URBAN ASPIRINES: Neil Gaiman

Showing posts with label Neil Gaiman. Show all posts

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Neil Gaiman : Eternal Nights

NEIL GAIMAN : The Writer

Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman born Neil Richard Gaiman 10 November 1960 is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theater and films.
His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book.
He has won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, as well as the Newbury and Carnegie medals. He is the first author to win both the Newbury and the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book (2008).
In 2013, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards.

FRANK QUITELY : The Artist

Vincent Deighan (born 1968), better known by the pen name Frank Quitely, is a Scottish comic book artist.
He drew various stories in Paradox Press' series of The Big Book Of graphic novels, as well as work in Dark Horse Presents for Dark Horse Comics.
His big break into American comics was Flex Mentallo in 1996, a Doom Patrol spin-off written by fellow Glaswegian Grant Morrison for DC Comics' Vertigo imprint.
Initially he worked on strips for anthology titles such as Weird War Tales, and drew three issues of Jamie Delano's 2020 Visions, as well as various covers for DC.
He is best known for his frequent collaborations with Grant Morrison on titles such as New X-Men, We3, All-Star Superman, and Batman and Robin, as well as his work with Mark Millar on The Authority and Jupiter's Legacy.
Quitely first worked upon the Scottish underground comics title Electric Soup in 1990.

ETERNAL NIGHTS

A collection of seven stories dedicated to the seven brothers and sisters, the "Eternals", that regulate the fate of this world.

The ETERNALS :

DEATH
DESIRE
DREAM
DESPAIR
DELIRIUM
DESTRUCTION
DESTINY

The Artists :

Glenn Fabry
Milo Manara
Miguelanxo Prado
Frank Quitely
P. Craig Russell
Bill Sienkiewicz
Barron Storey

This short story ( No 7 ) is simply a wander through DESTINY's garden of forking paths.
Based on the clothes of Delirium's statue in one of the panels and the posture of Dream's statue, it seems to be taking place during The Kindly Ones.
This story was originally to be illustrated by (Jean Giraud Moebius).
Neil Gaiman knew that, because of his age and health, the artist would not be able to give much of a time commitment so he designed this story to be short and full of full page pictures.
In the end, sickness prevented Moebius from working on the story and (Frank Quitely) filled in.

Story 7: DESTINY - Endless Nights

A Man walks in his garden reading a book . The man is blind .

The garden is a labyrinth with many paths around him .

There are many statues in the garden . Huge statues . They are moving extremely slowly that you can't realize their movement .

His way guide him to his home place .
A place full of chambers and corridors

The paintings of Destiny
remind to his brothers and his sisters .
( In the kingdom of the ETERNALS the wish and the fact
are so close , like a blade between them )

You will rove in the kingdom of your brothers
you will dream , you will despair , you will wish all ,
you will destroy , you will take pleasure
they will take pleasure from you
and in the end you will die .

But , ... You were the toy of Destiny , from the first page
and only HIM will read the end of your story
in a faraway future .

The book is very heavy .

His is chained in the book
or it's the book chained with Him ?
It's a book with a lot of pages .
No one can steal it from HIM . No one can donate it to someone else .

The book Includes your life . Your life with all the details .
All that happened to you .
All that will happen from now and then .
Things that happened .
Things that you forgot .

All that has been done or will be done in anyone you have ever encountered.
To anyone who has ever known.
To all those who did not know ever
There , Where dreams are , stories and the exploits of the dead .

But the movements of atoms and galaxies are in the book, and are small differences he sees between them .

Everything is written in His book. Some day ΗΕ will lay down the book , when the book is finished, and then HE will follow that this is still unwritten

Destiny continues to walk
Holding a book
Inside the book is the whole universe .

Published in Greece by Anubis Comics

under license from DC Comics

Year : 2004

Code Number : EB-00 - 408

Friday, November 09, 2012

The Sandman : Neil Gaiman : Ο Μορφέας

The Sandman is a comic book series, written by "Neil Gaiman". Info Here.
The central character in the series is "Dream" , also known as " MORPHEUS ",
also known by many other names, one of the Endless.
He is captured in 1916 by an occult group, and held prisoner until he escapes in 1988.

Neil Gaiman's The Sandman was launched in 1989. Following "Dream of the Endless",
also known as "Morpheus", "Onieros" ( His Greek name - Greek Mythology )
and many other names, we explore a magical world filled with stories both horrific
and beautiful.

There are seven brothers and sisters who have been since the beginning of time,
"The Endless". They are "Destiny", "Death", "Dream", "Desire", "Despair", "Delirium"
who was once Delight, and "Destruction" who turned his back on his duties.
Their names describe their function and the realms that they are in charge of.

DESTINY - ΠΕΠΡΩΜΕΝΟ

DELERIUM - ΝΤΕΛΗΡΙΟ

DESTRUCTION - ΟΛΕΘΡΟΣ

THE STORY

In 1916, the magician Roderick Burgess attempts to attain immortality by capturing

the embodiment of Death. Mistakenly, he binds Death's brother Dream instead.

Fearing retribution, Burgess keeps Dream imprisoned.

In 1988, after Burgess has died and his son Alex has been charged with watching Dream,

Dream is able to escape.

Dream punishes Alex by cursing him to experience an unending series of nightmares.

Dream (also known as Morpheus) is weakened after his captivity,

and attempts to return to his realm. He is found by Gregory,

a gargoyle belonging to Cain and Abel.

Once they have nursed Dream back to health,

Dream returns to his home and is shocked to see it has fallen into ruin.

Lucien, the librarian, fills Dream in on the goings-on since his incarceration.

Dream begins a quest to recover his totems of power (a pouch of sand,

a helm and a ruby, which were dispersed following his capture.

He visits The Three that are One (the three Fates) and answers them where
are his totems of power.

The pouch of sand was taken by a man called John Constantine,
his helm was taken by a demon in Hell and
the ruby was taken by the mother of the doctor John Dee.

After retrieving the pouch from a former girlfriend of John Constantine,
She was a fantom of herselfe , cause of the using the sand of dreams.

Dream travels to Hell seeking his helm.

He is guided by the demon Etrigan to Lucifer.

Dream explains one of the demons in Hell has his Helm,

and it is returned to him following a battle of wits which Dream wins.

The ruby is in the possession of John Dee, a.k.a. Doctor Destiny.

Dee escapes from Arkham Asylum before going to a diner,

where he disorts reality for those inside, using them as toys until they all

ultimately

murder each other or commit suicide.

Dream arrives and attempts to take the ruby, only to overpowered by Dee.

Thinking it will kill Dream, Dee shatters the ruby,

inadvertently returning its power to Dream. Considering Dee at least partially responsible for his victory, Dream shows mercy and returns Dee to Arkham Asylum.

Reflecting on his recent incarceration,

Dream is visited by his sister Death.

She talks Dream out of his brief depression and persuades him to explore

the world and see what he missed during his seven decades in prison.

DEATH

As part of a manhood ritual, an old man in the desert tells a younger man

an ancient story, detailing the tragic love between Dream and Queen Nada.

Fearing the consequences of loving an immortal, Nada spurns Dream. In anger,

Dream sends Nada to Hell, where she remains to the present day.

Meanwhile, Dream's androgenous sibling Desire calls upon its twin,

DESIRE

Despair, to inform her there is a new dream vortex.

The two of them allude to a scheme against Dream.

DESPAIR

Dream reviews a census of his realm, and discovers four of his creations are missing.

He undertakes a quest to find them.

On Earth, young Rose Walker and her mother Miranda

meet Unity Kinkaid,

a victim of the sleeping sickness that occurred while Dream was imprisoned.

She was raped in her sleep, and became pregnant with Miranda.

Miranda was adopted as an infant, and never knew about Unity.

Unity reached out to them because she wanted to meet her daughter

and granddaughter before she died. While Miranda stays in England with Unity ,

Rose will find her younger brother, Jed, and tell him the news.

Rose's father, who had been caring for Jed,

died and left Jed to some abusive distant relatives.

As she tries to track theier whereabouts,

Rose takes up residence in a boarding house full of peculiar characters,

including Chantal and Zelda, an ambiguosly lesbian couple who always wear

bridal garb and own a collection of stuffed spiders;

Ken and Barbie, an extremely yuppie-ish couple;

the eccentric Gilbert,

a self-described "amateur knight errant"; and the landlord Hal,

a gay man who performs at nightclubs in drag. At night, Rose dreams of her brother Jed.

Jed's new caretakers keep him locked in their basement

while they enjoy the monetary benefits they receive from the state for caring for him.

Meanwhile, Brute and Glob, two creatures created by Dream,

have escaped the dreamrealm and taken residence in Jed's mind.

Jed is freed when Dream comes to collect Brute and Glob,

but as he wanders along the road he is given a ride by the Corinthian,

an escaped nightmare.

Dream takes a break from his quest to meet Hob Gadling,

who Dream granted immortality in 1389.

The two share a drink in the same tavern every hundred years.

On their way to find Jed, Rose and Gilbert stop at a hotel.

The Corintian brings Jed to this same hotel,

where Corinthian is attending a convention of fellow serial killers.

Gilbert recognizes the Corinthian, and tells Rose that if she is in danger she should call "Morpheus", Dream's name.

When one of the serial killers tries to harm her, Rose calls for him and Dream arrives. He destroys the Corinthian with little difficulty, and punishes the convention attendees by taking their dreams of granduer away from them, thus making them realize how pathetic and devoid of meaning their lives and crimes ultimately are.

Gilbert finds Jed in the back of the Corinthian's car,

and has him sent to the hospital. Miranda, back in England,

is sad to find that Unity has precious little time left,

and is there to try and comfort her in her final moments.

Dream informs Rose she is a dream vortex,

and the world will be destroyed if he does not kill her. Gilbert,

who was the fourth missing creation, offers his life in Rose's place.

Dream tells him it isn't an option. However, before Dream can kill Rose,

her grandmother Unity enters the Dreaming and tells Dream to kill her instead.

Unity was meant to be the dream vortex,

but she never became one because of the sleeping sickness,

so it was passed on to her granddaughter instead. Rose gives Unity her "heart",

the object that makes her the vortex.

At that moment, Unity seems to naturally die in the waking world,

thus destroying the vortex.

Dream explains to Rose that there is much that he doesn't understand,

but she doesn't have to worry about it.

After months of thought, Dream confronts Desire with his conclusions.

Desire admits to raping Unity in an elaborate plot to force Dream to murder his own blood, which would destroy Dream. Dream warns Desire against overstepping his bounds again.