72 Facts About Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman's works include the comic book series The Sandman and the novels Stardust, Anansi Boys, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book.

Neil Gaiman has won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, as well as the Newbery and Carnegie medals.

Neil Gaiman is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book.

Neil Gaiman's great-grandfather emigrated from Antwerp, Belgium, to the UK before 1914 and his grandfather eventually settled in Portsmouth and established a chain of grocery stores.

Neil Gaiman's grandfather changed his original family name of Chaiman to Neil Gaiman.

Neil Gaiman's father, David Bernard Gaiman, worked in the same chain of stores; his mother, Sheila Gaiman, was a pharmacist.

Neil Gaiman was born on 10 November 1960 in Portchester, Hampshire.

Neil Gaiman later won the school English prize and the school reading prize, enabling him to finally acquire the third volume.

Neil Gaiman was educated at several Church of England schools, including Fonthill School in East Grinstead, Ardingly College, and Whitgift School in Croydon.

Neil Gaiman lived in East Grinstead for many years, from 1965 to 1980 and again from 1984 to 1987.

Neil Gaiman met his first wife, Mary McGrath, while she was studying Scientology and living in a house in East Grinstead that was owned by his father.

The writer sent Neil Gaiman an encouraging and informative letter back, along with literary advice.

Neil Gaiman has said Roger Zelazny was the author who influenced him the most, with this influence particularly seen in Neil Gaiman's literary style and the topics he writes about.

Neil Gaiman takes inspiration from the folk tales tradition, citing Otta F Swire's book on the legends of the Isle of Skye as his inspiration for The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains.

Neil Gaiman wrote and reviewed extensively for the British Fantasy Society.

When waiting for a train at London's Victoria Station in 1984, Neil Gaiman noticed a copy of Swamp Thing written by Alan Moore, and carefully read it.

Neil Gaiman wrote interviews and articles for many British magazines, including Knave.

Neil Gaiman has said he ended his journalism career in 1987 because British newspapers regularly publish untruths as fact.

Neil Gaiman continued his professional relationship with Moore by contributing quotations for the supplemental materials in the Watchmen comic book series.

Neil Gaiman wrote three graphic novels with his favorite collaborator and long-time friend Dave McKean: Violent Cases, Signal to Noise, and The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch.

Comics historian Les Daniels called Neil Gaiman's work "astonishing" and noted that The Sandman was "a mixture of fantasy, horror, and ironic humor such as comic books had never seen before".

Neil Gaiman produced two stories for DC's Secret Origins series in 1989.

In 1990, Neil Gaiman wrote The Books of Magic, a four-part mini-series that provided a tour of the mythological and magical parts of the DC Universe through a frame story about an English teenager who discovers that he is destined to be the world's greatest wizard.

Neil Gaiman wrote a semi-autobiographical story about a boy's fascination with Michael Moorcock's anti-hero Elric of Melnibone for Ed Kramer's anthology Tales of the White Wolf.

Neil Gaiman contributed a twelve-part Metamorpho serial drawn by Mike Allred for Wednesday Comics, a weekly newspaper-style series.

Neil Gaiman oversaw The Sandman Universe, a line of comic books published by Vertigo.

In 2011 Pratchett said that while the entire novel was a collaborative effort and most of the ideas could be credited to both of them, Pratchett did a larger portion of writing and editing if for no other reason than Neil Gaiman's scheduled involvement with Sandman.

Neil Gaiman has since revised the novel twice, the first time for an American audience unfamiliar with the London Underground, the second time because he felt unsatisfied with the originals.

American Gods became one of Neil Gaiman's best-selling and multi-award-winning novels upon its release in 2001.

Neil Gaiman has not written a direct sequel to American Gods but he has revisited the characters.

In late 2008, Neil Gaiman released a new children's book, The Graveyard Book.

In September 2016, Neil Gaiman announced that he had been working for some years on retellings of Norse mythology.

Neil Gaiman wrote the 1996 BBC dark fantasy television series Neverwhere.

Neil Gaiman cowrote the screenplay for the movie MirrorMask with his old friend Dave McKean for McKean to direct.

Neil Gaiman cowrote the script for Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf with Roger Avary, a collaboration that has proved productive for both writers.

Neil Gaiman has expressed interest in collaborating on a film adaptation of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Neil Gaiman was the only person other than J Michael Straczynski to write a Babylon 5 script in the series' last three seasons, contributing the season five episode "Day of the Dead".

Neil Gaiman has written at least three drafts of a screenplay adaptation of Nicholson Baker's novel The Fermata for director Robert Zemeckis, although the project was stalled while Zemeckis made The Polar Express and the Neil Gaiman-Roger Avary written Beowulf film.

Neil Gaiman was featured in the History Channel documentary Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked.

In 2007, Neil Gaiman announced that after ten years in development, the feature film of Death: The High Cost of Living would finally begin production with a screenplay by Neil Gaiman that he would direct for Warner Independent.

Neil Gaiman wrote an episode of the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, broadcast in 2011 during Matt Smith's second series as the Doctor.

Neil Gaiman made his return to Doctor Who with an episode titled "Nightmare in Silver", broadcast on 11 May 2013.

In 2011, it was announced that Neil Gaiman would be writing the script to a new film version of Journey to the West.

Neil Gaiman appeared as himself on The Simpsons episode "The Book Job", which broadcast on 20 November 2011.

In 2020, Neil Gaiman received a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form for the TV miniseries adaption of Good Omens, for which he wrote the screenplay.

In 2021, Neil Gaiman was cast as Duke Aubrey in an adaptation of Hope Mirrlees' Lud-in-the-Mist, a novel Neil Gaiman had previously proclaimed one of his favourites, for BBC Radio 4.

In 2015, Neil Gaiman delivered a 100-minute lecture for the Long Now Foundation entitled How Stories Last about the nature of storytelling and how stories persist in human culture.

In February 2001, when Neil Gaiman had completed writing American Gods, his publishers set up a promotional website featuring a weblog in which Neil Gaiman described the day-to-day process of revising, publishing, and promoting the novel.

Gaiman generally posts to the blog describing the day-to-day process of being Neil Gaiman and writing, revising, publishing, or promoting whatever the current project is.

Neil Gaiman is a dedicated user of fountain pens and has said that he writes the first draft of all his books with one.

Neil Gaiman began this practice with Stardust, which he wrote with a fountain pen in order to capture the feeling of the 1920s.

Neil Gaiman is most closely associated with the Pilot 823, one of which he has said he has used for giving over one million signatures.

Neil Gaiman moved there to be close to the family of his then-wife, Mary McGrath, with whom he has three children.

Neil Gaiman is married to songwriter and performer Amanda Palmer, with whom he has an open marriage.

In May 2020, Neil Gaiman travelled from New Zealand to his holiday home on the Isle of Skye, breaking the lockdown rules.

Neil Gaiman published an apology on his website, saying he had endangered the local community.

Neil Gaiman stated in a blog post that their split was "my fault, I'm afraid" and requesting privacy.

Neil Gaiman is a supporter of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and has served on its board of directors.

In 2013, Neil Gaiman was named co-chair of the organization's newly formed advisory board.

In 2022, during Russian invasion of Ukraine, Neil Gaiman supported Ukraine by announcing on Twitter that he doesn't want to renew contracts with Russian publishers.

One of Gaiman's most commented-upon friendships is with the musician Tori Amos, a Sandman fan who became friends with Gaiman after making a reference to "Neil and the Dream King" on her 1991 demo tape.

Neil Gaiman included her in turn as a character in his novel Stardust, and she guest-starred in that role in the BBC Radio 4 audio drama.

Neil Gaiman wrote stories for the tour book of Boys for Pele and Scarlet's Walk, a letter for the tour book of American Doll Posse, and the stories behind each girl in her album Strange Little Girls.

Neil Gaiman is godfather to Tori Amos's daughter Tash, and wrote a poem called "Blueberry Girl" for Tori and Tash.

Neil Gaiman read the poem aloud to an audience at the Sundance Kabuki Theater in San Francisco on 5 October 2008 during his book reading tour for The Graveyard Book.

In 1993, Neil Gaiman was contracted by Todd McFarlane to write a single issue of Spawn, a popular title at the newly created Image Comics company.

In issue No 9 of the series, Neil Gaiman introduced the characters Angela, Cogliostro, and Medieval Spawn.

McFarlane initially agreed that Neil Gaiman had not signed away any rights to the characters, and negotiated with Neil Gaiman to effectively "swap" McFarlane's interest in the character Marvelman.

McFarlane had purchased interest in the character when Eclipse Comics was liquidated while Neil Gaiman was interested in being able to continue his aborted run of the Marvelman title.

McFarlane later changed his initial position, claiming that Neil Gaiman's work had only been work-for-hire and that McFarlane owned all of Neil Gaiman's creations entirely.

Neil Gaiman had written Marvel 1602 in 2003 to help fund this project and all of Neil Gaiman's profits for the original issues of the series were donated to Marvels and Miracles.

Neil Gaiman's work is known for a high degree of allusiveness.