"Where's Neil When You Need Him?"

Album Cover art by Dave McKean

The Fabulist, a cool website to find really rockin' stuff you never thought you needed but you will eventually want to buy anyways (hehe), has an mp3 of one of the tracks in the "Where's Neil When You Need Him" tribute CD.

"Raven Star" by Lunascape (inspired by "Stardust")
Click here to download.

"Where's Neil When You Need Him" is being released by Dancing Ferret, and will be available July 18th. You may pre-order it here.

Album Details:

Overview:
New York Times #1 Best-seller, top comic book writer, award-winning screenplay author - there's more to say about Neil Gaiman than we have space here.

Format:
CD

Details:
A very special and unique project. Bands who are fans of Neil's work were asked to write songs about their favorite Gaiman story, character, or setting. The contributions of seventeen top international artists are exclusively collected on this CD. Neil Gaiman was involved in the project from the start and wrote the liner notes for the CD. Dave McKean handled all of the artwork. (Since we've been asked already, we should point out that Neil doesn't actually sing on the CD).

Like Neil's writing, the material on this disc is very diverse in both source material and musical styles. Naturally The Sandman series is well represented, but there are also songs about Stardust, Neverwhere, American Gods, Coraline, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, Mr. Punch, Wolves in the Walls, The Goldfish Pool, and Mirror Mask.

We will begin shipping this album on July 5, 2006, approximately two weeks prior to its official release date.

Released July 18, 2006 on Dancing Ferret Discs. All tracks are exclusive and not available anywhere else.

Track Listing:
1 Rasputina - Coraline
2 ThouShaltNot - When Everyone Forgets
3 Tapping The Vein - Trader Boy
4 Lunascape - Raven Star
5 Deine Lakaien - A Fish Called Prince
6 Thea Gilmore - Even Gods Do
7 Rose Berlin (feat. Curve) - Coraline
8 Schandmaul - Magda Treadgolds Märchen
9 Hungry Lucy - We Won't Go
10 Voltaire w/The Oddz - Come Sweet Death
11 Future Bible Heroes - Mr. Punch
12 Razed in Black - The Endless
13 The Cruxshadows - Wake the White Queen
14 Ego Likeness - You Better Leave the Stars Alone
15 Azam Ali - The Cold Black Key
16 Joachim Witt - Vandemar
17 Tori Amos - Sister Named Desire (New Master)

"The Gamines Love Gaiman"

The Philippines was mentioned, so I just had to post this. :D

The Gamines Love Gaiman
Wired: Issue 14.04 - April 2006

Around midnight, in a Japanese bar in New York's East Village, the science fiction writer Neil Gaiman is pouring himself a shot of sake. It's the table's second bottle, part of a dinner that got started late because nearly every one of the 400 or so audience members at a talk Gaiman gave earlier tonight brought something for him to autograph - his novel Anansi Boys, DVDs of his BBC series Neverwhere, copies of his graphic novel Sandman. Wherever Gaiman appears, geeks of every stripe turn out in droves: beautiful goth girls with oil-black hair and cherry-red lips, overweight comics nerds (with dates), underweight comics nerds (with dates), science fiction obsessives, manga fanatics.

It's a fiercely dedicated fan base. "Do you know that paperback editions of Sandman actually sell better each year than the previous year?" Gaiman says. It's a shock. The book is 15 years old.

"Then I have a question for you," says another member of the party, Mitch Cutler, owner of St. Marks Comics. Located just around the corner, it's one of the country's best independent comic book retail shops. "Who do you think the next generation of readers will be?"

This is what comics guys talk about over dinner: What happens when 14-year-old boys put down their tales of garishly clad, overmuscled men who like to bash robots? "I'm not sure," Gaiman says. "But I do know that when I got to Singapore to do a reading, there were 600 teenage girls waiting. And when I got to the Philippines, there were 2,000 teenage girls waiting, screaming my name."

Cutler nods. "That's it," he says. "It's girls between 13 and 25."

Here's the theory: Unlike the typical superhero comic book, manga comes in as many flavors as there are geeks. Everyone at the table knows that, and they know that girls are more likely to read manga, even in the US. What they fervently hope is that when those girls no longer get the same buzz from their Japanese comics, they'll want something else. It already happens to some - they fall in love with Sandman. And then Cutler gives them something else. Y: The Last Man. Fables. Ex Machina. These books have little to do with spandex tights.

The trick is to make sure that walking into a comic book store doesn't feel like stumbling into an intense game of Dungeons & Dragons. Cutler's establishment, a narrow space amid the grunge of St. Marks Place, is well-lit, clean, and always has women on staff. Girl-friendly, in other words. Of course, that strategy also happens to appeal directly to the core constituency. "There's probably a beautiful girl with tattoos and piercings working at the cash register right now," Gaiman says.

"That's not true," Cutler says, flashing a smile and looking at his watch. "She left at 11:30."

- Adam Rogers

1st Phil. Graphic/Fiction Awards Night Moved

Hello everyone,

We'd like to announce that due to the overwhelming amount of entries we have received for
the competition, we moved the awards night to July 15, 2006. This will coincide with the sci-
fi convention together with the New Worlds Alliance, as well as the first year anniversary of
Neil Gaiman's visit here in Manila. It will be held at the Rockwell Tent. Will keep you posted
on developments.

Thank you very much for your patience, and once again, congratulations to all who have
submitted. We were very impressed with many of the entries, and we are very excited to
publish these in our special compilation.

Cheers,
Fully Booked Management.