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The Doll’s House Buy from tfaw.com

>Opening with “Tales in the Sand,” a story about Dream’s doomed romance with Nada, The Doll’s House begins what becomes something of a dichotomy in The Sandman — the differences between women’s stories and men’s stories. Here, Neil Gaiman seems to be realizing the potential of The Sandman — these stories can take place anywhere, anytime and don’t necessarily have to be rooted in the DC universe.

He then introduces Rose Walker, who will drive the rest of the events of The Doll’s House. I wanted to be her when I grew up.

At 14, I hadn’t seen anyone in comics quite like her — a girl that looked like me, or rather, looked how I’d like to look. She was recognizable. Perhaps not intentionally, but Rose was pandering to a female audience.

Looking back, it’s not that Rose is particularly special. She’s cute, has a good sense of style and is fairly smart and savvy, but mostly, she’s just a girl.

But I think that’s why she works. I think she’s a large part of the reason why The Sandman got pegged as a comic that women would like.

I like the overall story — Rose goes searching for her brother and ends mixed up with several escaped dream figures as well as a convention of serial killers. Gaiman’s ability to pull elements from everywhere is as smart and as impressive as I remember (and the diversion of “Men of Good Fortune” is still delightful).

The dream vortex stuff, though, feels under-developed and tossed in there. The concept isn’t a bad one, but the resolution to it feels rushed and slightly tacked on. I think the serial killers/escaped nightmares/missing brother stuff was enough of a plot.

It’s a small complaint. I don’t think The Sandman had quite found its pace yet, but there is still some wonderfully inventive sequences and surprising elements. If I read this for the first time today, I would’ve liked it quite a bit.

(I have the old The Doll’s House collection – the one that included a summary of what happened in the first seven issues and also included “The Sound of Her Wings.” Wikipedia tells me why this is that way – at the time, there were no plans to collect the first seven issues – but it always sort of amused me in the “Oh, you don’t have to read those other ones, just start here” kind of way. Because for some people, that may not be the worst of ideas.)

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