Multiple award-winning author Neil Gaiman is listed along with Thomas Pynchon and William Burroughs as one of the "Top Ten Post Modern Writers in America" by the Dictionary of Literary Biography and is considered "a little intimidating" by Stephen King. Neil Gaiman became a cult hero with his immensely popular Sandman graphic novel series. Hailed by Norman Mailer as "a comic strip for intellectuals," Sandman sold over a million copies a year, and issue #19 took the 1991 World Fantasy Award for best short story ... making it the first comic ever to be awarded a literary award. With the 1997 Avon Books publication of Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman made the leap from graphic visionary to novelist. Neverwhere was the "thrilling" (USA Today) underground bestseller of 1997, reaching #3 and # 9 respectively on the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle best seller lists. Neverwhere was also Booklist's "Editor's Choice Book for 1997" and is soon to be a major motion picture from Jim Henson Productions.