Rags and Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt

On the one hand this is a really interesting collection, who wouldn't like to see some of their favourite authors rewriting the stories that have influenced them.  However, because most of these are not fairy stories I didn't know the inspirations, it would have been useful to have either a reprint of the stories included in the case of shorter ones or good summaries.  I did like the actual stories and found them moving, disturbing and haunting in turn, but I just felt this book was missing a trick.

The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels by Danny Fingeroth

This is a really well written and constructed guide to graphic novels.  It is divided into eight clear sections, starting with what constitutes a graphic novel and the history of the genre with a 40 page graphic novel about writing comics as interlude before moving on to Fingeroth's selection of 60 best graphic novels, the writers, artist and publishers and finishing with a good informative section on Managa, a section on film adapations and resources.  The layout is really attractive, with blue boxes in the margins providing information along the lines of 'if you like this, you might like...'.  It is good but not great, and it isn't completely up to date, being published in 2008 it misses some of the major movements of the last four years, such as the rise of steampunk, and there are some puzzling omissions as to major writers and artists.  However, a good starting point which has given me plenty of new information.

The Sandman Companion by Hy Bender

I had the honour of reading DC Vertigo's comic The Sandman as it was being released as a monthly comic in the 1990s, and Bender has written an excellent concordance, elegantly and clearly written, the kind of book that sends you straight back to the comics themselves to see what it is being talked about.

Part 1 (Overview) does what it says on the tin, it introduces The Sandman (Chapter 1) and gives a brief biography of its creator Neil Gaiman and his creative influences (Chapter 2).

Part 2 (The Sandman Collections) comprises chapters 3-12, each chapter is dedicated to of the 10 trade paperbacks that collected the 75 issues and 3 specials and this is done in chronological order. Bender begins each chapter with a well written synopsis of the comic issues covered by each tpb and then moves on to 'Some Things Worth Noticing' before finishing each chapter with an extended interview with Gaiman. Each chapter is interspersed with black and white illustrations and by grey text boxes which contain information, anecdotes and interviews from the dozens of pencillers, inkers, colourists, letterers, editors and celebrities that were involved with the series.

In the centre of the book is a gorgeous set of colour plates displaying some of the Sandman trading cards, tarot cards, proposal sketches, posters, figurines and Dave McKean covers.

Part 3 (Backstory) covers the origins of the major and some of the minor characters of the series (some are mythology, some have their roots in the older DC Universe, some from literature and some just out of Gaiman's imagination), repeating motifs and patterns, the nature of comic as medium and The Sandman's audience.

A worthy collection, certainly not just a cash-in

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The extended edition of Gaiman's short story in M for Magic, Gaiman is always, to me, better when he's writing for children, brilliantly imaginative and gripping

AZ: "When a baby escapes a murderer intent on killing the entire family, who would have thought it would find safety and security in the local graveyard? Brought up by the resident ghosts, ghouls and spectres, Bod has an eccentric childhood learning about life from the dead. But for Bod there is also the danger of the murderer still looking for him - after all, he is the last remaining member of the family."

M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman

A collection of short stories for children, some of which I've encounterd before. Gaiman's imagination never fails to entertain, and here where he's writing for children he writes less self consciously, children don't need to be asked to suspend disbelief! In this collection of short stories I most loved the short story about the boy born in a graveyard but wanted more of it, luckily Gaiman also felt the same and expanded it into his The Graveyard Book. I particularly liked reading again 'The Price' which is about a family who are adopted by a mysterious black cat who sustains terrible injuries night after night.

Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Philips AUDIO

After Hollinghurst I was now on a good run, in the same vein as Sandman but in prose and very very funny Gods Behaving Badly is about Greek gods living in the present day. Apollo, who Gaiman's Sandman is associated with, is a very different person in this book

Au: "Being immortal isn't all it's cracked up to be. Life's hard for a Greek god in the 21st century: Nobody believes in you any more, even your own family doesn't respect you, and you're stuck in a dilapidated hovel in North London with too many siblings and not enough hot water.

But for Artemis (goddess of hunting, professional dog walker), Aphrodite (goddess of beauty, telephone sex operator) and Apollo (god of the sun, TV psychic) there's no way out....Until a meek cleaner and her would-be boyfriend come into their lives and turn the world literally upside down."

Lucifer by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

One of a number of spinoffs from Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Lucifer is Satan, the Devil, the fallen angel who defied God and was thrown from heaven to reign over hell. Except, in Sandman, he decided to leave and gave the key to Hell to Morpheus, the Sandman, resulting in the mother of all real estate rows as he interviewed prospective new owners. In the end heaven sent down two new angels to take over the job. But that aside, Lucifer is the story of what the Devil did after he abandoned hell, and he's very charistmatic, completely narcissitic and quite funny.