Puck | 
03 29th, 1998| 
The British Fantasy Society web site.
Mar
24
Sun Chan emailed me with a few more pages with information on Princess Mononoke and its director, Hayao Miyazaki.
Mar
23
Neil has agreed to write the English translation of ‘Princess Mononoke‘ for Miramax. This animated feature film is the #1 grossing film ever in Japan, beating the old champ: E.T: The Extraterrestrial
Mar
21
Tony’s “Everything I Needed To Know I Learned From Sandman” page is worth a chuckle. (A parody of Robert Fulghum’s EINTKILF Kindergarden - yes, he may be a distant relation of mine).
Mar
19
There’s a rumour going around that Neil is upset about the Harry Potter books being too similar to The Books of Magic. Neil asked me to post this to clear things up:
“I was surprised to discover from yesterday’s MIRROR that I’m meant to have accused J.K. Rowling of ripping off BOOKS OF MAGIC for HARRY POTTER.
Simply isn’t true — and now it’s on the public record it’ll follow me around forever.
Back in November I was tracked down by a Scotsman journalist who had noticed the similarities between my Tim Hunter character and Harry Potter, and wanted a story. And I think I rather disappointed him by explaining that, no, I certainly *didn’t* believe that Rowling had ripped off Books of Magic, that I doubted she’d read it and that it wouldn’t matter if she had: I wasn’t the first writer to create a young magician with potential, nor was Rowling the first to send one to school. It’s not the ideas, it’s what you do with them that matters.
Genre fiction, as Terry Pratchett has pointed out, is a stew. You take stuff out of the pot, you put stuff back. The stew bubbles on.
(As I said to the Scotsman journalist, the only thing that was a mild bother was that in the BOOKS OF MAGIC movie Warners is planning, Tim Hunter can no longer be a bespectacled, 12 year old English kid. But given the movie world I’ll just be pleased if he’s not played by a middle-aged large-muscled Austrian.)
Not sure how this has transmuted into “Gaiman has accused Rowling of ripping him off.” But I suppose it’s a better story than the truth.
Mar
14
Lance “Squiddie” Smith updates from alt.fan.neil-gaiman:
The new Starchild - Crossroads collection has an intro by Gaiman that wasn’t written under duress of any kind. It has some interesting points about stories and how they are written. Also of note is that the cats like Meow mix and Holly and Mike don’t like lima beans. (Does anyone really like lima beans?)
In the convention listings in the lastest Locus, Gaiman is listed as as one of the guests of honor at World Horror Con 1999 (next year, not this year) along with Lisa Snellings and John Shirley. This will be in Atlanta. For info you might try sending some e-mail to: horrorcon@aol.com
I recently received some e-mail from Lawrence Schimel that I had missed a piece of Gaimaniana. “Reading the Entrails” is a rondel that appears in _The Fortune Teller_, an anthology that Schimel edited with Martin H. Greenberg. I’ve updated the Gaiman bibliography and will be posting it shortly.
This may have already been posted, but the latest Previews says that A Distant Soil will include an adaptation of Gaiman’s “Troll Bridge.” Colleen Doran will be doing the art, of course. There’s a retailer incentive program, buy 20 get an alternative cover signed by Gaiman and Doran, so bug your retailer now. This is a solicitation for a May release, but I think ADS is still running a bit late.
Don’t forget that Gaiman will be doing the framing bit for the Welcome Back to the House of Mystery due out May 6. Sergio Aragones is doing the art. (Aragones used to work on the old House of Mystery, so I’m looking forward to this.) My new theory is that the April issue of Previews will have the Cain and Abel bookends, but don’t hold me to this.
Mar
9
More news from Lance “Squiddie” Smith:
The 10th Anniversary edition of Violent Cases is out this week in both the softcover and the hard cover editions. Brand new cover art and more color inside. This is about a year late so it’s really closer to the 11th Anniversary edition, but one musn’t quibble.)
The May issue of Heavy Metal has a short interview with Gaiman by Jeffrey Goldsmith. It’s on or about page 10 or 11. They don’t seem to number their pages and while the table of contents suggests it’s on page 11, that looks to be the second page of the interview. It’s only two pages and it has his story about his first exposure to the French Heavy Metal which is worth reading.
Mar
9
Chris Shumway posted on alt.fan.neil-gaiman that Neverwhere will be broadcast in the Bay Area on KTEH San Jose, starting Sunday, March 22.
I’d really suggest that everyone else check their local PBS affiliate as it seems many PBS stations are picking this up for broadcast (including KTCS in Seattle, which I can receive here).
Mar
9
Neil’s Babylon 5 episode will air Wednesday, March 11. Get your VCRs ready. Me, I have to wait for Kalen to send me a copy (psst - is that tape full yet?) I can’t get TNT here in Canada, and nobody else is showing B5. Grrr.
