Airtight Garage

The Airtight Garage (Le Garage Hermétique de Jerry Cornelius)
Series	Major Fatal
Publisher	Les Humanoïdes Associés Humanoids Publishing
Creative team
Writers	Moebius
Artists	Moebius
Original publication
Date of publication	1976
ISBN	2731614145

The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius (Le Garage Hermétique de Jerry Cornelius) is a lengthy comic strip work by the artist and writer Moebius (real name Jean Giraud). It first appeared in discrete two-to-four page episodes, in the French magazine Metal Hurlant between 1976 and 1980, and later in the American version of the same magazine, Heavy Metal, starting in 1977.

Trademark dispute

The Jerry Cornelius character was originally invented by Michael Moorcock who at one point gave permission for him to be used by any artist or writer who wished to. There was later some dispute over the character, and the right of use was revoked. When Marvel Comics reprinted the series, the name Jerry Cornelius was changed to "Lewis Carnelian".

In 2006, on his website, [1] [2] Moorcock himself wrote:

I didn't retroactively withdraw permission. Moebius was a friend of friends of mine when he started and someone (I don't know who) told him I didn't like the strip. I loved the strip, though I'd said it wasn't really Jerry Cornelikus. This got taken to mean by someone that I didn't like it and Moebius, whom I came to know later and explain that I hadn't withdrawn permision, took the JC out of the title. He knows now that I liked it and had no problems with it.

Publication history

It was published in the UK as a graphic novel by Titan Books in 1989, in advance of a Sony animated version that was never made. It was also republished in a four episode run in 1992.

The Airtight Garage was followed by L'Homme du Ciguri (The Man From Ciguri) in 1995. Some of the characters from these stories also show up in the 1974 comic Le Bandard Fou (The Horny Goof), which can be considered a prequel to The Airtight Garage.

Real life

The Airtight Garage was also the name of a bar and videogame parlor in the Metreon in San Francisco, featuring all original games. The name and architectural styling is no coincidence, and Moebius souvenirs could be purchased there. The arcade was then renamed Portal One, and the original games were phased out in favor of more familiar ones (although the decor was still Moebius-inspired), and was closed permanently on May 13, 2007. It reopened briefly under the name Tilt with the same decor, but otherwise a traditional arcade. Tilt is now closed, and the entire second floor of the building will become a CityTarget concept store.

Plot

The story is at times confusing, as Moebius was making it up as he went along. The garage itself is actually a hollow asteroid in the Leo constellation, around which Major Grubert revolves in his spaceship Ciguri. From there, he oversees the development of the worlds contained within the asteroid. Several entities, one of them being Jerry Cornelius, seek to invade the garage.