The beginning and creation of worlds so strange and astounding

       On November 10, 1960 Neil Gaiman was born in the town of Portchester, Hampshire, which is in the southern part of the United Kingdom. In 1965, his parents moved to the West Sussex town of East Grinstead. Neil first beagn reading from as early as four years old. From that moment on, he was completely hooked on reading. An avid reader, the authors that stood out to him were writers like, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Lewis Carroll. He also greatly enjoyed reading Batman comics. As he grew older he read works by authors like, Michael Moorcock, Edgar Allan Poe, and Rudyard Kupling and soon found himself venturing further and further into science fiction. He began reading the works of Alan Moore, Gene Wolfe, and H.P. Lovecraft and in his early twenties began a career in journalism. To me, Alan Moore and H.P. Lovecraft seem to be his greatest influences, crafting his complex fantastical characters, his dark Gothic plots, and his twists and turns that shock and suprise the reader all the way to the end of the story. The motive behind his career in journalism was to learn about the world and make important connections that might later help him get published. He conducted interviews and wrote many book reviews for magazines like, British Fantasy Society. The first of his stories to be published was a fantasy story called "Featherquest", and it was published in Imagine Magazine in 1984. In that same year, he would go on to write his first book, which was an autobiography of the band Duran Duran. He also wrote a book of quotations with fellow author Kim Newman called Ghastly Beyond Belief. When he tried to relinquish his rights to the book, he found that the publisher had went bankrupt. Soon after the publisher went bankrupt, he was offered a job by Penthouse, but he refused. He would go on writing articles for numerous magazines, some of them he wrote under a myriad of pseudonyms. His journalism came to an end though, when he decided that British newspapers could print anything, even if it were not factual. In the late 1980's he wrote a book that explored Douglas Adams' The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was called, Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion. But, after an incident in 1984 where he discovered Alan Moore's comic book "Swamp Thing", Gaiman soon gained a passion for comic books. After befriending Alan Moore himself, he decided to try his hand at being a comic book writer.
         In the mid 80's, Alan Moore began reviving an old title that ended in the 60's. The comic book was called Miracleman. Moore would write 16 issues until he left for other projects. Neil Gaiman stepped in and wrote for the series until the company that published it, Eclipse, collapsed in the 90's, which left the series unfinished. He also wrote, with collaboration with his long time friend Dave McKean, three graphic novels called Violent Cases, Signal to Noise, and The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch. In 1988, Gaiman would begin to write one of his most famous stories which was the comic book series, The Sandman. The series would run from October 1988 to March 1996. The story is centered around the main protagonist Dream, who is a human personification of dreams, and his struggles to right the wrongs he has made in his lifetime, after escaping an imprisonment which lasted for 70 years. The series has been greatly renowned for it's clever plot and its many allusions to historical figures, like Shakespeare and Geoffrey Chaucer. In 1990, Gaiman co-wrote a book with Terry Pratchett called Good Omens. The novel concerned the end times, and the coming of the apocalypse. It was kind of a parody of movies like The Omen. The story revolved around an angel named Aziraphale and the demon Crowley, who both want to put a stop to the end times because they are enjoying their lives in the human world. Gaiman has also written the comic book, The books of Magic, which is a book about a teenage boy who learns that his destiny is that he is to become the world's greatest wizard; and has written a story for Batman, called "Whatever happened to the Caped Crusader?". Neil Gaiman would move from his homeland, Great Britain, to Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1992, which would inspire the setting of his future novel, American Gods years later.
          In 1996, Neil Gaiman would write a novelization for his screenplay to the mini-series "Neverwhere". This would be his first solo novel and the story was about the struggles of a man named Richard Mayhew who finds himself non-existent to the world after he saves a young woman named Door. After losing everything, he travels to the world beneath London, known as London Below, and searches many odd places looking for Door. The novel became very popular, but not as popular, or as award winning as his second solo novel called American Gods. The novel centered around the many gods brought to the United States because of belief, and the new gods that attempt to take their places because of society's immense faith in them. It also follows the journey of an ex-convict, Shadow, who travels with the incarnation of Odin, with the mission of finding and recruiting the old gods to fight a war against the new gods. The book won five awards including the 2002 Hugo,Locust, Nebula, SFX Magazine, and the Bram Stoker Award. In 2006, Neil Gaiman wrote a novel that followed the two sons of Mr. Nancy, a character from American Gods, called Anansi Boys. Gaiman has also written a fairy tale fantasy novel called Stardust, a Fantasy and Science Fiction book, co-written with Michael Reaves, called InterWorld. He's also written novels for teens and younger ages such as Coraline, The Graveyard Book,The Wolves in the Walls, and many others. Gaiman has published many short stories, many of which are published in the books, Smoke and Mirrors, and Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders.
         Neil Gaiman's worlds are always expanding, as Mr. Gaiman announced that a sequel to American Gods is in the works and there are rumors that a television adaptation of American Gods is also in development.It is quite intriguing to see what new worlds Neil Gaiman will create and what new explorations will develop in the ones already born.Whatever new developments occur, I will be one of the first to purchase a ticket to experience the fantastic places and people that Mr. Gaiman so eloquently portrays through the magic of his writing.