2nd appearance, Saturday 19th, interview
4.30 PM Finnish time, comics fest
After Gaiman's signing at Finncon's side I moved to the old railway warehouses where the comics festival was held, grabbed a snack and then got a front-row seat an hour early, catching the Belgian Freon-group's interview at the same time. The seats went quickly again, and then people just sat on the ground in front of the stage, which made me think of disciples gathering in front of Jesus, to listen to what the good lord has to say, found it amusing.
I can't say the interviewer would've spoken English very fluently, and that's putting it politely I fear. I have to buff Finncon's arrangements compared to the Comics fest, the scifi bunch seemed more competent in every way. The first question was about which character he finds closest to him. Neil said he uses them all in different ways, that Morpheus is the part of him that's always somewhere around 17, heartbroken and moping in the corner, whereas Merv the Pumpkinhead is the part that keeps telling that 17-year-old to get over it, for example. To quote Neil on Merv's words: "What the fuck you standing in that corner for?"
He said Delirium is his favourite to write and noted how he only has to give Delirium straight lines and listen to what she'll answer, a delight (pardon my "previous persona" pun) to write. Next he wandered on to Croup and Vandemeer from Neverwhere, the evil psychotic ones, moving on to Death, saying that she's off on a special place. Neil said he's just lucky to have met her and that if he hadn't written her someone else would've. Note that at this stage he'd only answered one question, trailing off on his own paths yet keeping within the question limits surprisingly well. Lucky for the interviewer that he's not the quiet type.
Next question focused on the Endless I think, as Neil remarked that with them it was more like sculpting than painting, that they were already there and you just chipped off the stuff that wasn't Dream or Death, for example. The interviewer shone off by asking something about how all the Endless have names that start off with D and how did he end up with that letter, to which Neil said "My God, you're right! For 10 years I never noticed", not providing a specific answer to that one. He did say that it just happened and when he noticed that he was happy to go along with it.
He told us that the whole Sandman arc and all the comics create a portrait of Dream, from issue 1 to #75. The portrait is always also about the background, so even when Morpheus isn't in the story directly and only hovers near the edges, the stories still provide more information about him or different vantage points in the form of where they're set, etc.
There was a question about how he was able to stop writing the Sandman, to which he said he stopped not to get tired. He never got tired with it while he was doing it, it was always exciting to get back to it, they were people he wanted to learn about. The reason DC let him stop was also approached, how he'd started briefly mentioning in interviews that either it will end when he stops or "he'll never work for DC again". Before this he'd done the rounds at DC, everyone saying "It'll never happen" about Sandman ending when he's done with it. He did some marvellous imitations of the people he'd spoken to at this stage again, comments like "We can't really keep it going after you stop, can we?"
Money also came into play, how he was able to raise his salary at DC, though he said DC still takes the pie and occasionally he gets one tiny blueberry of it. So it's "Thank you", and "Can I get some pie, too?" to which the answer is no. He's such an elaborate talker (as well as writer) and also considerate, as his next question proved. He asked the audience if everyone could see at the back or if it'd be better if they stood up, which they promptly did when the answer was yes. Such a sweetheart. :)
Here's a sneak preview photo of his second signing, coming up in Part 3. ;)
This interview seemed to be focusing on the basics, so next up was the topic of how he wouldn't write unless he knew who's drawing the story. The original art team for Sandman, Jimi Hendrix in the Beatles, all that stuff. If you haven't heard it yet, go look it up or email me about that, too. I think it's even mentioned in the later Sandman albums. He demonstrated the suicidal tone of Dringenberg (always forget who it was who left after #3, will check that out) on the phone, amusing the crowd, saying he'd stopped sounding suicidal after he quit. Neil seemed to be choosing his words quite carefully at this stage, emphasizing that Mike was a dear friend, but a flake. Deadlines and Mike live in different worlds. I probably inhabit Mike's world, then, in that case. Mike was supposed to have drawn something else for them during a 3 month break, but kept coming up with excuses along the lines of "Oh, Federal Express must have lost it then, I did send it", and in the end it turned out he'd only gotten 2 pages done. DC was not a happy puppy.
Colleen (Dewhurst, was it? I forget) who drew Facade and A Game of You originally only wanted to draw Sandman cause she had a crush on Morpheus, we were told. Only problem was that Neil kept writing her these stories where there's absolutely no Dream in them, so she says it was a conspiracy against her, more or less. After that he's used different artists, mentioning that Mike Mignola was the original choice for the Kindly Ones, for example, but he was unable to do it.
At this stage someone from the audience asked about Neverwhere, if his BBC experience was hell on Earth. Neil pondered a bit saying that it wasn't exactly hell, but maybe purgatory. This was somehow connected to a question on having to kill your darlings off, and Neil answering that he wouldn't create his characters if he didn't like them. He mentioned someone somewhere saying that his characters were people you'd like to talk to in a party, which he found a nice remark.
Next up was his old school banning reading comics when he was a kid. Gaiman said he'd always read a lot and that he was one of those weird bookiekids. Comics were compared to fast food, if you read them you won't eat proper food anymore, to which his reaction was "I've read more than you already". He'd liked DC's horror stuff and Swamp Thing, Archie Goodwin and Eisner's Spirit, for example. Neil started talking about how the first Sandman album was all about experimenting with different styles of horror, in connection to that, part 4 being 1940's unknown stuff etc. and that if Sandman had stopped after that it would be remembered as a horror comic.
I'd been interested in whether he's dreamed about Morpheus and at this stage he spontaneously wandered on to that topic, saying that every now and then he'll dream characters. He said he's had one Morpheus dream, where he knew what the eyes feel like and how they're really not eyes, they just go on forever, said it was a very useful dream. I missed the connection to his next words about the saying going to meet your maker, presume it was a return to dead characters, how they'd come to haunt their maker, � la "Why did you create us?"
Deadlines are a very useful thing according to him, but guilt is even better for creativity. He's the first in the long line of writer, penciller, inker, etc. so if he doesn't get something done the other people won't get paid either, ergo he feels guilty about starving their poor families. Or so he says.
In connection to the creativity question he said that part of creativity is shutting up, daydreaming and just letting the ideas come. It's moving from "What if...?" and "If only..." and "Wouldn't it be interesting if...?" to the story. He mentioned the chain of thought he'd had from seeing a cat so black he looked like a patch of night in the middle of a field, the thought that that's what Sandman would look like if he was a cat, and what do cats dream about, the old Dream of a Thousand Cats story.
He also said he gets people asking him for advice on writing, to which I thought that there's none you can give except just do it, getting my thoughts confirmed a moment later as Neil said it's not really advice they want, it's the secret they're after. There's always a secret, some ritual, "magic secret". This was followed by "OK, so you get the goat bones and go to the cellar at midnight, get naked, put honey on the bones... " and a bit more about what the ritual and the secret is really like, but unfortunately we didn't get all of it, so there's not gonna be another 200+ Neil Gaimans emerging from Finland cause of that. Darn. We really need a Penn and Teller for the literary circles, revealing the secrets of the Magic Writer's Circle. ;)
His main advice was that if you want to write something you just write it, you start and then you finish what you started. "Yes, write, then finish what you write." It's as much work as it is magic (which is pretty obvious really, if you ever tried writing).
This is where I'm cutting the interview off, you'll find the rest of it, approximately the same amount of text in Part 3. Have fun and enjoy.
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