DC COMICS – @DCComics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
STORY: Neil Gaiman
ART: Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg
COLORS: Robbie Busch
LETTERS: Todd Klein
EDITOR: Karen Berger
COVER: Dave McKean
48pp, Color, $2.00 U.S., $2.50 CAN, £1.20 UK (January 1989)
“Suggested for Mature Readers”
The Sandman created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg
“Sleep of the Just”
The Sandman is a DC Comics comic book series created by writer Neil Gaiman and artists Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg. Published by DC Comics from 1989 to 1996, The Sandman ran for 75 issues, with the first issue cover dated January 1989 (although it was published in October 1988) and the last issue, March 1996.
Sandman #1 (“Sleep of the Just”) introduces the character “Dream” of “The Endless.” Also named Morpheus (as well as other names), Dream rules over the world of dreams. This first issue is written by Gaiman; drawn by Keith and Dringenberg; colored by Robbie Busch; and lettered by Todd Klein, with the cover illustration produced by Dave McKean (who had worked with Gaiman before Sandman).
Sandman #1 opens June 6th, 1916 in Wych Cross, England. Dr. John Hathaway, senior curator at the Royal Museum in London, arrives at “Fawney Rig,” the manor house of Roderick Burgess. Also known as the “Daemon King,” Burgess is the “Lord Magus” of the “Order of Ancient Mysteries,” an occult group. Hathaway has been stealing books and manuscripts from the museum for Burgess, who needs them in order to create the incantation for a particular summoning ritual.
On the evening of June 6th, Burgess plans to hold a ritual that will end death in the world by capturing and imprisoning the personification of “Death,” of the Endless. However, the ritual will not go as Burgess plans, and he will capture and imprison another of the Endless, Dream. Burgess is not fully aware of what and whom he has captured, but he is determined to make Dream submit to his will. Burgess is also not fully aware that his prisoner has all the time in the world... and beyond.
I think Sandman had reached its fourth or fifth issue by the time I starting hearing from other comic book readers how good it was. I do remember seeing pre-release in-house ads for Sandman #1 in other DC Comics titles. Whatever issue I first read amazed and blew me away so much that I started looking for back issues, and I was quickly able to find all the early issues, including the first issue.
I have previously read Sandman #1 once as an individual comic book and at least twice in collected form via the first Sandman trade paperback, The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes. DC Comics is shortly to launch a line of comic books under the banner, “The Sandman Universe.” A recently release stand-alone comic book, The Sandman Universe #1, introduces those titles. For the first time in probably two decades, I decided to read Sandman #1 again as a kind of preparation for the The Sandman Universe.
Sandman #1 stands the test of time, as far as I am concerned. Todd Klein's lettering for this first issue still evokes the fonts and lettering on old parchment and in aged books and texts that are sacred, profane, and mysterious. The production, printing, and color separation of the time only barely manages to capture the vivid weirdness and screwy surrealism of Robbie Busch's coloring.
Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg are not my favorite “Sandman artists.” [I lean towards P. Craig Russell.] I am fan of Keith's, though, and I love the funky graphic sensibilities of the Keith-Dringenberg team. Their art recalls DC Comics' horror and dark fantasy comic books of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but this team also seems to be creating a new visual language for a new kind of comic book writer.
That new kind of writer of that time was Neil Gaiman. Over its seven years of publication, Sandman (or The Sandman) evolves into a comic book that embraces fairy tales, folk tales, legends, myth, religion and more. This first issue is the one that began the change. “Sleep of the Just” looks like the kind of prose fiction written by Edgar Allen Poe or H.P. Lovecraft or by some author who wrote weird fiction and horror stories between the time of Poe and Lovecraft. As the story progress through this first issue, however, Gaiman begins the move beyond what influences him and starts to tell stories of fantasy and myth in a new voice, spoken via a medium, the comic book, that is, despite the status quo, always ready for a challenge.
Sandman #1 is one of the most important individual issues of a comic book ever published in the United States. Hopefully, what it wrought can inspire The Sandman Universe to aspire for excellence, if not greatness.
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
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