Arzach is a Band-drawn of 35 boards color of Moebius (alias Jean Giraud, alias GIR), published in 1975 and 1976 in the newspaper of data base Métal howling .

Arzach was a revolution for the data base of the time. It consists of a series of five autonomous stories, kinds of “new graphics”, some boards each one. Its characteristic resides first of all in its complete absence of dialogs: one crosses one there even two recurring characters but apparently dumb, in any case the author does not authorize the word to them to express himself.

In one of the news, the character in a desert arrives by car on a great place, where the inhabitants, naked, attack it violently. He carries on his way with foot to enter a tower where, using a specific instrument, he repairs a machine. A control screen enables him to check that a gigantic bird, mounting of another man, takes again life with kilometers from here, so that one supposes. Then our repairer sets out again in the car, probably for a news and ungrateful mission.

The whole is been used by the superb drawing as Moebius, for stories which are not really, in any case for which one could not be sure to have included/understood all that occurred there. The reader is disturbed, one does not give him a linear and explicit history. Moreover what master key is often rather black, of the serious characters, not of gaity.

In the same way, the author has fun to change the orthography of the title each time: one passes from Arzach to Harzak, Harzack, Harzach, without one never knowing really to what this mot. refers.

Moebius said itself that Arzach had consisted in for him releasing by the drawing something of very personal like its own unconscious feelings, with scenes about the onirism.

Other

• This band-drawn gave place to a series of cartoons for the TV (France 2), under the name of Arzak rhapsody . These drawing-animated very short duration were written, drawn and realized by Moebius in 2002. One finds the oneiric universe of the data base there, with his parallel worlds, but of other characters appear, as well as the word which is given to these characters. The series is rather intended to the children.

• Certaines boards was used as inspiration with the last history of cartoon film Métal howling .