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The BBC Interviews Neil Gaiman About Books, Comics And Scientology

Published Sun, 04 Jul 2010 16:19:27 -0500

Last updated Sun, 09 Jan 2022 06:24:15 -0600

David Sillito of the BBC talks to Neil about everything from The Graveyard Book to Sandman to Doctor Who. And then also addresses one topic that some have shied away from and yet enrages others.

BBC: Your family were Scientologists.

Neil: Yes.

BBC: Are you?

Neil: No.

BBC: You've moved on.

Neil: Yeah. I mean it's… I love my family.

Neil Gaiman is regarded as one of the better negotiators in the comics industry. To the extent that he has negotiated partial ownership over Sandman from its owners, DC Comics, took six figure sums from Tekno for writing short paragraphs, has taken Todd McFarlane to court and won (repeatedly) and played hardball against DC over a Sandman #0 mini-series, choosing to walk away and write The Graveyard Book instead.

Some people have exclaimed that it is impossible for Neil to both not be a Scientologist and to be on good terms with his family, a number of whom are prominent members. That leaving the Church of Scientology means that members disassociate themselves from you, even your family. And that this is proof that Neil is a secret Scientologist (just as Obama is a secret Muslim) and that his Sandman money is being used to fund the Church's operations.

I'd like to point out that it's even more impossible to have negotiated a creator-participant stake in a pre-existing DC trademark of fifty years. And yet Neil Gaiman did just that.

He's a really good negotiator.

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