OMAC YOUR ENTHUSIASM (19)
By:
June 9, 2026
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating our favorite… Seventies (1974–83) sci-fi novels and comics! Series edited by Josh Glenn.
ARZACH | MOEBIUS | 1975
Over the course of a few years in the mid-1970s, Jean (“Moebius”) Giraud published four short, wordless comics in the pages of Métal Hurlant, titled “Arzach,” “Harzach,” “Arzak,” and “Harzakc.” Here’s a panel from the first story:
It’s not the monster, with his menacing fangs and claws that impress the most. It’s not even the expression of apparent equanimity the hero possesses as he notices a creature bearing down on him. No. What sticks out for me in this panel is the hat. What is it? What’s with the shape? Is that visible stitching, on and around a vaguely heraldic shield? And are those… pom poms?
Moebius loved hats. He drew hundreds of unique head coverings over his career. The one from “Arzach” is among his most iconic, the other being a spiked pith helmet from his masterwork “The Airtight Garage.” Moebius later claimed this one was an unconsciously drawn phallic symbol. I think that’s a convenient lie to mask the truth, which is that he just loved drawing hats. The man had a haberdashery in his mind.
He also loved drawing rocks. Boulders, mesas, craggy mountains with inhabited keeps. He drew machines inside machines inside machines inside austere temples. He drew monsters, and it must be admitted, occasionally drew huge schlongs on those monsters. He also drew the most incredible clouds.
He drew all these with precision and depth, with a lived-in-ness where every wall has a crack, every boot has a latch, and the disintegrating ancient architecture somehow also has rebar sticking out of the ends. Regardless of how far out, esoteric, goofy, lewd, transcendent, or hair-raising a panel may be, it always retains, at least in part, a believable grounded physicality.
Before Giraud became Moebius he spent a decade illustrating Blueberry, one of the most popular Western genre comics in France. His superior drafting skills were already evident, but he was working within the strict confines of a popular medium. After he departed to co-found Métal Hurlant, rather than work from a written script he often drew spontaneously, not knowing what the next panel or page would be. The plot was secondary to the world he was manifesting. It could give the right kind of reader a thrilling agency.
My favorite of the stories is the third, “Arzak.” It contains many of the elements that Moebius would explore for the rest of his career. A lone traveller, in a car simultaneously antique and futuristic, speeds through a desert littered with broken monuments. He approaches a stepped temple. Inside is an enormous room, empty save for an impossibly complex machine and groups of apathetic naked men. As the traveller approaches the machine, he is attacked by one of the men. He manages to crawl into the machine, a kind of control room where we see on a monitor one of the flying creatures encountered in a previous story. The creature lies motionless on the ground while his agitated rider paces. The traveller takes out a toolbox and begins working on the machines. As he does, the creature on the screen appears to be revived. His work complete, the traveller is seen driving away.
An entire world conjured in 25 panels.
OMAC YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Mark Kingwell on RIDDLEY WALKER | Carlo Rotella on THE FACE | Sara Ryan on DREAMSNAKE | Matthew Battles on THE WORD FOR WORLD IS FOREST | Ramona Lyons on HIGH-RISE | Adam McGovern on SHADRACH IN THE FURNACE | Deb Chachra on THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY | Tom Nealon on DHALGREN | Michael Grasso on FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID | Stephanie Burt on BRIGHTNESS FALLS FROM THE AIR | Nikhil Singh on SABRE | Gordon Dahlquist on VALIS | Miranda Mellis on THE DISPOSSESSED | Marc Weidenbaum on SOFTWARE | Peggy Nelson on THE TRANSMIGRATION OF TIMOTHY ARCHER | Josh Glenn on ENGINE SUMMER | Mimi Lipson on A SCANNER DARKLY | Douglas Wolk on THRILLER | David Hirmes on ARZACH | Anthony Miller on THE SHOCKWAVE RIDER | Annie Nocenti on JIMBO | Seth on MR. MACHINE | Alex Brook Lynn on JUDGE DREDD | Joe Alterio on THE INCAL | Jason Grote on JOSIE AND THE ELEVATOR.
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