Hey Jillian! I noticed a small phrasing that could be confusing. Guillermo didn’t create Hellboy. He adapted it for film. It’s actually based on a comic book created by Mike Mignola who also co-wrote the 2nd film.
Plotting out the biographies of your characters helps to flesh them out and make them more "real". Even if no one else understands them, the author should.
As a fan of notebooks and Guillermo del Toro, I find this absolutely fascinating! It's interesting and encouraging at the same time. I have a feeling I'll be scrolling through your posts over the next couple of days.
Got here from Ankita Singh's substack on the power of artist's notebooks and both these essays have been the most inspiring and creatively reassuring things I've read in a while... thank you for writing about this :)
The absolute best of notebooks. Makes me long to annotate and sketch and bring a notebook to life like this. It feels like an artefact that could live in one of his worlds.
I love people like this - this is why his worlds are so enveloping. His imagination is all-consuming - yet, it doesn't actually devour reality - it seeps into it like a gorgeous organic ink, saturating the mundane with a dark innocence, a sense of foreboding that ends up being a doorway to the birth of self.
Excellent article. There's a whole college course here. Great starting point to research and study. Thank you.
Thanks, Patrick! I can definitely imagine teaching a course on del Toro.
Hey Jillian! I noticed a small phrasing that could be confusing. Guillermo didn’t create Hellboy. He adapted it for film. It’s actually based on a comic book created by Mike Mignola who also co-wrote the 2nd film.
Thanks for pointing this out, Rae! I'll edit the language to avoid any confusion.
No problem! Is this the best way to do so or would you prefer an e-mail?
This is a ciphered message! How timely for me! Goes perfectly with the tarot I drew this morning.
Ooo how exciting!
It's extraordinary how directly the contents of his notes show up in his movies.
Plotting out the biographies of your characters helps to flesh them out and make them more "real". Even if no one else understands them, the author should.
Thanks, David!
He seems to get somewhat " Zen " with his notes, although observations such as that have become a tad overused.
"Zen" is such an interesting way to think about it!
My inner cultural anthropologist has entered the chat..... !
As a fan of notebooks and Guillermo del Toro, I find this absolutely fascinating! It's interesting and encouraging at the same time. I have a feeling I'll be scrolling through your posts over the next couple of days.
Of course, this wizard had to have a magician book!! Thanks for sharing this, so glad to have had a sneak peek into the pages of his world.
He truly is a wizard!
Got here from Ankita Singh's substack on the power of artist's notebooks and both these essays have been the most inspiring and creatively reassuring things I've read in a while... thank you for writing about this :)
Jillian, I was so inspired by your post (so much to contemplate) and intrigued and fascinated by his notebook I had to get a copy. Thank you again.
I'm so happy to own a copy! It's such a source of inspiration.
fascinating. thank you !
You're welcome!
Thank you for posting this - so interesting to see the pages of his sketchbooks.
I thought so too!
Jillian this is exactly what I needed today. Thank you
❤️
Thank you so much for the post, I enjoyed it a lot!
Thanks, Sebas!
The absolute best of notebooks. Makes me long to annotate and sketch and bring a notebook to life like this. It feels like an artefact that could live in one of his worlds.
I know! I want a big leather notebook with a clasp--and magical content to live up to it!
I love people like this - this is why his worlds are so enveloping. His imagination is all-consuming - yet, it doesn't actually devour reality - it seeps into it like a gorgeous organic ink, saturating the mundane with a dark innocence, a sense of foreboding that ends up being a doorway to the birth of self.
Oooo--what a gorgeous description, Heather!