Gaimanites


So, I've been asking myself why, if I'm such a huge Neil Gaiman fan, have I not yet done a Neil Gaiman post. I mean, it's been a year - so what is the hang up here?

As I sat down to write this, figuring I'd pop something out in 30 minutes, I realized how little of his universe I've actually explored. Gaiman is prolific, writing YA fiction, adult fiction, plays/screenplays/teleplays, graphic novels, nonfiction, blog posts, and tweets.

as his friend Michael Reaves states, 
Neil’s very lucky, and he’s very talented. It’s a combination that’s easy to hate. When I say The Graveyard Book is Kipling’s The Jungle Book set in a graveyard, that’s just what’s called the logline. It’s the one-sentence shorthand that will let producers -- who have, in general, the attention span of a spider monkey on PCP -- immediately grasp the concept. (Assuming they know who Kipling is, a factoid I wouldn’t be anxious to put money on,)

No, there’s a lot more to the book than just a clever idea. I don’t intend to review it here, because frankly, it’s more fun to rant about Neil. It is, however, a piece of work well worth your time. But you knew that already.

Although he’s quite easy to hate in terms of talent, he is also, unfortunately, a very nice guy, which makes hating him somewhat harder.

Gaiman has a fan base of over 1.5 million followers on Twitter and who knows how many followers of his blog.

As far as I can tell, there are at least four different factions of Gaimanites:
  1. The Sandman faction: fans of his graphic novels (of which, I once owned the FIRST volume. Yes, sad to say, I didn't know what I had and gave it away to a friend) -also included are the non-Sandman graphic novel(s).
  2. The TV/Movie faction: those who follow his work with Dr. Who, etc.
  3. The Young Adult and Children's faction: fans of his award winning YA books
  4. The Adult Fiction faction: fans who, like me, fell for Gaiman's mythologically inspired, awkward outsider-manipulated-into-a-series-of-events-for-which-he-has-little-choice-but-to-roll-with-it stories (of which, there is seriously too little).  
There is, admittedly, quite a lot of crossover - and I'm sure many other Gaiman factions exist beyond my realm of knowledge - to those people I feel I must bow down and ask forgiveness for my ignorance, for Gaiman fans can be as serious and formal and passionate and geeky as a game of Dungeons and Dragons.

That said, here is a list of his books (sans graphic novels, teleplays, or scripts):

Children and Young Adult books:
  1. Blueberry Girl, Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess; HarperCollins (March 10, 2009)
  2. Coraline (Jan. 2002)
  3. Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman and Dave Mckean (Hardcover - May 26, 2009)
  4. Instructions, Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess (Apr 27, 2010)
  5. M is for Magic
  6. MirrorMask, Children's Edition
  7. Odd and the Frost Giants
  8. The Dangerous Alphabet
  9. The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish
  10. The Graveyard Book
  11. The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean; Gollancz (October 27, 1994)
  12. Violent Cases: Words & Pictures, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean; Mosby-Year Book; 10th edition (February 1998)
  13. Wolves in the Walls; Hapercollins (August 5, 2003)
Adult novels:
  1. A Walking Tour of the Shambles
  2. Adventures in the Dream Trade
  3. American Gods
  4. Anansi Boys
  5. Angels & Visitations
  6. Day of the Dead
  7. Don't Panic
  8. Duran Duran: The Book - Gaiman, Neil (1984)
  9. Fragile Things
  10. Good Omens
  11. InterWorld
  12. MirrorMask
  13. Neverwhere
  14. Smoke & Mirrors
  15. Stardust
  16. The Absolute Death
  17. The Alchemy of MirrorMask
  18. The Facts In The Case Of The Departure Of Miss Finch by Neil Gaiman and Michael Zulli (Hardcover - Oct 10, 2007)
  19. The Last Temptation, Neil Gaiman and Michael Zulli; Dark Horse (September 13, 2005)
Short stories/compilations:
  1. Ghastly Beyond Belief: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of Quotations - Gaiman, Neil and Newman, Kim (1985). Ghastly Beyond Belief. London: Arrow. ISBN 0-09-936830-7.
  2. Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion (A guide to Douglas Adams' 'trilogy') - Gaiman, Neil (1988). New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-66426-3.
  3. Now We Are Sick; Neil Gaiman (Editor), Stephen Jones (Editor); DreamHaven Books; 1ST edition (1991, 1994)
  4. Angels and Visitations (a collection of short stories) - Gaiman, Neil et al. (1993). Angels and Visitations: a miscellany. Minneapolis, Minn.: DreamHaven. ISBN 0-9630944-2-4.
  5. Anthology of Nasty Verse with poems by Alan Moore, Ramsey Campbell, Gene Wolfe, R.A. Lafferty, Terry Pratchett, Brian Aldiss, Kim Newman, Diana Wynne Jones, etc.
  6. On Cats and Dogs: Two Tales (1997) (chapbook containing two short stories)
  7. Gods & Tulips, Westhampton House 1999.
  8. Little Lit: It Was a Dark and Silly Night (with Gahan Wilson), anthology of stories by various writers and artists, edited by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly) - Spiegelman, Art and Mouly, Françoise (2001). New York: Joanna Cotler Books. ISBN 0-06-028626-1
  9. Adventures in the Dream Trade (a miscellany) - Gaiman, Neil (2002). Adventures in the Dream Trade. Framingham, Massachusetts: NESFA Press. ISBN 1-886778-42-6
  10. The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases (Night Shade Books) (2003).
  11. Shoggoth's Old Peculiar (art by Jouni Koponen), DreamHaven Books 2004.
  12. Everything You Know About God Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Religion, by Russ Kick, Neil Gaiman and Richard Dawkins. The Disinformation Company; First Edition edition (August 7, 2007)
  13. Stories: All New Tales - Gaiman, Neil and Al Sarrantonio (2010)
  14. Zombies: The Recent Dead; Neil Gaiman (Author), Brian Keene (Author), Joe R. Lansdale (Author), David Schow (Author), Michael Marshall Smith (Author), Max Brooks (Author), Paula Guran (Editor); Prime Books (October 19, 2010)
  15. New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird; Neil Gaiman (Author), China Mieville (Author), Caitlin R. Kiernan (Author), Sarah Monette (Author), Kim Newman (Author), Cherie Priest (Author), Michael Marshall Smith (Author), Charles Stross (Author), Rafael Tavares (Author); Prime Books (November 29, 2011)
  16. Happily Ever After; Gregory Maguire (Author), Bill Willingham (Author), Susanna Clarke (Author), Neil Gaiman (Author), John Klima (Editor); Night Shade Books (May 24, 2011)

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