If you look at my drawings, you'd probably be hard pressed to see how much influence Moebius has had on my work.
Unless you see me draw the desert. When I draw the desert, I draw Moebius' desert.
His influence is there in other little ways too, but his biggest impact for me, is inspiration. I look at his work a lot.
No, A LOT.
Seriously.
No other artist INSTANTLY inspires me to start drawing like seeing a Moebius drawing or painting does.
It's like inspiration hard lined right into my veins. Euphoria, a rush of adrenaline, and the intense desire to find a drawing implement.
The first time I discovered his work, I didn't know it. In the pre-internet era, we looked at a magazine called STARLOG to get our Sci-Fi movie scoops. They were talking about a feature film version of MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, and there was a little sketch of what the movie He-Man would look like. I wasn't that interested in the movie. He-Man was a little past my time, it was 1987, and I was in Junior High. I was too busy being rejected by cute girls to play with futuristic muscle man toys.
That drawing though. I stared at it. And stared at it. I had no idea who drew it, but I knew I liked it.
Fast forward to High School. I was lucky enough to have ANOTHER DIMENSION, a local comic shop right across the street. One day I saw a Hardcover Graphic Novel of a Stan Lee Silver Surfer story. Leafing through it, I was blown away by the art. Mainly by things that young, aspiring artists are blown away by, use of perspective, rendering, and he seemed to draw without a ruler! How was this possible? The colour was different than what was on the stands as well.
What's a Moebius, and how does it draw so amazingly well?
A long talk with my buddy Imran (an awesome comic artist in his own right at the time) in Art Class, and I learned all about who Moebius was.
I saved up for a few weeks and went back and bought that Silver Surfer book. I remember there being some roughs and rejected/redrawn pages in the back. I couldn't believe the pages that he thought weren't good enough.
I was hooked. A week later I went back and bought MOEBIUS 3: THE AIRTIGHT GARAGE, one of those big albums that epic released in the late 80's or early 90's, and I have been a fan ever since.
I will miss seeing new work from the man, but he left a wealth of inspiration for us all.
His ability to morph into different styles I have always admired, but it is his loose, confident drawing that I admire most. He is one of those artists at a level that I hope to some day attain myself.
In truth though, he was a genius, and has a skill that few can attain, but if you're gonna take aim, you might as well aim high.
Thanks for the inspiration Moebius, I hope where you are is even weirder than you imagined.
