SOME QUICK NOTES FROM THE UR-SKEKS-IVERSE

I AM IN DETROIT today, sitting in the lobby of WDET, stealing broadband from a student's room at Wayne State University. So I shall offer a few brief follow ups to your very welcome comments.

TWO COMMENTERS on my previous post on Gnomes pointed out that I might enjoy Brian Froud and Terry Jones's Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book. Indeed I might and have. But not as much as I enjoyed Brian Froud's The World of the Dark Crystal.

IT IS, OF COURSE, beautiful. But what I found inspiring, even as a child, is that someone would take The Dark Crystal so seriously, and draw and describe the Ur-Skeks-iverse in such sincere and deranged details. I think it is fair to say that everything I know about Skeksis culture derives from this book.

IN OTHER COMMENTS SECTIONS, Brermatt noted that the Battle of Galactia Ride also appeared in the FIRST "Get Smart" movie, "The Nude Bomb." It is so, and I know, because I saw this movie on TV in Australia some years ago, and I was so surprised that I practically went down the drain the wrong way.

NOW, however, it is on DVD, and insanely, i09 has the relevant clip in WIDESCREEN.

I MUST NOW drive to Ann Arbor.

That is all

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Mackenzie

sw Th Drk Crystl. Bt Jhn, yr pst s s lng nd brng tht jmpd mmdtly t th nd nd stll ddn’t knw wht ws bng sd.
Ryan Waddell

@13: T, fnd t vry dstrctng tht vry prgrph strts wth LL CPS. Why mst y yll t s ll th tm, Mr Hdgmn?
Anonymous

If you ever get the chance to meet Brian Froud you really should…and the rest of his family as well. His wife made Yoda for the Star Wars movies and his son was the baby in Labyrinth. They are very down to Earth people.

-Kelly-
Anonymous

It should be noted Brian Froud was the concept designer for the Dark Crystal. Thus it isn’t all that strange that he’d have exhaustive “documentation” of the Dark Crystal universe. Froud is tops.
doublethink

HA HA HA HA DRINK HER ESSENCE!! DRINK HER ESSAAAAAANCE!
rhys

brian froud is a true master indeed. however, i believe that rather than just taking the world of the dark crystal (best looking film ever) seriously – he was actually the one who designed it in the first place – in other words, the book is a compilation of concept art.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0296612/

it’s also the best looking book ever, and it’s on my x-mas list for my 6yo neighbour.

everyone should buy this book for a child they know. please.

^_^
MadFist

Rhys declaring Froud to be a Master, FTW! I fell in love with the movie as a (post) kid, and I immediately bought the book for my 9yo daughter when I saw the review.

Thanks John. Yer the swellest. (Oh, just bought your last book. Kudos. 3 thumbs up. I rank it up there with the ‘Simarillion’.)
= )
indiie

The Frouds are indeed wonderful people! My daughter is a huge fan, and we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. & Mrs, as well as Toby (the baby from Labyrinth, all grown up) at Comic Con a few years ago.

@26- Seconded. Complainers, EMBRACE THE CAPS. or MOVE ON.
zmoney

If you are coming to AA you stop by the Aerospace department and control mini-helicopters with your head in our lab. http://umich.edu/~arclab/max/media/headtracking-compressed.mov
ninjamethod

y’r mkng t hrdr t rd yr psts wth ll th nncssry pprcs txt.
- Antinous
  
  @ complainers,
  
  If you don’t like the writing style, move on to the next post.
Svenski

On a side note (since you mentioned the Battle for Galactica Ride) I seem to remember that the Cylons were near the rotating tunnel where Col. Steve Austin, Astronaut chased the giant Alien-Robo-Bigfoot in an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. Can anyone here corroborate?

Also, didn’t the A-Team blast its way through that ride also?
Captain Purple

Well, that was an evening wasted. I’ve been driving back and forth on I-94 from Detroit to Ann Arbor hoping to run into Mr. Hodgman. Do you have any idea just how many men out there look sort of like John Hodgman at 70 mph in the rain? According to my “research,” more than 15.
sammich

Captain Purple @ 6 – Don’t despair! Initially, most people underestimate the time and legwork needed to be an effective stalker.
Persevere and you’ll reap the rewards!
Ryan Waddell

Seriously? A disemvowelling for being critical? Wow.
Ryan Waddell

And I wasn’t even complaining about the writing style – I was complaining about the formatting. Because I like John, and find his posts interesting. They’re just hard to read.
upso

dude. im 45 minutes away from detroit. CALL MEEEEEE
noen

Little know fact: the Ur-Skeks-iverse should not be confused with the butt-seks-iverse. Which is much like our own only more fabulous.
Takuan

whatever happened to buttsecks? Did he open that izakaya?
pentomino

Anyone else think that Dark Crystal could have been as good as Labyrinth, if only it had its script seriously punched up?
Anonymous

It is also good to have a copy of The Making of The Dark Crystal (text by Christopher Finch, Holt, Rinehart and Wilson, 1983; ISBN 0-03-063332-X, which has much nice stuff not found in World of….
Dr_Wally

I loved one of those Froud pieces of art so much I had the thing tattooed on my back…
huntsu

dn’t knw bt nyn ls, bt th s f LL CPS s dstrctng nd mks t hrd fr m t rd psts. Cld y ll s bld nd tlcs nstd?
serth

Go Blue :)
Decay

Mr Hodgman I applaud your excessive use of CAPITALS. Also, my copy of the Brian Froud Dark Crystal book is signed by the man himself. Jealous? :)
z7q2

DARK CRYSTAL FAN HERE

I have heard rumblings over the years that there was supposed to be a version of the Dark Crystal where all the characters spoke their own languages, with the resultant movie having english subtitles. I WOULD LOVE TO SEE THIS VERSION.

I also have the soundtrack. Pod Dance rocks out.
Elliot Cowan

# 16 DARK CRYSTAL FAN.
These are no mere rumblings.
You can find a couple of these scenes on the DVD (as well as the kind of brilliant “making of” documentary that they were really good at in 1982 but can’t seem to manage anymore).
The entire film was NOT created this way though.
Anonymous

According to wikipedia and a couple fo links from there, Froud is on board for a sequel for release in 2009, Power of the Dark Crystal, but there haven’t been any announcements about it since 2007 so it may be in development hell.
Casey Sorrow

Gnomes mixing with politics, should be stopped: