(urth) Wolfe and Gaiman

[Craig Brewer]

I have a very general question that I hope people don't mind me just throwing 
out there. I've finally gotten around to reading Neil Gaiman (Sandman and his 
non-comics stuff) after years of only knowing him by reputation/summary. But the 
mutual praise between Wolfe and Gaiman always made me think that he had to be 
more interesting than I suspected he might be. So now, after reading quite a 
bit, I can say that I enjoy his stuff, but it's such a different experience from 
Wolfe that I really wonder why these two so often link themselves with each 
other.

I think the main thing that amazes me is that, while both deal with a kind of 
"deep mythology" attitude toward sf/fantasy, Gaiman's procedure is very 
straightforward and fable-like while Wolfe's is so much more oblique. Of course, 
they don't have to be doing the same thing to respect each other...but I just 
feel like I see many more differences than similarities when I read Gaiman.

So am I dense? Does anyone else have some better insight into their relationship 
(personal, professional, stylistic, thematic, or otherwise) or have a more 
articulate (and interesting) way to compare them? I think this is probably a 
situation where I want to see what Wolfe sees in Gaiman, but I'm not entirely 
sure that I do.