Neil Gaiman Gets Animated as a Half Breed Cat on Arthur

Neil Gaiman is set to make a visit to Elwood City for a Halloween week guest appearance as himself on the animated PBS series Arthur. Well, himself if he was spliced with some cat DNA.

Gaiman’s role comes in an episode called “Falafelosophy,” inspiring one of the kids who’s interested in writing and illustrating a graphic novel. It’s paired with what sounds like a suitable companion story, “Tales of the Grotesquely Grim Bunny,” about changes on the shelves at the local comic shop. 

 

“With luck,” the Sandman author blogged a couple weeks back, “it’ll have kids all over the world making their own little graphic novels, and will usher in the dawn of a new golden age of comics and creativity.”

All that's going to happen from a single guest appearance on Arthur?  Really?

I confess that in the world of animated TV shows, I've always thought Arthur was, well he kind of sucks. Even my kids agree with me, and they'd watch just about anything on TV.

But it's still cool to see comic book writers cross over into the world of mainstream media, especially for the Gaiman fans of the world. 

But if Gaiman thinks he's going to save the world of comic books with this appearance, or that this is a cooler appearance than Alan Moore, Dan Clowes and Art Speigelman doing a comic book store signing in an episode of the Simpsons, then he's clearly dreaming.