i loved moebius, my father had stacks of métal hurlant i would scour for drawings, i also met him briefly and can attest to his good nature and patience with a young admirer.
i think he is emblematic of a generation of frenchmen who took the major themes of the time, science, political/cultural turmoil, and traced brilliant, sometimes dark, sometimes very humorous possible futures out of these ideas. kids like giraud, druillet, marker, godard i guess, read their asimov, arthur c. clarke, american comics, westerns, and in collaboration with expats, exiles, honourary frenchmen, took these influences to psychedelic heights and interesting pastures. it was a fertile exchange between america and the old continent as well, culminating notably in film.
there is a piece called the long tomorrow that he did in 1975 while working with jodorowsky on the dune project, a noir based on a script by dan o'bannon, the visual aesthetic is pure blade runner and a key component of the film along with mead's work. all the noirish elements (and silly costumes) are there. alien before it used the swiss artist giger's work, then came dune and all the dystopian/philosophical/existential sci-fi that is now our standard vision of the future, unfortunately drained of some of the comical aspects, with brazil the notable exception.
comics being a neglected form of expression, giraud was never given the full recognition he deserved. bd satirists like reiser and the hara kiri contingent are an even more obscure memory of a more expansive time, satire being the one thing power loathes. with almost all major artists of that era gone, the french seem to have forgotten their role in the cultural upheaval, and this is exemplified in a sad mid-nineties interview with filmmaker robbe-grillet, where he is met with stupid/vacant expressions while he attempts to explain (almost excuse) the role of erotism/surrealism in his fims. with giraud, another exceptional proponent of comic/futurist/western/surrealist/erotic imaginings is gone.