11 Early designs of the Babel fish on ebay

The great Rod Lord has put some new stuff on auction on ebay. This time this is no less than eleven drawings of the Babel Fish made during the preparation of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy TV series.

"I have come across a few items from the early stages of the Babel Fish sequence, the first half of which constituted the initial pilot test piece for the BBC.

These items were part of the early design process and use the initial slightly more cartoony design for the Babel Fish before I "straightened" it all up for the actual finished sequence to give a more digital feel.

This item offered for auction is a pencil drawing on animation key paper (31x25 cm) and is one of an animation of 11 turning the Babel Fish from side view to front view. There should be a number 12 but I haven't found that yet. If I do come across it at a later date I will offer that too.

I am offering these as separate items rather than a single package with the intention of giving as wide an opportunity as possible to an interested group rather than confining ownership of all to one individual.

This will come with an accompanying authenticating letter embossed with the Pearce Studios Ltd seal.

I will sign the drawing - and the letter of course !"

To find Rod Lord's drawings on ebay, clik this link.

Exclusive interview with Adrian Sear, record engineer on the Hitchhiker LPs

Interview Adrian Sear, The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy
envoyé par nbotti.

At last! I made this interview with Adrian Sear, record engineer on the Hitchhiker LPs, more than one year ago, the day before Hitchcon in October 2009! May he excuse me for being so late (but as all good douglas adams' fans i love deadlines!!).

Adrian Sear was record engineer on The HItchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy LP (1979) and its sequel "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" (1980).

Despite Hitchhiker's huge success on radio, at the begining the BBC didn't want to market the radio series. So producer Geoffrey Perkins and Douglas Adams spoke to a couple of record companies. They finally got a deal with Original Records, a small independant label. As the BBC owned the original version, they had to record a new version of Hitchhiker.

30 years after this recording, Adrian Sear tell us about this famous records, sadly never released on CD

New original Hitchhiker TV Series graphics on ebay

Rod Lord who made the graphics on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy TV series has put some original artwork on ebay. This is incredible stuff so if you've got enough money, you won't want to miss such an opportunity.

The auction ends the 17th January. Click this the link to go to the auction.


According to Rod Lord's description on ebay :

"This package is made up of :

1 - The original storyboard for this sequence.
2 - One of the masters used under the Repromaster to animate Arthur and Ford away into space at the start of the sequence.
3 - The key animation guide for the first 12 positions of this animation.

This package will come with an accompanying authenticating letter and description embossed with the Pearce Studios Ltd seal.

I will sign each item - including the letter of course !

I will include a full description of how this animation was generated and used. The large Rotring pen drawings on celluloid which were the starting point for the animation were auctioned at Hitchcon 2009." 

The Ninth Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture

On Thursday 10 March 2011, Professor Brian Cox will give the Ninth Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture at The Royal Geographical Society.

Brian Cox is a physicist but also a popular television presenter & radio broadcaster due to his ability to present science in an engaging manner.

As you probably already know "since 2003, Save the Rhino has held an annual Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture around the time of his birthday to raise money for rhino conservation projects, as well as tackling environmental crime and the trade in wildlife parts."

You can have more details on the event, and buy tickets on Save the Rhino International website here

Update. Article about Hitchhiker on Stage

The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy has been adapted on stage many times since its first ever stage adaptation at the Institute of Contempory Arts (ICA) in London, between 1 and 9 May 1979.

I have added numerous pics and you can also download three full theatre programmes.

You can find the article in the "H2G2 the myth" section of the douglasadams.eu website.

If you have some informations that i didn't publish about the Hitchhiker's stage adaptations, please get in touch, and I'll update the article accordingly.