king of dreams

Lisa and I saw Neil Gaiman speak at Kepler's tonight...he is an amazing storyteller. He can take the smallest anecdote and spin it into a witty, wry, engaging story. He read from his new book, told us all about the three musical versions of "Coraline" [one with music by They Might Be Giants] and the new Stardust movie [Peter O'Toole! Michelle Pfeiffer! Robert De Niro!], and generally entertained us all for about an hour or so. Come question time, he handled a rather long-winded questioner very deftly, turned a simple question about having to buy a new pair of pants in San Francisco into a funny story about trying to find jeans at Armani [because they were the closest to the hotel], and answered each question as if he'd never heard it before.

When the time came for him to sign my copy of his new book, "Fragile Things", he not only signed it and the "one extra item" we were allowed [I chose a matted Sandman postcard for him to sign], but he also very nicely signed my "Neverwhere" DVD cover and my "Babylon 5" liner notes [he wrote the episode "Day of the Dead", one of my favorites]. Three hundred people waiting for him to sign, and he took the extra time to chat and share stories. I admire artists that share themselves with the fans, both through their work and through personal appearances...