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!

Dragon*Con!

The Labor Day weekend is full of traditions for me. Living in Atlanta, one of those traditions is watching asphalt melt on the roads.
The other is Dragon*Con.

Since I just got word that The Future Was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim is now in-stock at Hermes Press's warehouse, Dragon*Con seems like a fitting venue to release it into the wild. San Diego was the official premier, but D*Con will mark the book's availability to the public.
It should be on its way to distributors and larger accounts before the end of the week.
I'll be moderating a panel on Supermarionation and Anderson television shows in the Science Fiction Classics Programming room on Saturday, Sept. 2, at 11:30 a.m. (I believe, check the program schedule at the convention) and hope that anyone reading this who will be at the convention will stop by and say hello!

Futuropolis

I found an interesting article online from England's The Guardian newspaper here:
http://tinyurl.com/hxamc
about the Future City Architectural exhibit currently at the Barbican through September 17th. The author examines the effect of cinematic design on real world architecture, and mentions Mike Trim by name, as well as Derek Meddings. Of course, Mike designed most of the buildings beginning with Thunderbirds through The Secret Service, and many of his original drawings are in the new book.
More information on the Future City exhibit is here:
http://tinyurl.com/zlzs9
Unfortunately, I won't be in the U.K. until October and will miss it.

This is Space Intruder Detector...

Mike is now accepting commissions for original art in all mediums! If you've flipped through The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim (and I realize that not too many of you have been able to do that yet), you've seen several pieces that Mike did as commissions. The SHADOmobile piece on page 109 is one that he created for me a few years ago in colored pencil on Canson paper, and every time I look at it I enjoy it anew.
If you have an idea of what you'd like Mike to render as well as an approximate size and preferred medium (pencil, colored pencil or marker, full color painting, etc.), please email the information to us by clicking here and we'll get back to you with a price and delivery estimate as soon as possible.
SHADOMobiles, Martian Fighting Machines, Maximum Security Vehicles, S.I.D., Moonbase - whatever subject you'd like, be it Anderson, War of The Worlds, or original - you *can* own a piece of Mike Trim original art.
How cool is that?

Comic Con Wrap Up

This is a bit late, as Comic Con wrapped up on July 24th, but I was up in Hollywood for a week working on other projects and I'm just now getting around to catching up on my blogging duties. Ahhh, Hollywood... where else can you see an Asian Granny wearing a Hustler t-shirt eating chili spaghetti at Bob's Big Boy at 3 a.m.?

Comic Con was an enormous success! I was ensconced in the Hermes Press booth for most of the convention, meeting Anderson fans and signing copies of The Future Was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim. Publisher Dan Herman busted a hump to get 120 copies to the show (the book should be in stores by the end of the month), and we sold out of them by 2 p.m. on Saturday! If you stopped by the booth and bought a book, thank you VERY MUCH. Dan was astonished that we sold out and now has a newfound respect for the sales potential of the book.

I was finally able to meet Richard Taylor from Weta Workshop, who graciously wrote the forward for the book. He's a terrifically nice guy and loved the signed, limited edition hardback and Comic Con exclusive MikeTrimArt.com T-shirts I gave him. Hopefully, Mike and I will be working with him on a future project - more on that if it develops.

The Mike Trim Art panel on Friday night at the convention went surprisingly well, save that I forgot the punchline to a story from the book and totally made a new one up off the top of my head. Oh, and I corrected legendary Hollywood model maker Greg Jein about the use of Chartpak tape on the models from Thunderbirds and felt like a dolt for the rest of the night. Greg was very kind to appear on the panel (as were CFQ's Jeff Bond and Robert Meyer Burnett) and I felt bad that I'd bothered to call him out on such a small issue. Greg, mea culpa. Thanks again for sitting in, it's always great to have you around! Public speaking is scary stuff, folks. Don't attempt it alone.

If you bought a copy of the book at the convention, please write a review at Amazon.com! The more information there is available to potential buyers, the more copies we sell, which may mean a second volume of Mike's art in the future!

Finally, if you shot any photos of the Hermes Press Booth or at the Panel, please send them to me by clicking here. I'll post them in the blog and give you a photo credit.

Own a piece of Mike Trim art!

Mike has generously donated an original piece of art to be auctioned for charity at the Fanderson Sector 25 Convention in October. Here's a link to the convention's website:
http://www.fanderson.org.uk/s25p1.html

Good stuff - start saving for it now!

Shuttle Foam and Space Haggis

There were several delays, but the shuttle Discovery finally lifted off on July 4th, the traditional day for Americans to launch rockets. Apparently it's a new tradition in North Korea as well, as Kim Jong Il sent a few missiles flying himself. While the shuttle wound up docking with the International Space Station, KJI's (as I like to call him) birds took an early swim in the Sea of Japan. Just goes to prove that there's a yin to every yang.
Meanwhile in Scotland, Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson wants to launch commercial space journeys from RAF Lossiemouth in Moray, starting as early as 2010.
From the BBC:

The company made the announcement on the day its test pilot, Brian Binnie, received an honorary degree from Aberdeen University.

Two years ago, he became the first Scot to fly into space.

And last year the rocket plane SpaceShipOne shot to an altitude of more than 100km for the second time inside a week to claim the $10m Ansari X-Prize.

The vehicle raced straight up into the sky over the Mojave Desert in California, US, with Mr Binnie at the controls.

President of Virgin Galactic Will Whitehorn told BBC Scotland there was a system in development based on the prototype flown by Mr Binnie.

"We are designing it so that we will be able to tour it around the world. So we will have a main base in New Mexico and we are looking at three bases outside there to be able to operate from," Mr Whitehorn said.

"As far as the UK is concerned the only area that we have found that has all the right conditions is the north of Scotland.

"It has relatively little overflying by aircraft, there are not people on the ground who could get injured and RAF Lossiemouth is an ideal location."

He said that test flying of SpaceShipTwo would begin next year and be completed in 2008.

Mr Whitehorn added that commercial operations could begin in 2009, with flights from a Scottish base such as Lossiemouth or Machrahanish the following year.

The Golden Age of Commercial Space Travel is very close.
There's an enormous profit to be made for all mankind in exploration and colonization of the Solar System. It's good to see some actual movement in this direction by people with the courage and the financial means to make it happen.
Let's just hope they leave the Haggis on the ground.

See it? Saw it. Good!

Ever been to England? October's a little cold and wet, but it's a great time to make the trip if you're a Mike Trim fan. Mike (and I) will be appearing at the Fanderson Sector 25 Convention, October 7 & 8, at the Holiday Inn - Elstree in Borehamwood (right next to the film studio). Not that both of us appearing and signing copies of the book isn't remarkable enough, but if you truly need more to get you on a plane, in a car, on the back of an Ostrich... whatever it takes to get to the convention... Mike will be bringing the surviving artwork from his days as a designer on Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, The Secret Service, Doppleganger, and UFO with him to display! Look, here's a piece now:



















Of course, most of this art appears in The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim, but there's nothing like seeing it in person. I'm sure it will be displayed in such a manner that touching it will be out of the question, but attendees will be able to get very close to the art and examine it in detail.
For most people, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see Mike's original designs - don't miss it!
There'll be plenty of original models, props, costumes and other widgets on display as well - well worth a look for fans of the series. If you've never been to a Fanderson convention to see these items in person, what's holding you back? Expensive airfare? Saving for a rainy day? C'mon, if this stuff is important to you - if it fills you with a sense of wonder and excitement that makes you feel like a kid again - don't you owe yourself the experience?
Other guests include Gerry Anderson himself, Nick Tate and Zienia Merton from Space: 1999, Shane Rimmer, Dominic Lavery, Francis (Captain Scarlet) Matthews, Art director Keith Wilson, and plenty more.
Hope to see you there!