Book Cover
Title Preludes and Nocturnes
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Sam Keith, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III
Publisher Vertigo - 2018
First Printing 1989
Book Cover
Title The Doll's House
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, Chris Bachalo, Michael Zulli, Steve Parkhouse
Publisher Vertigo - 2018
First Printing 1990
Book Cover
Title Dream Country
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Kelley JOnes, Charles Vess, Colleen Doran, Malcolm Jones III
Publisher Vertigo - 2018
First Printing 1991
Book Cover
Title Season of the Mists
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Kelley Jones, Mike Dringenberg, Matt Wagner, Dick Giordano, George Pratt, P. Craig Russell
Publisher Vertigo - 2018
First Printing 1993
Book Cover
Title A Game of You
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Shawn McManus, Colleen Doran, Bryan Talbot, Stan Woch
Publisher Vertigo - 2018
First Printing 1993
Book Cover
Title Fables & Reflections
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Bryan Talbo, Stan Woch, P. Craig Russell, Shawn McManus, John Watkiss, Jill Thompson, Duncan Eagleson, Kent Williams
Publisher Vertigo - 2019
First Printing 1990
Book Cover
Title Brief Lives
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Jill Thompson, Vince Locke
Publisher Vertigo - 2019
First Printing 1994
Book Cover
Title World's End
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Bryan Talbo, Alec Stevens, John Watkiss, Michael Allred, Shea Anton Pensa, Gary Amaro
Publisher Vertigo - 2019
First Printing 1995
Book Cover
Title The Kindly Ones
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Marc Hempel, Richard Case, D'Israeli, Teddy Kristiansen, Glyn Dillon, Charles Vess, Dean Ormston, Kevin Nowlan
Publisher Vertigo - 2019
First Printing 1995
Book Cover
Title The Wake
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Michael Zulli, Jon J Muth, Charles Vess
Publisher Vertigo - 2019
First Printing 1996
Book Cover
Title Endless Nights
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Glen Fabry, Milo Manara, Miguelanxo Prado, Frank Quitely, P. Craig Russell, Bill Sienkiewicz, Barron Storey
Publisher Vertigo - 2019
First Printing 2003
Book Cover
Title The Sandman: Overture
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator J.H. Williams III & Dave Stewart
Publisher Vertigo - 2015
First Printing 2013 - 2015
Book Cover
Title The Sandman: King of Dreams
Author Alisa Kwitney
Illustrator ---
Publisher Chronicle Books - 2003
First Printing Chronicle Books - 2003
Book Cover
Title Sandman: Midnight Theatre
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator ---
Publisher ---
First Printing ---
Book Cover
Title The Song of Orpheus
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator ---
Publisher ---
First Printing ---
Book Cover
Title Book of Dreams
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator ---
Publisher ---
First Printing ---
Book Cover
Title Gallery of Dreams
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator ---
Publisher ---
First Printing ---
Book Cover
Title The Dream Hunters
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Yoshitaka Amano
Publisher Vertigo - 1999
First Printing Vertigo - 1999
Book Cover
Title The Dream Hunters
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Craig Russell
Publisher Vertigo - 2019
First Printing Vertigo - 2008
Book Cover
Title Death
Author Neil Gaiman
Illustrator Chris Bachalo, Mark Buckingham, Michael Dringenberg, P. Craig Russell, Malcolm Jones III, Colleen Doran, Dave McKean
Publisher Vertigo - 2014
First Printing Vertigo - 2012
Book Cover
Title At Death's Door
Author Jill Thompson
Illustrator Jill Thompson
Publisher Vertigo - 2003
First Printing Vertigo - 2003
Category Graphic Novel
Warnings Adult Content (rape, torture, insanity, etc)
Main Characters Morpheus (Dream), Death, Desire, Destiny, Despair, Delirium, Destruction
Main Elements Gods
Website ---




Click to read the summaryPreludes and Nocturnes

Click to read the summaryThe Doll's House

Click to read the summaryDream Country

Click to read the summarySeason of Mists

Click to read the summaryA Game of You

Click to read the summaryFables & Reflections

Click to read the summaryBrief Lives

Click to read the summaryWorld's End

Click to read the summaryThe Kindly Ones

Click to read the summaryThe Wake

Click to read the summaryThe Endless

Click to read the summaryThe Sandman: Overture

Click to read the summaryThe Sandman: King of Dreams

Click to read the summaryThe Dream Hunters

Click to read the summaryThe Dream Hunters

Click to read the summaryDeath

Click to read the summaryAt Death's Door




I'd heard a lot about this comic book series so when I saw my library coming up with these 30th anniversary editions seemed the right time to jump in.

My initial reaction to the first book is that it was more comic book than graphic novel, I hadn't expected that, but apparently The Sandman was a "superhero" character (and he runs into other characters like Constantine or the Justice League). In fact I looked up the original Sandman from the 1930's, turns out he's just a rich guy who runs around with a gas gun to fight crime and wears a gas mask to avoid being affected by his own weapon. But Gaiman turned it all around rather than have a superhero we have an actual divine being which I loved, it's why I'm reading it since Gaiman can do magic with mythology.

My second reaction is that this series is dark, in fact it's horror. There is a lot of rape. And torture. Blood, murder and madness fill these pages, not every story but even in the "safe" stories you can see that Morpheus isn't so much helping the people around him but amusing himself. Batman may be morose but Morpheus is...well...not human. He's not even really a god, he's an abstract concept given form. Let's just say if you have any triggers of any sort, you'll have to avoid this series. After all there is one scene in the first book where a madman gains control over the minds of a group of people in the diner and has them perform for his pleasure - sex, violence, torture, and in the end they all end up dead...it was a disturbing thing to read (and along comes Morpheus and frankly, he didn't care about those mere mortals, he just wanted his stuff back).

But Gaiman is a master at what he does, and of course the mythology that he weaves into it (we visit Lucifer in Hell, we see a muse kept captive, etc) kept me reading. While it started as a superhero book, it grew into something more, as if one took the darkest of human mythologies and wove a tale told with pictures. I've not read other DC/Marvel comic books but I can see why this series stands out as something different, and still remains as one of the best ever. There is humour, there is horror. If you've read American Gods you can see some of that in these graphic novels too.

Some of the collections, such as Preludes and Nocturnes, is one storyline spread across multiple issues. Others, like Dream Country, each story is standalone.

And of course, there are the other Endless. See, they aren't gods. Gods need to be worshipped or they fade away. But Death, Dream, and the others simply *are*. As Death explains, she was there when life first emerged in the universe and will remain till the last living creatures dies, she could be talking to you now, but she could also be a galaxy far far away as some alien being passes. And talking of Death...she's an awesome character, a perky goth punk girl who is Morpheus' older sister (I love the fact she's older than him, which makes sense as the first bacteria would die but probably not dream, but a cute as she comes off, she's also perhaps the deepest character in the series). She's not evil, she doesn't cause death, she's simply there when it happens. Morpheus on the other hand is a bit more of an anti-hero, capable of compassion but also with a tendency to be cold or cruel.

The artwork, being by different artists, varies slightly from book to book. But then if Morpheus can take the form of a cat he can certainly change his hairstyle. And his word bubbles, white on black with dripping outlines make the sound of his voice a visual thing on the page.

For what it's worth, I forwards by various people (most of which I'd heard of, even authors I've read and respected) were nearly as amazing to read as the books themselves. Stephen Erikson's story about his father passing away and then dreaming about meeting him again, only to have his father tell him it's not a dream inside his dream, reminds us how little we really understand about our dreams and what really causes them. Are they just our brains sorting through the junk it collected during the day, or maybe, just maybe, could it be something more? And yes...if you read this just before you go to bed you may indeed dream of it, I did...

Finally, the covers of these editions, come straight from your most disturbing nightmares, eerie, creepy and dark but hard to pull your eyes away as the...things...stare right back at you.

October 2019

While reading the 30th anniversary editions I was perusing my library when I found The Dream Hunters, which wasn't even listed in Goodreads under the Sandman series. But the moment I saw the artist was Yoshitaka Amano, I knew it was a pairing made in...well maybe not Heaven but certainly in Dream. Make sure to read the notes at the end, the similarities between Gaiman's imagined Sandman world and this ancient tale are downright eerie.

December 2019

I'm not sure if there are going to be more 30th anniversary editions after World's End, so I skipped ahead to Overtures. While it is intended to take place before Preludes and Nocturnes, it definitely should be read after the other books (in fact I hit one character I was supposed to know but didn't). It explains how it was so easy for Morpheus to be captured in Preludes and also in some ways, creates the world as we came to know it, while at the same time, not being an origin story. I think this is my favorite of the books. The artwork was mind bending, amazing imagery, different styles, and at times interactive (you have to rotate the book to get the full effect). I read it all in one evening, and was certain that after all that I would be dreaming of what I read. So while I wasn't entirely certain I was going to love the series with Preludes and Nocturnes, the series moved more and more away from a "superhero comic book with rape and torture and insanity" to what is truly a epic graphic fantasy novel of a modern mythology. And with Gaiman telling the tale, you know it must be lyrical, filled with gods and demons, humour and tragedy, beauty and horror. And one really messed up Endless family!

May 2021

COVID prevented my from going to the library to read the rest of the series and as time passed I decided I enjoyed the series enough I wanted to have a copy of my own so got the box set, as well as the Death issue. I started in with Death first, she is by far one of my favorite envisionings of Death, one would expect a being that is dark and scary and kind of cruel but Neil Gaiman's Death is a cute and perky little goth girl, I absolutely adore her. And while the tales can be sad (we are talking about death here) she provides a positive spin to things. Hopefully when I go one day, I'll find someone/thing like this on the other side waiting me to guide me along, may we all be so fortunately. Now a couple of the stories I'd already read in the regular Sandman series but most were new but they still drew on characters we encountered in the main Sandman novels. And if you ever wondered what it would be like to be Death? I mean nobody likes you, they try to avoid you as much as possible, kind of depressing, but then if you don't do your job and nothing dies, it's not so great either. So you just go ahead and decide to be happy, you like everyone (even the creepy people because they aren't creepy when you see them from the inside) and one day out of every one hundred years you can walk among the living and be reminded what life is like. Death was there at the start and will be the last to shut things down at the end, and its not just us humans, she handles birds and animals and some aliens on a planet next to sun going nova.

Now to peel of the plastic wrapping on my box set, I think I'll start over from beginning before getting to the ones I haven't read yet...

September 2021

You know what, though I love Amano's work, I think I like Russell's adaptation of The Dream Hunters better. It's got a lovely Asian influence but you can tell he was also inspired by Disney animation, making the fox so cute and adorable. Of course you can't tell by the cover image I've included since that's by Dave McKean. Also as this is not an illustrated short story but a comic, there are parts of the text that are left out and told only in pictures, in some cases a couple of pages will pass without a single word written. But still, very hard to pick between the two. BTW, we find out in this one that Gaiman invented the fact that he found a Japanese tale that wove in characters of his own world, though I was a bit disappointed by that it did make me laugh that he tricked his readers that way. Glad I never got around to trying to find the original source!

October 2021

I took my time with the Kindly Ones, because in some ways it is the last one. Yes, there are others to follow like Wake and Overture, but this is the one where all the others storylines come together. I didn't make a checklist, but if not all, then the vast majority, of all the other characters we met along the way will make an appearance, as the Fates weave their thread of life literally through the panels of the novel. We see Lucifer in his Luxe nightclub, Matthew wondering about the ravens that came before him and what that means for his future, the Corinthian is reincarnated, and someone kills Abel and it wasn't Cain. And Morpheus has shed family blood, and that is all the excuse the Furies need, even if it was a boon requested by the one that died. The Endless are maybe not as immortal as they seem, or are they? The more I read of this series, the more complex and deep it is, with multiple storylines touching many lives. I wish there were more than just a couple more left to go, don't think I could ever get bored.

November 2021

The Wake is a poignant wrap up of the series, touching on virtually every character that graced the pages of Gaiman's opus. The Endless was something Gaiman put together after finding artists who he wanted to work with to tell a story about each one of Dream's unusual family. I must admit the young Sol made me laugh so hard, and the Despair one was done in such an interesting way, that I didn't...well end up despairing, though dark and disturbing it was.

Unfortunately those remaining tales are hard to track down, unless maybe one starts hunting through used bookstores, but while I'll be denied those for a while, there are other paths to follow in the Sandman Universe, starting with the three collections in The Dreaming.

December 2021

My library had a copy of The Sandman: King of Dreams, a companion book that recaps each of the books in the Sandman series. It was interesting to read the additional info around the writing of the series, but there wasn't really that much extra info, in fact a good portion of the book was dedicated to reprinting pages from the series, so it didn't add much to those who already love the series. And as an introduction to the series, I think it had too many spoilers as well as references that would be otherwise obsure if you hadn't previously read the series. So it was nice as a kind of recap, at the end of the year, to revisit the series I'd read throughout, but glad I borrowed it from the library rather than buying it. I guess as one reviewer on Goodreads wrote - "but if I wanted a picture book of Sandman I'd just go to my bookshelf and well...read the damn thing."

And then I found At Death's Door on OpenLibrary. Jill Thompson takes a moment in time from the original series, when Lucifer closes Hell and lets all the residents loose, and does it from a different point of view. See all the dead are now wandering free and don't know what to do with themselves so they are all attracted to, well, Death. Who then has to get Delirium and Despair to help out as her apartment fills with confused and bored dead people who start trashing the place. Done in a manga type style, I found the whole thing kind of silly, and doesn't really add to the overall series. Though I did crack a smile watching Despair discover that she had a secret admirer...Edgar Allan Poe. Seeing as Poe also shows up in a series of comics based on a young Lovecraft, I found this extra hilarious. Poor guy, the poster child for depression and despair.




Posted: June 2019

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