Neil Gaiman charms fans, explains Death of his film career at 92Y

Last Sunday, post-modern comic book author and novelist Neil Gaiman met with designer Chip Kidd to discuss Gaiman's pioneering comic series, The Sandman, in front of a packed auditorium at 92Y. Gaiman proved an affable and charming speaker, regaling his audience with disarming anecdotes and witty impressions that, unlike the protagonist of his 20-year-old cult classic, didn't put anyone to sleep.

While 92Y's lecture fare generally tends toward the academic, Gaiman set a whimsical tone early in the night. In between impromptou jokes and being mistaken for Neil Diamond by William Shatner at a Buenos Aires comic convention, he gave an honest and entertaining account of the seven years he spent writing the 75-issue Sandman series. The literary epic recounts the emotional journey of Morpheus, the personification of dreaming who does battle with deranged demons, greek myths and his own personal shortcomings to a tragic and bittersweet end.

Gaiman explained that he began the series "in a state of absolute delirious terror," as he realized that what he "was trying to do was impossible-- and it was." Before even beginning the complex, non-linear series, a hurricane prevented the writer from typing his scripts, and even then, he was fearful of the series' cancellation in an industry where comic titles rarely survived past 12 issues.

Along the way, Gaiman also revealed that Hellboy creator Mike Mignola had, at one point, been slated to illustrate Sandman's "The Kindly Ones" chapter. Although scheduling conflicts prevented Mignola from committing, Gaiman ironically became involved in the Hellboy world when Hellboy 2 director Guillermo del Toro invited Gaiman to prepare for his own filmmaking career by shadowing him on set in Budapest.

As for Gaiman's mainstream directorial debut, a translation of his Death: The High Cost of Living comic book miniseries, the author deadpanned that the movie "has been in development heck, which is only slightly more encouraging then development hell, for 10 years." Despite the delay, New Line Cinema is finally set to fund the film and, according to Gaiman, it "will probably happen... unless it doesn't."

The evening ended with Kidd genuinely declaring that he "could listen to [Gaiman] speak all night." And as scores of devoted fans lined up to have their books signed, it was evident that Gaiman had made more than a few dreams come true.