The Astro Cafe is the preferred late night diner of the retro future. If you wander on in at three in the morning you just never know who you'll run into there, or how they'll feel about your running into them; but mainly the Astro has a relaxed atmosphere and a tempting menu for both people and mechanical people.

Mabel, the robot waitress, has been there for as long as anyone can remember and she's pretty hard to impress. Mostly, folks don't even try. But she serves a good strong cup of coffee - which is important - and she's not outright abusive. Mostly.

There's something sort of comforting about knowing that she's there, wherever you are, yourself.

The Astro cafe scene is one I worked on for quite a while back in 2004 (in the days of the Day Job, when hours were few) and to my surprise it's only taken me a week to finish it up and get it ready for prime time, as it were. As usual, this is all 3DS Max and Photoshop. I'm thinking about two more pictures of the diner in the near future.

Oddly (or not) I once lived just around the corner from a coffee shop called Astro in LA's Silverlake neighborhood; and there was a hostess there who was not unlike Mabel, in some ways. But although I did once see a rocket go by, I never saw anyone wearing goggles in there.
 

These prints are made to order by deviantPrints, using an archival quality photographic process on Fujifilm Crystal Archive paper. They're rated to last over 100 years without fading - though no prints should be left where they'll be baked by direct sunlight. The color fidelity, clarity and paper weight of these prints is far superior to the poster-quality reproductions I also sell here. They're pretty much the bee's knees.

You can order a print in either glossy or matte finish. This is mainly a matter of personal taste, but I do think that the glossy prints give you a sharper representation of the original digital image.

When you add one of these archival prints to your prints shopping cart it will pop up in a new window. You can keep browsing through these pages and add new items as you go. The shopping cart window will update as you add more items. When you're ready to check out, do so in the cart window and you'll be taken through the ordering process.

These archival quality prints are supplied by a different vendor than my other merchandise, and use a separate shopping cart. You cannot place a single order for both archival prints and, for example, coffee mugs.

Archival prints will ship separately from other items.