Artist Jean Giraud Aka Moebius Has Died at 73

French artist Jean Giraud aka Moebius has passed away at age 73, according to the BBC (via THR). He is best known for creating the Western anti-hero Blueberry, which first appeared in 1963 in France. The character was "a loner who traveled the post-Civil War American West after being framed for a murder he did not commit. The character started out as a racist but came to oppose discrimination of all kinds."

American fans known him for his work on the two-part Silver Surfer mini-series he scripted with Stan Lee. The comic won an Eisner Award. He also worked on concepts and storyboards for numerous science fiction films, including Alien,Tron, The Abyss, and The Fifth Element. He also co-created the feature-length animated science fiction film Les Maîtres du temps, which was released in English as Time Masters. 

Giraud's work was featured in a retrospective exhibition in 2010 at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paris. He was born in the Paris suburb of in Nogent-sur-Marne in 1938. BBC states that he passed away from Cancer, but no other information is available at this time.

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