Ermsy's piece is acrylic paint and ink on pantone paper and comes in a black wood frame. The unframed dimensions are 12 inches by 12 inches.

Paris-based artist and illustrator Ermsy re-invents classic cartoon characters in his imaginative work. In one drawing, the limbs of Homer, Marge, Lisa and Bart are twisted and stretched into a peace sign, and in another, Marvin the Martian blows out a puff of smoke that reads, “Take me to your dealer.”

“I love pop culture,” Ermsy explains, “and I love exploring it.” His graphic exploration of pop culture uses popular cartoons in the same way that graffiti writers use letters. “Using well-known characters provides me with a base point, a frame to work within,” he explains. “With graffiti, the idea is to pick some letters from the alphabet, then go crazy with them or do whatever you want. Everybody starts with the same base point, and that’s graffiti. My starting point is to use characters in my artwork.” From there, Ermsy transports the characters from their familiar cartoon universes and into his own topsy-turvy and smoke-filled world.

For his ongoing series, “Say No to Soft Drugs,” for example, characters like Garfield and the Pink Panther smoke spliffs and trip out on their extra hands. “Through trial and error, I’ve found out which characters are best for manipulating with the styles I have,” Ermsy discusses in following interview, along with how he developed his aesthetic, 1980s cartoons, and whether Donald Duck or Goofy would win in a fight.