A START AND AN END

the incredible storyteller and draftsman Moebius died this weekend. I have a lot of admiration for the man and a lot of thoughts on this, but I will only waffle (and his work speaks for itself: seek it out and make your own opinion)

but in the light of this I've been digging through favourite comics and pieces and interviews with the chap (sad that it often takes a death for us to reevaluate these things)

particular favourite of mine is what he says in this interview:

" [on his wife]“She says I exist because I always do something new, but many people they exist because they do something that is always the same,” Giraud said. “It is a kind of a performance to always stay; the audience sees them and admires it because they remind them of the past and they seem to always stay young, stay strong, stay active. The purpose of transformation is not for everyone.” A musical analogy was offered; Bob Dylan continues to push and experiment and revamp his music and persona instead of trying to stay forever young, while the Rolling Stones tour with all the familiar hits as a tenacious declaration that, no matter what the calendar says, time is on their side. “Yes, that it is. The Rolling Stones keep their audience and new ones come in and understand it. Their career is a piece of art. Dylan has pieces all over and it’s a diffused audience and there are chapters to him.”

The man they call Moebius trailed a finger along the brow above his healthier eye. “I have no explanation but I am interested in being alive. No, seriously, staying alive for an artist means to always be in an unknown part of himself. To be out of himself. The exhibition in Paris, the theme was transformation. Art is the big door but real life is a lot of small doors that you must pass through to create something new. You don’t always need to go far. If you are in the space station Mir and you need to fix something, you go outside, but not too far. If you travel too far you’ll die. Outer space is not human but you can visit. You need to be a little bit out there but you need to stay close to human.”"

that's some wisdom for definite: everyone existing within their own different definitions. and to be interested in being alive, well, I think there's no purer interest than that.