Journal Entry #31: More Than "Funny Books"

Date: November 29, 2007
Time: 22:51

Sometime ago, a friend recommended I read the graphic novel version of a series called "Sandman". He claimed I wouldn't be disappointed. I wasn't.

It was just about the most interesting series I'd ever read. It also introduced me to one of the finest authors I ever read, Neil Gaiman. He's written many short stories and a great many novels. There are two that are my absolute favorites, they are "Good Omens" and "Neverwhere".

"Good Omens" is best described like this, imagine 'Damien' from "The Omen", accidentally winding up the son of accountants, while an otherwise normal little boy, ends up in the hands of Satanists.

While "Neverwhere" takes you on a trip through a London no one usually sees.

But while the storylines that involved "Sandman" directly were interesting, there was one one story that I've since learned was, in part, true. Although I have to point out this little aside. There was a scene where the caretaker of the Sandman's castle, one Merv Pumkinhead, was asked to install a new wing in the library. He came in, placed a ladder against a wall, and, like a paperhanger putting up wallpaper, installed a new wing of the library.

But back to the somewhat true story.

I thought it had been made up as it was appearing in a comic book. But I did a little research, and I found out it was true. It's the story of the first, and only Emperor of the United States.

On September 17, 1859, Joshua A. Norton lost everything he had in an attempt to corner the rice market. It was also on that day that he declared himself, Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Mexico.

And while a good deal of information, including the bit I'm about to include here, can be found at this site, http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/norton.html I have to mention this bit because I find it to be extremely funny:

January 21, 1867 – An overzealous Patrol Special Officer, Armand Barbier, arrested His Majesty Norton I for involuntary treatment of a mental disorder and thereby created a major civic uproar. Police Chief Patrick Crowley apologized to His Majesty and ordered him released. Several scathing newspaper editorials followed the arrest. All police officers began to salute His Majesty when he passed them on the street.