A guide for reading The Sandman: Part 2
So⊠You have read the full Sandman series. You went from issue 1 to issue 75. From beginning to end. You had all the ten volumes. Congrats!
But I am sorry to tell you, you donât actually have the full Sandman story. You see, Neil Gaiman wrote and created much more than just the numbered issues. He created a lot of side-stories, side volumes and âspecialsâ whose presence are either exciting and thrilling additions to the Sandman mythos, or key elements needed to understand the plots and happenings of the main story. Donât get me wrong, if you just read the numbered issues youâll get the full story without problem. But youâll still be missing the second part of the full Sandman world. The âspecialsâ. In French we have a clever word for that: the âhors-sĂ©riesâ (literally meaning âoutside of the seriesâ, it is still part of the world but not inside the numbered series).
Given there is a lot of those specials, Iâll classify them by âpublishing orderâ. Youâll get what I mean.Â
After being released as a series of numbered issues, The Sandman was collected in the ten volumes I described previously. Out of these volumes, one included actually more than just the numbered issues: volume 6, âFables and Reflectionsâ, added two Sandman specials.
# âFear of Fallingâ was originally a story published as its own for a one-shot issue called âVertigo Previewâ whose function, as the name indicates, was to serve as a big preview for most of the Vertigo titles. As a result the issue contains previews and half-stories for most of the Vertigo titles: Hellblazer, Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, Shade the Changing Man⊠It also includes previews for two specials I will talk about later, Death: The High Cost of Living, and Sandman Mystery Theater. But these are all just previews. There is only one full, complete story, which is precisely âFear of Fallingâ, conceived originally as a way to give a taste of Sandman to newcomers.
# The Song of Orpheus. Originally it was published as its own as âThe Sandman Specialâ, but it was included into this first collection of Sandman issues due to how important the story is : for you see, it gives the complete backstory of Orpheus, who is an important character in The Sandman. And while just a retelling of the myth, it is still very precious to understand the full impact of the character.Â
II) The 30th anniversary edition
After publishing those ten volumes, DC celebrated the 30th birthday of The Sandman by reprinting them⊠WITH FOUR BONUS VOLUMES!!!
# The first added Volume, Volume 11, is called âEndless Nightsâ. This specific volume was originally published as its own under the name âThe Sandman: Endless Nightsâ. Published in 2003, so long after the end of The Sandman, it is a set of seven stories, each centered around a different Endless sibling, and their whole purpose is just to further expand the world of The Sandman, and flesh out more the other Endless by showing stories from THEIR perspectives. It is technically as a result an âanthology volume / expansion volumeâ that is not needed to understand the full story, but makes a nice addition to better understand the scope of the world and the working of the Endless. It does however contains spoilers for âBrief Livesâ and further, so⊠it is at its right place as âVolume 11âł.Â
# The second added Volume is NOT called Volume 12 as you would expect. It is rather called⊠Volume â. Of its full name: The Sandman: Overture. This volume was originally a six-part limited series created by Neil Gaiman in 2013 (so LONG after the end of The Sandman and well after Endless Nights). This is the latest and final work by Neil Gaiman in The Sandman world so far, and it was designed as a sort of âgrand finaleâ. Some people will tell you âIt is the first work in chronological order so you should begin hereâ. DO NOT DARE! THESE PEOPLE ARE LYING TO YOU! Beginning here is the WORST idea you can have. If you want to begin The Sandman, you begin at issue 1, like Neil Gaiman himself.Â
For you see, âOvertureâ is a dual story, two series of events tied together that happen, one after the end of The Sandman (so after issue 75) and the other before the beginning of the Sandman (so before issue 1). Overture is both the prologue to The Sandman AND its epilogue. Beginning and end, alpha and omega⊠Hence the â symbol. It is without a doubt the best way to end the series.
# The two other volumes are both unumbered and called âThe Sandman: The Dream Huntersâ. And they both tell the same story. So why are there two volumes? Because one is an illustrated novel, and the other is a full comic book issue.
Originally, Neil Gaiman published âThe Dream Huntersâ as a novel/novella in 1999 (so three years after the end of The Sandman, but before the publication of Endless Nights). It was a fictional story he invented based and inspired by Japanese folklore and Japanese fairytales. Illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, it takes place in The Sandman world, though it is not part of the main plot and you can actually read the story with no prior knowledge of The Sandman. It became so popular that for the 20th anniversary of The Sandman, in 2008-2009, the novel was adapted into a comic book, a four part mini-series that became its own Sandman volume.Â
Fun fact: when Neil Gaiman published the story, he wrote in it a fake âoriginâ claiming he was just adaptating a part of Ozakiâs famous âOld Japanese Fairy Talesâ. It was a lie as Neil Gaiman had entirely invented the story, but it fooled a lot of people who sincerely believed it was some sort of secret or missing story from Ozakiâs book. (He notably had to clear up the matter in âEndless Nightsâ).Â
III) The Absolute Sandman
Now you probably think: wow⊠this is a lot. But I got everything, right? NO YOU FOOL! DC, seeing the enormous success of The Sandman, decided to reprint a new edition of the compilation: The Absolute Sandman, even bigger than the 30th Anniversary edition. Not ten or twelve volumes, but rather six (five numbered volumes plus Overture), containing everything I talked about above (The Sandman Special, Endless Nights, Overture, The Dream HuntersâŠ). Plus more specials not yet included in compilations! Resulting in five volumes + The Absolute Sandman: Overture + one special volume called âThe Absolute Deathâ.Â
# The Vertigo: Winterâs Edge comics. Vertigoâs Winter Edge was a limited series published from 1998 to 2000 celebrating, every winter, the different lines and series of the Vertigo imprint with special stories. It ran for three issues, and each of them has one story created by Neil Gaiman tied with or part of The Sandman universe. One will maybe ring familiar to the viewers of the show: âA Winterâs Taleâ, published in the second issue (1999). This story is actually a description of Deathâs backstory, answering many questions about her âlifeâ before the events of The Sandman (and also revealing answers to some questions raised in âEndless Nightsâ, even though it was published AFTER this story). Parts of it were adapted in the first season of The Sandman tv show.Â
The other two stories of Winterâs Edge are âThe Flowers of Romanceâ, from Winter Edge 1998 and âHow They Met Themselvesâ from Winter Edge 2000. These stories are fascinating because they actually depict Desire as the protagonist and âheroâ. You see, as Gaiman points out, Desire plays an antagonistic role in The Sandman merely because Dream is the protagonist. But here he decided, why not show the reverse, the world where Desire is the protagonist, the âniceâ side of Desire: the result are those two stories.Â
[ The Vertigo: Winterâs Edge issues also contain stories belonging to âThe Dreamingâ, a spin-off of The Sandman, but given Neil Gaiman was not involved in those Iâll keep it for a later post]
# âThe Castleâ. This story was originally published in âVertigo Jamâ, which is basically quite similar to âVertigo Previewâ and âVertigo: Winter Edgeâ, just a one-shot issue that was an anthology of various stories, each taking place in a different series of the Vertigo imprint.Â
# The Death mini-series. In 1993, the same year as The Dream Hunters, Neil Gaiman wrote a mini-series with Death as the main protagonist. It was called âDeath: The High Cost of Livingâ. This Death-centered story had three years later a âtwin mini-seriesâ: âDeath: The Time of Your Lifeâ in 1996 (coupled with the return of Hazel and Foxglove from âA Game of Youâ). These two were then gathered here as a duo in a special volume of The Absolute Sandman called âThe Absolute Deathâ and centered around, you guessed it, lot of Death material.Â
# The âeducationalâ Sandman. This âAbsolute Deathâ volume also contains two âPSA materialâ or âVery Special Episodeâ issues. One is a story centered around Destruction and called âThe Wheelâ, which was originally part of a very special DC volume: 9-11: The worldâs finest comic book writers and artists tell stories to remember. You can safely guess what the story is about. The second story is not actually a story, but a Death-centered AIDs pamphlet called âDeath Talks About Lifeâ. It had been originally coupled with several other issues of DC comics: it was found in the issue 32 of âShade the Changing Manâ (the 1990 series) ; it was also found in the 62nd issue of Hellblazer, and finally in the 46th issue of The Sandman. But it also existed as its own, unique pamphlet distributed in schools to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS.Â
# Sandman Midnight Theater. The last of the specials created by Neil Gaiman, and one of the last pieces to The Sandman puzzle. Now long story short⊠There were several âSandmanâ super-heroes in the DC Universe. In fact, Neil Gaiman began âThe Sandmanâ as his own personal take on the several Sandmen super-heroes of the DC world. The very first of those Sandmen was Wesley Dodds, a Batman-like vigilante of the 30s that was part of the Golden Age of comics. In fact, Wesley Dodds himself appears in the first issue of Neil Gaimanâs The Sandman, and is part of The Sandman universe. After the end of Neil Gaimanâs series, the popularity of Wesley Dodds increased again and so in 1993 was launched a ârebootâ of the original adventures of the Sandman, a new series around Dodds called âSandman Mystery Theaterâ.Â
Sandman Midnight Theater is precisely a crossover issue between Sandman Mystery Theater and Neil Gaimanâs The Sandman.Â
# âThe Last Sandman Storyâ. This is actually not a comic book story. It was a prose story, semi-autobiographical, written by Neil Gaiman for âDustcovers: The Collected Sandman Coversâ, which as the name says compiled all of the covers of Dave McKean (plus I think he also illustrated this specific story?). It a sort of confession story, a text by Neil Gaiman about real-life and his relationship with The Sandman series and the character of Dream. And as the name says, it was written to be released at the conclusion of the main series, post-issue 75.Â
 And there you go! These are all the specials created by Neil Gaiman and that are part of the canon and official Sandman series. Of course there is more bonus to talk about: Neil Gaiman gave a lot of interviews about The Sandman in which he reveals all sorts of details and secrets, and they can be found across various books - the Sandman Companion, the Absolute Sandman editions, the Omnibus Sandman editions, thereâs plenty of places to look at.Â
So⊠is it done? Is it over?
Yes and no. With this, you have covered everything in The Sandman world made by Neil Gaiman. So this is basically all the âcanonâ.Â
But The Sandman created a lot of spin-offs and side-stories that were not created or that are not linked to Neil Gaiman⊠as with many comic book worlds, it expanded beyond its original creator. So maybe I will cover all the non-Neil Gaiman Sandman stories in a third part. Maybe. If I have time.
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