I hated The Fifth Element. Couldn't really see the point of any of it.
AFAIK Besson is a big
Valérian fan. (Or comics fan in general? He did a
Blueberry movie, after Moebius's
other ground-breaking and influential comic book series.) I read somewhere that he wanted to do a
Valérian movie and ended up mixing his influences for
Fifth Element.
Last year 2012 (d'oh, we've got 2014) it was announced that
he wants to do a real Valérian adaption but so far nothing has come of it.
ButThe Airtight Garage! It seems really cool, but I don't know where the entry point is. I read some little riffs and bits where Moebius used it as a setting, and that's all.
I am a purist when it comes to the Garage. I know that Moebius, Lofficier and Shanower worked on spin-offs and sequels in the same universe but I like the original story especially for its stream-of-consciousness plotting. The original story was a monthly series that ran in (two to four page instalments) for
years in the pages of
Métal Hurlant. Moebius had no plot and took the story where his mind wandered and his whim took him.
It's not coherent, it's weird and whimsy in a Peter Mullen and Erol Otus kind of way, and the ending makes you go, "WTF???".
The later, "expanded universe" stuff is more defined and a rather ordinary, almost generic, space adventure.
The original, collected series is
this.
(I am still on the fence whether I prefer the colorized version or the original b/w version.)