Gaiman has won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, as well as the Newbery and Carnegie medals. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book (2008). In 2013, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards. It was later adapted into a critically acclaimed stage play at the Royal National Theatre in London.
In 2024, it was announced that a number of commercial ventures linked to him would halt production, owing to allegations of sexual assault towards women.[3][4][5]
Early life and education
Neil Richard Gaiman[6] was born on 10 November 1960[7] in Portchester, Hampshire.[8]
Gaiman's family is of Polish-Jewish and other Ashkenazi origins.[9] His great-grandfather emigrated to England from Antwerp before 1914[10] and his grandfather settled in Portsmouth and established a chain of grocery stores, changing the family name from Chaiman to Gaiman.[11] His father, David Bernard Gaiman, worked in the same chain of stores;[12] his mother, Sheila Gaiman (née Goldman), was a pharmacist. Neil has two younger sisters, Claire and Lizzy.[13]
The Gaimans moved in 1965 to the West Sussex town of East Grinstead, where his parents studied Dianetics at the Scientology centre in the town; one of Gaiman's sisters works for the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles. His other sister, Lizzy Calcioli, has said, "Most of our social activities were involved with Scientology or our Jewish family. It would get very confusing when people would ask my religion as a kid. I'd say, 'I'm a Jewish Scientologist.'" Gaiman says that he is not a Scientologist, and that like Judaism, Scientology is his family's religion.[8] About his personal views, Gaiman has stated, "I think we can say that God exists in the DC Universe. I would not stand up and beat the drum for the existence of God in this universe. I don't know, I think there's probably a 50/50 chance. It doesn't really matter to me."[14]
Gaiman was able to read at the age of four. He said, "I was a reader. I loved reading. Reading things gave me pleasure. I was very good at most subjects in school, not because I had any particular aptitude in them, but because normally on the first day of school, they'd hand out schoolbooks, and I'd read them—which would mean that I'd know what was coming up because I'd read it."[15] When he was about ten years old, he read his way through the works of Dennis Wheatley; The Ka of Gifford Hillary and The Haunting of Toby Jugg made a special impact on him.[16]
Another work that made a particular impression was J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, which he got from his school library. Although they only had the first two of the novel's three volumes, Gaiman consistently checked them out and read them. He later won the school English prize and the school reading prize, enabling him to finally acquire the third volume.[17] For his seventh birthday, Gaiman received C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. He later recalled that "I admired his use of parenthetical statements to the reader, where he would just talk to you ... I'd think, 'Oh, my gosh, that is so cool! I want to do that! When I become an author, I want to be able to do things in parentheses.' I liked the power of putting things in brackets."[17]Narnia also introduced him to literary awards, specifically the Carnegie Medal, won by the concluding volume in 1956. When Gaiman won the 2010 Medal himself, he said "it had to be the most important literary award there ever was"[18] and "if you can make yourself aged seven happy, you're really doing well – it's like writing a letter to yourself aged seven."[19]Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was another childhood favourite, and "a favourite forever. Alice was default reading to the point where I knew it by heart." He also enjoyed Batman comics.[17]
Gaiman was educated at several Church of England schools, including Fonthill School in East Grinstead,[20]Ardingly College (1970–1974), and Whitgift School in Croydon (1974–1977).[21] His father's position as a public relations official of the Church of Scientology was the cause of the seven-year-old Gaiman being forced to withdraw from Fonthill School and return to the school which he had previously attended.[8][22] He lived in East Grinstead for many years, from 1965 to 1980 and again from 1984 to 1987.[20]
He met his first wife, Mary McGrath, while she was studying Scientology and living in a house in East Grinstead that was owned by his father. The couple were married in 1985 after having their first child.[8]
Career
Journalism, early writings, and literary influences
Gaiman has named Roger Zelazny as the author who influenced him the most.[34][35] Gaiman claims that other authors such as Samuel R. Delany and Angela Carter "furnished the inside of my mind and set me to writing".[34] Gaiman takes inspiration from the folk tales tradition, citing Otta F Swire's book on the legends of the Isle of Skye as his inspiration for The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains.[36]
In the early 1980s, Gaiman pursued journalism, conducting interviews and writing book reviews, as a means to learn about the world and to make connections that he hoped would later assist him in getting published.[17] He wrote and reviewed extensively for the British Fantasy Society.[37] His first professional short story publication was "Featherquest", a fantasy story, in Imagine Magazine in May 1984.[37]
Gaiman frequented the Forbidden Planet comic store at its original location of Number 23, Denmark Street, central London (pictured).
While waiting for a train at London's Victoria Station in 1984, Gaiman noticed a copy of Swamp Thing by Alan Moore, and read it. Moore's approach to comics had such an impact on Gaiman that he later wrote "that was the final straw, what was left of my resistance crumbled. I proceeded to make regular and frequent visits to London's Forbidden Planet shop to buy comics".[29]
In 1984, he wrote his first book, a biography of the band Duran Duran, and co-edited Ghastly Beyond Belief, a book of quotations, with Kim Newman. Although Gaiman thought he had done a terrible job, the book's first edition sold out very quickly. When he went to relinquish his rights to the book, he discovered the publisher had gone bankrupt.[17][38] After this, he was offered a job by Penthouse. He refused the offer.[17]
He also wrote interviews and articles for many British magazines, including Knave. During this, he sometimes wrote under pseudonyms, including Gerry Musgrave, Richard Grey, and "a couple of house names".[39] Gaiman has said he ended his journalism career in 1987 because British newspapers regularly publish untruths as fact.[40][41]
In the late 1980s, he wrote Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion in what he calls a "classic English humour" style.[42]
After forming a friendship with Alan Moore, who taught him how to write comic scripts,[29][44] Gaiman started writing comic books and picked up Miracleman after Moore finished his run on the series. He continued his professional relationship with Moore by contributing quotations for the supplemental materials in the Watchmen comic book series.[44]
The Sandman tells the tale of the ageless, anthropomorphic personification of Dream that is known by many names, including Morpheus. The series began in January 1989 and concluded in March 1996.[48] The various artists who contributed to the series include Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Jill Thompson, Shawn McManus, Marc Hempel, and Michael Zulli, with lettering by Todd Klein, colours by Daniel Vozzo, and covers by Dave McKean.[17] The series became one of DC's top selling titles, eclipsing even Batman and Superman.[49] The 75 issues of the regular series, along with an illustrated prose text and a special containing seven short stories, have been collected into 12 volumes that remain in print.
Comics historian Les Daniels called Gaiman's work "astonishing" and noted that The Sandman was "a mixture of fantasy, horror, and ironic humor such as comic books had never seen before".[52][53] DC Comics writer and executive Paul Levitz observed that "The Sandman became the first extraordinary success as a series of graphic novel collections, reaching out and converting new readers to the medium, particularly young women on college campuses, and making Gaiman himself into an iconic cultural figure."[54]
Gaiman and Jamie Delano were to become co-writers of the Swamp Thing series following Rick Veitch. An editorial decision by DC to censor Veitch's final storyline caused both Gaiman and Delano to withdraw from the title.[55]
In 1990, Gaiman wrote The Books of Magic, a four-part mini-series that provided a tour of the mythological and magical parts of the DC Universe through a frame story about an English teenager who discovers that he is destined to be the world's greatest wizard.[59] The miniseries was popular, and sired an ongoing series written by John Ney Rieber.[60]
In the mid-1990s, he also created a number of new characters and a setting that was to be featured in a title published by Tekno Comix. The concepts were then altered and split between three titles set in the same continuity: Lady Justice, Mr. Hero the Newmatic Man, and Teknophage,[62] and tie-ins. Although Gaiman's name appeared prominently as the creator of the characters, he was not involved in writing any of the above-mentioned books.
Asked why he likes comics more than other forms of storytelling, Gaiman said:
"One of the joys of comics has always been the knowledge that it was, in many ways, untouched ground. It was virgin territory. When I was working on Sandman, I felt a lot of the time that I was actually picking up a machete and heading out into the jungle. I got to write in places and do things that nobody had ever done before. When I'm writing novels I'm painfully aware that I'm working in a medium that people have been writing absolutely jaw-droppingly brilliant things for, you know, three-four thousand years now. You know, you can go back. We have things like The Golden Ass. And you go, well, I don't know that I'm as good as that and that's two and a half thousand years old. But with comics I felt like – I can do stuff nobody has ever done. I can do stuff nobody has ever thought of. And I could and it was enormously fun."[63]
After teaming with Colleen Doran for a series of graphic novel adaptations based on his short stories "Troll Bridge", "Chivalry", and "Snow, Glass, Apples", Gaiman and the Terry Pratchett estate chose Doran to adapt Good Omens into graphic novel form, and to self publish the work via the Pratchett estate's Dunmanifestin label. It was financed on Kickstarter where it became a record-setter in less than a week as the top fan-supported and top-earning comics project in the history of the platform.[78]
Neil Gaiman and Roz Kaveney discuss Why We Need Fantasy at the British Library on 20 November 2023.Gaiman in 2009
In a collaboration with author Terry Pratchett, best known for his series of Discworld novels, Gaiman's first novel Good Omens was published in 1990. In 2011, Pratchett said that while the entire novel was a collaborative effort and most of the ideas could be credited to both of them, Pratchett did a larger portion of writing and editing if for no other reason than Gaiman's scheduled involvement with Sandman.[79]
The 1996 novelisation of Gaiman's teleplay for the BBC mini-series Neverwhere was his first solo novel. The novel was released in tandem with the television series, though it presents some notable differences from the television series. Gaiman has since revised the novel twice, the first time for an American audience unfamiliar with the London Underground, the second time because he felt unsatisfied with the originals.[80]
In 1999, the first printings of his fantasy novel Stardust were released. The novel has been released both as a standard novel and in an illustrated text edition.[81] This novel was highly influenced by Victorian fairytales and culture.[82]
American Gods became one of Gaiman's best-selling and multi-award-winning novels upon its release in 2001.[83] A special 10th Anniversary edition was released, with the "author's preferred text" 12,000 words longer than the original mass-market editions.[84] Gaiman has not written a direct sequel to American Gods but he has revisited the characters. A glimpse at Shadow's travels in Europe is found in a short story which finds him in Scotland, applying the same concepts developed in American Gods to the story of Beowulf. The 2005 novel Anansi Boys deals with Anansi ('Mr. Nancy'), tracing the relationship of his two sons, one semi-divine and the other an unassuming bookkeeper, as they explore their common heritage. It debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list.[85]
In 2002, Gaiman entered the world of children's books with the dark fairy tale Coraline. In 2008 he released another children's book, The Graveyard Book. It follows the adventures of a boy named Bod after his family is murdered and he is left to be brought up by a graveyard. It is heavily influenced by Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. As of late January 2009[update], it had been on The New York Times Bestseller children's list for fifteen weeks.[86]
In 2013, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards.[87] The novel follows an unnamed man who returns to his hometown for a funeral and remembers events that began forty years earlier.[88] Themes include the search for self-identity and the "disconnect between childhood and adulthood".[89] It was later adapted into a critically acclaimed stage play at the Royal National Theatre in London.[90]
In September 2016, Neil Gaiman announced that he had been working for some years on retellings of Norse mythology.[91]Norse Mythology was released in February 2017.[92]
Several of his novels have been published as paperbacks with retro covers by artist Robert McGinnis.[93][94]
Gaiman wrote the 1996 BBC dark fantasy television series Neverwhere. He co-wrote the screenplay for the movie MirrorMask with his old friend Dave McKean for McKean to direct. In addition, he wrote the localised English language script for the anime movie Princess Mononoke, based on a translation of the Japanese script.[95]
After his disappointment with the production limitations of Neverwhere, Gaiman asked his agent to pull him out of an (unnamed) UK television series that was to begin production immediately afterwards. "I didn't want to do it unless I had more control than you get as a writer: in fantasy, the tone of voice, the look and feel, the way something is shot and edited is vital, and I wanted to be in charge of that."[96]
He was the only person other than J. Michael Straczynski to write a Babylon 5 script in the series' last three seasons, contributing to the season five episode "Day of the Dead".[95] The series also features a recurring alien race called the Gaim, who resemble the character of Dream and are named after Gaiman.
In 2007, Gaiman announced that after ten years in development, the feature film of Death: The High Cost of Living would finally begin production with a screenplay by Gaiman that he would direct for Warner Independent. Gaiman said that he agreed to direct the film "with the carrot dangled in front of me that I could direct it. And we'll see if that happens, and if I'm a good director or not."[96]Don Murphy and Susan Montford were named as producers, and Guillermo del Toro was named as the film's executive producer.[102][103] By 2010, it had been reported that the film was no longer in production.[104]
Seeing Ear Theatre performed two of Gaiman's audio theatre plays, "Snow, Glass, Apples", Gaiman's retelling of Snow White, and "Murder Mysteries", a story of heaven before the Fall in which the first crime is committed. Both audio plays were published in the collection Smoke and Mirrors in 1998.[105]
In September 2014, Gaiman and Terry Pratchett joined forces with BBC Radio 4 to make the first-ever dramatisation of their co-penned novel Good Omens, which was broadcast in December in five half-hour episodes and culminated in an hour-long final apocalyptic showdown.[43] In 2021, Gaiman was cast as Duke Aubrey in an adaptation of Hope Mirrlees' Lud-in-the-Mist, a novel Gaiman had previously proclaimed one of his favourites (and contributed a foreword for an edition by Cold Spring Press), for BBC Radio 4.[124]
Public performances
Gaiman frequently performs public readings from his stories and poetry, and has toured with his wife, musician Amanda Palmer. In some of these performances he has also sung songs, in "a novelist's version of singing",[125] despite having "no kind of singing voice".[126]
In 2015, Gaiman delivered a 100-minute lecture for the Long Now Foundation entitled How Stories Last about the nature of storytelling and how stories persist in human culture.[127] In April 2018, Gaiman made a guest appearance on the television show The Big Bang Theory, and his tweet about the show's fictional comic book store became the central theme of the episode "The Comet Polarization".[128]
Intellectual property disputes
In 1993, Gaiman was contracted by Todd McFarlane to write a single issue of Spawn, which McFarlane published through Image Comics, which McFarlane had recently co-founded. McFarlane was promoting his new title by having guest authors Gaiman, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and Dave Sim each write a single issue.[129][130]
In issue No. 9 of the series, Gaiman introduced the characters Angela, Cogliostro, and Medieval Spawn. Prior to this issue, Spawn was an assassin who worked for the government and came back as a reluctant agent of Hell but had no real direction in his actions. In Angela, a cruel and malicious angel, Gaiman introduced a character who threatened Spawn's existence, as well as providing a moral opposite. Cogliostro was introduced as a mentor character for exposition and instruction, providing guidance. Medieval Spawn introduced a history and precedent that not all Spawns were self-serving or evil, giving additional character development to Malebolgia, the demon that creates Hellspawn.[129][130]
As intended, all three characters were used repeatedly throughout the next decade by Todd McFarlane within the wider Spawn universe.[131] In papers filed by Gaiman in early 2002, however, he claimed that the characters were jointly owned by their scripter (himself) and artist (McFarlane), not merely by McFarlane in his role as the creator of the series.[129][130] Disagreement over who owned the rights to a character was the primary motivation for McFarlane and other artists to form Image Comics (although that argument related more towards disagreements between writers and artists as character creators).[132] As McFarlane used the characters without Gaiman's permission or royalty payments, Gaiman believed his copyrighted work was being infringed upon, which violated their original oral agreement. McFarlane initially agreed that Gaiman had not signed away any rights to the characters, and negotiated with Gaiman to effectively "swap" McFarlane's interest in the character Marvelman.[133] McFarlane had purchased an interest in the character when Eclipse Comics was liquidated while Gaiman was interested in being able to continue his aborted run of the Marvelman title. McFarlane later changed his initial position, claiming that Gaiman's work had only been work-for-hire and that McFarlane owned all of Gaiman's creations entirely. The presiding judge, however, ruled against their agreement being work for hire, based in large part on the legal requirement that "copyright assignments must be in writing."[134]
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court ruling in February 2004[135] granting joint ownership of the characters to Gaiman and McFarlane. On the specific issue of Cogliostro, presiding Judge John C. Shabaz proclaimed, "The expressive work that is the comic-book character Count Nicholas Cogliostro was the joint work of Gaiman and McFarlane—their contributions strike us as quite equal—and both are entitled to ownership of the copyright".[136] Similar analysis led to similar results for the other two characters, Angela and Medieval Spawn.
This legal battle was brought by Gaiman and the specifically formed Marvels and Miracles, LLC, which Gaiman had previously created to help sort out the legal rights surrounding Marvelman. Gaiman had written Marvel 1602in 2003 to help fund this project[137] and all of Gaiman's profits for the original issues of the series were donated to Marvels and Miracles.[137] The rights to Marvelman were subsequently purchased, from original creator Mick Anglo, by Marvel Comics in 2009.[138]
Gaiman returned to court again over the Spawn characters Dark Ages Spawn, Domina, and Tiffany, claiming that they were "derivative of the three he co-created with McFarlane."[139] The judge ruled that Gaiman was right in these claims as well and gave McFarlane until the beginning of September 2010 to settle the matter.[140]
Personal life
Gaiman and wife Amanda Palmer in Vienna, Austria, 2011
Gaiman has lived near Menomonie, Wisconsin, since 1992. Gaiman moved there to be close to the family of his then-wife, Mary McGrath, with whom he has three children.[17][141][142][143] He was close friends with fellow author Terry Pratchett until his death in 2015. He was in a romantic relationship with Amanda Palmer between 2009[144][145] and 2020[146] and the two have a son.[147] As of 2013[update], Gaiman also resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[148] Since 2014 Gaiman has been a professor in the arts at Bard College, teaching courses in theatre and performance, written arts and experimental humanities.[149] At Bard he also serves on the advisory board for at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts,[150] where he hosts public lectures and conversations with notable figures in the arts.[151] He is also frequently on social media, most notably Tumblr, and often advocates for political and humanitarian causes like LGBTQ+ rights. He has mentioned being autistic.[152]
Blog and social media
In February 2001, when Gaiman had completed writing American Gods, his publishers set up a promotional website featuring a weblog in which Gaiman described the day-to-day process of revising, publishing, and promoting the novel. After the novel was published, the website evolved into a more general Official Neil Gaiman Website.[153] Gaiman generally posts to the blog describing the day-to-day process of being Neil Gaiman and writing, revising, publishing, or promoting whatever the current project is. He also posts reader emails and answers questions, which gives him unusually direct and immediate interaction with fans. One of his answers on why he writes the blog is "because writing is, like death, a lonely business."[154] The original American Gods blog was extracted for publication in the NESFA Press collection of Gaiman miscellany, Adventures in the Dream Trade.[155] To celebrate the seventh anniversary of the blog, the novel American Gods was provided free of charge online for a month.[156]
Gaiman joined Twitter in 2008. In 2013, Gaiman was named by IGN as one of "The Best Tweeters in Comics", describing his posts as "sublime,"[157] but as of 2023, Gaiman no longer personally posts on Twitter; his account @neilhimself[158] posts updates on his behalf.[159]
Other personal relationships
Gaiman was married to songwriter and performer Amanda Palmer, with whom he had an open marriage.[160] The couple announced that they were dating in June 2009,[144][145] and announced their engagement on Twitter on 1 January 2010.[161] On 16 November 2010, Palmer hosted a non-legally-binding flash mob wedding for Gaiman's birthday in New Orleans.[162] They were legally married on 2 January 2011.[163] The wedding took place in the parlour of writers Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon.[6][164] On marrying Palmer, he took her middle name, MacKinnon, as one of his names.[6] In September 2015, they had a son.[147]
In March 2020, Gaiman, Palmer, and their son were in Havelock North, Hawke's Bay, when New Zealand's government announced that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the whole country would move to COVID-19 Alert Level 4: complete lockdown and quarantining of people within their own homes.[165] In May 2020, Gaiman travelled from New Zealand to his holiday home on the Isle of Skye, breaking the lockdown rules. Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP Ian Blackford described his behaviour as unacceptable and dangerous.[166] Gaiman published an apology on his website, saying he had endangered the local community.[167] After Gaiman's departure, Palmer announced on her Patreon that she and Gaiman had separated and requested privacy.[146] Gaiman stated in a blog post that their split was "my fault, I'm afraid" and also requested privacy. The couple later released a joint statement clarifying that they were not, however, getting divorced.[168] They reconciled in 2021,[169][170] but in November 2022 they released a joint statement to announce they were divorcing.[171][172]
One of Gaiman's most commented-upon friendships is with the musician Tori Amos, a Sandman fan who became friends with Gaiman after making a reference to "Neil and the Dream King" on her 1991 demo tape. He included her in turn as a character (a talking tree) in his novel Stardust, and she guest-starred in that role in the BBC Radio 4 audio drama.[173] Amos also mentions Gaiman in her songs, "Tear in Your Hand" ("If you need me, me and Neil'll be hangin' out with the dream king. Neil says hi by the way"),[174][175] "Space Dog" ("Where's Neil when you need him?"),[176] "Horses" ("But will you find me if Neil makes me a tree?"),[177] "Carbon" ("Get me Neil on the line, no I can't hold. Have him read, 'Snow, Glass, Apples' where nothing is what it seems"),[178] "Sweet Dreams" ("You're forgetting to fly, darling, when you sleep"),[179] and "Not Dying Today" ("Neil is thrilled he can claim he's mammalian, 'but the bad news,' he said, 'girl you're a dandelion'").[178] He also wrote stories for the tour book of Boys for Pele and Scarlet's Walk, a letter for the tour book of American Doll Posse, and the stories behind each girl in her album Strange Little Girls. Amos penned the introduction for his novel Death: the High Cost of Living, and posed for the cover. She also wrote a song called "Sister Named Desire" based on his Sandman character, which was included in his anthology, Where's Neil When You Need Him?
Gaiman is godfather to Tori Amos's daughter Tash,[180] and wrote a poem called "Blueberry Girl" for Tori and Tash.[181] The poem was adapted into a book by illustrator Charles Vess.[182] Gaiman read the poem aloud to an audience at the Sundance Kabuki Theater in San Francisco on 5 October 2008 during his book reading tour for The Graveyard Book.[183] It was published in March 2009 with the title Blueberry Girl.
Advocacy
In 2016, Gaiman, as well as several prominent celebrities, appeared in the video "What They Took With Them", from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, to help raise awareness of the issue of global refugees.[184][185]
Gaiman is a supporter of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and has served on its board of directors.[186] In 2013, Gaiman was named co-chair of the organization's newly formed advisory board.[187]
In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Gaiman supported Ukraine by announcing on Twitter that he does not want to renew contracts with Russian publishers.[188] Gaiman also encouraged donating to Ukrainian refugees.[189][190]
In 2023, Gaiman signed an open letter addressed to Russian president Vladimir Putin, alongside over 100 other public figures, calling for the release of Russian prisoner Alexei Navalny.[191][192]
In 2024, five women accused Gaiman of sexual assault and abuse. All five of these women were interviewed on the Tortoise Media podcast Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman. One, who used the pseudonym "Claire", was also interviewed by The New York Times.[3] Claire described being kissed and groped by Gaiman without her consent after meeting him at a book tour event. A woman identified as "K", who also first met Gaiman at a book signing, said that during their relationship he subjected her to painful sex that she "neither wanted nor enjoyed."[193] Scarlett, a former nanny for Gaiman and Palmer's child, "alleges that Gaiman sexually assaulted her within hours of their first meeting in February 2022 in a bath at his New Zealand residence".[193] A former tenant of Gaiman's named Caroline Wallner alleges that he demanded sexual favors in exchange for being allowed to continue living on his property.[194]
The writer Julia Hobsbawm accused Gaiman of "an aggressive, unwanted pass" and described how Gaiman pushed her onto a sofa and French kissed her. Gaiman has denied engaging in non-consensual sex, and dismissed the Hobsbawm incident as him misreading a situation.[194][195]
In September 2024, Disney halted production on the film adaptation of The Graveyard Book due to a variety of factors, including the sexual assault allegations against Gaiman.[196][197][3] That same month, production on series 3 of Good Omens was put on hold; Gaiman ultimately left the project in October.[198][199]
Gaiman's work is known for its use of allusions.[200] Dr. Meredith Collins, for instance, has commented upon the degree to which his novel Stardust depends on allusions to Victorian fairy tales and culture.[201] In The Sandman, literary figures and characters appear often; the character of Fiddler's Green is modeled on G. K. Chesterton, and both William Shakespeare and Geoffrey Chaucer appear as characters, as do several characters from A Midsummer Night's Dream[202] and The Tempest. The comic also draws from numerous mythologies.[citation needed]
Analyzing Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, bibliographer and librarian Richard Bleiler detects patterns of and allusions to the Gothic novel, from Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. He concludes that Gaiman is "utilizing works, characters, themes, and settings that generations of scholars have identified and classified as Gothic... [yet] subverts them and develops the novel by focusing on the positive aspects of maturation, concentrating on the values of learning, friendship, and sacrifice."[203] Regarding another work's assumed connection and allusions to this form, Gaiman himself quipped: "I've never been able to figure out whether Sandman is a gothic."[204]
Clay Smith has argued that this sort of allusiveness serves to situate Gaiman as a strong authorial presence in his own works, often to the exclusion of his collaborators.[205] However, Smith's viewpoint is in the minority: to many, if there is a problem with Gaiman's scholarship and intertextuality it is that "... his literary merit and vast popularity have propelled him into the nascent comics canon so quickly that there is not yet a basis of critical scholarship about his work."[206]
David Rudd takes a more generous view in his study of the novel Coraline, where he argues that the work plays and riffs productively on Sigmund Freud's concept of Unheimlich ("the Uncanny").[207]
Though Gaiman's work is frequently seen as exemplifying the monomyth structure laid out in Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces,[208] Gaiman says that he started reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces but refused to finish it: "I think I got about halfway through The Hero with a Thousand Faces and found myself thinking if this is true – I don't want to know. I really would rather not know this stuff. I'd rather do it because it's true and because I accidentally wind up creating something that falls into this pattern than be told what the pattern is."[209]
Selected awards and honours
From 1991 to 1993, Gaiman won Harvey Awards in the following categories:
2005 Best Short Story for "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire"[213]
2006 Best Fantasy novel for Anansi Boys.[213] The book was also nominated for a Hugo Award, but Gaiman asked for it to be withdrawn from the list, stating that he wanted to give other writers a chance and that it was really more fantasy than science fiction.[218]
2004 Best Short Story for A Study in Emerald (in a ceremony the author presided over himself, having volunteered for the job before his story was nominated)[213]
2010 Carnegie Medal for The Graveyard Book, becoming the first author to have won both the Carnegie and Newbery Medals for the same work.[19][18][247][248][249]
2019 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, "celebrat[ing] authors who have given generously to other writers or to the broader literary community." Gaiman was given the award "for advocating for freedom of expression worldwide and inspiring countless writers."[255]
^Gaiman, Neil (16 January 2009). "Journeys End". Neil Gaiman's Journal. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2009. My paternal great-grandfather came to the UK before 1914; and he would have come from Antwerp.
^Wearring, Andrew (December 2009). "Changing, Out-of-Work, Dead, and Reborn Gods in the Fiction of Neil Gaiman". Literature & Aesthetics. 19 (2): 236.
^Lancaster, James (11 October 2005). "Everyone has the potential to be great". The Argus. pp. 10–11. David Gaiman quote: "It's not me you should be interviewing. It's my son. Neil Gaiman. He's in the New York Times Bestsellers list. Fantasy. He's flavour of the month, very famous
^Gaiman, Neil (20 December 2008). "Trees". Neil Gaiman's Journal. Archived from the original on 29 September 2013. Retrieved 26 July 2011.
^Whitaker, Steve (January 1989). "Neil Gaiman interview". FA (109): 24–29.
^"Neil Gaiman". Exclusive Books. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
^"Head Bars Son of Cult Man". The Times. 13 August 1968. p. 2. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2011. A headmaster has refused the son of a scientologist entry to a preparatory school until, he says, the cult "clears its name". The boy, Neil Gaiman, aged 7, (...) Mr. David Gaiman, the father, aged 35, a former South Coast businessman, has become in recent weeks a prominent spokesman in Britain for scientology, which has its headquarters at East Grinstead.
^ ab"Of Meetings and Partings" by Neil Gaiman, introduction to This Mortal Mountain: Volume 3 of The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, NESFA Press, edited by David G. Grubbs, Christopher S. Kovacs, and Ann Crimmins, 2009, page 12.
^Manning, Matthew K.; Dolan, Hannah (2010). "1980s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 235. ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. Neil Gaiman scripted the complex Black Orchid prestige format limited series in December [1988], re-envisioning the character with the help of artist Dave McKean.
^Manning "1980s" in Dolan, p. 238: "In arguably one of the greatest achievements in serialized modern comic books, writer Neil Gaiman crafted the seventy-five-issue ongoing series The Sandman, introducing its readers to a complex world of horror and fantasy."
^Manning "1980s" in Dolan, p. 240: "Neil Gaiman, aided by penciller Mike Dringenberg, introduced the character Death to a fascinated readership...Death was an instant hit and arguably became more popular than the Sandman himself."
^Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 262: "In March 1993, DC Comics debuted a three-issue limited series entitled Death: The High Cost of Living...Written by Neil Gaiman and drawn by future comics superstar Chris Bachalo, The High Cost of Living had one notable trait besides a brilliant story: its cover bore a new logo. With this debut, DC's provocative new mature-reader imprint, Vertigo, was born."
^Daniels, Les (1995). "The Sandman's Coming: A New Approach to Making Myths". DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes. New York, New York: Bulfinch Press. p. 206. ISBN978-0821220764.
^Levitz, Paul (2010). "The Dark Age 1984–1998". 75 Years of DC Comics The Art of Modern Mythmaking. Cologne, Germany: Taschen. p. 567. ISBN9783836519816.
^Manning, Matthew K.; Dougall, Alastair (2014). "1980s". Batman: A Visual History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 183. ISBN978-1465424563. Secret Origins No. 36 Neil Gaiman gave readers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Poison Ivy's mind.
^Manning "1980s" in Dougall (2014), p. 179: Secret Origins Special No. 1 "Gaiman wrote the Riddler's tale, with the help of artist Bernie Mireault."
^Martin, Brian (August 2017). "Where the Action is...Weekly". Back Issue! (98): 77.
^Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 247: "Neil Gaiman chronicled the adventures of magic pupil Timothy Hunter in this miniseries. each issue explored the realms of magic as portrayed by a different painter."
^Manning, Matthew K.; Gilbert, Laura (2008). "2000s". Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 317. ISBN978-0756641238. Neil Gaiman...took his creative vision and penchant for times past to Marvel, crafting this eight-issue limited series alongside fan-favourite artist Andy Kubert. Digitally painted by Richard Isanove...this series took an alternative look at what the classic Marvel pantheon would be like if they had existed in the 17th century.
^Cowsill, Alan "2000s" in Dolan, p. 337: "Writer Neil Gaiman and art legend Andy Kubert teamed up to present a touching imaginary tale of a wake for the dead Batman...A love song to the Dark Knight's long history...it went on to win SFX's Best Comic award in 2010."
^Cowsill "2000s" in Dolan, p. 338: "The [series] contained fifteen continuous stories, including...'Metamorpho' scripted by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Michael Allred."
^Sunu, Steve (21 March 2013). "Gaiman Returns to Marvel, Brings Spawn's Angela". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on 23 March 2013. Retrieved 23 March 2013. Later this year, writer Neil Gaiman makes his return to Marvel Comics...Perhaps even more intriguing is the announcement that Gaiman plans to introduce Angela to the Marvel U.
^"BOOKS: Stardust: Neil Gaiman & Charles Vess". Valdosta Daily Times. 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 November 2020. However, Gaiman initially wrote "Stardust" for Vertigo Comics as a novel illustrated by comics legend Charles Vess. Vertigo published the earliest edition filled with Vess' gorgeous colour and black-and-white illustrations. Some subsequent editions have only contained Gaiman's words without Vess' illustrations.
^Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked (Television production). Stephen Kroopnick, Stu Schreiberg, James Grant Goldin, Melody Shafir, Susan Werbe, Narrated by Keith David, Featuring Neil Gaiman. [New York]: Triage Entertainment, Inc. 2003. 73 minutes in. ISBN0-7670-8365-2. OCLC61347142.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) Broadcast by the History Channel.
^See Judge Shabaz's ruling for the legal reasoning: "As a co-owner, McFarlane was not violating the Copyright Act by unilaterally publishing the jointly owned work, but, as in any other case of conversion or misappropriation, he would have to account to the other joint owner for the latter's share of the profits."
^See Judge Shabaz's rulingArchived 5 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine: "A tentative agreement was reached that... Gaiman would exchange his rights in Medieval Spawn and Cogliostro for McFarlane's rights in another comic book character, Miracleman."
^Judge Shabaz, Official rulingArchived 5 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine, as per "Schiller & Schmidt, Inc. v. Nordisco Corp., 969 F.2d 410, 413 (7th Cir. 1992)"
^Bleiler, Richard (2011). "Raised by the Dead: The Maturational Gothic of Neil Gaiman's _The Graveyard Book_". In Olson, Danel (ed.). 21st Century Gothic: Great Gothic Novels Since 2000 (1st ed.). Plymouth, UK: Scarecrow Press. pp. 269–278. ISBN9780810877283.
^Olson, Danel (2014). "Casket Letters: The Essential Comics of Horror, Gothic, and the Weird for 2014". The Weird Fiction Review. 5: 285–291.
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