Hasta La Ideas

Graphic novelist and writer Neil Gaiman has collaborated with his fans to create a book of illustrated short stories, as part of a campaign for BlackBerry by AMV BBDO.

The Keep Moving campaign invited the public to collaborate with artists Gaiman, Robert Rodriguez and Alicia Keys, and Gaiman decided to involve his considerable global fan base on social media to co-create A Calendar of Tales.

In February, he tweeted the question ‘Why is January so dangerous?’ to his fans, following with a further question every hour about each month of the year. He then sifted through thousands of responses and chose the 12 best to base his short stories on.

Having written the stories in four days, he then released them to his fans again, inviting them to submit illustrations inspired by the texts, again choosing his favourites to feature in the book. The resulting book is a beautifully bound limited-edition, designed by Sebastien Delahaye and art directed by Sonny Adorjan.

Wrapped in wax paper sealed with a specially designed crest, the stories inside are printed on translucent paper overlaying the chosen illustrations.

January illustration: Down! by Niam

May illustration: A Correspondence with Unwitting Participants by Kit Seaton

October illustration: The Wish by Maria Surducanh

Delahaye also created additional calendar illustrations for each month, which are screen-printed onto the left-hand sides of the spreads.

The campaign also included a series of films charting Gaiman’s progress in putting together the calendar.

Unfortunately the printed book is only available to a select few, but fans can explore the project in more detail on its dedicated website, here.

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