Interview with Geoffrey Mandel (1978)
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Interview with Geoffrey Mandel (1978) |
| Interviewer: | Dean Calin |
| Interviewee: | Geoffrey Mandel |
| Date(s): | October 1978 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom(s): | Star Trek: TOS |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Interview with Geoffrey Mandel (1978) was printed in Fleet #26.
Geoffrey Mandel was a fan who'd turned pro by creating Star Trek blueprints for various official Trek tie-in books such as Starlog and The Star Trek Poster Book, as well as blueprints for other professional science fiction tie-ins.
Excerpts
FLEET: When did you become interested in Star Trek?
Mandel: I first became interested in Star Trek fandom when I picked up a copy of Blish's Star Trek Four in a supermarket (I had been watch ing ST since it first came on in 1966, but I had no idea that an organized fan movement existed until the early 70's). That led to a copy of The Making of Star Trek, and eventually to David Gerrold's DAGE COMPANY, which provided an information leaflet on how to contact ST clubs, send for the Welcommittee's directory, and so on.
I was at the second NY con in 1973, and that really put me in touch with fandom, and with the revival campaign. (A ST movie was suggested as early as 1972, but it didn't receive any serious attention until '75, when Paramount first announced their intentions to film a motion picture.)
FLEET: What is UNISTAR?
UNISTAR is the United Nations International Star Trek Association for Revival, a bona fide chapter of the now-defunct S.T.A.R. Central in Dearborn, Michigan. For those who don't remember, S.T.A.R. used to be the ST fan club, and I still consider their newszine. Star Borne, as one of the all-time best. UNISTAR was started at the
United Nations International School here in NYC (hence the name), and at the moment it exists for the sole purpose of publishing a newsletter which makes use of artwork and articles submitted by members.
FLEET: l-fhen did you start printing the STARFLEET HANDBOOK?
Mandel: I started printing the STAR FLEET HANDBOOK in 1974, and the first five or six issues were basically crap. I went from Xerox to photo-offset with Volume Six, and Volume Seven was the first of the "real" HANDBOOKS (it has since been reprinted as part of the ALIENS OF STAR TREK issue). I hope to have a trade paper back tentatively titled THE STAR FLEET OFFICER'S HANDBOOK in print by December, and it should be some thing really spectacular. I've got contributions from up and coming TREK artists that will out-teck the Technical Manual, as well as "soft3r" stuff like production sketches (as conceived by Doug Drexler) for the new Enterprise.
FLEET: How did you become involved with Starlog and the Star Trek Poster Book?
Mandel; My involvement with the Star Trek Poster Book goes back about two years. I was selling HANDBOOKS to the Federation Trading Post here in NY, and Ron Barlow, then owner of the Trading Post, asked me to do an article. That was followed by seven others on a variety of subjects. Through issue 14, the Poster Book was probably one of the best Trek publications around, largely through the efforts of editors Ron Barlow and Doug Drexler, and talented writers like Allan Asherman. Since then, however, it fell into less competent hands, and stop publication (I believe) at issue 16.
I contacted the editor of Starlog about a year and a half ago about doing the Eagle blueprint, and at about the same time they brought in Dave Hirsh as production assistant (he is an avid 1999 fan,
and has since gone on to write numerous articles for Starlog as well as edit the MOONBASE ALPHA TECHNICAL notebook).
FLEET: Your drawings and writings have a definite technical air. Why is this?
Mandel: I should hope my drawings have a technical air, as they are technical drawings. I don't have any drafting experience other than what you've seen, but I have a lot of patience. Actually, I was doing technical stuff based on Matt Jefferies' drawings in The Making of Star Trek long before Franz Joseph's blueprints and Tech Manual, but I owe a great deal in the way of inspiration to Joseph. I try, however, to bring a distinct flavor to every new drawing I do, as in the SPACE; 1999 material.