Hello there, gentle reader. I hope your week has been pleasant. For my part, classes have started once again, and they have prevented me from keeping up with my daily regimen of Fallout 3. This unfortunate circumstance means that I have not yet finished the game and cannot do a review of it just yet. I was fortunate enough, however, to have a copy of Neil Gaiman's Absolute Sandman Volume 1 fall into my lap for only fifteen dollars. This was too good an offer to pass up.
For those of you who don't know of him, Neil Gaiman is a writer. He is responsible for such interesting bits of literature as American Gods, Anansi Boys, Neverwhere, and Stardust. Gaiman also has two collections of short stories and has been known to occasionally pen the odd screenplay (please forgive him for “Beowulf”). Most of my friends and I would consider him to be one of the best contemporary novelists writing in English (note that he is not one of the fantastic but boring novelists) and I would consider the Sandman comics among his best works.
I have only read a quarter of the total series, but I believe that I have finished enough story arcs to render a fair judgment. The Sandman follows the anthropomorphic personification of dream (for those of you who do not study literature on a daily basis, that means that the main character is the idea of “dream” given a body). This character has many name including Sandman, Dream, Morpheus, and others. He is one of several siblings that are also personifications such as Destiny, Death, and Desire. All of these so-called “Endless” are immortal and god-like, which makes for an interesting protagonist.
Gaiman confronts a challenge with the character of Dream himself. This is a character who never dies and has complete control over dreams and the sleep of all of humanity. In many ways, Dream is inhuman, which makes it hard for the reader to connect and empathize with him. Gaiman usues the nature of his protagonist to his advantage, though by making Dream a sort-of mysterious anti-hero. In many scenes, Dream is a powerful demi-god who speaks very archaically and goes about his errands with little regard for the individuals within humanity. This makes an interesting character for a while, but without a human side, no reader would actually care what happens to Dream because he would be impossible to connect with. Gaiman intersperses many scenes that humanize the character of Dream, though. After he finishes his initial quest, he becomes moody because he has no goal to strive for anymore, so his gentle and caring sister, Death pays him a visit and he goes with her as she does her work. They discuss a few things and at the end, Dream's spirit is uplifted.
The work is written very subtly, and a reader must pay close attention to catch everything that is happening, but this makes for a very rewarding reading experience. There is also quite a bit of interesting philosophy embedded within the strange mythology of the work. These two aspects, which characterize the better part of Gaiman's entire body of work force the reader to actually think, and anything that does that is worthy of great accolade.
Of course, there is no such thing as a perfect piece of literature, so if I am forced to find a problem with what I have read thus far, it would have to be the artwork. While the words that fill the text bubbles amaze me, the pictures that fill the panels underwhelm me. There are parts where it all works really well, such as when the reader is looking into the dark eyes of Dream, or when a particularly abstract bit of the Dreaming (Dream's realm) is being depicted, but overall, the art style leaves much to be desired. I would elaborate more fully on this point, but, frankly, I don't know how. I'm a writer, not an artist, and I'm not knowledgeable enough in the field to really critique that aspect of the work.
Sandman is a fantastic piece of literature that needs to be read despite the lackluster artwork. In addition, I would recommend reading Neil Gaiman's novels and short stories. They represent the work of a master of the craft.
Now go forth and read,
Zac
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3 comments:
I don't know if i would go so far as to call the artwork in Sandman "lackluster", but I will concede that the stories are rendered in a mundane fashion, but also rendered that way with a purpose. Wouldn't it make sense that Sandman would be rendered to not be spectacular and awe-inspiring, which would only further distance the reader. It serves as a distinct juxtaposition to show fantastical beings in a mundane way such as we are often depicted. That's why the Greek Gods were depicted as awesome and larger than life and perfect people to make them appear so. Sense the Endless in Sandman are depicted in the same mundane manner as you or me it helps to further anchor the characters to preconceived notions of humanity. Yet again the work must be seen as a whole when working with the medium of comic books, with how the art and story reinforce each other. It is a symbiotic relationship and each is dependent upon the other in order to convey a single, unifying story.
There are certain aspects of sandman's art that can be impenetrable, but overall I think the writing makes up for the bad points in the art style and there are so many different art styles for different portions of the story that there will always be something to everyone's tastes somewhere. For example, my favorite is Endless Nights and specifically I love the art style of Dream's story, although Death and Desire both have fantastic stories in their own ways. I can't stand Dispair's section however, but I'm sure there is someone who loves it above all the rest and that is what makes it so appealing as a comic book.
For the rest of the review though, I'd say "spot on" as Dr. Wood would. (no pun, I swear) In either case, I'm jealous because I paid more than that for Preludes & Noctournes. Oh well, c'est la vie.
Thanks for commenting Dillon. As I said, I'm not an artist, and I wouldn't have even bothered mentioning the artwork (since I don't know what I'm talking about) but for the fact that, as you say, the writing and the art must work together and so it bears mentioning. What you say about the juxtaposition between the grand nature of the Endless and the mundane artwork make sense to me, and bearing that mind, I find the entire work more seamless. Thanks for your input.
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