Author meets world

Hullo world

I'm currently living in a house Amanda and I have rented in Cambridge MA. She wanted to be out here to be able to be here for her friend Anthony, who is going through some particularly gruelling cancer treatments. It's a large, strange house, all oak-panelling and odd-shaped rooms we didn't notice the first time we walked through it. I'm loving it, despite living out of boxes.

Amanda thinks, correctly, that it's too big, but is humouring me. (She's using the Cloud Club as an office home-base.)

The thing I'm missing most being out here is the dogs: Cabal is not doing well physically currently. He has Degenerative Canine Myelopathy and his back legs are liable to slip out from under him and he can no longer do stairs. When I got out here I realised that he wouldn't be able to manage this place and regretfully abandoned my plan to bring the dogs with me. He's got his world that he loves out there, and so I am going to go back to the Midwest and be with him whenever I can. (Lola, on the other hand, could come out here like a shot, but she's his company.)

Thanksgiving was spent at Amanda's mother and stepfather's, but over the Thanksgiving period all of my kids came in from all over the US.

I'm starting to get writing rhythms back, which is good.

I missed the shooting of my next Doctor Who episode, although I've seen a rough assembly already. Warwick Davies is really good in it, and I asked the impossible of Matt Smith and he pulled it off with aplomb. (Watching the rushes of Matt getting gloriously, apologetically, sweary at fluffed takes of some of the dialogue stuff I'd asked him to do made me grin like a mad thing.)

Right now, also due to being in the wrong country -- like this minute -- I'm missing this, which arrived a few hours ago:

That's left to right, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Harewood,  Natalie Dormer, Dirk Maggs, James McAvoy, David Schofield and Anthony Head, all gathered today to record the BBC Radio 4/Radio 4 Extra production of NEVERWHERE.

(It'll start on Radio 4 and then go over to Radio 4 extra.) The adaptation is by Dirk Maggs, who did the last three Hitchhiker's Guide Radio adaptations. He's co-directing it with producer Heather Larmour, who is the one who went off and made this happen after a small enthusiastic chat in a London coffee shop much earlier this year -- the kind of conversation that you have that normally just leaves you feeling happy, but doesn't actually turn into anything real. This time it did.

The cast includes...

James McAvoy                Richard

Natalie Dormer                 Door

David Harewood               Marquis

Sophie Okonedo               Hunter

Benedict Cumberbatch      Islington

Anthony Head                   Croup   

David Schofield                 Vandemar

Bernard Cribbins               Old Bailey

Romola Garai                    Jessica

Christopher Lee                Earl of Earl's Court

Andrew Sachs                    Tooley

George Harris                    Abbot   

Don Gilet                            Fulingous, Ruislip, Blackfriar

Abdul Salis                          Sable, Sump, Clarence, Homeless Man

Paul Chequer                     Gary, Guard 2    

Lucy Cohu                          Lamia

Yasmin Paige                     Anaesthesia, Tenant 2 – female, Match girl

Johnny Vegas                    Lord Ratspeaker

Stephen Marcus                Varney, Homeless man, Letting agent, Guard 1

Karen Archer                      Sylvia, Old Woman, Dream Hawker, Mother...

...and lots more (including an author, who recorded his bits last month). It will go out in six episodes.

Am I excited? I am. Very much so.

(Also, CHRISTOPHER LEE IS GOING TO BE SAYING LINES I WROTE. This makes me happier than I have any right to be.)

It will be broadcast somewhere in the first 4 months of 2013. And you will be able to listen to it wherever you are in the world, using the BBC's iPlayer.

I'm currently listening to Tor Dot Com's AMERICAN GODS MIX TAPE while I work on the HBO American Gods pilot episode. http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/11/the-complete-american-gods-mix-tape

Right. Back to work...

Labels: American Gods, Cabal and me, CHRISTOPHER LEE, Doctor Who, Neverwhere audio, this actually is my beautiful house, this is not my beautiful house

Buttons

Trust me on this: Go to http://www.bordersmedia.com/backlot/coraline.asp and watch the first film (it's Number 1 of 7.)

I'll try and get my hands on a higher quality version of it -- the one they've put up is amazingly low rez, and it was filmed in HD, so there's no excuse -- but I think you'll like it.

...

And I thought I had posted about this, but perhaps I only dreamed it: http://cartoonart.livejournal.com/20758.html tells of the biggest and the best CORALINE exhibition out there. Well, that I know of... It's at the San Francisco Cartoon art Museum, and it will run January 24 – February 15, 2009:

The Cartoon Art Museum proudly presents original works of art from the feature film CORALINE, produced by LAIKA, the Portland-based animation studio owned by Nike co-founder and Chairman Philip H. Knight, and released by Focus Features on February 6, 2009. The exhibition features drawings, storyboards, puppets, sets, costumes and more from this groundbreaking movie, the first ever stop-motion animated film to be shot in 3D. In stop-motion animation, everything seen on screen actually exists in the real world, as opposed to computer-generated animation. This exhibit includes almost 80 pieces from the extraordinary world of Coraline, created by a team of over 300 artists bringing to life the vision of the world’s foremost stop-motion animation director, Henry Selick.

Labels: buttons of love and vice versa, this is not my beautiful house

Batman & bits

A few weeks ago I showed the pencils of a Batman/Catwoman panel from the last Batman/last Detective story I wrote, which Andy Kubert is drawing, and nobody told me to take it down. Herewith some of Scott Williams' elegant inks for the same panel, and a word balloon to boot. (Click on it to see it crisp and clean.) The first part comes out relatively soon, and Andy is frantically pencilling the second even as I type this.

...

I just learned that there's a CORALINE exhibitionright now at Universal Studios in California. According to http://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/attraction_universal_experience.html

The miniature stop-motion animation set pieces and figures in this exhibit are shown courtesy of Henry Selick and the team of talented artists at Laika Entertainment.

If you're in the LA Area, you might want to check it out.

Of course, my secret dream is for, one day, a proper Universal Hallowe'en Horror Coraline House. (I suppose it's not secret any longer now.)
And I almost forgot:

http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20090121/behind-the-scenery is a wonderful article on, well, Coraline behind the scenes.

...

Is Neil Gaiman your cup of cup of novelty coffee? asks the Guardian, making the world wonder just why it's cup of cup of and not just cup of?

And I find myself wondering what a Neil Gaiman coffee ought to taste like, and what ought to be in it. Probably not peanut butter, anyway. If any of you have ideas, twitter them to me @neilhimself (edit to add, use a hashtag of #coffee) or send them in to the blog on the FAQ line if they are more than 140 characters. For that matter if any of you run coffee shops, especially the kind that are also bookshops and want to try out Neil Gaiman coffee on innocent coffee-drinking humans, let me know.

...

The short film we made of me (talking about an innocent article of clothing fastening) on Dec 17 will be released this evening, and I will link to it when it goes live.

Meanwhile, I'm starting to get tired of carrying an 80lb dog (36 kg, 5.7 stones, and if he was distilled water he would be a bushel*) up and down stairs. Which I only have to do for a couple of days. 

I don't recall if you addressed when you set off on your trip, but why DID you take a convalescing dog with you? Wouldn't he be "better off" resting up at home? Couldn't whomever was left at home (Lorraine, Maddie or anyone else at Chez Gaiman) taken care of him?

Actually, it was because of him I hit the road. He'd just had ACL surgery. It was minus 20F outside at home, and getting colder, and he had a shaved back leg with a freshly stitched incision on his back leg, and taking him outside to pee was starting to seem like an act of cruelty.

http://lorraineamalena.blogspot.com/2009/01/as-many-of-you-have-already-seem-to.html
tells the story of his visit to the vet, and his return at http://lorraineamalena.blogspot.com/2009/01/warning-wound-pictures.html.

* I know. Volume not weight. Please don't write in and tell me. It was a joke. It wasn't even a good joke. Do not waste the time you could be spending to make the world a better place telling me why my dog is not a bushel.

Labels: Coraline movie, Dog, In which it is discovered that I have been transformed into a cup of coffee, Killing Batman - it's like killing Amanda Palmer, Scott Williams, this is not my beautiful house

Koumpounophobics Unbuttoned

As I type this my house is filled with a film crew who keep making rooms into very similar rooms that are actually film sets, as chairs and rugs and tables and lamps move around, and corridors fill with cameras and crew and monitors and teleprompters and such. I've done an Alfred Hitchcock Presents style monologue about buttons, been interviewed about the origins of Coraline, and been filmed walking in the snow with the dog. The dog turns out to be an excellent actor. One more interview to go tonight...

Some of it is going to be on the Coraline website, and it will be used for other things too.

I saw Coraline last night with Henry Selick, and an invited audience of family, friends and acquaintances. I'd never seen anything from the last half hour, and I hadn't seen any more than clips in 3D before now. It was lovely, and, once it got going, really creepy. I have visions of terrified parents having their hands squeezed by solicitous children who will have to remind them that it's only a movie.

Also, I have now stopped being jealous of the people getting Coraline boxes, because Henry brought me a Coraline of my own. An original puppet, from the movie, in orange pajamas, with a cat in her satchel.

She's beautiful.

Labels: Coraline movie, this is not my beautiful house

Superman may never see his home, but we can save the home in which he was created.

It is my pleasure to announce in this Journal the big unveiling of The Siegel & Shuster Society, which Mr. G is supporting, and its attempt to save the house where Superman was created. You can see all the details at their charitable website www.OrdinaryPeopleChangeTheWorld.com.



Brad Meltzer writes:

As you'll see from the list of people involved, this isn't about DC or Marvel. This isn't about competition. It’s about the comic community as a whole, pulling together for a place that launched so many of our best dreams.

The first draft of Mr. G's Waterstones story card is currently up for auction on ebay to benefit the cause.



There are badges you can place on your blog or attach to your email signature to help spread the word as well:

FAQ

What's this all about again?
Today is the official launch of The Siegel & Shuster Society, with a celebrity charity auction that'll raise money to preserve the home of Jerry Siegel, creator of Superman. When you go to Brad Meltzer's charitable website www.OrdinaryPeopleChangeTheWorld.com, you can:

• bid online for original Superman and comic book art and items by top writers and artists


• buy a Siegel & Shuster Society t-shirt (designed by the legendary graphic designer Chip Kidd)


• or just donate to the good cause.

The best way to show it is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25R2kcJxQuc
All proceeds go to the restoration of the Siegel house.

Who's involved in the auction?
This is a coming together of an entire community. The full list includes: Stephen Colbert, Jim Lee, Brian Michael Bendis, Brad Meltzer, Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Joe Quesada, Neil Gaiman, Alex Ross, Dave Gibbons, Jeph Loeb, Murphy Anderson, Ed Brubaker, John Cassaday, Gene Ha, Greg Rucka, George Perez, Michael Turner, Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert, Judd Winick, Frank Cho, Eric Powell, Tim Sale, Walt Simonson, Joe Staton, Eric Wight, Dave Mandel, Mike Mignola, Rags Morales, Bill Morrison, Ivan Reis, John Romita Jr., Jason Palmer, Amanda Conner, Geoff Darrow, Ron Garney, Renato Guedes, Heroes, Dave Johnson, Chris Bachalo, Mike Bair, Allen Bellman, Dan Brereton, Ernie Chan, Travis Charest, and Ian Churchill, YOU, and even Jerry Siegel (see below).

How did this come about?
While researching his new novel, The Book of Lies, Brad Meltzer visited the boyhood home of Jerry Siegel in Cleveland, Ohio, where Superman was created. As Meltzer says, "The house where Google was founded is preserved. The garage where Hewlett Packard was founded is protected. But the house where Superman was born? I was in shock." After contacting dozens of comic book creators -- and thanks to the hard work of many in the city of Cleveland -- The Siegel & Shuster Society was created and is dedicated to commemorating and celebrating the creation of Superman in Cleveland by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. "I think sometimes people take things like this for granted because it started in cartoon form, but this is a house were modern mythology was created," Brain Michael Bendis adds. "Mythology that will never die away or disappear. There is no difference, to me, between this house and Mark Twain's house. We have to honor and exalt such creation."

What are the items in the auction?
You can win a walk-on part on Heroes, VIP seats to the Colbert Report, original Superman art (go see the art!), have your name in Bendis or Brubaker or Rucka's comic, or Meltzer's next novel. There's a rare original pre-Superman movie script from Geoff Johns, signed by Richard Donner. And Joanne Siegel told Meltzer that before Jerry Siegel died, he signed six Superman t-shirts that no one ever knew existed -- and then told her that if their family ever needed money, she should sell the shirts. Instead, she donated one of them to be auctioned off here. The signature is on a Superman: Quest For Peace(!) t-shirt. C'mon, baby, it's Jerry Siegel on a Quest for Peace shirt!

What can you do?
Forward the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25R2kcJxQuc). Go buy a Siegel & Shuster Society t-shirt. They're cool. They're designed by Chip Kidd. They can't be bought anywhere else. Bid on some of the auctions and spread the word by sharing the video, sigs, and www.OrdinaryPeopleChangeTheWorld.com auction with your facebook, myspace, and live-breathing friends.

How much is the Siegel And Shuster Foundation trying to raise?
Depends on how successful we are. Phase 1 involves working on the exterior of the house: securing the roof, making sure the paint isn't rotting, doing the concrete work. That will hopefully protect the place from the outside. Joe Shuster's house (a few blocks away) was in such disrepair, it was torn down. The first goal is to collect $50,000 to deal with the outside. If we do that, then we'll go and tackle the much-needed-repairs on the inside.

Who lives there now?
The house is located in one of the tougher neighborhoods of Cleveland and is currently occupied by a couple who have lived there for approximately 20 years, who have put up with all of us who have come visiting, but who don't have the money to do these repairs. Rather than kick anyone out on the street, the goal is to repair this place for them. Why? It's the right thing to do. In return, The Siegel & Shuster Society has the right to buy the house when it eventually goes up for sale.

Is there a long-term goal to make a museum?
The long-term goal is still being decided, and that's why you're invited to join The Siegel & Shuster Society and help us with those plans. Meetings are held monthly in Cleveland -- when you buy a shirt, they'll have your name. But one of the dreams is that one day, buses full of students will drive from all over Ohio, from Michigan, from any nearby state, and come to the fully-restored house -- covered and decorated with children's artwork inside -- and see where one of the world's greatest dreams was born. Go to www.OrdinaryPeopleChangeTheWorld.com to make it happen.

Labels: a deeper understanding of Mr. G's no comments policy, just out to find the better part of us, this is not my beautiful house