Moebius and Digital Tools: From Experimentation to Remediation

This article examines the way in which Jean Giraud (1938-2012) - Moebius - used digital tools throughout his career in a variety of ways, ranging from experimentation to remediation and back. A digitally altered image from 1975, republished in 2010 with undocumented changes, demonstrates the way in which Moebius embraced digital tools towards the end of his life, to curate his own legacy, to revisit and recombine his earlier work, but also to supplement his failing physical abilities. These uses, accompanied with often contradictory statements from the author, are but the final step in Moebius's engagement with these tools, from the late 1980s to the moment of his death. The article examines the scattered traces of early experiments, including a recently rediscovered digital exhibit of abstract images from 1993, and the gradual integration of digital tools in Moebius's professional output, before attempting to make sense of the author's reluctance to acknowledge their importance in his late work.