Back in 1989 I’d never published a fanzine before but I kinda knew what they were about and intended to do one. Why, I have no idea, and probably had no idea back then either, but do one I would. Without that fanzine I probably wouldn’t be where I am today, and whether that’s a good or a bad thing I’m never quite sure. The fanzine was called PDS, named after a mate’s side-side-side-project band because I liked the sound of it, a name that would crop up a few more times in my zine publishing career. It was shite, but it had to be. That was the point.
I was living in Croydon at the time and my local comic shop was called Phantom Zone where I would spend most of my time and money. Neil Gaiman was doing a signing tour and me and my mate Phil asked them if we could ask Neil for an interview. Neil said yes. And so with my sheet of questions and Phil for moral support, the three of us sat around a tape recorder in the back room of Phantom Zone and talked for 45 minutes. Or rather Neil talked and we kinda got in the way. I remember when transcribing the interview I had to re-write my questions so they fitted his answers which was not a problem as his answers were more interesting that my questions.
The interview was published in my shitty little zine. I sent a copy to Neil and heard nothing back, which was not too surprising as it really was the only decent thing in the publication. The tape was stuck in with the rest of my tapes and while I never dreamed of throwing it away it was never listened too again.
The other day Andy G and I were going through our respective pre-CD music collections and he stumbled across the Gaiman tape. I told him the story and he asked if he could borrow it. Yes, I said, but you mustn’t listen to it while I’m in the room. You should digitize it and stick it online, he said, and I scoffed, but only slightly. It lurked on the kitchen table for a while and one afternoon I snatched it up and popped it in the tape deck. My main concern was about myself coming over like a spoddy little teenager who doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about but it didn’t seem so bad. I guess I’m far enough away from that version of me now.
I emailed Neil through his site asking if he’d mind this going public and he got back to me in about 10 minutes, which was impressive but also meant he hadn’t actually downloaded and listened to the thing. Since he’s now somewhat incredibly popular in internet land with his journal and all (11,215 reading via LiveJournal alone) I doubted my bandwidth could deal with hosting it so it was OurMedia to the rescue.
And so here it is. My first, and last, comics-related interview. This is the OurMedia page, and here’s the direct mp3 link. It’s 17.6mb, 38 minutes long and only a little bit fuzzy. Enjoy!
