And is it finished, and if so, how many issues are in it?
I’m considering starting reading it.
It’s a pretty good series, but it’s not exactly Neil’s. He get’s creator credit because of developing the characters and setting in Sandman, but he didn’t write any of The Dreaming.
I bought the first few issues (how many years ago now?) but it just wasn’t up to the standards set by the Sandman so I dropped it … Actually, about that time the overall quality of comics in general seemed to be experiencing a slow downward turn and I ended up dropping everything, including Cerebus, which I have from about issue 30 to wherever it was when I stopped …
I’ve never read The Dreaming but people I know have. The general consensus was that in its first incarnation (rotating creative teams telling diverse stories using Sandman’s supporting cast) it never really lived up to its potential, and that in the second incarnation (a more stable story by writer Caitlin Kiernan) it blew.
It’s possible the OP is confusing The Dreaming with the series from which it spun off, the Gaiman-penned The Sandman. That was a fantastic series, and without question literature of a high calibre. I’d recommend it highly to anyone.
–Cliffy
I wasn’t, but it does bring up a question.
Are there 75 issues to Sandman? I just read issue 1 today and want to make sure I know how many there are. It is done, right?
Sandman is technically finished, yes… though there may be the sporadic special release, such as the post-issue-75 publishing of “The Dream Hunters” a few years ago. I’m sure there are at least a few more stories of Dream that Neil could tell. But yes, the original series is technically over.
It had 75 main issues, but also a few extras. There was a Sandman Special called “Orpheus” that existed outside the main issue arc. There’s “The Dream Hunters” which is definitely a different sort of story, but still tied to the original series of course. And there’s the two “Death” miniseries, three issues each, which aren’t a part of the main Sandman storyline but are definitely related. So, really, there’s a little bit more than 75 issues.
Your best bet is to go with the collected trade paperback (or hardback) editions of Sandman. There are 10 graphic novels that collect the main body of the original series, including “Orpheus,” and “The Dream Hunters” is published separately, as are both “Death” miniseries. By getting these 13 TPB’s, you’re getting pretty much the whole thing.
I won’t even mention the Book of Dreams collection of Sandman/Endless stories by other authors… or Hy Bender’s Sandman Companion… oooops.
While the two Death series are good (the first better than the second), IMO they’re not really part of “The Sandman” and don’t bear on Morpheus’s story. I haven’t read Dream Hunters yet but having read all the rest I can say that “Sandman” is complete in the 76 issues published. (1-75 + the Orpheus Special.) There’s also Gaiman’s “Endless Nights” hardback which comes out later this year and which has a Morpheus story. These are additions to Sandman, but they’re pretty emphatically not part of Sandman.
I agree with Avalonian that the best way to read the series is in the 10 trade paperbacks. One word of caution, however – the issues collected in the “Fables and Reflections” TPB are from all over the series – some from before “Game of You,” which is the volume before F&R, some from between Game and “Brief Lives” (the next volume) and one from after Brief Lives. I like to read them in order of original publication, although it’s not really critical, I guess, as long as you read all of F&R (except the later-published “Ramadan,” issue #50) before embarking on Brief Lives.
–Cliffy
I know… I’m just such a completist, I can’t imagine not reading “The Dream Hunters” or the Death stories. If someone’s going to tackle the whole Sandman story in one go, they may as well do those too. 