Moebius' Shore Leave

A bit of fun now from Jean Giraud, courtesy of the July 1980 issue of Heavy Metal.

When this story was reprinted in the Dark Horse collection Exotics, Moebius revealed in his introduction that he'd done this piece simply for the hell of it, spending a couple of hours a night on it, after paying jobs, with no idea where the story was going. We should all be as productive in our off hours.

He also described Shore Leave as dealing: ' With a lot of metaphysical subjects, such as the transformation of oneself, the nature of magic, and the danger of doing certain things, or going into certain places, if you don't know exactly what you are doing, in a very symbolic way. '

All of which is no doubt true, but what I like about this piece is the absolute matter-of-factness of the characters, as we peer through a window in space into their reality. This is just another day for them.

Ray Bradbury's Dinosaur Tales

I sometimes feel like I should caveat some of the things I write on this here blog with a 'I know it seems like I'm presenting opinion as fact, but it is just my opinion' or some similar statement, but there are a few things I can say with complete confidence, and know no one in their right mind will ever disagree.
Like: Ray Bradbury was one of the greatest writers ever. FACT.

In our school growing up, we must've had a major sci-fi fan in the library staff, as that section had just about everything; from Moorcock to Ellison's Dangerous Visions to Bradbury's own The Illustrated Man, The Martian Chronicles, The Golden Apples Of The Sun and on and on. So, in 1983, when Ray got together with Byron Preiss and Bantam Books to produce this little beaut, an illustrated collection of all his, well, dinosaur tales, it was a book I was more than ready for.
It's a handsome, lovingly put together volume chock full of great stories and art. So what did you get? Well, after some fantastic, comedic frontispiece illustration's from Kenneth Smith:

Ray details his lifelong love for dinosaurs in a typically warm, friendly foreword full of childhood reminiscences and grownup regrets. Then the first story is a then new one, done especially for the book.
Besides A Dinosaur, Whatta Ya Wanna Be When You Grow Up? is all about, natch, a little kid who dreams of becoming a T-Rex:

This was my least favourite story back in '83, but I'm now at the right age to appreciate it. The art, by David Wiesner, is also not my favourite, but to be fair he has some serious competition here.
Next is the all-time classic A Sound Of Thunder, originally adapted by EC back in the '50's and prime rip-off material for every subsequent time-travel tale ever since ( as well as quite an odd low budget movie adaptation in 2005 ) This is illustrated by Bill Stout, champion dinosaur artist and is magnificent in every way.

Then there's a jokey poem Lo, The Dear, Daft Dinosaurs, illustrated by Overton Loyd, who stole the show in Preiss' The Illustrated Harlan Ellison.

This is followed by the other standout in a book of standouts, Steranko illustrating mournful masterpiece The Fog Horn: 

Then there's Gahan Wilson with another poem, What If I Said The Dinosaur's Not Dead?

And as if all that wasn't enough, the last tale has Moebius, with dinosaur in Hollywood piece Tyrannosaurus Rex. It speaks volumes for this book that by this point, you have a right to expect nothing less than Moebius.

It staggers me that I sometimes see this book on ebay, going for less than a fiver. Ridiculous, as it is an absolute masterpiece.

Arzach

Let's look at some more Moebius. Arzach first appeared in 1974, in the pages of Metal Hurlant, the star of four silent strips that caused a sensation in the artists' native France. Although the quartet of tales seem relatively simple, they actually operate ( like a lot of Giraud's work ) on a whole other, subconscious level. Full of dream imagery, and dream logic, the Arzach stories are like convoluted little riddles, with meaning & understanding always tantalizingly out of reach.
As I've said before, Moebius is one of those rare artists where, when you look at his work, you genuinely feel like you're gazing into another universe. Here's the first excursion of Arzach's world.









And here's a much later piece, explaining some of Arzach's back story. As beautiful as this strip is, I kind of didn't need it. Having been immersed into the other stories, an actual explanation of what's going on, and who Arzach actually is, spoils the fun a little bit. I liked the mystery better.






And as a closer, here's Lee Marrs' fun take on the whole thing, via Imagine.