Anthony Taylor, author of the The Future Was FAB- the Art of Mike Trim, which I mentioned the other day, has kindly written about why he wrote the book for our What The Author Says feature:
“Gaijin Otaku. In Japanese, these words mean “Outlander,” and “Superfanatic,” respectively. Growing up as a fan of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s television series’ in America, I certainly felt like an outlander. My first exposure to the shows were two episodes of UFO seen during it’s original syndication run in the U.S. at the age of six years old. While I was a bit too young to parse many of the concepts, the production design and special effects made an enormous impression. Only later, in the 1980’s did I discover episodes of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray and the other shows, and realize that the same team had produced them all.
As a child, I owned several die cast Dinky toys from Thunderbirds, UFO, Joe 90, and Captain Scarlet, and these were my first tangible exposure to the amazing designs of Mike Trim. Though I had only seen episodes of UFO, I appreciated the sleek, futuristic lines of all the vehicles, and treasured them as touchstones representing the things which fascinated me most at a young age… art and design, and science fiction.
After several years as an adult putting the pieces of Mike’s oeuvre together like a puzzle, I realized that he was responsible for many visual concepts that inspired me as a designer and writer, including his stunning album cover for Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.
Often overshadowed by his supervisor and colleague Derek Meddings, Mike was the true workhorse of the effects design group at Century 21 Films when the company produced the later Supermarionation shows, the films Thunderbirds are Go, Thunderbird 6, and Doppleganger, released theatrically in the U.S. as Journey to the Far Side of The Sun. His work has permeated the pop culture landscape for more than forty years, and he shows no signs of slowing down.
The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim is the embodiment of my desire to share with others the joy that Mike’s work has brought me throughout my life. I think that certainly qualifies me as a “Superfanatic.” Enjoy the book.
F.A.B.,
Anthony Taylor”
0 Comments For This Post
1 Trackbacks For This Post
January 17th, 2007 at 10:48 am
[...] With a slew of new titles from DC and Marvel this week I meant to blog about this interview with the late Dave Cockrum by Anthony Taylor on Comic Book Resources but just ran out of time. Anthony reminded me of it this morning (thanks, Anthony), so better late than never… This is quite an unusual interview with Dave, since it focusses on the work he did for Aurora, which included SF and comics work as well as the prehistoric range of dinosaur model kits. Remember them? I think I had a plastic model dinosaur menagerie when I was a kid; I get a nostalgiac warm glow thinking about them and I had no idea Dave Cockrum was involved in them until I read this; comics, SF and dinosaurs colliding, practically a young lad’s dream. Anthony is the author of the recent The Future Was FAB – the Art of Mike Trim, which he told us about on the blog a few months back (a must for SF fans). [...]