The Gaiman experience

There are no more slots. People started lining up at 4:30 a.m. "I’m not sure whether this made me curse loudly or just to myself but I’m quite certain that it wasn’t only me who ended up resorting to profanities to ease the disappointment. Honestly, though, is there any other author who would command such anticipation for people to start lining up at four in the morning just to get his name in marker ink? You can argue maybe JK Rowling, but in the last couple of years, the Harry Potter series hasn’t been as fun as it once was, and I doubt that neither young kids nor their parents would wake up before the roosters are noisy. No other author gives an experience with his stories and images quite like Neil Gaiman.

I arrived in Rockwell at around 12:30 p.m. after rushing out of school, where I just finished my National Service Training Program for the week. I was relieved to see that the line wasn’t longer than the ones in a fast food joint at lunch time. I can manage this, I said to myself. When I finally got to the front of the line, the nice lady from Fully Booked gave me a stub with the number 121. 121?! Yes! For two whole seconds, I was triumphant. Until… "Sir, those are the numbers for tomorrow and Monday’s signings. There are no more slots today." That would’ve been fine of course, if I would be in the country the following days. I wasn’t.

I decided on the next best thing; buy a couple of his graphic novels. So I got myself a copy of Endless Nights, somewhat of a spin-off to his Sandman series, and Marvel 1602, where Gaiman takes our favorite superheroes and gives them an old school twist.

Endless Nights features a story on each of the seven Endless siblings, namely Death, Delirium, Destruction, Desire, Despair, Destiny and Dream, more popularly referred to as the Sandman. The graphic novel features some of the dark, deep, sometimes scary imagery that Neil Gaiman is known for while at the same time exhibiting his mastery of the fantastic. Each of the stories has a different flavor to them, thanks in part to the different artists that Gaiman worked with in each of them. Some are darker, some bursting with colors, some weird, some of them normal. All of them are an experience in themselves.

In contrast to Endless Nights, which is vintage Gaiman, Marvel 1602 delivers a more conventional comic book feel while at the same time giving these classic Marvel characters an interesting twist. Gaiman pens the story of superheroes existing in the time of Queen Elizabeth, at the heat of the Inquisition and witch hunts. There are a number of intertwined stories in Marvel 1602, featuring such heroes as Spider-Man, the X-men, Fantastic Four, Captain America, Magneto and a bunch more. Each character is given a unique twist, some more subtle than others. Matthew Murdoch, Daredevil to us, is a blind balladeer who is first introduced to the readers as the informant to Nicholas Fury’s, who is Queen Elizabeth’s spy. Peter Parquagh, or Peter Parker (Spider-Man) is a young lad who begins under Sir Nicholas’ wing. The classic villain Dr. Doom is the Count of Latveria and is named Otto Von Doom. Seeing how these heroes would look like and act like in a seventeenth century setting is enough reason to buy Marvel 1602. For hardcore Marvel enthusiast or even just casual comic book fans, like myself, this is really a great buy.

These are the kinds of material that make people wake up at three in the morning just so they can have 15 seconds with the author and get their copy signed. This is why people spend a significant amount of their money on comic books. Each one read is an experience that can never be replicated.

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For questions, comments, corrections or complaints, please email me at e-mailcarlramirez@yahoo.com