25 April 2013: Update

Apologies, followers, for the lack of updates on my blog recently.  I'm very excited to say that we got a publishing deal with Canongate Books to do a book of dad's life through his art so I've been buried in organising material for that... I will share more goodies from the archive again when I get a chance, so please keep checking in! Thank you all for your wonderful support so far...

15 March 2013: "The World of Fat"

It's finding treasures like these sketched storyboards of an idea dad had for an animation sketch - "The World of Fat" - that makes getting covered in dust in the freezing loft worthwhile:

22 January 2012: Dad's first published work

Thanks to Richard Kolkman (www.seriocomics.com), who kindly gave us these original copies of the "Courier" newspaper from dad's high school, Birmingham High School in California, and Denis Kitchen (www.deniskitchen.com), who made the connection and organised the delivery, we now have prints of dad's earliest published works (from 1956 & 1957)& I've found the original sketch of "The Beast of Birmingham"... Enjoy!

Courier - 19 October 1956

"The Beast of Birmingham" - TG cartoon

Courier - 21 February 1957

Courier - 1 April 1957

1 November 2012: Time Bandits

After a long pause (sorry!) I thought I would try something new and introduce a video element to the blog... So here is a (very amateur) video of me going through my latest discovery - the original continuity folder (script, polaroid photos & all) from Time Bandits (thank you Penny Eyles).  I hope you enjoy it.

 

* Frustrated at how small the video appears and it's not at all clear when you "full screen" it.  Please take this as a test & I'll see what I can do to improve it...

"Share" #2 for the 1st week of September 2012

In one of the Monty Python boxes I came across more Python scripts, many of which were for Monty Python and the Holy Grail, titled "Monty Python's Second Film. A First Draft"and "The Quest for the Holy Grail - Monty Python's Second Film"  together with several early draft scripts for various scenes in the film, some of which you may recognise, others of which never made it past the draft stages (I hope you can read these - not sure if they're clear enough):

"Share" #1 for the 1st week of September 2012

The box I found labelled Magazines is full of all of dad's old Fang magazines (the student humor magazine he worked on when he was at Occidental College) many of which feature some great illustartions/cartoons by him, so I thought I'd share some of these:

1st week of September 2012

September has brought sunshine to London and given me an opportunity to get up in the loft.  I've discovered a whole host of goodies - from dusty boxes labelled Monty Python and Magazines to dad's old stills cameras - so I've decided to do two totally unrelated "shares" this week. I hope you enjoy them...

For "The Meaning of Life" afficionados: 29 August 2012

I went up in the loft today & came across a dusty brown envelope with "One More M. Python Film" written across it in dad's handwriting.  In it I found several original scripts (dated 1980) for various The Meaning of Life sketches, including one of my favourites - Mr. Creosote...

Share of the day: 23 August 2012

Sorry for the lack of posts recently.  Here's some of what I have been dusting off and organising over the last couple of weeks -  Original Monty Python's Flying Circus scripts from 1969 to 1974 (some with dad's notes & doodles on):

Script for film insert - "International Musical Chairs"

Rehearsal Script -
"Monty Python's Flying Circus - Ep. 7" - 1969

Script - "Circus" - Episode Four - 1970

Script -
"Monty Python's Flying Circus With Very Few Naughty Words"
 - Episode 13 - 1972

Running Order - "Monty Python 5." - 1970

Script - "Owl Stretching Time -
Episode One - 'Sex & Violence'" - 1970

Script -
"Roger Learns All About Mr. Sidcups 'Tantrums'" -
Episode 9 - 1972

Script - "The Golden Age of Ballooning" - Show 1 - 1974

Today's offering: 6 August 2012

I spent the day sorting through dad's original storyboards for Time Bandits... So many good pieces it was hard to choose what to share but here's a sprinkling of what I found...

"Napoleon"

"The Ogre & his wife"

"The Time Bandits & Kevin caged"

"Spinning cowboys"

First of the month: 1 August 2012

I love this page of dad's handwritten ideas & doodles for short animation sequences (circa 1969), some of which made it into Monty Python's Flying Circus:

 ... and here's some close-ups of this page & another:

As promised... : 26 July 2012

As promised, here are some of dad's sketches from The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus...

... and a page of his rough storyboards:

 

Discovery of the day: 24 July 2012

I am surrounded by piles of dad's storyboards & doodles from The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus which I need to organise... Hopefully I'll have some treats to share tomorrow.

Discovery of the day: 23 July 2012

OMG! I just opened up a trunk to discover a pile of dusty, old 16mm film, including some of dad's early attempts at animation, a short film him & his friends made in NYC in the 1960s and a film can labelled "Beware of the Elephants" (gem!)... Digital scanning facilities here I come (I hope the film hasn't faded too much)!

More from "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life": 23 July 2012

I've dug up and dusted off some more fabulous pieces from "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" opening titles:

 

And an original script...

Discoveries of the day: 20 July 2012

So I went a little off piste today and dived into some of the Monty Python's The Meaning of Life material.  I found incredible orignial illustrations and cut-outs for the opening titles animation sequence. 


Here's the "She Dragon"...

And something a little more iconic...

Discovery of the day: 19 July 2012

Came across these tiny cut-out pieces for the opening titles of Monty Python's Flying Circus.  Hand drawn, hand painted and hand cut-out by Mr Gilliam himself!