Rating: 
Summary: Life, Death and everything between
Review: As Jonathan Carroll says in his introduction, what Gaiman and McKean are doing in this book is dangerous and necessary. It's a beautifully painted meditation on life and death, as a film director with cancer makes his last film in his head. Very moving, and ultimately life-affirming, with some of Gaiman's best writing in it.
Rating:
Summary: All Signal, No Noise in This Early Gaiman/McKean Tale
Review: Before Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean introduced American comic book fans to the joys of sophisticated suspense, they cemented their collaborative vision in "Signal to Noise", a decidedly literary use of the comic art form. If you're looking for spandex-clad Barbie dolls flouncing about and sending off the occasional barrage of soap opera dialogue, look elsewhere. If you're into ancient gods and horror beyond compare, you won't find it here. But if you're literary jones is only sated by the kind of extraordinary-ordinary situations real people experience in the real world from time to time, the kind of story which stays with you long after you've returned the book to its shelf, stick around awhile. "Signal to Noise" is the story of a screenwriter racing against the clock to finish his final screenplay. It is also the story of simple peasants waiting for the world to end at the dawn of the second millenium. It is also the story of the immortality of art. It is all these things and more; which will surprise exactly none of Gaiman's fans, familiar as they are with his flair for layered storytelling. The art is a revelation. I had previously been of the opinion that Dave McKean's distinctive art style evolved during his Sandman run, building on his "Arkham Asylum" work. I was clearly mistaken: "Signal to Noise" is classic McKean; that is, the artwork is unlike anything you've seen before yet does not draw focus away from the story itself. I have studiously avoided commenting on the plot. When I first read "Signal to Noise," I was completely ignorant of the plot and thus found it to be simply astounding, rather like my experience upon reading Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta" for the first time. That the funny books so rightly derided by many could prove to be such an effective medium for true art is hard to believe. See for yourself what great writers and illustrators at the top of their game can accomplish. Pick up "Signal to Noise" now, and have your faith in comics reaffirmed.
Rating: 
Summary: Ruthless Nonsense
Review: Frankly, isn't it about time someone said something bad about Neil Gaiman? A barrage of 10's isn't signal, it becomes only noise. So... The whole book seemed to start out in an orderly fashion, but then it got more and more confusing near the end. And what does that title mean, anyway
Rating:
Summary: A sad and magnificent blend of art and modern story telling.
Review: I had read and enjoyed the Sandman, but most of Gaiman's stuff left me wanting. Until this. It is a brilliant and melancholy look at the last moments of life left to a dying director taken from his fantasies and bits of conversations with good freinds. One man examines his own mortality and finds himself in his final film. I first borrowed this book from a freind and I haven't found a copy of it for myself, but when I do, I plan to treasure it always. Five stars don't fill the night that this book paints. Gaiman's writing is beautiful and harrowing. McKean's art suits the feel of the material perfectly. I highly recomend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Pretention, Anyone?
Review: I read this graphic novel and saw the play and met Neil Gaiman, all in the same day. The reason Stephen King admires this guy is because he is able to create the illusion to his audience that they are perhaps profound, or well-read somehow. Not the case. This one will leave you cold, no matter how many times you "read" it/look at the little pictures. Oh and girls-- Neil Gaiman's voice sounds exactly like Richard Dreyfuss.
Rating:
Summary: Black Orchid
Review: The first book to ever be written by Neil Gaiman for comics. And what a great job he had done. From beging to end he keeps you interested in all of the charicters. He allows you to feel all the emotion that they go through and makes you feel that that they are real. For a first timer at the time he really went out of his why to give people a great story. He is the best writer of the time and era. He makes everything feel as if it is real. Gaiman is a master at what he does. From start to finish this tradepaperback is one of the best things that anyone can read. And in a great tradition of such writers like (Alan Moore, Jim Starlin, Chris Claremont, and all those who ever changed the face of comics) Neil Gaiman does them proud. He is the William Shakespare of the 20th century.
Rating:
Summary: How long have you got?
Review: The phrase "signal to noise ratio" is often used in discussion groups to refer to the amount of real content (signal) amidst the "noise". The book itself is an amazing piece of signal in a very noisy world. It's a shame that it's so hard to find; honestly I think it should be required reading for everyone right now, given the millenial hysteria at hand. The filmmaker's story at the heart is beautiful and sad, but no less important are the ruminations on change and mortality, which may or may not be the same thing. "I don't believe in apocalypses. I believe in apocatastases." "We are always living in the final days. How long have you got? A hundred years, or much, much less, until the end of your world."
Rating:
Summary: The most haunting book I've read
Review: This is a book that stays with me in the places we don't talk about in polite company. This is the book I'd kill to be able to bring into my classroom. The introduction has it right: this book is painfull. The tearing apart of life and our purpose in it bores into me every time I've read it...which adds up to alot of digging. I cannot emphasize enough how good this is. If you turn down the noise and listen, you'll see things in a different light.
Rating:
Summary: Stark and unsettling, but beautifully done.
Review: This is early work for both Gaiman and McKean, but it's as good as anything else I've seen them do. The text and art combine seamlessly to illustrate the theme - meaningful signal, contrasted with meaningless noise - in the story of a film director dying. Although it has no supernatural elements at all, in some ways this story comes across as an earlier and starker version of 'The Sound Of Her Wings'.
Rating:
Summary: Life, Death and everything between
Review: This may be Neil's best non-Sandman book. It is not a happy book. It is serious and it is literature. A director in his final days on earth writes a screenplay about the end of the world--in 999 A.D. In truth, it is about our contemporary society and what life means within that realm. The title refers to the book (Signal to Noise) as the signal, and our contemporary society as the white noise that it points us toward and tries to help us understand. It doubles as it refers to the script that the director is writing in the same fashion. Remember that the script hasn't been made into a movie yet at which point it will be both signal and noise. Indeed, the artistic medium that the director works with is very symbolic of all the white noise in American society (or British for that matter). A previous reader who did not understand the title or the book gave it a negative review on the first edition of the book that was originally offered on Amazon. That's sad.
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