Sandman

The master storyteller Neil Gaiman has mapped many fantasy landscapes, but in the television miniseries “Neverwhere” he presents a dark vision of magical London that feels as close as the next Underground station. “A friend of mine’s mother described it as Narnia on the Northern Line,” Gaiman says, “and I found that to be actually incredibly accurate.” “Neverwhere” aired in 1996 as a six-part, three-hour series on British television and now it’s reaching the U.S. in a new 15th anniversary home video collection. The story hinges on a meeting between two people and an act of kindness; a Scot named Richard Mayhew (Gary Bakewell), a businessman in London, stops one night to help an injured girl named Door (Laura Fraser) and then finds himself transported to a different version of the city that feels like a world away. The series then toggles between London Below and London […]

Alicia Lozano makes her return to the Hero Complex with coverage of a packed-house event at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Neil Gaiman had a rough year. His father died while the 49-year-old author was working on a screenplay of his 2005 novel “Anansi Boys” and financing crumpled for a film adaptation of “The Graveyard Book.” But standing before a rapt audience (and a wildly diverse one, considering the children carrying copies of “Coraline,” the parents toting “American Gods” and goth kids wielding “Sandman” issues) at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Thursday night, Gaiman was nothing but sprightly storytelling and good omens. “I always wanted to be the kind of writer who can tell whatever stories he wanted,” said Gaiman, dressed in his ubiquitous uniform of black on black with appropriately shaggy hair and alabaster skin. “It never occurred to me not to be.” […]

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of interviewing Neil Gaiman, who is one of the signature talents over the past two decades in comic books as well a writer of increasing renown for his novels and work in Hollywood. I posted a three-part Q&A from that interview right here on Hero Complex (it began here, continued here and then finished up here) but I also used the conversation as the foundation for a feature on the 20th anniversary of "The Sandman." That feature ran (finally) this morning on the cover of the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times. It won’t have many surprises for readers who checked out the full Q&A, but here’s an excerpt for everyone else and those Gaiman die-hard fans who just can’t get enough when it comes to this sparkling storyteller. –Geoff Boucher  […]

EXCLUSIVE: This is the third and final part of our interview with Neil Gaiman on the 20th anniversary of "The Sandman." In this installment, the British native talks about the film future of Morpheus, his disappointments with the "Stardust" movie and his anxieties about the upcoming "Coraline" adaptation. (Read Part One and Part Two) GB: This seems to be the golden age of comic-book films and your Hollywood profile has risen with "Beowulf," "Stardust" and the upcoming "Coraline." So what can you tell us about the status of "The Sandman" as a Hollywood project? NG: Back in about 1991 or 1992 I got sent into a meeting with an executive at Warners. He told me, "They’re talking about a ‘Sandman’ movie," and I said. "Please, don’t do it." He said, "What?" I told him I’m still writing this thing, it’s […]

EXCLUSIVE: The second installment of our three-part interview with Neil Gaiman finds the writer musing on the “British Invasion” in comics, describing his love for “mythology mash-ups” and wondering if maybe he pulled off the impossible with sustained excellence of “The Sandman” (Read Part One and Part Three) GB: How would you describe Morpheus, your flawed Lord of Dreams, to someone who was coming to the tale for the first time? NG: He’s a lot like me, only with an immortal’s superpowers and no sense of humor of any kind. Hmm. So in fact, he isn’t anything like me at all but he does have very messy hair. [Laughs] That was a great point of correspondence between me and the character. He’s much paler than I am too. No, really, with the character, it was an idea of trying to […]

EXCLUSIVE: The first of a three-part interview with Neil Gaiman on the 20th anniversary of his signature comics work, "The Sandman." The writer says it’s like awakening from a dream. "It is has been wonderful and baffling and inspiring." In late 1988, a strange new comic book written by a British newcomer named Neil Gaiman hit the shelves with a singular style and rhythm. The protagonist of "The Sandman" was no superhero at all; he was the Lord of Dreams, a tall, willowy and haunted figure, both magical and deeply flawed, who for the next 75 months would challenge the ambitions and limitations of a monthly comics series. This is the first of a three-part interview with Gaiman reflecting on that 20th anniversary as well some of his other key works in comics and beyond, among them "American Gods," "Coraline" […]