One of the many delights for me in making Sandman: Endless Nights was in helping to bring artist Barron Storey to another audience. Barron is a genius: an amazing artist, a teacher and thinker about art, astonishingly creative, enormously influential (I remember my wry amusement when one reviewer referred to Barron as being a Bill Sienkiewicz imitator, for Bill, along with countless other important artists, is someone who acknowledges being influenced by Barron) and I still remember how overwhelming it was to see
One of the treasures of my bookshelf is the Barron Storey Marat-Sade Journal, published by Tundra about fifteen years ago, long since out of print and prized by collectors (Dennis Kitchen used to have a few copies left selling for $90, but he's sold out and the only one on Amazon is selling for $275.)
Now the first new Barron Storey journal in 15 years, Life After Black, will be coming out in Spring, and its progress is being tracked at the Graphic Novel Art site blog: http://graphicnovelart.blogspot.com/search/label/Barron%20Storey (There -- I just used someone else's label.)
You can see more Life After Black pages at http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=1927
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We're finding all sorts of video stuff and putting it up over at the Exlusive New and Improved Cool Things section (http://www.neilgaiman.com/exclusive). The one that follows, however, we have to link to. It's a recording of me, last October, doing the lovely Cody's event in Berkeley, when I got to get up in front of an audience and read and answer questions and have Much Too Much Fun Doing It.
http://fora.tv/fora/fora_clip.php?cid=303#
Hi Neil,
Love the new Cool Stuff & Things section. Compliments to the Webelf! May she have many scuttling tasties.
Noticed your notebook pages from American Gods and it reminded me of a few doctors I know. I had tried to read some stuff they had written but couldn't make it out. I asked them and they couldn't decipher it either (thankfully it was all non-medical)! Has that ever happened to you after moments of frantic scribbling?
No offense meant though, I actually could make out about 80% of what you wrote in the pages which is much more than I can say for those doctors.
Cheers!
Aloysius
While it would be true to say that I never really have a problem with my handwriting (although other people do) I would also have to admit that every now and again, typing up a story, I'll find myself glaring at a word that doesn't freely divulge what it was originally meant to signify.
The American Gods notebook pages are a lot smaller than the originals, though, which also doesn't help.
I recently found the handwritten STARDUST books, and was planning to scan a few pages in from them for the upcoming DC Comics ABSOLUTE STARDUST hardcover.
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Right. Miss Maddy and I are off to get our hair cut. And she would like to dictate a message: "My hair will be totally sweet y'all. Hahaha. I crack myself up. Hey. You aren't supposed to write that -- HEY! You aren't... Daa-aad. (=sigh=. And then, ominously,) You're a funny one..."