Neil Gaiman gave the Nineties what it needed, a breath of life into an industry which was suffering from creative stagnation at the time. This was the Comics industry, and it was a time when the powers that be in the industry killed off Superman only to bring him back later on. However, Neil Gaiman took the concept of a long neglected Comics character and made it his own, and thus, The Sandman series was born.
The premise for The Sandman is this: The King of Dreams must change or die, and he makes his choice. I will not spoil the ending of the series, as currently, even I do not know how it ends, because I only own Volumes 1 and 3 of the series at the moment.
In the first volume, Morpheus the Dream King is captured by the self titled "Daemon King" Anthony Burgess, a 1920s occultist who is possibly a rival to the real life Aleister Crowley. And so, during Morpheus's imprisonment, he is unable to regulate sleep as usual.
The volume is a collection of linked stories, like a story about Morpheus and a Comics character named John Constantine, on a quest to reclaim the Dream King's sandbag, also included is a story arc about Doctor Destiny's plot to rule the world of Dreams, like the supervillain he is, and the first story in the series to feature Morpheus's sister Death.
In all, it is the start of one of the most important comics series in history, it was The Sandman that allowed people to see that comics were not just for children (a warning though, The Sandman series is a tad dark, but has comic relief from the horror elements), along with Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns in the 80s, it paved the way for future graphic novelists who would tell stories that were not mere spandex and supervillains fare.
I give this graphic novel Five "Dream King Helmets" out of Five.
My Current Mood in a Picture
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