I grew up reading comics and, at 27, it’s Gaiman’s fault that I haven’t stopped. Before Sandman, it was all superhero books, which CAN be good, if you’re into comics, but mostly are just bad.
Sandman changed all that for me.
This boodk fed everything I’d been looking for in “fantasy.” It was smart and intelligent, but not filled with dragons and dwarves, which the genre of fantasy is mostly associated with, at least in my mind. My absolute favorite character is Hob, the man who just doesn’t die, “It’s a mug’s game.”
I’ve read everything else by Gaiman I can get my hands on, all the short stories, Neverwhere, Stardust, Good Omens. He even wrote some comics before Sandman they’ve included in a book, one of them about Swamp Thing, ala Alan Moore. It was Sandman that rejuvenated my love of comics, leading me to other titles and writers worthy on mention, like Alan Moore and Garth Ennis. For comic people, the title that now comes the closest to that same sense of awe and wonder for me is Planetary. read it. It’s not Sandman, but really, nothing else can be.
I met Gaiman at a book signing for American Gods, and he signed my copies of Neverwhere and Smoke and Mirrors. Nice guy. That was a great day.
Sandman is the only graphic novel series I have read, and I loved it. There’s a small downside to that - now I want to read other graphic novels, but I’m afraid they won’t compare to Sandman. I’ll look for Jon Sable and Freelance and other works by Grell (thanks, Spoons), but since that’s from the mid-80’s I don’t know how much luck I’ll have finding them. Would anyone else care to recommend exceptional graphics novels or comic books that would appeal to Gaiman fans?
I’m waiting for American Gods to come out on paperback. And I’ll order Good Omens and Smoke and Mirrors. (Thank you too, Atreyu)
Smoke and Mirrors? Are you sure you’re not talking about Angels and Visitations?
If you’re having trouble with, um, S&M, I could get it for you in hardback from the local Borders. If you’re talking about A&V, well, the line starts behind me.
A friend was kind enough to dub a copy of the miniseries for me - and as far as I know, it was never aired in the US - but my sister taped over it. I never even got to watch it!
I love Good Omens, and I liked Neverwhere. I haven’t read Stardust yet, but my girl says that it’s good. Stardust is the novelization of the (graphic)mini series by the same name, also written by Gaiman, and drawn by Charles Vess.
I thought it was a book by Gaiman, then made into an illustrated version later. Either way, I really enjoyed it. It’s as close to a classic fairy tale that I’ve read from him, and one of the few I can recommend to my father-in-law.
I’m pretty sure that it was a graphic novel first - or even a mini-series. The hardcover graphic novel was published in September of '98. The hardcover of the novel was published in February of '99. I wouldn’t venture to saw which was written first, though. I have no idea about that.
I was really into it, up to a point. That point being <I>A Game of You</I>, (I think it was that one … where the witch and the transexual and the lesbian couple go on a whacky interdimentional trip. Might have the name wrong.) where the whole thing kind of fell apart, and never seemed to get back together again. From then on, it just seemed to be going through the motions, culmanating in the relavation that Dreams mystery lover is possibly the most irritating character in the history of sequential art, the witch from AGOY . . .
Good Omens always seems to pop up when Gaimen is mentioned, and I’m not sure why. If I hadn’t been told he’d co-written it, I never would have guessed it. Entertaining, sure, (crumby ending, though) but Pratchett seemed to be about 98% of it . . .
heresiarch, you might want to check out X, by screwed up manga-chicks Clamp, and Mage, by Matt Wagner. Both have similar mythic aspects without seeming like ripoffs or clones. Though X takes so long to do anything, it’s almost unreadable in non-graphic novel form.
Unless you just want a list of good comic/manga runs (graphic novels, if you must) which I’d be happy to come up with …
