Tom Smith

I'm more of a short story and comic fan of Neil's - although my absolute favorite would have to be Stardust. But I love the short stories.

"Dream of a Thousand Cats"

Picking a favourite Gaiman is hard. Like you, anything with Hob Galding, easily my favourite character in _Sandman_. I just finished Anansi Boys and utterly loved it. I actually liked it more than American Gods

I'm very fond of the songs he wrote for The Flash Girls. And his blog is frequently entertaining.

That man's just *talented*.

The only thing I have read of his outside of the Sandman series is Coraline. I read it to my wife in the car on a trip to Wilmington, NC. It isn't that I don't like Gaiman. It is that I just haven't had enough time to get to all of his works when I have so many other great authors to read.

Neverwhere. No contest. All his stuff is good, but that's my personal favourite.

Coraline. Creepy and insidious. Lovely.

"Day of the Dead" works just fine, too.

One of these years I must actually read Sandman; it got pushed at me so hard that I pushed back and refused it at the time. I think enough water's gone over the dam that I can give it a shot, now.

1602.

I fell in love with Sandman a long time ago, but it is has been a decade since I read it. I really enjoyed Neverwhere and American Gods, And the button eyes in Coraline completely creeped me out. Happy birthday, indeed! :-)

Yikes! I'm older than Neil? Maybe by not much, but still!

I think I'd have to say Neverwhere, but that may be because I am a sad, strange little man and haven't read near enough of his stuff.


That said, I was Morpheus for Halloween.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" from Sandman and Good Omens, if I have to pick two.

I fell in love with Neil upon reading "Ramadan" in Sandman #50. I had just gotten back into comics, and I promptly went and bought all of the available Sandman collections. Of the Sandman tales, the two Shakespere tales, "The Sound Of Her Wings" (the first appearance of Death), and the series where Morpheus is given the key to hell are my favorite, but Sandman was an embarrasment of riches in good storytelling.

His short story "Snow, Glass, Apples", "American Gods", and "Good Omens" with Terry Prachett are also favorites. And at Balticon this year, he read a new story called "Orange", which also ranks as one of his greats... I hope it gets published soon.

Can't wait to see you next week at Philcon, Tom!

Blimey!

Sandman got me back into comics after I had gone cold turkey for over ten years. I too love Hob Gadling. And Death. And Matthew.

Then there was the original The Books of Magic which I still adore. His versions of Constantine and The Phantom Stranger are wonderful.

American Gods blew me away, but Anansi Boys is gentler, funnier and, oddly, has a more realistic feel.

Good Omens proves that a combination of Gaiman and Pratchett is even funnier than Pratchett by himself.

Oh, and A Study in Emerald was worth the price of Shadows Over Baker Street alone.

Choose one? You have to be kidding!

Don't Panic (with Douglas Adams)

Um... the only other thing I've read by him was Coraline, though I've met the guy at Worldcon Knew who he was. Just didn't go completely ga-ga over him, like damned near every other female (and some of the males).

Good Omens! 8D

My favorite has to be the Sandman issue "Three Septembers and a January," because I really like Emperor Norton I. I also liked American Gods, Anansi Boys, and Coraline (I can't wait for the movie version of that. I mean based on a Gaiman novel and a sound track by They Might Be Giants).

I can't answer that question. Every time someone mentions another title, I change my answer. Damn.

Could go with GOOD OMENS but you know I'm a Pratchett fan too.

Harlequin Valentine, his collaboration with John Bolton, is possibly my favorite of his graphic works; I fell in love with Bolton's artwork while collecting Interview With The Vampire, and the marriage of the two just made my heart sing. American Gods is brilliant - I want to be Sam Black Crow when I grow up. (I'm still somewhat annoyed in retrospect that I opted to skip the Hugo Awards at ConJose, but I hadn't read the book at that point.)

My all-time favorite Gaiman-related moment, though, was participating in a conga line at a convention dance led by Death and Delirium. (And her fish.)

Cooincidentally, we rented Mirrormask last night, since we'd never gotten around to seeing it.

I'm going to have to go with Good Omens, although it's hard to see how much of that is Pratchett sometimes,

Sandman in general, "Men of Fortune", "The Beating of Wings" and the tales in World's End in particular, specifically "Hob's Leviathan" and "Two Cities", and of course "A Doll's House", being the first graphic novel I had ever read.

Gah, I can't possibly choose. I adore "Good Omens", I'm on my second copy of that book. The first was also read by my daughter and several of her friends. It even went to NYC and back. I love "Stardust", had to have the graphic novel of that one. I lovelovelove "Neverwhere", would love to see the series that the book is based on. I love "American Gods", Rochndil and I must make a pilgramage to Rock City, soon. And I just finished "Anansi Boys", another winner.
I haven't read any of his short stories, but guess I should. I'm just so picky about short stories. Many of my favorite authors just don't write short stories that I can really get into.
Anyway, Happy Birthday to Neil Gaiman, may he have a wonderful day! :)

Too many to list for me. Sandman was my introduction, with me having tried reading the third chapter in "A game of you", and being confused, then picking up "The song of orpheus", which hooked me, and hard. I started getting the books after that, and the progression helped. Much like many, Hob is probably my favorite character. He who epitomizes the ups and downs that life can bring, given enough time, something we seem to never have enough of.

Storywise, American Gods. The build-up, the background, the ideas. Neverwhere was close, but I prefer the series as opposed to the book on that one.

And, I adore the audiobook stuff that he has done. "Warning: Contains Language" is currently in my car, and will be for a while. "Nicholas Was" being a particular favorite to listen to. :-)

As a mythology geek, Season of Mists just makes me so very happy. So does American Gods. And, yeah, the entire Hob arc was a lot of fun. Wish I could do that.

Also, "Ramadan" was the first (and still only, I believe) comic story to ever bring me to tears. The shock of the ending was beautifully done, especially reading it as I was about a year into the war in Iraq.

And I just finished reading 1602. That was a hell of a lot of fun, and I know I still didn't get half the references in the story.

And Good Omens was a masterpiece. And I have to cut this off now, or else I'll just keep going.

Good Omens and American Gods. Also the story that first introduced Death in Sandman.

"Good Omens".When I got him to sign my Hebrew copy that was already signed by Pratchett I was so excited I heard my heart in my ears.

EVERYTHING HE'S EVER WRITTEN.

It's so hard to pick, though. Sandman, possibly. Maybe Neverwhere. Maybe Snow, Glass, Apples; that's got to be one of my favorite short stories. Or Good Omens. I've reread that more than any other book, ever. OOoo, and I'm seeing people mention 1602, can't forget that. That was amazing. Oooo, and the Death comics; I loved those, too.

And there's all the stories by him I haven't gotten a chance to read yet; I still haven't found a copy of Black Orchid, so I don't know that one of those might be my favorite.

Choosing a favorite Gaiman work's too much like choosing a favorite orgasm. So I'm going to tell you that the one that screwed me up the most in the head was I believe, "A Game of You," That was the one with Barbara and the Cuckoo, right?

Good Omens (which I'm still steamed that Terry Gilliam's planned movie didn't get the American financing it needed) and Death: the High Cost of Living are top of my list. Just below them are Season of Mists, Smoke and Mirrors and American Gods.

Gaiman is my hero.

--Jer

I would have to say that Neverwhere is a particularly good story of his - saw the BBC show first, and then read the book.

Love his Sandman work, though - I find that he gave a face to my own personal concept of Death.

American Gods. Various Short Stories were vying for contention as I read them, until I read the short story "sequel" to AG, and felt at home with old friends. That sold me that American Gods was my favourite of his works.

I'm a fan of Books of Magic

Good Omens. Neverwhere. Smoke and Mirrors. American Gods. Fragile Things. i could go on...

So difficult, but I think that a beginning for me could be made with these: American Gods, Good Omens, Anansi Boys, Neverwhere and Day of the Dead. I watched Day of the Dead several times over when I first got the set on dvd.

If you love Sandman, a great present to hint around for would be Absolute Sandman Vol. 1 - this book is nothing short of stunning. I cannot wait for the rest of the volumes (tho' my pocketbook may not agree :) ).

I got a kick out of The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish - It's a funny tale, and it's a great to read to a group of kids.

It has to be his acceptance speech when he won the Hugo for AMERICAN GODS.

Don't Panic and the B5 ep "Day of the Dead". Truth is, I haven't read a whole lotta Gaiman... 'Sandman' came out during one of my "I'm sick of comics" windows, and I never got around to picking up anything else of his.

Good Omens... "Ramadan"... Books of Magic... "A Study in Emerald"... ummm...