The Endless Thread: Appreciating "Sandman"

Cafe Society
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I just finished rereading the entire run of Sandman comics. I had forgotten how great it really was. It’s even better if you read it all at once, instead of spreading the story line out over several years (as it was originally told).

For those just joining us, “Sandman” was an utterly brilliant comic book series written by Neil Gaiman, featuring a group of immortals called “The Endless.” Morpheus (who was not called “Sandman” – one of the many nice touches) was Dream; there were six siblings: Destiny, Death, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium (formerly Delight).

Gaiman created an incredibly rich mythology, filled with memorable characters. He also chose to wind up the comic; the final two major arcs feature characters introduced in earlier arcs and tie them all together. What’s even more surprising is that DC/Vertigo comics agreed to end the run and not continue the main characters; that was unprecedented in the history of comic books.

I started reading Sandman just over halfway through the run (75 issues, plus one Sandman special). I had caught up by reading the graphic novels of the earlier story arcs, but it’s so much better to read them in order and also not have wait a month between issues so the connections are clearer.

The stories have been collected in several graphic novels. In order of appearance, they are:

Preludes and Nocturnes
The Doll’s House
Dream Country*
Seasons of Mists
A Game of You
Fables and Reflections*
Brief Lives
Worlds End
The Kindly Ones
The Wake

*These are collections of single-issue stories.

I think “A Game of You” is my favorite story arc, followed by “The Doll’s House.”

And, of course, my favorite character is Death. I also love Hob Gadding, Rose Walker, Wanda, Delirium, Lucien, Gilbert, William Shakespeare, Barbie, and . . . oh, hell – too many to list. Gaiman had a gift for creating vivid characters that you wanted to read more about. He could take the lamest comic hero in history (e.g., Prez) and turn him into an affecting character and saying something important to boot.

He was (and still is – see his “American Gods”) also one hell of a storyteller. One of the themes of the book is storytelling and many issues are about stories. And in many of the stories, Morpheus either didn’t appear, or only made a brief (though important) cameo.

In any case, this is one comic book that can be held up as literature (there are several graphic novels, but this is the only one with a run over 20 issues). Its big disadvantage is that it’s hard to read it all (the graphic novels are in print, but they’re expensive). If you have it, reread it. If not, try to find it.

Anyone else a fan? How do you rate the various books and characters?

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I was lucky enough to begin reading SANDMAN with issue #1
and I therefore own EVERY dog-eared issue of the original run, plus a few trade paperbacks, the Gaiman-selected prose book, McKean’s cover gallery and a few other bits and pieces I’m sure to remember if I bothered getting up from my computer, here.

Although the first story arc had its moments, it was “The Sound Of Her Wings,” in issue #8, that utterly hooked me beginning to end and made me a fan of the mythology Gaiman was creating.

Seasons of Mists is my favorite story arc; A Game of You is probably my least favorite, although I must admit it made me rethink certain presumptions I had re: human sexuality, transsexuals and homosexuality.

Favorite MAJOR character would have to be the wayward brother Destruction, favorite minor characters are Gaiman’s depiction of the Norse gods.

As a black man, I did think the ‘dead burning black woman’ motif was a damn bit odd and made me wonder if Gaiman has issues with some sister he was woking out in fiction. Since the same thing damn near happens to Hunter in his novel, Neverwhere, I STILL wonder…

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Funnily enough, I just reread Season of Mists last night.

A Game of You is also my favorite story arc, though this has a lot to do with its being my introduction to the series. I had no real awareness of modern comics at the time. My wife, who collected anything by Samuel R. Delany, brought home the A Game of You volume because it has an introduction by him. And as I mentioned recently in another thread, my favorite character in the story is Wilkinson–and I didn’t even realize he was supposed to be a shrew. (I always wanted DC to come up with a spinoff or miniseries on Wilkinson–well, come on, they’ve covered almost everyone else! I even came up with a title for it: Wilkinson: A Wish in One Hand :smiley: )

Later on I ended up collecting the entire series myself. I still have only a very limited knowledge of modern comics, but compared to Sandman, little else seems to measure up. This is just one of the most amazing pieces of literature I can think of in any format.

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My lovely public library has multiple copies of the graphic novels, and I read them obsessively.

You remember that ‘who would you go gay for’ thread? For me, it just might be Delirium.

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My lovely public library has multiple copies of the graphic novels, and I read them obsessively.

You remember that ‘who would you go gay for’ thread? For me, it just might be Delirium.

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As you can see, I feel pretty strongly about the issue.

:slaps self in head:

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Favorite stories - Four Septembers and a January
- Ramadan

I found myself enjoying the character Thessaly

My public library had copies, but there were two of the series missing so I filled them in. They are absolutely awsome reads and I’m glad I never had to wait for the next one to come out.

Am I speaking blasphemy, here, or did some of the artwork bite? I really didn’t like the scribbled looking ones, like Dream of a Thousand Cats. It really distracted from the story.

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As for a full arc, I’m fond of Brief Lives, myself, as it gives Delerium (My favourite character) a lot of pages.

I’d list all my favourite characters, but I tried earlier, and the hamsters ate the impressively huge list.

I’ll just say again that Del rocks hard.

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Oh, shee…I forgot single stories.

24 Hours, The Collectors, Men of Good Fortune, and Dream of 1000 Cats are my favourites.

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“Collectors” and “Men of Good Fortune” were released back to back, giving me the impression at the time that, wow, the whole series might be this good!

It very nearly was.

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I’m surprised nobody’s even mentioned The Dream Hunters yet, another Sandman tale told after the series officially ended. Illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, it’s simply one of the most beautiful “comic books” I’ve ever seen, and a fine bookend to the series as a whole.

But yeah, the whole thing is amazing, with some truly wonderful stories.

Also, if you get a chance, pick up Dust Covers, which collects all 75 Dave McKean covers for the series, as well as graphic novel covers and some other work, with commentary by McKean and Gaiman about the history behind some of the art. Good stuff.

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Oops.

Forgot The Dream Hunters.

But it’s not a comic book. Amano does not do comic books. (This isn’t a ‘I’m too good for comic books’ thing, I gather - he does do cartoons and video games, after all, and he clearly enjoys comics - he just doesn’t do them.)

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I can’t say what my favorite story arc is yet, since I’m only up to Fables and Reflections. So far, I would have to say Season of Mists. Sadly, my local libraries don’t carry comic books (or graphic novels) so Brief Lives will have to wait until I get some money. Too bad I’ve already been spoiled about the end of the series.

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I had forgotten all about A Doll’s House, sheesh. What a fantastic series, with a powerful and unsetting conclusion that stilll leaves a sad little knot in my heart. Gaiman, at least here, has a way of making you feel eons of mystery weighing down on you: there’s always so much that we’ll never know, that’s only hinted at. Jsut like dreams themselves.

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It really doesn’t matter actually, because it’s not a surprise, but rather a building theme throughout all the books. Knowing what will happen doesn’t change the impact, and indeed most of the characters in the story know it will happen too.

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Season of Mists is probably my favorite amongst the Sandman story arcs, although I think what Neil Gaiman accomplished in The Kindly Ones was nothing short of genius.

As for individual chapters, the ones pertaining to Shakespeare (“Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Tempest”) are simply outstanding.

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I have about half of them. I really REALLY need to buy the Graphic novels to complete the set, I love Gaiman’s writing. My favorite issues are “Dream of 1000 Cats”, "Four Septembers and a January " and “August”.

The last one is so compelling a tale that I have to remind myself that that’s not really why the Roman Empire fell/was allowed to fall.

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My favorite story is “Ramadan.” That’s storytelling. Plus gorgeous detail work.

My favorite panels (as cheesy as they are) are the Death and Dream as children in Fables & Reflections.

Still, great series.

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It may have been self-deception, but I spent most of The Kindly Ones wondering how Dream was going to get out of that fix. And I even knew the last book was called The Wake… should have been a clue.

I read the Sandman run in the form of the ten collections, in order. While most people bring up The Sound of Her Wings, for me it was the episode where we first meet Hob Gadling, my favourite character by far. That story is an absolute work of art; a beautiful self-contained little tale with a strong centre, symmetric themes and great narration. For the same reason, I love the penultimate episode, where Death tells Hob Gadling that Dream is dead.

But I don’t think the comic as a whole got really great until Season of Mists. I love the character of Lucifer (who has changed a lot since Preludes&Nocturnes, and where’s Belzebub?); especially the sequence where he’s sitting on an Australian beach and talking to an old man about the sunset. A beauty. Also, Dream’s interactions with Azazel, the final reconciliation with Nada, and Remiel’s attempts at recreating Hell.

I think my favourite of the ten collections is Brief Lives. I didn’t like it much at first, but the guy I borrowed the books from said it’d grow on me, and oh boy, did it ever. It also sets up the character of Destruction for his appearances in World’s End and The Wake.

As for the characters, Hob Gadling is my favourite as I’ve said. Destruction is on the list, as is Lucifer, Matthew and Barnabas (although a minor character, he’s an endearing creation). I find Delirium very interesting. Her first appearance in Season of Mists is very different from her later incarnations, starting in Brief Lives. In Season of Mists she’s merely confused, in later episodes she’s literally a child.

As for The Wake, I’ve never mourned any human as deeply as I mourned Dream when he died. That sounds horrible, and it probably is. All I know is that I bawled uncontrollably when I read the part where Death sends Dream’s body on its way down the river. I haven’t worked up the guts to read it a second time yet, although I must have read the rest of that episode and all other Sandman stories ten or twenty times by now.

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I discovered “Sandman” though a “Death” postcard I got from Hot Topic. I loved the thought that someone who looked so cute could be named Death, and googled Sandman to see what I could find out about the comic she seemd to come from. Found some interesting fan sites, and decided to get the books from through the Inter-Library Loan system, though I wasn’t much into comics.

I don’t remember which of the books I read first - it might have been “High Cost of Living”, it might have been “Preludes and Noctures.” However, I fell in love with the series, the story, the charichters… everything.

I think that my favorite book would be either “The Kindly Ones,” because of how all the story lines come together into the inevitable climax, or “World’s End,” for the stories within stories, or maybe “Brief Lives,” for the Dream-Delerium bonding. It’s a tough call, since they’re all so wonderful. Not sure what my favorite individual story is, since it’s been a while since I’ve read some of the books. I think maybe “Ramadan,” or whatever the next-to-last issue is, the one where Death talks to Hob.

sigh Now I want to re-read the books, and I can’t check any books out of the library 'cause I owe them too much money. Oh well.