The Sandman Volume 1: Preludes and Nocturnes, 30th Anniversary Edition
The Sandman series, Issues 1 - 8
Neil Gaiman, illustrations by Sam Keith
Vertigo
Fiction, Fantasy/Graphic Novel/Horror
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Morpheus. Lord of Dreams. The Sandman. He has been known by many names since the dawn of time... but only once has he been captured, in a trap set for his sister Death by early 20th century occultists. For seventy years, he remained imprisoned, while his realm crumbled and powers fated. Now, at last, he is free - but the world has changed since he was locked away, even his own castle of dreams decaying into a shadow of itself. Before he can reclaim his power and take his vengeance, he needs to find his three sacred tools, a path that winds from the heart of a mortal insane asylum to the depths of Hell.
REVIEW: The Sandman is perhaps one of the most iconic graphic novels ever written, a surreal, brooding journey through nightmare and allegory made flesh. It is also often dark and depraved (especially toward women, at least in these eight issues), with a warped and ugly heart that I found intrinsically repulsive.
The plot is little more than a suggestion for a good chunk of this volume, only slowly coming into focus as a background theme to the mood and imagery. It wallows in that imagery, in terrible, broken things born out of terrible, broken minds, blood and pain and death and mutilation, where hope is a bad joke with a horrible punchline. I didn't like anyone in it, at any time, ever. And then it reveals that it's a crossover with the Justice League superhero universe, and I nearly set it down for good. One of my main pet peeves about superhero graphic novels is the inaccessibility and gatekeeping that are intrinsic to their structure. You can't just read about Hero A; you have to start fifty years ago with Issue One, then follow them through umpteen issues of Heroine B's crossover... but if you really want to understand their story arc and call yourself a fan, then you have to read the largely unrelated (but mytharc-vital) adventures of Heroes C and D, which is another massive time and energy commitment. And, sure enough, Sandman isn't just tangentially connected to the world of Batman and Scarecrow and the whole slew of DC Justice League heroes and villains; they're central to the story arc, and my cultural osmosis knowledge wasn't much help as I tried to snap them into place in a world that somehow also contained manifested immortal forces like the Lord of Dreams and literal Judeo-Christian Hell. (All of which creates such a convoluted universe that it can't help collapsing under its own weight and contradictions. But, I digress...) Add to this the strong appeal, in art and text, to the broody goth horror scene that I never really clicked with, and it all made me feel like I had wandered into a party where I knew nobody, couldn't dance to the music, didn't like any of the food, and just plain didn't feel welcome.
Looking past that, I could appreciate the strong mythic roots and appeal to the darker side of human experience, the core of fears and nightmares, given a modern twist... enough to see how this is considered a classic. The final issue in this collection, where we finally meet Morpheus's sister Death, gives some sliver of a hint that the Sandman cycle isn't all nightmares and guts and horrible, horrible things. I just am not, never have been, and never will be its target audience, and have no interest in pursuing it further in the hopes that maybe, possibly, it might go somewhere other then the darkest of darks and most terrible of terrors.
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