Things are going really well over here at Worldbuilders. We’re closing in on the end of the fundraiser, so headquarters is a whirlwind of activity. Every day more books come in from authors and publishers, blogs are assembled by our team of indentured internet elves, and orders are packaged and shipped out from our online store.
Best of all, donations keep rolling in on the Worldbuilders Team page.
In fact, donations are coming in so quickly we’re having trouble keeping up with our stretch goals. As I write this, we’re at 347,000 dollars, which means if we raise another $3,000 Hank Green will record a video of himself seducing a tree.
Seriously.
If people continue to chip in, it looks like we’ve got a decent chance of hitting our $500,000 goal, where Neil Gaiman will record a video of himself reading Green Eggs and Ham.
You know you want to see that.
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Today we’ve got works from two of my very favorite authors: Neil Gaiman and Sir Terry Pratchett.
These items have been donated by different folks over the last year. Some of them are going up for auction, and some of them you can win by donating directly to Heifer International on the Worldbuilders Team Page.
Let’s start with Terry Pratchett.
- A copy of The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett. Signed by Paul Kidby.
“A fable? Perhaps. Fabulous? Certainly” – The Times
This is a bit of an oddity, as it’s one of the few Discworld novels that’s illustrated. What’s more, the illustrator has signed this copy, making it increasingly awesome.
As with most of the books in today’s blog, we’re putting this one in the lottery, where anyone who donates at least $10 gets a chance to win it. (And if you donate more, your chances of winning improve too.)
My thought is this book will either find a loving home in the arms of a Pratchett fan, or it will brighten the lives of a person (a sad, lonely person) who hasn’t experienced the joy of Discworld yet.
- Auction: A copy of The Art of Discworld. Signed by Paul Kidby.
Paul Kidby has been doing the art for Discworld for about 20 years, and it’s always hilarious and beautiful. This book has full versions of some of the works he’s made for dust jackets and other prints, as well as some paintings that aren’t available anywhere else.
This book is also signed by Mr. Kidby, so we’re auctioning it off over here.
- Auction: Daybreak print. Signed by Paul Kidby.
Here we have a great faerie print by Paul Kidby. It’s a different side to his artwork, and was featured in a collection of art called La Royaume Enchante.
We have a print of it up for auction, so if you want in, be sure to go bid on it.
- Auction: A numbered edition Greebo Rising print. Signed by Paul Kidby and Terry Pratchett.
This is a really great print of Nanny Ogg’s cat Greebo, about to pounce on an unsuspecting little fellow.
It’s extra cool because it’s signed by both Paul and Terry Pratchett, and is numbered 696 out of 950.
If you want to hang this beautiful beast on your wall, go bid on it before someone else does.
- Auction: Pale Rider print, signed by both Paul Kidby and Terry Pratchett, with Death’s Domain map book, signed by Paul Kidby.
We’re bundling both of these together for fans of Terry Pratchett’s Death character.
This is a great print signed by Terry and Paul, as well as an awesome mapbook of Death’s domain signed by the artist himself, Paul Kidby.
If you want to add these to your collection, you can bid on them over here.
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Now on to the Neil Gaiman items…
- Auction: Media print, modeled by Amanda Palmer. Numbered and signed by Lee Moyer.
(Click to embiggen)
This is a numbered print of the pin-up Lee Moyer did for Neil Gaiman’s page in last year’s Pin-up-calendar.
Neils rockstar wife, Amanda Palmer, was the model for this delightfully meta depiction of Media. So this print is sure to please any fan of American Gods, Neil Gaiman, or Amanda Palmer herself…
To bid, head over here.
- A limited edition copy of Fortunately the Milk. Signed by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell.
This awesome children’s book is Gaiman’s most recent publication, and this edition is signed by both him and the illustrator. That thing tucked in by Chris’s signature is a little metal bookmark with the Neil cartoon screened onto it.
We’re throwing it into the lottery, so anyone can share it with the kid (or child-like adult) in their life.
- A copy of Stardust. Signed by Neil Gaiman.
“A twisting, wondrous tale full of magic that only Neil Gaiman could have written.” – Chicago Tribune
If you don’t win our beloved Stardust ARC in the lottery this year, you still have a chance at winning this beautiful, signed copy.
- First edition copy of Fragile Things. Signed by Neil Gaiman.
“Half the pleasure of reading Gaiman comes from his lighthearted prose… the other half comes from Gaiman’s inventiveness. His work resists categorization… Gaiman not only taps into our collective unconscious… but reinvents our myths.” – Houston Chronicle
This is a great collection of some of Gaiman’s short fiction and poetry. If you haven’t read any of that before, you’re going to have to, and soon.
- A copy of Melinda. Signed twice by Neil Gaiman.
This is a beautiful story, and seriously hard to come by. Most places, it goes for as much as $500. It’s printed on specially selected red-speckled paper with black and white illustrations and several color plates that were hand-set.
What’s more, It’s double signed on the first plate (once in silver marker and once in purple), which makes it double cool. Or maybe four times as cool. I’m not sure about the math here…
This one’s in the lottery too. So every $10 you donate on our Team Page gets you another chance to win it and all the other books we have in the lottery.
- First edition copy of The Dangerous Alphabet. Signed by Neil Gaiman and Gris Grimly, the illustrator.
“Gaiman and Grimly have combined forces to produce an acrid, gothic confection that bubbles with vitriol and wit.” – ALA Booklist
- Auction: A first-edition copy of Duran Duran: The First Four Years of the Fab Five. Signed by Neil Gaiman.
I’ll say it before you do: What does a Duran Duran biography have to do with Neil Gaiman?
Well, this was actually the *first* book Neil Gaiman ever wrote.
It’s ridiculously rare, as the publisher went bankrupt after the book had only one small print run. Plus, people didn’t know they should be collecting their beloved Duran Duran biographies back in the 80s. Apparently, lots of people cut up their copies for the pictures.
So when Worldbuilders fan David saw a copy out in the wild, he felt he *needed* to pick it up. And when he got it signed, Gaiman wrote: “This is one from the vaults…”
Then David sent us to us. And we did a little dance.
For the truly avid Neil Gaiman collector, or someone who’s really into Duran Duran, this rarity is up for auction over here.
- Auction: A numbered edition copy of A Screenplay. Signed by Neil Gaiman.
Another rarity, this is numbered 436 out of 500. It’s a beautiful copy of the book which was never available for general sale, and hasn’t been read by many.
If you want one for your very own, you can bid on it over here.
- A limited edition copy of The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Signed and inscribed by Neil Gaiman specially for Worldbuilders.
As I’ve mentioned before on my blog and in my goodreads review, I had a fairly major geek out over Ocean at the End of the Lane.
So I couldn’t be more pleased when, before we were even requesting donations, Neil offered to send this copy in for Worldbuilders this year.
It’s a lovely, slipcased, limited edition book, and Gamain added his own flourish to it.
Honestly? When I saw that, it made my heart a little melty.
This one’s going in the lottery too.
- A complete set of The Absolute Sandman Volumes 1-5. Signed by Neil Gaiman.
I’m guessing most of you know about Sandman. It’s a comic series that finally convinced a lot of people (including me) that comics were a brilliant storytelling medium in their own right. That comics could be as marvelous and orchestral and clever as anything ever written by Shakespeare or Chaucer or Homer.
These are the Absolute editions of the entire Sandman series. The art has been retouched. And they’re collected into gorgeous, slipcased, hard-bound books.
Just calling these “books” doesn’t give the right impression. These are Tomes.
Here’s the thing. These weren’t originally going to be in the fundraiser.
You see, couple months ago I found these in a store. The whole set. Signed. And I love Sandman. And I love Gaiman. And I love beautiful books. I wanted them with a powerful powerful want. I coveted these books.
So I bought them. I spend kind of a lot of of money on them.
Then, a couple days ago, we were planning out the blogs. And we were putting a bunch of cool Neil Gaiman stuff in the blog, and I thought to myself, “If I put these into the prize lottery, anyone who donates to Worldbuilders will be able to win them.”
But they were my books. They were precious to me. My precious.
“They’ll make an awesome prize,” I thought. “Some book geek out there will win them. And they’ll love these books. And they’ll give them a good home. And they will be really, really happy.”
But they were my books. I hadn’t even had a chance to read them yet.
“People will get excited about them,” I thought to myself. “And people will go in and donate a little more with the hope of winning them, because they are beautiful. And those people will have warm, fuzzy feelings because they’ve made the world a better place. And kids all over the world will have milk to drink and eggs to eat. Kids will get to go to school and have better lives.”
So. I’m putting them into the lottery.
For every ten bucks you donate, you get a chance to win. Not just the books we’re showing here, but over a thousand books donated by authors, fans, and publishers. Tens of thousands of dollars worth of books.
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