Mike Hinge 150 - 154

Here we have a collection of four preliminary pencil drawings and an almost complete preliminary dayglo painting. The subject appears to be a robot with a man's face or perhaps a man in a space suit or a man in a robotic shell. One of the drawings is dated 10/11 October 1978 so I am assuming that they will all be from this year as the pictures came to me together in one folder.

Written on one of the pictures are what might suggest a title or a clue for what the drawings were intended. "Dance of Light, Dance of Photon, Dance of Phaeton, Metamorphosis, Photon". I had a search on the internet for any possible SF story with a possible connection however I didn't find anything. An interesting search of "Phaeton robot" came up with "Exosquad" a tv series conceived by Jeff Segal in 1989, most probably not connected but interestingly humans and neosapiens are shelled inside a robot like "exo-skeleton" or "E-Frame" as described in the opening titles of the program. Could it have been possible that Jeff Segal, knew Mike in 1978 and this was some drawings done for the proposed show?

The last picture in this collection is the largest of the pictures a drawing on tracing paper. The paper is folded in half and can be opened out to double in size. The other side of the paper is blank but gave the idea that it was intended to have the reverse image to make a complete mirror image. Interestingly the half image also works on its own as a complete image if placed on its side. I don't know if a completed picture was ever made from any of these images but out of interest I made a reverse image of the largest drawing in photoshop to have a better idea what the completed picture might have looked like.

 Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton I . Dayglo paint on paper. Approximate size 60x49cm. Circa 1978. unsigned.

 Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton II . Pencil on paper. Approximate size 49x60cm. Circa 1978. unsigned.

  Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton III . Pencil on paper. Approximate size 60x49cm. Circa 1978. unsigned.

     Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton IV . Pencil on paper. Approximate size 60x49cm. Circa 1978. unsigned.

 Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton V . Pencil on tracing paper. Approximate size 38x106cm. Circa 1978. unsigned.

Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton V (Close-up 1)

Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton V (Close-up 2)

Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton V . Photoshoped image of original with added reverse . 

Mike Hinge - 81st Birthday Anniversary - Darren Shroeder

Darren Shroeder webmaster and editor of Small Press Printed Matters emailed me some early illustrations of Mike's in the form of two publicity flyers from when Mike was still living in New Zealand before emigrating to the USA. I'm guessing it probably dates from sometime around about 1954. The same year which Mike illustrated "Time Fanzine" with Monica Naughton which they wrote and published together. It might be that Mike was age 23 when he made these illustrations? It would be great if anyone could date these flyers.

The first flyer is for Alien9+ and the second is for Auckland Science Fiction Club.

Bottom Flyer: Auckland Science Fiction Club: Size - 14.5 x  13.7

Mike Hinge - 147

Today is Mike's birthday, he would have been 81 years old. I wish that he was still here with us to see and hear more about his work and life. 

Here is an unpublished cover for Amazing Stories Magazine.

Mike Hinge - Amazing (unpublished cover) . Marker pen on white paper. Approximate size 48 x 61cm. Date Unknown. Unsigned.

Mike Hinge - Witzend Cover 1969

Mike Hinge - front and back cover for Witzend magazine 1969. 

Below we have a rare treat of seeing the original cover artwork, sent in by a private collector, which they are happy to share, thank you very much. The artwork is the photostats that were pasted onto a board which is called the mechanical. The printer photographs themechanical as a film negative. The negative is then used to burn the printing plates.

01: Yellow plate mechanical (photostat of circuit diagram pasted on illustration board; the photostats shrank a bit)

 02: Red plate mechanical (photostat of cranks, shafts and gears pasted on illustration board)

03 and 04: Tissue overlay with instructions to the printer ("Drop two figures out of this plate" means the red robots are not printed over the yellow sphere; or one could say, the robots are in the foreground and the sphere is in the background.)

05: Robots artwork (ink drawing on Strathmore bristol board)

Mike Hinge 141

Happy Chinese New Year - The Year of the Dragon.

Mike Hinge - Dragon Sketch . Pencil on white paper. Approximate size 55x30cm. Date Unknown. Unsigned.

Monkey Wrench - From the collection of Mike Hinge's A4 photocopies date possibly late 60's

Mike Hinge 132

Mike Hinge - Robot Hand with Lever. Pencil sketch on white paper. Approximate size 60x70cm. Date: Unknown. Unsigned.

Mike Hinge - The Warrior Robot

Last week I posted the Algol warrior robot cover published in the summer of 1975 and an unpublished version undated. I started wondering when did Mike first draw this particular robot with the arm weapon attachments and its distinctively shaped head and what might be the story behind this drawing? 

Putting aside Mike's other robot illustrations that have a similar build, I have made a chronological collection of illustrations of the warrior robot.There are quite likely a lot more but these are the ones that I know about. The robot's first published incarnation seems to have been in Amazing Stories, November 1969. Ted White had recently overtaken the role as editor of Amazing Stories and Fantastic Stories and updating the look of the magazines he engaged Mike with the duty of producing a series of 10 headers for the regular features. Amongst the 10 headers (5 for each magazine) the following three images are the robots published début.

   

Published in Amazing Stories November 1969

Mike had a regular display of the 10 headers in Amazing and Fantastic up until at least 1975 although I'm not entirely sure when they exactly came to an end I'd be interested to know.

I read that Ted White shared an interest in experimental music with Mike and had also offered Mike a job as art director for Amazing and Fantastic but Mike declined the offer.

Sketch 23rd April 1970

A sketch by Mike Hinge, front and side view of  robot. White paper with black pen and yellow wax crayon. Approximately 50x70cm. Dated: 23rd April 1970. Unpublished. Signed.

Published in Algol May 1972

Algol interior header for Ted White's column. Interestingly the signature has written (C) Jones/Hinge 1970 and a nice quirky detail where it says Patent Pending. I emailed Andrew Porter former editor and publisher of Algol and he confirms that it was quite likely Jeff Jones as he remembers him living in New York at the time. Also Alex Jay believes that it is also quite likely a collaboration with Jeff Jones as he also remembers Jeff living in New York around about this time and says that Mike also spoke highly of him. Andrew also mentioned that this illustration was also used for a flyer or other printed piece. Within the spirit of collaboration the individual influences are lost over time but the final result is stunning.

Published Assignment in Tomorrow 1972,

Perhaps this robot shouldn't be included here as it hasn't the same shaped head but I have included it because of the weapon attachments.

Published front cover Fantastic Stories October 1972,

Published in Comic Media March 1973.

Alex Jay sent me this image scanned from a rare British SF publication called Comic Media edited by Nick Landau. It was used to illustrate an article "A History of Science Fiction" by Lee Hopewell. The illustration is the same as the original Algol version but now minus the credit Jones/Hinge 1970 and replaced with a large plaque with Mike's name.

It might be that the plaque was added by someone else other than Mike but saying that I do quite like the font and the detail of the screws. Alex pointed out that he hadn't seen any other art by Mike signed this way in large letters and told me that the font isn't designed by Mike but is a comercial font. Andrew Porter wasn't aware of this reproduction but it is possible that it was an official repoduction. Andrew says that there was a lot of swiping back then; people took stuff, from tear sheets or other places, and reproduced them via offset.

Published in The Mike Hinge Experience 1973
Two illustrations of the warrior with a circular saw attachment. The two illustrations are undated but are from somewhere between 1969-1973. 

Published in Heavy Metal 1979

Undated, unpublished, original art

Original art by Mike Hinge - robot "Gravimat" cyborg design on illustration board, black ink and letratone, approximately 40x70cm.Unknown date and unsigned. 

Undated sketch

A sketch by Mike Hinge - Robot Maintenance. Pencil on white paper. Approximate size 60x70cm. Date: Unknown. Unsigned.

Mike Hinge - The Robot on the Algol Cover and a different view.

Mike Hinge A4 photocopy (From the  Mike Hinge photocopy collection)

I was delighted to see this image having had been so familiar with the striking Algol cover. It is from part of a collection of photocopies that Mike made of some of his work. We can now see the whole robot as if looking up from the reflection. A wonderful image as also the Algol cover. I wonder where and who owns the originals?

ALGOL: THE MAGAZINE ABOUT SCIENCE FICTION, Vol. 12 No. 2, Issue No. 24, Summer 1975

Mike Hinge 131

Mike Hinge - Parsec City 4 (4of4). Pen, Ink and Pencil on heavy water colour paper. Approximate size 45x30cm. Date unknown. Unsigned.

detail 1

 detail 2

 textovl

The above image has an acetate overlay like the Varuna Parsec City 1 image (Mike Hinge 128)

with a rough caption stuck on top. 

The quote is from a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822).

Mike Hinge 130

Mike Hinge - Parsec City 3 (3of4). Pen, Ink and Pencil on heavy water colour paper. Approximate size 45x30cm. Date unknown. Unsigned.

vertical

 detail

Mike Hinge Fonts Put Into Practice

Alex Jay has come up trumps again after finding these proof of fonts that he was working on for a holiday ad for toys, two of the fonts are Mike Hinge designs, unfortunately the advert got cancelled.

"Gobots!" is the font Hinge Integrated. "Robo-Toys" is the font ITC Machine (not a Mike Hinge font). "Time Machines" is the font Hinge Computer in italic.

Another example of a Mike Hinge font in practice is a cover mock-up for THRUST, which wasn't published., the source of the image he doesn't recall the website but it was possibly eBay.

Seeing the THRUST logo jogged Alex's memory. 

Alex writes, "Mike designed an alphabet based on the logo; digital watches were proliferating and that triggered a need for fonts in that style. I don't recall the name of the font but Mike sold it to PLINC; there must be a contract or agreement in Mike's files. Mike showed a few letters from the alphabet to me; the letters were drawn in outline. Mike said PLINC told him to draw the alphabet in outline; if solid letters were needed, they could easily be filled in. I don't know if this font was ever published in a PLINC catalogue".

Mike Hinge 129

Mike Hinge - Parsec City 2 (2of4). Pen & Ink, pencil, white paint on heavy water colour paper. Approximate size 45x30cm. Date unknown. Unsigned.

Mike Hinge & Alex Jay - Future Visions

Alex Jay has kindly sent in some scans of some Logos that he & Mike produced in  March 1990, for a new publishing company, Future Visions, which focused on science fiction. 

Alex told me that he and Mike worked independently on the project and says "We had to explore two solutions: a one-line version and a two-line version. It's a rather long logo on a single line; sometimes difficult to show large enough, say on the spine of book or game box or in a narrow advertisement".

"We made our presentation and the poor fellow couldn't decide on one. Later on we received a modest kill fee".

Choose your favourite I think you might agree that they are all pretty amazing.