THIS WEEK IN NERD

In which Ashley breaks down nerdier corners of pop culture.

NERD SPOTLIGHT-

Neil Gaiman

Ladies and gents, I present to you, Neil Gaiman. Neil is quite possibly my favorite author of all time and is a well-known name in comic books, graphic novels, television, movies, and most of all, books.

Ok, big deal. Why is he in the Nerd Spotlight? In honor of the most current buzz about the film adaptation of the best-selling DC comic book series, The Sandman, I feel that he’s about to be the “next big thing” since Joss Whedon. Even though he’s had success in the past,  most of his work is hugely underrated. One of the reasons being, he creates these dark characters and storylines, but focuses on the moral goodness of these characters no matter how dark they are; which makes his work more robust than others (*cough* Tim Burton) and a lot less creepy (*cough* TIM BURTON).

Artwork from The Sandman comic book series

I was first introduced to Gaiman’s works a few years ago when one of my friends practically begged me to read the novel, American Gods, because “it’s amazeballs.” After reading it, I agreed – it truly is amazeballs. The fiction novel has won several awards and ties in modern-day America with mythology from around the world. Word on the street is that there’s going to be a television series adaptation, which I think would actually transfer well.

I then ran into Gaiman’s work again while perusing through Marvel comics (yes, I was a Marvel snob and only read Marvel comics…I have since changed my ways) at the local comic book store, and picked up a graphic novel called Marvel 1602. 1602  is about a bunch of Marvel characters (Fantastic 4, Professor Xavier and his team of X-men, Nick Fury, Daredevil, and Dr. Doom are some of them) that exist in the year of….you guessed it, 1602. It’s one of the few comics in which I didn’t see the plot twist coming from a mile away. Though his claim-to-fame comic series was The Sandman, which has been on the New York Times Best Seller list, he’s also worked on some Batman, Green Lantern, Spawn, Hellraiser, and Judge Dredd comics.

That pretty much covers his comic book accomplishments, but wait, THERE’S MORE. Ever heard of the movies Stardust, Beowolf, or Coraline? Yeah, he wrote those too. Beowolf was not necessarily ground-breaking, but Coraline was freaking awesome. As you can probably tell, I’m not a huge fan of Tim Burton, so to see someone else write a Burton-esque story and not totally creep me out is a huge win. Stardust was enjoyable as well, but whoever did the screenplay wrote it a little too light-hearted for a Gaiman adaptation. He has also written some episodes of Doctor Who and The Simpsons.

The movie, Coraline

Now, just to add to his nerdy awesomeness, he not only writes comic books and delves into the science-fiction/fantasy genres, but he even wrote, Don’t Panic: The Official Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion. Hitchhiker’s is probably one  of the best  sci-fi series out there by far.

 In short, read American Gods, The Sandman comic series,  and watch Coraline  if you haven’t already. You’ll thank me later for all the awesomeness.

Later nerds! – AK