 | neil gaiman is one of my all-time favourite writers. most recently, his story stardust was turned into a major hollywood film from last year (which lamentably, i did not see in the theatres, but i watched this weekend on video). he has also written several excellent novels, but the reason that i love him is because he wrote one of the greatest comic stories, really, a peridoical-form literary masterpiece of modern adult fantasy, the sandman. born in portchester, england on november 10, 1960, gaiman's stories have absorbed the sense of fantasy and wonder of some of his early influences, such as c.s. lewis, j.r.r.tolkein, and ursula le guin. i can still remember the day that i went to my local comic book shop in downtown edmonton and saw the first sandman comic. it was unlike anything i'd ever seen before. the cover was beautifully painted by comic artist legend dave mckean (who deserves an entire blog entry himself for his incomparable montage art pieces that have graced every cover of sandman). the artwork was sketchy and moody and dense, but the prose was simply stunning. i bought two copies. sandman is about an anthropomorphization of an abstract concept - dream. his family is a cast of other dysfunctional anthropomorphizations, all cleverly possessing the first initial, "D" - there's dream (who also goes by the name of morpheus - yes, before the matrix trilogy), death (perhaps the most popular other main character, probably because she took the form of a cutie goth girl with an ankh necklace), destiny, destruction, desire, despair and delirium. there's really no justice that a couple of paragraphs can give to the sprawling universe that gaiman constructs in the title's 75-issue run. favourite characters of mine are lucifer (yes, that lucifer) who is an elegant, sophisticated blonde gentleman (when you're on his good side), hob gadling (a 600-year old man who death agrees to let live forever, just to see how he'll take it), william shakespeare and francis bacon, oh damn it - there are simply too many to count. my favourite story line was probably "seasons of mists" in which lucifer decides to leave hell and gives dream the key to the kingdom, which brings virtually every diety from ever mythology or faith to dream's doorstep, hoping to acquire hell from dream, is if it were an apartment to be sublet - i mean, this stuff is pure genius. i've read many of his novels, including american gods, fragile things, good omens (one of my favourites), and neverwhere, which was turned into a BBC mini-series with limited production values, but a high degree of faithfulness to the original. mirrormask was another notable title, created with collaborator dave mckean, was made into a low-budget, highly-CG film that went into limited distribution and should be available at your local blockbuster - incredibly brilliant - i promise that you have not seen a film like this... well, except perhaps for pan's labyrinth. all of them are genius and all of them are worth hunting down. i watched stardust this weekend, as i've already said, and it was simply beautiful. there are some exceptional performances put in by some very worthwhile actors, like robert deniro, claire danes (who is unbelievably beautiful in this film), and most especially, by michelle pfeiffer. but this beautiful, simple, silly little fairy tale, so full of clever humour, chases, heroes and villains, destinies hidden and revealed, and discovery of true love make this movie a contender for the title "princess bride for the 21st century". - g song of the day for honouring a fantasy genius: paperback writer, the beatles |