Good Morning, Good Evening

Drawn by Vilhelm Pedersen for the fairytale "Ole Lukøje" (mr. sandman) by H.C. Andersen

Good Morning

I read some more of Prince of Stories The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman on the subway home. I am still reading about the comics which Neil Gaiman worked on. Not all of them are to my tastes, I am not fond of Miracle Man or Spawn. The book touches on the lawsuit between Todd McFarland and Neil Gaiman over the issues of Spawn which Neil Gaiman wrote stories for. It also briefly mentions the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund of which, Neil Gaiman is a major contributor to. http://www.cbldf.org/

There is one comic that really stands out which Neil Gaiman wrote, Marvel 1602, which is a retelling of the Marvel universe during the time of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Otto Von Doom is the major villain. I think it is a truly fascinating alternate timeline story for Marvel comics. 1602 was the bestselling graphic novel in 2004 and won the Quill Awards for graphic novels. I really liked the reimagining of the characters.

Neil Gaiman wrote the short story, "The False Knight on the Road" for Charles Vess's graphic novel, The Book of Ballads which I reviewed earlier. It is one of my favorite stories by Neil Gaiman.

I have started the section on Neil Gaiman's novel. Between 1997 and 2000 Neil Gaiman wrote three different movie scripts for the novel Neverwhere. I would like to see this as a film soon. The BBC television series which was six episodes was absolutely wonderful.

Good Evening

Today has been a troubling if interesting day, Prince of Stories has given me a little respite to dream. I read some more of it on the subway. Charles Vess did the illustrations for Stardust which was turned into a movie. I liked the illustrated book much better than the movie. It seems that Neil Gaiman draws the majority of his characters as retellings of myths and legends. Charles Vess is a near perfect match for Neil Gaiman's writing. He also has an interesting blog.
http://greenmanpress.com/news/ Prince of Stories has an original interview about Neil Gaiman with Charles Vess.

I learned something while reading Neil Gaiman, Neil Gaiman calls writing on a computer writing a single draft then revising it. He wrote American Gods and Stardust longhand first. I find this rather interesting. It must take a tremendous amount of time to do this. There is something wonderful about writing with a fountain pen in leatherbound journals that is artistically intriguing.

There is even a bit on a novel that Neil Gaiman has not written yet. It is in the draft stages. The title is Time In the Smoke. Thus ends the section on the novels. Anansi Boys is described, but Anansi the spider trickster is almost self explanatory, he tricks you with a smile and style.

On another note other than Prince of Stories, someone left me a very special childrens book, Bunnicula meets Edgar Allan Crow, by James Howe. The cover says it perfectly, "Does someone want the vampire bunny to be... NEVERMORE."

On another note while reading Publishers Weekly, I found a book which I definitely want to read, Darwin's Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Evolution
Adrian Desmond and James Moore.

I am glad the day is done.