Delirium cosplay

Delirium cosplay - - lots and lots more in this gallery (some NSFW), and prints for sale here. Via.

*Previously: Delirium by Farel Dalrymple.

Art inspired by Neil Gaiman's American Gods

I invited a few artists to create artwork inspired by Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Some of the illustrations are literal depictions in the book, while others are only loosely inspired by the concept. All of the artists are very talented, so please explore their sites to see (and buy!) more of their work. And I highly recommend this site as a guide to the gods appearing in the book.


Michael Dialynas. On sale here.




Simon Wilches. On sale here.



Lissa Treiman.




Rory Phillips. On sale at the link.



Erica Henderson.



Derek Charm.



Joe D!.



Madeleine Flores.



Kyle Starks.




Dean Reeves.




Sean Hartter.




Chris Haley.



Louie Chin.



Janine Rewell.



Blair Sayer.



Ruby Chen.



Rebekie Bennington.



Dave Bednarski.




Mike Henderson.




Cormac McEvoy.



Jake Murray.



Maryanna Hoggatt.



Anna-Maria Jung.




Stefano Brandetti.



Paul Maybury.



Anthony Petrie.



Ashley Hay.

*Previously: Art inspired by the books of China Mieville.

*Buy the American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. The winners of the Neil Gaiman-inspired short story competition.



2. Weekly Standard reporter in Libya:

I helped call in my first NATO strike yesterday. We were being shelled.

Via.



3. Apparently Ron Artest is going to be on Dancing With the Stars.

Link roundup

1. Win a Kindle (if you're 6 to 14):

Can you write a thrilling, gripping story in just 247 words? We've teamed up with top author Neil Gaiman to set the writing challenge of the summer!



Take the title 'The Guardian', and let your imagination run wild. Tell your story in 247 words exactly, send it to us and the best story will win a Kindle pre-loaded with Neil Gaiman's amazing books published by Bloomsbury (including The Graveyard Book and Coraline). Five runners-up will each received a signed copy of The Graveyard Book.

Details and Neil's story here.



2. Google bought Motorola.



3. "Two construction workers were stuck in an elevator that was filling with water, Captain Melvin explained, with a hint of amazement in his voice. By the time firefighters arrived, the water level had risen as high as the two trapped men’s necks."

Link roundup

1. You can read Neil Gaiman's excellent short story, The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains.

2. Halekulani Coconut Cake recipe. (My second favorite hotel on Oahu.)

3. Laker Andrew Bynum was photographed parking across two disabled parking spots in a largely empty lot.

Neil Gaiman's non-offensive panda

I mentioned last month that Neil Gaiman was obsessed with creating a picture book that wouldn't offend censors in China, and had settled on a book about a sneezing panda. Adam Rex is apparently the illustrator and posted a sketch of the panda. Adam has various goods on sale at Zazzle.

Link roundup

1. Smuggling in Mongolia.

2. Once upon a time Bo Derek was attached to play Dazzler in a movie.

3. Cool interface for this telling of Neil Gaiman's The Day the Saucers Came.

Link roundup

1. From an interesting interview with Neil Gaiman:

The last time I was in China, I was very puzzled because none of my children’s picture books are in print in Mainland China. They’re in print in Hong Kong and in Taiwan, in complex Chinese characters, but they are not in print in Mainland China. I asked my producer, “Why aren’t any of my children’s picture books in print in Mainland China?,” and they said, “It’s because of their disrespect for authority.” I said, “Really?!” And they said, “Yeah, look at them. The Wolves in the Walls is about this little girl who tells her parents that there are wolves in the walls, but they do not believe her. There really are wolves in the walls, and thus her parents are proved wrong. And, in The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish, these kids swap their dad. If that happened, society would crumble.”


So, suddenly, it became a goal of mine that was almost a little obsession to write a children’s picture book that would be published in Mainland China, that they could not help but publish, but still could have all of the things that are in my children’s picture books, and I did it. I wrote this book and it’s being painted right now by this wonderful artist, and it’s called Chu’s Day, and it is about a baby panda who sneezes. There is no way that anyone can resist a baby panda who sneezes. This is the single cutest book I’ve ever written. It is written for two-year-olds and is designed in such a way that I’ve tried it on kids and it actually works that when you get to the end, they just look at you and they say, “Read it again!” The only words on page one are, “When Chu sneezed, bad things happened.”

2. Shark.

3. IMDB on The Shining:

Because Danny Lloyd was so young and since it was his first acting job, Stanley Kubrick was highly protective of the child. During the shooting of the movie, Lloyd was under the impression that the film he was making was a drama, not a horror movie. He only realized the truth seven years later, when, aged 13, he was shown a heavily edited version of the film. He didn't see the uncut version of the film until he was 17 - eleven years after he'd made it.

Via.

Link roundup

1. io9 interviewed Neil Gaiman about American Gods (only interesting if you've read the book, or are currently rereading it, like me). He's going to be interviewed in about one hour and it's going to be livestreamed.

2. New, cheaper than normal Navy ships have serious design flaw.

3. More negative comments on the new resin "Finecast" miniatures from Games Workshop. Via.

*Learn how to paint miniatures with these tutorials at Toycutter.

Poster for Neil Gaiman's upcoming American Gods tour

The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck is the official provider of ice cream for Neil Gaiman's upcoming American Gods tour. Molly Crabapple created a poster for the occasion that's on sale at Etsy. The tenth anniversary edition of the book is 38% off at Amazon (and comes out on Tuesday).

Link roundup

1. The LA Weekly's list of the best LA-related websites.

2. Space Paranoids arcade machine paper toy.

3. I'm rereading American Gods for the first time since it came out. I'm really enjoying it and can't imagine what I didn't like the first time. But anyway, this caught my attention:

"I read some book about brains," she said. "My roommate had it and she kept waving it around. It was like, how five thousand years ago the lobes of the brain fused and before that people thought when the right lobe of the brain said anything it was the voice of some god telling them what to do."

American Gods

American Gods by Nicholas Delort, who has various illustrations on sale here. (Probably the Gaiman book I liked least. I think I've forgotten enough to give it another try.)

Neil Gaiman vs. Matt Dean, the comic

Just the first two panels in this comic about Neil Gaiman and Minnesota House majority leader Matt Dean. Via.

Link roundup

1. FYI, you have to pay $150 to $495 to be nominated for a Webby award.

2. If you missed it, Minnesota House Majority Leader Matt Dean said he "hated" Neil Gaiman and called him a "pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota." Neil Gaiman responds here. His response includes a link to Dean's contact page and encourages you to share your thoughts with Mr. Dean.

3. Here's an explanation for why eating asparagus makes your urine smell. Via.

Link roundup

1. Tor posted a Neil Gaiman short story.

2. Custom Barbie wearing Lady Gaga's meat dress.

3. Mel Gibson is the new Mr. Cool Disguise.

*Buy disguises at Amazon.

Legal rulings can be fun

From Judge Barbara Crabb's finding that Todd McFarlane stole Neil Gaiman's character:

The two characters are similar enough to suggest that either Dark Ages (McFarlane) Spawn is derivative of Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn or it is the same character to which plaintiff owns the copyright.

Much as defendant tries to distinguish the two knight Hellspawn, he never explains why, of all the universe of possible Hellspawn incarnations, he introduced two knights from the same century. Not only does this break the Hellspawn “rule” that Malebolgia never returns a Hellspawns to Earth more than once every 400 years (or possibly every 100 years, as suggested in Spawn, No. 9, exh. #1, at 4), it suggests that what defendant really wanted to do was exploit the possibilities of the knight introduced in issue no. 9. (This possibility is supported by the odd timing of defendant’s letter to plaintiff on February 14, 1999, just before publication of the first issue of Spawn The Dark Ages, to the effect that defendant was rescinding their previous agreements and retaining all rights to Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn.)

If defendant really wanted to differentiate the new Hellspawn, why not make him a Portuguese explorer in the 16th century; an officer of the Royal Navy in the 18th century, an idealistic recruit of Simon Bolivar in the 19th century, a companion of Odysseus on his voyages, a Roman gladiator, a younger brother of Emperor Nakamikado in the early 18th century, a Spanish conquistador, an aristocrat in the Qing dynasty, an American Indian warrior or a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I? It seems far more than coincidence that Dark Ages (McFarlane) Spawn is a knight from the same century as Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn.

Neil posted an tremendous photo of McFarlane here.

*Buy books by Neil Gaiman at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Judge orders defendant to wear diaper and mosquito net on his face after he spit on jury. Via.

2. Neil Gaiman cross-examined as to which comic book characters are "scantily clad."

3. Details on Tenacious Toy's exclusive version of Argonaut Resin's Tuttz figure.

*Buy Stories: All-New Tales chosen by Neil Gaiman at Amazon.

Head to the House on the Rock this Halloween

The announcement:

As announced in Neil's blog, The House on the Rock is planning a special celebration for fans of American Gods. On October 29th and 30th, join Neil Gaiman and other American Gods fans for literary panels, talks, presentations, a limited number of chances to ride the World's Largest Carousel, and a costume party focused on all things American Gods. Watch this space--The House on the Rock’s new official event blog--for updates.

Event packages are already on sale.

*American Gods is 32% off at Amazon.

Head to the House on the Rock this Halloween

The announcement:

As announced in Neil's blog, The House on the Rock is planning a special celebration for fans of American Gods. On October 29th and 30th, join Neil Gaiman and other American Gods fans for literary panels, talks, presentations, a limited number of chances to ride the World's Largest Carousel, and a costume party focused on all things American Gods. Watch this space--The House on the Rock’s new official event blog--for updates.

Event packages are already on sale.

*American Gods is 32% off at Amazon.

You can be Jewish and study karate (link roundup)

You can be Jewish and study karate via these sites.

And a few more links:

1. Relatedly, Neil Gaiman responds to an article asking Why There Is No Jewish Narnia.

2. Reporters hired by the Church of Scientology to investigate the St. Petersburg Times express disappointment with the way their report is being portrayed by the Church. Via.

3. I haven't forgotten to announce the winners of last months two giveaways, I've actually contacted all the winners, but I'm waiting to hear back from two people. If I haven't heard from them by 5:00 a.m. this Friday, I'll pick two substitute winners.

*Previously: Advertisement for Chuck Norris' Action Jeans.

*Buy karate patches at eBay.