Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN exhibit @Cartoon Art Museum open now!

I remember exactly where I was when I read my first Sandman, in 1988.

everything changed for me then, and I went to work in Geppi's Comics Baltimore harbor in as a direct result. (i needed the discount!) Yes, Steve Geppi was my boss.

As in any job I've ever had, I tried to learn everything about the comic book world/history, my big brother always had Creepy and Tales of the Unexpected around, so we were raised on the panel page. Batman and Swamp Thing were my go-to guys. X-men loomed on the horizon. My cute Dad would follow Spiderman in the newspaper and he'd shake his head over MJ's antics, which always cracked us up.

But Sandman? That was a show-stopper.

When I met Neil, 12 years later, while working on the Tori Amos 2002 tour, I was a fan. Tori knew it and teased me regularly. He was such a legend, in our comic book circles, and 13 years later, the whole world has caught on.

We have been helping the good people of the Cartoon Art Museum along to track down some of the original Sandman art to show at their 25th anniversary exhibit. I quote curators Andrew Farago & Ryan Graff (aka Art Overlord)_

We’re off to a great start, as we’ve borrowed most of the first issue and have some promising leads on key pages from other artists, and we’re also planning some programming featuring Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg...

here are a few shots of what you will see, including some amazing pieces on the way from Neil's private collection.

ORIGINAL McKean! Bachalo! Zulli! Hempel! Amano! Doran! Vess! Dringenberg! Keith! Thompson! McManus! see Todd Klein's lettering up close and personal...and so much more...

The show catalogue with art by Barron Storey:

I was lucky enough at San Diego Comic Con this year to see the title page original art for Sandman #1 here's a link to my blog, here's the photo of Neil holding it up:

The exhibit is up now, artwork will be rolling and changing, until mid-March 2014. GO! DO!

Cartoon Art Museum 655 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94105 www.cartoonart.org follow them on twitter: @cartoonart

two other reminders about All Hallow's Read, the give-a-scary-book tradition Neil came up with a few years back.

1. the clever Sean Von Gorman 8" x 10" trick-or treating lil'Neil print is only $18.95 until Saturday night midnight PST, it comes with a SVG bookmark and an Ayesha Rubio skeleton sticker, get one HERE.

2. the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab has a beautiful graveyard scent holder up for AHR. get yours HERE with more art from Sean. (Because I want one, we will be turning Sean's little Charles Addams tribute into a teeshirt for Neverwear soon, stay tuned for that one.)

Neil Gaiman's All Hallow's Read is upon us: NEW PRINT UP by Sean Von Gorman

how did i get so lucky to get such a enchanted job?

when i posted a contest for art to make bookmark/sticker for Neil's All Hallow's Read holiday tradition of giving a scary book for Halloween, I got bowled over by responses... There were zombies and ghosties and ghoulies and witches, skeletons camping out & creepies galore. (you can see the submissions HERE if you scroll through my archives.)

I had to refrain from "judging" just by the art, I needed the whole thing to convey the spirit of the holiday.

The ink master Sean Von Gorman dazzled me and the rest of the fine people paying attention to this little contest. Even as people entered their submissions, I heard over and over, we can't beat that trick-or-treating lil' Neil!

We printed the bookmarks and I started sending them out to independent bookstores via twitter nominations. Many people asked if they could just buy them, and I offered them up free with any purchase from Neverwear. (yes, i got many orders for three dollar stickers-- & that's fine!)

Sean sketched up a full size print for me, and so we are doing a very small run of 500 of these. (I am sending Sean 100 of them, to have for his conventions etc.) They are on heavy point recycled stock, sized at 8" x 10" with a little snip of Neil's video explaining All Hallow's Read.

These will be presale priced at $18.95 for the next three days, and then they will go up to $28.00 on Saturday Oct.26th at midnight PST time. (*eighteen bucks is cheaper than an IMAX movie ticket!)

These will ship in a super protective sleeve, like the almost-gone, dearly beloved David Mack: I WILL WRITE IN WORDS OF FIRE prints did.

Sean sent me this prelim sketch, he knew I love to see the behind-the-scenes.

So! for anyone that buys the AHR print, (CLICK HERE to buy one!) we will throw in an All Hallow's Read bookmark:

and the Ayesha Rubio scared-skeletons-at-a-campfire-with-a-kittycat 4" x 6" full color sticker!

Spook yourself silly this All Hallow's! We plan on going to the Magic Castle...stay tuned for photos.

ps. edited to add the text that Sean lifted out of Neil's video description of the holiday:

The idea of it is incredibly simple this Halloween give somebody a scary book, to read. That’s the idea.

We're not saying don't give candy, candy is important, fake blood is important, Zombie teeth incredibly important… Err do they have Zombie teeth? If they have Zombie Teeth, they would be incredibly important.

The point is, give somebody a scary book. Give kids scary books that kids would like. Give adults scary books that adults would like. If you have friends give them scary book that friends would like.

Buy scary books for them, borrow scary books for them.

Get them second hand. Check them out of the library…

Spread the joy…

and the terror.

the All Hallow's Read contest results are in!

this judging business was not easy.

It brought me back to January of this year (lo, those 10 months ago) when Neil was doing his Calendar of Tales Blackberry stories, there was so much creativity and wit, he had some difficulty choosing the "best" when they were all splendid entries.

I put "best" in quotes, because these are apples and oranges, ladies & gentlemen.

With that in mind, I tried to go with what most conveyed the actual intended All Hallow's Read holiday tradition of giving scary books as candy. (or in an ideal world, along with)

i had initially put up three prizes for offer in the Neverwear contest rules blog. now, in no particular order) I wish to add four runner ups.

because-of-the-slippers, Nora Thompson:

the studious bride, Christina Clemins:

the ghost holding the "How to Spook" book by Tina Modugno:

Matthew Sheppard's raven on book:

runners up! You will each get a signed-by-Neil Anansi Boys bookmark and some other Neverwear goodies.

Please email me for details here: neverwear@gaiman.net

now the envelopes please:

third prize goes to the haunted skeleton babies of Ayesha Rubio:

second prize goes to the bewitching art of Kate Laird:

This should come as no real surprise. We announce Sean Von Gorman as the first prize winner. Not only did Sean nail the essence of what All Hallow's Read is about, he did it with humor and gorgeous lines. Look at that cartoon Neil Gaiman!

Plus everyone was sending me messages about it.

A Halloween home run, buddy!

i love this so much, i want to marry it.

Sincere thanks to everyone who entered. I stand humbled by your talents, all.

The entries are up on my tumblr page, if you wish to see them all, here's a link to the archives.

next contest (should I announce it now?? nah, maybe next week) will have more lead time and I will get a second judge.

Maybe even Neil himself will be kicking around.

I also wanted to leave with this piece, it doesn't really convey All Hallow's Read (to me, anyway) as it's really hard to read while hanging upside down (especially with no book) but i can't stop thinking about it. It reminds me of my Alfred Hitchcock book from when I was a kid...

special mention goes to Nathan Szerdy:

All Hallow's Read art contest--win some treasure!

calling all artists!

maybe I should say all artists that love graveyards, ghosties, nixies, goblins, tombstones, the lot of haunty-style Halloween spookiness as much as I do.

What I need is an 4" x 10" OR 4" x 6" image celebrating Neil Gaiman's All Hallow's Read holiday to turn into a bookmark & sticker. (this measurement is meant to be in inches, by the way)

You are invited to draw, paint, depict in ANY medium.

Three top prizes will be awarded: third place:

this very rare CORALINE press card, signed by mister Neil Gaiman.

second place:

this signed-by Neil very rare Craig Thompson Last Angel silkscreened print used to promote the COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND.

first prize:

$100 cash (greenbacks-wampum-moola-lettuce-dollahs!) and 100 stickers/bookmarks to use as you like.

I would only license this artwork, not own it. If i ever wanted to use it for anything else, I would have to renegotiate with the artist. everybody wins, in this one.

We want to SUPPORT THE ARTS.

CONTEST RULES: (there aren't many)

1. to enter, you can do one of three things:

*post your entry on this ALL HALLOW'S READ TUMBLR PAGE

or *email it to me: neverwear@gaiman.net

or *post it on the Neverwear facebook page: HERE.

2. you can enter AS MANY TIMES AS YOU LIKE. *FROM ANYWHERE ON THE PLANET!

3. you can send/post me a small res version, but if I pick yours, I will need a high-resolution file to print them up.

300 dpi 4" x 10" for the stickers--or if you like 4" x 6"--landscape or portrait view, any is fine!

think spooky, loves. it would be nice include "All Hallow's Read" somewhere on it (*actually, that's just a guideline-) THIS CONTEST IS OPEN UNTIL NEXT FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2013. (5 days before my birthday...)

Hold the phone: editor's note! I am going to amend the "rules" a bit, since I have gotten SO many emails/comments from worried frustrated artists. You can use WORDS as images, it's wide open. I have heard from a nice lady who wants to know if it's ok to use fabric, OF COURSE! anything that says SPOOKY to you! Photos are fine! Collage! Spraypainted macaroni! just MAKE GOOD ART as Boss wisely said.

Click here to get to the All Hallow's Read website.

even more wonderful things people have mailboxed to Neil Gaiman...

It's been a bonkers September, but now is the time to do a little mailbox round-up. Always a joy to see what people send through the postal services of the world.

When Neil lost his Tardis pin, he was a very sad best-selling author. Lucky for him, his pin came from the aptly-named Two wacky pin guys! They sent him a replacement Tardis pin, along with some other goodies, and issued this caveat: 3's the limit! (which i found hilarious, but it's easy to amuse me)

They included a photo taken on the Canadian leg of Neil's book tour, when Neil realizes who is standing in front of him...

here is a great envelope housing a letter from Germany..."no favors.."

some great books came in:

this ghostly one was actually a gift to me...thanks, Emily!

and a play.

the inscription was so great, I had to photograph it. As for SANDMAN being a play for the stage, talk to DC!

some of the beautiful art from Bethany's Song by Donald Juengling, the lettering is delicious. (i'm really picky about lettering, can stop me from reading a comic, sad but true)

Boss, you will want to read the letter that came with this card...

the new Hera! thank you, you Icelandic beauty.

A young American named Tyler stationed in Afghanistan sends this touching gift to Neil and Amanda from the Afghan bazaar, I sat there on the floor after I opened the very battered smashed-up box and almost cried. The heart opens in face of such kindnesses.

this little movie, Mouse and Grudge, I will watch tonight before sending on to NG, stop-motion by Reita Piecuch!!

this next one I believe I am going to submit as a selection for Neil's All Hallow's Read H'ween book giveaway. William Rosencrans brings back to life, the works of V.V. Swigferd Gloume.

I think it's a tie between Steve N. King & Clarve Biker for my favorite blurb!

Speaking of All Hallow's Read, I will announce a Neverwear contest for some spooky art, with some mighty yummy hard-to-find prizes.

stay tuned, as I tinker a bit on that end with the help of our beloved WebGoblin. Special thanks to Mr. Christopher Salmon of Silverfish Productions for haunting up the Neverwear blog, we will get a better look at that gravestone shortly...

an August mini-Neil mailbox

Part of my job is to field the mails for Neil. I really love this part, and try to keep up with the sliding avalanche that can be the mails. I have started a new "HOW TO MAIL NEIL GAIMAN" and it mocks me, unfinished on my desktop. I am boxing up many things to send off to the archives of Gaiman, some great things came in this week. There are also several things from ComicCon, that he just couldn't carry back with him.

look at this gorgeous Dr. Who timeline print, which I have just very carefully rolled up for safe time travel.

a little detail!

Line master P. Craig Russell & his right-hand man Wayne Alan Harold sent over TWO copies of the vol. 3 of the brilliant series Graphic Storytelling, one for each! (or maybe Wayne's imaginary child sent them, if you don't follow WAH on twitter, consider doing so: @WayneAlanHarold)

here is a bit of a sad post office case, even though they wrote DO NOT BEND in red marker, somewhere between the UK and Los Angeles, someone DID bend it mightily. It was meant to be Neil doodling on a Tardis, for @ArtVCancer, am sure that Boss can do some wonders on it-- In this case, we can learn that sending soft paper bits in a smooshy padded envelope with red protective charms written over it, doesn't always end well.

this so-charming letter comes with a question I have definitely asked of Neil...

and this beautiful book comes to us from the good people of Canongate, THE NOVEL CUREby Ella Berthoud & Susan Elderkin.

It is an A-Z guide to literary remedies and I think Neil will really enjoy it. His work is referenced three, count 'em, three times, for curative powers.

something in this book for everyone--

this arrived from Jane Rawson in Australia and I may be judging a book by its cover, but I love a good map.

wrapping this up, because Husband is home from his last stadium date of the Taylor Swift tour and I am taking him to Sunday brunch, this is the good part about being a roadie...coming home.

here's one for the road: