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Neil Gaiman
Oct. 23rd, 2011 11:31 pmJust finished reading Prince of Stories, a look at the works of Neil Gaiman that I'd been wanting to pick up for a few years. I finally thought to grab it from the library, which was the right choice. Though the book had lots of good content, it spent way too much time simply detailing the plots, places, and peoples of Gaiman's work.
The saddest thing that I read in the book was in an interview, where Gaiman mentioned that he'd proposed a 6-issue Sandman prequel to DC, detailing what Morpheus had been doing before his capture (which we've seen alluded to as something on the other side of the universe). Gaiman wanted to do it to help support the comic's 20th anniversary. However, the New York Bestselling author and movie producer asked for his royalty to be upped from the 4% he'd earned as an untried comics writer to 6%. (Compared to the 15% that he gets now for a new hardcover ... Gaiman noted that he made more money off of a single copy of his newest hardcover novel than off of a volume of the $100 Absolute Sandman.) DC refused, and so we don't get six new issues of Sandman that we'd otherwise seen, a book #0. It's absolutely heartbreaking.
(And sadly that seems to be DC's generally attitude toward great writers, who continually move toward Marvel, resulting in DC recently rebooting their universe on the backs of a handful of good writers and a lot of writers who are just adequate.)
However, Prince of Stories really reinvigorated me to work my way back through some of Gaiman's work. I've just been rereading his Miracleman, which has long set in my closet ignored, as it's kind of an appendix to Gaiman's bibliography: an unfinished dead-end. However, the issues that exist are great. It was like (re)discovering a handful of lost issues of Sandman, as they're largely written in the same style, and "The Golden Age" (which is what I've read so far) largely takes the same attitude toward approaching its protagonists through intermediary characters. I keep hearing that Marvel is within a year of closing up the Miracleman mess; I bet they'll be willing to give Gaiman more than 4% royalties to complete the series, but then it's kind of a mug's bet, as Marvel has treated Gaiman better than I've seen just about any publisher treat any creator. (They went out of their way to help Gaiman resolve the Miracleman rights with the 1602 comic, whose profits went to a foundation designed to fight the legal fight.)
I also think that Prince of Stories has encouraged me to pick up the four Absolute Sandman volumes. I drooled over the recoloring a few years ago when they first appeared, and now that I'm ready to reread the series, I think I'll put out the money for them as I can ...
Somewhat sad to see that Gaiman hasn't done much written work since The Graveyard Book. I guess movies and Doctor Who have been keeping his busy. But, I'm always sad when a comics writer moves to novels or movies or tv, because it means we'll see much less of their content. It's great he's been so successful though.
The saddest thing that I read in the book was in an interview, where Gaiman mentioned that he'd proposed a 6-issue Sandman prequel to DC, detailing what Morpheus had been doing before his capture (which we've seen alluded to as something on the other side of the universe). Gaiman wanted to do it to help support the comic's 20th anniversary. However, the New York Bestselling author and movie producer asked for his royalty to be upped from the 4% he'd earned as an untried comics writer to 6%. (Compared to the 15% that he gets now for a new hardcover ... Gaiman noted that he made more money off of a single copy of his newest hardcover novel than off of a volume of the $100 Absolute Sandman.) DC refused, and so we don't get six new issues of Sandman that we'd otherwise seen, a book #0. It's absolutely heartbreaking.
(And sadly that seems to be DC's generally attitude toward great writers, who continually move toward Marvel, resulting in DC recently rebooting their universe on the backs of a handful of good writers and a lot of writers who are just adequate.)
However, Prince of Stories really reinvigorated me to work my way back through some of Gaiman's work. I've just been rereading his Miracleman, which has long set in my closet ignored, as it's kind of an appendix to Gaiman's bibliography: an unfinished dead-end. However, the issues that exist are great. It was like (re)discovering a handful of lost issues of Sandman, as they're largely written in the same style, and "The Golden Age" (which is what I've read so far) largely takes the same attitude toward approaching its protagonists through intermediary characters. I keep hearing that Marvel is within a year of closing up the Miracleman mess; I bet they'll be willing to give Gaiman more than 4% royalties to complete the series, but then it's kind of a mug's bet, as Marvel has treated Gaiman better than I've seen just about any publisher treat any creator. (They went out of their way to help Gaiman resolve the Miracleman rights with the 1602 comic, whose profits went to a foundation designed to fight the legal fight.)
I also think that Prince of Stories has encouraged me to pick up the four Absolute Sandman volumes. I drooled over the recoloring a few years ago when they first appeared, and now that I'm ready to reread the series, I think I'll put out the money for them as I can ...
Somewhat sad to see that Gaiman hasn't done much written work since The Graveyard Book. I guess movies and Doctor Who have been keeping his busy. But, I'm always sad when a comics writer moves to novels or movies or tv, because it means we'll see much less of their content. It's great he's been so successful though.