Neil Gaiman

[Kathy Li]

For those who haven't heard, it was announced today that Neil Gaiman's latest, The Graveyard Book is this year's Newbery Award winner. Hoo-yah!

And Coraline is opening soon.

I think this may be the year he gets household word famous...we knew it would happen someday.

[kk]

I loved the book Coraline, I finished reading it in the past month or so... I thought it was really good, a bit of a children's book, but a little too creepy for that... I thought it was awesome that The Gothic Archies wrote a song for the audiobook, called "You Are Not My Mother and I Want To Go Home." It's a very long title... Haha...

I will definitely be seeing the movie... and it opens a day after my birthday, so, yay! xD

[A Traveller with Magic]

Oh, yes! I absolutely sporfled at his blog entry! (and have yet to finish the book itself, bad me. Though to be fair, listening to The Graveyard Book takes much longer than reading it.)

I've been mostly spoiled as to the plot of Coraline, though have yet to get farther than the first chapter. And I despair when I think of trying to make it to see the movie when it opens...

Next on my to do list is to finish A Study in Scarlet, so I can get to A Study in Emerald. Unless I'm mistaken in my impression that they are linked...

[Kathy Li]

Weeeeeelllll yes and no. Study in Scarlet, yes, but iirc, he actually refers to a few other Holmes stories as well. If you can read the whole thing, that would be best. But if you need to cherry-pick, you want to read "A Study in Scarlet" because it's when Holmes met Watson ("How are you? You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.") But you'll probably also want to read "The Final Problem" and "The Adventure of the Empty House", just, er... 'cause. I ain't spoilin' nuthin.

Also, getting H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulu under your belt might not be a bad idea...just er... 'cause.

[Jacq]

John Linnell (of They Might Be Giants)apparently does the singing voice for John Hodgman (Coraline's dad), which is totally rad and I'm going to go see it in theatres.

I love Neil Gaiman. Mirrormask and Neverwhere (the film/tv versions of both) are just spectacular, though I think I prefer his short stories to his novel-length works. Anansi Boys just wasn't that good, imo. :/


edit: Argh, how do I link a youtube video without having it embedded on the page?

[Dragon Writer]

I love the books I've read by him - I hope I get to see Coraline in theators. It's going to be brillient.

I loved stardust movie and story too - it seemed to me they changed it just enough to be unique, but not enough to ruin the story. I actually watched it more than one time, in a short span of time. And I don't rewatch movies!

[alla]

I really need to read more Neil Gaiman Books; I've read Neverwhere, American Gods, and I'm currently listening to the Stardust audiobook. Its really cool that Mr. Gaiman actually reads it . (oh, and I've seen the Stardust movie, and bits and pieces of the Neverwhere TV show). I really like his sense of humour. I saw The Graveyard Book in the bookstore the other day, but I'm not going to be able to get it for ages - I'm saving up for three other books at the moment.

[Dragon Writer]

There was a tv show? Gahk! *searches desperately on tv* I need to read more. Too I've read stardust, American gods, ananzi's boys, coraline, and neverwhere so far.

No such luck on the tv show. Doubt i'll ever find it... But I'm hardly going to give up looking. After all, if I can deal with what they did to the legend of the seeker series, I can take anything they dare dish out!

[alla]

Neverwhere was a TV show before it was a novel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwhere -- according to Wiki, there's also been an option for a movie. Interesting.

[Dragon Writer]

One - thats a first for me. Two - all the better! That means they can't have messed it up. Partially because Gaiman was responsible for both, but mostly because I'd came first.

[Kathy Li]

Actually the BBC did mess up Neverwhere (which, btw you can find on DVD). They crippled it by giving it a seriously low budget, and then deciding to video the thing instead of filming it. Neil, on the commentary track, makes a remark about how even the real lion statues in Trafalgar Square look like cheap props when they're shot like that. Remember, this was before the return of Doctor Who when the BBC thought all SF was trash.

OTOH, the actors rock. The only real problem casting is the boar-like Underground Beast being played by a Highland cow.

Myself, I'll never really stop thinking that Gaiman's best work was Sandman. But I loved Anansi Boys (far more than I liked American Gods), but then I recognized all four names in the dedication, and I got a PDF of the book via email about a month before it was published. [grin]. The rewards of being a "pen goddess" [smirk].

[Dragon Writer]

Well, so much for that dream. I was hoping that they couldn't completely dismantle a story that hadn't been written yet. Guess I forgot the key fact about tv producers - when it comes to ruining a good book, there's nothing they can't do.

[Jacq]

I never noticed the terrible budget of Neverwhere - I just assumed all British television looked like that XD. (Hitchiker's, Red Dwarf, etc etc). And the Marquis was probably the coolest hep cat to ever walk the Underground. Puurawr. ;D
(down girl.)

Earlier, I utterly blanked on the most incredible thing by Gaiman ever. It was a radio play that was about Angels but also a murder mystery - also narrated mostly by Gaiman, iirc. Man, I swear I listened to that play 100 times (I was a caterer at the time). Couldn't tell you the name of it now, though. Probably the sublime Kathy Li can refresh my memory.

At the risk of getting lynched, the art in sandman never really did it for me - I much preferred Violent cases and remember being disappointed when I opened Sandman #3 and realized there was no McKean inside.

I'm too lazy to keep remembering to underline titles. Sorry, high school English teachers. (neener)

[Kathy Li]

Well, so much for that dream. I was hoping that they couldn't completely dismantle a story that hadn't been written yet. Guess I forgot the key fact about tv producers - when it comes to ruining a good book, there's nothing they can't do.

Well, as everyone was mentioning, the tv series came before the novel. Gaiman "novelized" it after it ran. He's actually happier, iirc, with the American edition than the British, because he actually had enough time with the American version to get it down right. The UK one was a rush job. There are supposedly a lot of differences between the two editions.

The Beeb didn't dismantle or ruin it so much as take the shine off it. But as with most filmed stories, the book is better.

I never noticed the terrible budget of Neverwhere - I just assumed all British television looked like that XD. (Hitchiker's, Red Dwarf, etc etc). And the Marquis was probably the coolest hep cat to ever walk the Underground. Puurawr. ;D
(down girl.)

Grin. Yeah, I was convinced British SF tv would forever look like that. When DOCTOR WHO hit, I was knocked for a loop--an actual FX budget! BTW, if you can get your hands on it, there's a series that aired on the BBC recently, based on a Terry Nation post-apocalyptic tv show/novelization that stars the delicious Patterson Joseph (the Marquis). Personally, I think I'd have loved the Marquis even more if he'd been played by Eamonn Walker. Walker is also a dancer.

Earlier, I utterly blanked on the most incredible thing by Gaiman ever. It was a radio play that was about Angels but also a murder mystery - also narrated mostly by Gaiman, iirc.

Oh, yeah, the Seeing Ear Theatre version of "Murder Mysteries" (same group also did "Snow Glass Apples")--a short story that (iirc) was originally published in the tiny-press anthology Angels & Visitations and then recollected in Smoke And Mirrors, and then adapted into comics form by P. Craig Russell. It's had several lives.

At the risk of getting lynched, the art in sandman never really did it for me - I much preferred Violent cases and remember being disappointed when I opened Sandman #3 and realized there was no McKean inside.

Oh, hell, I actually prefer when McKean's working on his own without Gaiman (which many folks, I'm sure consider heresy). Cages and Pictures That Tick seriously rocked my world.

As for the art in Sandman--for me it often depended on who was drawing it. It obviously varied, given how many different people worked on it. But I mostly loved them all. I mean, I love just about anything Jill Thompson ever does. Ditto P. Craig Russell and Charles Vess. I loved the stuff Sam Kieth did with Matt Wagner long before Sandman. And to me, for Luther Arkwright alone (not to mention One Bad Rat), Bryan Talbot is a god. Had it not been for Luther Arkwright, Alan Moore might never have written V for Vendetta or Miracleman. Mike Zulli--well, I really wanted Zulli to be working on Gaiman's Sweeney Todd comic (that only got one chapter published in Taboo before it folded) instead, but hey, I'll take what I can get. I brought associations to each of the rich pool of artists who worked on Sandman, so for me it was a never-ending smorgasbord of delights.

I'm too lazy to keep remembering to underline titles. Sorry, high school English teachers. (neener)

Actually, you're only supposed to underline the titles if you can't italicize them. Like... on a typewriter.

[Cress]

I have never read Sandman. *cries* I haven't been able to get ahold of it, and as a general matter I don't love graphic novels, so I haven't had oodles of motivation. But I really would like to read it, because it's Neil Gaimen. Personally, I like American Gods best. His short stories are also really good. I just finished Smoke and Mirrors, and it was terrifying and amazing. Like most things he writes.