HIGHLIGHTS FROM NEXTPLANETOVER -99Originally published at Nextplanetover.
Brock: How did you get to be a writer in comics? I'm graduating this year, and that's basically the only thing I'm interested in. I've been writing stories on my own, some comics-related and some not, and I'm planning on sending them in soon. If you wouldn't mind, I would like some advice. NG: Find an artist. Or more than one artist. Work with the artist. If you're going to show an editor scripts, you are much better showing him/her stuff that's been drawn. I was a journalist first, and I wrote short stories and books. Then I did a small-press book called Violent Cases with Dave McKean. Blacknavy: Could you recommend a book of fairy tales you loved? What's your favorite ice cream flavor? NG: Well, my favorite book of fairy tales is currently probably Neil Philip's English Folktales. And my favorite flavor of ice cream is probably mango. Eilonwy: I realize this doesn't directly pertain to your works, but as a fellow Twin Citian and sci-fi advocate, I was wondering how you became involved with DreamHaven Books. NG: Well, I met Greg Ketter on a train to Brighton in April 1984 -- on the way to the Seacon Convention. And whenever I'd do signings in the U.S., I'd always sign at DreamHaven, which started off as a tiny shop with a line of people around the store and out the door. That was many stores and almost a decade ago. Mono-Sabio: As a writer, what are your main concerns and regrets? NG: I wish that what I write were closer to the idea of what I had in my head when I started. Greg G: Do you know why books like Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days are priced by DC at $17.95 for 160 pages (with advertising), when other trade paperbacks of similar length usually cost much less (100 Bullets is 128 pages, $9.95; Crimson is 160 pages at $14.95)? NG: I've been trying to understand DC's pricing decisions for over a decade now, and am no closer now than I was back then, so I cannot answer your question about the price of Midnight Days. It may be because printing Sandman Midnight Theatre demands a different kind of paper and printing (remember, it's 64 pages of full-color Teddy Kristiansen art) or because the other reprinted stories might have to have been recolored or because there's a 10-page new story drawn by Steve Bissette and John Totleben. Or it might be because someone at DC tossed the goat bones onto the $17.95 runes at midnight. No idea where you got the idea that it would have advertising, though -- I can assure you that it won't. Nona: Where can I find information on the Baku and the Nephilim? NG: You can read about the Baku in Sandman: The Dream Hunters. You could read about the Nephilim in Genesis. Storm Constantine has written a very enjoyable trilogy about them. Eden M: It's fairly obvious to me that your fans receive plenty of inspiration and enjoyment from your works, and really, that would be enough for us. However, you seem to be fairly devoted to your readers -- not only participating in forums like this and online chats but also going on extensive signing tours (more than any other writer I know of). What do you get out of staying in touch with your fans? NG: The bits I enjoy most on the tours are the readings, I think. As for the fans...well, they read what I write and seem to enjoy it, and they ensure I don't have to go and get a real job. Mainly I'm just grateful. Gkillian: The thought of coming up with a brilliant story every month boggles my mind. Perhaps I'm too young (not enough life experience), or maybe not thinking hard enough. How do you write a monthly story? NG: I'm fairly grateful that I was 26 before I had to start coming up with the idea of a story a month, and that I'd been a journalist for some years and had knocked about a bit. When I was 18, I used to write lots of beginnings to things, but they never did any more than begin. So there is something to be said for waiting until you have something to write about. There's also something to be said for terror and deadlines. Eilonwy: I have read a bit of Oliver Sacks. In one particular book, he makes a passing mention of the condition encephalitis lethargica, or the sleeping sickness of the early 20th century, in which the victims would suffer severely disrupted sleeping patterns ranging from fatal insomnia to comatose states. I recall an element of this sort early in the Sandman loom, and I was wondering if that was inspired by this case. If so, would you happen to know if Sacks published a report focused on this and where it might be available? NG: Yes, Sacks wrote a whole book about encephalitis lethargica, which I borrowed from cheerfully in the first episode of Sandman. It's called Awakenings. Reg: Have you ever read Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars, and if so, how do you think it relates to your own work, with relation to its ideas on dreams and the nature of storytelling? If not, I recommend it. It's very good. Second, a nitpicking question about your episode of Babylon 5: I loved the idea that all Emily Dickinson poems can be sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas," but one of the poems used was actually Edna St. Vincent Millay's "First Fig." I loved the way the poem's sentiments fitted the moment, but having it passed off as Emily Dickinson jarred a little. And finally, the question you probably get from every Australian fan you meet: With regard to the scene in Season of Mists with Lucifer on the beach watching the sunset, where did you get the idea that any Australian outside of Barry Humphries calls a can of beer a tube? Sorry, I had to ask that while I had the chance. NG: I liked the Dictionary of the Khazars. The little minibiographies of each of the Endless at the start of Season of Mists was definitely written under the influence of the Dictionary. (I'm less impressed by the male/female version thing, which struck me then and strikes me now as a marketing gimmick.) I talked about the Edna St. Vincent Millay thing in the Babylon 5 script book of Day of the Dead, available from, among other places, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund web site (I knew who wrote it, but the character didn't). There are lots of other interesting annotations as well. On the tube thing, I can only blame Barry Humphries and his epic chantey "Chunder in the Old Pacific Sea" ("if I ever had the choice, to regurgitate my voice..."). Since then I have gone to Australia several times and have mostly been forgiven, especially by the people in Perth. Ming: I read an interview or chat a while ago (long enough that I don't remember the source) where you described some of your ideas for American Gods, and I was disappointed when I read that you would not base any of it in the U.S. South. Do you feel this way now? I lived in North Carolina, and only in my last year in college did I start to appreciate it, but I think the folk culture there is very rich. Perhaps the history is too painful? NG: No, not really. It's just that I've never really lived in the American South, and part of the fun of American Gods for me is in writing what I know rather than imagining it (as I tended to do in Sandman), which created a sort of interestingly delirious America built by the aid of maps and books and the imagination, not to mention an Australia in which people talked about tubes of beer. Maybe book two, if I get to it, will be set in the South, if I get to spend time there. But I do agree, the cultures of the South are rich and fascinating. Psychosmurf: Will we meet again with our friends from Neverwhere any time soon? NG: Well, you'll probably see the Neverwhere mob again in the movie first. And if I get around to it, after the film and the new novel are done, I plan to write a short Neverwhere story called "How the Marquis Got His Coat Back," starring the Marquis de Carabas and his brother. Mad-Man-Moon: I read a book that you did with Terry Pratchett called Good Omens. It's definitely the funniest book I've ever read, but it seems so right for film; in fact, it doesn't even seem like any filmmaker could ruin it. Any positive feedback on this? NG: Good Omens is in the hands of the perfect director for Good Omens, who was in L.A. last week meeting with studios about it. We'll see what happens next. Terry Pratchett and I are both on the sidelines and keeping our fingers crossed. alexwinck: I've noticed there is growing room on the Internet for online comics. As you know, Scott McCloud has a great work in that medium. How do you see the Internet as an alternative medium for comics? Just out of curiosity, is there a chance we'll see that Batman graphic novel with Simon Bisley? I laughed my ass off with your "Batman: B&W" story. NG: I think anything that makes more and better comics is good, but I remain unconvinced that the Internet will do this. I like Scott McCloud's web comics, though, which do things you couldn't do on paper -- well, couldn't do without an unfeasibly large sheet of paper, anyway. I'm about to dip my toe into this in an odd sort of way, with a project that's partly comics and partly more like my audio play at scifi.com, Murder Mysteries. As for Batman, the ball's in DC's court to make a deal with Simon Bisley for Batman: The Night Circus. I hope they do it before I've completely forgotten the plot. David Woxberg: 1) You often use scenes with violence, terror, and dark stuff happening in them (especially in Sandman). What is the effect you want/wanted to make by using dark scenes so much? 2) Do you believe in any kind of religion, or do you, like one of your Sandman characters said, believe in lots of things? NG: I tend to use horror and "dark stuff" when it seems appropriate for the story...depends what I want to talk about, really. Check out Smoke and Mirrors, the short story collection, and you'll find a mix of light and dark, just as in life and, more importantly, just as in stories. 2) Depends on the day, really. And on what I'm writing at the time. Lucyfer: My question involves one of my favorite Sandman characters, Lucifer. I read the Sandman Presents miniseries, and I don't think it did him justice. I'm working on a Lucifer story myself, but I would love to see more of your work involving him. Any interest in such a work? Also, in the first appearance of Lucifer, in Preludes and Nocturnes, he looks suspiciously like David Bowie. Was this your intention, or was this the artist's? NG: Yes, the appearance of Lucifer in Sandman 4 was definitely based on Bowie during his young folksinger period. He looked like a junkie angel, which seemed very appropriate, really. He was a wonderful character to write, although I think my favorite scenes with him were in The Kindly Ones, playing the piano in his club. Nona: What was the name of the CD that you put a story on (I think it was for cancer or AIDS research)? It had a lot of other cool music, too, but my mind has lost the name. Also, can you find "Goliath" in print anywhere besides the Web? NG: Argh. I know the benefit CD you mean but forget the title. You can get Warning: Contains Language, the two-CD set that that reading was taken from, directly from the DreamHaven Books web site, and for that matter you can probably order it here.... It has "Troll Bridge," "Chivalry," and lots of shorter bits, plus music by Dave McKean and a song by the Flash Girls and a hidden live track on it. "Goliath" is only in print on the Matrix web site (www.whatisthematrix.com). I suppose you could print it out and read it on paper if you wanted to, though. Darkside: I, like yourself, write in a multitude of genres, ranging from comic books to poetry. Do you have any advice on how to break into the different genres, and which is the easiest? NG: I don't think that any genres are easiest; they all have their little foibles and problems. Poems are normally shorter, but by the time I've finished fussing over every word and obsessing over every comma, I might just as well have written a short story. What's fun is being able to move from genre to genre and from medium to medium. As for how to break into them -- well, the best way to break into comics is probably to hitch up with an artist and do something to show what you can do. Beyond that, get into print however you can. Juice: 1) What was Lady Johanna Constantine's payment for helping retrieve Orpheus's head? Was it to be buried on the same island Orpheus lived on? 2) In the World's End story about Cluracan, while he is imprisoned, he enters the Dreaming and speaks with Nuala and later Morpheus, who frees him. Yet in issue #2 of The Kindly Ones, both Nuala and Morpheus seem not to recall this having happened. Whassup with that? 3) In The Kindly Ones #6, Rose meets three old women in the same nursing home that Unity Kincaid lived in. One of them, a dark-haired woman introduced as Helena, tells of hounding a man who killed someone she cared for over the course of two decades. After she caught up with him and exacted her revenge, she came to the home. Now I realize that much of what these women say seems to echo that of the Hectae themselves, but they don't really match up to the maiden/mother/crone archetype. To me the dark-haired woman bears a striking resemblance to an older version of the Golden Age Fury, as depicted in the photograph shown to Lyta in issue #1 of The Kindly Ones. This and the fact that her name is Helena (Greek name) and that the woman who introduced her couldn't pronounce her last name (possibly some long Greek name?) and that the original Fury was Greek-born seem to add to the clues. Was this woman supposed to be the Golden Age Fury in retirement? Perhaps DC didn't want this pinned down so you just dropped clues? 4) In The Kindly Ones, when the Corinthian ate Carla's eyes, he saw flashes from both Nada's city being burned and the death of the driver lady from Brief Lives in a burning hotel room. What giveth? All black women in Sandman interconnected? NG: 1) No, the burial was a bonus. That's a story I've not told. 2) Storm-related reality problems, I have always suspected. 3) Well observed. 4) Not exactly. More that the pattern created by Nada's death was a repeating one. (It ended with Morpheus's death; Gwen in Sunday Mourning had no problems.) Anita: The quick "fangirl" questions: Are we ever going to learn how Delight became Delirium? Or about the first Despair? NG: We probably will learn a little about the Delight-Delirium story, only because I suspect that if I do a Delirium miniseries and don't tell that story, people will start burning me in effigy and probably not stop there. The first Despair story...hmm...maybe. NG: A hasty news post: The Neverwhere movie is going to be directed by Richard Loncraine, who directed the recent Richard III. He also directed Brimstone and Treacle, one of my favorite films. We've been working on the script for the last few days, and I think it will be a really enjoyable movie. EHFECKED: Brimstone and Treacle -- what a nasty film. If you thought Stardust was a dark fairy tale.... Thinking about it, I wonder if Alan Moore got part of his inspiration for John Constantine from Sting's character in that film. Intelligent, charming, and very manipulative...hmm? NG: I think that John Totleben's love for Brimstone and Treacle was what started the whole John Constantine thing in the first place. But the Sting character in B and T is more of an ineffectual minor demon than Constantine has ever been. Fernando: I've been following your work since '91 (or whenever that first Sandman monthly happened). So far, my favorite works of yours (and I like most of them, to be sure) have been your collaborations with Dave McKean. When can we look forward to some more work from you two guys? And also, do you guys still keep up with each other? NG: Yes, Dave McKean and I keep up with each other. (We had dinner together last week in a Wardour Street restaurant the size of a football pitch.) The next thing we'll do together is a little Signal to Noise thing, for the CD booklet of the CD of the BBC Radio 3 adaptation we did of Signal to Noise. The next major project will probably be when Dave finds a month to paint the pictures for a story called The Wolves in the Walls. Darkside: Neil, I was wondering if you had any idea when The Wolves in the Walls is going to be released. NG: Depends on Dave McKean's schedule. I'd hope by May 2001. In a perfect world, by Christmas of next year. fallenangel: Are there any collaborations à la Good Omens in the pipeline (not necessarily with Pratchett, obviously)? NG: Talking about writing a movie with Roger Avary right now, but no other collaborations floating around. When they happen, they normally happen very fast, though. Duffy the Vampire Slayer: Gaiman for president. NG: Thanks. I'd make a crap president, though. Eilonwy: How do you go about naming your characters? (The Foxglove affair was very clever.) Several writers I've spoken to, myself included, find that characters tend to materialize with names already established. Are you ever plagued by this odd phenomenon? NG: I always prefer it when characters turn up with names already in place. The protagonist of American Gods didn't, and I still don't know if what I'm calling him is his first name or his last name, which is very irritating. In Sandman I tried to make sure that all the names meant something -- or most of them, at any rate. But whether you should spend time with an Oxford English Dictionary, a Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, a dictionary of names, or an atlas is something you'd probably have to figure out for yourself. But most of the names in Sandman can act as small keys to the action. The oddest ones are the moments when you sit up in bed at four in the morning suddenly realizing why you called a character what you did five years ago. Eilonwy: To what extent do you utilize the character-cat method of naming? I mean, most people -- well, in American culture at least -- labor over granting their children names that can't be incorporated into playground tauntings or giggled at during roll call (perhaps you, as a Gaiman, might have experienced some of that). Do you ever find characters turning up with morbidly ridiculous names that could alter or disrupt the story? NG: If my characters ever have morbidly ridiculous names, it's because I wanted them to have them (Sexton Furnival, who got teased about his name in every playground of his youth, or Eblis O'Shaughnessy, who has never been teased about his name). Some characters turn up with names. Some don't and you have to work at it. The lead character of American Gods has a name, and I still don't know if it's his first name, last name, or a nickname. NikiE: How do you manage so many projects and still maintain a family life? NG: Well, I have a very forgiving family. And unless I'm away, I'm very here: making up stories for Maddy (age 5, who just ran in with a set of antlers and a clown nose on and informed me that she is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer), growing pumpkins, failing to help 16-year-old Mike with his homework when it involves C++ programming, going to 14-year-old Holly's teacher conferences, cooking, all that kind of parental stuff. I have a gazebo at the bottom of the garden overlooking the woods, and if I'm down there writing, I'm not to be disturbed, although Maddy sometimes comes down and sits on the floor and quietly draws. David Woxberg: 1) What is your opinion on the human race? Do you think we're absurd creatures and that our foolishness will bring us to our own doom, or do you find us beautiful and wonderful and inspirational for your stories? Or both? Or do you view us in a completely different way? 2) Is there any chance you'll visit Sweden to sign books or do readings (or any other things) in the future? 3) Do you have any political affiliation (considering you praised the First Amendment in an interview I read, and since you have collected money for the CBLDF in order to support the freedom of speech in comics)? NG: 1) I like people enormously. People are odd and baffling and unlikely and very, very interesting. 2) It's not impossible: I'm attending conventions next summer (late summer) in Bergen, Norway, and in Finland, and last year I also did a signing with Dave McKean in Denmark. 3) I'm not sure that I have any political affiliations as such, or none that would make much sense to anyone in the U.S. One of the coolest things about the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (and the First Amendment) is that it unites people from all over the political spectrum. Greek: 1) I just finished reading The Dream Hunters, and I thoroughly enjoyed it -- a nice Christmas present. I want to know if I am correct in assuming that the fear onmyoji feels is the fear of losing his material goods, and that because the monk has no worldly possessions and has his faith, he fears nothing. The Dream Hunters is one of those books you have to reread. 2) Do you think the comic-book format is dead? NG: Well, it is certainly true that the monk and the onmyoji were about as far apart as they could get on the matter of material goods and wealth; but I suspect that, were their positions in life reversed, the onmyoji as a poor monk would still have been fearful and miserable, and the monk would have been happy living in the 17th-finest house in Kyoto. 2) No, I don't think that the comic-book format is dead, or even sick. I think comics are a powerful and exciting medium with strengths that other media lack. (I would happily have written The Dream Hunters as a comic if Mr. Amano had been willing to draw it as a comic.) Devotion: What would be a good name for a cat? (I thought it would be nice to ask an irrelevant question every once in a while...y'know, so you don't think that you're stuck in some distant reality where you're the Sandman and you have to answer dreams.) NG: As for a cat's name: Cats are like characters -- they normally turn up with their names. I try to go by the "You look like a..." theory, which is why I have cats named Hermione, Pod, Zoe, Princess, and Furball. There's also Buddy (named by my assistant) and Lucy the Boy Cat (named by five-year-old Maddy, who wanted a cat named Lucy and wasn't going to let his sex get in the way of a good name). I always wanted to call a cat Mehitabel, after Don Marquis's heroine of the Archy and Mehitabel stories, but have never found a cat who looked disreputable enough for it. Adam: Dave McKean has been my biggest artistic influence over the last year, and I've been trying to track down as much of his work as possible. Are there any plans to release more "compilations" of his work, similar to Dustcovers? A book of his CD covers would be fantastic. NG: I'd love to see a book of Dave's CD covers as well. When I was in London last week, I saw Dave and got to thumb through his portfolio, which he had with him, and saw a number of astonishing CD covers and advertising pieces I'd not seen before. Really, we need The Big Book of Dave McKean. Allen Spiegel Fine Arts, who do a lot of Dave's stuff, might do it one day.... Dax: 1) Who is Leigh Baulch? I see him thanked in your #75 goodbye and samples of his stuff in the original proposal now in print for the first time here, but I'd not seen his name associated with Sandman's creation anywhere prior to this in any interview or "beginnings" account like yours in #4. Please help. 2) I was seeking more information on High Cost's villain, the Eremite, and you pointed me to The Books of Magic and said that the name was an anagram. Okay, I get it now (blind, mad, the enmity with Death...), but isn't the anagram missing a letter? And what was the storytelling (and/or nonstory) reason for his being hidden so? NG: Leigh Baulch runs, these days, Titan Books's magazine dept. He used to run Titan's art department, and is a terrific artist who does not draw anything like enough. Leigh did some artwork to accompany the original Sandman proposal, along with some drawings Dave McKean did (which were printed in the afterword of Preludes and Nocturnes). 2) The anagram is only missing a letter if it's singular. And why hide him like that? Sheer perversity, I'm afraid. And it seemed like a good idea at the time. Goatman: As an American who reads American comics, I was surprised to realize long ago that all of my favorite writers where not American. This is probably a tough one to answer, but why is it that you darn foreigners are so much better at writing comics than we are? I know this question reflects my opinion and is ambiguous at best, but guys like you and Alan Moore have done more for comics than anyone in recent memory, and you seem to have a different perspective than most American writers. What is it we are missing? NG: I don't think that the non-Americans are always better than Americans at writing comics (I can think of many, many fine American comics writers). But I think that the reason a bunch of Brits turned up in the U.S. was perhaps that for Alan, for Grant [Morrison], and certainly for me, American comics were strange, wonderful, and exotic things -- postcards from an imaginary world. They were there, like the books we read and the films we saw and the music we listened to. When we grew up, we made them for ourselves. Sean_Rogers: The Comics Journal somewhat recently published a list of their writers' choices of the great comics. Are there any works you feel were neglected, and were there any works on the list you would particularly applaud? Eddie Campbell's response in Bacchus is the only one I've read from someone whose work was on the list, and I'm curious as to what the response from others who made it might be. NG: I thought the Comics Journal 100 best comics list was the sort of thing you get if you start making lists like that. Eddie's was much more interesting for me, because it was a personal view. Eric: I have to wonder, after reading Dave Sim's guide to self-publishing, if you have ever considered taking that route in your future endeavors, if and when you do take another shot at comics? That would certainly be one way to avoid the legal hassles that seem inevitable when dealing with traditional publishers. NG: No, no real desire to self-publish. I like writing, and too many self-publishers I know seem to either wind up becoming, well, publishers, and many of them wind up as not-very-successful publishers at that. I'll stick to what I enjoy. Stagewalker: You mentioned that The White Road was performed by a puppetry troupe. (How grisly!) How often do people adapt your work for the stage? NG: I think my work gets adapted for the stage more often than I find out about it. But...well, I've seen or seen scripts for or heard about a Violent Cases, a Mr. Punch, a Signal to Noise, and a Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish. I'm working with a Canadian children's music theatre on an adaptation of The Wolves in the Walls. And I believe there have been a number of Sandman-based plays and dramas. Fallenangel: How did you meet/become involved with J. Michael Straczynski and Babylon 5? And do you have a favorite episode? NG: Joe and I met when I was touring the U.S. with Terry Pratchett for our book Good Omens. He was hosting the Hour 25 radio show. This was in 1990. Soon after, he asked me to write an episode for a TV series he was going to make called Babylon 5. And I said I would if he'd wait until I had the time to do it...and then he waited. I think my favorite episode is "Sleeping in Light." Venus: What has been your favorite line of comics? NG: My favorite line of comics? Right now, America's Best Comics. Darkside: How do you combat writer's block? Any suggestion on how to get inspired -- I mean, beside kidnapping a muse? ;-) NG: You write. You put one word after another. Either you write something that's not what you're blocked on, or you write what you can and fix it the next day. But that's what you do. You write. Ways to get inspired? Hmm.... I think deadlines are good. G.K. Chesterton wrote essays, and you can see in some of his essays ("On a Paper Bag," "On What He Had in His Pockets," "On Cheese") that he was simply going, "Time to write an essay," but they were brilliant, funny, and insightful. So write a poem a day. Or a poem a week. Even if it's awful. I'm not a very good making-time-for-writing person. Either I have times I can't be disturbed or occasionally I just fall off the world when a deadline is looming and the thing isn't finished. Erroneous: Neil, I've heard all the buzz about a Neverwhere movie, but I can't think of any part that I'd like to see recast. Hywel Bennett and Clive Russell simply are Croup and Vandemaar, Paterson Joseph was great as the Marquis, Laura Fraser was achingly vulnerable as Door.... Who else could possibly play them? NG: I dunno. I suppose I think of it more like a play -- Olivier's Richard III doesn't preclude Ian McKellan's. There's room for Ian Carmichael's Bertie Wooster and Hugh Laurie's. Pseudolus was Zero Mostel and Frankie Howerd and Phil Silvers and Whoopi Goldberg. For me the "real" version of Neverwhere is the novel, with imaginary people in it. Seeing how different people get to flesh those roles out is intriguing. I'd love to see what another pair of actors bring to Croup and Vandemaar; I think Paterson was an astonishing Marquis de Carabas, but I can imagine that other actors could make that role their own in a hundred different ways. Peter North: I know I'm beating a rather putrid corpse here, but has anyone noticed that the album cover Dave McKean did for the new Dream Theater album is really just a modified version of the original cover for the Brief Lives trade? Is Dave cleaning out his cabinets? NG: Bear in mind that Dave is a commercial artist, and art directors (or band members) often say to him, "We liked your cover for X, please do something just like it for us." We were talking about this the last time I saw him a few weeks back, as he had his portfolio with him, and he mentioned that the Brief Lives cover was the single most requested thing from art directors (and I told him where I'd got the idea for it from -- one respectable source and one not). Sometimes he says no. Then they hire people and tell them to imitate Dave McKean. Jiame: I've just finished reading Neverwhere. Croup and the T'ang statuette was simply the most evil thing I've read in a long time. :-) I tried to get the Neverwhere video, but it's pretty expensive. However, reading the book, I pictured Bob Hoskins as Croup. NG: Thanks. I think my visual inspiration for Croup was an interview with John Lydon back when he was Johnny Rotten, done by Janet Street Porter in 1977. He was walking the streets of London in this strange Victorian suit with a stovepipe hat on. Lucyfer: Do you ever have nightmares of people screaming, "You murdered Morpheus"? NG: No. Luckily, people seem to blame the Kindly Ones. Nona: I caught Neverwhere on PBS last year and threw a tape in (got only four episodes). It was cute and hokey -- not at all like it's written or looks in your head as you read it. I now see what you mean by "the BBC turns everything into Doctor Who." I can't wait to see it on film! NG: Well, I sent Richard Loncraine the new draft of the Neverwhere movie yesterday. I hope he likes it. EdenM: This is mostly a little trivial question, but was there any reason why Kaya in Princess Mononoke went from just being a girl who liked Ashitaka to his sister? As a little sister myself, I found that scene very touching. NG: According to Mr. Miyazaki, Kaya might have been Ashitaka's sister and might have been his fiancée. Steve Alpert found it odd that he didn't know for sure about his characters. As a writer I sympathized profoundly.
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