I started reading comics with Chris Claremont's New Mutants and Uncanny X-Men, so I will forever have a soft spot in my heart for CC's work which is a great quality.

But...if there is one writer that I enjoy almost everything he writes, and if I don't enjoy it it is at least thought provoking, it's Neil Gaiman.

Alan Moore and Frank Miller made the most noise in the 1980's with where they took comics books, but the writer that simply blew the medium out of the water conceptually was Neil Gaiman's Sandman. You simply will not find a more imaginative, well read, and thought provoking comic on the planet. His Sandman was so good, that when he decided to leave the book after 8 years, DC/Vertigo simply closed the title. There was no one else who could write it.

Gaiman has the ability to take the most classic archetypes of mythology and human nature and put a completely fresh spin on them. His ability to put ancient and mordern concepts together into something completely new leaves me utterly floored.

What refreshing and accesible in his work are his characters. Moore and Miller revel in the darkness, corruption, and violence of human nature, using it to shock and awe the reader. The darkness and violence in Gaiman characters are simply part of what they are. Like a force of nature, these characters can be frightening in their intensity and their capacity for violence, but they are not evil as we define the term. Gaimen can take some of the most frightening characters and make the audience root for them. Not by making them anything other than what they are, but just by allowing the audience to see the story from their side.

His stories are truly imaginative journeys that make a thoughtful reader confront thing about life, the divine, history, philosphy, reality, human nature, and themselves....and they're fun! They are just fun to read because there is a lighteness in Gaiman work. It's dark and it's dense...and yet it breathes and has life and it pulls you in and it's just...

Aigh..

I could go on for pages about how remarkable and fun and inspiring Gaiman's work is. He is one of the couple people on the planet that if I ever met, I would be tempted to prostrate myself in front of. He is SUCH an amazing writer.

And if you ever want a laugh: Gaiman and Pratchett's Good Omens.