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A screen-matched opening sequence self-drawing Necronomicon Ex-Mortis from Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II. The film's opening prologue featured a special effects sequence explaining the dark origins of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, or "Book of the Dead," that is at the center of the Evil Dead franchise. During that prologue, the narration describes the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis as being "inked in blood" while the darkly powerful book is seen seemingly illustrating itself. This book is the one and only hand-animated book seen in the "self-drawing" shot from the iconic opening sequence; with all pages screen-matching the sequence through specific folds and creasing, as well as hand-coloring on several pages.
The Book of the Dead was featured in all three films of Sam Raimi's original cult classic Evil Dead trilogy. First referred to as the Naturom Demonto in The Evil Dead, it was later identified as the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness.
Evil Dead II, the higher-budget horror-comedy sequel to The Evil Dead, introduced a number of the franchise's most celebrated elements, including Ash Williams' (Bruce Campbell) stump-mounted chainsaw hand and a redesign of the Necronomicon that many fans consider to be its most memorable and classic iteration.
This Necronomicon Ex-Mortis comes from the personal collection of special effects artist Tom Sullivan, who created it for the stop-motion animated sequence in which the pages flipped and wrote themselves from the film's opening. The entire sequence took 14 hours to shoot and was completed in one filming day, with Sullivan hand-animating the pages himself. Armature wire was installed at the base of each page which allowed him to film the pages turning in a stop-motion style. In the sequence, the book appears to "self draw;" and as it moves through the spreads, the pace increases. Sullivan achieved this effect through a combination of two methods. Early on in the sequence, he was hand-drawing directly in the book pages, drawing a bit more on each page between each film frame. As the sequence progressed and the self-drawing effect sped up, Sullivan started pre-hand-drawing elements separately and pasting them into the book as he developed the shot, so they would pop up suddenly in a single frame.
This book contains 19 pages total held together by a book spine, with five pages featuring hand-drawn art for stop-motion and 12 printed pages with hand-colored touch-ups. The book and its pages were intentionally distressed by production to appear aged and covered in grime. The cover is no longer present as this book originally shared a cover with another book. As this lot exhibits lifted adhesive, as well as some fragility to the spine and paper, it should be handled with caution. Dimensions: 8" x 10" x 2" (20.25 cm x 25.5 cm x 5 cm)
Additional Provenance: Letter of Authenticity from Sullivan.
Sold without copyright; see notice in the Buyer's Guide.
Estimate: $30,000 - 60,000
Special effects maestro Tom Sullivan first met director Sam Raimi in the mid-1970s, forming an immediate bond over their mutual love of practical effects in filmmaking. Soon after, Raimi asked Sullivan to create special effects for his 1978 horror short Within the Woods, starring a young Bruce Campbell. It was through this acclaimed short film that funding was secured to create a feature-length adaptation, The Evil Dead, for which Sullivan again played a vital role in the special effects and art direction. His most celebrated contribution to the horror classic was the iconic Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, the Book of the Dead, for which Sullivan was not only essential in the design and construction, but also in the hand-illustration of all the intricate artwork and symbols written throughout its internal pages. The symbols used in the Necronomicon - an alphabet Sullivan humorously referred to as "Bullscrit" - were of the artist's own creation. After the franchise-birthing success of the film, Sullivan continued to collaborate with Raimi on its sequels, Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, and worked on other horror films such as Chris Walas' The Fly II and Michael Spence's The Dread. Propstore is pleased to present select artifacts from Sullivan's personal collection, reflecting decades of work on the productions of the extraordinary Evil Dead films, including rare surviving pieces from the Within the Woods short that started it all, hand-drawn Necronomicon pages, original Deadite make-up appliances, a Kandarian dagger, and the only Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (then called the Naturom Demonto) from the first Evil Dead film known to exist today.