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.