In 1989, Neil Gaiman and multi-talented artist David McKean collaborated on a 100-word Christmas card story titled Nicholas Was. Since then, this story has been transformed into a short animated feature and this inventive detailed pop-up book by Vimeo crafter Nomsa. Here’s the full text of the story:
Nicholas Was… from nomsa on Vimeo.
Nicholas Was…
older than sin, and his beard could grow no whiter. He wanted to die.
The dwarfish natives of the Arctic caverns did not speak his language, but conversed in their own, twittering tongue, conducted incomprehensible rituals, when they were not actually working in the factories.
Once every year they forced him, sobbing and protesting, into Endless Night. During the journey he would stand near every child in the world, leave one of the dwarves’ invisible gifts by its bedside. The children slept, frozen into time.
He envied Prometheus and Loki, Sisyphus and Judas. His punishment was harsher.
Ho. Ho. Ho.
Even with the handmade look, I’m sure that this first stage can figure a very good stuff with the help of a profesionnal production (printing in serigraphy on beautifull black paper). The type setting are amateur-ish but all the concepts remains quite interesting and smart.
