Editing Jean Giraud (section)

===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>