(3) NEIL GAIMAN –

THE SANDMAN (DC Vertigo 1989-1996)

You knew this was coming. Neil Gaiman may simply be the greatest living writer of fantasy, the literary (and suitably English) heir to J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis (both of whom were substantial influences on him). Stephen King has praised Gaiman as “a treasure house of story” and added that “we are lucky to have him in any medium”. And indeed we are – with his lyrical prose, his power of story and his sensibility of fantasy as ultimately the layers of story within our world.

His most mythic work – indeed, the core of Gaiman’s mythos – is The Sandman. It is of course within the genre of fantasy, with an episode even winning the 1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Fiction (prompting the awards administration thereafter to revise – or remember – the rules to exclude comics or graphic novels, those snobs!). Indeed, it “falls within the dark fantasy genre, albeit in a more contemporary or modern setting”, but transcends genre into urban fantasy, epic fantasy, historical drama, superheroes, mythology and more. Its mythos, and even more so its mythic themes of the power of belief and the power of story, recur throughout Gaiman’s writing.

The plot or mythos of The Sandman revolves around the titular character, also known as Morpheus from the god of dreams in classical mythology or simply, Dream, one of the seven cosmic alliterative and anthropomorphic personifications known as the Endless – Death, Destiny, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium (formerly Delight). Dream along with Death and Destiny is one of the big three players of the Endless – which may initially seem surprising given that dreams seem somewhat minor compared to death or destiny, but the sheer scope or force of dreams and dreaming which he personifies becomes manifest through the series. As Dream tells Lucifer when the latter threatens to renege on Dream’s safe passage out of Hell and mockingly asks what power dreams have in hell – “what power would Hell have if those here imprisoned were not able to dream of Heaven?”

RATING: 5 STARS*****

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