​

I’ve had a complete set of The Sandman sitting on my shelf for quite a while, but now it’s finally time to open it.

I’ve been reading a lot of comics again over the past four years. The hobby fell by the wayside in the late ’90s as other vices took over. Where I lived, mature comics were difficult and expensive to get hold of, so I only ever managed to read a few scattered issues of The Sandman.

Ever since the early ’90s, though, the series has grown to almost mythical proportions in my mind. My expectations have become so high that I’ve been hesitant to actually start reading it. The same thing happened with Alan Moore’s Saga of the Swamp Thing, but I eventually devoured that—and it was a masterpiece.

Still, part of me is worried that The Sandman may not have aged well, or that it simply can’t live up to more than 30 years of expectations. I'm 50 now and been motly 2000's comics.

When did you first read The Sandman, and how old were you? How did it feel at the time—and do you think it still holds up?

Im finishing up a masters degree and I'd like to insert some reading that I would consider "enjoyable".

I have never read a graphic novel (to my memory) and wanted to read The Crow (RIP Brandon Lee) After some consideration I kept getting Sandman ranked very highly on lists of best graphic novels of all time.

I watched the Netflix show knowing absolutely nothing about Sandman. I didn't hate the show but it's not something I would rewatch. My list of shows that I enjoy are Fargo, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Severance, which I would consider to be character driven and not procedural shows, or plot based. I also really enjoyed Raised by Wolves (man i wish that show wasnt canceled).

I found the show to have a low budget feel to it. I also didn't feel as if any characters were really fleshed out which is a large portion of what I actually enjoy in a show. It just felt like the pacing was slow in some parts extremely sped up in others, and ultimately the show just didnt seem to have any kind of cohesion.

Dude's wigs were wild as well. Lol. Had to throw that in there.

I could see there was an actual great story there, but I dont know if its just a story that doesn't translate well on the screen, or the producers didn't have enough time (this seemed like a show that needed much more than two seasons).

Anyway, I suppose my question would be are my critiques of the show nonexistent in the books? I imagine with the length of the books and number of volumes there is much more content, but do we get a deep dive into the characters?

I don't know if it was strictly the cast, but I really wanted to see more of Desire (shout out to Mason Alexander Park), and Lucifer but alas the show didn't do much with them other than to make them foils.

I guess I'm asking is this a deep or semi deep character exploration with an established world or slighly shallow like the Netflix series?

What do you think Dream's sigil was before he was imprisoned in his palace by the two ugly gods in Overture? Do you think the helm was always his sigil even though it did no have a meaning until he carved it out from the bones of his captor?
I'm curious as it seems that way with Death: Morpheus drew her sigil inside his cell and assures that the Endless where "young" when it happened so the Earth probably didn't even exist and the Egyptians would not be there to give the Ankh meaning.

The boy of the captur of Dream stood by and watched until his dad died. And even then he refused to release him. This had consequences on the world for over a century. Not only did they insult an Endless, his actions/inactions caused the world to suffer. Eternal sleep given to an old man is a very light sentence for his actions.

Same with Lyta, I understand she is a mother but Dream isn’t doing anything that shouldn’t be done. He just released your dead husband to where he should be. Your baby was conceived with a ghost in his realm. It makes sense that he would ask for the baby and monitor him.

How can she have the audacity to threaten to kill Dream? Maybe she is a mama lion but to believe that she could actually kill Dream or threaten him freely sometimes makes me sad that Dream just always take the lashing and never shows that he is a constant and a law of the universe. I guess a human wouldnt occupy himself with the threats of an Ant and the point is he is trying to change. But he is being blamed for a lot that wasnt his fault. It’s kinds hard to sit thru I wanna hug and comfort him.

I greatly enjoy both POTC and The Sandman universe. I recently noticed that both stories deal with mythical former lovers who are ensnared by mortals. In The Sandman, Roderick Burgess captures Morpheus in the hopes of controlling life and death, and Erasmus Fry captures his former wife Calliope to steal her creativity. Similarly, in Pirates of the Caribbean, the Pirate Lords capture the sea goddess Calypso to tame the sea, and Lord Cutler Beckett controls Davy Jones using his heart.

Both stories deal with change and duty. Morpheus is unable to change and is very methodical, which creates a rift between him and Calliope, especially after the ordeal with Orpheus. Calypso is completely unpredictable and changing, which causes pain and emotional turmoil for Davy Jones because he can't handle her mercurial nature.

After their capture, both Calliope and Davy Jones need assistance from their former lover to free themselves. Morpheus scares Madoc to free Calliope, while Calypso creates the maelstrom to stop Lord Cutler Beckett from interfering.

Both Morpheus and Calypso cause problems for their loved ones, not because of ill intent, but simply because this is their nature. I have never seen this specific trope used anywhere else, are there any other examples of this in comics or movies?

There is so much master level poetry in The Sandman books.

It's kinda shit tbh, but I like the texture I gave whilst drawing! (also if you're curious on what EO is, it's an optical shop in the Philippines!)

No vfx is ever used to atleast counteract her bad acting. Nothing ever goes wrong, she is just a bit mopey.. I would like to see some consequences for when she is mad/sad but she doesn’t do anything.

I was the most interested in her but she is very boring.

Just lamenting that we were so close to having the whole show on 4k disc. Some truly epic visuals which will surely look good on blu-ray, but man, having the whole show in 4k would've been epic.

Pain

Doesn't matter if it's a human, a man, a woman or whatever.

So I'm reading Mythology by Edith Hamilton. In Chapter II "Eight Brief Tales of Lovers" she relates a story that we're all familiar with, that of Orpheus and Eurydice. The original tale says Orpheus was the son of one of the Muses and a Thracian prince. That's fine, Gaiman just figured out a way to squeeze the Sandman in that tale. Whatever.

But the very next story in this particular book is about Ceyx and Alcyone (from the phrase "Halcyone days") and Morpheus (the son of the God of sleep) actually features prominently in this tale! Why didn't Gaiman write about this story?

So I was looking up "desire" for a bit of casual research, and I thought Wikipedia would be a good starting point. Lo and behold, I see "not to be confused with dreams" and I think, "HMMMM... a bit too on the nose here." But then I see the line, "They represent how an agent or organism wills things to be, unlike beliefs, which aim to represent how things actually are." Which feels even more Sandman-esque. Out of curiosity, is it a valid disambiguation to make? I don't thinks the words "dreams" and "desires" face *that* much confusion.

I'm still not good at taking photos! 😅

"There must be a Hell, for without Hell, Heaven has no Meaning"

That quote hit me hard. Along with many the meanings it can have, i think it fits so well to talk about religions who promise "salvation"

When she sees that bunch of merry souls around the campfire.

Started trying to get the whole series as a broke kid - liking how I’m almost getting one of each print variant accidentally. Also questions to more knowledgeable sandman enjoyers; can I read the spinoffs I have before finishing the main series? Why is there two versions of the dream hunters and do I need both? And how have you found enjoying Gaiman’s writing after all he’s done? Also any advice for me as a collector?

could yall recommend me some more power driven issues if yall know any? and yes I KNOW that’s not the endless’s thing but my guilty pleasure comic reader mind can’t help but desire a bit of crazy campy action from a comic with such esoteric characters and boundless power that they don’t typically use in a traditional way because that’s not the kind of story it is BUT there’s gotta be at least a couple times the creative team was feeling themselves and wanted to do some cool powerful action right?

I have done this 5 years ago, at the age of 16 yet it is stil one of my favourite pieces ever. Unfortunetly the original art got lost and thats the best quality i got of it.

So I recently got Lucifer Omnibus 1 and it's been going pretty well. In this issue there's an encounter between Lucifer and Dream(Daniel). It appears Dream has a new white Raven called "Tethys". If I remember right Matthew decided to stay with Daniel. Is something happened to him somewhere between, am I missing any stories?

And for the second picture, there was a talking raven in a dream a few issues before this. I assumed he was Matthew but since that isn't his usual speech bubble I might be mistaken.

Anyways I'm just worried about not seeing him I'd love to hear if you know anything about this. (And if the answer includes a spoiler from a story I haven't read, I'd be happy if you don't spoil it)

The PRESENCE along with his sons the Angels like Lucifer, Michael and Gabriel are not creations of human belief so were not born in the Dreaming but the actual real creators of all of reality and somehow existed alongside with the Endless and they're Parents Time and Night

Why is this? Like why cant they just be the same as The other Gods and Mythical creatures being born from belief like why are they the only religion that is true while the others werent real in the first place

Its feels so Christian-centric and to me feels rude to dead religions and other still practiced faiths

We know people go to their respective after lives. Orpheus literally went to the Greek underworld to see Hades and Persephone. So is it possible that afterlife will end if not with religions just eventually and death takes the dead for a second time.