Prime Time Replay:
Neil Gaiman
on Neverwhere
MsgId: *omni_visions(6)
Date: Thu Nov 7 22:01:45 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.43
Good evening, Mr. & Ms. America and all the ships in space. Welcome to another Omni Visions Prime Time. My guest tonight is the exceedingly well-known Neil Gaiman. Neil is, of course, the author of the SANDMAN comics and graphic novels series, as well as a variety of other projects I'll mention in just a second.As well as comics, Neil's the author of DON'T PANIC, a clever guide to the Douglas Adams universe; a collection called ANGELS & VISITATIONS; has edited an original anthology of Sandman stories; collaborated on a novel with Terry Pratchett; and has just seen publication of NEVERWHERE, the novel version of his BBC TV series of the same name. Busy, busy guy. Plus he's the cover model for the new photo collection, THE FACES OF FANTASY. Welcome, Neil. We'll talk for a while, then get the viewers on line to ask more questions. But first, now that SANDMAN's phased down, do you miss comics? Or do you have other graphic projects in process?
MsgId: *omni_visions(8)
Date: Thu Nov 7 22:08:04 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
Yes I would miss them if I had managed to stop doing them. This week I have to write a story for Will Eisner's comic The Spirit. Also I am writing a novella called "Stardust" which Charles Vess is illustrating which will be published nest year in four parts by DC Comics.
MsgId: *omni_visions(12)
Date: Thu Nov 7 22:18:27 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
Still there, Ed?
MsgId: *omni_visions(13)
Date: Thu Nov 7 22:22:26 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.65
Well, so much for my own cyberhumility. System crashed. Am back. Sorry for the looong delay. I'd like you to talk a little about the new novel and the history of the series. I read the novel but haven't seen the video since it's shown strictly in Great Britain. Essentially this is a marvelously frightening, funny, and altogether entertaining contemporary fantasy about the Gothic side of London. When will we see either film or book over here?
MsgId: *omni_visions(15)
Date: Thu Nov 7 22:24:13 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
The book NEVERWHERE will be out in the US from Avon in hardcover in June 1997. I do not know when or if the TV series of NEVERWHERE will be shown in the US. I'm not 100% happy with the TV series although there is a lot in it I like. I've learned an awful lot from making it. The BBC have said that IF they do another series it will be hour long episodes, be shot on film, and have a much bigger budget. However, I think we did well given the budget and the obstacles we had.
MsgId: *omni_visions(17)
Date: Thu Nov 7 22:29:24 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.65
Could you talk a bit about the genesis of this project? And how the process compares to, say, writing SANDMAN or straight prose?
MsgId: *omni_visions(18)
Date: Thu Nov 7 22:35:29 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
Genesis first: The project begin in March 1991 when English actor and comedian Lenny Henry approached me (he is a comics fan) and asked if I would be interested in writing a fantasy series for the 1990s for BBC2. I wrote an outline and a year later I was commisioned to write the first episode. Eighteen months later they commissioned the second and third episodes and nine months after that the last three episodes. On the first day of shooting (first week in Feb. 1996) I began to write a novel. I took great joy in restoring any lines, scenes, locations, costumes, or bits of business that had fallen out of the script. Currently I have just finished writing the "international version" of the novel and a few US film and TV companies have approached us and making a NEVERWHERE set in the US. We'll see.I found writing TV on one level easier than comics as it is pure action and dialogue, but missed the control I have in comics or prose. Orson Welles described filmaking as "trying to get an army to execute a painting" and on that level it can be enormously frustrating. Actors break their legs; locations get lost; things happen.
MsgId: *omni_visions(20)
Date: Thu Nov 7 22:42:53 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.65
I thought that NEVERWHERE the novel (and presumably the TV series as well), like SANDMAN, was the sort of mix of darkness and light, violence and tenderness, terror and comic quality, that more frequently seems to appear in British work than in the U.S. Is that a combination you've felt comfortable with since you first started writing? And are you confident it'll play over here? After all, the SANDMAN series certainly does... But how about the American mass audience?
MsgId: *omni_visions(21)
Date: Thu Nov 7 22:48:10 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
First of all Ed, thank you very much. I love making stories which do all of those things. My editor at Avon certainly wants a NEVERWHERE that is not meant to be as funny as the U.K. version. She feels that the the juxtapostion of horror and humour undercuts some of the effects I am trying for; or it would for an American audience who are, I am assured, less tolerant of funny things happening while nasty things are going on.
MsgId: *omni_visions(22)
Date: Thu Nov 7 22:51:42 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.65
Not to wax pretentious, but you might suggest to your editor that she brush up on her Shakespeare. The Bard certainly knew that humorous relief heightened the horror. Let me throw in some questions/concerns that have come in over the e-transom: Any other film projects on tap? How about a Death (as in SANDMAN, I assume) movie? What about Tori [Amos] and Death? (I assume that might be a casting suggestion)
MsgId: *omni_visions(23)
Date: Thu Nov 7 22:54:19 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
I am in the final stages of contract negotiations with Warners to write and dirtect a film based on DEATH: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING. Tori Amos wants to do the soundtrack for it although I don't think she will be playing the title role of Death. I am writing I, LUCIFER, a Modesty Blaise film. I should be writing and directing a film called THE MAGIC SHOP based on H.G. Wells' short story of the same name.
MsgId: *omni_visions(25)
Date: Thu Nov 7 22:58:39 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.65
It would be great indeed to see a Modesty Blaise film done in the spirit of the novels. But with all this big-screen stuff, will you still have time for prose? Especially all the terrific ephemera (poems, sketches, short-shorts, and such) that constitute the creative ground cover in the forest of your output? (Hey, what a tortured metaphor...)
MsgId: *omni_visions(26)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:02:15 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
Basically...yes. The book after NEVERWHERE that Avon will be publishing will be a collection of short fiction and then 2 and a half years from now they will be publishing TIME IN THE SMOKE, a whopping great novel about time, poetry, comma, venereal disease and the city of London. Meanwhile, I am still writing short pieces inspired by Lisa Snellings' strange sculptures. Oh and also... Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling are very good at getting poems out of me.
MsgId: *omni_visions(30)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:05:59 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.65
The Snellings sculptures are great; some will have seen them at the World Fantasy Convention and other locations. Do you know where these stories will be appearing? And for that matter, can you suggest where viewers might find stateside copies of the NEVERWHERE novel which BBC Books published--when?--a couple months ago.
MsgId: *omni_visions(31)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:08:44 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
Dreamhaven Books in Minneapolis have copies of the BBC edition of NEVERWHERE and the Lisa Snellings pieces were published in FAN Magazine over the last year. When we have enough of them we will probably out them out as a book.
MsgId: *omni_visions(33)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:11:55 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.65
Are you due to appear as guest of honor at any upcoming conventions? How about other venues where people can find out what you're up to right now...like, say, Wired?
MsgId: *omni_visions(34)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:13:04 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
Forgot to mention my first children's book to be illustrated by Dave McKean, comes out in May 1997 from White Wolf Publishing. It is called THE DAY I SWAPPED MY DAD FOR TWO GOLDFISH.Wired U.K. has a great big interview with me with an unrecognizable cover photo of me covered in sand proving I would make a good gargoyle. Next personal appearance that I can think of offhand is in May 1998 in New Zealand. And I have an appearance next year for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in North Carolina. Also a tiny convention in Minneapolis next year as Guest of Honor.
MsgId: *omni_visions(36)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:19:06 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.65
Here's a question from a correspondent over at GEnie: How did you come up with the Endless (the pantheon of gods and godlings)? Is it adapted from classical myth? And how much is the quirky Gaiman input?
MsgId: *omni_visions(38)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:20:30 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
The answer is that it is not adapted from classical myth except insofar as I wanted a pantheon that was right and relevant. So I made them up out of my head.
MsgId: *omni_visions(39)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:23:14 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.65
Need to clarify a question I misunderstood before relaying it... If someone would like to investigate booking you...for an event, presumably. What are the channels?
MsgId: *omni_visions(40)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:25:53 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
If it is a benefit for the CBLDF they should ring 1-800-99CBDLF (1-800-992-2533.) Otherwise I suppose contact my agent, Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House, 21 West 26th St NY NY 10010.
MsgId: *omni_visions(41)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:28:33 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.65
I've been curious about THE SANDMAN BOOK OF DREAMS. How do you feel about sharing your universe with other writers ranging from Nancy Collins to Tad Williams? How many came close to hitting a harmonic with your own sensibility? Would you try an editing project again?
MsgId: *omni_visions(42)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:32:35 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
I would definitely edit a book again as long as DC Comics business affairs department was not in any way involved. I enjoyed much of putting together the SANDMAN BOOK OF DREAMS except for the bits involving the DC business affairs department. They are all fine stories although I think only Suzanna Clarke wrote a story I wished that I had written, but then the fun of that book for me was in reading, not writing.
MsgId: *omni_visions(44)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:34:45 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.65
And while I'm not Robin Leach, I've still gotta ask: how do you feel about being the cover model for FACES OF FANTASY? Will there be huge promotional posters at San Diego Comic Con next year? Or will that honor go to Peter David?
MsgId: *omni_visions(46)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:38:45 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
I think I'm the 'come-on', Peter David is the show stopper. I was an honour to be on the cover of that book and I have so far recieved only one marriage proposal from someone who picked up the book in Barnes & Noble and was determined to conjoin her life with mine.
MsgId: *omni_visions(45)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:37:00 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.65
A much more serious question as we draw nearer to the end: where do you see Neil Gaiman the writer in the near future? The farther future?
MsgId: *omni_visions(47)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:43:25 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
On both counts I see myself writing and telling stories people haven't told before -- or that I haven't told before. There are still an enormous number of media that I have not yet tried, from Broadway musicals to extended works of narrative verse; from radio serials to real life interactive fiction in which real stories happen to you and I want to try all of them in the long term.
MsgId: *omni_visions(48)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:46:09 EST 1996
From: Edward_Bryant_Mod At: 206.80.181.65
Neil, I wish you a long and fruitful life so you can realize all those ambitions. I thank you very much for taking time out from a hectic schedule to be on the show tonight.
MsgId: *omni_visions(49)
Date: Thu Nov 7 23:47:43 EST 1996
From: NeilGaiman At: 206.244.56.8
Thank you very much, Ed. Thank you for having me and good night!
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