Hanging Out with the Dream King

If you're looking for a comprehensive source of interviews about Neil Gaiman, this is probably the best book out there. It focuses on his collaborations with other artists, writers, and musicians, but these conversations give a good viewpoint into the working life of Gaiman himself. As a trivia sourcebook, it is also filled with all kinds of witty anecdotes and little known facts, so any fan of Gaiman and his collaborators is sure to learn a lot.

Joseph McCabe’s Hanging Out with the Dream King: Conversations with Neil Gaiman and His Collaborators features interviews that McCabe did with Gaiman, artist Dave McKean, DC/Vertigo editor Karen Berger, Sandman artists Sam Keith, Mike Dringenberg, Kelley Jones, Charles Vess, and Colleen Doran, muscians Tori Amos and Alice Cooper, and author Terry Pratchett, among many others. The interviews primarily focus on the creation and production of the Sandman series, but also examine other elements of Gaiman’s oeuvre up to that point, including Stardust and Good Omens. McCabe includes examples of artists’ work with the relevant interviews to show how each approached Gaiman’s characters. Some of the art and photographs were unpublished show more prior to this volume. This, coupled with the insight these interviews offer into the late-1980s/early-1990s comics scene make this a must-read for fans of Gaiman and comic book historians alike. show less

I would recommend this volume strictly to all-time fans of The Sandman.

If you're looking for insight information or interesting anecdotes on Gaiman's novels, this is not your book.

My favourite passage: The interview with Mark Dringenberg, in which he reveals what inspired him to create the image of Death as we know her.

My least favourite passage: The many passages in which the collaborators recall in detail telephone conversations with each other, arguments, clashes...

Very interesting and fascinating look behind the making of the Sandman graphic novels. Next to an interview with the master himself, it includes interviews with pretty much everybody who worked on the series or has worked with Gaiman on other things.

This book is a set of interviews to all the collaborators to Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and also to other works. If The Sandman Companion was focused on the details, motivations and cross references inside it, this one being an interviews book has its focus on the creative process of each one of the people involved in it.

It is an enjoyable and curious reading for Gaiman's hardcore admirers.

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See my blog post on it:

http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2005/10/booknote-hanging-out-with-dream-king....

Neil Gaiman's Sandman bestimmte die Comicszene der 80er und 90er Jahre als ein sehr elaboriertes Werk für anspruchsvollere Leser mit. In diesem Buch kommen er, seine Weggefährten sowie Kollegen aus anderen Kollaborationen zu Wort.