This photo of Neil Gaiman and Mike, was taken last November 25, 2007 at the Fully Booked, The Fort by the author
Master storyteller Neil Gaiman is really a blast to stalk around, come hell(a fire broke out 2 houses away from ours last night) or high water (a supertyphoon is taking its sweet brutal time getting to the Philippines). He returned! To award the winners of the graphic novel awards, putting up a cool cash prize himself to give us a kick. St. Neil wanted to jumpstart the mass production of graphic novels with the Filipino flair. His magnanimity and his criticism for everyone who joined has sparked my interest to participate next year. But I tried to listen to the message of St. Neil beyond the wall of sound he stirred among the crowd. He challenged everyone to bring it up a notch, not finding ayone fit enough for the first place in the comicbook division, they only awarded a first place in the prose div. He was also, he said, wondering why the Filipinos of the new generation, despite the talent, haven’t really reached out to the world. Well, we thank him for noticing so that we can actually get a move on it. Perhaps he wasn’t oriented about the lack of a real interest in the publication of novels in our country. Here, it’s still TV, and maybe as a result, we have projects on TV and movie animation being done in the islands and yet, nothing really massive on the literary front. Most of all, we adore him for establishing a new category for next year, the short film. He may not know it, we may not realize it, his brief visit has done so much good, inspiring us writers to believe in the uniqueness of the Philippine experience. St. Neil’s waiting, we certainly hope the world is ready also.
