Saturday, November 19, 2016

Star Trek, Marvel and Flash

Fifty years ago the science fiction and television communities bare witness to a new TV series that would eventually go on to worldwide fame.

Star Trek: The Original TV series premiered on NBC in 1966 and after three years was eventually canceled.  The reason cited?  Low ratings.

However several years later in the early 1970s the series was given new life when it began showing in syndication.

A whole new audience embraced the series, which would eventually go on to be relaunched as an animated TV series, movies and several TV series.

The series' creator, Gene Roddenberry, and the shows’ cast and crew were as surprised as anyone.

In celebration of the series 50th Anniversary, Titan Books presents a special new book commissioned by CBS: ‘Star Trek 50 Artists 50 Years’ featuring a foreword by director/writer Nicholas Meyer.

The oversize hardbound book showcases 50 new original pieces of art by 50 well-known artists. 

Drawing inspiration from the original series and its entire offspring, the artists share their thoughts, sketches and final art in a stunning new collection of artwork that is sure to please Star Trek fans. 

Art styles range from realistic to abstract, cartoon and more using a variety of techniques and media--it’s a beautiful collection.

Updated and revised ‘The Marvel Vault: A Visual History’ by Roy Thomas and Peter Sanderson, updated by Matthew K. Manning, is a Marvel Comics’ fan’s dream come true.

“’Face front true believer!” as readers travel back in time to the very first Marvel Comic Book publication (then called Timely Comics) and get to witness the birth of a pop culture phenomenon.

Start things off with a bang with the special front piece sleeve containing reproductions of some key Marvel memorabilia.

Flip through the pages and explore the decades as you read about the Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age and Modern Age of Marvel Comics.

Artist sketches, drawings, comic book pages and cover reproductions, Insider insights, trends, fandom, writers, artists, editorial, key events and characters, movies, TV, print and much more are covered in great detail.

Packed with color photos and art accompanied by plenty of historical and anecdotal text the book is wonderful tribute to the ‘greatest comic book publisher’ in the world.  Excelsior!

DC Comics have conquered the small screen with its current TV series like Gotham, I-Zombie, Lucifer, Supergirl, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow and The Flash.

In ‘The Art and Making of The Flash’ writer Abbie Bernstein examines the popular new TV series origin and production.

Born out of the Arrow TV series the show follows the exploits of speedster Barry Allen as he continues to hone and discover his abilities as the Scarlet Speedster.

Go behind the series and learn about character designs, costume and set designs, production, special effects, storylines and so much more using this colorful collection of photos, art and text as your guide.

Looking through the book’s pages it struck me as to how complicated and technically challenging it is to put this series together each week.


The artwork, design, sets, exotic equipment and weapons and the entire process of producing such a phenomenal series is truly mind-boggling.