Angel Claw, by MOEBIUS and Jodorowsky

Angel Claw is a surreal and erotic story that strings a collection of Moebius illustrations together with a narrative written by Jodorowsky. This book instantly struck me as being in the same vein as the underground comics we looked at earlier in the semester, but at a much higher caliber illustratively and conceptually. I could describe alot of the underground comics we read as being raunchy and silly, but this book is much darker and unsettling. The tale of Angel Claw shows a girl as she ascends on an ethereal journey, exploring many subjects such as sexuality, dominance, and identity. I enjoy this work in the same way that I do most of the other underground comics, where most people might be too squeamish to appreciate or even read a book like Angel Claw, it is at its core a very self reflective piece. We see an inside look at the uncensored thoughts of both the author and the illustrator. It is the kind of genuine and unabashed reflection that is so interesting to me as a reader. Watching some interviews with Moebius and Jodorowsky they seem like fairly nice and normal people, which makes the work Angel Claw more interesting because we are essentially seeing a pair of creators question "why do I have these thoughts? and what do they mean?". The explorative nature of the story that seems to me like the authors don't really know the full story themselves makes for a very fascinating and engaging experience. Moebius' illustrations are unsettling as hell and to call this imagery erotica is kind of misleading to me because the nature of the interactions in the piece are very dark and disturbing and not very erotic in a traditional sense. Angel Claw at one point finds herself cutting a mans penis off, attaching it to herself, then raping the man she took the penis from. Maybe I'm close minded, but thats not really my thing. Overall the imagery and narrative of the book is one that keeps the reader pressed the entire time and never stops surprising or challenging the reader. The book is dark and unsettling in a psychological way as opposed to a physical way, which I think is very interesting and noteworthy.