Ask Neil Gaiman

A very special "call for questions" today: Neil Gaiman, author of The Sandman, a series whose long-awaited resurrection was -- not coincidentally -- announced last week. Neil is also winner of the uncoveted Roblimo's favorite book of the 21st Century so far award for American Gods, and a free speech activist who has concentrated -- again, not coincidentally -- on comic book and graphic novel authors' and vendors' freedoms. Please read this interview, listen to this NPR interview, and check other material about Neil before you ask questions, in order to avoid triteness. We'll send 10 of the highest-moderated questions to Neil tomorrow, and post his answers when he gets them back to us.

Re:Journal

[glazik]

I thought it was funny that there is an Ask Slashdot with Gaiman, since he is so open and responsive in his journal. I'm glad to see that somebody mentioned it.

Also, Neil used to post a hell of a lot (and maybe still does) on inkwell.vue, the Well's [well.com] free, open-to-the-public conference. This kind of interaction with one's fans seems extremely rare.

In any case, I'm sure he's tickled to have been asked.

Huh?

[Galvatron]

What is this about? American Gods is only 2 years old! I don't think 2 years would radically alter how Neil Gaiman would write his book.

Re:Terry Pratchett

[dopplex]

He's been asked this a lot. The answer was that "Good Omens" was somethign that happened before either of them had really made it. To do a sequel now would involve really high expectations, probably a lot of much to wade through, and they'd both pretty much rather just leave the wonderful "Good Omens" as the result of their collaboration, rather than risk tainting the process in some way.

All addressed in "The Sandman Companion"

[Valdrax]

Please read "The Sandman Companion," [amazon.com] which covers this Frequently Asked Question very, very nicely. It's a wonderful book for anyone who loved the series, containing interviews with Neil Gaiman, the artists who drew the books, and several others along with very insightful essays on the meaning and symbolism behind many of the events in the series.

Re:Are you pissed...

[Sandman1971]

I guess you guys don't RTFA:
http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/gaiman.htm l [januarymagazine.com]

Linda Richards: There's been a lot of muttering in the UK press about J.K. Rowling "borrowing" ideas for her Harry Potter books from you. Would you care to comment on that?

Neil Gaiman: Last year, initially The Scotsman newspaper -- being Scottish and J.K. Rowling being Scottish -- and because of the English tendency to try and tear down their idols, they kept trying to build stories which said J.K. Rowling ripped off Neil Gaiman. They kept getting in touch with me and I kept declining to play because I thought it was silly. And then The Daily Mirror in England ran an article about that mad woman who was trying to sue J.K. Rowling over having stolen muggles from her. And they finished off with a line saying [something like]: And Neil Gaiman has accused her of stealing.

Luckily I found this online and I found it the night it came out by pure coincidence and the reporter's e-mail address was at the bottom of the thing so I fired off an e-mail saying: This is not true, I never said this. You are making this up. I got an apologetic e-mail back, but by the time I'd gotten the apologetic e-mail back it was already in The Daily Mail the following morning and it was very obvious that The Daily Mail's research [had] consisted of reading The Daily Mirror. And you're going: journalists are so lazy.

What was it of yours they were accusing her of stealing from you?

Neil Gaiman:My character Tim Hunter from Books of Magic who came out in 1990 was a small dark-haired boy with big round spectacles -- a 12-year-old English boy -- who has the potential to be the most powerful wizard in the world and has a little barn owl.

So there were commonalties, for sure.

Neil Gaiman:Well, yes and as I finally, pissed off, pointed out to an English reviewer who tried to start this again, I said: Look, all of the things that they actually have in common are such incredibly obvious, surface things that, had she actually been stealing, they were the things that would be first to be changed. Change hair color from brown to fair, you lose the glasses, you know: that kind of thing.

Change the owl to a gecko.

Neil Gaiman:Yes. Or to a peregrine falcon. And I said to her that I thought we were both just stealing from T.H. White: very straightforward. But then I saw an online interview with the mad muggles lady where they were asking her about me and they said: what about Neil Gaiman? And she said: Well, he's been gotten to. [Laughs]

By the Harry Potter conspiracy? [Laughs]

Neil Gaiman:I guess, yes.

Question for Neil

[Anonymous Coward]

happened alredy - Gainman sent a cease and desist letter to somebody who had scanned and posted the long out print Miracleman comics on the internet.

read about it here

http://www.alanmoorefansite.com/news/aug2003.htm l# 4

Unbenownest to me - the full Alan Moore comic series of Miracleman scanned and posted to the web. These books i'm told are seminal, however they are out of print and due to legal wranglings I have never read them myself. Now here someone took the time, put them up there for all to see and what happens?

http://www.transmission3000.com/Miracleman/index .h tml

I realize this is Neil Gainman, fine he's a good writer - I won't argue that - he isn't worth the salt off Alan Moores nuts, but he can write well enough compared to other writers. Now Mircleman is Alans truimph - he did the 16 issues that supposedly changed the industry. Alan pittied Neil and gave him legal rights and Neil went on to write 9 more issues. Now the whole legal thing is screwed up, the books are out print so people adapt and publish them themselves -

WHY the FUCK would this guy send a cease and desist letter - for something which isn't even his baby - for something that was given to him - why not just let the alan moore fans - read the books - appreciate the words - the pictures - isn't that what its about, instead of hanging on, hiding behind copyright laws and lawyers - c'mon!

Thats my question for Neil - Why this fuss over the posting of Mircalman stuff on the internet?

letter sent to the poster below.
- KENNETH F. LEVIN AND ASSOCIATES ATTORNEYS AT LAW

July 31, 2003

TO: captainATtransmission3000.com

Dear Captain,

Neil is on a whirlwind tour for his latest books (3!) both this month and next (1602, Endless Nights, and Wolves in the Wall); as you may know, I'm Neil's lawyer on the MiracleMan litigation, and he asked me if I could respond to your nice email. First, it needs saying that the passion of you and of so many others (including me) for the MiracleMan coda of material is the primary motivator for this litigation - as you know, Neil's avowed purpose is to get the material back before the public in beautiful format, and at an affordable price. And as you may also know, if Neil nets any money from this, it's all already promised to charity. When it comes to acting based on principle, just because it's, well, because it's just the right thing to do, Neil is one of our heroes. And deservedly so.

Now. Much as we appreciate the sentiments of your idea, it's a really bad idea, and would do much harm to the cause. First, much of the rights issue has already been decided: Alan Moore DOES have the copyrights to his work (the writing of Eclipse's MM 1-16), as does Neil for MM 17-24. Mark Buckingham owns the copyrights for the books he did with Neil, and various artists share copyrights on Alan's work. The question is now down to some trademark questions, and on that it is also now clear that Neil has at least 30%, and Gary Leach has most all of the rest (unless Eclipse really did have them, which I doubt, in which case Todd McFarlane may have an interest). But the point is that your publishing them on the web would do two things: (1) it dilutes the value of the copyrights for subsequent sales when they do get republished - and they will - which means charity will get hurt, and (2) it's a clear copyright violation, directly hurting the very people whose work you profess to admire, and flying in the face of the various artists' rights principles we're fighting so hard to protect. So I really need to ask you cease and desist now, with all due respect and appreciation for your good intentions. I realize that this means some people will have to wait a while for the stories to be in front of them in affordable form. But trust me, when they are, the wait will have been worth it.

Again, Captain, thanks for your support...

Best wishes,

-Ken F. Levin

CC: Neil Gaiman