Labels: Authors League Fund, heritage Auction, Hero Initiative
Heritage Auction wrap up
The Dead Boys Detective Agency. It is a very silly name. But accurate.
April 25th. DEAD BOY DETECTIVES. It's really good -- it's funny, it's smart, it's scary, and it even has a few familiar faces...
Labels: Dead Boy Detectives
In which I can now worry significantly less about something terrible happening to 126 things...
I spent yesterday in Dallas, at the Heritage Auction headquarters -- I had decided to auction off some artwork and memorabilia to benefit two charities (The Authors Literary Fund and the Hero Initiative, which help authors/writers and comics creators who have fallen on hard times or who need help), and, just as importantly, I wanted to give something back to the artists whose art I was entrusting to new custodians.
It seems to me fundamentally wrong and inequitable that art that artists sold for $50 or a hundred dollars thirty or forty years ago now sells for hundreds or thousands of times that amount, but the artists, most of whom are old, some of whom are no longer working or not working as they were, never see another penny. I decided the best way to change that would be to set an example, and show people another way of doing it.
Here's the New York Times article before the auction: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/arts/design/neil-gaiman-auction-collectibles.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Xk0.5PkB.9iQtuvn6Bwof&smid=url-share
And here's me in Dallas two nights ago, walking around the exhibition before the auction with Robert Wilonsky from Heritage, with guest appearances by my oldest friend Geoff Notkin, whose fault this all is:
Labels: artists, auctions, Authors League Fund, geoffrey notkin, Hero Initiative
For Two Nights Only: A Christmas Carol
Thirteen years ago, I put on a Victorian Suit and a false beard and I read Dickens' prompt copy of A Christmas Carol at New York Public Library. It was a wonderful, sold out performance, introduced by Molly Oldfield, who told us all about Dickens's reading routine.
I looked a bit like this.
And the book looked a bit like this.
The reading of A Christmas Carol has become the most popular of the NYPL's audio downloads, and they repost it regularly. Here's the one from 2019:
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2019/12/19/listen-neil-gaiman-reads-christmas-carol
For years people have been asking if I was ever going to do it again. This year, back while the writers of the WGA were on strike, my assistant Rachael asked if I'd do it, and if I did, could she document it? I said yes, and it's becoming a thing.
It's going to be a Christmas Extravaganza, with carol singers and suchlike, signed books for sale and all sorts of goodies planned. I'm hoping we can get Molly Oldfield over to New York to introduce it once again.
When I was a boy, I saw Welsh actor Emlyn Williams being Charles Dickens on stage, a one man show I've never forgotten.
Here's the town Hall page for the 18th: https://thetownhall.org/event/neil-gaiman-performs-a-christmas-carol-12-18
Here's the page for the 19th: https://thetownhall.org/event/neil-gaiman-performs-a-christmas-carol-12-19
The ticket presale starts on Thursday Nov 2nd at 12 pm, and regular tickets go on sale on Friday at 10:00 am.
Labels: a christmas carol, Charles Dickens, false beards, Town Hall
Unboxing the most expensive book I have ever paid for...
Labels: little big or the fairies' parliament, mastodon, unboxing
A joint statement from Amanda and me
Hullo,
Everything you've hoped is true!
The rumours are true. Well, the good ones are, anyway. Netflix is delighted and thrilled that so many of you, all over the world, have been watching and loving Sandman, which means that the thing we were all hoping would happen...?
It's happened.
And that's not all! You dared to Dream (and, y'know, kept asking me when and whether they were ever going to show up). And it's happening! The Sandman profile icons are coming to Netflix! Let joy be unconfined!
(I'm going to be Goldie. No, Matthew. No, Goldie.)
Labels: Future Seasons, I couldn't have done it without you, Sandman on Netflix
Just a note to say...
Just a note to say that this blog has become rather dusty and abandoned over the last two or three years. But I think it's time for me to use it a lot more. At least until Google notices that they still own Blogger, and close the whole thing down.
Hullo. Welcome back.
This is a good place, on the whole, this blog. I started it in February 2001, for American Gods. This was the first entry.)
Here is an Edward Gorey drawing called The Happy Ending, to celebrate the New Beginning.
Bloody Sunrise
Your humble web goblin here again, after a brief hiatus of eight and a half years. How time flies.
"Remember when you hosted 13 Nights of Fright and got to lie in a coffin?" I was nonchalantly decorating for spooky season.
Mr. G allowed that he did without looking up from his latest manuscript.
"That was fun." A pause. "Look what I found in a back corner of the basement, between the mummified shedu and Chabon's golem."
Like a cat with a box, so is Mr. G to a red velvet lined coffin; leave one in the middle of a room and he'll be laying in it the next time you turn your back. I was ready with a handful of box nails and a hammer. It won't hold him for long. We don't have long.
Twelve hours from now, something will premiere. Something seasonally fitting. Something fun. Secret for now, but the revelations begin there.
ETA: More here.
Labels: bloody labels, here comes the sun, I have alluded to something secret
An Evening With Neil Gaiman
I start touring 6 weeks from now. It's the first time I've done something like this since before Covid -- get out there every night, read stories and poems and suchlike, answer questions and generally try to interact with a living, breathing audience. I'm a bit nervous, to be honest. Still, the idea of interacting with living, breathing human beings seems wonderful.
Here's the list of places I'll be appearing, with links to get tickets. Right now there are tickets available to all of the venues except Madison Wisconsin. If you are sad I'm not going to be somewhere near to you, I also am probably sad about this too.
(There are different Covid regulations at different venues, please check your venue for their protocol.)
And I'll see you there, I hope...
Thursday, April 28, 2022
Schenectady, NY
Proctor’s Theatre. 7:30 PM
https://tickets.proctors.org/
Friday, April 29, 2022
Boston, MA
Emerson Colonial Theatre. 8 PM
Seattle, WA
Venue: Benaroya Hall 7:30 PM
https://www.seattlesymphony.
Monday, May 2, 2022
Eugene OR
Venue: Hult Center for the Performing Arts / 7:30 PM
Link: https://tickets.hultcenter.
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
San Francisco, CA
Sydney Goldstein Theater / City Arts & Lectures / 7:30 PM
Link: https://www.cityarts.net/
San Diego, CA
Venue: Balboa Theatre 8:00 PM
https://artpower.ucsd.edu/
Austin, TX
Venue: Dell Hall, Long Center 7:30 PM
Denver, CO
Venue: Paramount Theatre 7:30 PM
https://www.ticketmaster.com/
Hartford CT
The Bushnell Performing Arts Center. 7:30 PM
https://bushnell.org/shows-
Philadelphia, PA
Merriam Theatre : 7:30 PM
https://www.
Chicago IL
Auditorium Theatre 8 PM
Madison, WI
Venue: Orpheum Theater 8PM
https://madisonorpheum.com/
(This one is sold out, I'm afraid.)
Indianapolis IN
Clowes Auditorium at Butler University 7:30 PM
https://butlerartscenter.org/
Cleveland OH
Playhouse Square 7:30 PM
Columbus OH
Palace Theatre. 7:30 PM
Dallas, TX
AT & T Performing Arts Center. 8:00PM
https://www.attpac.org/on-sale/2022/an-evening-with-neil-gaiman/
Sunday, May 22, 2022
Houston TX
Jones Hall / Society for the Performing Arts. 8 PM
https://spahouston.org/events/
Los Angeles CA
The Theatre at Ace Hotel. 8:00 PM
https://www.axs.com/events/
Pittsburgh PA
Carnegie Music Hall 7:30 PM
https://www.ticketmaster.com/
All the details are also over at https://www.neilgaiman.com/where/
Labels: An evening with Neil Gaiman