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39th out of 1,189 books
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1,991 voters
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Death: The High Cost of Living (Sandman: Death)
by
Neil Gaiman (Goodreads Author),
Chris Bachalo , Mark Buckingham , Dave McKean , Tori Amos
From the pages of Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN comes the young, pale, perky, and genuinely likable Death. One day in every century, Death walks the Earth to better understand those to whom she will be the final visitor. Today is that day. As a young mortal girl named Didi, Death befriends a teenager and helps a 250-year old homeless woman find her missing heart. What follows is a...more
Published
June 9th 1994
by Titan Books
(first published 1993)
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This graphic novel seems to me to be all too typical of Gaiman’s work. It’s slick, but there’s not really terribly much to it. There are good ideas but he doesn’t do much with them. It’s not that it’s bad, it isn’t. It’s just not as good as you’d hoped it would be after reading the cover blurb. The idea is great: for one day every century Death becomes a mortal, walking among us, so that she can understand what it is that she takes away from us. The character of Death herself is marvellous...more
Airiz C
rated it
“It would be really neat if death was somebody, and not just nothing, or pain, or blackness. And it would be really good if death could be somebody like Didi. Somebody funny, and friendly, and nice, and maybe just a tiny bit crazy.”
Sexton Furnival, one of the main characters of Death: The High Cost of Living, shares this sentiment with me—and perhaps also with legions of other Sandman readers when they meet Death of the Endless for the first time in Preludes and Nocturnes. It’s a nice ...more
Sexton Furnival, one of the main characters of Death: The High Cost of Living, shares this sentiment with me—and perhaps also with legions of other Sandman readers when they meet Death of the Endless for the first time in Preludes and Nocturnes. It’s a nice ...more
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This graphic novel, not one of Gaiman's best known but certainly one of his most fun, tells the story of Death, who spends one day each century among the living, learning about their lives. In her current incarnation, she is Didi, a perky sixteen-year-old Goth with an intense interest in all the excitement life has to offer. She takes up with Sexton Furnival, an apathetic and suicidal teenage who quickly learns more about the value of life than he had ever anticipated.
I first read t...more
I first read t...more
I haven't read the entirety of the Sandman, I had to stop after the sixth book because I could not find the seventh, but I bought this after reading the first several Sandman trade paper backs. The story is pretty good, the reader knows that it will end with Didi's death but not the manner of it or what all will happen in between. Given that many of the characters were previously mentioned in the Sandman it assumes that the readers know them already, which could be a turn off for new readers.
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2009 had some of the best of times but it also had a ton of the worst of times for my family. That is why I thought it appropriate for the last book of my 2009 reading to be the graphic novel, Death: The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman with illustrations from Dave McKean, Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham. Finished it at 11:45pm on New Years Eve. Yes that is right, I am such a party animal.
As usual, Mr. Gaiman does not disappoint. Death: The High Cost of Living centers around Sandma...more
As usual, Mr. Gaiman does not disappoint. Death: The High Cost of Living centers around Sandma...more
Edward
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Sandman fans or readers wanting only a taste of the series
Shelves:
fantasy
I picked this up at the library after hearing Neil Gaiman speak at a local college. He was asked a question about Tori Amos and the character of Death in the Sandman DC comics series.
I didn't really understand the question at the time, not having read any of the series, but Tori Amos wrote this book's introduction so I understand a bit more now. There is probably more because the book was published in 1994 and the question was asked in 2009.
The book stands on its own so...more
I didn't really understand the question at the time, not having read any of the series, but Tori Amos wrote this book's introduction so I understand a bit more now. There is probably more because the book was published in 1994 and the question was asked in 2009.
The book stands on its own so...more
Death and Sandman was my introduction to the world of graphic novels and - well, it's pretty much the only graphic novels I've read... But they're amazing!
Love Death - love the fact that she gets to live once every hundred years and then uses it to the fullest - to eat hot dogs and appels other food! And how she just love life! In theory these stories should be dark and gloomy, but they're not - they're actually very life-affirming and humoristic!
Love Death - love the fact that she gets to live once every hundred years and then uses it to the fullest - to eat hot dogs and appels other food! And how she just love life! In theory these stories should be dark and gloomy, but they're not - they're actually very life-affirming and humoristic!
Maybe it's just that I've officially become a cranky old bastard, but this Death miniseries is definitely too cutesy-poo for me. Or perhaps it's always been that way. After all, Bachalo and Buckingham do make quite possibly THE cutest females in comicdom, and Gaiman has never shied away from making Death quite possibly THE most adorable incarnation of anything anywhere. Reading High Cost now, though, I can only think this was not written for crochety old men, but almost perfectly pitched at cute...more
The only thing I like more than Dream, is Death. Hmm, maybe I should explain the context of that statement. Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic book series (which is profoundly good - read it right the fuck now) centers around a family of immortal beings called The Endless. The Endless are not gods - they simply personify certain aspects of reality, such as Dream, Death, Desire, Destruction, Delirium, Destiny, and Despair. Being entitled "The Sandman", the series focuses on Dream, however h...more
I have huge soft spot for the character of Death and out of all the Endless I probably wouldn't hesitate to call her my favourite. It was nice to have more a story centered around her and her mysterious habits but in the end the story here was too brief and was essentially centered around Sexton, the suicidal teen boy with a bad case of ennui. Death gave off strong MPDG vibes in this volume and it didn't really give her much dimension like I hoped to have seen. Also, the story was nothing new an...more
Ever since her appearence in The Sound of Her Wings, Death has made a great impression in my mind. Her charming and caring attitude to the people she collects when their time has come, reassures us all that whatever is after life, the time we spend here is whatever we make it. In Death: The High Cost of Living, we meet her again, only this time a little more lively then usual. "One day in evey century Death takes on mortal flesh, better to comprehend what the lives she takes must feel like,...more
The two mini-series about the Sandman's sister Death were Christmas presents from Chris. Yay!
Man, she is great. I know it's like, super precious that Death is this punk lady who is so great? But she is. I wish everything I said sounded like what she says. Also I wish everyone's hair looked like her hair. We would look much awesomer.
In some ways it's so dated 90's, the Tori Amos intro (which is actually really nice) and the AIDS-awareness public service... comic. Bu...more
Man, she is great. I know it's like, super precious that Death is this punk lady who is so great? But she is. I wish everything I said sounded like what she says. Also I wish everyone's hair looked like her hair. We would look much awesomer.
In some ways it's so dated 90's, the Tori Amos intro (which is actually really nice) and the AIDS-awareness public service... comic. Bu...more
I'm not gonna lie -- I'm a bit disappointed with Neil Gaiman as of late. Maybe because the first exposure I had to him was in the movie "Stardust" and I thought that flick was just absolutely fantastic on so many levels -- but so far his books have yet to really impress me. I mean Coraline was a fun read, and Neverwhere definitely had its moments of great creativity and enjoyment, but this one I'd have say is just sub-par. It is by no means a bad book -- it's a totally fun and uniqu...more
Very short but lots of fun to read! Every year Death comes back to the living world to experience life as a human. This story chooses one of those days.
I read all of Sandman's Dream series so I knew who Death was. I love how Neil Gaiman chooses to portray Death as a happy young girl always willing to help out, while still having black hair, pale skin, and black lipstick. She always has a smile. The strange characters (Blind man, and the old lady) add to the weirdness of the story. However, i wis...more
I read all of Sandman's Dream series so I knew who Death was. I love how Neil Gaiman chooses to portray Death as a happy young girl always willing to help out, while still having black hair, pale skin, and black lipstick. She always has a smile. The strange characters (Blind man, and the old lady) add to the weirdness of the story. However, i wis...more
Purplycookie
rated it
Gaiman's character Death is not the Grim Reaper all are accustomed of hearing, it may seem that the flapping cloak and menacing-looking scythe are all bad press. Gaiman didn't want a Death that agonized over her role, or who took a morbid delight in her job, or who simply didn't care. He wanted a Death that you'd like to meet in the end--someone who would care. I think he succeeded immensely.
"Death: The High Cost of Living" follows Death through the streets of New York in 1...more
"Death: The High Cost of Living" follows Death through the streets of New York in 1...more
Yes, I read this in a day. It's a quick read! And overall I liked it. I can't really offer a helpful review of the novel itself, for whatever reason. I can say that I continue to really like Gaiman's work, and this novel only adds to it. I've only read the first The Sandman novel, and though I wish I'd gotten my hands on the other ones as well, I didn't feel too off reading this book without reading the other Sandman novels.
I see why people are sort of eh about this novel, but it's an ...more
I see why people are sort of eh about this novel, but it's an ...more
"Life is a disease: sexually transmitted, and invariably fatal."
Se possibile, lo considererei superiore persino a tutta la serie di Sandman. Sarà che io adoro Death (e chi non l'adora?), sarà che Gaiman veramente si impegna a capire e mostrare "l'alto costo della vita", sarà che Sexton, il ragazzino co-protagonista, ha una storia bellissima, sarà che è il fumetto più triste abbia mai scritto...
Ciò che è favoloso, poi, è il personaggio stesso di Death: sola...more
Se possibile, lo considererei superiore persino a tutta la serie di Sandman. Sarà che io adoro Death (e chi non l'adora?), sarà che Gaiman veramente si impegna a capire e mostrare "l'alto costo della vita", sarà che Sexton, il ragazzino co-protagonista, ha una storia bellissima, sarà che è il fumetto più triste abbia mai scritto...
Ciò che è favoloso, poi, è il personaggio stesso di Death: sola...more
As a huge fan of Neil Gaiman, I've also been a huge fan of the Sandman series. Even through the intricate plots there was one particular character I couldn't get enough of- Dreams' (Morpheus') older sister, Death. I absolutely loved this spin-off, and was utterly raptured by Neil Gaiman's thoughtful input on life after meeting Death. The Sandman series really changed how I think about heaven and hell, dreams and nightmares, and just life in general. It's not that I believe everything about t...more
The only thing that could have made this better would have been more of it. I had believed with Death's popularity that she might garner more publications. This story is a musing more on life than death, but one can't fully appreciate one without the other. Using a completely mundane character to share Death's time as a mortal as the backdrop, through whom the story is told. He is the everyman, but especially a representative of the most troubled age, teenagers. Who are likely to feel oppre...more
As morbid as this sounds, I love Death. She is a very collected, young (well, she appears to be) woman.
I've only read two of the Death comics, but I must admit that I love them. They are beautifully written (I expected nothing less from Neil) and well illustrated. And probably one of my favorite qualities about them is how they connect to each other-- and apparently to the Sandman series (which I haven't read, unfortunately).
If you're an adult who still likes comics/graphi...more
I've only read two of the Death comics, but I must admit that I love them. They are beautifully written (I expected nothing less from Neil) and well illustrated. And probably one of my favorite qualities about them is how they connect to each other-- and apparently to the Sandman series (which I haven't read, unfortunately).
If you're an adult who still likes comics/graphi...more
creepy but annoying and excessively teenagerish. also seems dated.
Death: The High Cost of Living is a short and sweet little comic, featuring Death as she appears in The Sandman, but as the star. None of the other Endless appear, instead it follows Death during her one day in a hundred years of being a mortal. It's a pretty simple little story: it's interesting because it stars Death, who as a character is awesome, but the story itself isn't dazzling. The art is nice and the bonus story where Death talks about STDs and such is fun, but in itself, it isn't dazz...more
Of course, if any of Dream's brothers and sisters deserve a spin-off comic book series, it's his groovy older sister Death. But is this the series she deserves? I have mixed feelings.
Death: The High Cost of Living is an enjoyable but not terribly original/substantial story. Essentially, it's about an annoying adolescent boy (with an annoying adolescent boy haircut) who decides to kill himself but gradually reconsiders that decision when he is befriended by a very pale young woman nam...more
Death: The High Cost of Living is an enjoyable but not terribly original/substantial story. Essentially, it's about an annoying adolescent boy (with an annoying adolescent boy haircut) who decides to kill himself but gradually reconsiders that decision when he is befriended by a very pale young woman nam...more
enjoyable tale. Every century Death must become mortal to understand what life means, as Death, not the goddess,but death itself. We first met Death in the early volumes of Sandman, and she easily became one of my favorite characters. She's spunky and vital, and vibrant. She's funny and kind. She's everything you don't think Death will be, and is at the same time everything you think she is. It's complicated, but a beautiful kind of complicated. This tale is short, but long for a comic. We never...more
It is the curse of The Sandman series, and it's offshoots, that they are fast reads. I zoomed through this so fast, and then got very sad because it was over.
There aren't words for how much I adore the character of Death. I've loved her since her first appearance in The Sandman series, and finding out there were novels based solely on her made me squeal with glee. My library not having either of them made me not so squealy. Thank you, ILL! Worth the $2 fee.
This story was ...more
There aren't words for how much I adore the character of Death. I've loved her since her first appearance in The Sandman series, and finding out there were novels based solely on her made me squeal with glee. My library not having either of them made me not so squealy. Thank you, ILL! Worth the $2 fee.
This story was ...more
I resisted buying this Sandman-spinoff at first, but now I have no idea why I did. This is genius. One of the most beloved characters from Sandman got 'her own show,' and I love to indulge. I'll definitely need to look into getting more of them.
But beyond the story and the art, both of which are fantastic and alternatively dark and light, I love love loved that there was a special book dedicated to AIDS prevention and awareness. It was tasteful, it was funny, it was factual... best PS...more
But beyond the story and the art, both of which are fantastic and alternatively dark and light, I love love loved that there was a special book dedicated to AIDS prevention and awareness. It was tasteful, it was funny, it was factual... best PS...more
This book was one of the first volleys of courtship across my bow from my beloved when he was still in New Zealand and I was still in America. I hadn't read The Sandman yet, but I'd paged through this in a comic book store and was blown away, and had told him so. He, working in a comic book store in Auckland, sent it in the very first care package. Besides being earthshaking in terms of literary exposure for me, it holds a significant sentimental piece of my heart as well.
What would the character of a person who deals directly with death day in and day out for all of time be like? The traditional personification of death is truly a morbid character. Yet I think he/she would certainly be more like Gaiman's interpretation. She has charm and personality that is completely incongruous to her gothic appearance; she loves life and people. The suicidal existential 16 year old serves as a contrast to her nature.
Rosalia
rated it
Once every hundred years Death must spend a day as a human girl. Death has always been one of my favorite Sandman characters and I am happy that she scored her own book. Death meets a boy named Sexton who is contemplating suicide, he basically feels life is too boring to live. Death (as Didi) is so joyful and happy to experience life, it can't help but rub off on anyone who meets her, even if the results are not exactly what's expected.
I've been hearing Neil Gaiman's name *everywhere* - he just won a Newbery Medal and Coraline is based a novel of his. Plus, my brother is a big fan. I thought I'd check him out.
Gaiman's Death is a great character and the story certainly does not lack for interesting developments, but I had a ton of questions after I finished it. This is not really a stand-alone work.
But it did leave me intrigued and eager to read more...
Gaiman's Death is a great character and the story certainly does not lack for interesting developments, but I had a ton of questions after I finished it. This is not really a stand-alone work.
But it did leave me intrigued and eager to read more...
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“On bad days I talk to Death constantly, not about suicide because honestly that's not dramatic enough. Most of us love the stage and suicide is definitely your last performance and being addicted to the stage, suicide was never an option - plus people get to look you over and stare at your fatty bits and you can't cross your legs to give that flattering thigh angle and that's depressing. So we talk. She says things no one else seems to come up with, like let's have a hotdog and then it's like nothing's impossible.
She told me once there is a part of her in everyone, though Neil believes I'm more Delirium than Tori, and Death taught me to accept that, you know, wear your butterflies with pride. And when I do accept that, I know Death is somewhere inside of me. She was the kind of girl all the girls wanted to be, I believe, because of her acceptance of "what is." She keeps reminding me there is change in the "what is" but change cannot be made till you accept the "what is.”
—
78 people liked it
She told me once there is a part of her in everyone, though Neil believes I'm more Delirium than Tori, and Death taught me to accept that, you know, wear your butterflies with pride. And when I do accept that, I know Death is somewhere inside of me. She was the kind of girl all the girls wanted to be, I believe, because of her acceptance of "what is." She keeps reminding me there is change in the "what is" but change cannot be made till you accept the "what is.”
“Oh - that family, yes. There are still some photos of them around here. They look like nice people, don't they?"
They...'look like nice people'?"
Well, they do, don't they? Of course, they never actually existed - except maybe in the most tenuous and retrospective way - but still, it's nice to think they were good people."
Uh. Right. Gee, I suppose you must do a lot of drugs.”
—
5 people liked it
More quotes…
They...'look like nice people'?"
Well, they do, don't they? Of course, they never actually existed - except maybe in the most tenuous and retrospective way - but still, it's nice to think they were good people."
Uh. Right. Gee, I suppose you must do a lot of drugs.”
