the little brother of death: the sandman., 4. Juli 2007

typically busy with ruling his realm of dreams and nightmares, but someday unfortunately he gets caught by a human devil worshipper (who, by the way, was trying to capture death). dark, but truly entertaining are the further stories, when sandman fights back and is looking for his important tools of power, which also got stolen. therefor some demons in hell have to be visited and convinced as well as psychic characters fled out of arkham asylum. "preludes and nocturnes" is the first part of the sandman series, and i'm more than excited to find out which adventures SANDMAN will experience in the future, as neil gaiman's way of storytelling is masterful (initially published on artofshopping.blogspot.com)

       So müssen moderne Comics aussehen, 14. Dezember 2005

Die Sandman Series von Neil Gaiman et al ist der perfekte Beweis dafür, dass es nicht nur Donald Duck und Co. im Bereich des Comics gibt. Die Geschichten und Charaktere sind komplex, die Bilder teils gewaltig, teil abstossend, teils faszinierend und es gelingt Gaiman immer, den Leser in seinen Bann zu ziehen. Sandman gilt als absoluter Klassiker, und das zu Recht!

Fazit: Wer Comics mag, sollte Sandman lesen. Wer Comics für Kinderkram hält, sollte sich von Sandman eines Besseren belehren lassen.

      Worth it for the opportunity to see Lucifer as Davie Bowie, 26. Juli 2000

Preludes and Nocturnes starts in quite a clichéd manner, with the stereotypical occult portrayal and the rather redundant phrases used in the spell used to evoke Death, but quickly accelerates. The chapter where Morpheus travels to Hell is truly excellent, and I swear that Lucifer Morningstar *is* Davie Bowie! The battle between Morpheus and an unassuming demon is quite invenitve. I absolutely detested the inclusion of superheroes, as I felt it sort of cheapens the whole book, and makes it temporarily childish. I am currently reading The Doll's House, and I will give you one piece of advice if you wish to read these books in order: take note of small, seemingly unimportant phrases, as they tie-in beautifully in the subsequent chapters and even different books! You must *NOT* miss this. I felt a little foolish reading a comic book at first, but you forget all this when the powerful story washes over you. Most definitely worth the money. Read them in order.

      The Sound of Wings, 29. Mai 2000

If this book only contained Issue #8, it would still be a must-have for Sandman fans. I refuse to give out ANY spoilers, and I would advise everyone out there who hasn't read Sandman to avoid seeing any. Let yourself be surprised. You deserve it.

Okay, Preludes isn't as strong as some others, yada yada yada - SO WHAT? It's Sandman. It's the first issue. You have to read it, and you can't have a complete collection without it.

I just finished reading World's End, and the last panel of issue 8 remains the defining image of the Sandman for me. There is a lot of powerful stuff in here, and I would suggest it to anyone who genuinely loves comics, mythology, or intelligent writing.

      The Standard for the Rest, 27. Mai 2000

Only giving it 4 stars, because I will save 5 for future issues which get better...

I am not going to waste words trying to explain why Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" is the epitomy of modern stoytelling. Enough has been written already and if you are just being introduced to this series as I have been, then you have already heard all about the stories themselves. I will just say that "Preludes and Nocturnes" is a MUST to read first. It's important to know some of the things that will be explained and referred back to in later stories. Gaiman goes to Hell and back (literally) and covers a whole spectrum of things, from the whimsical to the horrifying.

Gaiman's storytelling is masterful and believe me as someone who has taught English before, his books will someday (if they are not already) be used within some college course to learn the great literature that was produced in the latter days of the 20th Century. The self-absorbed literary intelligensia in this country will probably dismiss it as "mere comic strips," not to be elevated up to the level of true literature...they are pompous windbags. Some might even dismiss these stories as pagan or even (gasp) satanic. That would be nothing new in the comic world. Those folks are limited in scope and little of brain.

Am I saying too much? Wait and see. Better yet. Pick up these books and find out for yourself. I doubt you will be disappointed. If you are intelligent and want to be able to put a book down and continue to think about it for another week because it was THAT GOOD, then these need to be in your collection of must reads.

You will read them again, so forget about about trying to borrow them from a friend.

Describing these as comics is a great understatement and mischaracterization. To say it's a graphic novel probably is too weak, but it will do until some future generation develops their own classification of this literature ("graphic-literature?" --has promise.) Enjoy.