Just Put Some Buttons Behind Those Specs

Two items regarding Coraline in all its many shapes and forms.

Item number one: Harper Collins is getting in on the graphic novel game. Can't allow Scholastic to hog all the fun, I guess. As such Coraline the graphic novel is currently being penned by P. Craig Russell. You can see three of the unlettered pages here and two lettered ones here. Mr. Russell did some Sandman work back in the day and sports a rather nice blog for the GN-inclined amongst us.

Item number two: Remember that Coraline movie that's getting filmed these days? Did you happen to catch who was playing the dad? It's John Hodgman, baby. Sometime This American Life contributor and best known for his appearances on The Daily Show and in Mac ads (to say nothing of his recent book), Mr. H will be playing both good Dad and bad Dad. I don't know who the casting director was, but this verges on the brilliant. A soft-spoken villain is always creepier than a outrageous one. No coincidence, I suspect, that Hodgman recently interviewed Neil Gaiman here in New York about his life and work.