And writer Paul McAuley says it may be about to happen again:

Sf publishing has always been a chancy, hand-to-mouth affair for most. It imploded again in the early 1980s, and there are signs that it's about to implode again. And because they can't hope for sinecure positions in creative writing in universities (although that's changing, now), sf writers have always been ready to turn their hands and minds to the kind of writing that can be churned out quickly and profitably.... While Silverberg et al were working in the titillation trade in the US, over here in the UK Michael Moorcock was editing New Worlds with one hand and writing Sexton Blake adventures with the other, while many of his contemporaries were writing westerns, biker novels and, yes, sexploitation novels. A little later, Kim Newman and Neil Gaiman worked for the British soft porn magazine Knave. And sf writers today are also working in comics and graphic novels, novels based on role-playing games (Kim Newman and a slew of authors associated with Interzone in the 1990s wrote innovative and highly successful short stories novels for Games Workshop), film tie-ins . . .

The question is, if SF publishing does have another implosion, where will authors go this time? Porn publishing has been even harder hit by the Internet than other genres. Where will the suddenly starving SF authors turn this time around? [Paul McAuley]

Today at noon EST (that's 9am Pacific time), Gaiman will begin an exquisite corpse story on the BBC Audiobooks America Twitter account with a single tweet. Other Twitter users can then contribute to the story with their own tweets (all tweets must include @BBCAA and #bbcawdio, cutting into those precious 140 characters). Once the tale reaches 1000 tweets, the BBC editors will edit it into a (hopefully) coherent story. An audio version of the story will be made available in the iTunes store for free.

Collaborative storytelling via Twitter may sound like a recipe for a narrative mess, but it has been done with some success. Just last month, the Royal Opera House premiered Twitterämmerung, a 20-minute opera whose libretto was composed by 900 Twitter users.

Neil Gaiman and the BBC Will Let You Twitter a Story For Them [EW]

These delightful images are from the vastly talented Shannon Tindle's blog which is stuffed with gorgeous Coraline art that helped craft this 3D stop-motion work of beauty.

We're actually lucky enough to feature two chapters from the new edition of Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Neil Gaiman, pubilshed by Titan Books. The first chapter is from fairly early on in the book, and deals with the various stage adaptations of H2G2, including the absolutely disastrous Rainbow Theater run, in which a 3,000 seat venue failed to find a big enough hovercraft for the audience.

And then the second chapter we're featuring is from towards the end, and deals with the 2005 movie adaptation of Hitchhiker's, and the reasons why it was also not terribly successful. It's sort of a nice book-end.

Oh, and the new material in the 2009 edition of Don't Panic is written by author Guy Adams, who I believe is no relation to Douglas.

10 ALL THE GALAXY'S A STAGE

There have been three major productions of Hitchhiker's in the theatrical world. Two of these have been successful. The other was a disaster of epic proportions. It is somewhat unfortunate, in this case, that the disaster is the one that got noticed. The first production was put on at the ICA [Institute for Contemporary Arts] in London on 1st-9th May 1979, presented by Ken Campbell's Science Fiction Theatre Company of Liverpool. ‘Staged' might be the wrong word for this production. The actors performed on little ledges and platforms, while the audience, seated on a scaffolded auditorium that floated around the ICA on air skates, filled with compressed air, was pushed around the hall at the height of 1/2,000th of an inch by hardworking stage hands.

The ninety-minute-long show was a great success.

Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters were on sale in the bar, and, for the eighty people who fitted into Mike Hust's airborne seating system, it was a great evening. Unfortunately, every hour brought 150 phone calls for tickets, all doomed to failure as the 640 tickets for the show's run had been sold out long before it opened. (Apparently an organisation with the same initials as the ICA, the International Communications Association, got so fed up with misrouted calls for tickets that they wound up closing their switchboard for a week, and stopped Communicating.)

The reviews were unanimous in their praise. A typical review from The Guardian, having praised the costumes and hovercraft, stated, "Chris Langham is an utterly ordinary Arthur… and is thus a beautiful counterpart to the cunning Ford (Richard Hope), the two-headed schizophrenic Beeblebrox (Mitch Davies and Stephen Williams, as a space-age version of a pantomime horse with two heads, two legs, and three hands) and the pyrotechnics of Campbell's production." At the time it was announced that they were hoping to revive the show "as soon as they could find a hall large enough to accommodate a 500 seater hovercraft".

Image from Douglas Adams fan page

This was, it should be borne in mind, before the publication of the book or the release of the first record, when nobody knew how much of a cult success Hitchhiker's was or was going to be.

The next performance began life some 300 miles due west in the Theatr Clwyd, a Welsh theatre company. Director Jonathan Petherbridge had taken the scripts of the first radio series and transformed them into a play, performed around Wales from 15th January until 23rd February 1980.

Announced as the "First Staged Production of Douglas Adams's Original Radio Scripts" the company would either perform two episodes an evening, or, on certain long evenings, the entire three hours of script in ‘blockbuster' performances, during which "essential space rations" were handed out to the audience at half-hourly intervals. (Not only did the bar sell Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters, but the Coffee Lounge sold Algolian Zylbatburgers.) The Theatr Clwyd performance was so successful that they were offered the opportunity to take their production to London's prestigious Old Vic Theatre. Unfortunately, by this time Douglas had offered the stage rights to Ken Campbell, who had decided to stage another production at the Rainbow Theatre in London, a rock venue that seated three thousand people, in August.

Douglas Adams, displaying perfect hindsight, said, "I should have known better, but I had so many problems to contend with at that time I really wasn't thinking clearly. The thing at the Rainbow was a fiasco."
Douglas wrote additional material for the play (including the Dish of the Day sequence in Milliways, which subsequently found its way into the literary and televisual version of the show).

An article appeared in The Stage, the theatrical newspaper, about the Rainbow production, in July 1980:

A five-piece band backs the twenty-strong cast of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a musical* based on the radio series that opens at the Rainbow for an 8 week run on July 16th 1980. Production has a £300,000 budget, and the front of the Rainbow will be redesigned as an intergalactic spaceport. Tickets £5, £4 and £3.

[footnote]* No, it wasn't a musical, although there was a backing group.

The foyer of the theatre is being converted into the control deck of a spaceship, with banks of video screens, flying saucers hanging from the ceiling, and possibly a talking computer to advise passengers when the trip is going to begin. There will be usherettes dressed like aliens - ‘Probably coloured green,' says co-producer Richard Dunkley - and a ‘space bar' selling galactic-sized burgers and the now famous Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.

One of the diversions will be rock musician Rick Wakeman, soaring down from the roof on a flying saucer and dressed like the legendary Mekon, SF's most endearing little green man.

This week workmen installed a vast revolving stage while others completed a backdrop for the day the Earth gets demolished.

In California, the people who brought the Laserium to the London Planetarium were devising a spectacular new bag of tricks. Co-producer Philip Tinsley said, ‘This will be the first show since Rocky Horror to appeal directly to young people.'

As the publicity for the show gained momentum a twenty-five-foot inflatable whale was thrown off Tower Bridge into the Thames, and made almost no splash in terms of news. ("The police were very, very cross", said The Standard in the 3⁄4 of an inch they devoted to it.)

Then the show opened.

In retrospect this may have been a mistake. Such descriptions as "I cannot imagine a more tedious way to spend an evening" (Daily Mail), "clumsy without ever being cheerful" (Time Out), "embarrassing" (Observer), "never-ending and extremely boring" (Standard) melt into insignificance when placed beside the actual reviews, most of which dissected the show with fine and sharp scalpels and left nothing wholesome behind. A fairly average example of the put-downs was Michael Billington's in The Guardian, which stated that, "What happens on the Rainbow stage is certainly inchoate and barely comprehensible… Ken Campbell has directed this junk-opera and I can only say he gave us infinitely more fun in the days of his Roadshow when the highlight used to be a man stuffing a ferret down his trousers"*.

[footnote]* The man who stuffed the ferrets down his trousers was Sylvester McCoy, later the seventh televisual Doctor Who.

What went wrong? A number of things. The length, for one. The laser beams, sound effects and backing band for another. What was almost universally acknowledged as appalling acting for a third.

Douglas Adams explained it as, "The size of the Rainbow - a three thousand-seater theatre - and, because Hitchhiker's tends to be rather slow-moving and what is important is all the detail on the way… you put it in something that size and the first thing that goes out the window is all the detail. So you then fill it up with earthquake effects and lasers and things. That further swamps the detail and so everything was constantly being pushed in the wrong direction and all the poor actors were stuck on the stage trying desperately to get noticed by the audience across this vast distance. If you'd put the numbers we were getting into a West End theatre they would have been terrific audiences - 700 a night, or whatever. But 700 people isn't much when the producers are paying for three thousand seats. So the whole thing was a financial disaster."

Ken Campbell, a man almost impossible to get hold of, claimed the reason for the success of the ICA and failure of the Rainbow was simpler than that. "In the ICA we put everybody on a hovercraft. We just never found a hovercraft big enough for the Rainbow," he told me in the shortest interview I did for this book*.

Four weeks into the run the show was in financial difficulties.

On 20th August The Standard reported co-producer Dunkley as saying, "I think we should struggle on. The cast and crew agree with me, and a certain number of them agreed to wait for their money. We had a very negative press, and it wasn't known at the beginning how many Hitchhiker's fans there were." The next day, however, The Standard reported that, "Last night the big musical** version of the cult radio show did not go on and after playing at times to twenty percent capacity [ie. 600 people] its season has been ended three weeks prematurely. Richard Dunkley reported that everybody concerned had lost a lot of money, but it was impossible to say how much."

[footnotes]* That was it.
** It wasn't a musical, honestly.

It is easy to be wise after the event, but it would appear that the biggest mistake was that of trying to create a Cult Success. You don't gain a cult following for something big and bold and heavily hyped: a smaller, less flashy, less expensive production might well have succeeded where the galumphing Rainbow production failed.

As indeed, it has. Helping the fans and public to get over the Rainbow disaster was the Theatr Clwyd production. It surfaced again quietly a year later, and has been regularly and successfully staged by other theatre companies since. This adaptation, which, alone of all post '79 versions includes the Haggunenon sequence, and indeed actually has an inflatable Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, is uniformly popular with critics and public alike, and will, one hopes, still be revived and performed when the Rainbow fiasco has completely been forgotten.

FORD AND ZAPHOD: Zaglabor astragard!
Hootrimansion Bambriar!
Bangliatur Poosbladoooo!
ARTHUR: What the hell are you doing?
FORD: It's an ancient Betelgeuse death anthem. It means, after this, things can only get better.
THEY START TO SING AGAIN.
THE COMPUTER BANK EXPLODES.
END CREDITS.
- Alternative version.

(Image from 2003 San Francisco staging of H2G2, via Laughing Squid.)

At least twenty amateur stage productions are known to have been performed around the world over the years, variously adapted from the novel, the radio scripts or the Petherbridge script. Hitchhiker's has been presented on stage as far afield as Bermuda, Australia, Hawaii and Germany; it has been performed once as a one-man show and once as a musical*. There was also a stage production of Douglas's novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - retitled Dirk - in Oxford in 1995, which has enjoyed periodic revivals.

[footnote]* This actually was a musical, although the audience wished it wasn't.

34 POSTCARDS FROM DAVELAND

"It seems to me that we can either slip into the traditional stereotypes - you're the studio executive who has a million real-world problems to worry about, and I'm the writer who only cares about seeing his vision realized and hang the consequences - or we can recognize that we both share the same goal, which is to make the most successful movie we possibly can.

"You have a great deal of experience nursing major motion pictures into existence. I have a great deal of experience of nursing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy into existence in every medium other than motion pictures… Why don't we actually meet and have a chat?"
- Excerpt from a letter written by Douglas Adams to David Vogel at Walt Disney Pictures, as reprinted in The Salmon of Doubt.

On 28th April 2005 a rather startling thing happened. A big budget* movie of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy appeared in cinemas. Unfortunately, to quote that most remarkable of source material, "this has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

[footnote]* Well, relatively big budget anyway, the word ‘big' when relating to cinema budgets enters a whole new sense of scope which the human mind cannot truly encompass. Certainly it cost the sort of money that if found on one's doorstep one morning, say in several large skips guarded by men with machine guns, would force you to delicately lose your mind for a month or two, just while you decided what country to buy.

Douglas had spent many years trying to make such a thing happen. In fact, many years, many phone calls, many draft scripts, many contracts, many lawyers arguing about those contracts, many directors signed up, many directors signed off again, and much moving to LA then moving back to Islington because LA just wasn't very nice then moving back to LA again anyway because, well, you live in hope and at least the sun shines there…

It is forgivable to assume a project stranded so long in Development Hell (that peculiar creative graveyard where movie ideas go to have the spirit beaten out of them by film producers) will never see the light of day. Jay Roach, director of the first two Austin Powers movies as well as Meet the Parents and its ‘Focking' sequel, was attached to the project for many years, ultimately stepping down from the director's chair (due to other commitments) but retaining a role as producer. Roach passed Douglas's last script draft on to Spike Jonze, director of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Where the Wild Things Are. He declined the offer to shoot it, but suggested Hammer & Tongs, a British production company comprised of director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith, known for their innovative pop promo work. And there the film finally took root.

The script was passed to screenwriter Karey Kirkpatrick, writer of the stop-motion animation movies Chicken Run and James and the Giant Peach, to produce a final version to put in front of the cameras.

The casting seemed rock solid, with Stephen Fry as the Voice of the Book, Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, Sam Rockwell as Zaphod* and Zooey Deschanel as Trillian. The only slightly controversial choice - and it must be clear here that when we say ‘controversial' we mean ‘likely to get people who know a little about movie-making saying belligerent things online' - was actor turned rap artist turned actor again Mos Def as Ford Prefect.

[footnote]* Who claimed, somewhat jovially, in the DVD extras that the only reason he got the part was that they couldn't afford Jim Carrey.

Much was made in the movie's press releases about how closely the film was based on Douglas's own most recent draft, though caveats were given with regard to the film's divergence from established Hitchhiker's narrative (like we needed to be told. Since when has one form of Hitchhiker's shown the least concern for how similar it is to the last? We really don't care…). Robbie Stamp, Douglas's friend and CEO of The Digital Village, was an executive producer on the picture* and, in an interview on the Slashdot website, said, "All the substantive new ideas in the movie… are brand new Douglas ideas written especially for the movie by him… Douglas was always up for reinventing Hitchhiker's in each of its different incarnations and he knew that working harder on some character development and some of the key relationships was an integral part of turning Hitchhiker's into a movie."

[footnote]* As was Douglas himself, the film also being dedicated to him.

Which is no doubt true, but doesn't change the fact that the film doesn't really work.

One can level a number of criticisms at Douglas's writing. Yes, the comment about character development is valid, as would have been an accusation of flimsy plotting. But to mention these flaws is rather to miss the point of Douglas's writing. When he does it, it works. Douglas is one of those inspired creators who is impervious to such overarching technical issues - his genius lay in the detail. And it is precisely in the film's adherence to the broad, sweeping generalities of Douglas's work, rather than paying attention to what it was in the minutiae that made it so effective, that it fails.

In the same Slashdot interview, Robbie Stamp commented that, "I know how easy it is to see every decision to cut a scene as ‘studio' pressure, but it was always much more to do with pacing and rhythm in the film itelf." And here we see perhaps the most telling issue with converting Douglas's work to the big screen. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy never much concerned itself with the need to be fast-paced. The gems found in both the books and the radio series are often in the asides, the guide entries, the small moments of absurdity. The rhythm of Douglas's writing is that of a comedy writer hitting his punchlines; an obsessive ear for comic dialogue and the best way to sell his unconventional ideas.

It is this rhythm and pacing that the film loses, sticking instead to telling the story in a dynamic fashion. Jokes were cut, dialogue was trimmed and, arguably, this is where the spirit of Douglas's writing fell by the wayside.

Perhaps it is a sad fact that Hitchhiker's just doesn't work well in a visual medium. Certainly the BBC TV series was Douglas's least favourite incarnation of the work. Film places different demands on its source material and in doing so it played to Hitchhiker's weaknesses rather than its strengths.

The film performed adequately at the box office and was released later the same year on both a single disc DVD and a double disc gift set (which included a copy of the original novel). It is unlikely that we shall ever see a sequel.

Don't Panic © 1987, 1993, 2002, 2009 Neil Gaiman.

I'm not terribly optimistic that comic books will ever regain the kind of popular readership, particularly among young people, that the medium enjoyed in decades past, but Wednesday Comics seems like the sort of thing that has the best shot of reaching new readers. With so many different characters and creative teams to choose from, even the most skeptical readers will likely find at least a few stories that pique their interests, and the (mostly) continuity-free stories provide an ideal entry point for those just discovering the DC universe.

That said, Wednesday Comics is more than just a clever gimmick. DC has put together some great writers and artists for the stories, including Neil Gaiman and Michael Allred on "Metamorpho", Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones on "Green Lantern", and the current Power Girl team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner on "Supergirl". Throughout, there is a palpable sense that these stories are labors of love for the writers and artists; even the stories that don't work seem to be made with more care than some perfunctory fill-in book, and I'm more likely to revisit these stories to see if I missed something than some gratuitous, pointless event tie-in. (Countdown: Arena, I am, as always, looking at you.)

The best stories in this anthology are those that make the best of their unique format. Gaiman and Allred's "Metamorpho" makes great use of the 14" X 20" dimensions the broadsheet pages give them, crafting entire days as a single panel that its characters then wander through. Such a trick might be jarring on a smaller page, but it works brilliantly here. "Metamorpho" also features a support feature where three children answer what they claim to be reader questions about the Element Man. The fact that these children seem to come from a strange alternate universe where Metamorpho is absurdly popular only adds to the charm.

Similar structural trickery can be seen in "The Flash." Under the banner of "Flash Comics", we see multiple small comics in the various issues, including "The Flash", "Iris West", and "Gorilla Grodd". Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher have put together an entire world within a world here; there's a real sense that "Flash Comics" has run in the Sunday newspapers for years, largely unchanged since the 1960's, and this is simply the first time we've noticed. It's a fun device, particularly when much of its story relies on some of the wackiest comic book science this side of the Silver Age.

There are a bunch of other stories in Wednesday Comics that I would recommend without hesitation. John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo's "Superman" is both gorgeous to look at and manages to tell its story in the grandest, most iconic brushstrokes possible. It's a story that feels huge, even if the story only moves forward at a pace of three or four panels per week. My personal favorite, however, might just be "Supergirl", if only because there's something so gloriously, deliriously awesome about devoting most of the story to Kara chasing after her misbehaving pets. The fact that Streaky and Krypto are absolutely adorable probably helps, too.

Not every story is a triumph, though. Ben Caldwell's "Wonder Woman" is probably guilty of overreaching, trying to cram a cryptic, lyrical take on the Amazonian princess into such a small amount of space. The fact that each week features twenty to thirty panels on just one broadsheet page is probably the most obvious indication that he is trying to do too much in not enough space. I didn't really care for Paul Pope's take on "Strange Adventures", but part of the point of something like Wednesday Comics is to try out a wide variety of creative styles; I suppose it would be unlikely that I would be a fan of all of them.

Wednesday Comics is a breath of fresh air in an industry where superhero stories are increasingly stuck inside some fairly well-defined strictures. Its anthology approach and innovative format make sure that Wednesday Comics is quite unlike anything we've seen in quite some time, which should be more than enough to earn it a recommendation. The fact that the stories inside are actually quite good feels almost like a bonus.

Doctor Who

A poster on the Gallifrey Base forums claims to have a list, from an inside source, of which writers will be writing which episodes in season five. If he's to be believed, Steven Moffat will be writing the first, fourth, fifth, seventh, twelfth, and thirteenth episodes; Mark Gatiss the second episode, which features Daleks in WWII; Gareth Roberts the third; Richart Curtis number five; Torchwood's Chris Chibnall the eighth and ninth; Neil Gaiman the tenth; and Toby Whithouse will write the eleventh episode. And the list puts the story featuring Professor River Song in episodes four and five. Note: This is purely a rumor, and should be taken with many, many truckloads of salt. Neil Gaiman has never said he is writing for Doctor Who, and there's no actual evidence that he is doing so. [Gallifrey Base]

Returning to more evidence-backed claims, another poster has images of the set, but Matt Smith is still hiding his wardrobe. The pictures do include a glimpse of a new guest star, Annette Crosbie.

[Gallifrey Base]

Lost

Desmond will reportedly appear in the sixth season premiere. [Lost Spoilers]

Lost cast members confirm that a bomb went off at the end of last season and that means "all bets are off." As previously reported, we'll still be seeing ill-fated fertility expert Juliet Burke in the sixth season; Elizabeth Mitchell has already filmed some scenes and may be headed back to Hawaii for more. But Jorge Garcia says it's unlikely that we'll see Libby again. [TV Guide]

Stargate Universe

Things get tense aboard the Destiny in a clip from this week's series pilot:

Alaina Huffman says her character, medic Tamara Johansen, will gradually come into her own over the course of the episodes, though she is initially overwhelmed by the situation. [CinemaSpy]

CinemaSpy also spoke with Elyse Levasque, who plays Chloe Armstrong, the aide to her US senator father. She went to Harvard Law and did her best to fit in with the popular crowd. Where many others aboard the Destiny come in with training or a special skill set, Chloe is more completely out of her element than she has ever been, and it comes as quite a shock to her to be useless. Eventually, though, her political training will come in handy in dealing with situations on board. As the season goes on, she will delve more into Stargate history and become more of a go-to person. [CinemaSpy]

Fringe

The Observer has been spotted on set, although it's not clear what episode these pics are linked to:

[PianoDentist via Spoiler TV]

A behind-the-scenes promo for Thursday's episode takes us inside a railway station where a human being has just gone kablooey:

V

The UK promo for V shows a little bit more of the moments prior to first contact:

[VisitorSite.net]

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Michael Cera says that the Scott Pilgrim adaptation has more air cannons and lightbulbs in it than any movie he has ever seen. He also said that Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O'Malley gave each actor a list of 10 things only they were supposed to know about their character. [MTV]

Survival of the Dead

/Film has posted a review of George Romero's latest zombie flick, which focuses largely on the feud between two Irish families living in an isolated island community: one that believes undead family members should be kept alive until a cure can be found and another who wants to wipe out all zombies. We'll be seeing zombies that walk underwater (which doesn't bode so well for the whole "escape to an island" plan), and Romero has even more tweaks to his zombie rules. [/Film]

FlashForward

Joseph Fiennes takes us further inside the mind of Mark Benford:

Heroes

It's all politics and violence in this sneak peek for next week's episode:

The Sarah Jane Adventures

The rhino-headed Judoon return to Earth in another new trailer for the first arc of season three, "Prisoner of the Judoon:"

[Blogtor Who]

Sanctuary

The second season will see a shift in the interpersonal relationships between the characters. We'll be seeing the relationship between Helen Magnus and her protege Will Zimmerman intensify and we'll see more brutal honesty between them, and Druitt and Magnus' relationship will change as well. Henry will feature much more prominently, and we'll see new Sanctuary team member Kate Freelander. We'll also see a possible future for the Sanctuary, and in the episode "Next Tuesday" Will and Magnus will end up in an abandoned oil rig and we'll learn a bit about Magnus' past in WWII. Also, the Cabal will appear in the premiere to resolve the season cliffhanger, but will not appear throughout the season. [CinemaSpy]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown and Charlie Jane Anders.

Literary social network Shelfari visited Sandman and Coraline author Neil Gaiman at his Minnesota home and snapped these pictures of his personal library. Gaiman's basement is entirely filled with books, awards, and a handful of tchochkes. You can see more, larger images of the library here, but if you just want to know what books Gaiman keeps handy, Shelfari is in the process of creating a digital bookshelf based on the photos.

These pictures were taken by Kyle Cassidy, whose pictures of writers' workspaces we previously featured, and is currently compiling a book based on the photos.

Neil Gaiman's Bookshelves [Shelfari via Digital Composting]

Probably the biggest surprise was Best Novel winner, Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book, which defeated Neal Stephenson'sAnathem, Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, Charles Stross' Saturn's Children and John Scalzi's Zoe's Tale. Nancy Kress also professed to be surprised that her novella "The Edrmann Nexus" won the Best Novella award, but nobody else seemed that startled. The most moving speech of the night was probably David Anthony Durham, who won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. He talked about how he had achieved some success as a literary writer, but felt that he needed to be true to science fiction, since the genre had gotten him through some hard times and had made him want to be a writer in the first place.

Here's the official list of winners, from the Hugo site, and our gallery (including Neil Gaiman licking his Hugo rocket!) is below:

Best Novel: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
Best Novella: "The Erdmann Nexus", Nancy Kress (Asimov's Oct/Nov 2008)
Best Novelette: "Shoggoths in Bloom", Elizabeth Bear (Asimov's Mar 2008)
Best Short Story: "Exhalation", Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
Best Related Book: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008, John Scalzi (Subterranean Press)
Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: WALL-E Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon, & Maurissa Tancharoen, writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)
Best Editor Short Form: Ellen Datlow
Best Editor Long Form: David G. Hartwell
Best Professional Artist: Donato Giancola
Best Semiprozine: Weird Tales, edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal
Best Fan Writer: Cheryl Morgan
Best Fanzine: Electric Velocipede edited by John Klima
Best Fan Artist: Frank Wu
And the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (presented by Dell Magazines): David Anthony Durham

Storytelling:

We felt as though there was a pervasive theme of storytelling and storytellers, and the power of creation, throughout Gaiman's work, especially after touching base with Gaiman mega-fan Rob Clough. So we asked Gaiman why he thought that element comes up again and again for him.

Gaiman says he tries to do something different with every book he writes — he wants the rabbit to be popping out of a new and different hole each time. When faced with a choice between doing a book that's comfortable and safe, and which all of his fans are clamoring for, versus a different book that he has no idea how to write and has nobody waiting for it, he'll always choose the latter. But in spite of this diverse body of work, he feels like after 25 years, he can look back at what he's done and "the themes start piling up." The power of storytelling is definitely one of them, and so is "themes of doorways and transitions," and also his books often seem to feature a kiss that signals the beginning of the third act.

As to why Gaiman's books include the theme of storytelling so often? "I don't know, because I make them. I don't know that writers have origin stories, and I wouldn't believe any writer who said that he did or she did... So why do I write about storytelling? Why was Sandman such a great huge monumental story about the nature of stories?" He says he thinks stories are important and the imagination is important, but those are things he's saying after the fact, not while he's writing a new story.

On the other hand, Gaiman says that everything that exists is here because someone dreamed it up — we sit on chairs because someone imagined them. And he went to the first officially sanctioned science fiction conference in China, and asked why the Chinese government was sponsoring imaginative fiction after so many years of disapproving of it.

It was because the Chinese had noticed that they were incredibly good at making things, but that other people seemed to be inventing the things that they were making, and they had come out to the U.S., and they had gone around Google and Apple and Microsoft, and one of the very few things that the people at Google and Apple and Microsoft had in common was they were science fiction and fantasy fans from way back.

And because they were science fiction fans, they believed the world could be different tomorrow, instead of just being the same thing day after day.

Comics hitting the mainstream:

Somebody else asked Gaiman how he felt about graphic novels being on the Hugo ballot, and he basically said it's about time. When The Dark Knight Returns came out some 23 years ago, the Hugo Ballot included it — but in the non-fiction category, giving the impression the Hugo voters believed Batman was real. Watchmen got on the Hugo ballot, but only in some special made-up category.

Gaiman sees three factors bringing comics into the mainstream:

• The formerly rigid distinction between high and low culture is eroding. Gaiman did his first college appearance in 1992, at a St. Louis college, where the Art Dept. invited him and the English Dept. boycotted the event because Gaiman wrote for comics. But some of the English students sneaked in, and they're professors now. And people like Michael Chabon have come of age loving comics and being excited to be part of that world.
• We're living in a science-fictional age. Just imagine explaining an ipod touch to someone in the 1950s.
• Hollywood special effects have improved to the point where comic-book storylines can play out credibly on screen, and that means comic-book stories have infiltrated the mainstream to a much greater extent.

Movie adaptations of his books:

Someone asked Gaiman if he writes his books differently now, hoping to gear them for movie adaptation, and he said that he just wants the books to be the best things they can be. He's pleased that many people loved the film of Coraline, but he doesn't see it as the perfected form of the book — the book is separate.

And if you wrote a novel aiming to make it easy to adapt into a movie, it would be a disaster, says Gaiman:

I don't know if you've ever done the thing of reading a novelization of a film, before you see the film, but they're always very very odd. As reading experiences, they're always very unsatisfying, because they have all the beats of the film, and they don't work in the way a novel works. They're things that come from the pre-DVD era [where a book version was the only way you could revisit the film]. If you do that [i.e., write a novel so it will make a good movie] you come up with a very broken-backed story.

He also said that for years, execs from major studios would call him up about making a movie of his novel Anansi Boys, and say "We love this book. Can the characters be white?" Gaiman would reply no, because the book was about the children of the African spider god and the characters in the book are all African American. And the execs would reply, "Black people don't like fantasy." And when Gaiman would accuse them of being racist, they would backpedal and say "No, no, we're just being practical."

Working with Marvel and DC

Gaiman says he doesn't have "a lot of patience left" with the two big comics publishers. "They're sweet people and I love working with them but dealing with them is often a lot like being nibbled to death by ducks." It does sound like he's having fun working on the Metamorpho comics for DC's Wednesday Comics, and he's being super careful to make it look like a comic from 1965-1966, even down to a periodic table of the elements that appears in one upcoming issue, which only shows the elements known as of 1966, and Lawrencium would have the letters "LW" instead of the more recent "LR."

Random other stuff: Gaiman also says he loves "plotting by place," treating places in his novels like characters and seeing how characters interact with different locations. And he says he wrote Stardust and Neverwhere right after he moved to the U.S. and he was homesick for Britain — so he found himself creating a fictional version of London and the English countryside respectively. And then he did American Gods, in which he came to terms with living in the U.S., and tried to understand the place.

With the start of WorldCon coming this Thursday, we're ramping up to cover our second con in a few weeks. And io9 will be hosting a party with the awesome Cecilia Tan of Circlet Press on Friday night, in a yet-to-be-identified room.

Anticipation 2009 has been putting out tons of info — including a draft list of guests. And in addition to guest of honor Neil Gaiman, Nobel-winning economist Paul "I was right" Krugman will be there, giving a talk about his love of Asimov and holding a conversation with Charles Stross, whose Merchant Princes novels Krugman has waxed admiringly about before.

There's also info about the whopping ten awards that will be given out at this year's Con. The Hugo Awards are always given out at WorldCon, whose members vote on them, but this year you also get to see Cory Doctorow accept his Prometheus award as a libertarian hero for Little Brother, and you get to find out who's Canada's outstanding science fiction author, thanks to the Aurora Awards. And the artist-focused Chesley Awards. Not only that, but there's something called the Golden Duck Award, which sounds rude but is actually for children's SF lit.

Curious to see if the libertarians will play nice with Krugman? You can find out, without making a major commitment.

You can try out WorldCon with a "taster" membership and see if you can handle it in a realtime situation. You can show up and pay 75-95 Canadian dollars for a day membership, then wander around and drink in the sights. Go to a few panels, see if you can get Elizabeth Bear's autograph. Then if you decide that WorldCon isn't for you, you can go back and get refunded all but $20 of your day membership (or $10 for a child's membership).

We'll see you in Montreal! WorldCon "I, Robot" image by Changa Lion on Flickr.

The rights to the series have been in dispute since the collapse of publisher Eclipse in 1994, in part because rights were believed to be shared between all creators, Eclipse - whose intellectual property was bought by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane shortly after Eclipse declared bankruptcy - and original creator Mick Anglo. As the first major superhero work by Watchmen's Moore, with later writing from Sandman's Gaiman and Fables artist Mark Buckingham, the series had a good reputation even before it fell out of print for more than 15 years.

This isn't the first announcement of a return for the character; Todd McFarlane brought the hero's alter-ego Mike Moran back in a 2001 issue of Hellspawn, but copyright challenges caused that storyline to be truncated prematurely.

It's unclear from Marvel's announcement whether their new ownership includes the Moore/Gaiman work. Marvel's announcement talks about Anglo's involvement in the purchase, but it's possible that the new agreement only covers new stories done with the character, as the rights to the classic Moore and Gaiman runs were previously believed to be at least partially held by the creators themselves. Most tellingly, Marvel are reviving the character under his original name, Marvelman, which was previously changed in 1985 due to - ironically - concern over legal action from Marvel Comics; the famous Moore and Gaiman stories appeared under the Miracleman title. Marvel promise more information on the deal soon, but we can't help but wonder if they're not explaining all right now because the specifics may make the announcement less exciting. Time will tell; here's hoping we won't have to wait another fifteen years to see Miracle - or Marvel - man again.

Many thanks to Carla Hoffman.

Tedious, no? This is one of the bonus features on theCoraline DVD, out July 21st. But there's a lot more from director Henry Selick and even original creator Neil Gaiman on the disc. Plus both the Blu-ray and DVD will have the 2-D and 3-D versions of the film.

BONUS FEATURES EXCLUSIVE TO BLU-RAYTM HI-DEF:

• U-CONTROL ON 2-D FEATURE – Universal's exclusive signature feature allows viewers to delve into the making of the film with the click of the remote without ever leaving the movie. Through picture-in-picture, fans can enhance their understanding of how the movie was made by viewing tours of the sets, animatics and behind-the-scenes moments, including voiceover sessions.

• CREEPY CORALINE – Director and screenwriter Henry Selick and Coraline author Neil Gaiman take fans deeper into the darker intricacies of Coraline's alternative worlds.

• BD-LIVETM – Fans can access exclusive online and interactive features through their Internet connected Blu-rayTM player, including:

• MY SCENES SHARING – Show your BD-LiveTM friends your favorite scenes from the film.

• THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HENRY – In this feature, director Henry Selick discusses his approach to the film adaptation of the award-winning book and what he loves about Coraline.

BONUS FEATURES AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAYTM HI-DEF & THE 2-DISC COLLECTOR'S EDITION DVD:

• DELETED SCENES

• THE MAKING OF CORALINE – Director and screenwriter Henry Selick hosts this behind the scenes feature about how this hand-crafted, stop-motion animated film was made.

• VOICING THE CHARACTERS – Coraline's acclaimed cast and filmmaker Henry Selick talk about their experiences working on the film, including defining the perfect voice for their characters.

• DIGITAL COPY OF CORALINE – Transfer the included digital copy to your iPod, Mac or PC and experience Coraline anywhere, anytime!

BONUS FEATURES AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAYTM HI-DEF, 2-DISC COLLECTOR'S EDITION DVD & SINGLE DISC DVD:

• FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR HENRY SELICK & COMPOSER BRUNO COULAIS

To be fair, the new "deluxe editions" of Superman: Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow and Batman: Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader owe as much to their writers - Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, respectively - as the fates of their central characters. In fact, both books are somewhat misnamed; both books are as much "The Complete Works Of This Big Name Writer On This Big Name Character" as they are about the central story; in fact, the Moore/Superman book has more non-Whatever Happened To material than it has of the title story - which is one of its saving graces - but doesn't Whatever Happened To... just sound better?

Neither books hang together especially well as collections; Moore's Superman stories work well individually, but there's no real theme to them beyond "Hey, it's some Superman stories." The same is true of Gaiman's Batman books only to an even greater extent, as his non-Whatever Happened stories don't even feature Batman, but are "Secret Origins" of Batman villains - or, in one case, an incomplete framing sequence for two other, not-included (non-Gaiman) stories. Yes, there's something to be said for indulging the completist mentality, but at the same time, there's surely just as much to be said for fulfilling reading experiences.

Of the two Whatever Happened tales themselves, Moore's Superman send-off is by far the superior - For one thing, it works as a story outside of a celebration of the character's history, something that Gaiman's overlong Batman farewell feels like it's lacking all too often. It's interesting to compare the tone of the two; Moore's 1986 classic seems like a mean-spirited preview of Watchmen's genre deconstruction at times, especially compared to Gaiman's more recent sentimental trip down memory lane; there's a sense in Moore's take of not only revisiting old characters, but of gaining a new perspective on them as well as a sense of closure. Gaiman's story, on the other hand, replaces plot with nostalgia and an oddly upbeat ending where the execution undercuts what I'm sure was meant to be a much more ambiguous atmosphere (Moore, too, gives Superman a happy ending, but he's Superman; you kind of want that for him).

As I said before, the extra material in Moore's book is a saving grace; it includes the wonderful collaboration with his Watchmen partner Dave Gibbons, "For The Man Who Has Everything" - much more fun than the lead story, in my opinion - as well as a team-up with Swamp Thing, the character with which Moore made his name in the US. The Gaiman book, on the other hand, feels astonishingly slim. Part of this is because Gaiman's back-ups were almost intentionally more throwaway, having originally appeared in the recap-friendly Secret Origins title, and another part is that they're from early enough on in Gaiman's career that you can still see him finding his own voice between the lines. That uncertainty adds value in the same sense as the book has value as a curiosity piece for Gaiman fans, but for the casual reader, it leaves the book the lesser of the two by some distance.

If you're wondering whether to pick either release up, it depends less on your feelings about the characters than the writers. If you're a fan of Moore and don't already own these stories - they've been reprinted many times - then, yes, you should run to your store and pick this up; even if you don't dig Superman stories normally, the humor and inventiveness is classic, if early, Moore. But if you're a Gaiman fan, it's harder to recommend the Caped Crusader, because it'll only really succeed for you if you're also a big enough Batman fan to care about Dick Sprang tributes or catch the amazingly subtle Joe Chill cameo... and how big is that crossover audience?

Superman: Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow is available now, and Batman: Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader is released to comic stores this Wednesday, both published by DC Comics.

High Bloods, John Farris (Tor)

It's the near future, and LA is overrun with werewolves. An International Lycan Control force is set up to keep tabs on the "high bloods," those that can keep their werewolfish nature under control. But then something goes terribly wrong, and the book becomes a hard boiled crime novel. With werewolves.

Wireless, Charles Stross (Ace)

Notorious future-forward sci-fi author Charles Stross has collected the strands of some of his short fiction into this compilation. Stories feature everything from relocating the cold war in deep space to a Lovecraftian take on the Iran-Contra scandal. The collection showcases Stross's short works that have never found their way into any of his longer pieces.

Songs of the Dying Earth, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (Subterranean)

Dozois and Martin have gathered a crop of modern sci fi writers to write their own stories exploring Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" universe. The "Dying Earth" series is a cornerstone of its very own sub-genre of dystopian sci fi, and these stories give some other writers a chance to lend their voice to this seminal canon.

Metatropolis,edited by John Scalzi (Subterranean)

Five sci fi writers collaborated on their own urban future, and then each took a turn writing stories set in their collectively imagined universe. The result is a portrait of a possible future of cities. From the io9 review:

These feel like cities where anything can happen, from getting your skull cracked to discovering your life purpose. And most important of all, when I was done reading about this future dys/utopia, I wanted to spend a lot more time there.

The Osiris Ritual, George Mann (Snowbooks)

George Mann's well-received "The Affinity Bridge" created a steam-punk Victorian London landscape for his intrepid mystery solvers. Now his steam-punk Sherlock Holmes is back to solve another mystery, interacting with some distinct characters along the way. This one is for fans of clockwork robots, airships, and good old fashion mysteries.

Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Neil Gaiman (DC)

This hardcover volume collects a few of Gaiman's Batman pieces, focusing on his canon-spanning final story, "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" This story stretches from one end of the Bat's career to the other, offering a new angle on the Batman mythos.

Purple and Black, K.J. Parker (Subterranean)

"Purple and Black" is an epistolary novel, or one told only in letters. In this case, the letters are between a reluctant intellectual emperor and his best friend on the front lines of combat. The result is an exploration of the duty of leadership, of war, and of friendship. It's also printed in two colors, purple for the official empire business between the two friends, and black for the less formal, more personal letters.

The Stars Blue Yonder, Sandra McDonald (Tor)

A military commander dies, but then comes back to life on a mission to save all of humanity. This mission takes him all over space and time, where he meets his yet-non-existent grandchildren and his descendants from thousands of years in the future. He also manages to thoroughly confuse his grieving wife with resurrection and stories of far-flung time travel. The two work together to save everything they've ever known.

Bar None, Tim Lebbon (Night Shade)

After the world ends, a group of tenacious survivors hole up in a giant home in Wales, but supplies start to get thin, and they learn from a supernatural stranger of a haven a few days away. It's the Bar None, and it's maybe the last bar on Earth. The survivors then decide to do probably what anyone would do in their situation: against all odds, braving corpse-strewn countryside, they try to track down a cold beer. From the io9 review:

In the end this is a deeply sentimental and intimate look at memory, loss, and those perfect days barbecuing and tossing a few back with good friends. And flesh-eating monsters.

The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, Stephen Hunt (Tor)

Amelia Harsh, a sort of steam-punk female Indiana Jones, and a cast of adventurers sets out in an ancient U-boat to discover the sunken "perfect society" of Camlantis. Also on board are a band of female mercenaries, escapees from an underwater prison, and an insane guide. Sounds good to me.

Blood Red Sphere, Lawrence Barker (Swimming Kangaroo)

A recovering "cactus juice" addict passes his days scavenging ancient artifacts from the surface of mars and selling them. Then one such object, the "blood red sphere," attracts attention from pretty much everyone on Mars and the rest of the solar system. It's like the "Maltese Falcon" on Mars, which is something I can definitely get behind.

The House of Lost Souls, F.G. Cottam (Thomas Dunne)

After a psychic trauma visits itself on four students (causing one to commit suicide), a journalist investigates a home haunted by madness and strange occult happenings. The novel touches on many different eras of the house's history, eventually leading to a confrontation between our protagonist and an ancient evil.

We've told you about the musical before, but with the show's opening just over a week away, Variety talked to those involved about what audiences can expect from the show. For his part, Coraline creator Neil Gaiman is happy with the musical:

There were people who grumbled about how faithful or otherwise the film was... Now, I can point to the stage play and say, this is completely faithful to the book. On the other hand, you have to come to terms with a world in which Coraline is played by a 50-year-old lady.

That "50-year-old lady" is actually 56-year-old Jayne Houdyshell, who plays the nine-year-old eponymous star of the story beside David Greenspan, who adapted Gaiman's novel for the stage as well as starring as Coraline's Other Mother. Director Leigh Silverman isn't worried about the age difference in casting:

It's not that she's parodying a child, but that in a way she's not playing it as a child. She's just sort of playing a character who happens to be 9.

The unexpected casting, of course, is just the norm for a show dominated by pianos of different size, shapes and even purposes. Composer Stephin Merritt explains the show's use of "prepared piano":

Prepared piano was done by John Cage in the '40s and '50s... It consists of putting erasers and screws and playing cards in between the strings of the piano, and it converts the piano into an 88-key percussion orchestra. No two notes sound alike.

Currently in previews, Coraline officially opens at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York on June 1st.

'Coraline' musical comes to life [Variety]

We admit it; it's unlikely-verging-on-impossible that Gaiman ripped off the 2006 indie graphic novel by Jason McNamara and Tony Talbot for the end of his two-part tribute to the Dark Knight (Who knows if he even knows that Continuity exists, despite its 40.000+ readership thanks to it being made available as a free download by the publisher pre-release?). We just thought it was odd to see such a similar end in both books. Apparently protagonists aren't the only things that have tendencies to be born again...

Continuity

Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader?

Actually, there's a pretty movie-centric feel to most of this week's new launches or noteworthy titles; even the non-obvious ones (Detective Comics #853 is finally released, only two months late, finishing up the Neil Gaiman two-part storyline "Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader?") have some kind of cross-media connection (It's Batman).

Admittedly, you may have to squint to see that connection with Marvel's new series Skrull Kill Krew, but come on; alien invaders and biker gangs. That's got to have been a movie at some time, right?

Marvel's also launching Fantastic Force, a spin-off from Fantastic Four written by Doctor Who director Joe Aherne. And Marvel is making up for Gambit Classic Volume 1 - I swear, that title is taunting me by including the word "Classic" - by also releasing collections of Warren Ellis' short Wolverine run as Wolverine: Not Dead Yet and the first volume of the enjoyable-if-blindingly-colored Spider-Man 2099, which introduces you to the Spider-Man of the future. And if you're rich, there's a hardcover omnibus of the first 31 issues of the original X-Men run, for "just" $99.99.

But for the most part, the releases you'll want to look out for are all tied into nostalgia and TV or movies; Dark Horse's wonderful Star Wars: Dark Times series returns, with the first part of Blue Harvest (I'll allow you a moment to get over the geeky perfection of the title), while Boom! Studios has Farscape Script Book, letting fans see Rockne S. O'Bannon's original script and plans for the comic continuation of the beloved TV show.

IDW go for the gold with two collections - GI Joe: The Best of Larry Hama (celebrating the comic writer who shaped the franchise so much during the '80s) and Terminator Salvation: The Movie Prequel, letting you see just what made Christian Bale's John Connor so screwed up (Clue: Everything in his life up until that point).

Dynamite Entertainment, meanwhile, are putting out a collection of the unlikely Army of Darkness/Xena Warrior Princess crossover series, as well as their Battlestar Galactica: Adama flashback book (And, finally, the Final Five comic that was supposed to come out last week), but that's only a distraction from the true prize of the week - Their 25-cent preview of the new Buck Rogers series launching this summer. At that price, how can you resist?

So, come tomorrow - Thursday if you're in the UK (And potentially the rest of Europe?) - strap on that jetpack and fly down to your local comic book store to demand your cheap future. And, if that doesn't do it for you, you can always check out the complete shipping list of what's making it to stores this week and find something else to spend your money on, instead. Just remember to turn that jetpack pack off before entering the store. Comics are flammable, after all.

It's pretty entertaining to see how all the delightfully eerie puppets from Coraline changed and grew from their original concept art, especially the Other Mother. The Character Design blog has a lovely interview with the artist Shannon Tindle, where he talks a little about working on the movie and how he's very happy with Mr. B's end result (and so are we).

Careful - one of these images has a naked Ms. Spink in it who is, NSFW (but she's still tiny in the picture itself). The artists they used on this movie were all pretty brilliant in their own right, and I'm incredibly happy that they teamed up to bring Neil Gaiman's work to life. Director Henry Selick really knows how to gather the best.