Sandman

The Sandman was a comic book series written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics for 75 issues from 1988 until 1996. It became the flagship of DC's Vertigo imprint, and is kept in print as a series of ten trade paperbacks. more...

Home
Arts & Photography
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Comics & Graphic Novels
Authors, A-Z
Cartooning
Characters
Batman
Cerebus
Daredevil
Elektra
Fantastic Four
Hellboy
Justice League
Sandman
Spawn
Spider-Man
Star Wars
Superman
X-Men
Children's Comics
Comic Strips
General
Graphic Novels
History & Price Guides
Manga
Publishers
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment

It is widely considered one of the most original, sophisticated and artistically ambitious comic book series of the modern age. By the time of the series's conclusion, it had made significant contributions to the artistic maturity of comic books and become a pop culture phenomenon in its own right.

The protagonist of Sandman is Dream, the immortal anthropomorphic personification of dreams and story telling. He is known by an array of names, most often Morpheus, but also Oneiros, Lord Shaper, Lord Kai'ckul, 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.

Gaiman has summarized the plot of the series (in the foreword to Endless Nights) as: \"The king of dreams learns one must change or die and then makes his decision.\" 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.

Unlike most popular US comic books of its time, The Sandman existed almost completely outside of the superhero genre (although other DC characters -- such as Doctor Destiny, the Martian Manhunter, and John Constantine -- sometimes interacted with Morpheus). 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 series is occasionally labeled as \"Sophisticated Suspense\", a small genre that also includes Swamp Thing (particularly after Alan Moore took over writing it in the 1980s), and Jamie Delano's Hellblazer.

Setting

The story-lines primarily take place in the Dreaming, Morpheus's realm, and the waking world, with occasional visits to other domains, such as Hell, Faerie, Asgard, and the domains of the other Endless. Many used the contemporary United States of America and the United Kingdom as a backdrop. The DC Universe was the official setting of the series, but well-known DC characters and places were rarely featured after 1990, with one exception: Lyta Hall, formerly Fury of the 80s super-team Infinity Inc., figures prominently in the Kindly Ones story arc.

Most of the story-lines take place in modern times (presumably the late 80s and early 90s), but many short stories are set in the past, taking advantage of the immortality of many of the characters to deal with historical individuals and events.

Art

Also unlike most comic books, The Sandman did not feature an ongoing illustrator; instead, different artists were hired for each new story-line, 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 story-line, where John Costanza filled in while Klein was away on honeymoon.

Read more at Wikipedia.org