11OCC Episode Archive

[Jeppe]

Vince, is it just The Wake that colors your whole perception of the series or is it just the capper of where you feel the series went.  I can see how The Wake could be and over-written epilogue but I still think the real end of the series, The Kindly Ones, is some of Gaiman's best stuff on the series behind Season of Mists.

Yeah, I agree. Overall I think Sandman is an amazing series, but it is definitely also a sprawling one with some issues and arcs significantly better or worse than the rest. I understand why Vince (and others) might tire of Morpheus' angst, but I think that the good aspects of the writing far outshines the more annoying parts.

When at its best, Sandman is some of the very best comics ever published (in my opinion) - Season of Mists, The Kindly Ones, and Worlds' End come to mind.

[slurmo]

The Kindy ones was  WAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY too long for me. I prefer Mists, Game of You and World's end.

no accounting for my taste...

[Farrell]

All of my favorite Sandman stories, and there are tons, featured the Endless in periphery roles, as befits their nature as personifications of universal forces (death, desire, dream, etc.)  Gaiman did give them personalities, and yeah, Dream in particular was a selfish, brooding git, but rarely did that get in the way of enjoying some terrific stories for me.  Dream appears solely as a force of nature, sans angst, in stories like A Game of You, The Doll's House and most of the one-offs.  I must be one of the only people for whom Season of Mists was not a favorite; the only issue I really loved from that arc was the issue that introduced the Dead Boy Detectives, and surprise, Dream is nowhere to be found in it.

Although it's a 75 issue continuous series, Sandman lends itself particularly well to being viewed as a series of connected miniseries.  I didn't enjoy The Wake or the concluding issue either (a self-conscious attempt to repeat the crossover success of his Midsummer Night's Dream issue, it felt to me) but it was easy to compartmentalize that disappointment from the way I felt about the majority of the series up until then.  In another words, it's not an ending in a traditional sense, IMO.

The Kindy ones was  WAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY too long for me. I prefer Mists, Game of You and World's end.

no accounting for my taste...

Thank you!  Rarely does anyone mention that arc!  I liked Dream Country a lot too (the Elemental Girl issue, Calliope, A Dream of Cats, etc.)

[VinceB]

The Kindly Ones, is some of Gaiman's best stuff on the series behind Season of Mists.

Can't deny the man is a great writer. I guess I just soured on the main character. In fact, I'd rather read about any of the Endless over Morpheus.

But, yeah, the last stretch really killed what little enjoyment I managed to siphon off of the series. Truth be told, I continued to buy the book primarily on the strengths of the art. What a surprise!

[Kilmarock]

Game of You was the first arc I read of Sandman. I loved it. Subsequently I read Preludes & Nocturnes and wasn't quite as impressed, but maybe I should give it another try. Those are the only two arcs I've read.

[Scott C.]

Game of You was the first arc I read of Sandman. I loved it. Subsequently I read Preludes & Nocturnes and wasn't quite as impressed, but maybe I should give it another try. Those are the only two arcs I've read.

Get Season of Mists.  That's where Gaiman really found his voice on the series.

[slurmo]

LAST! 

[Sean M.]

LAST! 

but not least. (karma for making me chuckle)