The Sandman

The Sandman (DC/Vertigo, 1989-1996, 2003)

by Neil Gaiman

Back in March I began reading Neil Gaiman's critically acclaimed and extremely popular comic series, The Sandman, took my sweet ass time with it, and finally finished it today. While it did not come close to touching the likes of 100 Bullets, Bone, or even Y: The Last Man for me, The Sandman was still a fascinating, unique, thought provoking and enjoyable reading experience.

Gaiman's eerie and bizarre fantasy series details the trials and tribulations of main character Morpheus, or Dream (there is exception with the short story collections where he often plays more of a supporting role), of the ever-present family known as The Endless (which also includes Desire, Death, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny).

Each book and short story has its own unique charm and feeling (working with so many different artists had a lot to do with that), which helps the series to never get boring or feel like a chore to read. Of course, some books I liked better than others, like the grim fairy tale stylings of A Game of You, the twisted Dream/Delirium tag team journey of Brief Lives, and Seasons of Mists' eerie predominant setting of hell as opposed to The Kindly Ones, which was way more grandiose and frustratingly confusing and nonsensical than it needed to be.

While I wasn't won over any by Gaiman's prose, the plots and characters amongst many other elements in this series were much more enjoyable than those in his novels that I've read. The comic format seems to be much more Gaiman's forte, and it'd be nice to see him return with another long term series instead of wasting his time on these overtly imperfect novels.