num_pages: 14
description: Over the years David Bowies work and personae have inspired extraordinary art: Velvet Goldmine Hedwig and the Angry Inch Starman The Venture Brothers and the greatest of all of Wes Andersons film soundtracks. But Neil Gaiman of all of his fans seems to be the one who tangles most directly with Bowie-as-superhuman. First he made Bowie the obvious visual reference for his version of Lucifer in the Sandman series. But more recently in last years Trigger Warning Gaiman included a story called The Return of the Thin White Duke which he has now made available on his site.The story has a symbiotic relationship with some gorgeous Yoshitaka Amano paintings which you can see here but it also spins off into its own direction giving Bowie a worth origin story worthy. Gaiman uses the Thin White Duke persona as a starting point writing his way into the type of person who could embrace such an alter ego. And though the author refers to the story as unabashedly fan fiction after a few paragraphs he makes the character his own and creates yet another pocket universe for the Duke to test his bravery create stars and forge a new life for himself. It both is and isnt Bowie as Gaiman uses the idea of self-creation as the core of a story that could be about any one of us.
language: English
title: The Return of the Thin White Duke
publisher: None