"Where are the Velvets?"

Just announced: Tori Amos’ Comic Book Tattoo

According to my weekly letter from MOM (the Men of Midtown), Image Comics plans to release a 400+ page anthology of full color comic stories based on Tori's narratives. It's reported that collaborators include Pia Guerra, Hope Larson, Colleen Doran, Lea Hernandez, Chris Arrant, Star St. Germain, Derek McCulloch, Neil Kleid, Leah Moore, and John Reppion. Neil Gaiman is not confirmed, but still listed as hopeful.

I cannot imagine a comic book about Tori that did not involve Neil. Theirs is a relationship I find absolutely intriguing! From hearinmyhead.com:

After including a reference to Neil and to the Dream King (the main character in The Sandman series) in the lyrics of Tear in Your Hand, Tori had a friend deliver a tape of the song to Neil at the San Diego comic convention. Neil, who receives many tapes from fans which he says usually "magically become blank tapes" remembers, "I listened to the first three or four tracks, and I was in love. It wasn't Little Earthquakes, it was sort of half Little Earthquakes and half what wound up being B-sides--things like 'Flying Dutchman' and 'Take to the Sky' and 'Sweet Dreams' and 'Upside Down.' but it was very obvious that musically I was a fan by the time I'd finished listening to the first few tracks. In fact it was ages before I spotted the 'me and Neil'll be hangin' out with the DREAM KING Neil says hi by the way'--that came much later." After listening to the tape, Neil, who lived in London, called Tori up, and the first of many wonderful conversations commenced. Tori now insists that the two knew each other in a past life. Neil states, "we were old friends immediately. Whether you want to view that as fact or metaphor, that is very much true."

Tori "winks" at Neil in several of her other songs and he "winks" right back by writing Tori and her lyrics into his stories. Tori wrote an introduction to his trade of Death: The High Cost of Living, and Neil wrote the liner notes to Strange Little Girls. The two have a mutual creative adoration and seem to gain continuing inspiration from each other.

In an interview Tori explains how she draws inspiration from Neil's Sandman character Delirium:

Yes, she [inspires me]. There are times I've spent with Neil where you know, we're toodling around and things you think you say in confidence end up in a comic book, you know? And then of course there are things that she says that I start saying. There's a strange sort of stealing going on.

Neil puts it a bit simpler saying, "I think she's absolutely magic."

I have long since been a big fan of both Tori and Neil. Favorites include Scarlet's Walk, Under the Pink, Neverwhere (which gave me pleasant nightmares), American Gods, and Stardust (the film is great, too). I have big plans of somehow convincing Tori to collaborate with me in a musical tribute to Neil's creations.

If that doesn't work out, perhaps I'll just write music inspired by the comics inspired by Tori's music.

...And maybe a few about Neil's stories, too!