Moebius' influence on Prometheus

Leading from:
Prometheus Afterthoughts

Master Burg from Aedena, 
image from the illustration
for the Moebius collector cards

a)When the Engineer was revealed to be a tall ethereal bald man with a bridgless nose that flowed from the forehead, straight into the ridge of the nose. I asked myself if there was a tall bald man in Moebius' artwork that might have been a starting point for Ridley Scott. Perhaps I remembered something from the Gardens of Aedena book but I didn't have it at hand to look at. Very soon after that, on April 28th 2012,  a Frenchman by the username of NGR01 at AVPGalaxy suddenly posted a drawing by the French comic book illustrator Moebius of a character named Master Burg. He had a lot more familiarity with Moebius' artwork than a lot of people on the site. NGR01's statement was : "The Engineers looks a lot like a cross between a Moebius character (master Burg from EDENA for exemple who is a giant humanoid) mixed with a Giger biomechnical suit."

the engineer in prometheus

Master Burg was a character who had the ability to shift his form, and was a representation of the character Major Gruber who often appeared in Moebius' drawings as a gentleman wearing a Pith helmet, but Master Burg was a mentor to the characters Stel and Atan. Some depictions of him make him appear near enough man sized and when he appears in Stel, he is shown to be at least a good foot taller than Stel who is a young adult male, here Master Burg appears to be near enough the dimensions of the Engineer in Prometheus.

page 8 from Moebius' comic book Stel,  
depicting Master Burg as a giant 
(source: http://theairtightgarage.tumblr.com)

b) In the first weekend of February 2013, I picked up my copy of The Gardens of Aedena and read the scene where Stel and Atan, bald humans, wake up after a deep sleep and find themselves aboard a space ship. They find a control desk which they don't know what it is for, and then it turns out that it plays music that activates a domed shutter that pulls up unveils two seats that are for a small flying vehicle.

In Prometheus, the engineers plays a pipe and activates computers and a green globes forms infront of him, and shortly after that an intergalactic orrery suddenly appears. Despite differences, both activated technology by playing music and we know that Ridley Scott was using Moebius's comic books as reference.

panel from Moebius's The Garden of Aedena.  
source of image:theairtightgarage.tumblr.com/

Engineer from Prometheus activating the Juggernaut's 
controls by playing a flute 
(screenshots from the movie)

c) It soon became very obvious as soon as the first trailer shots of the Engineer fighting with the creature known as the trilobite in Prometheus, had been released had been inspired by scenes from  Moebius' illustrations for Dan O'Bannon's comic book story The Long Tomorrow. As evidence, the comic book pages containing those images were up on the wall in the art studio shown in the Charles De Lauzerika's documentary "The Furious Gods, Making Prometheus" that came on the Blu-ray edition of the film. Another point to note was the muscular physique of the bald man being attacked by the amorphous creature in the comic book story that might also be a part of the background of the inspiration that drove Ridley's vision of the engineer.

Moebius panel of  illustrations for Dan O'Bannon's
comic book story The Long Tomorrow. 
(source http://theairtightgarage.tumblr.com)

Stills from Prometheus of the Engineer trying to fight off 
"the trilobite"
(screenshots from the movie)

Still and enlargement below from shot of Max in the art studio, 
that shows the Moebius comic book page,  from Charles De 
Lauzerika's documentary "The Furious Gods, Making Prometheus"

d) Once people made the connection between Prometheus and inspiration from Moebius' illustrations for O'Bannon's The Long Tomorrow. More images were revealed from the concept work on the Blu-ray set that bore echoes from the same source. A chestburster scene know as the sexburster that never made it into the final film, the naked man has the same pose as one of the panels from the same page in The Long Tomorrow.

One of Moebius illustrations for Dan O'Bannon's The Long Tomorrow

Holloway Chestburster Love Scene by Carlos Huante

"Sex Burster" concept work for Prometheus by Steve Messing ?

e) A copy of Moebius vol 4 "The Long Tomorrow" can be found beneath
the multi-tailed chestburster drawing by Carlos Huante as it lies upon the desk as he sits having a chat with Ridley Scott in the Furious Gods documentary.

Moebius vol 4 "The Long Tomorrow and other science fiction stories" can be found beneath the multi-tailed chestburster

Moebius vol 4 "The Long Tomorrow and other science fiction stories"

f) Following on looking for other inspiration from Moebius' comic book visions I continued to look further . Moebius' characters Stel and Atan turn up in Moebius' short comic book story Les Réparateurs, exploring an alien planet where in the side of a mountain they encounter a doorway that leads into an underground tunnel complex where they encounter Moebius the artist himself inside a glass cylinder, it may well be inspired by Paul Verhoeven's movie Total Recall . See theairtightgarage.tumblr.com for the full comic book story. The drawings here appear to me to have had some influence on the entrance to the pyramid, and the cargo bay of the juggernaut

Stel and Atan enter a wide low cielinged chamber supported by columns 
in Moebius' Le Monde D’Edena, Tome 6: Les Réparateurs, (Source: theairtightgarage.tumblr.com)

Wide low cieling entrance to Pyramid supported by columns in Prometheus

'natural' underground stalagmite/stalagtite structures supported by three columns 
 in Moebius' Le Monde D’Edena, Tome 6: Les Réparateurs,
(Source: theairtightgarage.tumblr.com)

David encounters three columns of ampules in the Juggernaut's cargo room 
in the film Prometheus