Neil Gaiman's 2013 signing tour serves as a framing device for Patrick Meaney's lively (if also somewhat superficial) look at the author’s career. According to manager Cat Mihos, Gaiman signed so many books that he would lose feeling in his hand, so he takes to icing it after long days, but clearly values the closer-than-usual relationship with his readers. Although he's now based in the United States, the tour includes a trip to Portsmouth, England, where he grew up. Gaiman doesn't remember a time when he didn't want to be a writer. Childhood friend Geoff Notkin recalls the pair making comics, a practice their teachers treated with disdain. In his younger days, Gaiman also played in a punk band, which may have factored into his relationship with cabaret-punk musician Amanda Palmer, an occasional collaborator. Once Gaiman decided that he wanted to write professionally, nothing was going to stop him, and Meaney looks at signature works such as Violent Cases and Sandman. From comics, Gaiman segued to novels with the Terry Pratchett collaboration Good Omens (Pratchett, who appears here, passed away in 2015). About the U.S., the author of the bestsellers American Gods, The Graveyard Book, and Coraline muses, "I thought I understood America, and then I moved out to America, and went, ‘This place is weird’," but the weirdness continues to feed his creativity. Dream Dangerously also features notable fans and collaborators including Grant Morrison, George R.R. Martin, Bill Hader, and Michael Sheen, who stars in the upcoming adaptation of Good Omens. By the end of the three-month tour, Gaiman estimates that he has signed books for 150,000 people...and now he just wants to write. A strong optional purchase. [Note: this is also available for $99.95: public libraries and $295: colleges and universities with public performance rights from The Cinema Guild, www.cinemaguild.com.] Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)
Neil Gaiman: Dream Dangerously
(2018) 74 min. Blu-ray: $29.99. BRINK (avail. from most distributors). ISBN: 0-7815-1588-2. Volume 33, Issue 6
Neil Gaiman: Dream Dangerously
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