PARIS  - French comic-book artist and designer Jean Giraud, known as Moebius, died Saturday aged 73 after a long illness, an associate and work colleague said. Jean Henri Gaston Giraud was one of France’s leading cartoonists who also found fame in Japan and the United States. Born at Nogent-sur-Marne east of Paris on May 8, 1938, after art school he began training as an illustrator for advertisers and the fashion industry before turning to comic strips. He found fame when he created the Lieutenant Blueberry western character in 1963 and adopted the pseudonym Moebius for illustrations of science fiction books and magazines.