The Sandman by Neil Gaiman

At the end of the last school year, I began reading the graphic novel The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. Interestingly enough, I was started on this long series by a Facebook post with a quote from the book. I doubt that she knew what it was from, but online, the reviews were hot so I decided to start it for myself. Now, I had options as to how I wanted to read it and I decided to start on the 4 volume set with about 800 GIANT pages per book. (This was called the Absolute Sandman). The thing was seriously about 10-15 pounds (it was a whopper!). Regardless, I read the first volume between April and the beginning of June, 2011 and I recently finished the second volume this weekend.

First off, let's get the plot, shall we? The basics are simply that there are entities (gods I guess) that exist and the main ones are all from the same family (this is used loosely). The main-main characters are Dream (aka Morpheus) and his sister Death (yes Death is a girl). It is all about his "life." The story begins in a relatively modern world (1990's if my memory serves me well), but eventually goes all over the place in time. That's the gist, but the plot is much more complex than I am making it.

I am no fan of graphic novels (but I have managed to read a few), but this one was strangely captivating (probably due to some major adult content). Did that just make me sound like a pervert? hmm. What I meant to say was that the other graphic novels I read were very childish and Gaiman created graphic novel for a mature audience. (That sounds much better... let's go with the second). Although the plots to the separate stories were good, I found it may have been better if Gaiman had created a temporally correct progression. Another thing I wished he would have done differently is to exclude some of his mild nudity and slightly perverse minor characters. If I were I psychiatrist, I would wonder about this Neil fella. Regardless of all the little details that put me off, I would still suggest at least the first volume to everyone (everyone that wants to be blown away by pictorial awesomeness).

Happy Reading!