Still Nerdy after all those Academy Awards

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Richard Taylor sent me this photo today. He's wearing the Miketrimart.com t-shirt I gave him last year at the San Diego Comic Con. Richard is of course the owner of Weta Workshop along with Tania Roger, Jamey Selkirk, and Peter Jackson. He also wrote the foreword for The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim.
The funny bit about this is that I saw another photo from this shoot which was released by Weta Workshop as an official press image in which the t-shirt was partly visible. Richard's been doing his part to get the word out about Mike's work!
Alas, the t-shirts aren't available for sale, they were promotional only.

More Fabulousness for Filmfax Funsters

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Part 2 of The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim will appear in the Fall '07 Issue of Filmfax Magazine, which should be in stores at the end of November! Up this time around are art and stories from Mike's tenure on Joe 90, The Secret Service, and UFO - all three series for which Mike designed almost every futuristic vehicle or building seen onscreen! Less so for UFO, as Derek Meddings had finally finished with Doppelganger, but Mike still got to design S.I.D., SHADO Moonbase, the SHADOmobiles, Seagull X-ray, and almost every other aircraft that appeared in the series.
Filmfax is packed with other great articles and images as well - grab one the second they hit store shelves! And of course, most of the amazing art of Mike's you see in the magazine is printed in full color in the book, available at the links on the right side of this page.

More Thunderbirds Movie Concept Art

Here's a couple of concept renderings by Mike in marker for the Telehandler, a vehicle that doesn't seem to have made it into Thunderbird 2's hangar area in the film.

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The Mark 1 version may have included the Caterpillar graphics as an attempt to lure the company into paying some money for product placement in the film, or to try and entice them into making the vehicle for the production company. Working Title created a partnership with Ford to create FAB 1 and featured other Ford products in the film, so this is a fairly likely assumption.

Click to enlarge

Mark 2 has been streamlined and the CAT graphics have been removed. The forward windscreen is reminiscent of Grand Prix racing vehicles of the 1960's, though I'm guessing the Telehandler would never make much speed. More likely, the windscreen was designed this way in order to feature the performer driving the vehicle.
I've looked through Thunderbirds: The Making of the Movie by Andrew Darling and can't find any shots of this vehicle from the film, so I'm guessing it was abandoned in the concept stage. Anyone have proof otherwise?

By the way, I came across the FIREFLY art below in the Darling book, so it was definitely from Mike's work on the film.

Firefly - Not Serenity

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Here's a marker rendition of a design for an updated FIREFLY, I'm guessing it's from Mike's tenure on the Universal Thunderbirds movie, but it's marked 2002. Mike sent me a disc full of images without captions, so I'm not sure exactly where this is from. It certainly fits in with the design aesthetic of the feature film.
There are several other updated TB2 container vehicle images on the discs, I'll try and get some details on them and post the images soon.

My Favorite Photo - Mike Trim and Anthony Taylor

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Here's a wonderful photograph of Mike Trim and myself at our book signing last October at the Sector 25 Fanderson convention. Many thanks to Tamsin Semrau for not only shooting it, but for digging around and finding this copy for me. Tamsin gets several pints on me the next time we meet.

Happy Birthday Again Mr. Trim!

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Sunday, August 26th... Mike Trim turns 62 years old! Happy Birthday Mike, and many happy returns. To celebrate, here's an image from a disc Mike just sent me a week or so ago. I don't know anything about it except that it moves me. Nocturnal landscapes are usually rarely seen outside of horror genre paperback covers, but I like this one a lot. Nothing about it seems menacing, despite the full moon looming over the countryside. Indeed, I find the pastoral night comforting, and alluring. I'd like to look into those illuminated windows and see what's going on in the house... maybe there's a family gathering or perhaps it's just a routine evening for the inhabitants.
Either way, there's something about this painting that draws me in.
And you thought he only knew how to draw spaceships.
Have a great day and eat lots of cake, amigo!





Here's my schedule for appearances next weekend at Dragon•Con here in Atlanta:

Saturday 10:00 a.m. - The Gerry Anderson Phenomenon
With Mark Berry and Anthony Wynn
Cairo Room - Hyatt - Brit Track

Saturday 11:30 a.m. - Dressing The Future (on SF Costume in tv and film - how'd I wind up on this one?) with Rob Yancey and Ron Nastrom.
Piedmont Room - Hyatt - Classic SF Track

Saturday 2:30 p.m. - Building the Future in Plastic (with Frank Winspur from Moebius Models and Ron Nastrom - check it out, this will be fun)
Piedmont Room - Hyatt - Classic SF Track

Saturday 5:30 p.m. - Book Signing
Imperial Ballroom - Marriott - Auto Track

Sunday 1:00 p.m. - Non-Fiction for SF and Fantasy
With Mark F. Berry, John L. Flynn (m), Anne Petty, Anthony Taylor, Jean
Marie Ward, Martha Wells.
Manilla/Singapore Rooms - Hyatt - Writers Track

Sunday 7:00 p.m. - Full Boost Vertical: The Supercar Story Screening
Piedmont Room - Hyatt - Classic SF Track

Dragon•Con takes place in Atlanta from August 31-Sept 3rd.

Click here for more info on Dragon•Con.

Hope to see you there!
Anthony

Filmfax Fans Flourish Fab Future

The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim is being serialized in the next 3 or 4 issues of fan favorite FILMFAX magazine! That's right, the entire text of the book (and many of the illustrations) will be in upcoming issues of Filmfax, the magazine of unusual film, television, & retro pop culture, beginning in mid-August with the Summer '07 issue, above. The magazine has elected to include several images not included in the Hermes Press edition of the book, making the issues must-have items for completists and collectors. Filmfax publisher Michael Stein is offering a special subscription deal for Mike Trim loving fans. Mike says:

The Trim article will probably run in three parts (at least) over the next several issues. If fans wish to start with the first issue now and insure
the following installments, we are offering this special subscription deal:

For $30, they would get the first Mike Trim issue FREE, plus four more
issues (and a $10 Coupon for any products purchase of $50 or more). That's
the same price for five issues of Filmfax as for just the three issues with the three installments of the Trim article at retail price.

They can subscribe by sending name, address, and credit card information
(number & expir. date) via email to filmfax@speedsite.com , or by calling us at 847-866-7155. We will send the first issue (with part one of the Mike Trim article) out to them immediately, plus the $10 Off Coupon.

That's a pretty excellent deal, folks. Filmfax sells for $9.95 per issue at bookstores, so you can see the substantial savings.
Now the disclaimer by me - Filmfax is a great magazine, one of my favorites, but they don't publish any interior color pages. All the art in the magazine except for the covers are black and white, while the Hermes Press edition is full color throughout.
My suggestion? Buy the book and subscribe to the magazine as well. You get your full dose of futuristic design/illustration everyday that way.
But then, I might be biased.

I will continue to add unused images from the book as time allows - sorry I wasn't able to maintain a more rigid schedule on this. I'll put new stuff up soon, I promise.

San Diego Smackdown Part Deux! Plus Filmfax

Booth 506. 506, 506, 506. Why can't I ever remember that Hermes PRess' booth at the San Diego Comic Con is ALWAYS number 506?
So, I'll be signing The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim at booth 506 throughout the convention at various times. Check the booth itself for a schedule.

Just got this via email:

Click Image to Enlarge

Plus 10 more very similar pages.
Look again, that's not from the Hermes Press edition of the book...
It's from Part 1 of the serialization of The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim in Filmfax Magazine.
That's right, the venerable cult and genre film mag is running the whole damned book! It's going to be laid out differently of course, and everything will be black & white (the Hermes Press edition is full color throughout) but if you're a regular Filmfax reader you'll soon enjoy the ass-kickingly cool art and passable prose of Mike Trim and yours truly, respectively. If you're not a regular reader, you should be.
Starts in the Summer issue, out next month.
Be there. Aloha.

Jaff Wayne's Musical WAR OF THE WORLDS Tickets - New Zealand

Giant War Machines descend on New Zealand and Australia when tickets for Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds Tour go on sale today!

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of
The Worlds, Live on Stage! is set to land in Auckland's Vector Arena
on Friday 28th September 2007.

The first arena spectacular to be produced in New Zealand. This staged
musical and multimedia production of the classic HG Wells 1898 science
fiction story is a once-in-a-lifetime epic extravaganza, out of this
world entertainment, unlike anything to have hit these shores ever
before.

The production features ground-breaking special effects including a 30
foot Martian Fighting Machine (designed by Mike Trim) firing Heat Rays at the audience, 100 foot wide screens showing cutting-edge CGI-animation and Jeff Wayne conducting the 10-member Black Smoke Band, plus a 40-piece String
Orchestra.

The My Ticketmaster Internet only presale will commence at 2pm on
Friday 6th July 2007 until 2pm Saturday 7th July 2007 or until the
allocation is exhausted.

Public sale: Monday 9th July 2007, 12 noon.

Don't miss out!

Get your ticket today: http://www.ticketmaster.co.nz/promo/dfbp9i

Photo by Jeremy Pardoe for the Birmingham (England) Mail

The Art of UFO

Angelo Finamore's ART OF UFO website has a fine selection of photos and drawings of SHADO equipment, including many of Mike Trim's designs. In addition, Angelo has diagrammed every set, costume, prop, and model he could find in the show - excellent work, exhaustively researched and compiled. The ART OF UFO website is a must see for any UFO fan.

Keeping Up With The Dickens

Sorry, I'm late again getting a new image up and you must be starting to doubt my commitment to this little project. Fear not, I've returned and with a wonderful photo (shot by Mike) of fellow model shop "new hire" Roger Dicken and Stingray! Roger and Mike answered the same newspaper advertisement and were hired to work in the shop on the same day. Click the picture to enlarge it.
The company was just winding down post production on Stingray, but the boys were hired to start pre-production on Thunderbirds. This photo must have been shot fairly soon after Mike and Roger (and James Channing as well) were hired, as one of the Stingray models was obviously still laying about the shop. Another photo from this sequence (with both Mike and Roger holding the model) did make it into The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim and appears on page 20.
Roger went on to be nominated for an Academy award for Best Special Effects in 1970 (along with Jim Danforth) for When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth. They lost to Bedknobs and Broomsticks!
Roger also worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien, for which he created the facehugger and other creepy creature effects.

San Diego Comic Con is fast approaching, and I'll be at the Hermes Press booth signing copies of the book again this year. The convention runs from July 25th through July 30th at the San Diego Convention Center. Here's the convention's website:
http://www.comic-con.org/cci/
Check back here for a booth number; I'll post it as soon as I find out what it is. Hope to see some old friends there and make some new ones. Please do say hello if you're going to be there!

The Whole Captain Scarlet Gang

This week's image that didn't make it into The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim is the full crew photo from Captain Scarlet. The entire crew of Thunderbirds had gathered for a black and white group photograph during production of the series, and it proved a very popular image with all involved. A year or two later, everyone (sans Gerry and Sylvia this time, for some reason) posed for a color shot to commemorate the production of Captain Scarlet.
Mike Trim can be seen in the rear, beneath the puppet bridge. I've added a red arrow pointing him out. Click on the image to see it larger, of course.
Posed in front wearing Spectrum finery is The Spectrum themselves, the pop group that recorded the music for the closing credits of the show.
Many thanks to Chris Bentley of Fanderson for an enormous gaggle of images he sent me for use in the book. This came from the Fanderson archives.

Prospector Illustration

Sorry it's taken me so long to get a new image up, I've been crazy busy recently on new projects. I hope to continue adding one image per week here that didn't make it into The Future Was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim, but occasionally I'll falter - I'm imperfect like that. Click the image to make it bigger.
This is a vehicle designed for the CABS project. Mike and CABS creator Sean Robinson both have great love for the NASA Lunar Excursion Module from the Apollo program, and the Prospector is an homage to that venerable craft. Designed for mining the asteroid belt, the influence is clear, though this would have been a larger vehicle than the L.E.M. Unfortunately, the model was never created and CABS remains in limbo at the moment.

Just a heads up to let you all know that Mike's colleague and fellow Century 21 model maker Alan Shubrook has a book coming out later this year, which promises to be very exciting. Alan had his camera with him almost every day while working on the Anderson programs, and his book will include more than 200 photographs that he shot behind the scenes. Century 21 FX Unseen Untold can be pre-ordered by clicking here.

Intercepted Design Made Real

Just back from Wonderfest in Louisville, had a good show and lots of fun meeting fans of Mike's art. We sold a healthy number of books, thanks very much to everyone who bought a copy last weekend.
A real highlight of the weekend was seeing the above model, which was based on Mike's original concept art for the Moonbase Interceptor from UFO!


Scratchbuilt by B.P. Taylor, the model won the FAB Gear award for Best Gerry Anderson Inspired Model, and also a Silver medal from the judges of the Wonderfest Model Contest. More photos will be posted soon.
Enjoy,
Anthony

Jackie Stewart Grand Prix Car Illustration

This is an illustration Mike Trim created for Profile Publications in the early 1970's of the Ford MS 80 racecar. This car won the French Grand Prix in 1969, driven by Jackie Stewart of Team Matra-Ford. Here's a link to a photo of Stewart's car during an earlier 1969 race, the Nurburgring.
No new image next weekend as I'll be in Louisville at Wonderfest, but check back and I'll try to get one up as soon as I return.
Have a great Memorial Day!
Anthony

Wonderfest! May 26-27, Louisville, KY

Once again, I'll be spending Memorial Day in Louisville, KY at Wonderfest. This is my 13th year attending the toy and model show, and I always enjoy myself. I'll be signing copies of The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim at the FAB Gear booth all weekend, I hope some of you will stop by and say hello.
For more info on Wonderfest, stop by their website here:
http://www.wonderfest.com
This year's guests include Robert Picardo, Denise Crosby, Lori Nelson, Zacherle, David J. Schow, Greg Nicotero, Bob and Kathy Burns, Pat McClung, Bill Stout, John Eaves, Mark Schultz, John Goodwin, Vincent Di Fate and more.
Hope to see some of you there next weekend!
Anthony

Things to Come - Making the Transition to Long Pants

Here's a portrait of the artist as a young man - very young. A photo of Mike Trim at the ripe old age of 5 years old, outside the family home in Fulham, London. Yes, I know it's hard to believe that this image didn't make it into The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim, but we had to include the one of him in his pedal car - that was non-negotiable!
Mike's obsession with Dan Dare and the art of Frank Hampson was only a year or two away when this photo was taken.

Agent Crush - New Images

The Agent Crush website has been updated with TONS of new images. New behind-the-scenes galleries have been added, and the existing ones have been updated and expanded.


There are new photos of Mike Trim and the crew building models of all stripes, as well as many examples of pre-production artwork that haven't been seen before.


Mike even managed to find work for some "old friends", as evidenced in the image above! The movie is really shaping up and it looks to be "Puppet Soup for the Soul" for all Supermarionation fans.


No word yet on a release date, but I'll post something as soon as I hear. In the meantime, have fun exploring the website - and tell a friend about it!


All images ©2007 Agent Crush Productions

Mike Trim Space Art - Vintage 1973

Another week, another piece of art that didn't make it into The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim.
This is one of the sample pieces Mike did when he decided to go freelance in 1973. Given his earlier science fiction experience, he imagined he'd end up doing a lot of that sort of work. As it was, Mike did very little Sci-Fi work during his years as an illustrator. This led to an increasing sense of frustration and the eventual emergence of The Unknown project in the late '80's. This was an original stab at a sci-fi themed puppet production Mike developed with his friend and former student, Mark Munroe. The project remains unfinished.
Click on any of these images to make them bigger. You knew that, didn't you?

Ranch Of The Future: Cattle Not Included

Here's this week's "Unseen" image from Mike's time on Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.

Designed in 1966 for an episode of the series, this was yet another opportunity for Mike to play at being an architect. Felt tipped pens were a new innovation at the time. Unlike conventional ink pens, they offered a clean and easy media, with the added advantage that the ink was not completely waterproof and could therefore be blended with a wet brush, as shown here. Although the original paper has faded over the years, even when new it had a slight tint and that's why the white gouache highlights and tones were added.

Another new image goes up next week - be there! Aloha.

Welcome, Starfighter!

Welcome to the Unseen Mike Trim, week 2!
This is another image that we didn't have room for in the book, a gouache illustration of a Starfighter jet that Mike created in the early 1980's. This image is a combination of airbrush and good old-fashioned detailed brushwork, and was created at a rather small A4 size. Working in such a diminutive aspect means that the illustration demanded great accuracy in every respect. Mike's love of aircraft really shows through in this piece.
Another image will be posted next week, so stop back then!

Obscured By Crowds - The Unseen Mike Trim

As promised in my last entry, here's an image that we didn't have room for in The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim. This shot was taken in the Winter of 1964-65, outside the AP Films Studios in Slough (you can see a bit of the giant smokestacks and crane gantries of the industrial estate in the background). Mike and fellow modelmaker Roger Dicken are having a bit of a larff with a "pal" that's been frozen in the ice.
I'm happy to report that the fellow was lucky and only suffered slight frostbite.
Just kidding of course - obviously these are some fake legs from a mannequin that the duo set out the night before expressly for this photo.
More unseen images to come in the weeks ahead.

Mike Trim gets WIRED

The Thunderchild diorama featured on the Miketrimart.com webpage has been immortalized today in WIRED magazine's blog, here. It's also at Neatorama, and a nice photo of S.I.D. and a link to the website made it onto Stephen Years Dot Com.
Thanks for the mention, folks!

I'll be posting images here on this blog that didn't make it into The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim due to space limitations beginning in the next 48 hours or so. I hope to post at least one new image every week until they're all up. Keep checking back, there's some excellent stuff that didn't make it into the book!

More CRUSH!

The spiffy new website for AGENT CRUSH is now online, featuring an interview with Mike Trim, plus loads more of his designs for the film!


There's even an edited, scored preview sequence available, which looks fantastic.

It looks as though Ioan (Mr. Fantastic) Gruffudd has signed on the voice Crush, replacing Ewan MacGregor.
I'm really looking forward to the finished film - hope it gets a real theatrical release here in the States.


All images COPYRIGHT © 2007 AGENT CRUSH PRODUCTIONS

Hearts of Glass in Canyons of Steel: New York Comic Con 2007

The photo above shows the Jacob Javits Center, the New Yorker Hotel, and the Empire State Building. I've just returned from spending several days in two of those places - didn't get to the ESB this trip. The New York Comic Con was a much better experience this year than last; at least I was able to get inside for all three days. Last year, the Fire Marshal shut the doors at around 2 p.m. on Saturday, causing a giant logjam of frustrated fanboys unable to get their four-color fix... me among them.


I was there to sign copies of The Future Was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim, and enjoyed spending time with Hermes Press Publishers Dan Herman and Louise Geer in the booth (that's Dan above), as well as meeting fans of Mike's work. It was very cool to meet fellow HP author Ron Goulart who made an appearance on Saturday to sign his new book on the pulps. I've been a fan of Ron's work since I was very young and read his novel, "Nemo," as well as his Vampirella and The Shadow books. Ron's written more adventurous prose than just about anyone on Earth, and he was a truly nice fellow as well.

I also had a fun and productive time with Christopher Jones and Melissa Kaercher, my friends from Minnesota. Chris is one of the most talented artists in comics today, and we're working together on a graphic novel. It was great to be able to hammer out some details of the project in person, and we hope to have the book out sometime early next year. It's a period mystery, set in Hollywood in 1966 - lots of pop art atmosphere along with some noir-ish touches. I'll post more details in the future.


One of the coolest things about my trip was staying in the New Yorker, the hotel where mysterious genious Nikola Tesla spent his last years, and died in 1943.


If it weren't for Tesla, we'd most likely be sitting around making blog posts on difference engines by the glow of gaslight; he worked out the power delivery system that brings electricity into our homes. He most likely worked out a great deal more than that, things that may take years or centuries for us to rediscover. To say that he was eccentric and a bit troubled is an understatement. The plaque above is affixed to the New Yorker on the 34th Street side, commemorating his residence there.

I've got my spine, I've got my Agent Crush

Here's a bit of art from Mike's current project, AGENT CRUSH. He's working at the studio full time at the moment, and commuting home on weekends. Find more information by Clicking here. Here's a fairly extensive set of behind the scenes clips and footage from the film. New commissions will have to wait until shooting is finished, most likely.



My book signings at the John's Creek Borders Books and the New York Comic Con are still GO - hope to meet some blog readers at both.
Anthony

Upcoming Book Signing Appearances

Here's a quick rundown of some upcoming events where I'll be signing copies of The Future Was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim. Hope to see some of you there!

FX Show - The Florida Extravaganza
Friday-Sunday, January 26-28th
Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida
Creator's Alley
http://fxshow.com/

Border's Books, John's Creek - Suwannee, Georgia
February 17th, 7-9 p.m.
3630 Peachtree Parkway
Ste 100
Suwanee, GA 30024
678-417-1425
Map

New York Comic Con
February 23-25th, Jacob Javits Center, Manhattan
Hermes Press Booth in the Dealer's Room
http://www.nycomiccon.com

Unfortunately, Mike won't be able to attend any of these signings as he's in a different country entirely! We hope to get him over to the U.S. for a signing this year. Watch this space for more information.
Anthony Taylor

Thunder Child Prints Still Available

St. Paul's Gallery still has several of the Thunder Child Giclee prints available via their website - Just Click Here for more information.
Signed by Mike Trim as well as Jeff Wayne, these enormous and beautiful prints make a real impression. The print has been created directly from the original artwork that is owned by Jeff Wayne himself. The original measures only 18 x 29" and so it was agreed that the print should be bigger in size (22 x 40") as it would highlight the detail difficult to see, especially in Vinyl or CD format.
These prints are in short supply with an edition of just 295 pieces worldwide. This might be your last chance to get one.
(Photograph is presumably ©2003 St. Paul's Gallery, as I cribbed it from their website.)