Be water: Neil Gaiman on comics, craft and a cup of tea

The first time Neil Gaiman was invited to speak in St. Louis was in 1998. At least, it was his first official “we will fly you in, put you up in a hotel and pay you” guest speaking gig, and he was quite pleased to arrive at the ivy-covered halls of Washington University.

As he was chilling in the green room, his handler said, “It’s too bad about the English department.”

“What about the English department?” Gaiman asked.

Well, it seems Gaiman had been invited by the art department. When the English department faculty found out that he had written for — gasp — comic books, they boycotted the speech.

And not just boycotted — they picketed, marching with signs.

“I felt illicit, smuggled in. It made it at least twice as much fun,” Gaiman said, and added that he’s never been boycotted since, “rather to my disappointment.”

Hold onto your hat, Mr. Gaiman. We’re in the era of book banning. Absolute Sandman has been listed as one of the top banned and challenged graphic novels by the American Library Association, which — along with PEN America and the ACLU — is being kept rather busy by the screaming-fast rise in book-banning. Sandman itself has been challenged since it was first launched in 1989, and his urban fantasy novel Neverwhere was removed from a required reading list in New Mexico for “sexual innuendos and harsh language.” Because we never see those in a public high school hallway. American…