Over on Neil Gaiman’s blog, the best-selling author states:
Author Nat Gartler gave me a page of original art from PREZ, on the basis that I needed it more than he did. I’m still grateful.
Now, I’m not worried about the minor typo in my name, but I am disappointed by the misrepresentation of the kindness involved in this act. I did not give him that page. I sold him that page. If memory serves, it was for $35. And it wasn’t even the page I knew he was looking for, since he had expressed a strong desire to have one with vampires in the White House.
Yes, the fact that he deserved it more than I factored into the sale, but so did the fact that I really needed money at the time. This was before my days as a successful compture book writer, back during my days as a struggling comic book writer who earned about enough that year to pay the rent and nothing else. Thirty-five bucks meant that I could eat for a few weeks. I have always suspected that Neil bought that page from me because he knew things were lean, and I have long felt indebted to him for that (among other reasons.)
A lot of people have an odd image of Neil. They seem to think that he is a great and powerful mystic source, that his wearing all black means that he creates his works by burning silver-laced candles in a pentagram on a ley line at midnight of the full moon, and with a chant only known by an order of black monks, he calls up the demon Azrogoth and channels stories from him. When in reality Neil is just a nice Jewish boy who likes to wear black and tell stories, who is successful because he tells stories well and who is beloved because he does that and makes himself accessible to such an insane degree that I and others who know him better are truly worried about the impact all this touring is having on his health.
And if for some reason he needs to call up the demon Azrogoth, he’s got him on speed dial.
