Neil Gaiman Research

Today I will be researching Neil Gaiman, who is an author, comic writer and film director. Gaiman is known for his "Sandman" series of comic books and the novel "American Gods". His books "Coraline" and "Stardust" have been made into successful films, and his book "Neverwhere" was adapted into a BBC2 series. He has recently written an adaptation of Kipling's "The Jungle Book", but set it in a cemetery and renamed it "The Graveyard Book", with the Mowglai character raised by ghosts and a vampire.

Neil Gaiman writes for both adults and children, with Stardust being, as he himself says, 'A fairy tale for adults'.

As a child and a teenager, Gaiman read the works of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, James Branch Cabell, Edgar Allan Poe, Michael Moorcock, Ursula K. Le Guin, Lord Dunsany and G. K. Chesterton. He later became a fan of science fiction, reading the works of authors as diverse as Alan Moore, Samuel R. Delany, Roger Zelazny, Robert A. Heinlein, Harlan Ellison, H. P. Lovecraft, Thorne Smith, and Gene Wolfe.

In the early 1980s, Gaiman pursued journalism, conducting interviews and writing book reviews, as a means to learn about the world and to make connections that he hoped would later assist him in getting published. He wrote and reviewed extensively for the British Fantasy Society. His first professional short story publication was "Featherquest", a fantasy story, in Imagine Magazine in May 1984, when he was 23.

When waiting for a train at Victoria Station in 1984, Gaiman noticed a copy of Swamp Thing written by Alan Moore, and carefully read it. Moore's fresh and vigorous approach to comics had such an impact on Gaiman that he would later write; "that was the final straw, what was left of my resistance crumbled. I proceeded to make regular and frequent visits to London's Forbidden Planet shop to buy comics".

In 1984, he wrote his first book, a biography of the band Duran Duran, as well as Ghastly Beyond Belief, a book of quotations, with Kim Newman. Even though Gaiman thought he did a terrible job, the book's first edition sold out very quickly. When he went to relinquish his rights to the book, he discovered the publisher had gone bankrupt. After this, he was offered a job by Penthouse. On one side, it was steady income to support his wife and two kids. On the other, it was an adult magazine. He refused the offer.

He also wrote interviews and articles for many British magazines, including Knave. As he was writing for different magazines, some of them competing, and "wrote too many articles", he sometimes went by a number of pseudonyms: Gerry Musgrave, Richard Grey, "along with a couple of house names". Gaiman ended his journalism career in 1987 because British newspapers can "make up anything they want and publish it as fact.

In the late 1980s, he wrote Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion in what he calls a "classic English humour" style.Following on from that he wrote the opening of what would become his collaboration with Terry Pratchett on the comic novel Good Omens, about the impending apocalypse.

Publishers


Sandman (1989-1996) Vertigo Comics
Stardust (1998) Avon Books
American Gods (2001) Morrow
Coraline (2002) Bloomsbury (UK) Harper Collins (US)
Anansi Boys (2005) Morrow
Mirrormask (2005) Dark Horse Books
The Graveyard Book (2008) Bloomsbury (UK) Harper Collins (US)

Advertising

Mirrormask
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA1iawlsKLg

Stardust
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6_gBg4XjWk

Coraline
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIdKHN1Bu0M

Reviews
Coraline

‘I think this book will nudge ALICE IN WONDERLAND out of its niche at last. It is the most splendidly original, weird, and frightening book I have read, and yet full of things children will love’
Diana Wynne Jones

‘This book will send a shiver down your spine, out through your shoes and into a taxi to the airport. It has the delicate horror of the finest fairy tales, and it is a masterpiece. And you will never think about buttons in quite the same way again’
Terry Pratchett

Stardust

In prose that dances and dazzles, Gaiman describes the indescribable: the eerie colours, ravishing scents and dangerous laughter of Faerie’ Susanna Clarke

http://bestsellers.about.com/od/fictionreviews/gr/stardust.htm

 Mirrormask


‘One of the most stylish picture books for 5+ ... a strange, cathartic, visually original book about a scary prediction that comes true, and is also classy and cool’
Sunday Times Books of the Year

‘This spectacular book, with its stylish blend of photography, paint, collage and drawing does not look like most children’s picture books. It bypasses the cosy, simplified clichés of child appeal, which makes it absolutely intriguing for youngsters. It is atmospheric, sinister, scary and funny …This is a book for cool kids who will grow up to be fearless’
Sunday Times

http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/About_Neil/Biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman
http://www.bloomsbury.com/Coraline/Neil-Gaiman/books/details/9780747594062
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stardust-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0755322827

Comic Research

Kick-Ass

This comic is part of a mini-series about a boy who reads a lot of comics and has always wondered why no-one has ever tried to be a super hero. He found out the hard way that it's easy to get involved with some very dangerous and powerful enemies. The cover describes this danger, and I like the style of the artwork. The lines are very thin, so the colours come out more. If you're not a fan of graphic violence then you might not like the story line, The story is plausible as there are no super powers, just costumes and vigilante justice. The main character gets injured and ends up covered in bandages, like you'd expect in real life. Due to injuries at the beginning of the story, the main character can't feel pain, and the other characters rely on weapons and martial arts training.

Jimmy Corrigan

I like the artwork in this comic, it's reminiscent of comics of the 1930s such as Dick Tracey. The colours  are muted and almost pastel. The story line is about a person who works in a dead-end job in a mail office, til one day he receives a letter from the father he never met. When he meets him, he's unsure whether he's really the person he says he is. The art style, similar to Kick-Ass, relies on blocks of colour or tone rather than outlines. This gives a stylised but naturalistic appearance.

Photographer research

David Hockney


David Hockney has often been regarded as a playboy of the art world. He has had lascivious relationships, and he has run among strange and crazy artistic circles. Yet he has always retained a sense of stability in his life through his constant and tireless devotion to his work. Hockney is an artist that has always enjoyed success and praise, facing little to no hardship in his career. What is interesting about his life is not the problems he has encountered, but the strides he has taken to bypass much human suffering and malaise.

I like this piece, I like the composite effect of the multiple photographs, and the way the eye is led down the avenue to the building at the end. The trees and the opening of the avenue give a double frame-in-frame effect, which is enhanced by the vignetting of the photos on the level of the bases of the trees. This piece reminds me of futurism due to the blockiness of the image and the colours used. The whole thing gives the impression of 'moving forwards'.

http://www.davidhockney.com/bio.shtml



John Shaw


John has been a professional nature photographer since the early 1970s. His work has been published in many publications and books, including National Geographic, Nature's Best, National Wildlife, Audubon, Outdoor Photographer, and many others. In 1997 he received the first-ever Outstanding Photographer Award given by NANPA (North American Nature Photography Association).  Nikon chose him as a featured Legend Behind the Lens in 2002, while Microsoft designated him an Icon of Imaging in 2006.  He has been part of Epson's Stylus Pro fine art print makers group since 2001.

What I like about this photo is how the eye is drawn first to the moon, then to the red mountain which leads it to the top-right corner, next, back down the dark areas and then to the left of frame. From there, the eye is taken by the cloud and the grey mountain back to the moon, full-circle around the whole image. Judging by the colours, it would appear that a filter has been used to bring out the contrast.


http://johnshawphoto.com/Index.html

Review

Today I will be reviewing the Walking Dead TV series, which is based on a series of graphic novels. It's about a man who wakes up in hospital to discover that there has been an outbreak of zombies. The first couple of episodes deal with him searching for his family and coming to terms with the reality of what's happened. I felt the action was well-paced and didn't drag, and the characters weren't over the top. The story line stayed on track, and stayed with the characters. My overall judgement is that it is very tense, with good acting and effective special effects. A good example of this is when two characters leave a safe spot to hijack a van and had to go through a street full of zombies. They covered themselves in a zombie's blood to hide their own smell, but then it started to rain which washed the blood off them and they had to run down the street and climb over a fence to escape. This scene also showed the humanity of the characters, as before they cut up the zombie they looked in his wallet to find out what he had been called. The acting was very good, and I cared for their safety.