Moebius - The Long Tomorrow

Page 8 from 'The Long Tomorrow'

This one falls into the category of ‘never thought it was going to happen’. I’ve been an admirer of Moebius for a long time and, in the ordinary course of collecting, have had some opportunities to add an example in the past – but nothing like this.

I’m no Moebius expert, but certainly know enough about him to know how important the story, ‘The Long Tomorrow’, was given its influence on other science fiction stories and films. And, given its film noir and hardboiled crime fiction storytelling style, its also considered a significant influence on cyberpunk. Along those lines, pioneering cyberpunk author William Gibson had this to say about the story:

"So it's entirely fair to say, and I've said it before, that the way Neuromancer-the-novel 'looks' was influenced in large part by some of the artwork I saw in Metal Hurlant. I assume that this must also be true of John Carpenter's Escape from New York, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, and all other artifacts of the style sometimes dubbed 'cyberpunk'. Those French guys, they got their end in early."

‘The Long Tomorrow’ was originally serialized in two segments in the French magazine Metal Hurlant in 1976 and later by the American magazine Heavy Metal in Vol. 1 No. 4 and Vol. 1 No. 5, which were published in July 1977 and August 1977, respectively. The story was written by Dan O’Bannon (the screenwriter of the science fiction film, Alien) and drawn in color by Moebius.

Metal Hurlant (literal translation = ‘Howling Metal’) was a French comics anthology of science fiction and horror stories. It was created in December 1974 by comics artists Jean Giraud (a.k.a., Moebius) and Phillippe Druillet along with writer Jean-Pierre Dionnet and financial director Bernard Farkas. Humanoides Associes was their publishing name/house.

The story is noted for its influential visual design, which inspired the designs of feature films such as Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Tron (1982) & The Abyss (1989).

In his introduction to the French hardcover graphic story collection The Long Tomorrow, Moebius wrote:

“I drew The Long Tomorrow in 1975, while I worked with Alexandro Jodorowsky on a film adaption of Dune. Originally Douglas Trumbull was to do the special effects, but that was not to be so Jodorowsky hired Dan O’Bannon to replace him. Dan came to Paris. Bearded, dressed in a wild style, the typical Californian post-hippie. His real work would begin at the time of shooting, on the models, on the hardware props. As we were still in the stage of preparations and concepts, there was almost nothing to do and he was bored stiff. To kill time, he drew. Dan is best known as a script writer but is an excellent cartoonist. If he had wished, he could have been a professional graphic artist. One day, he showed me what he was drawing. It was the story board of ‘The Long Tomorrow’. A classic police story, but situated in the future. I was enthusiastic. When Europeans try this kind of parody, it is never entirely satisfactory, the French are too French, the Italians are too Italian…so, under my nose was a pastiche that was more original than the originals. A believer in parody, Dan continued that tradition. As the story was very strong, I immediately asked if he would allow me to play around graphically, with complete freedom, without conventional pyrotechnics, to refocus on the floating point of view. Pete Club’s costume, for example, was almost ridiculous, far from the traditional raincoat of Bogart. It was the same for most of the visual elements. I scrupulously followed Dan’s story. One day I wish we could publish our two versions side by side. As the strip has pleased everyone, I asked Dan about a sequel, but it did not get his attention, so was simply an adventure I never designed.”

Moebius passed away in Paris on March 10, 2012, at the age of 73.