This week I´ve suddenly accomplished a long held promise to myself. I´ve chanced upon and purchased a copy of Brian Froud’s “The World of the Dark Crystal”, an art-book about the Jim Henson and Frank Oz film released in the early 1980´s.

When I first found this book on the shelves of a friend of mine, somewhere about five years ago, I made a solemn promise to myself, that no matter the price, I´d buy this wonderful book the moment I´d come across it in a bookshop. And after years of (casually) searching I finally stumbled upon it in the American Book Centre.

Opening the pages upon my homecoming has flooded my mind with wonder and amazement. And already this book has inspired me beyond my wildest dreams for my personal world building project. Proving thus that it is the best money I’ve ever spent on a book.

The World of the Dark Crystal contains more than just interesting reading material and stunning pictures about some fabulous cult classic puppet movie. It tells in a fascinating storytelling fashion about one of the most fantastical world-building projects that has ever been put to film. It contains page upon page of beautifully rendered art pieces, made to pre-conceptualise a mystical story-world that was imagined by the minds of Jim Henson and Frank Oz. But most importantly for storytellers like me, this book tells about the entire story-world that was designed for the film. Accompanying Froud’s artwork, that portrays a magical world filled filled with all sorts of symbolic detail, are all sorts of stories explaining everything from the the mere line shapes upon the faces of the urRu, to the wondrous alchemical and triangular graphs that fill the World of the Dark Crystal.

I have been researching everything about the making-of of The Dark Crystal for several years. And I can honestly say that the story of the published version merely touches upon the surface of the immense amount of work that has been put into creating the stage of the film alone. And now, more than ever, I yearn to lock myself up in my working room for a year and work like an obsessed man.