My Top 10: Neil Gaiman

1. Swamp Thing. The 1984--87 Alan Moore/Steve Bissette/John Totleben revival. The best muck-encrusted monster in the best comics.

2. Willem Dafoe's unpleasantly tragic Max Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire (2000).

3. The Weeping Angels in Steven Moffat's terrifying 2007 Doctor Who episode ''Blink.''

4. Hannibal Lecter in Thomas Harris' novels Red Dragon (1981) and The Silence of the Lambs (1988), back when he wasn't quite human and was all the scarier for it.

5. Grendel. The first and the best. Crispin Glover played him in Bob Zemeckis' version of Beowulf (2007).

6. Eugene Tooms, the immortal, liver-eating mutant from the X-Files episodes ''Squeeze'' and ''Tooms.''

7. The Nightbreed from Clive Barker's 1990 film of the same name.

8. Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King's It (1986). Because clowns are scary.

9. The Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth (2006).

10. Craddock McDermott, the vengeful ghost that came with the suit in Joe Hill's 2007 novel Heart-Shaped Box.