Masters of the artistic and literary craft have always been conscious of the freedom and challenge that the comic style provides. It took a simple deconstruction of the comic industry for mainstream companies to provide extraordinarily talented creators with the opportunity to take their stab at comics. In the past three years alone, novelists such as New York Times bestseller Neil Gaiman ("American Gods") and Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon ("The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay") have been lured into comics to add a dash of proven literary talent.
It's like an article ten years from now announcing how recently even respected politicians like Arnold Schwarzenegger have been lured into appearing in action films.
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Hi Neil -
As CEREBUS nears the end, how about some comments from you about Dave Sim and his book? Especially the Swoon character and the more recent MORPHEUS No 60 - "A Game Of Me" parody cover (issue 288).
Thanks for all your writings.
/hal
Which reminds me that it's probably time to start the What Were the Funniest Pages of Dave Sim's Sandman Parody? quiz. It's in Cerebus Book 8, "Women", and it features Swoon, Snuff, Sulk, Sleaze and the rest of the Clueless. There is a really good reason for asking, having to do with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. If you have a favourite page of Women, let me know what it was and why... (The Judge's decision is final, and probably inexplicable. All will be explained at a future date. This won't just be something like the two types of photographer explanation or the weird Alan Rickman moment on Finnish TV that I fully intend to put into a later blog entry then never get around to writing because I forget. This will get explained. I have my favourites, but would like to know what yours were...)
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Dear Neil:
I know the answer to this question:
"Somewhere I read (that mysterious somewhere) that you are the only person who had won the Nebula, Hugo, World Fantasy and Stoker. I'm thought the source said that you had won all four for American Gods but that conflicts with the World Fantasy Awards site. Either my memory, the mysterious author or the WFA site is incorrect. Have you won the World Fantasy Award (for American Gods or any other work)?"
I made this incorrect announcement in AwardWeb a few months back. I was definitely wrong about including "World Fantasy" in my note, and I will correct that tonight. But American Gods is the first novel to win the Hugo, the Nebula and the Stoker.
Keep up the great work - congrats on winning the Hugo for "Coraline!"
Laurie Mann
AwardWeb http://www.dpsinfo.com/awardweb
Thanks, Laurie. Which reminds me,
Neil -
Regarding authors who've won the Hugo, Nebula, WFA, and Stoker awards, I'm sure with another hour's sleep you'd have realized that Harlan's won all of the above multiple times, along with just about every other major writing award you can think of.
Well, except for making Oprah's Book Club. And that elusive Oscar and Emmy.
http://harlanellison.com/awards.htm
And a plug for http://www.bookslut.com/blog/ and http://www.tcj.com/journalista/, neither of which I have time to read properly on tour -- or rather, I can just about keep up with blogs, but not with the links, which is really frustrating.
And this is a Quiz you've probably already run into, but can you tell a serial killer from an inventor of computer languages...? Find out at http://www.malevole.com/mv/misc/killerquiz/
I'm in Koln for tonight's reading -- the first of the Me and Martin Semmelrogge Show. I'll let you all know how it goes...