Puck | 
05 31st, 2001| 
There’s a small piece on SciFi.com’s audio play of Snow, Glass, Apples in today’s USA Today (Life section, page 3D).
Near the bottom, Neil mentions his favourite fan site! C’mon, guess!
May
31
Kornblum, Janet. “A dark twist on ‘Snow White’ story”, USA Today, 31 May 2001, D.03.
This is one fairy tale that you won’t want the kids to hear late at night — or any other time. But if you’re on the Net and want a very different take on the classic tale of Snow White, check out Scifi.com.
Today, the site is premiering the first installment of Neil Gaiman’s Snow Glass Apples audio play, starring Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith from Cheers). The play, adapted from Gaiman’s 1994 short story of the same name, is a fanciful and dark tale written from the perspective of the Evil Queen — who in this version is not so evil, while Snow is not so pure. Part 2 goes up June 7.
The inspiration came to Gaiman, perhaps best known as author of comic-book series The Sandman, one day while reading a book on English folk tales and coming across Snow White. “Hold on, what kind of prince rides up and sees a dead girl in her coffin and says, ‘I must have her!’ ” he says. “I thought, ‘My God, wouldn’t it be interesting to tell a very familiar story, but from a different point of view?’ ”
Though Gaiman, 40, a Brit living near Minneapolis, acknowledges that the story may be too edgy for American radio (the tale is sexual and delves into Snow White’s dark side), he’s glad it’s on the Net for other reasons as well. “It’s there when you want it,” he says. And though he could have turned the play into a movie for a few million, it not only saved a lot of cash to do it as an audio play, but it also seemed a fitting way to tell a tale vivid enough to create mental pictures.
“The joy for me is knowing that somebody can have this strange audio experience,” he says. “They’re getting something as good as you get from radio.”
Though many Web sites are dedicated to Gaiman, his efforts right now are focused on his site for his upcoming novel, American Gods. But he does have a favorite fan site — Holycow.com/dreaming, where he says he sometimes first hears news about himself.
* http://www.americangods.com
* http://www.holycow.com/dreaming
May
30
According to this Newsarama posting, Dark Horse will be releasing a 32 page comic adaptation of a short story Neil wrote in 1999. Here’s a bit from the article:
Harlequin Valentine was originally planned as a 32-page comic, but when the art came in, it was far too luscious to see print in only a periodical - something retailers would order in just to sell out the same week it arrived on their shelves,” explained the project’s editor Diana Schutz. “I felt the quality of the work demanded a more permanent format, so I discussed this with Neil and John, and we agreed to release the work in a hardcover format that would be perennially available - and could be released through bookstores as well as comics specialty shops.”
May
26
Universo HQ has an interview they conducted on May 22nd, 2001 with Neil while he was down in Sao Paulo, freshly translated to English.
Thanks to Chris for posting that to the alt.fan-thingy
May
25
Roussel, Frédérique, “Neverwhere”, Liberation, 25 May 2001, p.30
«A son arrivée, il avait trouvé Londres immense, bizarre, fondamentalement incompréhensible. Seule la carte du métro, cette élégante représentation topographique multicolore des lignes et des stations, lui imposait un semblant d’ordre.» Derrière ces entrelacs ponctués de stations aux noms historiques - Earl’s Court, Marble Arch, Blackfriars, Angel - se meut une humanité insoupçonnée: le Londres d’en bas. Le brave Richard Mayhew, employé dans une société de Bourse et sur le point de se fiancer avec l’impeccable Jessica, va y être catapulté malgré lui. Sous les pieds des Londoniens grouille une gigantesque cour des Miracles. Odeurs et couleurs garanties. Avec ses créatures féeriques et sanglantes, l’under-ground de Neil Gaiman rappelle des divagations oniriques. Terrorisant et ensorcelant.
May
20
Due to OVERWHELMING RESPONSE Book Soup is changing the event venue on June 29th to their larger space, and moving the time to an hour earlier. Books will of course be sold on-site.
So, the new specifics:
FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 7:00 PM
BOOK SOUP
Speaking/Q & A/signing to take place at:
Beverly Hills Library
444 N. Rexford St.
Beverly Hills, CA
phone: 310-659-3684
Additional: As well I’ve added a few more UK tour dates to the Schedule (at right).
May
20
Amazon.com has a listing for a new hardcover entitled The Quotable Sandman. The page has no information on the book other than a release date of May 2001, which they’re probably not aware is Right Now.
I’ll post more info on this when I track it down.
Update: Thanks to the Lance “Squiddie” Smith, knower of all bookish things Gaiman (ok, I’m stretching) says:
It’s a small (roughly 5″ square) hardcover book which combines quotes from Sandman with various Sandman art. 94 pages. The art is from all over: comics, galleries, trading cards, posters and T-shirts. So nothing new. Even the writers biography is taken from Season of Mists, I think.
I think it was originally packaged with the Sandman mini bookends.
May
16
I’ll be off to E3 in LA until Sunday. If there is any breaking news, it’ll probably have to wait until then.
May
15
Though it’s emphasized that this is just a rumour by an interstitial form, Silver Bullet Comics has an image of the cover to Hellspawn #13. Thanks to Lance “Squiddie” Smith for passing along the URL.
Addendum: It’s not a rumour. The above image also appears on Todd McFarlane’s site.
May
15
There have been a few stories flying around about the current status of Miracleman. Newsarama posted a story saying that Todd McFarlane had handed over all rights and films (not movies, but the films used to create the plates that run on a printing press) for Miracleman and all the comics to Neil as payment for the Angela character he created (for the Spawn comic).
In this posting this news is clarified as something that is not new at all, but was the start of the current stalemate going on with the character.
It seems, though, that Todd McFarlane has introduced the Matt Morgan character in his Hellspawn comic and has plans to fully reintroduce Miracleman in upcoming issues. This despite the fact that Neil has a written agreement from Mr. McFarlane that he was handing over the Miracleman rights to him.
Image Comics was started so that creators could retain their rights to the characters they created. Todd McFarlane was at the forefront of this creator-based movement, but to me it seems that he is only for creator rights if that creator is Todd McFarlane. Way to go, Todd. You’ve cut off a monster’s head and put your own in its place.
