World Fantasy Award-winner Gaiman is one of the most literate, sophisticated and compelling writers in comics, crafting worlds of mystery and wonder in best-selling titles such as Stardust, Coraline, Violent Cases and The Sandman series. But he's also an accomplished writer of prose fiction, having published science fiction and fantasy in a variety of British men's magazines. This collects the best of these—10 short stories plus eight poems, three reviews and an introductory piece for each. This wonderful assortment of tales includes a noir-style detective story about the murder of Humpty Dumpty, the finding of the Holy Grail in a secondhand store, .."of spider-kings and mice, of trolls and angels, and discount house assassins" and more. Illustrating each of these stories are Bill Sienkiewicz, P. Craig Russell, Michael Zulli, Charles Vess, Steve Bissette, Jill Karla Schwarz and Randy Broecker—seven full-page illustrations in all.

Contents:

• The Song of the Audience
• Chivalry
  
• Nicholas Was...
• Babycakes
• Troll Bridge
• Vampire Sestina
• Webs
• Six to Six
• Foreign Parts
• Cold Colours
• Luther's Villanelle
• Mouse
• The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds
• Virus
• Looking for the Girl
• Post-Mortem on Our Love
• We Can Get Them For You Wholesale
• Murder Mysteries