As readers of Neil Gaiman may know, the bestselling author is something of a fan of Louise Brooks. I say that only because he has mentioned Brooks a number of times on his blog, on social media, and in interviews — and, he has referenced Brooks in his graphic novels and other works of fiction going back some 25 years. In no particular order, this page on the Louise Brooks Society website brings together some of those many “shout-outs”.
In March of 2024, on tumblr, in answer to which past movie stars he was drawn to, Gaiman wrote, “Louise Brooks was the best of the best… Also a brilliant writer and critic.” Earlier, in response to actor Wil Wheaton’s tumblr shout out to Louise Brooks, Gaiman described Brooks as “Such a badass, brilliant writer.” A few month’s later that tumblr post, in the Spring of 2024, Gaiman continued to sing the praises of Brooks, this time on BlueSky:
In a 1999 interview on SF Site, Gaiman was asked which actors, specifically which dead actors, he might like to cast in film adaptions of his works. He answered, “Oh, that’s fun. If I could cast it with all dead actors, I’d have Peter Sellers playing… an awful lot of the parts! [laughs] Hm… Oh, that’s a nice one. I dunno, that really moves into dream casting. You could get the young Brigitte Bardot playing Door, and Alec Guiness playing anybody 
Peter Sellers isn’t. The young Alec Guiness, not an Obi-Wan Kenobi. And maybe Louise Brooks playing Hunter. Or anything, really, I don’t mind what Louise Brooks plays; if all she wanted to do was hang around the set and make tea, I’d be there!” A few years later, in a 2003 interview on sequentialtart.com, Gaiman was asked ” If you could pick your neighbors (living, dead, real or fictional), who would live to your right, to your left, across from you and below you?” He answered, “… just random, unpredictable dead people. It’d be fun to go down into the cellar and talk with them. Cleopatra and Dracula and Louise Brooks and the rest.”
One well known character in The Sandman graphic novels is named “Death.” Originally, Gaiman considered having Death look like Louise Brooks “with a sort of short, black bob, and much more stylish,” according to illustrator Mike Dringenberg. Because of her striking Lulu-like look, there has been speculation that she is in fact based on Brooks. But that is not quite true, almost. Regarding the character, Neil Gaiman once wrote, “Mike Dringenberg was at that time the inker of SANDMAN (Sam Keith was penciling). He read my description of Death in the original SANDMAN outline and decided that she should look less like a young Nico or Louise Brooks (as I had suggested) and more like his friend Cinnamon. Mike did a drawing of her – the same drawing that appeared as a pinup in SANDMAN, and later as a T-shirt and a watch face.” On Twitter, in 2022, Gaiman tweeted “I love the idea of casting Sandman in other era. [Who] would have played Death in 1925? Louise Brooks?” Earlier, in 2021, Gaiman has also tweeted “We borrowed Rose Psychic’s hair from Louise Brooks.”
Notably, Brooks is twice referenced Gaiman’s 1998 book, Smoke and Mirrors. One of the book’s short stories, “The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories,” begins “It was raining when I arrived in L.A., and I felt myself surrounded by a hundred old movies.” As the character drifts around Hollywood, he encounters it’s past. “His eyes sparkled, and he smiled. ‘She was the queen of the silver screen. She was finer than any of them: Mary Pickford or Lillian Gish or Theda Bara or Louise Brooks She was the finest. She had ‘it.’ You know what ‘it’ was?’ Sex appeal.” A little later in the story, Gaiman wrote, “She was, from the photographs, not a contemporary beauty. She lacked the transcendence of a Louise Brooks, the sex appeal of a Marilyn Monroe, the sluttish elegance of a Rita Hayworth. She was a twenties starlet as dull as any other twenties starlet. I saw no mystery in her huge eyes, her bobbed hair. She had perfectly made-up cupid’s bow lips. I had no idea what she would have looked like if she had been alive and around today.”
Brooks is also referenced in Gaiman’s celebrated 2001 novel, American Gods, which was later turned into a popular TV series. In American Gods, an ancient Slavic god named Czernobog is visiting Cherryvale, Kansas – Brooks’ birthplace, and that is where Gaiman again references the actress, “… Even thirty years after they forced my people into hiding, this land, this very land, gave us the greatest movie star of all time. She was the greatest there ever was.’ ‘Judy Garland?’ asked Shadow. Czernobog shook his head curtly. ‘He’s talking about Louise Brooks,’ said Mr. Nancy.”
I have met Neil Gaiman on a few occasions, and produced a few events with the author, where I also had the pleasure of introducing him. Below is a picture – from long ago and far away – of me and my wife and author Neil Gaiman. Some may recognize the Fotofolio t-shirt I wore especially for the occasion.
On some of the occasions when I had the opportunity to speak with Gaiman, we chatted a bit about Louise Brooks. And that is when he autographed the cover of one of his graphic novels, The Books of Magic, which I believe contains a character inspired, at least in part, by Brooks…. Gaiman signed the cover, “For Thomas in memoriam Lulu…”
Back in 2010, when I was writing for the online site examiner.com, I penned a piece titled “Louise Brooks’ private journals to be revealed.” It was about the unsealing of Brooks’ notebooks 25 years after her passing. Remarkably, my piece was tweeted about by the Pulitzer Prize winning film critic Roger Ebert, and Neil Gaiman himself!
There are other connections and cross-references between Neil Gaiman and Louise Brooks, but these were the one’s that I came-up with easily without digging too deeply through my files — both digital and paper. However, let me add one last connection…. Notably, Neil Gaiman’s bestselling novel, American Gods, is dedicated to Kathy Acker (1947-1997), the writer, novelist and literary provocateur. She also happened to be a customer at the bookstore where I worked and where I put on those early events with Gaiman. I also put on a couple of events with her, as well, and once went out drinking with her. She was pretty cool, a striking personality, especially when she would pull up out front of the store on her motorcycle clad in leather.
Sometime before her death, I had a chance to ask Acker about one of her least known texts, Lulu Unchained. Acker was well regarded as an experimental novelist, and some of her best known works, like Great Expectations (1983) and Don Quixote: Which Was a Dream (1986), riff on earlier literary texts. That’s the case with Lulu Unchained, which riffs off of Frank Wedekind’s Lulu plays and Alban Berg’s later opera. Acker told me Lulu Unchained was partly an homage to Louise Brooks and her role as Lulu in Pandora’s Box…. Which got me wondering if Neil Gaiman was at it’s staging at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in July 1985. … Ever so long ago and far away.