a long overdue Neil MailBox...

I almost forgot how to format a blog, it has been so long. my apologies!

This summer Jonas tour was particularly heavy duty. It seems like none of us ever got caught up on much more than the day-to-day living. It was a fabulous crew though, we had a massive good time together.



Directly after the tour ended, Drew & I flew back east for a whirlwind week of Washington/Baltimore/Virginia... I am home now and trying to sort through the GIANT pile of Neil mail that has accumulated.



Neil is back now too, so all timing is wonderful. Will also gather the photos and start up the Neverwear magnet contests again...
( follow me on Twitter.com @neverwear )




Here are just a few of the beautiful things that have turned up in the post box:

this collection of stories from Serbia sent by Drasko...




there is a stunning sweater with a hidden pixie and hidden kitten in the stitching, 100% wool and sent from the talented Sarah in Santa Monica...she describes the color as "black-as-the-gates-of-hell" and oh, it is a beauty. My photo does it no justice.



from the imagination of John Kovalic comes the extra-cute MY LITTLE CTHULHU complete with mini-minions for him to grip...



Miss Lindsay, one of Neil's most ardent fans, sends this delicate portrait of one of my favorite characters, Matthew the raven:



oh, yes, and look who won yet another award...!



there is much more, including an adorable kittytoy present for Lorraine, but let's not push it, the heat here in LA is unbelievable and all this typing and sitting still is making me dizzy.
I promise, you beautiful readers, to never take this long of a leave of absence.
will post travel photos and tour blog on the FurryTiger site soon.
meanwhile, i will sign off with the grave of Edgar Allan Poe, one of our stops while in Baltimore...

Jonas tour 2009 part one

we are running hard to get the show up and taking care of the crew...
i only have photos...

the truck bay in Dallas Cowboys Stadium, we were here for a long rehearsal time before the first show:



I felt like i was in the lair of the enemy, having grown up with fans of the Washington Redskins, but everyone was super-size sweet.
There were Cowboy stars on everything, including the napkins.

when our buses rolled in, on showday, we found that we have a female busdriver...my first one! here is Richard, skyping back to NZ,
in front of our bus. They are all named after songs, since we have so many, ours is called "Gimme 3 Steps" which is a little strange.



we had a nighttime pool party after rehearsals were done:



my stagemanager Brian bought a Harley & had it delivered:



we headed west from Dallas and I got to see my sister for just a short time, we had a Denver lunch and she revived my flagging spirit.
thanks, seester. so much!





here is Catherine, my co-worker, in front of her favorite number:



here is Danny in Idaho, before we loaded in. See how empty the floor is. I meant to do a before & after, the arena was filed to the ceiling with people and stage...



meanwhile back in LA, the sad news of Michael Jackson came through the phone via Drew and Red who had been working his rehearsals for several weeks. Here is Drew loading out Staples Center, taken for me by miss Red:



here is a photo I took of him right before I left, with all the poster tube boxes slated to house the HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES prints, miss Klie is sitting at the top of the heap:




fairy lights in my bus bunk:



Nancye & William came to see me in Portland, again, no photos like with my sister, it was too whirlwind, but i did snap this in the morning on the way into the building:



sockeye salmon in Portland, chef Kirby prepares:



we stayed a night in Vancouver after we crossed into Canada:



my nice dinner after show:



we drove over to Edmonton yesterday, just beautiful:





Canadian truckstop!



as we headed north, it stayed lighter and lighter, this is my hotel room at 9:30 pm. in Vancouver:



just a fraction of our trucks:


for Durett:



Spinal Tap hallway:





the big loadout:



more soon, young Kevin got engaged yesterday, everyone is very happy for him...now off to work!

Happy Birthday Dad!

My Dad came over to America to escape war-torn Greece when he was 16 years old, speaking very little English, more handsome than Laurence Olivier.



He mixed his own personal philosophies with ancient Greek sensibilities and to this day, never fails to entertain & enlighten all fortunate enough to cross his path.

He had the good luck to meet & marry my Mom, and they have been together since they were in their twenties. A reward for a life well lived? I believe, yes.

Today is his 79th birthday... There is an old teaching that dictates that the unborn soul chooses the parents it needs to learn from, not certain which religion or faith this came from, but I know, I chose wisely.

Happy birthday, Daddy!
(shown here last month with Daisy, my sister's parakeet)

new print: HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES

from the imagination of Camilla d'Errico comes a dreamy vision of the otherworldly "girls" from Neil Gaiman's HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES short story which you can read HERE:

this is the snippet she illustrated...

"I will never forget that moment, or forget the expression on Stella's face as she watched Vic hurrying away from her. Even in death I shall remember that. Her clothes were in disarray, and there was makeup smudged across her face, and her eyes-
You wouldn't want to make a universe angry.
I bet an angry universe would look at you with eyes like that."

Until midnight tonight (west coast time), this gorgeous full-color print will be sold at $35.00
and then it goes back up to $45.00. limited run of 1200, numbered. 12" x 18" They are at the printers now.
expect them at your door in approx. ten days time...

here is our artist at work...



this is a print you can fall in love with, you might take this print out to expensive sushi...
but you will be gazing into the eyes of these lovely ladies...just don't make them angry...

They will be shipped in a bullet-proof shield made of recycled cardboard. Your postal carrier will be intrigued.



We are donating 10% of the poster price to the CBLDF. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is out fighting crimes against our important Constitutional rights, so to support them is our pleasure.



Thanks all!

****THIS LIMITED EDITION FULL-COLOR PRINT WILL SELL OUT QUICKLY.
(SAVE TEN BUCKS IF YOU ORDER TODAY UNTIL MIDNIGHT WEST COAST TIME--THEN THEY GO BACK UP TO $45.00)
CLICK NEVERWEAR TO ORDER YOURS.
we dream about you....

a prize for your clever ideas...

we have announced the newest NEVERWEAR tee designed by Olga.
I am putting up a contest, with the winner getting a solidly gorgeous signed-by-Mr.-Neil-Gaiman limited edition SAUCERS print. (We only have about 75 of these prints left! you can still buy them HERE)
{note: they come unsigned though, which is why you want to give this contest a crack...get out your thinking caps...}



CONTEST DETAILS:
I am thinking of where and how to market this clever new shirt, and i thought I would ask you clever people.
One example i already got, advertise in Cat Fancy magazine.
That's good, but let's do some lateral thinking.
You can either:
a. email me the ideas here: neverwear@gaiman.net
b. post comments here on the blog
c. go to to twitpic and comment on this photo , i will receive the comments as a twitter...


You have a week, on June 4th, I will post ideas here and we can pick the finest of the fine.
thanks all.
here is the tshirt:

Neil mailbox part 3 (and #teapix winner)

several things came in recently, and i wanted to post them up while waiting (patiently) for the new Neverwear site to go live...

a foxy artcar with a foxy artist leaning upon it:






a pinky ring came from young Sara in Saskatewan for Neil that I covet:



Tyler wearing his Scary Trousers tee so well....



getting-big miss Selina Kyle helping out with the mail call, in her own p.o.box:






i thought i had announced the #teapix winner:

grande prize:
@shonaP87 Don't you wish that sometimes your tea leaves would be just a little more specific?



contact me for your prize!

this little Vampirella magnet went out to Nikki K for her entry of favorite comic book character (there were so many great entries)
she got me with her love for Destruction of the Endless, who has always been one of my favorites...(Sherpa, thought you'd enter with Conan!)




so back to the subject of the new website...



Olga Nunes (the former WebElf) and Dan (the present WebGoblin) have been working for over 7 months to get the live & shiny new NEVERWEAR site ready for you lovely readers...

The WebGoblin Dan is doing Guest of Honor handling at Balticon, I am in Vegas for the weekend, Neil is somewhere off the grid (i miss him, but you can see an stunning moonbeam photo of him w/Cabal by by Kyle Cassidy), Olga is out giving song-filled interviews,
Dr. Wicked is working on updating my furrytiger site...it is exactly like a hive of bees, but we don't sting so much and Quiche is the queen....

in other news:
we are about to announce this new Coraline cat tee designed by Olga, watch the skies for the website to go live...hopefully today:

VAMPIRELLA, are you my mother?

have been doing a contest a week over on Twitter.com
writing as @Neverwear

the newest contest up is to win this Vampirella magnet:



I want to know your favorite comic book character and why.
Will leave this up until Sunday May 17th (day after my brother’s bday!)

Last week’s contest was to tell me your favorite ANANSI BOYS quote.
winner Dawn from Canada submitted this (as did Em, but 5 days later):

"You're no help," he told the lime. This was unfair. It was only a lime; there was nothing special about it at all. It was doing the best it could."

this Sandman magnet is going across American borders to live with her:



and the winner of the week before was the lovely Muted Dragon,
correctly identifying where this comic panel originated:



she wrote in:
World's Finest, issue #175
May 1968
Featuring "The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads!"

now do you see why I spilt many a diamond tear over my water-logged comic collection?
oh well, i gave them new life as art...

you all really seemed to like the “name the comic” contest.
...maybe another one of those next week?

meanwhile on the case of #100K Twitter contest that Neil posted. The winner was @Middlesmith
with the entry of "There was a hand in the rain, and it held a milk bone..." riffing on the opening line of GRAVEYARD BOOK.
I did a "doodle" of this entry and posted it on the GILLIAN ANDERSON (Scully from X-Files) charity website My writing partner Ethan did one as well.
I love his version of The Drunken Angel, an old Japanese classic.

And here is the link to the entire auction, including a doodle by Clive Barker...meow! (do you think i covered all the bases??) Please help them out and bid....


Olga Nunes, our resident design queen, who lives in London and runs The Fabulist
is hard at work with Dan Guy/Web Goblin to make the new Neverwear site come alive.
We are waiting patiently. The amount of work is triple, nay quadruple than first thought, sorry web geniuses...

Olga is also designing the “Cats don’t need names....we know who we are” tee, from Neil’s haunting CORALINE. It looks gorgeous so far, we are just working out logistics & should be able to announce it shortly.

now off to finally finish my Aquaman/genii tattoo. photos soon!