The Sandman Cometh

With his Sandman series turning 20 this month, the publication of a biography about him, Prince of Stories (St. Martin’s Press) and a series of special appearances planned throughout the month (various locations), it seems only fitting that Neil Gaiman should celebrate a birthday smack dab in the middle of all the Gaimanish festivities.

Neil Gaiman was born on this day in 1960 in Porchester, England, the son of a company director and a pharmacist. Read January Magazine’s 2001 interview with Gaiman here. From the interview:

Whenever I do things because I want to do it and because it seems fun or interesting and so on and so forth, it almost always works. And it almost always winds up more than paying for itself. Whenever I do things for the money, not only does it prove a headache and a pain in the neck and come with all sorts of awful things attached, but I normally don't wind up getting the money, either. So, after a while, you do sort of start to learn [to] just forget about the things where people come to you and dangle huge wads of cash in front of you. Go for the one that seems interesting because, even if it all falls apart, you've got something interesting out of it. Whereas, the other way, you normally wind up getting absolutely nothing out of it.

A review of Prince of Stories: the Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman is here. The author’s own Web site is here.