Edwin Europe recently announced a collab with French director, illustrator and cartoonist Apollo Thomas taking a shot at the artistry of Japanese comic books and graphic novels, adapting his works across a selection of limited edition products.

The 'Les Beaux-Arts de Paris' graduate has transformed wardrobe staples from the Spring/Summer 2020 collection to incorporate embroidered canvas patches and screenprints featuring his manga artwork across a selection of Jackets, Hoods and Tees. To accompany the collection, Apollo has published a comic book of his own, chronicling the events and high fantasy of his recent trip to Tokyo with his girlfriend Margot. 

For this collaboration with Edwin, I wanted to start from the feeling that I had when I discovered Japan more than 10 years ago. There is a scene in Chris Marker's Sans Soleil, where progressively peopleon the JR line in Tokyo fall asleep and go back to their dreams, Chime`res,Yokai begin to appear.

I think this scene was a trigger when I started drawing. I also had a graphic desire to confront myself with the influences that allowe me to develop my drawing projects over the years, to reclaim them. Confront my drawing with the drawing of Manga, create a mixture to illustrate this dive, this immersion that I feel every trip to Japan.

Here are some artists who are for me masters and who obviously influenced me: Suehiro Maruo - Yoshiharu Tsug - Toshio Saeki - Yoshihiro Tatsumi

Available now at selected European retailers

and online.

Apollo Thomas has directed clips for various musicians around the world, worked with brands such as BureauTonic and Moonchild, as well as for the architectural studio, Atelier du Pont. As an esteemed illustrator, his work has appeared in magazines such as Frederic Magazine, Mondo Zero, Paper x Colette, Vice and Arte Episode, as well as several Graphzines including REPLICA (edition FLTMSTP) and VENETIAN BLINDS (edition 1991).