INTERVIEW WITH MOEBIUS, aka JEAN GIRAUD. WE ACTUALLY MET EVENTUALLY AT COMICCON, WITH ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY
Born in 1938, Jean Giraud is Moebius, a name synonymous with origin of Heavy Metal.
Q: You were one of the creators of the original French Metal Hurlant back in the 70’s, no?
A: Yes, one of it… one of them, sorry.
Q: It’s OK. I’ll fix up your English.
A: I was one of them, yes, and we were two artists in the beginning. Phillipe Druillet and me, graphic artists, and Jean-Pierre Dionnet was a writer.
Q: But you were a traveler before that, weren’t you?
A: A little bit. Because my mother came in Mexico in ’57 and I made a choice to go to see her.
Q: But, but did you read Castaneda, or his books hadn’t been written yet?
A: Later, much later. Castaneda was maybe 10 when I did travel. Maybe Don Juan [the Yaqui magician] was already in action, but not Castaneda. Anyway, I read Castaneda in ’75 because I met him with Alexandro Jodorowsky, who was my biggest trouble.
Q: What do you mean, he was your biggest trouble?
A: Because…its a little bit silly to say it. Because of Jodorowsky, I made movement, but inside, not outside, of myself.
Q: I understand. That’s sort of what I wanted to get to. What were those movements inside of yourself?
A: Oh, I was trying to have power in beliefs and purpose and the destiny of me, you know? It was natural in drawing, part of the teaching. The idea of growing into the style, into yourself, that’s not part of the education in France, where the only thing you can do is to learn to be normal. In getting better inside, the personal side of the person, that’s not Christian or Catholic. It’s a concept from Asia.
Q: Now, you don’t have to answer, but something tells me that hallucinogenics might have been involved in some of this. There’s one particular frame in the Airtight Garage where the Major is in a chair and his face is in close-up and has been treated in a few different bands of color. And there’s a small circle with an “A” inscribed within in it, floating just above his face, and I had the feeling that “A” was significant.
A: (LAUGHS LOUDLY) Yes, I’m sure it was significant when I did it, but I really don’t remember. It was maybe twenty years ago. The idea is that when I draw, maybe I’m reading a book or I’m having an experience and I put that in my drawings, like it is to put a message in a bottle, and then throw it in the ocean. Maybe it’s very silly of me, but I feel good today. I hope you are the same, you know. OK, that message went in the bottle. So it was like that.
Q: And so it washed up on my beach and I thought, “Hmm, maybe I’ll ask him why he drew that.”
A: It’s good to have a good “A” in a bottle, you know. So, you can play with this, and you can ask yourself what that means. Maybe it could be this, or it could be that. OK?
Q: Ok, good enough. You know, you seem like a very positive person.
A: I think that the world is marvelous. And when it is not it is because we have the wrong vision. Because of education, or for many reasons, we have many secondary benefits to saying life is bad.
Q: Hmm. But wouldn’t it be better just to say life is good?
A: Yes. But I mean, if we say life is good, then I am not in the good part because I don’t do the right thing. Come on, life is painful. So, the biggest fear is to have pain. And we prefer a different vision of the world. So the different vision is the world is very bad, and I’m not so bad. Or, if I’m bad, it’s not my fault, it’s the world. Because I’m a good person.
Q: That’s interesting.
A: Sorry to be, I am being so philosophical.
Q: No, it’s OK. I’m asking you questions that are making you talk philosophically. The Fifth Element, you worked on that. Did you design the characters?
A: Oh, I designed some parts. It’s difficult to say because in the beginning it was two movies. But because of the American system, it was not possible to make two movies at the same time. So, I had to cut a lot of things and many of my drawings got lost. Not only mine, but from the rest of the team. It was a very interesting team. They had two old artists, Jean-Claude Mézières and me, and a lot of young people doing their first job and doing their best job. And I had my daughter on the team. I was very proud. You can see her name in the credits. Elaine Giraud.
Q: You also the storyboards for Tron, I was surprised to hear that.
A: Yes, it was my first introduction in the movie business. I’m very proud because it was the first movie with computer animation.
Q: How do you feel about the technology revolution.
A: Oh, I’m crazy about it. At the time, I didn’t realize the potential of it. I was very surprised at the beauty of certain scenes in Tron. But after that I had a reputation for being an artist engaged in 3D animation. So I was invited many places, especially to New York to teach technology, you know. I saw some of the first uses of the Cray Supercomputer, and I met many people doing movies like the Last Fighter Pilot. It was a very interesting movie. I was very involved in that kind of business, and I tried to do my own movie called Starwatcher, but my producer died. And in fact, I’m not a professional animator, I’m only an artist.
Q: Right. But, you came up with ideas for…
A: I came up with ideas, sure, but it is strange, the way a reputation is made. You fight that, but now I’m somebody involved in animation….
Q: I don’t understand. You don’t feel like that’s you?
A: Not completely, because it’s something very special. People who really know that really know it, and I don’t, you know? They are much more involved, they know everybody, they know the technique, the proper technology.
Q: OK. You’re an artist.
A: I’m an artist. I work with paper.
Q: I understand. You don’t sit at a workstation with a mouse in your hand.
A: But I like to work with the computer, not in 3-D, in 2-D. I do all my colors with Photo Shop.
Q: You do?
A: Oh, it’s great.
Q: But tell me. I want to get back to your drawings. I had a question about your faces. As I looked at all these faces you had drawn, I wondered where they came from.
A: Uh huh.
Q: Do you just draw them?
A: You know, I can talk about my work, but I have no answers. I never try. I prefer to be behind my drawings. The drawings make me, you know? I follow them. I don’t know why I draw them. I try to preserve that ignorance. For me, it is the grand key that makes me genuine, you know, and I’m not trying to admit it to myself. I’m not trying to be the master of the game, you know, I follow the crowd.
Q: I got the feeling when I reread the Airtight Garage last night, that it just seemed to drift, but in a very interesting way that left me in suspense.
A: Yes, but I don’t think it’s the best way. I think it’s my way. The best way for me. I don’t try to be the master of anything. I don’t try to tell anybody the way… it’s just my way.
Q: But this brings us back to your inner travels.
A: Yes, and I try to bring something back from that travelling, you know? That deviation, it’s not a way everybody takes, but I’m not alone. There are many people who do the same, but we are not the majority. We are few, actually 10 percent.
Q: I may have been on the same road, but we’re not here to talk about me. And so, you come back from these inner travels…
A: (LAUGHS) I’m sorry, you know, that I’m in the wrong side of the telephone.
Q: Me too. (LAUGHS) Anyway, you come back with these messages in bottles from your inner trip, I guess. I’m starting to understand now. I mean, am I right?
A: Yeah, we can describe it like that. That’s pretty exact.
Q: Sorry to sum you up.
A: It’s ok. Because nothing is so simple, we use pictures in order to tell the story, but it’s, in fact, because we don’t know exactly what’s up.
