Neil Gaiman - The sandman

Gaiman is the master. There are comics I *like* more (in the sense of am more fond of, find more comforting, return to more often) than the Sandman (e.g. anything by Frank Miller, Grant Morrison's best, and of more recent stuff The Gatecrasher series), but even as I wear those pages thin, I know and admit that for pure writing prowess and muscle, there is no one working in the medium who can hold a candle to Gaiman. I haven't read any of his solo prose novels yet (really out of apprehension, I don't want to discover clay feet) but his steely sensibilities made "Good Omens" the best Pratchett. One issue I always have with the Sandman series, though (and it is my limitation, not theirs) is the sheer density of mythic references can be a little frustrating to the uninitiated. The poncy introductions (clearly comissioned on the "name" basis of reviewing, including as they do pieces by Tori Amos and Clare Danes) would be better used in providing a bibilography and demonology for the beginner... AED

The only Sandman story that works better in book form rather than the 'pure' issue form is The Kindly Ones, which didn't work at all as a monthly series (if you can believe this, it was too slow), whereas in a collection it just zips. Agree with you completely arv, the early collections had introductions that made some attempt to assess what was going on, but towards the end Tori Amos was a big error. I actually found myself wondering whether I was the audience anymore, if the chain of Like Tori's music = You'll Like Sandman (and vice versa) was supposed to be true. My real fondness is for Grant Morrison's early DC work - Animal Man and Doom Patrol, where he was taking risks and doing stuff that was bold and unpredictable. Sandman is a hugely skilled bit of work, but only A Game of You is really moving in a human sense, whereas the arc of Animal Man still sends me a bit weepy at the end, all these years and re-reads on. "Foxy,I remembered. I didn't forget you. " Or the end of Doom Patrol, using, as he often did a borrow from Morrissey "There is another world. There is a better world." "Well there must be. "

i would suggest that tori is a valid inclusion when she and gaiman share an intertextuality between their respective works, gamain alluded to in her songs, her songs cropping up in various sandman stories and artwork. she might not have any valid or relevant commentary in editorial terms but she IS (and her songs too) in the sandman texts and thus part of teh story, implicitly and explicitly.

arh can't believe Neil Gaiman done that man. He's a great writer and I love his stuff, but doing the cross-plugging thing is sad. Delerium aint nothing like Tori Amos - what's he doing man? Sort it out Neil. Still love you though and 'The Sandman' rocks. but sort it out dude...argh...

A few posts ago I wished for a bibliography or an annotated Sandman.... the net asketh, and the net provideth: http://rtt.colorado.edu/~jnmiller/Sandman.html Someone's taken the trouble. Most explicating, if occassionally a litte pedantic, if not to say geekfest. AED x

yes... BIG sandman fan... when i was a graphics student in glasgow 1990-93 i found for the first time in my life a comic shop. i felt like a kid, in awe of comic after comic the lieks i'd never seen before... i waded through a lot of trash before i found Gaiman's sandman. Dave McKean's covers had as much to do with the appeal as the story inside. Gaiman is superb in the comic book world because he challenges the conventions and makes use of a lot of intertextuality, from grrek myth, biblical scripture, to histories and folklore. Gaiman is also unique in DC comics terms because he was more or less given artistic control over the sandman storyline and allowed to end it when he wanted to. So it wasn't milked dry. And all the original comics are outrageously expensive. Apart form that, the lord of dreams and his siblings are just so cooooooooool... My really really really fave comic is CEREBUS the AARDVARK but i'll leave that for another time...

Argh, I hate tori amos. Doing a girly cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit was a bad idea. Never shall she be forgiven.

Argh, I hate nirvana. Doing a piss-poor copy of PIXIES and dumbing all the genius down to two chords and a melodic capability that ranks minus one on the tunefuldittyometer was a bad idea. Never shall they be forgiven. Smooch.

My point really Dogstar is that I loathed the cross-plugging that started to occur in Sandman at that point where Gaiman seemed to get over-excited that someone famous had taken an interest in Sandman. You don't really notice this in the collections, but in the individual issues, horrible Tori references kept cropping up in the letter columns - from Neil, the editor and the writers, (and soon afterwards, very bad poetry and hints that Delerium was based on Tori). Prior to this, the letter columns had been lively, insightful and interesting. It was that same skin-crawly thing I felt when Tony Blair started having parties for Oasis et al. You're the guy in charge here, what does it matter what the views of a musician are to what you're doing ? And for the record, although I do not like Tori Amos, I'd have felt much the same if it had been Frank Black or Morrissey. (Although a Del based on Morrissey would've been worth seeing. Probably more likely Despair).

Cerebus is great, very funny, and it's nice to see an independent comics writer doing so well. As for the Sandman, Gaiman's a national treasure. The story lines get so intricate and complex as he jumps between historical periods, cultural mythologies, and geographical settings from issue to issue. Amazingly, most of the covers were actually built and then photographed, as Dave McKean wasn't a fan of computers or computer art. There's a book containing all the collected covers with notes from Gaiman and McKean on each one, which is well worth the seemingly extortionate price. Try finding a copy of 'Black Orchid', a short series of comics (later collected into a graphic novel) Gaiman wrote with McKean doing all the artwork inside and outside. It's about a girl brought to life from plants, but isn't as crap as it sounds.

aye, the Sandmand Covers book is a fine collection. The Death spin-off mini-series are pretty nice too. Can't recommend The Dreaming spin-off because the stories and artwork are substandard compared to the original teams. Other McKean work to look out for is Arkham Asylum. Scary stuff and beautifully painted. I also liked Gaiman's Neverwhere series on the Beeb.

I hear Neverwhere is being remade as a film, but I don't know what stage of pre-production it's at. There are also sandman and death films on certain schedules, but no one expects them to ever get past script stage. Arkham Asylum was pretty scary, the joker was done perfectly: Camp, terrifying, but actually quite funny in his own sick way.

I think generally the whole comic book medium is underestimated because it is bogged down by the junk that gluts the commercial market. Like any creative fiction industry, the commercial stuff is usually pants and usually steamrollered into merchandise and image over content... i would suggest that in literary terms, Dave Sim is an incredible writer to be found in the graphic novel world... Neil Gaiman's strengths always seem to lie more in his ability as story-teller, rather than writer... but i have his latest novel waiting to be read in the christamas break and maybe i'll revise my opinion of him...

Dave Sim is a nice guy and Cerebus was a good comic (though towards the end, the letter col was better than the story). Emily and I both want to interview Neil for the site, next time he's in England. Have you read American Gods ? At first, he's trying to hard to be a prose writer, but after a while he flies like he used to in comics - wonderful stuff about traditions and old and new Gods. The centre of America and odd snippets about roadside attractions. Watchmen is the best comic series there has ever been, but Moore only had to do it over 8 issues, Gaiman managed to be great for all bar six issues of a seventy-odd issue series (hated Worlds End at the time, still don't much like it) - but the Kindly Ones... Neil has described this story as getting into a truck and driving it straight towards a wall and that, for me, is spot on. Stopping now, before I get too comic-geeky. (Try Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol or Animal Man)

curious that in a medium dominated by american publishing houses most of the creative teams mentioned so far are not american... the kindly ones is my favourite sandman line... the artwork takes a really stylised and very unexpected turn. but andrew, why talk of cerebus in the past tense? - sim and aardvark both are still pressing on...

Am shocked ! Dave Sim always said it would end with issue 300. It should have finished years ago. (I stopped with comics in 95 - Grant Morrison had taken too many drugs, Gaiman had left Sandman, DC generally were trying too hard to be Marvel "superman dies!" "Batman dies!" and Alan Moore had dropped off the face of the planet - though his Top Ten is well worth a look). But mostly because I didn't go to pick up my comics for about two months and realised that in order to read three comics I was enjoying, I was going to have to fork over about forty quid. Vodka was the better part of valour and comics and I had a parting of the ways. I did miss Flash though - easily the best written mainstream comic.