Kitty's Neverwear

when Neil Gaiman comes to town...

2012-01-09T09:16:00.000-08:00

Neil was just in town for a little mad dash of meetings and meals. Always such a pleasure to get caught up in his vortex, the people he knows, the places he goes...

We had a meal with the beautiful miss Fairuza Balk, who is now adding "candlemaker" to her resume. Very fitting that this fire spirit will bring the wick to your flame. If only you could smell this candle via interwebs...

No detail is missed, this is a slice from her description on the packaging of the candles:

Every box is hand stamped in real sealing wax with the ring that I wear around my neck every day which my father made for me. It is an ancient symbol, the double spiral. Among many other definitions it also means “as above so below”.

Go here for Fairuza's artcrafted candles.
here she is with our favorite Allan Amato:

A year ago, tomorrow, (Jan 10, 2011) we went over to the Fox lot so Neil could record his lines for his appearance on the Simpsons.
Last week, Bonnie Pietila, the casting director, presented Neil with his lemon-yellow, unmissable hardshell suitcase, complete with Bart-shaped luggage tag.

we had ice cream with the McCloud clan:

and breakfast with the ever-salty Harlan Ellison:

Harlan has a new book out, a sort of intro-text to this legendary author. Neil wrote the introduction and you can get more info on it HERE. (i just bought 2!)

Come see Harlan speak at Cinefamily on Jan 19th in Los Angeles, Drew & I will be there....
for details and/or to buy tickets, go HERE.

As always, when Neil comes to LA, or I go out to the Addams Family mansion, I have bags of fanmail/correspondence to get him to sign...here he inspects a beautiful time-machine manual from Curio & Co., the fine people in Austria who create "memorabilia from a pop culture that never existed".

I also had him sign a small number of the Jouni Koponen CONJUNCTIONS print, those will be up shortly on the Neverwear site.
(the site which is now being re-tooled and improved, stay tuned!)

I mentioned in this blog that I met Patrick Rothfuss and his lovely assistant, Valerie at World Fantasy Con this last October.
(yes, i had him sign my con badge)

this wonderful calendar showed up for Boss, featuring lush paintings of classic literature characters/authors by the incredible Lee Moyer.

this calendar benefits Patrick's very successful charity Worldbuilders.
you can still buy it here!
(each page is frameworthy...) (*...and rumor has it, we MAY see our Neil in a future edition, STILL JUST A RUMOR, you lot)

Valerie & Pat also sent Neil a print of Lee's Kipling page, look how gorgeous this is...

imagine my thrill and surprise, when i dug deeper into the box, to find these, (*shown as a headrest for miss Selina Kyle)

signed to me!! Thanks friends, i love them.

this also showed up in my mailbox, a little golden book of love. Thanks Boss!!

Lastly, as this blog has now grown legs and is starting to walk on its' own, did you SEE the new update from @XtopherSalmon on his modelling for The Price???!

here's a LINK to it, if you have missed it. Christopher is coming to LA soon, to do some more tinkering on the soundtrack, i can almost smell the air in Park City, Utah....Sundance-bound, baby!

(ps. and now I have a Tumblr account, thanks to Neil. i am HERE and am still figuring out how to drive that thing....)

three new winners----all great stories.

2011-12-23T15:54:00.000-08:00

winners!! a couple of winners!! no--THREE new winnahs.

the submission for the winner of the Neil
"birthday laminate" just charmed me with this story:

I nominate my friend Julia, who last night went down to a local Target with a friend and did the following:

...we held up one awesome cashier's line buying stacks of gift cards, putting $20 on each. We immediately gave one to the guy waiting behind us in line. Then we parked at the front door and began handing them to people as they entered. Most people showed the initial reaction of "oh god someone is shoving a flier I don't want at me," but then they'd look down at what they just accepted and, well, a multitude of reactions occurred. Some people didn't say anything and continued into the store. Some said thank you. A few stopped and said, "Really?" One woman ran back to give us both hugs. Another woman in a headscarf with a strong accent asked us, "Why?" and I said, "Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid, solstice, whatever!" (Or something to that effect, but more formal.)

Twice people came back and gave us the cards back, telling us to give them to people who needed them more. One of those men kept asking us who we were and what organization we were with. It was fun to say, "We're just... us!" and, "Well, my name is Julia," and such. Heh, at one point he said, "How did you get the money?" and we replied, "Work." He asked us where we worked, so I said I worked for Harvard and Sandry said she worked for Whole Foods, and he said, "Wow, so you're not even really raking in the big bucks."

We ran out fairly quickly; it was a busy night at Target. We sat on a bench outside for a little while longer before heading home. One of the women we had given a card to--and possibly one who had given it back?--thanked us on her way out and said that she had been inspired by us to pay for the man at the register in front of her.

this one is for you, Julia! (not sure who your nominator was, an email address suggests Alex?)

here is the winner of the CONJUNCTIONS print, Thesa, who makes an excellent point in her closing statement:

Thinking of Neil Gaiman always brought back memories from 2007. A dinner with Neil Gaiman was set up by the bookstore that organizes this graphic fiction awards (Neil Gaiman was one of the judges, I guess. And he also wrote the foreword for the compilation of the stories.) I was fortunate enough to attend the dinner because my mentor helped make the video presentation for the program so I tagged along with him. Back then I was only able to read The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish and Eternals. Sitting in front of me I saw him doodle a guy in long black coat whenever he sign copies of his works, back then I thought it was his self-portrait. A year later I worked as a storekeeper for a graphic novels and designer toys shop that my mentor owned, and fortunately part of the perks of it is I get to read the books for free, yay! and that was when I get to meet Dream for the first time and that's when I realized that he was actually drawing Dream in every copy of the Absolute Sandman not a portrait of himself. I can't say that I'm fan. Some may get offended if I say I am, because I honestly haven't read much of his works. Aside from the Sandman, there are just about 5 more works that I was able to read before I resigned from my job. After the job, there are just slim chances of me getting my hands on and reading a Gaiman (quite expensive). I may not be a fan but I really love the works that I was able to read. And I promise myself that once I get myself a much stable job, I will start investing on all the graphic novels that I fell in love reading while working at the store. I may not be a hardcore fan, but I believe I deserve the print as much as any avid fan is. I plan to build a mini library for me and my siblings and one day when I'm older and I have my grandchildren, I would like to show the print to them and encourage them to read more and say 'see? Not all things can be bought by money'.

Thank Thesa, send me your address! you have my email--

and this is from ??, I honestly don't know much more than this twitter handle:
@d2p

everytime i've worn my I Believe tshirt someone has started a conversation - "Have you heard about Am Gods being made into a series?" "What do you know about Am Gods on HBO? " etc. This has happened everywhere from Chicago to Austin and small towns in Iowa.

Coraline shirt on the otherhand usually just creates knowing smiles.

it's Kitty-Cat again, if @d2p (the web Cinderella/Cinderfella, who left me only this message much like a glass slipper)
can send me an address, I will send off a good @Neilhimself surprise.

meanwhile, I got so so many great submissions. SO many. I may be playing missus Claus into the new year, dropping some deserving people with notes and prizes.

I am with my beloved family now, healing up my ribs-- (don't sneeze with a broken rib, is all I can say)
Neil is in Australia with his lady love and we watched him ace it on the broadcast of "Wait..wait..don't tell me" on BBC America tonight.
my wish is for everyone to have a lovely winter solstice, warm holiday nights by the fire.

update!

2011-12-21T08:41:00.000-08:00

Hello dears & happy holidays!
I have been trying to keep up---
ah!
Haven't yet decided on the winner of CONJUNCTIONS,
in fact, i have a few balancing on my hand.
might need a vote situation.
However, I am off to the post office to send out
the last of the orders, then off to see my wonderful family on the east coast.
So be patient, and if orders are made, anything now will be sent out after Christmas.
This will be the next prize to give out,
a very rare treasure indeed,
a laminate from Neil's 50th birthday party.

this pass was designed by the so-talented Christopher Salmon.
PS if you haven't watched his latest video update (posted on the same day I got hit by that car!)
you must go! WATCH! DO!
CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!!
(i just watched it again, just for a certain "mind-blowing" scene!! @Xtopher, you be crazy!!)

contest winner #4

2011-12-17T09:38:00.000-08:00

i am going to give the Beowulf prize along with something that can be more enjoyed in a classroom--
a signed-by-Neil poster of the cover of the Newbury Medal winning GRAVEYARD BOOK. Why?
This entry from Chris S. of New York :

I will not pretend to be a Gaiman-fanatic since the inception of the Sandman graphic novels, but I can say Mr. Gaiman heavily contributed to my current career path, which is to teach English at a secondary level (I am currently in my sophomore year, having just returned from a semester in Ireland).

In 11th Grade I read American Gods. And for the remainder of the year I pestered my friends, and even my English teacher, to give the book a chance. They all loved it, and now 3 1/2 years later, are huge Gaiman fans. I went on to read as much as I could, starting with Neverwhere, Stardust, Coraline, Good Omens, and of course Anansi Boys ("The Lime" has become an inside joke among myself and my friends) along with Neil Gaiman: Prince of Stories, which I didn't know existed until I found it as a remainder at my local shop. The Sandman comics are incomplete on my shelf, but simply because I cannot afford the rest at the moment...student budget. I have the first two Sandman volumes - they were actually a gift from a great author and former English Dean at Hofstra University, Paula Uruburu. After the 11th grade Gaimain-spell was cast, I would continue reading voraciously and passionately completing my many English courses and electives, eventually receiving my school's most prestigious English award upon graduating.

In 11th grade I had decided I wanted to become an English teacher. Neil's work captured my imagination and transported me to world that I simply needed to share with others. I want to lead students into the amazing (and often scary) worlds that Neil Gaiman created for me, and allowed me to take leave from what was (without being too candid or adding much detail here), an extremely rough home life that seemed inescapable.

Now I am currently close to starting my student teaching, and cannot wait to introduce Neil's work to my students when the first chance arises. I cannot even remember why I started writing this email... for a prize, right? Well, I've enjoyed talking about Neil's influence on me and my future as a teacher, regardless of prizes.

Neil Gaiman has proved, to me at least, that books not only encourage reading. They can encourage choices that radically alter the choices shaping your career, and subsequently shape your entire life as well. The environment for teachers is scary right now, but I will not be deterred. Even seeing one student with his nose in a good book I thrust into his or her hands is worth entering a career field in such a precarious position.

This is not a crazy story of coincidences or fantastical occurrences (as I have read the other story winners, which lowered my hopes significantly). Yet, it is all truthful...simply put, Neil Gaiman's work has added one more English teacher to this world, and one more person to foster a love and appreciation for reading. This is my dream, and it is a dream that Neil's writing caused to develop in the mind of a shy, uncertain 15 year old teen. Now, four years later, I am on my way to being a teacher, and doing Mr. Gaiman proud! Perhaps, one day many years in the future, I will stand next to him in a theatre hall, and we may deliver a lecture together.
One can always dream, and in fact Neil would probably say that we should be doing it more often.

None of this would have been possible without Neil's work of course, but more importantly, my 10th, 11th, and 12th grade English teacher, Erin Maginn. She encouraged my reading and writing when I was really in a bad place, and helped me use Neil's writing to escape an abusive home environment and learn to love literature, leading to my current career path as a teacher. She is the greatest teacher I have ever known, and my greatest role-model. Neil Gaiman's work helped create a love for literature, but Erin Maginn kept me afloat during the hardest times of my life, talking to me about American Gods after the last bell rang, when I was scared to go home. Erin was teaching a Mythology class that year, so she took time out of her very busy schedule to talk with me about all the great mythology in the novel, not because she had to or because she had any free time away from grading papers, but because she knew that the kid in front of her really needed it. She is one of the many heroes in our education system who go unnoticed. Any sort of gift will go directly to her.

Me again-
the prize for tomorrow will be the (unsigned) CONJUNCTIONS by Jouni that didn't go to winner #1.

A Jouni Koponen-drawn print of Neil's poem CONJUNCTIONS.
(see it HERE for more information)

I will send to anywhere in the world, at my cost, as a gift for you or who you specify, if you tell me why the gift is deserved.
Fit it into the comments here or on my Twitter feed @neverwear OR if you don't want your "nomination" made public, you can write to me: neverwear@gaiman.net

I will decide each day who deserves the gift.

Your nomination can be as simple or complex as you wish, funny or serious, from the heart or from the cuff. Make me laugh, make me cry, it's up to you---

contest winner #3: a fricking tie!

2011-12-15T11:26:00.000-08:00

now we are getting some stories!
i am going to call it a tie today, between Chris (daughter of Cecily) and Mr. David G

I want to nominate my eldest daughter, Chris, to get the Scary Trousers shirt. Chris was failing horribly with anything having to do with reading. She had been tested over and over and over again for learning disabilities and any issue they could think of to put an answer to why she couldn't read properly. Well my husband got the brilliant idea that it was the content. So he started reading Coraline with her. After just a few nights of it, she was reading it on her own. It has been a long hard path to get to grade level and have passing grades. She is about to turn 14 next week, is reading Neverwhere, and just brought home a report card with only A's and B's on it. I think that she has worked her ass off, with the help of a great writer giving her something she wanted to read, and she totally rocks.

this
email titled: "Why I SO merit that @NeilHimself goodie" moved me to declare a tie.

Dear Cat,

Because,
when Neil Tweeted Amanda's urgent plea for a practice keyboard before their joint Evening With... gig in Portland, OR, I responded without hesitation, trusting her with my pride and joy Nord keyboard, which I wasn't able to afford until I was 50, along with stand, stool, and ace studio monitors; and,

because Amanda liked the Nord so much she kept it until the performance and then used it on stage during their epic, 4 hr marathon peak performance here; and,

because I never asked for anything in return, (even though Eric* promised me "a special gift" after the show);
(*I'm sure it just got forgotten in the mad shuffle, and I wasn't gauche enough to ask, so don't blame poor hardworking Eric) and,

because I was a Gaiman fan *before* it was hip, and introduced my daughters to his fiction when they were frighteningly young, which turned them into fans and actually affected the course of their careers, one being an aspiring game developer whose passion for linguistic anthropology is a direct result of Neil's work, and the other an actor, who was inspired by Neil to take pen to paper and write magically; and,

because my older daughter brought a very old, out of print copy of one of Neil's first books to the evening for him to sign, but she never got him to, and

because Amanda did end up, randomly, giving my younger daughter a hug, which was so utterly the right thing to do at that particular time which Amanda had no way of knowing, that it left us all speechless; and,

because my daughters watched Amanda's career from her very early days busking in Harvard Square (we used to live in Boston) and attended her very first concerts, and one of their best friends danced on stage with her and Brian when she was just knee high to a grasshopper (my daughters and their friend, not Amanda) when the Dresden Dolls had their very first beginnings; and,

and, because, even though Neil is almost to the day a year younger than I am, I was an old fart until my daughters saw my keyboard up on stage with Amanda an Neil, at which point I belatedly became the hip Dad I secretly was all along; and,

because, no matter what, we would never, ever, sell said goodie to anyone but would, instead, pass it on to our daughters who would pass it on to theirs, and so on and so forth in the great unbroken chain of human existence.

And, most importantly, because I am among the truly rare Americans who still uses a semicolon. Unironically.

Otherwise, no particular reason, really.

Peace,

David G, Change Agent

Editor's note: we will try not to blame Eric, because we love Eric, but he does always have to take all the blame, poor Eric, but don't worry, we may blame him somewhat anyway even if we say we won't, because he's used to it. Love you, Eric!

It has come to light that winner Nat (in true spirit of holidays) also gave her prize to Miss Chris, so she gets 2 prizes, how you like them apples?
also! Winners, please email me w/ ship-to addresses and indicate what size on the shirt, i have youth medium, youth large, adult small, medium, or large. (neverwear@gaiman.net)

tomorrow, I give away a very collectible and rare letter opener, a tiny dagger, fashioned after Beowulf's Grendel killing blade. Comes with a tiny, pixie-sized sheath with the Beowulf film logo stamped into the leather. You know, I really loved that film, I wish they would bring it back through the 3-D theaters.

last but not least, you can take five bucks off ANYTHING at NEVERWEAR from now until December 25th 2011, by using coupon code "nice-kitty"--
watch that space because I just cleaned out my closet and am going to be posting all kinds of tour swag for el cheapo.
Tori, Tool, Motley Crue, Britney, Zombie, there's something for everyone.
(I even found a still in the package bar of Fight Club soap and a Braille Playboy. What the!!?? Kitty yard sale!)

contest winner #2

2011-12-14T09:49:00.000-08:00

Nominated by DragonSally, our resident Australian....
(these are her words)
I think this prize should go to Spacedlawyer {Nathalie Boisard-Beudin}, because, knowing I've had a rough time lately, she bought me my ticket to go and spend NYE with Neil and Amanda and other people. Generosity like that deserves to be known!

me again:
SpacedLaw has long been the picture of generosity, she has given all the way from overseas to every single benefit-type deal that I have ever posted, she supported Trevor's plight (& has been very patient waiting for her lost items from him--), she helped when Michael Zulli had towering vet bills, she helped when my friend was in a car accident, and oh so many other times.
I agree with you, Miss Sally, this prize is for you, lovely Nat. I will send your magnet right out!

next prize up:
the black-as-midnight Scary Trouser tee (i have sizes youth med, youth large, adult small, med, and large to pick from)
featuring the cutest lil' Neil imaginable, drawn by superheroine Kendra Stout. I am wearing one here:

Drew in his at ComicCon:

and (demon eyes) Neil strikes the same pose next to that Oscar-winning Roger Avary:

to hear the story of why Alan Moore nicknamed him Scary Trousers or to buy one for yourself, go HERE!

To nominate someone for acts of kindness or stories of bravery or other deserving situations, please post a comment, email me (neverwear@gaiman.net) or go on my twitter feed @neverwear. I will ship, at my cost, their present to wherever in the world you wish.

Yesterday, Neil phoned me from the airport before heading off to Australia with his bride, to give me words of advice on being clear and direct about my contest rules. As always, he was wise to point out I used the word "deserve" and should have been more clear about the contest--This is a chance to honor good deeds and give onto others. I know I have read many tough luck stories, and I know that is one justification. I am looking for a bit more...thanks, you interesting lot. Happy winter to you all.

contest winner #1

2011-12-13T10:01:00.000-08:00

so my darlings.
I am getting story after story of woe. Maybe it's my Irish lace curtain upbringing but I thought it would be more stories of nominating someone for the good they have done---not that your spouse left you and/or you just need a present.

Hey, i am just the judge here, but I am going to have to get Charles Brownstein in on this (like he has the time!!??) because he is a judge of character like a hot knife through butter. He is the executive director of the COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND--he fights out in the streets daily for our basic rights as humans.

Anyone that can prove to me they have donated $20 or more in the month of December 2011 to the CBLDF fund in the next 9 days will get a coupon code for $10 off anything at Neverwear. Please send me your proof at neverwear@gaiman.net---

now back to the contest.

winner of the CONJUNCTIONS print?

James aka @ ChaosNeverwhere of lovely Seattle. His story, in brief, he had tickets for the Amanda/Neil show in Seattle this November and had to give them up at the last minute to work. Not just any work, James does heating repairs for many Habitat for Humanity properties. Here is a bit of his story:

November 9th, 4:00pm. I am getting ready to leave work and go home, clean up and head up to Seattle for an evening with Neil & Amanda. Excited all day. It was as if to be married again. Yes, I was glowing. A phone call came into the office and was directed to me. Answering to a desperate family with their elderly mother living with them, they had no heat. (the temperature actually dropped below 40 degrees that night). Right then and there, I will never forget that moment. I was crushed. But I knew the right thing to do. Put together an emergency crew and go install a furnace for this family so they may have heat. A hard job with, at times, difficult hours, however it’s worth knowing that I’ve help bring warmth to a home.

This is my story of why I think I should receive the Neil Gaiman signed print.

Me again! Here's the thing, James. I totally agree that you should get the prize. But this was to be given away with no signature, because I haven't yet seen Neil to have him sign any of the Conjunctions prints. So I am going to substitute for you a signed SAUCERS. You can email me your address.

Today's prize will be the Lucifer magnet & just because I haven't picked your story doesn't mean I won't. Just mulling them all over.

9 days of Neverwear holiday giveaways...

2011-12-12T21:29:00.000-08:00

Hello my faithful Neverwearers--
I am back from my mini-tour with Maynard from Tool's solo act, Puscifer. It was a great little tour, with the sad exception of me being hit by a car in San Francisco!
I was getting my luggage out of the bay of the tour bus, we were parked facing on-coming traffic and I got whacked by a car. Thanks goodness as I broke was my rib. The tour wanted to send me home, but it takes a bit more than a broken rib to get rid of me.
Here's our crew photo (can you see me in the stripeys?):

so. I am home now and am shipping out holiday orders. Wanted to give some thanks for all of your kind support this year by doing a giveaway contest, an item a day for the next 9 days, via Twitter & Fbook & this blog, everyday will be a different thing, from signed prints to t-shirts to my glass comic book magnets--
this is the first gift I will put up for the contest:

A Jouni Koponen-drawn print of Neil's poem CONJUNCTIONS.
(see it HERE for more information)

I will decide each day who deserves the gift.

Your nomination can be as simple or complex as you wish, funny or serious, from the heart or from the cuff. Make me laugh, make me cry, it's up to you---

Any orders made by Dec. 20 will be shipped out before the holiday season, anything shipped by Dec 18th should get to where it needs to go, after that, more of a gamble--
my sincere thanks to all of you!

**next gift will be this magnet, made from water-damaged Sandman issue # 68, May 1995, a panel of Lucifer by his piano, get your nominations ready!:

24 hour sale at Neverwear

2011-11-27T16:30:00.001-08:00

for the next day, until midnight tomorrow night,
use the code:
superheroKitty
to get ten bucks off any purchase of $20. --
go get 'em, tiger!

that's half-price, baby!
to see what we've got, go HERE.

stay tuned for a new Neil mailbox---

CONJUNCTIONS has arrived...& meeting Olivia...

2011-11-22T08:03:00.001-08:00

I went and picked up the new prints from my local printer late yesterday afternoon. The sun was most welcome after the shattering downpour of the day before. Sitting in the back of Ghosty, with his top down, you can see the rich blue hues...
The Jouni illustrations are stunning, the first frames of Cabal in the snow and the tree horizon line and the fish swimming...they just stir the mind. I thank you for your early orders, I think this will be a strong print and I will be happy to gaze upon it daily.

{BUY IT HERE!}

Speaking of supporting the arts...
Our dear friend Adriane is back in town on a break from the Janet Jackson tour, and I invited her time-zoned, jet-lagged person go get sushi with me to catch up on all things. After sushi, we stopped by the La Luz de Jesus/Wacko gallery to see the wonder that is Olivia.
She of the fine-art pin-up, she has done a painting in every Playboy for the last number of years, she of the one name, like Cher, she is so filled with talent. Now I know from speaking to her, she is also super sharp-witted and possessing a clever sense of playful humor.

For those that love the ladies and didn't attend her opening, you missed the crowd there, almost ALL gorgeous XX-chromosomes. She was selling her own prints, packaged and stamped and signed and sealed with authenticity certificates. I bought two (shhhh, don't tell Husband, they are for him) and would have bought several more if i had the dough. They are knock-out beautiful.
Her new book, Malibu Cheesecake is available HERE.

Here she is signing my copy:

and here I am with the lady herself...

hmmm, I wonder if she would ever want to do an illustration for one of Neil's poems....Can you imagine what she would do for the nudity poem of his that I love love love that has not yet been done...?

Lucky new year spirits, hear my wishes....

a few things...new Neil mailbox among them.

2011-11-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

It's crisp fall out, i am living off homemade soup, life is busy, beautiful and good.
was laid out with some sort of sickness, but am on the mend, truly i get sick VERY rarely,
usually my Wolverine healing powers are excellent.

made some new comic book magnets while hibernating (will post them soon):

and opened a boatload of Neil fanmail.
It was his birthday week, so the Boss got some presents as well---

lovely package from our friend in Kauai, the macaw-toting Hindu monk, mister S.

this gorgeous book from Kevin in Florida, and he was sweet enough to send me a copy. I think it is so beautiful, from the title "The Bargain I Made for her Heart" on down--

a copy of mister Hodgman's book with Neil's observation on the back--

a little lucky rabbit engraving, from Robert in Kentucky...

a duo set of books from Michael Bull:

another reminder to people sending in things for the Boss, please please include an email address, so that I can let you know package arrived safely. While we try (we do) to answer everyone, things get shuffled about and with no email, I can't always answer right away. I do thank you! There are many more photos to post, but I want to get this up in good time.

Reminder:
two days left to get this at the $10-dollars-off price (they will go to normal price at midnight west coast time on Monday,November 21):
{BUY IT HERE!}

click here for more details!

meanwhile last week, I went to another Simpsons table read, brought the bass player from Zombie's band, mister Piggy D. Miss Bonnie P had come out to our show this summer in Portland and she took an amazing portrait of him outside before the show, she surprised him with a big print of it--

Patton Oswalt was the stellar celebrity guest in the table read, and Hank Azaria, to his left, was just stunning. (also apparently made of steel, those muscles-- Bonnie took a photo of us, will post when i get, she uses real film, bless her heart)

tonight is Neil's appearance on the show, please tune in! here is his blog post, i was with him at his read, and I cannot wait to hear which bad American accent bit they chose...he must have done 40 different bits, each driving Matt Selman into a frenzy of direction, once he saw what our Neil was capable of...:

NEW PRINT: Neil Gaiman's CONJUNCTIONS drawn by Jouni Koponen

2011-11-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

I remember well the beginning stages of the courtship of Neil and Amanda.
Two artists, one big bang.

Winter 2008.
Amanda was on tour with her wild bunch and they stopped by Neil's while I was on a work visit out there.
Neil took them to a trout farm to pick out our dinner.
I remember they had to park their tour bus down the street, we trudged through the snow.

Neil and Amanda both wrote pieces about this time, this magic early time, and both had working title of Trout Heart Replica, in a tip of the hat to that delicious Captain Beefheart. Neil changed the title of his piece to Conjunctions.

here is a video of Amanda singing her side of the story:

When we asked our Finnish superstar, Jouni Koponen to illustrate Conjunctions,
I sent Jouni a few reference photos that I had taken from around the time Neil was composing this beautiful, heartwrencher of a poem.
Here is the treeline view of the actual conjunction of Venus and Jupiter that cold December night.

and here, Neil cleans a rainbow trout in his sink:

they signed the inserts for Who Killed Amanda Palmer? at the big kitchen table.

Here is our Fabulous Lorraine with her still-long hair and her backstage laminate, after we had returned from seeing AFP in Chicago and we picked up The Bengal Royals on the long drive home.

Amanda posing for the Graveyard Book tshirt that we had just put out (*now long sold out, shall we put it back into a second printing?)

and here is Neil's poem:

Conjunctions by Neil Gaiman

Jupiter and Venus hung like grapes in the evening sky,
frozen and untwinkling,
You could have reached and up and picked them.

And the trout swam.

Snow muffled the world, silenced the dog,
silenced the wind...

The man said, I can show you the trout. He was
glad of the company.
He reached into their tiny pool, rescued a dozen, one by one,
sorting and choosing,
dividing the sheep from the goats of them.

And this was the miracle of the fishes,
that they were beautiful. Even when clubbed and gutted,
insides glittering like jewels. See this? he said, the trout heart
pulsed like a ruby in his hand. The kids love this.
He put it down, and it kept beating.
The kids, they go wild for it.

He said, we feed the guts to the pigs. They're pets now,
They won't be killed. See? We saw.
Huge as horses they loomed on the side of the hill.

And we walk through the world trailing trout hearts like dreams,
wondering if they imagine rivers, quiet summer days,
fat foolish flies that hover or sit for a moment too long.
We should set them free, our trout and our metaphors:

You don't have to hit me over the head with it.
This is where you get to spill your guts.
You killed in there, tonight.
He pulled her heart out. Look, you can see it there, still beating. He said,
See this? This is the bit the kids like best. This is what they come to see.

Just her heart, pulsing, on and on. It was so cold that night,
and the stars were all alone.
Just them and the moon in a luminous bruise of sky.

And this was the miracle of the fishes.

Jouni's illustration:

Here, to get his side of the story, I interview Jouni via email from the land of Vikings, Finland.

1. This is a very different style than your piece SAUCERS. How did you arrive here?

Pretty much the same way I arrived to Saucers before, or to The Study in Emerald before that, or to any other project before those... by stepping out of my comfort zone and wanting to try something else. I always felt that Saucers was quite light on emotion and relied more on "technical cleverness" both in text and in illustration. With Conjunctions I wanted to try doing something that would be as much as possible just "raw emotion" illustrated with some very basic techique.

2. English is not your first language. How do you go about translating Neil’s words to Finnish and/or do you?

Now that you mention it, it seems I do not conciously translate English into Finnish in my head anymore. So, in some extent I'm apparently capable of processing English data as it is in my head. Weird... However that DOESN'T mean my English is perfect or anything, merely sufficient.

3. Did anything lucky happen to you during the process of illustrating CONJUNCTIONS?

Lucky? Does the fact that Neil really seems to like the illustrations count as luck?

4. If you could meet any of Neil Gaiman’s fictional characters, who would you like to have a conversation with? (or a fist fight -- or any interaction?)

I really love Dream of the Endless, but I'm sure I'd end up seriously f***ed up after meeting him (somehow pretty much all interactions he had with mortals seemed to end up with the mortal dying, or bein' banished to hell... or both... or something even worse). Wednesday, perhaps... or Silas... or Matthew the raven... or Fiddlers Green... or...

5. Who would play you in the movie version of your life?

Hmm... The problem with "A-list" actors is that they are too good looking to play me. Of course it would be fun to have Johnny Depp doing the part. I'm sure it would do marvels to my illustrating career and it would be interesting to have Johnny crashing at my home for two months trying to get into the role, but there's not much of resemblance between the two of us, I'm afraid...

On the other hand, Edward Norton did a real good job playing a chronically tired and confused person in Fight Club... yes... Ed, you got the part.

I've also been told that In Return of the King, in the scene where the elves are re-forging Narsil, the one who is wielding the hammer looks like me. Personally I think he is too good looking too.

6. Did the success you met with on SAUCERS change your artistic outlook in any way?

I don't think the success did anything per se, but as an Illustration project, Saucers was/is definitely very significant for me. The whole visual idea of the poster (the zooming out thing) is probably the coolest gimmick I've ever come up with.

7. Can you share here some of the best advice you ever got as an young artist?

I personally think all visual arts are skills of the EYE more than skills of the hand. You have to train seeing... everything else is just making smudges on some surface with some technique.

8. What upcoming project on the Jouni-slate are you most excited about?

Right now I'll take a little breather and concentrate spending more time with my wife and kids, but in the deepest corners of my soul of souls I know Odd and the Frost Giants comics (a project I started couple of years back... and never finished) deserves another shot. I know I owe it to him.

9. Here is a chance for you to answer a question you wish that I had asked: (fill in blank!)

OK. The Question would be: “Is there any truth to the rumor, that as a young art student you once tried doing sigil magic after hours of reading Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles and drinking beer... and, that the results of the ceremony were quite dramatic and still affect your life?” And my answer is: “Who told you that? I... It didn’t... Umm... No comment.”

Cheerio!
*note from Kitty, Jouni always signs off with Cheerio, which i have told him is an American breakfast cereal. He remains steadfast.

CONJUNCTIONS is now in pre-sales, while it is at the printer this week, I will have it at $38.00.

It is the same size as the SAUCERS piece, 10" x 28" printed here in Hollywood, US of A. on a creamy silk stock.
Limited numbered edition of 750 print run, these will be sold unsigned.

As soon as it arrives, November 21st, CONJUNCTIONS will go back to the normal print run price of $48.00.
Order early and save yourself a tenner!
CLICK HERE TO ORDER CONJUNCTIONS.
Thank you all so much for supporting the arts.

next blog: an overdue Neil mailbox....

catching up with mid-November...

2011-11-10T07:43:00.001-08:00

It's Neil's birthday today and last year, at this time, we were all down in New Orleans for quite the bash.

i had these laminates made up for his birthday party, complete with Christopher Salmon's artwork:

cut to a year later: Christopher and I made the trip out to "Castle Gaiman" (Kyle Cassidy's nickname---but it shall always be the Addams Family mansion to me) for work on some behind the scenes footage for THE PRICE.
Here is a mini-clip I took of Mr. Salmon being white-German-sheparded, while directing Neil:

CLICK HERE FOR CHRISTOPHER'S AMAZING VIDEO UPDATE ON THE PRICE.

I especially love the way he has captured the little Halloween-town in his video, i got chills once I realized what it was.

The look of joy on Christopher's face when Neil presented him with the see-in-the-dark binoculars was worth the whole trip.

Meanwhile in other news, Mr. Jouni Koponen has been hard at work over in Finland to bring another one of Neil's poems to life in print. Hope to have the finished file this week, it looks so beautiful, in the spirit of his interpretation of SAUCERS (see below as Jouni and Neil sign SAUCERS) but heartbreaking in a different way. He has illustrated Neil's poem CONJUNCTIONS and as soon as it is available, I will share it with you all.
Happiest of birthdays to our Neil.

World Fantasy Con, Late Late Show & the Neil Gaiman/AFP tour...

2011-11-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in a hotel room in Omaha, Nebraska, wishing that there was a bit more snow falling, but so far only blue skies.
Visiting the rehearsals of TSO, where Drew is doing lasers.
Finally have a minute to catch up with some of last week, so many things happened--photos galore.

As Neil was coming in, I decided to rent a car, instead of stuffing him into Ghosty, which, while amusing to watch him unfold himself in and out of, thought I'd drive him in some style:

A sparklepaint gun-metal gray Dodge Challenger, which I nicknamed Dodgey. On the way to LAX, i got that baby up to 100 mph without even a look back. I was in love...

our first stop was a mini-speaking engagement hosted by James Blaylock for his students (him what is said to be a founding father of steampunk movement...)

Neil did a reading of SAUCERS which knocked me off my chair, and then he read ORANGE, which, all i can say, I hope someone got on video.

(read SAUCERS here for yourself.)
here is Neil with lovely Serena & Tim Powers & James and miss Vicky:

We leave there and head down to San Diego, where Neil is guest of honor at World Fantasy Con.
The ride down was especially memorable, as Neil practiced some of his tour song numbers, and damn, he can actually sing.
We rolled up on Tom Galloway in the parking lot, and this was the nighttime view of the pool outside my hotel...

Lions greeted me in the morning as I went to get our credentials:

After the opening ceremonies, the San Diego Zoo did a terrific presentation, this isn't a great shot of the regal owl but the movie i took is not uploading...

everyone gears up for the big author group signing...

I spot Patrick Rothfuss in the corner, and that's it for that guy. I am attached like a moray eel! He was fascinating conversationalist, we talked of many things, including a Neverwear team up for his charity, Worldbuilders.
stay tuned for more on that!

Patrick shown to the right of Mr. Gregory Noveck of SyFy Channel, (wish you could read Gregory's badge, do ask him about it!):

why yes, i Did have Patrick sign my badge:

The ever-patient Les Klinger then helped me find Charlaine Harris (she of True Blood fame) and I made her sign Neil's nameplate, because while I had nothing else, these authors are my rockstars. She kept saying, but this is...Neil's sign...and I said, well no, now it is mine mine mine--she was so sweet, but she kept one eye out for any sudden movements by yours truly.

here, people are polite as they wait in a Very Long Line that goes Far Out The Door for Neil to sign their books:

We pull the plug exactly at 11 to take Neil to his wife's show down the road, leaving a few sad waiting book-holders, so he promises to do ANOTHER signing,
and when he does, I can't help but corrrect the signage with my handy sharpie (was that wrong?)
click here to see the photo, Neil pointed people to my Twitter post of it, 5000+ views!

Les takes us off to see the close of Amanda's show, where I get to meet mister Rothfuss' assistant, Valerie. Somehow I didn't get a photo of the lovely girl...but here's the marquee:

Merrilee, Neil's superagent, stands out on our balcony.

We drove to Ocean Beach very early to have breakfast and watch the surfers from the pier. Dolphins, seals and several pelicans greeted us. It was such a beautiful morning.

Every con I go to, my first stop is to see the art exhibit, and get in on the auctioning. It inspires me and reminds me to keep doing my own exhibitions, that art is alive, trying to set one up now. This sign was the best:

and this is the haunting mermaid I won:

When I went to pick it up, things were already down, so I sadly have no clue on the artist's name except a signature of Lee, can anyone put me in touch with this artist? write me: neverwear@gaiman.net as I would love to do some work with this wonderkind.

Miss West McDonough and Mr. Jonathan Pendragon were in attendance, and Jonathan did many card tricks in the hotel bar, we had a great time watching his cards.

here with Sally, our New Zealand friend:

West invited me to the Castle for the Edgar Allan Poe event this Sunday night, amen't i the luckiest Baltimore girl in the world?

Let's have one more look at that delicious pool, I couldn't stay away from it:

Dodgey under the big con sign, what you can't see is the scratch i put on him, more than sad, I may need to do a Kitty benefit auction, as they are taking me to the cleaners on the repair...insert female driver joke here, but I was truly gutted to hurt such a gorgeous vehicle.

The con ended and we had to jam back up to LA, Neil played several songs for me on the drive up and each one that I made him stop and tell me who it was, the answer was always Stephin Merritt in some form/band or another. The new soundtrack to my life, his voice is can easily cure the sick. go here for more on Stephin, i am truly smitten.

We picked up Amanda at #Occupy LA and I dropped them at their hotel to have some time together before the tour kicked off..
Neil signs all the very rare LAST ANGEL hand silkscreened art-by-Craig Thompson prints, blog on them coming soon...

The next day Neil, Amanda, Moby and Mr. Merritt were to appear on the Late Late Show w/ Craig Ferguson.
Neil's mug from Craig, i believe he needs a new Sharpie...

I have long been a Moby fan, so of course I only died four deaths when after shaking my hand, he peers closely into my face and says, "you have...something spinachy...in your teeth...just there..." pointing, while Neil says "oh yes...i saw that too.." Lovely! But Moby was just a doll, we talked about the ups and downs of the touring life. (and it was cupcake, not spinach)
I thought miss SuperKate, Amanda's assistant would die her own four deaths when we met our host, who in his brilliant Scottish burr stated, "But these are not assistants, they are superheroes!" referring to us.
Here is SuperKate fanging the glitter devil horns that Neil would wear for his costume:

Neil goes on and we all go wild in the greenroom over the Simpsons clip they show:

The supergroup as they perform a song from Rocky Horror Picture show, my childhood refuge.

I went to pick up the flawless Allan Amato portraits that are being sold on the tour, lookit:

The Ebell Theater on Halloween was full of costumes, sadly mine, complete with glowy green contacts and superball wish-granter sequin cape stayed at home, too much running around to get it.
Drew sent me this of his contacts, man, i need a Halloween re-do!

look at Rod as Hunter S. Thompson:

Allan and his new bride, bookended by Belinda and Chuck:

Our dynamic duo on stage:

after the show, a crowd gathers:

the next morning, i see them before they drive up the coast to do their tour, Neil & AFP fanning his Craig winnings...
the last image i have:

October skies...

2011-10-24T12:05:00.001-07:00

October, always my favorite month, not just because I am born in it...
Halloween, change of seasons, pumpkin patches...

look at the spooky birthday cake Quiche and Boss got for me...

This month has been so busy, I haven't been able to blog it all.
Will post about Foo Fighters, Scream Awards and My Chem soon enough on the Furrytiger
blog, but over here at Neverwear, I want to cover my trip to the midwest with Mister Christopher Salmon,
director of the much-anticipated film, THE PRICE.

We went on a DVD shoot out to Neil's Addams Family mansion, to get some interviews and some exteriors/interiors
for the film. Christopher was very busy recording all the animals--
Lola with her stick:

Princess has special water privileges:

here we are scouting the locations on the grounds...

we took some footage from the cherry picker:

can you find our FabLo?

i had not yet seen the new edition of THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, i love it, simple and elegant, Neil holds it here:

Christopher got a terrific interview with Neil in his writing gazebo:

took several walks in the woods, daytime and nighttime, can't wait to see what Christopher puts together from this trip:

we went to Quiche's roller derby bout and sat behind the "suicide" line, those ladies were fierce...

we cheered for Stunt Double and Arm n' Slam'er and Hell O'Dolly and Velveteen Rogue and all the rest--
(*special shout out to Wright Around Ya from the Harbor City team, what a flashy minx)
oh, the male refs were all over it:

a Very Happy Bout production manager, QuicheMeDeadly with our Boss:

with all apologies to Joan of Dark, Pretty Vicious had to alter her Naptown shirt to reflect the Chippewa Valley Roller Girls!

the real laughs came when we had to fill the cars with the left-over beer:

the next day we did some Bengal investigating at Quiche's Spooky House:

look at King Lear, he has almost no worry left on his royal face, he actually stood on my lap while being fed:

many thanks to Chauffeur Hans for getting us to and from the airport--

a few Neverwear newsflashs:
* many sincere heartfelt thanks to all who made Trevor's Treasure Chest auction a success. He will be needing more support as the bills continue to pile up, I plan on posting some more very rare items on ebay for him, my seller name Kitty9thLife,
please take note!

one item will be the Last Angel silkscreen print by Craig Thompson (super-rare!)
here is our Trevor holding one:

and finally the Molly Crabapple-illustrated print of Neil's haunting poem DESERT WIND is slated to rise in price from $38.00
to $50.00 on November 1st. So! get yours now before the price increase.
BUY THEM HERE
Also, I do have a few signed-by-Neil DESERT WINDS as well, they will go up to $100.00 on November 1st--SIGNED PRINTS ARE HERE.

Next post will be after I accompany Neil to the World Fantasy Con, down in San Diego and the not-quite-yet sold-out NEIL AND AMANDA Halloween date in Los ANgeles 10/31 at the Wilshire Ebell.
For tickets, go here.

Happy Halloween, you lovely ghouls and goblins...I am going to be a Wish-Granter.
I promise to make your wishes come true...

TREVOR CHEST up in full effect, y'all...

2011-10-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

ON the wise advise of Mistress Mousey, (who this cat has promised not to chase) I staggered these benefit auctions for Trevor, so that there would be a few nights of fast and furious bidding. I just found out I can't bid on my own status, so I am going to have to make a new ebay name, because I AM going after that Beowulf script...be warned, people.

so here are some links for the auctions:
(***we will be putting a few last minute treasures up, so go ahead and set "kitty9thlife" as one of your favorite sellers, so you can see in future what goes up...)

here is a first edition, first printing of CORALINE, Neil has signed it and to add to the magic, he rat-doodled...
BID HERE.

one of the most rare, elusive chapbooks! Charles Vess and Neil team up on this SNOW, GLASS, APPLES masterpiece.
CLICK HERE FOR SNOW, GLASS, APPLES.

Now, the piece everyone is asking for, the Randy Bowen DREAM Sculpture. I have requested a few more photos from our busy Trevor, so that we can see the real beauty of this one.

a very low number! this one will heat up the ebay docks, to be certain. We will ship it overseas, for all of you who have been asking, it should run about $20-$25 to ship, but Trevor has the original box and will pack it like the museum piece it is...

TO BID ON DREAM, CLICK HERE.

ANother extremely rare gem that Trevor has been caretaking over the decades, this set of sequential Magian Line Neil newsletters.

TO BID ON MAGIAN LINES, CLICK HERE.

here we have an original comic page of SANDMAN art, from the KINDLY ONES story arc, it is almost impossible to find any of the original art from SANDMAN, and if you do manage to find it, it is priced into the stratosphere. Trevor has three up for auction.

CLICK HERE TO BID ON ONE OF THE ORIGINAL SANDMAN PAGES.

Click Here for one of the Biting Dog Press Woodcuts
look at the beautiful detail here. George Walker, the artist, has generously offered to donate a sketch to the Trevor Chest cause, we will be announcing a contest soon to get votes on what Gaiman character/scene you would like to have George conjure up...Trevor's vote was "Being an Experiment"---wonder what would come of that one??? Stay tuned for more on this, and more on the fabulous Biting Dog Press. Those people are heaven on earth...

THERE ARE MANY MORE AUCTIONS FOR TREVOR, GO TAKE A CRUISE AROUND. TO GET TO MY SELLING PAGE, CLICK HERE!!!
thanks everyone. You are giving us all a new hope.

the Trevor treasure chest...tonight!

2011-10-04T16:05:00.000-07:00

Many of you may know Trevor, but I have asked him to write up a little story to introduce himself to the rest of you.

Hey everybody,

My name is Trevor. Some of you might know me from the neilgaiman.com
forums, the alt.fan.thingy, or even way back in the day from The Well
and other sorts of online things. Some of you might even have met me
in person anywhere from Boskone and ConCat, all the way to World
Fantasy Con, SDCC, Fiddler's Green, or the House on The Rock.
Regardless, I'm kind of a big Neil fan, and I am lucky to count him as
a pretty close friend.

I first met Neil at Comic Con I-don't-remember-how-long-ago...
whenever Rantz Hoseley gave him Tori's demo tape... 93?

Anyways... years pass, and Neil slowly becomes more and more famous.
He has more and more signings here on the West Coast that I go to, and
we get to chatting here and there. One day, we exchange email
addresses, and it grows from there.

I ran one of the "Big Five" Neil Websites back in the day... there was
Puck's "The Dreaming", Dylan's "The Wake"... mine was never on par
with those, but I tried to keep it updated all the time, so I started
posting tour dates, pictures, videos, anything I could to sate the
growing number of clicks and visits. Then one day I got an email, and
this moment forever changed the dynamic between Neil and I.

The email was from a Very Excited Fan in Japan, and went along the lines of:

"Hey! I LIKE your SITE!!! Did you know that NEILGAIMAN.COM is
available!?!1!!eleven!! I want to buy it and create the NEIL GAIMAN
SUPER SITE!!! What do you think? Good idea?"

After clicking through a few hosting websites, confirming that it was
available, and then purchasing the domain myself, my reply was a
cordial "Oh, it looks like someone grabbed it. That was a neat idea.
Thanks for letting me know!"

Immediately, the response was:

"ZOMG! It *IS* gone! OH! But [...insert numerous permutations of
Neil's name and .nets/.orgs/etc here...] is All STILL AVAILABLE!!"

After purchasing the next series of domains, I quickly tossed off an
email to Neil saying something along the lines of:

Very Excited Fan in Japan notified me he was going to buy neilgaiman.com
I bought that and [insert all others here] to prevent.
Weird. I own your name.
--- Trev

So, a while later (year?) Neil and I were in Hollywood, Florida and
sitting at the hotel bar with Then-Director of the CBLDF Chris Oarr.
Neil, sitting to my right, does this slow... dramatic turn to his left
(swiveling on the swivel barstool) and looks at me from over his
sunglasses and says:

"Trevor. One day, I will come for my website. And you will give it to me."

And then slowly he turned back, to enjoy his tea.

And one day, I did. For no money (rumors abound that I was paid large
amounts of cash), just a simple email address or two... the domain was
transferred to Neil, and the rest is history.

So why the hell am I droning on and on about who I am?

Because I need your help.

I've hit that dreadful spot that comes and goes in people's lives in
which I have to part with some of my stuff in order to survive. By no
means, this isn't a auction in which I'm offloading some extra stuff,
or to buy a new computer, or anything like that. This is survival, and
I wouldn't be asking for Neil and Kitty and your help if it wasn't for
that.

Neil always told me when he was signing something weird/cool for me,
to "...only sell this if you need to pay rent or are in dire
straits..."

Well, I am. Sparing the details, I have mounting medical bills. My
living situation is in dire need of changing. I need to move closer to
work, closer to the doctor, and closer to sanity.

In order to do that, I have to sell some things.

Please be generous. Some of these items are very rare, and very
collectible. Others are off the wall and random. Some of them are as
unique as Neil himself.

Enjoy them. They brought me years of happiness, and will allow me to
reset my life... but promise me one thing:

Only sell them again if you need to pay rent or are in dire straits.

Thank you, and may you always find a story to tell...

This auction is to primarily reset my life, get healthy, and get my feet back under me... But I'm not selfish.
If the assembled masses are generous enough to the point where this raises more then I realistically need, anything over will be split evenly between the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and The American Cancer Society.

--- TSV

ok, me again.
I have spent the last few days, posting several treasures over on Ebay,
my seller name is: Kitty9thlife
and they are set to go live in the next few hours, some tomorrow and some Thursday.
Get out and bid, and go make some magic for yourself.
You'll be helping Trevor, and helping yourself.

here are a few previews of the items being auctioned
(Trevor is moving house so his photos are not exactly Ansel Adams quality, but like I said in the ebay posts, we can send better shots!):

#Cabal contest

2011-10-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

I got so many good canine quotes, real & imagined, that i'd like to put them to a vote...
you can vote as a comment on here or retweet to @Neverwear with a #Cabal hashtag--
(I will ask @Neilhimself, but i know he prefers to not judge these things--)
here are my favorites:

@becaolivetree
"A man's soul can be judged by the way he treats his dog." - Charles Doran

@yunalasca
"A man may smile and bid you hail Yet wish you to the devil; But when a good dog wags his tail, You know he's on the level" ~Anon

@beezerbub
"Dogs love company. They place it first in their short list of needs." ~J.R. Ackerley

@Campion7
Some days, it's just not worth chewing through the leash.

@momentofjen
"No matter how little money and how few possesions you own, having a dog makes you rich." - Louis Sabin

@mccartyl
@neverwear twitpic.com/4hdbvj - "Let me be the person my dog thinks I am."

@prgrmr42
"all knowledge, the totalty of all questions and all answers is contained in the dog" -- Kafka

@PixieThief
"He cannot be a gentleman that loveth not a dog." - Old English Proverb

@ENYMPH
"channel your inner big dog" – me
(this big dog quote just makes me happy, i love this one and the one below...)

@jamdftba
"Fooey, I'ma sleep where I want" -our dog Rue upon jumping on my roommate's bed and ignoring the bed we put on the floor for her.

special mention goes to a lone haiku writer:
@WaiJing_Haiku

Dog barks at something/he imagined, yet which seems/very real to him

will leave the voting up for a day, and tomorrow night, will see who gets a lovely new Cabal tee.
NEVERWEAR.

The Trevor treasure chest...opening soon.

2011-09-30T10:06:00.001-07:00

Anyone who has ever read Neil's blog owes a small token of gratitude to Mister Trevor Valle.
Trevor is the one who, years ago, bought the domain NeilGaiman.com and held it for Neil until which time he was ready to take it over.
For decades, Trevor has accumulated other Neil-related treasures, and here he is telling you why he is now in a position that he has to sell some of them off.
In the next week, I will be posting many of them for Trevor, over on ebay, things that just can't be found anymore, things that a real value can't be hung upon. Neil may even add to some of the descriptions, (if he has the time!) because some of these things even I have never seen....

meanwhile, I am putting the SuperCabal tees on sale for October! taking ten bucks right off the top for this handsome 100% cotton tee. I have girly sizes and all unisex sizes available--
here's Trevor modelling one (and holding a vintage silkscreened print from the Neil/CBLDF Last Angel tour ---yes, this is one of the treasures to come!)

so...Help Trevor out, be generous and know that these artifacts he's unearthing will not see the light of day again any time soon. I put up a donation button as well, that will go straight into Trevor's paypal account, if you just want to help him out. Stay tuned!

Robot carnival ride: REAL STEEL

2011-09-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

The REAL STEEL screening was packed, we were almost shut out. But! we prevailed and were sent in to our seats with our free popcorn (oh meow!) just before the film started.

Basing on the Richard Matheson story, "Steel", director Shawn Levy uses gorgeous driving scenes to drop us into a near future with hints of things to come, (fantastic holographic phones) but also a recent, very relatable past of glitter-dust carnivals and junk yard fights.
I was in the movie from the first Ferris wheel shot.
Hugh Jackman, that terrifically crusty Wolverine, showed us who we are meant to believe he is right away, tripping over his empty Bud bottles in his robot-like transport vehicle, trying to charge the local kids for photos with his 'bot.

This film is not just boxing robots (Noisy Boy, may be the best robot name ever)-- it's got a wildly beating heart. I do hope that the marketing campaign of big shiny metal objects pummeling eachother doesn't mask the true father & son relationship story. Even if it does, it will be a word-of-mouth sleeper hit.

Dakota Goyo as Max is a show stopper, as a rule I am pained (often extremely pained) by child actors, I really believed this young actor. He won me over, the cliff scene is better than it had to be...and yes, i want more robot dancing please.

Karl Yune (younger brother of Rick, a damn good-looking family) was perfectly cast as hardball/high roller Tak Mashido. The Kardashianesque Russian Barbie doll was a bold move, as well... and who was that Will Smith look-alike, he stole all his scenes...
I never did get around to watching Lost, but was charmed by E. Lilly, who did a fine job with her mostly thankless role of girl-on-standby.

The Danny Elfman soundtrack (Eminem! BBoys! Foos!) brings it home, people all around me were tearing up (including my 6'6" hulk of a tough-guy husband)...and at the end, cheers rang wide throughout the packed house.

I bought it all, and it did what I want my movies to do for me, yank me out of my daily reality and put me somewhere else for two hours...somewhere else better.
Bravo Mr. Murphy & Mlle. Susan Montford, you got a contender!
film comes out October 7th...
SEE REAL STEEL TRAILER HERE

two tours and a Neil visit...

2011-09-18T14:49:00.000-07:00

September, you mad, mad month,
I have been running to stand still.
Did the Kills tour,
it was a mini-run, up and down the west coast.
...much like what Neil and AFP are about to do come Halloween time, check out their Kickstarter project HERE.

Straight from that tour, i flew east to do the big metal show at Yankee Stadium...I posted photos over at FurryTiger road blog...

the day after I flew back from New York, Neil arrived for a whirlwind LA trip.
He had wall-to-wall meetings, all very exciting things in the future of our author.

Pop Tart Gallery had a showing of Allan Amato's beautiful Illuminate series, shining a light on the true nature of Parkinson's.

Neil, Kevin Smith, Fairuza Balk, Terry Gilliam, Grant Morrison and more, all giving their time to this worthy cause.
Find out more here.

Neil takes a moment to sign Allan's gorgeous giclee print of the American Gods book jacket author shot.

I have only 25 of these available, and that is it, signed by both Neil and Allan. Fine art available for a very reasonable price....

Get yours here.

Neil took me to a sushi bar that had the best sign outside...

we had a breakfast with Trevor, Trevor who has long been in the Sandman universe, and who has recently hit some troubled times. I know he will weather the course, but he is going to be selling some of his most amazing treasure trove of Neil historical memorabilia...stay tuned for more info on that...his homework is to photograph and archive what he has.

we parked under the big Kermit, see Ghosty looking so very sweet and little.

I just got a new shipment of print tubes, which miss Selina Kyle oversees...

meanwhile...I feel Halloween in the air...

this new sticker will come with any Neverwear purchase until Halloween...

now we are off to a press screening of the new Hugh Jackman fighting robot film REAL STEEL...thank you, mister Murphy!

death & dreams.

2011-08-30T12:34:00.000-07:00

the mails brought me a package full of death and dreams.

photo by the generous & gorgeous Nathalie Boisard-Beudin.
(she challenged me to spell her name correctly, fingers crossed.)

this package came to me from Cyn in Seattle.
where I will be next week on my new tour.
at Bumbershoot festival with The Kills, a dynamite little band.
this will be a quick run,
just a few dates on the west coast, but i asked the universe to put me back on a tour bus,
and so it did.

if you want this kind of power over the universe, go HERE for one of Cyn's pendants...
fair warning, they will go fast.

post-tour and new Neil mailbox...

2011-08-23T15:52:00.000-07:00

Got home from the summer Zombie/Slayer tour to a huge pile of mail, much of it for Neil.
I, of course, had very little time to blog in Europe and even less on the Canadian/US run.
it was a beautiful summer, full of festival dates & new people...

my wallet was full of many monies & Zombie guitar picks...

I flew into LAX from Brussels at 10 pm on Monday night and Tuesday morning had me in a car service to meet Neil back at LAX at 10 am. Not much decompression time. Neil was coming off his AMERICAN GODS tour and he was a sight for sore eyes. This boss of mine has been on a health kick and he looked amazing. We had only to remove the beard, and *wolf whistle...

The mails brought a Dr. Who gift from the BBC:

and this game from Eloy & Third Eye Games in Fla:

Valerie sent in her gorgeous FairyTaleTrilogy as a thank-you to Neil who twittered her New York Times piece:

this watercolor came from Kathryn in New Hampshire, a certain treasure:

Tony from the Southside Aces in Minn. sent in this jazz CD:

scary things also come out of these boxes...

Matt from Oakland parcelled off this "ravenous rabbit",
a member of the Gashly Crumb Tentacles Monster Adoption Society, you can find more about them HERE.

Neil's appearances in town included a turn on the Craig Ferguson show...

(they were adorable together...)

and Patton Oswalt and miss Zelda Williams welcomed him to the Saban Theatre:

the event was put on by Tyson and the Rare Bird Lit crew...
just look at these tickets!

Boss signed all these books and many more:

next morning found us over at the Nerdist podcast, where I had to drag him out of the almost-unbreakable bond that formed on air.

why did i drag him out? to get him to his NPR interview on time:

Neil draws on their hallowed walls:

then we went to tape his voice-over work for THE PRICE over at the luscious Green Street Studios run by cool cat Rob King.

Christopher finally meets Neil this LA visit...

For director Christopher Salmon's (way more complete) blog on it, click here.

meanwhile @ Neverwear, we got the Allan Amato posters in!!

JUST ANNOUNCED AND DEBUTED AT COMICON 2011!!!

a limited edition 18" x 24" poster of our Dream King, mister Neil Gaiman.
we only have 500 of these...
Photograph by ALLAN AMATO, premiere photographer to the stars, this is the very same photo that graces the slip cover of the new edition of AMERICAN GODS. I love this photo of Neil, looking straight out of Deadwood or some other antique past...he will watch me from my wall...
and perhaps murmur writing or cooking advice in my ear while I sleep...

each poster is hand-stamped with the official Neverwear seal.
It will arrive to your shipping address cloaked in magic and heavy on the intrigue.
People will want to talk to you.....
GET YOURS HERE!

here's Drew rolling a batch of them to go out:

here is one way to get to the posters, scan it via bar-code reader.
that advanced techno-devil Neil dared me to get one
(ok, actually Husband got the bar-code generator, but my new phone can actually read!:

and...this post is reaching epic proportions, Quiche always told me, not so long...do i listen?

JUST IN: a new NEIL/ALLAN AMATO poster...!

2011-08-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

JUST ANNOUNCED AND DEBUTED AT COMICON 2011!!!

each poster is hand-stamped with the official Neverwear seal.
It will arrive to your shipping address cloaked in magic and heavy on the intrigue.
People will want to talk to you.....
GET YOURS HERE!

you lovely do-gooders!!

2011-05-22T16:32:00.000-07:00

FIrst of all, thanks to everyone who bid on the doodles over at the NFS site,
Neil's Sandman doodle is still up for grabs (so far bringing in a thousand clams of goodness)...

this one sold already, see
here as Mister Neil Gaiman doodles:

and Christopher Salmon's PRICE piece brought in $365--yahooooo! man, it was beautiful.

Meanwhile, The Zulli household sends their love to everyone who came out in support of their furry friends
who had to have emergency surgery.
Was able to send them a healthy paypal chunk and I hear many of you sent to their cause as well--
the goodness of your hearts has magic healing powers--
I know I have quoted this before, but it always hits it home for me.
(No matter what crap I get up to in my life, a good deed helps to even the decks...)

"If only people could know that a life of goodness, no matter how modest, will lead to an eternity of unparalleled bliss, they would ask themselves why they did not do more good while they were on Earth. One act of kindness in this world is repaid tenfold in the next..."

taken from The Laws of Eternity by Ryucho Okawa.

I am also very grateful many of you ordered my jewelry, which was a real pleasure to make.

Both cats helped me in this endeavor--

Selina Kyle bossed the operations...

while Batty lazed around...

Since I leave in 2 days on the Zombie tour, I had to end this Vet Bills impromptu fundraiser at 5 pm, west coast time,
so I can pack & finish my immigration paperwork for the crew...

When I am gone, i will be preparing to put out the Kendra Stout ZOMBIEFIED NEIL AND AMANDA illustration on something, a bookbag, tshirt, beachtowel, not sure yet... ***any requests???

by the way,
here are the five runner-up winners:
@Hardigirl
'Chivalry' is undead.

@DoctorHu
"It's all right, I suppose. I mean, it's not my writing arm."

@mo_ali
He's a little 'armless.

@sethistan
"My leather jacket!"

@aaronisnothere
That's not a Good Omen...
and....
The winner of the quote:
@LoraxCeci
"To have and to hold as long as you both shall unlive"

yes I know, i announced it over on twitter- but i forgot to put it up here--
the five runner ups got their bullet-proof luggage tags:

think about what you how you would want to see this image used--i love the idea of a beach towel, but maybe that's just me..
I will be blogging my European adventures over on the FURRY TIGER BLOG.
thanks again for all the love to Gert & Daisy, the dogs d' Zulli.

a plea for help...

2011-05-20T17:28:00.000-07:00

I got a call from @KyleCassidy yesterday,
asking me if I had read Michael Zulli's blog--
i was running out the door and stopped and he caught me up on the ailing health of his dogs, resulting in some sudden and staggering vet bills,
and how he put out a call for commissions so that he could pay for this emergency dog surgery.

Kyle said:Kitty, can't we help him?
and i thought, we sure can try....

This weekend, ANYTHING bought at the Neverwear store will 100% go to Michael's emergency dog fund.
If you have been waiting to buy something there--go now.
i repeat: anything you buy this weekend will go directly to Michael's aid.
CLICK HERE TO GET TO NEVERWEAR.

Look at beautiful Gert, after her last surgery.

Here is how Michael described the photo:

This is a photo of Gert after her last operation last November. This latest operation will have been her third in two years. She's an Aussie blue healer. Right now she has four stints draining watery blood and dead matter from her belly and chest.

*me again, those words chill me to my bone, animals suffering is much too hard to take.

Also, if you prefer, you can commission Michael to do a painting for you--
see HERE for details.

and if you just want to give a tenner, use this button, it will go directly into their bank account--
you are a star, reaching out to help someone is the best thing you can do in these times.

ZOMBIE CONTEST FINALISTS

2011-05-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

There were so many good captions for the
lil undead Neil and Amanda.
I need another night to decide.
Any opinions?
you can vote in the comments box or on twitter--
i am @neverwear and remember to put:
#zombie contest...

@JRVogt
"Neil, you're so sweet. You made me lunch!"

@Aarons_Skin And there you have it. Our 'Zombie Coat of Arm'.

@electricbuddha
Classic Love Story: American girl goes looking for brains. Finds love in the hands of an Englishman.

@LoraxCeci
"To have an to hold as long as you both shall unlive"

@Hardigirl
'Chivalry' is undead.

@DoctorHu
"It's all right, I suppose. I mean, it's not my writing arm."

@dofpirates
"Marriage takes alot out of you."

@rblindahl
"Honey, i love you, but let's never try to do 8in8 again..."

@mo_ali
He's a little 'armless.

@thedreadpiratej
"To have, to hold, to devour"

@sethistan
"My leather jacket!"

@aaronisnothere
That's not a Good Omen...

@Stout_Roost
'til death do we... oh, nevermind.

@PrinceOHarkness
I gotta hand it to you ... Now give it back!

@Paradox_Found
"Why not take all of me?"

@maxmoir
Til death do us fall apart.

@Rotas
"When my wife says she wants a hand, I make sure she gets a hand.

@Jwyl
"Pull yourself together, man!"

@Valya
Hapless Neil learned that Amanda's beauty was literally disarming.

@stephen_smith
They stole each others' hearts long before she took his hand.

AristotelianMDO Mark David Outhwaite
"Love...Love will tear us apart .."

sanarose
"to naw and to maim, from this day forward.."

‪Harley Ferris said...
"Matt Dean thinks he can get $33,600 for this on eBay."

ZOMBIE NEIL & ZOMBIE AMANDA CAPTION CONTEST

2011-05-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

Attention---Zombie lovers--
come up with a caption for this clever little portrait of the undead husband & wife!

Miss Kendra Stout is at it again.
Kendra is the artist behind the ever-popular Lil' Scary Trousers Neil...
as seen here on miss Daisy:

If your caption is chosen, you will win a signed-by-Neil 100 WORDS print from Neverwear.

way to enter?

send it to me @Neverwearon www.twitter.com

CONTEST ENDS ON MAY 11th! IN ONE WEEK!
**(a very brief aside from judge batgirl: *please think twice and be very very clever, if you feel need to include any variation of pencils and/or necks in your caption-)

also The HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES prints are about to be pulled.
Several of them went off to raise good money for RAINN.

They are staying at $30.00 (unsigned) available HERE until May 15th
and then *poof* they will be gone...
only to be available in their capes-&-tights role as charity do-gooders.
I will leave the ones that Neil signed up until they are gone--as there aren't that many of them.

Kitty back on tour...

2011-04-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

one of my favorite-ever tours was Rob Zombie in 2006.
as the Who say: meet the new boss...same as the old boss.

I leave in late May for the Euro festival run with RZ, the multi-talented hyphenate.
writer slash director slash rock-star slash nice guy.

here are the 2011 dates up so far:

6.3. ROCK IM PARK GERMANY
6.4 ROCK AM RING GERMANY
6.6 TURBIENHALLE GERMANY
6.7 ASTRA BERLIN
6.10 SWEDEN ROCK FEST SOLVESBORG/SWEDEN
6.12 DOWNLOAD FEST DONINGTON PARK UK
6.14 GROSE FREHEIT HAMBURG/GERMANY
6.15 PARADISO AMSTERDAM/ NL
6.17 HELLFEST CLISSON FRANCE
6.18 SONISPHERE ATHENS/GREECE!
6.20 GASOMETER VIENNA AUSTRIA
6.21 ROCKHAL LUXEMBORG
6.23 AZKENA SPAIN
6.25 AUTODROMO ITALY (w/Maiden!)
6.26 GRASPOP METAL BELGIUM
6.28 OLYMPIA DUBLIN IRELAND
6/29 ULSTER HALL BELFAST UK
6/30 CORN EXCHANGE EDINBURGH UK
7/2 KALASATAMA HELSINKI FINLAND!!!

Neil says that he once went jet-skiing with Rob,
which conjures up some great mental images of
my two bosses...

this is a video from the 2006:

stay tuned for many photo updates--
cannot wait!

DoodleDay, RAINN & Tigers--good causes, all.

2011-04-24T16:03:00.000-07:00

People who know me, know I am an X-Files fan.
Not batty about it or anything and i do know the show's been over for some time.
However, whenever I hear that Mark Snow theme, I am thrown back into a very good part of life.
So when miss Gillian Anderson & her girl friday Mari call for charity doodles, I don't delay.
Neil gets his "early warning"... Amanda gets her "late warning"...
and boy, did they hit them out of the park this year.

Neurofibromatosis, Inc. is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to provide services to individuals with NF and their families.

taken from The Laws of Eternity by Ryucho Okawa

Mister Neil Gaiman doodles:

The finished crazy-monkeyesque-Charlie-Brown-hybrid-doodle. (complete w/my favorite part, something that looks to be a snow-creature eating hapless worm in background, we don't question the imagination of Boss...)

he also dashed off a fantastic very broody Morpheus doodle.

Miss Amanda Palmer gives us a gorgeous double-sided doodle, with an Asian flair:

i especially relate to her message: There is a light and it never goes out.
my extra thanks to the ever-lovin' SUPERKATE!

Price Director Christopher Salmon sent in this beauty:

our wildlife artist extraordinaire Michael Zulli did a very delicate line-drawing Joan of Arc drawing while he was staying with me.
click here for his doodle.

Spookyland mayor Roman Dirge also gave up the Lenore ghost, he doodles with a beer on stand-by:

Christopher Lincoln
came out in support, with his lovely Billy Bones drawings. (or is it the other way around, with those two, who can ever tell!)

(do you think if we ask nicely QuicheMeDeadly aka The Fabulous Lorraine, that she might doodle a bee or a rollerskate?)

last year I did a series of haunted watercolors for the auction, so this year I conjured a set of "spirit playing cards"- hand-cut glass over collages to make all dreams come true:

making of the cards:

The Doodle Day auction goes live on May 12th, with doodles by many starry types such as:
Jeff Bridges, Kathryn Bigelow, Eric Carle, Richard Chamberlain, Martin Sheen, Mark Ryden (I WANT his one)
I will remind us all a little beforehand...more being posted daily!

Go have a look HERE.

Meanwhile, April is not just the-Taxes-due month...it is also Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.

RAINN, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network - http://www.rainn.org. They have a free, confidential helpline - the National Sexual Assault Hotline, the phone number which is 1.800.656.HOPE

In April, up until April 30th, any tax deductible donation made to RAINN will be matched, up to $30,000.

I'll never forget when I worked for miss Tori, we sold SO many of her RAINN-support calendars, what a month that April was.

I wish RAINN had been around when I needed them as a tiny hurt kitten--and am very grateful for their presence now.
Let's keep them going:
Please donate whatever you can, any amount will help them in their mission: CLICK HERE.
Neil signs a batch of HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES prints for RAINN.

We have decided that the Camillia d'Errico HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES print will only be for sale HERE at Neverwear for another few weeks, until May 15st.
Then we shall pull them only for charity & library donations as our Neil gets several requests daily for different charity drives--
so, just a head-up for you discerning print lovers, only up 'til May 15th. (a few days before i leave on the Rob Zombie Eurotour...woo!)

We will be unveiling a new Michael Zulli heart-breakingly beautiful tiger print soon, made from his latest painting.

all proceeds will go to tiger/wolf rescue efforts at VALLEY OF THE KINGS in Wisconsin,
the same place that the Cabal tees benefit. They need our help, as they are not a state-funded organization.

look at our skinny author in his Cabal tee:

look again, he really is very teeny.

SAUCERS ARE BACK...round 2!

2011-03-29T14:57:00.001-07:00

Oh you lovely, lovely print.
How I have missed you.
Jouni Koponen, the blond Bond of Finland, has sent me a new look at the old favorite.
He has brushed what looks like melted milk chocolate coming from the saucer to differentiate the second print run from the original grey beam.

yes, i said: THE SAUCERS ARE BACK!!

All the way from Finland, the smokin' hot Jouni Koponen illustrates Neil's poem: "The Day the Saucers Came" --- a personal favorite of ours here at Neverwear.
The second printing comes to you on a semi-matte silky smooth paper stock, hand-printed down the street from me here in Hollywood, US of A.

Jouni chose a milk chocolate brown background for this run.
It will be a full-color limited hand-numbered edition of 750 prints. These are unsigned.

It is a high-stakes take on obsession. This print is filled with magical imagery: zombies and geniis, UFOs, giants, fairies... even killer bees. Sized at 10" x 29", you can practically fall into this wonderland.

as we Neverwear elves like to do, they will be priced at $38.00 UNTIL APRIL 1st, WHEN THEY WILL GO UP TO $48.00.

They will be shipped in a bullet-proof shield made of recycled cardboard. Your postal carrier will be intrigued.
and if ten bucks off isn't enough for you lot, for the first two weeks of ordering (say, until tax day April 15th, 2011), we will throw in a 4" x 10" color sticker of the first run of SAUCERS, with the grey background. (Mulder & Scully would approve, don't you think??)

BUY THEM HERE.

Thanks all!

**p.s....WE SOLD OUT OF THE FIRST EDITION RUN OF 750.
This will be the case with all the prints, as they dwindle in number, they will go up in price, somewhat like a reward to those who act early...

Michael Zulli gallery opening last night

2011-03-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

So many people came out to see the work of Mr. Zed up close and personal.
Even the full full moon.

Here our artist is photographed in front of his pieces...

Michael and show curator Ryan Graff:

we all love miss Pam:

my Mother in law & Rod:

Michael gave out beautiful long-stem red roses to the crowd..

and for those of you who didn't look down, a detail of the sharp-dressed man's blue suede shoes.

only a few hours left to get in on the Kickstarter graphic novel project:

and lastly, Michael's print of Neil's beautiful-and-still-unpublished poem IN RELIG ORAN
goes back up in price tonight (Sunday) at midnight west coast time, save yourself a tenner in ordering it today:
BUY IT HERE.

my interview with Michael Zulli

2011-03-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

It’s been two decades plus since your first big title with Steven Murphy: Puma Blues.
Is it available?

The books are not easily available—Ebay, perhaps.
The last 6 issues are not included in the two collected editions, by the way.

Do you ever think of revisiting this title?

Yes, Steven and I have discussed this, conclusion being, the time has to be right for both of us.
Knowing what we know now, we could do some real justice to the material. The two of us did the entire book by ourselves, under heavy deadlines. It’s just a matter of time and place…as all things are.

Your work on Sandman informed the comic world, such delicate line choices and use of color, it made a huge impact on this particular reader. Cutting out the inker middleman, your pencils made it right on to the page. How did you prepare for this, or did you?

Doing some of the Steve Bissette Taboo stories, I taught myself how to incorporate word balloons in black in the pencils –so it didn’t look just stuck on the page. For The Wake I had to submit two test pages to DC to prove that I could pull this off…Neil has these test pages framed at home.

You were a co-creator of Hob Gadling, one of the most intriguing characters in Sandman. I wonder, if you could meet any of the characters in the Sandman universe, who?

It’s always been Hob that I would love to sit down with.

What would you talk about?

Anything and everything… I’d probably ask him, what was it really really like back in the old days.
I’ve got this theory worked up on how he kept his teeth. Surely they were knocked out more than a few times in those several hundred years--- he was a soldier, he was in fights…I think maybe they just grew back after a couple of weeks, regenerating on some level—maybe he drank milk for calcium... Of course, Death is sustaining his life, so maybe she was taking care of him and his teeth, as they do magically seem to come back.

(At this point, I ask Michael what he thought about the bigger format of the Absolute Sandman volumes, since I know he likes to work big, he doesn’t like to feel cramped… He tell me he has not seen The Wake in this size. I pull mine off the bookshelf--- he proceeds to show me so many little tip-of-the-hat hidden details, I am in heaven listening. I tell him that Destruction is my favorite of the Endless characters.)

Destruction wasn’t modeled after anyone really, he’s got a dog that tells him he’s an asshole and he cooks his own food, mostly not very well. I really identify with him. He turns his back on the whole thing.

I have always drawn Delirium a little… scary. She could take anyone down. If you’ve ever experienced true delirium, it is madness. It is not a place you go to and come back from unchanged. You have to understand this madness to draw it. Her pupils were pinpoints, hollow-eyed pinpoints.

(*Kitty here again, see if you can find the Bridge of Sighs in The Wake…I am ready to re-read this with new eyeballs)

You just did a piece for Neverwear, an illustration of Neil’s
In Relig Oran what were your thoughts while in the process?

I simply tried to reach the emotional core of Neil’s poem.

Your latest project, The Fracture of the Universal Boy, is clocking in at over two hundred pages. It is now being crowd-funded on Kickstarter, with forty some hours to go.
Will this the only way to get the book? (GET IT HERE)

Bless everyone who has supported us so far—
It will be available via Amazon and Diamond after the initial run, but buying it through Kickstarter for the next hours or Eidolion Fine Arts will be where you get the special extras, the signed books, the limited edition prints---
It's just some more bang for your buck…

***(click here for the Kickstarter link, where you can get these special extras...)

You have hinted that this will be first in a trilogy.
Can you tell me about the plans for the second/third books?

I talk a little about it in my blog ...
The first book, The Fracture of the Universal Boy is the beginning of the end of a twenty year time frame.
The second book will be a transition between the past and the future.
The third book will be brand new territory for me.
It now has a title: THE DREAM SUITE.

What’s your dream job?

My dream job? I’m doing it.
I would however, like to see the finish of the Sweeney Todd project that Neil and I started years ago…again, it’s the coordination of available time…

Can you tell me some of the best advice you yourself got on your way up?

A teacher of mine in high school saw me as having some potential. He told me basically, don’t even think about doing art for a living unless I loved it more than anything else in the whole world.

One thing I have learned, if you are thinking about money, if it comes into your head while you are working, it’s almost impossible to not start to tailor the work for the public sale/consumption, rather than staying true to the reason you are doing it.
Unless you are very lucky, you must try to avoid thinking ahead of yourself. Be present when you are working on whatever is your discipline. Being present at all times is vital.

Tomorrow night is the opening of the group show at Gallery Nucleus Michael Zulli, Barron Storey, Kent Williams and more…
Come out and support the arts---

MICHAEL ZULLI illustrates NEIL GAIMAN's poem IN RELIG ORAN

2011-03-12T12:01:00.000-08:00

New print up!

Before he read the poem in Chicago last year at C2E2, Neil told us a little story.
Inspired by a book of myths and legends of Scotland by Otta F. Swire , Neil wrote the poem about a doomed saint, IN RELIG ORAN.
The grave of Oran…which is how the title translates from the Gaelic.

After reading some of the stories in the Swire book, he took his dog, Cabal for a walk.
“Sometimes, when you walk,” he said, “your mind goes into rhythms.....I found myself walking to along to the beat of the line ‘When St. Columba landed at the island of Iona.' ”
It is a thought-provoking piece and one of Neil's most beautiful word paintings.
You can listen to him read it here:

video shot by Saberkite at the opening program of the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards--thanks Saberkite aka Other Kat!

Michael Zulli of Sandman stepped up to illustrate IN RELIG ORAN for Neverwear.

We are preselling it HERE, for the first week before we get the prints in, they will be $28.00, going up to $38.00 on March 19th, 2011.
Words by Neil, artwork by Michael, and layout and lettering by that steady rock Todd Klein.
A limited edition of 750.

Mr. Zulli is going to be here in LA next weekend for his art opening:
Gallery Nucleus
210 E. Main Street
Alhambra, CA 91801
March 19th 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

I will be there! the divine Barron Storey also featured in this exhibit... Word on the street? Mr. Kyle Cassidy will be attending, and come meet curator Ryan Graff...i am rallying the troops out to Alhambra.
More information here.

There is still time to get involved in the Eidolon Fine Arts Kickstarter drive, where you can help bring Michael's graphic novel to life --I did it--
eight days left!

here's a shot of his advance reader copy:

Also this week: Pam "The amazing one" Noles is winding down her Kickstarter project, which I am so heart hopeful for:

Neil introduced me to Pam at Comicon 2007, and I have had a straight-up girl crush on her ever since.

Please, give her project a look-see, there are 4 days left, and we want this to happen. Neil got her a spot as an extra on the big film shoot of TRANSFORMERS and she has written a hilarious and heartbreaking one woman show on the events that transpired.
every American buck counts and for every $35 buck pledge, not only do you get 2 tickets to see her show here in LA, you get a piece of Austrian crystal and gemstone jewelry by yours truly...me...
see it here, modeled by miss Pam.

finally, big huge congrats to our Neil:
read here about his China news.

next blog, more on THE PRICE....

The New CABAL tshirts are here!

2011-03-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

Last year, we held a Draw Cabal contest.

I went out on tour with Miss Gaga and things got a bit delayed, here is the first of the delightful images,
placed like a sheriff's star on a deep inky black 100% cotton tee. Drawn by our Viking hero,Jouni Koponen,Cabal is ready for action.
(available in girly tees & unisex regular style tees)

modelling these fine shirts, our Wendy she-of-the-broken-arm & Drew. (look at those palm trees!)

A chunk of the profits raised from this sticker will go to VALLEY OF THE KINGS, who rescue and care for abused animals. They have saved many wolf brothers, sort of cousins to Cabal. We are trying to raise money to sponsor Socrates and Obie, tigers who have been saved from a lifetime of misery and neglect. Valley of the Kings is home to approximately 50 animals: lions, tigers, llamas, lynxes, cougars, dogs, exotic birds, burros, bengals, pigs, horses, even a camel! They are not a state funded institution, they depend on the kindness of us humans. See more info on this amazing refuge HERE.
say hi to Obie!

when you order one of these tees, we automatically throw in a full color 4" x 6" vinyl Cabal sticker.

Here is another rescued little buddy, The Fabulous Lorraine famously saved her from a field in the midwest and sent her out to us, now she's a furry California girl...Selina Kyle poses with Drew...

Here is miss Daisy with her arty black and white self portrait, holding up her Cabal sticker & her lime sticker...

and finally, how about those Oscars? One year ago, Neil was attending them with the CORALINE nomination.

a virtual Neil mailbox & a call to arms...

2011-02-13T09:17:00.000-08:00

Losing comics is a serious wound to the heart,
we have two cases turn up in Neil's mailbox (his virtual mailbox, not his analogue)...
two sort of bookends, if you will.

Melanie's friend Kysira has lost comics in the recent flood in Australia, and one in the UK that has signed Neil books to spare:

Have books & comics to spare?
'Help an Aussie who lost & comics (incl. Sandman comics) in the Brisbane floods by donating 2ndhand books:Donate them to help! She has yet to catalogue the full extent of the damage as many of the books have simply floated away and she won't know they're missing until she reaches for them. We do know, however, that she has lost a collection of Neil's Sandman comics.
Contact melanie.saward@gmail.com for details, twitter name is @melaniesaward

and on the other hand:

Hello Cat
I’m currently listing a complete set of Neil’s earlier work to raise money for my forthcoming studies in creativity, activism and design.

They’re for sale right now, here: here
... IMHO It’s a great example of the fun of signings, and of what collections can mean years down the line..

i can feel for Kysira, as many know, I lost a big box of comics, but salvaged some of them in a recycling project--
see
HERE

we are auctioning off a set of two X-men panels from 1985 that I have encasesd in glass to preserve, I love the "Pull!" plea from Kitty Pryde to Wolvy. bidding starts at $5...
auction site HERE (remember you have to "like" the auction to bid on it, that Facebook is a constant rulebook...)

more real Neil mailbox soon, but we are off to ride bikes downtown to the Twin Peak 20th anniversary art show--
work by David Lynch!

a benefit auction for our friend, miss Wendy--

2011-02-11T20:41:00.000-08:00

Our dear friend Wendy was recently involved in an accident on the treacherous Los Angeles freeways--
& her medical bills are gruesome.

We are throwing a benefit for her this week. People have gathered together items and we have posted them over on Facebook...click HERE for a view. Thanks to Connie F. who makes this comment:
"May I remind everyone (because I am an idiot and assume I can't be the only one) ~ you have to "like" this page before you can comment (thus, bid) on anything. Took me a few to figure that out. My apologies to those of you who knew this already!"

Connie, dear, you are no idiot, i didn't even realize that. Thanks for pointing it out!
I will put a few of the items for sale below.

Neil has graciously signed a few items for the cause:

he signed some of the HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES prints:

Nancye from Moxie Rx in Portland, Oregon has donated six dozen cookies to six different bidders--
i WILL be bidding on a dozen of these gems:

Kitty's glass candy bar comic book rescue magnets, a set of 2 Xmen panels from 1985, bidding starts at $5.oo:

to find more of these:
HERE @ NEVERWEAR.

from the oh-so-talented Cyn Moore , a piece of original artwork.
Title: Boldness
Size: 8.5" X 6"
Mixed media encaustic on found bookcover ...
This is a better investment than Apple stock in the eighties...
bidding starts at $20

even Charm City Baltimore got involved, with this trio of signed books by John Waters from the fine people at Atomic Books:

go take a look! there are many various items up for sale: guitars & pedals, boots, shoes, figs, jewelry, even a beach cruiser bike up for auction. We will be taking bids on the Facebook page until Friday Feb 18th, and then having the silent auction at Cha Cha in Silverlake at 5:30 pm Friday night--if you are in LA area, come by and see us. But please...drive safely!
Cha Cha Lounge
2375 Glendale Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90039-3245
(323) 660-7595

and lastly, here is the paypal button to donate directly to Wen, even five dollars will be helpful.

here's Wendy in better times, without the broken-in-two-places wrist:

taken from The Laws of Eternity by Ryucho Okawa

in gratitude,
Cat

new items at Neverwear!

2011-01-28T12:29:00.000-08:00

hard to believe it is almost February---

We elves here at Neverwear have been very busy coming up with new Neil items...

We are lucky to have such terrific artists as colleagues, see below, a new Anansi Boys sticker designed by our friend Christopher Salmon who is bringing us the short film,THE PRICE.

Christopher is going to have a new production blog up soon, with a special video message from Mister Neil shot by yours truly on his last LA visit ( I will give a prize to the first person who guesses location where we shot it)-
watch this space: THE PRICE UPDATES.
You can still donate to the project at the THE PRICE website, and it may be the only way to secure your copy of the short film.

here is the full-color 2" x 6.5" Anansi Boys sticker:

(aren't we all just doing the best we can?)

BUY THE LIME STICKER HERE.

Also, we made a mighty Cabal sticker, full-color 4" x 6", drawn by our hero Jouni Koponen who drew Neil's sold-out SAUCERS print :

From Kitty's Neverwear

here, Cabal walks his owner along with Miss Pearl, down by the creek, last year, this was before Lola came along--

From Kitty's Neverwear

a chunk of the profits raised from this sticker will go to VALLEY OF THE KINGS, who rescue and care for abused animals.
They have saved many wolf brothers, sort of cousins to Cabal. We are trying to raise money to sponsor Socrates and Obie, tigers who have been saved from a lifetime of misery and neglect. Valley of the Kings is home to approximately 50 animals: lions, tigers, llamas, lynxes, cougars, dogs, exotic birds, burros, bengals, pigs, horses, even a camel! They are not a state funded institution, they depend on the kindness of us humans. See more info on this amazing refuge HERE.

BUY CABAL STICKER HERE.

for February's special, we are offering a limited edition 2" x 6" Anansi Boys bookmark (same as the sticker design) with any $20 purchase:

new Neil mailbox--

2011-01-23T12:24:00.000-08:00

as always, Mister Neil's mailbox is full to overflowing...

I spent all Sunday opening and sorting and addressing the piles.
When Neil was in town 2 weeks ago, I got him into a corner, put tea before him and had him reply to as many as he could in between all his meetings.

He drew a very clever and detailed Dalek for Court in Tennessee who sent this Dr. Who book. (Neil's sketch on the right)

I know we mustn't judge books by their covers, but this newest from Entrekin looks aces. (Neil, may i borrow?)

This darling tee came from the librarians at the ALA, look at the last panel--

I think Neil may even wear white in this case...
to buy this great shirt and support their cause, go HERE.

this big beautiful book of sheet music and CD came from Chris Opperman. wow!
He writes that he was very inspired by the storylines in A Game of You
and he convinced the talented Mark Buckingham to illustrate the cover of the Lionheart CD. Can't wait to hear this...

Daniel from Scythia Films sent in his film You Are Here,
Neil gets sent so many short films, and truly, he can't watch them all, but this gets A+ on the terrific packaging.

this box came in for me me me, though, and now i am rich in old beat-up comics, thank you CW!!!!
Look at this gold mine. Bonus? my favorite Berni Wrightson, right on top!! (*insert howl at moon here)

we went to see Patton Oswalt signing his new book ZOMBIE SPACESHIP WASTELAND & brought him a Roger Waters hat, which he promptly donned. What a delight, i didn't know he was from Virginia originally, my hometown boy! Drew & Patton bonded over D & D...oy.

lastly, looking out my treehouse window this weekend, who should I see but Spidey getting ready to go to work--ha!

magic magic magic...& tigers.

2011-01-20T09:02:00.000-08:00

Neil flew out to the west coast last week for the ALA conference and I went with him down to San Diego.

Here, he signs the big official library posters....
(yes, Armistead Maupin was in the house!)

Neil & Charles, posing with the ALA award to the CBLDF in San Diego's Gaslamp district:

on the escalator with the two E's: Elyse & Elise, on our way to swim in a sea of smart librarians:

the night before Neil's Q & A with Nancy Pearl, the Queen of the Librarians,
we went out to sushi dinner with Jamy Ian Swiss, a king among magicians & his lady Candace.
he dazzled us with his up-close close-up magic:

next day, we went back to LA, where Neil did the voice of himself on the Simpsons,
and yes, he really nailed it.
here w/the high-IQ Matt Selman & hedge-Bart.

in between all his meetings and appointments, I placed a big pile of fan mail in front of our hero,
along with tea. If you are waiting patiently for a Neil-response, we thank you-- (A new Neil MailBox entry soon!)

here Neil gives back to the world, posing for the super-talented Allan Amato's charity project. The final photos will be a knock-out. see Allan's work HERE.

Drew & I packed up THE PRICE posters endlessly, and by now they should all be in their new homes:

At sushi dinner, we mentioned to Mr. Swiss that we were going to Wisconsin for our honeymoon and that we'd be visiting the Safe House there, a spy bar mixed with magic. He told us to look up his associate, Chris Ivanovich, and voila! there he was when we walked in...
what a lovely guy & his magic shut my mouth---wow.

we also met tigers & lions at Valley of the Kings, as guests of Dr. Chris Pagel, and there aren't enough thank-yous.

Here he is with Oksana, an 800 pound tiger, playing like a kitten:

Dr. Chris gave us a play toy from Obie the tiger for Cabal & Lola, and you can see, it is punctured and gouged, clawed to bits. He advised us to clean it in a bleach solution before passing it along, as he wasn't looking to be the one who done in Neil's dogs--
we pulled it out of the duffel bag when we got home and Batman & Selina Kyle went BONKERS! smelling and racing around, looking for what the BLEEP smelled like that...

i will never ever be far away from this day. to help them with their selfless cause,
please donate what you can to VALLEY OF THE KINGS.

come over to my furrytiger blog to get more on this trip,
tigers & lions and the House on the Rock, oh my....

meanwhile, I leave off with this interview of a bright young star on the magic scene.

CAT’S 13 QUESTIONS WITH CROW GARRETT:

Q: How did you start walking on the magician’s path?

A: Someone told me that magic gets the girls…(just joking). When I was five, a magician came to my school and I became hooked on magic after seeing him perform. I never forgot that and when I turned thirteen, my Mom took me to meetings for magicians at the Society of American Magicians.

Q. For your magic, do you prefer to use coins, cards, illusions? Or….?

A: I carry cards on me all the time. They are small, plus you can’t spend them! I enjoy a little bit of everything though. I’m happiest when the trick gets me close enough to people to see their reaction, their smiles.

Q: What, in your opinion, is the worst thing a magician can do to his/her audience?

I often see magicians walk out on to the stage with a superior attitude, as if the audience can’t do what they can.

Q: ...and the best thing a magician can do to his/her audience?

A: I like to treat my audience as an equal, like they are long lost friends of mine; it’s more fun that way. Tell a story that gets the audience involved. Always leave them with a smile.

Q. What is a trick you have never forgotten?

A: The Metamorphosis, from that first magician I saw at school when I was five.

Q: The most difficult skill to master in your experience?

A: Being able to create a lasting connection with the audience. Some magicians still don’t know how to do this.
Other than that, I would have to say, mastering flourishing. I can do a little bit, but Keone Valdez & The Buck Twins, Dan & Dave are true masters.

Q: Any living or dead magician you would like to meet/learn their secrets?

A: Living, David Copperfield. He is one ot the best story tellers ever. A magician that has passed on…Johnny Carson. Not many people knew he was a magician.

Q: Do you use an assistant in your act? Any advice you would give to one hopeful to assist you?

A: Not that often. Much of what I do is close up, street magic. Maybe one day, I will use an assistant. My advice? Make sure you love the art of magic. A great documentary is Women in Boxes. It documents the blood, sweat and tears that go into the art.

Q: The best advice you yourself ever got from a fellow magician? Anything you’d care to pass on to a new magician?

A: Just have fun! True, I may want to be a rock star, but like most magicians, we are just comic book nerds that collect decks of cards. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Q: What is it like performing at the Magic Castle?

A: For any magician, it’s one of the best places to perform.
Every time I am in LA, I go to the Castle, find an empty spot and start a trick, the audience will find me.

Q: What would you suggest people do not miss there?

A: It’s like an addiction—the Magic Castle is like Disneyland, you can’t experience everything on the first visit.
Do not miss the Palace of Mystery!

Q: Where do you see yourself in five years?

A: Taking over the world, with a deck of cards. I would like to try some TV acting, I want to do a documentary road trip, doing street magic across the country. Want to explore the magic of New Orleans...I will be launching my Kickstarter project on this in the next month or so.
No matter what, I will still be doing magic. People will know my name.

Q. Finally, I will ask you to answer a question of your own choosing,
Something you’d like us to know that I didn’t ask.

A: I think you did a great job and we covered alot in just 13 questions. This was fun, thanks, Kitty. People do ask me all the time, “How do you do the things you do?” and I tell them, “I’m just bad ass!”

Yes, you are...thank you, Crow---
for more Crow, click HERE .

photo by Will Turner.
(all others by me.)

price hike tomorrow at midnight west coast time!

2010-12-26T15:48:00.000-08:00

hello all,
hope your eggnog was spiky and your glowy lampposts all covered in glittering snowfall.
I want to drop a quick reminder on the future price of the 100 Words print...(and be sure that DESERT WIND will be next....)

We have hit the halfway mark on the beautiful black and white print of Neil's poem 100 WORDS illustrated by the oh-so-talented Jim Lee
and I wanted to give you fine people a heads up...
we will be raising the price on this print December 27th, 2010 to $50.00.

BUY 100 WORDS HERE.

****spend $20 on anything at NEVERWEARand you will get a promo poster for THE PRICE film as well---happy new year!

A hundred words to talk of death?
At once too much and not enough.
My plans beyond that final breath
are currently a little rough.

The dying thing comes on so slow:
reluctance to get out of bed
is magnified each day and so
transmuted into dead.

I dream of dying all alone,
nobody there to watch me pass
nothing remains for me to own,
no breath remains to fog the glass.

And when I do put down my pen
my memories will fly like birds.
When I am done, when I am dead,
and finished with my hundred words.
-Neil Gaiman

Christmas Eve eve....

2010-12-23T15:17:00.000-08:00

this has been a year to be grateful for...
thankful for all the friendships we have made over the Neverwear website and all you lovely faithful Neil readers...
This was also the year i got married my dream date, Drew, i met him on the road four years ago, on Rob Zombie tour.
Drew came home yesterday from the Roger Waters THE WALL tour.
gone for over five months, it is so grande to have him home for the holidays.
see us here at the Oakland show with the rockstarry missus AManda Palmer.

we have been madly wrapping presents, singing carols, sticking bows on sleeping cats and trying to stay dry in the torrential Los ANgeles rainstorms of recent days....lookit, yesterday's double rainbow!

here's Batman pre-decorations, resting on his best friend.

just wanted to remind you that we have hit the halfway mark on the beautiful black and white print of Neil's poem 100 WORDS illustrated by the oh-so-talented Jim Lee
and I wanted to give you fine people a heads up...
we will be raising the price on this print December 27th, 2010 to $50.00.
(buy it anytime during December and you will get a promo poster for THE PRICE film as well)

BUY 100 WORDS limited edition print HERE.

A hundred words to talk of death?
At once too much and not enough.
My plans beyond that final breath
are currently a little rough.

The dying thing comes on so slow:
reluctance to get out of bed
is magnified each day and so
transmuted into dead.

I dream of dying all alone,
nobody there to watch me pass
nothing remains for me to own,
no breath remains to fog the glass.

And when I do put down my pen
my memories will fly like birds.
When I am done, when I am dead,
and finished with my hundred words.
-Neil Gaiman

JIM LEE/NEIL GAIMAN PRINT RUN HALFWAY GONE!

2010-12-16T20:18:00.000-08:00

We have hit the halfway mark on the beautiful black and white print of Neil's poem 100 WORDS illustrated by the oh-so-talented Jim Lee
and I wanted to give you fine people a heads up...
we will be raising the price on this print December 27th, 2010 to $50.00.
(buy it in the next two weeks and you will get a promo poster for THE PRICE film as well)

BUY IT HERE.

A hundred words to talk of death?
At once too much and not enough.
My plans beyond that final breath
are currently a little rough.

The dying thing comes on so slow:
reluctance to get out of bed
is magnified each day and so
transmuted into dead.

I dream of dying all alone,
nobody there to watch me pass
nothing remains for me to own,
no breath remains to fog the glass.

And when I do put down my pen
my memories will fly like birds.
When I am done, when I am dead,
and finished with my hundred words.
-Neil Gaiman

new Neil mailbox & a limited poster offer--

2010-12-16T13:51:00.001-08:00

Hearing of snow snow snow everywhere across the country--
looking out at the sunny & 70* Los Angeles day....*yawn.
i want some inclement weather!
Yesterday at the post office, i was informed that mail to Pennsylvania,
New York, Ohio and a few other choice spots, will be delayed.
The mail planes aren't landing...
Here's hope that everything gets through quickly
and in time for gifting.

for the rest of the month, if you spend $20 or more at NEVERWEAR, I will send you one of the promotional posters for the upcoming
THE PRICE film by the talented Mr. Christopher Salmon. To learn more about this film based on Neil's tale of a brave black cat doing battle with a powerful enemy, click HERE.

this is the 11" x 17" poster:

A continuing feature on this blog, photos of what shows up in Neil's mail box...

a beautiful signed-to-Neil by Salman Rushdie book:

another beautiful signed-to-Neil book by the prolific Jackie Kessler:

(seriously girl, you write so fast--how do you do it?!)

this next book literally stopped the presses at the treehouse, I sat on the floor and stared at this for a solid hour.

HAUNTED AIR, a marvel of recent history, old Hallowe'en photos collected by Ossian Brown.
(full disclosure, i am a huge Coil fan to boot, so i was doubly entranced)
Brown edited these anonymous photos (taken between 1875 and 1955)
Boss, you will treasure this one.
There is a foreward by David Lynch for extra beauty.

This would be a perfect book for Neil's new Hallowe'en book-giving tradition, and you can get it HERE.
what? you didn't hear about this new tradition, ALL HALLOW'S READ? learn more HERE.

magnets & jewels, shiny & new!

2010-12-13T14:10:00.001-08:00

We made it to mid-December of the Year of the Tiger--- this has been one of my busiest years on the planet to date.
I always travel, but this year has been more than my fair share of getting on and off transport vehicles.
so!
when i got off the whirlwind of travel, I went into a trance, making things as a stay-at-home therapy.
Several of them are posted up under "Kitty's Treasures" on www.neverwear.net

hand-made Cluracan mirror HERE.

yes, i DO believe in magic....

SEE IT HERE.

one of my new designs, glitter moon and star earrings:

another, hematite & crystal earrings:

We had hoped to have the new Michael Zulli print up for this holiday season, but deadlines are often
just markers in time, hopeful wishes of what might be, not what is.
It will be worth the wait, this is a promise.

Two weeks ago, through Kickstarter we funded a film version of Neil's short story THE PRICE I am producing this with Christopher Salmon. We have a poster coming in shortly, watch this space.

meanwhile Neil and Lorraine are snowed in out in the midwest, they may be dug out by now, but I am jealous of the beautiful snow, it's been 70* and sunny over here in Hollywood. Why aren't I there making snowballs and angels?
Here's a photo of me walking on the frozen lake by where they live, I will just enjoy from afar.

up next!! a great Neil mailbox, here's a preview:

Black cats & funding reached, 7 more questions w/Mr. Salmon

2010-11-30T17:59:00.000-08:00

a few more questions with Christopher Salmon:

Q:
So! Big congrats!! You raised your goal funding and now THE PRICE film will see the light of day.
What did you/will you do to celebrate?

A:
Watch a great movie, of course! (Still haven't seen the latest HP!)

Q:
Some people are asking how they can get some of the goodies being offered as incentives.
There are still a few more hours to be part of THE PRICE.

A:
Some of those goodies will eventually be made available on www.neverwear.net

Q:
Now that you have mastered the Kickstarter experience, what, if anything, would you have done differently? Any advice for future users of this terrific marketing tool?

A:
Keeping people consistently interested is difficult. There tends to be high interest at first, then a long stretch of "death" when no one seems to be paying attention (ours lasted about 12 days -- sheer agony!), followed by a final spike of great interest. I think if I were to do it again, I would try to come up with some interesting attention-getting tactics to use during the lull.

Q:
Am so looking forward to Zoe Keating’s musical input, at what point do you start to add soundtrack? I know each filmmaker does it differently.

A:
For me, sound is at the top of my list -- I am very inspired by music and have strong emotional reactions to it. Piecing together the temp track alongside Neil's narration was the first thing that I did on The Price. It helps me chart out the emotional landscape of a film, and to find the pace. Once I have that in place, everything else is pieced together around it. I am very excited for composer/sound designer Rob King and the wonderful Zoë Keating to begin working on our original soundtrack right away! VERY excited!!!

Q:
No rush, honestly! however, Everyone is asking, when may we expect to see a finished film? Ballpark is fine.

A:
It's a good question. I want to get The Price submitted to several specific film festivals, and we are creating a production schedule that will allow that to happen accordingly. We will need several months of intense production in order to complete the film, but I hope to have it completed by early summer!

Q:
what question would you ask a psychic right now?

A:
If I do a good enough job with The Price, will I get to do The Graveyard Book someday??? :)

Q:
without jinxing anything, have you started thinking of your next project?

A:
I have several ideas of my own brewing in the background, plus some adaptions (other than the aforementioned Graveyard Book) that I'd love a crack at (absolute favorite non-Neil book: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss).

Great answers, from @XtopherSalmon!
it's me again,
there are FiVE hours left on this Kickstarter project, and then the dust settles for a minute until Christopher can begin production on his vision, the battered black cat as hero, Neil's short story THE PRICE.
I am copying in his latest update on the project, that has several more answers, I always learn something new.
the one-sheets are in production now, I will have them in three days...& they start shipping out!

here he is:

GOAL!!!!!!!!
Update #10 posted about 2 hours ago
My head is still reeling ... like many of you, I watched the numbers late into the night, as they kept going up and up and up ... so when we crossed the $150,000 mark (just after 7:00 MST), it was really hard for me not to get emotional, vacillating between feeling a little weepy, to laughing hysterically, to just wanting to throw-up! :)

But that was, like, 9 hours ago ... so why are people still pledging? Simply put: the more we can raise for "The Price," the better the final film will be.

The way Kickstarter works is you set a minimum amount that you need to raise in order for the project to fund, but that doesn't mean additional funds won't be put to good use as well! Every dollar pledged to this film will be used judiciously and with extreme care -- several of you have shared with the rest of us the many sacrifices made in order to participate, and along with my deepest gratitude, that earns my very highest respect.

And there is another reason as well: people really believe in what we're doing. The ability to decide what entertainments we want, and to have a hand in making them happen is a wonderful, powerful thing.

Please, continue to encourage your friends, family members and professional associates to take a look at what we're doing. In addition to participating in a revolutionary new way of creating the type of media we want to enjoy, pledging is still the only way to get copies of the finished film (or any of the other rewards ... including the 6 remaining VIP screening invites with Mr. Gaiman himself).

And remember that any backer who increases their pledge will get one of our new, limited edition, embossed 1-sheet posters (not to be confused with the limited editions poster from the rewards section) -- there are still some left!!!

I'll see you all again in about 8 hours from now ...

40 hours left on THE PRICE & a gift...

2010-11-29T08:45:00.000-08:00

so it's almost over and we are oh-so-close...

to show our appreciation for those of you who have come back in and upped their pledge (that's me included in this group of niceys), Christopher announced a gift of a one-sheet poster (different from the print coming with the $65.00 package)
actually I will let him tell you in his own words here:

In fact, the response from many of you has been so generous, we wanted to do something special to show how much we appreciate the efforts of those of you who have already increased their pledge amounts (many of you by twice as much or more!), as well as to encourage our newest backers (over 200 in the last 40 hours alone) to try and do the same ... here it is:

For everyone who increases their pledge, we're sending you a specially created "1-Sheet" movie poster! (One more time: check out the image below!) This will be limited to 500 prints and embossed for authenticity! (Note: this is NOT the same as the "Limited Edition Poster" listed in the rewards section, but something completely new!) And yes, 58 of these are spoken for by those backers who have already increased their amounts!

So act now! Being this close to the goal, please consider doubling your pledge amount -- and remember that every dollar counts! Also, to help me keep track of things, when you increase your pledge please send a note along as well so I don't miss anyone! :)

Thank-you all SO MUCH for the mind-blowing support!!! Keep telling/writing/calling/texting/tweeting/Facebooking everyone you know!!!

WE ARE ALMOST THERE!!!

- Christopher

me again, isn't it pretty--

a new Neil mailbox-November 2010

2010-11-28T16:29:00.000-08:00

hello all you kind & goodlooking Neverwearers.
I write to you from a rare moment at the treehouse.
The ever-fluffy Miss Selina Kyle and I settled down on the faux zebra to take photos of some of the beautiful items that have arrived in the mail for Mister Neil. She insisted on holding the dynamite hand-knit Goldie by Casey H from Kansas City.
When he said, "meep", we all fell in love with him:

so many many letter from here & there & everywhere...
(the "shameless self promotion" post it made me giggle)

the classy Annette from Chicago sent a bound book of photos for Neil from the House on The Rock event, which was so thoughtful of her, he will really treasure this:

(just because Selina was sleeping does not mean she was bored. no. just really tired. from her busy cat day. of doing nothing.)

these beautiful one-of-a-kind art cards by Jessica in North Carolina, ravens, posies & trees- meow...!

From Illinois & minds of greatness, a birthday greeting full of Good Omens inspired art:

this one was for moi, some of the most magical smelling soap fromBLACK PHOENIX ALCHEMY LAB our dear friends Beth & Ted
shown here with the Lady Miss Palmer...Please go shop with them this busy holiday, you will never smell better and all their scents boost your IQ. really!

there's more, so much more, but i am heading off on an evening adventure with my husband, he's home from tour for only one day.
more soon, stay tuned--
oh and last thing, we are down to the last few hours on THE PRICE Kickstarter program.
Let's make it happen!

THE LAST FIVE (*SIGNED) SAUCERS PRINTS AVAILABLE

2010-11-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

Last month, the ever-lovin' Jouni Kopenen was in America, all the way from Finland,
and he brought his last few SAUCERS prints with him.

He and Neil both signed them, these were a numbered edition of 8,
we have 5 left for sale.
Five! as in Jackson Five!
These prints were sent over to Finland before the
the numbered edition that Neverwear sold--
so these are the last ones of this print run, ever.

SAUCERS PRINT AVAILABLE HERE!

while I have you here,
can you please find ten dollars (look in your couch cushions?)
to help bring THE PRICE to the silver screen?
we have nine days left!

EVERY BIT HELPS!!
thanks all. CLICK HERE TO GET INVOLVED!

13 Questions w/Christopher Salmon

2010-11-19T10:05:00.000-08:00

There are 12 days left for THE PRICE to meet projected goal for funding...
I had a few questions for Mr. Salmon of SilverFish Creative...

13 Questions With Christopher Salmon

1) You must be a cat person--do you have any pets yourself?

We have an incredibly beautiful gray longhaired cat with stunningly green eyes named "Trinity" (her brother was named "Neo" of course, but sadly he went into The Matrix several years ago).

2) What do your kids think of this project?

Between us, my wife and I have 6 children (23-6), all of whom have been very supportive of "Dad's Black Cat Movie." In fact, I'll be pressing some of them into service Thursday to help me pass out "The Price" flyers to the midnight-movie crowds waiting to see Harry Potter -- it is going to end after all, right?

3) I know you've been floored by the success of this so far; is your iPhone keeping you up at nights?

It's definitely hard not to check the Kickstarter page during a 3:00 am 'call-of-nature.'

4) When choosing time slots for Kickstarter, why 30 days?

The Kickstarter staff recommend a 30 day funding period -- it is the internet after all -- insisting it is a fallacy that more time = more donations. Thirty days is like thirty years on the Internet!

5) Let’s talk about Hollywood and the changes happening.

The idea that Social Media will never amount to much of anything beyond a fad is still a tenant of the Old School Hollywood mindset. One of the coolest things about this project is the opportunity for us to show that fans have real power in choosing what projects they would like to see, and can help independent filmmakers like myself in a very literal way to bring these films to life! There are alternatives to only being able to vote with your ticket purchase at the local Megaplex for whatever formulaic mush happens to be playing that weekend. Kickstarter is important in facilitating that wonderful connection point between the artist and the audience!

6) Is there any particular movie that you have in your mind’s eye as reference to how The Price will look when completed?

Not really, as I'm trying to give it a very distinct look and feel. I want it to be heavily stylized, like the work of Tim Burton and Henry Selick -- you can always recognize their work from the very first scene.

7) Which movie has scared you the most?

The original Halloween by John Carpenter made my 14-year-old legs literally shake in my seat (I think I had to use the bathroom 3 times during that first viewing). We were visiting my grandparents for Christmas and I was sleeping on the living room floor ... I almost made it until their old clock suddenly started chiming the hour, and ZOOM!!! I was shoving into my younger brother's bed in 3 seconds flat, and stayed put the rest of the night. YEESH!!!

8) The wonderful Zoe Keating is working on soundtrack; can you name a soundtrack that has stuck with you after the film?

Wow -- there are so many!!! My most favorite of recent films are definitely Howard Shore's mind-blowing work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I was seriously floored by Hans Zimmer's work on Inception (had to buy that right away). And who can ever forget that haunting refrain from Halloween? (Sadly, almost every one of my kids can play that on the piano -- great Dad, right?)

9) Your favorite Neil Gaiman book?

My favorite all-around book is The Graveyard Book (and want to make it into a film more than anything ... but I'm sure director Neil Jordan will do just fine). Of his adult fiction, I really enjoyed Stardust and Anansi Boys -- talk about cinematic imagery ready-to-go!!!

10) What would your superhero power be?

To fly and not to get hurt while doing it (because I'm a little clumsy)! Absolutely and without question.

11) Favorite movie monster?

LOVE the Balrog from LOTR. And the Angel of Death from Hellboy 2. And the Aliens from, of course, Aliens. And Darkness from Legend...

12) Favorite real monster?

The Ogopogo, a cool sea-serpent native to the incredibly gorgeous Okanagan Lake in central British Columbia (where I grew up). And yes, I still swim in it anyway!

13) How many toys do you have in your office?

There is no real way to tell; I've tried counting them several times, but I think they just keep switching places on me while I'm gone ...

Optional question: Why Silver Fish?

I like the color silver, and ... a salmon is a fish! That's it!!! :)

Cat here again,
I am going back in now to add more money to my pledge, i really want to see this on the screen, and be a part of the new wave of artists
controlling their work more directly and hands on.

EVERY BIT HELPS!!
thanks all. CLICK HERE TO GET INVOLVED!

November is here...already....

2010-11-08T16:27:00.001-08:00

Some years ago, Christopher Salmon sent us his unfinished take on
THE PRICE, Neil’s short story about a tremendously brave black cat who stops at nothing to protect his humans from harm....

Now you can help bring it to the big screen.
Kickstarter is making this possible,
for as little as a $10.00 pledge.
If his project doesn’t raise enough pledges, nothing will be charged against the donation.
There are many incentives to make it worth any amount you wish to pledge, from only-available-here signed prints to digital downloads of the finished film.
At this moment there are 590 backers ...(including Steve Wozniak (!!), my cute little parents & Neil himself who blogs about it
HERE.)
I want to see this story unfold...
Don’t you?

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

here's Christopher talking about his project:

ps. Happy almost birthday to you, dear Neil...

for the month of November, any $10 purchase will get a free AMERICAN GODS sticker, drawn byJouni Koponen (who blogs about the AMERICAN GODS weekend here)
our little Viking has substituted runes for stars...see the birthday boy holding it here:

pps. I will get a blog up about the adventures of miss Quiche Lorraine & I this skatehappy week over at furrytiger, soon!

holy American Gods party, Batman!

2010-10-30T21:21:00.001-07:00

it's Halloween over here...

stilts!

in which our hero gets an idea of what is in store for him as costume contest judge, i did really feel for him.

oh Fame & Fortune, you were among my favorites...

is that the fake Alan Moore?

the oh-so-accurate god of Walmart consumerism...

Quiche Me Deadly & Joan of Dark, our roller derby queens...

the Mistress & Mister of Mouse:

the Mikado...

outstanding effort of excellence, "the what-librarians-do-when-off-the-clock" duo, with get-ups made of books...
truly winners on my scorecard...I whistled them 'til I was hoarse.

oh Islington, you angel you...

(one of) Neil's HUgo Award(s)----delightful!

this aligator moved in a way that was truly frightening to this kitty cat.

was also fairly frightened by this window...

going back to hotel on the school bus...with the buffalo people...
goodnight!

enchantment in Wisconsin

2010-10-30T00:08:00.001-07:00

I haven't the words to describe the day yet. Quiche told me the pictures will speak for themselves.
so i'll post a few photos of the spot I first heard of while reading Neil's AMERICAN GODS novel.
Tonight, he read aloud from the book, giving us just a slice of that book, and it came alive for me after being in the House on the Rock. I fell into a spell in the Red Room. They left me behind at The Carousel. I couldn't leave. I still can't think straight.
A true site of power.

And so the convergence begins...

2010-10-28T21:24:00.000-07:00

Hans picked up a very tired me up at the airport this afternoon, after a 4:30 am wake-up call.
I worked the Gorillaz LA tour stop yesterday and so i was a very busy kitten...

(remind me someday to tell you of my Paul Simonen encounter that still has me seated on the moon)

Jouni from Finland was here at the house with Lorraine and Neil when we arrived. Here for the Low Key Gathering event at the House on the Rock, Jouni is the artist behind the sold-out print of Neil's poem SAUCERS.

He had a loooong journey over the Baltic Sea and spent his time drawing...

He also brought over his last remaining 8 Saucers prints, which he and Neil signed, to sell at the HOUSE ON THE ROCK event.
This will be the last/ONLY place to get this edition of the print.

here Neil reviews the Jouni sketches...

We had lovely Lorraine-made soup and milled around the plans until DanGuy showed up...here is our WebGoblin at work:

meanwhile MistressMousey is over at House on the Rock getting things organized...
tomorrow we make the journey out to Spring Green to get a tour of the Attraction, I am so looking forward to seeing the Carousel!
many photos to follow, to be certain---

Jouni and I will be at a table during Neil's signings with many goodies, come say hello to us.

post script:
It was hard to leave this furball at home this morning, so for the sign-off, a photo of our miss Selina Kyle:

at last...

2010-10-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

it has been far too long in between journal entries---

Quiche has always told me, just go little, don't have to tell the whole story,but did i listen...hmm......

spent the whole summer out on the Lady Gaga tour, a truly dazzling tour.
ran the gauntlet with crew that i now consider friends for life.
we signed bullet-proof non-disclosure forms, so I didn't blog at all,
but i will say it was an amazing run.
someone in Minneapolis made these gorgeous cupcakes for our Lady...

here's my Dad in his Gaga crew tee...

during the tour, on the days off, we were planning our wedding, from hotel room after hotel room...
city to city. Drew is out with the Roger Waters tour, so it was a mash-up of coordinating time zones...

While in town for the Los Angeles Gaga shows, miss Pam, the ComicCon queen, brought me a present from the amazing artist Michael Zulli, wrapped in a little cube of a box, a gift for Drew, to be given to him when i thought right...(months later Drew opened it to find a stunning opal & sterling ring, thank you MZ!)

While I was on the road, my friends, Nancye & Cyn & Janice and my sister Pauli banded together as a major design team, spinning my glitter dreams into a solid reality..
My best maiden, Anne found the perfect venue, a boathouse on the water not a mile from where I spent all my college years in Baltimore...the city lights would be our backdrop. Anne and her ever-so-patient husband Mike let us all stay in their home.
Mike soon dubbed us the Glitterati, since there were clouds of the stuff everywhere...I am still waiting for some photos of the glitter birdcages, even the cupcakes had edible glitter--mmmm.

we ate crabs the night before the wedding, as Baltimore gives us the finest... loads of old bay, baby! Cyn, who makes the dream necklaces, knew best how to take apart a crab...

the boathouse lit up:

Nicola and Ida, my glam squad, came early to turn me into a blushing bride—
Nico pinned into my hair the nest made of crystal and twigs (thank you to Perry, Gaga’s amazing wardrobe man)
Drew wore his father's kilt, and we walked in to bagpipe music.

Neil showed up in his “posh clobber” from Kambriel to read one of my favorite-of-his poems,
INSTRUCTONS by candlelight.

(click here for a video clip of him reading it, however, this is not at the wedding)

we were married by Drew's Mom, Peggy, she did such a lovely job incorporating many different rituals into our simple ceremony....

(panorama by Andras)

(photo by Letty)
i love this one i snapped of Drew & his Dad:

My brother and nephews, Bill, John and Michael set off beautiful big fireworks on the dock, until the police arrived via helicopter! Red set the mood by queing up Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir, the perfect fireworks soundtrack...

(photo by Letty)

the mysterious glow stick trick by Nicole was captured by Cory on "film":

roadies converged:

my Delaware old school crew cleans up nice:

Andras did a fun time lapse of us leaving the after party at Nick's seafood house,

SEE IT HERE.

Karin & Bud gifted us with a honeymoon night at a beautiful hotel with water views, the photo i don't have is me sitting in the sand & rock-filled parking lot peeling off my knee high boots, while my new husband drags all our gear into the building.
When we got inside, the room was filled with loot from Lizzie & Matt & Wes & Nae Nae, champagne and glorious food:

we are so grateful for all the good friends and family we have---everyone pitched it to help and I am still waiting for photos of all the out of town family that arrived from all corners of the earth...

The next day, after a Fells Point breakfast with Neil, Red, Annie, Willie & Nancye, we spent the night in Rehoboth, did a midnight beach walk, and the next morning, we drove to New York from Rehoboth, taking the Cape May/Lewes ferry, to get Drew back to his tour...

the show was everything i could have imagined and more-
THE WALL has always been one of my most favorite albums,
an album in the truest sense of the word, songs not to be taken out of order,
but a whole tapestry of story and music. I will only put up a photo to show the scale and magnificence of the productions:

you can see the actual wall stretches from concourse to concourse...

Go see it in your city if you can and say hello to my new husband...

the Scream awards taping was Saturday, (on my birthday!) no photos except that I can say they turned the Greek Theater into the set of Inception, I saw Mickey Rourke, who never fails to disappoint...& the frosting on my birthday cake was running into that adorable Jim Lee, who i still get fan-girl dopey around.

am working the Gorillaz show next week, Jouni from Finland is coming out toThe House on the Rock event
and I am spending a power-packed two whole weeks with Quiche at Spooky House, practicing roller skating moves for the Derby dolls aka Naptown Roller Girls...see my jersey they made for me? I'm Pretty Vicious & Lorraine is QuicheMeDeadly..

see why it is hard to get a blog up, life is a non-stop train.
and finally, look at this terrific sticker that Jouni drew, substituting runes for the stars, Boss did a little self-protrait here, and I will post these up on the website--also
I will be at House on the Rock selling them & my comic book magnets over Halloween weekend, come and see us---

(ok Quiche, i am done, i promise....)

for a good cause...

2010-05-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for my cross country trip---it is full of travel up and down the Eastern seaboard, seeing family and friends, and working several of the Conan tour dates.
Neverwear will be run by invisible elves...

Working to get the Cabal postcards ready for summer and making more of my operation rescue comic book magnets. I donated a few of my magnets to DoodleDay, funds go to research and help battle NF. Neurofibromatosis is a genetic disorder that affects one in every 2,500 births.
There is one more day for the fundraiser, Neil & Amanda both donated art to this cause.

Neil’s doodles, of course, are kicking ass.

my 5 watercolors (skulls, spirits, bats, cats & ghosts)
http://tinyurl.com/2eacnd6

my 3 magnets (IRONMAN, THOR, XMEN)
http://tinyurl.com/2dbbxxb

Neil Gaiman Doodle #1
http://tinyurl.com/24km23r

Neil Gaiman Doodle #2
http://tinyurl.com/2a58bpj

Amanda Palmer:
http://tinyurl.com/233bl8x

And here is the link to NF, Inc.'s eBay Page with all the items:
http://shop.ebay.com/nfinccharity/m.html

Sad news, want to say goodbye to my dearly departed little Joey Aspen,
so many people seem to be jumping off this mortal coil lately...RIP sweetheart.

i will leave you with a little photo that miss Red sent me to make my day better.
Kid Rock was the guest on Conan tour date in East Lansing, Michigan.
She had him send me this message...

mid May...

2010-05-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

It's a windy evening here in Los Angeles.

This week has been non-stop, trying to get everything ready before I fly east
to do some location scouting and to work some of the Conan O'Brien dates.

(will report on that over at the furrytiger road blog.

Hopeful to have the Cabal postcard sets done in the next week or so.
Brainstorming on The House on the Rock event designs.
Wiping my tears over the late great Frank Frazetta. RIP FF!

Making more of the comic book magnets/mirrors and posting them...
see here a few fresh out of the oven:

i do believe that Destruction might be my most favorite of the Endless...

oh that silly power-hungry Magneto:

and from one panel that was too damaged to save, only Todd Klein's lettering remains. I set on a frosty glitter background..
(and this has lately been claimed by miss Pam, it is going to live with her...)

I am posting these and more HERE.
also if you see one that you like and it is sold, send me an idea of what you like, and i can get close.
neverwear@gaiman.net

will do a Neil mailbox soon, but not tonight, want to get back to posting the newborn little glass magnets.

meanwhile I will leave you with something that really made me happy. Miss Fabulous Lorraine started a bidding war on my
spooky watercolor pieces that I did for Doodle Day, the Gillian Anderson (yes, agent Scully!) NF charity auction:
YOU CAN SEE THE AUCTION HERE.
here are a couple of them:

another edition of Neil's mailbox...plus magnets!

2010-05-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

while Neil is off on his travels, I thought i would put up this photo I took last month while we walked in his woods:

here are just a few of the items that made their way to Neil's mailbox:

The first issue of Bull Spec, sent in to Neil by Sam in NC (notice his great postcard):

This beautiful book came in from Jacquelyn of the Pacific Northwest...

the talented ladies of Indianapolis, the Naptown Roller Girls, sent this batch of knitted goodies:

Look at foxy rollerderby queen, Joan of Dark in her Scary Trousers tee...

Jeremy from Ohio sent this terrific photo of baby Lila, surrounded by NRG!

Derek sent his self-directed DVD all the way from Ireland:

and the lovely Louisa of RAVEN BOOKS in Dublin sent me this damaged Coraline graphic novel (which looks like the Hulk got ahold of it...) so I can use it to make my comic book magnets:

look at miss Selina Kyle sitting on the batch of comics from Trisha, more potential victims for my magnets...

am FINALLY posting some of my magnets & mirrors...

if you are new to Neverwear the magnets are my last-ditch effort to save my collection of drowned comic books that were damaged in an east coast flood. (yes, never again will i use cardboard storage boxes...)

I cut recycled glass to fit and then frame the original panels in copper.
go HERE to see them.

so, the May Neverwear sale will be a two-parter.
for any purchase over $10.00, I will throw in a free "dream dangerously" sticker...

and I am putting the Graveyard Book regular tees on sale, from $25.00 to $15.00--
they feature a conceptual art sketch by Neil for the cover of his Newbery Medal winning book.
order it HERE.
see it on Drew...

and on Crow..

one month to save ten American dollars...you can almost get into the movies on that savings...(IRONMAN 2 COMES OUT THIS WEEK!)

i will leave you with a link to our very good news..
and also the first photo released from the new Thor film being directed by Kenneth Branagh:
(meow!!)

in which @fablor teaches me to wing it...

2010-04-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

for those very few of you who don't know who the Fabulous Lorraine is, she is Neil's right-hand assistant. I am his travel/LA assistant/merch queen, the west-coast Pepper Potts.

I just spent the last few days out here with Lorraine after C2E2, helping as she got Neil on that elusive ashcloud-blocked aeroplane over the sea.
We traded secrets and assistant-ing tips. Her best advice to me, just write your entry, it doesn't have to cover everything, just get it up there...because, as you may have noticed, i like to detail...everything...& time is at a premium...

The weekend in Chicago, Neil's CBLDF event, flying to Minneapolis, next Neil event in Stillwater, all of this has been super- documented. However. since I fly tomorrow and go straight into shipping the beautiful Molly Crabapple/Neil DESERT WIND prints, i am going to do a mini-post..

so! a quickie on Quiche's advice...

batmobile!

CBLDF!!

(Charles, Brady & Cheyenne)

The amazing Tony Harris, who illustrated Neil's In Reilig Oran poem for the Fund, came to the booth and signed and signed...

Here we are at the Arie Crown theater, where Neil & the sparkling-like-a-twilight-vampire Jim Lee signing the 100 WORDS prints that we donated to the CBLDF.

here is a clip of Jim introducing Neil's talk (the camera shakes in the beginning because i was so fan-girl-thrilled):

The next morning, we flew to Minnesota to do Neil's next event in Stillwater, and FabLo picked us up with both dogs in the car:

I will leave you with a screen shot of Neil holding one of the full-color DESERT WIND prints, they are going to ship out to you as soon as I get home...

CABAL CONTEST RESULTS!!!

2010-04-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

They used to say at the Oscars, "and the Oscar goes to.."
and this year they reverted back to, "and THE WINNER IS..."

well I have to say, THE WINNERS ARE...
because I can't choose.

Neil said to me cheerily, "Kitty, you are on your own.."
No help there.

The Fabulous Lorraine, well, Quichie is a woman decided, let's just say...
never any confusion about what SHE is thinking...

another reason to love that girl.

i tallied the votes on the blog and in the Neverwear email....
hmmmmmm.....

WE HAVE EIGHT WINNERS.

by Jenny Robins:

by Chris Lincoln:

by Joey Lee:

by M.C. Matz:

by WonderBink:

by Jouni Koponen:

by Jess:

and by Wai-Jing Tsang:

(i loved all the others as well, esp. Danny Dillen & DH's (Daria Hlazatova)--really beautiful work)

I want to make sets of eight -count-em-EIGHT CABAL POSTCARDS.
These eight artists will be featured (that is, if they agree to a one-time license use, they will still own their original art).

My plan is to print a limited edition set run of 220...

each of the winners will get complimentary sets,
and the WINNER-WITH-THE-MOST-VOTES: WONDERBINK gets the signed-by-Neil HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES print.

Jouni, came in 2nd, by the way! who can resist a talented Viking from Finland, his design will go to decorate the
soon-to-be-announced Cabal doggy bags, totally green biodegradable dog bags...the profits of which will go to benefit
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

This is where i got my dear Batman, who after five years of blanketed love on him, he is finally coming out of whatever trauma befell him.

Cabal was rescued from an abusive situation by our hero Neil. The Fabulous Lorraine has been an unwavering supporters of animals in need since we all were just tiny kittens.

These doggy waste-pick-up bags won't be expensive, but they will help the Earth by biodegrading quickly and the donations will help animals to find the kind homes they so deserve.

please stay tuned for more details as I speak to the artists, but there, you have the results...

meanwhile 2 new sticker designs are up on Neverwear.net.

"DREAM DANGEROUSLY"

and

"CATS DON"T NEED NAMES" from Coraline.

a reminder, the Anansi Boys heather grey tees are only $15.00 each and I have sizes small, medium, large & x-large left.

here is magician Crow Garrett wearing his...

and finally, I am trying to get more Vikings to come to America....

HELP BRING THE AMAZING JOUNI KOPONEN OUT TO
THE AMERICAN GODS HALLOWEEN HOUSE ON THE ROCK EVENT.

The artist behind the wildly successful print of SAUCERS lives in Finland,
and I am trying to get him out here for this event.
For a ten dollar donation, you, generous donor will get a limited edition 4" x 10" sticker made up from the SAUCERS print artwork.

CLICK HERE FOR JOUNI SAUCER STICKER/DONATION
If we get Jouni to come to this can't-miss event, he WILL sign it for you...

I am completely OUT of the SAUCERS print and so I am starting the donations with $500 toward his ticket.

ten bucks can make a difference!! (and you can donate more, should ye be feelin' rich, each tenner will get a sticker...)

All the way from Finland, the smokin' hot Jouni Koponen illustrates Neil's poem: "The Day the Saucers Came" --- a personal favorite of ours here at Neverwear.

now! back to my laboratory.

DESERT WIND PRINT 24-HOUR SALE PRICE....

2010-04-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

The new DESERT WIND poem print is up! Words by Neil Gaiman, artwork by Molly Crabapple and design/text by Nicola Black.
the first 24 hours, from 4 pm PST on April 2- 4 pm PST on April 3rd, we will sell it for $28.00.

just look at what the beautiful Molly Crabapple
created for Neverwear...(click on image to enlarge)

Molly worked in tandem with Nicola Black Design, L.L.C who set the glorious text and design of the piece... CLICK HERE TO SEE NICOLA'S PROCESS.

and

CLICK HERE FOR MOLLY'S ACCOUNT.

The print is a 10" x 21" full-color bleed print illustrating Neil’s dark mirage of a tale/poem DESERT WIND.
You can pre-order it now, Friday April 2, 2010 at 4 pm PST where, for a full twenty-four hours, it will be priced at $28.00 instead of the $38.00 that it will retail for.

$5.00 from each print will go to the COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND.
We love the CBLDF, those good guys fighting on the front lines for our First Amendment rights...

They will be in Chicago at C2E2 over the weekend of April 16-18th, 2010 (I will be there working at the CBLDF booth)

The printers have promised to have it in my hands by April 18th, when I return from C2E2, and everyone that pre-orders by April 18th, 2010 will get this full-color 4" x 6" Coraline "Cats don't need names, we know who we are..." artwork by Christopher Salmon sticker along with their DESERT WIND print:

TO ORDER DESERT WIND: CLICK HERE.

new NEIL GAIMAN print by MOLLY CRABAPPLE!

2010-04-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

just look at what the beautiful Molly Crabapple
created for Neverwear...(click on image to enlarge)

Molly worked in tandem with Nicola Black Design, L.L.C who set the glorious text and design of the piece...

This is a 10" x 21" full-color bleed print illustrating Neil’s dark mirage of a tale DESERT WIND.
You can pre-order it tomorrow, Friday April 2, 2010 at 4 pm PST where, for a full twenty-four hours, it will be priced at $28.00 instead of the $38.00 that it will retail for.

$5.00 from each print will go to the COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND.
We love the CBLDF, those good guys fighting on the front lines for our First Amendment rights...

They will be in Chicago at C2E2 over the weekend of April 16-18th, 2010 (I will be there working at the CBLDF booth)

I did a mini-interview of 9 questions with the luminous Miss Crabapple the other day...

1. what inspired you to work with Neil Gaiman?

Neil has been one of my favorite authors since, as a seven year old, the rebellious goth girl at camp showed me issues of the Sandman. When he twittered me asking me to do a poem poster with him, I did an embarrassing glee-dance of joy

2. why did you chose to illustrate DESERT WIND?

When I was in college, I was torn between wanting to study art and do a Middle Eastern studies degree. I taught myself Turkish and blew my money on night classes in Arabic, snuck into Moroccan mosques and hitched rides with war photographers in Kurdistan. Desert Wind appealed straight up to my Orientalist fetish.

3. did any work in your past direct you to the style of DW?

My work is usually all snarky and bulbous and detailed. This poem poster keeps the detailed part, but goes in a direction of wonderment, of djinn and night hallucinations, that I've never probed before. Neil's art direction was invaluable- the tent city would have been way less fantastical if it wasn't for his pointing me to some delicious Beduin draperies.

4. did anything lucky happen during the making of DW?

My life is pretty blessed by the Goddess Fortuna, so I couldn't tell if any luck was poster-related.

5. what upcoming project are you especially excited about?

Me and long-time co-conspirator John Leavitt are launching our dream project, the rococo murder mystery The Puppet Makers, on DC's Zuda imprint in May

6. if you could meet any of Neil's fictional characters,
who would you like to have a conversation with?

Wanda, from A Game of You.

7. who would play you in the movie version of your life?

Oh man... I don't even know if I have a celebrity counterpart. Someone short and dark I guess?

8. will you be at C2E2 in Chicago in a couple weeks? any other future appearances?

Every other week, New Yorkers can meet me at Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, the alt. drawing class I run at The Slipper Room. I'll also be suffering at San Diego Comic Con with my Zuda crew.

9. Cat, you should have asked me this: (fill in the blank)

You and me should drink absinthe and smoke hookah like proper grown-up goth girls...

(Molly photo by Lauren Goldberg)
dress by modcloth
******************************************************************************************
So order tomorrow to keep ten of your hard-earned dollars in your pocket.
It will go up live HERE 4 pm PST on Friday, April 2nd, 2010.

thanks Molly, Neil & Nicola for adding more beauty to the planet.

Oscar recap & Cabal nominees...

2010-03-29T17:54:00.000-07:00

March madness, but in a non-sports way...
Neil was here for the Oscars and it spun me right 'round like a record, bay-bee.

We outfitted him in beautiful threads, Kambriel and Dior...

my favorite getting-ready shot:

the golden ticket:

He made the LA Times...

He doodled for charity, click here for outcome:

the Hollywood hotel he was staying at had a life-size chess board in the courtyard:

and a delicious rooftop pool:

Neil left LA to continue his multi-destination run, which he recounts over HERE.

Meanwhile I left and did the Yo Gabba Gabba US/Canada tour which you can read about
HERE.

Before I left, I put up a Cabal contest, and here are the finalists...
so so many good ones, you talented world, it was extremely difficult to narrow down to these finalists...

If you can leave a comment (or email me at neverwear@gaiman.net if you don't want to leave comment)
we will review and then consult with Cabal's dad...
final decision in a week or so!

by Diana Sprinkle:

by Jenny Robins:

by Danny Dillen:

by Chris Lincoln:

by Joey Lee:

by M.C. Matz:

by WonderBink:

by Jouni Koponen:

by Jess:

by "D.H.":

and two by Wai-Jing Tsang:

let me know what you think!

Cabal contest and new American Gods buttons!

2010-03-03T13:49:00.000-08:00

it's March!
(already!!??)

We are announcing a new contest up for the next few weeks, send me a graphic depiction of Cabal, our boss Neil's mighty canine companion --i need something easily printable & i am looking to you, the vast talent pool that is out there all across the globe.
Not looking for photos of Cabal, I want some sort of graphic to put on a label or shirt, use your imaginations!

I didn't want to post a photo, because I look to you to make your own image of this beautiful doggy, instead I posted a little movie I made of him playing with a stick:

Please send all files to: neverwear@gaiman.net

just send small files and we will have a vote.
if you win, I will need a bigger 300 dpi file...

contest closes on March 20th, on the vernal equinox, where night & day are equally long...

Winner of this contest will receive a signed-by-@neilhimself HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES print.

for our March special we have our new set of four exclusive jacket pins
referencing American Gods
they are free with any $12 purchase from Neverwear

(click on photos for more detail)

a little more detail:

happy March, you artistic lot.

also, some of you may recall, Neil let me trade a pair of tickets to his UCLA talk for a tour of the Playboy Mansion:
PLAYBOY BLOG UP HERE

Dave McKean Feb 2010 art opening in LA

2010-02-18T18:19:00.000-08:00

The art opening of Dave McKean was a star-studded affair, a terrific night out.

The day started with a bye-bye BBQ in Elysian Park for our friend Ali who was leaving for the Jay-Z tour.
We headed out in Ghosty with the top down to the Santa Monica gemshow, happy to report that i did NOT go over my self-imposed budget and look at all the loot I hunter/gathered....

goldstone & abalone & pyrite & hematite & Austrian crystals & Chinese coins & glittery gorgeousness:

then we ate a spicy Thai dinner with Steve & Dani and headed over to the Billy Shire Fine Art to take a look at what Mr. McKean has been working on.
As luck would have it, we met Tom Negovan who curated the show. As he was sharing his vast informed knowledge, he helped me in making my decision on which print to buy.
Somehow, I didn't take a photo of Dave, but here is Matt Kennedy, writing up the sale:

I chose the "M" print for many reasons as well. Fritz Lang's "M" & Peter Lorre's serial killer were childhood inspirations of my own...They are shipping it to me, and I am waiting patiently, as patient as any kitty can be.

Matt had several tattoos of great interest:

Dave looked very handsome in his leather jacket & was the charming host of the evening. I spent much of the evening tracking him down to introduce him to various fans, as he went around the room photographing the event.

Scotch goodness Grant Morrison & Dave:

The packed house can be seen here:

here is Cesar Haro & Stephanie Leonidas (the beautiful star of Mirrormask):

a little teeny photo of Kristan & I:
(thanks to Cesar for letting me use these photos)

next installment, we go to the Playboy Mansion on Valentine's Day proper!
here's a preview:

SF, the Magic Castle, love hearts & Dave McKean...

2010-02-13T09:32:00.000-08:00

After I dropped Neil at the airport, I stopped by the Pearl Art Supply on La Cienaga that was closing down,
hopeful for some art deals.
Was very sad to get to the glitter aisle (always my first stop!)
to find, I was too late...

but i was able to get all of this for a measly twenty american bucks:

nothing like a fresh new pencil...

this week, i flew up to San Francisco for an interview for my new tour.
it was fast and furious and I was back just after dark.
Got to see my friend Sherri for a vegan dinner and good conversation,
she left the tatters of LA for a terrific new home in the Mission.
SFO is one of my favorite airports in the continental US, always has something interesting to see,
their penny slot display was four star. They have a display of old saxophones

Back in town, we got together with Crow Garrett a magician that I see as the real-life Shadow from AMERICAN GODS. (except for the jail part) He took us to the elusive Magic Castle on the hill. Full of secret passageways and magician lore history, we fell in love with the place over and over. From the ghost of Irma playing the piano, to the love heart juggling Lindsay Benner, we respected the strict no-photo rule. (even though it was so tempting)
These were taken outside:

i think my favorite was the secret door where you say "open sesame" and a bookcase opens to let you in to the main bar room.

Last night, we walked over to our neighborhood gallery to see the one and only Dave McKean:

he was signing work I had never even seen, look what he painted, my new treasure:

thanks Dave!

tonight he is showing at the Billy Shire Fine Arts in Culver City , I just did an email blast through my contacts, making sure everyone knows to come out tonight...

tomorrow is Valentine's Day and the Playboy Mansion! another full report soon....