Another thing that makes Sandman the best comic series ever is that it may be the only one to feature a shrew as a character. (Although I must admit that even I initially thought Wilkinson was supposed to be a rat.)
No accounting for taste I guess.
I got into the Sandman series based on Alex Epstein’s recommendation on his screenwriting website. Epstein called it one of the best examples of writing for a visual medium. If the Sandman was as good as Epstein’s witty, fresh take on the screenwriting trade, I knew I had to give it a shot.
Epstein recommended starting with A Season of Mists, and that’s what I did. It was everything I’d hoped, and more. I ended up reading the whole series as well as the the two complementary graphic novels.
I grew up loving comic books, and even seriously considered becoming a comic artist. DC and Marvel superhero books were mainstays, but I also had a special taste for horror comics - not EC stuff, cause that had stopped being available by the time I was a kid, but EC influenced horror put out by Charlton, Marvel, DC et al.
Loving comic books, especially horror, and having a background in world literature, history, philosphy and mythology, played a big role in making me love the series.
If you don’t pick up all of the sly references, the brilliant connections, the subtle humor, the attempts by the artists to stretch the boundaries of comic art, or if you do pick up on these things, but they don’t mean much to you, then maybe Sandman isn’t for you.
For me, the idea of a library full of books imagined by their authors but never written is enough in and of itself. And Death has got to be the coolest big sister ever.