Alien: The disappearance and reappearance of Moebius' artwork

Jean Giraud / Moebius' Art

Jean Marc L'Offcier

a)  Jean-Marc L'Officier admits the loss of the Moebius' Alien artwork
In 2000 Jean Marc L'Officier, the agent and collaborator of Jean "Moebius" Giraud revealed to me that virtually all of Moebius' artwork for Alien had been lost a long time ago, and had nothing more to say about what happened, although he found two small sketches of spaceships in an old drawer.

Charles Lippincott

b) Charlie Lippincott thinks he knows who stole it?
In 2014, Charlie Lippincott who worked on Alien talkes about his time working as part of the production, and remembered when he was back in LA dealing with getting artwork copyrighted and so he asked what to do and was told to take it to one of the lawyers who would handle the copyright. In this case, the lawyer is being referred to as Mr X.

At Fox there was an upstairs area for the lawyers. Each lawyer had a private area, not quite cubicles, more semi-private enclosures. All the lawyers went for their own unique presence, but Mr. X presumed he was more than what he was. An example was you walking into his area and there was a table with this fancy coffee or tea service. His attitude, like the tea service, said it all as if he were telling everyone "Yoh, I'm no ordinary yobo, I'm truly an upper class, old school aristocrat." But you could tell from the way he talked it was all affectation.

Charlie brought Moebius's artwork to Mr. X and asked to be informed when Mr X had finished the copyright so Charlie could have the material back. Normally, they take the originals, duplicate it and register the copyright. When Charlie went back to get the originals, the lawyer looked at him and said he didn't have it. 

Charlie asked, "Where is it?" 

He was very vague, so Charlie kept persisting, "That was the original. We need it." 

Then he said, "Oh, well... ah... I sent it in."

Charlie was not so happy about this, because his gut feeling was telling him that Mr X had kept all the stuff.

Black and white image of Moebius derelict ship exterior 
close up from Charles Lippincott's copy of the image

c)  Years later, the artwork would happen to show up in Ridley's possession when he showed Sylvain Despretz the former protegé of Moebius, as he talked about his ideas for an Alien sequel.  It might have been great if someone had told Charles Lippincott about where they had gone, since their disappearance from the Alien production had caused som confusion. See: Prometheus: Here comes the juggernaut

1. Jean Marc L'Officier: Virtually all of Moebius' ALIEN designs were "lost" a long time ago.
   Here is a list what I know has been printed:
   -- Some of the costume designs are in THE MAKING OF ALIEN book;
   -- and (I was told) there are more designs viewable on the Criterion
   laserdisc version. (But I don't have it.)
   -- I put on our website a color illustration by Moebius for a Cannes Film
   Festival early advance notice poster (it was originally printed in Jim
   Steranko's MEDIASCENE a long time ago),
   -- and I printed two small b&w spaceship designs (which I found in an old
   drawer) in ASHCAN COMICS #4.
   There. (https://groups.yahoo.com/ 11th, February 2000)
2. Charles Lippincott: When I was working on Alien, I knew the art work had to be copyrighted, so I asked and was told to take it to one of the lawyers who would handle the copyright -- we'll call him Mr. X.
   
   At Fox there was an upstairs area for the lawyers. Each lawyer had a private area, not quite cubicles, more semi-private enclosures. All the lawyers went for their own unique presence, but Mr. X presumed he was more than what he was. An example was you walking into his area and there was a table with this fancy coffee or tea service. His attitude, like the tea service, said it all. Yoh, I'm no ordinary yobo, I'm truly an upper class, old school aristocrat. But you could tell from the way he talked it was all affectation.
   
   I brought Moebius's artwork to Mr. X and told him to let me know when he had finished the copyright so I could have the material back. Normally, they take the originals, duplicate it and register the copyright. When I went back to get the originals, he looked at me and said he didn't have it. I said, "Where is it?" He was very vague, so I kept persisting, "That was the original. We need it." Then he said, "Oh, well... ah... I sent it in." I was pissed because my gut feeling then and there was X had kept the stuff. (Charles Lippincott, 1st September, 2014 Facebook)