Hob's Leviathan

All this talk about neil gaiman made me want to write about the first time I actually read his work.
Yup, I really do remember, like the fact that Nancy Drew was my very first book ( I learned to read with that book) and that I probably don't like Sydney Sheldon that much coz I read her when I was eight and got confused (possibly traumatized) by the love scenes.
I picked up a copy of Sandman: The World's End completely by chance.
Back in those days I'd go with my mom to Powerbooks (she was the manager back then) and I'd stay there from 9am to 11pm and just read books. I can finish a 300 page book in about half a day that time.
It was 9pm and the store was closing. I had just finished a book and it was too late to start on a new one so I sauntered off to the graphic novels planning to get the Frank Miller Batman novel. There was this table filled with Sandman graphic novels and I got curious and looked at it. Most of them had Introductions written by other famous authors and I was intrigued by the reviews so I chose one. I picked World's End because Stephen King wrote the Introduction for that one and I said to myself that if Stephen King bothered to write an Introduction for a comic book... then it must be good.
I have never read anything like it. The basic plot of people telling stories was familiar but everything else was different.
I was enjoying myself till I got to the third story: Hob's Leviathan.
I swear when I opened the two page spread with the monster I felt tiny. I was so caught up I didnt want to look up in the store because I might see it looking down at me.
Of course now I read the same story but it never has the same effect anymore.
Anyway I was hooked.
I got even more hooked when I read the story about neil gaiman's version of Snow White.
I was also very lonely because during those times my friends didn't know him.
I've spent the next few years dilligently looking for his books. Even got Good Omens from Amazon.com.
For 6 months now I've been reading his blog regularly and the guy's bloody brilliant even in his
blog. Lately other Filipinos have been asking him questions and I'm happy I'm not the only one looking forward to something that's 6 months away with too much excitement.
If you haven't heard of him you can choose any media you want : comics, novels, short stories, poems, children's books, television shows(Neverwhere though that may not be available here), movies (he translated Princess Mononoke and there's Mirrormask plus a bunch of movie adaptations for his other works). You can also read his online journal.
Off to work...