Genesis: The Art of Transformers

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Genesis: The Art of Transformers
Publisher	Image Comics
First published	September 2003
Continuity	Generation 1 continuity family
ISBN	ISBN 1582403228 ISBN 978-1582403229
Page count	116

Published in 2003 by the somewhat infamous 88MPH Studios through Image Comics, Genesis: The Art of Transformers is a coffee-table art-book focusing largely, but not exclusively, on Generation 1 characters.

Content

Art of Transmetal Megatron by Guido Guidi.

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 piece of 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 Entertainment, Aaron Archer, BotCon comic artist Dan Khanna and future Transformers 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 Patrick Thornton and Chris Allen to the first volume (and alternate-cover 2nd edition) of Antarctic Press' toy guide Cybertronian: The Unofficial Transformers Recognition Guide are included, 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 Generation 1, although there is also a large amount of content pertaining to Generation 2 and Beast Wars, with a small number of artworks relating to Beast Machines, Machine Wars, 2001 Robots in Disguise, early Armada and BotCon exclusive characters featured in 3H's then-current The Wreckers and Universe.

Despite having a strong presence by Japanese artists, there are comparatively few pieces of art 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 Transformers 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 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 Beast Machines Megatron portrait, a blurry silhouette of a jet in the background of a Generation 1 Starscream portrait, and a blueprint of Generation 1 Optimus Prime's truck mode as the background of a picture of Optimus in robot mode.

Contributing Artists

• Chris Allen
• Aaron Archer
• Pravin Bajaj
• Johnathan Bauer
• Blond
• Mark Bright
• Mark Brooks
• Clayton Brown
• H.M. Bundrant III
• Justin Cohen
• Edgar Delgado
• Pierre-Andre Dery
• Don Figueroa
• Andrew Froedge
• Bill Galatis
• Joe Givens
• Espen Grundetjern
• Guido Guidi
• Hi-Fi Design
• Andrew Holz
• Dan Khanna
• René & Michel Koiter
• Matt Kuphaldt
• Serge LaPointe
• Pat Lee
• Mainframe Entertainment
• Marcelo Matere
• William McDonald
• Jun-Ichi Nakamura
• Makoto Ono
• Dusty Peterson
• James Raiz
• Eric Siebenaler
• E. J. Su
• Patrick Thornton
• WAM Enterprises

Publication controversy

Genesis 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 labeled as "Part One", with a second volume supposedly to include the aforementioned product art, but this book never materialized.

In 2002, solicitations originally credited Dreamwave with publication and distribution of the book, but that deal apparently went sour. Image Comics became the publisher instead.

As well as distributing the book through retailers, 88MPH intended to sell the book directly through their own website, with the incentive to buy from them being an exclusive lithograph. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Sébastien Clavet completely underestimated the number of direct orders the studio would receive and was left completely unable to fulfill them. In September 2004 (a full year after publication), Clavet issued form letters instructing those with preorders to request refunds via PayPal and that they would be handled through that system accordingly. Some months later, Clavet cancelled all refund requests via PayPal, issuing no explanation and ignoring all personal communication.

Some of the artists involved were not paid by Clavet for their contributions. Joe Givens was among those not properly compensated. When the piece Givens "sold" to Clavet for Genesis appeared as cover art for the OTFCC: Official Convention Souvenir Guide, Clavet responded by threatening to sue Givens for reproducing the art without permission.

Hasbro later initiated legal proceedings against 88MPH Studios and Clavet for their failure to fulfill their contractual obligations. 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?

See Also:

• Legacy: The Art of Transformers Packaging, which actually covered the subject that Genesis had at first claimed.