The Garden of Edena is a five-chapter comic cycle by French artist Jean “Moebius” Giraud. Originating in 1983 as promotional short story ordered for internal use by French car manufacturer Citroën, the cycle grew over many years reaching its final chapter ‘SRA’ in 2001. The cycle follows space travelling repair crew Stel and Atan on a metaphysical journey to: “rediscover humanity’s true state of being” (Giraud, 2016, p. 7).

The graphic novel is presented in in Giraud’s classic ligne clair, or clear line style, and filled with pure Moebius: amazing vistas, and stupendous machinery, metaphysical monsters and original visions. And though the cycle follows a fairly straight forward, though often deep and complex, narrative progression, there is one section that stands out.

Towards the end of Chapter 3: The Goddess, starting at page 182 for those playing at home, THE HOLY CHILD is retelling a dream to THE ROACHER. THE ROACHER on his hand, is retelling his encounter with THE GODDESS, or actually going back to where this part of the narrative was cut (page 176) as we entered THE HOLY CHILD’S dream encounter with THE PATERNUM.

To carry over the transition and allow for the reader to jump back and forward in time, as we do go back to the conversation between THE HOLY CHILD and THE ROACHER while the ‘flashback’ is in progress, Moebius could have chosen to differentiate the two locations in time using colour, which of course is common in film, but he doesn’t.

Instead, Moebius chooses to ‘tell’ THE ROACHER’S story in Voice-Over (VO), a distinctly auditory piece of material, represented by enclosed text boxes placed below, and graphically underneath,the flash-back panels, text boxes that often stretch across multiple panels. It is a curious element for sure, one that is quite common in film, and can be found as a transitory element in comics – taking you from one time/place to another, but is rarely utilized as functional, almost aural voice-over.

The thing to note is of course the placement of the VO text boxes: always below and underneath the panels, which is unusual, particularly for Moebius, who prefers dialogue text bubbles only, with the occasional thought bubble which are, of course, always placed above the characters doing the thinking.

So, what does this Particular – the VO, and this Pattern – the VO boxes, do? Well, firstly it suggests that the VO is to be read afterseeing the action in the panels and reading the character speech bubbles. In this way, the VO puts us in two places at the same time: we are there in the moment, as THE GODDESS makes her presence known, in what is the narrative from several pages before, and we are also present in the real time of the narrative, THE ROACHER retelling his encounter.

This creative and clever placement and graphical styling of the text boxes representing the VO, this timing of sound if you will, allows Moebius to take us from a dream, back in time, while also placing us in the present, and then, through a cut, back into the next main narrative element. 

REFERENCES

Giraud, J. (Illustrator, Writer) & Simon, P. R. (Ed.). (2016). Moebius Library: The World of Edena [Graphic Novel]. USA: Dark Horse Comics.