The World of Edena

Starred review from November 7, 2016
The first volume in Dark Horse’s new Moebius Library finally gives the legendary French cartoonist—long unavailable in English—the American welcome he deserves with a spectacular hardcover album of the entire Edena saga, annotated with notes from the artist and his studio. Spacefaring mechanics Stel and Atan find their way to Edena, a planetary paradise of lush jungles, welcoming gardens, and bronze deserts. Gradually they abandon the trappings of their futuristic society to reconnect with the land, discovering sex and sensuality along with unprocessed food. But a high-tech cult and a belligerent id-demon threaten to spoil their back-to-nature buzz. Glowingly illustrated in the elegant clear-line art and rich colors for which Moebius is justly revered, the book careens spectacularly through science fiction, fantasy, allegory, pop psychology, and psychedelia. That this ambitious saga began life as an ad for Citroën cars is only one example of Moebius’s transcendent imagination, now finally brought to English.