Sunday, July 10, 2005
I went to Fully Booked bookstore in Greenhills after the morning service to buy hardcover copies of his children's books without any intention of having them autographed by Neil Gaiman himself:
This is an absolute favorite of mine
Hardcover, baby!
I'm not that big of a fan of the Sandman series to begin with (largely because the art never appealed to except for the Dave McKean covers ... please don't bite my head off) so once I got the books I'll be going home to finish some comic strips (the "Goldfish" book came with a free CD recording Mr. Gaiman reading the story). It was a little past 1 p.m. and lots of people were there waiting under the merciless heat of the sun all waiting for their chance to spend a little time with Mr. Gaiman.
But plans do change and what resolve I had to walk away and not look back changed when I saw my friends mingling with the crowd. There they were, Az, Nelz, Mark, Gerry and wife, Ilyn and some others. After the usual greetings and catching up we went inside the mall to get some chow (lunch for me actually, by then it was almost 2 pm). We missed his book reading by the time we went out again. I met some friends from the forum PinoyExchange.com, most of whom I haven't seen for years now and after another round of catching up, joined the others in their places in the long line to hang out. Lyndon also came by to check things out for potential materials for his strips next week. We cracked a lot of jokes making the wait and the heat more bearable for us (a lot of them were gold waiting to be translated into comic strips). One of them peeps hanging out with us told us a true story of how his friend, a modelling sculptor like himself, went home torn and unsure of how the turn of events after the exquisite handmade figure of Morpheus he made for himself to be signed by Mr. Gaiman was taken off his hands by the author himself (you can read the whole story here). He was given a free ticket to tomorrow's Writers' Forum at the Music Museum as compensation for his troubles.
Part of the crowd waiting for the book signing to start
Neil Gaiman himself
There's me making the victory sign behind the crowd
The one in charge of the close-ups
Az went home later in the afternoon while I stayed till Mark and company had their books signed, which was by then around ten minutes before seven in the evening. The remaining 100+ people waiting in line who had missed their opportunity to secure a number were also accomodated by Mr. Gaiman at the last minute. Their hoots and howls of joy were nicely acknowledged by the author who waved to them from behind the glass doors. Went home almost exhausted from standing not long after.
I should have gone to bed an hour earlier as me and Mark have plans of getting a very early start tomorrow to secure a good position at the lines at the last day of book signing at the Gateway mall (we dared each other that we should be up and about as early as 4 am). Why? Tomorrow's the last day for the book signing and we have been warned that the possible scenarios were either: free for all or first 100 people in line. I really must be way out of my mind to do this.
This is an absolute favorite of mine
Hardcover, baby!
I'm not that big of a fan of the Sandman series to begin with (largely because the art never appealed to except for the Dave McKean covers ... please don't bite my head off) so once I got the books I'll be going home to finish some comic strips (the "Goldfish" book came with a free CD recording Mr. Gaiman reading the story). It was a little past 1 p.m. and lots of people were there waiting under the merciless heat of the sun all waiting for their chance to spend a little time with Mr. Gaiman.
But plans do change and what resolve I had to walk away and not look back changed when I saw my friends mingling with the crowd. There they were, Az, Nelz, Mark, Gerry and wife, Ilyn and some others. After the usual greetings and catching up we went inside the mall to get some chow (lunch for me actually, by then it was almost 2 pm). We missed his book reading by the time we went out again. I met some friends from the forum PinoyExchange.com, most of whom I haven't seen for years now and after another round of catching up, joined the others in their places in the long line to hang out. Lyndon also came by to check things out for potential materials for his strips next week. We cracked a lot of jokes making the wait and the heat more bearable for us (a lot of them were gold waiting to be translated into comic strips). One of them peeps hanging out with us told us a true story of how his friend, a modelling sculptor like himself, went home torn and unsure of how the turn of events after the exquisite handmade figure of Morpheus he made for himself to be signed by Mr. Gaiman was taken off his hands by the author himself (you can read the whole story here). He was given a free ticket to tomorrow's Writers' Forum at the Music Museum as compensation for his troubles.
Part of the crowd waiting for the book signing to start
Neil Gaiman himself
There's me making the victory sign behind the crowd
The one in charge of the close-ups
Az went home later in the afternoon while I stayed till Mark and company had their books signed, which was by then around ten minutes before seven in the evening. The remaining 100+ people waiting in line who had missed their opportunity to secure a number were also accomodated by Mr. Gaiman at the last minute. Their hoots and howls of joy were nicely acknowledged by the author who waved to them from behind the glass doors. Went home almost exhausted from standing not long after.
I should have gone to bed an hour earlier as me and Mark have plans of getting a very early start tomorrow to secure a good position at the lines at the last day of book signing at the Gateway mall (we dared each other that we should be up and about as early as 4 am). Why? Tomorrow's the last day for the book signing and we have been warned that the possible scenarios were either: free for all or first 100 people in line. I really must be way out of my mind to do this.
@ 10:26 PM ---> 
