Return of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Bonus Challenge

Tickle the Imagination magazine is running a bonus challenge this week, on the theme of "Cocoon". The upcoming winter issue will have a home focus, and 20 of the editor's favourite illustrations will be included in the issue.

Bonus Challenge: Cocoon

Cartoon sketched in black Sharpie, painted in watercolours. Brown paper and watercolour paper collaged onto handmade paper.

Uniformity

Over at the TrekBBS, someone asked for the Star Trek fans to name their favourite Star Trek uniform, and I hadn't really felt the need to contribute to that thread - until someone wondered aloud if "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was going to get any representation. And it helped that I was "taking a break" from yesterday's epic moving of magazines from one pile to another. (Today I'd progressed to "free some action figures from their packaging" to free up more space. But it's okay, I've always been an "opener", not a "MOMC" - "mint on mint card" - collector.)

Okay, back to ST uniforms: well ST:TMP on the big screen was my first really memorable ST experience, after TAS repeats on TV. So, call me biased, but I love the ST: TMP uniforms (even if they do look a little - okay, a lot - like 'jammies). In 1980, if I coulda put one on and leapt into the silver screen of Sydney's old Paramount Theatre and onto that starship, I'd have done so.



Above: From an early fanzine story; art by my penpal, Kamu. Note that I'd asked her to include the Andorian partial exo-skeleton mentioned by the Ballantine "Starfleet Medical Reference Manual".



Above: At the first Medtrek Convention (1982), at the historic Hydro Majestic Hotel, Medlow Bath in the Blue Mountains. Therin was on the debating team: "Federation vs Empire: Which is the Better Form of Government?"



Above: Therin, Arex and M'Ress join the crew after ST: TMP, with a little help from Photoshop.

Magazine Sorting Day

It's already threatening to become Magazine Sorting Weekend. Or Month. Sigh...

I moved house in January 2000, and every time I hold an event at my place (the original housewarming party, annual Midwinter Christmas, Jack's first birthday party, the Weber BBQ christening, New Year's Eve, etc) I usually spend a few hours stashing loose magazines into boxes and hiding them: behind the bar; in the Star Trek (Shrine) room; under the bed; in the built-in wardrobes.

It's now reached the point of no return - critical mass - and so, in order to get a little control back into my collection, every magazine bought since 2000 is now in piles on the lounge room floor. I've sorted them by title, and I'm now puting them in issue order. There are some ongoing magazines titles I make a point of buying every issue ("Starlog", for example: I have a complete set from #1; I started with issue #30 and found all the back issues in 1980 or so). Other titles I buy only when there's a meaty article about Star Trek, or something more fleeting that I'm particularly interested in at the time.

It's an awful job, this Magazine Sorting Ritual, and I know why I kept putting it off. I have no idea where I'm going to store them when they're all in order, since most magazines bought between 1980 and 2000 are in storage, and just as hard to use for research as the more recent ones when stashed in random piles behind the bar, in the Star Trek (Shrine) room, under the bed, and in the built-in wardrobes. Sigh.

But neither am I ready to downsize the collection, nor attempt to sell them off, nor create "tear sheet" scrapboxes so I can recycle the rest of each magazine. I watched a friend once try to sell off several boxes of really great, old movie magazines at a garage sale, but there was zero interest. She couldn't even give them away. Well, actually she did give some away... to me - and they're all here on the floor too, all those years later.

I haven't read all my magazines yet either. They've all been glanced at, usually in the train, on the way home from purchasing them. And - when they are handy to the computer - I do use them for research.

At the moment, I'm panicking - because there are certain issue numbers missing from the piles. I'm sure they'll be in another box somewhere, but part of me already wants to order... back issues! Someone, please stop me!