I see Dan Dare, Holmes, P. Fogg, and so on. Have we talked about LXG? Didn't notice it. Mind you, I disagree with a large proportion of fandom and think Alan Moore is a wanker.
Anyway, this next bit is a little convoluted, but bear with me.
Back in the early Metal Hurlant days, Moebius as ked Michael Moorcock if he could use one of his heroes, urban hipster and needle gun slinger, Jerry Cornelius, as a hero in a comic strip, which Moorcock agreed to. Thus was born 'The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius'. After a while, Moorcock didn't like the direction it was taking and asked Moebius to drop Cornelius*. He was dropped, the name shortened to 'The Airtight Garage'. I think another influence on Moebius was a Cornelius side character, Major Nye, veddy British, stiff upper lip, and all that. With the changes, Moebius started a new strip whose name I can't recall, but his story is part of 'TAG' and 'The Man From the Ciguri', and is called Major Grubert.
He typified a very British hero to me - pith helmet, linens, stiff upper lip covered with a thin moustache, eyes fixed on distant horizons, cool on the hottest days and most tense situations. He's an example of the classic Brit type, the Explorer, or the man who guards the frontier. That's the guy you want.
* ETA: While looking around, found this, from Moorcock himself on his website:
Anyway, this next bit is a little convoluted, but bear with me.
Back in the early Metal Hurlant days, Moebius as ked Michael Moorcock if he could use one of his heroes, urban hipster and needle gun slinger, Jerry Cornelius, as a hero in a comic strip, which Moorcock agreed to. Thus was born 'The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius'. After a while, Moorcock didn't like the direction it was taking and asked Moebius to drop Cornelius*. He was dropped, the name shortened to 'The Airtight Garage'. I think another influence on Moebius was a Cornelius side character, Major Nye, veddy British, stiff upper lip, and all that. With the changes, Moebius started a new strip whose name I can't recall, but his story is part of 'TAG' and 'The Man From the Ciguri', and is called Major Grubert.
He typified a very British hero to me - pith helmet, linens, stiff upper lip covered with a thin moustache, eyes fixed on distant horizons, cool on the hottest days and most tense situations. He's an example of the classic Brit type, the Explorer, or the man who guards the frontier. That's the guy you want.
* ETA: While looking around, found this, from Moorcock himself on his website:
I couldn't find a really good image of him online, but these will give you an idea:I loved The Airtight Garage of JC but someone told Moebius, absolutely wrongly, that I wasn't happy with his use of the name.I learned all this much later...


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