McKean, Dave Books

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 46 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

big wind-up, no finish 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Perhaps the rave reviews here are because this book actually makes sense as part of some larger series by this author. If you aren't familiar with the complete Gaiman, tho', you might find this book hugely disappointing. It starts really well, with a small boy escaping his family's murder and being taken in by ghosts in a graveyard, but you'll never get any real answers. Why were his parents killed? (It has to do with an unexplained prophecy, and you never find out why this kid, or who made the prophecy, or why it matters.) He's run afoul of a secret society, but who they really are, or why we should care, or what they do when they're not threatening this kid, is never explained either. Most of the action at the end is unexplained, off-screen deus ex machina involving some group called the Honour Guard (nope, you guessed it-- you won't find out who they are or why they care either). Is it supposed to be a prequel? Is it supposed to make sense? Or is it a colossal rip-off and a total waste of time? The ghost scenes were good, but for a book with ghosts that actually makes sense and has an ending, you might try Alive in Necropolis... this is just the author making $$ for nothing, I thought.

Editorial Review:

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.

He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.

But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family. . . .

Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, the graveyard book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.

The Absolute Sandman, Vol. 2

Neil Gaiman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A MUST 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If you like sandman, just a little, so you MUST have this absolute, its needless to say that it is unworldly beautyful, the kind of item that any sandman fan have (they don't have the option: "not to have", if (s)he don't have, (s)he isn't a real fan). It's full with Extras more than 100 pages of mindblowing Sandman's extras.
Really a Top "Must Have" I already have garanteed tne other 2.

Editorial Review:

THE SANDMAN, written by New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman, was the most acclaimed comic book title of the 1990s. A rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, THE SANDMAN is also

widely considered one of the most original and artistically ambitious series of the modern age. By the time it concluded in 1996, it had made significant contributions to the artistic maturity of comic books and had become a pop culture phenomenon in its own right.

Now, DC Comics is proud to present this comics classic in an all-new Absolute Edition format. The second of four beautifully designed slipcased volumes, THE ABSOLUTE SANDMAN VOL. 2 collects twenty tales of THE SANDMAN and features completely new coloring, approved by the author, as well as never-before-seen extra material.

Coraline Movie Tie-in Edition

Neil Gaiman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

"The message is this. Don't go through the door" 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Nobody can drench a book in creepy, dank atmosphere like Neil Gaiman -- and it doesn't matter if it's a kid's book.

And "Coraline" -- now being released as a movie -- is no exception to Gaiman's track record. It's a haunting little dark fairy tale full of decayed apartments, dancing rats and eerie soulless doppelgangers, as well as a gutsy heroine who finds herself in this ominous "other" world.

Newly moved into an aged apartment, Coraline (not "Caroline" is bored. Her parents are too busy to do anything with her, and her neighbors are either insane or boring.

It's the sort of relentlessly dull world that any little girl would want to escape from -- until Coraline does. She encounters a formerly bricked-up door that leads into an apartment in another world, which looks eerily like her own. In fact, it's so similar that she has a taloned, button-eyed "other mother" and matching "other father," as well as a chorus of singing, dancing rats and magical toys.

At first Coraline is fascinated by the other world, especially since her other parents are very attentive. Then she finds her real parents sealed inside a mirror. With the help of a sarcastic cat, Coraline ventures back into the other world. But with her parents and a trio of dead children held hostage, Coraline's only hope is to gamble with her own freedom -- and she'll be trapped forever if she fails.

Without Neil Gaiman's touch, "Coraline" would just be another story about a kid who learns to appreciate her parents. But he infuses this story with a dark fairy-tale vibe -- decayed apartments, dead children in a mirror, beetles, disembodied hands, monsters that cling to the wall with souls in their grip, and rats that sing about how "we were here before you rose, we will be here when you fall."

That dark, cobwebby atmosphere clings to the increasingly nightmarish plot, as Coraline navigates a world where the other mother has every advantage. And Gaiman's wordcraft is exquisitely horrible -- the other mother's hands are compared to spiders, her hair to undersea tentacles. And the fate of the other father is a magnificently ghastly thing.

He even infuses poetry into the horror ("A husk you'll be, a wisp you'll be, and a thing no more than a dream on waking, or a memory of something forgotten"), and a fair amount of macabre humour ("I swear it on my own mother's grave." "Does she have a grave?" "Oh yes. I put her in there myself. And when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back").

Coraline herself is a wonderful little heroine -- strong, sensible, self-sufficient but still fairly freaked out about what is happening around her. The sarcastic cat is a wonderful counterpoint. And the other mother is the stuff of nightmares -- she's utterly inhuman and merciless -- who "wants something to love. Something that isn't her. She might want something to eat as well."

Neil Gaiman creates eerie, slightly warped worlds like nobody else, and he does an exquisitely horrible job in "Coraline." Just never go through the door.

Editorial Review:

When Coraline explores her new home, she steps through a door and into another house just like her own . . . except that it's different. It's a marvelous adventure until Coraline discovers that there's also another mother and another father in the house. They want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to keep her forever!

Coraline must use all of her wits and every ounce of courage in order to save herself and return home.

Death: The High Cost of Living

Neil Gaiman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 61 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

light and fluffy story 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

For all that I adore Neil Gaiman, I've never gotten into 'Sandman'. It's mostly that graphic novels have never done anything for me. I don't mind them, per se, but they've never been interesting or captivating for me. I can't get into the differences between different pencillers and letterers and artists. Aside from the big obvious things, I just don't see a difference. I started to read this only because I've enjoyed all of his novels and short stories.

It's fair to say that I enjoyed the story. It's a day-in-the-life story of Death's centennial 24-hour mortal holiday. Along the way, she meets three people who are looking for Death, but only two of them know that they are dealing with Death.

I never really got into it the story here. It was pretty light and fluffy. It's not a story that will stick with me. It won't stop me from giving 'Sandman' another go in the future, but it definitely hasn't convinced me to move it up in my to-read queue either. As far as Neil's work goes, I would recommend Stardust long before I recommended reading this.

Editorial Review:

/Neil Gaiman /Dave McKean, Chris Bachalo and /Mark Buckingham, illustrators From the pages of THE SANDMAN LIBRARY Neil Gaiman tells the story of the one day every hundred years when Death, older sister of The Sandman, walks among humans to gain a better understanding of.

Coraline

Neil Gaiman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 351 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Coraline lives with her preoccupied parents in part of a huge old house--a house so huge that other people live in it, too... round, old former actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible and their aging Highland terriers ("We trod the boards, luvvy") and the mustachioed old man under the roof ("'The reason you cannot see the mouse circus,' said the man upstairs, 'is that the mice are not yet ready and rehearsed.'") Coraline contents herself for weeks with exploring the vast garden and grounds. But with a little rain she becomes bored--so bored that she begins to count everything blue (153), the windows (21), and the doors (14). And it is the 14th door that--sometimes blocked with a wall of bricks--opens up for Coraline into an entirely alternate universe. Now, if you're thinking fondly of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, you're on the wrong track. Neil Gaiman's Coraline is far darker, far stranger, playing on our deepest fears. And, like Roald Dahl's work, it is delicious.

What's on the other side of the door? A distorted-mirror world, containing presumably everything Coraline has ever dreamed of... people who pronounce her name correctly (not "Caroline"), delicious meals (not like her father's overblown "recipes"), an unusually pink and green bedroom (not like her dull one), and plenty of horrible (very un-boring) marvels, like a man made out of live rats. The creepiest part, however, is her mirrored parents, her "other mother" and her "other father"--people who look just like her own parents, but with big, shiny, black button eyes, paper-white skin... and a keen desire to keep her on their side of the door. To make creepy creepier, Coraline has been illustrated masterfully in scritchy, terrifying ink drawings by British mixed-media artist and Sandman cover illustrator Dave McKean. This delightful, funny, haunting, scary as heck, fairy-tale novel is about as fine as they come. Highly recommended. (Ages 11 and older) --Karin Snelson

Coraline: The Movie Collector's Edition

Neil Gaiman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Coraline went exploring one day . . .

Her family has just moved to a completely new town, and so Coraline already feels a bit strange. In her new house there is one door that opens onto a brick wall. At least, it does until one day the bricks are gone and Coraline finds herself stepping over the threshold into another house . . . a house that's just like hers.

At first things appear marvelous in this other house. The food is better. The toy box is filled with windup angels that flutter about, books whose pictures crawl and shimmer, and little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there's another mother and another father—and they want Coraline to be their little girl and stay with them forever. They want to change her and never let her go.

Other children are also trapped, as lost souls behind a mirror, and Coraline is their only hope. She will have to find a way to meet the other mother's challenge in order to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.

The Wolves in the Walls

Neil Gaiman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 62 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Truth be told, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's picture book The Wolves in the Walls is terrifying. Sure, the story is fairytale-like and presented in a jaunty, casually nonsensical way, but it is absolutely the stuff of nightmares. Lucy hears wolves hustling, bustling, crinkling, and crackling in the walls of the old house where her family lives, but no one believes her. Her mother says it's mice, her brother says bats, and her father says what everyone seems to say, "If the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over." Lucy remains convinced, as is her beloved pig-puppet, and her worst fears are confirmed when the wolves actually do come out of the walls.

Up to this point, McKean's illustrations are spectacular, sinister collages awash in golden sepia tones evocative of the creepy beauty in The City of Lost Children. The wolves explode into the story in scratchy pen-and-ink, all jaws and eyes. The family flees to the cold, moonlit garden, where they ponder their future. (Her brother suggests, for example, that they escape to outer space where there's "nothing but foozles and squossucks for billions of miles.") Lucy wants to live in her own house...and she wants the pig-puppet she left behind.

Eventually she talks her family into moving back into the once-wolfish walls, where they peek out at the wolves who are watching their television and spilling popcorn on slices of toast and jam, dashing up the stairs, and wearing their clothes. When the family can't stand it anymore, they burst forth from the walls, scaring the wolves, who shout, "And when the people come out of the walls, it's all over!" The wolves flee and everything goes back to normal...until the tidy ending when Lucy hears "a noise that sounded exactly like an elephant trying not to sneeze." Adult fans of this talented pair will revel in the quirky story and its darkly gorgeous, deliciously shadowy trappings, but the young or faint of heart, beware! (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson

The Homecoming (Wonderfully Illustrated Short Pieces)

Ray Bradbury

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Editorial Review:

Illustrated classics for adults! Here, Collins Design's WISP series pairs two legendary creators–writer Ray Bradbury and artist Dave McKean–to create an irresistible package perfect for Halloween and all year 'round.

The WISP series (Wonderfully Illustrated Short Pieces) represents an ingenious marriage of two creative forces: the artistry of today's foremost illustrators and the literary legacy of beloved authors of popular short works for adults. The resulting offspring of this union are captivating, full–color illustrated editions of timeless classics that readers will want to savor and collect.

For the first time ever, the series makes selected popular short works previously offered only in collections available in a unique, stand–alone format. Also for the first time, WISPs harness the talents of top illustrators for the benefit and delight of a new, older audience.

This WISP presents Ray Bradbury's The Homecoming, a little boy's tale of his family reunion of vampires. This story was initially published in 1946 and later refashioned into further stories. Bringing this story to life are the wondrous illustrations of Dave McKean, whose delightful artwork perfectly matches the tale.

These one–of–a–kind, attractively priced and invitingly formatted illustrated editions will make a great impulse buy and appeal to a broad audience.

Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman

Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For over twenty years Neil Gaiman has been one of the world's bestselling authors, and his loyal following is like none other. But no one has ever undertaken the daunting challenge of cataloging and researching every work the man has ever created. Until now.

In Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman, Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden, and Stephen R. Bissette take the reader on a detailed look at the man and his creations. Highlights include interviews with the author himself, collected rare works and previously unpublished writing, photographs, artwork, and conversations with Gaiman's beloved collaborators. Every story and every character are featured at length in this amazing overview of an incredible career. Gaiman's own comments are scattered throughout, shedding light on how he feels about the work he has created

Whether you're new to the worlds of Neil Gaiman or a long time traveler who knows these roads by heart, there is something new for everyone in this magnificent special edition of Prince of Stories. Exclusive to this oversized hardcover edition are a special introduction that won't appear anywhere else and several other amazing bonus features we can't discuss just yet! This is going to be the publishing event of the year and we don't expect copies to last long!

Cages

Dave McKean

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great Characters, But A Story Would Help 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Okay, well there's lots of things to say about this book. On first glance, Dave McKean's artistic style seems rough and unskilled. But I knew him from the amazing images he put together for the Sandman series. And as I read this book, I saw how behind all the scribbly lines was a clear vision, and the ability to portray emotions and scenes with precision. And yet it's not beautiful. It's scribbly and rough.

His storyboarding is amazing. He can show time and movement and emotion incredibly well. He uses the medium of comics in an expert manner.

The characters are interesting, and the dialogue is very authentic and real. You can sink yourself into any scene and believe it. He paints the characters in terms of their words and emotions as well as he depicts their movement, the passage of time, and the images behind the images. It feels much like Gaiman's work. There's an intimacy of character that draws you in, past any dislike you may have of the artistic style at first.

But what I didnt like, and the reason I gave it a 3, is that there isnt an overall story. McKean hints at a story, and brings in elements with a lot of potential, from the supernatural to gods and conspiracies, but he doesnt go anywhere with them or attempt to explain them or justify their existence in the story. It's as if he read imaginative stories all day long and this was the confusing, odd dream he had afterwards. I kept hoping he'd weave it all together in the end, but he doesnt. It meanders without purpose. The telling is good, but what is it telling? I really dont know. And thus, it is unsatisfying.

Editorial Review:

One of the all-time best and most highly acclaimed graphic novels ever is now, finally, back in print! The first print was a quick sell-out from Kitchen Sink before they disappeared. Dave McKean, famous for Arkham Asylum and his covers for Sandman, presents a highly allegorical tale of the dwellers of an apartment building. They each have their own lives, their own takes on life and these intertwine and relate inevitably to each other in ways that make life¹s mystery. Running in parallel lines or tangentially, the differing lives each have their own tale to tell under the magic spin of McKean¹s brilliant imagery and story-telling. It¹s about a blocked painter, a controversial novelist and a wise musician. It may be about God, about jazz, about sex, but also about creativity and artistic fulfillment. A seminal work that proved, rather refreshingly without artifice, how thought-provoking comic art can be.