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Neil Signing
Aug. 9th, 2003 02:40 pmSo yesterday I ventured into NYC. First off I went to pickup my passport at the Dutch consulate, happily that was all taken care of in like 5 minutes. Bureaucratic efficiency, what a concept. My new passport is very strange indeed, the first page inside where the photo goes is now a big plastic page, kind of like an oversized creditcard. The Dutch government has a way of redesigning the passport's every few years, between the one I have now and my previous one that was issued 6 years ago there has been at least one other design in between both.
After that I quickly zipped down to Midtown Comics while I waited for Kit and Cherie to drive into the city. There I picked up the Death manga comic by Jill Thompson and asked when the first issue of Neil's new 1602 miniseries was due. Then Kit and Cherie picked me up and we headed down to the financial district, found parking and went to grab a bite to eat prior to heading into the bookstore.
Picked up a copy of Wolves in the Walls and got our calendar date for the queueing for the signing later(June, urgh) and waited until 3pm when Neil showed up for the reading and signing. He read Wolves in its entirety which is a funny book and it was delightful hearing him read it. After the reading he answered questions that had been written down on little blue cards that a number of people had filled out. Best question: "But why the rum!?" ;) Worst question: a question asking Neil to tell Caitlin R. Kiernan to lighten up on her journal because she's not so cheerful, or something. While I doubt it was on purpose I wonder if the person asking that question realised just how fucking rude it is to ask such a thing... 1) to ask the friend of that person to tell her (when she has email addresses on her site and they obviously didn't have the balls to tell her "to her face" in a direct email) and 2) just how rude it is to tell someone how and what they should write in their own journal on their own personal website. The gall of some people really amazes me sometimes.
Neil answered all the questions with wit and grace... mentioning little anecdotes, showing us his black-tipped tongue (biting accident due to photoshoot, check his blog for more info on that) and generally being funny and nice and all the other things that people love about him. After that all the people with calendar sheets dating after March were shooed out to go browse around the bookstore to make for orderly signing in the small mezzanine area where they'd situated Neil.
At this time Cherie decided that it looked as though this was going to take really long and she needed to pick up a few things for a friend's show that needed to be done before the shops started closing, so she handed her books over to Kit in case she didn't make it back in time and headed off to go run her errands. Kit and I imbibed hot drinks and lemon coconut cake and then entertained ourselves on the second floor with Photography, Art and Interior Decorating books until June was called down to line up for the signing. The line crept along slowly and we chatted to a few people around us... miraculously Cherie made it back when we were still quite a way away from Neil and resumed her place as Kit wandered off to entertain himself elsewhere in the store.
As we got nearer to the front of the line we had a very amusing chat with a British couple who shared some funny celebrity and signing stories. And then just as we went up to the table some assistant asked Neil if he needed anything and he gave a funny answer "... euthanasia, a massage...". And it was our turn, and Cherie kind of clammed up and I stood there fudging my way through a perfectly simple question that Kit wanted me to ask (in Endless Nights is the Dream story about Morpheus or Daniel? -- the answer being that the Dream story is about Morpheus and Daniel appears in the Delerium story) ;) Amazingly enough I managed to say a few things, though total amnesia set in afterwards so I'm not too sure what I said (dorks-r-us) :) He signed my Wolves and my Coraline and also the little Death manga in which he drew an ankh... he drew a mouse in my and Cherie's Coraline and a wolf in her Wolves book.
He's really really nice. And for some weird reason, even though I've only ever seen some pictures of him he's just so familiar... like, you see him in the flesh and you feel you already know him and have met him before somewhere, when you really haven't. Very strange, but very cool... very cool also that someone successful is still so down to earth and accessible to his fans. Neil Gaiman... Nice Guy (tm).
After that I quickly zipped down to Midtown Comics while I waited for Kit and Cherie to drive into the city. There I picked up the Death manga comic by Jill Thompson and asked when the first issue of Neil's new 1602 miniseries was due. Then Kit and Cherie picked me up and we headed down to the financial district, found parking and went to grab a bite to eat prior to heading into the bookstore.
Picked up a copy of Wolves in the Walls and got our calendar date for the queueing for the signing later(June, urgh) and waited until 3pm when Neil showed up for the reading and signing. He read Wolves in its entirety which is a funny book and it was delightful hearing him read it. After the reading he answered questions that had been written down on little blue cards that a number of people had filled out. Best question: "But why the rum!?" ;) Worst question: a question asking Neil to tell Caitlin R. Kiernan to lighten up on her journal because she's not so cheerful, or something. While I doubt it was on purpose I wonder if the person asking that question realised just how fucking rude it is to ask such a thing... 1) to ask the friend of that person to tell her (when she has email addresses on her site and they obviously didn't have the balls to tell her "to her face" in a direct email) and 2) just how rude it is to tell someone how and what they should write in their own journal on their own personal website. The gall of some people really amazes me sometimes.
Neil answered all the questions with wit and grace... mentioning little anecdotes, showing us his black-tipped tongue (biting accident due to photoshoot, check his blog for more info on that) and generally being funny and nice and all the other things that people love about him. After that all the people with calendar sheets dating after March were shooed out to go browse around the bookstore to make for orderly signing in the small mezzanine area where they'd situated Neil.
At this time Cherie decided that it looked as though this was going to take really long and she needed to pick up a few things for a friend's show that needed to be done before the shops started closing, so she handed her books over to Kit in case she didn't make it back in time and headed off to go run her errands. Kit and I imbibed hot drinks and lemon coconut cake and then entertained ourselves on the second floor with Photography, Art and Interior Decorating books until June was called down to line up for the signing. The line crept along slowly and we chatted to a few people around us... miraculously Cherie made it back when we were still quite a way away from Neil and resumed her place as Kit wandered off to entertain himself elsewhere in the store.
As we got nearer to the front of the line we had a very amusing chat with a British couple who shared some funny celebrity and signing stories. And then just as we went up to the table some assistant asked Neil if he needed anything and he gave a funny answer "... euthanasia, a massage...". And it was our turn, and Cherie kind of clammed up and I stood there fudging my way through a perfectly simple question that Kit wanted me to ask (in Endless Nights is the Dream story about Morpheus or Daniel? -- the answer being that the Dream story is about Morpheus and Daniel appears in the Delerium story) ;) Amazingly enough I managed to say a few things, though total amnesia set in afterwards so I'm not too sure what I said (dorks-r-us) :) He signed my Wolves and my Coraline and also the little Death manga in which he drew an ankh... he drew a mouse in my and Cherie's Coraline and a wolf in her Wolves book.
He's really really nice. And for some weird reason, even though I've only ever seen some pictures of him he's just so familiar... like, you see him in the flesh and you feel you already know him and have met him before somewhere, when you really haven't. Very strange, but very cool... very cool also that someone successful is still so down to earth and accessible to his fans. Neil Gaiman... Nice Guy (tm).
