Where do I begin?
Like many others, I never paid much attention to comics once I became an adult. But back in the mid-1980s, a friend convinced me to read Mike Grell’s Jon Sable, Freelance. I was hooked on the art and the stories–these were unlike any comics I had read before. I made my way through the series, until Grell stopped illustrating.
I didn’t pick up any comics after that for a while. Nothing really interested me–far too many over-muscled superheroes in tights inhabiting convoluted “universes,” which weren’t exactly what I wanted. I’m sure there were interesting adventure stories or mysteries or suspense tales somewhere on the shelves, but I couldn’t find them. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough, and besides, I had far too many other things to read.
Not until the late 90s when a co-worker and I were discussing comics. (Only he called them graphic novels, a term I had only heard once or twice.) I was mentioning how much I enjoyed Sable and Grell’s art, and wishing that there was something good out there in comic–er, graphic novel–format.
The next day, he brought me a pile of Sandmans, and suggested I begin with “The Sound of Her Wings.” I did, and then started in on the “Doll’s House” story arc. From there, I went on to the other arcs that he loaned me, all in order.
For the next three weeks, except for going to work, I did nothing but read Sandman. I had never read–hell, I never experienced–anything like it before. Here were references to the myths and tales I had learned in life, here were references to everything from Shakespeare to the old DC comics I knew from my own childhood. And here was a family at the centre of the stories; a family of beings who are above gods, yet are so distinctly human that you cannot help but feel that you know them intimately. And you get caught up in the stories of their doings.
But equally impressive was the crafting of the stories and the tale that all of them tell together. Gaiman did beautifully here, bringing all the different elements from all the arcs together in “The Kindly Ones,” and leaving us with an ending that was at once both what we all knew would happen, yet was unexpected when it did.
I did manage to obtain the entire set of novels, most notably through the efforts of my wife, who, after hearing so much about them, made me a gift of the series. And now she is working her way through them herself, and discovering the magic that I did.
Ah, but I’ve gone on long enough. “We must speak of other matters…”