Mwahahaha!!!
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—McQuarrie on Star Wars.
Impressed with his work, director George Lucas met with him to discuss his plans for a space-fantasy film. Several years later, in 1975, Lucas commissioned McQuarrie to illustrate several scenes from the script of the film, Star Wars. McQuarrie designed many of the film's characters, including Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO and drew many concepts for the film's sets. It was McQuarrie who suggested that Vader wear breathing apparatus. McQuarrie's concept paintings, including such scenes as R2-D2 and C-3PO arriving on Tatooine, helped convince 20th Century Fox to fund Star Wars, which became a huge success upon release in 1977. Neil Kendricks of The San Diego Union-Tribune stated McQuarrie "holds a unique position when it comes to defining much of the look of the "Star Wars" universe." McQuarrie noted, "I thought I had the best job that an artist ever had on a film, and I had never worked on a feature film before. [...] I still get fan mail — people wondering if I worked on Episode I or just wanting to have my autograph."
McQuarrie went on to work as the conceptual designer on the film's two sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).
Christian Blauvelt of Entertainment Weekly praised McQuarrie's works as "pioneering of the 'used future' aesthetic" which unlike other science-fiction, "imagined a lived-in galaxy that was gritty, dirty, and in advance states of decay." He described McQuarrie's style as "strongly geometric subjects rendered in muted colors against a flat, purposefully compressed backdrop. A McQuarrie Star Wars design looks like what would have resulted if Salvador Dali had sketched concepts for Universals 1936 Flash Gordon serial by way of Sergio Leones Old West."
McQuarrie played the uncredited role of General Pharl McQuarrie in The Empire Strikes Back. He appears in Echo Base on Hoth in the film's opening sequence. An action figure in his likeness as "General McQuarrie" was produced for Star Wars 30th anniversary. Action figures based on McQuarrie's concept art, including conceptual versions of the Imperial Stormtrooper, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and other characters have also been made.
McQuarrie designed the alien ships in Steven Spielberg's films Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), while his work as the conceptual artist on the 1985 film Cocoon earned him the Academy Award for Visual Effects. He also worked on the 1978 TV series Battlestar Galactica, and the films Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and batteries not included.
McQuarrie died aged 82 on March 3, 2012, in his Berkeley, California home, from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He is survived by his wife Joan.
Lucas commented after McQuarrie's death: "His genial contribution, in the form of unequalled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy. When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph's fabulous illustrations and say, 'do it like this'."
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) (Mother Ship designer)
Battlestar Galactica (1978) (production and concept illustrator)
The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) (illustrator)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (design consultant and conceptual artist)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) (ILM illustrator)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) (scenic artist/spaceship design)
Return of the Jedi (1983) (conceptual artist)
Cocoon (1985) (conceptual artist)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) (visual consultant)
batteries not included (1987) (conceptual artist)
Back to the Future: The Ride (1991) (conceptual artist) (uncredited)
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Madoc starred in the 1990s detective series A Mind to Kill as DCI Noel Bain. This series was made simultaneously in Welsh and English from 1994 to 2002. He appeared in episodes of the BBC sitcoms The Good Life and Porridge ("Disturbing The Peace"), and in a controversial episode of The Goodies ("South Africa"), which satirised apartheid. He took the lead role in the BBC Wales drama The Life and Times of David Lloyd George.
Madoc's film roles included Operation Crossbow (1965), The Quiller Memorandum (1966) and Operation Daybreak (1975).
He appeared twice in the drama series UFO, once as the partner of Ed Straker's estranged wife and once as the captain of a British warship under attack by the aliens. In the pilot episode of Space: 1999 (1975) he had a brief appearance as Commander Anton Gorski, who was replaced by Commander John Koenig for the remainder of the series. He also made a memorable guest appearance in the Survivors television series.
In 2001, Madoc voiced the role of "Prospero" for the BBC Radio 3 production of The Tempest.
The Welsh actor voiced Gwydion in 2003’s Y Mabinogi (Otherworld), featuring the vocal talents of Daniel Evans, Jenny Livsey and Matthew Rhys.
In 2007, Madoc appeared as "Y Llywydd" (The President) in S4C gangster series Y Pris, where he acted and spoke in his native Welsh. He was the narrator for the Discovery Channel documentary series Egypt Uncovered.
He was patron to a St Albans-based theatre school for children called Best Theatre Arts. and President of the London Welsh Male Voice Choir.
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Among his most famous works are the Western comic series Blueberry he co-created with writer Jean-Michel Charlier, one of the first Western anti-heroes to appear in comics. Under the pseudonym Moebius he created a wide range of science fiction and fantasy comics in a highly imaginative and surreal almost abstract style, the most famous of which are Arzach, the Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius, and The Incal. Blueberry was adapted for the screen in 2004 by French director Jan Kounen. In 1997, Moebius and co-creator Alejandro Jodorowsky sued Luc Besson for using The Incal as inspiration for his movie The Fifth Element, a lawsuit which they lost.
Moebius contributed storyboards and concept designs to numerous science fiction and fantasy films, including Alien, Willow, Tron (1982), and The Fifth Element.
At 18, Giraud was drawing his own comic strip, "Frank et Jeremie" for the magazine Far West. From 1956 to 1958 he published Western comics in the magazine "Coeurs Valiants", among them a strip called "King of the Buffalo", and another called "a Giant with the Hurons". Already in this period his style was heavily influenced by his later mentor, Joseph "Jijé" Gillain. In 1961, returning from military service in Algiers, Giraud became an apprentice of Jijé, who was one of the leading comic artists in Europe of the time. Jijé used Giraud as his assistant on an album of his Western series Jerry Spring, "The Road to Coronado" which Giraud inked.
In 1962 Giraud and writer Jean-Michel Charlier started the comic strip Fort Navajo for Pilote no. 210. At this time affinity between the styles of Giraud and Jijé was so close that Jijé penciled pages 17–38 of the fourth Blueberry album, "The Lost Story", when Giraud was traveling in the United States.
The Lieutenant Blueberry character, whose facial features were based on those of the actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, was created in 1963 by Charlier (scenario) and Giraud (drawings) for Pilote and quickly became its most popular figure. His adventures as told in the spin-off Western serial Blueberry, are possibly Giraud's best known work in his native France before his later collaborations with Alejandro Jodorowsky. The early Blueberry comics used a simple line drawing style similar to that of Jijé, and standard Western themes and imagery, but gradually Giraud developed a darker and grittier style inspired by the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone and the dark realism of Sam Peckinpah. With the fifth album, "The Trail of the Navajos", Giraud established his own style, and after censorship laws were loosened in 1968 the strip became more explicitly adult, and also adopted a wider range of thematics. "Angel Face", the first Blueberry album penciled by Giraud after he had begun publishing science fiction as Moebius, was much more experimental than his previous Western work.
Giraud left the series in 1973 leaving the artwork to Colin Wilson, Michel Rouge and later Michel Blanc-Dumont for a few books. He returned to it in the following decade, producing many more very successful Blueberry stories, further increasing its already outstanding quality.
In 1979 Charlier and Giraud had a disagreement with their publishing house Dargaud over the publishing of Blueberry. Instead they began the western comic Jim Cutlass. After the first album "Mississippi River", first serialized in Metal Hurlant, Giraud took on scripting the series, and left the artwork to Christian Rossi.
When Charlier, Giraud's collaborator on Blueberry died in 1989, Giraud assumed responsibility for the scripting of the series. Blueberry has been translated into 15 languages, the first English translations by Marc Lofficier being published in 1970. The original Blueberry series has spun off a prequel series called "Young Blueberry", and a sequel called "Marshall Blueberry".
The Moebius pseudonym, which Giraud came to use for his science fiction and fantasy work, was born in 1963. In a satire magazine called Hara-Kiri, Moebius did 21 strips in 1963–64 and then disappeared for almost a decade.
In 1975 he revived the Moebius pseudonym, and with Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet, and Bernard Farkas, he became one of the founding members of the comics art group "Les Humanoides Associes". Together they started the magazine Métal Hurlant, the magazine known in the English speaking world as Heavy Metal . Moebius' famous serial The Airtight Garage and his groundbreaking Arzach both began in Métal Hurlant. In 1976 Metal Hurlant published The Long Tomorrow written by Dan O'Bannon.
Arzach is a wordless comic, created in a conscious attempt to breathe new life into the comic genre which at the time was dominated by American superhero comics. It tracks the journey of the title character flying on the back of his pterodactyl through a fantastic world mixing medieval fantasy with futurism. Unlike most science fiction comics it has no captions, no speech balloons and no written sound effects. It has been argued that the wordlessness provides the strip with a sense of timelessness, setting up Arzach's journey as a quest for eternal, universal truths.
His series The Airtight Garage is particularly notable for its non-linear plot, where movement and temporality can be traced in multiple directions depending on the readers own interpretation even within a single planche (page). The series tells of Major Grubert, who is constructing his own universe on an Asteroid named fleur, here he encounters a wealth of fantastic characters including Michael Moorcock's creation Jerry Cornelius.
In 1980 he started his famous L'Incal series in collaboration with Alejandro Jodorowsky.
In his later life, Moebius decided to revive the Arzak character in an elaborate new adventure series, the first volume of a planned trilogy, Arzak l'arpenteur, appeared in 2010. He also began new work in the Airtight Garage series with a volume entitled Le chasseur déprime.
A two-issue Silver Surfer miniseries (later collected as Silver Surfer: Parable), scripted by Lee and drawn by Moebius, was published through Marvel's Epic Comics imprint in 1988 and 1989. Because of inconsistencies with other stories, it has been argued that these stories actually feature an alternate Silver Surfer from a parallel Earth. This miniseries won the Eisner Award for best finite/limited series in 1989.
From 2000 to 2010, Giraud published Inside Moebius (French text despite English title), an illustrated autobiographical fantasy in six hardcover volumes totaling 700 pages. Pirandello-like, he appears in cartoon form as both creator and protagonist trapped within the story alongside his younger self and several longtime characters such as Blueberry, Arzak (the latest re-spelling of the Arzach character's name), Major Grubert (from The Airtight Garage), and others.
Jean Giraud drew the first of the two-part last volume of the XIII series titled La Version Irlandaise (The Irish Version) from a script by Jean Van Hamme, to accompany the second part by the regular team Jean Van Hamme–William Vance, Le dernier round (The Last Round). Both parts were published on the same date (13 November 2007).
Under the names Giraud and Gir, he also wrote numerous comics for other comic artists like Auclair and Tardi. He also made illustrations for books and magazines, illustrating for example one edition of the novel "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho.
Moebius contributed storyboards and concept designs to numerous science fiction films, including Alien by Ridley Scott, Tron by Disney, The Fifth Element by Luc Besson, Star Wars V, and for Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, which was however abandoned in pre-production.
In 1982 he collaborated with director René Laloux to create the science fiction feature-length animated movie Les Maîtres du temps (released in English as Time Masters) based on a novel by Stefan Wul. He and director Rene Laloux shared the award for Best Children’s Film at the Fantafestival that year.
With Yutaka Fujioka, he wrote the story — for the 1982 Japanese animated feature film Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland; as well, he was a conceptual designer for the movie.
Giraud made original character designs and did visual development for Warner Bros.’ partly animated 1996 movie Space Jam. And though uncredited, he provided characters and situations for the "Taarna" segment of Ivan Reitman’s 1981 film Heavy Metal.
In 1991 his graphic novel Cauchemar Blanc was cinematized by Matthieu Kassovitz. The Blueberry series was adapted for the screen in 2004, by Jan Kounen as Blueberry: L'expérience secrète.
From December 2004 to March 2005, his work was exhibited with that of Hayao Miyazaki at La Monnaie in Paris.
Giraud's prestige in France – where comics are held in high artistic regard – is enormous; In 1988 Moebius was chosen, among 11 other winners of the prestigious Grand Prix of the Angoulême Festival, to illustrate a postage stamp set issued on the theme of communication.
Giraud's working methods were various and adaptable ranging from etchings, white and black illustrations, to work in colour of the ligne claire genre and water colours. Giraud's solo Blueberry works were sometimes criticized by fans of the series because the artist dramatically changed the tone of the series as well as the graphic style. However, Blueberry's early success was also due to Giraud's innovations, as he did not content himself with following earlier styles, an important aspect of his development as an artist.
To distinguish between work by Giraud and Moebius, Giraud used a brush for his own work and a pen when he signed his work as Moebius. Giraud drew very quickly.
His style has been compared to the Nouveaux réalistes, exemplified in his turn from the bowdlerized realism of Herge's Tintin towards a grittier style depicting sex, violence and moral bankruptcy.
Throughout his career he experimented with drugs and various New Age type philosophies, such as Guy-Claude Burger's instinctotherapy, which influenced his creation of the comic book series Le Monde d'Edena.
Giraud died in Paris, on 10 March 2012, aged 73, after a long battle with cancer. The immediate cause of death was pulmonary embolism caused by a lymphoma. Moebius was buried on the 15th of March, on the Montparnasse Cemetery Fellow comic artist François Boucq stated that Moebius was a "master of realist drawing with a real talent for humour, which he was still demonstrating with the nurses when I saw him in his hospital bed a fortnight ago".
Many artists from around the world have cited Giraud as an influence on their work. Giraud was longtime friends with manga author and anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. Giraud even named his daughter Nausicaä after the character in Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Asked by Giraud in an interview how he first discovered his work, Miyazaki replied:
Through Arzach, which dates from 1975, I believe. I only read it in 1980, and it was a big shock. Not only for me. All manga authors were shaken by this work. Unfortunately, when I discovered it, I already had a consolidated style so I couldn't use its influence to enrich my drawing. Even today, I think it has an awesome sense of space. I directed Nausicaä under Moebius's influence.
Pioneering cyberpunk author William Gibson said of Giraud's work 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 Long Tomorrow also came to the attention of Ridley Scott and was a key visual reference for Blade Runner.
"I consider him more important than Dore," said Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini:
He’s a unique talent endowed with an extraordinary visionary imagination that’s constantly renewed and never vulgar. Moebius disturbs and consoles. He has the ability to transport us into unknown worlds where we encounter unsettling characters. My admiration for him is total. I consider him a great artist, as great as Picasso and Matisse.
Following his death, Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, paid tribute on Twitter stating:
"The great Moebius died today, but the great Moebius is still alive. Your body died today, your work is more alive than ever."
Benoit Mouchart, artistic director at France's Angoulême International Comics Festival, made an assessment of his importance to the field of comics:
"France has lost one of its best known artists in the world. In Japan, Italy, in the United States he is an incredible star who influenced world comics. Moebius will remain part of the history of drawing, in the same right as Durer or Ingres. He was an incredible producer, he said he wanted to show what eyes do not always see".
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said that by the simultaneous death of Giraud and Moebius, France had lost "two great artists"
Blueberry (29 volumes, English translation, 1965 - ), artist (all vol), writer vol 25-29
Jim Cutlass (7 volumes, 1979–1999), artist vol. 1, writer vol 2-7 (artist: Christian Rossi)
XIII (volume 18, La Version irlandaise in 2007), artist
Marshall Blueberry (3 volumes, 2000), writer
Le Cristal Majeur (3 volumes, 1986–1990), writer (artist: Marc Bati), Paris: Dargaud
Le Bandard fou (English translation, 1975), writer and artist
Arzach (English translation, 1976), writer and artist
The Long Tomorrow (Originally in English, 1976), artist
L'Homme est-il bon? (English translation, 1977), writer and artist
Le Garage Hermétique (The Airtight Garage, English translation, 1976–1980), writer and artist
Les Yeux du Chat (1978), artist
Tueur de monde (1979), writer and artist
l'Incal (The Incal, 6 volumes, English translation, 1981–1988), artist
Les Maîtres du temps (1982), artist
Venise céleste (1984), writer and artist
Le Monde d'Edena (1985–2001), writer and artist
Altor (7 volumes, 1986 - ), writer
Silver Surfer: Parable (Originally in English, 1988–1989), artist
Escale sur Pharagonescia (1989), writer and artist
Les Vacances du Major (1992), writer and artist
Le Coeur couronné (The Crowned Heart, English translation, 1992), artist
Les Histoires de Monsieur Mouche (1994), artist
Griffes d'Ange (1994), artist
Little Nemo (1994), writer
Ballades (1 volume, 1995), artist
Après l'Incal (2000 - ), artist
Icare (2005), writer
Halo Graphic Novel (Originally in English, 2006), artist
Inside Moebius (2000–2010), writer and artist
Arzak L'Arpenteur (2010), writer and artist
The English-language versions of many of Moebius's comics have been collected into various editions, beginning with a series of trade paperbacks from Marvel Comics' Epic imprint in the late 1980s and early 1990s:
The Collected Fantasies of Jean Giraud (1987–1994):
Moebius 0 - The Horny Goof & Other Underground Stories (72 pages, Dark Horse, 1990, ISBN 1-878574-16-7)
Moebius ½ - The Early Moebius & Other Humorous Stories (Graphitti Designs, 1992, ISBN 0-936211-28-8)
Moebius 1 - Upon A Star (72 pages, Marvel/Epic, 1987, ISBN 0-87135-278-8)
Moebius 2 - Arzach & Other Fantasy Stories (72 pages, Titan, ISBN 1-85286-045-6, Marvel/Epic, 1987)
Moebius 3 - The Airtight Garage (120 pages, Titan, ISBN 1-85286-046-4, Marvel/Epic, 1987)
Moebius 4 - The Long Tomorrow & Other Science Fiction Stories (70 pages, Marvel/Epic, 1987, ISBN 0-87135-281-8)
Moebius 5 - The Gardens of Aedena (72 pages, Titan, ISBN 1-85286-047-2, Marvel/Epic, 1988, ISBN 0-87135-282-6)
Moebius 6 - Pharagonesia & Other Strange Stories (72 pages, Titan, ISBN 1-85286-048-0, Marvel/Epic, 1988)
Moebius 7 - The Goddess (88 pages, Marvel/Epic, 1990, ISBN 0-87135-714-3)
Moebius 8 - Mississippi River (64 pages, Marvel/Epic, 1991, ISBN 0-87135-715-1)
Moebius 9 - Stel (Marvel/Epic, 1994)
Most of these volumes were later reissued by Graphitti Designs in assorted combinations, as a series of signed and numbered hardcover limited editions.
In 2010 and 2011, the publisher Humanoids (in the U.S.) began releasing new editions of Moebius works, starting with three of Moebius's past collaborations with Alexandro Jodorowsky: The Incal (original series complete in one volume), Madwoman of the Sacred Heart (all three parts complete in one volume), and The Eyes of the Cat.
Alien (1979)
The Time Masters (1982)
Tron (1982)
Masters of the Universe (1987)
Willow (1988)
The Abyss (1989)
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
The Fifth Element (1997) - The production design for the film was developed by Giraud and Jean-Claude Mézières and is detailed in a DVD/Blu-ray special feature.
Fellini: I'm a Born Liar (2002) - Giraud conceived the poster for the documentary's 2003 North American release and appears in the DVD bonus extras of the French version.
Blueberry (2004) - On the DVD extras Giraud talks about the comic, the film etc., dressed in period costume, apparently having done a cameo role in the film.
Thru the Moebius Strip (2005)
Giraud worked on Alejandro Jodorowsky's film adaptation of Dune which was never completed.
Giraud's artwork for the Dan O'Bannon short story comic "The Long Tomorrow" was a key visual reference for Blade Runner.
Giraud represented the jury of the Paris Storyboard Contest 2005 (Concours SOPADIN - Société Parisienne des Images Nouvelles) and awarded the two young artists and filmmakers "K-Michel Parandi" (Kay Parandi) & "Jean François Guillon" for their work on the futuristic and experimental film "Minuit 14". Jean Giraud was assisted on this by the notorious French director "Gerard Krawczyk" (Taxi, Fanfan la tulipe).
George Lucas used one of Giraud's designs for the Imperial Probe Droid in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Lucas's later Star Wars films also share many visual characteristics with Giraud's work, particularly the depiction of the city-planet Coruscant.
Giraud also shared "Story by" credit on the animated film Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland.
Strange frame (2009)
Fade to Black cover art (1995)
Panzer Dragoon (1995)
Pilgrim: Faith as a Weapon (1998)
An arcade and bar based on Giraud's work, called The Airtight Garage, was one of the original main attractions at the Metreon in San Francisco when the complex opened in 1999. It included three original games: Quaternia, a first-person shooter networked between terminals and based on the concept of "junctors" from Major Fatal and The Airtight Garage; a virtual reality bumper cars game about mining asteroids; and Hyperbowl, an obstacle course bowling game incorporating very little overtly Moebius imagery. The arcade was closed and reopened as "Portal One", retaining much of the Moebius-based decor and Hyperbowl but eliminating the other originals in favor of more common arcade games.
The Masters of Comic Book Art - Documentary by Ken Viola (USA, 1987, 60 min.)
La Constellation Jodorowsky - Documentary by Louis Mouchet. Giraud and Alejandro Jodorowsky on The Incal and their abandoned film adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune. During the psycho-genealogical session that concludes the film, Giraud impersonates Mouchet's father (Switzerland, 1994, 88 min. and 52 min.)
Mister Gir & Mike S. Blueberry - Documentary by Damian Pettigrew. Giraud executes numerous sketches and watercolors for the Blueberry album, "Geronimo l'Apache", travels to Saint Malo for the celebrated comic-book festival, visits his Paris editor Dargaud, and in the film's last sequence, does a spontaneous life-size portrait in real time of Geronimo on a large sheet of glass (France, 2000: Musee de la Bande dessinee d'Angouleme, 55 min.)
Moebius Redux: A Life in Pictures - Biographical documentary by Hasko Baumann (Germany, England, Finland, 2007: Arte, BBC, ZDF, YLE, 68 min.)
In Search of Moebius - Shorter BBC version of Hasko Baumann documentary (2007, 53 min.)
Jean Van Hamme, William Vance et Jean Giraud a l'Abbaye de l'Epau - Institutional documentary (France, 2007: FGBL Audiovisuel, 70 min.)
Metamoebius - Autobiographical portrait co-written by Jean Giraud and directed by Damian Pettigrew for the 2010 retrospective held at the Fondation Cartier for Contemporary Art in Paris (France, 2010: Fondation Cartier, CineCinema, 72 min. and 52 min.)
1973: Shazam Award, Best Foreign Comic Series, for Lieutenant Blueberry
1975: Yellow Kid Award, Lucca, Italy, Best Foreign Artist
1977: Angouleme International Comics Festival Best French Artist
1979: Adamson Award, for Lieutenant Blueberry etc.
1980: Yellow Kid Award, Lucca, Italy, Best Foreign Author
1980: Grand Prix de la Science Fiction Française, Special Prize, for Major Fatal
1981: Angouleme International Comics Festival Grand Prix de la ville d'Angouleme
1985: Angouleme International Comics Festival Grand Prix for the graphic arts
1986: Inkpot Award
1988: Harvey Award, Best American Edition of Foreign Material, for Moebius album series
1989: Eisner Award, Best Finite Series, for Silver Surfer
1989: Harvey Award, Best American Edition of Foreign Material, for Incal
1991: Eisner Award, Best Single Issue, for Concrete
1991: Harvey Award, Best American Edition of Foreign Material, for Lieutenant Blueberry
1997: Designated finalist for induction into the Harvey Award Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1989, inducted in 1997
1997: World Fantasy Award: Artist category
1998: Included in the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame
2000: Max & Moritz Prizes, Special Prize for outstanding life's work
2001: Haxtur Award Best Long Comic Strip, for The Crowned Heart
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He received a Fulbright Scholarship in 1951 to study Indian languages and on his first trip to India that year converted to Islam; "for purely theological reasons. It seemed like a more logical religion", according to Fine, although Barker himself admitted at the time to an "[unimaginable] feeling of awe and religious ecstasy" upon hearing the recitations of the 99 Names of Allah at the Taj Mahal.
He taught at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University from around 1958/9 until 1972 and became active in the development of Urdu and Baluchi instruction materials for English-speaking students following a period of two years from 1960 when he was attached to Panjab University. Some of these are still recommended university course study materials as of 2010.[19] From 1972 he moved to teach at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he chaired the Department of South Asian studies until his retirement in the early 1990s, a few years after that department was disbanded due to reduced funding.
Having watched the Dungeons & Dragons games started by Mike Mornard, one of the original testers for D&D, when he moved to Minneapolis from Lake Geneva, Barker resolved to create his own ruleset based on his own created world and the game mechanics from D&D. After six weeks, this was self-published in August 1974 as Empire of the Petal Throne and play commenced forthwith, including such occasional members as Dave Arneson - who singled-out Barker and Tekumel as being his favorite GM and roleplaying game, respectively - from early days.
Once Gary Gygax's attention had been drawn to Barker's work, it was decided that TSR would publish a revised version of the game mechanics along with a condensed version of his campaign setting. In a Dragon Magazine editorial from December, 1976, editor Tim Kask drew comparisons between the world of Tékumel and J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth not in terms of literature created, nor that his work was derivative of Tolkien's (being well-advanced by the time The Lord of the Rings was released), but rather regarding the in-depth detail in the setting, mythos and linguistic backgrounds and concluded that "In terms of development of detail, I think EPT [Empire of the Petal Throne] has it over Middle Earth in the matters that most concern gamers" since it had been developed by a "wargamer", whereas Tolkien had no such background and having died prior to the release of D&D was thus unable to address this new pastime personally.
Despite having had a head start on other in-depth campaign settings and seeing his game released no less than four times with various supplements and magazine articles, many which he contributed to, and having authored five books using the same setting, Barker's Tékumel in both roleplaying and literary domains is still well known to only a relatively small audience, leading German magazine Der Spiegel in 2009 to publish an article on Barker's life entitled "Der vergessene Tolkien" ["The forgotten Tolkien"]. The article quotes friends and acquaintances who posit that this may be, at least in part, due to the unfamiliarity of the setting[31] compared with Western society, echoing Fine's observations from 1983, and possibly even that Tékumel was released to the gaming world too early on, when players had only just started to experiment with their own invented worlds rather than fitting their play into pre-configured, non-literary domains with novel backgrounds.
In 2008, Barker founded the Tékumel Foundation along with many of his long-time players, to preserve and manage rights relating to his creations in future.
Barker died in home hospice on March 16, 2012. He is survived by his wife, Ambereen.
Barker studied various languages academically and helped author and co-author various publications relating to some of those, including the following:
Published by the University of California Press:
Klamath Texts (1963)
Klamath Dictionary (1963)
Klamath Grammar (1964)
Published by the McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies:
A Course in Urdu (1967)
An Urdu Newspaper Reader (1968)
A Reader of Modern Urdu Poetry (1968)
A Course in Baluchi (1969)
Tekumel has spawned four professionally-published roleplaying games over the course of the years:
Empire of the Petal Throne (1975) as a boxed set by TSR, Inc. following earlier self-publication in 1974, and reprinted later as a single book by Different Worlds Publications in 1987.
Swords & Glory (1983/4) in two volumes by Gamescience.
Gardasiyal: Adventures in Tekumel (1994) by Theater of the Mind Enterprises; with Neil R. Cauley.
Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne (2005) by Guardians of Order; by various, with M.A.R. Barker.
Barker has written five novels set in the world of Tékumel - in chronological reading order these are:
1.The Man of Gold (1984)
2.Flamesong (1985)
3.Lords of Tsámra (2003)
4.Prince of Skulls (2002)
5.A Death of Kings (2003)