Tag: Neil Gaiman

Miracleman – Eclipse (1980’s)

Posted on by EHT Comics

In August 1985, Eclipse began reprinting the Marvelman stories from Warrior, colored, and re-sized. They were renamed and re-lettered throughout as Miracleman to avoid further problems with Marvel Comics. Issues 1-6 reprinted all the Warrior content, after which Eclipse began publishing new Miracleman stories from Alan Moore and new artist Chuck Beckum (now better known as Chuck Austen), soon replaced by Rick Veitch and then John Totleben. Eclipse split the rights to the character, with 2/3 going to Eclipse and 1/3 split between the current writer and artist of the series. Moore wrote the series until issue 16.

Writer Neil Gaiman picked up the series at #17 and developed it further in the 1990s, working with artist Mark Buckingham. He planned three books, consisting of six issues each; they would be titled “The Golden Age”, “The Silver Age” and “The Dark Age”.

 

Mr. Punch – Hardcover 1st Printing (1994)

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The book follows the childhood memories of the narrator, illustrating various experiences in his life: fishing on the beach at dawn; his grandparents and how one grandfather went mad; a hunchback great-uncle; the betrayal of children by adults; fear of the unknown; an unwanted pregnancy, violence, possibly even murder.

The general story is paralleled with the traditional story of the Mr. Punch show, ‘The oldest, the wisest play’. The narrator is first introduced to Mr. Punch when fishing with his grandfather, but encounters it, and a mysterious ‘professor’ (Punch & Judy man), during various other activities. The story of Mr. Punch, is that he kills his baby, then his wife Judy and the police officer who comes to arrest him. He outwits a ghost, a crocodile and a doctor, convinces the hangman to be hanged in his place and, at the play’s end, even defeats the devil himself.

Like many of Gaiman’s works, a major theme in this graphic novel is memory and the unreliability of one’s own recollections.

Death: The High Cost of Living (1993)

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Death: The High Cost of Living is written by Neil Gaiman with art by Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham. It is a spin-off from Gaiman’s best-selling Vertigo Comics series The Sandman, featuring the Sandman (Dream)’s elder sister, Death of the Endless in a self-contained story based around the fable that Death takes human form once a century, to remain grounded and in touch with humanity, an idea touched upon in several other media, for example in the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday and in the Terry Pratchett novel Reaper Man.

A movie based on this series has been in the works for several years in various stages of development and until recently was in the works at New Line Cinema. Gaiman had previously confirmed that this movie was in progress and that he was planning on writing the script and directing it, with Guillermo del Toro as executive producer. The film, which is currently on hold, was operating under the title Death and Me.

Neil Gaiman – Guest of Honor – Chicago Comicon (1993)

Posted on by EHT Comics

A comic/ashcan of Neil Gaiman by Scott McCloud, Mike Dringberg, Todd McFarlane, Karen Berger, Dave Sim, Coleen Doran, Rick Veitch, Michael Zulli, Jill Thompson, Eddie Campbell, Steve Bissette, Mark Buckingham, Cat Yronwode, and Larry Marder. The red variant was limited to 2500 signed and numbered copies.