The Absolute Sandman, Volume One

Firstly, let me say that this compendium of Sandman comics is a beast of book. It is heavy and awkward, but beautifully made. Maybe not the easiest to read, but it is a fantastic work of art...

As to the stories themselves, Neil Gaiman totally refreshed the sandman mythos when he came to this. It is interesting, as these are some of his earlier works but you can see how is later oeuvre borrows heavily on the ideas presented here. The Anthropomorphizing of gods and concepts is something that he uses frequently in later American Gods and contemporaneously with Sandman in Good Omens for example.

The surreal dreamy world he has produced gives a wonderful darkness and whimsy to the world the Sandman inhabits, as befits a being of dreams. The basic story progression of trying to restore his power after being imprisoned. This allows us to be introduced to some of the characters, and also allows Gaiman to fit his Sandman into the universe inhabited by previous iterations of the character. Some of these characters met are downright brilliant - Death as a teenage girl is wonderful realization.

The artwork here fits very well with the dreaminess inherent in the Sandman character. There is a reason this comic series is so well loved. This has to go down as one of the best graphic novels I have read!

I have ever only read one book by Neil Gaimen before and that was American Gods. It was pretty good but just not my kind of book. I could see then though that Neil was a true story teller. Nothing could have stregthened this belief more than this book. The short stories interweaved with smaller stories leave you wanting more on every step and its almost impossible to stop with Volume One. While Sandman may be the key protagonist, this journey is so much more. It has some great characters and some really likable interludes. One of the best I have read this year for sure. Onwards!