Dreamking of all media

Having conquered comics and books, and very soon movies, Neil Gaiman is now ready to tackle the music industry ... with a little help from his friends:

An album inspired by the work of prolific author Neil Gaiman will be released this summer by Philadelphia-based independent label Dancing Ferret Discs. The project, tentatively titled "Where's Neil When You Need Him?," is expected to arrive July 18, according to Dancing Ferret principal Patrick Rodgers.

Rodgers, who is came up with the album's concept and is acting as music supervisor, asked artists he knew were fans of the writer to compose material based on their favorite Gaiman character or story. Some fashioned songs after his more popular work, such as the comic book series "The Sandman," while others took their inspiration from such rare pieces as his short story "The Goldfish Pool."

Tori Amos, Tapping The Vein, Schandmaul, ThouShaltNot, the Cruxshadows, Lunascape and 11 other artists will contribute songs. Dave McKean is doing the album's art, and Gaiman will write the liner notes.

Speaking of Gaiman, he recently commented on his blog that he has received the first few pages of Eternals art from John Romita Jr.:

The first pencilled art from John Romita Jr has started coming in on The Eternals, and it's quite marvellous. When you're writing comics, for me anyway, the best moments are all where you see the art coming in, and go "Oh, you can do that? Well, then, I can do this, and that, and that..." and that's how this feels. Sequences still to come are already getting bigger in my head, moving around, getting odder.