“[The] successful writer for TV, movies, and comics makes his debut as a memoirist with a stunning chronicle of survival”—introduction by Neil Gaiman (Kirkus).
Joseph Michael Straczynski is the legendary writer behind Babylon 5, Sense8, Clint Eastwood’s Changeling and Marvel’s Thor, among many other beloved movies, TV shows and comics. In Becoming Superman, he reveals how the power of creativity and imagination enabled him to overcome the horrors of his youth and a dysfunctional family haunted by madness, murder, and a terrible secret.
Joe’s early life nearly defies belief. Raised by damaged adults—a con-man grandfather and a manipulative grandmother, a violent, drunken father and a mother who was repeatedly institutionalized—Joe grew up in abject poverty, living in slums and projects when not on the road, crisscrossing the country in his father’s desperate attempts to escape the consequences of his past.
Joe found refuge in comic books and his own dreams—imaginary worlds where superheroes used their amazing powers to overcome any adversity. The deeper he read, the more he came to realize that he, too, had a superpower: the ability to tell stories. But even as he found success, Joe could not escape a shocking family secret involving mass murder that he uncovered over the course of decades. Becoming Superman is the startling true story of a little boy who became the hero of his own life.
Neil Gaiman is the celebrated author of books, graphic novels, short stories, films, and television for readers of all ages. Some of his most notable titles include the highly lauded #1 New York Times bestseller Norse Mythology; the groundbreaking and award-winning Sandman comic series; The Graveyard Book (the first book ever to win both the Newbery and Carnegie Medals); American Gods, winner of many awards and recently adapted into the Emmy-nominated Starz TV series (the second season slated to air in 2019); The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which was the UK’s National Book Award 2013 Book of the Year. Good Omens, which he wrote with Terry Pratchett a very long time ago (but not quite as long ago as Don’t Panic) and for which Gaiman wrote the screenplay, will air on Amazon and the BBC in 2019.
Author photo by Beowulf Sheehan
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction Neil Gaiman xiii
Chapter 1 We Were Told 1
Chapter 2 Strange Relations 17
Chapter 3 Faster Than a Speeding Bullet 29
Chapter 4 Death as a Lifestyle 35
Chapter 5 Pigeon Dinner with a Slice of Watermelon 39
Chapter 6 The First One's Always Free 49
Chapter 7 The Face Behind the Mask 65
Chapter 8 The Wind Took Away His Name 73
Chapter 9 Being Invisible 81
Chapter 10 Targets of Opportunity 89
Chapter 11 Patricide by Proxy 103
Chapter 12 Discovering Words, Worlds, and Estrogen 115
Chapter 13 The God Thing 131
Chapter 14 The Weed of Evil Bears Strange Fruit 145
Chapter 15 The God Thing, Redux 155
Chapter 16 Blood in the Street 169
Chapter 17 When the Light at the End of the Tunnel Isn't a Train (For a Change) 183
Chapter 18 The Big Con 207
Chapter 19 God, Death, and Harlan Ellison 223
Chapter 20 An Unexpected Journey to Toon-Town 233
Chapter 21 Who Ya Gonna Call? 249
Chapter 22 Captain, My Captain 269
Chapter 23 Into the Zone 279
Chapter 24 Blowing Up the World 285
Chapter 25 Things I Learned Dancing with the Fatman 295
Chapter 26 Paging Jessica Fletcher 303
Chapter 27 Boarding Babylon 323
Chapter 28 The Christmas Ambush 333
Chapter 29 Swingin' with Spider-Man 355
Chapter 30 Lost in the Tall Grass with Jeremiah 367
As we do every year, we’re looking ahead to the next 12 months new science fiction and fantasy books—with the help of the editors and publishers responsible for bringing them to our shelves each and every week. Here are 105 (or maybe more, depending on how you count…) new books they can’t wait for you […]
