18 Tips for Comic Book Artists by Jean “Moebius” Giraud

A Brief Manual for the Cartoonist

Xurxo Penalta translated (and then revised) Moebius’ list of advice for artists from Spanish to English. I thought I would do my own translation of my friend’s words and then annotate them. Xurxo’s translation can be found at:

http://royalboiler.tumblr.com/

The original August 18, 1996 lecture (compiled by Perez Ruiz) appeared as a post in Spanish on the internet at:

www.jornada.unam.mx/1996/08/18/sem-moebius.html

I could be wrong, but I believe the lecture was made at a convention in Mexico City.

Jean and I each considered the other to be a genius (I was right, Jean was wrong). I think you’ll find these observations by Giraud, at the very least, stimulating food for thought. Jeans observations are in bold; my annotations aren’t.

1) When you draw, you must first cleanse yourself of deep feelings, like hate, happiness, ambition, etc.

These feelings are typically emotional prejudices that function as a block to creativity.

This was something I learned from drawing and hanging out with another Frenchman, the brilliant cartoonist-illustrator (and regular Atlantic Monthly contributor) Guy Billout, when we were traveling together in Antarctica and Patagonia back in 1989. Until I spent time with Guy, I had no idea how many pre-conceived notions and assumptions I held within me regarding people and situations and what a block they were to the flow of my creativity.

Divorcing yourself from such emotionally blinding pre-conceptions allows you to see things with fresh eyes. Solutions and ideas then flow with much greater ease. I have noticed with all the creative geniuses I have met that they all share a childlike delight with whatever or whomever they encounter in life (they can even find amusement in life’s villains). For them, all creative barriers are down; life and creative problem solving for them is like constantly playing. They gush great ideas all day long like a fountain.

Next: Technical Skills

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