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So I'm doing a thing.
Each day of lockdown, I'm going to do a thread about someone on here that I love, in the various meanings of the word. Just gonna fill the next month with some positivity and warmth, because I think we all need it.
Lockdown Legends Day 14: @neilhimself
Each day of lockdown, I'm going to do a thread about someone on here that I love, in the various meanings of the word. Just gonna fill the next month with some positivity and warmth, because I think we all need it.
Lockdown Legends Day 14: @neilhimself
It seems a bit silly to draw attention to Neil as he's globally famous for his 40+ years of work, but these threads are about my personal thoughts and Neil had a very personal impact on me. And it started when was in London in the early 90s, I must have been 10 or 11, and we...
...were in England visiting my maternal grandparents for Christmas. Growing up in Africa meant I didn't have regular access to the usual shiny, attractive Western cultural things, so each trip to the UK was like going to Disneyland in terms of new toys and comics and video...
...games and all the usual stuff I was into back then (and still am) but couldn't easily acquire. And one of the cathedrals of pop culture junk at the time was a place called the Virgin Megastore near Marble Arch. This was a huge multi-floor shop, a bit like what HMV became...
...before they too went the way of the dodo, and pretty much everything in it was utterly fascinating to me. My parents would drop me off there in the knowledge that I would entertain myself for literally hours. The bottom floor had all kinds of Games Workshop merchandise, too...
... expensive for me at that age but I would pore over the boxes and books and absorb whatever I could about them. The middle floor was mainly VHS tapes, and again I would just roam from stack to stack and read the descriptions on the back of each box, staring at the stills...
...from each film, particularly in the sci-fi and fantasy and horror genres. But the real treasure trove in this place was at the top floor, where there was a little alcove section at the back that sold comic books. Like, ALL the comic books. Individual issues, trade...
...paperbacks, you name it, they had everything. And while most of the stock was wrapped up, there would always be one "browsing copy" of each comic to let potential customers flick through and have a read before they bought anything. And of course I would pretty much read...
...everything there, cover to cover, rarely if ever buying anything because my parents dropped me off there to keep me quiet not spend money. And it was there that I picked up a little graphic novel you may have heard of called THE SANDMAN. It was The Doll's House, actually...
...the second volume of the series but the first to be published (long story), and I'd never seen anything like it. It was dark and it was kind of scary and it was also kind of sexy and it was totally, utterly inappropriate for someone my age at the time and of course I bought...
...the fucking thing because something in me just reacted to it in such a visceral way. And that was how it started. I'd read comics before that, mainly Marvel and DC superhero stuff like any kid, but that was where I started to see comics as something more than a fun...
...distraction, something serious and literary and challenging. Obviously, we all now know that The Sandman is a classic of the medium, but back then we didn't. It was edgy and different and it took massive risks and as it came out we didn't quite know what it was doing or...
...where it was going but we all knew it was special. It's an incredible piece of work, but where I feel I owe Neil and his collaborators such a debt is in the way it became such an amazing jumping-off point for so many other things. It's a series about storytelling and myth...
...across all cultures and mediums and time. So because of The Sandman I got into horror. I got into the occult. I got into biblical mythology. I got into African mythology, European fairy tales, Shakespeare, Norse mythology, feminist literature, transgender rights, Greek...
...myths, One Thousand and One Nights and so much more - all of which aren't just mentioned in passing but are integral to the series. It started everything. I can honestly pinpoint The Sandman as the point at which I became an artist and a storyteller, but more importantly I...
...think it's where I started to think about all human beings and cultures as collectively beautiful, to value empathy above all other things, to fight for the marginalised and defend what you believe in. It had a profound effect on me as an artist and as a person and still...
...does to this day. So I've got Neil to thank for that, he literally made me into a better and more interesting person, and I'm sure I'm not alone. From the bottom of my heart Neil, thank you for that, sorry for the long boring thread, and I hope you're having a great lockdown x
