New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of ... read full description
reviews
Dec 30, 2009
Brooke
rated it: 
In the foreword and the afterword, both the editor and Gaiman indicated that this isn't the strongest volume in the Sandman series; Gaiman was still finding his vision for the series, it's essentially a fetch quest, etc. I'm inclined to agree with them, although it was still enjoyable (as any video game fan will tell you, a fetch quest can still be fun, but it's not the strongest narrative device). I'm halfway through Volume 2: The Doll's House and I'm already finding the story much more interes
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(8 people liked it)
Nov 27, 2008
Matt
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At the height of this publication's popularity (early 90's), I picked up a couple of issues to see what all the fuss was about. At that time I was totally blown away by the artwork but found the storyline completely incomprehensibile as I had missed the first fifty issues. Things are going much better now since this title rediscovered me and I had the good sense to start from the beginning.
I still love the artwork, especially the original covers. I'm glad that they are included in th More...
I still love the artwork, especially the original covers. I'm glad that they are included in th More...
12 comments
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(6 people liked it)
Jan 30, 2008
Abigail
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I am a textual creature, by and large, and have never been able to work up much enthusiasm for comic books or graphic novels. It's not that I can't see their appeal, on an abstract level, but they simply don't enthrall me as they do some. (Oddly enough, I love beautifully illustrated picture-books). But Gaiman has quite the following, and a good friend and co-worker, who knows of my interest in the connections between fantasy and folklore, and who is a devotee of this series, finally convinced m
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17 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Aug 25, 2011
Keely
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Though Gaiman had already made his mark with Black Orchid, Sandman is where he really begins to fall into his style, which sometimes becomes his downfall in its predictability.
Here, he plays for perhaps the first time at mixing mythology, spirituality, and strange real events into a story beyond the ken of other fairytale rewrites and new age mysticism. There is a sense here that the characters and story are still undeveloped in his mind, which provides the reader with some welcome a More...
Here, he plays for perhaps the first time at mixing mythology, spirituality, and strange real events into a story beyond the ken of other fairytale rewrites and new age mysticism. There is a sense here that the characters and story are still undeveloped in his mind, which provides the reader with some welcome a More...
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Jan 16, 2009
Nikki
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I thought at first I wasn't going to be able to get into the art. Most of my experience with reading graphic novels comes from manga, with pretty boys and pretty art all the time, not like this. Which isn't to say that I didn't see the value of this art, I'm just a sucker for pretty things. Now I've actually read this first volume and I'm used to the art style, I can see how perfect it is and I'm quite enjoying it. I like Dream's character design, but so far his sister, Death, is my favourite in
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(1 person liked it)
Mar 29, 2009
Mark
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Reading "Sandman" has been a long time coming for me. Some of my friends in high school were so enthralled by it that they could quote lines, or they would be drawing out images of the various characters. I should have known then that the series would be good.
The first book didn't really do it for me, but it did get me hooked. I have to say that I agree with Neil Gaiman's own thoughts, as well as that of Karen Berger, who wrote the introduction. The novel doesn't real More...
The first book didn't really do it for me, but it did get me hooked. I have to say that I agree with Neil Gaiman's own thoughts, as well as that of Karen Berger, who wrote the introduction. The novel doesn't real More...
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Aug 11, 2008
Rhea
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After spending $ 0.50 on the “The Absolute Sandman” introduction to The Sandman from Neil Gaiman I decided to take the plunge into the entire series. I just finished reading The Absolute Sandman, Vol. 1 while sitting in the car after I had a tumble down the front stoop.
The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes is the first trade paperback collection of the comic book series The Sandman. It collects issues #1-8.
#1 Sleep of the Just
#2 Imperfect Hosts
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The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes is the first trade paperback collection of the comic book series The Sandman. It collects issues #1-8.
#1 Sleep of the Just
#2 Imperfect Hosts
More...
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Jun 09, 2008
Laura
rated it:
Okay. This was a good one. I read the entire sandman series-all 75 issues-- in about a week, because I pirated them in .cbr format off the web because my college library doesn't have them.
At any rate, I liked it, overall. Most of the art, particularly in the beginning, was absolutely terrible. I mean, I know it was deliberately stylized-- I know that the whispiness and the scratchiness was intentional-- but I can't say that I think such things should be done at all, even if on purpose. Fur More...
At any rate, I liked it, overall. Most of the art, particularly in the beginning, was absolutely terrible. I mean, I know it was deliberately stylized-- I know that the whispiness and the scratchiness was intentional-- but I can't say that I think such things should be done at all, even if on purpose. Fur More...
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Mar 20, 2010
Brad
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Since joining goodreads, I’ve been baffled by the Neil Gaiman love fest. American Gods, Neverwhere, Stardust, The Graveyard Book, they appear to be universally loved, and I’ve been skeptical of this emotion that borders on worship. These books are good and all, and I recognize their general accessibility, but I don’t personally find any of them mind blowing literature. Gaiman’s prose is no match for China Mieville’s or Iain M. Banks’ or Ursula LeGuin’s (and countless others who write speculative
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6 comments
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(8 people liked it)
Mar 23, 2010
Kevin
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In an attempt to enslave Death and claim her power as their own, a group of occultists, led by "Daemon King" Roderick Burgess, recites an incantation only to instead capture Death's younger brother Dream -- AKA Sandman. During the Sandman's subsequent 70-year enslavement, his sources of power -- a gemstone, his helmet, and his pouch -- wind up distributed around the globe and the dreamworld is relegated to chaos, which also wrecks havoc on the world of the living. To restore order to b
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(2 people liked it)
Nov 04, 2011
Sorcha
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First book in the Sandman series.[return][return]An occult rite brings back the wrong member of the Endless. Looking to capture Death, they bring back her brother Dream, who gets imprisoned for 70 years. Since Morpheus no longer walks the earth, people are condemned to a life of permanent wakefulness, never to sleep or never to wake from a dreamless sleep.[return][return]Dream finally escapes after the death of his original captor, and weak (since no one has dreamt for so long, his world has col
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Feb 11, 2011
Klytia
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Roderick Burgess, un occultista in cerca dell’immortalità, nel tentativo di imprigionare la Morte tramite una formula di Evocazione, cattura invece il Signore dei Sogni. Sogno, o Morfeo, rimane imprigionato per settanta anni finché, in modo del tutto accidentale, riesce a fuggire dalla sua prigione di vetro. Indebolito dalla prigionia ritorna nel suo regno, il Palazzo del Sogno, trovando il palazzo in rovina e i servitori dispersi. Per ricostruire il regno, riconquistare il suo potere e soprattu
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Mar 23, 2009
Keith
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I'm going through the series again, I'll just encapsulate it here rather than comment on each volume individually. It's good. I tend to get a bit prickly about Neil Gaiman, not because I don't like him, but because there is this contingent that seems to be convinced he's the greatest writer the english language has produced and has revolutionized comics and storytelling and can do no wrong. This annoys me. Okay, maybe he has been pretty influential in improving the state of things in the com
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Feb 18, 2009
Flissy
rated it:
Hubs and I had a fantastic date visiting the library today. I was perusing the graphic novels section, intending to check out Persepolis but it was already out, so I picked up The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes instead.*
Well, here I am. I totally devoured it in one sitting this afternoon. I was really surprised by how much I liked it and I'm now going to have to hunt down the rest of the series ASAP.
I do enjoy graphic novels/comics, but I have a hard time finding ones th More...
Well, here I am. I totally devoured it in one sitting this afternoon. I was really surprised by how much I liked it and I'm now going to have to hunt down the rest of the series ASAP.
I do enjoy graphic novels/comics, but I have a hard time finding ones th More...
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Feb 16, 2009
The 1st 8 magazine issues from DC Comics -- Morpheus, the Sandman, King of Dreams, brother to Death and Desire and one of the Endless, is summoned quite by accident to the material plane and imprisoned 72 years in a glass globe -- a lovely metaphor for the reluctant soul trapped inside the body -- His captor taunts, 'You're nothing special. You know that? You're nothing at all. A naked man in a glass box. That's all you are.' (37) -- Escaped, Morpheus goes on a quest to recover his tools and his
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Jan 08, 2012
Sandra
rated it:
Any reader who has a real interest in fantasy and has been reading the genre for a while will have come across The Sandman and will have heard how lauded it is. Unfortunately when something has received this much hype, your expectations are too high and you're bound to be disappointed by the work, and this is the case with this first volume of comics. The artwork is messy and looks amateurish, with characters constantly changing from page to page and becoming unrecognisable. The plot is familiar
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(1 person liked it)
Oct 28, 2011
Laura (Roses and Vellum)
rated it:
Review from my blog: http://rosesandvellum.blogspot.com/
It is impossible to really do justice to this surreal graphic novel series by Neil Gaiman. A collection of stories with characters that touch your heart, and storylines that blow your mind, the books could be said to revolve around the lord of dreams, also know as Morpheus, The Sandman, etc. one of the seven brothers and sisters known as The Endless, that were there at the beginning of things. But it's not really just about him. More...
It is impossible to really do justice to this surreal graphic novel series by Neil Gaiman. A collection of stories with characters that touch your heart, and storylines that blow your mind, the books could be said to revolve around the lord of dreams, also know as Morpheus, The Sandman, etc. one of the seven brothers and sisters known as The Endless, that were there at the beginning of things. But it's not really just about him. More...
Sep 22, 2011
Kim
rated it:
I have a confession. I… um… don’t know how to read comic books. There. I said it. Let the heckling begin. In my defense, I am a girl. Ok, no. I mean, it’s not like the mid 1970s really gave us any good comics. Uhh… Okay, I don’t know. I have no excuse. It’s never been my thing. I remember trying to read some Archie ones and some Wendy Witch ones.. meh. Plus, I um... always screwed up the reading order.
So, last night I sat down across from my sixteen year old. She had the More...
So, last night I sat down across from my sixteen year old. She had the More...
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(7 people liked it)
Aug 06, 2011
Tom
rated it:
This might be the fourth time I've read Preludes and Nocturnes, and I always seem to find something new, a revelation of sorts each go through. I started reading the Sandman near the end of it's 75 issue run, and ended up buying both the trades as well as the original comics of them, and every single tie-in. That's how powerful Gaiman's crafting of the realm of the Endless is. People who dismiss comics as just pictures with word balloons will miss out, as this is some of the greatest literatu
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Aug 03, 2011
Suzie
rated it:
I just finished the graphic novel last night, and I'm not very articulate without a little time to mull over everything, but "the Sandman" was everything I had expected and more (except those types of graphic novels are never long enough!). Rarely does a book or comic motivate me to meditate before bed just so as to ward off any potential lit-derived nightmares, but this is exactly what I did. "The Sandman" brings to lucidity the most disturbing aspects of our shadow selves,
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Jun 01, 2011
Marcus
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This is less a review than a general statement concerning Sandman and me:
Neil Gaiman’s Sandman is rightly called the “graphic novel that transformed a genre”. For me, it is transformative in an additional way. It helped molding the”new me”.
I do not recall when and where exactly I first heard of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, it was sometime in 1997 and I had only relocated to Nottingham a few months earlier. For me, 1997 was, so far, the most crucial year of my life.
I wanted to reinvent m More...
Neil Gaiman’s Sandman is rightly called the “graphic novel that transformed a genre”. For me, it is transformative in an additional way. It helped molding the”new me”.
I do not recall when and where exactly I first heard of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, it was sometime in 1997 and I had only relocated to Nottingham a few months earlier. For me, 1997 was, so far, the most crucial year of my life.
I wanted to reinvent m More...
May 07, 2011
Manrix
rated it:
Apart from some comic books I read as a kid, I had never really tried anything like a graphic novel since I'd taken up 'serious reading'. I'd read American Gods by Neil Gaiman, so I was intrigued, and heard nothing but good things about this series. So I tried it.
When I started reading it, I was very tired, and, sitting on my bed on a warm day, trying to read, it is no wonder I dozed off after forcing myself to stay awake long enough to finish a story.
Boy, I don't think More...
When I started reading it, I was very tired, and, sitting on my bed on a warm day, trying to read, it is no wonder I dozed off after forcing myself to stay awake long enough to finish a story.
Boy, I don't think More...
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May 04, 2011
Jonathan
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This is not only a fantastic introduction and an effective hook, it's a dark collection of tales that walk you up a path to a cliff that overlooks a world unlike any other.
It's hard to imagine anything new in the world of comics having as much of an effect on me as this volume, and many of those that followed it in the series, did. The one story that stands out in my mind when I think back on the experience of reading this graphic novel is 24 Hours. It's a single issue in this collect More...
It's hard to imagine anything new in the world of comics having as much of an effect on me as this volume, and many of those that followed it in the series, did. The one story that stands out in my mind when I think back on the experience of reading this graphic novel is 24 Hours. It's a single issue in this collect More...
Apr 27, 2011
Robert
rated it:
This is, of course, the starting point of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. If you have not experienced the Sandman before, the series started as a monthly comic book published by DC Comics. The Sandman, as a character, had gone through several iterations since the 30s and 40s, and was a marginal character when Englishman Neil Gaiman was given the chance to revitalize him. Gaiman managed to reinvent the character, even as he eventually paid tribute to all of the previous iterations. The monthly comic b
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Apr 05, 2011
Halik
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I am a huge fan of Asterix and also consumed Tintin and Archie comics when i was a kid. But uh oh, i think i'm beginning to like the so called 'graphic novel' genre now. Truth be told i never took comic books very seriously before. Maybe that's because the word 'comic' is somewhat of a misnomer when it comes to something like 'The Sandman'.
Neil Gaiman has created a universe in which mortals are looked over by a set of beings that are representative of inherent conditions of human na More...
Neil Gaiman has created a universe in which mortals are looked over by a set of beings that are representative of inherent conditions of human na More...
Mar 19, 2011
Yousif
rated it:
Here is where the entire series began. Neil Gaiman starts a decent story arc that fails to capture the sensational excellence of the other books.
For a first volume it is good but when we compare it to the other volumes of the series it pales in comparison.
The story begins with a wizard summoning Death of the Endless which turns totally upside down. Instead of summoning Death; Dream of the Endless is summoned. He is captured by them for a very long time (decades). But the More...
For a first volume it is good but when we compare it to the other volumes of the series it pales in comparison.
The story begins with a wizard summoning Death of the Endless which turns totally upside down. Instead of summoning Death; Dream of the Endless is summoned. He is captured by them for a very long time (decades). But the More...
Feb 08, 2011
Tancredi
rated it:
Parlare di "The Sandman" mi mette imbarazzo e non solo, perché di fronte ad un'opera mastodontica e superiore come questa non posso che sentirmi un mero ammasso di carne pensante per sbaglio, per una malata frizione casuale tra i miei neuroni.
La verità è che "The Sandman" è l'opera di un genio fuori dal comune, che non si può comprendere mai del tutto, nemmeno leggendolo mille volte. Per la profondità della sua scrittura, per la finezza dellle sue citazioni letter More...
La verità è che "The Sandman" è l'opera di un genio fuori dal comune, che non si può comprendere mai del tutto, nemmeno leggendolo mille volte. Per la profondità della sua scrittura, per la finezza dellle sue citazioni letter More...
Jan 18, 2011
Minli
rated it:
I've heard some people say out there that comics is a medium, not a genre. I'm going to have to respectfully disagree until someone recommends me a comic that isn't what I've been reading. The first Sandman was fun, and I enjoyed and admired it wholeheartedly, however--this style of art simply doesn't appeal to me. It's sharp, vibrant and detailed, with more line than texture. Its subject matter is violent and dark. Abstract ideas are personified, heavy metaphors linger throughout the piece, and
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Jan 01, 2011
Keith
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I waited until the very last days of 2010 to read Sandman. Started with this first collection. It was originally released when i was phasing away from my (long) comic reader/collector phase. I remember clearly LOVING the covers. And (i'll be drawn and quartered for this by fans, and probably deserve it) the interior art - talked me out of buying them. Then i would hear how great they were, and i'd look for the earliest books i could find and the same scenario happened. I guess i was an art
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Dec 23, 2010
Bryan
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This is the beginning of my official Sandman reboot project. This series destroyed my world as a teen so now I'm going back. Gaiman's fiction feels like a rehash of his comics work so I want to go back see if series is as good as I remember it, and lives up to its reputation as "best ever."
First, a few things that were revolutionary (at least for DC Comics) in 1990 don't seem as game changing now: LGBT characters, non-mainstream subcultures, and "adult" subject ma More...
First, a few things that were revolutionary (at least for DC Comics) in 1990 don't seem as game changing now: LGBT characters, non-mainstream subcultures, and "adult" subject ma More...
