Neil Gaiman Wrote A David Bowie Short Story, Inspired By A Final Fantasy Artist

As the world continues to mourn the loss of legendary musician David Bowie, author Neil Gaiman celebrates Bowie's by releasing onto the internet his short story "The Return of the Think White Duke," what Gaiman describes as David Bowie "fan fiction" based on one of Bowie's stage personas.

The story was written in two parts, with the first part accompanying artwork depicting Bowie and his wife, Iman, created by Yoshitaka Amano. Amano is the renowned Japanese artist known for his work on Final Fantasy and Vampire Hunter D, and who collaborated with Gaiman on Sandman: The Dream Hunters. Gaiman later completed the story (without additional work from Amano), and it was included in his short story collection Trigger Warnings.

"I never met David Bowie," Gaiman wrote on his website, where the story can now be read for free. "After a while it almost became a game: I only had one hero left, and it was him. The nearest I came to it was meaning to send him a copy of Trigger Warning, with this story in it, and an apologetic note.

"It's unabashedly fan fiction."

On a related bit of trivia, Lucifer from The Sandman was drawn to look like David Bowie, at Gaiman's request.