We heard only hours before starting to write up the arrival of the softcover edition of this classic work by two of the all-time greats of bande dessinee, that Moebius, perhaps the greatest of them all, had passed away. While Madwoman does not contain the type of cosmic science fiction imagery most closely associated with Moebius, it is second only to The Incal as his most important collaboration with Alejandro Jodorowsky, and it is a work that clearly demonstrates his seemingly effortless mastery of the form and that is certainly one of his most mature and sophisticated works from a narrative standpoint. On the one hand Madwoman is a close up and personal view of a popular university professor's midlife crisis that involves a torrid affair with one of his students who may or may not have a screw loose, but on the other it is a brilliant allegorical satire of the religious and political institutions that undergird European society that is accompanied by a (relatively; certainly for a graphic novel) deep analysis of their historical basis. It is also a wildly entertaining page-turner that is nearly impossible to put down; a highbrow screwball comedy for the ages.
