Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Mr. Gaiman, a friend of mine insisted I ask this of you, so I
apologize for the deep comics-geekery of it:
In one of Garth Ennis's Preacher specials, there was a group of goth
kids who were not portrayed sympathetically, including one character
who many fans took to be an unflattering analogue of yourself,
particularly given later references to the character "ditching us with
his first royalty check and going off to reinvent genres."  Have you
seen this?  What are your thoughts on it?  Is it some kind of joke
we're not getting or a weird coincidence, or is Ennis being a jerk?
  

    
I'm not very good at predicting when I'll turn into an utter stammering
fangirl.  Most of the time, I'm not very phased, but sometimes if I start
thinking too much about how a person's work turned me on to this which
turned me on to that . . . chains like that, I'll turn fangirlish.
 
Sometimes it's sheer numbers, too.  My first (and only, thus far) World
Fantasy con was like that, the one in Mpls in '93.  I was mostly busy
working on the con and having a grand old time and meeting all sorts of
people.  But at one point I had to just stop and leave the building with
some other friends where we let out all the fangirl and fanboy energy,
enthusing about encounters with Roger Zelazny and Gene Wolfe and John
Crowley and on and on and on.  I think we mostly remained calm at the con,
saving our geeky "Oh My God" ravings for across the parking lot at Embers
or TGI Fridays or someplace.  
  

    
Oh my gosh! I got to see the Olympic flame!  Actually, it wasn't
deliberate and I'm not that excited about it, but as it went passed my
front door as I was going to work I thought I should have a peep.  God
and Country and all that sort of thing.  The sheer number of people
lining the streets wearing dippy paper hats saying 'I saw the torch'
was rather scary. I hate to think of all those trees.  I guess you
could almost say that, for the general Australian public, it is a form
of fandom.
  

    <scribbled>
  

    
Neil, sorry to hear the County Fair was...ah...eventful.  Although to
some that is the very definition of a good time!
  

    
Streak -- well, Garth insisted to DC that it wasn't meant to be me,
and Steve Dillon, who's an old friend, seemed very upset when I asked
him about it ("Look, mate, if it was meant to be you it would have
looked like you" was how he put it.) I'm perfectly happy to accept
their word that it wasn't meant to be me. 

martha, what are you doing in Colorado? And will you get a chance to
see Mike before he leaves Adobe to come home from Palo ALto?

laurel -- it's hard to be a fan while working...

Amanda -- Does the flame start in Atlanta and go to Sidney?
  

    

I last got all fangirl over Larry Niven in 1972 and was so embarassed that
I have since studiously avoided coming into contact with anyone else
likely to have that effect on me...
  

    
lol
  

    
Neil - Yup.  It started in Atlanta with the lighting of the flame
ritual (It was to be lit by the reflection of the sun but it turned out
to be an overcast day so they were force to use other means), and then
it trotted it's way across the globe, around Australia and has finally
reached Melbourne.  It even made a voyage out to space. 

One of the few torch bears that come to mind was a gentleman of 109
yrs in Ballarat who walked by himself to the podium in the town centre
and said a few words.  I remember thinking 'Man, if I have half his
spunk at a 109 I'd count myself lucky'.  

It is rather hard to get away from the Olympics at the moment with the
Media full of updates, info and scandals.
  

    
Neil, where is Mike?  What is he doing?

It's supposed to be a writers' retreat here in Colorado Springs but I've
spent most of my time trying to get online--largely my fault for not
bringing one bit, but some of it just cursed fate.  Went up Pike's Peak
today.  Will see the SkySox play baseball tomorrow.

(If you are saying Mike is in Silicon Valley, how long for?  Of course I'd
like to see him.)
  

    
The jacket's up past $5,000 now.  Cool!
 
  

    
Martha, yup, he's out there. In Palo Alto/San Jose area until August
11th, staying with Amacker Bullwinkle, working at Adobe Photoshop beta
testing stuff, doing things with plug ins, studying at Foothill
Community College and otherwise having a good time.

Amanda -- what fun...

laurel -- Yay! And the sundry VIP tickets to the Readings (you must
all come to them, those of you in New York, Chicago, Portland and LA)
are mostly at $400 each!
  

    

A message from the Internet:

From moonlight@graffiti.net Tue Aug  1 19:26:31 2000
Date: Wed, 02 Aug 2000 03:46:54 +0800
From: Sarah Rudek <moonlight@graffiti.net>
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: Questions for Neil Gaiman

-Sarah 

Hi Neil-

Somewhere amongst the jungle of internet-archived interviews and articles, I'm recalling you mentioning you'd like to do a non-fiction piece on Tori Amos' fanbase.  Now I doubt I'm the only one who'd love to read this; spending a few hours on some Tori fansites provides an interesting sociological excursion.  (And I'm not saying this in haughty looking-over-professor's spectacles; my voice shakes all the same when the time comes...)  Some of these sites present her as some what of a religious experience, twenty page dissertations on five second meet-n-greets before her concerts, following tours from city to city, ect.  So this led to me thinking...if he wants to write about someone else's fanbase, what does he think of us?  (The only reason I started with Tori is because her fan base is one of the more easier generalized ones and because I'm still waiting for that essay...)  I've heard the media try to describe your fans as anything from 'iconoclastic young intellectuals' to  !
overzealous and ankhed goths sounding like they had been in comas since 1983 after surviving unspeakable hairspray accidents.  I've heard you say 'nice and patient', contrasting them with Clive Barker's bloodshedding admirers.  Now you've certainly been fan-worthy for quite a while now, and have experience in a few different story telling mediums.  Have you noticed your fanbase evolve as you moved from comics to novels to children's books to anime?  Is there any certain audience you'd like to reach that you haven't yet?  Do you enjoy having a somewhat of a steady following and meeting your audience or would you rather avoid public readings and signings if promotion wasn't needed?  And to fill the amusing anecdote quota, what are some of the more odder ways your fans have tried to get your attention or remembrance?  So there's a jumble of picky questions to fill the space, and here's hoping they haven't been already asked to death.  : )


-('.')- (Trying to sound articulate, not stuffy, thank you...)
http://www.crosswinds.net/~ambienteye

P.S.  What do you think of Lou Reed's new album?  I saw his Minneapolis concert in June, and thought it was terrific; specially a wonderfully epic'd version of Rock Minuet.  Even if he's old and contrived, he's still got the Rock Star thing down pat.  : )

P.P.S. Thanks much for the information about the Miracleman Andy Warhol story; I'll have to check at Dreamhaven.

-- 
_______________________________________________
Get your free email from http://www.graffiti.net
  

    
Hi Sarah

the trouble with my fans is that, for the most part, they're pretty
normal. I've not met all of them, but of the, what, fifty-to-a-hundred
thousand people I've signed for over the last fifteen years, I can only
recally one deeply disturbed one, one spooky one, and a very small
number of grumpy ones. They seem for the most part very bright, and
they can be relied upon to baffle large bookstores by a) turning out in
their hundreds and b) being nice, and patient, and friendly.

I don't think any of them view getting to say hello to me in the way
that many of Tori's fans view her. She's rescued some of them from the
brink, while I've entertained some, and got some people through rough
times, and made them think, and sometimes see things differently.

The biggest change to my fans over the last few years was that once
books came out I started getting people in the lines who, in previous
years, would have explained when they got ot the front of the queue,
that they had no idea who I was but they were getting something signed
for their son in the army, now getting stuff signed for themselves. And
the occasional very small person clutching a copy of The Day I Swapped
My Dad For 2 Goldfish.

I wasn't as impressed by Ecstacy as I was hoping to be from the
reviews. It reminded me a lot of The Blue Mask, an album I disliked
when it came out, and which grew on me. I think I like my Lou Reed best
when he's sharp, and Blue Mask and Ecstacy both do the Lou in love
thing and get close at times to being maudlin. I'd love to see him live
again, though. I can count off the beats of my life with Lou Reed
concerts.
  

    
I just noticed a bunch of questions I missed.

I like having readers. It's hard to be an artist without an audience.
I like doing live readings as it makes something you did on your own
come alive.

An audience I'd like to reach that I haven't? There are a lot of
people out there who would like my stuff if they read it. I'd like it
to get to them.

I could happily skip signings for the rest of my life, I think. That's
why I like doing the readings.

And the things they do so I'll remember them? Well, the young lady at
the New York Mr Punch signing who got me to sign her breast, very
nervously, and when I did said "Now you'll never forget me" before
darting out of the gallery. And I didn't have the heart (or the time)
to tell her that hers was far from being the first breast I'd signed,
but the only ones I remember are the first, and her because that was
why she did it. I've forgotten her name, but not what she said.

Mostly, and perhaps oddly, but I do pretty much remember the people
who turn up, at least if we talk at all. 

And my favourite strange gift was from the fan who was a Herkimer
Diamond miner, who gave me a huge handful of Herkimer diamonds. I gave
them to fans who gave me cool things for a long time to come. I liked
having pockets full of herkimer diamonds.
  

    
One day in 1972, I spotted Jerry Garcia sitting by himself
at a table in the Keystone Korner (a Bay Area nightclub
favored by Art Blakey, Miles Davis and other jazz legends).
Since there were only 8 or 9 people in evidence, I went up to
him and said hello, feeling as nervous as if I'd flagged down
Merlin Ambrosius and asked to be changed into a hawk.  He shook my 
hand and asked me to sit down.  We talked about musical progressions  
and chord changes for 5 or 10 minutes.  I was changed and relieved
by the experience of being welcomed by a normal person and
having a normal conversation.  Thereafter, I decided, he 
was only the living incarnation of Merlin when onstage
with the guitar strapped across his back.
  
Today is Jerry Garcia's birthday, btw.
  

    
I'm back in San Francisco this Sunday, so I'll overlap with Mike's stay.
Give him my e-mail--though he must be very busy!

It's too bad for the likes of me that your last reading tour doesn't go
through San Francisco.  Fairly cheap flight down to LA or up to Portland, I
suppose--
  

    
Lenny -- the hardest thing about fame is that people stick you up onto
a plinth. I'm sure Jerry enjoyed being unplinthed for a while.

Martha -- I gave him your e-mail. 

I figure that I've done two enjoyable San Francisco readings; but
never done a good New York or LA one, and never done Chicago or
Portland at all...

Spent today with the local sherriff's office, learning all about the
local jail, and doing a drive-along, and getting questions answered.
The strangest place was "the pod" the aquarium room from which one
stares out into all the cells. Men and women in orange clothes who
stared out or didn't or paced or played cards, much like animals in
cages.

it could have been a high tech zoo.
  

    
A real Panopticon, huh?
  

    
Was your visit to the local jail for American Gods or another project
you are working on?
  

    
Martha - you must be exhausted.

Neil - Has everyone now recovered from
strange-I'm-still-not-sure-what-diseases?
  

    
Just got this from Amazon two days ago.  Am looking forward to slicing
through the shrink-wrap!
  

    
Amanda -- yup, it was an American Gods trip. Really useful, too (and I
had an idea for a short story or something which isn't part of
American Gods as well).

The fifths disease episode is all done with thank you kindly.

Jeff, I hope you enjoy it!

Wrote today -- many pages  of strange stuff. Right now I'm at a bit
where I hope the book knows what it's doing as I have no idea.
  

    


From: "Marilyn Rigg" <m_appealing@hotmail.com>
To: inkwell-hosts@well.com
Subject: Questions for Mr. Gaiman, Please
Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2000 06:21:19 EDT

Hi Mr. Gaiman!
I heard you have excellent taste in music, so I thought I'd ask a few
musicish questions:

Is it true you were in a punk band?  What did you play?  Were you any good?
Could you recommend any cool punk bands to listen to?

I bought 69 Love Songs.  The Magnetic Fields have really exploded on Napster.
 My favorite song by them is 'Underwear'.  What are some of your favorite
songs on the album?  Any thoughts on the big Napster controversy?

Do you have a current theme song?  An all time theme song?  What would some
of the songs on the soundtrack to your life be?  Who would you want to paly
the part of you in the Neil Gaiman movie?

That last one wasn't musicish at all.

Thanks for your time.  I hope the questions aren't too silly.
-Mari-
  

    
(As I was scrolling past this topic, "Acoustic Guitar" was playing in my
head, but I just had the disc on last night.  But it was "Busby Berkeley
Dreams
" that was in my head as I nodded off, so I jumped tracks in my sleep.)