Achtung Baby!

Lucifer Morningstar was a Bad Angel

I move from dreamer to dreamer, from dream to dream, hunting for what I need. Slipping and sliding and flickering through dreams; and the dreamers will wake and wonder why this dream seemed different, wonder how real their lives can truly be.
SANDMAN #22

[ Rufus Wainwright: Evil Angel ]

When I was fifteen I was looking through half priced comics at an old (mysterious in a Stephen King sort of way) bookstore when I found and bought the issue seen here. Having been brought up in a religious home I was freaked out by having a comic with Satan himself. Never mind the daemons doing it and other terrors contained within. So I had to hide it. I figured, when I'm older maybe this story will make sense and back I went to X-Men and Batman comics. No more of these "Suggested for Mature Readers" comics for me since I was afraid of getting in trouble for having them. This meant that for a few years I had no idea how this story began or how it ended. My resolution to wait until I was older didn't last long because I was fascinated by Dream, Death and the whole family and when I was on a vacation trip ( a year later and away from adult supervision) I bought the newest issue I could find ( part 1 of the "Brief Lives" storyline) and started reading it monthly. And the rest is history. The rest being me insisting that my two favorite High School teachers would read and recognize how good Sandman was. I don't think I got them to read Sandman but I did get Mrs. Hotard to read "The Dark Knight Returns". A great victory in my eyes. One day she's teaching us "The Stranger", the next I'm teaching her about Frank Miller's brilliant Post-Modern Regan Era Anxiety filtering of the myth of Batman.

Powells:"The first book I read was Season of Mists, which remains my favorite for reasons both sentimental and aesthetic. Kwitney notes that this is one of the more popular volumes, largely for its accessible and compelling storyline. This is also the first story in which the Endless appear in their entirety, and the first time Morpheus begins to regret the decisions he has made in the past. Confronted with his own cruelty, Morpheus journeys to Hell to free the lover he'd confined there, only to be handed the key to the realm by Lucifer, who has decided to retire. "

"Would the Lord of hell destroy his realm? Would the Lord of hell ever free the souls held in torment? Would the Lord of hell expel the never-born? Would the Lord of hell abandon the war with heaven?"

"The Lord of hell will do what he damn well likes."
SANDMAN #23

[ Booth And The Bad Angel: Dance Of The Bad Angels ]

Previously....... [ Absolutely ]

+ Dave McKean Links

/ love is an overwhelming currency /

~sweetzz145 | ~arlenephotography

[ love is an overwhelming currency: a mix ]

When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn't make the darkness go away. The bad things are still out there. The nightmares still walking. When we hold each other we feel not safe, but better.'It's all right' we whisper, 'I'm here, I love you.' and we lie: 'I'll never leave you.' For just a moment or two the darkness doesn't seem so bad.
Neil Gaiman

"And the rest is rust and stardust..."

One of the prized books on my shelf, a signed first printing of Stardust signed by Neil with a drawing of a Luna in it. Neil is awesome. Are you going to go see the movie or What!

+ NPR: A Magical Fairy Tale Hits the Big Screen
+ NEIL GAIMAN AND CHARLES VESS' STARDUST - new printing

[ Maude Maggart - Stardust ]

And the rest is rust and stardust. --Nabokov.

from this darkness

All around me darkness gathers,
Fading is the sun that shone;
We must speak of other matters:
You can be me when I’m gone.
Neil Gaiman

[ Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See a Darkness ]

Lady Stardust

art: Stardust

[ David Bowie - Lady Stardust (at The Beep) ]

Absolutely

My absolute trinity is complete.

+ Emmylou Harris - Mr. Sandman
+ La Concorde - Here Comes The Knight
+ Phantom Planet - Watching The Detectives  

Sandman [Dreams] Absolute

Tori Amos - Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This (live)

I was reading this story about how the Absolute Edition of Sandman is due early at comic book stores, so I decided to check Amazon and they already have it in stock! Hot damn.

+ CrankyGeeks with special guest Neil
+ TALKING TO NEIL GAIMAN
+ Neil Gaiman's busy year / Neil Gaiman reads"The Day the Saucers Came"
+ Sandman annotations
+ First images of Absolute Sandman
+ Another book I'm looking forwards to this month is FABLES: 1001 NIGHTS OF SNOWFALL

ANYONE WHO HAD A HEART

from How to heal a broken heart by =lexidh

+ Tim Curry - ANYONE WHO HAD A HEART [ music set to HOUSE MD video ]

There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.
Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things - Published yesterday.

+ Speaking of Comic Book writers...Creator/writer Bill Willingham needs you!

[ Every Time I Try ]

Photo Credit

[ Spain - Every Time I Try ]

"It makes you so vulnearble. It opens your chest and it opens your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up these defenses. You build up this armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life... You give them a piece of you. They don't ask for it. They do something like kiss you, or smile at you, and your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple 'maybe we should just be friends' or 'how perceprtive' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-of-you-and rips-you-apart pain. Nothing should be able to do that. Especially not Love."   Neil Gaiman

neil + fright x magazine

Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6

+ Making magic with Neil Gaiman
+ Swapping spider stories with Neil Gaiman

the comic book ghetto

" Proudly raised in the comic book ghetto, author Neil Gaiman helped transform graphic novels into lasting works of art. "  Magazine Unknown. Date Unknown.

Lenny Henry is Genius

Isn't it great when you go the video store and you find something you've wanted forever and its unexpectedly there? I've been waiting for one of my favorite BBC series to come out on DVD and it finally did: Lenny Henry's  Chef!

+ Neil Gaiman's new novel excerpt read by Lenny Henry

+ A Personal Message from LH

Wired + Neil Gaiman + Gorillaz

Check it, my fave Gorillaz member on the cover of Wired. "Keeping it (un)real: Sci-fi Master Neil Gaiman meets the Gorillaz, the world's greatest live, pre-recorded, re-mixed, all-animated pop band"

+ Neil's Tour Dates to promote Anasi Boys [ via CW ]

Hanging Out With the Dream King

Hanging Out With the Dream King: Interviews with Neil Gaiman and His Collaborators by Joe McCabe is finally out. Picked it up today. Amazon doesn't have the back cover so here it is:

+ Science Fiction Zone Review of the book
+ USA Today: Gaiman and Dream return

Curiosities: signed books

Since I was talking about a signed book earlier....I took bad pictures of the Chris Ware and Chip Kidd ones so I'll add them later.

Leonard Cohen has a stamp made out of the symbol on the cover for "Book of Mercy".

Neil Gaiman drew a luna.

Neil Gaiman reads "Song of the Audience"

[ Song of the Audience MP3 ]

Buy from dreamhavenbooks.com

Endless Nights + New York Times Best Sellers

DC Comics' Vertigo graphic novel The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman has debuted at number 20 for hardcover fiction on the New York Times Best Sellers List, marking the first time ever an American comic-book publisher has earned a spot on the list. (source).

Neil Notes { September }

Notes on Marvel 1602 #1 | Endless Nights Preview

Writer Neil Gaiman talks about the biggest secret in comics, 1602..

1602 Review - Entertainment Weekly
From the September 5th Entertainment Weekly:
The year is...well, 1602. Dr. Strange and Nicholas Fury are advisers to the embattled Queen of England, mutantkind has been targeted by the Spanish Inquisition, and Peter Parquagh is a budding young adventurer who thinks spiders are neat. Transporting Marvel characters to an alternate Renaissance is a nifty high concept. Fortunately, with erudite scribe Neil Gaiman (The Sandman) at the helm, there's nothing gimmicky (or pretentious) about it. Rendered rich and dark by artists Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove, and accessible to those who don't know X-Men from eczema, 1602 is a triumph. The Marvel universe hasn't been this engrossing in ages. Literally. A
--Jeff Jensen
Via, the dreaming