WOW!! I just found some old drawings from the DS9 days, and here are some from one of my favorite episodes, “Far Beyond the Stars.”
The premise of the episode is that Sisco is taken back in time where he is a black writer in a 1950′s publishing house, all the characters from the show, whether they are aliens are something else, are seen here in total human form, HAAA! As the story goes, all the writers are awaiting there assignments, and the way it works is the editor walks in with a pack of drawings and he proceeds to dump them out across the table…the illustrations are of science fiction wonders, spacecraft, UFO’s, Alien abductions etc. From here, each writer grabs a drawing and then writes a story based on that single image. Sisco gets a drawing of a very stylized space station which is a 50′s version of the DS9 station. What you’re about to see today are some of the drawings that were in that pouch. Mike Okuda made my fav into a magazine cover and the rest are just plane fun. HEY!! this must be where my fondness for pin ups started!!!
HAAAA!
Enjoy
here is version #! the producers thought it was a little rough so the aliens were dropped for space men,, the title of this one was jacks make for great rocket parts
and here is the revamp
ahhh a take on the deadly mantis!!! note the front surface of the mantis's claws are the top view of the Enterprise E Nacelles
mars is on fire!!!
aaaaah Earth women are fascinating!!!
and Mikes mag cover
many years later I tried to do what my friend Mike here does and make my own cover all in the computer!!!! thanks for all the training and tips MIKE!!!
I love this kind of stuff. Mainly because I know the artists on the show got more to play with and to jump out of their Trekverse comfort zone and have a bit of fun.
Plus the episode was brilliant. I met Casey Biggs last year and he mentioned three times he wished he was in it, so I’m assuming everyone had fun!
Wow. Great stuff. And it’s spot-on the style of the 50′s.
This was a great episode.
Some of the stuff you posted I have seen befroe but new ones I have not seen. Very Cool stuff.
Any chance we could see what the other guys came up for this ep?
A well crafted episode. The set dressing (artwork, 50′s vintage paraphernalia, etc) was inspired. And the title’s tie-in to TOS was, I think, brilliant.
If I could buy an Eaves original and frame it and proudly show it to guests in my home, I think it would be the mantis reaching for the babe. That’s just the best.
I love how you’ve dated these drawings Aug 1953. Adds just the right amount of realism to the whole thing.
Great stuff, bud! Your talent with the pencil never ceases to amaze me!
As a pro (in the past anywho), allow me to offer a small graphic design tip (actually a rule) in regard to your mag cover treatments: #1 rule in graphic design (classic anywho) is: it has to read.
You type is getting lost in(to) the artwork. See how Mike used a flat-tint border background to allow the type to read? That’s a good way of doing it.
If you wanted to used the art to full bleed, you have to change the color of it to provide the greatest amount of contrast for the eye to be able to read it. There are also certain stroke and fill color combos for type that the human eye has a hard time reading that you have to remain aware of, so you just can’t pick colors willy-nilly. Can’t recall them all off hand, yellow and white for one. A Google search would reveal that info I’m sure.
As it is now, you are relying on the red or orange stroke to read. Not good, esp. since you are using a black fill for your type on an already dark background.
Basically, you have to use high-contrast color combinations that work well as complementary color with the color in your artwork, if it is full-color. Sometimes,white is the best bet. If you are married to using black or dark type, often you will see the art, or areas of it, ghosted back to provide more contrast. I never cared for that treatment though, esp. if it was done as area ghosts just behind type. That always looks cheesy and unpolished, IMO.
Better to just work properly with the type to get it to read.
Hope these tips help!
peace & bananas | deg
The aliens in the first kind of look like the Balok mannequin from The Corbomite Maneuver
Hye John-
Did you do this one or was it Duggie?
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/en/images/f/f4/%27Far_Beyond_the_Stars%27_sketch.jpg
I had very little to do on this episode, so I spent the time practicing with a 3-d program, adapting the drawing, which Mike sent to Pocket Books as an idea for the novelization cover. And thy went for it.
http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/star-trek-books/717-5.jpg
Howdy Jim,, I did that one off of your sketch,,, or model,,, I don’t remember
Love that stuff. The pulp look never seems to go out of style. Amazing work – simply amazing. The office detail in that episode, in part, really helped sell it. One of the better episodes.
I like the first one with the crazy looking aliens.
Though, of course, I especially love the final that Mike made into the cover. It reminds me a lot of one of the best Sci-Fi movies ever, Forbidden Planet. It’s also a bit reminiscent of The Day the Earth Stood Still, another great one. 
I also like your version of the cover.
These are really fun…brings back memories of EC comics and Wally Wood art.
I also liehow you dated them from the 1950′s.
Now, why is it that monsters and robots from space always come down here and take our Earth women?
Beautiful stuff – they really harken back to a time when science fiction was “fun”. Looking forward to seeing the rest of what you found! Thanks for sharing these with us.
Bests,
Richard
This was one of my favorite episodes of DS9, and seeing these drawings in such great detail is a real treat. Your love of pin-up art is evident in the ones featuring the always scantily-dressed female abductees.
And a special shout out to deg: I am now fully convinced that there’s nothing you don’t know. I had the same kind of grapic design training back in the day, but some of the rules have slipped out of my brain in the many years since. So then, Great Sage, you must tell me, tell all of us: what is the sound of one hand clapping?
What a great episode. I remember the part where the drawings were being handed out. Classic Sci-Fi at its best! You really captured the look and feel of the old magazine covers. Wish we still had a modern version of these magazines today. Sure, we have fantastic CG and movies to tell stories, but there’s just something about seeing a picture on the front cover of a magazine and then letting your imagination run wild while you read the stories inside.
I can see the Balok similarity somewhat, but the aliens in the 1st pic had me thinking thet they looked more like the aliens from 1957 film “Invasion of the Saucer Men.” http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PPrasBDo6WA/SsVM_d5ybOI/AAAAAAAAGRI/3m6IeiYAAn0/s1600-h/invasion_of_saucer_men.jpg
Off topic, but check this link out:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html
Hi John –
Thanks so much for posting these drawings. I’ve been a longtime lurker of your blog and “Far Beyond the Stars” is my all time favorite episode of DS9. Everyone in the art department just really knocked this one out of the park.
I was wondering if you could post a higher-resolution version of the space station sketch? I’ve only been able to find low rez versions on the Web and I’d love to have it as my desktop screen.
By the way, I also love your pinup photos. I just spent the last couple of years making a short animated film about B-24s in WWII, you can watch it online at:
http://www.articles-of-war.com
Hope all is well,
Dan Kanemoto