Neil Gaiman on the Road to ‘Neverwhere’
This story originally appeared, in abridged form, in the Potomac News newspaper in July 1997.
Once upon a time, Neil Gaiman wrote a literate comic book that catapulted him into the realm of comic book royalty. Now the King of Vertigo Comics is branching out, trying to conquer other realms.
Gaiman’s “Sandman,” which blended ancient mythology, classic literature and a few Spandex-clad superheroes, was the first and only comic book to win a mainstream literary award, to the apparent chagrin of the group that gave it to him. This summer, he’s trying to duplicate that success with two more traditional literary ventures.
His novel, “Neverwhere,” is an urban fantasy in the “Sandman” mold and “The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish” is a children’s book more akin to a dark Dr. Seuss.
But while his future success with them remains to be seen, he is best-known today as a comic book writer.
Gaiman, 36, got his start in writing as a freelance journalist, writing for papers and magazines throughout England, and writing fantasy short stories. But “comics was what I wanted to do. I wrote a few scripts for ‘2000 A.D.,'” a British comic book anthology best-known for introducing Judge Dredd. “I ran into a man in a pub who said he was starting a comic. Although he really wasn’t, one of the other men who he lured in was Dave McKean.”
The off-and-on partnership of Gaiman and artist McKean has lasted for more than 11 years. The first work they did together was a “2000 A.D.” spin-off called “Violent Cases.” Originally slated to be a simple short piece, it had become a 48-page graphic novel by the time DC Comics came to London on a scouting expedition looking for British creators. Of course, McKean and Gaiman were only half-done at that point.
“We went up to their hotel room to get scouted, and we came out with a commission to do ‘Black Orchid,'” Gaiman said by telephone from his Minnesota home, “Based on half of ‘Violent Cases.'”
“Black Orchid,” published in 1988, was an odd limited series, about a plant woman’s surreal adventures. DC Comics may be the home of Superman and Batman, but Gaiman’s world-view was a little quirkier than that.
“The stuff I always really liked, the stuff I responded to was the weirder stuff, the stuff out on the edges, whether it was ‘The Phantom Stranger’ or ‘Swamp Thing,'” two of DC Comics’ 1970s horror/fantasy books. “Obviously, I read the Supermans and the Batmans, but it was the odder stuff that I really responded to.”
“Black Orchid,” lushly illustrated by McKean, was a critical success, and Gaiman immediately turned to “reviving” a rather moribund character, the Sandman. Previous incarnations had been developed in the 1940s and 1970s, but by 1988, the characters were little more than historical footnotes.
Gaiman took the relatively blank slate and revamped the character concept, writing stories of the mythological Sandman, also known as Morpheus or Dream, one of seven god-like embodiments of concepts, known as the Endless. Morpheus had inadvertently inspired the previous Sandmen, but Gaiman quickly left the brightly colored world of superheroes behind to tell stories drawing on “Paradise Lost,” Norse mythology and urban myth.
The stories included regular appearances by William Shakespeare, whose artistic gifts were given to him by Morpheus in return for two plays to be written for the dream king. The first, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” was the subject of a comic published in 1990. The comic became the first and only comic book to win the prestigious World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story in 1991. The World Fantasy Association then changed the rules, making sure subsequent award winners would have to be standard prose.
The comic went on to attract a much larger, and more diverse audience than most comics, and established Gaiman as a giant figure in the field. DC Comics capitalized on its success by spinning off Vertigo Comics, which shared the mature subject matter and dark worldview of “Sandman.”
Gaiman’s decision to end “Sandman” in 1996, with the death of the principal character, raised some eyebrows, but cemented the series’ reputation as a literary work.
Gaiman doesn’t regret his decision to end the lucrative series.
“No, not at all. It would be like asking a builder if he regrets no longer building a house that’s already done,” he said. The series is now available in reprints and in paperback and hardback collections. “They’re still selling as well as they ever have, which is a relief. I didn’t know without the monthly comic to sustain interest in it, if they would.”
But the Endless — including Dream’s siblings Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destiny and Destruction — are still near-and-dear to Gaiman. Two previous limited series about Death were critical and commercial successes, and film rights to the first series, “Death: The High Cost of Living,” have been bought by Warner Brothers, which also owns the film rights to “Sandman.” Both films are currently in developmental limbo, however.
In the meantime, there will be a new Endless story very soon.
“Right now, I’m writing a very, very short story about Desire and the pre-Raphaelites for this winter,” to be published in “Winter’s Edge,” a holiday anthology special from Vertigo Comics.
In 1990, Gaiman came out with his first novel, “Good Omens.” Although the book was in the same thematic territory as “Sandman” — the book is about the end of the world, as described in the Book of Revelations — it’s funny, something that “Sandman” is rarely accused of being.
“People tend to forget, though, that I’m also the same person who wrote ‘Don’t Panic,’ the guide to Douglas Adams’ ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,'” written in the same tongue-in-cheek style as Adams’ work. “So, it wasn’t a style that was particularly difficult. And the idea for ‘Good Omens,’ and the first chapter and so forth were all mine. But I hesitated because I didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a ‘funny writer.'”
Gaiman wrote the first 5,000 words of the book, then set them aside. His friend Terry Pratchett, the novelist behind the popular comedy-fantasy “Discworld” series, called up one day, insisting that Gaiman finish the book as a collaboration with Pratchett.
“And the delightful thing about writing with Terry was that everyone assumed that he wrote all the funny bits and I wrote all the squirmy bits with maggots. Now, I did write my fair bit about maggots, but I also did a fair bit of the jokes.”
“Good Omens” is described as a “cult hit” by the publishers, which does it a bit of a disservice.
“In the case of America, it means it never got onto any bestseller lists, but it’s quietly gone on to sell better than any of the bestsellers.” All told, the book has sold more than 200,000 copies worldwide. “I think we’ve sold more than any of the O.J. books.”
A native of Sussex, England, Gaiman now lives in Minnesota, the “ancestral stomping grounds” of his American wife, where he lives in a “nice ‘Addams family’ house.”
Gaiman’s first solo novel, “Neverwhere,” was published last month by Avon Books, to positive reviews. Although his fans will be pleased to discover his clean, somewhat ironic writing, the subject matter will be more familiar, a fantasy set in modern-day London. Sort of.
“It’s composed of a bunch of different ideas, really. One of them was a desire to write about homelessness and the people who fall through the cracks. But to use it through fantasy. Not to glamorize it. Because I’ve had too many friends who’ve been homeless. And it’s not glamorous. If you do it, it may well kill you.”
“Falling through the cracks” is rather literal in “Neverwhere“: the protagonist finds himself invisible to the residents of conventional London, his identity erased by a brush with the magical inhabitants of “London Below,” an underworld filled with bloodless thugs, vagabonds who can speak to rats and a little girl who can open a door in any wall.
Juxtaposing the London we know, London Above, with the darker, weirder London Below was part of the fun for Gaiman.
“Taking this London that was a mythological London, making London into a magical city,” he said, “Getting these two places to play off one another. One is sort of a distorted reflection of the other.”
As with “Sandman,” Gaiman packs a lot into the story, including mythic allusions and fairly heavy thematic issues, making “Neverwhere” a sometimes cerebral adventure story.
“My intended audience is always me, or someone like me. I will do my reader the credit of being reasonably intelligent, or reasonably well-read. If not, nothing’s lost. But I’d rather put too much into it,” he said.
Gaiman has heard from many fans who enjoyed his “Sandman” stories when they were younger, and upon rereading them years later, found more subtle subtexts to enjoy.
“I love the fact that ‘Sandman’ is being taught a lot in Shakespeare classes. … Students present it to professors, and professors show it to their next classes.”
Although “Neverwhere” is new to American audiences, it’s already spawned a BBC television series in Britain. Gaiman is unsure whether the series will be imported to America.
“I have no idea. People seem to be doing a very thriving business right now in bootlegs. That’s very much up to the BBC,” he said. One thing he is excited about is that “currently we’re negotiating for ‘Neverwhere: The Movie.'” Jim Henson Productions is negotiating for the rights.
Unfortunately for fans of the show, it’s probably over.
“We had a bunch of conditions for the BBC [before there would be another season]. Basically, that it not be shot on video and that we didn’t have to do a bunch of half-hour episodes. Because the first series looked a bit too much like ‘Dr. Who’ for anyone’s comfort,” he said. “There were some lovely performances, but I look at it and think it could have been better.”
“Neverwhere” isn’t Gaiman’s first brush with mainstream publishing success. His children’s book “The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish,” illustrated by McKean, was published by White Wolf Books in May.
“I actually got the idea when my son was about 8. Because he turned around to me one day — because I’d said something to offend him — and he said to me ‘I wish I didn’t have a dad,’ and then he paused ‘I wish I had goldfish.'”
Gaiman stored the idea away, and now that it’s seen print, his oldest son is 13.
In the story, the protagonist forced to swap the goldfish back for his father, only to discover his friend has swapped his father for other loot, as “well, he wasn’t very exciting … all he did was read the paper.”
The book has caught on with readers and is doing so well that Gaiman is now worried about being pigeonholed as a children’s author.
“The question I get is ‘how does it feel to be Neil ‘Sandman’ Gaiman?’ Now I have this fear that 50 years from now, people will say ‘I just learned something interesting; the guy who did that book also wrote a series of comic books.'”
Gaiman isn’t resting on his laurels in the wake of his two book publications.
On one front, he’s negotiating with comic creator Todd McFarlane over compensation for characters Gaiman created for McFarlane’s “Spawn” comic, one of the biggest-sellers in the industry, which has gone on to, well, spawn a toy line, movie and animated series. One possibility is that Gaiman may be swapped the rights to Angela, Medieval Spawn and other characters for the rights to “Miracleman,” a British comic he wrote in the 1980s.
“But it’s being negotiated. And I have no idea if anything will actually happen with it.”
The next work comic fans can look for will be “Stardust,” a “fairy story for adults,” published every six weeks starting in October.
Although it will be prose, it will be heavily illustrated with “at least a painting on every page” by sometime “Sandman” artist Charles Vess.
“It’s about a young man who’s in love with a village girl, busily promising her anything, and promises her a falling star, and she says ‘go on, then.’ … The star in question is a beautiful young lady with a broken leg.”
He’s also working on a short story collection, including some stories from an out-of-print small press anthology. The new book will be out next year, about the same time as “Neverwhere” appears in paperback.
Gaiman’s ambitions don’t end there. He’s written the screenplay for “Death: The High Cost of Living,” which he may also direct, and will make his acting debut in an upcoming film about the life of artist Salvador Dali. His ambitions extend further still.
“I’ve always wanted to do a Broadway musical, but I don’t know when I’d have the time. The problem is if someone called me up tomorrow and said ‘OK, let’s do the musical,’ I’d have to say ‘OK, let’s fit it in sometime in 1999.”
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