I am normally very critical of comic book writers who, in the words of Warren Ellis, “service a trade mark” and perpetuate often in a hackneyed fashion the adventures of an established character or characters. Its a living, I guess, but its not exactly the sharp end of the creativity stick.
The exception to this generalised rule is the Endless universe of Neil Gaiman, established in The Sandman books. I am a big fan of Mike Carey’s Lucifer series (Lucifer being a pivotal character in Gaiman’s Sandman volumes), and yesterday read Carey’s The Sandman Presents: The Furies, which I also really enjoyed. Lucifer is rich in characteristion and epic grandeur (and not a small amount of humour): The Furies was a tale of vengeance and conflict steeped in some of the grittier and more sordid aspects of Greek mythology.
Are there any other decent works out there continuing the tales of the Endless, or of the Dreaming? I was a bit shy about picking up any of “The Sandman Presents” books, as I figured it was DC/Vertigo’s efforts to capitalise upon the success of The Sandman after the series concluded.
Death: At Death’s Door - a retelling of Season of Mists from Death’s POV is good. (Can’t remember for the LIFE of me who did it…she also did the Little Endless Storybook, which I understand is good.)
Listen, Sandman itself grew out of DC’s own superhero universe, although of course it eventually evolved away from that. The fact that a comic grew out of the ashes of something else isn’t dispositive of its own quality. That said, of course there was a lot of post-Sandman dreck that Vertigo released.
You already know about the Lucifer ongoing series – are you aware there was a Sandman Presents: Lucifer mini, also by Carey, which led into the ongoing? It’s in the first Lucifer TPB.
I agree that the “At Death’s Door” manga-style book was a lot of fun. Jill Thompson is writing another book in the format, I think focusing on the Dead Boy Detectives.
Bill Willingham (currently best-known as the author of Fables) did some post-Sandman stuff, in particular a Thessaly mini and the “Merv Pumpkinhead: Agent of Dream” one-shot. I didn’t reat the mini but the Merv comic was pretty funny. A TPB collecting both projects was recently released and Willingham is putting together a Thessaly ongoing to bow in '04.
Also worth mentioning are the two Death miniseries, which don’t exactly fit the criteria because they were both Gaiman-penned and they ran while Sandman was still ongoing. The first one is quite good; the second not so much, but they added a couple interstitial pages in the TPB version which actually help a lot.
Not really related to the OP, but have you read any books by Neil Gaiman? American Gods, Neverwhere, Smoke and Mirrors (short stories) and Bad Omens (with Terry Pratchett) are all really fun to read. Coraline’s a fun kid book that he wrote.
There’s a miniseries called (I think) “The Corinthian: Death in Venice” which I’m dying to read. I’ve heard it’s good, and the Corinthian is one of my favorite supporting characters from the Sandman stories.
I’ll second Cliffy’s note on “Merv Pumpkinhead: Agent of Dream.” Only Gaiman himself wrote a better Merv, and Willingham came pretty darn close to being just as good. A fun, fairly lighthearted story.
I gave “The Dreaming” a shot for a while, but it didn’t hold my attention.
Of the Sandman Presents series, I enjoyed The Thessialad quite a bit. Neither Dead Boy Detectives nor Bast did anything for me. Haven’t read The Corinthian, but I seem to recall hearing strong reactions to it; my Swiss cheese brain can’t recall whether they were positive or negative.
Morpheus has a cameo in a good Sandman Mystery Theatre one-shot called Sandman Midnight Theatre*. That’s probably of more interest to fans of SMT than The Sandman, though.
To the OP, what did you think of The Dreaming? At first, it looked good, then it looked weird. I dropped it until the Matthew the Raven arc which I really enjoyed.