...When the wolves come out of the walls then it's all over. If you want to know what's all over, and who 'they' are, then you should find yourself a copy of Neil Gaiman's "The Wolves in the Walls". It is obviously a childrens story, but as with all Neil's work, and the work of many childrens authors these days, there's plenty for adults too. Unfortunately for you, you're too late to catch the Improbable play of the book. Here are some photos to tease you even more with what you missed. I wish there were some better shots to be honest. Something to show just how amazing and fluid the set designs were; how Dave McKean like they managed to get the whole look and feel. Although you can see how good the wolf puppets look you can't see just how good the puppeteers were, how the whole experience was injected with humour, a perfect counterpoint to the implied horror of having the wolves come out of the wall. The kids in the audience loved it, the adults roared with laughter in all the right places. Definitely the best piece of theatre I have ever seen. According to this page they'll be touring with it again in the Autumn in the UK, and next year taking it to the US. Book a ticket as soon as you can, you'll not be disappointed

I've never actually made it to any of the meetings of the Leamington Spa reading group, nor have I ever managed to read any of the books that they have discussed, so what makes me think I'll do better with this online reading group? Well its being run by Susanna Clarke herself. I wonder if that will be enough incentive!

I got home yesterday to find an air mail envelope from Canada. It was my personalised, signed copy of Cerebus - mothers&daughters 14. There was also this letter from Dave Sim (pdf) which said (after a little OCR and editing):

17 September 04 Dear Neilies and Neilettes: Thank you for your recent inquiry. With the fourteen that came in today, we are now at 1,328 inquiries. I'm still working on Phase II, the "good things for the CBLDF" that Neil mentioned earlier on. Without giving it away, I tried talking about it with Peter Birkemoe at the Beguiling in Toronto to see if he was willing to post Phase II on his "Art Auction" website for ten days or so before the Fiddler's Green Sandman convention in November. He said, sure, but he suggested doing the auction after the Fiddler's Green Sandman convention so that everyone had a look at it at the convention before they bid on it. That was a very interesting idea and completely threw me off. I could see the validity in both ideas—-the auction culminating Friday night at Fiddler's Green both live and on eBay (in this digital camera age someone or many someones could even post pictures of Neil LIVE with Phase II while the auction is coming to an end) and the auction debuting at Fiddler's Green on Friday night and closing ten days later on eBay--and had no idea which was the better idea which (unfortunately for the curious among you) postponed what I hoped would be an announcement by the end of this week (which seems somehow to have turned out to be today and how that happened when yesterday was Monday is beyond me) as I tried to figure out what was the better idea. And then, today, I realized! I still haven't got a clue. So. I'm going to ask Neil (if he's at home and reading these faxes in real time) to throw the question out both for general discussion and his own opinion and I'll be happy to go along with whatever Neildom Assembled or Neil Our Benevolent Majority of One Vote decide, because as I said, I won't be able to be there. So it really doesn't matter to me whether the auction closes when I'm not there or debuts when I'm not there. I'll also be getting Gerhard to e-mail Neil the Strange History of Phase II to post on his On-Line Journal. Unless, of course, it's against the law to "guest blog" in someone else's On-Line Journal, in which I'll just have to call and read it to each of the 1,328 of you over the phone. So I'm hoping that guest-blogging isn't a crime because that could get a little expensive, especially all those calls to Finland. Sincerely, Dave Sim

I also decided last night to take a look at what is on my pile of books to read ... pile. There are 16 including the one I just started (Susanna Clark - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) and discounting a few that I'm pretty certain I won't ever get around to reading anyway! Anyone care to suggest which I read after I get through the 800 pages of English Fantasy? There is, in no particular order: China Mieville - The Scar China Mieville - Iron Council Philip Pullman - The Gas-fitters Ball M. John Harrison - Light Raymond E. Feist - Magician Bill Bryson - Made in America Bill bryson - Notes From a Small Island Dan Brown - Deception Point Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita Rob Grant - Colony Grant Morrison & Dave McKean - Arkham Asylum Neil Gaiman - Adventures in the Dream Trade Douglas Adams - The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul Lawrence Lessig - The Future of Ideas Various - The Bible

http://www.teachingcomics.org/ Who would have thought it, an online resource to help facilitate the teaching of comics in higher education. They seem to like calling it "sequential art" which is a term I don't think I have come across before.

Its finally in my hands. No, not that, the first novel by Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I can't tell you what its like though, apart from large, black and heavy, as I'm not reading this copy. This is "One of One Thousand four hundred and fifty slipcased, numbered and signed first editions". Mine is numbered 765/1450. I have another (numberless) signed first edition copy on its way, which I may actually read, hopefully the next one will be white sleeved to complement this black limited edition one.

I have no idea when I'm going to have time to read through the stack of things on my "to read" pile. But that hasn't stopped me buying yet more books to keep it topped up. Today saw the arrival of Light by M.John Harrison, The Scar by China Mieville and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (Illustrator). The Day I Swapped My Dad is the new hardback edition with a new cover. The old cover looked like this, which was adapted for a Counting Crows album cover too! A nice surprise was the inclusion of a limited edition CD inside the book containing Neil reading the book and music by Stephen Merritt. I'll look forward to reading them all when they next surface from the book mountain!

Now I know this might not mean much to the people who read this blog but I'll keep trying to educate you in the ways of comics and graphic novels anyway. This is lifted straight out of Neil Gaimans blog:

If you want a free signed Sandman period Cerebus, you have to write to Dave Sim at Dave Sim Aardvark Vanaheim, Inc P.O. Box 1674 Station C Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 4R2 Write him a letter. Tell him why you want him to send you a signed comic. Put enough postage on the envelope to take your letter to Canada. (That's a 60 cent letter or a 50 cent postcard from the US. $1.80 from Australia. Probably 47p from the UK. You get the idea.) He's getting letters from all over the world.

I'm not going to offer a review of the series or anything like that as I don't feel I can do it justice. But if you do have copies of the comic book series, 1602 by Neil Gaiman, and you aren't all too familiar with the Marvel universe then you may find this useful: http://www.comicworldnews.com/index.cgi?column=mysteries. If you want to borrow my copy then you have to ask really, really nicely; and wait until I have another couple of issues so that I don't have to lend out a mint copy... Sorry, I really am that sad about these things.

I've been busy ordering books this week. Mainly because I stumbled on cold tonnage who "specialise in new and out-of-print, collectible science fiction, fantasy, horror and the supernatural first editions: hardcovers, vintage paperbacks, pulps, magazines and much more." So, shortly to be added to my collection are a first edition of Grant Morrison and Dave McKean's "Arkham Asylum", a first edition of Rob Grant's "Colony", and the best of the lot so far: one of the 1700 trade copies of Neil Gaiman's limited edition (2000 copies) "Adventures in the Dream Trade", which has been signed by the author. Where this all started was me wanting to get a hold of a first printing of Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell". I now have one on order from coldtonnage but, thanks to Ajay for spotting this, I also have one of the 250 beautiful special editions, numbered and signed by the author available from Bloomsbury.com. When I contacted them to see what was special about it this is how they replied:

"The special edition will be in a black slip case, black dust jacket and have black page ends. The special edition you have order will be a first edition, first print run. Bloomsbury USA are planning to publish slightly earlier than we are, however, they have no plans as of yet to release a special signed, numbered edition"

Oh my. It appears that Life, The Universe And Everything, So Long And Thanks For All The Fish and Mostly Harmless are coming to Radio 4 soon.. That is all.