Neil Gaiman's Sandman, or Why I Read Graphic Novels

Since I've been able to read, I've been reading comic books.

I loved the Wonder Woman series as a kid. When I was eight, I bought copies of her 1980s and early 1990s issues on sale for ten cents apiece at my local comic shop. I loved her character--she was tough, kick-ass, selfless, and, well, pretty--and her life was a fascinatingly bizarre mix of superheroes, characters from Greek myths, and regular folks. In fact, I credit Wonder Woman with my passion for Greek mythology.

I admit it: I wanted to be Wonder Woman when I grew up.

Ever since Wonder Woman, I've read the occasional comic book and graphic novel, hoping to recapture my love for the genre. But all the Batmen and Supermen and X-Men have fallen flat, as have most of the graphic novels I've read. I covered classics like Ghost World and Watchmen and a spate of dull, narcissistic indie graphic novels, and they all fell short of their hype.

But a few weeks ago, I stumbled across Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes at the library. I remembered The Sandman series being very trendy among adult comic geeks in the 1990s, but I had never thought of reading it. I had some serious doubts about a comic book whose main character was a dream god/super hero who looks like the The Crow, tromps through people's dreams, and sports a real-life bag o' magic dust.

Dream and his sister Death, chillin'.

 

But I decided to give Gaiman a chance, mainly because he is known for writing the young adult novel Coraline. I saw the movie last year and loved its visual creepiness. Then, earlier this year, I read the graphic novel version of Coraline, which made me appreciate Gaiman's writing much more, especially his use of common childhood fears and desires in his truly frightening fairy tale.

So based on the strength of Coraline, I gave the first collection of The Sandman series a try, and boy, was I glad.

 

The cover of The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes.

The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes tells the story of Dream (the immortal god/spirit/anthropomorphic embodiment of dreams) in the 20th-century. After Dream escapes from eighty years of captivity under a glass bowl created by a powerful magician, Dream goes about reclaiming his magical tools, regaining his strength, and rebuilding his dreamworld empire, flitting between the dream world, the real world, and Hell.

*sigh*  

Rereading the above paragraph, this novel sounds remarkably silly, but it isn't! I promise! It's dark, terrifying, haunting, and occasionally funny, but it's never silly. Dream isn't a very interesting character in himself--at least not yet--but it's the places he goes and the lunatics he encounters that are truly fascinating.

What attracts me to Gaiman's work is his ability to combine mythical figures (the Fates, Lucifer, and Death all show up in these pages) with realistic characters and an incredibly dark vision of human nature. His imagination is relentless, and he knows exactly how to work with his excellent team of illustrators. (These books, by the way, are beautiful, from the collection's front cover to its final page.)

Traditionally, comic books are able to combine the imaginative thrill of fantasy writing with the grittiness of film noir and detective novels. Gaiman does just that in The Sandman series, crafting plots that feel real, compelling, and, more than twenty years later, relevant. He's made me glad that I didn't give up my search for a great graphic novel too soon; I've finally found one here.