Countdown to 2010 SOTL! 05

“Secret of Farpoint Station” – John Teska

  Coming soon: The 2010 Ships of the Line Calendar! Let the countdown begin!

From Pocket Books, where all eras of Star Trek live!

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“Outcast of the Stars” – EC’s Unforgettable Bradbury Adaption!

We’re back with another EC classic from the 50’s, “Outcast of the Stars” .  A Bill Gaines- Al Feldstein’s adaption of a Ray Bradbury story, delineated by the great Joe Orlando. EC had an unconventional relationship with Bradbury. It began with a story Gaine’s and Feldstein literally swiped. Bradbury, seeing his story adapted into comic book form without being consulted, wrote Gaines. “You have inadvertantly omitted my royalty on the two stories of mine you used in a recent issue.” However he was delighted with Feldstein’s treatment, plus the top notch art, and allowed EC to continue to use his stories in return for a modest royalty.* One wonders what Harlan Ellison’s reaction might have been.

“Outcast” as adapted by EC is a wonderfully sentimental science fiction story that reminds us that the genre is not defined by space battles, chases , and explosions. There is a saying that goes, “People will forget what you say or do, but they will never forget how you make them feel.” I certainly never forgot how this work of art made me feel. Enjoy!

*”The Mad World of William M. Gaines” – http://www.amazon.com/Mad-World-William-M-Gaines/dp/B000S1FPLU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246810773&sr=8-1

Suliban Freighter

The Suliban freight carrier: A study in cellular conglomeration.

Continuing our study of Suliban space going assets we get a rare good look at the the freighter class vessel. What an interesting conglometion, carrying forward the Suliban penchant for cellular communing, first seen at the Helix. Each cargo pod is a self contained ship hitching a ride docked to a central carrier ship, like branches on a tree. One wonders how far the cargo branches might extend before the hives warp field become unstable and collapses. From a John Eaves sketch.

Sway Over The Captain’s Table

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When Dominic discovered Dorothy’s cooking he went wild. Usually stage food is barely passable, and there’s only two ways  Dorth makes “barely passable” food… that’s no way, and no how! So whenever Dominic knew Dorth would be cookin’, he’d be rubbin’ his hands together in gleeful anticipation. Well we used to get the dailies up in the art department, and one day I come across this blooper that shows it better than I can ever describe it. Watch Dom blow his lines and not care, cause he’s lovin’ it so much!

More galley tales -

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/sway-over-the-captains-table/

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/the-captains-table-redux/

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/report-from-the-galley-menu-two/

If you want to get in on the goodness, here is what had Dom over the moon, recipe courtesy of the Enterprise “Kitchen Goddess” Dorothy-

Calling Dick Tracy! 54

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Suliban Cruiser

The Suliban Cruiser, a two pronged arrowhead of a spaceship.

As we move forward, filling out the Suliban inventory of spacecraft, we come upon the cruiser class. More a conventional Eaves design, but no less satisfying. The most identifiably Suliban characteristic is the ruddy color which originated with the Suliban standard wardrobe. In previous Trek’s, this color was on the Ferengi side, which originated with the Ferengi skin tone. Built by Pierre Drolet.

The Official Cag n’ Drex Makeup Timeline

No kidding, this is what life was like as a makeup artist!  It was drawn up by Anthony Fredrickson… the same Anthony Fredrickson from the Trek art department. He was our lab manager.

My makeup days are well behind me now, but I often miss working with my buddy John Caglione! We had some incredible adventures and gigantic laughs! (Below) That’s me tacking the lace down on Ted Danson’s wig from “Three Men and a Little Lady. John did an amazing sculpt on this. One of my favorites.

(Bottom left) As you can imagine, Halloween around us was  wild. That’s me and John about to take undue advantage at a local Halloween costume contest. (Bottom right) Final touches.

You are getting sleeeeeeepy…

Hey! Working in television is exhausting! You’ve all heard about that meat grinder called Hollywood? That’s right! You grab some Z’s when you can!

Here are some Trek art department snaps of baby Fritz, little Jimmy, Anfonee, yittle Tony… among others… and they’re doin’ some champion log sawin’! Look at these very carefully, and let them serve as inspiration over the long holiday weekend!

Hush-a-bye don’t you cry, Go to sleep-y, little baby. When you wake you shall have All the pretty little horses. Blacks and bays, dapple grays, Coach and six white horses…

2010 SOTL Closeup – Mark Rademaker– “Aventine”

(Above) The image in the SOTL 2010 calendar shows the Aventine a couple of months out of space dock. A slightly updated version will probably show up on a book cover in 2010.

With two previous pages under his belt, Mark Rademaker is a SOTL veteran. Mark came to me through Andy Probert, who, impressed with Mark’s originality, thought I should give him a shot. Later, when Marco Palmieri and Margaret Clark were preparing a new Trek novel series called “Aventine”, they needed a new distinctive starship…  well, Mark was just the guy for the job, and the 2010 calendar was the perfect place to launch her! 

My name is Mark Rademaker, born 1980. I live in the Netherlands in a small and slow town called Silvolde. It’s almost Ba’Ku slow, but we do pay taxes and have fast-food.  Since 2008 I have created images for the the Ships of the Line calendars, I’m rather new to it but it’s great to do! My favorite era is post-Dominion War, my previous entries all show designs from that era. 

After some email traffic, Marco Palmieri, Margaret Clark and Doug gave me green light to design the Aventine for the SOTL2010 calendar. I was happy, all I had to do now was to design the ship… A capital ship, roughly the size of the Enterprise E, in less then 4 months, while having other projects as well…I got slightly intimidated by that idea, but decided to go for it. My only restriction: The pylons and nacelles had to face upwards to avoid being mixed up with the U.S.S. Titan. I sketched 2 choices for the pylons, a third one (bending arc) was drawn by Andrew Probert. It would make the ship longer and more sleek. Some more mail traffic and we decided that Andrew’s suggestion was the way to go.

For me the main purpose of the design was to display speed & strength. Construction speed both “in universe” and as a 3D model came second. After the Dominion war Starfleet probably needed easy to construct, multi-role platforms that could be quickly updated with new technology. I also decided that this “modularity” would go before elegance and grace. The final shape has been heavy influenced by the Enterprise E, Voyager and the fake but useful Starfleet ship Dauntless. I also added some features from my Spirit class Quantum slipstream testbed, from this year’s calendar.

Calling Dick Tracy! 53

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