If you find yourself in or around Paris, France between now and March 13th, I am extremely jealous of you. Paris is, of course, a wonderful and historic city in its own right (one that I would be happy to visit at any time), but there is a very special art exhibition taking place at the Fondation Cartier. The spectacular exhibit, titled Moebius: Transe-Forme, is an expansive collection of the work of vaunted comics illustrator, cartoonist and artist Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius.

Even if you don’t know his name, you are certainly familiar with his work. Giraud has been hugely influential on modern science fiction, fantasy and cyberpunk. Best known in North America for his work in early issues of the cult magazine Heavy Metal, over the course of his career the artist has collaborated with an array of visionary creatives like Stan Lee, Alejandro Jodorowosky and even George Lucas. Filmmaker Ridley Scott attributes Giraud as one of the key inspirations for the look and feel of Alien and Blade Runner, films that in turn were influential in their own right. One need only look at movies like The Fifth Element and games like Deus Ex and Omikron: The Nomad Soul to see the long reaching impact of his work.

The exhibit runs until March 13th at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, France.

See some photos from the Moebius: Transe-Forme Exhibit below:

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Photos by Olivier Ouadah

One of the possible additions to The Transmetropolitan Art Book, originally by Stuart Sayger. Courtesy of Mike McLarty. Click to embiggen.

Transmetropolitan is my favourite comic book series of all time. It was my first experience with a story which got me emotionally involved, and was my first journey in collecting: even though I was looking for out-of-print trade paperbacks, I found them, dammit.

When I heard that someone was putting together a Transmet art book to raise money for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, I had to check it out.

After some Googling, I eventually found out that this project was indeed real. A $79 donation the project’s Kickstarter page got me a Limited Edition Hardcover (when it goes to print) with a signed bookplate: I’d say that was a pretty good deal.

After tweeting about my donation, Mike McLarty, one of the book’s editors, got in touch with me. He passed along the image to the right, which might be one of the many that goes to print. Much of the art to be featured is from McLarty’s personal collection, drawn by artists and other fans of the series.

Obviously, the characters of Transmetropolitan still belong to creators Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson. McLarty is just a fan with an extreme passion for the story; he threw me a couple messages explaining how he came to be involved with the project, which you can read below.

I am a fan with a personal sketch/commission collection of all-Transmet art. I shared these images with Darick in person at SDCC 09. He was humbled and a little weirded out by seeing so many different artists giving life to his creation. Physical design for Jerusalem is all Darick [Robertson.] I arranged for a commission and he kicked ASS.

This led to further correspondence for Emerald City 2010 commission. I told him I wanted to do a full analysis of the world of Transmetropolitan. He was receptive to talking. I arranged an interview for my visit interview is extensive & is posted at heroescorner.com, under ‘articles.’ I got to talking with Darick’s PA, Susan, and she suggested using my personal art collection as a catalyst for a book.

She suggested the charitable angle and she started the machine rolling. I’m the original impetus for the book. Just a fan who got a chance to set a real dream in motion. I couldn’t be more proud than to have my name associated with the greatest comic series in the history of sequential art.

Darick is a great guy and I’ve always been impressed with how he treats his fans. I’ve corresponded with Warren and met him in San Diego a few years ago. Nice man, I respect him immensely.

Bottom line: you never know what’s possible if you’re too afraid to ASK.

[Ed's note: this was taken from a series of Twitter DM's. Edited for clarity]

—
Matt Demers writes about comics for Dork Shelf, and wants more journalism of attachment, dammit! If you liked this article, you can follow him on Twitter.

Narwhal Art Projects is pleased to present Hibernation Sickness, a solo exhibition with Toronto collective Team Macho. Hibernation Sickness marks the collective’s notable return to fine art after a two year sabbatical dedicated to their individual pursuits. A term used to describe the side effects associated with awakening from a period of suspended animation, Team Macho related similar type symptoms when returning to their group practice. Although their creative environment has remained virtually unchanged for the past six years with all members continuing to create out of the legendary shared space, the dynamic within the collective altered as each member developed their individual practice. Embarking on solo projects ranging from classical oil painting to collage to airbrush and woodworking, the collective dedicated themselves completely to a specific practice allowing for a deeper understanding of both themselves and their techniques. Team Macho return to their communal fine art practice with five unique sets of sharply honed skills and a renewed passion for their shared creative dynamic. Steadfast in their loyalty and mutual appreciation for contemporary cultural references, Hibernation Sickness is an homage to rebel fighters, and celebrates the continued evolution of the Team Macho brotherhood.

Comprised of members Nicholas Aoki, G. Stephen Appleby-Barr, Christopher Buchan, Lauchie Reid and Jacob Whibley, Team Macho occupies a large studio in Toronto, where their collective efforts are focused on developing an art-making practice that spans the worlds of both fine art and illustration. With a penchant for using unconventional materials and subverted narratives, Team Macho playfully juxtapose styles and motifs ranging from the crudely rendered to the classically painted. Working with a wide range of media, Team Macho’s diverse offerings convey a decidedly unorthodox and individual approach where figurative painting, drawing, airbrush, collage and sculpture find harmony within the group’s infinite reserve of inside jokes and prolific banter. Team Macho have exhibited at Magic Pony and Narwhal Art Projects since 2005, with Friends for Life (June 2005), Team Macho is a Tough Man (May 2006), Fancy Action Now (May 2007) and Kitschy, Gay, And Over In a Second (September 2008). Magic Pony published their first monograph in 2007, entitled Fancy Action Now: The Art of Team Macho.

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Here are some dorky installations and exhibits that are well worth checking out:

Zone A

Cabin in the Woods

Interactive Landscape Dune

Lower Bay Station,
Bay and Bloor

An interactive landscape takes over Lower Bay Station, reacting to the behaviour of people. Large lighted fibres are brightened and dim in reaction to the sounds and motion of passersby. Think the bright ethereal night time jungle from the film Avatar. Exhibits at Lower Bay Station are notoriously busy, so get there early tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Zone B

Chip Music Mega Show!

Nathan Phillips Square,
Queen and Bay St.

From 10:00 PM until 1:30 AM the heart of Toronto will experience the magical tones of chiptune music. Featuring DJ Eastern Blok, Arisuki, deadbeatblast, bossFYTE, DJ JONZILLA, jefftheworld, Battle Lava and Starpilot. 8 and 16 Bit madness!

Zone C

The Arcadian Renaissance: The Video Arcade Enlightened

The Atrium of TIFF Bell Lightbox,
350 King St. W. at John

The Hand Eye Society presents six old-school arcade machines —Torontrons— retrofitted to play games designed by the local indie development scene. Featuring some of the most amazing independent games to come out of Toronto in recent years, including Cephalopods Co-op Cottage Defence by Spooky Squid Games, Everyday Shooter by Jonathan Mak, Gesundheit! by Matt Hammill, N Arcade by Metanet Software, Osmos by Hemisphere Games, and Silent Skies by Spyeart.

And at midnight Messhof‘s mind-bogglingly awesome Nidhogg will take centre stage for a two-player tournament of epic proportions.

GRINDBOX!

TIFF Bell Lightbox,
350 King St. W. at John

Midnight Madness programmer and Kung Fu Fridays curator Colin Geddes presents Grindbox!, an all night marathon of trailers for horror and exploitation films from around the world. Weird, hilarious and twisted stuff to be seen!

The Essential Cinema

TIFF Bell Lightbox,
350 King St. W. at John

Two great Canadian filmmakers, Atom Egoyan and Guy Maddin, explore the relationship between the viewer, the screen and the film. Egoyan’s take on 8 1/2 is particularly cool.

NFBeats

National Film Board,
150 John Street

Enter the dance floor and create! Visitors who enter the exhibit will trigger new patterns, colours and images, generating an interactive art project fuelled by the collective rhythm with a backdrop of music from contemporary and classic National Film Board films.

There are so many other great exhibits out there, not all of them considered dorky. Be sure to check out the official Nuit Blanche site to see a full list of art exhibits and installations.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The documentary features interviews with many actors, directors and artists including  George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Michael J. Fox, Frank Darabont, Guillermo del Toro, Steven Spielberg and yes, even Steve Guttenberg. Now I know what you’re thinking: “Where the hell did they find Steve Guttenberg? And why is he in this documentary?” Well, in addition to painting artwork for some of the most successful movies in history, Struzan also created the posters for the first four Police Academy movies. Hey, they can’t all be winners.

No release date has been announced and it is unknown if the doc will hit the festival circuit or be released straight to video.

Meanwhile, be sure to check out the official website for Drew: The Man Behind the Poster and the artist’s own website for samples of his work.

Jason Edmiston

Cereal Monsters by Jason Edmiston

We met Jason on the Sunday at FanExpo while we were waiting to interview a notable TV celebrity (rhymes with Lictor Vucas).  Afterwards, he shook our hands and told us we had a great interview.  Later that day while surfing artist alley we stumbled upon his table, which was riddled with fantastic art.  He promptly stood up and declared to his wife, “These were the guys I was telling you about.”  As it turns out, interviewers are very susceptible to flattery.  But this isn’t the reason we interviewed Jason.  We interviewed him because he is a fantastic illustrator, that and he emailed us about being featured on the Art-O-Bot.

Jason has been a commercial illustrator since the mid-90′s.  Creating work for advertising, editorial, packaging and publishing clients around the world.  Edmiston’s style is quite varied, featuring everything from realistic figures to exaggerated caricatures. Jason’s pop culture aesthetic has a heavy influence on his work, from retro styled advertisements and famous movie monsters to modern pulp heroes and comic book characters.

Now on to the goods.  Personally I would love nothing more then a series of commissions from Jason recreating famous comic book covers.

Be sure to check out more of Jason’s work at his official website.

Come back next time when we feature another talented local artist on the ART-O-BOT.

If you want to be featured in the bot email jeff@dorkshelf.com be sure to attach your link and any other facts you want us and the public to know.

From the golden-age through today, from mainstream to indie cover, the more interesting it is., any comic book cover is suitable for a remix.  Many different art styles are used for the remix covers;  usually the more disparate the remix is from the original, the more interesting it is.  Covered is curated by California artist Robert Goodin.

Here is a sampling of some of the comic cover remixes.

Check out the Covered Blog to see more.

Via Wired

Steve McNiven

A while back a company called CrossGen was producing a whole slew of talent;  One of those talents was Steve McNiven.  McNiven’s art shot to popularity with Marvel Comics 2006 event Civil War, but his other titles included Fantastic Four and New Avengers.   Most recently McNiven worked on Wolverine: Old Man Logan, a story that takes us to a future where Wolverine is a shell of his former furious self.  Old Man Logan also reunites Steve with fan favorite uber-writer Mark Millar.  The conclusion of this story is coming out in a giant one-shot in the middle of August, I eagerly await Steve’s next project.

In the meantime you can check out Steve’s art at his official blog or head on over to the forums at Jinxworld to see more.

Ty Templeton

It’s the 1990′s, Marvel and DC have just crossed over and they announced a series of books to cash in on the success of the crossover.  Enter Amalgam Comics and the book everyone was waiting for: Dark Claw Adventures, written by Ty Templeton.  Dark Claw combined the characters of Wolverine and Batman, how frakkin’ cool is that? Beyond Dark Claw, Ty’s list of credits as both writer and artist is quite vast.

Templeton is a local Toronto talent and that’s why we’re featuring him on Art-O-Bot, but we must mention his great work at Canada’s own Max the Mutt.  It’s one thing to inspire people by the books you help create, but Ty goes a step further and actually teaches aspiring artists and story tellers how to create in his Comic Illustration and Art course at Max the Mutt; one of the premiere animation and art schools in the world.

Check out Ty Templeton’s Official Site

Derec Donovan

So I picked up a book a few months back, it was called Youngblood.  Now  I know what your thinking… “What the hell is wrong with you Jeff, why would you pick up a Rob Liefeld book?“.  Stop there dear reader, I can assure you that the new guard at Image Comics take what Liefeld started and make it so much better.  Derec is one of the hidden gems of the industry, his style is dynamic and full of energy.  He’s not just one of the guys who achieved the impossible by making Youngblood good, he’s also done work for DC and some incredible independent work.  Grab a commission or sketchbook if you see Derec at a con, they are well worth your hard earned dollars.

Make sure to check out Derec’s Official Site as well as his deviantArt page.

That’s it for this week, we’ll return next time with even more talent to share with the world. Art-O-Bot out!

Eric Canete

It’s rare in this day and age of comics that an artist floors me with their talent.  Eric Canete was the artist on The End League, and several other books.  He updates his blog very often and his art is vibrant and dynamic. Warning: his art can be considered art is in its purest form, which may mean the occasional muse lacking clothing.   I was first exposed to his Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin, a tale of the Armored Avenger’s first meeting with the Mandarin.  I can promise you this, you’ll be checking Eric Canete’s blog regularly to see what he gets up to.

Kalman Andrasofszky

It’s should be no surprise that I am a giant Green Lantern fan, when I discovered the cover artist of the ION miniseries was a local, I knew he would be perfect for the bot.  Kalman’s most recent work was featured in NYX: No Way Home, and covers for DC Comics R.E.B.E.L.S..  Of course, Andrasofszky keeps tight lipped about his upcoming projects, however I can assure you that you will not be disappointed when he announces his new projects.  Contact Kalman if you’re a fan and see if he’ll take commissions.  Check out Kalman Andrasofszky’s Blog and be sure to grab a sketch from him at a con.

Joe Madureira

That’s it! I broke down and had to do it; I started watching anime because of Joe Madureira’s art.  I loved his Uncanny X-men run, which is also one of the reasons I got into the independent comics scene.  Battle Chasers was this mystical steam punk hybrid book that was Madureira’s creator owned title; eight issues in he left to go design video games. He recently came back to the fold with the Ultimates 3, it’s rare that Marvel puts out two versions of a book, but they did.  One in a colour, and one just designed for pencil sketches.  His work is incredible and when you see his pencils you’ll understand.  Sadly, there is no official site for Joe, so I’ve found a fan site that displays a lot of his work both in video game design (to which he has gone back to doing) and many of his covers from the video game world.  Check out the work and pick up Madureira’s back issues and get this man back in comics!

The Art-O-Bot is out of fuel for this edition, until next week everyone Art-O-Bot Exterminate!!!!!
Damn Daleks.

Barnett created the series as a response to what he saw as “3D games slavishly imitating real life“, something that games like Team Fortress 2 are now shying away from.  Personally, I would love to play a game that looked like the stuff Barnett has painted. Where are the video game Matisse and Derain art directors of our time?!

Check out James Barnett’s Offical Site to see his series of video game paintings.  Also, if you’re interested in having a favourite virtual landscape put to canvas he also takes commissions.