The Sandman (comic book series)

The Sandman was a comic book series written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics for 75 issues from 1988 until 1996. It became the flagship of DC's Vertigo imprint, and is kept in print as a series of ten graphic novels. It is widely considered one of the most original, sophisticated and artistically ambitious comic book series of the modern age. By the time of the series's conclusion, it had made significant contributions to the artistic maturity of comic books and become a pop culture phenomenon in its own right.

The protagonist of Sandman is Dream, the immortal anthropomorphic personification of dreams and storytelling. He is known by an array of names, most often Morpheus, but also Oneiros, Lord Shaper, Lord Kai'ckul, the Prince of Stories, and, rarely, "The Sandman". He is one of a family of seven siblings known as the Endless, each of whom personifies some aspect of reality, such as Death or Desire.

Gaiman has summarized the plot of the series (in the foreword to Endless Nights) as: "The king of dreams learns one must change or die and then makes his decision." The character's initially haughty, and often cruel, manner begins to soften after his years of imprisonment at the start of the series, but the challenge of undoing past sins and changing old ways is an enormous one for a being who has been set in his ways for billions of years.

Unlike most popular US comic books of its time, The Sandman existed almost completely outside of the superhero genre. The first third of the series somewhat conformed to the horror genre, but it later grew into an elaborate fantasy series, incorporating elements of classical and contemporary mythology. The series is occasionally labeled as "Sophisticated Suspense", a small genre that also includes Swamp Thing (particularly after Alan Moore took over writing it in the 1980s), and Jamie Delano's Hellblazer.

Setting

The storylines primarily take place in the Dreaming, Morpheus's realm, and the waking world, with occasional visits to other domains, such as Hell, Faerie, Asgard, and the domains of the other Endless. Many used the contemporary United States of America and the United Kingdom as a backdrop. (The DC Universe was the official setting of the series, but well-known DC characters and places were rarely featured after 1990).

Most of the storylines take place in modern times (presumably the late 80s and early 90s), but many short stories are set in the past, taking advantage of the immortality of many of the characters to deal with historical individuals and events.

Art

Also unlike most comic books, The Sandman did not feature an ongoing illustrator; instead, different artists were hired for each new storyline, sometimes for only a single issue. Aside from co-creator Sam Kieth, artists who illustrated a significant number of issues include Colleen Doran, Mike Dringenberg, Marc Hempel, Kelley Jones, Jill Thompson and Michael Zulli. Their styles ranged from cartoony expressionism (Hempel) to detailed, delicate realism with a hint of the Pre-Raphaelites (Zulli). The lettering for each issue was done by Todd Klein, save for a handful of issues during the book's second major storyline, where John Costanza filled in while Klein was away on honeymoon.

Each issue featured a cover created by Dave McKean. McKean’s approach combined painting, photography, pencil and ink drawings, collage, digital art, found objects and even sculpture, resulting in distinctive, often abstract or surreal, images.

Collections

The Sandman was initially published as a monthly serial, in 32-page booklets (with some exceptions to this pattern). As the series quickly increased in popularity, DC Comics began to reprint them in hardcover and paperback editions, each representing either a complete novel or a collection of related short stories.

DC first published "The Doll's House" storyline in a collection called simply The Sandman. Shortly thereafter, the first three volumes were published and named independently and also collected in an eponymous boxed set. (Death's debut story, "The Sound of Her Wings" from issue #8, appeared both at the beginning of The Doll's House and at the end of early editions of Preludes and Nocturnes, creating overlap between the first two volumes. This overlap isn't present in newer editions.) Further collections would then be released shortly after their completion in serial form.

A total of ten collections contain the full run of the series, and have all been kept in print. They are as follows:

Preludes and Nocturnes (collecting The Sandman #1-8, 1988-1989, ISBN 1-56389-011-9): Dream is imprisoned for decades by an occultist seeking immortality. Upon escaping, he must reclaim his objects of power while still in a weakened state, confronting a dream junkie, the legions of Hell, and an all-powerful madman in the process. Guest starring several DC superheroes/villains: John Constantine, Scott Free, J'onn J'onzz, Scarecrow and Doctor Destiny.
The Doll's House (collecting The Sandman #9-16, 1989-1990, ISBN 0-930289-59-5): Morpheus tracks down rogue dreams that escaped the Dreaming during his absence. In the process, he must shatter the illusions of a family living in dreams, disband a convention of serial killers, and deal with a "dream vortex" that threatens the existence of the entire Dreaming.
Dream Country (collecting The Sandman #17-20, 1990, ISBN 1-56389-016-X): This volume contains four independent stories. The imprisoned muse Calliope is forced to provide story ideas, a cat seeks to change the world with dreams, Shakespeare puts on a play for an unearthly audience, and a shapeshifting immortal (obscure DC comics character Element Girl) longs for death.
Season of Mists (collecting The Sandman #21-28, 1990-1991, ISBN 1-56389-041-0): Dream travels to Hell to free a former lover, Nada, who he condemned to torment thousands of years ago. There, Dream learns that Lucifer has abandoned his domain. When Lucifer gives the Hell's key (and therefore, the ownership of Hell) to the Sandman, Morpheus himself becomes trapped in a tangled network of threats, promises, and lies as gods and demons from various pantheons seek ownership of Hell.
A Game of You (collecting The Sandman #32-37, 1991-1992): Barbie, a New York divorcée, travels to the magical realm that she once inhabited in her dreams, only to find that it is being threatened by the forces of the Cuckoo. This series introduces the character of Thessaly, who will play a key role in Morpheus' eventual fate.
Fables and Reflections (collecting The Sandman #29-31, 38-40, 50, Sandman Special #1 and Vertigo Preview #1, 1991, 1992, 1993): A collection of short stories set throughout Morpheus' history, most of them originally published both before and after the "Game of You" story arc. Four issues dealing with kings and rulers, were originally published under the label Distant Mirrors, while three others, detailing the meetings of various characters, were published as the Convergences arc. Fables and Reflections also includes the Sandman Special, originally published as a stand-alone issue, which assimilates the myth of Orpheus into the Sandman mythos as well as a very short Sandman story from the Vertigo Preview promotional comic.
Brief Lives (collecting The Sandman #41-49, 1992-1993): Dream's erratic younger sister Delirium convinces him to help her search for their missing brother, the former Endless Destruction, who left his place among the family three hundred years before. However, their quest is marred by the death of all around them, and eventually Morpheus must turn to his son Orpheus to find the truth, and undo an ancient sin.
Worlds' End (collecting The Sandman #51-56, 1993): A "reality storm" strands travelers from across the cosmos at the "Worlds' End Inn". To pass the time, they exchange stories.
The Kindly Ones (collecting The Sandman #57-69 and Vertigo Jam #1, 1994-1995): In the longest Sandman story, Morpheus becomes the prey of the Furies, avenging spirits who torment those who spill family blood.
The Wake (collecting The Sandman #70-75, 1995-1996): The conclusion of the series, wrapping up the remaining loose ends in a three-issue "wake" sequence, followed by three self-contained stories.

In addition, the cover images from The Sandman have been compiled into one volume:

The Collected Sandman Covers (1998): Dave McKean's covers use techniques such as painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, and computer manipulation.

In 1999, some years after Gaiman completed The Sandman, he wrote a lavishly illustrated Sandman novel, The Dream Hunters with art by Yoshitaka Amano. Like many of the single-issue stories throughout The Sandman, Morpheus appears in Dream Hunters, but is a supporting character at best. At the time of release Gaiman claimed that this book incorporated Morpheus into an existing Japanese legend, not unlike his use of the story of Orpheus. Gaiman has since admitted that this was a joke on his part, and that he made up the "legend" out of whole cloth.

As the 10th anniversary arrived, Gaiman wrote several new stories about Morpheus and his siblings, one story for each, which were published in 2003 as the Endless Nights anthology.

Neil Gaiman's blog already talks about an Absolute Sandman which would be a new edition of all the 10 volumes ^*. In November, the first of four volumes of the Absolute Edition Sandman will be available, collecting the first 20 issues.

Other books and series

Because of the amount of critical acclaim Sandman received and because of its commercial viability (at the time of its conclusion, it was DC’s best-selling series), a number of spin-off volumes have been produced. Fans of the original series disagree as to the quality and legitimacy of these volumes. Subsidiary works include:

The High Cost of Living (1993), a three-issue, Gaiman-penned limited series starring Morpheus’ older sister.
Midnight Theatre (1995), in which Wesley Dodds, the Golden Age Sandman, meets Lord Morpheus of The Endless, the Modern Age Sandman.
The Time of Your Life (1996): another three-issue, Gaiman-penned Death limited series, also featuring supporting characters from A Game of You.
Book of Dreams (1996), a collection of prose short stories featuring the world of The Sandman in some way. It contains work from some notable contributors, among them Caitlin R. Kiernan, Tad Williams, Gene Wolfe, Tori Amos and Colin Greenland. Publisher DC Comics allegedly imposed restrictive terms on contributing authors, leading to a few authors withdrawing their stories.
The Dreaming (1996 - 2001), a monthly series set in Morpheus’ realm but featuring none of the Endless. It was written and illustrated by a variety of writers and artists; Caitlin R. Kiernan wrote the largest number of scripts for the series.
The Sandman Presents (1999-2001): a collection of limited series by various authors and illustrators featuring secondary characters from The Sandman, such as The Corinthian and The Furies.
The Dream Hunters (1999): a prose novel that incorporates a so-called Japanese folk tale into the Sandman mythos, written by Gaiman and featuring illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano. It is not actually based on any exisiting Japanese folklore, but rather incorporates elements of Chinese and Japanese folklore and mythology into a new "myth".
The Sandman Companion by Hy Bender (2000), a non-fiction work providing extra information about the series. Its first section discusses the ten Sandman collections sequentially, analysing their meaning, explaining some of Gaiman's myriad references and sometimes providing information on the writing of the comics. It also features a lengthy interview about the series with Gaiman himself.
The Little Endless Storybook (2001), a one-shot comic book which depicts The Endless as toddlers and follows Delirium's dog, Barnabas as he attempts to find the missing Delirium, written and illustrated by Jill Thompson
Lucifer (2001 - 2006): a monthly series written by Mike Carey continuing the story of Lucifer following the events of the fourth collection, Season of Mists.
Endless Nights (2003): a graphic novel with one story for each of the Endless. They are set throughout history but two take place after the final events of the monthly series. It was written by Gaiman and featured a different illustrator for each story. This collection is notable as it is the first hardcover graphic novel ever to appear on the New York Times Hardcover Bestseller list.
Death: At Death’s Door (2004): a manga-style graphic novel, written and illustrated by Jill Thompson, showcasing Death’s activities during Season of Mists. This may become part of a series of manga novels starring Death.
The Dead Boy Detectives (2005): a sequel to Death: At Death's Door, also by Jill Thompson, featuring the two young ghosts from Season of Mists. (The title was previously used for a The Sandman Presents limited series about the same characters.)

Impact

The Sandman was one of the most widely respected comic book series of its time, finding recognition not only within the comic book industry but in the general literary world. It is generally held among such works as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen, Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Art Spiegelman's Maus in terms of critical acclaim and its conferrence of respectability on comics. The Sandman supported the notion that comic books could be high-quality literature or art even in a long-running series.

The Sandman also demonstrated that non-superhero comic books could be successful. Along with Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing stories, Sandman helped establish "sophisticated suspense", a genre which is meant for older readers, includes elements of horror and fantasy, and tackles controversial topics. In 1993, the success of Sandman inspired DC comics to launch the Vertigo imprint, which specialized in this genre and published some of the most acclaimed series of the 1990s, including Preacher and Animal Man.

The Sandman also strengthened the importance of the writer in comic books. Before Sandman, writers were often overshadowed by superstar artists such as Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee. Gaiman became one of the most popular comic book creators of the era (launching his career as a novelist).

The series paved the way for the long-form but finite comic book series as multi-layered serial fiction. Like a novel, and unlike all but a few prior comics series, The Sandman told a single complete story over seventy-six issues with a beginning, middle, and definitive end. Yet the book was also composed chiefly of a handful of story arcs that also moved from commencement to conclusion on a smaller scale, and these arcs consisted of individual issues of the magazine which themsevles followed a finite narrative line within the context of the larger work surrounding them. Since The Sandman, this format has become increasingly popular and a staple of DC's Vertigo imprint, e.g., Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, Brian Vaughan's Y - The Last Man Vaughan's Ex Machina from DC's Wildstorm imprint, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso's 100 Bullets, the aforementioned Preacher, and the aforementioned Lucifer series by Mike Carey, a Sandman spin-off.

Todd Klein's distinctive lettering on The Sandman also helped popularize individual typescripts for the word balloons of certain characters, a technique that had been used in Cerebus and scattered other places. Gaiman & Klein particularly used unique styles for the Endless, such as Morpheus’ word balloons being black and irregular with white lettering and Delirium’s being irregular, abstract and multi-colored.

In addition to its impact on comic books, The Sandman has had a significant influence on pop culture. The series was mentioned in songs by Tori Amos, Alice Cooper and others, Sandman posters can be seen in the background of the sitcom Roseanne, and Extreme Championship Wrestling alumnus Raven is fond of wearing Sandman T-shirts. Dave Sim parodied the characters (Dream became "Swoon", Death "Snuff" and so on) in his comic book, Cerebus. Sam Kieth also parodied the character Death and Sandman fans in his comic, The Maxx.

The Sandman has also gained a decent amount of attention outside the comics world among other subcultures and has gained increasing popularity in the goth subculture.

Occasional covers and work with Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano has brought the title to the attention of fans of Japanese art and pop culture, as well as video game fans familiar with Amano's work through the Final Fantasy series, as well as other game and anime projects he has contributed to.

The Sandman issue #19 "A Midsummer's Night Dream" won the World Fantasy Award in 1991 for Best Short Fiction. The following morning, the rules of the award were changed to ensure no other comics could get that award. As a result, it is the only comic that will ever win a World Fantasy Award unless the rules are again changed.

Richard Garfield, creator of the collectible card game The Gathering drew inspiration from Sandman #50 (" Fables and Reflections ") to create Magic's first expansion set: The Gathering). While the majority of the set involved Garfield researching the actual Arabian Nights stories, one card, named "City in a Bottle", was a direct nod to the ending of "Ramadan".

References

Stephen Rauch, Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and Joseph Campbell: In Search of the Modern Myth (2003)
The Sandman Papers: An Exploration of the Sandman Mythology by Joe Sanders and Neil Gaiman (2006)

Awards and recognition

The Sandman issue #19 "A Midsummer's Night Dream" won the World Fantasy Award in 1991 for Best Short Fiction.

External links

DC Comics titles | Fantasy comics | Graphic novels | The Sandman | Vertigo titles

Gourt Home::Gourt :: The Sandman (comic book series)