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Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman wrote the award-winning graphic novel series THE SANDMAN, and with Terry Pratchett, the award-winning novel GOOD OMENS. His first book for children, THE DAY I SWAPPED MY DAD FOR TWO GOLDFISH, illustrated by Dave McKean, hasn't yet won any awards, but was one of Newsweek's Best Children's Books of 1997. ANGELS & VISITATIONS, a small press story collection, was nominated for a World Fantasy Award and won the International Horror Critics Guild Award for Best Collection, despite not having any horror in it. Well, hardly any.
Born in England, he now makes his home in America, in a big dark house of uncertain location where he grows exotic pumpkins and accumulates computers and cats. He is currently at work turning his first novel NEVERWHERE into a film for Jim Henson films.
Dave McKean
Dave McKean has created illustrations and photographs for hundreds of CD, book, and comics covers as well as publishing projects with John Cale, Stephen King, and the Rolling Stones, and is probably best known for his graphic novels, including the best-selling ARKHAM ASYLUM and Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series. He also illustrated Gaiman's graphic novels VIOLENT CASES, SIGNAL TO NOISE, and MR. PUNCH, and the children's books CORALINE and THE DAY I SWAPPED MY DAD FOR TWO GOLDFISH. He is the author and illustrator of THE GRAPHIC NOVEL CAGES, which won the Alph Art, Pantera, and Harvey Awards for Best Graphic Novel, and PICTURES THAT TICK, which recently won the Victoria and Albert Museum Illustrated Book Awards Overall First Prize. He has written and directed several short films, and has contributed production designs for the second and third Harry Potter films. He lives in England.
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AUTHOR TALK
September 2003
In this interview, award-winning author Neil Gaiman tells readers what inspired him to write his latest book for children, THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS. He also talks about the process of creating a book with illustrator Dave McKean and reveals what he would never want to find in the walls of his house.
Q: Both CORALINE and THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS have brave heroines. Are Coraline or Lucy inspired by anyone you know?
NG: Coraline was a little bit my daughter Holly when she was young, and Lucy is a little bit my daughter Maddy, when she was younger, but both of them are utterly their own selves. Maddy dreamed that there were wolves in the walls when she was little, and that they came out, which was where I got the idea for the story...
I think both CORALINE and THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS are about bravery, in very different ways: about fighting back and dealing with the things that scare you.
Q: How did you and Dave McKean create a book together? Do you write and then he illustrate, or do you get together and make it all happen?
NG: Mostly I start the book, with the idea and the words, and then Dave takes the words and does magic to them. He's my toughest critic, so if he likes something I know it will work.
I like it when he goes off and does the pictures, because they are always a surprise to me.
Q: What would you personally find the most frightening thing to discover in the walls of your house?
NG: What would be the most frightening thing to find living in the walls of my house?
A hard question. First I thought wolves, then I thought spiders or snakes --- big ones --- and then I thought monsters. But on reflection, I think the answer is probably lawyers.
Q: Did you ever have a friend like pig-puppet?
NG: I didn't, but Liam McKean, Dave's son, certainly did. In fact, when he was about two, I got an urgent phone call from his mother asking me to go and buy another pig-puppet just like the first one (which was bought near my house, although Dave and Clare live thousands of miles from me) because Liam would not let go of the pig puppet long enough for Clare to wash it.
So I sent the substitute pig-puppet, and Liam reluctantly let the first pig-puppet be washed.
Liam has a life-sized plastic pig in his bedroom, too, big enough to ride.
Q: And finally, what advice would you give to anyone who heard sneaking, creeping, crumpling noises coming from the walls inside their house?
NG: Hmm. Sounds like wolves to me. And if the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over...
© Copyright 2003, HarperCollins. All rights reserved.
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