Meanwhile, Back At The Lab...

Here's another photo of Mike from Sector 25, standing in front of the display of Brains' Lab in the model room. I'll post more pictures as I find them.
Thanks to Tony Barnes for the photo.

Fanderson Sector 25 Convention Wrap Up

I'm back from London and starting to get over the jet lag. Sector 25 was an amazing gift of a weekend from Fanderson, the Gerry Anderson Fan Appreciation Society. Mike and I spent most of the weekend in the hotel bar, signing copies of The Future was FAB, as evidenced below.


All told, Fanderson sales moved about 60 or 70 copies of the book over the weekend, and had a record breaking £5,000.00 in overall sales. Mike and I enjoyed signing every one of the books, and seeing a hotel full of people walking around with copies.
My heartfelt thanks go to Stephen La Riviere for picking me up at the airport, lugging me all over London and Borehamwood and finally back to Gatwick so I could catch my plane home last Thursday. Thanks also to Chris Bentley, Martin Gainsford, Marcus Hearn, Len, Stephen, Nick, Ralph, and the rest of the Fanderson committee for doing an outstanding job in organizing the convention, and for their excellent hospitality. I'm looking forward to the next convention, hopefully in 2008.


I had a wonderful time meeting so many new friends at Sector 25, as well as seeing some old ones. More thanks to James, Duncan (who shot the photos in this entry), Louise, Ralph, Richard, Aimee, Tamsin, Hilton, Elliott, Mark, Sam, Tony, Tony, Tony, (sounds like a hip hop group) Chris, and especially Mike and Linda Trim (Linda's in the photo with me) for making the weekend very special for me.
For more photos of the models and puppets on display at Sector 25, take a look at the message boards at FABGearusa.com.

Typographical Errors as Metaphor for Life

I'm starting to get packed for my trip to London this week for Fanderson's SECTOR 25 convention in Borehamwood. Grabbing things to take to England, I picked up my personal copy of The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim, so I can have Mike sign it for me when I see him. It's still too new for me not to flip through it everytime I pick it up, and in doing so I found two more typos. On the first page of the chapter on Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, David Essex is misidentified as "Davis Essex", and Thin Lizzy becomes "Tin Lizzy."
Sheesh.
I checked my manuscript; they were correctly spelled there.
In fact, most of the typos in the book aren't present in the original manuscript.
This is disheartening, as the book was proofed several times by eyes other than mine, but I never saw a final galley before it went to press.
That won't happen again, no matter how close we are to the release date.
If by some chance the book goes into a second printing, all the typos will be corrected. I just hope that in doing this, new typos aren't created.
Ah well, I think of it like a Top Secret Classified document - maybe the typos are there intentionally, to identify which printing your copy of the book is from.
That's what I like to call "adventure rationalizing."
Hope to see some of you at the Fanderson convention this weekend. Bring your books for Mike and me to sign.
We'll try not to mispell our own names.

Danger is his middle name...

In the spirit of title sequences from great 1960's TV shows like I Spy, Danger Man, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and the like, I've created a short promotional video trailer for The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim.

Here's the direct URL if you'd like to let a friend know about it (and please do let a friend know about it!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87gMzod2Rq8
Special thanks to Gerry-Lynn Fore for his unequalled editing skills, and Ralph Titterton and Rob Fellowes for music and image permissions.

Mike and Linda Trim Upcoming Exhibit

Creativity is contagious! Mike and his wife Linda are busy preparing for an exhibit of his paintings and her original beaded jewelry at a very small venue in Kent next month.
Linda tells me Mike is planning on showing around 20 paintings, mostly still lifes, ships, and landscapes - though he may take an original SF piece and some sketchbooks for interested parties - to display at the Bay Art Gallery in Kent. She'll have a whole slew of new jewelry designs showing as well. The exhibit runs from Monday, September 25th through Sunday, October 1st. The following weekend, they'll be at the Fanderson Sector 25 Convention, of course.
On Monday the 25th, the gallery will be open from 2 to 4pm and the rest of the week from 10am to 4pm. Mike and Linda will both be there during opening hours all week long.
The Bay Art Gallery is located at 47a William Street, Herne Bay, in Kent.
Click here to peruse the gallery's website and get directions.
This is a great opportunity to see some of Mike's non-sci-fi work and spend some time talking with him and Linda. Almost all of the pieces shown will be for sale, and he will be taking commissions as well. If you're near Kent, please stop by! And if you can get a photo or two, how about emailing them to me so I can post them here?

Some people juggle geese...

Dragon*Con prefers to juggle panel schedules.
Once again, the Supermarionation panel has been moved from 1:00 p.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Convention rules don't allow us to sell books during the panel but if you catch me right after, I'll have some available.
Any guesses as to the source of the quote that headlines this entry?

Happy Birthday Mr. Trim

Mike Trim turns 61 today - Happy Birthday, Mike!
Many happy returns.

San Diego Comic Con Photos

Dan Herman finally sent me a few photos from San Diego Comic Con.

Here's Dan manning the Hermes Press booth at a rare quiet moment - this must have been before the convention opened, because there was never a time after that when the booth was this deserted.


Here's one of me, next to the spiffy banner I brought to help promote the book.


This is a shot of me talking with Special Effects director Albert Hastings. Albert's supervised effects for Polar Express, Monster House and is the CGI director for Spiderman 3. He's also a big fan of UFO and Mike's work.
If you have any other photos from San Diego Comic Con of the booth or the panel we did on Friday night at the show, please send them!

Dragon*Con Update

As I suspected, my Supermarionation panel has been switched to Sunday at 1:00 p.m. in the Science Fiction Classics Programming Room. Check your schedule or this blog at the convention to see if they shuffle me around again!
It looks like I will be able to show the presentation of Mike's art that was so popular at the San Diego Comic Con. And I'll have a Miketrimart.com T-shirt or two to give away as well - be there!
Aloha.

Hope you've been saving your pennies...

Here's a small image of the original art that will be auctioned off for charity at Fanderson's Sector 25 Convention. Of course, it won't say Miketrimart.com on it - that's just for this blog.

This is a color pencil piece on paper and was a rough for the original cover of the book. Unfortunately, Mike's work schedule on Agent Crush prevented him from creating a finished image, and we wound up using existing art.
This was created before negotiations with Jeff Wayne were concluded - the finished art would have included the Fighting Machine and several other Anderson vehicles.
Expect the bidding to be heated!
Once again, check the SECTOR 25 website for information on the convention.
See you there!