Genesis: The Art of Transformers

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Published in 2003 by the somewhat infamous 88MPH Studios (and Image Comics, in some capacity), Transformers Genesis was coffee-table artbook focusing largely, but not exlusively, on G1.

Content

Apart from Introduction and Thanks pages by art director Sébastien Clavet (including a gratuitous headshot), Genesis consists entirely of high-quality "pin-up" style artwork, mostly one artwork per page. Some pictures feature dynamic tableaux, battle scenes or pimped-out group shots, but more often than not are character portraits.

Images are a combination of reprints of works drawn by artists of the then-budding Dreamwave Studios (especially Don Figueroa and Pat "Serfdom" Lee), originally published by Dreamwave as comic covers and posters/lithographs. There are also contributions by Mainframe, BotCon comic artist Dan Khanna and future TF artists such as E. J. Su, as well as many by non-regular TF artists, many of whom are Japanese.

The previously non-official painted covers by Partrick Thornton and Chris Allen to the first volume (and alternate-cover 2nd edition) of Antarctic Press' toy guide Cybertronian: The Unofficial Transformers Recognition Guide, thus effectively retconning the works as official.

Apparently a good proportion of the artwork for the book was commissioned, but the book contains no index or bibliography to quantify this.

The most common source of inspiration for the artworks is G1, although there is also a large amount of content as well pertaining to G2 and Beast Wars, with a small number of artworks relating to Beast Machines, Machine Wars, Robots in Disguise, early Armada and BotCon exclusive characters featured in 3H's then-current Wreckers and Universe comics.

Despite having a strong presence by Japanese artists, there are comparatively few artworks featuring characters from Japanese-exclusive continuities, and those that are are mostly drawn by American artists. Such characters include Star Convoy, Overlord, Lio Convoy and Big Convoy.

There are no contributions by veteran TF artists such as Andrew Wildman, Geoff Senior, Derek Yaniger etc. It is unknown if they were even approached. The only artwork which has any vintage association is a reproduction of Mark D. Bright's well-known painted cover to Transformers U.S. #5, featuring Shockwave. However, as it reproduces the original art sans cover dress, the image's gag no longer makes sense unless you remember the original cover.

The book contains no pictures of any Transformer in vehicle mode, apart from some blurry Vehicon aero-drones in the background of a Megatron portrait, a blurry silhouette of a jet in the background of a Starscream portrait, and a blueprint of Optimus Prime's truck mode as the background of a picture of Optimus in robot mode.

Contributing Artists

Lots.

Publication controversy

Some controversy surrounds the publication of this book. It was originally solicited as a compendium of original Hasbro/Takara box art, then was later stated to include new pin-up material, and then finally was split into two volumes. The published book was labelled as "Part One", with a second volume supposedly to include the aformentioned product art, but this book never materialised.

Additionally, there were problems with delivery of the book, with many retailers recieving their orders but private individuals recieved neither book, refund, explanation nor communication, to their understandable frustration. Hasbro later initiated legal proceedings against 88MPH Studios.

On July 21, 2006, 88MPH Studios filed a counterclaim against Hasbro, seeking damages for "wrongful doings and the non respect of multiple contractual terms in regards to a licensing agreement concerning the publication of Transformers related books."

Man, what is it with Hasbro and its licensees?

External Links

• interview with art director Sébastien Clavet about the book.

• posting on tfw2005.com of 88MPH Studios press release concerning filing counterclaim lawsuit against Hasbro.

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