See Gaiman on 'Graveyard' Tour

Neil Gaiman, the prolific mind behind such novels as American Gods and Anansi Boys, and such comics as Marvel 1602 and Sandman, is touring in support of his new novel The Graveyard Book. With each city he visits, he’ll read a new chapter from his book, and they’re all being filmed! To check the tour schedule, hit up Neil's Tour Section!

Gaiman's new novel, "The Graveyard Book," takes place in a cemetery, where an orphaned boy is raised by a vampire, a werewolf and a witch. The seed for the idea was planted some 25 years ago, Gaiman says, when he was living in his native England and would take his young son Michael to ride his tricycle in a nearby cemetery, since there was no real garden or yard at home.

Inspiration struck. Gaiman thought he could write a book similar to Rudyard Kipling's classic "The Jungle Book," about a child adopted by wild animals. Instead, Gaiman would write about a child "who is adopted by dead people and taught all the things that dead people know."