Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army...

Back from Brazil -- a bit under the weather, with a blogpost from 4.00am still unfinished -- so here, to celebrate the release of Hellboy 2 (http://www.hellboymovie.com/), are a few photos from my trips to Budapest that never got posted...


Selma Blair asleep by a rock.



Selma awake and pretending to be a book cover.




Guillermo Del Toro, probably over a hasty Hungarian lunch.

And finally, me, in need of a haircut, hanging out with an elf-prince and an elf-princess (Luke Goss and Anna Walton)...




Now, go and see the film... (there's a ticket-buying widget on the Hellboy site, but when I tried it, it seemed convinced that I could only see the film between 1:30 am and 9:30 am. Which actually corresponds to my waking hours right now, but isn't much good for seeing films round here.)

Labels: book covers, budapest, hellboy

Snowmen Later

Outside it's a winter wonderland. Look:





I got some wonderful presents from my family. My favourite was a scrapbook that Maddy made of the year filled with photos of the family and brief Maddy-style essays and commentary on the photos. ("Well father, even though we look like a two-headed person in this picture, I would like to say that it's one good-looking two-headed person. Ha :) . Mike's graduation was a wondrous family outing!!") It melted me.

I am afraid that I have somehow forgotten who sent me the link to a beehive-extension-in-a-bell-jar at http://www.hemmy.net/2007/09/16/bees-makes-hive-in-a-jar/ but I am already planning on buying a jar, or similar strange glassy thing and finding out what the bees make of it.

Hi Neil,
Merry Christmas! I was wondering, in the spirit of the season and in honor of your swarms of yellow and black buzzing friends, if you would post a link to Something Awful's evil charity drive to flood the third world with bees VIA heifer.org. http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/bee-charity-drive.phpFor only $30 this holiday season you too can send 12,500 bees to terrorize unsuspecting civilians in places like Uganda and El Salvador, where the brave might try to make an alliance with the bees for their sweet, sweet nectar. By noon we've already given away a million bees to the needy and I figured you might be able to help get us to ten million.Thanks,
Laura

I can do my best. After all, you cannot have a land flowing with milk and honey without bees. And, um, lactating mammals.

(Coincidentally, I just got a wonderful Xmas gift from a friend of a Heifer.org bee donation in my name.)

...

There is a trailer for Hellboy: The Golden Army up at http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hellboy_2_the_golden_army/trailers.php
Hurrah.
(And this may mean that I can post a couple of photos from my time on the set that I've kept under wraps until now.)

...

I just discovered this site, forgive me if it's old news, but I was wondering if the idea for this originated with The Corinthian, or if you drew on a previously existing "nightmare image" when you created him.
http://www.freakingnews.com/Mouth-Eyes-Pictures--1741.asp

Good question. I think that the Corinthian was pretty definitely the first actual comics character to have mouths for eyes, although Steve Bissette (I think) drew a Swamp Thing Cover showing Swamp Thing with mouths for eyes a few years before Sandman. And I'm sure that you could go and find other occasions that people did the image over the years -- let me know what you turn up if you want to go looking. Mouths for Eyes has definitely become a lot more common since the Corinthian turned up, but that probably has a lot more to do with ease of photomanipulation than with the character creeping into the popular consciousness.

Honestly, I'm just glad to see how disturbing it is.

(Which reminds me. A chapter of Steve Bissette's from the Golden/Wagner/Bissette Companion, all about the NEIL GAIMAN'S MIDNIGHT DAYS collection, is up at http://srbissette.blogspot.com/2007/12/save-me-from-myself-i-am-going.html)

What are your thoughts about the US Library of Congress classifying all Scottish authors under the English literature heading? I can see smaller libraries trying to save space, but shouldn't such a large and respected library concern itself more with accuracy? I've included the link to the artice at the BBC below.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7157708.stm
Sincerely,
Christina

On the one hand, it's silly: Scotland is its own country, with its own traditions and its own literature, a literary tradition in English and Gaelic. On the other hand, it's less work for the Library of Congress. But then, they'd have even less work if they just filed them all under Books.

Re: winter butterflies This is actually not a question.Your entry with the picture of the butterfly last December 20 is actually not a butterfly but a moth. Moths when they rest have open wings, while butterflies sort of fold them vertically.

No, I'm afraid it was a butterfly... as to which one, the first person to identfy it was Heather, who said,

Dear Neil,
Intrigued by the butterflies, I did a bit of research. It looks to me like a male small tortoiseshell, which is evidently very common in Britain. It seems it likes to hibernate in houses and may wander out if the walls are warm enough. Lots of information here and some wonderful pictures of the chrysalis: http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species.php?vernacular_name=Small%20Tortoiseshell
Happy writing!
- Heather

...

Hi Neil,
I am the Animation Supervisor on Coraline. We met briefly when you visited the Coraline studio awhile back.
Anyway, the clip you posted is causing quite a (positive) stir on my website. Check out what they are saying here:http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=25&topic_id=4688&mesg_id=4688&listing_type=read_new
We are now employing about 25 animators with over 37 stages in operation. When/if you have time, you may want to pop in and see the sets. There are many more cool things to see at this stage of Production.Happy Holidays & thanks for hosting the clip on your website.
- Anthony

It's lovely seeing people begin to talk about it. It's over a year since I went out to Laika and saw them beginning to work on Coraline, and I've been really impressed with everything I've seen since then.
...

And waiting for me here when I got home, only a year or so late, were my own two copies of the Hill House limited edition of Anansi Boys. It is absolutely gorgeous. Possibly even worth the wait...

Labels: bees, butterfly of love, Coraline movie, Corinthian Eyes, hellboy, Is Scotland Really England Or Not?, steve bissette, two photos, Winter

the circus drums in the distance...

This coming Monday the interview media circus for Stardust begins, or it does for me anyway. So I went in to Minneapolis yesterday and got a haircut from Wendy at Hair Police, so I will look less like a man with a honey badger growing on his head in the photographs, then I nipped down to DreamHaven and signed stacks of books for them (some that people had ordered and some so they could sell them over at their www.Neilgaiman.net shop). The circus starts Monday and then, with a few outbreaks of Beowulf on the way, it barely stops until about August the 3rd. Argh.

Let's see... Actor Doug Jones talks about me and Miss Maddy visiting the Hellboy set over at his blog, and the day the three of us went to Margaret Island. His blog is just like him. http://dougjones.wordpress.com/2007/07/08/i-think-im-still-alive/

(Here's Maddy and Doug -- sans Abe or Faun or Silver Surfer makeup -- on the bridge the Sunday of fountains and Viggo Mortenson, with Margaret Island in the background. The next time we saw Doug he had shaved off most of his hair, because it's more comfortable, and cooler, to have your head encased in latex if you look like a marine recruit.)

Film Ick reviews the script to Hellboy 2 at http://www.filmick.co.uk/2007/07/all-hellboy-2-you-can-handle-for-one.html.
From the bits they quote, it's obviously an earlier draft of the script than what's being shot currently in Budapest, but you definitely get the flavour. I enjoyed the first Hellboy film, but didn't think it was a major Guillermo Del Toro work. I'm pretty sure, from all I've seen and from reading the script, that the second film will be one of those sequels that improves and deepens and is seriously better than the first film in the sequence, rather than being one of those films that gets knocked out quickly to try and get people to buy tickets for something not quite as good as the thing they liked the first time around. Guillermo sees it as an upbeat, comic-book-based companion piece to Pan's Labyrinth, anyway.

...

I keep meaning to write about, or at least link to, Heather McDougal's Cabinet of Wonders

http://cabinet-of-wonders.blogspot.com/

which is fast becoming one of my favourite stopping off points on the web. It's a blog of essays and pictures of things I either know a bit about and wish I knew more, or about things I know nothing about and really really needed to. Everything from Ossuaries to astrolabes, automata, orreries and shadow-puppets, and even short films of stop motion beetles, like this one.

Start back in March and come forward, or just poke around the coolness...

And not far behind it for sheer interesting stuff, if a little more narrowly focussed, is

http://paleo-future.blogspot.com/

yesterday's future, today.

The link stolen from Eddie Campbell's blog, 1947 comic artists drawing their most famous characters blindfolded... http://a-hole-in-the-head.blogspot.com/2007/07/eyes-wide-shut-in-1947-life-magazine.html

And finally, for when you need a complete trilogy of movies condensed into one tiny pill (like those retro-future "instant roast beef dinner" pills from Just Imagine):

http://xkcd.com/c254.html

Labels: cabinet of wonders, doug, hellboy, interviews, Maddy, yesterday's future today

My Cheesy Goodbye!

Hi!! Well it's my and dad's last night in Budapest!! This will be my last blog post for a while, but I think I will be doing some more guest blogging while we are at the San Diego Comic Convention, and/or for the Stardust Premiere. Today I had to say goodbye to all the friends that I made on the Hellboy set! I am not going to name them all because I might leave somebody out and then I would feel super de duper bad... but I do want to say "bye" to Gabi the script supervisor because she was so nice and gave me a pretty ring!! (And she reads this, so she better be smiling to herself right now.)

I had such a fun time blogging for the past two weeks, and I'm really, really glad that so many people enjoyed it! Dad did a book signing tonight and Doug and I went down to keep him company and tons of people said they loved the stuff I was doing. My father dearest also got a lot of e-mails from people we know as well as people we don't know, saying things like they really, really liked it, and that I was a great writer, and I should get my own blog! Well I'm glad you liked it, thanks for saying I'm a great writer, and no, I'm not going to get my own blog anytime soon so you should just keep reading this one and maybe I will pop up here and there. Keep a lookout for the Hellboy movie, and be sure to buy the DVD! Ok, I guess I should also thank everyone on the set that was helpful and were really kind! (Especially people whose middle or last names begin with "A", *wink wink,* you'll get it if I've talked to you about that...) Hungary is a great place and I hope I can come here lots in da future!



A picture of me saying goodbye! Sorry about the hand-writing... It's very sloppy because I had to write it backwards!

Thank you soooooo much for reading this everyone.

From,
Maddy Gaiman

Labels: budapest, bye, doug, gabi, hellboy, hungarian signing, Maddy

Addy-May's fun tales.

Greetings! Maddy here!

Today we went on location to film Hellboy 2 and it definitely was not as fun for me. The temperature was about 100° F and 38° C, meaning it was quite hot! I got a little tan on my arms though! Anyway, they were filming up on a hill and I wasn't allowed to go up there so I just had to sit down by myself and read my book, and occasionally people would tell me to move because I was in the camera shot. They are building a whole troll town in a quarry for the movie, and we got to go visit it today. The air felt really good down there because it was quite cold!! We had to wear hard-hats. Tee hee hee! Apparently where we were filming on location there were many ticks, and I was just wearing white flip-flops. Guillermo wanted me to wear socks so my feetsies wouldn't be exposed to the ticks. We went to costumes to see if they had any socks, and they did. Unfortunately it was a pair of men's long black socks. I think I might have looked a little funny walking around in pink shorts, black socks, and white flip-flops. Talk about embarrassing.

Dad would also like me to put this link up. It's a Stardust review. I am very excited about Stardust by the way! I am going to the premiere in Hollywood! Woot woot!!! A lot of people at my school have made up secret gestures for me to do if I happen to be on TV that will send secret messages to them. You're not allowed to know those secret gestures because they are secret. Did I mention that the secret gestures are secret?

Tomorrow is my sister's birthday so you should expect a post all about her her her! Go Holly.. go Holly ..it's your birthday...

Okay, well I want to get an early night tonight because I only got 4 hours of sleep last night! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?!? Well, you should. It's true.

--Addy-May (That's Pig Latin.)

Labels: Embarrassing socks, hellboy, Stardust

I'm not very good at this whole title thing.

Good evening everyone! This is marvelous Maddy here and as I promised today was much more exciting than yesterday meaning I have lots to report.

1. Guillermo del Toro can shout "action" very loudly and I do not recommend standing next to him as this event happens. I'm pretty sure that I might be deaf in my right ear.
2. I learned a lot about Hungary from what Julian, our driver, was telling dad on the way onto set this morning except for I wasn't exactly listening that much on account of the fact I was reading a book by Meg Cabot. Eventually I had to stop though because I have troubles reading in the car and I felt a little bit woozy (cool word).
3. Guillermo's daughters, Mariana, age, 11, and Marisol, age 6, (not sure if I spelled those names right) are quite awesome. I hung out with them most of the day today except for when they ditched me and then I had to follow my weird dad around. (Just kidding! In no way is he weird no not at all in a million years.....)
4. Selma Blair is really, really super nice and did anyone else realize that she was in Legally Blonde because I sure didn't. She also has a cool doggie named Wink.
5. As fun as Budapest is I miss my friends back home... not that any of them told me to mention that *cough* LEXI *cough*! P.S. now that I said Lexi's name I should probably mention Akansha and Anna Rose, too. I'm sure you three feel very special now. :)
6. There was a really cool storm-ish type thing while we were driving back to the hotel and that was the first time that I have actually seen the full on lightning bolt thing so close to me. It was pretty wonderful!
7. It is really weird/cool seeing Hellboy up close with all the make-up and everything!
8. I like how they bring you watermelon, red currants, and raspberries when you are just sitting there on set and getting a little bit hungry. (Hungry in Hungary HAHAHA GET IT?!)
9. I am running out of exciting things to tell you. Plus it is 11:40 and I am getting a bit tired and I think dad wants the Internet plug. :)

Hope you enjoyed it. I shall be back tomorrow!!! Have a brilliant day.

Labels: budapest, hellboy, lightning storms, Maddy, the longest day