.
Below is an article I wrote for Karen's column about my trip to the San Diego Comic-Con and my report on the Neil Gaiman talk. I even got him to autograph my copy of "Sandman: Seasons of Mists". My only regret was that I wasn't able to attend the midnight reading of his story because I fell asleep. At least this time, the Gaiman talk will happen in the afternoon and I'll surely be there.
Check out the part where he talks about his projects. Interesting to note how some of the titles have changed and how some books never pushed through. Maybe we can ask him about it this Saturday.
See you in The Dreaming.
Hanging Out with the Dream King
by Budjette Tan
(Published in Karen Kunawicz’s ON THE VERGE, Mirror Weekly, September 18, 1995)
Over two hundred people, including myself, packed that room in the San Diego Convention Center last July 28. As we filled up the place up, we immediately saw the man we came to see and hear. As expected, he was dressed in black from head to toe, making him resemble his famous creation, the comic book character, Sandman.
Everyone was excited to see Neil Gaiman, the critically acclaimed and award winning author of DC Comics' Sandman. I half-expected him to be as dark and brooding as his creation but he turned out to be the opposite. He was very witty and entertaining; a true storyteller who captivated his audience by creating a rapport that made you feel he was an old friend telling you his latest adventures.
“Hello, I'm Neil Gaiman,” he said, picking up the microphone; the crowd welcomed him with a round of applause. “Let's get down to the nitty gritty of things. I'll just have you ask questions and then I'll LIE. I'll do my best to ramble and answer your questions.”
Since the audience asked questions on whatever topic came to mind, I'll try to arrange this Q&A in sequential order: from his start as a comic book writer, his answers about his present work and his future plans.
DREAM A LITTLE DREAM
At 15 years old, Neil Gaiman desperately wanted to write American comic books. He was a big fan of Will Eisner's THE SPIRIT. (For all those aspiring comic book writers and artists, try to get your hands on Eisner's work. You'll learn a lot more about comic book writing and drawing from one Eisner book than with a dozen super-hero books.)
It was around that tender age when his school career advisor asked him what he wanted to do.
“I want to be an American comic book writer,” he said.
After a long pause, the advisor asked, “Have you ever considered accounting?”
“NO!”
Another long pause.
“Would you like me to send the next boy in?” asked the young Gaiman.
“You might as well,” answered the advisor.
In 1983, at Victoria Station, he saw SWAMP THING #26 written by Alan Moore. He read it there at the newsstand and put it back after reading it. The next month, he went back and read #27 and returned it after reading it as well. The following month, he saw #28 and finally bought it. For the longest time, he had never read a comic book that was “very real, very intelligent, and possessing so much power and passion.”
In 1985, he sent Alan Moore a copy of his book, GHASTLY BEYOND BELIEF. The word “ghastly” was this bleeding font and the blurb on the cover was, “Buy this or your head will explode!!!” Moore was impressed with Gaiman's writing. When Gaiman asked what a comic script looked like, Moore gladly gave the aspiring comic book writer some tips.
After his little tutorial with Alan Moore, Gaiman tried his hand at submitting some comic book scripts. It was around that time he went to the wrong pub, at the wrong time and sat beside the wrong guy at the bar. When The Guy (who remained nameless throughout Gaiman's account) found out he was a comic book writer, he made him an offer. The Guy said he was putting together a group of young comic book writers and artists. It was from this ragtag group that Neil met an art student fresh out of school. This was Dave McKean, who would eventually become Gaiman's collaborator in the award-winning graphic novels, VIOLENT CASES and SIGNAL TO NOISE. Unfortunately, The Guy who promised them fame and fortune ran out on them and their works were never published.
Gaiman then met Paul Everett who was putting together another anthology called ESCAPE. Everett asked him if he had an eight-page comic story for him. He said, “Yes, I'm doing a 48-page graphic novel with Dave and it's called VIOLENT CASES. Would you like to print it?” What else could Everett say but, “Yes.”
VIOLENT CASES is a story about memory and violence. It is a story of a man remembering his childhood and how his life intertwines with the lives of gangsters of the 1930s. The booked was followed by SIGNAL TO NOISE, which tells the story of a film director dying of cancer and his last film about the end of the world.
Using those two graphic novels, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean applied at DC Comics. What happened afterwards was a dream come true. The duo was allowed to revamp BLACK ORCHID. Dave McKean painted the mind-blowing graphic novel ARKHAM ASYLUM; and of course, they did SANDMAN.
NEIL GAIMAN'S MUSE
“Where do you get your ideas?” somebody asked.
“I make them up,” Gaiman answered. “And that's the truth. I write what I like to write. If you're going to ask me my influences, my answer would be everything influences me in my writing. Some time ago, I was asked to make a reading list and I just went on and on and on.
During the summer, as a child, I asked my parents to drop me off at the library. And I tried to read everything at the children's section that had the words: sword, dragon, magic, wizard; and the sort in its title.”
SANDMAN ON THE SILVER SCREEN
“Imagine this, it's 1916, a man gets a book of magic with an incantation that can summon anyone or anything. So, he decides to summon Death but summons Dream –the Sandman-- by mistake,” said the scriptwriters of SANDMAN THE MOVIE
Gaiman told them, “If I had a book of magic that could summon anyone, I would call up my great old grand-daddy and ask him to tell me where the family money was hidden.”
After a long pause, the writers said, “Okay, how about this: it's 1916 and a man gets a book of magic that can summon anyone or anything. So, he attempts to summon his great old grand-daddy to ask him where the family money was hidden but instead summons the Sandman!”
Gaiman sighed, “That's why you're writing the movie and I'm not.”
Anyway, he's read the first draft of the script and he likes it. He said, “I found it faithful to the comic book and it was interesting.”
The movie script starts off with stories detailed in issues #1 and #2, where Sandman is captured by the sorcerer, escapes, and proceeds to look for his missing “tools”: His pouch full of dream sand, his Helmet made out of the skull of a creature he defeated centuries ago, and his Ruby created from his very own substance. Then, it jumps to #21 where Sandman meets his family, The Endless. Sandman then meets Rose Walker, a human who becomes a Dream Vortex and almost destroys Sandman's kingdom. The script goes back to #3, where Sandman goes to Hell to retrieve his missing Helmet. Upon returning to earth, he encounters the serial killer The Corinthian, a nightmare he created centuries ago. (The Corinthian really appeared in #41.) The script goes back issues #6 and #7, where Sandman battles Doctor Destiny for the possession of his Ruby. It follows the story of #8 where he has a heart-to-heart talk with his elder sister, Death. The script the slides into DREAM OF A THOUSAND CATS, which is actually issue #18, and ends with A FEAR OF FLYING, the eight-page story which appeared in the VERTIGO JAM comic book.
“As far as casting goes, I don't have any preferences,“ Gaiman said. “But I know you do. So later, you can all go out to the hall and shout at each other `Wynona Rider! No! No! No! Sarah Gilbert!` [to be cast as Death].”
Of course, the movie is still subject to several rewrites, the director's vision, the actor's interpretation of the roles, and most important of all is the budget. It could end up as some cheesy, B-movie flick.
Dear God, we hope not.
CAUGHT IN THE IDIOT BOX
Gaiman also talked about his TV show which will be shown on London's BBC2. The show is entitled CAUGHT NEVERWHERE, which is fun to do, said Gaiman, despite the fact he approaches it with trepidation.
It's a story about another London found “between the cracks.” The “hero” of the story falls into the “Other London” and the series focuses on his attempts to go back to his own London. Gaiman also said the show revolves around a lot of bad puns. CAUGHT NEVERWHERE features two of the nastiest characters he's ever come up with: Mr. Krupp and Mr. Vandemeer. The show starts shooting January and will come out in the UK autumn of 1996. And we'll never probably see it here in the Philippines. (So, all you Sandman fans who have friends and relatives in London, please tell them to record the episodes for us and send a copy to the MIRROR office.)
Singer, songwriter and Sandman fan, Tori Amos, might write the theme song for the TV series.
GAIMAN IN ALICE'S WONDERLAND
“Alice Cooper is terribly, monstrously the nicest, sweetest man I've ever met,” said Gaiman. “But I don't think I'm supposed to tell you that.”
He got a call from Alice Cooper's manager who said, “I'm associated with this record company and we would like you to do a concept album with one of our artists.”
“Which one?”
If it was Barry Manilow or Whitney Houston, he would have immediately said no.
“Alice Cooper.”
“Oh, sounds interesting. So what do you have in mind for this concept album?”
“Well, do you have a concept?”
With that, Gaiman ended up collaborating with Alice Cooper on his album THE LAST TEMPTATION OF ALICE COOPER, which later spawned a comic book written by Gaiman and drawn by Michael Zulli.
SANDMAN 101
In one of the universities of California, there is a class studying popular culture which uses SANDMAN: SEASONS OF MISTS as their main text. Gaiman has been invited twice to the class and dreaded going because he usually gives them the “wrong” answer. Students would offer various interpretations and analyses about a particular characters or scene and he would say, “No. It looks like a horsey to me.”
At the Eisner Awards, Gaiman gave the opening talk and he talked about awards. He told the story of a literary award in Germany where the third prize was a rose sculpted from silver. The second prize was a rose made out of pure gold. And the first prize was a real rose.
“I don't write for posterity's sake or to be taught in colleges,“ said Gaiman. “I write to write the next line, to fill that blank page. Awards are fleeting like a real rose. You may be number one this year, but an award doesn't guarantee you'll be number one next year.”
But it is undeniable that he has been caught in the spotlight of fame. How does the Sandman's scribe deal with being famous?
“Fame is creepy, crazy, and weird,” he said. “If I expect it, like today, that I would have to talk to two hundred plus people, it's okay with me. But whenever people come up to me at the check-out counter and say, `Hey, you're Neil Gaiman!` I would start shaking and quivering like a bunny.”
MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP
Gaiman still has several projects in the works. Some of them just need some finishing touches, while some are still floating in his mind's eye.
He has scheduled Death to come out in another mini-series. DEATH: THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE will be drawn by Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham, the same art team that produced DEATH: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING.
THE DREAMING is an ongoing series “set in the vast and largely unexplored realm of Dream, featuring many familiar faces and a wealth of strange new characters.” Gaiman will be creative consultant for the series.
SANDMAN #74, to be released in November, is based on a Chinese poem. Sandman will meet Sandman at the edge of the Dreaming at an area known as the Soft Places.
SANDMAN #75, the last issue of the series, is “The Tempest” with Charles Vess doing the art. It's about Shakespeare struggling to write the play “The Tempest” for Sandman. How appropriate that the theme of the story is about the process of finishing writing things.
For those of you who need to fill in the gaps of your Sandman collection, DC Comics will be releasing the hardcover editions of the three early collections: Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll's House, and Dream Country; with brand new covers by Dave McKean.
Exclusively distributed at the San Diego Comic-Con was Gaiman's new short story “Snow, Glass, and Apples” with illustrations by Charles Vess. The story will appear next year in the anthology 1995's Best Sci-fi and Fantasy Stories. Gaiman and Vess will collaborate on another fantasy called STARSTRUCK. In Charles Vess' Book of Ballads and Sagas, Gaiman will adapt the ancient ballad “The False Knight on the Road.” This is scheduled for release in October.
Jill Thompson, artist of SANDMAN: BRIEF LIVES, has been slated to work on the DELIRIUM mini-series scheduled to come out next year. Gaiman already has an idea for the cover. Usually, he leaves the cover design up to Dave McKean. But this time, Gaiman has dictated that in #1, there should be a blue marble beside a green marble; in #2, there should be a blue flower beside a green flower; and in #3, there should be a blue thing beside a green thing. Aside from that, he's going to leave it up to Dave McKean on what to put on the cover.
Now available in your favorite comic book store is OVERSTREET'S FAN#3. Starting in this issue is a series of short stories by Gaiman based on the sculptures of Lisa Snellings.
Gaiman will be reunited with P. Craig Russel, artist of SANDMAN #50: RAMADAN, for an Elric project. Russel will be drawing the graphic novel adaption of Michael Moorcock's fantasy epic “Elric”. As a sort of prologue, Russel will adapt Gaiman's short story about a 12-year old Neil Gaiman who loved reading “Elric” in the library during those lonely summer days.
For all you cyberpunk-hacker-slackers who want their Sandman-fix, Inscape will be releasing the Sandman: Seasons of Mists CD-ROM. Now you can see and hear the comic book. Music to be provided by Tori Amos. Also in production is the CD-ROM version of SIGNAL TO NOISE. And for those with cable, try tuning in to BBC Radio and you might hear the SIGNAL TO NOISE radio drama.
Watch out for the SANDMAN ANTHOLOGY, a collection of short stories about Sandman, the rest of the Endless, and the denizens of the Dreaming. After sitting on the desk of DC Comics for over two years, it will be released by Harper-Collins in the Spring of 1996.
MORE DREAM PROJECTS
Now in limbo is SWEENEY TODD, the legendary demon barber of Fleet Street. The story, to be drawn by Michael Zulli , was supposed to see print in the horror anthology TABOO. “In a perfect world,” Gaiman said, “we would find a very nice publisher who would give Michael Zulli lots of money so that he can live comfortably, and after some time Sweeney Todd will come out as a 400-page book. But since that can never happen, we will be working on it a little at a time and it will probably be serialized somewhere.”
Some time in the far, far future, SANDMAN #0 will be released and it will be fully-painted by Dave McKean. “I thought of SANDMAN #0 before any of these other #0 came out,” Gaiman declared. The story will show three different depictions of Sandman: as an aborigine, a Polynesian, and a Sandman in Ireland. It will also finally reveal where Sandman came from at the beginning of #1 and answer the question, why was he so exhausted that he got captured by that magic spell.
After writing BOOKS OF MAGIC #3, Gaiman fell in love with the magician Zatanna. “I've been researching on Victorian magic tricks,” he said, “and I now know how David Copperfield does all his tricks. It's all there. You just have to study it. After reading those books about magic, I'm not surprised Zatanna wears those [fish-net] stockings. Men would be too busy looking at her legs rather than her hands. Anyway, I'd just like to do a story about Zatanna and her magic show on the road.”
And somewhere in the far, far, far, far future, Gaiman would like to do a SUPERMAN story with Matt Wagner, which might never happen as long as Mike Carlin is the editor of the Superman books. Gaiman said that Carlin is a nice guy, but they just can't help but disagree on certain things. In SANDMAN #71, there was supposed to be a scene where Superman, Batman, and the Martian Manhunter go to the wake of Sandman. In that scene, Superman was in his Clark Kent guise, but his cape was jutting out of his suit and he has this nervous look on his face as he tells Batman, “This feels weird.”
Mike Carlin called the scene disrespectful and wanted it changed. SANDMAN #71 is now available. Flip through it and you won't see that very awkward scene.
So, do not fret lovers of Dream. The master storyteller still has a thousand and one more tales to tell. For those who do not understand why I am making such a fuss about a man who writes for comic books, just try reading an issue of SANDMAN and see how much your dreams (and nightmares) will change.
Let me end my story with a quote from SANDMAN: SEASON'S OF MISTS: “October knew, of course, that the action of turning the page, of ending a chapter or of shutting a book, did not end a tale. Having admitted that, he also affirmed that happy endings were never difficult to find: `It is simply a matter of finding a sunny place in a garden, where the light is golden and the grass is soft; somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and to be content,` he explained to April.”
Below is an article I wrote for Karen's column about my trip to the San Diego Comic-Con and my report on the Neil Gaiman talk. I even got him to autograph my copy of "Sandman: Seasons of Mists". My only regret was that I wasn't able to attend the midnight reading of his story because I fell asleep. At least this time, the Gaiman talk will happen in the afternoon and I'll surely be there.
Check out the part where he talks about his projects. Interesting to note how some of the titles have changed and how some books never pushed through. Maybe we can ask him about it this Saturday.
See you in The Dreaming.
Hanging Out with the Dream King
by Budjette Tan
(Published in Karen Kunawicz’s ON THE VERGE, Mirror Weekly, September 18, 1995)
Over two hundred people, including myself, packed that room in the San Diego Convention Center last July 28. As we filled up the place up, we immediately saw the man we came to see and hear. As expected, he was dressed in black from head to toe, making him resemble his famous creation, the comic book character, Sandman.
Everyone was excited to see Neil Gaiman, the critically acclaimed and award winning author of DC Comics' Sandman. I half-expected him to be as dark and brooding as his creation but he turned out to be the opposite. He was very witty and entertaining; a true storyteller who captivated his audience by creating a rapport that made you feel he was an old friend telling you his latest adventures.
“Hello, I'm Neil Gaiman,” he said, picking up the microphone; the crowd welcomed him with a round of applause. “Let's get down to the nitty gritty of things. I'll just have you ask questions and then I'll LIE. I'll do my best to ramble and answer your questions.”
Since the audience asked questions on whatever topic came to mind, I'll try to arrange this Q&A in sequential order: from his start as a comic book writer, his answers about his present work and his future plans.
DREAM A LITTLE DREAM
At 15 years old, Neil Gaiman desperately wanted to write American comic books. He was a big fan of Will Eisner's THE SPIRIT. (For all those aspiring comic book writers and artists, try to get your hands on Eisner's work. You'll learn a lot more about comic book writing and drawing from one Eisner book than with a dozen super-hero books.)
It was around that tender age when his school career advisor asked him what he wanted to do.
“I want to be an American comic book writer,” he said.
After a long pause, the advisor asked, “Have you ever considered accounting?”
“NO!”
Another long pause.
“Would you like me to send the next boy in?” asked the young Gaiman.
“You might as well,” answered the advisor.
In 1983, at Victoria Station, he saw SWAMP THING #26 written by Alan Moore. He read it there at the newsstand and put it back after reading it. The next month, he went back and read #27 and returned it after reading it as well. The following month, he saw #28 and finally bought it. For the longest time, he had never read a comic book that was “very real, very intelligent, and possessing so much power and passion.”
In 1985, he sent Alan Moore a copy of his book, GHASTLY BEYOND BELIEF. The word “ghastly” was this bleeding font and the blurb on the cover was, “Buy this or your head will explode!!!” Moore was impressed with Gaiman's writing. When Gaiman asked what a comic script looked like, Moore gladly gave the aspiring comic book writer some tips.
After his little tutorial with Alan Moore, Gaiman tried his hand at submitting some comic book scripts. It was around that time he went to the wrong pub, at the wrong time and sat beside the wrong guy at the bar. When The Guy (who remained nameless throughout Gaiman's account) found out he was a comic book writer, he made him an offer. The Guy said he was putting together a group of young comic book writers and artists. It was from this ragtag group that Neil met an art student fresh out of school. This was Dave McKean, who would eventually become Gaiman's collaborator in the award-winning graphic novels, VIOLENT CASES and SIGNAL TO NOISE. Unfortunately, The Guy who promised them fame and fortune ran out on them and their works were never published.
Gaiman then met Paul Everett who was putting together another anthology called ESCAPE. Everett asked him if he had an eight-page comic story for him. He said, “Yes, I'm doing a 48-page graphic novel with Dave and it's called VIOLENT CASES. Would you like to print it?” What else could Everett say but, “Yes.”
VIOLENT CASES is a story about memory and violence. It is a story of a man remembering his childhood and how his life intertwines with the lives of gangsters of the 1930s. The booked was followed by SIGNAL TO NOISE, which tells the story of a film director dying of cancer and his last film about the end of the world.
Using those two graphic novels, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean applied at DC Comics. What happened afterwards was a dream come true. The duo was allowed to revamp BLACK ORCHID. Dave McKean painted the mind-blowing graphic novel ARKHAM ASYLUM; and of course, they did SANDMAN.
NEIL GAIMAN'S MUSE
“Where do you get your ideas?” somebody asked.
“I make them up,” Gaiman answered. “And that's the truth. I write what I like to write. If you're going to ask me my influences, my answer would be everything influences me in my writing. Some time ago, I was asked to make a reading list and I just went on and on and on.
During the summer, as a child, I asked my parents to drop me off at the library. And I tried to read everything at the children's section that had the words: sword, dragon, magic, wizard; and the sort in its title.”
SANDMAN ON THE SILVER SCREEN
“Imagine this, it's 1916, a man gets a book of magic with an incantation that can summon anyone or anything. So, he decides to summon Death but summons Dream –the Sandman-- by mistake,” said the scriptwriters of SANDMAN THE MOVIE
Gaiman told them, “If I had a book of magic that could summon anyone, I would call up my great old grand-daddy and ask him to tell me where the family money was hidden.”
After a long pause, the writers said, “Okay, how about this: it's 1916 and a man gets a book of magic that can summon anyone or anything. So, he attempts to summon his great old grand-daddy to ask him where the family money was hidden but instead summons the Sandman!”
Gaiman sighed, “That's why you're writing the movie and I'm not.”
Anyway, he's read the first draft of the script and he likes it. He said, “I found it faithful to the comic book and it was interesting.”
The movie script starts off with stories detailed in issues #1 and #2, where Sandman is captured by the sorcerer, escapes, and proceeds to look for his missing “tools”: His pouch full of dream sand, his Helmet made out of the skull of a creature he defeated centuries ago, and his Ruby created from his very own substance. Then, it jumps to #21 where Sandman meets his family, The Endless. Sandman then meets Rose Walker, a human who becomes a Dream Vortex and almost destroys Sandman's kingdom. The script goes back to #3, where Sandman goes to Hell to retrieve his missing Helmet. Upon returning to earth, he encounters the serial killer The Corinthian, a nightmare he created centuries ago. (The Corinthian really appeared in #41.) The script goes back issues #6 and #7, where Sandman battles Doctor Destiny for the possession of his Ruby. It follows the story of #8 where he has a heart-to-heart talk with his elder sister, Death. The script the slides into DREAM OF A THOUSAND CATS, which is actually issue #18, and ends with A FEAR OF FLYING, the eight-page story which appeared in the VERTIGO JAM comic book.
“As far as casting goes, I don't have any preferences,“ Gaiman said. “But I know you do. So later, you can all go out to the hall and shout at each other `Wynona Rider! No! No! No! Sarah Gilbert!` [to be cast as Death].”
Of course, the movie is still subject to several rewrites, the director's vision, the actor's interpretation of the roles, and most important of all is the budget. It could end up as some cheesy, B-movie flick.
Dear God, we hope not.
CAUGHT IN THE IDIOT BOX
Gaiman also talked about his TV show which will be shown on London's BBC2. The show is entitled CAUGHT NEVERWHERE, which is fun to do, said Gaiman, despite the fact he approaches it with trepidation.
It's a story about another London found “between the cracks.” The “hero” of the story falls into the “Other London” and the series focuses on his attempts to go back to his own London. Gaiman also said the show revolves around a lot of bad puns. CAUGHT NEVERWHERE features two of the nastiest characters he's ever come up with: Mr. Krupp and Mr. Vandemeer. The show starts shooting January and will come out in the UK autumn of 1996. And we'll never probably see it here in the Philippines. (So, all you Sandman fans who have friends and relatives in London, please tell them to record the episodes for us and send a copy to the MIRROR office.)
Singer, songwriter and Sandman fan, Tori Amos, might write the theme song for the TV series.
GAIMAN IN ALICE'S WONDERLAND
“Alice Cooper is terribly, monstrously the nicest, sweetest man I've ever met,” said Gaiman. “But I don't think I'm supposed to tell you that.”
He got a call from Alice Cooper's manager who said, “I'm associated with this record company and we would like you to do a concept album with one of our artists.”
“Which one?”
If it was Barry Manilow or Whitney Houston, he would have immediately said no.
“Alice Cooper.”
“Oh, sounds interesting. So what do you have in mind for this concept album?”
“Well, do you have a concept?”
With that, Gaiman ended up collaborating with Alice Cooper on his album THE LAST TEMPTATION OF ALICE COOPER, which later spawned a comic book written by Gaiman and drawn by Michael Zulli.
SANDMAN 101
In one of the universities of California, there is a class studying popular culture which uses SANDMAN: SEASONS OF MISTS as their main text. Gaiman has been invited twice to the class and dreaded going because he usually gives them the “wrong” answer. Students would offer various interpretations and analyses about a particular characters or scene and he would say, “No. It looks like a horsey to me.”
At the Eisner Awards, Gaiman gave the opening talk and he talked about awards. He told the story of a literary award in Germany where the third prize was a rose sculpted from silver. The second prize was a rose made out of pure gold. And the first prize was a real rose.
“I don't write for posterity's sake or to be taught in colleges,“ said Gaiman. “I write to write the next line, to fill that blank page. Awards are fleeting like a real rose. You may be number one this year, but an award doesn't guarantee you'll be number one next year.”
But it is undeniable that he has been caught in the spotlight of fame. How does the Sandman's scribe deal with being famous?
“Fame is creepy, crazy, and weird,” he said. “If I expect it, like today, that I would have to talk to two hundred plus people, it's okay with me. But whenever people come up to me at the check-out counter and say, `Hey, you're Neil Gaiman!` I would start shaking and quivering like a bunny.”
MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP
Gaiman still has several projects in the works. Some of them just need some finishing touches, while some are still floating in his mind's eye.
He has scheduled Death to come out in another mini-series. DEATH: THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE will be drawn by Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham, the same art team that produced DEATH: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING.
THE DREAMING is an ongoing series “set in the vast and largely unexplored realm of Dream, featuring many familiar faces and a wealth of strange new characters.” Gaiman will be creative consultant for the series.
SANDMAN #74, to be released in November, is based on a Chinese poem. Sandman will meet Sandman at the edge of the Dreaming at an area known as the Soft Places.
SANDMAN #75, the last issue of the series, is “The Tempest” with Charles Vess doing the art. It's about Shakespeare struggling to write the play “The Tempest” for Sandman. How appropriate that the theme of the story is about the process of finishing writing things.
For those of you who need to fill in the gaps of your Sandman collection, DC Comics will be releasing the hardcover editions of the three early collections: Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll's House, and Dream Country; with brand new covers by Dave McKean.
Exclusively distributed at the San Diego Comic-Con was Gaiman's new short story “Snow, Glass, and Apples” with illustrations by Charles Vess. The story will appear next year in the anthology 1995's Best Sci-fi and Fantasy Stories. Gaiman and Vess will collaborate on another fantasy called STARSTRUCK. In Charles Vess' Book of Ballads and Sagas, Gaiman will adapt the ancient ballad “The False Knight on the Road.” This is scheduled for release in October.
Jill Thompson, artist of SANDMAN: BRIEF LIVES, has been slated to work on the DELIRIUM mini-series scheduled to come out next year. Gaiman already has an idea for the cover. Usually, he leaves the cover design up to Dave McKean. But this time, Gaiman has dictated that in #1, there should be a blue marble beside a green marble; in #2, there should be a blue flower beside a green flower; and in #3, there should be a blue thing beside a green thing. Aside from that, he's going to leave it up to Dave McKean on what to put on the cover.
Now available in your favorite comic book store is OVERSTREET'S FAN#3. Starting in this issue is a series of short stories by Gaiman based on the sculptures of Lisa Snellings.
Gaiman will be reunited with P. Craig Russel, artist of SANDMAN #50: RAMADAN, for an Elric project. Russel will be drawing the graphic novel adaption of Michael Moorcock's fantasy epic “Elric”. As a sort of prologue, Russel will adapt Gaiman's short story about a 12-year old Neil Gaiman who loved reading “Elric” in the library during those lonely summer days.
For all you cyberpunk-hacker-slackers who want their Sandman-fix, Inscape will be releasing the Sandman: Seasons of Mists CD-ROM. Now you can see and hear the comic book. Music to be provided by Tori Amos. Also in production is the CD-ROM version of SIGNAL TO NOISE. And for those with cable, try tuning in to BBC Radio and you might hear the SIGNAL TO NOISE radio drama.
Watch out for the SANDMAN ANTHOLOGY, a collection of short stories about Sandman, the rest of the Endless, and the denizens of the Dreaming. After sitting on the desk of DC Comics for over two years, it will be released by Harper-Collins in the Spring of 1996.
MORE DREAM PROJECTS
Now in limbo is SWEENEY TODD, the legendary demon barber of Fleet Street. The story, to be drawn by Michael Zulli , was supposed to see print in the horror anthology TABOO. “In a perfect world,” Gaiman said, “we would find a very nice publisher who would give Michael Zulli lots of money so that he can live comfortably, and after some time Sweeney Todd will come out as a 400-page book. But since that can never happen, we will be working on it a little at a time and it will probably be serialized somewhere.”
Some time in the far, far future, SANDMAN #0 will be released and it will be fully-painted by Dave McKean. “I thought of SANDMAN #0 before any of these other #0 came out,” Gaiman declared. The story will show three different depictions of Sandman: as an aborigine, a Polynesian, and a Sandman in Ireland. It will also finally reveal where Sandman came from at the beginning of #1 and answer the question, why was he so exhausted that he got captured by that magic spell.
After writing BOOKS OF MAGIC #3, Gaiman fell in love with the magician Zatanna. “I've been researching on Victorian magic tricks,” he said, “and I now know how David Copperfield does all his tricks. It's all there. You just have to study it. After reading those books about magic, I'm not surprised Zatanna wears those [fish-net] stockings. Men would be too busy looking at her legs rather than her hands. Anyway, I'd just like to do a story about Zatanna and her magic show on the road.”
And somewhere in the far, far, far, far future, Gaiman would like to do a SUPERMAN story with Matt Wagner, which might never happen as long as Mike Carlin is the editor of the Superman books. Gaiman said that Carlin is a nice guy, but they just can't help but disagree on certain things. In SANDMAN #71, there was supposed to be a scene where Superman, Batman, and the Martian Manhunter go to the wake of Sandman. In that scene, Superman was in his Clark Kent guise, but his cape was jutting out of his suit and he has this nervous look on his face as he tells Batman, “This feels weird.”
Mike Carlin called the scene disrespectful and wanted it changed. SANDMAN #71 is now available. Flip through it and you won't see that very awkward scene.
So, do not fret lovers of Dream. The master storyteller still has a thousand and one more tales to tell. For those who do not understand why I am making such a fuss about a man who writes for comic books, just try reading an issue of SANDMAN and see how much your dreams (and nightmares) will change.
Let me end my story with a quote from SANDMAN: SEASON'S OF MISTS: “October knew, of course, that the action of turning the page, of ending a chapter or of shutting a book, did not end a tale. Having admitted that, he also affirmed that happy endings were never difficult to find: `It is simply a matter of finding a sunny place in a garden, where the light is golden and the grass is soft; somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and to be content,` he explained to April.”
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