“I started in 1957 when I sold my first story to a magazine.”
— Jean Giraud
15) At the beginning of an artist’s career, he should principally involve himself in the creation of very high quality short stories.
He has a better chance (than with long format stories) of successfully completing them, while maintaining a high standard of quality.
It will also be easier to place them in a book or sell them to a publisher.
Never forget to consider the business end of being an artist.
Once this short form has been mastered to some extent, then the artist can feel free to move on to a longer form with some degree of confidence in his or her storytelling skills.
Moebius once asked this about his stories:
“What do they whisper? Words of love, family stories? Are they in business? It’s a mystery, the beginning of a novel … This scene that I draw, almost hiding, excites my imagination.”
Giraud was a master of both short form and long form comics storytelling. Here’s a two-pager by Jean:
Study it. There’s more here than first meets the eye.
Next: Man Up
To easily access this entire series, go to:
http://xurxogpenalta.tumblr.com/post/91539965160/artist-william-stout-has-gone-through-the-moebius
Thanks for posting this. I love Giraud’s art. I used to buy Heavy Metal, every time an issue had something by him. Now that he’s gone, and his printed works have gone stratospheric in price, I have to glean what I can from the ‘net. I was delighted to see the nude b/w photos he used for reference with the faun in “Ballade.” I am very happy to have found this location.
I have lost a hero, but found a bit of his legacy here. There is only a taste of him in the Illustrators’ Biographies site (Vadeboncoeur), and I often root around on the web for as much as I can fine.
Thanks for posting this. I love Giraud’s art. I used to buy Heavy Metal, every time an issue had something by him. Now that he’s gone, and his printed works have gone stratospheric in price, I have to glean what I can from the ‘net. I was delighted to see the nude b/w photos he used for reference with the faun in “Ballade.” I am very happy to have found this location.
I have lost a hero, but found a bit of his legacy here. There is only a taste of him in the Illustrators’ Biographies site (Vadeboncoeur), and I often root around on the web for as much as I can find.