Neil Gaiman

Books

The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes (1988-1989)
(Comic, THE SANDMAN 1-8)
Sleep of the Just; Imperfect Hosts; Dream a Little Dream of Me; A Hope in Hell; Passengers; 24 Hours; Sound and Fury; The Sound of Her Wings
[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1991, 1995, ISBN 1-56389-011-9; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
The Sandman: The Doll's House (1989-1990)
(Comic, SANDMAN 9-16)
Tales in the Sand; TDH 1: The Doll's House; TDH 2: Moving In; TDH 3: Playing House; TDH 4: Men of Good Fortune; TDH 5: Collectors; TDH 6: Into the Night; TDH 7: Lost Hearts
"Rose Walker find more than she bargained for in The Doll's House - lon lost relatives, a serial killers convention and, ultimately, her true identity. The Master or Dreams attempts to unravel the mystery, unaware that the hand of another, far closer to home, is pulling the strings."
[pb: Titan 1990, ISBN 1-85286-292-0; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
The Sandman: Dream Country
(Comic, quite stand-alone within the Sandman series, previously published as SANDMAN 17-20)
Calliope; A Dream of a Thousand Cats; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Facade
[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1991/1995, ISBN 1-56389-0,16-X; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
The Sandman: Season of Mists
(Comic, SANDMAN 21-28)
"Ten thousand years ago, Lord Morpheus condemned a woman who loved him to Hell. Now, his family, the immortal beings known as The Endless, convince him that he must journey to Hell and rescue his love. But Lucifer, the Lord of Hell, has sworn to destroy Morpheus, and Lucifer's plans are subtle..."
[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1992, ISBN 1-56389-041-0; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
The Sandman: A Game of You (1991-1992)
(Comic, SANDMAN 32-37)
Slaughter on Fifth Avenue; Lullabies of Broadway; Bad Moon Rising; Beginning to See the Light; Over the Sea to Sky; I Woke Up and One of Us was Crying
[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1993, ISBN 1-56389-089-5; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
The Sandman: Fable's & Reflections
(Comic, SANDMAN 31,29,38,30,39,40,50, SANDMAN Special 1)
"Dreams of power, dreams of darkness.
Follow Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, from the mists of the past to the nightmares of the present as he touches the lives of Haroun Al Raschid, king of ancient Baghdad, Lady Johanna Constantine, spy and adventuress, Joshua Norton, self-styled Emperor of the United States as well as ravens, actors, explorers, storytellers, werewolves and children in nine remarkable stories that will take you beyond your wildest imaginings."
Fear of Falling; Three Septembers and a January; Thermidor; The Hunt; August; Soft Places; Orpheus; The Parliament of Rooks; Ramadan
[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1993, ISBN 1-56389-105-0; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
The Sandman: Brief Lives
(Comic, SANDMAN 41-49)
"Delirium, youngest of the Endless, prevails upon her brother Dream to help her find their missing sibling. Their travels take them through the world of the waking until a final confrontation with the missing member of the Endless and the resolution of Dream's painful relationship with hi son, Orpheus, change the Endless forever."
1.: Blossom for a lady; Rain in the doorway; Not her sister; Want/not want; The view from the backs of mirrors; Journal of the plague year; "The number you have dialed"
2.: It always rains on the unloved; Wet dreams; A fishing expedition; She kisses Wyverns; (the Disneyland analogy); Dinner etiquette and chocolate love; Desire swears by the first circle; "Things are changing"; What can possiblygo wrong?
3.: The people who remember Atlantis; Concerning mammoths, and falling walls; Who controls transportation; Bored, she makes little frogs; Truth or consequences, and other places; Ancestral voices prophesying; The dogs of art; "When I dream, sometimes I remember how to fly"
4.: The other side of the sky; A bear and his shadow; Departed secrets; "Twinkle's a nice word. So's veridian."; Three keys; A treatise on optics; The perils of smoking in bed?
5.: The things we do to be loved; Her hands do not go to the moon; The driving instructor; Tiffany watches I; White knights and/or pond-scum; Are dalmations flowers?; Nancy displays her erudition; Wham bam thank you Ma'am; Tiffany watches II
6.: Life isn't pleasant, petrified; The parting of the ways; The trouble with mortals; Dreamings of meeting or meeting of dreaming?; The trouble with gods; Mervyn sets him straight; "Have you got anything with a happy ending?"; Tempus frangit
7.: Cooking considered as one of the fine arts; "My envelope isn't any good anymore"; Where all mazes meet; The other side of the coin; Life as a glass of bitter wine; Cherries are counted, and a bargain is made; An unlikely growth
8.: Journey's end; Brains, a heart, a ride in a balloon; Dinner; Something new; The illusion of permanence; A wreath of bright stars; Echoes of darkness; Up. out.
9.: Farewells; Answered prayers; The flowers of romance; Journey's end, The gates of horn; Things unlooked for; Brief lives

[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1994, ISBN 1-56389-138-7; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
The Sandman: World's End
(Comic, SANDMAN 51-56)
"Caught in the vortex of a reality storm,wayfarers from throughout time, myth and the imagination converge on a mysterious inn. In the tradition of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, as the travellers all wait out the tempest that rages around them, they share stories of the places they've been, the things they've sen... and those that they've dreamed."
World's End - Sequences at the Inn; A Tale of Two Cities; Cluracan's Tale; Hob's Leviathan; The Golden Boy; Cerements; Worlds' End
[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1994, ISBN 1-56389-171-9; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
The Sandman: The Kindly Ones
(Comic, SANDMAN 57-69)
"They were never called the Furies. instead, frightened people called them the Kindly Ones.
The were implacable, unstoppable in their mission of vengeance; they would not rest until the crime they sought to punish had been avenged; had been washed clean, with blood.
Now Dream of the endless... his family, his friends and his enemies find themselves caught in a dark conspiracy.
A child has been stolen. Someone is going to have to pay. Someone is going to die. THE KINDLY ONES."

[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1996, ISBN 1-56389-138-7; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
The Sandman: The Wake
(Comic, SANDMAN 70-75)
"The king of dreams is dead - long live the king of dreams. now ancient gods, old friends and enemies gather, to pay tribute, and to remember, in the strangest wake ever held. Theechoes of the death reverberate: We see them touch a man who will not die, and a chinese sage whose path into exile takes him through a desert of dreams, and, at the end of his life, William Shakespeare fulfills his side of a very strange bargain."
[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1997, ISBN 1-56389-279-0; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
   
Death: The High Cost of Living (1993)
The Spirit of the Stairway; A Night to Remember; The High Cost of Living; Death Talks About Life; A Brief History of Death
[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1994, ISBN 1-56389-133-6; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
Death: The Time of Your Life (1993-1997)
Things You Just Do When You're Bored; Imaginary Solutions; The Time of Your Life
[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1997, ISBN 1-56389-333-9; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
   
the Books of Magic (1990-1991)
(Comic, THE BOOKS OF MAGIC 1-4)
"Horror and humor, wonder and awe:
the knowledge of hidden things...
A spellbinding tale.
And enchanting experience.
An unforgettable journey.
Magic"
I: The Invisible Labyrinth; II: The Shadow World; III: The Land of Summer's Twilight; IV: The Road to Nowhere

[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1993; ISBN 1-56389-082-8; Cover Art: Richard Bruning/Brainstorm Unltd.]
   
Black Orchid (Graphic Novel)
(Illustrated by Dave McKean)
1. One Thing is Certain; 2. Going Down...; 3. Yes...
[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1989; ISBN 0-930289-55-2; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
  Signal to Noise (Graphic Novel)
Mr. Punch - The Comical Tragedy or Tragical comedy or Mr. Punch (Graphic Novel, illustrated by Dave McKean)
"'He threw the baby out of the window. Then he battered his wife to death. Hr killed a policeman who came to arrest him. He caused the hagman to be hanged in his place, he murdered a ghost, and outwitted the Devil himself.
'He never died.
'And Mister Punch still lives - to travel up and down the countryside, amusing and delighting both old and young.'
In his grandfather's failing seaside arcade, a young boy encounters a myterious Punch and Judy Man with a dark past, and a woman who makes her living playing a mermaid.
As their lives intertwine and their stories unfold, the boy is forced to confront family secrets, strange puppets and a nightmarish world of violence and betrayal, in a dark fable of childhood innocence and adult pain."

[pb: DC Comics, Vertigo 1994/1995; ISBN 1-56389-246-4; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
Violent Cases (Graphic Novel, w/ Dave McKean, 1987 bw, 1991 colour)
"A narrator remembers his childhood encounters with an old osteopath who claims to have treated Al Capone. Gradually, the England of the 1969s and the Chicago of the 1920s begin to merge into a beautifully drawn and hauntingly written tale of memory and evil."
[pb: Titan 1998; ISBN 1-85286-959-3; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
  Angels & Visitations (Prose Collection)
  The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (for Children)
   
Neverwhere (1996/97)
"Richard Mayhew is a plain man with a good heart - and an ordinary life that is changed forever on a day he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. From that moment forward he is propelled into a world he never dreamed existed - a dark subculture flourishing in abandoned subway stations and sewer tunnels below the city - a world far stranger and more dangerous than the only one he has ever known..."
[pb: Avon 1998, ISBN 0-380-78901-9; ]
Smoke and Mirros (1999, Short stories)
"[...] an elderly widow finds the Holy Grail beneath an old fur coat in a second-hand store; under a bridge, a frightened little boy bargains for his life with a very persistent troll; a stray cat fights and refights a terrible nightly battle to protect his unsuspecting adoptive family from unimaginable evil ..."
[pb: Headline 2000, ISBN 9-7472-6368-X; Cover Art: J. K. Potter]
Stardust (1999)
"In the sleepy English countryside at the dawn of the Victorian era, life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall - a secluded hamlet named after the imposing stone barrier which separates the town from a grassy meadow. Armed sentries guard the only gap in the wall to keep the inquisitive from wandering through, relaxing their vigil only once every nine years when a market unlike any other comes to the meadow.
Here in Wall, young Tristan Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester. But Victoria is cold and distant, as distant in fact as the star she and Tristan see fall from the sky one crisp October evening. For the coveted prize of Victoria's hand, Tristan vows to retrieve the fallen star and deliver it to his beloved. It is an oath that sends the lovelorn swain over the ancient wall and propels him into a world that is dangerous and strange beyond imagining ..."

[pb: Headline 1999, ISBN 0-7472-7419-3; Cover image: Lalique]
American Gods (2001)
"After three years in prison,..."
[hc: Headline 2001, ISBN 0-7472-7423-1; Cover image: Potonica]
[tpb: Headline 2001, ISBN 0-7472-7417-7; Cover image: Photonica]
   

Good Omens - The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (1990, with Neil Gaiman)
"According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter - the world's only totally reliable guide to the future - the world will end on a saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea...
CAVEAT:
Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your own home."

[pb: Corgi, 1991; ISBN 0-552-13703-0; Cover Art: Josh Kirby]
[pb: "Ein gutes Omen", Heyne, Germany, 1997 (translation 1991); ISBN 3-453-12677-7;Cover Art: Josh Kirby]
(Comment on behalf of German edition: If you have any chance and ability to get and read the original, go for it. The translation of Good Omens is probably the worst work of this special translator I've seen so far (he translated most German editions of Terry Pratchett books).)
   
Don't Panic - Douglas Adams & The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (by Neil Gaiman, 2nd and revised edition 1993, 1st edition published as: 'Don't Panic: The official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion' 1988)
"'IT'S ALL DEVASTATINGLY TRUE -
EXCEPT THE BITS THAT ARE LIES'
This is the story of an ape-descended human called Douglas Adams who, in a field in Innsbruck, in 1971, had an idea.
It is also the story of a book called, at a very high level of improbability,
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy; of the radio series that started it all; the five book trilogy it comprises; and the computer game, towel and television series that it, in its turn, has spawned."

[pb: Titan 1993 (2nd revised edition), ISBN 1-85286-411-7; Cover Art: 'Swarm Fish', Britstock-IFA]
   
The Sandman - Book of Dreams (1996)
Stories based on the Sandman series, edited by Neil Gaiman and Ed Kramer
"Neil Gaiman, creator of the The Sandman, DC Comics bestselling title, has invited the most celebrated names in the fields of fantasy and horror to enter and expand the Sandman's shadowy realm in this spectacular collection of stories. Tori Amos, Clive Barker, Steven Brust, Nancy A. Collins, Colin Greenland, Barbara Hambly, Tad Williams and Gene Wolfe are just a few of the luminaries to join Gaiman on his dark voyage.
Deeply disturbing as well as wildly entertaining,
The Sandman: Book of Dreams is a unique, modern classic - essential reading for everyone who has ever felt the need to explore the dark kingdom where we spend a full third of our lives.
To be the master of Man's dreams is to face the darkest of nightmares."
[pb: Voyager, Harper Collins 1997, ISBN 0-00-648278-3; Cover Art: Dave McKeon [or so the cover inscription claims, probably it's really well-known Dave McKean]]
(You want my opinion? I added this book only for completeness. It doesn't fit in the series, it lacks the depth and the humour. It's full of inconsistencies, some of the stories have the touch of first-ever-stories by the respective author. I don't say that all short stories in this book are bad, but some are very dull. In short, taken all together, I think it's not a good book.)
   

Neil wrote some stories for Todd McFarlane's "Spawn". The 'Angela Mini-Series' consists of Spawn #9 (published in "Book 2") and Angela 1-3 (all 4 published in "Angela's Hunt").

[pb: "Spawn - Book Two" , Image Comics/ Todd McFarlane Productions 1993/1998, ISBN 1-887279-53-9; Cover Art: Brent Ashe]
[pb: "Spawn - Angela's Hunt" , Image Comics/ Todd McFarlane Productions 1994/1998, ISBN 1-887279-09-1; Cover Art: Bill Sienkiewicz]
Midnight Days (1999)
Collection of first reprints of stories originally published in single magazine form.
"Jack in the Green", "Brothers", "Shaggy God Stories" (1989, Swamp Thing Annual #5);
"Hold Me" (1995, Hellblazer #27);
Sandman Midnight Theatre (1999, Sandman Midnight Theatre, with Matt Wagner)

[pb: DC Comics, 1999; ISBN 1-56389-517-X; Cover Art: Dave McKean]
(NB: The interesting stories are "Hold Me" and rather more so "Sandman Midnight Theater". The latter being kind of a Sandman spin-off -- of both the original DC Sandman and Neil's Sandman, that is. It was painted by Teddy Kristiansen, for whatever that's worth to you.
I never got the hang of the Swamp Thing stories and just don't get the hippy-mentality of "Brothers")
  Script for Babylon 5 TV show - "Day of the Dead"

Short Biographie:

Born on the 10th of November 1960 in Portchester, England, this 5'10" fellow started as an journalist, but found that writing comics is far more interesting. He's even won a number of awards for some of them, so that's okay. He's now living in Minnesota, got a preference for black clothes and gets up late in the afternoon.

"Neil Gaiman was born in November 1960. He lives in an odd, rambling house of uncertain location, where he writes in a basement room filled with books and old armchairs. He has two cats, who are both quite mad, and two children, who are, to his occasional surprise, fairly same, and a very nice wife. He has received a number of awards, and, while he no longer believes that being a grown-up is all it's cracked up to be, still enjoys staying up after his bed-time." (from Mr. Punch)

The presented texts may contain copyrighted material. Trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Descriptions taken from cover blurbs.

© 1999-2001 Uwe Milde

[Top of Page]

Back to Home
Back Fiction Index

counter visits to this site.

Last edited on 2001-08-07.