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Signal to Noise
Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean present their masterpiece in a completely remastered and redesigned edition overflowing with bonus material!
Somewhere in London, a film director is dying of cancer. His life's crowning achievement, his greatest film, would have told the story of a European village as the last hour of 999 A.D. approached - the midnight that the villagers were convinced would bring with it Armageddon. Now that story will never be told. But he's still working it out in his head, making a film that no one will ever see. No one but us.
Serialized in The Face in 1989, expanded and revised into a graphic novel in 1992, and adapted for radio in 2000, Signal to Noise has never stopped evolving. The bonus material in this first-time hardcover edition captures every leg of the journey, including three related short stories unseen in nearly two decades, an additional chapter created for the CD release of the radio drama, and a new introduction by Dave McKean along with the original by Jonathan Carrol and the radio drama introduction by Neil Gaiman.
Somewhere in London, a film director is dying of cancer. His life's crowning achievement, his greatest film, would have told the story of a European village as the last hour of 999 A.D. approached - the midnight that the villagers were convinced would bring with it Armageddon. Now that story will never be told. But he's still working it out in his head, making a film that no one will ever see. No one but us.
Serialized in The Face in 1989, expanded and revised into a graphic novel in 1992, and adapted for radio in 2000, Signal to Noise has never stopped evolving. The bonus material in this first-time hardcover edition captures every leg of the journey, including three related short stories unseen in nearly two decades, an additional chapter created for the CD release of the radio drama, and a new introduction by Dave McKean along with the original by Jonathan Carrol and the radio drama introduction by Neil Gaiman.
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 304 reviews
April 24, 2008
My store received a copy of this new hardcover edition of "Signal to Noise" just the other day, and before shelving it, I decided to read it. We were slow, and it's short, so I figured I could get through it in an hour or so. I'd read the story once before, though as an internet download of scanned pages rather than in an actual bound edition. At the time, I didn't really get it, and I hoped that reading it in this new edition might make it easier for me to understand. Boy, did it. The second time through, I really connected with the story Gaiman and McKean were trying to tell. The more overt plot concerns a film director who has learned, at the age of not quite 50, that he's got a malignant, cancerous tumor, and will almost certainly die, and soon. He reacts to this by refusing all treatment and going home to wait for death. While sitting around his house, slowly growing sicker, he sketches out the idea for his final film, one that he now assumes will never be made. The film is about the pre-milennial tensions and social unrest that gripped Europe in the year 999 AD. He's fascinated by the idea of a culture preparing for the end of the world, one that quite obviously did not come. This dovetails with his thoughts and fears about his own death. He seems to regret having lost the opportunity to do more, to have as long a life as he'd always planned to have. This is where the concept of the title comes in--the director spends a lot of time thinking about clear ideas and plans being drowned out by the chaos and randomness of the world. McKean's cut-up illustration style on this particular book underscores this thought process to dramatic effect. What helps even more is the inclusion in this edition of a final epilogue called "Milennium". The rest of the book takes place in the early 90s, and this chapter is the thoughts, upon the arrival of the year 2000, of the woman who produced the director's movies. This chapter adds a different perspective to the rest of the book that helps make sense of it, and gives certain parts greater clarity.
I was deeply moved by this book. I don't know why I didn't understand what Gaiman and McKean were going for with it upon first reading, but all that's important is that I got it this time. I feel like I'm dancing around it in this review, rather than saying straight out what their point was, but I partly feel like I couldn't say it straight out if I wanted to, and I also feel like even a concentrated attempt to spell it out might ruin the book for future readers. I don't want to do that, so I'll leave it here. This is one of the better graphic novels I've ever read in my life. Anyone with concerns about life and death and the eventual result of all our plans and ambitions should read this book.
I was deeply moved by this book. I don't know why I didn't understand what Gaiman and McKean were going for with it upon first reading, but all that's important is that I got it this time. I feel like I'm dancing around it in this review, rather than saying straight out what their point was, but I partly feel like I couldn't say it straight out if I wanted to, and I also feel like even a concentrated attempt to spell it out might ruin the book for future readers. I don't want to do that, so I'll leave it here. This is one of the better graphic novels I've ever read in my life. Anyone with concerns about life and death and the eventual result of all our plans and ambitions should read this book.
August 31, 2016
I need to think about this.
February 3, 2021
The Apocalypse, that moment when the immanence of the End of the World is unveiled and our last few glimpses might show the true nature of all things, is a concept so vast it is nearly impossible to cope with psychologically. By borrowing the vision of a dying filmmaker, Gaiman and McKean remind us that every apocalypse is also personal, experienced by individuals, and no one individual touches more of it than anyone else, no matter how they approach death.
As C.S. Lewis has pointed out, the idea of "the sum of human suffering" is not only abstract, but nonsensical: suffering is maximally individual. The limit that one life can suffer is the total amount of possible suffering that can be experienced in the universe, even though it is repeated many times over.
Signal to Noise reminds that each of us experiences our own little apocalypse, no more and no less; and offers the peaceable possibility that, unlike death tolls and statistical tragedies, the shape of my unique mortality is an idea with which I may be able to come to terms.
As C.S. Lewis has pointed out, the idea of "the sum of human suffering" is not only abstract, but nonsensical: suffering is maximally individual. The limit that one life can suffer is the total amount of possible suffering that can be experienced in the universe, even though it is repeated many times over.
Signal to Noise reminds that each of us experiences our own little apocalypse, no more and no less; and offers the peaceable possibility that, unlike death tolls and statistical tragedies, the shape of my unique mortality is an idea with which I may be able to come to terms.
November 26, 2013
Twenty years ago, I picked up an earlier edition of Signal to Noise in a comic book shop. Before this book, I had listlessly followed the trends in superhero comics like many indoor-boys before me ("Robin died?" "Now Superman’s dead?" "Valiant Comics are worth more than other comics?" "Image is really innovative?"). Signal to Noise changed that. This book featured regular people struggling with the death of a loved one and their own mortality, about the reasons and nature of having an apocalyptic viewpoint, the creative process, and absurd circumstances like paying a parking ticket after learning you have cancer. Philosophical themes, biblical references, historical speculation, and artists racking their brains to humanely depict all three – I had not heard of the author or the illustrator, but I liked the cut of their jib.
The comic panels are paintings, nascent computer graphics and photo collages seamlessly blended into something filmic and Jungian. The book opens with a film director answering questions from an Actor’s Studio-like audience. The audience members ask the director pointed personal questions while their heads morph into animal and birds. In two panels, Dave McKean manages to capture the ordinary photorealism of someone asking a question followed by the primal undercurrent underpinning a rather vicious social situation. In addition to the textual metaphors, throughout the book there are brilliant visual metaphors that morph beyond comparing two disparate things into… visual meta-metaphors?
Signal to Noise represents so many firsts for me. It was my first example of what several years later became popularly called graphic novels. This was the first comic-graphic-novel-book I read that explored thought experiments and historical contexts that humanity can only make subjective guesses about.
I did not know at the time that the intertextual “noise” in between the book’s sections was generated by a software version of William Burroughs’ cut-up technique, and also replicated the way David Bowie and Brian Eno sometimes create song lyrics (i.e. feeding words into a computer and selecting stylishly jumbled strings they like).
I had not yet watched Breaking Bad, and seen another thin, scruffy, bespectacled, middle-aged loner attempt something grandly artistic with his remaining time on another canvas. I hadn’t read Sandman and American Gods was a decade into the future. I had not yet seen both Gaiman and McKean at play, carving out characters who risk everything for an idea, for their own survival, or while merely going about their errands.
Gaiman is great at risking his characters. Any of them could die. Not in the obvious style of Joss Whedon, i.e. the sweet and funny character who everyone adores, finally falls in love, and mid-kiss is brutally stabbed by a demon. Gods, the middle-aged, pets, wives, husbands, children—Gaiman indiscriminately slaughters them. Gaiman, what a haphazard tyrant. You may love them, hate them, or feel lukewarm about them. You may know them for 300 pages or two, every character may die at any moment in a Gaiman story. This ingeniously heightens the dramatic tension, since everything is at stake for most of the characters.
This edition has some new content: a few prefaces, a one-page comic by Dave McKean that was the genesis of the book, and a post-scriptum that I don’t remember, which I suspect was subsequently added. On one hand, the PS provides a post-millennial context unavailable in the 1990s and perhaps allows Gaiman-McKean to comment on their younger notions of art, creative process, death, fame, etc. On the other hand, it detracts from the melancholy, darkness, and the final joke about titles. Personally, I don’t like the PS, because while it extends the absurdity of how someone’s intentions can be forgotten, revived, misinterpreted and co-opted, it had the polish of a PR statement and a formulaic summing up that the original did not have. Maybe this is the case of an oldster ranting about how it was better in his day, and maybe twenty years hence, on my third reading, I will have fully integrated the PS, forgotten the addition, and love it. Maybe it was always there and I forgot. Who can say.
I am happy to have reread Signal to Noise and found that it holds up to my memories of it, that it now reminds me of other great artistic works that came before and after it. I have been delighted to follow the subsequent career of both men, enjoying much of their work, and generally enjoying what is now known as graphic novels.
The comic panels are paintings, nascent computer graphics and photo collages seamlessly blended into something filmic and Jungian. The book opens with a film director answering questions from an Actor’s Studio-like audience. The audience members ask the director pointed personal questions while their heads morph into animal and birds. In two panels, Dave McKean manages to capture the ordinary photorealism of someone asking a question followed by the primal undercurrent underpinning a rather vicious social situation. In addition to the textual metaphors, throughout the book there are brilliant visual metaphors that morph beyond comparing two disparate things into… visual meta-metaphors?
Signal to Noise represents so many firsts for me. It was my first example of what several years later became popularly called graphic novels. This was the first comic-graphic-novel-book I read that explored thought experiments and historical contexts that humanity can only make subjective guesses about.
I did not know at the time that the intertextual “noise” in between the book’s sections was generated by a software version of William Burroughs’ cut-up technique, and also replicated the way David Bowie and Brian Eno sometimes create song lyrics (i.e. feeding words into a computer and selecting stylishly jumbled strings they like).
I had not yet watched Breaking Bad, and seen another thin, scruffy, bespectacled, middle-aged loner attempt something grandly artistic with his remaining time on another canvas. I hadn’t read Sandman and American Gods was a decade into the future. I had not yet seen both Gaiman and McKean at play, carving out characters who risk everything for an idea, for their own survival, or while merely going about their errands.
Gaiman is great at risking his characters. Any of them could die. Not in the obvious style of Joss Whedon, i.e. the sweet and funny character who everyone adores, finally falls in love, and mid-kiss is brutally stabbed by a demon. Gods, the middle-aged, pets, wives, husbands, children—Gaiman indiscriminately slaughters them. Gaiman, what a haphazard tyrant. You may love them, hate them, or feel lukewarm about them. You may know them for 300 pages or two, every character may die at any moment in a Gaiman story. This ingeniously heightens the dramatic tension, since everything is at stake for most of the characters.
This edition has some new content: a few prefaces, a one-page comic by Dave McKean that was the genesis of the book, and a post-scriptum that I don’t remember, which I suspect was subsequently added. On one hand, the PS provides a post-millennial context unavailable in the 1990s and perhaps allows Gaiman-McKean to comment on their younger notions of art, creative process, death, fame, etc. On the other hand, it detracts from the melancholy, darkness, and the final joke about titles. Personally, I don’t like the PS, because while it extends the absurdity of how someone’s intentions can be forgotten, revived, misinterpreted and co-opted, it had the polish of a PR statement and a formulaic summing up that the original did not have. Maybe this is the case of an oldster ranting about how it was better in his day, and maybe twenty years hence, on my third reading, I will have fully integrated the PS, forgotten the addition, and love it. Maybe it was always there and I forgot. Who can say.
I am happy to have reread Signal to Noise and found that it holds up to my memories of it, that it now reminds me of other great artistic works that came before and after it. I have been delighted to follow the subsequent career of both men, enjoying much of their work, and generally enjoying what is now known as graphic novels.
November 3, 2015
Ovo je pravi vizuelni dozivljaj.
January 9, 2019
Goddamn fucking beautiful.
May 18, 2013
I'm a pretty hard-core advocate for drinking the Gaiman Kool-Aid. Basically, if you've met me, I've recommended Gaiman to you. I just don't meet people without in some way referencing what a supremely wonderful author he is.
That said, "Signal to Noise" is much more a Dave McKean piece than a Neil piece, reading more like "Cages" than say "Sandman" or "Murder Mysteries." There isn't really a hint of the fantastic anywhere in the story. A man learns he is dying and tries to cope with the end of the world. The film he is working on feels like the biggest Gaiman element in the piece. In other words, this is not a book I ever would have picked up from a jacket summary, which just goes to show me how little jacket summaries can be trusted.
Conceptually, the book is beautiful, interjecting randomly generated noise which I can here in my head like so many jumbled radio stations. The art is obviously McKean gorgeous, forcing even a speed reader like me to slow down and take in the expansive pictures. The themes of the book are themes that resonate with my own philosophy: the idea that there is no end of The World, but there are thousands of ends of the world every second for individual people. That's why our society is so obsessed with apocalypses. We all see our own doom looming, and we project it outward to encompass all we can grasp.
It's filled with noise, but the signal still comes through strong, the hallmark of both of these creators.
I'm so happy this book returned to print after such a long absence to give this generation (as far removed from 1989 as I feel from the Vietnam War) a chance to hear its message. In a word where apocalypse is the name of the game in media trends, this story takes a step back and thinks about what that means to a single soul, staring into the void.
That said, "Signal to Noise" is much more a Dave McKean piece than a Neil piece, reading more like "Cages" than say "Sandman" or "Murder Mysteries." There isn't really a hint of the fantastic anywhere in the story. A man learns he is dying and tries to cope with the end of the world. The film he is working on feels like the biggest Gaiman element in the piece. In other words, this is not a book I ever would have picked up from a jacket summary, which just goes to show me how little jacket summaries can be trusted.
Conceptually, the book is beautiful, interjecting randomly generated noise which I can here in my head like so many jumbled radio stations. The art is obviously McKean gorgeous, forcing even a speed reader like me to slow down and take in the expansive pictures. The themes of the book are themes that resonate with my own philosophy: the idea that there is no end of The World, but there are thousands of ends of the world every second for individual people. That's why our society is so obsessed with apocalypses. We all see our own doom looming, and we project it outward to encompass all we can grasp.
It's filled with noise, but the signal still comes through strong, the hallmark of both of these creators.
I'm so happy this book returned to print after such a long absence to give this generation (as far removed from 1989 as I feel from the Vietnam War) a chance to hear its message. In a word where apocalypse is the name of the game in media trends, this story takes a step back and thinks about what that means to a single soul, staring into the void.
December 17, 2013
I got Signal to Noise from Netgalley, presumably for whatever release is current or about to happen. It's not great, reading it on screen: the resolution wasn't great, and I think it probably looks better as a bunch of two-page spreads.
Nonetheless, it tells a powerful story, and it's a very thoughtful one: this isn't a graphic novel in the sense of comics with superheroes and over-powered fight scenes, bulging muscles, etc. This is a meditation on art and death, and consequently life. I'm not the greatest fan of Dave McKean's art here, but it worked for this particular story.
Not super-exciting, but more made for slow reflection.
Nonetheless, it tells a powerful story, and it's a very thoughtful one: this isn't a graphic novel in the sense of comics with superheroes and over-powered fight scenes, bulging muscles, etc. This is a meditation on art and death, and consequently life. I'm not the greatest fan of Dave McKean's art here, but it worked for this particular story.
Not super-exciting, but more made for slow reflection.
March 13, 2016
“The world is always ending for someone.”
What makes this worth reading is not the story. The story is that of a dying man creating what he wants to be his legacy, working on that one last thing relentlessly, finishing it and then passing away... it's not the first time it's been done. Although this does add something more, it adds the sense of story and real life blending together. Life mirrors art mirrors life. Faced with death we stop making distinctions.
What makes this worth reading is the art and the words. Not how the words create the story, but the words on their own, and the pictures on their own. Every panel is gorgeous to look at and haunting to read.
It is not the whole of it that makes it worthwhile, it is the individual parts. It is the journey, truly, that you have to cherish.
I admire both Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, the former for his gift with words, the latter for his artistic talent, and how he can create such a tangible atmosphere with only pictures.
I wish I owned a physical copy of this. I had to read it on my computer and it simply isn't the same. It deserves the full glory of a hardback copy.
What makes this worth reading is not the story. The story is that of a dying man creating what he wants to be his legacy, working on that one last thing relentlessly, finishing it and then passing away... it's not the first time it's been done. Although this does add something more, it adds the sense of story and real life blending together. Life mirrors art mirrors life. Faced with death we stop making distinctions.
What makes this worth reading is the art and the words. Not how the words create the story, but the words on their own, and the pictures on their own. Every panel is gorgeous to look at and haunting to read.
It is not the whole of it that makes it worthwhile, it is the individual parts. It is the journey, truly, that you have to cherish.
I admire both Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, the former for his gift with words, the latter for his artistic talent, and how he can create such a tangible atmosphere with only pictures.
I wish I owned a physical copy of this. I had to read it on my computer and it simply isn't the same. It deserves the full glory of a hardback copy.
April 5, 2020
Gaiman's storytelling and McKean's art go very well together. In Signal to noise, the story has different layers and voices, micronarratives and points of view. Neil Gaiman was able to glue them together, in a narrative prism, creating a complex, alluring story. And Mackean does something similar visually, using many types of techniques and styles, mixing and superimposing, refining and deconstructiing. Their colaboration has produced great moments in comics. This is one of the best.
May 16, 2008
This was one of my favorite graphic novels of all time. Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean tell (in the best possible medium) a beautiful, haunting story about mortality. The artwork will stretch your soul.
December 22, 2022
"You are not dead until every person that knew you is dead as well."
April 29, 2018
Dark and thought-provoking.
January 3, 2020
One of my friends let me borrow this in high school. I perused it for the pictures, but I never read it. What did I care about an old man reflecting on his twilight years when I was in my mid teens?
For years this book was just this amorphous abstract book of art, the details of which I was never sure of, but I always felt it’s have some importance in my life . . . someday.
So I picked it up from the college library today while looking for a few graphic novels to soak up my weekend.
It reminded me a bit of Bergman’s Wild Strawberries. It’s ultimately a “coming to death” story, as opposed to a coming of age or midlife crisis story. It is a story that for many younger audiences will have little weight. But I felt like today was the right time to read this one.
It is said in this book that there is no grand apocalypse, only apocatastasis, something cyclical, a return to something primal perhaps. The world doesn’t end abruptly or dramatically. It just regresses, returns to a previous iteration, then moves forward again. In part this is because of human resilience. The world won’t just end because we won’t let it. Our biological imperative for survival is too strong. Even when all hope is lost, many of us just . . . continue. We make the best of what we have. We derive meaning from what we have and lack.
I see this in my own life. With my students and my colleagues. We have been presented with nearly insurmountable tasks in the past. But at the very least the blind will lead the blind until some semblance of meaning and purpose and ritual is conjured up. Then we can move forward again.
The character in the book treats his own death in this way. It is not a crisis. It is an inevitability that he derives meaning and purpose from. He carries on even in the face of death, even when all hope is lost.
It was an admirable way to go.
Given the current global climate, I can’t help but wonder of we as a human race will persevere despite all the tragedies facing us. Australia is on fire. Fascism is on the rise in multiple western nations. Will we continue on no matter how bleak it gets?
Yes.
Humanity as we know it may drastically change, but there will still be humanity. I just hope that however it manifests keeps our civility and empathy in tact. I strongly doubt it will though.
For years this book was just this amorphous abstract book of art, the details of which I was never sure of, but I always felt it’s have some importance in my life . . . someday.
So I picked it up from the college library today while looking for a few graphic novels to soak up my weekend.
It reminded me a bit of Bergman’s Wild Strawberries. It’s ultimately a “coming to death” story, as opposed to a coming of age or midlife crisis story. It is a story that for many younger audiences will have little weight. But I felt like today was the right time to read this one.
It is said in this book that there is no grand apocalypse, only apocatastasis, something cyclical, a return to something primal perhaps. The world doesn’t end abruptly or dramatically. It just regresses, returns to a previous iteration, then moves forward again. In part this is because of human resilience. The world won’t just end because we won’t let it. Our biological imperative for survival is too strong. Even when all hope is lost, many of us just . . . continue. We make the best of what we have. We derive meaning from what we have and lack.
I see this in my own life. With my students and my colleagues. We have been presented with nearly insurmountable tasks in the past. But at the very least the blind will lead the blind until some semblance of meaning and purpose and ritual is conjured up. Then we can move forward again.
The character in the book treats his own death in this way. It is not a crisis. It is an inevitability that he derives meaning and purpose from. He carries on even in the face of death, even when all hope is lost.
It was an admirable way to go.
Given the current global climate, I can’t help but wonder of we as a human race will persevere despite all the tragedies facing us. Australia is on fire. Fascism is on the rise in multiple western nations. Will we continue on no matter how bleak it gets?
Yes.
Humanity as we know it may drastically change, but there will still be humanity. I just hope that however it manifests keeps our civility and empathy in tact. I strongly doubt it will though.
August 7, 2023
I’ve been wanting to read this for years.
Thanks Hoopla.
Great premise with what feels like quintessential McKean art.
Liked McKean’s dark palette and way the mixed medium was layered and overall aesthetic.
Gaiman serves thought provoking topics and themes: health, mortality, end of the world, art, being known, communication.
To connect the brainstorm:
Through art we can communicate, even after death, which gives the artist value and a sort of celebrity thus lending a quality near immortality.
Thanks Hoopla.
Great premise with what feels like quintessential McKean art.
Liked McKean’s dark palette and way the mixed medium was layered and overall aesthetic.
Gaiman serves thought provoking topics and themes: health, mortality, end of the world, art, being known, communication.
To connect the brainstorm:
Through art we can communicate, even after death, which gives the artist value and a sort of celebrity thus lending a quality near immortality.
May 1, 2017
Read. Please be prepared for its side effects.
January 12, 2023
I picked this up because, about twenty years ago in college, I was obsessed with the radio play based on this book. I think I had downloaded it from Napster (maybe LimeWire at that point) and listened to it endless times walking to and from campus. Recently I had wanted to listen to it again, but I lost the CD I burned, and anyway the only CD drive I own is in my car, and I'm not quite sure how to get a copy. But anyway I never read the book on which it was based and so I did that instead.
I still think I like the radio play better but this is remarkably beautiful. The worlds are nearly identical to the radio play as I remember it, but Dave McKean's artwork interacts with them so powerfully that reading this was a pretty interesting experience that was both nostalgic and brand new.
It also featured some stories I hadn't encountered before by McKean alone and in collaboration with Gaiman.
I still think I like the radio play better but this is remarkably beautiful. The worlds are nearly identical to the radio play as I remember it, but Dave McKean's artwork interacts with them so powerfully that reading this was a pretty interesting experience that was both nostalgic and brand new.
It also featured some stories I hadn't encountered before by McKean alone and in collaboration with Gaiman.
December 1, 2013
The story in this book is simple; a middle aged film director has been diagnosed with cancer. The story takes place almost entirely in his own flat, or inside his own mind as he writes a story of the turn of the millennium, the 999 one. It has to be said that this book came out original in shorts in 1989 so the whole millennium craze was quite big around that time. The problem with the film is that it is one he will never make as he is refusing treatment and he only has months to live.
Normally I would not spoil the ending, but obviously he die and you know that is the end point from the moment you start reading. There is quite a lot after he dies about what happens to his story and the places it goes and I do wonder how much of it was put in because of the original success of this book. There are a mass of editors notes at the beginning detailing its original publication in 1992 as a collection, through plays, radio dramas, rewrites and redraws and on to this second publishing. So when you read through the final few pages it almost blurs that line between the story in the story and the reality of this book and its own story as it has evolved in the real world.
If you enjoy a book that gives a lot of re-reading value, one that you can spend minutes on each page just looking into the art, rereading the words and trying to find hidden meanings, then you will utterly love this. However if you like to read purely for enjoyment and like dynamic art that flows with the writing, neither one requiring effort to fit into the narrative, then you will hate this and even worse, will probably not understand it. From my personal perspective, I am stuck right in the middle. I can appreciate what this is trying to achieve and I think it manages it very well, but it simply is not my idea of a ‘fun’ read. What will stay with me are the last two panels before it goes into the epilogue ‘Millennium’ and it would have been a better ending had it stopped right there.
Normally I would not spoil the ending, but obviously he die and you know that is the end point from the moment you start reading. There is quite a lot after he dies about what happens to his story and the places it goes and I do wonder how much of it was put in because of the original success of this book. There are a mass of editors notes at the beginning detailing its original publication in 1992 as a collection, through plays, radio dramas, rewrites and redraws and on to this second publishing. So when you read through the final few pages it almost blurs that line between the story in the story and the reality of this book and its own story as it has evolved in the real world.
If you enjoy a book that gives a lot of re-reading value, one that you can spend minutes on each page just looking into the art, rereading the words and trying to find hidden meanings, then you will utterly love this. However if you like to read purely for enjoyment and like dynamic art that flows with the writing, neither one requiring effort to fit into the narrative, then you will hate this and even worse, will probably not understand it. From my personal perspective, I am stuck right in the middle. I can appreciate what this is trying to achieve and I think it manages it very well, but it simply is not my idea of a ‘fun’ read. What will stay with me are the last two panels before it goes into the epilogue ‘Millennium’ and it would have been a better ending had it stopped right there.
April 8, 2015
Spicuiri din recenzia finala care se gaseste pe blogul meu
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Clar, se vede scriitura lui Gaiman, dar nu se vede modul său de a construi și reda o poveste. Nu e Gaiman cel pe care-l găsești în toate celelalte scrieri ale sale. Gaiman poate să nu fie superficial? Poate. Dar trebuie să fie împins de la spate sau să-i placă foarte mult ideea pe care o are în cap. Plus că eu nu-l văd prea filosof pe Gaiman. În schimb McKean pare să aibă acea sclipire de demență specifică celor atinși de morbul filosofiei.
Din punct de vedere grafic, romanul este excepțional. Îmi pare rău că nu am reușit să o citesc în original ci doar un CBR. E trecută pe lista scurtă de cumpărături și cred că e un must-have pentru absolut orice împătimit de comics-uri.
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Clar, se vede scriitura lui Gaiman, dar nu se vede modul său de a construi și reda o poveste. Nu e Gaiman cel pe care-l găsești în toate celelalte scrieri ale sale. Gaiman poate să nu fie superficial? Poate. Dar trebuie să fie împins de la spate sau să-i placă foarte mult ideea pe care o are în cap. Plus că eu nu-l văd prea filosof pe Gaiman. În schimb McKean pare să aibă acea sclipire de demență specifică celor atinși de morbul filosofiei.
Din punct de vedere grafic, romanul este excepțional. Îmi pare rău că nu am reușit să o citesc în original ci doar un CBR. E trecută pe lista scurtă de cumpărături și cred că e un must-have pentru absolut orice împătimit de comics-uri.
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December 31, 2013
Signal to Noise is a graphic novel that left me much divided on how to rate it, and how to feel. On one hand, the story is brilliantly told. Signal to Noise narrates the struggle of a filmmaker with cancer, whose final masterpiece will go on unseen- except by those of us reading the story. It was a powerful journey, and the window into the director's head was a fascinating one. It was well worth the read, though it is a bit of a slow one.
I wasn't a huge fan of the artwork, however. It wasn't bad, by any means, but I found it to be not to my tastes. It is however filled with great detail, so it's easy to immerse yourself in the setting of the story. But for me, the real art was in the words and the story themselves. This review can also be found on my blog, Bitches n Prose.
I wasn't a huge fan of the artwork, however. It wasn't bad, by any means, but I found it to be not to my tastes. It is however filled with great detail, so it's easy to immerse yourself in the setting of the story. But for me, the real art was in the words and the story themselves. This review can also be found on my blog, Bitches n Prose.
June 12, 2016
I haven't loved a book (comics) so much in a long time. It was really great and I have officially found my favourite book (comics) by Gaiman.
I have read 33 books since my last 5 stars rating, so this book is pretty special for me. And how wouldn't it be? It has a heartsick main character, who is obsessed with the idea of The End of the World, and it is filled with the philosophy of absurdism.
I have read 33 books since my last 5 stars rating, so this book is pretty special for me. And how wouldn't it be? It has a heartsick main character, who is obsessed with the idea of The End of the World, and it is filled with the philosophy of absurdism.
March 21, 2016
Poignant. My favorite quote "we are always living in the final days. what have you got? a hundred years or much, much less until the end of your world." I am not a big fan of Dave McKean's art but when added to Neil's words you something that is akin to art, poetry and music combined.
June 14, 2017
A fascinating story about endings and dyings. A great book to read in the Winter. Quiet and contemplative. I actually enjoyed this. We all face our own personal apocalypse.
February 6, 2022
My edition had three short stories included at the beginning. I liked them more than the main story, especially Deconstruction and Borders.
I'm not sure exactly why this didn't work for me. Perhaps it's the timing... or perhaps it's simply the era of my life, since I suspect I would have been wild for both the aesthetics and the existential unspooling 20 years ago. Presently, while I still appreciated the aesthetics, it did not thrill me with its inventiveness. And as for the tale of a filmmaker grasping the only form of immortality that we can... It seemed a bit on the side of a romanticized-tortured-artist schtick.
I'm beginning to think Neil Gaiman is more miss than hit for me.
***
GR Personal Rating System:
★★★★★ 5 Stars ~ LOVED
★★★★☆ 4 Stars ~ ENJOYED
★★★☆☆ 3 Stars ~ LIKED
★★☆☆☆ 2 Stars ~ MEH
★☆☆☆☆ 1 Star ~ NOPE
I'm not sure exactly why this didn't work for me. Perhaps it's the timing... or perhaps it's simply the era of my life, since I suspect I would have been wild for both the aesthetics and the existential unspooling 20 years ago. Presently, while I still appreciated the aesthetics, it did not thrill me with its inventiveness. And as for the tale of a filmmaker grasping the only form of immortality that we can... It seemed a bit on the side of a romanticized-tortured-artist schtick.
I'm beginning to think Neil Gaiman is more miss than hit for me.
***
GR Personal Rating System:
★★★★★ 5 Stars ~ LOVED
★★★★☆ 4 Stars ~ ENJOYED
★★★☆☆ 3 Stars ~ LIKED
★★☆☆☆ 2 Stars ~ MEH
★☆☆☆☆ 1 Star ~ NOPE
Read
November 23, 2022I had some trouble with this, both times I read it. I just found it hard to get into or identify with. It feels more like a mish-mash of ideas than something enjoyable.
I have to admit, I also get annoyed when people misunderstand the dating system we use.
There was no year 0 (our dating system goes from 1BC to 1AD). So the first year of the first millennium AD was the year 1. So when we got to January 1st of year 2, one year had passed since AD began (not two years). So to see how many years have passed since 1AD, you just knock one off the current year when you get to January 1st.
January 1st year 9 = 8 years had completed.
January 1st year 10 = 9 years had completed.
January 1st year 11 = 10 years had completed.
January 1st, 100 = 99 years had completed.
January 1st, 101 = 100 years had completed.
January 1st, 1999 = 1998 years had completed.
January 1st, 2000 = 1999 years had completed.
January 1st, 2001 = 2000 years had completed.
A millennium is, by definition, a thousand years. To start a new one requires having completed a thousand years. So a new millennium always begins on a year ending in 1. 1001, 2001 etc.
This book repeatedly gets it wrong and is based around the idea that January 1st 1000 and January 1st 2000 were the starts of a new millennium. No, they were the start of the FINAL year of a millennium! The new one began on Jan 1st 1001 and 2001 respectively (in each case, a new thousand year period completed).
Just because so many people make a basic error in their dating system doesn't mean a book that centralises it should also make that same error. The basis of learning from history is understanding the (arbitrary) dating system we are saddled with at present!
/lecture
I have to admit, I also get annoyed when people misunderstand the dating system we use.
There was no year 0 (our dating system goes from 1BC to 1AD). So the first year of the first millennium AD was the year 1. So when we got to January 1st of year 2, one year had passed since AD began (not two years). So to see how many years have passed since 1AD, you just knock one off the current year when you get to January 1st.
January 1st year 9 = 8 years had completed.
January 1st year 10 = 9 years had completed.
January 1st year 11 = 10 years had completed.
January 1st, 100 = 99 years had completed.
January 1st, 101 = 100 years had completed.
January 1st, 1999 = 1998 years had completed.
January 1st, 2000 = 1999 years had completed.
January 1st, 2001 = 2000 years had completed.
A millennium is, by definition, a thousand years. To start a new one requires having completed a thousand years. So a new millennium always begins on a year ending in 1. 1001, 2001 etc.
This book repeatedly gets it wrong and is based around the idea that January 1st 1000 and January 1st 2000 were the starts of a new millennium. No, they were the start of the FINAL year of a millennium! The new one began on Jan 1st 1001 and 2001 respectively (in each case, a new thousand year period completed).
Just because so many people make a basic error in their dating system doesn't mean a book that centralises it should also make that same error. The basis of learning from history is understanding the (arbitrary) dating system we are saddled with at present!
/lecture
May 25, 2018
A quick read because I was out of renewals at my local public library. This isn't so much a comic or a graphic novel as an art installation on paper. Originally published in UK style magazine The Face, the story of a dying man writing a film he will never get to make is instantly relatable to any creator. This mixed media project is part collage, part poetry, part free train of thought. Perhaps the only caveat with this edition is that some of the text is so small that it's almost impossible to read. Otherwise graphic novel seems barely adequate to describe what we have here. As is suggested in the introduction, perhaps a new term is needed.
May 19, 2020
Similar in vein to the graphic novel Daytripper, Signal to Noise is a narrative about imagination, art, life, and death. A director is told that he is going to die and so he spends his last few weeks of life crafting his last film in his head, a story about the year 999AD in Europe.
Dave McKean shines in his artwork in this book following Gaiman's gorgeous prose and one feels in this work a real depth of spirit. This book isn't just a shallow meditation on death, it's a real effort to get at the heart of why human beings create in the first place.
Dave McKean shines in his artwork in this book following Gaiman's gorgeous prose and one feels in this work a real depth of spirit. This book isn't just a shallow meditation on death, it's a real effort to get at the heart of why human beings create in the first place.
February 5, 2019
This was a radio adaptation of a graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean. Something must have been lost in translation as I was left thinking "I don't get it!"—yet I'm still thinking about it today even though I listened to it yesterday. So I want to find the graphic novel to see if I can figure out what I'm missing. It's Neil Gaiman after all—there's got to be something weird and wonderful to it.
March 21, 2019
The drawings are a collection of visual arts, with a script that only Neil Gaiman could get us used to. It's not happy, it's not sad, it's just an universal truth.
June 20, 2019
Releitura :)
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