Neil Gaiman - S/D

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it's funny, you see this idea used all the time in cartoons, but i can't really remember ever seeing it used much in comics.

So apparently there'll be a new Sandman prequel coming out next year, written by Gaiman and drawn by J. H. Williams. It'll tell the story of what happened to Sandman just before issue #1, as hinted in one panel in Brief Lives, and in Gaiman's introduction to the Doll's House TPB.

I know Gaiman's mentioned before that he might some day write this story, but I wonder if the real reason he's doing it 15 years after the series ended is because DC finally promised him a big enough pile of cash to write a new full-length Sandman story. I predict it'll be like the stuff in Endless Nights: an okay-ish story, but mostly just a showcase for the artist.

he spent ages trying to get them to let him do this same story for the 20th anniversary, but they wouldn't pay him any more than he got in 1988, even on the same page rate but a deferred royalty program that he proposed to not kick in until after the collection was out. so I think it's less likely "a big enough pile of cash" and more likely "a royalty higher than 6%, from 2015," once another year of JHW's exclusive has recouped

details are in the Bissette/Golden

I predict it'll be like the stuff in Endless Nights: an okay-ish story, but mostly just a showcase for the artist.

Yeah I'll probably buy it, but mainly for the drawings

Which is about how I looked at PROMETHEA during its second half or so.

Has J. H. Williams actually done any comic where the writing would be on the same level as his art? Maybe Seven Soldiers #0? Batwoman and that one series with Ellis were okay, but it still felt like the art was the bigger draw even in them.

The writing in the first year or so of Promethea was terrific IMO.

yeah, and I don't think he's outshining the writing in Chase at all

The writing in the first year or so of Promethea was terrific IMO.

it wasn't until Moore got locked into his "and now we're going to visit EVERY sefirot!" thing that it started to get tiresome imho. actually the sequences after that are pretty good too.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the first third of Promethea, when the "lessons on Magick" thing hadn't started yet. Yeah, that was pretty good stuff. I wonder if Moore always intended Promethea to go from regular plots to lecturing, or whether (as Douglas suggests in his book) he only changed gears when he realized Williams and Gray were actually able to illustrate whatever kabbalistic concept he threw at them?

First third/half/whatever of PROMETHEA is well-written. I guess DESOLATION JONES was, too, though I'm not a big fan of Ellis' work overall.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/07/01/arts/ap-us-comics-sandmans-return.html

Gaiman is giving a talk at the MFA and one of my friends is trying to crowdsource a ticket into it

I hope he's offering beer and/or hugs in exchange

Wasn't this Sandman prequel announced like a year ago? I guess J.H. Williams finally finished drawing it...

Oh yeah, looks like we were talking about the prequel when this thread was last revived, exactly a year ago. I can see why DC would want to put out a new press release, now that it has an actual publication date, but the wording of the news is still weird: Shelly Bond, executive editor of the imprint of DC Entertainment, said Monday that Gaiman is working with artist J.H. Williams III to tell stories of Morpheus' world before he was captured. As if all this is new information.

Anyway, since this one is supposed to be set in another galaxy (if we are to believe Brief Lives), I guess we can expect some widescreen cosmic visions from Williams? I've no problem with that.

"under the influence of writer Neil Gaiman" - does this mean he's not actually writing it?

post-AP Gaiman so comfortable with RTing praise that he can cite himself as his biggest influence

What do "post-AP" and "RTing" mean?

Post- Associated Press?

Amanda Palmer, Retweet

Thanks! Still don't get what "post-Amanda Palmer" means...? From what I've gathered, she's some sort of a controversial musician? I've noticed the ILM thread on her, but it has like 2000 posts, so I haven't dared to try and read it.

She worked hard for every one of those posts, you should respect her effort.

pvmic

Tuomas on the money in this case

Tuomas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman#Personal_life

Also any version of the phrase "This is a story about stories" - argh.

lol otm

Moore's purply prose in Swamp Thing doesn't bother me a bit, it's totally in the over-written horror vein of Lovecraft, Dunsany etc.

He's just a much better storyteller than Gaiman (or was), so it mostly doesn't matter, yeah.

Moore's prose style is horrible nowadays.

This is niche but lots of fun: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Nothing_O%27Clock_(short_story) - it's the first thing by Gaiman i've wholeheartedly enjoyed since I was a teen

Ah, yes, his Who work. i loved The Doctor's Wife, did not like Nightmare in Silver at all

The Doctor's Wife was written four years before Sandman Overture, or I would have mentioned it.

Nightmare In Silver was a total mess, but also was changed significantly from his script, and had major issues in production otherwise too.

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/neil-gaiman-good-omens-michael-sheen-amazon-1202522663/

Casting pretty dead on, albeit whitedudey

Xpost - The short story is a lot better than either of his episodes.

I couldn't get through the first issue of Sandman Overture. Tedious.

Unfortunately it's the best issue, too

I've just bought the Norse Mythology thing cheap on Amazon, am hoping that's better.

Ah well

most of the JH Williams III comics I've bought were for him rather than the writing, and Sandman Overture was a great setup for him to run wild on.

Oh yeah very beautiful art for sure.

I finished up my re-read of Sandman with Game of You and jesus christ what a shitty mess of a book that is from start to finish, from the ridiculous Delany intro in the TPB to the totally unearned pathos of the closing funeral scene, I wanted to throw it across the room when I was done with it.

literally nothing about the story makes any sense, the setup, the characters, the resolution. All feels made up as it goes along, with plenty of garbage details and crappily conceived gender politics window-dressing thrown in, the art is painful to look at, BLECH

I remember GoY being one of the medium to better arcs, but I haven't read any of the original run for at least a decade.

there's a lesbian character who describes being coerced (although tbf it isn't really clear what happens, her description is deliberately muddled to foreground the character's total ignorance of hetero sex, which is really weird) into sex with a man and then skips a period and thinks she is pregnant so she asks Barbie how can she find out if she is really pregnant/what should she do. She asks Barbie if it hurts to have an abortion and Barbie says "not really". It is one of the most tone-deaf and poorly conceived sequences, it's really flabbergasting. And this is in the middle of a story arc that involves a trans character being told she's not really a woman cuz "the gods don't see it that way", and is subsequently killed (along with a homeless black woman) because Thessaly violates some magical law about the moon. And then Barbie is sad that her trans roommate is dead but apparently bears no ill will to Thessaly even though it is 100% her fault god there are so many fucking plot holes in this thing.

So anyone else watched the Good Omens mini-series on Amazon Video or whatever they call it?

It's... as good and bad as the book. Aziraphale and Crowley are pretty damn great in it though.

oh nevermind, this thread is in comics... didn't realize

Discussed on the Amazon Prime thread.

any version of the phrase "This is a story about stories" - argh.

― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 14 August 2017 12:57 (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

"Sandman is a story about stories"

Author @neilhimself explains the story of his famous comic ahead of its Netflix release#KayBurley MT pic.twitter.com/Zv0DjukouI

— Kay Burley (@KayBurley) August 3, 2022