Issue 10- The Sandman: Preface for a Prelude

Back Issues- A Nerd’s Tale

So as I mentioned, in my zero issue, when I was younger my dad liked to sneak home comics because our mom didn’t enjoy the thought of him wasting money on something we didn't exactly need. It's not that we were that poor, it’s just my mother was extremely thrifty which is something I struggle with myself. Still, every Wed my dad came home with new issues of an amazing world I could only dream of.

Unfortunately for me, my dad was a rabid Marvel fan so for most of my life I only read comics from The House Of Ideas, not that it was a bad thing. Still, I missed out on a lot of classic DC stories that I later revisited much to my delight but there was always one story I always skipped over. The Sandman.

In my twenties life was, well lets just say depressing and leave it at that. Living at home, dead end job, on and off in college, what was there to do but try to live in the fantasy of a world of heroes. The Sandman however wasn’t exactly my type of book from what I heard, and with all the awards earned I was afraid that the story would come off as pretentious, mostly because of the few Alan Moore books I had read. I’ll get to THOSE later…

In 2007 however, a movie changed my mind. Stardust premiered and I was so enraptured by the story, and upon learning it was by Neil Gaiman , I decided to take a look at The Sandman.

It might be my favorite series of all time.

(Dream is badass!)

Gateway Comics?

I had originally planned to do this series as an episode of gateway comics because honestly, anyone can just pick up the story and enjoy it without knowing any backstory. Sure, there’s some trivia that I’ll be getting into later but for the most part the series is almost one long self contained narrative. Most people forget it was ever even published as singular issues instead of the thick graphic novels it appears as now a days.

However, after rereading the first few issues again, I realized this was actually a series that meant so much to me I needed to give it a much more in depth overview. So I will. If you want to read the series for yourself, make sure to only read this article because future posts will deal with a full story-line of the comic.

(One of TWO Deaths I would hope represent the real deal.)

The Story of Stories

So kind of comic is The Sandman before we get into some of its rich backstory? Supernatural? Fantasy? Horror? Well, its all of the above.

At its core, The Sandman is a tale about stories. And like stories, it can run the gauntlet. Life and Death. Desire and Hate. Heaven and Hell. Hope… and especially change.

The Sandman Follows Dream of the Endless, the titular, well, Sandman after he returns to power. Now a changed anthropomorphic personification. But it also follows the tales of the humans he interacts with. The story is however extremely mature so this one is not for the young so definitely something I'd rate as R for american audiences.

Birth of a Dream

Gaiman originally envisioned a tale starring a silver age version of The Sandman created by the legendary Jack Kirby. The publishers wanted someone original to star however and thus a new plot and series was born.

Gaiman had been writing for other Dc imprints at the time and a few of the characters that would appear in The Sandman first popped up in his mini series Black Orchid.

Dropping in November of 1988, the story was pushed through DC’s new mature line before being moved to Vertigo in 1993. Winning multiple awards and even becoming a New York Times bestseller, the series would go on to be known as a literary work of art with many college classes using it as reading material.

(Just look at that amazing scene!)

The House Of Mystery and Destiny

While there are many guest stars in the series, including some of the mainstream DC heroes, many of the characters were original to the book so i’ll give you some trivia and history on the ones that appeared before.

Destiny , Dream's older brother who I’ll discuss more in later issues, is part of the Endless. As his name suggests. he is the personification of destiny itself and the keeper of it’s tales. He was originally created as a host for DC’s Weird Mystery Tales which was a horror anthology comics in the early 1970s.

Cain and Able are not the biblical counterparts of their namesakes, but they have taken on a lot of traits from the story. They are shown early on in the House of Mystery, which is the name of the comic where they were first introduced. They too acted as hosts for an anthology of horror.

(And, well, brotherly love…?)

Finally, I’d like to mention for the first run, is a character who probably will appear again off and on through my articles, John Constantine , The Hellblazer. Completely different the the movie version of the same name, who was played by a dark haired Keanu Reeves, the original Constantine was a blonde hair British mage and conman with a smoking problem. The television series however was much closer and the character is currently appearing in Legends of Tomorrow.

The Beginning

And thus ends the prologue to my overview of The Sandman. You have the basics, go and read the series yourself. No seriously, you really should but I do hope you’ll stay to read each retrospective as they come out. Next time I’ll be introducing a new Issue type, Wait What? Here I’ll be going over weird and strange comics that just want you to say… huh? Keep on Dreaming!