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''The Sandman'' is a (retrieved January 27 2006 ) By the time of the series' conclusion, it had made significant contributions to the artistic maturity of English language comic books and become a Pop Culture phenomenon in its own right. PLOT Summary ''The Sandman'''s main character is Dream , who is essentially the God of Dreams , but is displayed as being the personification of all sentient beings' collective ability to dream and tell stories. Gaiman himself has summarized the plot of the series (in the foreword to '' Endless Nights '') as: The character's initially haughty and often cruel manner begins to soften after his years of imprisonment at the start of the series, but the challenge of undoing past sins and changing old ways is an enormous one for a being who has been set in his ways for billions of years. The series begins at the end of Dream's confinement, and the first third of the series somewhat conforms to the Horror genre. Later, the series evolves into an elaborate Fantasy series, incorporating elements of Classical and contemporary Mythology , ultimately placing its protagonist in the role of a Tragic Hero . Setting The story-lines primarily take place in of the 80s super-team Infinity Inc. , figures prominently in the "Kindly Ones" story arc. John Constantine and Doctor Destiny are also key characters in two of the early issues. And in the final volume, Superman , Batman , and the Martian Manhunter all have a very brief cameo. Most of the storylines take place in modern times (presumably the late 1980s and early 1990s ), but many short stories are set in the past, taking advantage of the immortal nature of many of the characters, and deal with historical individuals and events. Protagonist The Protagonist of ''Sandman'' is Dream , the immortal Anthropomorphic personification of Dream s and story telling. He is known by an array of names, most often Morpheus , but also Oneiros , Lord Shaper, Lord Kai'ckul, Lord L'Zoril, the Prince of Stories, the Carrion King, and, rarely, " The Sandman ." He is one of a family of seven siblings known as The Endless , each of whom personifies some aspect of reality, such as Death or Desire . ''For more characters, see Characters Of ''The Sandman'' . IMPACT Comic books ''The Sandman'' is one of the most widely respected English language comic book series of its time, finding recognition not only within the comic book industry but in the general literary world. It is generally ranked among such works as '' and Art Spiegelman 's '' Maus '' in terms of critical acclaim and its conferring of respectability on comics. ''The Sandman'' supported the notion that comic books could be high-quality literature or art even in a long-running series. Although ''The Sandman'' existed within the world of the Superhero genre (DC characters — such as Doctor Destiny , the Justice League , Etrigan The Demon , and John Constantine — occasionally interacted with Morpheus, and characters like Green Lantern and Batman were seen in cameos), most of the main characters (save Lyta Hall and Daniel Hall ) have no direct connections with it. Factual persons — such as William Shakespeare , Emperor Norton and Mark Twain — also made appearances. The first third of the series somewhat conformed to the Horror genre, but it later grew into an elaborate Fantasy series, incorporating elements of Classical and contemporary Mythology . ''The Sandman'' also demonstrated that non-superhero comic books could be successful. Along with Alan Moore ’s '' Swamp Thing '' stories and Jamie Delano 's '' Hellblazer '', ''Sandman'' helped establish " Sophisticated Suspense ", a genre which is meant for older readers, includes elements of horror and fantasy, and tackles controversial topics. ''Sandman'' was one of the original Vertigo comics, an imprint which specialized in this genre and published some of the most acclaimed series of the 1990s, including '' Preacher '' and '' Animal Man .'' ''The Sandman'' also strengthened the importance of the writer in comic books. Before ''Sandman,'' writers were often overshadowed by superstar artists such as Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee . Gaiman became one of the most popular comic book creators of the era (launching his career as a novelist). The series paved the way for the long-form but finite comic book series as multi-layered serial fiction. Like a novel, and unlike all but a few prior comics series, ''The Sandman'' told a single complete story over seventy-five issues with a beginning, middle, and definitive end. Yet the book was also composed chiefly of a handful of story arcs that also moved from commencement to conclusion on a smaller scale, and these arcs consisted of individual issues of the magazine which themselves followed a finite narrative line within the context of the larger work surrounding them. Since ''The Sandman'', this format has become increasingly popular and a staple of DC's Vertigo imprint, e.g., Grant Morrison 's '' The Invisibles '', Brian Vaughan 's '' Y - The Last Man '' Vaughan's '' Ex Machina '' from DC's Wildstorm imprint, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso 's '' 100 Bullets '', the aforementioned ''Preacher'', James Robinson's Starman and the Lucifer series by Mike Carey, (a ''Sandman'' spin-off) which have all incorporated similar styles. Art Also unlike most comic books, ''The Sandman'' did not feature an ongoing illustrator; instead, different artists were hired for each new storyline, sometimes for only a single issue. Aside from co-creator Sam Kieth , artists who illustrated a significant number of issues include Colleen Doran , Mike Dringenberg , Marc Hempel , Kelley Jones , Jill Thompson and Michael Zulli . Their styles ranged from cartoony Expressionism (Hempel) to detailed, delicate Realism with a hint of the Pre-Raphaelites (Zulli). The Lettering for each issue was done by Todd Klein , save for a handful of issues during the book's second major storyline, where John Costanza filled in while Klein was away on honeymoon. Each issue featured a cover created by Dave McKean . McKean’s approach combined Painting , Photography , pencil and ink Drawing s, Collage , Digital Art , found objects and even Sculpture , resulting in distinctive, often Abstract or Surreal , images. Todd Klein 's distinctive lettering on ''The Sandman'' also helped popularize individual typescripts for the word balloons of certain characters, a technique that had been used in '' Cerebus '' and scattered other places. Gaiman and Klein particularly used unique styles for the Endless, such as Morpheus’ word balloons being black and irregular with white lettering and Delirium’s being irregular, abstract and multi-colored. Popular culture In addition to its impact on comic books, ''The Sandman'' has had a significant influence on Pop Culture . The series was mentioned in songs by Tori Amos , Alice Cooper and others, Sandman posters can be seen in the background of the sitcom '' Roseanne '', and Extreme Championship Wrestling alumnus Raven is fond of wearing Sandman T-shirts. Dave Sim parodied the characters (Dream became "Swoon", Death "Snuff" and so on) in his comic book, '' Cerebus ''. Sam Kieth also parodied the character Death and Sandman fans in his comic, '' The Maxx ''. The band Counting Crows have been avowed fans of the comic book for years, and some elements of the series can be heard on their songs, particularly ''Murder of One'' and ''Angels of the Silences''. ''The Sandman'' has also gained a decent amount of attention outside the comics world among other subcultures and has gained increasing popularity in the Goth Subculture . Occasional covers and work with Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano has brought the title to the attention of fans of Japanese art and pop culture, as well as Video Game fans familiar with Amano's work through the '' Final Fantasy '' series, as well as other game and Anime projects he has contributed to. . While the majority of the set involved Garfield researching the actual Arabian Nights stories, one card, named "City in a Bottle", was a direct nod to the ending of "Ramadan". PUBLICATION ''The Sandman'' was initially published as a monthly serial, in 32-page comic books (with some exceptions to this pattern). As the series quickly increased in popularity, DC Comics began to reprint them in hardcover and paperback editions, each representing either a complete novel or a collection of related short stories. DC first published "The Doll's House" storyline in a collection called simply ''The Sandman''. Shortly thereafter, the first three volumes were published and named independently and also collected in an eponymous boxed set. (Death's debut story, "The Sound of Her Wings" from issue #8, appeared both at the beginning of ''The Doll's House'' and at the end of early editions of ''Preludes and Nocturnes'', creating overlap between the first two volumes. This overlap isn't present in newer editions.) Further collections would then be released shortly after their completion in serial form. The Sandman Library A total of ten collections contain the full run of the series, and have all been kept in print. They are as follows:
In addition, the cover images from ''The Sandman'' have been compiled into one volume:
In 1999, some years after Gaiman completed ''The Sandman'', he wrote a lavishly illustrated Sandman novel, '''' with art by Yoshitaka Amano . Like many of the single-issue stories throughout ''The Sandman'', Morpheus appears in ''Dream Hunters'', but is a supporting character at best. In Gaiman's afterword to the book, it is claimed that the story was a retelling of an existing Japanese legend. However, the books he cites as sources for it do not exist, and when asked Gaiman has stated that he made up the "legend" out of whole cloth. As the 10th anniversary arrived, Gaiman wrote several new stories about Morpheus and his siblings, one story for each, which were published in 2003 as the '' Endless Nights '' anthology. Neil Gaiman, on his blog, announced plans for an ''Absolute Sandman'', a new set of oversized editions with . In celebration of this reissuing DC also issued a refurbished edition of the first issue of the series. Volume 2 of ''The Absolute Sandman'' is scheduled for release October 31, 2007[http://www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=7881 . From the world of ''The Sandman'' Because of the amount of critical acclaim ''Sandman'' received and because of its commercial viability (at the time of its conclusion, it was DC’s best-selling series), a number of Spin-off Volumes have been produced. Fans of the original series disagree as to the quality and legitimacy of these volumes. Subsidiary works include:
#Lucifer (1999) (3 issues) #Love Street (1999) (3 issues) #Petrefax (2000) (4 issues) #Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Dreams...But Were Afraid To Ask (2001) (1 issue) #The Deadboy Detectives (2001) (4 issues) #The Corinthian (2001-2002) (3 issues) #The Thessaliad (2002) (4 issues) #The Furies (2002) (2 issues) #Bast (2003) (3 issues) #Taller Tales (2003) (1 issue) #Thessaly: Witch for Hire (2004) (4 issues)
NEIL GAIMAN – WRITTEN STORIES The following list contains all original stories involving the ''Sandman'' universe written by Neil Gaiman. It excludes any "spin-offs" that were not written by Gaiman. It can be used by those who feel that unless it was written by Gaiman himself, it should not be considered a part of the ''Sandman'' universe. Comic books
Graphic novels/Prose
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION ''The Sandman'' issue #19 "A Midsummer Night's Dream" won the in 2000. MOVIE Throughout the late 1990 s, a move adaption of ''Preludes and Nocturnes'' was sporadically planned. Roger Avary was originally attached to direct, but was fired after the project went through three writers (including Terry Rossio ) and eight scripts. It was due to their meeting for the ''Sandman'' movie that they collaborated on '' Beowulf ''. A later script, released onto the Internet, met with wide scorn from fans, with Gaiman calling it "not only the worst ''Sandman'' script I've ever seen, but quite easily the worst script I've ever read." Gaiman also has said that his dissatisfaction with how his characters were being treated dissuaded him from writing any more stories involving the Endless (although he has since written ''Endless Nights''). By 2001 the project had become stranded in " Development Hell ". Comics2Film: Sandman SEE ALSO BIBLIOGRAPHY Footnotes References
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