The Long Tomorrow, by Moebius

"The Long Tomorrow" is the title of a short story comic written by Dan O'Bannon around 1975 or 76, and illustrated by Moebius. The storytelling of "The Long Tomorrow" is inspired by film noir and hardboiled crime fiction, but the story is set in a distant, science fiction future, making it one of the first true cyberpunk stories. Founding cyberpunk author William Gibson said of The Long Tomorrow:
So it's entirely fair to say, and I've said it before, that the way Neuromancer-the-novel "looks" was influenced in large part by some of the artwork I saw in 'Heavy Metal'. I assume that this must also be true of John Carpenter's 'Escape from New York', Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner'", and all other artefacts of the style sometimes dubbed 'cyberpunk'. Those French guys, they got their end in early.
The comic came to the attention of Ridley Scott and was a key visual reference for Blade Runner.
It was originally serialised in two segments in the French magazine Metal Hurlant in 1976 and later by the American magazine Heavy Metal in Vol. 1 No. 4 and Vol. 1 No. 5 published in July 1977 and August 1977 respectively.

Music by Tangerine Dream, 'Stratosfear'.

Fumetto di Moebius tratto da AlterLinus n.11 e n.12, 1976.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• moebius
• science
• fiction
• comics

[ChameleonHead]

wait a sec, is it even in french? srry if I made myself appear like an idiot

[shivabel]

@ChameleonHead It is in italian, not french. BTW, i've found this comics on an old italian comics review, and i think it was a choice of the editor to leave the original english title, i don't know why.

[almacattleya]

bella storia ma 9:06, cosa dice dopo finiscila questa...?

[shivabel]

dice: "Finiscila con questa pantomima arcturiana"

[almacattleya]

allora avevo letto bene, ma cosa vuol dire arcturiana?

[shivabel]

'arcturiana' è riferito alla stella da cui proviene la ragazza-spia, Arcturus

[BluePlanetMedia]

Thank you for this. These two pieces of art go together wonderfully.

[hurvyb]

rip Jean Giraud this and "is man good" and arzach are the reason i got into art in the first place you are a legend and you will be truly missed

[MythicDude]

It's pretty clear that the Harry Canyon segment in Heavy Metal was supposed to be an adaptation of this story. but they couldn't get the rights correct?

the picture of the girl at 09:51 , theres a shot in Heavy Metal's Harry Canyon almost identical to it

[ChameleonHead]

@shivabel thanks, thats what I figured. opps, I suppose I just thought it was French at first because it was Moebius. silly me

[ChameleonHead]

I'm curious. Why is the title in english but the rest of it in french?

also does anybody know where I can get the comic in english?

[Chupacabra777]

@Johnlindsey289

Moebius was the art director on The Fifth Element. :)

[Sloane100]

@4fitter27 Not selling, but you should have no problem finding old Heavy Metals pretty inexpensive and other Druillet books on Amazon.com and at good comic book stores.

[4fitter27]

@Sloane100 You very, very lucky human being. I only know of Druillet through a book I have, "The History of Sci-fi Art", which is like my bible. I don't suppose you're going to be selling any of those any time soon?

[Sloane100]

@4fitter27 Back in the early eighties I walked into Newbury Comics in Boston and bought every issue for about $2.50 a piece. They are still in plastic protectors in a box in my closet. I love taking them out. My favorite issue was Dec. 1977. The entire episode of Vuzz by Druillet appeared.

[Sloane100]

This was written by the same guy who wrote Alien and Dark Star.

Incredible.

[Johnlindsey289]

@taylor12martin

Have you seen The Fifth Element? very much like Jean Luc Moebius's work brought to life and inspired by Metal Hurlant.

[taylor12martin]

@Johnlindsey289 LOL Interesting comments about the melting pot of influences on Mr Cameron. Thanks.

[Johnlindsey289]

@taylor12martin

James Cameron is also a fan of the 1981 animated movie too and used it as one of his inspirations with elements from Den and Taarna. So in conclusion Cameron made a combination of Last of the Mohicans, Heavy Metal, Frank Herbert's Dune, Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke, Lawrence of Arabia, John Carter of Mars and Willow in one movie.

[taylor12martin]

@Johnlindsey289 I agree with some of your comments. Roger Dean Art (YES album covers) had floating islands back in the 70's. The floating mountains in avatar reminded me of Roger Dean's art. Thanks for the post

[taylor12martin]

great posting. Iused to read druillet and moebius stuff when it was still in french. Metal Hurlant (Humanides Associes) was started in France and the spread to US became Heavy Metal.

Thank you.

[4fitter27]

I wouldn't know, man, I've never seen an actual issue haha

Yeah I know a lot of those sci-fi directors love Heavy Metal. And Dan O'Bannon wrote the screenplay for Alien, which is one of my fav sci-fi movies.

I never go to conventions, but I'm thinking I should subscribe to the mag online. Are the new issues any good?

[Johnlindsey289]

@4fitter27

I agree and do you agree that Avatar was like an HM magazine issue brought to life? i mean Cameron wrote Avatar in 1993 and had to wait until 2006 for the technology, he stated that this was one of his influences. I get my issues at conventions and online even the magazine has stuff where you can order back issues. Cameron is a die hard HM fan you know and so is Luc Besson when he made Fifth Element

[4fitter27]

@Johnlindsey289 I wasn't huge on Avatar, but I definitely agree that Heavy Metal influenced just about every sci-fi movie since the 70's. The magazine itself is like a Holy Grail to me though, Moebius' artwork especially just has this feel to it that gets me deep. I've looked everywhere for Heavy Metal...where did you get your issues?

[Johnlindsey289]

@4fitter27

Heavy Metal fan too? so am i since i was 17 when in 1999 and have some older issues. Did you know this magazine influenced many movies including Blade Runner, Avatar and Fifth Element? James Cameron is a fan of the magazine and 1981 animated movie and this comic was one of the influences to Avatar. You can tell it was like a big screen issue brought to life with it's surrealism, unique world, storytelling, creatures and even Neytiri was like a covergirl.

[4fitter27]

great artwork, cool music. Thanks for posting!

How I long to hold a classic issue of Heavy Metal in my hands...

[chrisjhart221138]

at 7:02 the robot in the background is apparently the one that inspired the probe droid in Empire Strikes Back.