I came to Moebius’s work from Jodorwosky, as Moebius – Jean Giraud – illustrated Jodorowsky’s Incal series, still one of the greatest sf bandes dessinées of all time. Although, having said that, I seem to remember seeing parts of Moebius’s Airtight Garage many. many years ago. Back in the early 1980s, I used to fly out to the Middle East for holidays via Schiphol Airport, and in the bookshop there I would often pick up a copy of Heavy Metal or Epic, and even an issue of 1984 (which I had to hide once I’d discovered what it contained). I’ve a feeling that’s where I first encountered Moebius’s work. That’s all by the bye. I’ve been a fan of Moebius for many years now, so I keep an eye open for when new stuff by him appears in English (I could, I suppose, buy the original French editions, but I have enough trouble keeping track of new stuff in one language market, never mind doing it in two). Inside Moebius, originally published in in six volumes in France but now as three volumes from Dark Horse, is a sort of autobiographical private project that blossomed. Moebius wanted to give up smoking, so he started writing a bande dessinée about it, and then sort of dragged in the books he had worked on, or was currently working on, and his thoughts on a variety of subjects. Particularly politics. Osama bin Laden makes an appearance in Inside Moebius, Part 1, as do some of Moebius’s characters – Blueberry, Arzak and the Major. The art is not as detailed as in other Moebius works, it’s almost sketches, in fact. But the way the book is designed, it’s clear the words are more important. The dialogue is full of puns, many of which have not translated but a helpful afterword explains them. (For the record, I did get the “Fumetti” one.) It’s all good stuff, although I could have wished for artwork as good as that in the aforementioned works. ( )

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

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

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

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