The Annotated Sandman – Neil Gaiman and Leslie S. Klinger

     I just finished the first volume of the Annotated Sandman. I thought it was brilliant but when do I not think Neil Gaiman is brilliant? I like the idea of the Endless, the few permanent anthropomorphic pieces of the universe that will stick around until the end. The whole series starts when Aleister Crowley and his cronies are preforming a ritual to capture Death and instead get Dream. The series then follows what happens in the years that Dream is imprisoned and the things he has to do to set his realm back to rights. Of course being a comic and working closely with DC, there are quite a few appearances from other superheroes and villains. Constantine and Arkham Asylum both show up in the first few issues as well as the original Sandman from the 70s. There are seven of the Endless but by the end of the first 20 issues you are only really introduced to 3 and a Fourth is mentioned. So I’m eager to see how the rest of the Endless fit in and interact.

     There are a few stand-alone issues as a break after a lot of the major storyline is done for the first part. You also get a sense of Dream’s history with mortals and surprisingly his love life. My favorite was titled A Dream of A Thousand cats. A cat is wronged by her owners and begs and prays for answers from every deity and demigod she could think of, Dream is the only one who answers. He spins her a tale of how the world used to be, where humans were tiny and hunted and cats were gargantuan and rulers. By humans using the power of dreams, they changed things to be (and to always have been) the other way around and all it took was one thousand people all believing the same dream. So the cat travels the world spreading her message from Dream that if a thousand cats all believe and dream the same dream then the world can be put back into its proper place. The (new) Dr. Who series 3 Finale is very reminiscent of this comic and may even have been inspired by it.  

     Did I mention I think Neil Gaiman is brilliant? The art work is gorgeous. While I didn’t pick this up for the annotated parts (and I’ve never read an annotated work before), the notes were useful in picking out who was important to remember and seeing what cool little references and Easter Eggs were slipped in there. It was also a big help to know the years from the comic cameos and who they were. I never would have been able to find half that stuff out without much internet research since I’m not a huge comic fan. It’s a very dark kind of series so far. Even the stand alone issues aren’t extremely light hearted and fun but they do raise the mood for the more serious and overarching story line. These stories arches do tend to end on an “everything will be fine eventually” note which makes dealing with the more disturbing storylines easier. If you like serious (but entertaining) stories, if you like comics, if you like…anything, go pick this up from the library if you can’t find it in stores. Now I’m off to return this one and pick up volume 2.