Also on this page is the entrance to the Angel of Death’s place, a detail of a mechanism of the Golden Army, and on the bottom right is a mechanical voice box created by Baron von Kempelen, who created the Turk, the mechanical chess player. There was an exhibition of his machines in Budapest, including a reproduction of the Turk.
The device was meant to reproduce the human larynx, and I just made a sketch of it. I don’t take pictures. I don’t think I’ve taken more than two dozen pictures in my entire life. I don’t like still cameras. If something is very important, I’d rather sketch it.
NOTEBOOK 4, PAGE 39A
For the TROLL MARKET, vertical light sources in the middle, in 1:85 high resolution, for example with the Striders passing by there.
–I must make LHOD now. It’s time. But with Bardem in Argentina.
–WORMS. In the excrement of certain urban pigeons there can be found a particularly pernicious type of worm. It deposits its larvae/ eggs subcutaneously and has a special predilection for the tissues of the eye.
Mechanism for the fight.
–Agent Krauss—Yes, I read about him” Abe says, “in a book related to ectoplasmic activities—late nineteenth century—” HB: “go on” “He suffered a dramatic—” Manning: “Oh—he’s here…”
–Slipping on the floor on water and soap.
–With the idea of the old-fashioned TAPEWORM. A boy is walking around downtown and a pigeon shits on him. That night, in a five star hotel, the boy wakes up screaming. The parasites have already devoured his right eye.
Yellow fuzz.
–Design for Fragglewump UROE!!
Del Toro’s idea for the giant gears that set the Golden Army in motion was refined into the design for a real working mechanism before being built as a set, here pictured with Johann (John Alexander), Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), Hellboy (Ron Perlman), and Liz (Selma Blair) in the foreground (ABOVE).
NOTEBOOK 4, PAGE 28A
–MUD and gauze for the “extras” in the J.M.—
–Mar/4/2007 A strange thought: the Academy ballots were turned in on the 20th (I went to television station) and were counted over the course of the next few days. In other words, the 20th is ahead. I, PC, W, and AW had already “lost” and it didn’t matter at all. Once the statistics have been made manifest they do not matter. I’m surprised that I am so calm.
GIANT
–Chihuahua WITH COLLAR—at the auction.
–and then they find the hones that have been gnawed on.
BANNERS F/TH
Two headed shop owner. He hand puppets the 2nd head.
Rusty duct and lots of tubes in cement
Vapor type
Fluorescent Light Tubes which blink on and off in the T.M./steam.
Papers on the walls, put —everything along the way.
Hellboy B.P.R.D.
–Blood on the floor of the entryway to the Troll Market
GDT: Only the one in the little vignette. Wayne Barlowe really created the design for the giant. I wanted very much the center of the door to look like a keyhole—I have a thing with keys and keyholes, visually. I’m sure Freud would have no problem explaining that, but it’s something I go to a lot. It’s in Devil’s Backbone, and it’s in Pan’s Labyrinth, and it’s in Crimson Peak. I just like the idea of portals, doors, and keyholes.
The image to the right of the giant is actually a ghost for Crimson Peak. See the two initials at the bottom—“CP?” I sometimes put little initials next to each image to remind me which film it is for. So the image of the giant has an “H” next to it, which is Hellboy II. And “F” means I wanted to find an alternative use for an idea if I didn’t get to use it in a film. I drew the other “H” image—the pattern of pipes—here for the BPRD. But those actually show up in the Troll Market, in the scene where Wink beats up Hellboy.
MSZ: Next to it are some Lovecraftian symbols, kind of like the ones you drew in the first Hellboy notebook. Except here they’re contained within a frame.
GDT: That is troll writing for the map shop. I think it’s one of my favorite sets, because it had every sort of paper—all sorts of maps and atlases—covered in troll writing.
Del Toro’s idea for the threshold giant was developed by Wayne Barlowe into a finished concept that informed the final computer-generated creation.
PACIFIC RIM
Sketch of a door to a Jaeger Conn-pod from del Toro’s fifth notebook.
Concept of Gipsy Danger, the heroic American Jaeger, by Oscar Chichoni.
Storyboard of the Kaiju Knifehead attacking Gipsy Danger by Rob McCallum.
Concept of the Kaiju skull temple in Pacific Rim’s futuristic Hong Kong by Doug Williams.
Concept of Mako Mori on the Shatterdome ramparts by Keith Thompson.
AS GUILLERMO GAINS GREATER FAME and scrutiny, and as security on the tentpole films he crafts becomes ever greater, the notebooks have become a two-edged sword. They are valued as works of art in themselves, but could also become liabilities by revealing great secrets if lost or stolen. In addition, these pages reflect not only the changing nature of Guillermo’s life and art, but also the changing relationship between him and his audience. He is no longer a fledgling unknown clamoring for attention but a celebrity operating in public view.
Even today, Guillermo is reluctant to acknowledge his widespread popularity and vast influence. “I’m still not on the world stage. There are people who care for me. Still, the large majority of people don’t know who I am. I’m not a household name; I’m an acquired taste.”
Genuine modesty aside, Guillermo has learned the need for ever-greater caution regarding the notebooks. He must constantly be mindful of them. He became sharply aware of this on The Hobbit (2012); he was originally scheduled to direct the film series, and on the first film he shares cowriting credit. “The problem with the notebooks is, there was a very fractured relationship with them during The Hobbit. I kept a lot of notes, but I was very paranoid of them being lost because that was a supersecret project. To this day I’m very paranoid about that book, which is not finished; I’m still writing in it. So I pull it out less often because if it gets lost, if I reveal anything that’s stayed in the movies, it’s legally very, very binding.”