A Wide World of Comics !

Before even being introduced to American Comics, I mostly collected French comics, many of which were drawn or written by Jean Giraud, AKA Moebius. I have a large collection of Métal Hurlant issues and collected many of his other works. What I loved most about Métal Hurlant (Heavy Metal), was the variety of genres and the styles of imagery presented in every comic that came out. One specific issue I have was actually a very special limited issue. It included, in my opinion, one of the greatest comic stories of all time by Moebius. The story was called, The Eyes of the Cat , and was Giraud’s first collaboration with the filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky. It was actually never meant for widespread distribution. It was printed in a tiny quantity, as a bonus gift for friends and clients of French comic publishers Les Humanoïdes Associés. The story was initially supposed to just be a kind of internal thank you note. The piece has very little dialogue and is narrated from the point of view (which is not revealed till the very end) of a small, bald character who's back silhouette is all we see for the majority of its pages. He is standing in a window throughout the entire story while pages cut back and forth between him, an eagle, and a cat. As I read this fantastically paced comic, it took a while for me to realize that the the narrator was actually dictating the motions of the eagle, narrating his thoughts and at the same time, communicating those thoughts into actions using the eagle.

 The eagle soars through the city,

 finds a cat, 

plunges towards it, and with it's beak pulls the cats eye balls out. 

              

The narrator summons the eagle, the eagle returns to the boy, (nearing the point in which we realize that the narration was from the point of view of silhouette all along...)

                

and when he is given the cat's eyeballs, he struggles to put them into his own head, and then scolds the bird. He ends the story saying something along the lines of, "Next time, bring me the eyes of a human !" 

It was such a perfectly drawn and written story and forever engrained a style of storytelling I would have never considered before.  There is a quiet intensity to this poetically composed comic. Its hypnotic, almost metronomic quality lets the horror catch you totally off-guard. In an interview, Moebius somewhere called The Eyes an example of the “effective horror story”: one in which the genre is a soaring night-bird of prey stalking the reader in an effort to awaken them and open their eyes. It’s an interesting way of putting it given how I took to clenching my eyes shut near birds of any kind. It is obvious this story came from a personal place, the best stories told come from the most personal experiences and sources. After reading it again as an adult, I had to do my research. It has been said that Moebius was diagnosed with severe cataracts, a common cause of blindness. I also found that there is something called, Moebius syndrome: a rare neurological condition that primarily affects the muscles that control facial expression and eye movement. Anyway, the history of Moebius' eye sight isn't so important, but the inspiration and production of many of his works is exemplary and impeccable because of his personal history and experiences. This specific story left a very strong impression on me. The stories in Metal Hurlant often had that impact on readers. I was rarely ever disappointed with the outlandish and unusual stories put out by them, and though I enjoy the American version, Heavy Metal, I do feel it could reintroduce that foreign quality a little bit more.