Hanging Out with the Dream King

by Joe McCabe (Editor), Neil Gaiman, Sophia Quach (Photographer)

A finales de la década de los 80, Neil Gaiman creó una serie que iba a revolucionar el mundo del cómic THE SANDMAN. Este libro recoge las entrevistas a todas aquellas personas que han trabajado junto a Gaiman y han contribuido a que THE SANDMAN se convirtiera en lo que es hoy. Junto al rey del sueño presenta una mirada en profundidad al trabajo de Neil Gaiman, a través de sus propios ojos y la visión de sus colaboradores.
Cerca de dos docenas de dibujantes, escritores, editores y músicos comparten sus impresiones y nos presentan un mosaico único, un retrato del hombre que se ha convertido en sinónimo de la fantasía moderna.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Comics, Writing, Graphic Novels, Memoir, Criticism

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 2005

Reviews

[Tita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives me triple treats. Oh, wait, or is it quadruple treats? Let's see:
1. I like the size: It's in an A5 format, easy to hold and read everywhere. As a commuter I always bring a book to read in the train: it should fit into my already-full backpack, it should be compact enough so I don't have to disturb my fellow passenger (as by reading newspapers) and it should look good - which brings me to the second treat..
2. I like the design: Every page has black borders, so the book looks black all over: from top, bottom and sides. The cover has a black frame as well. So, black, my favorite color, is dominating this rare-looking book. A photo of Gaiman is at the cover; the overall color effect is greenish and moody (.. or dreamy?). It's like the color of an old wooden door once painted moss green but then bleached by weather, worn by time and use.
3. I like, of course, the contents! Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. He's unique in a way that he works superbly with various artists and media (illustrated book, graphic novel, animation, etc.), so it is very interesting to know how he deals with his also-individually-unique collabolators.
4. Well, I guess it's a quadruple treat after all: I like the illustrative information that comes with the contents. I've seen the finished works as novels, books and such, but in this book I can also see works in progress. Sketches and notes and scripts and such. I only wish there's more of these illustration in the book..

In a way, this book is a worthy collection for Gaiman's fans who like to learn more about the process, the struggle, the success: all the 'backstage' stories. This book happens to include interviews with my favorite artists (who collaborated with Gaiman) such as Dave McKean (it goes without saying..), P. Craig Russel (I like his clean, ornamental style, especially in "Ramadan"), Todd Klein (cool lettering!), Jill Thompson (I like her "Little Endless" a lot) and of course Yoshitaka Amano (he's truly one of a kind)!
The book has a friendly conversation atmosphere; it seems like I were also present during the conversations between McCabe and Gaiman and the others. Moreover, the book might inspire people who work in the world of comics and all related fields. They can see that comic/strip world is not at all about fun, fame and fortune only; in the contrary it requires a lot of hardwork, constant performance and full dedication.

Another personal note: Gaiman is a popular writer who keeps a close contact with his readers through his journal; it's very nice that he does that. I feel more attached to his works, by knowing what went on behind them - not only the business matters (publishers, distributors and such) but also the personal matters (family and friends, of whom Neil cares so much).

[Bondama · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dear friend of mine sent this wonderful book to me from England. It's totally fascinating so far -- a series of interview not only with Neil, but with all or most of his collaborators - especially the artists who were responsible for at least 1/3 of the success of the "Sandman" series.

I love every word -- and the pictures aren't bad, either.

[Nicolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an excellent resource for Neil Gaiman's expansive body of work. This book collects interviews with his collaborators from comic books, novels and music.

I particularly enjoyed the collected interviews of his comic book collaborators as I can get a behind the scenes look into the creation process of my favorite stories.

This book should be in every Gaiman fan's library.

[Mert · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/5 Stars (%45/100)

This is high 2 stars for me mainly because it was not very useful for my thesis argument. I'm definitely not saying it was a bad book but I was too focused on finding something useful. The book mainly focuses on Gaiman's collaborators throughout his career. Those parts were not very interesting to me. The interview sections with Gaiman himself were quite fun. The pictures throughout the book were also a nice touch. However, the interview with Gaiman focuses on his graphic novels, mainly The Sandman, and his relationship with the aforementioned collaborators. Overall, it was an okay book for me and I would use it as a reference.

[Berna Labourdette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Se viene el estreno de The Sandman este 5 de agosto y aparte de releer tooodo el cómic de nuevo, aproveché de empezar este libro que siempre había querido leer y no había encontrado. Estructurado como una serie de entrevistas tanto a Gaiman como a quienes estuvieron trabajando en la obra, hay multitud de datos interesantes (Thessaly está basada en Colleen Doran, los problemas con el entintado de George Pratt, la inclusión de mitologías en una historia sobre cambios e historias, el porqué del uso de William Shakespeare) y releva el trabajo de quienes han pasado bastante desapercibidos como el letrista Todd Klein, explicando cómo los globos de texto sirvieron para darle cohesión a la obra y un diseño distintivo (https://kleinletters.com/NeilGaimanLe...). Muy interesante. 

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was both a unique insight on Neil Gaiman's creative process and a showcase for unsung talents behind comic books, like colorists and letterers.

[Shane Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read for any fan of the Sandman series. It's full of behind the scenes info.

[Gwern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moved to gwern.net.

[Sergey Selyutin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are not a fan of The Sandman the major part of this book will be of little interest to you. Still, those who are into Neil Gaiman's magnum opus (well, the very first of his magnum opuses to be correct), will find Hanging Out with the Dream King to be extremely informative and illuminating.

[Dani Jameson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is exactly what it says it is so I should have known I wouldn't know most of the interviewees but it did open my eyes a bit about the comics industry and made me appreciate illustrators I didn't know I already really like, like Charles Vess. Just not a fun read for me.

[Steven Schend · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can barely recall if this book rests on my shelves or not, but I've apparently read it somewhere between now and 2005 when it was published. Having the library snag me a copy to reread, as it's easier than digging through some storage boxes this week. ;)

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a brilliant insight not only to Neil Gaiman as a person but into how DC comics work as a whole. It is a great read, I wish there were more books like this about other people too!

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting to hear aboit the different people who have collaborated with Neil. I didn't always understand all the references, but it was interesting.

[Geo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This can't be a "traditional" review involving story, plot, characters and such. This is a book of interviews. So my slant on the kinds of information I would normally provide here has to be different. Let's see...

Ok, first off, if you are already a fan of Neil, you will love this. It is a very inward facing view of his interactions with a number of collaborators, and the insights about him as a person, as a writer, as someone to work with are amazing and provide a "depth of field" about him that is far beyond my impressions before reading this. The same is true for the comics industry as a whole, Vertigo in particular, and of course, the complexity of publishing in that space.

One odd thing that I normally wouldn't ever complain about... but the book itself was packages improperly for me. There was a section about 2/3 of the way through were pages were out of order, and probably several missing as well. At first I thought it was just "This page intentionally left blank" on the opposite of pictures and such, but that wasn't the case. Hunting and packing got me cohesive threads again, but it is more work than I generally want to do to read a book. I have no idea if those sequence issues were part of a large run of books all with the same problems or not.

The interviewer/author here is great. He clearly has a great love for the industry, and respect for Neil's body of work. He ties the various interviews together, often asking people questions that flowed out of previous interviews with other collaborators, providing a nice flow from one to the next. While Neil is certain the most common element between all of them, there are clearly many ties between many of these players even outside of their efforts with Neil.

Finally, keeping the interview with Neil himself to the very end was a perfect way to cap this off. It provided a wonderful "wrapper" that brought all of the previous content together and put a pretty bow on it. It reminded me, to some extent, of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency books where throughout is this vast chaos of unrelated topics that finally all coalesce in the final chapter(s). Or lectures in Advanced Calculus where you have nearly a full year of what feels like very disconnected material, and then finally, two weeks before the final exam, the professor says "Today is where we tie everything from the last year together", and then he proceeds to put that shiny bow on everything, and you walk out just sort of stunned and trying to process it all.

Were it not for the page sequence issues, I probably would have given this 5 stars, and I realize that those issues aren't the author's fault. But I'm not just reviewing the author... this is a package deal.

[Airiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of interviews focusing on Neil Gaiman and the other authors/artists he collaborated with, Hanging Out with the Dream King is a one of a kind backstage pass for fans of Gaiman’s oeuvre, especially of The Sandman graphic novels.

Conversations with David McKean, Craig Russell, Karen Berger, Sam Keith, Colleen Doran, Mike Dringenberg, Tori Amos, Terry Pratchett, and many others are very fascinating—I’ve jotted down the names of those whose works I suddenly wanted to check out after reading the interviews. This is a satisfying treat to devoted fans who want to know the not-so-easy albeit enjoyable process of partaking in the creation of today’s set of most phenomenal masterpieces.

Presentation-wise, this also receives a thumb up from me. The black-edged pages, vibrant illustrations from various works, and creative portraits of the interviewees are a bonus! All in all it’s an amazing fan package. Take note that the bigger chunk of this book was devoted to the Dream King’s collaborators. If you want something more Gaiman-centric, I suggest you try reading Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman.

(thanks, Venus for lending me a copy!)

[Angela Benedetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for a huge wad of Neil Gaiman, this isn't it. If you're looking for a broad and multi-faceted look behind the curtain, primarily on Sandman but also on other projects, this is a great collection. It's a series of interviews with people who've collaborated with Gaiman, talking about how they got involved with him and their project, how they got into their profession (artist, writer, colorist, letterer, musician, editor), and some stories about things that went on -- funny or quirky or whatever -- with their projects. The interviews with the collaborators are bracketed by interviews with Gaiman himself; he's the first and last interviews in the book, but his material is nowhere near a majority of what's here.

I love reading about how creative people do what they do, hearing about how other people in creative fields got involved in the business and how they approach their process, so for me this book was very interesting and great fun. I imagine I'll reread it more than once in the future.

[Nicky Dierx · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the interviews I found very interesting in terms of the creation of one of the most influential comic book/graphic novel/pieces of fiction period, to come out in the last 30 years. It's an in depth look into the inner workings of some of the collaborators thoughts on the work they did on the Sandman series. That part I found wonderful. I found it lovely to know more about what went into it's creation.
I found the book seemed to have lost the plot however when it moved on into interviews with other people who have affected Mr. Gaiman's work beyond the Sandman, and in some cases when they were done regarding people he worked with on separate but concurrent projects. The interviews with these people felt stilted, or stunted in some fashion, as though, there was more to the interviews but they had been parred down specifically for the content regarding Gaiman's work.
An interesting read if you're into the Sandman books and what went into their creation, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone outside of that.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a great fan of Neil Gaiman (and yes, he's on GoodReads, so I've become one of his 2224 friends :-) However, this book concentrates on interviews with those who have collaborated with Gaiman, primarily the artists who worked with him on the SANDMAN comic book series. While I picked up some interesting information, the only real "find" was that Gaiman is an admirer of Jonathan Carroll, one of my all-time favorites. They share a sense of dark magical realism--as if the reader were an ice skater, and these authors suddenly make you realize the ice is a thin skin over miles of dark water underneath you. Gaiman and Carroll are both "dream kings", but they know that dreams and nightmares are only separated by a thin line. I'd hoped this book would be more of a biography of Gaiman, but it's not.

[Han Adcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was - or is - one of the first book of interviews I have read. I loved it, it was honest, open, and everyone involved (Mike Dringenberg, Dave McKean, Gene Wolfe, Kelley Jones, Terry Pratchett...) in it got to really say what they thought and relate what their experience of working with Neil Gaiman on Sandman/other miscellaneous things was like. Couldn't close the book for longer than five minutes, and there were some instances where I'd be laughing out loud at some anecdote and the people in the room with me thought I was mad! I liked that some of the artists drew wacky self-portraits of themselves instead of using a photo. Nice touch.
It's a real eye-opener and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone, especially if they're interested in reading anything by Neil Gaiman and aren't sure where to begin.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was really worth reading and really inspiring.

Sometimes the myth and mystery surrounding creation and publication enshroud the possibility of it being a real and concrete possibility, making everything seem sort of hazy and impossible, and hearing real people talk about actual events in honest and concrete manners really lends plausibility to the idea that I might be able to write or collaborate too.

This book really lent that plausibility to my aspirations and in doing so encouraged me to write more.

Not to mention the simple enjoyment of reading little personal accounts of people meeting or interacting with each other. Often the same story would come up from different sources on opposite ends of the book and that was a delight.

[Sparrow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book as a birthday or Christmas gift many years ago because I was known for loving Gaiman. It's a beautifully made book, but the subject matter - interviews with Gaiman's collaborators - is just plain not interesting to me. It wasn't very exciting finding out how people met or the very details of how a comic was made. Some of the stuff - like how the Endless were thought up - was interesting, but on the whole, there wasn't enough of it to fill the book and make me like it or enjoy my read.

[Jaimie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a comprehensive source of interviews about Neil Gaiman, this is probably the best book out there. It focuses on his collaborations with other artists, writers, and musicians, but these conversations give a good viewpoint into the working life of Gaiman himself. As a trivia sourcebook, it is also filled with all kinds of witty anecdotes and little known facts, so any fan of Gaiman and his collaborators is sure to learn a lot.

[Amber Schilling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got about 30 pages into this book, and I just couldn't deal with it anymore. I've read some of SANDMAN but not enough to enjoy this book, which focuses primarily on interviews with people who collaborated on SANDMAN with Neil Gaiman. If you're really into SANDMAN, you'll enjoy this collection of interviews. If you're more of a fan of Neil's novels/short stories like me, this won't be a very fun read.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love the Sandman comics/graphic novels, then this book will probably interest you. It gives exhaustive detail about every artist involved in the series. I also learned some interesting stuff about the pencilling and inking process in comics. So, for Gaiman fans/Sandman fans, it's a great resource.

[David Melbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great interviews with some amazing people, most of whom I knew nothing about until I read this book. Now I have to get going on The Sandman!

And, I found out about a lot of stuff that Neil has done that I've missed out on: I have some serious catching-up to do!

Actually, I think I'll read his novel from 2001, American Gods, again. --From A Reader's Journal, by d r melbie.

[Keso Shengelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was really inspiring and fascinating! If you're looking for a comprehensive source of interviews about Neil Gaiman, this is probably the best book out there. It focuses on his collaborations with other artists, writers, and musicians, but these conversations give a good viewpoint into the working life of Gaiman himself.
Excellent! I really liked it.

[will · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hanging out with the Dream King: Interviews with Neil Gaiman and his Collaborators by Joe McAbe.

Short review: Whatever!

Longer review: Still like Neil Gaiman but pretty much hate anyone who has collaborated with him.

Advice: Don't buy, don't read!

[Fugo Feedback]

Creo que está mal esta edición, cuando tenga el libro a mano procuraré corregirla íntegramente. Lo que sí no sé es si leer este libro un día cualquier o completar mi relectura íntegra de Sandman antes.

[mairywo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and fascinating look behind the making of the Sandman graphic novels. Next to an interview with the master himself, it includes interviews with pretty much everybody who worked on the series or has worked with Gaiman on other things.

[Angel · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my blog post on it:

http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/20...