nannah
Written on Nov 20, 2021
Content warnings:
- trypophobia (only on the Beast’s character page)
There is so much in this book. What inspired the show, little comments from those who worked on it, sketches and screenshots from all stages of the show’s progress, character concept art, other episode ideas, information about the initial pilot, and more.
At one point, there was an episode written in which a man kidnapped kids and used their bones to make little dolls (the ones you see in the opening and very ending -- where Wirt, Greg, and Jason Funderberker the frog are added to a set of the Unknown character dolls -- are directly from that idea, which is chilling. Some of the cast's ideas were obviously too scary for Cartoon Network to add, like a lot of the Beast’s initial designs. But they're great to see here!
Speaking of that guy, though, many mysteries are from the show surrounding him and his edelwood trees are expanded upon (I won’t talk about them now, of course), which may answer a lot of questions -- like what happened for me -- or create a bunch more -- like what happened for a friend of mine. The great thing about this show is that Patrick McHale and the other creators wanted you to draw your own conclusions and find your own meaning from the stories. The art book is the same way.
Most of the other pages are packed full of delights, like a sketch wall of terrible drawings from the crew, a sketch of Greg with a frying pan upside down on his head and a note reading, “Not iconic enough,” and stories about how each crew member put their own little mark on the series.
I will definitely love looking through this again from time to time.
