the most beautiful bit of psychedelia: Ralph Steadman's Alice

[selinker]

What: Illustrator Ralph Steadman's acid-trippy version of Lewis Carroll's classics Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, first published in 1967 by Dennis Dobson of London, then alongside The Hunting of the Snark as The Complete Alice in the definitive 1986 Jonathan Cape version.

Comments

the most beautiful day in Wizards of the Coast's history

[selinker]

It was February, 1996, and Wizards of the Coast was glum. A devastating series of year-end layoffs had given the world's most creative hobby game company no sense of forward momentum. It was my team's job to fix that.

In the last half of the month, cryptic emails from a new employee named "Alice Liddell" appeared in every folder, commenting inanely on the issues therein. Many people reacted with scorn, but a few smart cookies looked up the name on this strange new thing called the "internet." Yet no one knew where Ms. Liddell was.

So for February 29th, a day that shouldn't even exist in a rational calendar, we plunged Wizards into Wonderland. Everyone came in to find playing cards on their desks, and Mark Rosewater running through the halls in a white rabbit costume shouting "I'm late! I'm late!" Then in every corner of the building, strange stopovers appeared. The Red Queen (kijjohnson) conducted flamingo croquet with a lobster quadrille; the Dormouse (the-monkey-king) ran a rather unfair game of Train Chess; the Caterpillar (Brian Campbell) lounged in his hookah hut; the Queen of Hearts (Teeuwynn Woodruff) removed people's heads (don't worry, they got them back). Above the fray stood a Hatter Whom Others Call Mad, portrayed by me in Jefferson Shelley's top hat. The day ended in a tea party for those with a full set of cards, if not those playing with a full deck.

In one frabjous day, we fixed Wizards of the Coast. It broke a few times thereafter, and we're weren't always able to fix it. But that one day, we brought Wonderland to life.

Re: the most beautiful day in Wizards of the Coast's history

[kijjohnson]

I was mad, you were mad. We were all mad.

Re: the most beautiful day in Wizards of the Coast's history

[selinker]

You must be mad, or you wouldn't have come here.

Re: the most beautiful day in Wizards of the Coast's history

[rubrick]

That's... that's awesome. A damn sight more effective than the traditional Awkward Morale-building Bowling Outing, I should think.

Re: the most beautiful day in Wizards of the Coast's history

[selinker]

We had an Awkward Morale-building Curling Outing, but I was more awkward than required.

Re: the most beautiful day in Wizards of the Coast's history

[tahnan]

People who had to look up who "Alice Liddell" was don't deserve a tea party.

Don't mind me; I'm just more or less utterly in love with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Have been ever since I was a child. And I love "White Rabbit" and Tom Petty's video and I'm just a little scared of Tim Burton's movie because I don't want it to suck.

Re: the most beautiful day in Wizards of the Coast's history

[selinker]

It's funny about "Alice Liddell." You can remember the name in context, but when she appears to join your company's staff, it's a little harder to associate it with a seven-year-old girl.

Re: the most beautiful day in Wizards of the Coast's history

[gearhead69]

You worked with Wizards of the Coast? I have a coworker/friend who is always reading books published by them. Coincidentally, I found out that at one time WoC owned the publishing for a sci-fi rag that, in its early years, published fiction by great writers like Charles Beaumont (Twilight Zone). This is all linked together somehow. Very strange.

Did Steadman do the beer bottle labels? I should look into this guy more. I need to Wikipedia the man.

Re: the most beautiful day in Wizards of the Coast's history

[selinker]

For eight years. I was a creative director for many of WotC's licensed games, including Harry Potter, Marvel, and a bunch of others, and I helped reboot Dungeons & Dragons, Avalon Hill, and Axis & Allies. It was a place almost perfectly matched for my type of creativity. The "perfectly" is why I stayed so long; the "almost" is why I left.

The "rag" was Amazing Stories, which I had the pleasure to appear in once. That magazine doesn't deserve its checkered publishing history. I wish someone would buy it and then keep it alive forever.

Steadman's beer labels are for Flying Dog, which I also recommend for what's inside the bottles.

Re: the most beautiful day in Wizards of the Coast's history

[gearhead69]

Yes! Amazing Stories. It appears that you came on not long before they were purchased. I recalled that it had been a short-lived relationship and didn't know if that would have even been a blip on you radar. I agree, it's rather surprising and shocking that the magazine should have suffered so over the years, though it appears much of its troubles were due to the relative non-efforts of editor Brown. It's nice to hear that someone else out there thinks it should live on. And you appeared in it? Congrats! That's a nice accomplishment. Perhaps the magazine could find itself the subject of a "Most Beautiful..." entry? "Most Beautiful Loser in the Sci-Fi Magazine Industry."

I envy that former job of yours. Certainly sounds like there was never a dull moment.

Re: the most beautiful day in Wizards of the Coast's history

[selinker]

I certainly didn't allow one to occur.

Re: the most beautiful day in Wizards of the Coast's history

[the_monkey_king]

Probably the best day I've ever spent in an office environment.

And good on you for doing the Alice iphone riddles!

Re: the most beautiful day in Wizards of the Coast's history

[selinker]

Good on Disney for asking, says I.

My solution to getting more days like that was to move out of an office environment.