This is my first post here so I may have missed the Neverwhere section. Anyway, in honor of the recent announcement that Vertigo will publish a comic book adaptation of the book, I was wondering what the Neverwhere of other cities would be like.

Would the same idea work for other cities? NYC has some colorful names for it's neighborhoods and areas such as Hell's Kitchen (a feeding place for the damned) and Time's Square (where the spirit of time resides, perhaps).

I live in Los Angeles and can't think of much off-hand that could be reconstrued into a magical landscape. Perhaps San Francisco would be more appropriate.

quote:

---

Anyway, in honor of the recent announcement that Vertigo will publish a comic book adaptation of the book...

---

Huh? Where did you see this announcement? I have not heard this news.

*seconds parsival's query*

Miami could make for an interesting Miami Below. Beyond the Miami Vice/Silk Stalkings media portrayal, it's a very lively city with a rich history. Florida's one of the first-settled parts of the country, after all.

New Orleans would be almost too easy. One could argue that New Orleans doesn't have a Below because of the high water level, and the French Quarter between one and five in the morning is New Orleans Below. I'd believe it.

Journal
Here's from the Journal:
"Qh, and just a question I think I asked before but never saw a reply to: there were rumours a while back that DC was working on an comic book adaptation of Neverwhere... is there any truth to this? I'd love to see more Neverwhere, the DVD set really reiterated my love for both the series and the book.

NG: I'm not sure that I'm meant to say anything about this until DC does its own press release, but yes. They are."

And I think Newsarama has a piece on it.

I like the Miami Below. I've also thought about a few L.A. areas. There could be a real Beverly who runs Beverly Hills. Of course, there could also be the Holy Woodland (generally called Holy Wood). Also, in the San Fernando Valley there are all these Dutch streetnames like Van Nuys, Van Ness, Vanowen, etc. I could imagine a group of Dutchmen trading magic beads and trinkets for property.

Last Saturday I went out with friends who were visiting, and for that reason we ended up in a place of the city I usually never go to, and had never been at night. We entered a bar with a Jamaican flag on the door, and inside 80% of the people were black (bear in mind, we don't have black population over here, that is, we didn't have until some 10 years ago at most due to immigration). Everyone was dancing tribal-like a weird mix of reagge/salsa/ska and smoking hash. It was the coolest place ever, and we felt very strange and felt incredibly white. We all agreed we had entered Zaragoza Below
A lot of cities over here were founded by the Romans, conquered by Goths, coquered by Moors, reconquered by Goths, and until now. So there are layers and ruins and there's probably a lot of interesting stuff.

Neverwhere is by far one of the best book's I've ever read. I think that... Montreal Below would be pretty awesome .

New York definetly has its below section, as does a lot of other bg cities, but especially I'd say LA and Miami.

ooh, I just had the thought of New Orleans Below... Not that I even know New Orleans, but wouldn't it be cool.
Venice Below would be awesome, too. Submarine, as well.

If Austrailia is Down Under, would their Neverwheres be up above?

i think i've just understood why the second rescuers movie was called that way...


milan below would be... boring.
except perhaps Lotto, a refugee for underground hippies to share pot

I like the Australia Idea. They have their Dreamlines already as well. And a submarine Venice is an interesting idea. Sorta like the Nautilus in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Someday I'd like to write a Neverwhere-type story for Detroit. There's an abandoned salt mine in Detroit, which has fascinated me for several years. Writing the book would also give me a reason to dig into Detroit's history, which is fascinating and ripe for story possibilities.

Well Edinburgh actually has an undercity, although it's mostly sealed off now. You can go on tours, although a lot of it isn't terribly impressive -- just interconnected basement rooms and small streets running along them. A lot of poor people were bricked up and burnt alive in them when they were discovered to have the plague.

Albany (NY) doesn't have a below, but it certainly has a ton of history and a number of very cool abandoned structures that would work just as well. (I've based one story on an abandoned church, and am working on another one about an abandoned house...funny--i hadn't thought of the connection until now.)

I really like the ideas for New Orleans and Venice. What about places like Shanghai or Tokyo?

seconds denver's point about the underground tunnels of Edinburgh, as well as all the lvels of the city which disappeared as the city got built up and up instead of out (darn english *wink*)

And what about DC? Or Philly? They both have underground railways, along with all the steam tunnels and gas tunnels, etc, which afflict cities.

I've never been to San Francisco, but something tells me that a San Francisco Below would be faaaabulous.

I remember reading some page where someone was building a Neverhwere game, and there were Below Worlds all over the place, like Rome, India, New York, China, and Brazil. The way he described the one in China was excellent, because he says that the two are so twined togther that you can't tell them apart.
He also said that there were different Beasts for different cities, just like the alligator king and the weasel in the story. The one in New Orleans is a giant bat. I met him, once.

Just one frightening thought on DC Below:

What exactly would the characteristic for "Foggy Bottom" be?

Cheers,

Gary

hmm. My home city is Cedar Rapids, IA... I think it's one of those which doesn't have a "below" so much as a "between..."

...and now that I think of it, I know the between-places very well... ditches and abandoned factory bits and patches where the wild plants have grown back... where the deer and raccoons and the feral cats live... and I also know for a fact (because I've seen it for myself, when I was a child) that the between-places are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside...

Manila Below could be cool. If you look at a city map, there's this... quincunx in the northeast, a square with an x going through it, and a circle/park at the center. So you could give that some sort of occult ley line significance. PLace names are pretty bland though.