date (13 November 2007)<ref name="l'express">{{cite magazine|last=Libiot|first=Eric|title=Giraud s'aventure dans XIII|magazine=L'Express|date=4 January 2007|url=http://www.lexpress.fr/mag/arts/dossier/bd/dossier.asp?ida=454736|language=fr|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070107001620/http://www.lexpress.fr/mag/arts/dossier/bd/dossier.asp?ida=454736|archive-date=7 January 2007|df =dmy-all}}</ref> and were the last ones written by Van Hamme before [[Yves Sente]] took over the series.<ref name="Paris Match">{{cite web|last=Lestavel|first=François|title=Yves Sente et Jean Van Hamme: le succès en série|publisher=Paris Match|date=18 December 2012|url=http://www.parismatch.com/Culture/Livres/Yves-Sente-et-Jean-Van-Hamme-le-succes-en-serie-161695|language=fr}}</ref> The contribution was also a professional courtesy to the series' artist, Vance, who had previously provided the artwork for the first two titles in the Giraud-written ''Marshall Blueberry'' spin-off series.

Late in life, Giraud also decided to revive his seminal Arzak character in an elaborate new adventure series; the first (and last in hindsight) volume of a planned trilogy, ''Arzak l'arpenteur'', appeared in 2010.<ref name="arpen">{{cite book|last=Mœbius|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/190039_Arzach_2_Landmeter/showall|title=Arzak: ''L'Arpenteur''|pages=64|location=Paris|publisher=Moebius Production/Glénat|date=August 2010|isbn=9782908766585|language=fr}}; link includes other language editions.</ref> He also added to the ''Airtight Garage'' series with two volumes entitled "Le chasseur déprime" (2008<ref name="chass">{{cite book|last=Mœbius|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/181311_Majoor_Fataal_A_1_Chasseur_deprime/showall|title=Major Fatal, ''Chasseur déprime''|pages=56|location=Paris|publisher=Stardom|date=May 2008|isbn=9782908766479|language=fr}}; link includes other language editions.</ref>) and "Major" (2011<ref name="major">{{cite book|last=Mœbius|url=http://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Carnets-Moebius-Major-126463.html|title=Le Major|page=312|location=Paris|publisher=Moebius Production|date=March 2011|isbn=9782908766653|language=fr}}</ref>), as well as the art book "La faune de Mars" (2011<ref name="faune">{{cite book|last=Mœbius|url=http://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Carnets-Moebius-La-faune-de-Mars-126464.html|title=La faune de Mars|pages=96|location=Paris|publisher=Moebius Production|date=March 2011|isbn=9782908766660|language=fr}}</ref>), the latter two initially released in a limited, 1000 copy French only, print run by Mœbius Production. By this time, Giraud created his comic art on a specialized graphic computer tablet, as its enlargement features had become an indispensable aid, because of his failing eyesight.

Creating comics became increasingly difficult for Giraud, as his eyesight started to fail him in his last years, having undergone severe surgery in 2010 to stave off blindness in his left eye, and it was mainly for this reason that Giraud increasingly concentrated on creating single-piece art, both as "Gir" and as "Mœbius", on larger canvases on either commission basis or under the aegis of Mœbius Production.<ref name="boucher">{{cite news|last=Boucher|first=Geoff|date=2 April 2011|url=http://herocomplex.latimes.com/comics/moebius-on-his-art-fading-eyesight-and-legend-i-am-like-a-unicorn/|title=Moebius on his art, fading eyesight and legend: 'I am like a unicorn'|work=Los Angeles Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520192455/http://herocomplex.latimes.com/comics/moebius-on-his-art-fading-eyesight-and-legend-i-am-like-a-unicorn/|archive-date=20 May 2013}}</ref> Much of the latter artwork was from 2005 onward, alongside older original art Giraud still had in his possession, sold by the company for considerable prices in specialized comic auctions at such auction houses like [[Artcurial]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.artvalue.com/auction-results--29359-59--23--------1-GIRAUD-Jean-Artcurial-Briest-Poulain-F-Tajan.htm?MAISONS_PAYS=11&MAISONS_VILLE=457&cp_checked=0|title=Giraud Moebius|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929010606/http://www.artvalue.com/auction-results--29359-59--23--------1-GIRAUD-Jean-Artcurial-Briest-Poulain-F-Tajan.htm?MAISONS_PAYS=11&MAISONS_VILLE=457&cp_checked=0|archive-date=29 September 2017|website=Artvalue.com|language=fr}}</ref> [[Hôtel Drouot]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gazette-drouot.com/static/magazine_ventes_aux_encheres/coup_de_coeur_enchere/050512_moebius.html|title=Docteur Gir & Mister Moebius|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120522055853/https://www.gazette-drouot.com/static/magazine_ventes_aux_encheres/coup_de_coeur_enchere/050512_moebius.html|archive-date=22 May 2012|website=Gazette-Drouot.com|language=fr}}</ref> and Millon & Associés.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Mœbius|last2=Giraud|first2=Jean|url=https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Catalogues-Ventes-aux-encheres-Millon-2007-11-24-Millon-Associes-Jean-Giraud-Moebius-Samedi-24-novembre-2007-Paris-Drouot-Montaigne-135360.html|title=Jean Giraud Moebius|pages=48|date=November 2007|location=Paris, Drouot Montaigne|publisher=Millon & Associés|language=fr}}; auction catalog.</ref>

===Illustrator and author===
As already indicated above, Giraud had throughout his entire career made illustrations for books, magazines, music productions<ref name ="Bouster"/> (though playing the piano and electric guitar, Giraud was, unlike his second son Raphaël, regrettably not a creative musician himself by his own admission, but did have a lifelong fascination with [[jazz]]<ref>[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p. 33]]; [[#Sadoul|Sadoul, 2015, pp. 110-112, 244]]</ref>), but also promotional art for commercial institutions such as banks and corporations. A notable early example of the latter, concerned the ''Blueberry'' art he created in 1978 for the Spanish [[jeans]] manufacturer Lois Jeans & Jackets; Aside from being traditionally run as an advertisement in numerous magazines, it was also blown up to gigantic, mural-like dimensions and as posters plastered on walls and billboards in several places all around Paris. As book illustrator, Giraud illustrated for example the 1987 first edition of the science fiction novel "Project Pendulum" by [[Robert Silverberg]],<ref name="project">[http://alphabettenthletter.blogspot.nl/2013/04/under-cover-project-pendulum.html "Project Pendulum"] (200 pages, New York City:[[Walker & Company]], September 1987, {{ISBN|0802767125}}), Alphabettenthletter.blogspot.nl {{in lang|en}}</ref> and the 1994 French edition<ref name="alchemist">[http://www.bedetheque.com/BD-AUT-Giraud-Moebius-Tome-13-L-alchimiste-46604.html "L'Alchimiste"] (220 pages, Paris:Editions Anne Carrière, November 1994, {{ISBN|291018837X}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> of the novel "[[The Alchemist (novel)|The Alchemist]]" by [[Paulo Coelho]]. The subsequent year Giraud followed up in the same vein as the Coelho novel, with his cover and interior illustrations for a French 1995 reprint of "Ballades" from the French medieval poet [[François Villon]],<ref name="ballades">[https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Ballades-41503.html "Ballades"] (108 pages, Paris:[[:fr:Vertige Graphic]], October 1995, {{ISBN|290898119X}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> itself followed by similar work for {{ill|Jean-Jacques Launier|fr}}'s 2001 new-age novel "La mémoire de l'âme".<ref name="l'âme">[https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-AUT-Giraud-Moebius-Tome-21-La-memoire-de-l-ame-138493.html "La mémoire de l'âme"] (174 pages, Paris:Stardom, November 2001, {{ISBN|2843371716}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> Much of this non-comic art, including the one for Lois has been reproduced in the artbooks that were released over the years.

{{
multiple image | align = right | direction = horizontal | total_width = 440
| image1 = Fade to Black PC box art.jpg| alt1 = | width1 = | caption1 =
| image2 = PanzerDragoon JeanGiraud.jpg | alt2 = | width2 = | caption2 =
| footer_align = center
| footer = Mœbius box cover art for the ''Fade to Black'' video game on the left, and the similar art for the ''Panzer Dragoon'' video game on the right.
}}
Giraud was in mid-1990s approached by two [[video game]] developers to provide the box cover art for the video games that were released in 1995; the first one concerned the ''[[Fade to Black (video game)|Fade to Black]]'' video game developed by the US [[Delphine Software International]], whereas the second one concerned ''[[Panzer Dragoon (video game)|Panzer Dragoon]]'' video game developed by the Japanese [[Sega Corporation]]. And while Giraud was by now the well established Mœbius artist in both countries, he was only asked to contribute the box cover art for the two video game releases, and nothing beyond. A few years later though, he was also asked to contribute to later games as a concept artist.

In 1999, Giraud's illustrations appeared in a soft cover edition of [[Dante Alighieri]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy|La Divina Commedia]],'' published by the Nuages Gallery in [[Milan]]. As "Mœbius" he illustrated the "[[Paradiso (Dante)|Paradiso]]" volume, while the two others, "[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]" and "[[Purgatorio]]", were illustrated by [[Lorenzo Mattotti]] and [[Milton Glaser]] respectively.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Alighieri|first=Dante|title=La Divina Commedia|publisher=Nuages|others=Illustrated by Mœbius, Lorenzo Mattotti, and Milton Glaser|year=1999|location=Milan|language=Italian}}; The three-volume work consists of "Paradiso" ({{isbn|9788886456999}}, illustrated by Mœbius), "Inferno" ({{isbn|9788886456975}}, illustrated by Mattotti), and "Purgatorio" ({{isbn|9788886456982}}, illustrated by Glaser)</ref> The edition was published under the Mœbius name. Giraud's illustrations for "Paradiso" take heavy inspiration from the engravings of the ''Divine Comedy'' by Gustave Doré, whose work he had discovered in his grandparents' library and learned to appreciate in his early formative years, with compositions often approaching an exact match. Giraud acknowledged this influence directly, praising Doré's work and remarking how he sometimes literally used tracing paper to sketch compositions.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Moebius|title=Preface to La Divina Commedia - Paradiso|publisher=Nuages|year=1999|location=Milan|pages=5|language=Italian}}</ref> Though another prominent example of Giraud's non-comic book work, the influences from his science fiction and fantasy comics shine through. The illustrations, with vivid colors and space-age headresses, are distinctly rendered in the Mœbius mode.<ref>{{Cite book|last=La Salvia|first=Adrian|title=Dante und die bildenden Künste|publisher=De Gruyter|year=2016|isbn=9783110486117|pages=296–297|language=Italian|chapter=Dante e Doré: L’aura della Divina Commedia nell’arte moderna}}</ref>

An out-of-the-ordinary latter-day contribution as such, constituted his illustrations as "Mœbius" for the Thursday 6 March 2008 issue of the Belgian newspaper ''[[Le Soir]]''. His illustrations accompanied news articles throughout the newspaper, providing a ''Mœbiusienne'' look on events. In return, the newspaper, for the occasion entitled "Le Soir par (by) Mœbius", featured two half-page editorials on the artist (pp.&nbsp;20 & 37).

Under the names Giraud, Gir and Mœbius, he also wrote several comics for other comic artists as listed [[#Bibliography|below]], and the early ones included [[Jacques Tardi]]<ref>"Une cheval en hiver."; six page short story published in ''Pilote'', issue 550, May 1970, as one of the earliest published comic creations of the artist.</ref> and [[Claude Auclair]].<ref name="auclair">[https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/18989_Jason_Muller_1_Vertellingen_na_het_atoomtijdperk ''Jason Muller'': "Récits des temps post-atomiques!"] (44 pages, Paris:Les Humanoïdes Associés, October 1975, {{OCLC|123029103}}, parts previously published in ''Pilote'', issue 558, 1970 and issues 635 & 649, 1972), stripINFO.be {{in lang|nl}}; includes other language editions.</ref> Aside from writing for other comic artists, he also wrote story outlines for the movies ''Les Maîtres du temps'', ''Internal Transfer'', ''Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland'' and '' Thru the Moebius Strip'' as outlined further down the line.

As author on personal title, Giraud has &ndash; apart from his own ''bande dessinée'' scripts &ndash; written philosophical poetry that accompanied his art in his Mœbius artbooks of the 1980s and 1990s. He also wrote the "Story Notes" editorials for the American Epic publications, providing background information on his work contained therein. In 1998, he took time off to write his autobiography, ''[[#Sources|Moebius-Giraud: Histoire de mon double]]''.<ref name="double">[[#Sources|Sadoul, 2015, p. 215]]</ref>

===Films===
{{blockquote|quote=''[[Tron]]'' was not a big hit. The movie went out in theaters in the same week as ''[[E.T. the Extraterrestrial|E.T.]]'' and, oh, that was a disaster for it. There was also ''[[Blade Runner]]'' and ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek]]'' that summer so it was a battle of giants. ''Tron'' was a piece of energy trying to survive. It is still alive. It survives. And the new movie is what [[Steven Lisberger|Steven]] wanted to do back then but at that time CG was very odd and we were pioneers. I almost did the first computer-animated feature after that, it was called ''Star Watcher,'' we had the story, we had the preparation done, we were ready to start. But it came apart; the company did not give us the approval. It was too far, the concept to do everything in computer animation. We were waiting, waiting, and then our producer died in a car accident. Everything collapsed. That was my third contribution to animation and my worst experience. ''[[Les Maîtres du temps]]'' is a strange story, it's a small movie, and cheap — incredibly cheap –it was more than independent. When I saw the film for the first time I was ashamed. It's not a Disney movie, definitely. But because the movie has, maybe a flavor, a charm, it is still alive after all that time. More than 35 years now and it is still here.|source=Giraud, [[Burbank, California]], 2011, on his animation movie experiences.<ref name="boucher"/>}}

Giraud's friend Jean-Claude Mézières has divulged in the 1970s that their very first outing into the world of cinema concerned a 1957 animated Western, unsurprisingly considering their shared passion for the genre, "Giraud, with his newfound prestige because of his trip to Mexico [note: Mézières had wanted to accompany his friend to Mexico, but was not able to raise the money], started a pro career at ''Cœurs Valiants'', but together with two other friends we tackled a very ambitious project first: a cartoon western for which Giraud drew the sets and the main characters. Alas, rather disappointingly, we had to stop after only 45 seconds!"<ref>{{cite web|title=Première période (avant 1967) |work=Tout (ou presque) sur Jean-Claude Mézières ...|url=http://www.histoire-du-biberon.com/ImagesListe/88/Web1999/M%C3%A9zi%C3%A8res1.htm |access-date=20 September 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050920061852/http://ludogrid.free.fr/Mezieres/mezieres1.htm |archive-date=20 September 2005}}</ref> Any further movie aspirations Giraud, who himself had considered the effort "too laborious",<ref name="movies">[[#Sources|Sadoul, 1991, pp. 66-68, 100-111]]</ref> might have had entertained had to wait until he received the 1974 invitation of Alejandro Jodorowsky to work on his planned adaptation of [[Frank Herbert]]'s ''[[Dune (novel)#Early stalled attempts|Dune]]'', which was however abandoned in pre-production.<ref>Grove, Laurence. 2010. Comics in French: the European bande dessinée in context Berghahn Books p. 211</ref> ''[[Jodorowsky's Dune]]'', a 2013 American-French documentary directed by [[Frank Pavich]], explores Jodorowsky's unsuccessful attempt. Giraud, a non-English speaker at the time, later admitted that the prospect of moving over to Los Angeles filled him with trepidation, initially causing him to procrastinate. It was friend Philippe Druillet (with whom he would co-found Les Humanoïdes Associés later that year) who pushed him to up and go, which he did by going AWOL again from his job at ''Pilote''. Giraud was grateful for Druillet pushing him as he found that he reveled in his first Hollywood experience.<ref name="movies"/> The project took nine months before it fell apart, but Giraud's presence was not always required, giving him ample time to return to France on several occasions, to pursue his other work, such as his work for ''L'Écho des savanes'' and, most importantly, to firstly finish up on ''Blueberry''{{'}}s "Angel Face", which he ultimately did in record time, this time formally quitting ''Pilote'' afterwards.<ref name ="bree24"/>

Despite Jodowowsky's project falling through, it had attracted the attention of other movie makers. One of them was [[Ridley Scott]] who managed to reassemble a large part of Jodorowsky's original creative team, including Giraud, for his 1979 science fiction thriller ''[[Alien (film)|Alien]]''. Hired as a concept artist, Giraud's stay on the movie lasted only a few days, as he had obligations elsewhere. Nonetheless, his designs for the [[Alien (film)|Nostromo]] crew attire, and their spacesuits in particular, were almost one-on-one adopted by Scott and appearing onscreen as designed,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scanlon |first1=Paul |last2=Gross |first2=Michael |title=The Book of Alien | year= 1979 |publisher=HM Communications, Inc. |location=New York City |pages=112 |isbn=0930368436}}</ref> resulting in what Giraud had coined "two weeks of work and ten years of fallout in media and advertising".<ref name="movies"/> Scott did explicitly acknowledge "Mœbius" for his contributions in the special features for the movie in the ''[[Alien Quadrilogy]]'' home media collection. Scott was taken with Giraud's art, having cited "The Long Tomorrow" as an influence on his second major movie ''Blade Runner'' of 1982 (see ''[[#Influence and legacy|below]]''), and invited him again for both this, and his subsequent third major movie ''[[Legend (1985 film)|Legend]]'' of 1985, which Giraud had to decline in both cases for, again, obligations elsewhere. He especially regretted not having been able to work on the latter movie, having deemed it "very good",<ref name="movies"/> and it was still on his mind as late as 2010, as he directly referred to the movie when he made his "unicorn" statement regarding his legacy, quoted [[#Influence and legacy|below]].

1981 saw the release of the animated film ''[[Heavy Metal (film)|Heavy Metal]]'', produced by [[Ivan Reitman]]. The heavily "Arzach"-inspired last, "Taarna", section of the movie, has led to the persistent misconception, especially held in the United States, that Giraud had provided characters and situations for the segment, albeit uncredited.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082509/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast "''Heavy Metal'' (1981)"], IMDb.com</ref><ref name="cartoon"/> Giraud however, had already emphatically squashed ''that'' particular misconception himself on an early occasion, "I had absolutely nothing to do with it," stated the artist in 1982, "Sure, the people who made the movie were inspired by quite a few things from "Arzach"," further explaining that, while the American producers ''had'' indeed intended to use the artist's material from the eponymous magazine, there were legalities involved between the American and French mother magazines, because the latter had financial interests in [[René Laloux|Laloux]]'s below mentioned ''[[Les Maîtres du temps]]'' that was concurrently in development, and in which Giraud ''was'' very much involved with. The American producers went ahead regardless of the agreements made between them and ''Métal hurlant''. While not particularly pleased with the fact, Giraud was amused when third parties wanted to sue the Americans on his behalf. Giraud however, managed to convince his editor-in-chief Jean-Pierre Dionnet (one of his co-founding friends of ''Métal hurlant'') to let the issue slide, as he found "all that fuss with lawyers" not worth his while, aside from the incongruous circumstance that the French magazine was running advertisements for the American movie.<ref>[[#Sources|de Bree, 1982, pp. 24-25]]</ref>

Still, ''Alien'' led to two other movie assignments in 1982, this time as both concept and storyboard artist. The first one concerned the Disney science fiction movie ''[[Tron]]'', whose director [[Steven Lisberger]] specifically requested Giraud, after he had discovered his work in ''Heavy Metal'' magazine.<ref name="movies"/> The second assignment concerned Giraud's collaboration with director René Laloux to create the science fiction feature-length animated movie ''Les Maîtres du temps'' (released in English as ''Time Masters'') based on a novel by [[Stefan Wul]]. He and director Rene Laloux shared the award for Best Children's Film at the [[Fantafestival]] that year.<ref name="cartoon">{{cite news |url=http://blog.bcdb.com/french-cartoonist-jean-moebius-giraud-dies-73-3435// |title=French cartoonist Jean "Moebius" Giraud dies at 73 |first=Ethan |last=Minovitz |newspaper=Big Cartoon News |date=11 March 2012 |access-date=11 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130920210854/http://blog.bcdb.com/french-cartoonist-jean-moebius-giraud-dies-73-3435/ |archive-date=20 September 2013}}</ref> For the latter, Giraud was also responsible for the poster art and the comic adaption of the same title, with some of his concept and storyboard art featured in a "making-of" book to boot.<ref name="temps">[https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-2864-BD-Maitres-du-temps.html "Les maîtres du temps"] (38 pages, Paris:Les Humanoïdes Associés, 1982/01, {{ISBN|2731601590}}), Bedetheque.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> Excepting ''Les Maîtres du temps'', Giraud's movie work had him travel to Los Angeles for longer periods of time.

{{
multiple image | align = right | direction = horizontal | total_width = 440
| image1 = Touche-pas-a-la-femme-blanche-french-movie-poster-md.jpg | alt1 = | width1 = | caption1 =
| image2 = Tusk (film).jpg | alt2 = | width2 = | caption2 =
| footer_align = center
| footer = Giraud movie poster art for ''Touche pas à la femme blanche !'' on the left, and the one he created for ''Tusk'' on the right.
}}
Outside his actual involvement with motion pictures, Giraud was in this period of time also occasionally commissioned to create poster art for, predominantly European, movies. Movies for which Giraud, also as "Mœbius", created poster art included, ''[[Don't Touch the White Woman!|Touche pas à la femme blanche !]]'' (1974 as Gir, three 120x160 cm versions), ''[[S*P*Y*S]]'' (1974, unsigned, American movie but poster art for release in France), ''{{ill|Vous ne l'emporterez pas au paradis|fr}}'' (1975, unsigned), ''[[The Dogs (film)|Les Chiens]]'' (1979 as Mœbius, rejected, used as cover for ''[[#Various|Taboo 4]]''), ''[[Tusk (1980 film)|Tusk]]'' (1980 as Giraud, a Jodorowsky film), and ''{{ill|La Trace|fr|La Trace (film, 1983)|lt=La Trace}}'' (1983 as Mœbius).

As his two 1982 movies coincided with the end of his ''Métal hurlant'' days and his departure for Tahiti shortly thereafter, this era can be seen as Giraud's "first Hollywood period", especially since the next project he embarked on entailed a movie in which he was very much invested as initiator, writer and producer as well, contrary to the movies he hitherto had worked upon as a gun-for-hire.

While Giraud was residing in Appel-Guéry's commune, he, together with Appel-Guéry and another member of the commune, Paula Salomon, came up with a story premise for a major animated science fiction movie called ''Internal Transfer'', which was endowed with the English title ''Starwatcher'' &ndash; after which Giraud's American publishing house was named. Slated for the production was Arnie Wong, whom Giraud had met during the production of ''Tron'' (and, incidentally, one of the animators of the vaunted "Taarna" segment of the ''Heavy Metal'' movie<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0938935/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr13 "Arnie Wong"], IMDb.com</ref>), and it was actually Disney whom Giraud offered the production first. Disney, at the time not believing in the viability of such a production in animation, declined. Another member of the commune fronted some of the money for the project to proceed, and the production was moved to Wong's animation studio in Los Angeles. It was this circumstance that provided Giraud with his alibi to leave Appel-Guéry's commune and settle in California &ndash; and the reason why he had to decline Ridley Scott for his ''Legend'' movie. Much to Giraud's disappointment and frustration though, the project eventually fell apart for several extraneous reasons, most notably for lack of funding, as related above by the artist.<ref name="movies"/> Still, the concept art he provided for the project served as the basis for his first collaboration with Geof Darrow, whom he had also met previously on the production of ''Tron'', on their 1985 [[#Dark Horse|''City of Fire'' art portfolio]]. Some of the concept art was reprinted in the art book "Made in L.A.".<ref name="madela"/>

Yet, despite this failure to launch, it did lead to his, what can be considered, "second Hollywood period" in his "American period". Concurrent with his career as a comic artist in the United States, invitations followed to participate as concept artist on ''[[Masters of the Universe (1987 film)|Masters of the Universe]]'' (1987), ''[[Willow (1988 film)|Willow]]'' (1988), ''[[The Abyss]]'' (1989), and finally Yutaka Fujioka's Japanese animated feature film ''[[Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland]]'' (1989), for which he was not only the conceptual designer, but also the story writer. It was for this movie that Giraud resided in Japan for an extended period of time.<ref name="cartoon"/><ref name="movies"/> Giraud followed up on his involvement with ''Little Nemo'' by writing the first two outings of the 1994-2000 French graphic novel series of the same name, drawn by {{ill|Bruno Marchand (comics)|fr|Bruno Marchand (dessinateur)|lt=Bruno Marchand}}.<ref name="nemo">{{cite web|title=''Little Nemo''|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/index/639_Little_Nemo_Marchand|work=stripINFO.be|language=nl}}; includes other language editions.</ref>

His definitive return to France in 1989 marked the beginning of Giraud's third and last movie period. In January 1992, the French newspaper ''[[Le Monde]]'' reported on a computer animated movie that was under development at the company Vidéosystem. It actually concerned a second attempt to get ''Starwatcher'' on the silver screen,<ref>{{cite news| title=Les maîtres du temp réel | work= Le Monde | first=Jean-Michel|last=Frodon|date=30 January 1992 | pages=23 | publisher=Groupe Le Monde |location=Paris | language=fr}}</ref> but just like its 1984 predecessor, it eventually failed to come to fruition. Afterwards, Giraud made original character designs and did visual development for Warner Bros.' partly animated 1996 movie ''[[Space Jam]]''. 1997 saw his participation as concept artist on Luc Besson's science fiction epic ''[[The Fifth Element]]'', which was of great personal importance for Giraud as it meant working together with his lifelong friend Jean-Claude Mézières, coming full circle after their very first aborted 1957 attempt at creating a motion picture. The [[#Documentaries|2005 documentary]] made for this occasion was testament to the great friendship both men had for each other. Concurrently, Giraud's oldest child, daughter Hélène, was employed on the movie in a similar function, albeit uncredited, though Giraud had stated with fatherly pride, "Yes, she had cooperated in a truly engaged manner. She started at the crack of dawn, and only went home in the evening, after the whole team had stopped working."<ref>[[#Sources|Svane, 2003, p. 42]]; Aside from a two-page interview with Giraud, some concept art from ''both'' father and daughter is also featured in Luc Besson's reference book {{cite book |date=1997 |title=The Story of the Fifth Element: The Adventure and Discovery of a Film |location=London |publisher=Titan Books |isbn=1852868635 |pages=160–240}}</ref> Giraud's experience on the movie was however somewhat marred by the 2004 lawsuit publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés (ostensibly on his behalf like the earlier 1981 intent which Giraud had then successfully prevented) and Alejandro Jodorowsky leveled against Besson for alleged plagiarism of ''L'Incal'', a lawsuit they lost.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.toutenbd.com/article.php3?id_article=697 |title=Moebius perd son procès contre Besson |access-date=20 January 2007 |date=28 May 2004 |language=fr |work=ToutenBD.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028025038/http://www.toutenbd.com/article.php3?id_article=697 |archive-date=28 October 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

2005 saw the release of the Chinese movie ''[[Thru the Moebius Strip]]'', based on a story by Giraud who also served as the production designer and the co-producer, and which reunited him with Arnie Wong, whereas his stint as concept designer on the 2012 animated science fiction movie ''[[Strange Frame]]'', has become Giraud's final recorded motion picture contribution.<ref>{{cite web|title=''Strange Frame: Love & Sax''|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0969345/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt|work=IMDb.com}}</ref>

====Movie adaptations====
[[File:CauchemarBlanc.jpg|thumb|{{center|''Cauchemar Blanc'' DVD cover by Mœbius (excerpt from the titular ''bande dessinée'')}}]] 
In 1991 his graphic novel short, "Cauchemar Blanc", was cinematized by [[Mathieu Kassovitz]], winning Kassovitz (but not Giraud) two film awards.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101552/awards?ref_=tt_ql_op_1. "Cauchemar blanc Awards"], IMDb.com</ref> With ''{{ill|Arzak Rhapsody|fr}}'', Giraud saw his ambitions as a full-fledged animation movie maker at least in part fulfilled. A 2002 series for French television broadcaster [[France 2]], it consisted of fourteen four minute long animated vignettes, based on Giraud's seminal character, for which he did the writing, drawings and co-production. Young daughter Nausicaa had voice-over appearances in three of the episodes together with her father.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0267024/ "''Thru the Moebius Strip''"] & [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292760/?ref_=nm_flmg_ardp_2 "''Arzak Rhapsody''"], IMDb.com</ref>

"The Lost Dutchman's Mine" story cycle of the ''Blueberry'' series was adapted for the screen in 2004, by [[Jan Kounen]], as ''[[Blueberry (film)|Blueberry: L'expérience secrète]]''. Three prior attempts to bring ''Blueberry'' to the silver screen had fallen through two decades earlier; in 1986 Charlier disclosed how American actor [[Martin Kove]] had actually already been signed to play the titular role &ndash; with whom Kove shared a remarkable resemblance at the time &ndash; for the first two early-1980s attempts, which were both based on the "Confederate Gold" cycle. It was Kove who introduced the two Blueberry creators to would-be American film producers on both occasions. The first attempt failed because American producers intended a complete script rewrite turning Blueberry into a completely unrecognizable standard western. The second attempt suffered even worse as its American producer, "inspired" by the success of the 1981 movie ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'', wanted to turn the project into a ''Raiders'' 2.0, set in the [[Yucatán]] peninsula, complete with Aztec warriors and pyramids and featuring a daring escape in a zeppelin-type airship. Helped by his background in law, an aghast Charlier instructed Giraud to sabotage the project as much as possible and the '' Blueberry'' creators eventually managed to buy back the rights for US$30,000. Already mentioned by Charlier in his 1986 interview, Kove had even traveled to Europe to shoot some test-footage scenes from the comic series in this role in order to entice potential investors, and that some of it was still in his possession as it turned out decades later. Convinced that the project was a viable one, Kove has also revealed in 2014 that he, together with the two ''Blueberry'' creators, tried to save it by putting up his own money as well when the project was falling apart due to arguments about funding among European/American would-be producers &ndash; to no avail however,<ref>{{youTube|J8IdGYoMi00|Exclusive! "Lt. Blueberry" footage! A Moebius classic shot down with Martin Kove (16 November 2014)}}</ref> which was a slightly different version of events as had been related by Charlier. The third (and last) attempt concerned a European only endeavor, which had at one point actually involved [[Sergio Leone]], according to Charlier,<ref>[[#Sources|''Collective'', 1986, pp. 85-88]]</ref> and was actually conceived as a television movie series and slated to be produced by the Swiss/French/Belgian production/distribution company Technisonor,<ref>[[#Sources|Ledoux, 1993, p. 51]]</ref> more faithfully adhering &ndash; than the later 2004 film adaptation &ndash; to the main comic series and intended to span the "Iron Horse" through the "Rehabilitation" story cycles. That 1983 attempt petered out without so much as a whimper, most likely due to lack of interest on the part of European investors.

2010 saw the adaptation of "La planète encore" ("The Still Planet"), a short story from the ''Le Monde d'Edena'' universe &ndash; and which had won him his [[#Awards and honors|1991 Eisner Award]] &ndash; into an animated short. Moebius Production served as a production company, with Isabelle Giraud serving as one of its producers. Giraud himself was one of the two directors of the short and it premiered at the «Mœbius transe forme» exposition at the [[Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain]] in Paris.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1794843/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_2 "''La planète encore''"], IMDb.com</ref>

In November 2021 it was announced [[Academy Awards|Oscar]] winner [[Taika Waititi]] would direct the screen adaptation of Jodorowsky/Moebius's graphic novel [[The Incal]] and co-write the script with frequent collaborators [[Jemaine Clement]] and Peter Warren.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Grobar|first=Matt|date=4 November 2021|title=Taika Waititi To Adapt Alejandro Jodorowsky's Graphic Novel 'The Incal' As Film|url=https://deadline.com/2021/11/taika-waititi-to-adapt-alejandro-jodorowsky-graphic-novel-the-incal-as-film-1234867589/|access-date=6 January 2022|website=Deadline|language=en-US}}</ref>

===Video games===
[[File:Pilgrim, Faith as a Weapon concept art.jpeg|thumb|right|{{center|Giraud's costume design concept art for ''Pilgrim: Faith as a Weapon''}}]]
Two years after he had provided box cover art for two video games, Giraud was approached for more substantial video game contributions when developer [[Arxel Tribe]] asked Giraud to become a concept designer for their 1997 ''[[Pilgrim: Faith as a Weapon]]'' game they had in development. It actually reunited Giraud with Paulo Coelho on whose 1987 work ''[[The Pilgrimage]]'' the game was based and who also responsible for its adaptation, and for whom Giraud had illustrated his ''Alchemist'' French-edition novel three years earlier. As Mœbius, Giraud designed among others the costumes for the game.

Seven years later the Japanese 2004 video game ''Seven Samurai 20XX'' was released for which Giraud was asked to provide the character concept designs. This was his last known video game contribution.

Essentially, the work he had been asked to perform for these two video games, did not differ that much from the movie work Giraud had done since the 1979 movie ''Alien'' in a near-similar function.

===Exhibitions===
[[File:Jean Giraud 20080706 Japan Expo 03.jpg|thumb|right|{{center|Mœbius signing at the 2008 Parisian [[Japan Expo]], where he had his own booth in recognition for his contributions to Japanese manga and animation}}]]
Part of the "many desires" that increasingly attracted Giraud later in life, steering him away from creating traditional ''bandes dessinées'', was his personal fascination and involvement with the many exhibitions dedicated to his work, that started to proliferate from the mid-1990s onward not only in native France, but internationally as well, causing him to frequently travel abroad, among others to Japan, for extended periods of time, with the prestigious high-profile 2010 «Mœbius transe forme» exposition in Paris becoming the apotheosis.<ref>[[#Sources|Sadoul, 2015, pp. 248-251]]</ref>
* Summer 1991: Exposition at the {{ill|Maison de la culture Frontenac|fr}}, [[Montréal]], Canada
* 26 April-16 August 1995:«Mœbius: a retrospective» exposition at the [[Cartoon Art Museum]], [[San Francisco]], US; came with limited edition catalog (see ''[[#Various|below]]'')
* December 1995: «Wanted: Blueberry» exposition at the Arthaud Grenette mega-bookstore, [[Grenoble]], France; also featuring original ''Blueberry'' art by Colin Wilson. Both he and Jean Giraud attended the opening on 1 December, making themselves also available for book signings. Prior to the opening a promotional brochure was disseminated by the bookstore ("Arthaud ''BD News''", issue 1, November 1995), featuring a three-page interview with Giraud.<ref>{{cite news |last=Breuillier |first=Jean-François |date=November 1995 |title=Interview de Jean Giraud |work=Arthaud BD News |issue=1 |pages=2–4 |publisher=Arthaud Grenette |location= [[Grenoble]], France | language=fr}}</ref>
* 19 September-9 October 1996: «Jean Giraud Blueberry» exposition at the Stardom Gallery, Paris, France, for the occasion of the upcoming release of the "Blueberry's" artbook by Stardom<ref name="blueberrys"/> &ndash; Giraud's own publishing house/art gallery. The below-mentioned [[#Documentaries|1997 documentary]] was the registration of events surrounding the release, including the exhibition.
* August 1997: «Giraud/Mœbius» themed {{ill|Festival BD de Solliès-Ville|fr|Festival de Solliès-Ville}}, France; co-produced with Stardom.<ref>[[#Sourses|Sadoul, 2015, p. 217]]</ref> A special festival guide, illustrated by Giraud &ndash; having received the festival's [[#Awards and honors|most prestigious comic award]] the previous year &ndash; and featuring a large interview with the artist, was published for the occasion by the festival organization.<ref name="sollies">"9e Festival BD de Solliès-Ville", festival guide 1997, p. 42 {{in lang|fr}}; standard European graphic novel sized softcover.</ref>
* 10 October–9 November 1997: «Mœbius: Infinito» grande exposition, Deposito ferroviario ai Lolli, [[Palermo]], and on 7 February–29 March 1998, [[Palazzo Querini Stampalia]], [[Venice]], Italy; The softcover artbook "Mœbius: Infinito" ({{OCLC|40845785}}) published for the occasions
* 29 November 1997 – 11 January 1998: «Mœbius: Visoni de fine mellennio» grande exposition, {{ill|Palazzo Bagati Valsecchi|it|Museo Bagatti Valsecchi}}, [[Milan]], Italy; The softcover artbook "Moebius: Visoni de fine mellennio" ({{isbn|8886456425}}) published for the occasion
* December 1998-January 1990: [[Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon]], France
* 30 June-14 November 1999: «1 Monde Réel» exposition at [[Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain|Fondation Cartier]], Paris, France<ref>{{cite book|url=https://carreartmusee.centredoc.fr/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=6989|title=1 monde réel|location=Paris|year=1999|publisher=Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain|isbn=9782742723218|page=324|language=fr}}</ref>
* 26 January-3 September 2000: «Trait de Génie Giraud» exposition, {{ill|Centre national de la bande dessinée et de l'image|fr}}, [[Angoulême]], France; The 48-page illustrated exhibition catalog "Trait de génie Giraud Moebius" ({{ISBN|2907848240}}) published for the occasion. Enhanced with elaborate background information and an in-depth interview with the artist, the book edition was limited to 2000 copies.
* May–June 2000: Große Austellung, [[Erlangen]], Germany
* May 2000: Collective exposition on contemporary comics at the [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]], Paris, France
* October 2001: Grande exposition, [[Montrouge]], France
* 17 January–7 March 2003: «MOEBIUS: WORLDS» exposition in the {{ill|Badischer Kunstverein|de}}, [[Karlsruhe]], Germany<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/exhibitionInfo/exhibition/14579/lang/1|title=Jean Giraud Moebius|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420225120/http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/exhibitionInfo/exhibition/14579/lang/1|website=Artfacts.net|archivedate=20 April 2008}}</ref> 
* June 2003: Great exposition, [[Kemi]], Finland
* 16 November-31 December 2003: «Giraud-Moebius» exposition, {{ill|Caserne Fonck|fr|lt=Grand Manège Caserne Fonck}}, [[Liège]], Belgium
* 4 March-28 April 2004: «L'Elixir du Docteur Gir/Moebius» exposition, Galerie Arludik, Paris, France<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allocine.fr/article/fichearticle_gen_carticle=18361911.html|title=Moebius s'expose 4 mars 2004 à 10:00|website=www.allocine.fr|date=4 March 2004 |language=fr}}</ref>
* 1 December 2004-13 April 2005: «Giraud/Mœbius & [[Hayao Miyazaki]]» exposition at the [[Musée de la Monnaie de Paris]], France<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.miyazaki-moebius.com/|title=Miyazaki/Moebius, 2 Artistes dont les dessins prennent vie|website=www.miyazaki-moebius.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051017024203/http://www.miyazaki-moebius.com/|archive-date=17 October 2005|access-date=6 May 2024|language=fr|url-status=live}} &ndash; Official website on the Miyazaki-Moebius exhibition at La Monnaie, Paris</ref><ref name="miya">{{YouTube|2L0YgdIpXas|Hayao Miyazaki (2004)}}</ref>
* 15 March-15 April 2005: «JEAN GIRAUD: Exposition de dessins et planches originales de "DUST" le nouvel album de Blueberry aux editions Dargaud», Galerie Arludik, Paris, France; small exhibition for the occasion of the 28th ''Blueberry'' album release.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://moebius.exblog.jp/2261036 | title=MISTER BLUEBERRY DUST | website=moebius.exblog.jp | language=ja}}</ref>
* June 2005: Exposition «Mythes Grecs» at the Stardom/Mœbius Production Art Gallery, Paris, France
* December 2005: «Jardins d'Eros» exposition at the Stardom/Mœbius Production Art Gallery, Paris, France
* February 2006: Exposition "sur le thème du Rêve" at the [[Centre d'arts plastiques contemporains de Bordeaux]], France
* October 2006: «Boudha line» exposition at the Stardom/Mœbius Production Art Gallery, Paris, France
* May 2007: Exposition, [[Seoul]], South-Korea
* May 2007: «Hommage au Major» exposition at the Stardom/Mœbius Production Art Gallery, Paris, France
* February 2008: «La citadelle du vertige» attraction from [[Futuroscope]] ([[Poitiers]]), France; inspired by the ''Garage hermétique'' universe.
* June 2008: «Fou et Cavalier» exposition at l'Espace Cortambert/Mœbius Production, Paris, France
* 15 January-14 June 2009: «Blueberry» exposition at the Maison de la bande dessinée, [[Brussels]], Belgium<ref>"[http://incognito-comics.blogspot.com/2019/06/giraud-blueberry-expositie-2009.html Giraud - Blueberry expositie 2009]", incognito-comics.nl {{in lang|nl}}</ref>
* May 2009: Exposition at the [[Kyoto International Manga Museum]], Japan
* November 2009: «Arzak, destination Tassili» exposition at the SFL building located at 103 rue de Grenelle, Paris, France (Co-production of Espace Cortambert/SFL/Mœbius Production)
* 12 October 2010 – 13 March 2011: «Mœbius transe forme» exposition at the [[Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain]], Paris, France, which the museum had called "the first major exhibition in Paris devoted to the work of Jean Giraud, known by his pseudonyms Gir and Mœbius."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fondationcartier.com/en/exhibitions/mbius-transe-forme|title=Exhibition Mœbius-Transe-Forme|website=www.fondationcartier.com|access-date=2 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210615011057/https://www.fondationcartier.com/en/exhibitions/mbius-transe-forme|archive-date=15 June 2021|language=en|url-status=live}} &ndash; Museum web page for exhibition.</ref> A major and prestigious event, it reflected the status Giraud had by then attained in French (comic) culture. A massive, similarly titled limited edition deluxe art book ({{ISBN|9782869250901}}) was released by the museum for the occasion.<ref name="transforme">{{cite web|url=https://www.stripinfo.be/reeks/strip/186560_Moebius_transe_forme_1_Moebius_transe_forme|title=Mœbius transe forme|website=stripINFO.be|language=nl}}</ref> The book incidentally, won the 2011 "Bande Dessinée" category award of the annual "Prix La Nuit du Livre".
* June–December 2011: «Mœbius multiple(s)» exposition at the [[Musée Thomas-Henry]], [[Cherbourg-Octeville]], France
'''Posthumous exhibitions'''
* 15 September 2019 – 29 March 2020: «Mœbius: Surreale Comicwelten» exposition at the {{ill|Max Ernst Museum Brühl des LVR|de}}, [[Brühl (Rhineland)|Brühl]], Germany.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.general-anzeiger-bonn.de/news/kultur-und-medien/max-ernst-museum-bruehl-eroeffnet-neue-ausstellung_aid-45866645|title=Max Ernst Museum Brühl eröffnet neue Ausstellung|website=www.general-anzeiger-bonn.de|date=16 September 2019|language=de}}</ref> A massive 272 page hardcover "Mœbius: Wanderer zwischen den Welten (="Wanderer between worlds")" art book, akin to the 2010 Parisian museum release, was released as a deluxe limited German/English bilingual edition exposition catalog by the museum for the occasion. (No ISBN mentioned but assigned the {{isbn|9783944453187}} by the [[German National Library]]) The exposition though, was prematurely closed on 14 March 2020 due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] crisis.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://maxernstmuseum.lvr.de/de/besuch/besuch_1.html|title=Besucherinformation|website=maxernstmuseum.lvr.de|language=de}}</ref>
* 10 July 2021 - 4 October 2021: «MOEBIUS - Alla ricerca del tempo» exposition at the [[Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli]] (MANN), [[Naples]], Italy. Exhibition organized around the theme of historical Italy, and in a sense an elaborate expansion of the earlier June 2005 «Mythes Grecs» exposition.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arte.it/calendario-arte/napoli/mostra-m-bius-alla-ricerca-del-tempo-78403|title=Moebius. Alla ricerca del tempo|website=www.arte.it|date=10 July 2021|language=it}}</ref> Originally slated to open on 10 April 2021, the exhibition's opening was postponed by three months due the COVID-19 pandemic. For the occasion, a 176-page hardcover art book was released as a deluxe, limited edition French/Italian bilingual exposition catalog in a joint venture effort by publishers Moebius Production and [[Napoli Comicon|Comicon Edizioni]] &ndash; hence its dual ISBNs, the French {{isbn|9782908766196}} one, and the Italian {{isbn|9788898049974}}.
* 25 October 2021 - 5 December 2021: «Hell, Purgatory, Paradise. Divine illustrations» exposition at the [[Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze]], [[Florence]], Italy. The exhibition was held to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Dante's death, and included the illustrations of Giraud, Lorenzo Mattotti, and Milton Glaser [[#Illustrator and author|previously compiled]] in a 1999 illustrated edition of the ''Divine Comedy''.<ref name=":0"/> Originally planned to run until 25 November, the exhibition was already before its opening extended by ten days to 5 December.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.accademia.firenze.it/it/component/k2/342-eventi/divine-illustrazioni|title=In Accademia le 'divine' illustrazioni di Mattotti, Glaser e Moebius|website=www.accademia.firenze.it|date=15 October 2021|language=it}}</ref>

===Stamps===
In 1988 Giraud was chosen, among 11 other winners of the prestigious [[Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême|Grand Prix]] of the [[Angoulême International Comics Festival|Angoulême Festival]], to illustrate a postage stamp set issued on the theme of communication.<ref>{{cite web| title=BD – Bande Dessinee et Philatelie| first=Dominique| last=Hachereau| url=http://dominique.hochereau.free.fr/bd/lacom.htm| language=fr| access-date=18 July 2009}}</ref>