Thursday, April 15, 2010

Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess

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There's a nifty little video over at Neil Gaiman's Journal (here) which is so nicely done that I can't resist posting it here, in case you haven't seen it already.  It's a trailer for Instructions, Neil's new children's book, which is forthcoming from HarperCollins in just twelve days.

Trailer is actually a pretty weak word for the thing.  The vid is a pencils-to-painting animation of the entire book with Neil's narration.  And since Neil reads extremely well and the paintings are all by Charles Vess . . .  Well.  That's all I have to say.

Except that I think it's going to sell a lot of copies, and not just to kids.

And that I wonder if it was Gaiman or Vess who decided to make the protagonist a cat.  Good call, whosoever's idea it was.





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4 comments:

  1. M.M.E.April 15, 2010 at 10:30 AM

    This is wonderful! I can't wait to read it. As an admirer of Gaiman's work and an illustrator myself, this book is one I will have to add to my collection.

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  2. JJMApril 15, 2010 at 12:27 PM

    You, Michael, are a book pusher. First Drawing Down the Moon: The Art of Charles Vess, still sitting on the sofa from last time I leafed through it. Then The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals, which had me laughing out loud last night. And now Instructions. Gaiman + Vess. [pause to kerplunk same into Amazon basket] Could it get any better?? Nuh-uh. Not bloody likely.

    Bad Michael, bad, bad! [grins]

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  3. Charles VessApril 16, 2010 at 7:19 AM

    Hey Michael, thanks for your kind comments on the book.Working with Neil (or any good writer) is always a interesting challenge for me. You never know what those lovely words will drag out of you.

    And since you were wondering: the idea of the sort of puss-in-boots protagonist was mine. It seemed more universal that way. Neil and I talk about that and more of the ins and outs of the book on a pod cast that's up at mousecircus.com. Here's the link:

    http://www.mousecircus.com/downloads/podcasts/ngaimancvesspod.mp3

    Best,
    Charles

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  4. Michael SwanwickApril 16, 2010 at 9:14 AM

    Yeah, you guys work well together. The cat protagonist is such a good idea. It universalizes the narrative in the same way that the original oral tradition was universal. Very crafty indeed.

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