When I was in middle school (this would be at least ten years ago), my stepbrother mentioned an interest in a series called "The Books of Magic". Neither of us had read it, or knew much about it, but his birthday was coming up and when it came time to buy his gift, I was torn between issues of BOM and the first issue of "Marvels" by Alex Ross and Kurt Busiek. I was really facinated with life-like realism in fantasy art at that point in time, so I was well aware of (and incredibly fond of) Ross' work. In the end, I chose the familiar and bought him the "Marvels" comic, but I never forgot the title, which spent the next couple of years laying in wait. In High school I still mainly interested in Ross' work, but as there were fairly sizable gaps in the release of his work, I would occupy my time with the occasional Wizard and visit to the local comic shop that accompanied it.
One sunny spring afternoon, while trying my hardest to be near a girl that I was obssessed with, we (with a group of other friends) went to the local comic shop. This was the time that the name BOM chose to come back into the front of my mind. I looked in the back issue bins for the first issue, but to no avail. In the end, I bought the three most recent issues, (which were the only ones the store had in stock), 26, 29, 30 and took them home and devoured them. Mr. Rieber's writing was downright addictive, I started scouring out older issues, while picking up the latest issues. I was lucky, in that when I started reading BOM, they had just begun adding a plot summary each issue.
It actually a year or two later that I finally picked up the original mini-series in graphic novel form. I also went on read, and thoroughly enjoy Good Omens, already a Pratchet fan.
But it really wasn't until, early in 2002, that an aquaintance let me borrow a copy of American Gods, I read it and realized that I had just read the work of this age's Shakespeare (or Tolkien, etc.).
I was young and I had just fallen in love with the writing of Mr. Neil Gaiman. And I haven't fallen out since.

A friend of mine who regularly lent me her books, one day ordered me to read her copy of The Sandman series.

Tried his other books, read his blog, and thereafter got hooked.

I first read Neverwhere when I found it in the library and liked the title. I also grabbed Smoke and Mirrors from the library, not realizing it was the same author. I was just in the mood for short stories at the time. When I read both and loved both, then realized they were by the same person, and the library also had Stardust and the complete Sandman, so... the rest is history.

Nice to see all the love libraries are getting in this thread.

For my part, I had been reading and buying comics throughout the mid- to late-eighties. I never got into the Marvel pantheon, but I enjoyed a number of DC and independent titles, and was especially inspired by Miller's Dark Knight and Moore's Watchmen (but then who isn't?). When a friend suggested that a new comic called Sandman was in the same league as those works, I had to check it out. Needless to say, I have not been disappointed.

A good friend of mine who was working in a comic book store at the time had been trying for months to talk me into reading The Sandman. But I was too busy reading "real" books. Not comics. Then, in January 1994, I broke a leg and had to stay in bed for quite a while. Sure enough my friend dropped off all of his Sandman books on my bedside table. And I started to read. I read all Sandman books that had been released by that time, and I read them in one go. Whenever my friend visited me we would discuss the stories. Shortly after I recovered from the broken leg I took on a job in that very comic book store and me and my friend worked there side by side happily ever after. - Well, actually only for a few years, but that's not how stories end.

The very first issue of The Sandman comic book.

quote:

Originally posted by Junglebum:
When the very first issue of The Sandman comic book came out.

When the very first issue of The Sandman comic book came out.

I just finished reading Neverwhere a few minutes ago. Wow! Great book. My first by Neil Gaiman. I remember hearing something about the plot of the book a while back and then references to London Below came up a few times in the past few weeks. Then, last Friday, I was in Half Price Books, browsing through the clearance paperbacks looking for something that looked interesting. And I found a copy of Neverwhere. I but two and two together and decided that for a buck I would see what all the hype was about. Wow! Great book. Excellent character development. Great chapter breaks (which isn't something that I regularly notice, but for some reason I did here). No extraneous stuff that didn't get tied up in the end or was there to pander to the reader who isn't quite always paying attention to the words on the page. Just great, dense, fun text. I've got a new author to search out and read.

I suspect Anansi the Spider God plunked me down in front of him and said "You need to be readin' this guy! He's so good! Look how he talks about ME!"

Cele,

I'm just curious about your signature. Did that really originate with Marvin, the Paranoid Android? An if so, who is Marvin the Paranoid Android?

I'm just asking because I know a line very similar to it is in Megadeth's song Sweating Bullets.

"It gives me a migraine headache thinking down to your level."

I'm a big Pratchett fan, and right around the point where I'd read basically everything Discworld (I think it only took me two or three months to read every novel te library had . . .), someone in a forum I used to frequent had a moment of "You haven't read Good Omens at the board?" and I hadn't, so I read it. And then I strated frequenting a local bookstore whose owner (then just manager) is a complete Gaiman nerd, and actually can get me autographs, although the only one I've got is in my Good Omens. Actually, I was suckered into his store by the (signed) GO in the window (which I actually didn't buy; my GO has my name in Neil's writing . . .), but that's completely unrelated.

Anyhow, through my internet friends and bookstore-owner friend, I've read almost all of Neil's fiction since spring 2004, and every single Sandman last July . . .

quote:

Originally posted by Junglebum:
Cele,

I'm just curious about your signature. Did that really originate with Marvin, the Paranoid Android? An if so, who is Marvin the Paranoid Android?

I'm just asking because I know a line very similar to it is in Megadeth's song Sweating Bullets.

"It gives me a migraine headache thinking down to your level."

Ooh! - Do I have some Douglas Adams for you!
(Look for 'Marvin, the Paranoid Android' parking cars for an eternity at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe)

"I got very bored and depressed, so I went and plugged myself into [the ship]'s external computer feed. I talked to the computer at great length, and explained my view of the universe to it, " said Marvin.

"And what happened?" pressed Ford.

"It committed suicide," said Marvin.

A close friend loaned me her "books of Magic" graphic novel. At that point I was mostly hooked. Then she gave me a copy of Good Omens. Need I say more...

I was 15. Impressionable, and lost.
I was following Yoshitaka Amano's artwork, right into a Sandman story. A friend of mine told me there was more to Sandman then the Neil Gaiman story whom Amano illustrated. Seeking completeness in knowing all of Sandman, he lent me the series. Finished it in a week.


For the first time, I felt completed. I was less angsty. Somewhere out there, there was a story, a beautiful story with lovely artwork, that made sense of everything. Religion, stories, Sandman had it all. then, I HAD the gobble up all the Gaiman I could, and I did. It made me want to write stories and illustrate them even more-- so off I went to art school. At 22, I am here now. And a Gaiman fan to boot.

I had a discussion with a friend of mine, American, while I was still living in Europe. I got him to read one of my favorite comic series, Le vagabonde des limbes (where my username comes from) and he got me reading the Sandman. Well it was good enough that afterward I decided I needed to obsessively find anything else that this guy wrote, ever, no matter how obscure.

That was about 6 years ago.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: chimeer,

Lucien once pointed me to a book with his name on it. Then, he pressed the side of his forefinger against his lips and said, "Shhhhh."

im a sad case, i became aware of Neil's work freshman year of highschool when a friend encoruraged me to read never where and i loved it

I can't remember if I wrote anything in this thread and frankly I'm too lazy to search through nine pages!

I'm 36 now. I was aware of Neil Gaiman because of Sandman. Lots of my college friends were collecting them and trying to get the whole series.

But since the age of 14 or 15 I was a Pratchett fan(pb of Pyramids). So when I was in a book store in ummm, 1992? I think? I saw a paperback of Good Omens and simply had to have it! Then I found Neverwhere and Smoke & Mirrors and Stardust.

Oh, I remember being in NYC and seeing this huge illustrated Stardust and NOT BUYING IT! WTF was wrong with me?? I've been kicking myself ever since!

So, I found my way to Neil Gaiman via Terry Pratchett and Good Omens.

and failure by dsign - that is not a sad case! the *only* sad case is never reading any of his books!