“Mister Babadook” Pop-Up Book Update

***I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to go about finding one of these sold-out books.  Sorry, I have no idea.  You’re on your own in terms of searching the net, but you’ll probably have to wait until after its actually released.  While I imagine all of this excitement will eventually lead to a second printing, please understand that I am NOT the person to talk to.***

If you’re one of the 6200 people who were lucky enough to order copy of the Pop-Up book from the movie The Babadook (like me), it looks like we’ll be waiting just a little bit longer.

As I reported last December, the filmmakers behind The Babadook have partnered with a team of artists and publishers to bring the pop-up book from the film into physical reality. There was a 50-day pre-order campaign, with the first 5000 also getting the book autographed by writer/director Jennifer Kent herself.

While the original release date had been projected for sometime in mid-summer, Kent recently offered contributors an update on the progress of the book—which included news of a delay.

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In the Australian horror movie The Babadook, a mysterious pop-up book, with artwork reminiscent of Gothic writer-illustrator Edward Gorey, seems to materialize out of thin air. It contains the story of a mysterious dark entity that stalks children at night. To say that Mister Babadook is inappropriate reading for children is an understatement—unless you want to make sure they never sleep again!

The Babdook was the “breakout horror hit” of Sundance 2014, and has been terrorizing audiences around the world ever since. Now that the film is on Netflix in the USA, interest surrounding The Babadook has seen a huge resurgence.

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On Sunday, May 10^th, Jennifer Kent sent an email update to those who have pre-ordered a copy of The Babadook pop-up book; the update included several picture of the book-in progress, which are posted below.

Alex Juhasz at work on creating the text, all painted by hand

Hello again to all our faithful Babadook book buyers! Firstly, thanks again for investing in our book. The book development has been an involved but amazing process so far. And while it is quite a challenge recreating the book(s) from the film to perfection, plus adding new pages to the story, we are moving along nicely and it’s time for another update.

WHAT’S JUST HAPPENED

The illustrations are now all finished! Our paper engineer Simon Arizpe has engineered the original pages from the film so they are working beautifully, and our artist Alex Juhasz has illustrated SEVEN NEW DOUBLE POP UP SPREADS that look amazing (that’s 14 new pages!). These new pages, combined with new text elaborate on the story of the Babadook, and are going to be a beautiful companion piece to the film. We could not be happier, and you are going to own something very special.

Simon Arizpe, our genius paper engineer

WHAT’S HAPPENING NEXT

Simon Arizpe, our paper engineer, is spending the rest of May constructing the new pop ups. As you can imagine, this is not a quick exercise. He is doing a wonderful job, and we want to make sure the mechanisms are strong, long lasting and do the illustrations justice. It takes time. Our illustrator Alex and I will be approving all of the mechanisms on every page before they go to the printers. We’ll be checking colour and contrast of pages and illustrations, text placement etc. as well.

THEN…. IT’S OFF TO THE PRINTERS!

The book will hit the printers in June. We then have to do approvals of each page in stages, to make sure they are perfect in every way. So it looks at this stage like our books are now going to ship in the fall (or spring if you’re in the southern hemisphere.) We apologize for the slight delay here, we have really been working solidly to get the book to you and make sure it is as close to the book(s) in the films as is humanly possible. We want you to have a special item to own, something of the highest quality. So I hope you understand we are really trying to get your book to you ASAP. Our focus is on getting this right.

INSIGHT, our printing company, are masters of the pop up book, and they will do all they can to hasten the process. But this is a small run, a hand glued piece of art, we do not want to skimp on quality. I ask you to be patient with us. Your book is most definitely on its way. We’ll send you another update once we have word from our printer of how it’s all going. Thank you again for being a part of this book journey my fellow Babadookers. The Babadook team appreciates your support so very much.

Warm regards,

Jen Kent (Babadook writer/director

Jennifer Kent

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If you didn’t get a chance to order your own copy of The Babadook pop-up book, there is something you can do about it: Cry like a baby and/or eat your heart out! The 6200 copies being printed will be the only run…ever!

We’ll give you more updates on The Babadook pop-up book as we receive them and, of course, we’ll review it for you once it arrives.

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Are you a fan of The Babadook? Did you order a pop-up book (or do you wish you had)? Sound off in the Comments section!

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