Ask About Free Gaiman-izing

A friend of mine had a chance to go to a comic convention recently. Among the many famous names there (well, famous to nerds like me, anyway) was one of my favorite novelists of the past few months, Neil Gaiman.

You might now Gaiman's name if you saw the movie Stardust (which I recommend), based on one of his books. He's well known among sci-fi/fantasy circles--genres I'm not really into, but which he writes about with a flair and realism that can be both hilarious and moving. His writing usually begins in the real world and then finds the dark fantastic underbelly. Pan's Labyrinth and other Guillermo del Toro films tap a similar vein, as does some of Tim Burton's stuff. In Gaiman's world, things are never "quite right," and nightmares come to life and are sometimes mean and sometimes have their own nightmares. I'd highly recommend his novel American Gods. It's really entertaining. Gaiman's stuff is usually a little dark, a little like nursery rhymes gone crazy.

Anyway, Gaiman was signing copies of his upcoming release, The Graveyard Book, about a boy raised in a graveyard. It's a little bit for younger readers, but so what? It's still dark and fun and mysterious, like the other "younger reader" book he wrote, Coraline. (Check out this trailer for the upcoming film version of Coraline. It's stop motion by the same guy who did Nightmare Before Christmas). Anyway, I asked my friend to get me a copy if possible. He obliged.

I, for one, love the personalization.