Neil Gaiman: Classic Or Dud

No I am not, have never been and never intend to be a goth. Does that answer the second one.

My Modern Novel teacher (Scott Bradfield - a pretty good writer himself; check out _The History of Luminious Motion_) went on a mini- rant about Gaiman one class - pretentious bastard, no-talent hack, bla bla bla. And this was back in 1995! I'd hate to see what he'd say now.

I never thought I was a goth though I was accused of it recently on wearing dark red lipstick and elbow length black lace gloves. No one seemed to realise I was doing eighties revival. Sigh...........

x0x0

Of course Gaiman is a follow on from Moore - the latter was his mentor and I hear that they still send letters under pseudemoms to each other's columns.

David:

The History of Luminous Motion is a fine novel, probably the one I remember most fondly from 1996, but hardly gets Bradfield off the Gaiman hook. Teenagers becoming Warlocks and drawing pentangles on their hands? Neil would have been proud. Where is SB based, by the way? Is it East Coast?

His children's novel was, uh, OK. I bought the special edition for the artwork. American Gods wasn't particularly special, but not awful.

I've never read any of the Sandman/Neverwhere/graphic novels... or really, anything else he's done.

am reading smoke and mirrors right now, will get back to you.

Good Omens is brilliant, and I keep meaning to nick it back off my mate who has had it now for about 4 years.

Andrew - I only bought Kindly Ones as a whole graphic novel, I was a bit of a late starter in the Sandman books. In fact I've only read about 5 so far anyway.

As for his other work, my favourite Gaiman comics are actually Black Orchid and The High Cost of Living. The former is a clever subversion of superhero clichés (better than Frank Miller's attempts to do the same thing), and the latter just sums up perfectly what's good about Gaiman's writing (his endless humanism, mainly). The Time of Your Life wasn't quite as good as the first Death series, and Signal to Noise and Violent Cases were both interesting but somewhat artsy. Gaiman's books are entertaining, but not brilliant.

About Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore: I don't think Gaiman has ever surpassed his mentor. His work has been constantly good, unlike Moore's, but at his best Moore still beats him. Also, Moore is more visually oriented, and his comics are always innovative both on the visual and the textual level. Gaiman, on the other hand, is more of a traditional writer; his work usually has too much text, and that is always a bad thing for a comic.

Well, that and the fact that Gaiman == Gilderoy Lockhart. (truth copyright Angela Cotter)

this is arrant nonsense... well, whatever about the Kindly Ones, the Wake was a long essay in wanky tiresomeness that I only bought for the sake of completism.

no way. kim newman rules. (and you're forgetting the velvet suits and cane).

The last two issues of Sandman (the Chinese story and the Shakespeare story) were unnecessary, admittedly. But being a long time reader of the comic, I couldn't help but be moved by seeing all the series' characters gather one last time for the wake and the funeral. Call me a sentimentalist.

What's Signal to Noise like? anyone?

It's a Gaiman/McKean collaboration, and it's about a dying film-maker who tries to direct his last movie inside his head. It's actually quite good, better than Violent Cases anyway, because it isn't as artsy and pretentious as that one.

_American Gods_ was damn good, though. The best parts of the
book were the parts where the hero was going all domestic,
renting an apartment, going on dates, etc. Neil Gaiman could
write great "normal" stories, minus murder and magic.

Incidentally, according to the TV credits, Neverwhere was based on an idea by Lenny Henry; although the concept of there being a secret underground London is a very old legend, especially the bit about the giant boars. They supposedly escaped from Smithfield market into the River Fleet, and their descendants are down there somewhere still.

the whole thing has an element of Myst/Riven looks about it.

I think it's supposed to be Delirium from Sandman:

http://www.obscure.org/~domino/images/delirium.jpg

...though if I remember correctly, Gaiman denies it in some of his introductions to the Sandman books and says Tori is more like Death. Anyway, the book where that strip is taken from does feature Delirium visiting an S/M club where a Tori Amos song is playing on the background.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/thewire/pip/4uyaw/

no Listen Again link on page but it's here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio3_promo.shtml
under 'The Wire'

Yeah - I've noticed he works better in short form. My two fave bits of his are probably that Emperor Of The US story and the Warhol story he did in MIRACLEMAN. Probably add "Murder Mysteries" in there as well.

Actually, I think I ripped off (well, not necessarily, it is a true story, minus Gaiman's embellishments) that Emperor story for a story I submitted to my high school anthology.

New prequel miniseries announced with JH Williams on art:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=39721

^ Sandman, that is.

!

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=48465

“The room broke out into cheers again as the panel brought up the image of the name Miracleman, playing a video of writer Neil Gaiman speaking about the character.
“Miracleman #25 has been sitting in the darkness, nobody’s seen it…I love the idea that it’s finally going to be seen,” Gaiman said, calling it the “big incomplete book of my life,” and announcing Marvel’s intention to bring the material back into print.

Quesada told the cheering audience that in January 2014 they will be printing the “Miracleman” material and Gaiman’s end to the story.”

I'm thinking abt reading The Sandman and don't know whether to get the new recolored editions that are the only ones available in print, or track down the old original ones. The new ones look more "true" to the subject matter and are probably "better" but gosh they look so generic and sterile and lack all of the charm of the original ones (which are so much more true to their era)

OG on left, new recoloring on right

http://comicsalliance.com/files/2010/09/sandman1.jpg
http://comicsalliance.com/files/2010/09/sandman2.jpg
http://comicsalliance.com/files/2010/09/sandman3.jpg

it almost looks like the way that remixed/remastered version of Pearl Jam's "Ten" sounds, like do you not realize that so much of the charm is that it's a product of a specific era??

I would go with originals for the sake of nostalgia, but some of that '90s Vertigo coloring was the worst. Looked like somebody puked rust all over the page.

can't accuse Oliff or Vozzo of that though. seps got terrible around Brief Lives but solid after that.

a lot of his novels are cheap on amazon kindle today, in the UK anyway (maybe connected with new neverwhere story on the radio?)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/b/ref=s9_acsd_al_bw_clnk_r?node=4725112031

How the Marquis Got His Coat Back
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080xppt

Quesada told the cheering audience that in January 2014 they will be printing the “Miracleman” material and Gaiman’s end to the story.”

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, October 13, 2013 7:48 AM (three years ago)

lol

did that not happen?

Golden Age was released as hardback but I don't know about Silver Age.

Indirect but: Cinamon Hadley, who became the inadvertant model for Death in The Sandman, has passed:

https://www.comicmix.com/2018/01/06/cinamon-hadley-the-girl-who-was-death-has-died/

Rest in Peace, or head off to your next adventure, Cinamon Hadley. You gave Death of the Endless her face and her smile. https://t.co/lsikh0BHCW

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) January 6, 2018

Dud.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/19/neil-gaiman-apologises-skye-breaking-lockdown-rules-new-zealand

lol I had no idea he was married to Amanda Palmer, but other than being a thread on ILX I have no idea who she is anyway.

OMG!!!!! why did you not also post this to the Amanda Palmer thread???

He apparently has never opened that thread.

Bingo.

simple simon met a gaiman going to his third home to spread some rona..

Though I'd never opened a Neil Gaiman thread till now.

he writes those shit comics that aren't viz or beano!

lol if you can call that writing

I watched about half of season 1 of American Gods and it was some insufferable shite that even the great Ian McShane couldn't ameliorate with his fine presence.

I liked Good Omens and Neverwhere, have given up on everything I've looked at since then, including American Gods which I found not of interest from any angle.

It's easy to criticise but who among us can honestly say they wouldn't feel inclined to fly 11,000 miles to get out of being locked up with A. Palmer?

New Zealand maybe not a great place to go to patch up a rocky relationship.

xp a guy who chose to marry Amanda Palmer and have a child with her?

We actually have the answer to that and it is no.

Fun fact: the Gaelic name for the Isle of Skye is An t-Eilean Sgitheanach.

I'm sure Neil Gaiman speaks it like a native... a native of Hampstead, that is.

I bitched about this on the Amanda palmer thread. Theres no hospital for a couple hundred miles for the inhabitants of Skye and little reason for them to get covid without outsiders coming in

Who would have thought some rich entitled London wanker who 'loves Skye more than anything' could be that selfish?

Runrig are from Skye, if he could take out one or two of them with his London diseases it'll all have been worth it.

think yr more of a londoner than he is, tom -- he grew up in east grinstead (parents = scientologists) , living there on and off till 1987, then moved to wisconsin in the early 90s

Runrig also appear in the Duolingo Gaelic course pretty early on, probably before Skye.

(xp) A Sassenach incomer all the same.

that i will not deny

Reminds me, I work with a guy from the Canary Islands who told me their nickname for mainland Spaniards is 'los Godos', the Goths.

I've been listening to the Sandman audio drama on Audible and it's...not bad, I guess? I don't listen to audio-books much as my attention span with these things is pretty abysmal. But some chapters have been enjoyable, in particular the Dr Destiny storyline. The episode set in the diner was creepy was fuck.

Can't say I care much for Death's voice actress. I know the character is meant to be quirky and upbeat, but she sounds far too high-pitch squeaky (I actually thought it was Kristen Schall for a minute) and a bit one-note. It's too bad, as aside from her the "Sound of Her Wings" episode was done really well.

Creepy as fuck

Didn't know this existed. Kristen Schall might actually be a good Death!

Schall would have more range, I'd reckon. I'll give Dennings another chance when the next Death story comes up, she might improve.

The second part of the audio series is out. They actually went ahead and cast Schall as Delirium, so in any scene where she interacts with Death (Kat Dennings), the two are impossible to tell apart! Still, Season of Mists and A Game of You are two of my favourite extended Sandman stories, so this should be good.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00120cb

^ Desert Island Discs from earlier in the month

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4JQZ297tX36CzL1JSkQHy4D/nine-things-we-learned-from-neil-gaimans-desert-island-discs

and that link seems to be the bones of the talking.

Anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWJTB6FPVaA

looks good enough

though there is a slight element of cheapness about it that seems unavoidable in every Gaiman adaptation for some reason

it's an issue with clive barker as well. something about british horror/fantasy.

akm
Posted: November 5, 2016 at 8:52:29 AM

did that not happen?

lol

(Candyman seems perfectly suited to its budget fwiw imo)