In 2002, Moebius directed a series of 14 short animations based on his huge popular comic ‘Arzach’. ‘Arzak Rhapsody’ is a compilation of all these episodes, which follow the adventures of a silent warrior who rides a pterodactyl-like creature through strange, desolate landscapes.
Although the animation was not done by Moebius himself, and definitely lacks his level finesse, it does do a great job of emulating his style and bringing his world to life.
DAMN dude
Thanks for letting us know about these, Dan. These are wonderful and dreamlike visual poems. Even though the animation is pretty simple, they feel true to Moebius's distinctive imagination. (For example, if you see a pretty girl, prepare for weird tentacles to appear and a dangerous femme fatale)
Thanks to OZ Flashman for doing the subtitles. The titles didn't come up automatically for me at first until I figured out how to work the CC button.
I'm pretty sure Moebius single handedly drew all of this. It was converted to vector which caused the smoothing effect on his lines.
Yes, it’s my understanding that Moebius drew everything, characters and backgrounds, and it was then animated in a simplistic way. (He may well have been drawing digitally at this point.) Personally I love the work of Moebius (who doesn’t?) but found these short films a bit tedious: the fact that things move (slightly) doesn’t really compensate for the very basic nature of Moebius’s drawings here, and narrative tension or coherence is largely absent. Far better to look at one of his more finished (static) pieces and imagine the action yourself.