This is the comic for people who do not like superheroes. Mainstream and accessible, though with a goth sensibility. It has tenuous links to the DC Universe, but you need no pre-knowledge to understand the series.
The Sandman.
All 75 issues and assorted on-offs were written by Neil Gaiman. It was structured in a way that different artists could be used on different volumes. The collections are split into 10 volumes, five of which are full length stories and five compilations of shorter stories that either build into a whole (like volume 1) or are thematically collected. The Collections do not collect the series in quite the order it was originally published.
It is based on the premise of seven fundamental beings called the Endless. The titular Sandman is Dream (all the Endless have names starting with D). It starts with Dream being captured (later explained as him being weakened after a great battle) by a human warlock for a huger chunk of the twentieth century. The first volume is the story of the capture, escape and regaining of his power. It includes a trip to Hell, introducing the fallen angel Lucifer and a story set in an American Diner over 24 hours which is truly horrific..
(The Endless – Death, Destiny, Dream, Spoiler, Desire, Despair, Delirium)
With the Sandman you never knew what you were getting issue to issue. The second volume, The Doll’s House, is broken up by two single issue stories, one about a former lover exiled to hell and one about a man who refused to die. The main story of The Doll’s House is about a serial killer from The Dreaming – this was before the current craze for serial killer and true crime drama.
The third volume, Dream Country, is four single issue stories that are completely different – one about a world where cats rule, one is a Shakespeare story, one about a Muse and a story about a woman who cannot die. Death is a very popular figure in the series – but then she does not look like classical Death.
A Season of Mists has Lucifer abandoning hell and giving the keys to the Sandman. (This led to a spin off from Michael Carey about what Lucifer did afterwards which shows that the concepts Gaiman tosses out nonstop have huge mileage in them. Shame the version of Lucifer they did on TV just goes police procedural rather than the far more complex storyline in the comic).
A Game of You is the least popular volume, but my favourite. A woman stuck in a fantasy world and a collection of women who have to deal with it – one of the women was born a man (this was the early 90s, Gaiman was way ahead of his time).
The whole story builds to a climax and shows that there was a plan all the way through. It repays several rereads as the foreshadowing and links are very well done.
Despite DC owning the copyright they have treated Neil Gaiman far better than Alan Moore, whose work has now been merged into the DC Universe. Some people have done spinoffs, but there is no ongoing Sandman title. Gaiman has come back and done a couple of projects including a prelude to the main storyline. These are not only commercially huge but also massive critical successes. I assume that this is more valuable to them than it being altruism.
Read this.
I had not been into Metallica. Some of the people we knew at university promoted the virtues of …. And Justice For All and it is a good album, but you really have to be a metalhead to appreciate it. In 1991 they released Metallica, commonly known as The Black Album – for obvious reasons.
(Metallica or The Black Album)
Truly a classic metal album the lead single, Enter: Sandman is not just a genre classic but a classic of popular music. Ominous and scary, even without the video (which takes it to another level) it is remorseless and powerful. Dumper played it live, like many other covers’ bands, and it always went down a storm.
Enter: Sandman
Playlist:
- …And Justice For All
- Harvester of Sorrows
- Enter Sandman
- Nothing Else Matters
- Wherever I May Roam
- The God That Failed
- Sad But True
- King Nothing
- The Outlaw Torn
- King Nothing
- Fuel
Five Miles Out 