Neil Gaiman Gets Animated as a Half Breed Cat on Arthur

Neil Gaiman is set to make a visit to Elwood City for a Halloween week guest appearance as himself on the animated PBS series Arthur. Well, himself if he was spliced with some cat DNA.

Gaiman’s role comes in an episode called “Falafelosophy,” inspiring one of the kids who’s interested in writing and illustrating a graphic novel. It’s paired with what sounds like a suitable companion story, “Tales of the Grotesquely Grim Bunny,” about changes on the shelves at the local comic shop. 

 

“With luck,” the Sandman author blogged a couple weeks back, “it’ll have kids all over the world making their own little graphic novels, and will usher in the dawn of a new golden age of comics and creativity.”

All that's going to happen from a single guest appearance on Arthur?  Really?

I confess that in the world of animated TV shows, I've always thought Arthur was, well he kind of sucks. Even my kids agree with me, and they'd watch just about anything on TV.

But it's still cool to see comic book writers cross over into the world of mainstream media, especially for the Gaiman fans of the world. 

But if Gaiman thinks he's going to save the world of comic books with this appearance, or that this is a cooler appearance than Alan Moore, Dan Clowes and Art Speigelman doing a comic book store signing in an episode of the Simpsons, then he's clearly dreaming.

TV Series In The Works For Neil Gaiman’s ‘Sandman’

Warner Bros. TV is in the early stages of developing a television series based on the popular Neil Gaiman comic book series Sandman.

WB is currently in the process of acquiring the television rights to Sandman from sister company DC Entertainment, which owns Vertigo, the imprint that published the comic book series from 1989 until 1996.

The company is also in talks with several writer-producers to adapt the award-winning series for television, apparently with Eric Kripke, creator of the CW television series Supernatural, at the top of their list of choices.

Sandman adaptations have been stuck in development hell over the past two decades with a movie version of the series planned in the early 1990s by frequent Gaiman collaborate Roger Avary, but that fell through. There had even been talks earlier this year of bringing the series to HBO, but that didn't work out either. Back in March, Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn, who adapted Gaiman's Stardust for the big screen, expressed interest in doing a Sandman cable TV series and even spoke with Gaiman about his ideas, but nothing ever came of it.

 Source: Geeks of Doom

Gaiman and MacFarlane in Legal Battle Over Spawn

Superman vs. Lex Luthor?  Batman vs. Joker? Neither compare to REAL comic book rivalry of Neil Gaiman vs. Todd MacFarlane.

It's the most epic copyright infringement clash yet, featuring two of the industry's biggest titans battling it out over the rights to specific characters.

Gaiman is the bigger star, thanks to his classic comics series Sandman.  But in the 1990s, MacFarlane was no slouch: his comic series Spawn led to a 1997 film adaptation that grossed nearly $100 million worldwide, a line of action figures and an HBO series. Back when Spawn was launching, he and Gaiman collaborated on creating three supporting characters: Medieval Spawn; Angela, a red-haired angel; and Cogliostro, a one-time Spawn ally.