 Neil Gaiman originally created characters named Mr. Croup and Mr.  Vandemaar for a childrens book he started, but never finished, when  he was 18. In the story, they are sitting in a cellar in 14th  century England eating a puppy. Gaiman had forgotten about the  story, created what he thought were brand new characters for  Neverwhere named Croup and Vandemaar, and only remembered their  original appearance later when he ran across a copy of the  childrens story while cleaning out some of his papers.