NEIL GAIMAN

PHILIPPINES

I'm Arthur Tanty and I've collected comics since 1983. I've liked the art of Whilce Portacio (X-Men, Wetworks, Iron Man, Stone) and Leinil Francis Yu (X-Men, Wolverine, Superman: Birthright) so when they made public appearances, I've always attended. Though Portacio is US-based, I'll always consider both of them to be local artists. The country seems to be invisible to international comic book creators.

That was until Korean Jae Lee (Namor, Hellshock, Inhumans, Batman: Jekyll and Hyde), who is still one of my favorite artists, was brought in by CATS. That was 10 years ago.

I've heard last April, 2005 that Neil Gaiman might visit. Last June, the strip Fringe Benefits Cafe of Philippine Star mentioned the visit for 2 consecutive days. The strip is NOT recommended reading; it's about as brilliant as charcoal. Plus the latter is a more useful fuel.

A flyer I found at the 4th Collectible Convention at SM Mega Mall last June 26 confirmed the rumor: Neil is visiting on July 9-11 courtesy of relatively-unknown bookstore Fully Booked.

JULY 9, 2005

My pal Jojo Dy and I arrived at the Rockwell Power Plant, Makati at 11:30 AM and they
started giving out the autograph passes just an hour earlier. My green pass for the first day of signing was number 678!  No wonder: Some were there as early as 4 AM! So of the 700 allotted for that day (which was originally just 500), I was 22nd to the last. Don't remember whose idea it was but I asked for the pink passes for the second day and we got # 87 and 88 (out of 200).

Neil finally appeared around 4 PM and no need to discuss what else happened. When he took off his jacket, I gestured at him to throw it to the audience. No such luck.

Around 9 PM,  Mr. Jaime Daez, the tall and young owner of Fully Booked, asked those with pass numbers 501-700 to wait or get priority for the 2nd day or 3rd day, whatever our choice was.  Tomorrow's a Sunday so it was more preferable. I asked how we should queue up tomorrow because we also have pink passes. He said he should confiscate them but technically, we didn't cheat because these were meant for another day. I asked him (stupid?) things like:

1. Was he trying to ask us to leave? "No."

2. Was he the one who negotiated with Neil in San Diego in 2003: "Yes."

3. What he spent for: "Everything!"

4. How much he paid Neil: "I can't tell you that!"

5. If he made or lost money with this venture: "It's not about money but making people happy." I guess it's too early to tell. But they have sold out on books, hundreds of each.  Jojo and I left at 9:40 PM.

JULY 10, 2005

I was at the Greenhills Promenade in San Juan at 11:15 AM. Heard that the last of the initial 609 fans left at 1:30 AM or less than 10 hours earlier. I saw Gerry Alanguilan (inker of Portacio's "Stone" and Yu's "Superman: Birthright") and asked him to draw Rogue (of the X-Men) on my sketch pad which I bought last night for Neil to draw on. He said it takes him a long time to do women so he suggested Wolverine to which I agreed, being an X-Men fan. Read his version of this incident on his website, including Neil's flattering comments on some of our better-known artists of the '70s:

www.alanguilan.com/sanpablo/wbnormal.html

Neil said he was interviewed by MTV this morning. Book reading of "The Anansi Boys" started around 2:45 PM or 45 minutes late which is still better than yesterday's one hour of lateness. He had to print out a chapter of his upcoming novel just like yesterday and blamed his lateness on the printer again.

Yesterday I was hesitant to get my Sandman 1 signed. The signature might ruin the "value" of the comic. Two things from his website's signing guidelines convinced me otherwise:

1. "Pick out your favorite thing."

Issue # 1 is probably my favorite written comic of my 5000+(?) comics counting those I've used to own. Okay, I don't have all the issues and none of the compilations/ trade paperbacks. Never read any of his novels (for shame!) so comics is the only way to go. I brought about a dozen comics including Spawn 9 (how would he react?!), Secret Origins Special, Alice Cooper 2 (I was wondering what "Last Temptation" was only to be told yesterday by someone who borrowed it that this is the title of the series!) and 1602 # 3. He created Sandman and Death so these should be my priority, in that order (brought several issues of each title). Maybe everyone attended yesterday and none would show up today so he would be sitting all day doing nothing so maybe I can get all signed! I can dream, can't I?  I didn't bring enough comics during Jae Lee's visit and could've gotten more signatures before CATS closed that night. So better safe than sorry.

2.  "I once ripped the back off a $200 comic taking it out of a plastic bag, when the back of the comic caught on the tape."

Sandman 1 goes for a lot less than that on eBay. It used to be worth $70 or so, according to us collector's "price bible" Wizard.

3. Jojo asked: "Do you intend to sell it?" (No need to answer this one)

Upon seeing it, Neil seemed to be impressed and said: "So you have my first one." Maybe he was thinking: "You must've been a fan from the time it was published." Its cover date is January, 1989 but to give comics longer shelf life, they were dated 4 months in advance then so it must have come out in September, 1988.  He drew wavy lines coming out of Dream's eyes which I found to be pretty strange. I also had a copy of Death: The High Cost of Living # 3. When I asked: "Can you do a caricature of Death?" He replied: "Death takes too long to do. I'll do you an ankh." I thought I wasn't that excited until I got near him so I said: "Thank you VERRRY much!" as I shook his hand to which he replied: "Thank you so much!"

Using the pink pass this time, Jojo and I quickly went back to the line. He saw the ankh and asked me to get his copy of Death 3 signed this time with the ankh drawn on her neck. Mr. Daez smiled at me as I descended the stairs the second time (I didn't notice him the first time). I waved to acknowledge thinking it was his way of recognizing me from last night but he said: "The third time I'm going to penalize you." What did I do?!

I think Neil recognized me from moments earlier because of the ankh request but some fan before me left a note dedicating a book to a certain Sheryl; he thought that it was my request so he already wrote "She" near the right top end of the cover. I said the paper wasn't mine. I've never met this Sheryl but I wanted to strangle her for ruining my comic! After 3 minutes or so, I thought he was going cross out his mistake. Then he put next to "She" what looked like a wave.

I wondered if he was going to draw something. Then he proceeded to write. So it wasn't a drawing at all. Not having read it, I said: "That's very clever of you." He said something like: "That's the kind of brilliant save you come up with to cover up your mistake. You're the only one who has that." I thanked him, shook his hand and left.

He wrote: "She who waits at the end." An arrow pointed to Death.

How many people do you know can correct such a mistake with such spontaneity? Not just correct it but even embellish it?

Only a few minutes with him brought this conclusion: Neil isn't just creative, he's a GENIUS.  Am I just being shallow? Jojo later said that this might just be routine for him.

Neil might get suspicious so during Jojo's turn, I asked him to have my other copy of Sandman 1 signed (It was his suggestion to get both signed). This time Neil said upon seeing it: "Very good!" I thought dedications were cheesy but I wanted something unique so I came up with: "From the Master of Dreams," without my name. Upon seeing the note, Neil said: "I have a better idea." Since "Master of Dreams" was already printed below "Sandman,"  he put between them "From the" then put a box around "Master of Dreams" so it still read: "From the Master of Dreams." Hope you can picture what this actually looks like. Neil also told him: "You're the only one who has that."

Jojo and I had a late lunch. He called it a day but I stayed on. It was almost 8 PM and the ones outside had no passes so Mr. Daez made some for them. Upon seeing me, he said: "You've been here twice already. Give the others a chance" to which I said: "I understand. Can I go tomorrow?" He said okay so I didn't argue with him. I had to make sure he won't drive me away the third day. More importantly, what would Neil think if he saw me again?

I went to Unimart for a bite then went back to FB at 9:10 PM hoping to make it but Neil was gone. I heard a female volunteer/ worker say to the rest of her companions that he found Pinoy fans to be "wild" but also "very sweet." Is that a good thing? Anyway, she paused upon seeing me so I said: "Am I bothering you?" The bouncer pointed to me as if asking her if he should drive me away. She said it was okay but what she was saying was "private." So I politely left.

JULY 11, 2005

I arrived at the Gateway Mall in Cubao at 8:20 PM! I found Jojo and he said he arrived at 3 PM and yet when Mr. Daez gave out new passes, he was number 540 already! Upon seeing Jojo earlier, he said "I see some familiar faces." Mr. Daez knows that a lot of the fans attended all 3 days so I think he was a little unfair to me. If only I didn't ask him all those questions the first night. This proved to be my undoing! I thanked him for letting me back to which he said: "It's okay if it's not on the same day." I chose to bring Death: Time of Your Life # 2 because it had a lot of black space on the cover...plenty of room for a doodle! I was told by Blue, the guy behind me yesterday during my third trip to the line that he thinks that comics are made of a more stable type of paper than the sketch pad so it was the better choice of drawing material. Unfortunately, we tail enders can only get one signature each. But the signature was bigger this time and written vertically or across the comic. Some of us stayed on...I was still hoping for a drawing of Dream and maybe ask one of the volunteers to help out. I shook Mr. Daez's hand and thanked him for bringing Neil here. So I guess we're okay now. As Neil left around 9:30 PM, I shook his hand for the last time...twice.

ENDNOTES

Special thanks to Enel Louie Villegas for volunteering to take our pictures in Greenhills (first trip) USING HIS OWN CAMERA. I deliberately reduced the pictures' sizes to at least partly hide my ugly mug but this still can't hide the smirk on my face. The experience of meeting Neil does wonders!

Do you collect newspaper clippings of his visit? Philippine Star featured him on July 15 (written by Erwin Romulo who also interviewed him for NU 107) while Malaya had one on July 18. Failed to read those in Bulletin and Manila Times. Am I later going to regret not collecting them in print?

If you chanced upon this page via a search engine, you might want to join FB's Yahoo group to read other fans' anecdotes.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gaiman_fullybooked

If you want me to link to your stories, send Arthur email. We can turn this into a webring for the convenience of other fans.