Thursday

The Sandman: Endless Nights

The Sandman: Endless Nights
by Neil Gaiman
Graphic Novel. 152 pp.
DC Comics. 2003.

back copy:

Before becoming a New York Times two-time best-selling author, Neil Gaiman revolutionized the comic-book arena with The Sandman. The most acclaimed and award-winning comic series of the last decade, The Sandman is a rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy, in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven. The Sandman set new standards for comics literature, and the ten volumes of The Sandman library are seen today as one of the high-watermarks of the medium.

The Sandman: Endless Nights will be a delight to fans of Gaiman's work and newcomers to the graphic novel. Whether haunting, bittersweet, erotic or nightmarish, the seven stories in this book—one for each of the Endless siblings—reveal strange secrets and surprising truths. Each story is illustrated by some of the greatest comics artists from around the world.

Fortunately, I checked this book out from the library at the same time as I checked out Preludes and Nocturnes. had I not done that, I would have never read this one, I enjoyed this one considerably more than the other. There are a couple things I'm going to chalk such like up to. First, the stories are better contained and more interesting, probably because we get to see a little about each of the Endless siblings. Second, the illustrations are in a style that I find more pleasing, even if each story is illustrated by a different illustrator. This was a huge component of my liking this one.

So, I won't completely write off the Sandman series; I just won't actively set about finishing it.

3 comments:

Th. said...

.

Your last choice was more about setting up the series and I, like you, tend to prefer the self-contained stories. In that spirit, I recommend you prioritize the following collections:

Dream Country (Your first choice.)
Season of Mists
Fables and Reflections
Brief Lives (I recommend this one most for the Other Endless angle.)
Worlds' End (I actually don't think I've read this one yet, but it meets my criteria)

Jill said...

I'm glad you enjoyed this one better - it's amazing how much influence the artwork has, no matter what's happening in the story. I'm planning on rereading (and continuing with the ones I never got to) this series some time soon.

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