After hearing Neil Gaiman interviewed via Zoom live at this year’s ComiCon sponsored by our Brazoria County Library System, I decided to renew my acquaintance with the author I often use in class with his video address, “Make Good Art.”

One of the things I did was listen to Gaiman’s The Graveyard on Hoopla, which is also provided by my county library system.

A child who survived the brutal murder of his parents and sister, escapes the sadistic killer by tottering into a nearby graveyard. The toddler is protected and adopted by the dead who inhabit the abandoned graveyard. He is named, “Nobody”. The murderer known as “Jack” searches ruthlessly for the child, but is put off and led astray by the ghost-like graveyard’s tenants.

What happens to the child, and to Jack fleshes out the story, which is narrated by the author himself. Gaiman’s tone and voice are pleasing and do a lot towards creating the supernatural “feel” of this strange tale.

I was introduced to Gaiman’s work through the novel, Everywheres, which My Better Half and I both read one summer. I then read all the Gaiman graphic novels our local library owned, enjoying The Sandman the most. After Gaiman won an Oscar for his animated film, Coroline, I took a look at it, and surprisingly enough found a tale teens often identify with, failing to, then appreciating their parents in much the way young Coroline came to do. It is a strange tale from a strange and highly creative mind.

I will probably follow Gaiman to an extent as a very creative individual and an outstanding author for a long time.