He had had a severe shock some weeks earlier, when, having narrowly failed to capture a large grey-brown hare for his dinner, it had stopped at the edge of the forest, looked at him with disdain, and said, 'Well, I hope you're proud of yourself, that's all,' and had scampered off into the long grass

He later became a fan of science fiction reading the works of authors as diverse as Alan MooreSamuel R. Gaiman has not written a direct sequel to American Gods but he has revisited the characters. In the late 1980s he wrote Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion in what he calls a "classic English humour" style.

His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust American Gods Coraline and The Graveyard Book. Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (pron.