Signal to Noise

(Dark Horse)
©1992 Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

Signal to Noise is a big book in every sense. This over-sized graphic novel was created by the team of writer Neil Gaiman (Sandman, Miracleman) and painter/artist Dave McKean (Cages, Arkham Asylum). The two had collaborated on several projects in the past, including Violent Cases and the Black Orchid mini-series, but nowhere was the collaboration more potent than in this novel, for which they garnered a 1993 Eisner Award.

The story’s title is a technical term describing the ratio of an intended signal to the entropic “noise” that naturally seeks to obliterate it. Here, the term is used in a metaphorical sense to describe a filmmaker’s last days. Told he had but a few months to live, he seeks to have his “signal,” his life’s efforts at creation, rise above the extinguishing “noise” of his approaching death. He begins to create one final work—his masterpiece—even though it will never be filmed. And thus, he gains immortality.

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