The Dreaming

Todd Klein was the letterer for the entire run of SANDMAN (except for a handful of issues), designing expressive and evocative fonts for the full range of characters. He has also collaborated with Neil Gaiman on several other projects, including BOOKS OF MAGIC, THE LAST TEMPTATION, and 1602. He is a multiple-times winner of both the
Eisner and Harvey awards, as well as others.

Charles Vess was the artist for both Shakespeare SANDMAN stories (the World Fantasy Award-winning #19 “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and Eisner Award-winning #75 “The Tempest”), and has since collaborated with Neil Gaiman on a variety of other projects, including BOOKS OF MAGIC, BALLADS & SAGAS, and STARDUST.

They’ll both be participating in the convention program, and we plan to have some of their work on display in the art show.

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Readers of Caitlin R. Kiernan’s blog already know this, but we’re still pleased to tell you all that Caitlin will be attending Fiddler’s Green!

Caitlin Kiernan was the regular author for Vertigo’s THE DREAMING from 1998 to 2001, was a contributing author to THE SANDMAN: BOOK OF DREAMS, and is the creator of THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE DEATH and BAST: ETERNITY GAME. She is a multiple-times winner of awards from the International Horror Guild, and was awarded the Barnes and Noble
Maiden Voyage award. Her stories have also appeared in multiple years’ THE YEAR’S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR and THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW HORROR anthologies. She is also published in scientific journals on the subject of vertebrate paleontology.

Gaiman had this to say about the story and nomination:

I’m really thrilled that A Study in Emerald has been nominated for a Hugo Award for best short story. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a Hugo nomination for something I was certain was SF. Oh it’s horror, and fantasy, and a detective story (one that, I hope, plays fair with the reader) but it’s properly science fiction — set in an alternate past, one that both Conan Doyle and Lovecraft might have recognized. While I was writing it I was worried that the editors of Shadows Over Baker Street might not want it, that it would be too far outside their remit. I was thrilled that they liked it, and even more thrilled when I learned that people were reading it, that it was being picked up for Best of the Year anthologies.

First published as a miniseries by the comic book heavyweight in 1990, “Books of Magic” is being produced by Atmosphere Entertainment MM and Riche-Ludwig. Mark Canton, Bernie Goodman and Steve Barnett are producing for Atmosphere, with Alan Riche and Tony Ludwig producing for Riche-Ludwig. Peter Riche also will be involved in producing the film. Neil Gaiman, the author of the original story and the novel, will serve as executive producer. Lionel Wigram and Kristen Lowe will oversee for Warners.

Interweaving stories of old sorcerers, contemporary magicians and the evolution of the human race, “Books of Magic” follows teenager Tim Hunter who must battle the forces of darkness, both external and internal, in a world of contemporary magic. The original miniseries brought in a variety of supernatural characters from the DC universe, including the Phantom Stranger, Mister E, and John Constantine. The latter character, who also had his own comic book, is being spun into his own movie called “Constantine,” starring Keanu Reeves and due for release in 2005.

The writers of the first script of the film included Matthew Greenberg with Jeff Stockwell.

“Mark (Canton) and I have always felt that this is in the spirit of ‘The Lost Boys,’ and we are excited about working with such talented young directors,” Alan Riche said.

“This is really a “Lost Boys” for this generation,” said Canton, who confessed to being a huge fan of Gaiman’s work and of the directors.

The two directors were Oscar nominated for a short film, and their acclaimed Swedish-language feature film, “The Invisible,” is being remade by Spyglass Entertainment.

Warners parent company Time Warner owns DC Comics.

Speaking of Gaiman and Lethem, both have lately taken a detour into songwriting — as have other authors like Dave Eggers, Paul Auster, Margaret Atwood and more — on this strange two-headed hydra from Soft Skull. A CD/book featuring lyrics from the aforementioned stalwarts put to the bizarro neo-cabaret sounds of Brooklyn’s own One Ring Zero, “As Smart As We Are” is a compelling yet hilarious listen that recalls Eggers’ clever work with They Might Be Giants. Which is no accident — this collaboration landed its sea legs after One Ring’s Michael Hearst tracked Eggers down shortly after moving to Manhattan in 2001. The rest, as they say, is history.

One Ring Zero are well-suited for a project like this, because they’re not afraid to travel beyond the usual guitar-bass-drums territory into more abstract, alien lands where accordions, toy pianos, theremins and other strange instruments rule the roost. Plus, their musicianship is wide-ranging enough to encompass the varied structures and styles — everything from blues and high lonesome to torch songs and ballads — that the authors throw at them. There are numerous standout tracks, but high honors go to Paul Auster, whose tongue-in-cheek “Natty Man Blues” boasts some stellar twists of phrase (”There ain’t no sin in Cincinnati/ since I been in Cincinnati/ I gotta get out of Cincinnati/ or else I’ll go plum dumb and batty/ since I mean to sin wherever I am”) and Calexico-like desert country. Denis Johnson’s “Blessing” is also a western hoot, blending noodling guitars, mandolin, theremin and a rumbling bass with strange lyrics about Mel Gibson’s favorite cinematic subject: “Christ by the dumpster/ Peeling and tossing your lottery tickets/ O Nazarene, drinking dust/ Christ rising and a-falling/ Jesus Christ giving us the finger.” Fans of They Might Be Giants, Black Heart Procession and Tom Waits’ diagonal songcraft will be crying in their whiskey after this CD winds down on Lethem’s fractured “Water.”

It also spawned a legal battle royal over a deal gone sour that pitted two comic book giants and one-time collaborators: Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and Sandman creator and best-selling novelist Neil Gaiman.

The drama recently climaxed in a Chicago federal appeals court. A three-judge panel delivered a resounding victory for Gaiman, who had accused McFarlane of costing him millions of dollars in royalties by breaking promises and refusing to acknowledge his co-ownership of characters that became part of the popular Spawn franchise.
The ruling is more than a win for Gaiman. Intellectual property experts predict the appellate decision will have broader influence on joint authorship issues, giving everyone who participates in a creative work a potential copyright claim.

“There are all kinds of people who contribute ideas to creative works in movies, plays, comic books,” said Ronald Staudt, a law professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, who teaches copyright and Internet law. “Courts normally reject the notion of just contributing ideas on the theory that ideas are not copyrightable.

“Up until now, you had to create something that was independently copyrightable,” he said. “The judge says you don’t need that.”

What started as science fiction fantasy morphed into the reality of a legal tussle between two of the more celebrated figures in the world of comic books.

An Englishman who lives in western Wisconsin, Gaiman wrote a guest issue of Spawn, a fantasy comic featuring armies of the damned that McFarlane had written himself up to that point.

The pair had a handshake deal made in 1992 and McFarlane’s promise that he would treat Gaiman “better than the big guys” did, a reference to larger comic book publishers, such as Marvel and DC Comics. Gaiman was paid $100,000 for the issue, according to court documents.

Three new characters emerged from Gaiman’s story: the scantily-clad diva warrior Angela, villainous Medieval Spawn and bearded wizard Cogliostro. Sales responded: Gaiman’s issue sold about 1 million copies, 400,000 more than a previous issue.

Angela became such a big hit with Spawn readers that Gaiman was asked to write a mini-series about her that was later published in paperback form. Angela and Medieval Spawn also were made into toys by McFarlane’s toy company.

The secondary uses of the characters and paperback reprints became the source of much of the dispute. In January 2002, Gaiman sued McFarlane and a number of his companies in federal court in Wisconsin, alleging fraud, copyright violations and non-payment of royalties.

Court documents revealed that the pair struck a deal in 1997 in which Gaiman and McFarlane traded rights to Medieval Spawn and Cogliostro for Miracleman, a character to which Gaiman had contributed in the past. But two years later, McFarlane backed out of the contract.

A seven-member Wisconsin jury in October 2002 awarded Gaiman half ownership in the three characters and half the profits to date from each of those characters and publications since their inception.

While the court is still tallying the amount, Gaiman estimates that he will receive between $2 million and $5 million. After paying his lawyers, he plans to donate the rest to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a 1st Amendment fund for comics.

McFarlane says he will appeal
After the verdict McFarlane promised an appeal and was quoted as saying, “I can’t seem to get around that it is a very complicated case that jurors didn’t get the full grasp of.”

The appellate court said otherwise. In his opinion released at the end of February, Judge Richard Posner of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ranges far in his examination of copyright law.

He spends much of 33-page judgment rejecting McFarlane’s first defense that Gaiman didn’t sue before the 3-year statute of limitations expired on copyright claims.

Copyright decision noteworthy
But his analysis of what kind of fictional characters can be copyrighted is significant, Staudt said. McFarlane argued that Gaiman only contributed the idea for the characters, and ideas are not copyrightable, only expression is. The expression, McFarlane said, was due to his drawing of the characters.

Posner disagreed, saying, “Gaiman’s contribution may not have been copyrightable by itself, but his contribution had expressive content without which Cogliostro wouldn’t have been a character at all, but merely a drawing.”

The judge also rejects the defense’s claim that Cogliostro and Medieval Spawn are too commonplace to be copyrighted.
In doing so, Posner disagrees with the 9th Circuit, which in 1954 denied copyright to Dashiell Hammett’s famously distinctive detective character Sam Spade.
Posner distinguishes between literary and graphic expression as in comic books.

“A reader of unillustrated fiction completes the work in his mind; the reader of a comic book or the viewer of a movie is passive,” Posner wrote.

“That is why kids lose a lot when they don’t read fiction, even when the movies and television that they watch are aesthetically superior.”

Gaiman said in an interview he found the opinion mildly amusing because it even includes the Lone Ranger’s secret identity (John Reid).

“It’s an important judgment for protecting creators,” said Gaiman, who also is the author of the best-selling novel “American Gods.”

McFarlane, of Phoenix, declined to comment on the appellate decision. His attorney, Michael Kahn, said his client was disappointed with the ruling and was exploring further legal options.

THE FAERY REEL: Tales from the Twilight Realm