Posts Tagged ‘Neil Gaiman’

I'm not planning on presenting exhaustive lists of Black Friday sales — far too many other sites are doing that — but I am going to point out the ones I actually buy from, such as Amazon's. They put a lot of their stuff on sale plus they've matched many other stores' sales, so now is an excellent time to pick up some DVDs.

Example: Best Buy has seasons 1-10 of The Simpsons on sale for $10.99 – $12.99, but I have all those. Instead I just ordered season 12 from Amazon for $14.99.

Seasons of House for $12.99. Dr. Who for $41.99, half the regular price. Black Adder Remastered: The Ultimate Edition for just $41.99, half off the price and worth every penny.

Plus movie DVDs like Coraline for $8.99 and Star Trek (Single-Disc Edition) for 9 bucks.

If you were interested in getting them anyway (as I was), now's the time to nab 'em.

Remember Neil Cameron's "A-Z of Awesomeness" project, where every day he would draw a representative picture of a letter of the alphabet based on his readers' increasingly bizarre suggestions? He sold out of his limited edition prints of the final result, and mine arrived. Buyers could request a sketch for the top. I asked for "What, No Naked Neil Nattering Naughty Nonsense?" Sadly, I didn't get a naked Neil Gaiman to match the print's naked Joss Whedon (and everywhere, fanficcers just spasmed over their keyboards) but I did get a cool sketch of Neil Gaiman and a wonderful print to utterly befuddle anyone walking down my hall.

Although come to think of it, Neil could just be wearing the black jacket. That would be fitting, in a really odd way.

See all the artwork at his A-Z blog.

Well, it is a review, but mostly it was a contest entry for McSweeney's recent columnist contest. I didn't win so you get it as a blog entry. Here's what I submitted:

Life Lessons, by C. A. Bridges

My columns, should you choose to accept them, would be a variety of subjects with the common thread being the real life lessons I take away. Example:

Review: “The Graveyard Book,” by Neil Gaiman

Ordinarily one might think I have no reason to read a children’s book, as I am no longer a child and frankly wasn’t much of one to begin with. But there are lessons to be learned from all books great and small, and I loathe missing the chance for enrichment in any form.

This particular form is currently garnering all the praise it can get. Hordes of critics, writers’ organizations and librarians, working in shifts, have been feverishly devising new awards to quickly bestow upon this lively (ha!) tale of a small, recently orphaned boy raised by ghosts in a graveyard. Morbid as the subject may be, the lessons the boy garners are valuable ones indeed. Lessons of bravery, common sense and deduction, stories of responsibility and valor. Lessons valuable enough, in fact, that even after only a few short chapters I judged them worthy enough to be passed to all children.

I started small, with a nephew.

Jimbo, as he was unfortunately known, was a particularly sticky and noisome boy, with an equally annoying family (sorry, sis). My intended program of involuntary personal growth could only benefit him. But I decided, upon reflection, that it would be unnecessarily cruel to actually murder his parents, as well as being too much work. Instead I offered to feed and water him for a weekend so that his newly emancipated mother and father might enjoy the bliss of a quiet house, and then, once he was in my clutches, I merely informed him that he was now an orphan.

I had been concerned that the lack of physical violence in his presence might fail to suitably traumatize him for my purposes but as it turned out, detailed, step-by-step description of his parents’ fictional, horrendous demise was quite enough, especially when I added the appropriate gestures and sound effects. This was an excellent sign! A traumatized child is a child ready to learn. It was off to the graveyard!
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New World War Hulks series, major Hulk character to die, yadda yadda. New Dethlok series, new Spider-Man webcomics, new Lizard series, maybe a new Alpha Flight series, yadda yadda.

Marvel bought the rights to "Miracleman."

Yadd.. wait, what?

Fans of the original "Marvelman" series by Alan Moore and its continuation by Neil Gaiman (known as "Miracleman" on this side of the pond) were stonkered by the announcement made at the San Diego Comic-Con's "Cup o' Joe" panel. This series,  a seminal work that takes the existence of superheroes to its extremes long before it became vogue (and frankly still stands head and shoulders above most subsequent attempts; it still has the most chilling images yet of what happens when someone with Superman-level powers goes on a rampage) has been in legal dispute for decades and fans assumed it would stay there. Apparently not:

(Marvel publisher Dan) Buckley stated that Marvel was talking with several creators who did Marvelman stories in the ’80s and ’90s. Both Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman are among those creators, but nothing has been announced beyond the acquisition.

So, no idea if the existing comics will be reprinted or remastered, or if previous characters will show up again, or if this means a movie deal is coming that Alan Moore will have to quickly distance himself from. But I'm excited to see what happens.

Kids Need to Read announced that they're auctioning off some autographed items from Neil Gaiman's Coraline:

Neil has generously given KNTR an autographed copy of the original motion picture soundtrack of the big screen adaptation of his popular book, Coraline!  As if that weren’t enough, he also donated an autographed Coraline t-shirt (adult size extra large)!  Neil wrote a little note on the shirt that says, “Sweet Dreams”, along with his signature.

As always, proceeds go towards getting books on library shelves. Kids need to read!

Also, here's Neil and Amanda Palmer in a bathtub:

OK, it's not the most Christmassy book you've ever heard of, but your kid will thank you.

Neil Gaiman ("Sandman," American Gods," "Coraline") has dipped into Rudyard Kipling's well and created The Graveyard Book, a timeless story of an abandoned young boy raised by someone other than his parents. In this case, a graveyard full of ghosts. It's not a bad life, really.

Bod, as a toddler, escaped from the murders of his family to find safety and guardianship surrounded by haunts and crumbling headstones. They teach him well (although some of the lessons are a few hundred years out of date) and through Gaiman's seemingly effortless prose we watch him face wonders and dangers: a magical Danse Macrabre, the ancient Indigo Man under the hill, a new living friend, the carnivorous ghouls, and, most dangerous of all, the man Jack who killed his family and still seeks to finish the job.

The Graveyard Book is a fast read, which is good because before you read it to your child you'll want to devour it yourself. It takes a graveyard to raise a child.

Acclaimed storyteller Neil Gaiman is known, among other things, for posting regular and generous blog entries that allow his readers into his life and his ongoing projects. In a new Premiere interview, he explained why he does it:

But I like it! I mean, it's fun. It's weird, I had this conversation with somebody this morning, an interviewer… who was asking me the similar question but upside down 'cause he was asking why I hadn't gone for sort of literary respectability and why I, like you were saying the acclaim and all of that kind of stuff and the awards, if I just stopped messing around in movies and doing comics I could be … I could be taken really seriously like Salman Rushdie or whatever, and I'm thinking, "Why?"…. And the truth is I'm saying "Look, Salman Rushdie is a friend of mine, and I got an email from him [saying] how much he and his son liked the Stardust movie." I like high culture and low culture, I like keeping in touch with the world.

Also: more on the "Coraline" movie, on the "Dr. Strange" movie, and the 20th anniversary of Sandman.

I have seen Robert Zemecki's movie "Beowulf," a motion-captured, computer-generated movie with Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, and Angelina Jolie, et al, acting out the script by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery based on the classic Old English epic tale, coincidentally also called "Beowulf" (after the video game). And I am here to declare my impressions for all to hear and take wisdom thereby, for mine is a tale of miraculous visions and a decent plot. Be wary, for there are surely spoilers within that will ensnare the untested moviegoer and drag him deep to a watery grave of ruined surprises.

Right off, you'll notice — as so many Beowulf purists have — that the original epic has been changed. This version includes trailers.

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Try as the media might, I just can't get interested in the Diaz and Timberlake vs Paparrazzi story. I don't know which side to root against, so I'll wait until the TV movie.

Making fun of the shows on The Discovery Channel may not be as much fun anymore if they're asking for it, but I'm willing to give it a try. I'm thinking Stephen Colbert lightsabering Mike Rowe, just to kill two birds…

More after the jump.

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HarperCollins is apparently republishing "Good Omens" again — and good for them, as it remains one of my favorite books of all time — and has asked authors Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett to write resolutions for the book's protagonists, demon Crowley and the angelic Aziraphale.

Crowley's Resolution #3: Try to come up with something as good as cell phone ringtones, following one last stab at convincing Downstairs that cell phone ringtones are right up there in the whole Human Misery stakes. And iPods. Has anybody Down There even said thank you for iPods? Or "Googling yourself?" Frankly, I deserve some kind of award for "Googling yourself."