Zipping up my moonboots and going back to the roots here with a varied selection of retro SF and Fantasy book art. Sci-Fi-O-Rama was pretty much built upon the back of posting forgotten book and games art, so with a renaissance in blog activity what better than to revisit the archives and excerpt another sampler.

What’s most fascinating with each of these examples is though the whole might not always fully hit the mark there’s always something of interest or worthy for reference. This then might be a style of colouring, a technique in rendering, the choice and application of a typeface, or even something as obscure as the design of a motif. In short even the most subtle fragment of detailing can flick a creative switch, it’s all about your own imagination. That isn’t however to say that every Sci-Fi book cover has merit – au contraire – they most certainly do not. But that’s what we’re here for, to filter and serve only the very finest…

In putting this (abridged) selection together we’re go revisit several of the artists featured at Sci-Fi-O-Rama before, people who defined and shaped the genre such as David Pelham, Dean Ellis, Ian Miller and others perhaps slightly less well known such Adrian Chesterman or Peter Tybus. The majority of covers here have come via my Flickr favourites feed and prior to that a Flickr group I’ve mentioned before, the simply titled ‘Sci-Fi Books‘ pool. Of course these days with tumblr and pinterest and the ever evolving Google image search theres a multitude of ways to sophistically search for this kind of art, but I would say the crowd sourced ‘Sci-Fi Books’ collection still represents the best entry point. As such I recommend that as the first stop on the road for further research.

Lets begin with the art and notes, starting with the header image….

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‘Nightmare Blue’ Art by Justin Todd 1975 (top of post)

As is customary I always load the post head with the most arresting image of the pack, so what to say about this one? Hmmm… Well how about for starters it’s bloody mental. Supremely sinister and rendered in an unusual very idiosyncratic style, this is the work of British Artist Justin Todd. Something about it is strangely very contemporary, but in fact it dates from 1975 and so is actually slightly older than your site author.

Todd, an artist I’ve only just come across, is a classically trained illustrator he lectured Illustration at Brighton University in the 1960′s along side Raymond Briggs (The Snow Man, When The Wind Blows). Someone I’ve earmarked to revisit, for now you can read a little more on him here at arts.brighton.ac.uk.

The story by the way revolves around a highly addictive drug ‘Nightmare Blue’ whose users die without another hit… I’ll just point out I haven’t actually read any of the books featured here, so I’ll add a little snippet like this with each cover.

‘Cinnabar’ Peter Goodfellow 1978

This is one of those slightly abstract airbrush type covers so popular in the 70′s,  the indeterminable sense of scale and swathes of cobalt blues lend an appropriate otherworldly theme. This is English artist Peter Goodfellow’s depiction of Cinnabar, a city at the centre of’ time.

The book is actually collection of short stories based around this would be futuristic utopia, I believe some which may of been printed in the legendary OMNI magazine which I’ve posted about way back when. Interestingly after forging a career Illustrating book covers, Goodfellow would move to become a highly regarded landscape painter in Scotland, that future path perhaps hinted at here by the covers distant snowcapped mountains.

Read a little more about Peter Goodfellow here.

‘Frankenstein Unbound’  Art by Paul Bacon 1975

The cover of Brian Aldiss’s ‘Frankenstein Unbound’ comes complete with an appended $1 mark scrawled on the monsters temple. Ignoring the graffiti then, and this slick inked illustration is the work of American graphic designer and Illustrator Paul Bacon. Love the subtle shift in hues and the way the grained texture of the heavy watercolour paper comes though. This style is in fact very reminiscent of Micheal Foreman, who illustrated the original Erik the Viking book, that was featured here a little while back.

Again somewhat embarrassingly this was the first I’d actually heard of Paul Bacon, although I’m not entirely sure how as I am familiar with some of his work. Perhaps you are too? Bacon created the iconic first edition covers for some of the 20th century’s most important novels including Ken Kesey’s ‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest‘, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s ‘Slaughterhouse-Five‘ and the legendary ‘Catch 22‘ by Joseph Heller (love that book). Read a little more about Paul Bacon at Wikipedia.

A quick story synopsis: Time traveling 21st American Joe Bodenland finds himself with Byron and Shelley in the famous villa on the shore of Lake Geneva. More fantastically, he finds himself face to face with a real Frankenstein. Sounds pretty good, and indeed in 1990 was adapted to the big screen with no other than Roger Corman at the helm, the undisputed heavyweight champ of cult cinema. Frankenstein Unbound stars staring John Hurt, Bridget Fonda and Raul Julia check it at IMDB.

‘ The Incandescent Ones’ – Adrian Chesterman

This sinister looking chromed robotic figure is the work of Adrian Chesterman another artist who’s popped up here before. Chesterman, an American artist produced a series of these somewhat warped airbrushed covers for Penguin Science Fiction during the late 70′s and Early 80′s. It’s a look that’s quite distinguishable being characterised by exceptional costume styling and rendered with just the right amount of highlighting sheen. Above is a fine demonstration of these traits, and as with all Chesterman’s covers is underpinned by a deep love for the subject matter.

Also of note is that despite being a (one assumes) being from the future, it’s also impossible to escape the influence of the present or what is now the past. As such Chesterman’s work contains subtle visual clues that reflect the times; a touch of Disco here, a splash of ‘Simon Says’ and of course the inevitable Starwars references.

Definitely a favourite of mine, check out the complete set of Adrian Chesterman cover’s over at the excellent Penguin Science Fiction website.

A quick note the on the book itself and this one sounds perhaps targeted towards a younger adult demographic. A young art student receives a cryptic message that is to lead him on to a series of startling adventures…

‘Times Last Gift’  Art by Peter Tybus  1975

A rainbow coloured somewhat fauvist cover from Peter Tybus this one dating from 1975. The story, if you hadn’t of guessed revolves around time travel.

Tybus is something of a Sci-Fi-O-Rama enigma, and there is little or no digital footprint of him beyond a series of magazine and book illustrations dating from the 1970s. Indeed the top search result listed by google is in fact a Sci-Fi-O-Rama’s past feature on him. Anyway there’s always alot of love here for his iridescent style that’s also reminiscent of the work of  David Pelham, of course, also a Penguin Sci-Fi Cover illustrator.

If you do have more info on Peter Tybus do let us know, it’d be great to one day run an expanded feature…

‘R is for Rocket’ cover art by Ian Miller

A collection of Short Stories penned by Ray Bradbury. This cover is the unmistakable work of British illustrator and blog favourite Ian Miller, featured a good few times before. Millers work is a demonstration in ornate crafting finished with laser guided precision and is juxtaposed into chaotic compositions swathed with wild gothic stylings. This is the definition of frenetic, never a moment will your eye rest upon Ian’s work, such is demonstrated above. Also take note of a hawk-eyed passion for architectural and geometric detailing.

Miller doesn’t really do Sci-fi or Fantasy, the work is simultaneously both and neither, and of course is all the better for it. If you are unfamiliar with his work and intrigued (you should be) why not have a browse back through past entries or check his official website ian-miller.org.

‘The Menzentian Gate’ (Year Unknown)

The Menzentian Gate is a fantasy novel, penned in 1958 and is part of whats known as the Zimiamvian Trilogy. The saga fact loosely linked to Eddison’s more famous work ‘ The Worm Ouroboros‘ featured here way back in 2008.

The cover is by Barbara Remmington an American artist and Illustrator most famous for her Ballatine Books first edition covers for Lord of the Rings. It’s a colourful style of work reminiscent perhaps of that Bayeux tapestry  mode of visual story telling, and busy composition loaded with clues and character. Certainly captures the ethos of what a fantasy book should like, and the Dragon/Serpent looks fantastic.

‘Der Himmel über Pern‘

From the dragon that devours its own tail to one thats shrouds an astronaut. Lets not beat about the bush here, this cover is tarnished by some feeble typesetting. But lets clone stamp that out of the way and concentrate on the artwork. Judging by the creatures sinister almost demonic appearance I’m guessing this could be the work of Wayne Barlowe or possibly Chris Achilleos, both masters in the art of fashioning evil looking winged reptilian beasts. It may well be however that it’s the work of someone else entirely, please post if you know. Aslo are dragons actually reptilian?  If I ever see one I’ll be sure to ask.

The German title translates as ‘The Skies of Pern’ a science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. The story is just one of a series set on the mythical world of Pern and the concept of Dragon Rider’s, hence the cover art.

‘Gillis Bonde från Ham’ (Farmer Giles of Ham) – 1970 by Rolf Lagerson

Another Dragon here, and a swerve towards decidedly lighter material. This is cover for a 1970 Swedish edition of the  J. R. R. Tolkien children’s book ‘Farmer Giles of Ham’. Tolkien originally wrote the story of Farmer Giles and his encounters with the wily Dragon Chrysophylax (great name) back in 1939 but it wasn’t to be published until 1949.

Lovely illustration from Rolf Lagerson which I came across by chance whilst pin-balling around various Pinterest boards. Drilling through to source to uncover Laura Ottina‘s wonderful Illustration blog ‘Animalarium‘. Animalarium put simply is a a vast resource of illustrated animal imagery, best summarised by it’s own simple strapline: “Animals as an endless source of creative inspiration”.

Check it out: www.theanimalarium.blogspot.co.uk. Also worth a look a collection of Rolf Largerson’s Illustration at Flickr.

‘The Tar-Aiym Krang’ art by Dean Ellis 1972

Back up to Sci-Fi and here’s another taster from a prolific genre Illustrator, the late Dean Ellis. I believe this is the seventh appearance on Sci-Fi-O-Rama of an Ellis Illustration, all are characterised with a highly distinctive almost classical style, similar in many ways to the work of space art pioneer Chesley Bonestell. Beautiful renderings of distant worlds and the inky black star-fields the lay within, Ellis’s work is a wash with soft hues and subtle shading.

If it’s your first time viewing a Dean Ellis cover I certainly recommend taking the time to study more
www.sci-fi-o-rama.com/category/artist/dean-ellis

The book itself; ‘The Tar-Aiym Krang’ sounds like your classic space opera fare, and centres on young orphan and thief  known as ‘Flinx ‘ who comes cross a fabled star map…

‘Empire of The Atom’ 1974 (Designer Unknown)

An interesting typographic solution with a smart colour schemes forms the cover for a 70′s edition of Van Vogt’s 1957 novel. Empire of the Atom caused something of a stir at the time due to similarities with Robert Graves’s Claudius stories. Having read neither, I couldn’t possibly pass judgement! Slick graphics though proving minimal jacket sleeves such as these can have just as much impact…

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Well once again, what started out as mini post idea and a brief scan through Flickr has completely snowballed out of control into another creaking behemoth type article. This one is playing out like a Sci-Fi-O-Rama Who’s Who, and there’s of course many more artists I can and will feature. However, I’m slightly conscious of post length and attention spans, not least of which my own! so I’m going to sever the post here and conclude with a Part 2…

In the Meantime, be sure to check out the following resources….

The Art of Penguin Science Fiction

Sci-Fi-O-Rama Flickr Favourites

Flickr Sci-Fi Books Pool

Back soon….

‘Behind The American Dream’ Alejandro Magallanes (Mexico 2001)

This mini post marks the start of a new Sci-Fi-O-Rama strategic initiative designed to increase the general yield of blog output. In english then what that means is we’re going to mix up the larger articles with smaller more image focused selections, tactical posts if you will.

This first selection is a book sampler ‘New Poster Art’ published by Thames & Hudson in 2008. I picked up a copy after spying a fellow commuter thumbing through it on my regular morning train journey. As the title suggests Its a fairly weighty compendium of selected poster Design, Typography and Illustration pulling in artists from across the planet…

The books global nature makes it interesting by default, encompassing an extremely varied selection of art and applied graphical technique. Here’s a taster with a few notes…

‘Unknown Land’ AGI Poster (Netherlands 2007) Bob van Dijk
An interesting abstract blend of bold primary colours and grungy line work, lovely stuff.

 ’Maria Stuart by Friedrich Schiller’ - Dieter Feseke, Theatre Poster (Germany 2002-3)

As the above example demonstrates ‘New Post Art’ is full of examples of Silkscreen printed work, and thus many excellent references for contrasting, complimenting or accented colour swatches.

‘Manascreen’ Shinnoske Sugisaki (Japan 2004)|
25th Anniverary, poster a silkscreen company

This is one of those scans that no matter how long you try to tweak it’s never going to look a patch on the original, though I hope this gives an indication. A wonderful abstract piece of minimalism.

‘Printed Matter No.1′ (The Life and Death Issue) promotional poster.
Russell Warren-Fisher (UK 2002)

Again this is another thats subtle details have been lost a little in the translation back to screen. Lovely soft texturing and considered layering of warm grey hues underpin an image thats though stunning creates quite a feeling of discomfort.

‘AllOne’ Exhibition Poster, Reza Abedini (Iran, 2006)

As mentioned in the intro the ‘New Poster Art’  features global poster design, particularly interesting from the collection is the work of  Iranian Graphic Artist Reza Abedini and his take on modern Persian Typography. He’s produced some really jaw dropping poster art, see more at www.rezaabedini.com.

’100 Best Posters 02′ Dieter Fiedler, Cyan (Germany 2003)

Finish up with another bold coloured typographical selection from Dieter Fiedler, a pretty cool demonstration of  the use of positive and negative space.

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So then, that pretty much wraps things up. A book I’d heartily recommend to any Graphic Designer or Artist, particularly so if you have an interest in silkscreen printing or similar.

‘New Poster Art’  was published in 2008 by Thames Hudson and is the work of authors Cees W. de Jong and  Stefanie Burger. I picked up my copy via Amazon, here’s a link: New Post Art

Normally (Sci-Fi) service will resume shortly…

‘Lord of the Rings’ (German Book Cover) – 1970

Once again please forgive the slight delay in posing new material. The blame lays solely with Supercell’s ‘Clash of Clans’ of which I was introduced through work. What started out as a study of the UI has since evolved into spending almost £30 on in app purchases! Digital crack it most certainly is… So then pithy excuses aside lets begin the post.

Sci-Fi-O-Rama is proud to present a selection of ‘far out’ imagery sequestered from the fantastically titled ‘Electrical Banana’ Psychedelic art book – and yes that title is indeed derived from a reference to a certain type of ladies sex toy.

This article was originally planned as a feature on 60′s Psychedelic Music Posters by artists such as Bonnie Maclean, Victor Moscoso and Wes Wilson and you may well have spotted samples appearing in the Sci-Fi Overflow . Upon searching for an appropriate book to feature I came across Electrical Banana and a selection of artists I was less familiar with so I thought I’d give it punt. Here’s the blurb:

Electrical Banana is the first definitive examination of the international language of psychedelia, focusing on the most important practitioners in their respective fields with a deft combination of hundreds of unseen images and exclusive interviews and essays, Electrical Banana aims to revise the common perception of psychedelic art, showing it to be more innovative, compelling, and revolutionary than was ever thought before.

The artists include: Marijke Kroger, a Dutch artist responsible for dressing the Beatles; Mati Klarwein, who painted the cover for Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew; Keiichi Taanami, the Japanese master of psychedelic posters; Heinz Edelmann, the German illustrator and designer of the Yellow Submarine animated film; Tadanori Yokoo, whose prints and books, defined the ’6os in Japan; Dudley Edwards, a painter, car designer, and graphic embellisher for the London rock scene, and the enigmatic Australian Martin Sharp, whose work for Cream and underground magazines made him a ‘hippie household name in Europe.

As you can imagine the book is impeccably researched and is laced with some excellent, fairly unique content. What I’ll do here then is run through each of the artists and add a couple of samples. Before starting I’ll stress that this barely skims the surface, and if your even the slightest bit interesting in the swinging 60′s and psychedelia in general Electrical Banana is an absolute must have.

Lets begin then…

‘Yellow Submarine Stills’

Heinz Edelmann (20 June 1934 – 21 July 2009) was a German illustrator and designer, most famous for his art direction and character designs for the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine. An immensely talented individual  Edelmann’s career spanned four decades, and utilised many styles. It is however the playful and gloriously vividly coloured work with The Beatles that will remain his most famous work.

As with all featured artists, Electrical Banana includes an extensive interview with the artist, in his Edelmann explains he had little love for the Psychedelic scene and his work of the period. As the compiling authors Norman Hathaway & Dan Nadel note “Never of the scene, Edelmann instead invented it, imparting his visual language to a culture he was barely interested in”. It’s a fascinating read and you can’t help but wonder why the disdain for something so wonderful, of course though the strive for perfectionism and purity of ones artistic vision are crosses all artists half to bare – who are we to judge.

It feels a little strange too then to underline this fact by choosing two more illustrations from another project Edelmann reflects upon with unfond feelings. ‘Andromeda SR1′ was illustrated children’s book about a voyage to Mars, again featuring the dynamic iridescent and totally unmistakable style. I love the way the Ink bleeds and blooms, this effect was achieved apparently by using Dr. Ph Martins Dyes.

‘Andromedar SR1′ Book Illustrations – 1970.

Moving on from Andromedar SR1, a quick mention with regards to this articles header image. This is Edelmanns Book jacket for a German edition of Tolkiens legendary ‘Lord of the Rings’ which gained traction and was popularised by the hippy movement. The publishers thus wanted psychedelic styled Illustrations, and approached Edelmann who was by this point  ”Fed up of this entire flower power thing”.  Persevering anyway he states that for the book jacket (which I love) he “unforgivably parodied” Milton Glaser’s famous Dylan Poster.

There’s no doubt then that Heinz Edelmann was supremely talented if slightly hesitant individual, (with regards to Psychedelia) and I’d love to write and research more but that’ll be the subject of a future post….

For further artwork try this tumblr selection and for wider overview check the Wikipedia article.

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Martin Sharp

The books next selected artist is Australian Martin Sharp (born 1942), these days considered one of the finest Antipodeans Pop Artists. As opposed to Edelmann Sharp was very much part of the scene, becoming roomates with Eric Claption during his swinging London years.

As is demonstrated below, Sharp was capable of extremely trippy draughtsmanship and Electrical Banana compiles a varied selection of his portfolio including work from his long dedication to Oz Magazine, the infamous counter culture magazine that ran (in it’s 2nd guise) from 1967 to 1973.

Interesting to note that apparently Sharp did not apparently plan nor pencil his hyper-detailed drawings and would rather populate a page with just the right amount of line and the fill out the composition.

‘London Oz’ – Offset Promotional Poster 1967

Here’s a perfect demonstration of Martin’s playful, swooping linework and zealful hand cut typography, the above image was designed for the first edition of London Oz, but however was not released at the time.

‘Dantalians Chariot’ - Silkscreen poster on foil 1967

On this poster Sharp notes “It was an image Inspired by Syd Barret and Pink Floyd and my experiences at the U.F.O Club. Mark Boyle did wonderful lightshows there over Floyd’s music. The Speakeasy, for example, was a typical night club where musicians met and played. The U.F.O Club was a weekly event and total psychedelic experience. Pink Floyd always amazed me”….. 

‘Float’ - Offset/silkscreen poster 1969

With far more than one string to his metaphorical bow the above bold and vivid abstract print serves as a fine example of Sharp’s more Pop Art slanted minimalism.

For more on Martin check his either his Facebook Page, or shy of purchasing a copy of Electrical Banana read more via his Wiki page.

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Dudley Edwards 

West Yorkshire’s Dudley Edwards (born 1944) first came to prominence as co-founder of the ground-breaking ‘Pop’ design collective with fellow artists Douglas Binder and David Vaughan (Binder, Edwards & Vaughan).

To quote from Electrical Banana: “Binder, Edwards & Vaughan exploded into the creative carnival that was 1960′s London with it’s brightly coloured and electrified take on traditional fairground painting. Applying the awe-inspiring hand skills onto heretofore unvisited areas of applied art such as pianos, shop fronts and automobiles”

In layman’s terms Binder, Edwards & Vaughan perhaps defined the look of swinging 60′s London more than any other.  And though their collaborative time together was short their work would propel them to the lofty heights of collaborating with The Beatles. It’s also doubtful (for better or for worse) that Austin Powers would ever of come to conception for it not for the craftsmanship of the trio.

‘Carnaby Street’ - Mural 1967

‘Dragon Cafe’ - [With Mike McInnery] Mural 1968

‘Cosmicomics’ - Book Jacket 1968

Edwards also went on to a stint in Record Sleeve and Book Jacket Design of which the interesting above Graphic illustration is a sample.

Read more about Dudley Edwards at Godfrey Townsend Music.

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Marijke Koger

Marijke Koger (Born 1943) was the primary visual artist behind the four-person art group ‘The Fool’ a Dutch design collective (and later band) who rose to prominence in late 1960′s London. Alongside Koger ‘The Fool’ consisted of fellow artist Simon Posthuma, Fashion Designer Yosha Leeger and Barry Finch, the groups name being derived as a reference to the Tarot Card. The Fool made a tremendous impact at the time via there work for the Beatles, Cream and The Move to name but a few. In fact such was the popularity of the group that despite having few musical inclinations they record a Psych-Folk album produced by Graham Nash – I’ve got to track that one down!

Electrical Banana contains many of Koger’s rainbow coloured illustrations, murals designs and more, carefully documenting the huge influence she had on defining the Technicolor hippy look. Here’s a pretty cool quote from the book when describing her style:

“She did not engage with modernism or pop art, preferring a more accessible, almost colloquial approach to art-making. This is not psychedelic art made by a designer or psychedelic designs made by an illustrator, but rather full-blown psychedelic visuals made by a woman who inhabited that space in her mind’

‘Love Life’ - Offset poster 1966

‘Tiger Man’ - Offset poster 1970

Read more about ‘The Fool‘ collective or visit Marike’s official site www.maryke.com

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Keiichi Tanaami

Next up is the first of two Japanese Designer / Illustrators featured in Electrical Banana, and all seven artists featured here I’d have to say that Keeichi Tanaami (born 1932) is definitely my favourite.  Tanaami’s style, characterised by beautiful and distinctive line work was to continually evolve and adapt throughout the 60′s becoming increasingly fluid and hedonistically playful thus mirroring the mood of the subcultures he was so fascinated with at the time. Today Tanaami is considered one of Japans leading pop artists, with back catalogue of work that’s meandered between a variety of mediums, following the doctrine of Andy Warhol whom he met and became fascinated with in 1968.

As with Heinz Edelmann, Taanami’s definitely an artist I’ll be revisiting this year, for now here’s a small taster of his wonderfully kitsch draughtmanship.

‘Happening’ [projection on models and car] 1966

A projected coloured transparency, essentially a Tanaami piece wrapped over models and car and captured again on film. I have to say I loved this kind of Photograph Installation, a really interesting way to extend an Illustration. The style of work is very similar to ‘After Bathing At Baxter’s’ a Jefferson Airplane cover that you can see below.

‘After Bathing At Baxter’s' Jefferson Airplane Record Sleeve – 1967

’1967 Tokyo: C’  Silkscreen edition – 1967

’1967 Tokyo: C’  Silkscreen edition – 1967

The Tokyo series give you a good sense of the flavour of Tanaami’s pop art sensibilities.  These are strikingly printed pieces of art, with a almost viscous contrasting colour palette, stare longer and pick out the subtle texturing and gradient fills, instilling a level of depth and movement.

‘The Savage Eye: A’ Silkscreen edition – 1966

‘The Savage Eye: B’Silkscreen edition – 1966

With an extremely obvious sexual theme ‘The Savage Eyes’ builds upon techniques applied in in the prior ‘Tokyo’ set, but the volume here is now cranked up to 11. Fantastic stuff.

Read more about Keiichi Tanaami in an extensive article on him over at Wikipedia or check this tumblr tag search for more imagery.

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Mati Klarwein

Abdul Mati Klarwein (April 9, 1932 – March 7, 2002) was a painter best know for his many  album covers of the 60′s and 70′s. As you can see below, Klarwein’s work has a strong surrealist curve, in fact the samples I’ve selected from Electrical Banana probably owe more to that genre than Psychedelia, though lets face it the two are closely intertwined. It’s no surprise then to learn that Klarwein actually studied with Salvador Dali at Viennese Fantastic Realist Ernst Fuchs.

Whilst much of Klarwein’s famous work is inspired by Surrealism and Pop Culture, it’s also catagorised and reflected by  his interest in non-Western deities, symbolism, and landscapes. Klarwein was also friends of LSD Guru and prophet of counter culture Timothy Leary and of the artist Leary stated that based on the character of his paintings, that Klarwein “didn’t need psychedelics”.

Once again really just a taster of some of the super-far-out work, if you’d like to read more on Mati Klarwien check his wikipedia article  or visit his nicely designed official site matiklarweinart.com

‘Bitches Brew’ (commissioned by Miles Davis for his album Bitches Brew) 1970

‘Jimi Hendrix’ (commissioned by Hendrix for incomplete Gil Evans collaboration album) 1970

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Tadanori Yokoo

And so we come to the final of Electrical Banana’s featured artists, Japanese  graphic designer, illustrator, printmaker and painter Tadanori Yokoo (born 27 June 1936).

Yokoo is interesting and similar to Heinz Edelmann in that he was not absorbed by psychedelia but rather was influenced strongly by the zeitgeist. This is typified in an extensive body of work typified by the use of searing colors, off-kilter contrasts and optical illusions. Yokoo is also something of a chameleon of style, seemingly able to turn his hand to different disciplines with consumate ease. He’s has produced some stunning work through the years, and you can see much more at his official Japanese site tadanoriyokoo.com.

‘A Ballad Dedicated to the Little Finger Cutting Ceremony’ Silkscreen poster – 1966 

‘Sho wp Suteyo e Deyo [Throw Away Your Books, Rally in The Street]‘
Shuji Terayama, Book Jacket Design – 1967

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Epilogue

So then lets draw to a close this special feature, with a couple of notes for further reading / viewing.

Firstly of course a big shout out to author Norman Hathaway and Dan Nadel. Electrical Banana is a fascinating book and impeccably researched. If your even the slightest bit interested in Psychedelia, the swinging 60′s or just graphical history in general you need to own a copy of this book! As usual I’d recommend Amazon to pick up a copy though I actually picked mine up via an independent online store.

Finally here’s the youtube movie of  the Electrical Banana book launch seminar at MoMA PS1.

Though perhaps memorable using Sci-Fi-O-Rama as a blog name does throw up a few problems. It’s hard to spell, even harder to type, especially as a URL, and in general throws up more than the occasional snigger when I’m state the concept to peers and friends. “The titles supposed to be ironic”  I’ll frustratedly protest!

Anyway those trivial matters aside boundaries of selected content is the final matter of contention. First and foremost I set up Sci-Fi-O-Rama as a design and illustration inspiration blog, and though it’s bursting at the seams with Sci-Fi and geek related articles this really is just a flavouring.  What I’m getting at is; whilst this Tamiya post might be one of the less Sci-Fi tainted (there’s no glowing spacecraft here) it does however contain plenty of top notch retro Japanese graphic art spun back fro my favourite decade, the 1980′s.

As is customary with subject I don’t pertain to with overarching knowledge I’ll issue a quick disclaimer; I’m not a RC car aficionado nor Dirt Buggy enthusiast so we are really only skimming the surface here. What I do have though are vivid memories of these Tamiya models and the craze they stirred remember the craze they stirred through the mid to late 80′s.

Before I start I’d like to point out that it’s entirely possible that all the below renderings are the work of one (highly talented) illustrator. That person I believe is Yoshiyuki Takani, but at the moment I cannot confirm. If anyone knows more please drop me a line.

Right then, to give the article a little structure I’ve done my best to assemble the vehicles in a chronological order. Scrolling through you’ll notice I’ve chosen to focus solely on Tamiya’s 1/10th scale Radio Controlled Dirt Buggy range. Reason being is simple, not only do they look the coolest with their beautifully sculpted chassis’s and humorous, brash liveries. Look a little closer and there there’s as graphical language that totally set them apart, some truly wonderful design work that’s quite like nothing else. It’s little surprise then that they captured and enthralled a generation, at least for a little while….

Lets begin with some history first.

Tamiya’s roots date back to 1946 postwar Japan, and the city of Shizuoka. The company was founded in 1946 as Tamiya Shoji & Co by Yoshio Tamiya (15 May 1905 – 2 November 1988) and was originally in fact a sawmill a lumber supply company. Model production began in earnest in 1947 with the construction of wooden models of ships and airplanes. By 1953 Tamiya had switched all focus away from lumber sales and were focussed solely on model making, with the concept of being “easy to understand and build, even for beginners”.

By the early 60′s Tamiya had really started take off, thanks in part to the early Box art of  Shigeru Komatsuzaki. Plastic model kits of aircraft and military equipment were soon joined by highly detail reproductions of famous sports cars. Originally Tamiya packaging was designed as ”compositions of achievement” or “a story contained in a picture”. This would change in 1968, super detailed scenes were dumped in favour of focusing purely on the vehicle, still painstakingly rendered but now placed on just a plain white background. It’s an iconic style that stuck.

A quick side note on the famous Tamiya Star Mark logo, first designed in 1960 by Yoshio’s son-in-law. The left, red star stands for passion and the right, blue star stands for precision.

In 1976, Tamiya entered the Radio Controlled market with their first RC model, the Porsche 934, a racing version of the 911. According to legend Tamiya actually purchased a original 911 which they promptly dismantled in order for their engineers to better under the vehicles inner workings. Attention to detail, Japanese style.

A series of both on and off road vehicles were to follow, there’s many types and styles, but for the purpose of this post we are going to fast forward through to December 1983…

The Frog (1983)

Though it wasn’t their first off road RC vehicle, The Frog marked a shift in Tamiya’s design ethos. Rather than replicating real life cars  like they had with the  Sand Scorcher or Rally car copies, effort was channelled into designing bespoke dirt buggies. Essentially then, despite the kinetic realism the box art oozes with, all Buggies featured here are  1/10th Scale models of vehicles that never actually existed at full size.

The Frog also marked the start of a series of wildlife inspired designs, each buggy taking subtle styling hint’s from it’s animal namesake. Note here the prominent headlamps, and general allround slightly bulbous nature of the monocoque. Oh and by the way, KC Daylighters actually are a real product.

Any adults that once as children drooled over the thought of owning one of these 2WD classics will no doubt be pleased to learn that Tamiya recently reissued The Frog. A quick browse through Amazon, show prices starting at $150…

The Grasshopper (1984)

Next up we have The Grasshopper, originally released in May 1984. The namesake designed cues are obvious, sharp wedged lines cut a spindly frame that’s complimented with forceful go faster stripes.

The Grasshopper was Tamiya’s entry level model, and ran a weaker motor which could however be upgraded. Less power did however mean easier handling and longer battery life, and the buggy proved to be immensely popular. In fact today it’s seen as one of the out classics. As the cheaper option I do have hazy memories them being ridiculed, but I guess that’s just how snobby kids can be…

Once again The Grasshopper has enjoyed a re-release, with pricing starting at around the $140 mark.

The Hornet (1984)

Following on from The Grasshopper came the legendary Hornet with it’s unmistakable black and gold livery Hornet, as you can see above. With it’s high performance, durability and ease of maintenance The Hornet quickly became one Tamiya’s most popular ever models. Any of you anxious to get there hands on this slice of pure 80′s Nostalgia, will be pleased to learn it’s still available from Tamiya priced at $170 upwards.

In fact to further more highlight just how deep into the pubic psyche The Hornet has buried Tamiya (recently-ish) released a limited edition with a wild custom paint job by Japanese designer Jun Watanabe. As you can see, no expense was spared with this completely wacky and somewhat bovine take on things. It’s camp as christmas and I love it.

For more on Watanabe’s RC design work, and misc cool shit from The Land of  The Rising Sun, check out this link: http://www.junwatanabe.jp/rc/

Also check Tamiya’s original ‘The Hornet’ promotional video

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Hotshot (1985)

This was Tamiya’s first attempt at a 4WD buggy, featuring a mid mounted engine for stability. It’s not one I particularly remember, but as it spawned several successors (shown later) the Hotshot is  included for chronologic. Livery wise this tough looking little vehicle is a little bland, with small decals that applied somewhat sparingly.  Still whilst it sadly lacks a cheesy slogan, the Hotshot’s general butch presence gets a big thumbs up, in fact it almost looks like a Transformers ready to make that robotic fart noise and spring into action. I’m waffling again.

The Fox (1985)

October 1985 saw the release 2WD ‘The Fox’ with it’s unfussy sweeping livery and gleaming gold wheels it is considered another design classic and is highly sought after today. Tamiya obviously took design cues from the animal counterpart giving the vehicle an elongated, slender snout and all round svelte appearance. Presumably there also must have also been some sort of tie in here with the real ‘Fox Racing‘ Team…

Nothing more to add other than I’ll have to say this is pretty much my favourite. If I had a son, this is what I’d be buying him for christmas, pretty much for me to play with.

Super Shot (1986)

The Super Shot was something of an evolution of the previously mentioned Hot Shot using the same chassis but alternate suspension system. There’s definitely something fairly menacing about it, especially the vehicles gaping maw, presumably great for catching pebbles in.

If your tempted at all, Tamiya re-released the Supershot in 2012.

Boomerang (1986)

The Boomerang was an affordable 4WD entry point for many first time RC Buyers.  Slick and Simple livery nicely complimenting the wedge like bodyshell.

The Falcon (1986)

Sporting a swooping nose cone and two tone, flaming paint job ‘The Falcon’ was another popular animal inspired design. Renowned for it’s ruggedness the chassis would be reused as the basis for other subsequent designs.

The Bigwig (1987)

With it’s bright, if slightly sickly colour scheme and aggressively postured 4WD chassis ‘The Bigwig’ was another memorable addition to the Tamiya stable. Built to commemorate Tamiya’s 10 year involvement with RC model building ‘The Bigwig’ was created by actual buggy Racing design boffin Dick Cepek, his stylised name appering on the rear wing.

Hot Shot II (1987)

Released two years after the original 4WD Hot Shot, this update featured numerous minor enhancements and a new Hornet-esque colour scheme.

Vanessa’s Lunchbox (1987)

Next up we have a slight deviation away from the theme with the famous ‘Lunchbox’, a 1/12 scale RC Monster Truck. Despite relatively poor stability and handling due to the large tyres and high centre of gravity Tamiya’s ‘stunt vehicles’ were extremely popular, and none more so than the competitively priced Lunchbox.

Super Sabre (1987)

The Super Sabre was essentially The Boomerang with red plastic parts and a new futuristic looking body shell. Interesting to note how much the styling has change since from the earlier boxy look, something that gets even wilder as you’ll see further down.

Thunder Shot (1987)

Looking something like a fighter jet with it’s wings removed The Thundershot’s wild appearance marks the shift towards pure Sci-Fi buggies. Great logo too.

Avante (1988)

The over engineered 4WD Avante was a technological masterpiece that very advanced for it’s time. As you might expect such engineering came with a high price tag, still it’s a fantastic looking vehicle.

Thunder Dragon (1988)

If you could some how capture and sequester the essence of all 80′s Paleo futurism and then wickedly beat it into a space buggy styled shape you’d probably end up with something not too dissimilar to the Thunder Dragon. It’s a truly wild design, part top loading VCR, part attack drone, looking like it’s fallen to earth off the back of a passing battlecruiser.

In true wacky Japanese style the Thunder Dragon was tied into a a strip that ran in the Manga comic ‘Coro Coro‘. Not entirely sure how but basically that’s what this quirky little character is about.

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Grasshopper II (1988)

Tamiya updated there entry level buggy in August 1988 with a more streamlined shell.

Grasshopper II (1988)

The fantastically titled ‘Terra Scorcher’ was essentially the same as the 4WD Thunder Shot with a different bright blue paintjob.

The Vanquish (1988)

The attractive looking Vanquish was a slightly simplified reworking of the The Avante, but with a cheaper price point.

Fire Dragon (1989)

Based on the Thunder Dragon Chassis, the Fire Dragon was the second of the ‘Coro Coro’ Buggies. Another literally out of the this world design, though on closer inspection I did have to wonder where exactly the drivers leg were? The swing arm suspension seems to take the place they should be. Hmmmmm.

Egrees (1989)

We finish off with probably the best looking buggy of them all, and certainly the best tagline ‘Way Out Running!’

The Egress was a top end 4wd model that is still a much respected and sought after to this day.

I’m going to wrap up the post here, there are of course many other Tamiya Buggies, produced after these and actually a few from the 80′s managed to miss out.

Originally I’d planned this just a quick article, but the more research I did on Tamiya I realised only a comprehensive overview would suffice. I hope you’ve enjoyed it.

** Notes

For further reading on Tamiya, including details on pretty much every model and component check out the following sites:

http://www.rcscrapyard.net - massive repository of vintage RC tech, each vehicle profile comes loaded with Ebay links.

http://www.iconicrc.com - a nicely designed easy to navigate modern website, plenty of images too.

More posts soon.

Lets start 2013 with something of a round up. A quick reality check, refresh, and splash of Eau de toilette. 

What we have here then is a brief sampler straight from the Sci-Fi-O-Rama barometer, a long awaited update on a selection of the finest, past featured contemporary artists.

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Silence Televison

We begin this post sandwiched between the wonderful work of Peruvian Designer and Illustrator Gianmarco Magnani, better known in design circles as Silence Televsion. Heading the article is a simply stunning metallic screenprint celebrating Robert Zemeckis’s 1989 blockbusting sequel ’Back to the Future II’, a recent commission for Mondo, whom we have of course interviewed before, In fact Mondo is a common theme here as you’ll see…

The Mondo Screenprint alas is long since sold out, though I imagine as with other Mondo material they’ll circulate occasionally in eBay (set up a watched search).  What I particularly love about this DeLorean DMC-12 rendering, aside from the typical hyper detail is of course the angle, admittedly it’s a while since I last saw the film, but I can’t remember ever seeing a shot of the car at this viewpoint, can you?

Just to further extend upon some of the details; chipped and scratched paint, an actual real world design flaw the short lived car manufacturer was infamously haunted by. For me though the mastery of the illustration lies within the assorted wiring & tubing that circumnavigates the vehicle slivering inside and out. Designing this mayhem must surely be the most enthralling part, techno illustration with a distinctly psychedelic edge. All of this of course is similar in ethos to the work Japanese cyberpunk maestro Katsuhiro Otomo of whom Gianmarco pays tribute too below.

‘Akira’ developed for Mondo Gallery

Once again this is another Mondo commissioned limited edition screenprint, a beautiful design that’s very true to the styling of the Otomo originals. For myself as a teenager Akira offered probably the most complete escapist Sci-Fi, but admittedly as 36 year old I’ve paid less attention recently.  Studying this piece It’s strikes me that I never realised how very 80′s it all is, particularly Kaneda’s jacket with it’s asymmetric fasteners, power shoulder padding and oversized collars. It’s construction presumably would be red leather, though dyed suede and corduroy could work too… anyway I digress!

I hope to bring you more from both Gianmarco Magnani and Katsuhiro Otomo this year, in the meantime it’s certainly worth bookmarking and tracking the Silence Television blog.

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Tyler Stout

Continuing with the Mondo related artists theme, here’s a taster of the work of Illustrator Tyler Stout, another master of deadeye minutia  whose style is set apart by a more frenetic edge,  clearly seen below with this Gremlins 2 inspired sample. This T Shirt print  - at time of press – is still available if you follow this link to the Mondo Store.  Just a quick note on the original Gremlins movie, IMHO it’s got to be one the best Christmas movies no? for me it’s up there with Die hard. Bollocks to It’s a Wonderful Life…

‘Berserker’

Below we have another classy movie led illustration featuring probably the best helmet ever designed for the silver screen, which appeared of course in quite possibly the greatest sci-fi film ever made. Alien, what more do you need to know? Actually one thing I’m not 100% sure on who the character actually is, the title reads simply ‘Navigator’. Well nothing wrong with a little mystery I guess!

As a quick sidenote it’s nice to see Tyler has included the original Weyland Yutani winged shoulder patch, this of course was orginally designed by John Mollo whom I profiled mid 2011 (Oscar winning Starwars costume designer). If you’ve not had a look you can check that post out here.

‘Navigator’

For more information on Tyler Stout visit his site & shop here at www.tstout.com, or see a selection of his work featured as part of the Sci-Fi-O-Rama special feature on Mondo.

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Martin Ansin

Staying with the Mondo connection we move on towards Martin Ansin an artist I’ve somehow managed to not include on Sci-Fi-O-Rama  before (ok, admittedly I’ve been slack of late). Here the subject matter for this limited edition screenprint is Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil‘, the classic dystopian satire that was released in cinemas back in 1985. With regards to the print, lets start by saying it doesn’t get much better than this; composition, mood, colouring and of course the rendering itself are all as close to perfection as one might dare to quantify. Love the diffused texturing, really helps to bring the whole thing to life. I’ve included the poster and two close ups of the detail. Wow!

Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’

So just art from a single ‘super sample’ here, Martin is definitely someone I wish to profile properly, in the meantime though you can marvel at more from his gloriously rich and expansive portfolio via martinansin.com - utterly, utterly enviable!

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Jasper Goodall

Moving out beyond Mondo territory we home in upon Jasper Goodall another personal  favourite of mine, and of whom I featured back in 2011 (you can read that here). I’ve chosen a couple of fairly recent images via his site. Note that upo visiting the home page is in fact a blog reel so do  be sure to scroll down and view the perfect balance between lavish commercial illustration and personal projects. I’ve pulled out a couple of examples of which I’ll annotate below.

‘Druck Berlin’ 2011

Here we have an image that totally encapsulates the essence  of what Jasper does best  - sublime beauty with a gleefully sinister edge – a totally mesmorising style. This offset 2 colour piece, was produced as part of the 2011 ‘Druck Berlin‘ screenprinting festival.

‘Five Deities’

Following on heres a a Vimeo short (above) that pushes the tribalist face masks further, Jasper notes this video is a ‘bit of a new direction’. It’s a supremely atmospheric piece with subtle but very effective animation, perfectly synchronised with an eerily atmospheric score.

As I footnote I must say it is always a pleasure to check out Jasper’s site, there really is something effortlessly cool that exudes from his work. What would be nice is to somehow absorb the genius via the osmosis of viewing, hasn’t quite worked for me yet!

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Simen Johan

Next up we have a return to the work of Norwegian born artist Simen Johan whom I first featured back in 2009. Though his site has an extensive bio it hasn’t been updated past 2011 so I’m not 100% sure what Simen is working on at the moment, presumably still exhibiting. Definitely an artist I’d like to focus on again this year so watch this space for a more in depth profile. In the meantime here’s a little more from the breathtakingly beautiful “Until The Kingdom Comes”.

‘Until the Kingdom Comes’

Underpinned by unrivalled technical prowess Simen’s work resonates with layer upon layer of mystique and otherworldly magic.  If wish to see further enchanting samples from ‘Until The Kingdom Comes’ visit www.simenjohan.com.

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Vincent Fournier

Finally we follow up with another photographic based artist you may well be familiar with, Vincent Fourier. whose imagery constantly circles pops up the major design sites. Suffice to say Fourier has an extremely interesting and diverse portfolio that I thoroughly  recommend perusing. I’ll skim the surface and pull out a few examples to give you the lead in.

‘TV Tower’ and ‘The National Congress Palace’

Two brilliantly composed, almost painterly photographs taken from Vincents 2012 project ‘Brasilia’, a study of one of the world’s most modern cities, certainly in terms of utopian 20th century thinking.

Brasilia, the federal capital of Brazil since 1960 was conceived and developed in the mid 1950′s, it’s a masterpiece of large scale urban planning and development, and a glittering reflection of the modernist themes of the day.  Viewed from above the Brasilia appears as a plane or butterfly, and at it’s visionary helm were a group of three that included urban planner Lúcio Costa, landscape designer Roberto Burle Marx and Oscar Niemeyer as the principal architect. A a quick side note; all three of these men were extremely long lived, and in fact Niemeyer who is considered as one of the fathers of modern architecture lived to an astonishing 104 years of age, only passing away on December 5th 2012. ’O belo Brasil!’ The key to a life longevity?

‘Kjell Henriksen Observatory #1 [KHO], Adventdalen, Spitsbergen Island, Norway, 2010′

From the steamy sub tropical savanna of Brasilia we warp to the icy wastes of Spitsbergen, a vast and empty archipelago that lies deep inside the Arctic Circle. This another sample from Vincent’s extensive ‘Space Project’ series.

What could possibly be more real world Sci-Fi than a row of hi-tech telescopes, nestled in desolation, scanning the universe through convex glass blisters? Well perhaps only this…

‘Kobian Robot #1 [Takanishi Laboratory], Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, 2010′

We bookend this post with an image taken from Vincent’s ongoing ‘The Man Macine’ series. A fly-on-the-wall, impartial study of mankind’s nascent flirtation with robotics and automatons, It’s both fascinating and strangely moving.

For more on Vincent Fournier, check out his site at www.vincentfournier.co.uk or for visit vice.com for this ‘picture-perfect’ 2011 interview: http://www.vice.com/picture-perfect/vincent-fournier 

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So that’s that, there and back again. A somewhat disjointed post, or at best a rambling stream of consciousness, still, I hope there’s something you’ve enjoyed. More posts to follow soon.

Time to toss aside the metaphorical, moth-eaten shrouds and fire up the Sci-Fi-O-Rama engines.

Firstly I’d like to apologise for the extremely long delay in posting and general lack blog activity. Nothing particularly noteworthy to say here other than that this was mainly due to a few upheavals with career, relationship, moving cities etc. Yes, the standard trials of life, all fine now but distracting at the time and hence the prolonged dormant state.

This initial posting then is something of a recap, similar I guess to when a TV shows producers cobble together and recycle old material. So as Sci-Fi-O-Rama rapidly approaches 5 years of age, something of a reboot is in order. As starters I thought would be apt to tag all the catalouged art from top to bottom and add to a specific Pinterest board. I guess I could of course of added all the images back to Flickr or ported them to Tumblr, or  other micro blogging platforms, but I chose Pinterest as I believe it presents the content in the most visual and easily consumable fashion. There is no official endorsement as such here, and I feel somewhat virgin again in a heady blogosphere that moves so quickly.  So the briefest of breif intro to Pinterst – clicking upon the thumbnail will take you through to the original posted article, but you’l need to be signed up with Pinterest to add images to your own boards.

 Check out the Sci-Fi-O-Rama Pinterest board here.

One further note for regular Pinterest users or indeed the casual observer, I’ve also started a Sci-Fi-O-Rama overflow board to help collect and catagorise prospective content, so if you’d like a sneak peak at possible future posts follow this link.

So what are the future plans for Sci-Fi-O-Rama?  Of course new material is primary and yes finally there are several things lined up. I’d also like to refresh the design and to a more contemporary magazine type look, though this of course can wait…

A quick recap then, Sci-Fi-O-Rama is not dead, new content is coming, in the meantime scroll through the past 5 years as quick as your Internet conection will allow for!

Thanks for the support

Kieran

Above: A still from The Last Starfighter (1984) this ‘Gunstar’ model is comprised of almost 400,000 Polygons, this was four times more than had ever been attempted with any other computer generated model and each frame took 5 minutes or more to render on the most powerful computer available, a Cray X-MP.

So a little more about ‘Creative Computer Graphics’, this was then, I presume, one of the definitive coffee table books of the day, it’s easy to imagine it having pride of place in a mid 80′s Pixar studio, or Graphics Group as they were then known. Bound inside are 144 glossy pages chronologically charting the rise of computer graphics technology from the tentative first steps of the 1950′s right through to the early 80′s. The book contains some wonderful imagery (often horrendously crude), and in addition there’s some very insightful reading on early computer graphic pioneers like John Whitney and Jim Blinn, it’s definitely worth a look. Here then is a snapshot of that zeitgeist…

Above: Wireframe skeleton for an aircraft on Evans & Sutherland’s original picture system, an F15  Eagle I think ? anyway great colours indicating the various sections of fuselage. This is of course something that could be pulled from any modeling program today, but back in 1984, this was the bleeding edge.

Above: A image developed for the 1983  David Cronenberg film Videodrome, a body shock horror (does he do any other?). It’s a long time since I’ve seen the movie, so I can’t say I remember this, the garish factor is obviously through the roof, and whilst undoubtably somewhat vulgar there is something enticing here. One thing is for sure, it’s so very, very eighties.

Above: A nearly-solid wireframe image of a satellite in high orbit above Oceania, the density of the wireframe gives the Illusion of a sold surface.

Above: A still from an animation designed at Montreal University, this is a simulation of a collision, in fact the scattered debris of a Chervolet Corvette…

Above: A still from Tron (Disney 1982). Three video game warriors poised to transform in ‘Light Cycles’, the glowing red lines added optically over the top of the actors – I presume this means ‘in post-production’.

Above: The books most interesting chapter is on computer art, and the early adopting artists. As with the other sections it’s a mixed bag, with plenty of dated graphics but on the spin there’s some really striking experimental imagery, which interestingly hasn’t really dated at all. Take for example the above image ‘Unititled’ by digital art pioneer Manfred Mohr, this is in fact a wooden construction, plotted by computer, of all the 24 diagonal paths of the diagnal 000-111, generated from a four-dimensional hypercube (also known as a tesseract). If this fascinating excersize in mathematical minimalism is slightly beyond you, dont worry, without further reading I’m with you…

Above: Further experimentation with the tesseract, ‘Cubic Limit V: Restriction’ again by Manfred Mohr.

Above: ’Skew f28′ by Mark Wilson. This one was a little tricky to scan, and due to format I’ve had to scale it down, still it’s a very interesting piece and I imagine it’d look great run off a large format plotter printer.

Plenty more old school goodies inside but I’ll wrap up the post here,  if your interested in checking out more, have a browse through the title over at Google Books or you could pick up the hard copy for just a few dollars via Amazon.

This is a belated tribute post to the late, great Jean Giraud, better known as Moebius and whom sadly, as I’m sure you know has recently passed away, following an extended battle with cancer. A gloomy time for the highest echelon of visual futurists, following the recent death of Starwars designer and visionary Ralph McQuarrie, another brilliant blinding light flickers and fades.

Jean Giraud was one of the worlds finest comic artists and fantasists, up there with luminaries such as Federico Fellini, Stan Lee and Hayao Miyazaki . Perhaps in fact he was the finest, I don’t think it’s an exaggerated statement to suggest that Giraud possessed an almost supernatural ability, an artist whose oneness with his inner creative universe was matched only by his voracious workrate. It’s extremely poignant to now think that every vision forged from Moebius’s staggeringly complex creative mind has now been produced, there’ll never be another…

For this post then I’ve handpicked a just a small selection of his beautiful art,  as usual I’ve then tried to lace with as many leads out as I can for your further reading, lets start with his background.

Jean Giruad was born in in the Paris suburb of Nogent sur Marne on May 8th 1938. His parents divorced while he was young and Giraud was sent to live with his grandparents in the country, this rupture he later explained lay at the heart of his choice of separate pen names. With had little formal artistic training other than two years at the École des Arts Appliqués which joined at 16, Giruad was already publishing his cowboy cartoons by his late teens. Upon leaving education he would then spend some time in Mexico with his mother before a stint of national service in Algeria where he collaborated on the army magazine 5/5 Forces Françaises. 

Giraud’s career was set inmotion when he started to work as an apprentice with Belgian Comic artist Joseph “Jijé” Gillain, one of the leading comic artists in Europe at the time. During this period Moebius worked on titles such as  Jerry Spring ”The Road to Coronado” of which he inked. Things really began to take off after a collaboration with writer Jean-Michel Charlier and the start of the western comic serial Blueberry, for Pilote and the title quickly gathered a large following. Giraud evolved with Blueberry creating a darker and grittier style, which continued further in 1968 when the loosening of censorship laws allowed more adult themes and explicit content to be incorporated.

Above: Blueberry, superbly lit and coloured.

Giraud’s work in the 60′s and early 70′s was predominately all involved with the Western Gernre, and was produced as either under the pen names Jean Giraud,  Giraud or just simply Gir, but there was also another pseudonym – Moebius – first coined in 1963  used for a 21-strip Science Fiction serial that ran in a satire magazine called Hara-Kiri. The strip ended in 64 and the Moebius Moniker disappeared for 11 years…

in 1975 Moebius joined forces with with journalist/writer Jean-Pierre Dionnet, artist Philippe Druillet, and finacial director Bernard Farkas. The grouped called themselves “Les Humanoides Associes” and together they started the genre busting magazine magazine Métal Hurlant, better known to the english speaking world of course as Heavy Metal.

Above: Les Humanoides Associes, barefooted flare-wearer Moebius is on the right, Philippe Druillet next in then Dionnet with Farkas on the left.

Above: Moebius cover for a 1977 edition of Heavy Metal, trademark with typical hyper-detail.

Under the banner of  Heavy Metal, Moebius published some of his best loved and acclaimed work, and moved to a greater international stage. Material from this period includes the groundbreaking Azarch, named after it’s silent warrior protagonist who rides a pterodactyl-like creature through a strange, desolate landscape. Giraud also penned the the non linear, Airtight Garage strip, which he basically made up as he went along! The ‘Garage’ in question was in fact an asteroid that housed a micro universe.

From today’s viewpoint though the title with perhaps the most importance and resonance is The Long Tomorrow, a Moebius collaboration with the late Alien screenwriter Dan O’Bannon. The Long Tomorrow is now looked upon as the seminal cyberpunk piece first defining the grunged dsytopian look and feel and heavily influenced creatives such as Alien and Bladerunner director Ridley Scott, Neuromancer novelist William Gibson and Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo - this to name but a few.  Here’s a great quote from Gibson on the artwork featured in Heavy Metal

“So it’s entirely fair to say, and I’ve said it before, that the way Neuromancer-the-novel “looks” was influenced in large part by some of the artwork I saw in ‘Heavy Metal’. I assume that this must also be true of John Carpenter’s ‘Escape from New York’, Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’”, and all other artefacts of the style sometimes dubbed ‘cyberpunk’. Those French guys, they got their end in early.” source

Below: A page from The Long Tomorrow, imagine the impact power this had back in 1976.

In addition to comic art and illustration Moebius of course has a long CV of working with film and animation, this all started back in 1974 when was asked by Alejandro Jodorowsky to contribute art to his doomed, big screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s “Dune”. If you’ve never heard of this unbelievably ambitious project, then you in for a real treat, I’ve posted about it in the past, but your best to head straight to the source: http://www.duneinfo.com/unseen/ also attached were Chris Foss, HR Giger, Pink Floyd for the Soundtrack with Salvador Dali to play The Emporer for a rumoured $100,000 a day!

Anyway before the inevitable implosion, Moebius had created a stunning collection of artwork totaling over 3000 pieces, including a storyboard of each scene, below are a just a few examples, for more head straight to: http://www.duneinfo.com/unseen/moebius/

Above: This regal character from Dune is Doctor Wellington Yueh, wonderfully ornate detailing.

Above: More concept costume artwork from the unseen Dune, Duncan Idaho (left) and Gurney Halleck (right), excellent boots and erm codpiece. One thing I really love that features again and again in Moebius’s art is the graphic detailing, the bird graphic on these characters chest’s is a great example, in fact I’ll make a point to research and write about the graphical lexicon of Moebius in future, masterful work.

Below: A Spice Smuggler, Moebius at his most playfully wild and outlandish – just superb – but again I think minimal skull and crossbones graphics caps the hole outfit off.

The next big film project to come along was Ridley Scott’s 1979 Sci-Fi Horror classic Alien, joining part of a creative force which again included Giger and Foss. Moebius’s creative involvement however was cut short after a difference of opinion with Scott, limiting his involvement to just three days. This was still sufficient time to make an impact, as his conceptual spacesuit drawings made it into production with only minor changes, as you can see below.

Above: Original Sketches for the crew’s EVA suits, which are I must say probably one of my favourite movie costumes.

Above: The actual suits featured it the film, Scott’s production team have given them a slightly darker edge, love the wedged helmet torch. Just a side thought, I never really thought of Alien as a cyberpunk film until a friend described it as such in conversation, but it’s beaten up aesthetic certainly fits…

Next up something we have a conceptual drawing of an Imperial Probe Droid, that appears memorably at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back. I had absolutely no idea Moebius was involved with the film until researching for this post, I always thought the droid design and its garbled transmission pattern was one of the coolest things in that movie, and now I know why!

** EDIT Moebius DID NOT produce the drawing below, it was probably produced by Joe Johnston based on designs from The Long Tomorrow, the ESB production team attained special permission from Moebius to adapt the design. Thanks for pointing that out Cecil

Above: An original sketch, interesting to note similarities with the Sentinel robots featured in The Matrix series, though of they would come years later…

Work on the revolutionary CGI pioneering film Tron (Disney 1982) would follow next, with Moebius once again acting as a conceptual artist and back up storyboard creator. Heres a small selection of the art, fascinating when you consider just how close some of these drawings are to the actual finished costumes.

See more of the artwork over at http://theairtightgarage.tumblr.com/search/tron a wonderful Tumblr blog dedicated solely to exploring the work of Jean Giraud.

Another film I’ve covered in the past and also from 1982 Moebius is the Franco-Hungarian animated film “Les Maîtres du temps” (Time Masters) directed by none other than René Laloux. Moebius was employed as designer and judging by the box art obviously having him involved was a big deal, as his name takes prominence on the box art, top right of the image below. For more imagery from Les Maîtres du temps check out Eric Carl’s excellent gallery set over at Flickr.

Throughout the 80′s Moebius would continue to be involved in major hollywood projects including Masters of the Universe (1987) Willow (1988) and The Abyss (1989) though ultimately neither Lucas or Cameron would use his designs.

Probably the film that owes most to art of Moebius is Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element (1997), the project started out in 1991 as a script titled Zaltam Bleros, and Giraud was hired in the early stages to produce concepts for costumes, vehicles and sets. Over the next 6 years Zaltam Bleros would under go many revisions before emerging as the popular super camp blockbusting space opera though throughout it’s metamorphosis Moebius’s designs essentially remained intact. The relationship with Besson would turn sour as after the films release Moebius and Jodorowsky attempted to sue accusing him of blatantly plagiarising The Incal, a comic book series they had started in 1981.  The case was unsuccessful though and in fact Jodorowsky would later conceed he actually considered it an honour that somebody stole his ideas.

Above: Art from Luc Besson: The Story of the Fifth Element currently retailing new on Amazon for nearly $900 !

Of course whilst all these film projects were ongoing so was the comic illustration and writing, including collaboration with Stan Lee and Marvel comics on The Silver Surfer as you can see below. Specific comic series is something I shall cover in depth in future posts.

To underline the importance and prominence of Moebius in his native france in 1988 he was chosen among with 11 other winners of the prestigious Grand Prix of the Angoulême Festival, to illustrate a postage stamp set issued on the theme of communication. In recent years Moebius’s work has been the subject of several exhibitions, sharing a joint exhibition 2004/2005 with Hayao Miyazaki at La Monnaie Paris, and then in 2010 his very own grandoise ‘Moebius: Transe-Forme at Fondation Cartier’ once again in Paris. This was something I posted about at the time, If you’ve not seen the imagery before it’s definitely worth a look, stunning stuff, I really wish I could have gone, oh yeah and I love Giruad’s sharp tailor suit.

So that draws my brief tribute to a close, there’s so much more I could write and post about, and of course I shall continue to do so in the future, a future in which without doubt Moebius’s legacy will just continue to gracefully evolve.

Finally here’s a great quote, taken from an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2011:

“They said that I changed their life, work is why I became an artist. Oh it makes me happy. But you know at same time I have an internal broom to clean it all up. It can be dangerous to believe it. Someone wrote, ‘Moebius is a legendary artist.’ A legend — now I am like a unicorn.”

Jean Giruad – Moebius passed away aged 73 and is survived by his second wife and business partner, Isabelle Giraud and two children Helene and Julien from his first marriage.

***

Further Reading:

Moebius tagged Gallaries at But Does it Float http://butdoesitfloat.com/filter/Moebius

An excellent tribute article By Dan Dos Santos - I ♥ Moebius –  http://muddycolors.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/i-moebius.html

Jodorowsky on Moebius http://www.duneinfo.com/unseen/moebius/

A tumblr for all things Jean Giraud  http://theairtightgarage.tumblr.com/

io9.com tribute post with Willow and Abyss artwork.

Not sure how long this link will remain valid, but while it’s up do check the Moebius Redux documentary, originally broadcast on BBC4 a couple of years ago.

Au revoir Moebius…

One of Sci-Fi Arts true legends Ralph McQuarrie has sadly passed away aged 82, Ralph was the visionary concept artist and illustrator responsible for the look and feel of the original Starwars trilogy . Born and raised in Gary Indiana, Ralph moved to California in the 60′s where he was first employed as a technical llustrator for Boeing. Ralph left in 1965 before becoming a commercial artist and designer working on a variety of projects such as these film posters. At the end of the 60′s as part of a three man team he animated US TV network CBS’s coverage of Nasa’s Apollo space programme this can be seen here (would love to see more of this). Not too long afterwards McQuarrie was approached by George Lucas to discuss plans for a certain sci-Fi fantasy film…

McQuarrie was commissioned by Lucas in 1975, and immediately set out creating concepts for characters, vehicles, set paintings, backdrops etc, these would of course evolve into some of cinema’s most recgonisable and loved Icons. Here’s a great quote from Ralph:

“I just did my best to depict what I thought the film should look like, I really liked the idea. I didn’t think the film would ever get made. My impression was it was too expensive. There wouldn’t be enough of an audience. It’s just too complicated. But George knew a lot of things that I didn’t know.”

Against all odds, Lucas armed with McQuarrie’s wonderful paintings finally managed to twist 20 Century Fox’s arm into comissioning the project, filming in Tunisia would start shortly afterwards. McQuarrie carried on with the Trilogy, working on both sequels, examples of which I’ve included here. Interestingly (I didn’t know this) Ralph also has a uncredited, non speaking part in The Empire Strikes Back, you can see that here kinda funny as he walks across screen in front of one of his own matte paintings.

Though obviously most famous for his work on the Starwars universe, McQuarrie’s highly impressive reseme includes Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Battlestar Galactica, Close Encounters of The Third Kind and Cocoon, which earned him an Acadamy Award for visual effects in 1986.

Above and at the head of post are a few of my favourite McQuarrie images, I love the way his imaginings are slightly more streamlined and delicate than the intricate models they became, wonderful stuff!

Here are a few links for futher reading, firstly some great interviews (dating back to 1978)  at http://www.ralphmcquarrie.com/interviews/index.html also at his site check through the portfolio sections, I’ll strive to track down some of McQuarrie’s lesser known work for future posting. Also check the Day of the Jedi, for broad collection of Starwars concept art.

Finally to end with here’s a great quote from his website:

His influence on design will be felt forever. There’s no doubt in our hearts that centuries from now amazing spaceships will soar, future cities will rise and someone, somewhere will say…

“that looks like something Ralph McQuarrie painted.”