not-a-space-alien asked:
Hi, Neil. I was wondering why you and Terry chose the flying hourglass motif for Good Omens. It's a neat symbol and I was wondering why it caught your eye and how you think it ties into the novel's themes. And it seems unusual that it was in the first editions and then later taken out for newer printings; was that your choice?
neil-gaiman answered:
We knew we needed a symbol to put between bits. Skulls seemed a bit obvious (and in the first proof they sent us, it was three skulls marking bits). I don’t remember who suggested the original Flying Hourglass – I think it might have been a designer at Gollancz. After Terry and I noticed the flying batwinged hourglass on the author photo (which we’d completely missed when the photo was taken) we asked the Gollancz art dept to change the birdwings on the hourglass to batwings, which they did.
No real answer to why it went away, other than new art departments with their own ideas about book design. It definitely wasn’t anything we’d asked for.
arcticflakes
