Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune culture critic, devoted a recent column to Neil Gaiman:

You are inside the mind of Neil Gaiman, winner of the 2009 Chicago Tribune Young Adult Book Prize, and it is a delicious and confusing and dangerous place to be — because anything can happen, and probably will.

The admission price for this journey is not cheap. Not because Gaiman’s books are unreasonably expensive or difficult to obtain at the library. Rather, the steep cost is due entirely to his insistence that all riders must surrender their doubts, their cynicism, their pessimism, their bad moods and their slingshots. (All right, you can keep the slingshots — but we’re watching you.)

It’s an entertaining survey of Gaiman’s influence over popular culture.

I also wanted to mention the link because Keller’s title makes me nostalgic for the days of “Freeman King, culture critic,” a recurring send-up of Alastair Cooke and Masterpiece Theatre on the old Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.

[Thanks to Steven Silver for the link.]