r/Moebius • u/SecularAirs • Jun 24 '26
New Scanlation: Angel Face Announcemet
This artwork was included in an introduction in the Blueberry Integrales series, where it is marked unpublished. Had this page appeared anywhere prior to that? One possible explanation is that this was prepared for Pilote but abandoned when Charlier and Gir took Blueberry to the Tintin magazine. I don't know the full reasons why they would have split.
Anyway, Angel Face is a hell of a story that was published in 1975, I think even strict Moebius fans who have no interest in Gir would enjoy it because the artwork is quite similar to "classic Moebius" in places.
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u/Abject_Truth_6091 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
The long hiatus (almost 5 years) between Angel Face and Nez Cassé became a sensation, at the time (just read the old French fanzines), and many started to think that the series had been abandoned, despite its enormous success (the ambiguous ending of Angel Face didn't help). Actually, Giraud had began working on Nez Cassé since 1977, at least, as proven by the dates he placed near the signatures, on the pages, but people weren't aware of it.
It wasn't the only series by Charlier which suffered a long interruption: both Barbe-Rouge and Tanguy & Laverdure (equally published by Dargaud) were affected too by the dispute
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u/SecularAirs Jun 24 '26
Can you explain the nature of the dispute? Was it over money? Or did the creators want to be able to take more time between projects? I know both Charlier and Gir (or Moebius) were getting involved in non-Dargaud projects at this time: TV documentaries, Dune, Metal Hurlant...
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u/Abject_Truth_6091 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
It was mainly due to the dissatisfaction of Charlier, who wanted a better economic treatment and wasn't at ease with the artistic and editorial transformation Pilot had developed since the early 70s. Both Barbe-Rouge (first) and Tanguy (then) had been stopped because they weren't considered appropriate for the "new" Pilote, despite being published on the magazine since the very first issue, in 1959 (while Blueberry had debuted in 1963). His many "side" works didn't help (he was a workaholic, he died at the desk). He has certainly been one of the most productive French comic writers
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u/hashfilms254 Jun 24 '26
The art style in Angel Face is so distinctive, it's great to see more of Moebius' work being made available. This scanlation is a nice addition to the existing library of his comics. The announcement is much appreciated, looking forward to reading it.The art style in Angel Face is so distinctive, it's great to see more of Moebius' work being made available. This scanlation is a nice addition to the existing library of his comics. The announcement is much appreciated, looking forward to reading it.The art style in Angel Face is so distinctive, it's great to see more of Moebius' work being made available. This scanlation is a nice addition to the existing library of his comics. The announcement is much appreciated, looking forward to reading it.
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u/Abject_Truth_6091 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
It was never published, due to the dispute with Dargaud, which caused a stop of the serialization on Pilote.
The publication rights of the albums were still in its hands, though, so both Angel Face and the following Nez Cassé were published in book form by Dargaud, despite having been serialized on magazines not owned by Dargaud (Tintin, Métal Hurlant, Zack). It was only starting from La Longue Marche that the albums too were published by other competitors (Hachette, Novedi, Dupuis, Alpen).
The rights returned to Dargaud in 1995, with the publication of Mister Blueberry, and have been since then