The Sandman: Endless Nights

Written by Neil Gaiman
Art by P. Craig Russell, Milo Manara, Miguelanxo Prado, Barron Storey, Bill Sienkiewicz, Glenn Fabry, and Frank Quitely

Back when it was coming out each month, like most readers who were looking for more from their 90s comics than shoulder pads and leg pouches, Sandman was one of my favourite titles.  In a lot of ways, it was Gaiman's series, alongside books like Starman and Sandman Mystery Theatre that kept me going through what I've come to recognize as comics' Dark Ages.  When the series ended, I felt like Gaiman had brought things to a nice, complete close.  A few years later, when the Endless Nights anthology was announced, I felt no need to dive back into his world (kind of like how I feel about Before Watchmen now).  I wasn't sure that there was any need to return to these characters, as anything new that would be said about them would be ancillary to Gaiman's original design and vision.

And then, I completely forgot that this project ever existed, until I saw a copy at a used book store a month or so ago.

While my original assessment, that the book wouldn't add anything necessary to the story of Dream or his siblings held true, it was really very nice to revisit some of these old friends, and to reminisce about how much this comic meant to me at a certain point in my life.

The book holds seven stories, one for each of the Endless.  It opens on a Death story, drawn by P. Craig Russell.  Like most people who read Sandman for the first time in their late teens, I always had a bit of a crush on Death, as she was shown in this series, so it was nice to see her again, in a story that is kind of predictable, but beautiful (thanks to Russell).

The best story in this volume is the Dream one (illustrated by Miguelanxo Prado).  It is set a very long time ago, and does more than any other issue of the series to remind us that the Endless exist in the DC Universe (at least, pre-New 52 they did).  Dream takes a mortal lover with him to a meeting of stars, who have taken human form.  We meet Rao, and the star of Oa, as well as our own sun, although he is still very young.  The story is full of interesting little Easter eggs for long-time readers, but also does a good job of reminding us what a bit of a tool Dream is.

This whole book has incredible art in it, from Bill Sienkiewicz's trippy Delirium story, to Barron Storey's haunting portraits of Despair.  Glenn Fabry's never been a favourite artist of mine, but his Destruction story works quite well, as does Milo Manara's story about Desire (who better?).  Frank Quitely's work on the Destiny story is beautiful, but the tale itself is just an epilogue to the book that isn't necessary at all.  I guess it's hard to write about a character like Destiny.

Anyway, I enjoyed this book quite a bit, and am now very tempted to re-read the entire Sandman series; something I've always wanted to do, but haven't been able to invest the time in.  I'm curious to see how they stand up now.

Sandman The Dream Hunters #4

Story by Neil Gaiman
Adapted by P. Craig Russell

This was pretty much a perfect comic book series. Russell's art has always been fantastic, and only seems to be getting better as the years go by. He shows a strong understanding of Japanese sensibility and design in this title, and the colours by Lovern Kindzierski are beautiful and perfectly matched to the story.

This final issue takes on a darker tone than the previous issues, as the fox goes about enacting her revenge on the master of yin yang, and it is this moral ambiguity that I miss about the original Sandman series. Gaiman's characters have always been very complicated individuals, and their actions are not always clear or defensible.

This series has really reawakened an interest in The Sandman for me. I don't know if I want to see Gaiman return very often to this particular sandbox, but I would love to see the rare, high-quality project like this one, trickle out into the market.

Sandman: The Dream Hunters #3

Written by Neil Gaiman
Adapted by P. Craig Russell

This continues to be an almost perfect comic. It's nice to see Dream finally appear in this series in his own, usual form. It's also good to see the raven, and the Japanese versions of Cain and Abel.

This makes me want to dig out my run of the original Sandman series and read it again, especially the issue that Russell did.

There's not much more to say about this. It's really really good.

Sandman: The Dream Hunters #2

Written by Neil Gaiman
Adapted by P. Craig Russell

There's not much to say. This is just about the perfect comic.

It really is beautiful.

I'm glad I never read the original novella, because I find I don't really like Gaiman's prose as much as I do his comics (I have bad memories of trying to get through Stardust).

Russell is amazing. So is Kindzierski.

Go buy this.

Sandman: The Dream Hunters #1

Written by: Neil Gaiman
Adapted by P. Craig Russell

I can't believe I wasn't originally going to buy this book.

I never read the original Dream Hunters, mostly because I've never been as big of fan of Gaiman's prose as I am his comics work, and this project stayed firmly under my radar, until I saw some preview pages on-line.

Russell has always been an artist I've admired for his beauty, but in this issue he outdoes himself completely. This is absolutely a comics masterpiece. The lush colouring and the structure of his pages make this a pleasure to read.

It also reminds me of how much I miss the Sandman....