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Preludes & Nocturnes Buy from tfaw.com

Out of all of The Sandman, I’ve probably read Preludes and Nocturnes the least. I always remember it as being disturbing and unpleasant. Even now, I kind of view it as a hazing – if readers get through it and still want more, they’ll probably love the rest of The Sandman.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it this time around. It’s messy, it’s harsh. It’s still disturbing and unpleasant, but it’s also a lot of fun.

I think Neil Gaiman was trying too hard to tie the story into the DC universe and so those bits seem even more out of place than they did at the time I read it. He had just to completely establish the mythology and there was a lot that clearly felt like he was just making it up as he went along. The storyline of Dream’s quest to regain his three missing objects is actually a little boring on its own without much payoff.

But there is such a rock ‘n’ roll self-assurance about it, especially in the first issue, “The Sleep of the Just.” It didn’t matter if Gaiman knew what he was doing or not – he was really good at making readers think he did. While Sam Keith later dropped out of the series, he along with Malcolm Jones III and Mike Dringenberg gave these issues a dark, pulpy feel and did much to establish the aesthetic of the series overall.

Part of why I haven’t read Preludes and Nocturnes too often is because I always have to deal with “24 Hours.” It was the sort of thing that made me irrationally hide my copy of Preludes in the back of my bookshelf when I was 14. I’m still not much of a fan of the story, but this time around, I was kind of surprised at how much it didn’t bother me. Yes, I’ve read it before and I knew what to expect, but I think in a time where movies referred to “torture porn,” become blockbusters, maybe “24 Hours” just doesn’t quite have the impact it once did. (I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.)

When I was 14, Preludes was like nothing else I’d ever read. It freaked me out, more than just a little, but it did make me want to keep reading. Revisiting it, it’s still like nothing else I’ve read. Despite being disjointed, it still feels very original to me. I think that surprised me to the most. I didn’t expect it to become my favorite, but I’m glad I read it again.

Next week: The Doll’s House

(Hi to everyone who is getting here via Neil Gaiman’s journal. I am happy to have you here.)

In 1994, growing up in the suburbs, if you were a girl who liked comics, there weren’t too many options. I was quickly outgrowing Elfquest and I was no where near cool enough for Love and Rockets. I still liked the superhero stuff, but I was getting bored. Strangers in Paradise was just getting started and anyway, I had no way of knowing about it (this was pre-Internet). There was no Y: The Last Man, the was no Persepolis.

Basically, being a teenage girl (not to mention one of a certain sensibility) in the ’90s who liked comics, it was pretty much inevitable I was going to read The Sandman.

Nearly 20 years after it first began (and more than 10 after it was completed), the reputation of The Sandman as being a comic girls like continues to be pervasive, to the point there’s a growing chorus of women who are saying “I don’t actually like The Sandman.” And I can understand that: After all, in the decade and a half since I first started reading it, there are many more comics out there that easily appeal to women. It’s no longer quite the go-to “my girlfriend will like this” series it once was.

It’s been years since I’ve read the whole thing (at least five for most of it, possibly 10 for some of it). So, is The Sandman still good? Does it hold up? Do I still like it?

I’m pretty sure I know the answers to all of these questions. Mostly, I just want an excuse to read the whole thing again.

So: One of the 10 collections a week until I’m done, starting tomorrow, to see if The Sandman is what I remember it to be.

Update: Here’s all of them, conveniently linked below. The cover images are from the editions I have and are obviously not current.

Preludes and Nocturnes
The Doll’s House
Dream Country
The Season of Mists
A Game of You
Fables and Reflections
Brief Lives
World’s End
The Kindly Ones
The Wake
In conclusion

Apparently, the Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is some kind of big deal. There was an opening gala with celebrities and everything.

The accompanying text does take an intriguing perspective but the photos I’ve seen from the exhibit itself seem a little boring — mostly just movie costumes.

Still, if I manage to get myself up to New York before September, I’ll probably check this out.

On Saturday, despite what the calendar says, it will be summer. We’ll have a superhero movie in the theaters and free comic books at the comic book store. I don’t need much of an excuse to go buy the next several volumes of Nana (thank you, Viz. I did enjoy having money), but if you do, Free Comic Book Day is the perfect day to go.