The inspirational French artist Jean Giraud AKA Moebius passed away on 10 March 2012 in Paris. He was 73.

Moebius was most famous for his contributions to the magazine that he co-founded, Métal Hurlant, known in the English-speaking world as Heavy Metal. Moebius’s distinctive art style inspired the likes of Ridley Scott, who used his designs in the 1979 film Alien and inspired the visual style of Scott’s sci-fi followup, Blade Runner.

Moebius was involved in the development of dozens of movie projects, but for the film that most reflects Giraud’s art on the big screen is Luc Besson’s 1997 opus, The Fifth Element. The Bruce Willis starring sci-fi flick pretty much looks like a Moebius graphic album brought to life.

After Ralph McQuarrie’s departure last week, we have now lost two great movie concept artists.

If you would like to take a look at some of Moebius’s ground-breaking work check out New Zealand’s number one comic store, Mark One Comics, www.mk1.co.nz.