Talk:Neil Gaiman

I would like a reference on this allegation that Strazinsky has alleged that the masks of the "Gaim" on his Babylon 5 series were NOT based on the Sandman mask? I find it extremely hard to believe that a race of aliens called "THE GAIM" bearing a mask that looks nearly identical to the Sandman mask were not intentionally created as such.

Without digging too deeply into the matter, I would point out that one of Gaiman's goals with the Dream mask was to resemble the gas mask worn by the Golden Age Sandman, and thus the similarities could be due to the common source of WW2 gas masks... Snowspinner 02:46, Jun 27, 2004 (UTC)

As I understand it, they were created as just another alien species. Maybe the makeup folks had Dream in mind, maybe they had Dodds in mind, or maybe it was just coincidence. Then someone noticed the similarity and nicknamed them; the name stuck and was made official. --Tverbeek 13:35, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

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I removed the categories classifying Gaimain as a cartoonist and comics artist, because he doesn't do either of those professionally. Yes, he can draw OK, he reportedly doodles every script he writes, and he's allowed one self-drawn comic (done as a creative challenge) to be published, but he's not known for drawing, any more than I am known as a stage actor. --Tverbeek 13:35, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

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I would argue that the first paragraph should not mention science fiction, as (apart from the one Babylon 5 episode) Gaiman has never really been involved in SF. I would like to change this to something like 'fantasy and horror'. I don't want to step on anyone's toes though so let me know if you disagree!--Dreamday 20:58, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Some people consider superheroes to be a form of SF, and he's done some work in spandex (the characters, not him) that isn't really "horror" or "fantasy". He's won a few SF awards, I believe. But you're right; he's not generally known as a "sci fi writer". If I had to peg a genre on him I'd say "fantasy" but note that he routinely works in the adjacent/overlapping genres of SF, supers, horror, and kid lit. Tverbeek 16:01, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

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Does anyone know how to pronounce his last name? Perhaps it's obvious with a British accent, but it's not at all self-evident to me. grendel|khan 09:17, 2005 Feb 12 (UTC)

I still tend pronounce the first syllable "Guy", having long done so, nearly rhyming it with "Diamond" but by most accounts it seems to be pronounced like "Gay"; I might have even heard him pronounce it like that in a sound file once, but am not certain of that. ~ Rumour 09:59, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Let's put it this way: When, in 1997, he was accepting an award from GLAAD for his comic Death: The Time of Your Life, he commented that it was the first time he had ever heard people cheering the correct pronunciation of his last name. :-) So yes, it's pronounced "gay-man." (or "gaymun," depending) --Ray Radlein 10:05, Feb 12, 2005 (UTC)

It seems many people are skittish about pronouncing his name that way, because of what it sorta sounds like, but A) that doesn't seem to bother him, and B) it's correct. It rhymes with Cayman (as in Cayman Islands) and is roughly homophonous with gamin' (casual pronunciation of the gerund form of the verb to game). Tverbeek 16:12, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Or we could, instead of speculating, consult Mr. Gaiman.  :-) http://www.neilgaiman.com/faq/faq.asp#gaiman Koyaanis Qatsi 23:28, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)