The world of comic books was a very different place before the Sandman came into being. Neil Gaiman revolutionized the graphic novel with "The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes," an exquisite story filled with shadowy realistic art and strange magical beings. This is one of those rare stories that tantalizes you with beauty and chills you to your core, all at the same time.
A group of occultists are attempting to summon and trap Death... but instead, they capture Dream and lock him in a glass orb. Decades pass, and countless people are locked in slumber -- unable to dream, unable to wake for long. One day, Dream escapes his prison and reenters the world, but loses the last of his power with his final act of revenge.
His Dreamworld palace has fallen into ruin, and his magical items have been scattered. To regain his power, he must get back his helm, his pouch of sand, and his dreamstone. His journey to regain them will take him across worlds -- to John Constantine and a woman destroyed by dreams, to the depths of Hell at a demonic club, and a ghastly madman who drives various people to depravity and death.
The world of "The Sandman" is a strange one -- it lightly interlocks with other graphic novel series, effortlessly slips from one world to another, and exposes both the beauty and ugliness of our own world. "Preludes and Nocturnes" is an excellent introduction to Neil Gaiman's strange, expansive world -- as well as his hollow-eyed anti-hero.
At its core, the story is rather simple, since it's basically a quest for Dream's three magical "tools." But Gaiman paints it with foreshadowing, nightmarish grotesqueries (flesh melting off bones, John Dee's drooling lipless face), and some zanily macabre humor (the Hellfire Club... in hell!). And as the dust settles, Gaiman caps his story off with a quieter interlude in which Dream encounters his sister Death.
And the artwork is sublime -- realistic in style, but often bizarre and a little frightening in theme. And despite the core colors being shadowy greys, whites and blacks, there are splashes of bright colors everywhere. Green fields, blue hallways, psychedelic skies, hallucinations filled with sickly pallid hues.
And Gaiman created one of his most iconic, complex characters in Dream -- his inhumanness is underlined by acts of great cruelty and kindness, and his sad, grim demeanor is more than a little touching. The author also spun up a very nonstereotypical version of Death. No robes, scythes or skeletal faces here. In fact, forget about anything sinister -- this version of Death is a delightfully quirky, perky goth chick.
"Preludes and Nocturnes" is a harrowing and hypnotic look into the world of dreams -- what happens when the Sandman is imprisoned, and what must be done after. Sublime.Get more detail about The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes.
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