Well, at first:
Sorry for my English, I´m from CZE and new here.
Hope to find some friends concerned in the same thigs (My friends don´t read much)

Comics seem to be quite expensive in my country so my first Gaiman was Neverwhere and I found it wonderfull, so I persuaded my friend who has a bookshop (where I buy Pratchett´s books, too, because we have a very stupid library in my town) to order as much of his books as possible. Second was Coraline and the moment when I realized Gaiman is great came with Stardust. I think it´s kind of charming, enchanting... During those days I read it I felt like dreaming all the time and everywhere.

Then Book of Dreams and American Gods, now I´m reading Smoke and Mirrors and my favourite is Chivalry.

I like everything what Gaiman wrote and I read

1994. I passed by the newest issue of Sandman whilst looking for the latest issue of Coleen Doran's "Distant Soil" and thought, "weird pictures...even weirder story", and put it down, forgotten until 10 years later.

I was an idiot.

Now, I'm addicted, and not just to the Sandman. I've read "American Gods" too and thought Gaiman did a much better job depicting the Norse gods than Monty Python in the laughable "Erik the Viking". I liked how he did Hinzelmann's personality too, although my own idea of the little German house fairy is quite different in the story I'm writing about him.

Every time I go to the bookstore I grab one of the volumes of Sandman and shut out the world around me. One of these days I'll have to get off my lazy financial arse and just BUY one. I've leafed through "Wolves in the Walls" too and found it comparable to one of my art teacher's children's books, "What's That Noise?" but I won't spoil the story. Now I plan on reading Coraline too. The way Mr. Gaiman writes the characters is so realistic and detailed, no matter how strange their natures may be. They are fascinating. He really knows people. I can tell he's very observant. What I like best about his writing style is he dosen't sugar-coat the characters, he just tells it like it is, both good and bad. Yet there's still an element of hope throughout the stories, no matter how dark they get. Nothing is predictable...that's what keeps me reading.

I was hooked when Violent Cases came out. Then I found Signal to Noise and Black Orchid was published and it was all down hill from there. A good part of it was fuelled by my being blown away by Dave Mckeans’ work. As a young artist he and a few others were my formative influences. But the thing that really impressed me about Neil's writing, aside from being an avid reader of all his work all along, was working on a bit of one of Neil’s scripts for a test I did some years back for DC.

I never had, and never since have, found it quite so easy to visualise the story from a writer’s script. Hard to say exactly what set it apart but he was able to paint such a vivid picture for the artist [the script was written originally in this case for Jill Thompson] that there was no wracking your head trying to work it out. It was just there, in your head and glowing on the page. All I had to do was trace the lines. And it struck me that when the issue came out [I was sent the one on the desk at the time so I was doing it essentially around the same time as Jill] it was amazing how close my pages were to what Jill had done! That’s some mighty tight writing.

Also there’s that time he came to town and held a reading, and answered some questions from the audience and reminded me inadvertently that I should do what I love first above all.

About 11 years ago a friend loaned me Dream Country and I was very impressed. I proceeded to buy all of the bound editions that had published to that point and the individual issues still coming out. Then I found _Good Omens_ and counted myself blessed to have been introduced to this man's work. He has such a wicked sense of humour and is god-crazy enough to suit even me; and his work is visual poetry, imo.

I know own all the bound editions of Sandman and Death (High Cost of Living) etc.

Salgood:
You (and many others here)are lucky people!
There´s nothing I would do rather than visit one of his author-reading (or how is it called, sorry), but I think it is quite impossible in Czech Republic :,(

(Just finished Smoke and Mirrors. Great! Mainly Babycakes, Troll Bridge, Bay Wolf, Murder Mysteries, Snow... all of them! )

Sandman

I think it was probably the SWAMP THING backup stories, way back when in the 1980s.

Hi, Eric! Me, probably the same, or maybe the AARGH! benefit. But big jump between that and my first issue of Sandman (#8) at Dani Zweig's recommendation.

I was really into Pratchett books, a few years back. When I had read all the Discworld books at our library (they don't have all books), I started looking for other Pratchett books. I found Good Omens, cowritten by some guy I didn't know. When I finished it I realised that I liked this book better than Discworld, and I went searching for Gaiman books in our library (Neverwhere and Good Omens). I got Stardust for my birthday, bought Smoke and Mirrors and Good Omens myself, and borrowed Coraline and American Gods from a friend, who got it at her library (which is bigger).

And now I'm desperately searching for cheap Sandman issues, because I'm not that rich...
(And actually they are pretty difficult to find in Holland. No comicstore I've tried seems to have them.. and very few Dutch online shops do..)

i think it was two to three years ago, my current boyfriend made me read stardust. the idea of chasing after a start was simply marvelous, i was impressed, and from then on, i became a fan.

my guy has different cover versions of stardust, thanks to me.

i'm sorry, i meant chasing after a star, not a start.

what a great first post, huh?

's all good maven, happens to all of us. The icon of a little folder with an eraser in the lower right hand corner of a post will let you edit the post. If you stop by the world's end forum to say hello, you'll get a nice welcome

It happened when I was in College and it was wonderful to slowly meet, in a friend's bedroom, Morpheus and his family stories. We used to play RPG sometimes, hear music in other occasions and talk about the books, comics and our own stories. Reading Neil gaiman's books is always unforgetable. All you need is some imagination and to believe... whatever...

just recently, last year (kicking myself for not starting sooner...) a friend let me borrow american gods and let me tell you guys, i did not want to return it at all!! started reading everything neil i could get my hands on. my only regret is that books are so freaking expensive here. and im not even gonna mention the graphic novels. hopefully, i'm gonna have more oney to support my hbit since i just recently started working!!hehehe. by the way, heve not been here for a looong time...

I was dating a guy back in 2000 who was a gigantic comic book fanatic. He had read Sandman first and then got into Neil's novels. He thought I would like it but since he knew that I wasn't into comic books (at the time) he got me to read Neverwhere. From then on I was hooked and reading everything that I could get my hands on. And thanks to Sandman I also started getting into other comics as well.

Came across a Sandman book in my local library (bout 1994ish), thought 'what the hell' and never looked back. Then went to uni and met lots of lovely people who knew who I meant if I talked about Morpheus, Death etc, and didn't lok at me as though my last screw had finally fallen out.

eight years ago, maybe?
a chapter from sandman was published on "the crow / presents:" and after that i just had to know more

Am I the only one who first found Neil from the Neverwhere TV series when it was first shown on TV? I then picked up the Neverwhere book at a train station a few years later and have read many of the others. I am currently working my way through some of the Sandman graphic novels.

i wish i ever saw it. might buy the series online at this point...

To be honest it seems so long ago that I saw it that I can't remember most of it. I just sort of got strange screenshots in my head last time I read the book. Most bizarre.

It's actually on my long list of stuff to buy as I would love to see it again