Fortunately, the Milk

Gaiman is a prolific award-winning author. His books often feature animals and otherworldly creatures who connect with human characters. Gaiman’s protagonists are frequently captured or transported into parallel universes or realities from which they must escape or embrace; this is exemplified in his works The Wolves in the Walls (2003) and The Graveyard Book (2008).

Gaiman’s antagonists often have eccentric and endearing qualities. For example, the main antagonist, the parallel “other” mother In Coraline (2002), truly loves the protagonist Coraline, seemingly more than her actual parent does. In Fortunately, the Milk, all antagonists have their softer moments. For example, the Queen of the Pirates compliments the father while trying to recruit him, and volcano god Splod helps the father explain “transtemporal metascience” to the group.

Gaiman explains that Fortunately, the Milk stems from his desire to redress the way fathers are portrayed in his books, specifically in The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (1997). Gaiman describes the father in The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish as “not really a positive portrayal of fatherhood” (“Fortunately, the Milk.” Publishersweekly.com)

Both Fortunately, the Milk and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish start with the father reading his newspaper, and in both the children comment on it.