Professor James Moriarty is a mathematician and criminal mastermind, who appears in
The Final Problem, the story in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes.
Colonel Sebastian Moran is a colonial cad, who appears in
the Adventure of the Empty House, the story in which Holmes returned. Together the commit crime. Kim Newman talks about
Professor Moriarty: Hound of the D’Ubervilles, his novel in which they star as a reverse Holmes and Watson (
review here), and lists his
10 best villains in literature. Previous team ups of the diabolical duo include the movie
Silver Blaze / Murder at the Baskervilles (youtube), which features
Ian Fleming as Dr. Watson, (not THE
Ian Fleming), and Neil Gaiman's
A study in Emerald (pdf) (
Previously), as well as a brief appearance together in
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
posted by Artw
on Nov 4, 2011 -
46 comments
"
This Halloween, give somebody a scary book, to read. That's it. That's the idea. It's going to be a tradition." It's
an idea Neil Gaiman came up a year ago. It's called
All Hallow's Read, with a website and everything, which has
book recommendations of all sorts, plus
stickers, bookmarks, cards, and a small story you can print off, as well as
a poster contest for next year's event.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Oct 31, 2011 -
22 comments
Stephen Strange was an arrogant doctor, until a car accident damaged his hands, leading him try every cure possible. Eventually he made his way to the East, where the story progressed, and now he's
Doctor Strange, master of magic! His thrilling tale is
set to be the first Marvel superhero movie since
Marvel was purchased by Disney. But there has been much history behind the latest movie, including a period when
Guillermo del Toro was involved and wanted to include Neil Gaiman,
a draft script by Alex Cox (1990, 5.1 mb PDF;
review), and
a draft script by Bob Gale (January 21, 1986, 3.5 mb PDF;
review). Along with these incomplete attempts, there was
the 1978 Dr. Strange TV movie, which you can watch online (
full movie with Portuguese subtitles, or
YT playlist). If you'd like another take, head to 1992 for the direct-to-video movie
Doctor Mordrid. Depending on who you ask,
it's a more or
less entertaining/accurate take (warning: spoilers) on Dr Strange. Modrid is
also online.
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 9, 2011 -
34 comments
Cory Doctorow's new science fiction story collection,
With A Little Help, is available in text and
audio. The stories range from an order of datamining monks to Google gone terrible wrong, and the readers include Neil Gaiman, Mur Lafferty, Mary Robinette Kowal and Wil Wheaton. The introduction is written by Jonathan Coulton.
posted by NoraReed
on Apr 3, 2011 -
97 comments
Perhaps I don’t have the allegiance to paper that I ought to because anybody who invests in The Absolute Sandman, all four volumes, is now carrying 40 pounds of paper and cardboard around with them. And they hurt and they complain, “Oh, I feel guilty.” And I look at it and go, you’re not getting anything that is quantitatively or qualitatively better than the experience you’d be getting on an iPad, where you can enlarge the pages, you can move it around, it’s following the eye, and you can flip the pages. -
Neil Gaiman on digital comics. Will this be the year of comics readng devices, as comiXology CEO
David Steinberger says? Comixology is certianly
leading the way, announcing tools for
independant comics creators that will allow them to publish their comics via the comixology store, complete with the "guided views" which are a core part of their viewing experience. One creator who is full embracing digital is
Alex De Campi, whose Napoleonic comic
Valentine is not only published across a range of devices (iOs, Epub, Android, Kindle) but also in
14 languages, something that would have been difficult-to-impossible otherwise.
Previous digital comics,
Comixology suggestions
posted by Artw
on Oct 17, 2010 -
47 comments
One day ago,
Neil Gaiman wrote the beginning of a story, which was
retweeted by BBC Audiobooks America as the
first of a thousand or so tweets that would compiled and edited to become an audiobook. People are
still contributing, and
BBCAA's blog has four scenes compiled (
1,
2,
3,
summary of scenes 1-3, and
4), for a total of 175 tweets. When 1,000 or so tweets are logged, they'll be edited into a script, and produced in a studio to make the final audiobook, which will be released for free on BBCAA's website. This isn't the first game of
exquisite corpse played via twitter that made a piece to be refined and presented in some way.
The first Twitter opera was
one of a few recent "gimmicks" to garner attention for the
Royal Opera House (
twitter opera feed,
ROH twitter feed,
ROH blog). The result, Twitterdammerung, was
given a decent review by opera critic
Igor Toronyi-Lalic.
posted by filthy light thief
on Oct 14, 2009 -
32 comments
It’s only natural that if you wish to present yourself as a well-read person, a certain degree of complete bullshit is required. There’s no shame in lying about what you’ve read. There’s only shame in getting caught. Then you look like a doofus, and an illiterate one at that... How to lie about books.
posted by Artw
on May 28, 2009 -
73 comments
The makers of the soon to be released movie
Coraline put together 50 unique boxes that were mailed to 50 different bloggers. Each box contained items that were used in the making of the movie along with letters and photographs.
[more inside]
posted by Sailormom
on Dec 22, 2008 -
36 comments
Neil Gaiman's latest work,
The Graveyard Book, is a kind of undead Jungle Book, with a man-child being raised by various ghosts and ghouls rather than animals. He's been the whole thing a chapter at a time on each stop of his American promotional
tour, and posting the
videos online (and
blogging about it of course), which means that with tonights reading the entire thing will be available online.
posted by Artw
on Oct 8, 2008 -
38 comments
The novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman is being offered for free in its entirety at the Harper Collins website (only viewable using HarperCollins' BrowseInside system). It was put up in celebration of the seventh birthday of
Neil Gaiman's blog. Which is appropriate since Neil Gaiman
started his blog to chronicle the process of turning the text of American Gods into a physical book.
[via the man himself, natch]
posted by Kattullus
on Feb 29, 2008 -
25 comments
Gunnerkrigg Court is a lovely and strange webcomic by
Tom Siddell. While its scenario bears a passing resemblance to Harry Potter (magic school, main character with a strange destiny, etc.), there's something quite different going on here.
Chapter One, for instance, deals with how to get an anthropomorphic shadow back to its forest home, using only a box of discarded robot parts and a young girl's initiative. And that's just the beginning. Need a more trustworthy endorsement than mine?
Neil Gaiman likes it.
posted by Lentrohamsanin
on Oct 12, 2007 -
19 comments
Co-creator of Spider-Man,
Steve Ditko is famous for
weird,
distinctive art,
his 1966 departure from Marvel Comics, and granting
very few interviews in the course of his
decades-
spanning career, preferring to let
creations such as
The Creeper, the
Objectivism-
inspired Mr. A, and
Squirrel Girl speak for him.
Okay, Squirrel Girl not so much.
Jonathan Ross turns the spotlight on the artist in the
BBC4 documentary,
In Search of Steve Ditko. Did they find him?
Well, that's
The Question, isn't it?
posted by Alvy Ampersand
on Sep 23, 2007 -
26 comments
Weird Tales: The Strange Life of HP Lovecraft is a 45-minute BBC radio documentary: "Geoff Ward examines the strange life and terrifying world of the man hailed as America's greatest horror writer since Poe. During his life, Lovecraft's work was confined to lurid pulp magazines and he died in penury in 1937. Today, however, his writings are considered modern classics and published in prestigious editions. How did such a weird, wild and ungodly writer get canonised? Among the writers considering his legacy are Neil Gaiman, ST Joshi, Kelly Link, Peter Straub and China Mieville." ST Joshi, a biographer of Lovecraft, has an
essay up on The Scriptorium. Wikisource has an extensive
collection of his writings, including not only his most famous novels and short stories, but also essays, letters, poetry and legal documents. He is buried in the city of his birth, Providence, Rhode Island, where
he does eternal lie, even though someone made an unsuccessful attempt to exhume him in 1997.
posted by Kattullus
on Jun 11, 2007 -
43 comments
In
Neil Gaiman's "
American
Gods", the central character spends quite a bit of time in a fictional
small town called Lakewood, WI.
Lakewood closely resembles
Gaiman's
hometown of
Menomonie,
WI. It's all there:
The
Buck saloon,
the
manmade lake, even "
the klunker". When Shadow goes for a walk in the area, the
rivers, streams, and trails he uses are thinly disguised names for similar
attractions around
Menomonie. Is Lakewood Gaiman's love letter to his new home-town,
or just an author following the rule of "write what you know?"
posted by cosmicbandito
on Aug 17, 2005 -
74 comments
