Sandman

Sandman

This website is a quick overview about the DC comic Sandman, which ran from 1989 to 1996. The Sandman is a comic book written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics. Its artists include Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Jill Thompson, Shawn McManus, Marc Hempel, Bryan Talbot, and Michael Zulli, with lettering by Todd Klein and covers by Dave McKean. The original series ran for 75 issues from January 1989 to March 1996. Beginning with issue No. 47, it was placed under DC's Vertigo imprint, and following Vertigo's retirement in 2020, reprints have been published under DC's Black Label imprint. Sandman soon became one of the most popular DC comics, paving the way for many more spin offs, characters, movies and tv shows. The series ran for an ultimate seventy five issues, and was wrapped up in '96, almost seven years after the first issue was published. The series influenced a whole new generation of comic book artists and writers along the way, as well as inspiring many of its readers.

The Sandman grew out of a proposal by Neil Gaiman to revive DC's 1974 series The Sandman, written by Joe Simon and Michael Fleisher and illustrated by Jack Kirby and Ernie Chua. Gaiman soon began constructing a treatment for a new series. Gaiman mentioned his treatment in passing to DC editor Karen Berger. While months later Berger offered Gaiman a comic title to work on, he was unsure his Sandman pitch would be accepted. Weeks later, Berger asked Gaiman if he was interested in doing a Sandman series. Gaiman recalled, "I said, 'Um ... yes. Yes, definitely. What's the catch?' Berger said 'There's only one. We'd like a new Sandman. Keep the name. But the rest is up to you.'"

The debut issue of The Sandman went on sale November 29, 1988 and was cover-dated January 1989. Gaiman described the early issues as "awkward", since he, as well as Kieth, Dringenberg, and Busch, (the artists) had never worked on a regular series before. Gaiman's approach to scripting the series became more difficult as the complex storyline and characters developed. "When I began writing Sandman, it would take me a couple of weeks to write a script. As time went by I got slower and slower, until a script was taking me six weeks a month to write." The Sandman became a cult success for DC Comics, and attracted an audience unlike that of mainstream comics: much of the readership was female, many were in their twenties, and many read no other comics at all. Comics historian Les Daniels called Gaiman's work "astonishing" and noted that The Sandman was "a mixture of fantasy, horror, and ironic humor such as comic books had never seen before. DC Comics writer and executive Paul Levitz observed that "The Sandman became the first extraordinary success as a series of graphic novel collections, reaching out and converting new readers to the medium, particularly young women on college campuses, and making Gaiman himself into an iconic cultural figure.


Read on to find out more about Sandman!





Meet the family:

Sandman entails the adventures of the god of dreams, Dream of the Endless, throughout the centuries of humanities existence. But a lot of the drama is family drama, as it tends to be. So if youre going to start the series, its only fair you get to know the gang.

  • DREAM
  • Dream is one of the seven Endless, who are powerful beings older than gods. He is both the personification, as well as the lord over all dreams and stories, and all that is not in reality (which, in turn, Dream may define by his existence). He has had many names such as Morpheus, Kai'ckul, Sandman, and Oneiros. Though ultimately a heroic character, Dream has many flaws. He has trouble catching sarcasm and jests, causing him to often appear cold and humorless. Dream can be insensitive, self-obsessed, and slow to forgive or forget what he perceives as slights. He has a long history of broken romances, and is shown, both directly and by implication, to be prone to harsh reactions when his relationships fail.
  • DEATH
  • Death is the second oldest of the Endless and the elder sister of Dream. She is a generally kind and upbeat individual, though this was not always the case. Billions of years ago she was quite cold and pragmatic. Everyone meets her twice: at birth she gives the breath of life, and everyone, from stars to gods, see her once more. At the end of time, when the universe dies, she claims that she will "put up the chairs, turn off the lights, and lock the doors behind me when I leave."
  • DESPAIR
  • Despair and her older twin, Desire, are second youngest of the Endless. Despair's sigil is a hooked ring she wears on her left hand. Her realm is a gray, foggy space filled with rats and mirrors which she uses to look upon people in their despair.Despair is perpetually somber and monotone, yet she maintains a cold, quietly intelligent manner. While she seeks to sow misery and unhappiness through tragedy, she is not an active enforcer in this regard, and mostly allows misfortune to happen at its natural pace. Regardless, Despair still takes delight in it, and often is encouraged to cause it if Desire convinces her to.
  • DESIRE
  • Desire is the third youngest of the Endless and the twin of Despair. The anthropomorphic personification of its name, Desire blends in effortlessly with whatever environment it finds itself in. It lives in the heart of a massive flesh-and-blood statue of itself, known as the Threshold. Desire's sigil is a heart of cut glass.
  • DESTINY
  • Destiny is the first and eldest of the Endless. Like the rest of his siblings, Destiny is neither a mortal being nor a god; he is the personification of Destiny itself. As the universe came into being, so it would be that it would come to its final destiny, its end. Destiny's realm is "his Garden", a hedge maze that can be reached through all mazes. At its center is his castle, complete with silent "fluttering" attendants. If family meetings are called, Destiny is usually the host.
  • DELIRIUM
  • Delirium, formerly known as Delight, is the youngest of The Endless. Once the personification of pleasure and joy, she somehow evolved in to Delirium long before the onset of the story for reasons unknown and unexplained. To the ancient Greeks, she was known as Mania. As her name suggests, Delirium is scatterbrained and easily distracted; she often forgets the thread of her conversations and comes out with offbeat and seemingly inconsequential observations.
  • DESTRUCTION
  • Destruction is the fourth eldest of the Endless. He is also known as Olethros, and is the only one of the Endless to abandon his realm and responsibilities and so is often referred to as The Prodigal.Destruction prefers to think of himself as the personification of change; a warrior poet, he likes to try his hand at creating various forms of art, none of which are very good, and things that he's involved with never seem to work out properly. Apart from Death, Destruction is the friendliest and most personable of all the Endless. Before he left the family, he was the peacemaker of the group, the one who got along with everyone. Some of other Endless seem to hold him in contempt for abandoning his duties to varying degrees. Destruction himself however bears then no ill-will and regrets abandoning his family, but left as he believed it was a matter of conscience.

    Together, they are essentially the embodiment of a family crisis.

    And thats about all the knowlege I can impart with you. Just check out the series! Its cool!