Preludes
...but no noctures...

It's only a few days to go before Neil Gaiman arrives in Manila so I'm very much excited to meet him in the book signing on Saturday. While he's not my favorite writer, I did enjoy his past works (a great percentage of them anyway) and I actually respect what he has brought to the comics medium. His Sandman stories remain some of the best I have ever read!

Unfortunately, his 1602 remain as some of the worst (for me, that is). 8-(

Anyway, I am organizing a meet on Saturday for my yahoo group The Comic Brook so we can all line up together for the book signing. There will be an event before it (called THE GATHERING) at 3PM so I expect to be there for quite some time.

To get a book signing pass, I bought MURDER MYSTERIES (I wanted STARDUST but they're out of stock) - pretty decent story and nice artwork by P. Craig Russell. It tells about a crime that happened before creation, where everything else was still being planned by God. I honestly didn't expect the crime to be as simple as what was revealed, though I'm not disappointed as it was beautifully unravelled and presented.

The book pass entitles the bearer to have 2 books signed by Neil. I have already decided on one - my hardbound ENDLESS NIGHTS - but I can't seem to decide on the other. I'm carefully considering on the following:

• SANDMAN: SEASON OF MISTS TP - perhaps the best storyarc in Neil's run, this TP tells the story of Lucifer leaving Hell and giving the key to Dream, resulting in a few dilemmas for the dream king.
• SANDMAN: BRIEF LIVES TP - my favorite storyarc of all, this linear tale told how Dream and Delirium searched for their brother Destruction. Drawn by Jill Thompson, my favorite sequence in this arc was when Delirium confronted her oldest brother Destiny.
• MURDER MYSTERIES HC - only because it's the other hardbound book by Neil that I own.

I could buy STARDUST (provided I find a copy somewhere) or MIDNIGHT DAYS, depending on my budget I guess.

Anyway, my friends and I will be meeting around 9AM at Rockwell and hopefully, there'll be a line already so we can get our numbered stubs. If they would honor the sequence of the stubs when the book signing event comes around, that would give us time to do something else rather than stay in line, probably go to Druid's Keep to play VS hehehehe.

Hope the day turns out great! 8-)