Sandman/Neil Gaiman

[Charlatan]

Call me a philistine if you will, but Neil Gaiman and his Sandman series have been completely under my radar... but I noticed his glowing review of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and so then I looked for his stuff, saw the Sandman references and said "oh yeah, I've vaguely heard of that."

But only vaguely. Sure I've seen what people wrote on Amazon, but who believes them! So tell me, is the Sandman series really as good as those jokers at Amazon say?

Anyone want to recommend other stuff by Gaiman too? I'm all ears!

And I love the "retard" emoticon: Hey, I didn't pick the name of it!

[Siljanus]

But only vaguely. Sure I've seen what people wrote on Amazon, but who believes them! So tell me, is the Sandman series really as good as those jokers at Amazon say?

Yes it is and I was sad when the series came to an end.  But what an end it was!

[YellowKing]

I've read several of his books (American Gods, Neverwhere, etc.)  Very imaginative guy, his books are full of really strange characters and bizarre fantasy. He reminds me a bit of Clive Barker and China Meivelle (sp?) in that respect.

American Gods is probably my favorite so far though.

[Tscott]

The Sandman is a great series, I've reread the whole thing more times than anything else I've ever read.  Since then I've gotten my hands on everything I could find by Neil Gaiman and I haven't been disappointed yet.

If you're going to get into The Sandman from the start, you might want to know there's a bit of a change in tone once you get to issue 8 (The Sound of Her Wings).  It's the last issue printed in Preludes and Nocturnes (book 1), and the first issue printed in The Doll House (book 2).  (That's the only overlap in the trade paperbacks in case you were wondering.) The first 7 issues can be hit or miss, but once it got to that 8th issue and beyond, Gaiman was onto something.

Or if you want to test the water before diving into a 10+ volume graphic novel, you can try 'Death: The High Cost of Living', which is a standalone tale, involving Dream's (aka The Sandman) sister, Death.  Or else 'Dream Country', book 3, of The Sandman which has 4 standalone stories.  Either book cost slightly less than the larger volumes and give you a good idea of what Neil Gaiman's about.

[Smoove_B]

Everthing you've read about the Sandman series is probably not doing it justice. I would have a hard time even describing the series as a whole.

I read it all about 5 years ago, and something tells me that if I sat down and read it again, I would pick up different things and certain points would have new meaning.

Get it. Especially considering that a sort of "prequel" was released about a year ago called, "Endless Nights". I don't think you should read it until you've read the entire Sandman series though.

I've read a number of his novels as well which I can also recommend:

American Gods
Neverwhere
Smoke and Mirrors

[Beaker]

One of my all-time greatest comic series. Have every one of them for the first couple years it was out. Then stopped collecting comics .  

I wonder if they are worth anything these days.....

Not that I would ever sell them

My favorite was when Morpheus got the key of Hell.

Definitely worth picking them up.....

[ChaoZ]

I've read some of the Sandman and I thought it was great.  Did they come out with a box set of all the volumes?

[wankerjr]

Did they come out with a box set of all the volumes?

Nope.

[wankerjr]

To answer the question yes the series is definitely worth it. I jumped on board after the glowing reviews in Wizard got me curious enough to try something different besides X-Men and the like. I never regretted the decision. I worked my way backwards starting from issue 50 - the gold reprint of his "Ramadan" stand-alone. The first two TPB I bought were Brief Lives and Fables & Reflections. Brief Lives is good but it helps if you already know the mythology he established earlier on in the series. Fables & Reflections is the 2nd TPB of stand-alone stories not in "Dream Country" and really sold me on the series. In fact I introduced the Sandman to a college friend via that trade paperback and he absolutely fell in love with the series.