Signal to Noise
Written by Neil Gaiman
Illustrated by Dave McKean
Cover by Dave McKean
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: December 11, 2013
Cover Price: $24.99

Like a special treasure tucked away for safe-keeping, Signal to Noise by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean has been pulled out of the trunk, dusted off, and re-issued in its entirety by Dark Horse in a single, stunning volume.

Originally serialized in the 1980s in the avant-garde fashion magazine The Face, Dark Horse pulled together the segments of this sobering tale of a filmmaker who learns he has a terminal illness and may never complete is magnum opus and first released them as a graphic novel in 1992. The story, however, takes on a completely different tone in our post-Y2K-crazed world than it possessed before, and that tone only helps to strengthen the message contained within.

On Friday, The Dark Knight Rises, the latest and last Batman film in Christopher Nolan’s epic trilogy, will finally be upon us. So, it’s natural for loads of sites to provide you with “5 Batman Comics To Get You Pumped For The Dark Knight Rises!” But where we differ is, we’re taking a more scholarly approach to these Batman comics. We’ve already talked about The Evolution Of Batman In Popular Culture and given you Batman 101: A Beginner’s Guide To The Dark Knight, which gave you several great places to start reading Batman comics that aren’t heavily drenched in continuity and are some of the more simple stories that The Dark Knight has to offer.

With Batman 202: Intermediate Reading For The Caped Crusader, however, we’re taking a look at some more books that offer a little bit more than just a basic starting point. These books are all great, but they’re also a little more complicated than I would suggest just starting off. This list is here to provide you with the next step into becoming a Batman scholar, and requires a little more of the reader.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve written of my love for Neil Gaiman’s work, especially his Sandman comic book series, which is why I’m excited that today the first three special edition volumes of Sandman were released. And if that wasn’t awesome enough, there’s also news that an annotated Sandman is also in the works!

The new trade paperback special editions feature recolored artwork — the same treatment given to the Absolute Editions — as well as new covers and other upgrades from their original publication, which began in 1989.

The remaining volumes of the series, which are published by DC’s Vertigo imprint, will have the same remastering treatment in the future, but no dates for those have been announced.

If you already own the entire series, you might be wondering if the new editions with recolored artwork are worth the cost of a repurchase. If you check out Vertigo’s blog, you can see a few comparison samples between the original and recolored art. Also, below is an excerpt from Gaiman’s blog from 2006 in response to a fan questioning the recoloring on the Absolute Editions.

Author Neil Gaiman made an appearance on The Today Show this morning, where he announced that Neil Jordan will write and direct the big-screen adaptation of his latest award-winning novel, The Graveyard Book.

Jordan is best known for his work on the 1992 Academy Award-nominated film The Crying Game, which he wrote and directed and won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Jordan also helmed Interview with the Vampire and most recently directed Jodie Foster in The Brave One.

Gaiman will produce the live-action film and Framestore, the UK studio that handled the The Dark Knight Harvey Dent/Two-Face work, will handle the visual effects for film, which has yet to be renamed. The author had said that he hopes the cast will be filled with well-known British actors, similar to the Harry Potter franchise, but the lead role of Nobody Owens — the little boy who’s raised by the inhabitants of a graveyard — will probably be played by several unknown actors at various ages.

*The following is a translation in Portuguese of our A Beginner’s Guide To Neil Gaiman feature. Thank you to reader Pati Fimbrethil for the translation!

*Obrigado ao leitor Pati Fimbrethil para traduzir este artigo em Português.

Para aqueles de vocês que não conhecem as contribuições de Neil Gaiman para o mundo geek, eu tanto os invejo como tenho pena de vocês – pena por causa da privação que vocês sofreram até hoje; inveja porque se vocês seguirem o conselho que eu estou prestes a dar, um novo mundo inteiro se abrirá pra vocês – e é uma experiência verdadeiramente arrebatadora.

Uma coisa que você aprenderá bem rápido é que Gaiman é versátil o bastante para escrever em várias categorias literárias, então tem alguma coisa aí fora pra todo mundo – até para as crianças. Uma vez que Neil já está escrevendo há tanto tempo, pode ser que você não saiba por onde começar. Então, para ajudá-lo(a) nessa sua iminente experência mágica, aqui está uma lista dos escritos de Neil Gaiman com os quais você precisa se familiarizar imediatamente (confie em mim, você agradecerá por tê-lo feito).