In The Mail Today...

You know, I had forgotten about sending off a response to Dave Sim's offer of a free copy of Cerebus to anyone who would write in and ask for one, issued through Neil Gaiman's Blog.

But what should be in my mailbox this afternoon, but a copy of Cerebus 167 signed by Gerhard and Dave Sim.

Included was a letter dated 18 August 04:

Dear Neil Gaiman Horde du Jour:

Thank you for your inquiry. For those particularly interested in how the experiment is going, I arrived at the post office at 7:30 this morning and there was one (1) advertisement. I came back here and started answering my monthly "Five Questions for Dave" from the core Cerebus audience at groups.yahoo.com/group/cerebus (or the Cerebus Yahoos as they're affectionatley known--drop by and say hello if you're clicking in the neighbourhood) which the e-mail to Gerhard every month (having voted on their top five questions) and which I answer at whatever length seems to be required. Seven pages so far and I'm halfway through question 4. Then I went back to the post office around 10:30 and there was one (1) inquiry from San Diego. So I came back here and wrote some more on my anwers for the Yahoos and the immediately following my noon prayer, the first issue of Following Cerebus (details at www.followingcerebus.com) came in. So I came back here and...finished reading Following Cerebus before opening and reading yours and 82 other inquiries. So, now I have to photocopy this form letter, sign them, wrap all of the non-Neil mail from yesterday, finish the personal letters for those who needed personal letters, finish answering the Yahoo questions and hopefully, at some point, get back to my own mail which has been coming in, with and around the Neil mail (I got within two letters of it yesterday). As previous form letter recipients have already learned (and hopefully posted), this is a much bigger reaction than I expected. As an example, back in 2000 when we sent out 1,000 "Four More Years" promotion packages to 1,000 comic book stores and ended up getting 3 replies. Last year I did an interview for Filter magazine where they printed the post office box address along with my offer to send a copy of the "Tangent" essay to anyone who sent me a letter requesting one. I got one response on that one, months later, from a young girl in Michigan on Spice Girls stationary who said how much she had enjoyed my interview in Spin. So, as near as I can figure out, this is a Neil-related phenomenon. One nice young lady identified herself today as "one of Neil's sock puppets...er, fans". That might be overstating the case, but mentally picturing the pile of envelopes, comic books, inquiries and autographed form letters Ger took over to Pak-Mail yesterday, it might not be overstating it by much. Every letter has been very polite. Even the ones who suspect they're the victims of a hoax. That really says something about Neil and his readers. Or fans. Or sock-puppets. Neil's "in-a-nice-way" sock puppets. Anyway, so far: starting Friday the 6th: one inquiry. Monday, 13, Tuesday: 110, Wednesday: 4, Thursday: 286, Friday: 57, Monday: 103, Tuesday: 95, today (as I said) 84.

This will do it, pretty much for our supply of 267's (sic). Starting tomorrow, most peole will be getting 268's. We'll keep up for as long as we can. Thanks to everyone who has promised to give Cerebus a try. That wasn't the original idea, but it certainly makes the effort worthwhile.

Sincerely,
Dave Sim

I think the massive response has less to do with Neil, but more to do with the sites that picked up the story. I saw it on one of the columns at CBR, and I know that it was on more pages than that. It's a simple matter of more eyes on the message, whereas the interview in Filter was only seen by readers of the magazine, or those who came by it second hand, the posting online had the advantage of being copied numerous time and reaching numerous audiences.

Anyway, I likes me some free swag.