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Did a sketchy portrait today in honour of Sir Terry Pratchett's birthday!

I'm going to just call this good enough and post before I start harshly critiquing it! I think it took about 50 minutes.

GNU Terry Pratchett

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Neil Gaiman, co-author of Good Omens:

My first encounter with Terry Pratchett was The Colour of Magic, as read on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour. I was a young journalist and I reached out to his publisher for an interview, and thus became the first journalist to interview Terry Pratchett, in Bertorelli's Italian restaurant, in Gower Street. (We remembered it as a Chinese Restaurant in Goodge Street, demonstrating either the fallibility of memory or our fondness for Chinese food.) We became friends.

I was lucky enough to read Terry's books as he wrote them, to become one of his beta readers, and then to collaborate with him. Terry had a brilliant eye for the places where reality and narrative tradition intersect: he had a science fiction writer's mind, let loose on a fantasy world, and he loved to explain and show how things came to be. The last time we saw each other he told me I had to read a book about feeding Nelson's navy – and I still wonder, had he lived, about the Discworld novel he would have written, about ships, and naval battles and all, and the lessons he would have taught us. Because at his best, Terry was a teacher. The kind who makes you laugh while simultaneously realising that everything you have taken for granted so far is utterly wrong. I miss him.

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Here's a compilation of every Jesus foreshadowing I could find so far in Good Omens s1 and s2. This also includes my notes on what these hints may be referencing to (based on the Book of Revelation as the source material we will be parodying for s3, plot hints about 668: Neighbor of the Beast that were dropped over the years, and finally the themes and motifs that had been established in s1 and s2.)

When put together, it's actually incredible how much his character had already been foreshadowed in the past two seasons.

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I love how our thoughts, theories & metas on Good Omens have developed since GO2 came out.

The immediate theories were all very emotional, knee-jerk reaction type ones. Very well thought out, but thinking with hearts rather than heads.

Now that time has passed, I’ve seen a big change in the ‘angle’ of the theories. They’re more logic-based, more reasoned, less emotional.

We could all have studied 5 seconds of film close up months ago, but we weren’t in that headspace then. But we are now.

It shows that it’s worth it to have time go by to let a show sit & mature in your brain. To mull it over and chew on it. Formulate your own theories and thoughts and really sit with them. It requires time. And brainrot. So much brainrot.

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Wow really ambitious project!! Such a good idea to make a "trailer"!

Depending on how work goes this year it might be a while before the actual final piece sees the light of day - so I'm releasing the animatic for the Guards! Guards! animated trailer on the unsuspecting public. I was hoping it could work as both a trailer/intro animation to a non-existant Guards! Guards! animated show, and I think it turned out pretty neat! I hope you enjoy.

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Good Omens: behind the camera!

With DoP Gavin Finney.

I gathered together all of the interviews I could find where Gavin Finney discusses his work for Good Omens: including how he framed certain shots, the filters used for some scenes, how Aziraphale has a constant halo and celestial shots. (Even a camera that only exists for filming the Gavotte).

There are even more things dealing with CGI and VFX in the articles. So do give them a read if you can!

I also added some things he mentioned for The Ineffable Con 4.

Here are all of my sources:

British Cinematographer Season 1

Good Omens DP Gavin Finney on Earthly and Otherwordly In-Camera Delights

British Cinematographer Season 2

How Cinematographer Gavin Finney Brought Heaven and Hell to Life in ‘Good Omens’

DP Chat: Good Omens cinematographer Gavin Finney

Definition Magazine: Raining Men, Omen

On Shooting Good Omens

Maggie Service: ‘The Good Omens Universe Is A Lovely Place To Inhabit’ – Interview

Tweets because I do now know how to call them anymore:

About the kiss.

Blurring the edges.

Intentional Lighting.

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Can we talk real quick about how beautiful Leonard and Vetinari’s friendship is thematically speaking? Like, we have a dude who’s whole deal is believing that the world is inherently evil, who’s friends with this other guy that almost sees it as his responsibility as a living thing to be unconditionally in love with the world. I’d also argue that this may be slightly present with Sybil, and possibly Carrot. Vetinari just likes people who can make him believe, even briefly, that his ‘the world is inherently evil’ philosophy is false.

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"Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree."

I read Discworld books in the order that they were available to borrow from the library or buy from a used bookstore! I'm pretty sure it was Going Postal first, which got me hooked; Colour of Magic was also one of the first! (which I describe as feeling kind of like a pilot episode to a TV series, ie it's good but hasn't quite found its overall identity)

Announcing the theme for Terry Pratchett Day 2024: START IN THE WRONG PLACE.

You'll hear people say time and time again that you can start anywhere with Terry Pratchett's work, but don't start in the right place*, so let's truly embrace the joy and chaos to be found in the many routes through Discworld and beyond.

We will be making Sunday 28th April, Sir Terry Pratchett's birthday, one brimming with bookish delight, celebrating the many ways we love and travel through his work, and we're inviting you to join us.

Follow along with The Terry Pratchett Estate to stay up to date. We will be sharing more ahead of the weekend on how to get involved.

*A lot of people say the right place is anything but the right place, which in turn, may make it an equally wrong place...

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Gorgeous! I need to dig out my watercolours.

Old illustration of Tiffany Aching 🦋

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Ooh, now I'm wondering if we'll see other angels/demons from other parts of the world in S3. Like in Australia or America (maybe Moroni, who went rogue in the 1800s, or who didn't cover their tracks very well).

"Great! Do a little miracle, wiggle your fingers about, Nina falls for Maggie, problem solved." "Miracles don't work like that."

I have always wondered about this exchange. Why is Aziraphale the only one who knows that miracles don't work like that? Because Crowley doesn't know or he wouldn't have suggested it, and the archangels obviously don't know either or it wouldn't have even gotten to the point of them sending someone to verify the miracle.

I don't know, it just seems odd and I can't think of an explanation that makes sense.

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Hmm so the archangels always strike me as being aloof project-manager types, who don't know the minutaei of the day to day, or how the "tech" works that the actual workers use; I'd imagine other angels working on earth at Aziraphale's level would have the same knowledge as Aziraphale. (Seems like miracles work by moving pieces into place to affect human emotion). Only explanation I have for Crowley not knowing is maybe he thinks love works differently than other emotions for some reason, or has just never thought about it before? He wasn't sensitive to feeling Adam's love for Tadfield in the first season so he might just be extra clueless ...

"Great! Do a little miracle, wiggle your fingers about, Nina falls for Maggie, problem solved." "Miracles don't work like that."

I have always wondered about this exchange. Why is Aziraphale the only one who knows that miracles don't work like that? Because Crowley doesn't know or he wouldn't have suggested it, and the archangels obviously don't know either or it wouldn't have even gotten to the point of them sending someone to verify the miracle.

I don't know, it just seems odd and I can't think of an explanation that makes sense.

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There are a few scenes that hint that Dog is becoming more dog-like and losing his hellhound traits - the scene with Dog getting bapped by the neighbor cat (the narration gives clues), and the scenes in (I think) episode 1 when they talk about how the naming of the hellhound is important because the name informs the hellhound of his purpose (Crowley dialogue at the dino park, narration when the hellhound arrives in Tadfield). Can't remember the direct quotes offhand but the explanation is hinted at in those scenes! (It's another good thematic parallel of influences/choices being more important than what you are born as)

A thing I've never understood: why does Dog get scared of Adam and run away? Shouldn't he be the only thing that ISN'T scared of Adam?

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I love that "Sir" is part of the name. I've seen a few of Dom's videos, seems like a nice guy!

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Ah, of course! Thank you for answering. I should track down a William book sometime, perhaps an audiobook, though they might be a bit boring without hell hounds and ducking stools!

Now I kinda wonder the same about the William books though, ie is it representing an accent/dialect or is it "kids talk funny" - it looks a lot like how dialogue is written for certain American accents, but I know that can't be the intention!

When you and Terry wrote Adam Young's dialogue, there are lots of apostrophes in place of vowels and the g in "-ing" words, and phonetically writing things like "could of" instead of "could've" etc, so my question is were those choices meant to simulate a specific accent? Or just to show that the Them speak a bit imperfectly/lazily? Like was it supposed to be an Oxfordshire accent maybe...? I'm not from the UK so I don't know if it sounds like a silly question, but I was curious about what you heard in your heads while writing, thanks!

It's the way William Brown and his friends talk in the Just William books we were emulating.

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Some thoughts on number 2 about the depiction of violence being offscreen rather than shown: I think that choice might have more to do with the change of medium than the changing times, because someone reading a comic has much more control over the experience of the story - your brain is in control of the pacing, movement of the characters, filling in the blanks between panels, sound fx and character voices.

Someone reading a comic is in charge of the intensity of that scene, and can protect themselves more if they need to, by leaving out a lot of details in a way that's not possible when the choices are made by someone else (ie filmmakers).

I could see that same choice being made in an adaptation made in 1989 as in 2020 for those reasons.

Some of the other changes, such as Maddoc's behaviour, I think can be explained by the fact that general audiences nowadays are a lot more knowledgeable about the nuances of consent and assault; someone (in this case a man) who thinks they are a good person can lie to themselves and make it okay to do a very bad thing, rather than it being a case of assault being committed by obvious villains...

Hey Neil! I am currently writing a paper for one of my cultural studies seminar about The Sandman comics at uni. I’m focusing on the story of Calliope, specifically the changes made from the comic to the Netflix adaptation, and the reasons and meaning behind them. I have a few question regarding some changes and figured I would just try to get an answer from you personally. I would really appreciate it:) Thanks!

1. Why did you change Madoc into not knowing what the ‘gift exchange’ with Fry entailed? Did he really not know he was ‘getting’ Calliope?

2. Going further, he actually tries to woo her in ways that he sees fit in the beginning (gifts), only after getting pressured by his manager he ends up assaulting her (off screen). In the comic he immediately knows what to do and assaults her, which is graphically shown to the reader. What made you change this?

3. Madoc considers himself a “feminist writer” in both comic and the Netflix show, but the Netflix episode expands on this aspect of his character (at least 50% of the crew on the set has to be women and people of colour). Can you shed some light on why this was done?

4. In the comic Morpheus seemingly comes unprovoked once he is freed from his imprisonment, while in the show she actively realises he is free and calls for him. There is a very impactful change in the dialogue happening in the scene:

In the comic it’s:

Calliope: “They…they told me that you had been imprisoned. Just like me.”

Morpheus: “They spoke the truth. I was imprisoned. But, as you can see, I am free now.”

while in the show it goes as follows:

Calliope: “They told me you had been imprisoned just like me.”

Morpheus: “Not like you - my suffering was nothing compared to yours.”

What inspired this change?

5. At the end of the story, Calliope is freed and appears with Morpheus. There’s a very specific detail to this scene in the Netflix adaptation that caught my attention. Morpheus lets Calliope walk outside of Madoc’s house before him, and the episode ends with the camera on Calliope walking outside, while the comic has Morpheus disappearing before her eyes after saying goodbye. The last panel of the story is Madoc. Why is this different in the Netflix adaptation?

6. In the Netflix adaptation Calliope is always wearing a nude-coloured night gown, instead of being mostly naked like in the comic. Is there a specific reason for this, other than perhaps restriction from Netflix’s side?

The answer to all of the questions is, because it's television being made in 2020 and not a comic being made in 1989. Does that help?

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Thought I'd share the scene from the book about the hell hound because it's fun for a few reasons! (Like Aziraphale eating Crowley's cake)

'He's too normal.' Crowley drummed his fingers on the table. 'I don't like it. There's something wrong. I just can't put my finger on it.'

Aziraphale helped himself to Crowley's slice of angel cake. 'Well, he's a growing boy. And, of course, there's been the heavenly influence in his life.'

Crowley sighed. 'I just hope he'll know how to cope with the hell-hound, that's all.'

Aziraphale raised one eyebrow. 'Hell-hound?'

'On his eleventh birthday. I received a message from Hell last night.' The message had come during The Golden Girls, one of Crowley's favourite television programmes. Rose had taken ten minutes to deliver what could have been quite a brief communication, and by the time non-infernal service was restored Crowley had quite lost the thread of the plot. 'They're sending him a hell-hound, to pad by his side and guard him from all harm. Biggest one they've got.'

I love that in eleven years of working closely together on this whole thwarting-Armageddon plan, Crowley never once thought to mention the whole hell hound thing to Aziraphale.

I also love that Aziraphale, obsessive devotee of the Divine Plan, collector of bibles and prophetic works, and someone who should arguably be THE expert on the whole end-of-the-world business, had no idea there would be a hell hound until Crowley mentioned it.

They are both SO RIDICULOUS.

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Ooh that's cool. I s'pose the models are so that they can be positioned and lighted for very customized references? Reminds me of James Gurney's process for some of his work.

Thursday night studio work space. Model bicycles, a scooter, and boxes of fresh pens.