Please Help Peter Beagle

This is so sad. I had heard about this a while ago. Apparently, Peter Beagle is getting nothing in return for sales of his DVD of The Last Unicorn. Upon reading my review of the book, his business man Connor Cochran sent me the message below and I wanted to pass it on. Please support this cause and if you buy the DVD, buy it through Conlan Press.

Comment:

Glad you liked THE LAST UNICORN. I will share your review with Peter immediately.

If you don't mind, I also hope you could spread the word about a serious problem. In the last eight years, the English company that owns the film version of THE LAST UNICORN has sold more than a million DVDs and videotapes of it around the world, and owe Peter hundreds of thousands of dollars according to his contract, yet they have so far refused to pay him anything. To deal with this and other nasty situations we are trying to use the power of the web to help connect Peter directly with his fans, raise awareness of the issues, and get him what he is legally and ethically due.

Here are some URLs offering more information about the situation:

General help page: http://www.conlanpress.com/youcanhelp/index.html

Peter's fans post messages of support: http://www.conlanpress.com/html/fans_speak.html

And here is a link to a press release about our latest effort to help Peter -- ironically enough, through sales of the very DVD that he is being cheated out of his proper earnings on!

http://www.peterbeagle.com/film/lastunicorn/TheLastUnicorn_DVDPressRelease.pdf

...you see, if people buy a DVD from the Conlan Press site we set up, either personally autographed or not, then Peter makes more than half the purchase price. If someone buys a copy anywhere else, Peter gets nothing.

-- Connor Cochran
Business Manager for Peter S. Beagle

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

"The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea."

So begins Peter Beagle's, The Last Unicorn. What a fantastic book! This one has been on my to be read list for a long while and thanks to the Once Upon a Time challenge, I finally got around to it.

The Last Unicorn is everything that a fantasy should be. It has unicorns to begin with, magicians, gypsies, old kingdoms, kings, princes, magic, an old castle on top of a hill, and a giant red bull.

It is the story of a unicorn who is on a quest to find others like herself. Along the way, she meets a magician and a gypsy sort of woman. They are on a quest to find The Red Bull who must be defeated in order for her to find the other unicorns. Plenty of magic, fighting, wizardry, love and loss occur along the way, all in breathtaking fashion.

The unicorn is a wonderful, powerful character. Unicorns are one of the first things that pop into my mind when I think of fantasy. Even white horses look magical in real life because of the idea of a unicorn. Peter Beagle's unicorn is the definition of what a unicorn should be. She's mysterious, powerful, beautiful, glowing, and magical. She reminded me a lot of Yvaine from Stardust even though Yvaine wasn't a unicorn. Read the book and you'll understand why. I thought of Stardust a lot while reading this book. It has the same magical theme, and is a classic fantastic fairy tale like Stardust is. In fact, I'm hoping that there's one scene involving a unicorn in Stardust that does not make it to the film because it was very upsetting just reading it.

The red bull was a wonderful character in The Last Unicorn. He is described as an enormous red bull who's size is more than one can imagine with horns like lightning and a sort of electricity coming off of him. He is also blind. He herds unicorns into the sea. Wonderful fantasy character and even though he's somewhat of a villain I still loved him.

The illustrations are done by Mel Grant and I loved them. They were exactly what they should be and I can't describe them much better than that. Black and white illustrations with a very "sketched" look that fit perfectly with the story.

This was my first book of Peter Beagle's. The man is an extraordinary writer. His descriptions are so detailed and beautiful and so different from any other authors I've read. He has a wonderful way with words and creates a beautiful story here. The next issue of Orson Scott Card's online magazine Intergalactic Medicine Show is supposed to have an interview with him and a new short story by him. Can't wait for that.

There's also an animated version of The Last Unicorn out there that I'd like to check out. It's always good to see a book translated into a movie and I believe that Peter Beagle wrote the screenplay for the movie.

Book one of the fantasy challenge down, and what a wonderful book it was!

I May Be Broke, But I've Got Peter Beagle

Thanks to Carl, I had to go spend money on a book today :p. It's really not his fault though, it was my choosing. One of the books that I signed up for for the Once Upon A Time challenge was Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn. Now, I have all the other books that I'm reading for the challenge sitting on my shelf, but I just had to have this one first even though I had only $18.99 in my checking account (it's called being a grad student). On the positive side of being a grad student, my stipend should be coming in in about 4 days, so I'll manage.

I tend to do this alot with books. I have probably about 50 books sitting on my to be read shelf, including the other 4 books I'm reading for the challenge, but I still manage to always "need to buy" another book. That's one thing I like about these challenges - I can commit to reading some of these that have been sitting on the shelf, lonely and abandoned for far too long. Unfortunately though, I don't own the rest of the books that I signed up for for the Banned Books Challenge, so I'll have to be buying those. It's worth it though.

So now I just need to finish Fahrenheit 451 tonight for the banned books challenge and then I can start The Last Unicorn. Can't wait!

Another great thing about these challenges is that I'm getting to meet all of these other great bloggers out there who have also signed up for the challenges. And with fantasy being my favorite genre, there are lots of new friends out there!

Web Wanderings (3/15/07)

I'd like to start off the web wanderings of the week with Lisa Snellings-Clark's amazing PoppetPlanet. The site is "officially being launched on Saturday" but is now open for the viewing and it is wonderful! It's everything that a poppet lover could want an more. Included is a poppet registry, photo's of poppets traveling the world, beautiful art by Lisa, a wonderful forum that I shall be joining shortly, and a store. Lisa is opening up the Vernal Equinox Sale on March 17th (this saturday) which I'm sure will feature all kinds of amazing art.

Next up is Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. In the most recent letter from the editor there is talk about Peter Beagle doing an all new short story and interview for the next issue. I'll definitely keep everyone updated on when the issue arrives online. I've never read anything by Beagle, though The Last Unicorn always seems to be on my list and i saw in this letter that he recently wrote a sequel to The Last Unicorn called Two Hearts which is a novelette that won the Hugo for best novelette and is also nominated for the Nebula.

Neil Gaiman has announced his new corporation website by the name of The Blank Corporation which looks to be very cool. Not alot is up there yet, but the site is still great already.

And finally, Endicott Studio's did a great little short article on one of my favorite artists, Mark Ryden. Ryden's work is extremely commercial yet there's so much meaning and hidden details in his paintings. I just love the look of his stuff so much. It can be so bright, set so somber and sinister at the same time. If by any chance anyone from Los Angeles reads this, I recommend that you go to his exhibition called the Tree Show at the Michael Kohn gallery from now until April 28th.