New Bye Bye Robot 'Voyager' art: it's my bud, at last

It's taken 20-some years, but I finally feel I've done right by one of my oldest friends—or at least that's me personal reaction to Friday's news announcement at startrek.com of a new five-piece, four-artist original print offering from Bye Bye Robot.

Actually, here's the full frame:

I met art studio Bye Bye Robot founders Charity and Chris Wood in 2010, before they were BBR, and was happy to help how I could as they worked to get their official CBS license for Star Trek fine art prints and graphics in 2012. 

But even further back: Many of you know my logos for Trekland, The Con of Wrath, the Trekland Trunk, and most of all Mystar Media; some of you even remember the incredible black-and-white line art in my old, original annual "TNG" concordances.  THAT was all my bud Kevin Hopkins—met up the first week of sophomore college year as I hosted aTrek/sci-fi club organizer, then oft-roomates and mutual best men… and, since my days with pro Star Trek, my perennial candidate for breaking in to the licensed art world. 

Like many others whose Trek work you've seen before, he has a great style that includes portraits, heroic fantasy, and photorealistic biology/botany—in both "analog" pigment and now digitally.

Charity tells me she's excited for this set, each one repping a different series, and to work with two new artists among the four—Thomas Ziffer, who's been involved with the gallery, as well as Kevin.

"Kevin has been on our radar for a long time," Charity says, when I asked her for some thoughts for TREKLAND. "I first met him while he was accompanying Larry at the Dallas Comic Con, back in 2010. We chatted about his penchant for fossil digs, and then I found out about his art career and talent. Well, it took us nearly four years to capture one of his paintings, but we’ve finally done it. Now (besides more awesome artwork) all that’s left is to weasel my way onto one of his paleontological digs so I can fulfill my dream of finding my very own fossilized megalodon tooth!"

My getting Kevin and Charity introduced was a happy serendipity that finally led to this "official Trek" opportunity: but instead of Kevin's faces of actors, it's ships—as in, the fourth print just released by BBR and their first-ever Voyager subject. Take a close gander, up top—and I'm proud to say I lent a couple eyeballs and notes for it, too. 

"Being able to work on this Voyager poster project and doing the art for "The Long Way Home"  is a very special thing for me because it lets me give back a little bit to an idea and a an ongoing project that has given me so much," Kevin says. "And doing an officially licensed piece of Star Trek related art (for Bye Bye Robot) is a special milestone in my career."

Kevin reminded me that he grew up in an even more rural area of Oklahoma than I did, where the sparse TV offerings like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Lost in Space, and "the annual Saturday afternoon showing of This Island Earth " was enough to tease but not satisfy the sci-fi craving they awakened. 

"There was a bookmobile that stopped in the community sporadically, and one summer I managed to read the entire science and science fiction sections that it contained," he says. "I would save up for visits to larger towns where I could find cheap science fiction paperbacks.  Still, the scifi sections were small in even the best of book stores.  I still remember the first year that science fiction novels outsold westerns nationally."

And that was about the time Star Trek hit, Kevin recalls: "The first season of the original airing was like a breath of fresh air for me—it supplied something that my mind was aching for; it allowed me to see that world as something larger and more diverse than the little town where I lived. My affinity for Star Trek continues on through the present; it has brought me friends, experiences and life lessons I would never have encountered otherwise, and I am very grateful for them all."

And me…I'm just grateful to have finally helped play a part in getting that talent out to the "official" Star Trek world. Yay, Charity… and yay, Kevin.

Bye Bye Robot adds new artist, high-flyin' new retro art

A while back we told you about the smashing style of new stylized Star Trek high-end fine art posters offered by our artist friend Charity Wood and her new officially licensed company Bye Bye Robot—and while we were on vacation she broke out with exclusive offerings from an additional artist and his own cool retro style.

No need to elaborate—the "Enterprise Shuttle Service" poster by Steve Thomas says it all. If you are a TOS fan at all, though, you will not only get that obvious Class F model, but also the Cestus III and nearby landmark reference on the poster (where, coincidentally, where my head has been lately).

Take a gander here at Steve's fun design (which also comes as vinyl stickers) and its modest pricetag—and all the details at Bye Bye Robot:

'Bye Bye Robot': CBS turned my buds loose with a Trek art license!

It's not often that I get to watch the genesis of a Star Trek licensee from close up—but this week I'm feeling a little like a god-parent.

You know: having had nothing to to do with the conception or carriage, but honored to know the parents, be hit up for a little advice (very little) and be around at the delivery ... winding up with a title that's all glory and no responsibility!

So it is I'm thrilled to see the birth this week of a whole raft of LICENSED Star Trek limited-edition fine art prints as the debut offerings from Bye Bye Robot—otherwise known as Charity Wood, who with husband Chris is already well known as the Trek news blog and podcast Subspace Communiques. We've met and hung out several times on the con circuit the past couple years, and I'm really stoked for them as they launch this new endeavor. As Chris tells me: "We're devoted Trek fans and we're excited to be bringing an original take on iconic imagery." And with a license, they are fans actually empowered to do cool yet professional fine art by CBS/Paramount.

Charity also has some non-Trek, non-franchise original pieces as well in a series she calls AquaMARINE, with more variety on the way—but all her work is done in a technique she calls Pas de Lignes, which literally translated from French means “No Lines”; in effect, built up from a black rather than white foundation.

"It’s a modern style I’ve been working in for many years," she says on the site. "You can think of it as painting in reverse. I begin on a black canvas so the black “lines” you see are actually unpainted areas…not 'outlines.' Another way of thinking of it is that I paint everywhere except the 'lines'.” And they are available in a variety of sizes and options befitting fine art pieces designed to last, in Giclee, or museum-quality archival inks and acid-free cotton.

Charity just told me another news flash that's not up yet: "Along with bringing additional artists' work to the site, we're in the process of offering a line of original stickers."

I hope you have seen the launch news all over, like trekmovie.com and startrek.com, but here's my take from a front-row seat with both Charity and Chris. The first Trek topics are great choices to harness Charity's textured, color-splashed process to the max—but it is a business, and she artfully scores there as well.

Thinking for as broad a market audience as possible, the 1960s Enterprise is iconic and cool, of course—a familiar form to all, no matter what token Planet Hell cave set you may have been hiding away in. In a different way, I think the Gorn offers a surprise, even for those whose world orbits in a universe of mundanes; the reptiloid guy is eye-catching even if you've never even heard of Cestus III  or Bobby Clark. These are both on canvas, including the two views of the Big E.


But the unusual vertical "triptych" format for the tribbles panel on paper, is, I think, doubly perfect for the legit fan with an professional day-job office full of walls or halls to brighten up—and wants to do it both subtly and playfully. I can so see those furrballs in a Treklander engineer's office or doctor's waiting room. Who can argue with the perky hues? it will be fun to watch which visitors and patrons catch on to not only the tribbles joke, but the main Starfleet tri-palette behind them—and how long it takes...

So, good luck, Charity, Chris and Bye Bye Robot (no relation to that other Star Trek robot guy, as she shares the story behind the name on their site.) Everybody go take a look! Aside from online sales, they intend to be at a number of conventions this year, including Vegas Khhaaann in August, of course—as well as Comipalooza in Houston May 25-27, and Austin Wizardworld Comic-Con Oct. 26-28... and more to come.

Meanwhile, I'll be waiting patiently on my Tellarite Gav (or Grolst?) print in the next batch!