Sandman Mystery Theatre, Vol. 1: The Tarantula

Sandman Mystery Theatre (collected editions) #1

by Matt Wagner, Guy Davis (Illustrator), John Costanza (Illustrator)

In this noir detective tale of intrigue, bigotry and incest, millionaire Wesley Dodds takes on the costumed persona of the Sandman to catch a sadistic killer in 1930s New York. Donning a gas mask, fedora, business suit and cape, Dodds goes after the Tarantula, a brutal kidnapper who is mercilessly preying upon the women of high society. But as the Sandman walks through a world of corruption and deceit, he uncovers the true secret of the murders and their implausible connection to the city's most prominent family. SUGGESTED FOR MATURE READERS.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Crime, Mystery, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

112 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 10, 1993

About the author

Matt Wagner is an American comic book writer and artist. In addition to his creator-owned series' Mage and Grendel, he has also worked on comics featuring The Demon and Batman as well as such titles as Sandman Mystery Theatre and Trinity, a DC Comics limited series featuring Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

The original Sandman was a Golden Age superhero and a founding member of the Justice Society of America.



He ran around in a trench coat and gas mask, using knock out gas to subdue evil doers and get them to reveal their dark secrets.



I’m assuming the publishers back then thought this was just a tad bit creepy, so they put him in yellow and purple spandex and gave him a teen-aged boy side kick named, Sandy, the Golden Boy…



The creepiness was now only sub-textual. Heh.

During the heyday of DC’s Vertigo line of comics, Matt Wagner revived the title, adding a nice noir-ish, pulpy edge. It seems that Wesley Dodds has spent some time in the orient hanging out in brothels getting baked in opium dens learning the in’s and out’s of making different kinds of gas and honing his overarching sense of justice.



Dodds is also plagued by haunting, yet lyrically poetic, dreams that don’t include walking around nude at the local grocery store.



I’m guessing, but this is probably a side-effect from the opiates.

Anyway, there’s a kidnapping/murder/mobster/torture/corruption/money laundering/incest/jaywalking thing happening in New York City, so Dodds can finally put all his new-found skills to good use.



Plus, he leaves origami animals whenever he pays a visit. Neat-o!

I’m of two minds on the artwork of Guy Davis. One, he does a great job capturing the times and atmosphere; yet, he’s less than effective in differentiating some of the characters. Was that the detective’s superior or the assistant district attorney or a random, well-dressed hobo?



Bottom line: This one’s a re-read from sometime back. I came across the first four volumes of the series in a bargain bin (so expect more reviews, kids). Wagner does a fine job building up the tension and stringing the reader along in what’s sometimes a byzantine plot with one too many characters. There’s enough gray area here for all concerned (including the Sandman) to keep this from drifting into the bland. Dian Belmont, who would later become a partner of sorts, plays less the damsel in distress and more a self-assured resourceful women who doesn’t let the times trap her ambitions and intelligence.

[mark monday · Rating 3 out of 5]

Matt Wagner updates Golden Age Sandman with a conspicuously modern focus on torture and atrocity while keeping the setting enjoyably retro. the time is the 1930s and the milieu is a post-Depression world of high society, gangsters, and a lack of costumed heroes. Enter the Sandman. He has a great, sinister look (trench coat, three-piece suit, and gas mask), a bunch of disturbing dreams, and no powers outside of his pluck and a supply of sleeping gas. he's a wonderfully idiosyncratic hero. the story itself is very noir and surprisingly perverse.

Guy Davis provides the art and it is perfectly fitting for the story, all spidery lines and fuzzy backdrops. unfortunately, he's terrible with faces and that ends up being a real minus.

Wagner is an accomplished and experienced writer and his strengths (and weaknesses) are on display in The Tarantula. I appreciated the focus on women, although he does play that annoying game of pointing out that women are usually victims - while still having women be the victims of his story. put up or shut up, Wagner. and there's always been an off-putting tendency in his work to really embrace the dark side to an almost exploitative, torture-porn degree, and that's certainly present in this story (a lot of torture plus molestation, incest, etc). so much that I found it to be over the top and unnecessary and it almost ruined the story for me. fortunately, the story itself is compelling enough, the hero is great, the art is interesting, and for the most part Wagner is a fine writer... so overall, a good read.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as part of Sandman Mystery Theatre: Book One.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sparkling dialog and a careful study of human nature mark the first volume of The Sandman Mystery Theatre, starring the WW2 Sandman, Wesley Dodds. Matt Wagner creates a world full of amoralists, and it's the Sandman's duty to correct injustices in order to soothe his tortured soul.

The antagonists in this story are not hard to figure out, but the way Wagner brings us to the conclusion is sharp and mesmerizing. This is a thoroughly enjoyable story, as sickening as much of it is. Film noir as Comics noir.

Artist Guy Davis has a scratchy, "underground comix" style of illustration. The characters are not attractive, and the perspective is often a bit skewed, but it fits the mood of the book very well.

[Malum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing fusion of old school pulp and modern storytelling. If you like things like The Shadow, this will be right up your alley. If I had one complaint it would be that it was hard telling people apart because everyone looked the same.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this one. I love the 1938 setting, and I love how dark the material is, both for a comic book in itself and for something set in 1938. There's some dark, sick family secrets at the root of this story, with the hero being a very unlikely one, both in character and methods. Just very well done. This was loosely based on Golden Age Sandman stories, which were considered quite macabre for the time. I liked the art but I can see how some may find it too stylistic. Overall a great Halloween season read.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty engaging mystery sort of a blend between hardboiled detective stories and early superhero stuff. Good artwork by Guy Davis, but I don't think he's got to the point of greatness like he achieved in BPRD.

['kris Pung · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great noir book where surprisingly the killers identity is revealed pretty early on but it was still enjoyable watching the good guys put all the pieces together.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this reminds me of Grendel but with a slightly better editor lol. Basically it contains all the intrigue Wagner builds here, dark characters, in a dark twisted world but doesn't feel so prose and over the top dialogue. Just normal people trying to hunt down a killer after these girls are kidnapped. Overall really dug it, Sandman is a interesting character, and I'll be reading more from this series.

[Raymond Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sandman Mystery Theater is a bizarre beast. The Sandman it is referring to was a character created in the 1930s, a strange pulp novel character of the newly-created comic books at the time. In the 1980s, Neil Gaiman took the character and updated him... as a god of dreams. He stated that the 30s Sandman was created when Gaiman’s Sandman was imprisoned by faux-magicians. With the success of Gaiman’s Sandman, DC set up to try their hand at the 30s Sandman again.

And, oh my God, is it fantastic. Matt Wagner (of Grendel fame) takes up the tale of Wesley Dodds, a wealthy businessman who starts to have horrible nightmares of crimes and finds that the only way to make them go away is to don a trenchcoat and gas mask and go out to fight crime. Much like the original comic book, this is pure pulp fiction. But it’s wonderful. Where dark but trite plots plagued the former, this incarnation is full of meaty plots, wonderful characterization, and sharp dialogue. And Guy Davis’ artwork is almost anti-comic book in its detailed realism, historically accurate body sizes, and noir cinema-quality framing. Together they make a formidable pair as much as Wesley and his paramour Diane are. And, oh yeah, Diane is a female character who is at once his equal. Not just a romantic interest but a fully-thinking functioning character? That’s crazy.

Enter the world of the Golden Age Sandman. This is the crime novel you’ve always wanted to read.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd read a few stray issues of Sandman Mystery Theatre, but this is the first time I've read any of the collected editions. I liked the story with some qualifications: I'm uneasy with the prevalence of depictions of sexualised violence against women in popular fiction, and the first story arc of SMT contains a great deal of this sort of thing. It's clear who the bad guys are, but still, I am not sure it is handled as well as it could be. The other problem is that, at the end of this story arc, the character of Wesley Dodds, the Sandman, is still a bit of a cypher. The police were always one step behind him and aside from one essential clue it isn't clear that this mystery could not have been solved without his interference. Dian, who is destined to be his partner, is very well characterised and this makes up for the annoyingly nebulous nature of Dodds. Hopefully future volumes will bring him more into focus. Finally, I really liked the art. It's atmospheric and has personality.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m glad I found this gem.

I never read the golden age Sandman, but had heard about it from Grant Morrison’s book Supergods. The feeling I got was it was a sort of cult character that was similar to Batman, but never broke out. Then there was whatever weird reboot Kirby did decades later that didn’t resemble the golden age character at all. Then we had the now famous Gaiman Sandman reboot as the literal king of dreams.

Gaiman did cameo both the golden age version and Kirby’s character early in his Sandman run.

Spawned out of that cameo was this title that ran for about 60 issues (give or take).

What’s here is a very mature reimagining of the golden age Sandman that’s purely pulp detective stories with a bite of realism.

Sandman is set in the world briefly after prohibition ended. It’s a world of gangsters, racism, misogyny, and grisly street crime. Sandman is Wesley Dodds who spends his night chasing down horrifying criminals wearing only a gas mask and using sleeping gas to incapacitate his enemies.

It’s a very realistic take on “superhero” genre, if that’s even the right label. If you like pulpy detective stories reimagined for adults, this is a good series to look into.

[Frank Hoppe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the noir-ish feel to it and a female protagonist who was smart, assertive, and not too attractive in the all-too-usual sense. There were some sketchy places where I didn't fully fathom what was being depicted, but the book was a fun ride.

[angelofmine1974 · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/HsyGXYHBHTc

Enjoy!

[Zardoz · Rating 3 out of 5]

1930’s Noir with a vigilante detective/wealthy do gooder solving crimes. Sounds pretty tame, but definitely has some dark moments. Not your typical graphic novel. This volume contains three different story arcs that involve torture and sexual abuse of a minor, so not for the kiddies.

[Minh · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars.

[Andy Zeigert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN was perfect in almost every way.

So why did Vertigo revive the character again? Just to hit closer to the original mark? Who knows. Most likely it was to try to ride the wave. Maybe even trick a few people into thinking they were getting more of Gaiman's SANDMAN.

In any case, SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE didn't have much going for it. Except that it turned out to be kind of brilliant. Matt Wagner's noir sensibilities shine, and the hand lettering of the book reminds me how boring today's ubiquitous digital lettering can be.

Mostly I picked up this title to see early art from Guy Davis, and I wasn't disappointed. His organic style was great then, even if it has grown into something greater since.

This first volume does struggle from a clunky narrative, and more action would probably have brought it up a notch. Still, I'll likely pick up another volume, although Davis doesn't return on art until Vol. 3. I'm just a sucker for pulp noir.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originaly bought as single-issues, I have the complete collection.

Somehow, Matt Wagner and Guy Davis were the perfect team to bring the original Sandman back.
Where most writers would have updated the character to bring him into the 21st century, Matt Wagner goes way back to his original roots set in the 1940s and gives us a bare bones version of the character.
This isn't a super-hero, he doesn't jump from rooftops, he's faillable, he's a well-rounded, caring human being, heck he's not even muscle-bound, he could probably even lose a bit of weight. You actually get the impression that he has to make an effort to do the things he does. Add to that the more than believable love interest of Dian and you have the setting for some great stories.

These stories should be re-collected into Absolute or Deluxe editions... even if I might be the only one buying them :-)

[Michael Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

First story arc of new tales of the Golden Age comic book character, Sandman. This is not Gaiman's Endless Sandman, but a human crime fighter who works in shadow with a truth/knockout gas gun and a World War I gas mask. I bought the first issue of this from the newsstand and, after reading it through back in the day, decided not to continue the series. Now that I've read the entire four-issue story, I still don't find it compelling enough to read other stories in the series. The plot is pedestrian, and the art is moody but barely adequate to differentiate minor characters from one another. Don't get me wrong. If someone put more Sandman story collections in front of me, I would read them and enjoy them. I just wouldn't go out of my way for them.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Film Noir in comic book form. This feels like it came right out of the late 1930s. The Wesley Dodds Sandman is a character I've been interested in reading more of for some time, and luckily I got my hands on this. This is a great start for a series, taking a character from the past, and letting modern readers get a chance to enjoy him. Luckily Matt Wagner is able to write pulp noir very well, and with all that atmosphere and great backdrop, tell us a story of murder, incest, blackmail and more!

I heartily recommend this to anyone who likes Noir or the Sandman of the 1930s-40s. It's just a good book altogether.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, well-fleshed out characters in a story that was a bit too dry for my taste. I picked this up because it has some early Guy Davis art. Not too big a fan of the color palette, all of the characters look like either like albinos or dead.

[Devowasright · Rating 4 out of 5]

i had some of these issues once upon a time... such great stories.. a great concept, and reinvention of the golden age sandman..

[Devero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acquistai e lessi anni fa i volumetti di questa serie Vertigo. Ho deciso per una rilettura, magari sporadica, per capire come questa serie, che mi vide abbastanza critico all'epoca, ha retto lo scorrere del tempo. Ad esempio l'idea di archi narrativi in 4 atti, corrispondenti ognuno ad uno spillato originale mensile. Questo per una serie regolare. Decisamente limitante a mio avviso.

La premessa è che siamo alla fine del 1937, quattro anni dopo l'abrogazione del XVIII emendamento alla costituzione americana, ossia 4 anni dopo la fine del proibizionismo.
Wesley Dodds è tonato negli USA dall'oriente dopo la morte del padre per prenderne in mano gli affari, ma con una missione dettatagli dai suoi incubi. Incubi abbastanza particolari, profetici, che lo spingono all'azione. Armato di una pistola a gas narcotico ed ipnotico, di maschera antigas e cappello, inizia la sua lotta contro il crimine e conosce la figlia di un giudice, Dian Belmont, di cui inizia ad innamorarsi.

La riscrittura di questo personaggio della golden age del fumetto ne fa un attore da crime story e non più un super eroe, almeno nelle prime fasi. I suoi avversari sono il male, la depravazione, i peccati capitali della società americana dell'epoca, sull'orlo della seconda guerra mondiale.
Al taglio noir delle avventure, Wagner accosta una buona dose di comprimari e una caratterizzazione psicologica degli stessi in divenire. Anche gli avversari sono fortemente caratterizzanti e caratterizzati. In questo arco narrativo abbiamo la famiglia di un gangster: lui oramai al tramonto, controllato dalla figlia che fu abusata più volte dal padre stesso fin da bambina ed ora ha preso il controllo e sottomesso il suo padre-orco. La moglie invece ha in suo potere il figlio maschio, alcolizzato e fallito, bullizzato e con un lato sadico. Lo sfogherà sulle donne che la madre gli farà rapire, perché la prima è una amica di Dian che sta intessendo una relazione con il gangster. Tarantula è il figlio, ma in questa famiglia nessuno si salva.
Storia decisamente violenta, abbastanza ben disegnata da Guy Davis. Il suo stile, per quanto adatto alla storia, non è tra quelli che prediligo. Un eccesso di tratteggio e di linee sottili che mi ricorda un grande disegnatore italiano, anch'esso mai tra i miei preferiti Guido Buzzelli per gli stessi motivi. Almeno Buzzelli sapeva caratterizzare meglio i volti dei personaggi. A volte con Davis si confonde il padre di Dian con il procuratore distrettuale amico suo, e non sempre lo stesso Dodds è chiramente identificabile. Inoltre, dovendo disegnare delle belle ragazze, si rivela inadeguato.
3 stelle all'albo, che nel complesso regge bene il passare dei decenni.

[Wes · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great, throwback, pulp comic from Matt Wagner. If you've come for period action pieces, art deco gadgets, and big punches, then this is the wrong comic for you. The focus is less on the Sandman vigilante's technical gear and fighting prowess, and more on the detective work that the character(s) engage in and the unraveling of a criminal mystery.
While not a superhero book, per se, the main character is very similar to Bruce Wayne/Batman. Wesley Dodds is so much like Bruce Wayne, that I could pretty easily see how this could be turned into a Batman, or even Elseworlds Batman, story with some very minor tweaks. That being said, The Sandman is much more in line with the Pulp heroes of the 30's, which just so happens to be the time period of this comic. Excellent stuff.
The only real knock I can see about this would be the art. I, personally, think that it is very well done. Every panel reads correctly, the buildings, clothing and style are accurate, the perspective is great, and the colors really lend to the time period and moodiness of the story. If I had to point out an issue, it would be that the old, white men in the story are all kind of drawn the same and if can be hard to identify which old man is which.

All in all, come for Wagner trying dipping his hand in pulp storytelling. That being said, if you are the kind of person who only appreciates that Jim Lee or Todd McFarlane style, you're going to be sorely disappointed as Guy Davis has a much rougher and more scribbly style then most mainstream artists.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had this sitting on my Kindle Fire for literally months. I think it was free with the Sandman show coming to Netflix, even though this is not that Sandman. This is a 90s series based on the Golden Age Sandman from the 1930s, not the Neil Gaiman reboot in the 80s.

Other than some graphic violence and language, it does a good job of capturing the essence of a Golden Age comic. It doesn't spend a lot of time on Wesley Dodds' origins, but just that like Lamont Cranston or, you know, Bruce Wayne, he's spent some time traveling and learning skills and come back to New York to fight crime at night. In this case he uses a gas mask and gas gun. There are crime families and while there are names like "The Tarantula" and "The Face" and "The Brute" they aren't exactly supervillains.

Along with Wesley there's Dian, the spunky daughter of the DA who also is a frequent visitor at Wesley's house--though only to talk. She really is cut in that Lois Lane or Vicki Vale mold.

The art is often rough-looking like a lot of current Marvel stuff. It varies from one volume to another or sometimes one issue to another. I wasn't all that impressed with it, but the covers were nice and I liked the stories.

Maybe someday this will get its own Netflix series.

[Linnea Gelland · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great reading experience for the Noir-lover.

I particularly like how dirty and realistic everything feels. Ugly, even. In the best possible way.

The Sandman is not a muscle-man with white teeth, but a chubby little guy with enormous glasses (which, by clever design, remind of the gas-mask he wears as his alter ego). The leading lady is not a damsel in distress, or spandex-clad eye candy, but tough, nosy and clever. The crime is a gruesome, disturbing affair, and all there is to fight it with, is wits and a tank of gas. Even the dialogue is chopped up with pretty realistic um, er, uh's - something that SHOULD be irritating, but somehow manages to work in its favour.

Very enjoyable.

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually a pretty fun volume with a case of missing women and how Wes is investigating them but he is not really the focus here, like maybe a bit of cameos and obv. the captions are his thoughts but its focused on Dian for the most part and her active involvement in the case and rotating between her father aka the DA and a judge and some narcotics guy and when his daughter goes missing and when all the clues connect, we see who this villainous "Tarantula" is and its a fun reveal, you could have seen the reveal coming, but pretty good tho. Its one of those titles which is set in the golden age and giving it a modern spin for the most part and thats awesome! So definitely read it! I have heard its one of the best DC comics run ever so it should be a fun read overall.

[Chris Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a promising start, nicely contrasting the pulpy/ noir milieu with Wesley Dodds’ rather schoolboyish demeanour/ darker Sandman persona. And it’s good to see a properly dynamic support in Dian, albeit one that doesn’t quite balance out the slight whiff of misogyny about the torture at the centre of the plot. But the writing zips and more importantly knows when not to zip, and Guy Davis’ art is incredible: spidery, cluttered and very evocative

[Andie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The whole comic was confusing for me as it keeps even the most basics details away from us. The characters don't look alike from one panel to the other, it's filled with messy transitions, blurry drawings, constant disruptions, etc.

I imagine it could be explained by the fact that it's the first volume. It probably tries to lay out the most of the important details, creating therefore a massive confusion about what lays ahead.

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most underrated comic book series ever, I realize this comic may not appeal to a mass audience but I'm my controversial opinion this series is better than The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, if you want an SVU/Criminal minds type story set in the 1930s this is the comic you've been waiting for, fair warned though DC has never released the complete series so you'll have to find alternative means to read the whole thing but I can guarantee you will not be disappointed